Holding Out For A Heroclix. Or Not.

Man, I'm not having a lot of luck with games lately. I mean, The Bureau was the video game equivalent of a giant car crash (there's bit's going all over the place, and whilst it looks kinda cool from certain angles you can't help but wonder why a merciful god would allow this level of suffering) and the pacific Rim video game was apparently designed by one of those Nigerian princes you keep hearing about.

£2.69 for a character that's ALREADY IN THE DAMN GAME? Sure......

So it was I figured I'd retreat from the realms of digital abuse back to the tabletop. It's been a bit of wait, but the Pacific Rim Heroclix are finally starting to become available. You'd have thought maybe getting the stuff on shelves whilst the film was still showing might have been a better idea, but I am not the king of marketing, so what do I know about anything? Anyway, having exhausted all other (legal) avenues for getting more Pacific Rim action I figured I'd grab the starter set. I mean, if nothing else it'd provide me with a couple of minis and an evenings entertainment, right?

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear. How could it all have gone so wrong?

Not Exactly X-Rated Action.

You've got to feel sorry for the developers of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Throughout the long and troubled production of the game they never really caught any breaks. No matter how good a game the final product may have actually ended up being, coming out and announcing an FPS Prequel to a beloved franchise to the internet was never going to end well.

This is not marketing. This is SUICIDE.

And then after weathering the inevitable shitstorm all their thunder is suddenly stolen by the surprise announcement of a "proper" XCOM game. Which, unsurprisingly is VERY popular. And then they start scrambling around trying to be more like this new version. Because desperately aping whatever happens to be popular always works SO WELL. But they do it and they finish the game and then just before it's finally released, what happens?

MOTHERFUCKING CHICKEN LEGS HAPPENED.

The great big incredibly awesome expansion for Enemy Unknown is suddenly announced out of nowhere. And just like that nobody gives shit about The Bureau again.

Which, in all honesty is probably for the best.

Wild Knights, Hot Crazy Box

If you'll indulge me I'm going to be doing something a little different today. Generally speaking I try and keep things kinda general, or at least not overly technical. But today I feel like talking about a particular Yu-Gi-Oh card. And this, obviously, is going to get fairly specific. So if you're not all that into playing Yu-Gi-Oh then I guess there's a strong possibility that none of what I'm going to say will mean anything to you.

Just remember:

Now, having said all that, let's talk about Number 85: Crazy Box

Back In Black

If I had to describe Shadowrun Returns as a character class, I guess it would be a Dwarven Street Samurai.

Like this, only with streets.

It's good at what it does. It's slick, beefy and high tech. It get's the job done and gives you what you asked for in a professional manner. But at the end of the day you can't help but think that maybe it's a little on the short side.

Mashed Potatoes

Just a quick minis post as I somehow actually managed to get a couple of bits finished off last week. Honestly, I have no idea how it is I can never find the time to do stuff when you consider the simple fact that I never appear to be actually getting anything DONE.

Ah well, such is "life".

The Edge Of Reason

So, you may have noticed that I've been waxing lyrical on the subject of Pacific Rim lately. Funny story, but I'd just seen the movie and was all in the mood for more awesome Jaeger vs Kaiju type action, whilst simultaneously having 850 or so points on the xbox that needed to be finished up before microsoft switch over to real money transactions and put all the prices up. And guess what had just come out on the arcade?

No clues, just guess.

One might almost call it fate. Perhaps not quite a fate worse than death, but it's not honestly one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Pacific Rim Part 3: Weight And See

Are we still going on about Pacific Rim? STILL?

Fuck yeah we are.

In fact, we may even need a bigger blog.

Honestly, I haven't actually been this taken with a film in... I don't even KNOW how long. I've probably been to the cinema about as many times in the past 2 or 3 years as I've seen Pacific Rim.

And I've only been to see it TWICE as I'm writing this.

Yes, I know. Need to get out more. Whatever.

The thing is, as I believe I may have mentioned, the film is actually rather good. And thus it is that even after going for two whole posts talking about it I still find myself thinking of stuff I haven't mentioned yet. So let's get on with it shall we?

Pacific Rim Part 2: And Now For Something

Last time I talked a little about the parallels between Pacific Rim and Star Wars (at least the original movie). This time I want to get into some of the other various influences and inspirations in the film. Which is going to be a little tricky, because is this one film that is neither short on inspirations or shy about showing them off in the slightest.

So, given that my topic for the day is Pacific Rim and EVERYTHING, where should we start?

Perhaps in the place you'd least expect?

Pacific Rim Part 1: In The Footsteps Of Giants

Hey, you what time it is?

It's time to talk about Pacific Rim. Spoilers may or may not follow, but let's be honest here: If you haven't gone to see it by now you're obviously a terrible human being, so why should we care what you think?