Gundam Age First Look

Kids and Gundams? What can go wrong?

For real? Everything....

Enter Flit Asuno, one day some Unknown Enemy (UE) razed his home colony and killed his mother, at her last breath she gave Flint something: A plan to build war machine called Gundam, after that Flit is quickly taken under the wing of the Human Defense Forces and when he discovered genius they told him to build Gundams deemed capable to eradicate the aliens, after seven years Flit finally got his chance of revenge, by pwning every aliens and lead an army of Gundam to their homeworld thus wiped it off the galactic chart....

Above: Savior of mankind.... in different series

No, it's not the story of the newest Gundam show, but I think it's more interesting than the original which here's the breakdown of it:

Flit escaped the UE, moved on to new colony and grew up normally, yes he's a genius and built Gundam with the help of a funny-bearded professor, ... for.... ummm... pah, who cares, oh hey didn't I told you that the humans didn't manage to keep these UE in check? because apparently they're not smart enough to built Gundams for the last SEVEN YEARS and got pwned over and over again by the UE. Okay, now we looked at Flit again and there's a flashback of him with funny-moustached butler who explained that his family only have one job: to be Gundam riding heroes, and by listening to the latest attack location of the UE he drew a (genius) conclusion that his colony will be next, of course his teacher treat him like a boy who cried wolf, and when the wolf suddenly attacks the adults is nowhere to be seen except just to prevent Flit to activate Gundam by scolding him and said "It's too dangerous"

I built the Gundam and this series' goddamn hero, screw all of you

I've only watched five Gundam series (Wings, Turn A, Seed, Destiny, and OO), never bought their merchandise so I don't deserved the Gundam otaku title, but every Gundam's first episode is always gripped the theme: War, let me give you some explaining

Gundam Wings: "We hate you Earthling, DIE! For the Colonies!!!"
Gundam Seed: "Why are you siding with them? you belong to us!!"
Gundam S Destiny: "I'm Gundam, war machine!"
Gundam OO: "We're above you and our goal is world peace, so now if you started a war we'll kill all of you"
Gundam Turn A:  "I haz nekkid buttz and my employers are sorta killing my new friends"

Then we came to this:

Gundam Age: YOU'RE A F***IN HERO FLIT!!! FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!! FIGHT!!!

Gundam Age was... I don't know, is....wrong, the original theme of Gundam is gone, the attacking UE scene (which KILLED a lot of humans) seemed awkward, the death of the unknown first prototype rider wasn't even on the screen, and clashing of twisted subjective justice from characters is nowhere to be seen, there's only one side: Human, and the other is as the name suggest: Unknown, but even the unknown origin of the UE didn't feel strong enough to give this first episode an appeal and the battle has been reduced to something no more than Human vs Genocidal Alien, there's only one hero and it's Flit Asuno, the maker and rider of the awesomest robot in the universe: Gundam, Hell Yeah!!!

The A stands for Awesome, 

now go watch 'Easy A' to find out what awesome really means

Hell no, this is not Mazinger or Voltes V, this is Gundam FFS!!!! Can't you get enough alien and kiddies with Zegapain and the latest Gundam OO yet???!!! -- I actually said it

But I'm always tried to keep an open mind, there are probably some cool plot twists in the future episodes like all Sunrise series, it'll probably cooler that if Flit somehow revealed never escaped the UE and instead he's planted to walk among humans to accelerate UE's galactic domination plan by destroying humans from the inside.... 

Hopefully....

Night Song

Just gonna put it in here

The song is called Night Song, it's probably the most beautiful tune ever created in this game (IMO of course), the song has a strong Celtic feeling and somehow remind me to some of Yasunori Mitsuda's work (Chrono series and Xenosaga)  very glad to finally found it

In other note the song also said to be the Night Elf counterpart of Lament of the Highborne -- a song triggered by a Horde quest on WOW Burning Crusade

Nice song, nuff said

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

Aaaand, vacation is over

A day before, me and a friend talked about how human succesfully made life becomes more complex by inventing too much distraction, idle talk but since I always based my idea on how you can greet a stranger on a road without getting a suspicious stare and a "whaddaya want" answer.... I must agree with him :))

On a completely unrelated note Star Wars The Old Republic finally get a release date, it's 20 December for US and 22nd for Europe, the news keep me alive all night last night (aside from that new Nescafe Menu), but seriously if you take a closer look release date means US$ 60 for new game (YAY) and the fact that they released it before Christmas that people can use it as a present (rather than gift cards from Best Buy) is a good business move. Now the next step that Lucasarts should make is inventing a real Lightsaber

 Or a flying skateboard

But for me release date means one thing: as a freebie lover I expected... TRIAL version, which I can do stress test with my old gaming gear with overclocked settings, I guess too much distraction made me unable to buy a new gear :D

So, if you'll excuse me I'm gonna continue watching Higurashi, bloody sick anime series (in both ways) I'll review it when my brain stopped racking (hopefully it's still up there after I watched the final season)

Shilen's Lineage: Breath of Life to the Grind?

Drained from work, and with a couple of unsorted materials, I resorted to take a walk at the new pages of the latest Lineage 2 expansion

Lineage 2 was/is a grinder's galore (and in my local server: a botfest), I spent two years of my life on it (not all of course, just the night ones :p), despite it's old unreal 2 engine this 10-years-old game has brought an awesome environment, but after 10 years with no major things going on (in my case: two years, damn man it's LONG) the game lags behind all the waves of newer MMOs

But it seems like NCsoft wasn't prepare to put a lid on Lineage 2 yet, on 2010 they announced new expansions which upgrades and revamps almost all aspects of the gameplay called Goddess of Destruction/GOD (let's milk this cash cow once more, we're sure there's still plenty of it!!!: NCSOFT stockholders), one of them is managing the grind for EXP which dreaded almost all would-be-players (at least they said it would be manageable), the gameplay and cinematics (yep they have in-game cinematics now) looked solid enough in their demo, and of course the expansion itself followed the path almost all MMO had walked upon: caters to the casuals :))

One thing that always bugged me is the course that Lineage 2 will take: Will it be PVP or PVE-based, because Lineage 2 initially PVP based at it's heart, you grind to craft armor and weapons to take on opponents on world PVP, you defeat raid bosses to.. again won a siege, you gather 44 of your friend to downed a reall epic bosses for a very phat and kewl loot (which you can sell for real currency and your clan will conquer the gold market on that server and.... okay that's enough information...).

What I'm trying to tell is, as a PVE player: Lineage 2 patches/updates up until the latest (High 5) is making it's easier to new DPS players to blast through the low/mid content (by selling grades armor at shop which in the past can't be obtained normally except thru crafting), and made the high level grinding more humanly possible (by instancing some zones, made some high grade armor/weapon craftable, and brings some solo/group epic quest that rewards tons of XP and SP, but it's usually so frakkin' hard) but at the end there's not a lot of endgame content for casual PVE-ers such a solid 7 or 10 mans dungeons or old contents where you can grind to gain reputation and/or gear, instead with 7 people you're forced to take on Aenkinel again and again just to get your weapon to +16, God, I hate pluses, why not giving us NEW WEAPON INSTEAD???!!! although I'm pretty sure Aenkinel dropped a new dual sword in the latest patch.

Hey NCSOFT, I'm too easy, BUFF ME!!!

Ah yeah, you don't even listen to players.... I'm just an ordinary regular boss here

Back to GOD, as the features said: they're gonna revamp the world but the question is: are they gonna revamp the old contents? or are they gonna made this a quest-based MMORPG rather than a ferocious grindfest? (they added daily quests on High 5 you know), will there EVEN BE A LORE? (okay, I guess I'm asking too much) and in this whole new era of gaming I don't think grinder have a chance whatsoever (unless they're free to play MMOs, and E.V.E, yes E.V.E is OP), Aion is a pretty example on how's a cool looking game turns into laughable grindstock because of the lack of contents. I think it's time for Lineage 2 to redefine their course

 Don't worry guys, it's only 1789 more of this guy to kill, this game is FUN!!!

source: http://jute.dreamhosters.com

But in the end it's always returned to the community, and since my local community is a hell on earth coupling with the unreliable license holder which in return employs unreliable GMs which doesn't give a s&%@ about their own company which in return doesn't give a damn about the game which then caused the server swarmed with ADHD kids. I'm sure I won't go back to GOD except all of my old clannies back together again, well I don't even count that GOD will be released here although I must say the premise of that is very interesting.

Pictured above: a local GM 

(damn, that suit cost a fortune you know)

source: http://jute.dreamhosters.com

Hyperspeedist (Initial)

The good thing about coffee before sleep is that they will always keep me up when typing, although waking up late is never a good thing :))

Well, it seems like The Secret World delayed their beta test to add some spices to their beta event, it's now integrated with Facebook app, still not active yet though but I was looking forward playing an Illuminati Agent :D

The Secret World (TSW) never stuck in my brain before because it's already on maximum hype with Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR, IMO Funcom's games are good, in fact their Anarchy Online was my first online game but since it's like really complex (for me at least) it quickly wears me off. TSW has classless system, urban legends type lore combined with modern secret conspiracies stuff, so yeah it's kinda grow on me especially after they release(d) the Secret War beta event.

Although hype is also easily wears off, after registering and got a message like: "We'll contact you by email when the event started" after a week and no mail in your inbox I can bet a good chunk of the hype will fall, nevertheless TSW looks good on their early stage, I'm especially interested by the Secret Wars beta event, at least will-be players will enjoy tearing each other apart in this Facebook game until the actual game came out :))

Yes, the tentacles are coming, thank you H.P Lovecraft!!

(Bliz) ZARD

No, this isn't an article about some cool game developer :D

You see, I haven't picked up my guitar for like three or four months, Well I haven't got time to browse some new tunes let alone let some sink in my head, but then some unexplained urges (no, I'm not exaggerating) lead me to browse some more Zard song,

Who? Zard was a Japanese... one man... sorry, I mean one woman band: vocalist, songwriter, and lyricist Izumi Sakai, was? Yes, Sakai passed away some four years ago, Zard golden age was in 90s where their (well at that time there's five more person in there) songs takes away the japanese crowds, Zard also wrote songs for animes (most on Detective Conan/Case Closed and Dragonball GT), they're also famous for being mysterious, only got two LIVE concert yet spawned numerous high-selling records, and yet again: almost zero videoclips (Damn, they made Pearl Jam looks small, sorry Mr. Vedder)

For me Zard was a band that defined J-pop, influenced by the New Wave movement from international music all of Sakai's song has a harmonious feels in it, here's the thing: I never put my finger in why the hell all of her songs always got this old animes feeling in it, let alone always fits with animes. The fast paced songs brings the feelings of power and spirit, the slower ones has smooth and shiny lovey-dovey thing, the beats, the distortion guitar, the synth, even the monotonous bass always had a nostalgic feelings in it, on top of it: Sakai's voice are one-of-a-kind thing that flow together with the instruments, it's more like her voice was the thing that completes the songs, like the songs can't be sung by anyone else but her. I know it's the mixing that do most of the work but when I listened their only real live album the feelings stays the same, Sakai's voice and Zard's music really combined into something I never heard before, and until this moment I DON'T RECALL I never heard something like that been done by other than Zard

Call it nostalgia, call it past New Wave cravings, and yeah maybe a "stuck-in-time-can't-let-got otaku's QQ" might closer to the spot, but I first listened to Zard almost ten years ago and at that time all of their songs already feels coming from another time in a dreamy picture of a town's beach outskirt, Sakai's death probably put an end to Zard's journey and we're doomed never heard anymore of those songs and voices again, but looks like technology saved us a bit since Zard lives once again in form of a double album called Best Request: Beautiful Memories, This is a retouch of all their hits but also contains live versions of some of their songs, played by musician Sakai's had work with (twenty of them) combined with recordings of Sakai's voice

So I picked up my guitar and work over Makenaide's bass tab once again, just like ten years ago, but now I knew that this song will be immortalized in my mind, thank you Miss Izumi Sakai for such a great work of art

Selected Works:
- Makenaide (24 hours-TV official song)
- Too hi no Nostalgia
- Unmei no Roulette Mawashite (OST Detective Conan)
- Don't you see (OST Dragonball GT)
- Iki Mo Dekinai
- My Friend (OST Slam Dunk)

Hyperspeedist (The Galactic Empire)

"A lightsaber is a fictional weapon in the Star Wars universe, a "laser sword." It consists of a polished metal hilt which projects a blade of light about 1.33 metres long. The lightsaber is the signature weapon of the Jedi order and their Sith counterparts, both of whom can use them for close combat, or to deflect blaster bolts..."

(from Wikipedia) 

Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) is the next hype on my brain, but it's actually wasn't the first Star Wars-themed MMORPG, in 2003 Sony released Star Wars Galaxies (SWG) which an initial succesful hits, despite being plagued by 'punishment' methods such as permanent death of characters and huge time investment. SWG was scheduled to close on December 15 2011, the rumored release date of SWTOR, thus the hype thickens

The hype probably caused by the fact that SWTOR is being developed by Bioware, the original maker of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (KOTOR), an RPG which is a huge success in late 2003, at that time Bioware is already succeeded with their other RPGs such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, Bioware's RPG always had huge worlds, great story (which is also huge and engaging), a festival of visual eye-candy and memorable characters. When I first played Baldur's Gate I was baffled and addicted by the huge amount of quest, In Neverwinter Night I was impressed by the abundance of storyline, Bioware developed RPG storyline like old school Krondor into the next level, too bad my experience with Bioware ended with KOTOR 2, after that Bioware just keep on rolling with their award-winning RPGs like Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Of course it's another matter to develop an MMORPG, one of the challenge is probably to make the "role-playing" more... intriguing and enjoyable, for example: Guild Wars 2 proclaimed they will break the "Holy Trinity" of MMORPG by not making a dedicated healer/tank/dps class, SWTOR didn't make comment about role gameplay but their character sheets revealed that they do have specialized class but with hybrids as base, the Operations and group play also shed some light with some asassin class tanking lasers, also trooper with medic skills.  Of course some skeptic said SWTOR will become just another WOW in space and soon will be joined by other WOW clones in the outer rim of MMORPG, some fans of the original Star Wars series also expressed concern that the gamifying of Star Wars Universe will destroy the 'legendary' status of Star Wars franchise.

Well, concern will always be there, the game wasn't coming out yet anyway, I'm a Star Wars fans myself although I got sucked into Star Wars universe not by watching the original trilogy (which is great) but by playing LucasArts "static-First Person Shooter" game: Rebel Assault

I finished it like 5 times a day

At that time the simulator genre are dominating the market and LucasArts have their share with X-Wing and TIE fighter, The cute thing is: it's not their game who got me in, it's their story, you see... old school games comes up with manuals which also contains a spin-off short story beside the story of the game itself, some games also take it to the limits by publishing artbooks and fictional schematic or character sheets... well on those day programming limitations are not the reason not to create a vast and story-driven world, the music from John Williams also made a plus.

 A great composer,

when all my friends credited Metallica, I credited John Williams at my psych test

Nevertheless my journey of Star Wars game geek begin, I pocketed almost every Lucasarts Star-Wars themed games,  collected the Jedi Knight series dreamed of Lightsabers, KOTOR came out, immersed at the story, tried my hand on Star Wars Battlefront and Republic Commando, up until one day I hit the wall and can't play the latest of the craziest Lightsaber FPS: The Force Unleashed (1 and 2) thanks to my incapabilities to buy a new gaming spec... or indecisiveness

Okay, let's end this with a cool trailer from The Old Republic, damn that Trooper looked badass