Kategoriarkiv: International

21 years of Soul: Soul Calibur

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After getting in fairly late with Soul Blade, it only took a year to start hearing rumblings of a sequel. In the middle of 1998, the first previews of the arcade version of Soul Calibur turned up. Soon the game was released and it had a very exciting component with ”Time Release Characters”. Week after week, new characters popped up, and the initial cast basically doubled. It was amazing to follow, but also frustrating, as arcades were extremely rare in my area. So I couldn’t do anything except download every shred of info I could find and wait for the Playstation port. Which, obviously, never turned up. Namco betrayed Sony to release Soul Calibur on Dreamcast, and after a lot of frustrated anger, I resigned to buying myself one. I was planning to actually import a Japanese console, but as it turned out, it would only take a few months to get a European release so I waited impatiently. The local game shop had a bunch of import games and they did bring in the Japanese version early. I still remember standing in the middle of the shop, trying out Siegfried and Mi-Na and fighting up to Inferno. ... Läs hela texten

21 years of Soul: Soul Blade

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soulblade

In the week leading up to Soul Calibur VI, let’s look back at the series and the trials and tribulations I went through to play my favourite fighting game series.

Contrary to what the King of Fighters ’98 intro claims, it all began in ’97. I had been thriving on a diet of creative PC games for a few years, but I wanted a new console. There had been early reports on Street Fighter III and I absolutely needed it, but no home version was forthcoming. I was actually saving up for a Matsushita M2 for a while when it seemed that it might get the game. Anyway, I stumbled across an issue of CVG with a huge feature on the game. The next issue had a review and I knew that I had to have this game. I made a deal to get my summer job paid early and bought myself a Playstation and a brand new copy of Soul Blade. ... Läs hela texten

Complete review of the Lego Harry Potter Collectible Minifigures

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lego_potter_cmf_all

I’m not New Elementary, because they’re awesome, but I share their enjoyment of new Lego parts. And the latest Collectible Minifigure series certainly brings a lot of that. I purchased a full box which was delivered way ahead of schedule, so let’s take the opportunity to check out all the figures. Let me stress that I’m a very casual Harry Potter fan who only saw the movies once, so I’m not completely caught up on every nuance and I might be missing some references.

... Läs hela texten

Unikitty: the new figures and their parts

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lego_unikitty01

Lego has quietly released a brand new theme this month, based on everyone’s favourite The Lego Movie character: Unikitty! There is actually a new cartoon and everything, as well as a bunch of sets. From early images, these seem to include a bunch of new parts, but they didn’t look that interesting to me. I can’t resist a Unikitty or two, though, so I ordered a couple of blindbags from the new collectible line.

Even though I got one duplicate, I was quite lucky with my bags. I got one of the more normal ones (which in Unikitty’s case means she’s just covered in stars) as well as a new Angry Kitty, a new Queasy Kitty and one of Puppycorn. Aside from Queasy Kitty they all have similar builds and there are no instructions. The bags themselves are not the same as either CMF bags, regular polybags or Mixel bags, but inside is a standard parts bag. Even besides the fact that most of these are repaints, the double bags means you can’t really feel for parts either way. Each figure ends up with a bunch of spares since most parts here are small, which is a plus. ... Läs hela texten

Eight Lego Classic Space Exosuits

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Exosuit Original 01

The Lego Ideas Exosuit was just the beginning. Here are my seven additional specialized Exosuits based on the different Classic Space designs.

CS001-A All-Purpose Exosuit (original Lego Ideas design)

CS001-B Frontier Exploration Exosuit

CS001-C Mining Operations Exosuit

CS002-FT Communications Exosuit

CS003-BT Counter Espionage Exosuit

CS004-SP Law Enforcement Exosuit

CS005-MT Logistics Exosuit

CS006-IP Arctic Explorer Exosuit

Sarah Alainn #5: Cinema Music

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After four albums with a mix of songs from classic ballads, game music, musicals and movie songs Sarah Alainn releases a new album consisting almost entirely of cinema music, as the name subtly implies. This time around there are fourteen tracks, although three of them are re-releases from previous albums and one is a translation. Aside from a slight change of levels, I can’t find any difference on the three reused songs, although ”Kimi o Nosete” is still a great track and ”Shadows of Time”, while not being a movie song, is a great showcase of Sarah’s composing talents. ”Bring the snow”, the title theme of the upcoming Moomin movie, is the Japanese version this time and just as delightful as before. ... Läs hela texten

Sarah Alainn #4: Anima

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sarah_alainn_anima

According to a Japanese study, Sarah Alainn’s voice has therapeutically beneficial qualities. That is probably the scientific reason why I can’t stop listening to this amazingly talented woman. Ever since I discovered the theme to Xenoblade Chronicles, I’ve tracked down her albums and collaborations and she rarely disappoints with a mix of powerful musical ballads, classical pop and instrumental pieces. Yes, in addition to having a pitch perfect voice, she’s also an excellent violinist. Anima is the fourth solo album after Celeste, Sarah and F, and it continues the upward spiral in quality, with some amazing highlights and a very solid baseline. ... Läs hela texten

Lego MOC: Trico from The Last Guardian

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Lego Trico 03

After finishing The Last Guardian, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Trico is one of the best realized characters in gaming, and I wanted to make a tribute. So I sat down to construct my very own Lego Trico.

The most important part is the face, and especially the eyes and the nose. I looked through the inventory of parts on Bricklink, searching for a suitably formed dark brown part for the nose. I located one in an unlikely place – the foot of the buildable action figure Rey from Star Wars! Loading this part into Lego Digital Designer, I could figure out the basics to fit the eyes on it. To have the dark areas around the eyes, I placed Erling bricks with the bottom out, and used inverted slopes on these to round off the face. From there it was just a question of building the rest. ... Läs hela texten

Lego Assembly Square (10255)

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It seems like it was only yesterday that I bought Fire Brigade, as a sample of modern Lego and to see what everyone was raving about. Actually it was 2013. In four short years I’ve not only collected every new modular made since, I also pieced together the three that came before (and built eight of my own). I should be happy that I did it soon enough. Even Bricklinking a complete Green Grocer is now very expensive, and some parts of Café Corner and Market Street remain elusive, while Fire Brigade, Grand Emporium and Town Hall are steadily becoming more and more expensive. And just recently, Pet Shop finally went out of sale after almost six years, with Palace Cinema soon to follow. But I do have them all (even if Town Hall has been demolished) and so it’s fitting to get this anniversary celebration of ten years of modular buildings: Assembly Square. ... Läs hela texten

Figma Zero Suit Samus Aran

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figma_zss01

It’s been four and a half years since I got my first Figma figure: Samus Aran. While she was based on one horrible game, she looked good enough and got me interested in getting several other Figmas. Now, after all this time Good Smile Company/Max Factory are returning to Metroid with both a Metroid Prime 3 figure and a Other M Zero Suit Samus. I might have prefered one that was actually from Zero Mission, but I realize how unlikely that is, so this will have to do.

What we get is a very sleek Samus, obviously. The Zero Suit is mostly skin-tight, but there’s some actual sculpted ridges that make it look more than painted on. The little markings on the hands and back are ridiculously detailed, of course. The same goes for her face, which is slightly longer than I would have liked, but is very sharply defined. ... Läs hela texten