Red Dead Retaliation

To Chako:



To the Developers of Red Dead Redemption:



Fix your online and patch the bugs!

Super Busy - Part 1

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. It is mostly 'cause I have been super lazy recently. Also a slew of entertaining movies, books and games came into my possession (berfday?) and I have been trying to watch, read and play them all at the same time.

Movie wise:

Inglorious Bastards
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Quatum of Solice
Venture Bros. Season 3

Book wise:

The Graveyard Book
World War Z
Irredeamable
Blackest Night
Siege

Game wise:

The Darkness
Final Fantasy XIII
Red Dead Redemption
God of War III
Killzone 2
Dead Space
Super Street Fighter IV


That's a lot of sh*t right? Well in addition to my regular hobbies, I have been trying to plow through all this content. I will try and post a little about each as I complete/check it out.

KICK-ASS Comic vs Movie Character Comparison

I like Mark Millar, however I don't think I like Millar as much as he likes himself. This guy has a huge personality. It is this personality which leads to the unabashed changes that some movie exec probably forced on this story. I am sure that Millar was more than willing to bastardize any part of his work to ensure that it made it to the silver screen. Just look at Wanted if you need further proof. At any rate and hopefully without any spoilers I wanted to take a moment to compare the comic characters with the movie versions of said characters.

I want to make the point that I am not in love with the comic or the movie versions. Both had strengths and weaknesses separate from each other, so I don't intend for this to sound like I prefer one medium over the other.

DAVE LIZEWSKI

The Comic version of Kick Ass is a younger much nerdier version of his Movie counterpart. Comic Dave gets points for not cutting out a mouth hole in his costume. What costume designer though this was a good idea? I can imagine the brainstorming session behind this one. "Well what if Kick ass needs to eat a snickers for in movie advertising?" More likely that Kick Ass would need to give a blow job to a homeless person, but whatever. The Movie version of Dave also departed from his 'comic book roots'. Movie Dave spent more money on posters of girls and coffee than comic books. Frankly if both versions of Dave existed, the Movie version would be too cool to hang with the Comic version. In addition, I didn't get the vibe that Movie Dave was all that interested in comics in the first place. It doesn't take an extreme nerd to know who Steve Ditko is, just an asshole with an internet connection. Movie Dave isn't all bad though. He does fair better socially than Comic Dave and isn't nearly as hopeless. However, in the frame of the story, Dave is supposed to be utterly pathetic.

Verdict: COMIC

BIG DADDY

This is one instance where my preconceived opinion weighs heavily. Nic Cage sucks. He sucks bad. Really bad. Unfortunately for us, Mr. Cage just got off the the set of Mrs. Swanson's second grade production of Rapunzel, where he used up all his acting ability. Well anyway that's the type of productions he should be allowed into. Not only is this character completely destroyed due to the film changes, but Cage takes any semblance of acting and shits all over it. If you think back to the best movies you have seen Nic Cage in, you will realize that an extremely strong actor is always blocking his terrible performance. Unfortunately for us, Chloe Moretz isn't strong enough to save this one. Big Daddy in the comic was not only better in design and personality; his back story was much more entertaining. Fuck you Nic Cage.

Verdict: COMIC

HIT GIRL

This is one character who was awesome in both iterations. Sure I think the Movie version was a little too old and I liked John Romita Jr.'s costume better, but overall she got a great treatment. The movie version was well performed by Chloe Moretz. I prefer some of the dialogue from the comic, but the changes to this character were slim and at least she was around 90% of the time Nic Cage was on-screen to reduce that pain. I loved that her dialogue was so vulgar and that she didn't shy away from saying cock and cunt. If only she said her memorable line after the final fight "I need a hug, my...".

Verdict: DRAW

RED MIST

The Red Mist received a ton of back story that the Comic version failed to have. It will be interesting to see how this pans out considering the story is supposed to be part of a trilogy. I mean, will Millar whore out and adapt the Movie back story or keep the open Comic version and take a different route? He already allowed the character to get changed to a whiny snot nosed kid, so my hopes aren't high. The mystery behind the Red Mist was completely spoiled in the Movie adaptation and when the Comic character finally develops, it is a much more rewarding experience. Extra points are lost here for the costume choice. I mean John Romita Jr. gave the costume designer gold and they turned it into crap. I particularly liked the cavalier manner Red Mist exhibited in the Comic; which translated less than successfully to the silver screen. The anime inspired Red Mist is a weak reflection of the Comic version's potential.

Verdict: COMIC

KATIE DEAUXMA

Not much needs to be said about Katie Deauxma. She was just the hot girl in the Comic and she was little more in the Movie. It is funny that she managed to 'settle' on the nerdy guy and then welcome him with open arms at the moment of confession. I loved how in the Comic, Katie takes pity on the 'gay prostitute' and forms a friendship. The rumors in the Movie weren't as strong and didn't ring true for the character's motivation. I particularly like how Katie is the kind of girl who would be happy to text a picture of herself giving a blow job to her boyfriend in the Comic, but donates time at a methadone clinic in the Movie.

Verdict: DRAW

JOHN GENOVESE (COMIC) / FRANK D'AMICO (MOVIE)

John Genovese aka Frank D'Amico is the main villain in our tale and as such is portrayed by Mark Strong. I loved Mark Strong's performance in Revolver as the cool assassin and his performance in this film was excellent as well. I particularly love the scene where Frank confronts Kick-Ass in the alleyway. Pure genius. The Comic version of Frank was great too, but Mark Strong added a lot to this character and I think his performance speaks for itself. Maybe if Strong would have had a full head of hair he could have more closely matched the Comic version, but in this case I think the casting director nailed it.

Verdict: MOVIE

So there you have it MOVIE: 3 - COMIC: 5 Not too bad all things considered.


I give the Kick-Ass Movie 125 out of 144 pages.

Goodness and Mercy

Two qualities I admire in others.

However, here I am referring to Granny Goodness and her dog Mercy, residents of Apokolips, from DC comics.

These two characters were recently released as a duo figure from the new Brave and the Bold Heroclix set. At first I thought the piece was uninspired, but after seeing this comic, realised how awesome they are! I love me some villains and you can't get much worse than Darksied or his followers.

I love it when you can see the inspiration for the sculpt as well. I think they got that idea from this panel:





Haven't gotten to play this piece yet, but when I do I will try to remember to update this post with my opinions of it. As of right now, I would highly recommend giving the Parademons a shot.

Darksiders - (noun) A euphemism for evil people?

Don't you just hate people? I know I do.

The people I hate most today are: Video Gaming Counter Culture Phonies

They typical VGCCP is some douche-bag with a blog that spouts their opinions all over people like their a dick at a bukkake festival. What separates them from me is the notion that they are some how special and unique because they have an opinion. The truth is these people are not different or unique in any way.

They do have one thing that makes them special though. The Internet.

So what does this have to do with Darksiders. Nothing. Are you interested in this game in the first place? If No please stop reading. If Yes:

This game is really solid. The story isn't great, but didn't have an overwhelming amount of cliches or plot holes that bring down the enjoyment. It did take itself a bit serious, however that was balanced out with some moments of humor. Did War just Shoryuken that demon? What is the story with Wicked Killington?

At any rate, this game combines the most successful elements from the top Action and Adventure games of the last decade. The game does redo these mechanics in it's own style and even tries to put a slight twist to each. It is sad that reviewers slammed this game for creativity, when the game isn't doing anything different than any others in it's genre. Seriously did anyone slam Twilight Princes for having the same damn items for the Nth game in a row? Does anyone not play God of War III because Kratos is still opening chests?

I felt a lot of drive to finish this game and it had excellent pacing. I always felt that I was 'in the middle of something' when I had to stop playing. I even managed to collect a lot of the items in the game, which has a nice set of tools to remove a lot of frustration from backtracking for that one piece of armor. The boss battles were a great mix of brute hack 'n' slash and find the weakness.

The graphics looked great, though by the end the style was weighing on me a bit. It is nice to see such a cohesive design in every aspect of the game. That is truly one of it's strong suits and would probably feel flat if Vigil hadn't gotten this right.

If you are any kind of fan of the aforementioned genres, you can't go wrong here. The game has a length that is standard for Action games, and added replayability with a New Game + that lets you keep a super powerful item for a second play through. One recommendation: If you do play through a second time, set your system language to German. The game just seems so much more bad ass... more metal.


I give Darksiders 9 Abyssal Armor Shards out of 10.

Heroclix - News and Spoilers

I *stole* this info directly off of the HeroClix World site.

The figures I am most excited about are in bold.

001 – Bruce Wayne
002 – Clark Kent
003 – Diana Prince
004 – League Assassin (League Assassin Sculpt w/ Grey Robes)
005 – Amazon (Amazon Sculpt w/ Silver Armor)
006 – Checkmate Pawn White (Checkmate Pawn Sculpt w/ White Vest)
007 – Checkmate Knight White (Checkmate Knight Sculpt w/ White Vest)
008 – Parademon Grunt (Parademon Grunt w/ Blue/Green trim)
009 – The Atom and Hawkman
010 – Jason Blood
011 – League Elite (League Assassin Sculpt w/ Red Robes)
012 – Amazon of Bana-Mighdall (Amazon Sculpt w/ Gold Armor)
013 – Checkmate Pawn Black (Checkmate Pawn Sculpt w/ Grey Vest)
014 – Chackmate Knight Black (Checkmate Knight Sculpt w/ Grey Vest)
015 – Parademon Drill Sergeant (Parademon Grunt w/ Red/Brown trim)
016 – Batman
017 – Superman
018 – Wonder Woman
019 – Talia
020 – Damian Wayne
021 – The Holiday Killer
022 – Cave Carson
023 – Max Mercury
024 – Mikron O’Jeneus
025 – Goodness and Mercy
026 – The Sensei (League Assassin Sculpt w/ Purple Robes)
027 – Phillipus (Amazon Sculpt w/ Dark Skin and Gold Armor)
028 – Pawn 502 (Checkmate Pawn Sculpt w/ Silver Vest)
029 – Mademoiselle Marie (Checkmate Knight Sculpt w/ Silver Vest)
030 – The Parademon (Parademon Grunt w/ White trim)
031 – Brainiac
032 – Kryptonite Man
033 – Metallo
034 – Ra’s Al Ghul
035 – Power Girl
036 – Martian Manhunter
037 – Extant
038 – Inertia
039 – Etrigan
040 – Lex Luthor and Brainiac
041 – Talia Al Ghul
042 – Robin
043 – Kid Zoom
044 – Black Flash
045 – The Wizard Shazam!
046 – Batman and Green Arrow
047 – The Flashes
048 – Green Lantern & Flash
049 – Superman and the Flash
050 – Fire and Ice
051 – Green Lantern and Green Arrow
052 – Blue Beetle & Booster Gold
053 – Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy
054 – Mister Miracle & Oberon
055 – Shazam & Black Adam
056 - Black Hand
059 - Nekron
100 - Batman & Catwoman
101 – Bruce Wayne (Not an AE – Brown Suitcase/Brown Tie)
102 – Clark Kent (Not an AE – Black Suit/Grey Tie)
103 – Diana Prince (Not an AE – White Suit)

Sorry to only pick out the obvious choices, but as I have said before I am not a huge DC fan so some of the lesser know characters aren't as special to me.

Also from their site:

A web of spiderman teaser!

Crisis on Infinite Earths: The Anti-Monitor and my top 10 Crisis Figs

So I am a comic book fan. However for the longest time, I steered clear of DC comics. I don't know what it is, but I didn't like the characters. To be fair I never really gave them a chance (except for the Vertigo brand, which I love). Maybe it was Superman; for whatever reason I almost resented this, most notable of heroes. I mean they had to dream up a weakness for him that doesn't even exist on this planet. Plus they are terrible about every 'hero' having 800 variants. Superboy, Supergirl, Superdog, Superflea, etc.

In recent years, through friends urgings, I have started to pick up a few select DC books. As part of this, I have also been going back and reading some of the highlight DC ministries. So a week ago I started reading Crisis on Infinite Earths. Needless to say many of the characters were familiar to me because of Heroclix, but I had no bearing on their histories. Characters I didn't understand or thought were over-rated have since been re-evaluated and are now more appreciated. One character that particularly struck me was the Anti-Monitor. I actually experience feelings of dread when he was finally revealed. I mean look at this guy:




















A. He looks like he is on life support, with the suit and the tubes running into his body. I mean who doesn't think old people hooked up to tons of machinery are creepy?
B. Instead of eyes, he has gaps that look like the night sky. That is pretty unsettling. It gives a person the feeling of helplessness versus this crazed aberration.

I don't know why, but the character design actually elicited an emotion. So that is a huge success in my book. Anyway, I liked the story overall, and am saddened to know that DC destroyed it by bringing back every single character that had died, but in it's place we also received a great set of Heroclix in the form of the Crisis expansion. Here are my top 5:

5. Chief - Definitely one of the best support pieces from this set (which means ever). Chief has it where it counts; he is low in cost and high in value. At 63 points you get support, leadership, perplex and mastermind. His leadership and mastermind are where this fig really gets awesome though.

The Chief can use Leadership. If Leadership would allow you to add an action to your action total for the turn, you can instead put a Manipulate token on the Chief's character card if there are two or fewer Manipulate tokens on the card. When another friendly character would take pushing damage, you can remove a Manipulate token from the Chief's character card and roll a d6; on a result of 3-6, the character ignores pushing damage.

On top of that his Mastermind damage can be dealt to a character of higher point value than chief. So pass that damage around, heal adjacent characters and prevent pushing damage from anywhere on the map. Tack on the Outsiders team ability and you will see your friends shutter when this wheelchair bound leader rolls in.

4. Darkseid - BEEFCAKE!!! This guy has all the right stats and at 210 points is sure to be the star of any villain team. I really like it when the villains get good figures and Darkseid is one of my top five villains (behind Thanos of course). Not only does this piece have awesome stats (11 attack 5 damage anyone?), but he is rounded out with enough support to make sure you don't have to second guess putting him on your team.

I heard a rumor of a new "Final Crisis" version of Darkseid eventually showing up, but the Crisis set version is sure to be the definitive Darkseid. His power set and dial are sure to last as long as this piece is available for tournament play. I have never been able to effective use Omega Effects, but their is a ton of versatility to this figure. I particularly love the fact that a single outwit versus Darkseid is fairly ineffective because of his specials.

3. Supergirl - As I am sure you already know this character dies in the Crisis on Infinite Earths story line. She sacrifices herself in a bid to kill the Anti-Monitor. At 178 points she fits easily on a 300 point team and has enough powers to hold her own. She has a range of 8 which is decent, but cannot be used with her Hypersonic special. Don't let this dissuade you from giving this Kryptonian fox a shot though because her movement is high enough to make sure she will be able duck out of sight after delivering damage. She has the superman ally (anti-stealth) team symbol which is icing on this cake, but make sure to play her strategically because she is dead after all. After she breaks a nail she starts to lose some of her girl power. Flurry and Incapacitate make for interesting use later in her dial and you won't find yourself for want with all the powers she has available.

2. Nightwing - Have you ever tried to hit this guy??? I mean his dial is ridiculous! First of all his defense is 17. No problem right? Now tack on the Batman team ability, Energy Shield/Deflection, Combat Reflexes, Leap Climb. This gives you a 19 defense that can hide or run at any time. In addition to the Bat team, Nightwing can also use the Titans and Outsiders abilities. So we have a guy that is tough to hit with an uber outwit and the ability to heal... Wait, it gets better. His damage stays consistent down the dial plus he has Flurry and Incapacitate to back up his attacks. Half the dial has Perplex and the other half Outwit. 6 keywords also help make sure this Dick makes it on any team. If you have this piece, play him more often. You won't regret it.

1. Superman (105) - Or KC Sups as my friends and I have come to know him. I wouldn't have put this piece on my list due if I didn't have him myself. I was lucky enough to pull this piece at a tournament. I didn't win the tourney, but I won anyway... right? This guy is amazing and if you have seen him on eBay, you know that is true.

So, Superman has a great dial. So good it almost doesn't feel fair when you win, but I will leave that for your conscience to decide. Scorched Air is particularly noteworthy because of the wording. That little 'and' changes everything for this piece. The best part of this is that these powers are worded so they work in conjunction for one amazing special ability. Basically you place 2 objects at the start of the match somewhere between Superman and Victim A. Move Superman to the objects and pick both up using his Kryptonian Strength. Fly over to the future corpse and unload with your 5 base damage Flurry attack. This is sure to hit also because Superman just so happens to have a base 12 attack value. So after both of these attacks land the figure in question is sure to be dead; even if both the objects were light objects that give Superman the ability to dish out a total of 12 damage. This piece alone almost breaks the game, but he does need a little back up to keep that pushing damage at bay. If only Chief was 62 points...




Honorable Mention:

Tempest - Who wants cotton candy? Tempest is a great choice for a couple of reasons:

1. He is a mystic, so taking him out means your opponent will have to hurt themselves.
2. He has a special that reads

"Tempest can use Charge. Clear grounded terrain 3 or fewer squares from Tempest that does not contain objects, terrain markers, or debris tokens is water terrain."

Quite a few other pieces have the ability to stealth in water terrain making Tempest a great leader for a Dolphin symbol team. Try running him with Aqualad, Atlantean Warrior, Namor or Starro Aquaman who all get great buffs for being in water. I also like to use the Submerged Feat from the Icons set which gives Tempest a Stealth as well. Most people don't know what to do against a water team, and most clix don't like getting their dial wet.

Kid Flash - Great price, great power, low cost and high defense. Kid Flash is undoubtedly the best common in the set. Give him a shot if you have a few points to burn.


Please keep in mind these were *extremely* tough choices for me. This was one of the best sets that have ever been release for the Heroclix game. Many still complain that this set is way over powered, but when you're saving the infinite earths you kinda need the extra power.