Fun with Chris's Blog

Friend Chris takes great photos of his figure collection. Most of the time, they are size comparison shots or groups of teams. Sometimes, the placement of said figures makes for a great little comic- like this one I made from his most recent post...




Sorry Chris- I'm lazy today I guess.

Yep, more board games

Between down time on vacation (surfing the net before company arrived) and shopping on vacation (outlet malls of various states) I stumbled across four more board games for my collection...

Clue: The Card Game
My dad bought this (with a little coercion from me) at a five and dime general store since my sister has crap for boardgames and it was raining while we were there. Ironically paid more than a dime for it. Essentially, Clue without the board, and wasted dice rolls. Deduce the who, the where to, and by what mode of transportation- instead of the weapon of choice. Plays fairly quickly and provides some eyebrow raising suspicions among the group. I didn't like the notepad you used to mark for clues to the mystery- but never really liked it for regular Clue either. Should come with a blocker like in Clue: The Great Museum Caper. It's hard not to look sometimes.
Break the Safe
Bought this at a Value City for $7, which was fantastic since I had just left a board game store in the mall (second guessing myself) selling it for $25. Whew! Break the Safe is well thought out in terms of artwork and game pieces- the concept is unique too. You play a team of spies breaking into the EGC (evil guy complex) to steal secret documents inside a safe which doubles as the games timer- 30 minutes to complete the task or the world is doomed. You work together to search rooms containing the four keys to open the safe. Each room may contain traps to hinder you in your progress along with a night watch man and his guard dog. Specific cards can be used to aid you along or be passed off to one another during the game. Not bad for $7. I'll see what my friends think...




Last Night on Earth
Found this game on boardgame geek- yet to be released, possibly fall of this year. Another zombie game! Huzzah! But not by Twilight Creations- the company that tries to make a good zombie game but misses the boat- continously....sigh. Anyhoo- this company: Flying Frog Productions may have gotten it right. A odd grouping of characters are forced to survive among an army of zombies. The game board seems similar to Zombies!!! games, but larger in scale. They also use a cards that mirror the look of Magic: the Gathering with an undead flair. That's pretty much aIl I know so far. Here's a shot of the board...


Marvel Heroscape
Also on the 'geek- soon to be released- next week even? is Marvel's jump onto the Heroscape franchise- retailing for 30 bucks. Other than obiviou$ rea$on$, why the need for a Marvel Heroscape? Heroclix is just fine- more than fine since I've invested time and money and pulled my friends onto the Clix bandwagon. The only difference is a diagonal map and stats on cards instead of the figures bases. However, figures are standard wysiwyg- no need to pay ebay prices or hope for luck of the draw for characters you want- just waiting for expansion packs to be released. Bitching aside, the game looks good. Nice sculpts of the figures, demolished buildings as the backdrop/tiles and plenty-o-room for expansion. I've never played a game of the original Heroscape to know if its great or worth replaying on a weekly basis with a group of people. Fanboy mode on high- I'm very tempted- but will this replace my Heroclix game? No, it won't- merely another option.




-and that's all for now. Game on!

Vacation

I've been on vacation for a week. A whole week. I've never taken a 'whole week' vacation in my life...until now. I gotta say- I liked it. A lot.

I visited my parents in Illinois, my sister in New Hampshire, and took in the sites of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Maine. I saw Spider-man 3 (again) and Shrek 3. I shopped outlet malls. I ate out way too much, and had my fill of sleeping in four different beds.

Today, I came back to my apartment. Only it wasn't my apartment- not at first. I got the feeling I was just another guest for the time being and had to keep moving. Who's stuff is all this? Why wasn't I greeted at the door? I had to stop myself and say: "Hey- you live here." It was really odd- that's never happened to me before.

I assume the same thing will happen tomorrow at work- only they won't be as forgiving.
"Have fun?....Great!- Now, get back to work!"

That's life I guess.

He can be taught...

Getting in the creative mood after being on a computer all day at work is tough. Something or someone has to really knock some sense into my head to get the ball rolling or cause a spark. Awhile back I discovered two great websites, Melissa Clifton and Comic Art Community Clifton's site is great for photoshop tutorials in additon to some vector ones as well. She's amazing. Comic Art features hundreds of my favorite comic artists and then some. Combined together, these two sites make the perfect blend for a overworked/not-as-skilled as I should be in the design programs kind guy. Yes, I can draw- but at a level where I consider myself good?...No, not yet. Ditto for Photoshop/Illustrator. I have this weird love/hate relationship with Adobe. I love finding cool new things to do in the those programs, but hate working in them day after day at my regular job and coming home feeling exhausted and burned out from it. It soaks my creative juice dry like a sponge. I hate that...

Anyways, I look for an artist I like- print out their pencils, ink them, scan them back into the computer, and use the tutorials (as best I can) to make something that looks cool.

Here's Joe Mad's Scarlet Witch I did from a ways back along with a sketch from my friend Tesh of Wonder Girl, currently in the works. Enjoy...I'll keep cracking at it- as best I can. Maybe I'll even post one of my own drawings.






...and no, I'm not claiming these as my own artwork or trying to make a profit, it's just a learning exercise- so don't get your underpants in an uproar. Yeah, that's right, underpants.

Spider-Man 3: The Wii game

Giving into more Spidey-hype and being an avid gamer, I bought Spider-man 3 for my Nintendo Wii. The game delivers a unique control scheme of web-slinging using both the wiimote and nunchuk as your right and left hands shooting off webs. Kinda cool when you think about it.

Execution of said set-up on the other hand, is unforgiving with a steep learning curve. I played for ten minutes on a lunch break and got easily frustrated. Playing it later in the day for a longer period of time- I slowly started to get the hang of things and then I would completely lose control of my rhythm. So I tried again, and again, and again- with the same results.

Fighting bad guys is a pain too. Utilizing the wiimote you swing it left and right to land a punch or kick. You can also use the 'a' button to punch too, but it get montonous. Guiding you along is the narrator, Bruce Campbell with his delightful commentary- except during the fight scenes when he's mocking you for doing the same moves over and over. Obviously, he didn't play the game.

Negativity aside, it is a good game- fun in concept and a huge city to explore while web-slinging. Upgrades a plenty, and a neat mini-game of ridding yourself of the alien black suit. (think any huge boss fight on Ultimate Alliance). It's just too bad it doesn't come together like it should. The frustration I'd get from fighting just one tough boss battle in any other video game, is the same experience I get simply trying to control Spidey's actions.

One day of ownership and I'm ready to trade this puppy in. Sorry Spidey.

So, out of the movie, the game, and the soundtrack. The soundtrack wins...uh, I guess. 8 out of 15 songs I like is a small victory. Man, what a let-down for Spidey fans. ):

Spider-Man 3: A Review

Just got back from "Spider-Man 3" tonight with some friends...was it good? Was it bad? Pull up a chair and I'll give you my two cents on the recent tale of the wall-crawler. Spoiler Alert- I will ruin this for you if you haven't seen it. So, until you go see it- don't read this. I repeat-

READ THIS ONLY IF YOU WANT THE MOVIE SPOILED.


The plot: Peter is getting all the attention he deserves as Spider-man- being issued keys to the city, magazine covers, parades, etc. This PO's MJ who's recently been replaced on Broadway. MJ wants support from Peter who unfortunately has his head in the clouds and can't relate the same way to her. This sound familiar to anyone? Relationships are fun aren't they? Meanwhile Harry's trying to kill Peter with his new goblin gear and in a fight with Peter gets amnesia- forgetting the whole vengance bit. Then there's Eddie Brock, a freelance photographer who's looking to steal away Peter's job at the Daily Bugle. Oh yeah, there's also Flint Marko, who's on the run from the law- falls into a pit and through the wonders of science becomes the Sandman. Lastly, our pal Flint is tied to the murder of Uncle Ben, a meteor with strange goo crashes to earth and bonds to Peter, and Gwen Stacy falls out a building, kisses Spidey, and dates Eddie Brock. Whew!

The good: The fight scenes are amazing, dizzying, and cool. Like watching a pinball machine. Wow....Howard makes a great Gwen Stacy- looks the part and has that innocence to her, like her comic counterpart. Venom is handled nicely, creepy animation with the transforming goo and bonding to each host. Sandman's fantastic too- sand pebbles pour off Marko as he moves and shakes. Really nice. Parker giving into the dark side of the black suit and becoming a bad-ass, as much as a dorky Parker could at least.

The bad: Too much going on. Sandman. Venom. Gwen. Peter. MJ. Harry....and all the relationships between them. Parker giving into the dark side, while cool at first, then becomes a dancing machine. With his new cockiness he feels the need to prance about town doing the shooter hands at women passing by. WHAT? This goes on way too long. This worked for Spidey 2 because it had a different context (reverting back to his nerdy self after losing his powers) it just doesn't work here and comes off extremely stupid and goofy. The Batman ending...Venom confronts Sandman to do a team-up (think Batman Returns through Batman& Robin) and devises a plan to kidnap MJ and hold her hostage at a construction site for an ambush. Oh yeah, and Peter confronts Harry that he needs his help in fighting the pair- so Harry while stand off-ish at first comes to Peter's aid as the 'New Goblin' and does a tag-team fight in taking down Sandman/Venom. Then the movie just doesn't know when to end. Sandman is defeated along with Venom. Fade out. It's over? Nope, Peter attends the funeral for Harry. Fade out again? Nope. MJ is working as a singer/waitress- Peter approaches her and they embrace....over? Yes, FINALLY.

Overall: It wasn't X-Men 3 bad- but they'll be plenty of parts I skip through on the DVD. This movie should have been split up into two separate movies- Venom & Sandman. NOT BOTH!