Ten or so comics you should probably take a gander at in 2013 at some point

As iv said quite a bit recently its a damn good time to be reading comics. In my humble opinion the quality of both marvel and dc's output has increased. Ayes the marvel now campaign is a pretty shameless attempt to cash in on the new 52 but fair play likes most of what I have read of it has been genuinely entertaining. The one big casualty has been the loss of high numbering for books and the loss of history that come with it. Yeah that just ain't right.

First up I have to give an honorary mention to mudman. Mundan is mind brakeingly amazing. Some the finest comics I have ever read. I don't have the words to praise it high enough. Nooooot sure if there will be an issue of it out in 2013 so I don't think it should go on the list proper. Like aye it probably should go the list now that I think about it. Nah. Its fine here. In first place. Not really. But aye.

All new x men

In its short wee life all new x-men has brought the world a truly wonderful thing. Bendis back on form. Holy fucking defoe is that a beautiful achievement. It seams being free of the avengers books has reminded auld bendis that he's actually a pretty good writer. Every things just done soo well. I admire that bendis is aware of Cyclops and his massive cuntness. Big magneto is still the voice of reason on team Cyclops. Try to understand that for a moment. Not only did mad auld Mr genocide have the moral high ground over Cyclops during A vs X. He STILL HAS IT. Now to get me to read a x men book you'd have to do something pretty special. I don't particularly hate the x men. I just don't have the time to learn about there own wee corner of the marvel universe. No one really dose. What it being a huge god damn corner. A wee universe into its self. All new x men succeed though with its quite fantastically gimmicky plot of time travelling young scot summers to to talk some sense into his future self. Cyclops being soo far off the deep end he wont listen to any reason. not even when its him self. Aye. You've hooked me. Also beast is kinda dieing. He's fine though. The production rate is wonderfully fast. Its been like a month and were at issue five. So quantity AND quality. All new x-men has a fair bit of both.

Amazing spider-man

So there's this wee book called amazing spider-man. Its had a surprisingly long run. Over the last two or so years its probably been the best thing on the shelves. Aye fair play it might just not be your thing. It has to be said though AMS has been consistently amazing for all of dan slotts run. Now that's really something for its twice a month schedule. Aye its a had a few not so amazing issues. But only a few. Like maybe three or so issues. Its a shoncky time to be singing this books praises what with amazing spider-man having controversially ended this past boxing day. Issue 700 is something you'll have to read and make up your own mind on. Personally I thought it was quite well written. Hitting all the tropes that make spider-man who he is. In bizarre and probably unnecessary way ill admit. Everything before that in slotts run though. Utter gold. Spider-man at his most spider-many-est. That's a recurring thing with me. I quite like it when characters are written as themselves. Being all there capable of being. So aye the books currently on skakey ground what with not existing so id HIGHLY recommend checking out everything from the start of the big time arc onwards.

 

 

Aquaman

Now yes. This new version of aquaman isn't the brave and the bold version. Yeah. I know that hurts to here. Its a gut kicker all right. The new 52 reboot was the perfect time to insert him into actual canon. Fuck knows what the dc big wigs were huffing. Somewhat fair play in that goff johns run has ran with the aquman is a joke thing. Aquaman isn't quite the lad he should be. If you can get past that though there's a lot in this run to like. Namely its amazingly Saturday morning cartooness. Its johns special technic to be sure but there are issues latter on that really get it across. Basically. Atlatian millennium items. Aye. See that happy soul you now have. Thank aquaman and the fact he has a book again. There's actually an aquaman event kicking off right now crossing over with justice league. Its damn niffty stuff. Epic wide screen blockbuster action movie niffty at that.

 

The flash

Now I might be incredibly wrong and if so disregard everything I'm about to say or for that matter have ever said. But I feel the current run of flash dosent get as much love as it should. Its another one of them very comicy comic book. Lots of super heroics and fun plot happenings. What really sets this book apart is the FANTASIC art. Now a lot of books out there have terrific art and a lot of them have grate writing to full that art. Flash's book is one you could probably sell on the strength of its art alone. It makes me very happy that the writing here is as fun as the art. Iv read few books ware the writing was shite but the art was melt your eyes beautiful . I'm looking at you early red hulk. Barry allan became a bar tender for an issue. I feel I speak for the human race as whole when I say this should be Barry allans default civilian job. Fuck police work. Tending bar is the man's SOUL ! It was a rogues bar to boot. See that's the kind of thing that gets you on a prestigious list like this. Also there's this gorilla invasion thing happening. But mainly its the bar tender thing. Go read it. You'll completely understand me.

Iron man

Right now iron man is basically tough act to follow: the comic. Surprisingly I think to everyone. Its been going quit well. The last run of iron man was a big deal as a far as I can tell. What can I say. I was late to the party. This marvel now run of the book has been brilliantly enjoyable in its surprisingly goodness. A sure fire way to make a wee house in my heart made of stone and discarded deary lee tubs is the monster of the week plot. Basically bolt power rangers to your book and you've got me hooked. Now yes I should probably address the poorly drawn elephant in the room. Aye greg lands on art duties. Annnnnnnnnnnnnd at the risk of being shot before the council of the internet. Ahh dinny think the arts alllll thhhhhat bad. Like it is. But I don't really care. The armour bits work fine its just the whole human thing that might be a bit off putting to human readers. If you can get past that your set. Special mention has to go to issue two. Which might just contain in its controversially drawn but fantastically written pages. The seeds of the future. Here me out on this one. Its amazingly shonen.

FF

FF is one of them new young uns iv been reading from marvel. Now aye its not really all that new as its just a renumbering. It has to be said though with the new creative team the books shooting for something completely different. That being wacky silver age fun with modern day banter. Now aye its for too early to say how that's worked out or if it will continue with that vibe in mind but I do quite like it as it stands. Plot wise its a sort of a buddy cop book to the main fantastic four book. A new fantastic four has been assembled to look after the earth as the real fours off universe hoping instead of curing cancer or working on that whole super villain problem. Fair play the true fours only meant to be away for four minutes in our time but of course something go's wrong. Its a book that had a fair bit of buzz in my local area. Mainly because of the super cool silvery age looking art. Have to say the first issue didn't really do it for me with its almost bendisie talking heads but issue two more than made up for that in my opinion. Again its one of those young books but it makes this list with the great amount of potential its shown so far.

 

Batman

What more can be said about Scott Snyder's current run on batman ? Its pretty much perfect after all. Possible the biggest barnstormer of a comic of the last two years or so. Definitely the big mainstream book to read and the one to suggest to new people just entering the world of comics. Its perfect for that actually. Its just the right level of awesome and batmmanyness to entice new readers in. It started off strong with the court of owls arc and hasn't really faltered along the way. I may have some personal grievances with it but there really not justified in any factual way. Batman really is the A bat book. Since the re launch its the best written and has the best art as well as haveing far and away the most Zeitgeist to it. Its a shame really. Synders success has taken away morrisons crown of being the head batman guy. Some would say fair play. Batman incs probably to silly for a lot of people. I get that but it is a damn shame. I had some concerns at the start of the run that this new younger rebooted batman couldn't fully live up to the bat god of the recent past. I think I was almost completely proven wrong on that about mid way threw last year when batman metaphorically / sort of kinda actually hulked out into the bat god. That was a crazy issue likes. My only concern at the moment is the current story line with the return of the joker. I'm just not digging it. I get that its well written I'm just not digging the vibe of batman actually having to try. Blisteringly good read despite that. Id advise you to pick up the run quick. The first printings are selling for silly money these days.

 

One piece

Now yes this is kinda cheating. One piece is a manga and the rest of this list is about comics. Iv betrayed you I get that. Just a except this and move on. See if your not reading one piece right now or if you've never read one piece or even if yon just not a fan of any manga. Go read one piece. Like right now. I don't mind how. Just go and read it. It'll be good for your soul. Barring that ill be good for your well being. I'm not sufficiently levelled up to describe to just how perfect one piece is. But understand this. It IS perfect. Like in every single way. Now aye I here saying its just a wee shonen manga. Nothing special Naw pal. That's amazingly wrong. The problem here is. I genuinely don't have the words to describe to you its perfection. Just go out there in to big world and find some one piece to read for yourself. And I feel like that's another important factor. I feel you need to experience it for yourselves. Own your own. Its not something I can hype up for you and make you want to read. So ether go out and find volume one or if that dosent fully absorb you, mad bastard that you might be then go out and get volume fifty. And then if you don't like it please get yourself checked out. Because you night not have a heart.

 

Green lantern new guardians

Yes. A fairly controversial choice ill give you that. From issue one iv gone on about how the lantern ranger book Is just a wee bit shite. And aye it was a bit shite to be fair. But here's the thing. It got FUCKING AMAZING. The story of New guardians fills my broken auld heart with almost pure joy. Books can change likes. They can surprise you. Just cause there shite for like a whole year dosent mean they'll be shite forever. I'm being harsh of course. For most of its run its wasn't properly shite. It just wasn't living up to its full potential as a lantern team book. That and the art while not bad was a bit generic. Which was endearing ayes. But towards the end of the first year got to me a bit and its charm sort of wore off. So id recommend you pick up new guardians from its zero issue onwards and join kyle rayner on his quest to become a master of all the lantern spectrum. It may also be worth picking up again for all of you that dropped the book early on. I thank my mad dedication for helping me endure the first arc.

Saga

Gonny just read saga. Like just gonny. No matter who you are. You'll probs love it. That's been my experience of it. For example. I love it. Concerning its more mature content I should probably hate it. But there's the thing. I do love it. Aye there's some bleak bits here and there and there's a fair few bits of it that are too far out for my likening. Its most likely because its just written so damn well. Soo much banter. Like every ware on every page. If you like banter this is the comic for you. Aye space banter. Its gid though. Now I could be wrong but I think this is my first experience of indi book doing quite well. Now aye its image so you may not call that indi. I would but your mileage may vary. Its nice though. To have a trendy wee book hitting the big time and being universally loved. I might just be speaking for my self but I think its something we as a comic book community need. From time to time at least. If this list was a proper count down saga would probably be down here at number one. Its just soo comic booky that it deservers it. Well its earned it actually. Id recommend you pick up the first trade. Its out the now and its only about seven pound. So bargain there.

Right so there you have it. My list of ten or so comics you should probably take a gander at this year. All of them are books I'm currently reading and get a kick out of. I hope you take a wee peek at a few of them. Give one a flick threw in the shop if can.

Byes !

Great Expectations 1.11: You May (Not) Kiss Me If You Like

Okay peeps and peepsvenas, cards on the table. I like English. I read the fuck out of Great Expectations. It’s one of two fiction books I own that have highlights. I wrote an essay on it which was 70% focused on the last line of it. And a film of it came out recently.

So yeah. Pip and Estella’s relationship is kinda fucked up if you ask me (which you do, at your peril) since it’s kinda based on idol worship and emotional abuse. In fact, watching it now, it seemed kinda...familiar...

"I'm so fucked up"

The book had two different end lines; “I saw the shadow of another parting from her” and “I saw the shadow of no parting from her”. The first was the original, which Dickens changed because his friends thought it was depressing...

"Congratulations!"

But I always interpreted the second line to mean that Pip finally realised what it would mean to be stuck with Estella; that he could only see her flaws now that he had her, the shadow of no parting. But this is irrelevant, as the movie keeps things fairly ambiguous at the end. Actually, does it fuck. It’s basically the ending to empire strikes back; Pip says he loves her, she says “I know”. Well, not really, but you get the point.

Oh, and this movie’s version of Herbert pocket (who I’ve been calling Matthew for the past year or so) is about 50% gayer than the version in South Park.

Speaking of which, if you’ve seen the Season 4 episode “Pip”, The first half of that is incredibly accurate to the book. I’m dead serious. Hell, even the second half is still thematically appropriate, and I will explain why;

1. “This is my new boyfriend Scott. He’s 17 and has a car”

This is referencing a character that is apparently the main antagonist. I barely remember him being a presence personally, but then think the books more about Pip’s massive character defects than any kind of love story, so the only antagonist I would see is Estella and Miss Havisham. But yes, Bentley Drummle’s a dick weasel who is rich and a trust fund kid (SUBTLE SOCIAL COMMENTARY) who beats Estella and stuff. Estella stays with him because he’s the richest man in the world, and she feels that they are just punishment for one another. Which brings me on to...

2. “I need the tears of Men to power my Genesis Device”

Miss Havisham was wronged in the past by men, and wants to revenge. She does this by raising a daughter as a weapon against the male sex, and succeeds. She encourages Pip to love Estella because she knows that they can never be together, and she gets off on that apparently.

3. “And as for YOU Pip, my robot monkeys should take care of you!”

The Robot Monkeys symbolise 19^th century society and its corrupting influence, which is symbolised in the book by the sickness Pip gets as his debts are finally called in. And Penises. Symbolism is always Penises. Except when it’s a vagina. But even they are sometimes Penises. Or the Tarot.

So, in conclusion, this is a good film to watch.

The Mad and Hat Pirates Year in Review Awards Review Part Deux: The Squeakqueling

Proudly presented by Jim’ll Fix it and Romney/Ryan 2012

*NB Some categories have been replaced. A surprising amount have not.

Best puzzle platformer involving Blocks and Pulling

Fallblox

Best Use of Stan Lee

Rupert Murdoch (The Leveson Inquiry)

Most Awesome Dunban

Dagran (The Last Story)

Least Awesome Dunban

Vaan. Bloody Fucking Vaan.

Most disappointing Villain Accent

Jim Moriarty (Not quite so mentally mental as at the end of series 1)

Most Obvious Villain

6-way tie: Therius(The Last Story), Jirall(The Last Story), Count Earl Arganan(The Last Story), The Drizz’t Twins(The Last Story), Zangurak(The Last Story).

Least Obvious Villain

Dagran(The Last Story)

Best Game Set in 2012

Persona 4

Most Understated Psychic Powers

Dark Phoeniclops

Best Comic to base a Barbie on.

Sword and Sorcery (Amethyst. Seriously, Feminism would be much further along if little girls used lines like “Some grandfather of mine must have been careless where he spilled his seed” while playing with Barbies like I used to.)

Greatest thing Ever

Kingdom Hearts DDD: Riding FUCKING MONSTRO in a boss fight (#fuckyeahimonawhale)

Dirtiest Sounding Name

Pandora’s Tower

Most Shades of Grey

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Most What the fuck is going on with Cyclops right now?

Seriously. How come he’s so damn evil these days? He’s the one who didn’t want to get with Jean because he was so paranoid about a premature discharge from his deadly eyebeams. Now he’s a fucking rogue state. Is he planning on changing his name to Kim Il Summers? Or is he going to go full Magneto and only answer to Cyclops? Also, bear in mind that he fell in love with the Phoenix, and not really Jean (there was a whole thing when she came back about it, and how she couldn’t live up to that) so now that he’s been the phoenix...Also, you know how Scarlet Witch had to use up the phoenix force (which Galactus described as “all the worlds yet to be born”) to restore mutants? I mean, it’s not like she can just wave a magic wand and say “More Mutants” and everything’s sorted...except that’s EXACTLY how they got into this mess in the first place.

David Bowie Spotting

Zigzagoon, Balthier, Emperor Mateus, Miles Edgeworth, Liquid Snake, Louis Cyphre, Lucifer, Lucifel, Helel, Louisa Ferre, Demyx.

Crusader Kings II
Bloody peasants!

I'm sure that more than a few of you have heard of the Game of Thrones TV series by now. An excellent program based on the Song of Ice and Fire Saga by George R.R. Martain. It's a fantastic series with so much intrigue and backstabbing I think I just committed treason by glancing at the cover. See the program, read the book, I don't care, just have a go and you won't be disappointed. Fact is, gamers want a game of GoT, and they got two of them. They were shit. So we shall make do with Crusader Kings II, a game that gets you as close to the GoT lifestyle as possible, straight down to having sex with your sister and a dwarf brother trying to kill you!

Sexy, sexy incest made possible with stats and menus

So. We'll start with what CKII is. Its the usual grand strategy affair you expect from Paradox. Deep and complex, manual as big as a Yellow Pages, excellent at giving a great sense of satisfaction when a plan comes together and you'll have no fucking clue what the actual hell you are doing for the first ten hours. I call it the Paradox Curse. They make good games, brilliant games. No-one has any idea how to play them. That is the only real criticism I have of CKII. My advice is to check out a few let's plays and read some wiki's if you decide to buy it. Cracking on, CKII lets you play as the head of any noble family from the period of 1066 to 1453 with one goal. Earn your dynasty more prestige than various other historically significant European dynasties of the time. If you die and you have no heir to take over, its game over. 
The level of detail is truly astounding. You can marry, kill, impregnate, intimidate, befriend, backstab and possibly give back rubs to any of hundreds of characters each with their own stats, traits, behaviors and motivations all trying to work/backstab/marry their way to the top. Children are born with genetic traits of their parents and other traits from who you decide should educate them. Said children tend to grow up resenting your oldest son for being your heir and I've had to stop half dozen assassination attempts by jealous siblings in one playthrough. If you play as a king then you are fighting your own nobles, either in the court or on the battlefield, as much as you are fighting other nations. The game may be just a map with sprites and a bunch of often indecipherable numbers and menus, but the level of drama trumps most of the triple AAA offerings of today's games. 

"Sorry m'lord. I couldn't find the menu for horses.

So you may have guessed by now I really hate the interface for CKII. I have good reason, its a bloody nightmare! Honestly, playing this game, even after doing the tutorial, is like being asked to solve a Rubik's Cube before getting on a bus to pay your fare. Yes, you understand the concept of both of these,  you could eventually figure out the Rubik's Cube, but you'll be stumped as to how they connect to each other or why the hell you even have to do the Cube in the first dam place. That's the problem, you're not entirely sure what effect your actions are having or why you are doing them. I married my son to a Norwegian Princess but I couldn't say what it caused except her dad liked me a bit more. With time and patience you can see past the clunky interface and see that its all very simple at it's core. It isn't complicated, its just a lot of information horribly presented. I can't blame Paradox. There really isn't a simple way to do it. 

My only real other complaint is that wars can be a pain in the arse to start. To start a war you need a claim, which can be gained through marriage or bringing a claimant to your court or fabricating a claim which can take years in game, so you have legal right to do so. That or if you are a smaller country you can request an invasion from the Pope. Its all very counter productive if you wish to expand, you have to plan years, even decades, in advance which I suppose, in the end, is more in keeping with the time period of the game and encourages the intrigue side of it.

"One day, many years from now, my great grand children may have the right to brutally kill everyone in that castle."

The intrigue is where the game really separate's itself from the rest. As mentioned earlier, your nobles and kin are all murderous buggers and will make your life as much of a living hell as possible. The solution in my case? Kill them all first. Keeping them all happy is impossible and putting one in the dungeon just riles up the rest! Murder, revoking titles, rebellion, getting laws changed, you've got a good selection of morally dubious options at your disposal and so do your vassals. 

Crusader Kings II is a difficult game to get into. But once you do you'll not find anything else like it. I highly recommend giving it a go, its only about £15 on Steam so its hardly going to dent the bank balance. To top it off, there is a Game of Thrones mod in development.

Brilliant Medieval simulator,
horribly presented. 
85%

Life of Pi: or how I learned that to stop caring and pass two hours that I’ll never get back.

Life of Pi is life affirming and shit. There’s the review that everyone wants to read. They got that half right.

This is a very pretty movie. The plot is not very good. Also, there’s surprisingly little tension for a film about a boy trapped in a boat with a tiger. This is largely because the tiger is a metaphor for primal rage and the like. Hell, the twist at the end all but says this. But yeah, the movie can largely be summed up as “ah, who cares about empirical evidence, I like Jesus and all his pals and I think I’m better/more bohemian than you”. It’s like a self help book about “finding yourself”. What people need to learn is that all you need to find yourself is a Japanese exchange student with ties to the dojima clan to life coach you into a better person. If you’re very lucky, something horrible will happen and you’ll become an x-men.

Speaking of X-Men, Life of Pi (along with every other “high brow” film) had a trailer for Salman Rushdie’s new film “Midnight’s Children” which seems to be equally life affirming and Indian (I swear that there’s needs to be a better word for “like slum-dog but not as good”) except that I’m not sure what it’s about. Two kids are born at midnight on the day of India’s independence, but because one’s rich and one’s poor, the doctor switches them to even things out for the new India. According to Indian Science, inheritance is an inherited trait. Anyway, nouveau riche seems to grow up to be a cunt, and nouveau pleb (who has rich people genes, so he’s better?) he...well here’s where I’m not sure. They trailer makes mention of this a lot, but doesn’t actually show it. Apparently, Pleb can give the people around him superpowers. And not like subtle ones, flying and shit. So yeah, Indian x-men.

So at one point Pi gets to an island full of meerkats, which is shaped like a sleeping man, and there’s this lotus flower malarkey that was kinda foreshadowed way at the start so I immediately called dream sequence. But it kinda wasn’t. See, the story pi’s been telling is a delusion full of metaphor he made up to assuage his guilt at having had to kill things (hence the tiger).  Pi is a murderer. He killed a man, and hid it from his family. But hey! That doesn’t change anything! In either story all the peeps end up dead, what does it matter if it was in a shipwreck or by a vengeful teenager! Spiritualism! The worst part is, the actually true story sounds like a much better film. Less pretty obviously, but with, y’know, characters and a plot and tension.

So yeah, don’t watch life of pi. I’ve spoilt it. Or rather, there was a monkey, a tiger, and a blog post, and the tiger posted info about a film on the blog while I sat enthralled by it’s predatory majesty and the monkey didn’t like it.

Zone of the enders hd xbox/ps3

Its like gundam BUT IN SPACE !!!! ... ... oh wait.

Now here's something that I was damn well looking forward to and a rare thing that lived up to my expectations

Both zone of the enders games are high speed giant robot space opera action games from the beautiful beautiful mind of big hideo kojima of metal gear fame. In both games you pilot the mighty mecha jehuty. Most probably a super prototype wielding stylish homing lasers and way cool laser swords as well as some pretty nifty upgrades you pick up threw out your funky space adventures. Combat in both games is damn solid. The jehuty has to defend itself from gangs of roving enemy mecha. Taking each one of the enemy squad on one by one is the way to go. For me at least. Maybe I'm just pish but there's something to be said for utterly destroying a squad one by one. Taking out there boss first lowering the fighting ability as the rest of the squad as they shite themselves as they see there boss gutted before them. This is slightly less relevant in the second runner as combat there is much more beefed up and all round more epic and you'll be wrecking a lot more peoples shite than in the first game.

Now I'm no fancy smancy city slicking game reviewer person. I couldny properly tell you if this new updated version of enders looks or plays any better than the ps2 originals. Bad ayes you see. And I'm pretty sure hd is a myth. Or at the very least. Witchcraft.

All I can talk about is my GUT FELLING. Now let me tell you son. These games make my GUT feel damn magical. Aye the mecha totally have cockpit cocks. Because Japan. Well no. because kojima.

Now out of both of these games the second runner is almost definitely the better game. But HOO LEE FUCK. The VIBE of the first game. It brings tears to my manly grizzled eye sockets. Its that elusive magical summer of our youth vibe. Yeah all of the first game is set on-board a space colony set a drift in the harsh void of outer space but it still manages to be summery. Well I spose its orbiting Jupiter. Hmm from now on lets all think of Jupiter as a summer planet. Whilst there might might not be any actual summer vibe elements in the game it certainly FEELS like they are. When I play the first enders the world feels young. Its a very similar vibe to metal gear solid 2. that's what I take away from it anyway.

Now to be fair the protagonist of the first game is just a tad emo. Leo's a pretty cool guy though id say. He gets over his whiny-ness. Not fully in the first game but quite amazingly by the second. Now I don't think we'd complain all that much about getting to pilot a giant robot. But fair play likes he's a kid after all and he dose kinda sorta kill a hell of a lot of people. Bad people aye. Still people though and we do get to see leo's palls killed off in a rather grizzly fashion at the very start of the game. So fair play likes.

Now I quite like the game play of the original. I can see why a lot of people wouldn't though. There's a fair bit of padding. Which I'm sure a lot of people could deal with but On top of that though is a fair bit of backtracking. Hmm well now that I think about it. Padding and back tracking are basically the same thing. Ayes wells. Its got both and I can see that being a hurdle to enjoying the game for some people. I still quite like it though. To me its weirdly warm and fuzzy. To me there's something just so solid about it. The back tracking gives the space colony a certain amount of charter. Now you could probably archive that without the need for clunky back tracking but its there and its totally a thing you should be aware of.

Its also a shot game. Hopefully that willny bother you.

The second runner though. That's ware shite gets all out epic. Its very much a sequel. Every things bigger and better. The jehutys weapons and ability's are more killy and there's more enemy's to be killed. And yes. The UNIVERSE is at stake. Now its definitely the better of the two games but personally id have to say it has a lesser vibe. Better but lesser. Its totally a real thing. Its a much improved game in almost all ways and the anime cut scenes are much welcomed but I duno man. Its not as the worlds young ish as the first game. That's not a legitimate complaint I know. Its just something that sticks out to me. Its far from vibe-less likes. its just worse vibe for being better.

The second runner is named as such as the jehuty has a new pilot for the game. Dingo. Aye dingo. Damn funny name it has to be said. He's more your manly man han solo type in contrast to the very shinji ikari-ish leo. I like him. He's a lot of fun. Despite being wired into the mecha to stay alive he manages not to be depressing. I count that as a win. Leo dose make an appearance in the second runner however. And in doing so he pretty much defines LADNESS. Cutting through the sky's of Mars in the vic viper. Its something id recommend you see for yourself.

The game play of the second runner is FAR less repetitive than the original. No real back tracking to be seen if memory serves. Some damn interesting boss fights thrown about keep things fast moving and interesting much like the fist game but to a grater extent here. Them bosses do get hella crazy and show off what the jehuty is capable of and they appeal to my sense of fuck yeah ness. Combats changed up from the first game a bit. Like I said earlier every things more epic. You have more fools that need a killing and more killy guns to do that with. The enemy mechas seams more fragile to be fair. You'll be throwing a lot of them into walls. Death comes to them faster that way. The new enemy types are much appreciated adding to the two iconic types from the original.

This hd collection also comes with a disc containing the demo for the upcoming metal gear rising revengeance. See that's utterly. Perfect. Fooking amazing really. See the first zone of the enders came with the demo for metal gear solid 2, its famously the reason anyone bought the first game and why every charity shop in the land has a copy of it and as a terminally nostalgic man it makes me damn weepy when history repeats

 

Theses are two fantastic games that in my opinion defiantly deserves at least a wee play and this hd collection easily lets you archive that. As I said I cant tell you how well this stands technically as a hd release on its own but as two games blue tacked together its bloody amazing.

Fucking love giant robots.

Comics the now

Hullos !

 

Comics right now are pretty damn good. I cant really remember a poor week for ages now. I guess there's a few reasons for that. I'm buying a wee bit more books now. Long gone are the days of only picking up amazing spider man. Damn they were good times. Now marvel has caught up with DC and have started putting out there new stuff. I'm a bit bummed that there renumbered books haven't had a synchronised launch but that might have been a bit too much like the new 52.

Aye I think ill still call it the new 52 on here despite it being auld and not exactly the same 52 books. Its been damn good though. Kept up the pace pretty well. Batman's been there top book since day one and I'm still loving it. The book got off to a rocking start and even though I had my doubts when it looked like that bat god would break snyder pulled it back in style with the silliness of the end of the court of owls and this new bat perfecting his YOUR INSANE paunch. Right now bats is onto another mega arc with the joker back in town starting shite. Its damn good. Ideally id just want an instant bat god win. But for the sake of drama its damn gid.

Action comics its fucking insanely brilliant. Like fucking insanely god like in its awesomeness. At times. Sadly its has its ups and downs. Now the downs arny really downy downs there just not highs. Which is a shame. Now that last issue just gone. #13. hoo lee fuck. Had me crying manly tears. Superman rides to the rescue of a mission to mars base and its apparently British crew. Super man at his supermanyist. A fusion of superman , Dr who and gurren lagann ! At times it felt like Morrison was writing it just foe me it was that spot on to what I like to read about.

Aquaman by the way. He's a bit of a lad. Well no, not really. He's just the standard man on a mission character the big goff likes to write. The aquaman book though. Now there's a hell of a lad. Like all comics its had its ups and downs. Its opening arc had some gosh darn fantastic moments. Establishing everyone in the DC verse thinks of aquaman the way the real world thinks of him. Id have personally like to see him just being the brave and the bold version but the loser hero was an alright way to go. The recent aquamans 90s anti hero team arc could have went badly but the team showed there true colours as not an anti hero team at all but a RANGER time. That last arc had a hell of a Saturday morning cartoon vibe. Its geof johns I know that's his thing but god damn it was glorious. It was the atlantian millennium items that did it for me.

The guardians of the galaxy continue to be moustache twirllingly evil. Its damn entertaining to watch. Sinestro and hal were finally getting down to the serious business of being buddy cops in space but they got sucked into a death hole. So theirs a new green lantern kicking about earth. Surprisingly cool dude. The preview images made him look quite the dick. Running about with a gun. We dinny need another John Stuart. Well no another current comics John Stuart. A justice league cartoon John Stuart would be joyously welcomed with open arms at this point. Aye so the new guy. What's his name. Cool dude. Canny fly yet. Drives construct cars. As fast as the flash. Like I said. Surprisingly cool dude.

Now marvel. Marvels fucking insane. Like proper loopy. Not entirely sure why. But they are. Big news was amazing spider mans getting a renumbering after issue 700. that's a huge kick in the balls. I feel like they renumbered it before and it didn't take. So we're all probs taking bets as to when it resets. Bigger news was that it might not be peter under the mask after 700. now that's probably the biggest ball kicker of the year. Maybe that hole Disney star wars thing. Its defiantly a big deal. Now normally with this kind of thing you'd just write it off as a desperate attempt to build up hype for a book. But here's the thing. Marvels fucking insane. We're at the point ware they could actually kill off peter god damn Parker. In the year of his 50^th anniversary and a recent film release. Now I'm not all that up to date on it but hopefully its just dan slott the eternal lad taking the piss. But if not. Calm the fuck doon marvel.

 

 

Now despite there insanity they do make quite fine comics. Avengers vs X men was pretty well done in my opinion. Not to everyone's taste I expect. It really was a lot of fighting. But I have to stress. Damn good fighting. Cyclops. Cyclops is an utter bastard. But a loveable bastard. He's just so amazingly evil. That's what I took away from A vs X. I know that's not always been his character but its some thing for him to do at any rate. Marvels moved on from civil war a bit. Now there bastard of the event is at least employable evil unlike Tony stark was back then.

I picked up Two X books in the aftermath of the event. Not really an X fan but I thought id give them a chance. Uncanny avengers just blew me away. Two things did it for me. The the just plain awesome casual vibe. And the red skull stealing prof X's brain. HOW AMAZINGLY RED SKULL IS THAT. Aye prof X has been dead for two hole seconds and BOOM red skulls in there. No hesitation. Proper old school villainy. Now this Wednesday just past big brain Michel bendis swaggered into the room and slammed all new x men on the table. It was actually pretty good. Staggeringly. Now the full impact of the first issue was spoiled by previews but the idea of getting young Scott summers to come to the future and talk some sense into himself is a damn amazing idea. Nice one bendis.

The fantastic four books missed a trick. They ended there current run going to save Dr doom from a universe he crated that turned against him. Aye naw pal. That might be actually what would happen given the circumstances and dooms actual character. But that's not what would happen to the lad doom. Lad doom would never need the fantastic four to rescue him. Lad doom wouldn't need rescuing at all. Lad doom would be off conquering universe's duel wielding infinity gauntlet like the ultra lad he is. Now to the books credit despite this fall at the very last hurdle the issue did have some fine moments and quite doomy lines form the lad himself. Sad that the run over really. The new runs just kicked off. Bit to early to say how its going but baglys art it is grately appreciated.

I decided to pick up iron man. Juuuuuuust as the book was gearing up for its final arc. Gotta say I like what I read. Very very metal gear solid ish. Sad I missed out on the hole run now. Might have to go pick up the trades at some point. Actually I don't think iv bought new trades outside of xmas presents since I started buying comics by the monthly format two or three years ago. Damn likes. That's something for me to think about. Picked up the new number one with him in his new black and yellow armour. Only one issue down of course but so far its not as good as fractions run. Not bad though. A few nice bits here and there. Gotta wait and see ware it go's

Lastly iv been venturing into deeper comic waters. The darker depths of indi comics. Well indi-er than the two big company's. Saga is a damn fine piece of comicbooking. Its the new one by that there y the last man guy. Now a fair bit of it is quite out there for my taste but that's offset buy its incredible comic booky-ness. Its about a couple and the new born child escaping from two factions at war with each other. IN SPACE. Grant Morrison's new book, happy is hopefully a piss take of mark millers indi books in particular and mark miller in general. It is defiantly a piss take but hopefully that will be made official eventually. Happy is a charming Christmas tale of a scumy scum bag and his tiny wise cracking flying purple unicorn buddy. It be horribly depressing if its not a piss take. So you can see why I want it to be one. Has to be. Hopefully

Also I'm back !