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Friday, October 11, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #1

Art by Ken Sugimori
And now, with only hours away from the US release, I give you my number one. Charizard! Truly a favorite among many trainers, and certainly mine.

When I was thirteen the original red/blue versions of pokemon were released. I instantly fell in love with the games, and a pokemon by the name Charizard. On the cover of my game was this dragon looking beast, and I being in love with dragons had to have it. Now for years I have used Charizard on my team, fought many battles. We've won and lost, but we continue to move forward and stay strong.

For GenVI I plan on breeding a new team of these pokemon I have shared with you these past days, to take them with me from level one.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #2

Art by Ken Sugimori
We are so close we can practically taste it, how does it taste? Perhaps electrifying, as my second in command is Jolteon! (A horrible segue, but it got us here) This spiked, feral pokemon is, in my opinion, the cream of the crop of electric pokemon.

Fast and a powerful Sp.attack stat, my Spike has come through for me time and again. His nickname not only comes from his spiked fur, but also it is my Grandfather's nickname. My favorite of electric pokemon, I have and always will use Spike on my team. Together we have trampled through champions, and even several Dragonite. Though he is not the first Spike, and might not be the last.

I don't really view breeding as replacing them, more like resetting them, or making them more powerful. Yes it might be a "different" pokemon, but because it is a game I can view it the way I want.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #3

Art by Ken Sugimori
Only three days left, and today we have a look at Scyther! This praying mantis, ninja of a pokemon is a force to be reckoned with.

I owe a lot of my pokemon captures to this guy, Nine, giving him false swipe was a fantastic idea. His name comes from the fact he is the ninth scyther I have bred, and yes I plan to breed him again. I get a feeling of triumph from the reactions on peoples faces, when I tell them how much I have worked with this pokemon.


Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #4

Art by Ken Sugimori
Coming in fourth is the pseudo-legendary pokemon Tyranitar! This rock/dark pokemon is among the strongest of rock types. Its physical attack power is staggering.

As a huge fan of Godzilla/Gojira, I felt it was required of me to have a place for Tyranitar on my team. I gave her the nickname Jade, which has to do with luck, as well as hope and other strong properties related to the gemstone. As I think back on our adventures, she really has been the heart of my team. I can't wait to continue our adventures through Kalos and beyond.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #5

Art by Ken Sugimori
Next up in our countdown is Flygon! A dragon/ground type with a strong attack stat, complete with a few immunities and resistances.

I fell in love with this pokemon the first moment I saw it, how could I resist a dragonfly pokemon. My Terra is a power house, a staple part of my team. She has been through a few champions, and I always use her when going into the battle subway.

Her quirky nature might not raise any stat faster, but at level 87 with a 244 attack and 251 speed, I am very happy with the results.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Pokemon Team Countdown #6

Art by Ken Sugimori
Starting our countdown is Golduck! Pure water type with some versatile capabilities like being able to learn Psychic type moves. Golduck is also gifted with a higher speed and sp.attack stat, compared with some other pure water pokemon. I have put a lot of breeding and training time into my Golduck, and I am very happy with the results, but I am not done.

Given the name Nightwing, inspired by the hero of the same name, his fathers name was Darkwing. Though as I stated, I am not done with breeding a power house of a Golduck. Nightwing is really the only one on my team that I settled with on natures, and stats. Though not what they could be, I was happy with the results at the time. He has, on numerous occasions, pulled me through some tough situations.

Golduck has to be my favorite water type, though with X/Y coming I am probably going to place him on reserve and bring in Froakie. We have been through a lot, three champions, battle subway, it will be hard to have him warming the bench. But we will see, Froakie might not live up to my expectations.

Until next time.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Pokemon X & Y approaching!

As we near the launch of the new generation of Pokemon, my excitement grows more and more.
With every news announcement I am ecstatic at the advancements, new features, and of course new monsters. Such as these recently announced Mega Evolutions of Charizard.



 The one on the left is exclusive to the X version of the game, and will be Fire/Dragon type.
While the one on the right will be exclusive to Y, and will retain its original type of Fire/Flying.

I have decided that starting on the 6th, counting down to the release of the games. I will be posting my current team, one member per day starting from the bottom and working to my most favorite. Sharing some experiences I have had with them, their bio, and maybe a little on why I use them. Though why I use them is simply because they are some of my most favorite.

I hope you are excited for the new generation, and I hope to hear from you in the comments. Share your Pokemon stories, team, etc.

Keep Geeking.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Dragon's Crown

Over the past few weeks I have been playing Dragon's Crown on the PS-Vita. I really enjoy this game, the hand drawn graphics are amazing, as is the music. I have almost tried every character class, and my favorite two so far are the Wizard and the Elf Archer. The Wizard gives you some great visuals with the different spells he learns. Though not very strong in terms of close up combat, he works best in the back casting, as a Wizard should. The Elf is a great mix of martial combat and ranged, with a small amount of magic at her disposal. I haven't played with her as much, but I hope to level her up as much as my Wizard. Today I unlocked the online play and hope to play with some people. If you would like to play, send a friend request my way, Vicfalcon4.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Geek-tastic months

Oh boy my head is still spinning from all that has been going on. I have been busy folks, I do apologize for my hiatus. I was going to post about the Xbox one, but decided to wait for E3 to pass. Then I got distracted by awesome movies coming out, and I am finally once again employed which has taken a bit of my time.

First off my opinions of the Xbox One. I was impressed by its specs, less so by the functions they displayed initially. Then they tried to impose DRM and a mandatory online check-in every twenty-four hours. Since E3 they have taken those features away, not before trying to defend it though and practically calling the consumer stupid. First impressions are important in sales, they obviously forgot that.
 
Sony made some great announcements on how their system will be able to play used PS4 games, and that you will not need an internet connection or check in everyday. They also threw out some awesome games, and now I am even more excited. Destiny, Beyond, Transistor, so many I can hardly stand the wait, I want this system now.
 
Nintendo, though Wii U sales are not as high as they would like, is not out of the race. They have some great looking games coming, Super Smash Bros. I am excited to play as Mega Man. A game from the creators of Xenoblade, simply called "X" for now. I really need to get a 3DS too, I am most excited for the new Pokemon X and Y. I have played every single Pokemon game since the beginning, and I have loved all of them. I can not wait for the new generation to come, neither can my fiancee, we have been keeping up with all of the news.

And now movies, Pacific Rim is out and I think it is a lot of fun. Giant monsters and robot battles, how could I say no? I enjoyed the music, the action scenes were great, though the acting was sub-par that was not what I went to watch it for. I went for giant monsters fighting giant robots, and it delivered.

I also went to see Man of Steel. It was a good movie, though it had some inconsistencies and changes to story. One thing bothered me most though. When taken aboard the Kryptonian ship, he began having trouble breathing, and his powers went away. They said it was because the ships atmosphere. NO. Superman gets his powers from the rays of the yellow sun, not from the atmosphere he is in. He does not even have to breathe, which they even show in the movie a few times. Once while he was underwater for an undetermined amount of time, and he even went into the vacuum of space, twice. Things like that really stick with me, and make the experience less enjoyable.

Once again I apologize for not posting in a while, I will do my best to continue to geek out with you. Until next time folks.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Iron Man 3


Warning this post may contain a few spoilers, just so you know.

I was able to make it to opening night of Iron Man 3, and I had a great time. Iron Man is not really my favorite of superheroes, but I have a passion for any heroes or heroins. The first Iron Man did an excellent job of introducing the characters and establishing their backgrounds. The second had a lot going on, and seemed too cramped. What with Tony being taken to court for his armor, Tony slowly dying from his battery poisoning his blood, and mixing in some S.H.I.E.L.D activity to make way for the Avengers. It was just a lot of different stories going on for one movie.

Three takes place after the events in The Avengers, and Tony is apparently having anxiety attacks when ever someone talks to him about what happened in the portal. Then in comes The Mandarin seeming to antagonize Tony, not directly, with attacks across America. Tony then threatens him, telling him he is dead and goes as far as to mock him by giving him his address. This is followed by Tony's mansion being blown up and he goes on the run.

I found the movie to be entertaining, Robert Downey Jr. continues to play the snarky Tony Stark perfectly. There are scenes where he is interacting with a young boy, and the dialog is priceless. I do not want to ruin that for anyone, you have to see it for yourself. There is not much with the film I was not happy with, it had action, plot twists, and a lot more comedy than the other films. Some people might have a problem with that, but if I am laughing, even through an action film, I am enjoying myself. I say the movie was great, go see the beginning of Marvel's phase two of superhero films. And remember to stay for the end of the credits, I know they are long, but you will be happy.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger VS. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

I was recently lucky to find all fifty episodes of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger, the series that started America's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I have always been told that the Japanese version had a better story than the American. So I embarked on a 6 month quest to find to either a DVD set or a steaming community.

When it came to America we of course took our scissors and cut the heck out of the series. We also added a bunch of new stuff such as Zordon, Alpha and teenagers with attitude. When I was younger I of course had no problem with how corny it was, how the picture quality would change when they 'morphed', or how they would be in one place and then be somewhere completely different a second later. The story was very simple too, a witch named Rita escaped her prison after ten thousand years and begins trying to destroy planet earth. And all that stands in her way is a group of teenage superheroes. When Rita's monsters seemed to be defeated, she would cast down her staff and make it grow. Then the Rangers would have to call on their powerful Zords, large dinosaur themed robotic beasts, to help and form the Megazord to banish the monster for good.


However, the original story was deeper and had more plot twists. Five young warriors from an ancient civilization of Dinosaur-evolved Humans are awakened during the present day after 170 million years of suspended animation. This is in reaction to their sworn enemy, Bandora the Witch, being inadvertently released from her magical container on Planet Nemesis by two astronauts. The five warriors, the Zyurangers, must summon the power of deities known as Guardian Beasts, each modeled after a different prehistoric beast, and form Daizyujin in order to protect mankind from Bandora's evil forces. A sixth warrior, Burai the Dragon Ranger, later becomes involved with the conflict between the Zyurangers and Bandora.

It is revealed that Burai followed the Zyurangers into suspended animation to seek revenge on Geki, the red ranger and his younger brother. He believed that Geki was responsible for the death of his family. This is because they had been separated when Geki was a baby. Though he was raised by the King and Queen of the Yamato Tribe, he was adopted by them after his birth father rebelled against the Yamato King and was forced to give Geki up for adoption as punishment for his insubordination. His birth father used this as an opportunity to challenge the King and reclaim Geki, only to be killed by the King. But the two resolve their differences and eventually fight along side one another. Later in the series the Zyurangers discover that Burai actually died while he was frozen and was brought back to life at the request of Daizyujin. Burai only has a short amount of time before he must return to the land of the dead, and has to stay in a magical room void of time. But every time he leaves it burns down a candle that measures his time left. Eventually Burai runs out of time, but before he leaves he passes his powers onto Geki.

Wow, what a difference, and I think I still left some things out. To close, I am truly happy I was able to watch this series, it was so much better then what I was subjected to as a child. I feel as though I was cheated, I would have gladly watched this much story and thought put into my programming. Though as my Fiancee and I watched we could not help but recall the different scenes that we remember from our younger days. And could not help but insert the hilariously bad dubbing.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Gatchaman goes Live!!

For those who do not know Gatchaman is a Japanese anime from 1972, inspired by the rise of popularity in henshin (transformation) series' like Kamen Rider. Gatchaman features five young heroes trained in the art of the science ninja technique. They fight for the conservation of nature, environmentalism, and responsible use of technology for progress and advancement. The main antagonist is a group of global terrorist known as Galactor, who use giant mechanoids to try and take control of Earth's natural resources. As you could guess, I am a huge fan of this series. I can remember getting up at four or five in the morning to catch the block of anime shows the local channels had running at the time. There were several, Ronin Warriors, Voltron, to name a few and of course Gatchaman. Though that is not what it was called when it came on TV here in America. It came over to America in several forms, from Battle of the Planets, to Eagle Riders. It was heavily cut for the violence, and they added sequences that were clearly of different quality. By doing so it was made even more into a kid show, cause we all know adults do not watch cartoons right? But I was young then and I did not know what I know now.

What drew me in the most about Gatchaman is that it was different from most superhero, action packed adventures that were out there. It had an on going theme and message, use technology wisely and protect nature. The plot was also continuous and consistent, something that is rare for a kid show and cartoons even today. They always used caution when using their bigger weapons, such as the bird missiles and the powerful phoenix attack. I really liked that they did not just go firing away, they thought about the consequences and any damage it might cause. I had never seen that before in anything, and I think it really taught a valuable lesson of think before you act. 


Back in 2005 ADV films released several DVD volumes with all of the episodes uncut for the first time ever in America. Both in their original subtitled version, and a new dubbed version. I was so excited that this happened, I was finally able to see Gatchaman as it was meant to be seen. And now the even greater news, Gatchaman is getting its own live action adaptation! When I heard about this I nearly jumped around for joy, okay I did a little. The movie is slated for a Japan release on August 24th of this year. They now have a teaser trailer on the official site, as well as some images.

Ken "The Eagle" Washio


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Game of Shows

Sunday marked the end of the third season of The Walking Dead, AMC's hit television drama loosely based on the popular comic of the same name. I was disappointed with how it ended, it was very anticlimactic. The episode started strong with some action and explosions and then took a swan dive into drawn out dialog followed by some more dialog. Then they went to Woodbury to strike back and just ended up with more talking. Oh and the "Governor" went from pretty crazy to just plain insane and shot all the people he took with him to hit the prison, just because they ran and did not want to die. I really like the show but the season ender really did not empress me at all. This season was not as impressive as the last two, and did not boast the same amount of zombies, sorry 'walkers', as the previous seasons. It was more talking then anything else, and grasping to find different ways to shock the audience.


Game of Thrones on the other hand started its third season Sunday, at the same time as the Walking Dead finale. I watched GoT first and then stayed up to watch the re-showing of WD, let me say I partly regret the decision to stay up and should have just gone to bed. GoT season premier was by far more entertaining, I am more of a fantasy geek so yeah my opinion might be slightly biased. The show has so many intertwining stories that I tend to only pay attention to my favorite characters, John Snow, Tyrion Lannister, Daenerys Targaryen and Arya. The show really took off for me during the second season, when they really started to ramp up the fantasy element. And now with Daenerys having her dragons and making a war path, it is really shaping into an exciting season already.

Friday, March 29, 2013

TMNT

I was watching my usual cartoons recently and saw an ad for the new LEGO Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets based off of the new Nickelodeon series. As I am a huge fan of TMNT and Legos you could imagine my extreme excitement that the two have finally come together. Here is some great behind the scenes videos of the making of the new toys. I have also been watching the new series on Nickelodeon and I am very happy with it, there are some changes to the story but only to modernize it and make it relevant for today.

I am really happy how the turtles are once again making a come back. It was not long ago that they had another series that aired on 4kids TV, but it did not grab the interest they had hoped, though it did air for six years. It even had a season, or two, where the turtles were thrust into the future, but that did not go so well and I was not a fan of that much change to the story. The new series though reboots our turtles to when they are younger, fighting the Shredder and his Foot clan, and aliens called Kraang from a different dimension. We find out the Kraang are working on an invasion, and that the ooz that caused the turtles to mutate and also change Master Splinter from a human to a giant rat is from the Kraang dimension. I like the small changes to the story and characters, as it really doesn't change who and what they are. Mind you though these cartoons are for kids and are only spin offs of the comics, which are darker and bloodier.

As happy as I am about the turtles coming back, I can't help but worry about the impending movie slated for June 2014. It is going to be live action and is to have a mix of puppetry and CGI, as well it will be based more closely to the comics. That is cool, but as with other things from my childhood that he has tainted, Michael Bay is a producer with this project. I have also heard despairing news that the turtles will be aliens themselves. That is not the turtles I grew up with, they are mutants, four baby turtles that came in contact with a strange substance that they call the ooz. Raised by Master Splinter, who was also mutated, and trained in the art of Ninjutsu. That is what I grew up with, that is what I want, stop messing with our childhood Michael Bay!! I thank God he is not directing it too.

Sunday, March 24, 2013

This ain't your Amazing Spider-Man

Warning! this post might contain spoilers, abandon hope all ye who enter here!

Back in January Marvel launched its new Spider-Man title, Superior Spider-Man, after ending its Amazing Spider-Man series on issue #700. I have to say I was a little apprehensive going into the new Superior Spider-Man series, after my slight disappointment with how Amazing ended. Thinking to myself how odd it all felt that it really would not be Peter Parker as Spider-Man, but really Otto Octavious inside Peter's body. Yeah they almost did the same thing with the Ultimate Spider-Man franchise, but that was a different universe, and they out right killed Peter and replaced him with another kid. I also worry about what Otto is going to do as Spider-Man, will he truly be Superior?

It starts out with Peter, Otto, placing flowers on the grave of Otto Octavious, Peter, head hurting yet? Yeah I know. So it is his first day on the job as Spider-Man and who does he end up having a showdown with? A group of super villains calling themselves, dun dun dun, The Sinister Six. As you could imagine this does not go over well with Otto, because we know it is really Otto I'm just going to call him that from now on to relieve some confusion. This new group consists of Overdrive, Beetle, Speed Demon, The Living Brain, Shocker, and the acting leader Boomerang. I have to agree with Otto here, a pretty lame assortment of baddies, as he takes out the living brain first. But Speed Demon ends up being a big problem for him and he tries to run. I did not see that coming, but just as he was swinging away, Boomerang throws a nitro-rang which Otto dodges. But it turns in the air and starts flying toward a police officer. Otto dives tackling him and taking the exploding boomerang to the back, and he does not even know why he did it. As he recovers, Boomerang tries to slice him up with a razorang. I have to hand it to him, he picked a theme and is really sticking to it. But Otto slashes him with some claws he built into his new suit, and then the villains decide to hightail it. All in all an exciting beginning, blood, explosions, themed weaponry, and that is only eight pages.

Later we find out that when Otto slashed Boomerang it injected him with nano bots with GPS and audio transmitters. These will let him know where they are and what they are planning next, allowing him to plan accordingly well in advance. And plan he did. He takes out Speed Demon first, then with a power dampening field takes out the rest, save Boomerang. With the press watching he starts to pound on Boomerang, showing everyone that this Spider-Man is not one to be trifled with. I won't reveal what happens, but I want to say I was really surprised with this issue. Perhaps Otto can be a Superior Spider-Man, but he still has a long way to go in my eyes.
If you were not happy with the ending of Amazing, I suggest reading this issue it might ease your mind.



Saturday, March 16, 2013

Spider-Man, Amazing no more

WARNING!! This post contains spoilers, if you read the comics but by some off chance have not read the final issue of Amazing Spider-Man, or any of the Superior Spider-Man, you might not want to go further as I will summarize a few things that have occurred in the Spidey universe.

Hello true believers! As Mr. Stan Lee would say. I am a big Spider-Man fan, as I have stated previously, I can remember watching the early '90s cartoon series religiously. And I have been reading The Amazing Spider-Man comic-book series for quite a while now. So you could imagine my surprise when Marvel announced that they were ending the series on issue #700, back in December. At first I was heart broken, how could they end Spider-Man? Then I was more curious, how will they end Spider-Man? Those questions rolled through my mind, I asked my close friends, and they admitted to being just as surprised as I was. So I continued to buy my comics, the number climbing closer and closer, until it happened, and my questions were answered.

Thanks to a string of events and a well placed spy, the King Pin got a hold of a Spider Sense jamming device that had been modified to heighten the sense to the point it was driving Peter crazy. Everything was a danger, then while fighting two hobgoblins he was able to focus enough to shut out the sense and fight. While all of this was happening Doctor Octopus, who is in critical condition, was able to control a small octobot, and while Peter was focusing on fighting and not using his Spider Sense snuck up and used it to switch bodies with Peter. He managed to do this by switching brain waves, thus resulting in the ultimate fate of Peter Parker.

The final issue of ASM is Peter inside the slowly dying body of Doc Ock while trying his best to switch bodies back with Otto, who is living it up as Peter Parker and trying to start things with Mary Jane. Peter, with the help of some villains who believe he is Doc Ock, break into the police station to steal an octobot for himself. While the villains cause havoc with officers, Peter goes to find the bot, and gets caught by none other then Carlie, his ex-girlfriend. Peter tries desperately to convince Carlie that he is indeed Peter but she does not buy it and Peter has to escape with the octobot. Now that is not everything, but I am not going to go and tell the entire issue to you, it is an extra large issue, I was very happy they did that.

Now how they ended it (and here is the big spoiler if you have not read it yet) with Peter failing to switch back and dying was very hard to take. I was not happy with it, but he was able to make Otto see the error of his ways and get him to promise to live as Peter and Spider-Man as best he could. Hard to believe, but it happened. I was not happy with the last issue, I was hoping that he was going to switch, or die some other way more heroically. But then thinking on it, he did die a hero, he saved the people he loved from a mad scientist. You might think, why didn't he use the bot to switch with someone else? Because that is not Peter, doing that would condemn that person to die, and he would never do that.


That is it, that is how he dies. It's sad and upsetting that a hero we lived with for a such very long time dies in such a way. Replaced by a villain he fought with almost his entire life. But a villain no more, haunted by the emotional memories of Peter's past he swears to become Spider-Man. But being the arrogant person that is Otto Octavious, he swears to be a better Spider-Man then Peter ever was, which is what I will be talking about next time... To Be Continued with



Friday, March 8, 2013

Meeting with a Wizard

Tuesday (the 5th) was an awesome day.
I went out to the Johns Hopkins Barnes & Noble, in Baltimore, to meet one of the greatest fantasy writers of our time, R.A. Salvatore. It was extremely exciting to listen to him talk about his books. I am really looking forward to reading The Companions, which is the first book of a six part collaboration series called The Sundering. He also mentioned that he will also be releasing two books every year for the next three years. He went into detail about how he started writing, and how his relationship with his most iconic character, Drizzt Do'Urden, began.

One thing I was very happy to hear him talk about was his involvement with how the Realms will be changing with the next edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Also that he is an avid table top gamer much like myself, but he likes to keep his writing and his gaming separate. He did mention a hilarious story of how he did try to play Drizzt in a campaign and was killed in the first battle.

It was truly an amazing experience being able to meet him. I really enjoyed that he spent the whole discussion time just answering questions. Just by hearing him and talking with him you could easily tell he really loves his fans.

His new book The Last Threshold, the last book in his Neverwinter saga, is out now so I say go pick it up, along with the other books in the series. The saga is a prequel to the new MMORPG that will be coming out so look forward to that, I know I am.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Next Gen

I was finally able to watch, or get through without falling asleep if you will, the Sony Meet 2013 press conference, boring speeches and G.W. Bush style teleprompter reading aside, the PS4 system specs look juicy. A system for developers by developers they said, with input from developers from various studios, they seek to create a system easier to design games on, you can watch this to hear what some of the developers have to say about creating this new beast of a machine.

Being a beast of a machine is great, I am in truth very excited about the system and the changes to the controller, though there are not very many, and some of the games they announced. A new inFAMOUS title, Capcom with a new IP Deep Down (working title), and Watch Dogs is going to be on there. But what worries me is that PS3 games will not be "natively supported on PS4", but they did say that the network they are working on will one day be able to have PS 1, 2, 3, and even mobile games. That is great and all, but how long will we have to wait? How much will we have to pay to purchase all those games? Some of which we already own, I for one will not be getting rid of my PS3 any time soon. You want to make a system that is capable of doing almost anything in the realm of entertainment, to be the one and only thing you need to go to for your entertainment needs. Then by the nine do it, make it so it will play your entire library of games.

But I can see why they would not be supported, take a look at those system specs, now take a look at the PS3 specs, that is one hell of a difference. Look at it this way, you buy a new PC with awesome specs high-end graphics card and processors, and all that jazz, do you think it will play say GTA-IV? My bet is going on hell no, at least not very well, it will probably crash a lot, due to the fact that the graphics card does not want to touch the, loathsome, crappy old polygons. You have purchased hardware too advanced for the old software, it is not programmed for those specs, and the hardware does not support it. And so we'll have to wait for them to program the old software to work on the new hardware, which can take time and money.

Sony is also going to make it so developers, if they choose, can lock their games with a code, much like PC games, and if someone wants to play that game and doesn't have the code because they purchased it used, they will need to purchase a new code at the retail price of the game, or some yet to be decided price. I really don't see a problem with this, sure I like to save a buck, but when you buy a used game you are only supporting the store you buy it from, which is cool you like that store, but what about the developers who made that awesome game? I have seen a lot of studios closing their doors because of financial reasons, that is a lot of people out of the job.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Good Reads

I went out over the weekend and found myself at a Barnes & Noble, looking through the sci-fi/fantasy section first, as is my custom, I had a great find, a new series from a favorite author. While I was there I thought to skim the young adult section to see if anything popped out at me, I don't really care about target audiences, and low and behold I found the new book from the on going series I have been reading.

From Brent Weeks, author of one of the fastest and best selling fantasy series Night Angel, comes The Black Prism the first book in a new series. "Guile is the Prism, the most powerful man in the world. He is high priest and emperor, a man whose power, wit, and charm are all that preserve a tenuous peace."

I am really looking forward to reading this, as Brent Weeks has become a favorite author of mine, almost over night, ever since I read his first trilogy, Night Angel, I was taken in by his writing style, and his attention to details that paint a picture in your mind but still gives you the reigns to imagination. I highly recommend reading his works.

From Rick Riordan comes The Mark of Athena, the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series, which follows almost immediately after the events in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. This story follows Percy and six demigod friends as they race against time to thwart Gaea and her giant offspring rising again, and fight a bunch of other monsters along the way.

Riordan really loves mythology from all sources, he has another series that is based in Egyptian myth, and he does his research on everything he writes about. Though the book is intended for a younger audience then I, it is still a good read and I suggest taking a look at this and other works by Rick Riordan

Friday, February 15, 2013

I Geek, therefore I am


Hello, I am Vicfalcon,

 I have many passions in my life, video games, movies, books, comic books, cartoons, etc. The list goes on, if you get me started I can talk for quite awhile, and you would probably call me a geek, which is rightly so. A geek is someone who is passionate about a hobby/interest, they "geek" about it. I am a huge superhero fan, I love comic books, and could talk for hours about many of my favorites, my top two being Batman and Spider-Man. My love for superheros extends even to the type of video games I play, mostly RPGs, JRPGs, Action/Adventure, etc. I am not much of a fan of First Person Shooters, so you won't find me talking about Halo or Call of Duty here. I read a lot of books as well, some of my favorite authors are Laurell K. Hamilton, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and many others.

A little while ago, after one of my "geek" moments, a great person suggested to me I should write a blog, that person is my fiance. I didn't listen right away, I am rather stubborn, but I thought about it, and what I would write about. Now here I am, I will be sharing with you my geek moments, rants about what annoys me, and reviews/opinions on all those things I mentioned and more.

I Geek, therefore I am.