Procrastination Galore

So, I never actually got around to posting those FanExpo Costume pics.  I've been too busy playing Halo Reach.  I haven't got much time right now, so consider this "the review light".

Six and Kat (and some gunner no one cares about) travel in style.

Firstly, the Campaign is EPIC.  True, the voice acting can be a bit weak at times, but the story and the visuals make up for that fact.  Also, it's the only Halo game (not counting ODST, because it's an expansion) that isn't "Human Happy".  Let's be quite clear here.  It's Reach.  It's one of the greatest bloodbaths in the Halo universe.  Humanity doesn't win.  Humanity gets absolutely BRUTALIZED by the Covenant.  It's touching, in a way, watching people fight for their planet when you (and many of them) already know they can't win.  Still, LONG LIVE THE COVENANT!

To briefly sum up the rest of the game, Matchmaking is okay, a lot more balanced than Halo 3.  Firefight has been greatly improved from ODST, with the inclusion of a ton of options and even a versus (Spartans vs Elites) mode.  Custom games, however, have gone downhill quite a bit.  Suffice it to say, infection games have been greatly hampered by barely visible teammate icons, bizarre new Energy Sword physics, and several other glaring issues.  The most obvious of these?  No matter how you set it up, Active Camo seems to only make you invisible when you aren't moving.  Predator gametypes are officially dead.

Also, Forge Mode is now confusing as hell.  Sometimes there can be such a thing as too much variety, as is evidenced by Bungie's HUNDREDS of options.  That said, once you get past the initial learning curve, there's a lot you can do with the Forge.

Also on the subject of Forge (Halo 3 Forge, but still), here something to read.  Click to enlarge.

Before anyone asks, it's not my work.  It was done by a guy called Alfred Lam.  Here's a link to the first one, on his site.  There's an archive of them there as well.  Click!

Anyway, I'll be out of town for about a week.  Maybe I'll put up some more FanExpo pictures when I get back, if anyone's still interested.

1/100 "No Grade" Union Overflag: Part 1

This took me a while to write, so it's a day late. Bah, Humbug.

No, I haven't forgotten about my "Lunazaku". I just got bored with it. I'll get it done at some point, but for now I have bigger fish to fry. Like 1/100 scale fish, for example. This particular model was so awesome that even my 1/100 Tieren Ground-Type had to be pushed aside. I speak, of course, of the 1/100 "No Grade" Union Overflag. The Lunazaku may be a cool looking Mobile Suit, but it's not a Flag. End of discussion.

If you can't remember anything about the Zaku, click here.

And so, without further ado....

First of all, I believe some background information would be most helpful. The SVMS-01O Overflag is The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (let's just call them The Union, shall we?) response to Celestial Being's Gundams. They are armed with much more powerful weapons than the mass production SVMS-01 Union Flag, and are also slightly different in shape. Overflags, like their older "cousins", are capable of transforming from Mobile Suit mode into a Mobile Armour/fighter plane.

The Overflag is a flight type Mobile Suit, and it looks the part. In fact, even the box shows it in an airborne pose. This is unusual for the box of a No Grade 1/100, which usually show the Mobile Suit in a static, sometimes even boring, pose.

Even in the Boxart, he's still doing the Graham Aker Special

The variant on the front of the box is Graham Aker's Overflag, which can be identified by the fact that the inner barrel of the Linear Rifle is blue, not the standard silver. Graham also holds his rifle left-handed, for some reason (now that I think of it, most of his Mobile suits are predominantly left-handed). I myself am a "Lefty", but being a traditionalist, I chose the standard colour scheme for my 1/100.

The completed Overflag, as yet unpainted

I have to admit, even without any paint, it looks pretty good. The silver inside the rifle and behind the visor are the only parts that need to be painted before assembly. If you're to lazy to paint, you can always use the foil stickers. These are surprisingly detailed, compared to the stickers on a 1/144, which I try to avoid using at all costs. I actually used some foil stickers when working on this kit, but those may be removed and replaced with paint, if I feel that would improve it.

Wow, that picture came out great. I'll stop gloating now.

Seriously though, I'm very happy with most of these photos. How is that relevant, you ask? Simple. The Overflag is black and a mix of greys. Put those against a white (or light grey) backdrop, and you get every photographer's worst nightmare. It was so difficult to get the exposure just right, that every time I was even slightly off, it would become just a black shape against a searingly hot background. But in the end, determination, skill with a digital camera, and a whole lot of enhancing made my work nearly as impressive as the professionals.

That being said and done, you can actually see it here, and it is once again obvious that the Overflag was meant for aerial combat. It has very little armour, relying instead on agility and superior firepower to win the day. It looks relatively light, and certainly aerodynamic. The defense rod on the left arm can be detached to further decrease the Suit's weight.

But perhaps my favourite thing about the Overflag, and the Flag series in general becomes apparent when examining its face. The flag possesses traits from the "bad guy" machines of two of the more popular Gundam timelines, Universal Century (U.C., popular for Gundam, Gundam Zeta, etc.) and After Colony (A.C., Gundam Wing, although some would argue this is not popular). It not only has the "visor" seen on many A.C. Mobile Suits, but also the classic "Zeon Eye" made famous by the original Gundam series (albeit this one is red instead of pink).

Sieg Zeon?

Well, I think that's enough for today. Coming soon, Sonic Knives and Mobile Armour Mode!

Visit the gallery here for all the pics I didn't have time to cover.

Angels & Demons: The Da Vinci Code Prequel/Sequel

Well, the schoolyear is drawing to a close, which means projects, projects, projects.  Bah.

But I've finally managed to pry myself away from doing projects (or more to the point, avoiding them all together), to post a little review, of sorts.  On Tuesday night I went to see Angels & Demons, a movie I've been anticipating ever since I read the novel in 2007.  

It's Tom Hanks.  What could go wrong?

A couple of months ago I saw the teaser, and I was extremely excited.  So you can probably understand why I was horrified to discover that they had completely eviscerated the book.  While The Da Vinci Code stuck to Dan Brown's work in every way possible, Angels & Demons is like half of what it once was.  Scenes, characters, and several plot points seem to have been haphazardly, even clumsily, dropped from the story, taking a lot of what happens completely out of context.  

However, if you ignore these glaring omissions, it's not a bad adaptation.  The only parts cut are those that are not completely essential  to the story, everything else is treated with the respect it deserves.  The music is AWESOME, a pulse pounding variation on The Da Vinci Code's Theme.  Ewan MacGregor's performance as the Camarlengo is extremely well done, bringing out the very essence of the character (reading the book I actually always imagined him looking somewhat how he does in the movie).  

Would I recommend seeing it?  That depends.  If you're a fan of the book you probably won't like it, but if you've never read the book, you won't know the difference.  I'm not sure, to tell the truth.  I saw it, but in the end it's up to you.

Anime Review: Gundam 00 Season 1

What could be more appropriate for the first review of this blog than one of the best Gundam series of all time?

I'm talking, of course, about Gundam 00.

For the sake of readers who haven't seen the series, I'll try not to give too much away, but it's hard to write a review without a few spoilers. For the time being, I'm not going to cover season 2, but a review will be coming, so you'd better watch it soon!

Gundam 00 is the first Gundam series set in the Anno Domini timeline. 2307 AD, to be precise. The Earth's fossil fuels have become severely depleted, leading to the creation of three massive orbital elevators, which are used for solar energy collection. These are controlled by several large groups of nations. The Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (The Union), consists of America, Canada, Mexico, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The Advanced European Union (AEU), comprised of Europe, Greenland, Iceland, and Africa. And finally, the Human Reform League (HRL), consisting of Russia, China, India, and much of the rest of Asia. These three groups compete against each other and the Middle East's oil reserves in the hopes of controlling the global energy market. This often leads to conflict, and innocent lives lost. Now the private paramilitary organization "Celestial Being" has begun armed interventions with the use of the mobile weapons called "Gundams", in the hopes of ending conflict forever.

The story on this series is brilliantly written, keeping you in the dark not only about the plot, but about the main characters histories as well. Just as you begin to guess where the plot is going, it takes a massive twist, usually for the worse.

Everything about the series is designed to give it a very "modern warfare" feel. The themes of religious conflict, terrorism, discrimination, and government corruption run rife throughout the first season. Even the main character, Setsuna F. Seiei, is a former child soldier. Forced to commit unforgivable atrocities, Setsuna is outwardly cold and unshakeable, but on the inside he's a pretty torn up and guilt ridden character.

"I am a Gundam!"

Unlike the previous series, which featured garish and impractical Gundam units, the Gundams in 00 have a distinct air of realism about them. They are angular and unrefined, and compared to the original RX-78-2 Gundam, barely human. This actually makes them more appealing in my opinion, because it helps add to the "real world" theme.

Exia, Setsuna's Gundam

The other Gundams: Dynames, Kyrios, and Virtue

The other Mobile Suits in 00 fit this more modern theme as well. Unlike most of the vast majority of Gundam series, everything actually looks how it should for the job it's required to do. The Union and AEU units resemble conventional fightercraft, even in their alternate humanoid form. This is most obvious in the Union's Flag model, with a lightweight frame and a myriad of wings and jets built into its' back. The AEU Hellion is another such example. These Mobile Suits are built for flight, and aerial dogfights are preferred to the brutality ground combat. On the other hand, the HRL's Mobile suits are, for lack of a better term, walking tanks. The mainstay of the HRL forces is the MSJ-06II-A Tieren ground-type. These units focus more on armour and firepower than maneuverability. For me, the Tieren is the Mobile Suit that best represents the "modern" style.

Overflags and Tieren GTs: Two sides of the same coin.

But perhaps my favorite part of 00 is the Gundam Throne units. I'm sure that at least some of you have played the ever popular Armored Core™ series. Every aspect of the Thrones resemble AC's, most likely this was done as a tribute to the series. Take their physical appearance, for example. The Thrones have elongated torsos and a simple body frame, complete with double jointed legs and boxy, irregular armour. Even their weapons are an almost perfect match, from the shoulder-mounted High-Mega Cannon, right down to the grip of the Throne Eins' beam rifle.

The Thrones: Bringing Sexy and Armored Core back.

So, what's the verdict? Well, out of ten (ten being the highest)...

Story: 9/10

Characters: 8/10

Mobile Suits: 10/10!

Other Units (Tanks, Mobile Armours, etc.): 7/10

Voiceover (JAP): 9/10

Voiceover (ENG): 6/10

Visual Effects: 9/10

Sound Effects: 8/10

Soundtrack: 10/10!

Theme Songs: 7/10

Overall: 9.5/10

Definitely one of the best Gundam series so far.  And guess what, season 2's even better!

As a side note, the new Last Exile Complete Series boxed set came out yesterday, but I had trouble finding it at the major stores. It turns out that the only place around here that had it was a smaller dealer with one, and only ONE, copy in stock. So I rushed over there and bought it. Now I'm broke, I need a job. XD

Shiiiiinnnyyyyy....

The artwork on this series is amazing.

Looks like a user's manual. :)

Last Exile is quite possibly my favourite series. It's fun, but still serious, and the characters and environments are amazingly put together. I've always been a fan of the Steampunk genre, and Last Exile is one of the best Animes of its kind. If you've never seen this series, I suggest you get your hands on a copy. Even if you have seen it, you'll definitely want to watch it again.

Well, that's it for now, but I'll be back soon with more!