Kategoriarkiv: International

Babylon 5 at Twenty – A Visual Celebration

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Celebrating twenty years after the start of the show, the book Babylon 5 At Twenty (B5-20) has just been released in its second printing. It’s available for order at B5books.com and at $88, which is a ”pre-order price” even though it’s already shipping, it’s a pretty hefty investment. Is it worth it?

It sure is a good production. The book comes snugly in an outer casing and the cover itself is a nice, somber black. You kind of expect a book like this to have a gaudy printed glossy cover that will tear around the edges, but I’m not complaining. ... Läs hela texten

LEGO MERP #04: Elandar

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Elandar Carbon
This cheerful and good-looking elven ranger was one of the first characters we played with. Being 11 years old and new to the infinite power of being a game master, I provided him with all kinds of crazy adventures, not to mention a rather vague adherence to rules, history and common sense. Ultimately Elandar travelled through Moria, defeated a balrog or two (in fact I think it was three; two at the same time) and helped slay the entire crew of nazgüls, wore a mithil shirt and married the lovely Solana Carbon. However, the GM giveth and the GM taketh away, and when I got tired of his misadventures and general overpoweredness I sent him and Solana on a doomed quest to conquer Mordor. He was one of the first characters I designed this time around, and I tried to make him very simple, Link-ish, as that was pretty much the extent of our imagination back then. ... Läs hela texten

Lego Modular MOC: Trendy Arcade

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TrendyArcade00

Mr Goldsworth was not having a good day. His venerable establishment, the Grand Emporium, was facing bankruptcy after sixty years in business. Apparently the inhabitants of Lego City weren’t interested in buying overpriced jewelry or doll houses anymore. However, one man’s ruin is another man’s opportunity. Up and coming entrepreneur Trevor McRadpants bought the building for cheap.


”Too bad, old man! Guess people are more interested in video games than old kitchenware now!” ... Läs hela texten

Lego MERP #03: Gwoth

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Gaer-Woto-Gaer
A member of the mysterious wose people, Gwoth (as he was commonly known) travelled alongside Shaana, C’Heiron and C’Hiyra on their adventures. His strange looks and black eyes belied a gentle if slightly gruff personality, and he was quite appreciated as a healer. At one point, his right arm was cut off in a battle, but Gwoth survived and managed to keep up his adventures. Later, he helped restore a king to the throne of Dunland (our version of Middle-earth being slightly misinformed) and was rewarded with magical assistance to regain his arm. While this works most of the time, the magic tends to fizzle now and then, leaving him having to wait to get his arm back. He was one of the characters I drew a lot while we were playing, so it was relatively easy to settle on his looks. ... Läs hela texten

Lego MERP #02: Nimbrin

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Nimbrin Naug
My very first RPG character Torin was not very successful, getting himself killed in his first adventure involving an outside privy. Not one to be discouraged, I made a relative of his, the dwarf Nimbrin Naug who managed to combine the role as a scout with the not very subtle morningstar weapon. I honestly can’t remember his ultimate doom. This brave young dwarven lad was slightly more successful than his relative, but was killed after an adventure or two. After that I mostly took the role as the game master, so I didn’t make more characters for quite some time. However, I like how he turned out in his modern design so I might figure out a way to revive him in some other scenario. ... Läs hela texten

Lego MERP #01: Shaana

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For the past few years, I’ve been drawing pictures of the characters we used to play in ICE’s Middle-earth Role Playing system (MERP) back in the nineties. I began with my own favourites but as they were completed I turned to others, some of which had a picture drawn back then but some I had no idea how they looked. That was the exciting part – finally deciding on a look after all this time. Then, when I once again ran out of reasonably interesting characters to portray, I wanted to make physical versions of them. As I had become interested in Lego again, it was an obvious choice. Thus, here’s my collection so far. ... Läs hela texten

Lego Lord of the Rings Caradhras Diorama and Bag End Extended Edition

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Caradhras01

After collecting all of the Fellowship of the Ring and all of the Thorin & Company minifigures, I’ve been thinking about how to display them. There isn’t really any good set that naturally includes all of the characters. Not everyone is in Helm’s Deep (and it’s too expensive anyway) and Moria is a very crappy diorama. The upcoming Council of Elrond is way too small. So for Lord of the Rings I eventually settled on building my own.

One of my favourite scenes in the entire trilogy is the movie-only scene where Frodo drops the Ring in the snow and Boromir briefly picks it up. It’s a great character moment for Sean Bean and a beautifully filmed scene overall. So I ordered a bunch of white slopes and set to work on recreating the slopes of Caradhras. It turned out that I could have used a bit more of each, so it’s a very unstable build, but when left alone on a shelf it looks fine. ... Läs hela texten

Taking to the skies with Figma Pit

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My fourth Figma arrived, and I’m still being constantly impressed by this line. After Samus Aran, Link and Yukiko Amagi comes Pit, the angel hero of Kid Icarus. Released in Japan in April, I ordered him from Ami Ami together with a spare. Apparently Max Factory and Good Smile will be re-releasing Link and Samus shortly so maybe my second Pit wasn’t that great of an investment. But still, for 2910 yen this is an awesome, awesome figure.

This version of Pit is obviously based on his latest game, Kid Icarus: Uprising. It’s not a problem with me since his original design was slightly goofy and not nearly as iconic as his gold and silver cartridge companions. This means oversized hands and feet, as well as the blade bow. Overall he’s a very close match to his game counterpart. Literally the only changes are a slightly simpler laurel crown and some removed etching on his armlets. Heck, even the bottom of his sandals have texture to them! The painting is excellent, especially the hem of his lower tunic. I’m also a big fan of his eyes, which look better than the slightly silly looking Link. However, that’s also due to the game’s superior artwork. ... Läs hela texten

Capcom are disappointed with Darkstalkers

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Darkstalkers Resurrection has sold rather well, but not well enough apparently. The senior VP for Capcom USA, Christian Svensson, stated disappointment in the sales of the game, especially after the vocal support given by fighting game fans previously. ”It’s not as high on the chart as it needs to be”, apparently.

Personally, I’m a bit responsible. I’ve been hoping and asking for a Darkstalkers game for years, and I haven’t bought Resurrection. But it’s not a ”fully featured project” as he claims. Resurrection consists of arcade perfect ports of Vampire Hunter and Vampire Savior with some bells and whistles like Third Strike-style challenges to undertake, an online mode and tutorials. However, I’m not buying it because of a few reasons: ... Läs hela texten

The cast of Street Fighter V according to NeoGAF

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Capcom has a running poll to gauge the popularity of the Street Fighter characters, possibly in anticipation of a new Street Fighter game. I’m reasonably sure that either Street Fighter V or Darkstalkers 4 will be announced alongside Playstation 4 next week, but it sure would be fun if Darkstalkers took that slot as a new graphics showcase, the way Darkstalkers originally was for CPS2.

So let’s assume that the votes actually matter and see what Street Fighter V will be like, if NeoGAF can be considered to represent the average Street Fighter fan. For this, I’m also assuming that it will be a new engine with a new design, so having a model made for Street Fighter IV or X Tekken doesn’t necessarily secure a spot this time around. With 39 characters in Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition, I would assume that at least 30 will be necessary for the first version of Street Fighter V or people will cry foul. ... Läs hela texten