Go to the right Marketplace!

OK, so it's been like a week. I've posted this info on a couple of different forums already but every day I still see new posts everywhere from people asking why their codes are "expired!"

The deal is this: certain retailers gave you promotional codes when you buy Dawn of War 2 (no, you didn't miss anything, I didn't blog the retail release). Anyhow, for the uninitiated, the game is networked via Games for Windows Live. And if you use Windows Live Messenger (or MSN Messenger for those who aren't calling it by its official name), then basically you're already a member anyway.

To get set up you do need to choose a Gamertag - which also happens to serve as an Xbox Live Gamertag. You can tell because when you play around with GFWL pop-up, it'll also invoke your web browser for account management... but the site you get to looks suspiciously like an Xbox site. But other than fooling around with your Gamertag stuff, it's pretty much unrelated to GFWL. Confused enough? Don't worry, what you need to know is: do not enter your PC game's promo code at the Xbox Live Marketplace.

What you DO need is to go to GFWL and get the stand-alone client. Once you install and run the client, then you can click the "Marketplace" tab and there you will be able to enter any promotional codes that come with Games for Windows products.

Gurren Lagann Parallel Works Video 1

This has nothing to do with anything... but is cool. Everything's better in alternate universe format. :)

Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra

I'm one of those personalities with the insatiable desire to know "what's inside?" Sometimes it backfires on me - like tonight: I spent the entire evening after work driving around most of Ottawa looking for the Collector's Edition of Street Fighter IV... and failing to acquire it. The last time I asked about pre-ordering it, there still hadn't been any info available about it so I decided not to reserve it at the time. Then later, when it was too late, I remembered to ask about it again and by then they had stopped taking orders.

Anyway, Jace Beleren was a character who debuted in the worlds of Magic the Gathering a little while back and figures greatly in a new novel recently published called "Agents of Artifice." But interestingly enough, a few months back, he also figured in his very own 2-player game: an all-in-one Duel Deck pitting him against Chandra Nalaar another Planeswalker mage who appeared back in the Lorwyn set.
Naturally, I looked at the box and said, "oooh shiny!"
...yes, that's a M:TG in-joke along the lines of Weirdguy seeing my copy of Agents of Artifice in its metallic dust-jacket and exclaiming, "oh, it's a foil book!" [insert rim-shot here]

The set comes with the two decks - 60 cards each and it apparently completely tournament legal to play. Each of course, is made up of cards reflecting the strategies those characters use. But the main draw is the alternate art on the reprinted Planeswalkers cards themselves. These are foil cards and represent the awesome power at hand if they show up in to help you.
Jace himself has very little loyalty to start (only 3 before he will quit on the player) but his super-power is to cycle 20 cards from the enemy deck into the graveyard - this could be a killer move if played late in the match. Chandra is a little more forgiving coming in with 6 loyalty points. But her super-move deals 10 damage to the target player and all their creatures - meaning any weaklings such as typical tokens will likely get wiped out. Insanity ensues.

The set also comes with a pair of utterly useless deck boxes. They look like typical starter deck boxes you usually throw away because... well, honestly, the cards won't fit if you put them in plastic sleeves. And of course, the set also come with a pair of inserts: the intro rules sheet (of which in my very short M:TG career already have 3 copies of), and an insert specific to this set listing the deck-lists and explaining how the Planeswalker cards work.

I can't wait to try playing either deck but I'm also keen on slipping Chandra into my usual Alara deck since I already play Jund - the red plane in that storyline.

Kenichi's Masters (mistresses?)

Not long ago before I had decided I would join my friends going to G-Anime, I had explained to them that a big part of the convention experience was "finding stuff." You know, an exhibitor was bringing something to sell, or people showing off bragging rights. Sadly, that aspect of con-going has been lost amidst the advent of e-commerce where anything you could possibly want, not matter how rare, can be had if you are willing to pay the price.

G-Anime's only real failure, in my view, was the dealer's room where everyone was there for one reason: to unload unwanted stock. Time was when I remember going to cons where dealers were there to ring up business by showing off just a taste of what they offered in their stores. You got something at a discount and also get their business card so that one day you could look them up for more. Everyone wins.
For a con centered around anime, there was a surprisingly little amount of anime for sale. The Anime Stop crew brought lots of clearance manga and a selection of figures, but no DVDs. One store selling me some French translated manga... turned out to have very little manga in their brick-and-mortar location when I checked them out the following weekend.

Anyway back to life, I had come down a manga high from reading several volumes of Kenichi Ultimate Disciple. It's about a kid who rises up against local bullies after he joins a strange dojo populated by an eccentric cast of martial arts masters... and also happens to be the home of the cute school-mate he met.

Too bad I downloaded only part of it before it got licensed by Funimation (due out in the next few months as 13-episode DVD sets).

But being that I was under the influence of a manga high, I also decided to order the rest of the manga series from Kurokawa by way of Archambault.ca (a large retail chain in Quebec serving up French media). Saves me my provincial taxes anyway. And of course, when I stumbled on these figures at HLJ.com in the clearance section...
Turns out they ship as a set anyway (when the box arrived, the two were shrink-wrapped together, which thankfully means with minimal packing, the figures survived the half-planet transit.As you can see, even the packaging is meant to fit together. The figures stand on a display base that snaps together forming the ying-yang sign that Kenichi is fond of wearing on his colar throughout the series.Miu and Shigure come several option parts and accessories like weapons. Miu is the simpler of the two - the figure comes with optional arms so she can be displayed without her jacket on. Curiously, her optional arms are in the same pose as when she's wearing the jacket. Opportunity lost, if you ask me. And Shigure has a shorter "skirt" (no, she's not naked under there) but frustratingly, does not come with any hints (photos on the box or otherwise) on how she's meant to hold the optional weapons. That is, besides the baton and sword, she also comes with a set of nunchuku, a blade on a chain, a wakizashi, etc... none of which seem to fit properly in her pose. Hmm...

Real Life Rhino

Used to be that I would say, "if I had the time and money I would..." Well, that is no longer feasible. In this video, I find proof that a new qualifier should be added.

That is, if I had time, money, and a lot of room for parking (which is nowhere to be found in this city; although won't be a problem anymore if I were driving around Gatineau in this thing), then I would do this...