200th post!

So this is the big 2 0 0 and I am afraid I don't have much to post... but felt its been too long between real posts so obligation has dictated this meager attempt.  Work has been very busy the past month or so, and combine that with an incredibly awesome glut of good videogames recently...  not much free time.  I am way behind on getting models painted, and I have a very big adventure to write for later this month so the busy time will continue in and out of work.

Today is the two year anniversary of Gary Gygax's death.... hope everyone did something D&D-ish in his honor.

In case you haven't heard... A Game of Thrones... confirmed for a 10 episode run on HBO.  Should be on TV around this time next year.  Amazing news indeed.

I shall fill the rest of this post up with some lists..

Currently Reading:
Odd and the Frost Giants - by Neil Gaiman
Warmachine Prime MkII  - by Privateer Press


Recently Finished:
sadly...not much.

On Deck:
Princess of Landover - by Terry Brooks
D&D 4th Edition: Player's Handbook 3 - by WotC
Star Wars: Legacy - Dark Horse Comics

Currently Watching:
Legend of the Seeker: Season 2 - via Netflix on 360
Caprica -  via iTunes 
Robin Hood: Season 3 (BBC) - via DVD
Clone Wars: Season 2 - via iTunes
Spartacus - via Netflix on 360
Robot Chicken D&D vid-casts - via YouTube & WotC

Recently Finished:
Dollhouse: Season 2 - via iTunes

On Deck:
 Dr. Who: Season 5 - via ?

Currently Playing:
Dragon Age: Origins - 360
Street Fighter 4 - 360


Recently Finished:
Mass Effect 2 - 360
Bioshock 2 - 360

On Deck:
Final Fantasy 1 - iPod
Final Fantasy 2 - iPod
Final Fantasy 13 - 360
Bayonetta - 360 (Gamefly rental)

Currently Painting:
Pirates.. lots of em' - Warmachine
Shadowhorn Satyr - Hordes
Tharn Bloodweavers - Hordes

Recently finished:
.... nothing.  gah! nothing!

On Deck:
LOTS...Winterguard... more pirates... Retribution...

Currently Listening:
Inland Territory - Vienna Teng
This is the New Year - Ian Axel
Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 OSTs - various
Against the Night - Jason Webley

On Deck:
Evelyn Evelyn - Evelyn Evelyn

well...  thats it for post 200...

life recap - 2010

Well, lets see. The holiday's were the usual hectic mess they are apt to be. Had a good time going home to see my family. I got a GPS for my car, so no more getting lost for me... and this past Thursday I took a little bit of xmas money and my Christmas bonus from work and bought a nifty new TV. I picked up a 37" Vizio LCD 1080p HDTV. It is glorious. All my 360 games look so much better... and even Netflix has some streaming in HD and the Zune marketplace on Xbox Liove has HD video for download. I don't have cable, but its still so worth it. I got it for a really great price too. New Years was kind of boring.. it always puts me into a funk... but hopefully this TV will shake me out of it.

I have been greatly enjoying the swan song that is Dollhouse. There are only a few episodes left, and they are really going out with a bang! Its a great story of technology bringing about the apocalypse. (and it has two very beautiful actresses... Eliza Dushku and Dichen Lachman) Clone Wars took a holiday break, but new episodes of Season 2 are coming out now, and it continues to be a really enjoyable and well written show. Seriously, some of the best Star Wars in years is found in Clone Wars. Dollhouse will end just in time for Caprica to begin... a fair trade I think... though I still miss Battlestar Galactica. Other than that, my TV time is made up of Mythbusters and Legend of the Seeker. Doctor Who, which has become one of the best shows ever... just began its big change. The fabulous David Tennant ended his run at playing the Doctor... and this spring Season 5 starts with the new Doctor. David Tennant was so great in the role, I will miss him. But change is part of the show, and has been since the old days. I will give this new guy a fair chance. :)



I watch all of these shows on my computer, on DVD, or on my Xbox. Who needs cable when you have the internet?

The games of 2010 are about to hit... (well, actually most were delayed). I stopped playing Dragon Age a few weeks ago when I decided to buy this TV. Now that I have it, I'm about to jump back in. My goal is to finish it up before Mass Effect 2 hits later this month. I also just completed the Ghostbusters game.. which was fantastic! It stars all the original actors and it was written by them too. Very fun and really funny. Well worth the $20 I paid for it. (horray for GameFly!) Halo:ODST is also really great (now that I have a 360 capable of playing it) and is the best of the series by far. Afte Mass Effect.. the wait for Bioshock 2, Final Fantasy 13 and Super Street Fighter 4 begins... They announced some new info about Street Fighter.. there are new ultra combos for all the charatcers.. the big news? Chun Li's giant Kikosho (fireball) is back!



Coming up this weekend we have our first Pathfinder game of 2010. My cleric begins his levels of Rogue form here on out. Its a multi-class combo I have never played, so I am looking forward to see how it goes. The following weekend is our first 4th Ed game of the year. I still have some work to do on the adventure... they will be rooting out the last of the Kenku from their roost... I have been slowly expanding on my campaign world through Obsidian Portal (great site!). We will be playing this campaign (Earthynn) bi-monthly from here on out, though with less players than usual. It was becoming too difficult to get everyone together... so now we schedule the game with four of us who can reliably make it, and the other players can either show up, or not.


Work has been a bit hectic lately.. my boss purchased a new store, so has divided his time between the two... and one of our regular long time employees has left. So that leaves... me. (and the new guy) But it has not been as bad as I anticipated... and things are starting to settle into place. I guess its good for things to get shaken up once in a while.

Awesome

I am gonna be very sad to see David Tennant leave the role of Dr. Who.. but at least we have a few more episodes before he calls it quits.

Can't Wait!

Video Games - E3 2009 - TV

Star Wars / MacGuyver

Star Trek TNG

As it was meant to be seen...

musings on a few things...

Life barrels on, as Mr. Folds says, "like a runaway train".. though my train seems to always travel to the same destination and only ever have one passenger.  But, I'm OK with that I guess.. things are going well.  Work has been pretty slow these last few months.. my boss actually laid off one of our employees.. (so we went from 4 to 3).  Hopefully things will pick up.  I am not worried about my job, its secure.. but its rough to see the business slowing.  This week brings about the end of two of my TV shows.. Battlestar Galactica airs its final episode this Friday.  I am expecting it to go out with a bang.  It has me saddened and excited.

Also, Friday is the season finale of Clone Wars. So that'll be over with until next fall I assume.  The last episode features a new character, a bounty hunter named Cad Bane.  He has a pseudo wild west style to him, and he is a Duro, one of my favorite Star Wars races... I am looking forward to seeing what he's like.   And it appears, that one of his lackeys is Aura Sing (a bounty hunter only glimpsed at in Episode I) so it should be a fun episode... this is one of the features of Clone Wars that I like... seeing some of these new or unknown characters get fleshed out some.

Dollhouse keeps getting more interesting... it could turn out to be a pretty good show.. but these first few episodes have struggled to really "find their place"... but the future looks bright.   Legend of the Seeker is still pretty good, the syndication schedule is kinda slow at times, with a couple weeks between episodes lately.. but it was confirmed that they picked it up for a second season.. so that's at least 13 more episodes once this season ends.  

Recently announced: Tori Amos has a new album due out in May.  So far one song has been heard "Welcome to England.  You can listen to it here.. for now... it may disappear.  Sounds reminiscent of Choirgirl Hotel and Scarlet's Walk... both good things.

And here s a better look at the album artwork.  Entitled "Abnormally Attracted to Sin"  I enjoyed both The Beekeeper and American Doll Posse, but neither really captivated me on an entire album level, each had their moments though.. hopefully this record will be more fully realized.

ONLY 6 EPISODES LEFT!!!!

Gaming Overload...(big long post)

... I'd have it no other way.

Actually, not really an overload... but there is a lot going on in my gaming space these days.

I am playing in a Pathfinder game being run by my friend Jason down in Philly.  Right now its looking like we'll be playing that game once per month.  Our game next month is this coming weekend.  I am playing a Cleric, and we are having a great time.  Pathfinder is the best version of 3.5 I've played, some interesting changes in there... some of the rules are cleaned up and streamlined (Turn Dead became Channel Positive Energy.. waaay better now).  We are playing through the published Pathfinder adventures... which are very well written and very cool.  This is a different group than the group I am running in our Iron Kingdoms 4e game.  (some of the guys are the same though)  The IK group is made up of my best friends, so I am very fond of those gaming sessions.  Unfortunately that is the game we don't get to play quite as often, due mostly to distance, but we have another game scheduled for mid-March.(usually we play.. every 3 months or so...)  I love the Iron Kingdoms world, but I find it very limiting and somewhat difficult to write adventures for (from a DM standpoint).   So, I guess I should be thankful we don't play this campaign as often, because it gives me more time to write the stories.  :)  (always look for that silver lining!)  But that campaign is going well.  We just finished up a the last adventure a couple weekends ago... and we document that campaign on our wiki site.  

But that's not all!  One of the reasons we play the IK campaign so rarely is that it is difficult to get all the players together at one time in order to play.  Some times a few guys can make it, but not everyone... and the story really requires all the characters to be there... not too mention nobody really wants to miss an episode of the story, so we conceded that we would not play the campaign unless all the character were present and accounted for.  Add an additional complication...we are adding another player to our IK game.. so it'll be that much more difficult to get everyone together... SO (sorry, a long winded explanation leading up to this) we are going to start yet another campaign.  This one will be a classic D&D campaign, set in 4e, using all 4e has to offer.  I miss the classic monsters and races (that are non-existent in IK).  I miss the Beholders, the Mind Flayers, the Umberhulks, the Chromatic Dragons... and I long for an (for lack of better phrase) old skool DnD game.  So, I will be running this campaign as well, and this will be run with the same guys in the IK group, but we'll play this whenever we cannot play the IK game, so if someone can't make it for IK, we'll play D&D 4e.  It will also be more "casual" so if someone can't make it, no big deal, we still play.  Also, depending on when/where we play, there may be very different people playing from one game to the next.  I am working on some sort of idea that will explain why characters suddenly pop in and out of the story... maybe the Astral Plane (or some other plane) is too close to the world and occasionally the balance gets knocked out of whack... and people get pulled in?  Who knows...   Also we were toying around with the idea of playing using one the new Virtual Game Table programs out there to play online when we can't make it together in person.   Wizard's of the Coast is supposed to be making one.. but damn they are taking their sweet ass time on it... so we may go with a third party system.  Fantasy Grounds looks very promising...but its not free.

But the really big news surrounding this is that I am going to create the game world the campaign take place in.  This is something I have not done before (create a world from scratch) so we'll see how it goes.  4e seems to be a good system to create a world in... and I am quite excited.  I will hopefully soon, have some beginning info up on here for your review.  It will be a "typical" fantasy world.. and will follow the 4e idea of towns/cities being "spots of light in the darkness".  I will begin with some general thoughts, and a breakdown similar to this post about  Lokipan's Rimoria.  And needless to say.. I will be stealing ideas from other campaign worlds.. all the cool DM's are doing it these days..  :D

I am also still in the middle of several video games... been playing Fable 2 some more, mainly to play through the DLC, Knothole Island, which was pretty cool.  Now I am just trying to wrap up some other quests (finding the rest of the Gargoyles, Silver Keys, and Archaeology scrolls) and just messing around.  I have an evil character started, but I just don't find it as fun as my good character.  The game is so fun and has such a cool world, its hard to stay away for long (not too mention my wife always wants sex.. sheesh)... I am also closing in on the end of Dead Space, which is an excellent game.  And I'd love to finish Mirror's Edge (brilliant game) if I can ever get past the one really tough part I am stuck on (game is hard)...  Dead Space is interesting.. it has an cool, although not very original, sci-fi story.. and its just a superbly crafted game, the interface, the sound, all top notch.  It borrows a ton of ideas from other games... Halo, Bioshock, Gears of War, Resident Evil, Doom 3, Metroid Prime... but it takes those elements and applies them in interesting ways and manages to mix them up quite nicely.  Hoping to finish up those game before Street Fighter 4 comes out.. because I will probably not be playing anything else for weeks after SF4 hits.

And back on the tabletop front... I am getting behind in buying my Hordes/Warmachine models.. I have 2 armies, and one small custom army (pirates).. and the new faction for Warmachine, The Retribution of Scryah (aka, elves) is rumored to release at GenCon.. and I am definitely playing that faction.  The lore/history of the elves is the Iron Kingdoms is amazingly cool, one of the coolest cosmologies/histories I have ever read in  a game world.  So that means 4 armies to collect, build, and paint.  I really need to get caught up!  Oh, and add Infinity to that list, granted, Infinity requires far less models than Warmachine/Hordes so its a bit easier to keep up on. (though the models are all so cool, it makes you want to buy them all!)

Needless to say - my gaming life is busy; in one way or another... that was the point of this post.  On to a couple other things... 

I am finding that life without cable TV... is OK.  Thanks to the Internet...  cable TV isn't really necessary.   There are not many shows I watch, but the ones I do watch.. I don't need cable for.  I watch BSG (available through iTunes and on Hulu.com), Legend of the Seeker (iTunes, Hulu), Clone Wars (iTunes, StarWars.com), Dr. Who (Netflix), and I recently downloaded ROME to rewatch it (torrent download).  So no need for cable TV... plus, all the shows I listed... I watch without commercials.  Can't beat that with a stick!

I also watched for the first time.. Final Fantasy: Advent Children (through Netflix streaming on 360) and I must say.. I really enjoyed it.  If you did not play Final Fantasy 7, then it will make no damn sense... because the whole movie is one big fan service to FF7 lovers.  But seeing the old gang back together (Vincent, Yuffie, hot hot Tifa) welled up so much nostalgia in me... I was practically misty eyed...it was cool.

Also, other than a few choice pieces from SideShow Collectibles and Gentle Giant... my Star Wars collection hasn't really gone anywhere lately... mainly for one big reason.  I have no money!  With all the models, game books, videogames (and bills) I have to pay for... I have not had much chance to collect much in a while.  I have long since given up on trying collect each year's sets of figures.. it becomes too hard to find them all, and buying sets of figures online becomes way too expensive.  Often I will will pick and choose specific types of figures to buy... but I haven't done that in a while.  But I think I am gonna start collecting astromech droids.  There's a bunch of them out these days.. and buying one figure or two each month won't be two bad... hopefully, I will soon  have an impressive collection of astromech droids adorning my shelf.

Lets see.. what else to ramble about.. mentioned Street Fighter 4 a bit earlier..  I am totally in the grips of Street Fighter Mania right now... there are other games out that I want to play, but Street Fighter Mania won't let me think of anything else..  I played some Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix the other night with Darkheel and Chaosturtle..  was much fun, I lost a bunch, but was undefeated with Chun Li.  Did I mention Street Fighter Mania?  I am still undecided on which characters I am gonna study in SF4... Chun Li of course.. but who else?  The options I am considering currently are E. Honda, Cammy, or Dhalsim.  I enjoy playing all of those...but Honda and Cammy are supposedly lower tier characters this time around... (so goes the word on the street and the interwebs)... I just don't know... there's always Rufus... hmmm.. or maybe Gouken (Sheng Long) if I played him.. then all of us would have one of that "style" of charatcer... (lokipan = Akuma, darkheel = Ryu, chaosturtle = Ken, bespin = Sheng Long)  That might be interesting... but that means I'd finally have to learn how to do a Dragon Punch...but theres always Rufus... look at him! he's got a bucket of popcorn!  

Alright... I think I have rambled enough for this post...

UPDATE :  I beat Mirror's Edge!  Finally made it through the really tough part.. a really great game!

Co-OP has launched!

The guys who made the 1-up Show are back on their feet (after being laid off) with their own company, called AREA 5 and have put together a new show.  Its called CO-OP.  It shares the same style as their original show, basically, a bunch of folks getting together to talk above games.   The first show is kind of a 2008 re-cap show, and you can tell their still working out some of the bugs.  The sound/video isn't  perfect yet, but its still very enjoyable.

Woohoo! Almost here!

Getting caught up... (long post.. get a snack)

Lots of things have happened since I was away from the internet... Xbox Live got grown up, babies were born, quasits were encountered, games were played, holidays went by, and holidays approach... lets get caught up!

Basically things haven't really changed all that much.  Still living in one half of a partially remodelled house.  It took forever to get an internet connection, I was on the phone with ComCast many times.. but eventually just gave up.   So no cable TV, but I got a DSL line from the phone company, and so far its a pretty fast connection (I have only ever used cable modems before and wasn't sure if this was equal to it or not, seems to be though).  It was also really easy to setup.  I think I can even get an upgrade to the speed as well...

Was finally able to upgrade my Xbox to the New Xbox Experience (NXE) and I have to say I am impressed.  They really cleaned up the interface.  The avatars are kinda silly, but cool.  I was actually able to get mine to look like me, as did some of my friends... though Chaosturtle looks like a Mexican...   Some other features I really like are the "Install to Hard Drive" feature which lets you load a game onto the HD of the 360 instead of running it from the disc.  I speeds up load times, and keeps the 360 from making so much noise when it spins the disc.  A really nice feature.  And one of the best features is Netflix.  Being able to watch TV and movies from the Netflix library, streamed instantly to the 360 is awesome.  between the 360/Netflix and iTunes/Hulu.com on my computer.. I really have no need to cable TV.  Instead of paying money for a crapton of channels that I never watch, I can pay (or stream for free at times) only the shows I want to watch.   I have been playing a couple new XBLA games as well, mainly Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (long title) and its pretty awesome.. but I have to say.. Akuma is a fraking bitch.  I cannot fraking beat him... I spent (literally) an hour trying to defeat him today (mainly to get the achievement) and could not do it.. and this is on the EASY difficulty people.   I salute those of you who may be able to do it.  I also went online to play a few ranked matches... it plays soo much nicer online that the other Street Fighter did over Xbox Live... this one played buttery smooth.  Though I did not exactly play quite as smoothly... I went 4-4 for the day.. and I think I am ranked somewhere in the 28,000s... but there were some great matches.  I had an awesome match with Chun-li vs. Ken (in which I came back from a two round disadvantage, the ranked matches are all best of five rounds), and a real tough fight against M. Bison using E. Honda... good fun.  This should tide me over until Street Fighter 4 comes out.  Speaking of which... the special collector's edition of the game was announced...  I gave up buying these limited editions of games because after a while I realized that most of the stuff in the box/tin I never use.  That being said... Street Fighter 4 is all together different... and I already pre-ordered the Collector's edition. :)  (it comes with anime and action figures!)

 

I also bought Castle Crashers... which is a ton of fun.  Basically a re-done gauntlet.. hack-n-slasher... its very funny and has some awesome music.  Can't wait to try it co-op sometime...  I am still playing Fable 2 , which is simply fantastic.  I beat the game with my good aligned character, and have started again as an evil character.. though after you beat the game it doesn't stop, it just keeps going, there are still loads of things to do in the world... so I am playing both my characters at the moment... and I also bought one of the most original games I have played in a long time.. a game called Mirror's Edge.  Its hard to describe... its like an FPS, but without the guns.  And it is awesome.

Beyond getting caught up on my gaming.. I have been watching the Clone Wars episodes I was behind on... and man, there were some awesome episodes in there... one in particular called Cloak of Darkness, was just awesome.  It featured one of my favorite characters, Assaj Ventress, as well as, Luminara Unduli, a pretty cool jedi who had been featured (albeit very briefly) in Episode 2 (and in the original Clone Wars cartoon).  This exploration of only glimpsed at charcters (maoinly jedi) was one of the things I was most looking forward to.. hopefully more jedi are on the horizon.  I am still hoping Shaak Ti will make an appearance sometime in the series.  She was in the original Clone Wars cartoon, and is one of my favorite jedi.  I have always liked the design of her character.  

She was killed in one of the deleted scenes from Episode 3, but since it was a deleted scene it is not considered canon.  And then she turns up in The Force Unleashed videogame (which is canon) and she dies in there too... you actually kill her when you play, she is one of the bosses...  but these all happen after the Clone Wars.. so she can still show up in the cartoon... I hope. :)  (in an interesting aside.. Shaak Ti's name comes from the Hindu word shakti which means "sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that move through the entire universe. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes referred to as The Great Divine Mother" --  from wikipedia).  Back on topic, the Clone Wars cartoon is good, very enjoyable, especially if you are an un-jaded Star Wars fan.  

The other show I have been downloading and watching is Legend of the Seeker.  Which really surprised me... because it is really good.  Very rarely do these fantasy 1-hour dramas ever turn out good on TV... but this one, so far, is excellent.  They, of course, mess with the plot from the book quite a bit... but once you get over that fact, you realize that the characters are very true to the way they were in the books.  I was very pleased with the actress playing Kahlan.. besides being gorgeous, she fits the role very well.  I was; however, not pleased with the gar.  Gars are one of the signature creatures of the Sword of Truth series... but man, it looked crappy in the show...  There are of course some staple issues that turn up in all these fanatsy shows that you just have to get used to... there always seems to be a snarky/goofy character that shows up in a bit part every once in a while, and there are alot of flat character actors filling in the villains... oh, and all the women in this world have perfect breasts (and all of their dresses are cut low in the front) unless they are playing an old woman.

On top of those two shows.. the only other things I watch with any regularit/importance are Mythbusters and BSG.  Holy frak BSG!!!  The final episodes of the show start next month... there are webisodes playing now at SciFi's website, prepping for the final epiodes... man I can't wait... easily the best show I have ever seen, I just love it.  The sci fi show to end them all.  (if the upcoming Star Wars live action show is even half as good as this... I will be happy)  SciFi Channel also just announced that they finally gave the green light to the BSG prequel series, called Caprica, which woll be cool.  I am not expecting it to be as good, but interesting none the less.  Who is the final cylon???  Starbuck? Roslin? Seelix? Gaeta? Who knows... I gave up trying to figure it out....

 You Will Know The Truth 

And if things go well.. the future holds some amazing TV... HBO has bought the rights and is making a pilot episode of A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin.  One of the best series of books I have ever read, one of my top favorites.. and a perfect show to be on HBO.. its gritty, dark, sexy, and at times quite brutal.  You couldn't do it on any other network...  seen Rome? seen Band of Brothers?  HBO makes damn good TV.  This is good news indeed.

Lets see... what else is going on...  played another game of DnD a few weeks ago.  We ended up stopping in the middle of a big fight (we were losing too), folks needed to go home, and we were already running late.  So our next session will pick up in the middle of that battle... we were fighting a particularly nasty quasit...   I am starting to get the hang of this cleric thing... kind of...  Coming up early next month my core gaming group will finally be able to get together to continue our Iron Kingdoms 4e campaign.. its been a while since we played it.. but I am looking forward to continuing the story.. of course that means I need to finish writing the adventure...  Did a bit of miniature gaming as well...  played some more Infinity and Warmachine (had a great first battle with my pirate army!).  And Infinity, I am finding, is awesome... a really intricate and stylized game... and amazing models (I can't wait to start painting mine, if only my painting list wasn't so gosh darn long!)...  couple of the guys in our group are building a space ship board for us to play on... it will be sweet.  And check out the Akira inspired bikes! (and they belong to my army!  yay!)

I will be going home for christmas , but only for a few days.  I went home for a almost a week over Thanksgiving, and it was simply too long.  I love my family dearly...  but I can only take them in short bursts...it would be nice if I could see them more often, but with a 6 hour drive home.. its just not possible.  I am glad I have close friends who live near by...  gives me someone to hang out with every once in a while...  (though when all my friends have families and I don't, it can , at times be difficult)  instead of just hiding away in my room...  it seems so much of the contact I have with other people is digital... don't get me wrong.. I am grateful for it.. communication has never been easier than it is in our age...  but I miss having lots of friend and interesting people around (college), and I miss regular gaming with friends (Columbus), and having family nearby (when I lived with my sis)... this is certainly the most stable my life has been since I left college... but its also the most solitary.  What does that say about me?

Lets see... musically I haven't done much.  I just bought the new album from I Am Robot and Proud.  An amazing peice of work... beuatiful music.  That guy does awesome stuff... one of my new favorites...  and I am in no way a "fan" of techno... I am a fan however, of good music.  If you heed anyones musical advice this year or next year.. HEED MINE.  Go and listen to I Am Robot and Proud!   Beyond that... I haven't gotten much music... Amanda Palmer's new album was great.  And I'd like to hear the new Ben Folds album, but haven't gotten it yet...

Chrsitmas also means my Chrsitmas bonus at work!  :)  I already have plans for it... lets just say I am tired of playing games in standard definiton... and 32 inches of HD gaming are on the horizon...  my pal Mike is searching the interwebs for me to find the best deals (he's the audio/video guru of our group)...

whew... I think that gets me caught up for now.... I can now return to regular sporadic posts, and short posts with trailers or YouTube videos in them...  :)

The Juice is Flowing!

So after several months with unreliable and slow internet, and a month or so of NO internet... I finally have a dedicated line to this archaic house and the cave of darkness I was dwelling in can be blasted away by the power of the interwebs...  I got a lot of stuff to get caught up on, and many blog posts should happen this weekend... I have lots of things on my computer to watch and listen to now at least, 4-5 episodes of Clone Wars, 6 episodes of Legend of the Seeker, and no less than 29 podcasts (anything from G4 videos, to radio shows -Car Talk and Wait Wait, The D6 Generation and D&D podcast, and my favorite 1up.com podcasts) and 4 credits to spend at audible.com on some audiobooks... sheesh...my computer will be downloading for days!  :)

Lots of posts (or maybe just one big one) to come shortly... but for now I leave you with these... after all, thats what the internet is for.. sharing weird and funny videos!

Star Wars : The Clone Wars Episodes 02, 03, 04

02 - Rising Malevolence

"Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction."

03 - Shadow of Malevolence

"Easy is the path to wisdom for those not blinded by themselves"

04 - Destroy Malevolence

"A plan is only as good as those who see it through."

I am reviewing these three episodes all together mainly because I am behind and this is an easy way to get caught up on my reviews :)  and these three episodes form a really cool 3-part story arc... so they go together anyways...

Thus far, each episode after the next has gotten better.  Mainly because they have established themselves in my head, meaning I now know what to expect... so nothing really strikes me as jarring or unexpected.   I am used to the character designs, the voice actors, the music. and the way these stories are going to be told... so now its all about enjoying the ride.

A brief synopsis of the story and thoughts on these three episodes...

02 - General Grievous' new battleship shows up, called the Malevolence, and it hold his "mystery weapon" which turns out to be an Ion Cannon of great size.. the ship (which is HUGE) blasts its Ion Cannon disabling all enemy ships, then rips them to pieces with its multitude of weapons.. the episode starts with Jedi Master Plo Koon's ship suffering this fate.  Master Plo and a a few clones are stranded in an escape pod.  Anakin and Asohka head off to rescue them.  This episode was pretty cool... I enjoyed seeing Plo Koon in action, and there is more "clones are people too" morality.. which I find interesting.  At one point the clones say "No one is coming to rescue us, we're just clones. we're meant to be expendable."  A couple darker moments.. dead clones floating in space, others being vented into space.. the show at these moments really skirts its role as a "kid's show." There several references to the Star Wars movies.. the Ion Cannon fires very similarly to the Death Star, and the clones directly mimic Han and Chewie while repairing the escape pod.  "No, this one goes there, that one goes there..."  These references continue exponentially throughout the next two episodes.

03- This episode focuses on Anakin leading an assault on the Malevolence to shut it down.  He leads a battalion of clones called Shadow Squadron, and they use the prototype Y-Wing Bombers.  These are brand new Y-wings, not the old used up ones you see in the movies. :)  They have to fly through a nebula to catch up with their target.. but find it to be a nest for giant Neebray Mantas, huge space leviathans.... they dodge them and then arrive at their destination.  The Malevolence  is after a Med Station currently housing 60,000 wounded clones.. and pretty brutal target... the med station is run by a Kaminoan (the race that created the clones, makes sense) which is cool.  Anakin leads his squadron, and ends up disabling the Ion Cannon.  Just in time for Obi-Wan and his fleet to arrive.  Some cool space battles in this one... the mantas were cool, as were the Y-Wings... and the introduction of the 4-legged Power Droid.. the Plunk Droid!

Tons of references and quotes from original trilogy.. "I have a bad feeling about this", "Cut the chatter...".. "From a certain point of view..."  I don't mind the references... but they are getting close to the point of having too many references..  More darker moments.. a clone, named Matchstick who you are introduced to, crashes and dies... several ships full of escaping clones are taken out by Greivous' ship...

04 - This is the first episode featuring Padme and C-3PO.  They are captured and held hostage by General Grievous so the Republic ships have to cease fire on attacking the Malevolence until she can be rescued.  Obi-Wan and Anankin head off to save her.  They eventually meet up, and are able to disable the Malevolence's hyperdrive, or more accurately, rig it to crash into a moon.  This was a good episode... the most satisfying so far.  There was a high speed train battle, we get to see the romance of Anakin and Padme some (an important part of the fall of Anakin Skywalker), and General Grievous finally gets off the bridge of a ship and starts swinging some lightsabers!  I think the reason I liked this one so much was the fact that Anakin and Obi-Wan were together again... and C-3PO and R2-D2 were together again.. the gang was all there!  It definitely had a much more George Lucas-y and Star Wars-y vibe than the previous episodes.  Excited to see where the series goes from here...

"Everything I know I learned from you." - Anakin

"Oh, if only that were true." - Obi-Wan Kenobi

"Ever since I've known you you've been playing with droids." - Padme

"I used to put them together. Now I only take them apart." - Anakin

Memories Hoooooooo!

I'll see your He-Man commercial lokipan, and raise you this...

MEMORIES!

Ahhh.. its all coming back!   I thought I purged it loooong ago.... noooo...

The Clone Wars : Episdoe One : Ambush

Episode One : Ambush

"Great leaders inspire greatness in others."

Episode Brief: Jedi Master Yoda and three clone troopers -- Jek, Thire, and Rys -- must face off against Count Dooku's dreaded assassin Ventress and her massive droid army to prove the Jedi are strong enough to protect a strategic planet and forge a treaty for the Republic.

Karl's Review: The first episode takes place on the moon of Rugosa, a moon with giant coral formations all over it.  Yoda is sent to negotiate with the King of Toydaria (the race that Watto belongs to).. but his ship is attacked and he is forced to land in an escape pod.  Assaj Ventress meets with the King first to try and sway his allegiance to the Separatists.  A challenge is issued.. if Yoda can fight his way through Ventress' battle droid army and reach the King by nightfall he will prove is worth to the Toydarian King.

This episode has lots of Yoda-on-droid action, as he fights his way to the king.  The interesting part is that he fights along with 3 clone troopers.  We really get to see the interactions of these clones, and how they try and differentiate themselves from their identical brothers.  These clones wear red marking signifying them as Senate Security forces, an action figure with these markings was released as an exclusive by Hasbro at ComicCon this year.  At one point they stop to rest, and the clones feel doubtful that they will be able to prevail against the odds facing them.  It is interesting how the clones, throughout the show, have to figure out how to deal with this Jedi, whom they know nothing about.  At times Yoda simply sits and meditates, and the clones are left confused.. they also refer to him consistently as "General" no doubt due to their military training... Yoda is portrayed quite well in this episode, even reverting to his playful nature as he laughs and leaps from battle droid to battle droid.  This is a side of Yoda not seen since Empire Strikes Back.  He also exhibits his wise persona, as he rallies his clones when they are feeling overwhelmed.  "Clones you may be, but the Force resides in all life forms.  Use it you can, to quiet your mind."  Yoda sees them differently through the Force, and convinces them to see themselves that way as well.  I enjoy seeing how the clones choose to differentiate themselves, some with different hairstyles, some with scars and tattoos... It is perhaps one of the more interesting themes to permeate the series, and a good choice to put in the first episode.  Assaj Ventress (am I the only one who finds sith chicks sexy?) doesn't do much in this episode but boss around her droids, but she is an awesome character, and her voice and visual depiction is perfect.  I look forward to seeing her expanded upon throughout the series. 

An enjoyable episode...good depictiongs os Yoda and the Clone Troopers and some cool action sequences, but it lacked the grandure of a war supposed to be engulfing an entire galaxy. I give it 3 astromech droids out of 5.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Premieres Tonight!  9 PM  Cartoon Network!

TWO episodes tonight to start things off! ("Ambush" and "Rising Malevolence")  Normally there will only be one new episode per week, but this week they start it off with two.  You can also watch it streaming online starting next week (at starwars.com or , though the streaming episodes will be one week behind the others.  Or you can buy the Season Pass at iTunes and get the new episodes automatically downloaded to your computer the day after they air on TV (that's what I plan on doing)  Anyway, tonight I am heading over to my friend Mike's to watch the premiere on his 108" screen (he built a home theatre).  I will have my review of the first two episodes later on tomorrow if I have time, but I plan on reviewing each episode of the series as they are aired. These reviews will be full of spoilers, so if you didn't see the episode, you may not want to read the reviews.  :)  That's all for now, and may the Force be with you!

Legend of the Seeker

So.. there is a very successful series of books called "The Sword of Truth" by an author named Terry Goodkind.  I read the first book in the series, Wizard's First Rule, and really enjoyed.  It was a great story and was set in a world that had a very interesting mythos/magic system.  The second book was also good, but less so than the first, and I would say the same when comparing the thrid book to the second.  Anyways.. I didn't read the fourth.  Though, I believe there are now like.. 10 books in the series?  I would like to one day go back and read them... for as I said, the world is pretty cool.  The first book in the series is certainly worth ready, for it is quite good.  But, you don't like reading?  Is that what I hear you saying?  Well you are in luck my friend!  For the infamous Sam Raimi (the director of Spiderman) is turning the series of books into an hour long fantasy/drama on your television.  Much in the same vein as Xena:Warrior Princess, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, The Beastmaster, and to a lesser extent Cleopatra 2525 (for those wishing a sci-fi comparison)... this show will more than likely be aired at weird times, on less than big networks.  But I am oddly excited to see it.  I guess its more along the lines of me wanting a fantasy TV series to actually work, and actually be good.

Anyway.. here are some trailers for the show, which airs November 1st (Check your local listings!)

Perhaps the most interesting character in the series is the female lead, Kahlan.  Digging deep into my memory banks here (so some details may be fuzzy)... but she was

 known as a "Confessor."  All the confessor's were women, and they had this unique power.  They needed to touch their "victims" and then they would release their power and those affected would be completely controlled/enthralled/enraptured/in-love/dedicated to/by/with the Confessor, forever, no questions asked, forever.  So they were called confessors, because their power would be unleashed on a potential criminal at court, and since he was then completely dedicated to the confessor, there is no way he would lie to her... thus his confession 

was always truthful.. of course, then he didn't really have much of a life if he was innocent, since he was now pretty much a slave to the confessor.  The confessor had complete power over the people they controlled, they could command them to do anything, and their victims would not waver.. they were completely consumed by the magically induced love for the Confessor that touched them.  Its an interesting power... and I am curious as to how they depict it in the TV show...  I should try to read that book again before the show starts, but my reading list is already too long (soon to be discussed in an upcoming blog post).. perhaps I can snag the audio book off of Audible.com...

And of course, as you can see in the still frame above, the women have to ride around showing lots of cleavage... or else it can't be classified as "fantasy"... 

And a fun fact for you here... if you look at the poster image above.. and look closely at the guy with the bow and arrow.. you will none other than JayLag'aia known by geeks everywhere for his role as Jango Fett (and all subsequent clones of him in Episodes II and III)

You can view additional trailers/media/information/etc at the official website.

Yay! The 1-Up Show!

So glad the 1-Up Show is back on the air.  I have been watching this for a couple years now, and it has become one of my favorite shows.  These are the same guys from 1up.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly [EGM] magazine (which I have been reading for 10+ years) so I feel like I know a lot of these guys after reading so many of their articles, listening to so many of their podcasts, and watching this show for so long... (though a lot of the original guys have departed the company). Game journalism has become somewhat of a hobby of mine, so I read a lot of different websites/magazines and such.  I definitely feel 1up is the "cream of the crop" when it comes to video game journalism.   This is the second episode of Season 10... they do some great coverage of Mirror's Edge (game looks awesome) and Mega Man 9!   :)  

The 1UP Show: Episode 09/26/08