An Awkward Reunion

WipEout HD

This really doesn't do it justice to how smooth it looks.

• Onkyo 7.1 sound system with Dolby 2.0 codec - Check.
• Playstation 3 Slim with Dolby 2.0 Codec support- Check.
• WipEout HD optimized specifically for Dolby 2.0 Codec - Check.

.Holy Cow.

Much like Avatar, whose 3D experience is a game breaker for the movie, there is few things that come along that are truly novel and innovative. The vast majority of the time modern media is a rehash of something that came before it in a progressive iteration toward unprofitably where upon it will stop being made. In this endeavour very rare few diamonds will shine brightly in the sea of excrement. I can count these instances on one hand. But I still consume these modern diversions with gusto because even when it is crap it's still entertaining. Though in digression, I've become quite picky regarding the media that I do partake.

WipEout HD steps out from that mold it was cast in. It's a WipEout game through and through and shouldn't for a second be considered seperate from the sequel factory that it and other games are. The maps are familiar down to the textures. It is an admitted homage and port of other WipEout games no less just with updated graphics and some tweaking to make it play like silk.

But when it really comes alive is with the sound. It's a solid game if you're into the WipEout franchise, but the sound makes it absolutely decadent. It's also, and a great homage to it's techno-trance music roots, so much better when the volume is cranked. Subtle details are lost when the volume is low and the experience feels muted or jilted by comparison to the "volume at 11" version.

It's the only game I can think of that benefits not so much by just having proper audio equipment, but keeping it loud. At a paltry $20 online, it's also a steal. It is far and away the most played game on the PS3 for me.

Consider it a glowing endorsement-doubly so if you have the equipment to fully realize it.

Beam Ship

I'm kinda proud of this one. It's a mini for Full Thrust that I made after reading the rules. The rules are cash I assure you.

These photos were taken right before I tried to make a cast of it... and subsequently melted the forward sections with a hair dryer trying to cure the rubber mold.

I've repaired it, but it's not the same. I intend to make others, however I find myself squandering my time too often to really do it.

Gaeman teim! Twilight Imperium 3rd.

Now Twilight Imperium, another FFG game, I like. It's appreciated like a strong alcohol, of which is bitter and unpleasant at first but becomes enjoyable upon future revisitations. And just like a good alcohol, it's subtle natures take allot to respect and enjoy.

(note: We house ruled the value of the Imperial strategy to be worth 1vp.)

One of it's subtle ques, that is frequently missed in our saber rattling between 2 friends, my brother, and I (University, Naalu, Xxcha, and Yssaril respectively), is that Twilight Imperium is not a war game per se. The objective is to accumulate victory points, of which the vast majority can be had without so much as firing a shot. The background fluff is about rebuilding a previously standing government after all.

This didn't stop someone from not just developing War Suns, but building 2 of them... in the same system... with nearly everything in his allotment of peices to escort. Nearly everything in his command pool was in logistics. His posturing did not go unnoticed to the Xxcha and Naalu players.

For nearly the entire game, the diplomacy strategy kept his juggernaut of "nipple guns" from spilling over into the Xxcha and Naalu domains.

(Pic: Naalu and Xxcha diplomats considering tactical options against the University)

As the Yssaril, I went about things with a little more subtlety. I kept to politics/imperial strategies and attempted to keep to the objectives (only 1 of which required conflict, my options then were against the mongolian juggernaught of the University or the Naalu- and neither were in swinging reach so to speak, so it was moot).
The only brazen military maneuver I did was a flank speed action card to get 2 fully loaded carriers to Mecatol Rex early. I fortified the position from then on out and used it to swing votes and saber rattle.
In retrospect however, the position was completely unsupportable in the face of hostilities.

The center of the board quickly turned into a quagmire as PDS limits were reached and everyone developed interstellar cannons. Cannons pinged each other from across the interstellar void for little effect among the biggest arms build up I've ever seen.
Mecatol Rex proved to be the only thing the University could not roll over without casualty and I did nothing to provoke him. The others, mere speed bumps by comparison militarily... kept diplomatically locking up any other avenue for attack.

Ironically, they attacked each other in a string of bloody border skirmishes.

Not content with that, I played in all of my objectives catapulting me from 4vp (a dead heat with the Naalu for the lead) to 9vp and an imperial strategy away from winning.

(pic: What it might have looked like.)

The Xxcha, still at 0vp, refused to let the game end being in dead last and pulled the imperial strategy hoping to tie for third.

The drawn objective card ended the game then and there with a win for myself.

The Yssaril won the game without firing a single shot the entire game.

Gaeman teim! Galactica

I love a good board game and Fantasy Flight Games makes some of the best overproduced cardboard pieces of weight lifting equipment examples of a finely nuanced game. It is by little coincidence that this weekend featured two of such bookcase filling monstrosities beautifully rendered and realized games.



The first round was that of Battlestar Galactica in which my brother, wife, and 2 friends played. This was our collective first outing of the game, the only familiarity of the game being dispersed by myself based solely on what I read of the cards/statistics/etc. My brother and one of the guys had no familiarity with the source material either.

I played the role of Col. Saul Tigh, resident bad ass and and accomplished but only social drinker - his drinking habits are completely exaggerated and a by product of Cylon propaganda. The others played Baltar, Starbuck, Adama, and Rosalin respectively.

The game started with Baltar acting... well... like Baltar-ish. It was not 30 minutes into the game and I realized and explained to the others that I had to do the only sensible thing. Lock that shifty eyed son of a bitch into the brig.

...and discard my hand because I was totally not a drunk. This did not happen numerous times over the course of the game.

But alas the starting Cylon fleet got a few lucky hits off on the Galactica and by the time that was sorted out, Rosalin gave Baltar the Vice Presidency. Shenanigans ensued as crisis after crisis failed and every resource the Galactica had went into the red. I was even in the brig at one point with that gutter rat Baltar. Later he had the nerve to look at my loyalty card and declare that I was a Cylon (A ridiculous lie if I ever heard one). But things turned around when martial law stripped Rosalin of her powers (the crisis card)... and then, in the most awesome move of the game, Adama appointed me the advocate.

"I AM THE LAW. I WILL BRING ORDER TO THIS SHIP. We will have no more of this civilian bull shit." - bad ass Col. Saul Tigh; arresting Baltar for the 4th(?) time.

At this point I could reduce at whim the difficulty of arresting someone to 1.

Baltar would have been out the airlock had my Judge Dredd inspiration allowed me. Instead he languished in prison while investigative committees kept the cards honest and from being overkill for the various crisises.

(pic: Galactica making progress.)

The resources for the Galactica painted a grim picture by now, but we were surviving by the skin of our teeth and Baltar played nice... until Rosalin orchestrated an executive order card to get him out of the brig.

(note: Upon reflection this is an error. You can't move anywhere until you pass the skill check. At least we were consistent.)

...and he promptly began chucking grenades around the Galactica while revealing his Cylon loyalty card.

(note: He actually pulled both the Cylon loyalty cards, and though only executing one of them revealed them both in error when he could of given one of them to us. He could of made all my accusations look pedantic if he passed on the card.)

His damage caused the Galactica loose a tick of fuel, leaving us at 1. A scouting party was dispatched to help out with the next jump, but they never returned and we lost the Raptor. The fuel tick turned out to be invaluable as both of the next jump destinations would put us at 0.

(pic: What a Cylon may look like.)

Cylons win.

11 Years too long?

I think the last time I painted a Battletech mini was in either '98/'99. That seems like forever ago now, as almost another life time. Things are different these days with time not only being somewhat precious, but precipitously flowing away faster than I can account for it. And that's saying nothing of the people that have entered and left my life in the interim and how I changed for it.

Regardless, I present the Longbow LGB-12C. When I saw the resculpt I more or less fell in love with it and decided to pickup the miniature painting habit again and start a Cappellan military. It's something different for me (Capellan) and I tried to keep the communist Chinese overtones with the styling. This miniature was considerably more challenging to paint than it first appears.

But it looks nice against the terrain in the background. Which after construction, I'm thinking is considerably over engineered.

Where's an Egg

Where's an Egg

It's worth posting cause it makes me laugh every time. You play a Russian KGB member charged with finding someone who has stole an egg from the people's store. Dish out Soviet justice on the thieving cur.

The game design here in is absolutely sublime.

Nostalgia: X-COM

Sometimes there are great things. Then there are awesome things. Worse still are the things that can only be revisited in memory. Though its better to recall these things rather than never knowing them, these artifacts of personality are something that I tend to dwell on during idle moments. I would imagine anyone does.

X-COM is the subject of some of those such memories. It occupied a great deal of my youth for a time before my attention wandered elsewhere.

This game holds a place with my memory as accompanying me during the first time I stayed up late... real late... around 1am in the morning or so. I was babysitting my siblings then while my parents were out. I was barely 13. I was home. Alone. Late in the bleak midnight hours fighting aliens in the dark.

I was scared for many reasons out side the game. The ephemeral quality of being awake during what would seem a forbidden time of night alone would be enchanting with a terrible quality. But being alone to face the terrors lurking in the shadows made it that much worse.
So I ordered my brave little soldiers, many of which I was attached to somewhat -going so far as to name one of my more potent soldiers "Ripley"- to explore the depthless unknown. It was almost certainly ordering them to their death. It often was. And in turn it further changed the darkness around me into a perceptively real threat.
The unknown presented a real danger to Ripley and them, and thus for me, for death laid just outside of their line of sight.

I didn't want them to die. But they did. The weak willed, those bastards, even ran from their duties. But the bravery of the few of my little heroes that stood against the turning of the inevitable night always stuck with me. In this dark hour, Ripley and her squad did not waver.

And so I didn't.

Battleship Final Fantasy

"What both fans and the developers of Final Fantasy have misunderstood is that no one enjoys this plot for itself. In its own right, the plot of FFIV is idiotic. It just seems good because we mistake the fun of playing a varied game for delight in a winding narrative. FFIV has such risible convolutions because these betrayals and deaths and family ties justify the constant rotation of the party roster. They vary gameplay. It's one thing to face down challenges with a Dark Knight and a Dragoon; it's something quite different with a Paladin, two kid magicians and an old wizard. The plot serves merely to explain why the player has one set of options rather than another."

The Escapist

I couldn't have said it better. It's an endemic problem of all jRPGs for the last decade or so.