Zirconium

I was looking forward to seeing The Power Of Three quite a bit. And not simply because it was a new episode of Doctor Who. No, the thing I liked best was that it was the episode about which I knew the least in advance.

All that came before had been fairly well advertised. Daleks in asylums, spaceships full of Dinosaurs, Wild West Cyborgs. Hell, even the next episode was shouting it's major details well in advance, what will all the angels and melodrama promised. But The Power Of Three never really gave anything away about what one might expect from the episode. Aside from the whole Doctor stuck in a domestic situation AGAIN thing anyway. What's good about this is that it means you have both some interesting mystery and less baggage in the way of preconceptions. I wasn't really sure what to expect.

So I REALLY didn't expect The Sontaran Experiment.

"Beep Beep."

Carbonara

Isn't technology wonderful? It's astounding that we live in an age where, even if we miss an episode of Doctor Who because we're far to busy swearing at the annoying boss fight at the end of Front Mission Evolved we can just press a magic button and watch it anyway, rather than punching ourselves repeatedly in the balls as punishment.

Which, to be fair, would probably be more entertaining than this bullshit.

So, how good was a Town Called mercy exactly? Quite good actually. Quite good indeed.

X & Violence Part 11: Press X Not To Care

I finally got around to preordering X-COM the other day, because what's the point in saving the earth if you can't look like Guile whilst doing?

It took a team of 100 scientists and engineers 3 months to construct this hair.

Thing is whilst I was in the shop I managed to pick up a few new games I have poor impulse control. And the first of these that I proceeded to actually play was Splatterhouse. Overall I'd say it was a fun if flawed game. As brawlers go it's not at all bad once it get's going, but there are these various issues which got me thinking. It has several instances of things which, in my humble opinion, break the rules of good game design. And I was thinking that perhaps what I should do is try to write up these nebulous concepts as a properly defined list of commandments.

And one day I will. But right now we're going to talk about Quick-Time events.

Having A Barney

I've thought for quite a while now that the new series of Doctor Who really should do a dinosaur episode at some point. After all, the BBC should already have access to plenty of CGI dinosaur models from their various documentary programs. And it's always seemed a bit odd that a show that go literally anywhere in space and time has basically avoided prehistoric earth for almost it's entire 50 year run.

There's no lizards so it doesn't count.

Imagine then my delight when it was announced that not only was there to be a dinosaur episode, but these dinosaurs would be on a spaceship. I mean, dinosaurs on a spaceship. Could you have a premise that was any MORE Doctor Who?

A Step Backwards (In Time)

The good news is that, after yet another interminable wait, Doctor Who is once more back on T.V.  The even better news is that means we can nitpick the hell out of it, and maybe start some crazy fan rumors that everyone is secretly the Myrka in disguise.

Now, I'd like to say that Asylum Of The Daleks is a blistering return to the series and an all time classic piece of Doctor Who. But since it's full of plot holes you can drive a Dalek battle fleet through and still leave plenty of room to fit a herd of obese Myrka I'm afraid I can't. Needless to say anything I say after this point may be considered a potential spoiler.

This Is How The World Ends

So, I finally managed to finish Magna Carta 2 last night. And after all that effort spent wading through the game the question I find myself faced with is do I trade the game? Or simply set it on fire so that no one else ever has to go through all that shit?

It is not a very good game. In fact it is actually a game that I would be inclined to label as OBJECTIVELY bad. Not this game is, in my personal opinion, not great. But just..... BAD.

It's a metaphor.

Catching Up With The Little People

It appears that I've been somewhat remiss in keeping up with my miniature painting activity of late. Not that I haven't been doing any. I've been pottering around with various bits and pieces in between bouts of video games and suicidal depression. It's just that I haven't really been doing very well at posting any of the results.

So then let's rectify the situation in no particular order.

X & Violence Special Edition: Kicked In The Teeth

Shadowrun Online has met it's target on Kickstarter, but it was a close thing. It was only through a last minute surge of support in the last couple of days that things turned around.

Of course, I take full credit for this myself. Whilst I'd done my humble part to pimp the project out here and on twitter, and even managed to convince a friend to sign up, the real difference was simply one of disaster. See, I realized that the problem was that Shadowrun Online getting made would be a very good thing. And we all know how often good things happen.

Any minute now...

So I simply upped my pledge level to one that was FAR to high. Not the upper eschalons of godhood these sort of things always offer the ultra rich or anything you understand. Just to a point that is clearly way to much to be spending on a game that won't be out until next year. An lo and behold, once I'd done that things really took off.

You're welcome, internet.

But this got me thinking about the whole Kickstarter thing. It has been pretty big news in gaming recently after all. So I figured I may as well weigh in with my 2 cents.

Because after that, 2 cents is probably all I've got now.

Chase Them If You Must. But Never, EVER Deal With One

Let's talk about Shadowrun for a bit. Or, more specifically:

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PEOPLE, KICKSTART THE HELL OUT OF SHADOWRUN ONLINE.

I certainly am. As are many others. Whether or not enough of us do remains to be seen. But I REALLY want this game to happen. And I figure the only thing I can do to help, short of defaulting on my mortgage, is to take the time to wax lyrical about the whole thing.

Because I am so incredibly popular that everyone automatically does what I say.

Thinking about it I should just upload this to my okcupid profile.