A Stranded Geek

GAMES - Hero Online Closed Beta Testing Today

2006-06-13T09:05:00.000+08:00

Image from Netgame

Seems like today is the closed beta testing of Hero Online - makers [or is it distributors] of Legend of Ares. The website isn't that interesting yet and its downloads section practically needs a revamp. Probably the site being at "teaser" mode is the reason for the somewhat lackluster promotional website. The oriental comic art style is refreshing though I think I'll be spending a lot of greenbacks [the cash not the snake] getting a copy of Aion instead. I'll probably download the client later after I try some rounds on the extremely breathtaking Half-life Episode 1.

Tags : Games : Hero Online : MMORPG : Korean Game

TOYS - Dunny Series 3 by Kidrobot

2006-06-13T08:43:00.000+08:00

Image from Kidrobot

I stopped reading for a while to remove the last traces of Deathstalker out of my system [or out of my dreams, book marathons are really bad for my mental health]. Right now, I'm checking the new Kidrobot Series 3 Dunnies. The series will still follow Dunny traditions: blind-boxes for the fanatics, limited runs on some designs and a special redeemable ticket to a special dunny that will probably make us envious on the 200 guys who'll be lucky enough to find [or buy] all the pieces to complete them all.

The price is still the same [even on the Kidrobot's wholesale website] which is affordable depending on which side of the planet you're currently residing. The problem for me though would be the shipping to the Philippines - they can charge me as high as 100USD for just 6 Munny figures, what more for a box of Dunnies. I'll probably buy these at ebay again if I can find a seller willing to try other payment systems besides paypal.

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Designer Toy : Dunny : Kidrobot : Toy

MOVIES - Transformers the Movie Teaser Poster

2006-06-10T14:30:00.000+08:00

Image originally taken from Aint It Cool News

Seems like Transformers the Movie has an official teaser poster and a website already. Judging from the countdown, there should be a teaser trailer coming out next 25 days from now. For those interested on the whole Transformers toys and collectibles, check TFU.info, a site so dedicated with the whole thing that they have photographed almost all the models [Transformers]. For the look on some of the Transformers cars going to be shown on the movie, check this thread from the Neogaf Forum.

Interesting piece from wikipedia:

Producer Don Murphy has stated that he wishes the original voice cast of the animated series to reprise their roles, especially Frank Welker and Peter Cullen as Megatron and Optimus Prime. The logic to this is that a famous name makes no difference to the one half demographic which is children, while retaining the original voice cast would please the fans. New voice talent is all but guaranteed, since several original voice actors such as Scatman Crothers (Jazz's voice actor) and Chris Latta (Starscream's voice actor) are deceased. Jon Voight has recently been confirmed as playing Secretary of State "Keller" alongside the already-cast Shia LaBeouf as "Spike" and Megan Fox as "Mikaela", the love interest.

Murphy came up with the idea for the film and negotiated the rights with Hasbro. He then brought on DeSanto who had worked on X-Men. The two were turned down by every studio, since the heads of those studios were too old to remember the property. Eventually Mike DeLuca at DreamWorks "got the property" and bought it.

Tags : Movies : Transformers : Live Action

GAMES - Rakion by Softnyx

2006-06-10T12:50:00.000+08:00

Images from Rakion Official Website

It seems like I was already a bit late when I discovered Rakion, an MMO game that is more action oriented than RPG. The game is distributed by Softnyx which also distributed the classic style, "Worms-like" international game Gunbound. The good thing with Gunbound is that the game is addictingly good [if you're into strategy games] and it doesn't have a monthly fee. The prepaid card for the game is only used for buying virtual items ingame to upgrade your character to become more formidable. Same goes with Rakion - no fee's, no limits, just play to your hearts content.

The Rakion storyline is somewhat uncommon: about the humans negotiating with White Dragons regarding the balance of things. The White Dragon's left with a promise that they will return after 500 years. However, the promise runs both ways, and the humans must fulfill their own side or face disaster. Two centuries have passed and the tales and promises to the white dragons faded from everyone's mind. The comet Alcon started to shift its course towards the continent resulting to a sudden monster population boom. The honorable Mage Romaan tried to persuade the 4 different nations to band together to fight the monsters to no avail. Nonetheless, the monsters had banded together and destroyed the most powerful nation of that time. The mage together with the other 3 nations allied to stop the monsters and stop the comet. The mage and his companions were able to destroy the comet at the cost of their lives. The pieces fell and it absorbed all those who were present during the battle. Due to this, the shards were kept hidden for fear of its ability to call monsters or to repeat what happened during the battlefield. After 1000 years, the comet shards have been found and they have become the new means in battle.

The game has 5 different types of playable characters: a warrior, an archer, a blacksmith, a mage and a ninja. I believe all the characters have both melee and range weapons, on in the case of the mage - magical skills to do damage. The characters look well made though there are no modifications for the character's faces or looks as of today.

The game system here follows the style made established by Guildwars in that solo characters or party create their own instance maps. The maps are somewhat huge and great - with vibrant colors and highly detailed. Though it isn't the same level of the Guildwar's Cantha or Tyria. The armor and weaponry is changeable provided that you can grind your way to earn gold. For those with more money but no time, they can purchase these items with real money - after they finish setting up their payments system. This is one of the games that have better CG character design than the actual artist work.

The game requirements are not as high as compared to Guildwars or World of Warcraft though they would prefer if you have at least 512 mb ram. Its obviously trying to target home users. The game installer is only like 350+ Mb and it doesn't have any major "2GB worth of patching" like those on Granado Espada. The problem though is when you're trying to party with other players. The game continually checks the connections of the all those in the party with each other and will automatically disconnect the user if his connection doesn't is very slow as to another user. I have a 768kbps adsl account and I still get kicked out from the game due to "my connection to another user is slow." Players will have a hard time partying specially when they're trying to get competent players who will automatically get removed from the party due to the connection problem.

One of my issues here is the game design. The camera view is very limited - you can't view your chars from the top so getting a better angle during mob attacks will be hard. Another problem is the use of the mouse for creating attack combos. If you remember playing the first Diablo [before you discovered the shift and ctrl keys like me], then you'll probably have the same probs here. The mouse is heavily used here to do attacks and combo, which would probably result to a dead mouse after a couple of levels.

Overall, I'll still probably prefer to play World of Warcraft with all the lags than this one. I guess I'll never get used to games that's similar to Dungeon Siege 1. The game is fastpaced but leveling up is almost as slow as RF Online or the top two worst grinding games ever made: Rose Online and Mabinogi. It is still a good game so I recommend this for those seeking an action-oriented gaming with a console feel to it.

Tags : Games : Rakion : MMORPG : Korean Game

TOYS - Customized MAD*L's in Wood

2006-06-09T22:54:00.000+08:00

my own ebony wood version of the MAD*L

My first vinyl toy was the series 2 MAD*Ls created by MAD. I was able to complete set 2 so I'm planning to get series 1 when the time comes. I was also planning to get the artist edition but the prices where too much even for me. Since I was on the whole vinyl craze thing but can't afford them at the moment, I commissioned a local artist to make me some wood versions using some local and expensive hardwood like molave, ebony and ipil. I also had some made using cheap wood so I can modify them instead of using and destroying an original MAD*L. Good thing is that the MAD crew is ok with me making these one as long as I don't sell it. Hopefully, I could start painting my own MAD*L again after I finish some work and I get some cheap paints from a hardware store [no hobby shops in 400 kilometers.....]

I'll post more stuff after I get a better bandwidth tomorrow.

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Designer Toy : MAD*L : Mad Toy Design : Toy

BOOKS - Deathstalker Rebellion by Simon T. Green

2006-06-09T22:07:00.000+08:00

I was able to finish Deathstalker Rebellion of the original 5 part Deathstalker series a week ago. The bad thing though is that I almost completely forgot the story of that book already. The sequel is a bit campy and retained almost a lot of the problems found on part 1. I guess space opera is the appropriate term for this volume with all the characters, extras and aliens running around this volume.

The story begins with Owen and Helen assaulting the Income Tax and Tithe Headquarters on Golgotha which covers the whole Empire. With the help of Alexander Storm, a long time ally of Jack and the 3 remaining Stevie esper clones, they were able to succeed but not without cost. The resulting disarray however divided the attention of the planet's defenses resulting to a small invasion of an insectlike alien species that destroyed one of Gogotha's starports and other important facilities. Due to that fiasco, the underground representing the esper, cyberrats and clone rebels of Golgotha aren't ready to commit themselves to a rebellion that would leave Golgotha defenseless against an unknown alien threat.

While Lionstone XIV plots and sends Captain Silence and Investigator Frost to do alien control duty, the Hadenmen formerly the enemies of Humanity after the rogue AI of Shub, joins Owen's forces in their rebellion against the throne. The story is dedicated mostly to Jack and Ruby's infiltration of the inhospitable planet Technos III, where the Wolfe Family is incharged of the mass production of the new stardrives for Lionstone's XIV imperial navy. However, there are other forces beside the rebels who are moving to prevent the Wolfe's from gaining favor through the new stardrives. These new conspiracies lead to an interesting climax that should leave you wishing for more.

The book is longer and slower paced than the first one. Nonetheless, there's a lot of redundancies in the story such as the constant use of "on general principles" and "have that in writing" again and again. Another problem is the characters themselves, who also keep repeating to their teammates their reasons and problems regarding themselves and the war. The characters kept saying the same phrases as if they're trying to reassure themselves on who they really were. Another problem is the inconsistencies too, like the current civilization having technologies that are insufficient in power or just plain worthless as compared to technology created by the same empire 900 years ago [such as the forceshields, the blaster, the protein cubes]. The major problem here is the same as the first book, Owen doesn't appear much for a book named after him.

Though the book is very problematic in terms of its use of characters, plots and even the campy scifi elements, the book is still an entertaining scifi book to read. There are humorous moments in the book but they don't deliver as much punch as the first one. Though the characters are interesting in that they are "the worst kinds of rebels turning into heroes" thing, the constant repetitions pretty much makes them a static and somewhat dull characters. Overall, not as much an enjoyable read as the first one but still an interesting read. I guess this is a common problem on books belonging to a series. There's likely a book that would have a plot that would seem to be unworthy to the original. Anyway, I'm off to another scifi book.

Tags : Scifi Book : Scifi : Deathstalker : Simon Green

BOOKS - Snow Crash Japan Edition by Neal Stephenson

2006-06-07T03:16:00.000+08:00

Images from Amazon.jp

A site commented that Snow Crash, like the other Neal Stephenson book, was meant to be in comic book format. I agree with the guy who said that because the book is so paced so fast, its like reading from one panel to another. The good thing with reading the book instead of a comic book is that emotions and personalities can be presented well, making characters as dynamic as possible.

While checking out some sites, I discovered this Japanese website with some images on Snow Crash in that looks like its in manga format. Amazon.jp is selling them as well as other adaptations such as the Cryptonomicon also from Neal Stephenson. Well, the Japanese are great fans of scifi and fantasy so they've probably adapted a lot of the western counterpart for local consumption. Anyway, the artist made a cute interpretation on the looks of Hiroake "Hiro" Protagonist and Y.T. [Yours Truly]. If these really are manga, hope they gain enough popularity to warrant a western traslation for us scifi fans.

Update: according to another link, these are just book covers and not actual manga. Oh well.

Tags : Scifi Book : Scifi : Snow Crash : Manga : Neal Stephenson : Otaku Stuff

ANIME - Powerpuff Girls Z..... WHA?

2006-06-07T00:56:00.000+08:00

Image from Toei's Official PPGZ site

Watching anime made by TOEI Animation is like watching all the things that caters to the taste of every adolescent boy in any country. Who can't forget the whole Dragonball series, a series that was made during the 90's but still has a mass following in any generation. Another series gaining popularity around the world would be the long running One Piece - my favorite series above Naruto. However, the recent anime lineup of Toei seems to be getting..... questionable. I don't mind the classic sentai epic Gaiking or the Pokemon series killer Digimon but the rest are really bad. Maybe I don't like the lineup because the target market is obviously for the pubescent generation but after watching Airgear, I pity the young minds destroyed by this obvious waste of an anime series.

Their upcoming Summer [July] 2006 series is another matter. Powerpuff girls was an entertaining series with its sweet colors and cute characters. The toned down violence is compensated with well made characters and witty plots that entertained the new generation of animation viewers - beating almost all of Nickelodeon's crappy titles [except Invader Zim which is technically an adult title since it was made by Jhonen Vasquez who did Johnny the Homicidal Maniac - also a good comic book]. It was also popular here in Asia to warrant some great fan made comics. However, the best evidence would be Cartoon Network liscensing the series to Toei to create the Powerpuff Girls Z.

Personally, the Japanese adaptation doesn't look cute as compared to the original and the female protagonists look like something a lolita fan would appreciate. Also, if the script was made by the Japanese for local consumption, obviously the humor would be Japan-centric. It will probably not have the same manic liveliness that the original had [and almost every American made series had]. This is all just speculation from previous experiences with kid's anime: which is mostly an hyped up, overemotional comedy with themes and plots bordering the hysterical.

I hope the anime industry would try again to create something that is perfect in all sense [in terms of plot, char development, themes, moral issues, redeeming values etc] like those made by Nippon Animation's adaptations of classic stories such as the tragic A Dog of Flanders. Most of the kid's anime are just anime disguised as a marketing and brainwashing material. They may be profitable in the shortrun, but they'll just end up like any other trend in Japan, dead after a couple of months and no one remembering the series after its lifespan has ended.

Tags : Anime : Power Puff Girls : Toei : Otaku Stuff

BOOKS - Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

2006-06-06T12:18:00.000+08:00

After reading the Harry Potter books lying around the house, I decided to look for a more mature fare with almost the same elements that made Harry Potter successful: the existence of magic in a modern world. Luckily, I found the Dresden Chronicles by Jim Butcher. Though the author got famous for writing speculative fiction, he returned to traditional fantasy when he started the Codex Alera series.

The first book, Furies of Calderon is about a young boy Tavi who is different from all of his people: he is unable to bond with any of the elemental furies representing the elements water, fire, earth, air, metal, and wood. His inability to have a fury had made him a freak in his society of Alera. While looking for his herd of animals, he discovered the return of the barbarians to their land. Together with the young female cursor Amara and her fury Odiana, they will set a chain of events that would change the world of Alera and counter the invading forces instigated by traitors of the society.

The world of Alera has strong Roman Empire influence as you can see on the names and types of military terms and tactics on the book. Another example would be the system of citizenship within the society of Alera. The setting is very refreshing since most of fantasy books out there follows the standard set by J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy which is a mixture of European medieval settings from the Anglo-saxon to the Norse myths.

The elemental furies of story isn't really that unique. If you're in the western side of the world, the best example of a similar kind of beings are those found at Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy where in a human soulis manifested throughout a person's life as an animal shaped daemon able to talk to anyone. This daemons can change their forms when their human is still adolescent and later on the daemons will stabilize to one form representing their human's nature and personality. The furies in Jim Butcher's work is similar in that the furies are visible to the other people around them and can and have unique shapes or in a sense, a personality similar to the person they are bound to. Probably another similar book would be the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. On this book however, the humans summon beings from another dimension to do their bidding. However, these summoned beings in general do not appreciate the interference of the humans so they tend to kill their masters whenever there's a chance these being could. On the eastern side of the planet, the best example I guess would be the summoning system found on the Final Fantasy games specially on part IV and part X which has a storyline partly dedicated on the summons themselves. These summons are mostly representations of famous myths and legends around the world as well some unique ones created for the game.

Another good thing about the series is that the author makes at least 1 Dresden Chronicles book and 1 Codex Alera book every year so well be expecting the third volume of the Codex Alera series this December. I can't wait to get a copy of that, hopefully Manila will start stocking up some of Jim Butcher's books.

Tags : Fantasy Book : Fantasy : Furies of Calderon : Jim Butcher : Codex Alera

TOYS - Soccabots for World Cup 2006

2006-06-05T13:41:00.000+08:00

Image from Hammeractive

I Finally found another wallet trap for myself - the Soccabots 2006 by Hammeractive. The 16 designs will represent the 16 countries participating in the tournament in Germany. The athletic and sleek body of the Soccabots looks really nice and the art style is pretty much like a well made sports outfit. The 4" figures will be released on a blind box system together with 3 mystery figures.

For those interested on toy development, the Soccabots site contains a page dedicated on the product creation and development of the Soccabots. Toydigger NL and the official Soccabot Forum have some interesting discussions over the new product. Finally, check out Team Mexico's submission below for future Soccabots. Overall, I have to say that this figure has great potential as a marketing gimmick, as a vinyl collection and as a designer vinyl due to its hip and ultramodern design.

Image from Vinyl Abuse

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Designer Toy : Soccabot : Hammeractive : Toy

TOYS - X-Men 3 Action Figures

2006-06-05T13:04:00.000+08:00

Image from Sideshow Collectibles

Though I was never a fan of action figures or X-men, I have to say that this latest 12" X-Men The Last Stand Wolverine figure from Medicom is way realistic. It's posable, has interchangeable hands, has a stand and a full color box case. It's kind of heavy to [1.3kg] but X-men fans would probably not notice this [unless they ordered online, shipping cost would suck then] The outfit looks somewhat appropriate for a Mr. Leather International than an action figure though. Anyway, this item costs 99USD and will ship at the 4th quarter of 2006.

On a related matter, the site Moviehole posted an article on USA Today regarding two possible spin-offs of the X-men franchise: One will be on Emma Frost and the other will be on the kids on Professor Xavier's school. I got a bad feeling about the two spin-offs: one will most likely be a flick about a babe with "special assets" that would probably downplay the whole Emma Frost storyline and the other movie that would more likely become like a Sky High sequel.

Tags : Wolverine : Action Figure : Medicom : Toy

TOYS - We All Speak Football Competitions

2006-06-05T12:24:00.000+08:00

image from Vinyl Abuse Forums

The vinyl community are on a competition spree after Play Imaginative released Trexi x Coca Cola's We All Speak Football series. There are currently three groups that I know that are giving away a boxed set of all the We All Speak Football Trexi. Here are the sites and their requirements to enter:

We All Speak Football [Play Imaginative]

Vote Your Favourite "We All Speak Football" trexi Today
Which is your favourite "We All Speak Football" trexi design? Make your choice now, and if the trexi you voted for ends up with the highest number of votes, you stand to win great prizes! Winners will be announced on this website and notified via email. Promotion ends 9 July 2006

Attractive Prizes Up For Grabs

Grand prize: 3 lucky winners will walk away with a full set of 25 trexi figures, as well as one of each 10-inch trexi figures (3 designs in total).
2nd prize: 3 lucky winners will walk away with 1 full set of 25 trexi figures
3rd prize: 3 lucky winners will walk away with one 10-inch trexi figure each (designed by Touma, Winson Ma / Danny Chan, and Huang Tzu Chiao)

We All Speak Football [Plastic and Plush]

You have a chance to win an entire set of 25 Trexis from the We All Speak Football series. That's right...all of the 3" tall Trexis can be yours.

Here are the rules:

It's a completely random giveaway through the P&P Discussion Board
Post your favorite design in this [We All Speak Football Trexi] series
Contest runs through July 1st

We All Speak Football [Vinyl Abuse]

It's nearly football crazy season and you could be one lucky person and win a whole set of 25 "We All Speak Football" trexi!!!

Playimaginative have supplied us with a full set to give away - so we thought we'd make it super fun and get you to do something creative. I use the term creative in the loosest possible sense - see the example image above, do something as stupidly brilliant (or as brilliantly stupid) as this.

MAKE YOUR TOYS "SPEAK FOOTBALL" present us with the evidence. Post your entries below - a panel of "hardcore dark rock cuckoos" will make up the judging panel this time! Most original entry wins! Closing date: 19th June. Get snappy!

I'm guessing the winner will be shouldering the shipping expenses for these toys. I've already joined two of the contests. The other one requires some work with a digital camera and some vinyl toys and that would take me a while to do that since I have to sort out the vinyls on my toy bins.

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Trexi : Designer Toy : Play Imaginative : Toy

BOOKS - Deathstalker by Simon R. Green

2006-06-04T21:11:00.000+08:00

Booksale in Rustans before had a very competent salesperson who kept organizing the books by genre. I guess that was the reason why that branch was so popular and the book lineup keeps changing every week. During my bargain hunting on that branch, I was able to get a brand new copy of Simon R. Green's Blue Moon Rising for 100php - a really good find since almost every fantasy afficionado at the dormitory borrowed my copy. I decided to try another Simon R. Green since since Blue Moon Rising satisfied my requirements for a good read. Unfortunately, there aren't any other books of his that were sold locally in any bookstore.

After a few years, I was lucky enough to acquire another book: Deathstalker which is a scifi epic consisting of 6 thick volumes and 3 prequels. A reviewer stated that this is a "space opera in the grand tradition, filled with sweeping turns and possibilities extending across an Empire of worlds and centuries, featuring a cast of human aristocrats, clones, espers (mutants with varying ESP capabilities), monstrous aliens, augmented men, genetically-enhanced creatures, legends and heroes from the past, and outlaws." The term "sweeping" is appropriate since the book really tried to place every plot that is under scifi. The question is, was the book able to incorporate them well?

The story revolves around an aristocratic brat and historian Owen Deathstalker who belonged to the famous [or infamous] Deathstalker Clan. The guy only wanted was to be left alone to pursue his history researches. However, he became an outlaw due to the whim of Queen Lionstone XIV of the Empire aka Iron Bitch, forcing the poor guy to run out of his pampered life and join a bunch of merry outlaws. With his new friend Hazel D'Ark and the rest of his group, they embarked on a journey of survival and ultimately the call of truth, justice and destiny.

The book really doesn't focus much on him [try 20% of the book] since the first volume also tried to introduced other characters from the aristocracy and the military that would have shape the course of the new empire. The result is a very large and complex world, with all the characters storylines established for the succeeding volumes.

The book may be a mishmash of every scifi plot out there. Nonetheless, Simon Green was able to make all these hodgepodge of plots come thru. There are some problems though. The books seems to be repeating some phrases constantly like "on general principles" and "making a list" which is ok on the first few 200 pages but can be irritating when you still see those on the rest of the volumes. Another problem was the lack of focus on the main character Owen. With all the multiple plots and characters of the book, they should have renamed the book to something more appropriate. Nevertheless, the author had created a humorous and engrossing series that would be love by any scifi readers out there. A definite success in the scifi genre.

On another note, a recent spring anime by Studio Gonzo [yah, it sounds like a adult movie production company] seemed to have some similarities with Deathstalker. The anime Garasu no Kantai or Garakan [trans. Glass Fleet] have all the requirements: irritating aristocrats, peons, ugly fleets, androids etc resulting to the worst anime series of the season. Some reviewers commented that the series "was so bad, its good." Warning to those planning to eat while watching the series. The anime is very dangerous to one's sanity.

Tags : Scifi Book : Scifi : Deathstalker : Simon Green

GAMES - Legend of Ares

2006-06-04T19:50:00.000+08:00

My brother has this tendency to download all the open-beta MMORPGs online to expand our current gaming lineup. We've tried almost everything local from Ragnarok to Ran Online - games that works really well on older PCs. The last openbeta that we played for hours was RF Online, a weird game that tried to blend mechs, fantasy and scifi in one game. The game made me puke though, not due to the game quality which was so-so, but due to the weird way they made the 3D designs that looks like a .1 upgrade on the old rpg Septerracore.

Since I worked hard to get myself a "more than decent" gaming rig [for a shuttlexpc], I was looking for something that is more visually stunning, more system demanding and highly entertaining. The game that really kept me so interested on the MMORPG scene was Guildwars. My personal character alone had more than 1000hrs of constant gameplay. When the game arrived in Manila, I had to bribed some of my friends so that they could grab me a copy and have it shipped immediately. When the sequel was available for preorder, I went direct and bought one from Amazon and have it shipped to another friend in the US. However, things went wrong and it ended with me paying for 2 copies of Guildwars Factions. Now I currently have 2 copies of both the original and sequel, one serving as my permanent account, the other serving as a backup and a digital pack mule for items gathered during the game.

As of today, there are currently two games on Korean open beta that can counter Guildwar's stunning graphics and impressive gameplay: Sun and Zera. However, the need for a Korean Social Security Number for the beta testing was a huge detterent for the general MMORPG population so most of the gamers have to look for other alternatives. The current available open beta game is another Korean game called Legend of Ares. The game is about the war between the empires The Holy Empire and The Religious Alliance of Arabic and the interference of Greek Pantheon to the Arabian gods. I got lost on the introduction since the site isn't visually friendly and the writer of the introduction seemed to have used the thesaurus function of Microsoft Word to make a bland story sound important, resulting to an irritating read.

The gameplay is typical hack and slash rpg. Nothing unusual about it. The prob though, it is hard to connect on the game since they only have 2 public servers and probably allowed everybody to join resulting to constant disconnection at the starting page. Another would be the camera angle which cannot rotate on all directions. Also, the game looks really old for a 2006 release. The characters looks blocky in the "Dungeon Seige" kind of way, the terrain looks like something out from Doom and the user interface has the ugliest set of icons ever made. The game compensates on the constant floating guides on the corner but it gets irritating after you get a constant barrage of those posts asking you to do this and do that. The map on the corner is badly made, i no matter how you rotate, the guides or arrows to the quests or locations seems to be stuck forever on one location. Even the NPC's are hard to find. With all the decent online games out there, this game will have problems breaking into current gaming markets around Asia.

Tags : Games : Legend of Ares : MMORPG : Korean Game

OTHERS - Weird Stuff on the Net

2006-06-03T22:56:00.000+08:00

Teenage Boy Blows Up the House with Deodorant [Telegraph UK] - A teenage who stayed at home while parents were on a holiday ended up blowing the roof off and causing £35,000 of damage. The guy was just washing some clothes on top of an electric cooker when he accidentally turned on the unit, before going out to meet friends. The heated ring of the unit set fire to the basket of clothes which also heated a nearby shopping bag containing the said deodorant. The deodorant exploded with such force that it not only blew out the windows, it also cracked the wall and lifted the roof off. I guess houses weren't built to be that strong in Europe.

Court Bars Man from Seeing Dog [Reuters] - The title alone sound like a beastiality relationship gone wrong but its really just a simple case of divorce settlements [now that sound's weird too.] A Spanish court has ruled out that dogs don't have the same privileges when it comes to allocated visiting rights on divorce cases.

Japan's New National Pastime? Panty Peeking [Mainichi] With a country with one of the largest porn industries in the world, men are now seeking new thrills - panty peeking. The article states that "many men openly admit that they'd prefer to see a woman in her undergarments than totally bereft of clothes." I guess with all the porn overload, men still want some thrill on their lives by checking out a woman's "last line of defense against the outside world." Either that or they got brainwashed by all the panty-flashing anime series out in their country.

Pregnant woman Due of 6.6.6 [Ananova] A pregnant woman wished to be induced because she's terrified she'll be giving birth to the Devil. The woman, who is due to give birth on June 6, 2006 or 6/6/6 stated to the Sun that she thought she is giving birth to Damien from the Omen.

Resident Evil Super Fan Movie [1Up] Someone's such a diehard fan for Resident Evil, he had to make a fan version of the game. British accents, bad vid quality, and pasty skin all makes up for this humorous adaptation. The original was done by Bently Bro's Productions and you can download a copy through the following link that they had provided. I originally embedded the video here but the movie autoplays even if it is set to stop at start.

Tags : Others : Resident Evil : Video : Video Game

BOOKS - Halo: The Flood by William Dietz

2006-06-03T19:12:00.000+08:00

While looking for a decent scifi book to read, I chance upon a copy of Halo: The Flood. I remember my doormate from college who was lucky enough to have an gaming console on campus dorm and he had a copy of Halo for the Xbox. Tried it once, and didn't try it again. Never was a fun of FPS games but at least I was able to beat another guy on a trial run. Since my friend also had Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball [the bootlegs ran out so fast in its unofficial release so he decided to grabbed the last legit copy], we were pretty much stuck with him playing babes with bouncing boobs defying the laws of physics.

So I didn't know the story behind Halo but I know it was very popular outside the country so I decided to grab a copy and read it. According to the copy, the Flood is the first book of a trilogy. The story is set in a far future when the Earth had expanded to other planets. During their colonization, they were attacked by the aliens called the Covenant - a hierarchy of prophets, elites and grunts aka fodder. Earth's defense force is losing and to divert the alien's attention away from the home planet, a military crew accidentally flew to a mysterious, ring world called Halo.

Unfortunately for the humans, Halo has a great historical importance to the Covenant. In retaliation to the human's presence, the mighty fleet of the alien military bombarded the Earth's defense ship to rubble. A single cruiser was able to escape the carnage and land at Halo, where the human survivors and their last remaining super-soldier called the Spartan prepare their stand against the alien might. However, Halo has a dark secret that even the combined forces of the alien fleet and the humans might not be enough to counter the terror that Halo can unleash to the universe.

Amazon customer's feedbacks and ratings on this book were highly positive. Personally, reading this book was like watching movies like Doom and Underworld 2 Evolution - its 90% action, 10% ok, zero replay value. Its the book that you'll read to pass the time off but will never repeat reading ever again. The story is pretty much ok, even if the plot is somewhat a letdown. Its really like playing a FPS game: go to point one and blow the monsters there, grab some ammo then run to point two and repeat monster massacre. Even the book Doom had more plot than this one, and Doom had fewer pages [though I have to agree on certain parts, the Doom books are somewhat awful].

At least the book was mildly entertaining. Its not something to put on one's collection unless you're a teenager who likes these kinds of stuff. Since the Flood is just one part of the story, the sequel First Strike might be better since the author is different. Anyway, for some good videogame adaptations, try out S.D. Perry's Resident Evil series. The novelization of the game is decent but it had some inconsistencies with the later episodes of the actual game. Not the author's fault I guess since the game designers can pretty much do whatever they want on the characters they've develop.

Tags : Scifi Book : Scifi : Video Game : Halo : The Flood : William Dietz

TOYS - Tequila, the Luchadero Modified

2006-06-03T14:56:00.000+08:00

I've always like the Tequila design that was heavily promoted by the website Vinyl Pulse which also provided us an informative review of the toy production in general. The original Tequila had a hefty price [60-75USD] but I believe it was well received by the designer vinyl community to gain a followup. Personally, the modified Tequila version El Brujo Narco Satanico Tequila looks way more impressive than its predecessor as well a luxurious price tag [designer toys are like designer clothes, quality and designer names affect sales]. This Muttpop and Kozik work will be sold exclusively at Vinylpulse.com on June 6 [aka as 6/6/6] and will be limited to 333 figures. Reminds me of an old news about Mexico having a lot of baptism within this week before June 6 arrives since they have some issues on that day and the anti-christ. Anyway check the future designs of this series, I personally like the Luchador with the formal attire and the red scarf - so ninja gaiden.

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Tequila : Designer Toy : Vinylpulse : Lucha : Toy

TOYS - We All Speak Football Trexi

2006-06-02T20:37:00.000+08:00

Vinyl toys in general, are usually toys made in plastic in any form - may it be the 12" action figures, cars and robots. However, changing trends in toy production as well as the changes in lifestyle and age of the collectors themselves have created a new culture of toy design. The new form is usually called vinyl designer toys or urban vinyls - not to be associated with the vinyl used by deejays on parties. The vinyl scene probably started in Hong Kong and in Japan where toys are either cheap or bizarre. It came to the United States when Kidrobot, previously known only as a online toy store, opened a retail store in New York. The Kidrobot outlet was so successful, the store decided to create their own set of designer toys: the Dunny, the Kidrobot and the Munny. They also established some of the designers to pursue their own line of designer vinyls.

On the east side of the planet, Hong Kong has established their own sets of designers as well as one of the biggest series of designer vinyls, the Qee to this day. Japan has their own industry of gashopons so the urban vinyl scene is a bit small resulting to some extremely cute or extremely bizarre releases. On Singapore, recent seminars and conventions dedicated on urban fashion and design brought the creation of a whole new industry dedicated to urban lifestyle may it urban wear, commercial art, designer skates and toys.

The Trexi is the second urban vinyl toy [the first one was Tikam and its very weird] that Singapore was able to release in the world market. The Trexi design is simple in which a generic figure is provided to a participating designer to create his or her own interpretation that will be mass-produced for the consumption of urban vinyl followers. The figures are somewhat expensive - like any hobby created from First-World industries. Though some designs are questionable, some designs excel in being hip, cool and entertaining.

I was able to acquire all of series 1 and series 2 as well as some of the rarer exclusives. It was very expensive though since I had to get these shipped from England and Singapore. Another irritating thing was the blind box system that would force you to buy at least 2 whole cases [1 case = 25 trexi] to get all the pieces on a series making it uber expensive. For those with paypal accounts, they could acquire the missing ones for their collection at ebay, but being stuck in a.)the Philippines that is currently blocked by paypal for "problematic accounts" and b.) living in a horse town, I'm forced to pay a lot [Western Union charges 14USD as starting deposit fee] to acquire any items outside the country.

I am very tempted to acquire the new series from Trexi x Coca Cola's We all Speak Football series. I have a bad habit of trying to complete sets so I'm itching to acquire these even if its going to cost me 225USD for the figures and 17USD for the shipping to get these from Singapore. The good thing with this set is that all of the figures have their matching standard size plastic packaging designed by the contributors themselves as well as not following through with the blind box system. Its very expensive and very impractical, but collectors have their own preferences when it comes to their hobbies. If you find my taste on these weird, I find older men collecting those Sentai figures [such as Masked Rider aka Kamen Rider and Ultraman] just as weird. Sigh, I'm going to save a lot for these then. Goodbye Datablitz. Goodbye Plaync. Goodbye National Bookstore....... Oh well.

Tags : Urban Vinyl : Trexi : Designer Toy : Play Imaginative : Toy

BOOKS - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

2006-06-01T18:39:00.000+08:00

One of my greatest pleasures is reading fantasy books - may it be magic-wielding types or those under the science-fiction category. I tend to read more of the magic fantasy and even some epic fantasies due to my early exposure to the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books of the 80 and 90's [I guess some of the hardcore fantasy genre readers here are already shuddering on my books sources]. On the other hand, I'm less prone to read science-fiction books due to the topics the usually crop up on these types. Another reason would be the lack of available varieties under this category. Star Wars and Star Trek books may be the norm on the scifi book racks in National Bookstore and in Powerbooks. Nonetheless, those series will never find a place in my book collection.

Among the good science-fictions books that I've read, I found the post apocalyptic book Swan Song by Robert McCammon and the book about an alternate America in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson as great reads. Swan Song though is more like a horror book similar to The Stand by Stephen King [another great read]. Though I have a copy of the critically acclaimed Neuromancer by William Gibson, I have yet to get into the proper mood to read that one.

I have to thank some of the reviewers and Listmania contributors in Amazon for helping me find Snow Crash. I started reading this book about 5 days ago and I got totally hooked. If William Gibson made the cyberpunk genre then Neal Stephenson incorporated fun in the cyberpunk genre. This is one of the rare series I found that tried to incorporate some humor in a somewhat bizarre scifi book. It's very rare to find these types of books since most scifi are mostly too serious, too weird, too swash-buckling or too bad its irritating.

Snow Crash is about a Black Korean guy named Hiro Protagonist [yup that's the name] who had the talent to hack - both the digital and the literal way. He was one of the first few who designed the Metaverse [the alternate America's version of the Internet] and is also very competent in martial arts and wielding Japanese weaponry to the point that he's the Metaverse greatest swordfighter. However, he ended up being a pizza delivery boy to the Mafia-controlled Cosa Nostra and a freelance information gatherer for the Central Intelligence Corporation in order to survive. While jacked into the Metaverse, Hiro witnessed a dangerous virus that fries the brain of the user exposed to it. With his new friend, the underaged female trasher Y.T., they will try to search the source and eventually the cure of this new virus in both the real and the cyberworld.

The book's setting is really interesting and hillarious. The author was able to develop an alternate America that is very unique [everything is franchised, even the government and the police.] People obtain citizenship from private corporations - may the corporation be the mafia, the ethnic groups or just a form of decentralized business organization.

Another interesting thing on this book is how the author incorporated the ancient culture of the Sumerians etc with the digital world. Though some reviewers have found that part problematic [even me] it does tie up the story nicely. On another note, some readers might have issues on the book's discussion regarding religion as a biological/intellectual virus and of religion being for the mindless and uneducated. However, the author made some references on how religious faith can be possible to the intellectual atheists though he wasn't able to delve deep on the subject to retain the humorous mood of the book.

Overall, I recommend this book for all those who prefer a little humor in their cyberpunk / scifi books. The counterpart for this series would be Terry Pratchett's numerous Discworld books which also combined humor and fantasy in an enjoyable mix. I'll probably try to get copies of Neal Stephenson's books since I read that they're as weird as Snow Crash.

Tags : Scifi Book : Scifi : Snow Crash : Book : Neal Stephenson

Howdy!

2006-06-01T18:14:00.000+08:00

Took me some time to set up this blog. I am still a bit of a newb when it comes to blogging. Hopefully I could use my photoshop skillz to change the looks later on.