How to play the game

Futureshop couldn't have timed it better.

This Sunday was officially the release date of Guitar Hero 3 and I was ready to go hunting for the lowest price. Although I figured ahead of time that eveyrwhere I'd go the price would likely be $90.

Indeed, even a cursory glance at the major retailer web-sites would say as much. However, the one anomaly would be Futureshop where they were charging $100 instead. In return, they offered a deal for a "free" guitar stand. But what's really free if you're spending $10 more anyway?

Enter the Friends and Family Sale ...on Sunday night! I waited until after 5pm EST and placed my order to get my 10% discount. So now my bonus guitar-stand was truly free. Even chose store-pick-up as my delivery option so I wouldn't pay for shipping.

squad command demo for PSP is out

I totally missed this earlier but the demo for Warhammer 40'000 Squad Command was released a few days ago. You (North American region users, at least) can get it at the official PSP content download site.

Be warned, if you're a Homebrew user you're out of luck - the demo insists running only on firmware 3.71 or else it won't start up.
After taking the demo for a spin, I gotta say I'm psyched for the full release (due out in a couple of weeks). I'm not much for turn-based strategy gaming, but context does a lot for a game and it was just cool to see a Dreadnought be as nasty as the intro cinematic of the first Dawn of War game. I mean, this is a towering behemoth of destructive power on two legs... but in Dawn of War, it's just another unit (powerful yet, but will still go down if enough enemy troops pile up). Well, the demo pits an unstoppable mecha and a team of five of the Emperor's finest against a group of Chaos (some regular dudes and some bigger guys).
Like every other turn-based game, each man has a set number of action points to spend. You move around and shoot at pretty much anything within range until you're out of points to spend. Finally you hit Start to get the turn-menu and End your Turn. Graphics are crisp (on the PSP version anyway; I hear it's coming on DS as well), and the audio is great. And like I said before, the Dreadnought is sufficiently of the BMF variety with it's ridiculously powerful weapons. I can't help wondering what else the full release will have in store.

PS: I'll be blunt, the pics in this post were taken from other sites without permission but I figure they're sufficiently generic-looking nobody will care. Get more stuff here!

SF Later Years 5

Well, actually, by the time I found and posted that one last week, part 5 was already out (but you knew that if you had waited until the video ended and the embedded player from Collegehumor.com previewed you other videos on the site, yes?)

Anyway, if you missed it, here's also the trailer they put together that was out between parts 3 and 4.
Click me for Trailer!

But anyway, I know you're not here for just a trailer clip, so here is Part 5:


(Don't forget, if you roll your mouse over the video, a little interface HUD will appear and there's an icon that will put up the video full-screen on the bottom right! I only resized the embedded player to fit my blog layout.)

loading up on WH40k

So besides playing Dawn of War non-stop, a bunch of Warhammer stuff has been arriving in rapid-fire succession in the mail.

First up that I'm insanely excited to finally have is the sci-fi novel by CS Goto that follows up on his adaptation of Dawn of War. He expands on the adventures of the Blood Ravens marines in the aftermath of the Tartarus campaign and also further explores the fate of the Eldar who shared an alliance with them. It's a dramatically different feel to what I've been reading as of late... Been into the Harry Potter books. Which, although are smartly written in that they don't talk down to kids and are also suited for all-ages, are nevertheless still children's books. The Warhammer book is simply violent in its graphically descriptive narration. But oh... still very compelling.

But I need to admit that part of why I'm reading it so intently is because I waited 5 months for it! Amazon had it back-ordered for so long that I breifly considered giving up and placing an order directly Games Workshop's "Black Library" store even if it would cost me a little more to import it directly from the UK.

Second thing that arrived in the mail shortly there after was a book my brother pre-ordered a while back when it was announced. This is the oversized book for the new "Apocalypse" expansion. It's the strangest gaming book I've ever read. It reads a lot like a magazine more than a rulebook. It's got all sort of suggestions for scaling up the existing "core rules" for a Warhammer game. And lots of write-ups for play-test games that were staged during development... and only the second half of the book really deals with introducing any new rules (for the newer units).Speaking of which... that's the other thing that makes it feel like I'm reading an enthusiast's magazine rather than a rulebook: it covers many of the "Forgeworld" off-shoot model units that are semi-official... until now that is. With the scaled-up game, impractical and unplayable unit suddenly can be put on the extra-large table.

Which in turn brings us to the final item that arrived in the mail: my Baneblade "super-heavy" tank. Wow. Its box looks the size of the starter-set for Warhammer. I can't wait to get started on this kit. Unfortunately, really, I have several other projects on the go at the moment. So it'll need to wait (unless I change my mind over the weekend).

Game Night Drinking

The weather's sucked lately and I'm always wanting to sleep... So when Saturday night rolled around, I decided to juice up a little with a Red Bull. Problem is I kind of dislike Red Bull.

So I try something else: Sobe Arush.
Here's the thing, there's two things I dislike about Red Bull. I get a wicked caffeine crash about 2 hours after drinking one. And second, it has a kind of chemical after-taste I don't like... it's like a diet drink or something.

What's Arush? It's the same sort of thing... but the taste is a little more "natural" (think cherry-cola). According to the can, it's actually quite similar to Red Bull but it's only 76mg of caffeine per can instead of 80mg like in the more well-known competitor. Does that make a difference? Probably not. As weirdguy was saying the other day - it's more or less like drinking two cups of coffee in a row.

Being a little less well-known has another side-effect: it's a bit cheaper. In real-world terms, a can of Red Bull will cost about $3 in a typical corner-store. A can of Arush will cost $2.50, but a grocery store is where the best deal is had. A 4-pack of Red Bull retails about $11 or so but Arush will cost about $8 - sweet!

As for the game tonight... could've gone better. We played mostly co-op and even tried turning up the difficulty level. Then ended the night with a Free-for-all (where I got eliminated rather early on). The AI came at me pretty early and left me scrambling but mrbabou moved in for the kill... fair... but not so much fun to go out like a punk.

Street Fighter Later Years Part 4

A little while back Collegehumor.com posted a "preview" for the upcoming parts 4 thru 10 of Street Fighter the Later Years. Anyway, Part 4 was posted a little bit afterwards... I going to have to play with the size a bit to make it fit (it's supposed to be a widescreen video). Don't worry, if it screws up, just click the little fullscreen icon in the bottom right corner.

Why the Fonz is Cool

What makes the Fonz think he's cool? 'nuff said!

(thnx for finding this, weirdguy!)

Another tube loaded

*phew* another twitter-style note but, I finally saw this in my Inbox tonite:

I won't show you the order number (or my private email address), but an order I placed back in March finally shipped. The second book to CS Goto's Dawn of War novelization (basically a new saga based around the Blood Ravens chapter from the game) has been back-ordered since I first ordered it. Sheesh. Did I mention I'm still playing that game regularly....

Scopedog complete

Just a Twitter-style note: YamatoUSA's customer service came through and my replacement piece finally arrived. And in the right colour, I mean. *phew*

Off the bookshelf

I spent a very large portion of my weekend reading thanks to a couple of things I picked up... something new, something old. Something downloaded.

Firstly JK Rowling has enough money as it is from her Harry Potter royalties. So I'll be brutally honest, I have no intention of buying any of the books... besides, I've spent enough on the DVDs anyway. I finished Sorcerer's Stone on Friday and got right into Chamber of Secrets.

As for stuff I did pay for...
Here's a funny thing. I actually own the first few issues collected in the Alan Moore saga of WildCATs. It got started at the worst of times and I was the reader who got away. See, ever since it started out, Jim Lee's WildCATS was accused of being a total rip on X-Men. Hell, even the adverts billed them as "mutant heroes" (mutant was a buzz-word back then). But I liked it anyway. Besides, this was Jim Lee's artwork, we were talking about. When he left his flagship book, it was a little hard to swallow, but Travis Charest was the hot new kid and he had that hype-detail style that sort of looked like Jim Lee, but also a little different. It was cool. And I stuck with it for another few issues.

But here's the catch... this was around the time the 90's comics scene was gearing up for its huge bust. Even my local comics store in small town French Quebec was making a tactical withdrawal. So it was harder and harder for me to find Wildstorm comics regularly. In the end, I was traveling to Montreal to collect the issues of that made up the first major crossover, Wildstorm Rising. And here was the big problem, art styles varied wildly between the titles. And quite honestly, I didn't like most of it. In fact, only an issue or two into the post-Wildstorm Rising issues, Travis Charest wasn't even doing the art anymore.

It's really too bad because here we are 15 years later before I finally got over that hump. DC has seen fit to reprint the entire Alan Moore scripted run (issues 21 thru 34) in one massive collection. And I'm sad to report, if I had stuck with the series just one or two more issues in, I would've had quite a trip 15 years ago. It's no difficult argument to make that this was the run that turned Wildstorm around and changed WildCATs from being the accused X-Men clone into its epic that would spawn ground-breaking material like The Authority.

My other collected edition that I read straight through this weekend was the new collection of the first arc for Dynamo 5. Captain Dynamo was a one-off character who showed up from time to time in the Image Universe. He figured into an early issue of Noble Causes as a token Superman-clone, but it wouldn't be too long (a couple of years by my count) before Jay Faerber would take that clone and make him into a cheating bastard. Enter a team made up on illegit kids. Yes, you read that right... this is a team of all the half-siblings that take up the slack when a father they never knew kicks the bucket.

And it's freaking hilarious the stuff that happens to them. The kids are written as kids with concerns I distinctly remember I had when I was teenager. But here they're dealing with the mysteries surrounding their father and the government agents after them. All of which is a good thing, because despite how much I love the art style (which mimics the style in the pages of Noble Causes)... well, I can't stand some of the character designs. I mean, some of the costumes just don't make any sense. Take the African-American girl who flies - she's the one who probably needs the most secure uniform... but she's also the one wearing a plunging neckline that looks like it could slip off her shoulders in mid-flight.

Image did another thing right: they gave this collection an introductory price of only ten bucks. Hey, that makes perfect sense to me.

Not Really.

From page 13 of Invincible #10

Yes, you knew it too...

...It's so true. *LOL*

Reaction: Rise of the Silver Surfer

The F4 sequel is finally out on DVD (and in my collection). I don't know what the big deal is, but Rise of the Silver Surfer turned out to be much better than people have been telling me. But maybe that's because I saw it after I watched 2 astoundingly mediocre films: Across the Universe and 3:10 to Yuma.

In fact, I could only come up with 3 major gripes with the this Fantastic Four outing.
1) I don't know who was in charge of costuming and make-up, but for all the good they did for The Surfer (the combination CG and suit FX were amazingly real) Sue Storm got the crap end of the stick. I don't know it is, but Jessica Alba looked horrible for at least the first half of the film.

2) Photography choices were a little on the dark side. I have my home theatre calibrated to THX standard but I spent a lot of time (particularly during scenes at night) squinting at my screen. Which is a shame because there was a lot to see during the action shots.

3) The universal threat reduced to a name. Galactus is a powerful and ancient creature. He's got reasons for doing what he does... And the ending was kind of vague.

Other than these 3 nits to pick, I actually enjoyed the movie. F4 is the kind of film that Marvel ought to be churning out. The Marvel Universe's roots are firmly in 1960s and for that, there is a lot of inherent cheesiness. But people tend to think (thanks to "serious" movies like Batman Begins) that super-hero movies can't be campy. So I ask, Why not? The original F4 comics were full of comedy. What other series would have the nerve to title itself "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!?"
So I recommend to kick back, get comfortable, and have some fun with a movie.

Disgaea2 gashapon

I don't even know why I bought this. It cost a stupid amount at the local store but it did come with a cool little stackable dust-proof case. I haven't even played Disgaea ...any version. And I haven't actually watched the anime or read the manga. (but I probably should because it looks pretty crazy.

Anyway, the packaging was this groovy "collect an entire mini-army" or something ridiculous like that. So naturally, I had to get one.

Can somebody tell me about this character? She's got a pair of blonde wavy pigtails and carries a bow... And I think I just found something new to collect.

the inbox this week

A few items of note in my Inbox this week...

Best Buy is starting a rewards program. It doesn't really grab my attention though. You get a few dollars back for every few hundred you spend. Kind of reminds me of Canadian Tire Money: I totally ignore it. That is, I ignored it until I started collecting it with my credit card (meaning almost EVERY purchase I made anywhere could get me free stuff at Canadian Tire a couple of months later). So far the Best Buy "Reward Zone" is comparable to the HBC Rewards... useless.

My mom wrote me an email. Turns out that Messenger roll-out I reported a couple of weeks ago not only screwed me up, but also screwed up anybody who had added my current email address before it became my Messenger ID. My mom's contact list in Messenger still lists me as "Non-Messenger Contact." Not sure how to fix that but I guess I can get her to add me manually - just need to talk her through that when I have time.

Yamato wrote back to answer my complaint. They said they were sorry for the mix up and that a new replacement part would be sent out immediately. I wonder when it will arrive at my door (or the local postal outlet). When it does, and if it's the right piece this time, I will heave a sigh of relief. And I will probably finally tear open the bag with the manual because I'm sure there are still more features I haven't figured out on my own on the Scopedog model.

Yamato story continues

I was so psyched to find a postal slip on my door when I got home I did something I'm not known to do: instead of waiting for tomorrow afternoon as I pass the area on the way home, I decided to actually drive out to the post office to get my package.

I opened it to find a set of replacement armour bits for my VOTOMS, which is what I wanted except...

...right. They sent me the wrong colour. What I needed was a piece in a pale gray but the pieces sent to me were olive-drab, which doesn't help much. I wrote back to Yamato telling them this (but thanking them anyway for their effort). We'll see if another one (in the pale gray colours) shows up next week, but I'm not really holding my breath.