Well i am quite amazed to finally hear Mass Effect 2 will be coming out in mid January next year, a whole month past Christmas, but i do know it will be so worth it. For those who don't know, Mass Effect 2 is the big hit squeal to the famed Mass Effect 1 for the 360 and PC, a game developed by Bioware (who are Canadian). For Mass Effect 2 (or Mass2), EA has teamed up to add some new goodies to the already "much anticipated" game. According to G4TV's website "BioWare returns to its planned epic, sci-fi trilogy with Mass Effect 2. Following the events of the first game, the title will read the gamer's save file from the first title, changing their gameplay experience in the sequel. With updated graphics and an improved combat system, Mass Effect 2 is sure to be a hit when it is finally released." In other words, how and what you did in the first game will reflect upon the second, so it gets quite exciting to see what will actually be put about. For me, I went as a Paragon (good) Infiltrator/Commando, so what i had done in the first game will most certainly affect me in the new one.
What i really am looking forward to is the cast, seeing some preview trailers, it has been announced that a lot of new faces will join you; An Assassin named Thane, another Asari biotic (a powerful one at that), and a new Krogan named Grunt, more mentally unstable than Wrex, joins you. There are some old Faces, Garris is back, a Sniper by trade, as well as Tali. It isn't sure of Ashley/Kaiden are still back depending on who you rescued, but that has yet to be noted, you do however find a few new humans as well as another Sentinel named Subject Zero, for an overall team of 10.
Graphic wise, according to trailer reviewers and commentary, the new game should have better graphics overall, cleaner look, and a lot less of that "faded" look seen in the first game. Put it like this, at some points when you either go into a cinematic or the squad menu, your character seems to have detail "faded" to a basic layer. This is probably going to be fixed in the second as well as a whole new feel. Game play wise, from the review noted above as well as the trailers, there is certainly going to be a new swath of weapons to make even Rachet and Clank green with envy, especially if there is one gun that fires a mini-nuke (as seen in another trailer).
Story...hmmm...well if i had to guess, I'd assume this would take place a few years after the first game, Humanity and the Citadel races have rebuilt and now are on the verge of war with the Reapers, the "mission" Shepard mentions in the trailer could revolve around stopping them, but since its noted for this game to be a "trilogy" i would imagine this would end in a cliff hanger. Suffice to say, im a rather excited gamer and really look forward to seeing Mass Effect 2 when it comes out.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Ace Combat Series Review - Part 1: Ace Combat 4
Well, the topic of gaming has been haunting me for the past few weeks, so i decided to take some time and write a quick game review.
The game...Project Ace's ACE COMBAT series.
I can figure several dozen people going "what" after seeing that title, but Project Ace's is a internal Namaco development team that had organically worked on the game "Air Combat" for the PSone. Since then, they have produce Air Combat 2, Ace Combat 3 (the start of the new Ace Combat name)Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, Ace Combat 5: Unsung War, and the recent Ace Combat 6: Skies of Liberation.
This review however is to touch on the 3 games that have been kept aside compared to many of the other air simulators that are out in the market. To start, Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.
Ace Combat 4 was the first new step Project Ace's took to developing their recent style of air combat games. Unlike the previous 3, the player had a much more detailed look inside and outside his cockpit. Much has been done to give a more "real feel" to the game, and it works rather well even on the PS2. Ace Combat series are notorious for being vibrant in their detail and despite most of their games being on a previous generation system, the style, look, and detail of the craft, explosions and even missiles is crisp and clean that could easily suffice for PS3 graphics. It also gives the pilot the chance to survey the air around him, vertically and horizontally as well as "track" targets when they are selected.
Ace Combat 4 was also the first game to implement "radio chatter" in the series. As you fly within the vast mission-scape, you can get a good deal of com traffic from fellow pilots, sometimes they help you, others you get from the enemy that try to insult you, and fail. The radio chatter also implements part of the story or mission, offering you tips or mission updates that may be important to your task. In a more detailed note, the sound of the actual game is quite accurate, and even the soundtrack is worth looking into. Thew music gives a good feel of rush, and certain missions fit the track that is playing quite well. For example, the "Blockade" mission were you are ordered to shoot down transport planes protected by a massive Jamming field, the music playing grips you, it seems to fit with the scene of daring pilots diving into a difficult situation and pulling through against overwhelming odds.
The interface of Ace Combat remains pretty sparse, but maintains the usual bits seen in the previous games. Basing close to the "fighter craft" look; From speed and altitude, to weapon ammo and even damage (okay, maybe the damage control is a bit far-fetched). There isn't too many things to watch so your not overwhelming with readouts. Even with the full and detailed cockpit view, the controls resemble a real fighter quite well.
This is actually a mandatory thing in Ace Combat Series. To get 100%, you will have to replay the game a few times over to unlock new craft and gain the highest ranks. Trust me, it's not as easy as you may think to beat the game and get all "S" rank in the first run with the craft you are given during most missions, as well as saving up enough to buy the good ones like the F-22 or the SU-37. Despite that, playing many of the first missions with the most advance craft is a bit boring, being able to easily outmaneuver even the Ace squadron of "Yellows" you face in early missions.
Speaking of Yellows, I guess its time to explain the story. Ace Combat 4 takes place in a fictional world were two powers, Independent States Allied Forces (ISAF) against a powerful foe known as Eruseans. The Eruseans are in command of most of the continent Usea and dominate the skies with a very powerful super weapon that was originally meant to destroy asteroids. There are also several cut scenes within the storyline that give a good idea to how a small group of civilians feel about the war when the Eruseans occupy their town. The game puts you in the seat of quite an assortment of craft, many modern day craft and a few prototype and in production craft (during the time of its release). What i mean by Yellows is the name of the Ace squadron that makes an appearance in various levels to either impede your progress were your forced to either avoid them or run away, and eventually engage them in fierce combat. The AI used for the Yellows is very good, and gives a very exquisite taste of dealing with a foe that can always change the way it flies. Even with the most advance fighter, it is still a challenge to line them up to fire. That's another interesting thing, Missile locks in this game are both heaven and hell. They can be wonderful and easy, other times they wont leave you alone. Avoiding enemy missiles while trying to lock on with your own is the main point of the air duels, and mastering that leads to becoming an epic ace.
Game play is fast pace, you always got to be moving and observing your surroundings. At times it can get quite slow with a lull in combat but that tends to quickly change with a mission to either protect an ally, engage a target, or secure a section of the map. The real downside is most missions are "Destroy this amount of targets..." so there is little originally in many of the mission despite the few escort missions there isn't much else in the way of challenging missions until the end of the game.
Overall, id rate this a 8/10
Its got some good graphics and a rich story with nice cut scenes that help depict it from the other side rather well, and many of the missions provide a good amount of fun. Sadly, with the lack of originality in said missions really hinders some aspect of enjoyment and change of pace.
The game...Project Ace's ACE COMBAT series.
I can figure several dozen people going "what" after seeing that title, but Project Ace's is a internal Namaco development team that had organically worked on the game "Air Combat" for the PSone. Since then, they have produce Air Combat 2, Ace Combat 3 (the start of the new Ace Combat name)Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, Ace Combat 5: Unsung War, and the recent Ace Combat 6: Skies of Liberation.
This review however is to touch on the 3 games that have been kept aside compared to many of the other air simulators that are out in the market. To start, Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.
Ace Combat 4 was the first new step Project Ace's took to developing their recent style of air combat games. Unlike the previous 3, the player had a much more detailed look inside and outside his cockpit. Much has been done to give a more "real feel" to the game, and it works rather well even on the PS2. Ace Combat series are notorious for being vibrant in their detail and despite most of their games being on a previous generation system, the style, look, and detail of the craft, explosions and even missiles is crisp and clean that could easily suffice for PS3 graphics. It also gives the pilot the chance to survey the air around him, vertically and horizontally as well as "track" targets when they are selected.
Ace Combat 4 was also the first game to implement "radio chatter" in the series. As you fly within the vast mission-scape, you can get a good deal of com traffic from fellow pilots, sometimes they help you, others you get from the enemy that try to insult you, and fail. The radio chatter also implements part of the story or mission, offering you tips or mission updates that may be important to your task. In a more detailed note, the sound of the actual game is quite accurate, and even the soundtrack is worth looking into. Thew music gives a good feel of rush, and certain missions fit the track that is playing quite well. For example, the "Blockade" mission were you are ordered to shoot down transport planes protected by a massive Jamming field, the music playing grips you, it seems to fit with the scene of daring pilots diving into a difficult situation and pulling through against overwhelming odds.
The interface of Ace Combat remains pretty sparse, but maintains the usual bits seen in the previous games. Basing close to the "fighter craft" look; From speed and altitude, to weapon ammo and even damage (okay, maybe the damage control is a bit far-fetched). There isn't too many things to watch so your not overwhelming with readouts. Even with the full and detailed cockpit view, the controls resemble a real fighter quite well.
This is actually a mandatory thing in Ace Combat Series. To get 100%, you will have to replay the game a few times over to unlock new craft and gain the highest ranks. Trust me, it's not as easy as you may think to beat the game and get all "S" rank in the first run with the craft you are given during most missions, as well as saving up enough to buy the good ones like the F-22 or the SU-37. Despite that, playing many of the first missions with the most advance craft is a bit boring, being able to easily outmaneuver even the Ace squadron of "Yellows" you face in early missions.
Speaking of Yellows, I guess its time to explain the story. Ace Combat 4 takes place in a fictional world were two powers, Independent States Allied Forces (ISAF) against a powerful foe known as Eruseans. The Eruseans are in command of most of the continent Usea and dominate the skies with a very powerful super weapon that was originally meant to destroy asteroids. There are also several cut scenes within the storyline that give a good idea to how a small group of civilians feel about the war when the Eruseans occupy their town. The game puts you in the seat of quite an assortment of craft, many modern day craft and a few prototype and in production craft (during the time of its release). What i mean by Yellows is the name of the Ace squadron that makes an appearance in various levels to either impede your progress were your forced to either avoid them or run away, and eventually engage them in fierce combat. The AI used for the Yellows is very good, and gives a very exquisite taste of dealing with a foe that can always change the way it flies. Even with the most advance fighter, it is still a challenge to line them up to fire. That's another interesting thing, Missile locks in this game are both heaven and hell. They can be wonderful and easy, other times they wont leave you alone. Avoiding enemy missiles while trying to lock on with your own is the main point of the air duels, and mastering that leads to becoming an epic ace.
Game play is fast pace, you always got to be moving and observing your surroundings. At times it can get quite slow with a lull in combat but that tends to quickly change with a mission to either protect an ally, engage a target, or secure a section of the map. The real downside is most missions are "Destroy this amount of targets..." so there is little originally in many of the mission despite the few escort missions there isn't much else in the way of challenging missions until the end of the game.
Overall, id rate this a 8/10
Its got some good graphics and a rich story with nice cut scenes that help depict it from the other side rather well, and many of the missions provide a good amount of fun. Sadly, with the lack of originality in said missions really hinders some aspect of enjoyment and change of pace.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Qualms of a Critic for Retial
Qualms...what does Qualms mean exactly...*dictionary* "a sudden feeling of apprehensive uneasiness; misgiving: a sudden qualm about the success of the venture." Well, whatever that means, it technically wasn't a misgiving, more along the lines of a totally unsatisfactory.
October 21/09 was when i dropped off my Xbox 360 at Gamerama, a good video game store with a wide selection of new and old games, systems and parts. I had spent many a days in high school traveling down to Younge and Eglington to check out what they had in store, at one point even selling Warhammer stuff. I had always went down to them because of the great staff, assortments and even their ability to repair any damaged system within a few days (a week at most). Sadly...that isn't the case, over the years I've become quite upset with Gamerama, the last time i had went to give in my damaged PS2 for them to fix, I was told by the staff "Why not just by a new one?" Okay...here's the deal, my PS2, which has lasted for 10 years now, has only broken once, after its first 5 years, and this was the second time it has. What does that say? It says that i take good care of my stuff. So, i go in to get it fixed, and it costs me 35.00 bucks. Right off the back the guy says "Why not buy a new one...only 20 bucks more" I couldn't help but say "why would i buy a new one...when i can get mine repaired for cheaper?" I felt quite...upset, and thats not even half of it. The guy told me it would take a few days to fix, since it was only the laser needing to be cleaned, but it took not one...but three weeks to fix.
Anyway, thats off topic, suffice to say I got it back and paid, but now this new issue has got me boiling at the brim. As i said before, i dropped off my Xbox 360 on October 21/09 to get repaired...it is now November 15...almost 4 weeks AFTER i had dropped it off, it still hasn't been fixed. I went down last Friday to see if i could check up, you know maybe it was done because they usually are suppose to call when it is. Apparently, the staff didn't know or even have a clue were my system was. Telling me "Oh the guy who does it isn't in, call on Sunday." So...I'm pissed, I'm bloody pissed because i dropped it off awhile ago, I wanted it for this weekend and it turns out that nothing has been done...least to my knowledge, and i have a bunch of useless staffers who cant even help me, I left a very upset man after that.
Anyway...I called on Sunday (today) and talked with the Manager of the store, I learned that it was only him who had done the repairs for most of the systems, and it turns out, my motherboard for the Xbox had been fried. They had sent it to Microsoft to get repaired and wouldn't charge me extra, the problem was, they were suppose to call and say that, but no one ever did. The manager apologized, and said he'd give me a call Monday and have it done, he also told me to call before hand when i go to the store and i can get a discount on something. The only REAL thing of value I'd ask for a discount would be for a copy of CoD Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox, and nothing more. I don't want a used game, don't want an old game, i want that game...and thats final.
Don't get me wrong though, the manager really showed passion for his job, he loves technology and hearing how much he does for his company its quite spectacular to see him still at it. Still, there is no excuse for what has happen, to be honest there should be at least 2 or 3 people who would know as much as he knows and to keep people in line when there is a lot of customers so issues like this cant happen again...maybe ill offer myself up to him, i could use a job...
October 21/09 was when i dropped off my Xbox 360 at Gamerama, a good video game store with a wide selection of new and old games, systems and parts. I had spent many a days in high school traveling down to Younge and Eglington to check out what they had in store, at one point even selling Warhammer stuff. I had always went down to them because of the great staff, assortments and even their ability to repair any damaged system within a few days (a week at most). Sadly...that isn't the case, over the years I've become quite upset with Gamerama, the last time i had went to give in my damaged PS2 for them to fix, I was told by the staff "Why not just by a new one?" Okay...here's the deal, my PS2, which has lasted for 10 years now, has only broken once, after its first 5 years, and this was the second time it has. What does that say? It says that i take good care of my stuff. So, i go in to get it fixed, and it costs me 35.00 bucks. Right off the back the guy says "Why not buy a new one...only 20 bucks more" I couldn't help but say "why would i buy a new one...when i can get mine repaired for cheaper?" I felt quite...upset, and thats not even half of it. The guy told me it would take a few days to fix, since it was only the laser needing to be cleaned, but it took not one...but three weeks to fix.
Anyway, thats off topic, suffice to say I got it back and paid, but now this new issue has got me boiling at the brim. As i said before, i dropped off my Xbox 360 on October 21/09 to get repaired...it is now November 15...almost 4 weeks AFTER i had dropped it off, it still hasn't been fixed. I went down last Friday to see if i could check up, you know maybe it was done because they usually are suppose to call when it is. Apparently, the staff didn't know or even have a clue were my system was. Telling me "Oh the guy who does it isn't in, call on Sunday." So...I'm pissed, I'm bloody pissed because i dropped it off awhile ago, I wanted it for this weekend and it turns out that nothing has been done...least to my knowledge, and i have a bunch of useless staffers who cant even help me, I left a very upset man after that.
Anyway...I called on Sunday (today) and talked with the Manager of the store, I learned that it was only him who had done the repairs for most of the systems, and it turns out, my motherboard for the Xbox had been fried. They had sent it to Microsoft to get repaired and wouldn't charge me extra, the problem was, they were suppose to call and say that, but no one ever did. The manager apologized, and said he'd give me a call Monday and have it done, he also told me to call before hand when i go to the store and i can get a discount on something. The only REAL thing of value I'd ask for a discount would be for a copy of CoD Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox, and nothing more. I don't want a used game, don't want an old game, i want that game...and thats final.
Don't get me wrong though, the manager really showed passion for his job, he loves technology and hearing how much he does for his company its quite spectacular to see him still at it. Still, there is no excuse for what has happen, to be honest there should be at least 2 or 3 people who would know as much as he knows and to keep people in line when there is a lot of customers so issues like this cant happen again...maybe ill offer myself up to him, i could use a job...
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2: Highness of the Games
Simply put, CoD Modern Warfare 2 is…the best…game…ever, so epic it is I wish I could write that diagonally….maybe I can someway
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This Saturday, among the normal “gatherings” of my friends, I had the honor of trying CoD Modern Warfare 2 on a PS3, as soon as I saw the first few missions, no, first few seconds of game play, I was blown away. The detail was so much better, were taking better resolution and such a clear picture, it felt like I was watching a movie.
So lets start with detail, while were on the subject. CoD MW2 as we will call it, had a lot more detail, a great improvement from CoD 4 (the original modern warfare); the detail on both units, backgrounds, and even the skyline was spectacular. Its almost mind boggling at how vivid the game was even during a fire fight. In fact, the starting movie had flashbacks of the previous game (Modern Warfare) since it kind of was a sequel and it was cool to re-visit the important parts of the last game, Iran Zukav helping the Middle Eastern dictator, Haled Al-As ad, the SAS training missions, the Nuking of the Marines, and so forth. In addition, a lil tidbit I found neat was the gun detailing. It was much more realistic and depending on the environment, the weapons would have camouflage to fit in. So if it was a winter map, all the guns would have white/gray camo to help blend it.
Guns…geeze…I cant tell you how many guns there are in this game, much more than the first series had, were talking along the lines of Battlefield Bad Company on the number of guns available. Everything could be fit in. From the ambiguous M-16 and Ak-47, to the more advanced SCAR and P-90, to even weapons you wouldn’t see, like the Israel Tavor-12, the Belgium FN2000, and even the new US SMG, the Vector I think….anyway way too many guns. Then there are the attachments; there are 4 separate attachment scopes for each gun, Standard Iron sights, Holographic (red dot), Scope, and Thermal scope. Each gun tends to have one of those settings, and also depending on the under slung attachment (the usual Grenade M203 and now a Shotgun) will vary the upper rack’s attachment. My personal fave attachment has to be the Thermal Scope on the standard SCAR. FN-SCAR, another Belgium gun along side the P-90 and FN2000 is a very good and accurate gun, with a Thermal scope; I was wasting so many baddies I was laughing! Another good gun is also the G36C which is a common one for many of the Task Force missions. Another nifty thing is that some weapons can be dual…yes I said dual…wielded. SMG (MP7’s) and 9mm pistols can be dual wielded and fired the same way in HALO, it was quite a shock when we found that out for the first time, and had loads of fun with it.
Now that we talked about the guns, lets talk about the vehicles, in any CoD game there was always one level you drive a vehicle of sorts, from the first one till World at War, there was always a point were your in an armored unit. Well…CoD Modern Warfare 2 has you in a few. From the start, your in a mini-gun armed Humvee. Later on, you get to gun in a helicopter, and after that…you get to control a Predator Drone, yes a Predator drone. I can’t tell you how much fun I had with that thing, geeze it was such a rush to fire hellfire missiles at huge groups of enemies and give them all flying lessons.
The detail on the vehicles is much greater too and there is a wider assortment. Heck, each vehicle even shows as a name when you point at it like Honey Bear, Infinity Ware went way beyond the original one to do this. There are the good old Humvee’s, Stryker IFV’s, Bradley IFV, M1A2’s, Black Hawks, AH-64 Apaches, Pave Hawks, Chinooks as well as F-15’s and Harriers. In truth, there are a lot of vehicles that you can see and are supported by through the entire game, and it’s just great.
Now let’s move onto characters, not to spoil the game, there are a good cast of characters just as there were in the first Modern Warfare. In fact, Soap, yes Soap MacTavish, the SAS you plaid as in the original is now a squad leader of Task Force, which you, as “Roach” take orders from. There are a few older characters you see, but I won’t say much to spoil it.
I know…there is much more I can say, but I don’t have a lot of time nor did I have the greatest ability to feel the entire game as a whole. Modern Warfare 2 was mind blowing, big levels, epic story line, great guns, and a chilling twist. Now, for the second half of playing this game, I did something interesting; I smoked up.
I’ve told people before I smoke weed now and then, I'm not an addict and only really do it with good friends in a comfortable and safe environment were we can let lose if we need to. My good friend, one who I've known for years and am grateful to be a good bro with, has always taught me quite a few tidbits on weed, from the various kinds, to the various methods, to the entire science behind it. Always fun to smoke up with him whenever we can. Anyway, when I went with another friend to smoke his bong, which is a glass “bottle” that you smoke weed from, we went back to playing CoD (this was after my friends watched a movie). I can’t really describe it, but the THC in the Cannabis (weed) really heightens my senses and focus. When I picked up a Sniper rifle in the Prison mission in Russia, I was snipping bad guys not just property and effectively on the ground, but during the initial orbit of the MH-6 Little Bird (another vehicle with both transport and Mini-gun/rocket configurations similar to that from Black Hawk Down, the movie) I was flying on. I even adjusted for the movement of the craft and made sure it was always “one shot…one kill”. Even in the hallways when the baddies were running along the second floor, I was still shooting them down, compensating for their movement. It kind of reminded me of the Bullet Finder App for the Iphone, noted to be the most “lethal” app for the thing since it helps you snipe someone, I stick my tongue out at how silly that is and question “why the F*** would you do that?” Suffice to say, weed for me heightens my senses and even my friend who is usually a sniper in most games, was impressed. Another thing I mentioned was that I seemed to have created a good mood around them when we were playing. The guys all seemed happier and animated and maybe it was just the weed making me hear things, but man, I felt good down there, really connecting with those guys and having a grand ol’ time.
The only real casualty of that all was the loss of a great picture I drew of my Fursona, Silver “Wolfen” Meridoc, my Cybernetic wolf. When i drew him, i gave him pointed lower jaw fur and tuffs of cheek and eyebrow fur. He seemed to regain a sense of “old” and wisdom for his looks, ill definitely keep that in mind for future drawings.
B
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M
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This Saturday, among the normal “gatherings” of my friends, I had the honor of trying CoD Modern Warfare 2 on a PS3, as soon as I saw the first few missions, no, first few seconds of game play, I was blown away. The detail was so much better, were taking better resolution and such a clear picture, it felt like I was watching a movie.
So lets start with detail, while were on the subject. CoD MW2 as we will call it, had a lot more detail, a great improvement from CoD 4 (the original modern warfare); the detail on both units, backgrounds, and even the skyline was spectacular. Its almost mind boggling at how vivid the game was even during a fire fight. In fact, the starting movie had flashbacks of the previous game (Modern Warfare) since it kind of was a sequel and it was cool to re-visit the important parts of the last game, Iran Zukav helping the Middle Eastern dictator, Haled Al-As ad, the SAS training missions, the Nuking of the Marines, and so forth. In addition, a lil tidbit I found neat was the gun detailing. It was much more realistic and depending on the environment, the weapons would have camouflage to fit in. So if it was a winter map, all the guns would have white/gray camo to help blend it.
Guns…geeze…I cant tell you how many guns there are in this game, much more than the first series had, were talking along the lines of Battlefield Bad Company on the number of guns available. Everything could be fit in. From the ambiguous M-16 and Ak-47, to the more advanced SCAR and P-90, to even weapons you wouldn’t see, like the Israel Tavor-12, the Belgium FN2000, and even the new US SMG, the Vector I think….anyway way too many guns. Then there are the attachments; there are 4 separate attachment scopes for each gun, Standard Iron sights, Holographic (red dot), Scope, and Thermal scope. Each gun tends to have one of those settings, and also depending on the under slung attachment (the usual Grenade M203 and now a Shotgun) will vary the upper rack’s attachment. My personal fave attachment has to be the Thermal Scope on the standard SCAR. FN-SCAR, another Belgium gun along side the P-90 and FN2000 is a very good and accurate gun, with a Thermal scope; I was wasting so many baddies I was laughing! Another good gun is also the G36C which is a common one for many of the Task Force missions. Another nifty thing is that some weapons can be dual…yes I said dual…wielded. SMG (MP7’s) and 9mm pistols can be dual wielded and fired the same way in HALO, it was quite a shock when we found that out for the first time, and had loads of fun with it.
Now that we talked about the guns, lets talk about the vehicles, in any CoD game there was always one level you drive a vehicle of sorts, from the first one till World at War, there was always a point were your in an armored unit. Well…CoD Modern Warfare 2 has you in a few. From the start, your in a mini-gun armed Humvee. Later on, you get to gun in a helicopter, and after that…you get to control a Predator Drone, yes a Predator drone. I can’t tell you how much fun I had with that thing, geeze it was such a rush to fire hellfire missiles at huge groups of enemies and give them all flying lessons.
The detail on the vehicles is much greater too and there is a wider assortment. Heck, each vehicle even shows as a name when you point at it like Honey Bear, Infinity Ware went way beyond the original one to do this. There are the good old Humvee’s, Stryker IFV’s, Bradley IFV, M1A2’s, Black Hawks, AH-64 Apaches, Pave Hawks, Chinooks as well as F-15’s and Harriers. In truth, there are a lot of vehicles that you can see and are supported by through the entire game, and it’s just great.
Now let’s move onto characters, not to spoil the game, there are a good cast of characters just as there were in the first Modern Warfare. In fact, Soap, yes Soap MacTavish, the SAS you plaid as in the original is now a squad leader of Task Force, which you, as “Roach” take orders from. There are a few older characters you see, but I won’t say much to spoil it.
I know…there is much more I can say, but I don’t have a lot of time nor did I have the greatest ability to feel the entire game as a whole. Modern Warfare 2 was mind blowing, big levels, epic story line, great guns, and a chilling twist. Now, for the second half of playing this game, I did something interesting; I smoked up.
I’ve told people before I smoke weed now and then, I'm not an addict and only really do it with good friends in a comfortable and safe environment were we can let lose if we need to. My good friend, one who I've known for years and am grateful to be a good bro with, has always taught me quite a few tidbits on weed, from the various kinds, to the various methods, to the entire science behind it. Always fun to smoke up with him whenever we can. Anyway, when I went with another friend to smoke his bong, which is a glass “bottle” that you smoke weed from, we went back to playing CoD (this was after my friends watched a movie). I can’t really describe it, but the THC in the Cannabis (weed) really heightens my senses and focus. When I picked up a Sniper rifle in the Prison mission in Russia, I was snipping bad guys not just property and effectively on the ground, but during the initial orbit of the MH-6 Little Bird (another vehicle with both transport and Mini-gun/rocket configurations similar to that from Black Hawk Down, the movie) I was flying on. I even adjusted for the movement of the craft and made sure it was always “one shot…one kill”. Even in the hallways when the baddies were running along the second floor, I was still shooting them down, compensating for their movement. It kind of reminded me of the Bullet Finder App for the Iphone, noted to be the most “lethal” app for the thing since it helps you snipe someone, I stick my tongue out at how silly that is and question “why the F*** would you do that?” Suffice to say, weed for me heightens my senses and even my friend who is usually a sniper in most games, was impressed. Another thing I mentioned was that I seemed to have created a good mood around them when we were playing. The guys all seemed happier and animated and maybe it was just the weed making me hear things, but man, I felt good down there, really connecting with those guys and having a grand ol’ time.
The only real casualty of that all was the loss of a great picture I drew of my Fursona, Silver “Wolfen” Meridoc, my Cybernetic wolf. When i drew him, i gave him pointed lower jaw fur and tuffs of cheek and eyebrow fur. He seemed to regain a sense of “old” and wisdom for his looks, ill definitely keep that in mind for future drawings.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The Life of a Minature - Part 2: Trial by dice rolls pt.2
"How long have we been walking?" Complained Miko, she took a deep breath as the two big men stopped. Hugges hefted his Grenade Launcher over his shoulder, turning to the small girl as Reed takes a knee in front of them, acting as a leader would (or to the best he could figure)
"Don’t worry Miko" Hugges said with a tone of kindness "If you want, I can lug you around instead" he chuckled a bit, Miko frowned "Hey, I’m not some prissy princess!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot a few times. Hugges chuckled as Miko strode towards them, walking past Hugges with a huff as Reed stopped her. "Hold on" he mutters as he points to the distance, slowly raising his weapon. Hugges and Miko quickly lower themselves to Reeds level. Miko and Hugges looked at one another then at Reed; they saw nothing.
"What?" Miko asks "I don’t see anything!" she mutters as Reed eases forward slightly "I know something’s there" he says, both Hugges and Miko are confused, yet they do not follow, Reed must be seeing things. "Maybe he took a hit to the head?" Miko whispered as Hugges looks at his comrade.
Reed wasn't sure, but something was drawing him forward into the brush. Ever since he was a kid, he had a strange ability of feeling things, being guided by something toward something else. He never mentions it to anyone since it was rare, but the times it did, usually ended with something major. As Reed took another step, he suddenly felt a pang of warning from behind, a force pushing him to the ground. His body crumbles as his legs are yanked from their place, landing him on his stomach with a knife to his neck. Reed's vision hazed from the impact, but as it cleared, he saw Tanya with the knife
"Tanya!?" He exclaims as the female quickly eases off "Reed?" she replied as the solider stood up.
Tanya apparently had been running on her own for the past hour, she had managed to ditch the Cannoness chasing her, but she caused the death of a whole squad looking out for her
"They did their duty" Miko said as Reed and Tanya regrouped with Hugges and Miko "I'm sure their death was for something, keeping you safe." Tanya sighed, Miko was right, but she felt those men didn't need to die just for her.
"Any word of Frost?" she asks, hoping something had turned up. Yet the three just shook their heads "Everdun took Cadien, Elisia, and Unil to find him and Taxi"
"Taxi?" Tanya replies
"Yeah, he went missing, go figure, always knew that guy would leave at the first sign"
Hugges shook his head "Meebe he got lost, this is a big forest"
Tanya nodded "I don’t think a Veteran would just go missing, he must have found something."
The group shrugged amongst themselves and began to make way towards their primary objective "We got to find the break between the forest and the field, so lets keep going and be ready to contact the commander as soon as we do" Reed noted, the rest nodded and began to walk, only to have Tanya yelp in sudden pain. Everyone turned, now realizing the furry xeno had a cast on her leg
"What happened to you?" Miko asked as Tanya was clutching her leg
"I...feel off a building" Tanya replied in a slight ting of pain. There was a sudden string of silence as she looked about the three. "HEY ITS NOT LIKE I HAD A CHOICE!" she barked "Stupid, jet pack Cannoness was hot on my tail!"
Reed sighed a bit "okay enough" he muttered "lets keep going"
Tanya huffed "If its still possible, she may be around, I would suggest we keep quite"
The group nodded, the last thing they needed was a stomping mad Cannoness right at them with a Power Weapon and Inferno Pistol.
On the other hand, Everdun and his unit have yet to come across anything; they had trudged through the underbrush for the past half hour and had come up with nothing more than squabbles and back pain. Everdun was fine with the brush, he had trained in it as a child, but Caiden and Elisia were constantly bickering, Unil kept his distance and his ears to the horn, so far news wasn’t good. 2 Squads had been pinned down by Exorcist fire, and another was engaging Sisters in mid range fire fight. What’s more, Sisters were still sweeping through the area searching for them, and Frost and Taxi were yet to be found. Everdun cursed under his breath, he needed a plan, anything to get them going.
He was answered by the low rumbling of treads plowing through the brush. It was plainly obvious something was heading towards them. Everdun rose his fist into the air, signaling a complete stop, despite the crews fighting, the hand signal rage clear, showing that despite their flaws they were still a team. Each one slowly knelt to Everduns level, each one shouldering their weapon. Everdun hand signaled to the others "Tank...Sisters...ready....AT Move" he said. Slowly he drew a krak grenade as did the others, as soon as the tank moved close, toss and run. With luck, that should knock out the beast. Slowly the tank crept ever closer, until the team could see it rushing towards them through the foliage. Evberdun closed his eyes, visualizing the tank moving into position and a successful grenade toss, that’s how it was done by the book. But within inches of their "kill zone", the think stopped. Out of the hatch came Taxi
"Hey guys...need a lift?"
--
"Man, were are they?" complains Miko as she, Tanya, Reed, and Hugges continue to trudge their way to whatever place they had to find. Originally it was the break in the forest, but after running into Tanya, the pair seemed to forget their original mission.
"So...uh what now?" Reed asked, seeming to have lost his "cool guy" attire prior with finding Tanya. Elisia and Tanya sigh "we track out way out of here and hope to god someone finds us before the sisters do" Elisia mutters, Tanya simply nods, not really wanting to talk to the other squad mates. This was a common thing between Celestiens and Imperium, though the guard regiment sees them as allies, the Celestians believe not to trust them fully, originally a lot of tension was on Celestien in the earlier years, before the Signing of the Wolfrien, a doctrine to dedicate peace between the Vuplines, the original allies of the Guard and very noble allies, to the Celestians, a wolfen type race long since run underground by the Vulpines by numerous hidden wars. The Vulpines had superior technology, but the Celestians had powerful forms and crafted magic skills, easily dwarfing any Vulpine that may try to tackle one. Some were as tall as 8-10 feet. Vulpines can only grow to 6', but that's rare
"You seem quite down" Miko sudden asks, causing Tanya’s train of thought to stop.
"I’m...okay...just..." she sighs, turning her head aside to try and duck the conversation...she knew she had nothing much to say about it, but...she missed frost, terribly.
"Its alright, don’t worry about your leg, it will heal soon"
Tanya stopped, did Miko...Tanya couldn’t really like Miko, she was the youngest, everyone knew she had lied about her age and just came around to be with some "solider boy" before she gets caught. It was the entire rave for most human girls, from what she observed when the Guard landed on their planet. She huffed a bit "I'll be fine...” she barks back, in a somewhat offending tone
"Well...relax, I don't mean to harm you"
Tanya kept her eyes on Miko for awhile, but eventually took her attention back to her work.
--
"A Exorcist?" Everdun asks as he spoke with taxi in front of the tank
"Yes Sir" Taxi replied
"I say again...an Exorcist....how the hell did you manage that?"
Taxi smirked "like i said sir, if it moves, i drive it...not that bad sort of way sir, i mean vehicle's, you know like tanks, trucks...cars...that sort of thing..." Taxi grew silent quite quickly...Everdun sighed
"Well...whatever your reasoning...i cant really condone against this...fuck this is perfect"
taxi blinked "uhh sir?"
Everdun cracked a grin
"We have a way to get out Frost"
--
Frost...cold. Silent...really that’s all he is good with, but Frost in a hot zone...he isn’t so cold. Sisters...everywhere....and not a nun to rump. The arctic fox kept himself calm, slowly studying the world around him. Though the sisters were skilled, when shit hit the fan in their own backward, they couldn't act as coordinated. They needed to see the enemy to be able to smite them, when the enemy is a shadow...its harder.
Inquisition seemed to scatter the Celestian Guard, for years, the Inquisition has attacked Celestian Guard at their bases and outposts countless times, trying to drive away this maverick army. For countless months after their re-founding on Celetian, the Inquisition had been targeting them, marking them as traitors even though they continued to fight for the Emperor. There have been cases were Celestian forces had fought against Imperium and with its enemies, but these cases were solely for benefiting the army. Take for example the raid alongside an Ork warmob. The Boss saw the Vulpines (as they were called back then) as a good asset, and as the battle against a Space Marine chapter whittled down, the Vulpines turned on the Orks, saving the few remains of the chapter that had been hard pressed by the Orks for months. Tactical advantages was the reason the Celestians had joined foe armies, even against chaos, they used them as a means to get closer to them and destory them.
Frost sighed, the Sniper, lone man, now he was stuck within a bushel of nuns with deadly guns to his fragile frame. He growled, he didn’t even have any sound suppresser to mount his gun with to kill a few lone chicks. He held his knife tight by his side, hoping to get a chance to make a commit to run, but never finding the time
"Bolters...why did it have to be bolters..."
--
Isobel was not one to be left out, despite her Sisters triumph, she felt that not killing that one xeno she would taint her record, demoralize her sisters. But the possibility of nodding off the "saint-hood" talk by the sisters did seem appealing. The possibility of nearly finding the letting escape xenos could tarnish her record slightly to ease off the pressure, but all the same, the risk was against her emperor and she HAD to commit to his name, nothing else. Suddenly the distant rumble of an armored unit caught her attention, could it be a Celestian tank...no...That couldn’t be right, she had killed the 2 Celestian tanks that arrived while the third lay immobile and out of ammo. She had no reason to suspect a hostile, this was her lost tank.
Rushing towards it she can catch a glimpse of its snow white armor and crystal blue siding as she nears, but is shocked and horrified to see the xeno sympathizers atop it.
Those...tainted souls..." Isobel muttered to herself "Why must they vie off the path of the Emperor" she added as she rose her sword
--
"aye...gimme one too" Uril muttered in his thick Scottish accent "could us one of the tall's" he said as he knock back a drink from his "stash" in his bag. Uril was a bit of a braincase, he was Irish, but had an intelligence that almost rivaled any known scientists in the world. Some people wondered why he took combat duty
"Because battle is in me blood laddie" he had remembered saying to some Imperial officer before he enlisted.
Now, here he was, seven years beside Everdun and all the battle he wanted. Yet his mind was put to good use "To learn the enemy" he had mentioned, his plan to study all races of Xeno in the universe and when finished his tour, use it to help the Imperium fight and even work together with in battles for humanity. He looked up at the sky, slowly, it began to rain. He laughed slightly "ah..rain...the one thing that controls us all" he muttered. Still he knew the problem with his company, Inquisition, a problem and a political blackout, able to end him instantly it was a miracle his industry power had not been squashed.
Not like the plate of armor Uril sat next too, as he looked up, a power sword came slashing down, ripping into the metal panel with a dull buzz. Everdun was already up, his own sword drawn and pistol ready. Elisia was scrambling onto the top of the tank while Cadien was struggling to get his Knives out of his tangled Gellise suit. Uril simply looked up at the Cannoness jetting along side, gave a smile and ducked into the tank quickly
"Holy shat!" he exclaims "i need a drink...nearly pissed me pants!"
Everdun growled slightly, this was their main commander; a Sisters Heroine was a tough contender. He had read the reports on the Inquisition, noting their Cannoness having been majestic yet powerful females that bear the most experience and will in battle, capable of commanding their sisters with deadly efficiency. Everdun knew he might not survive, his squad might not, with this Cannones, but even so he braced. The female came at him hard, her jetpack rumbling in the night as their swords met atop the tank. Taxi kept the vehicle in motion as Caiden continued to scramble topside, but failed due to the rough road they drove on, for now Everdun was on his own.
“You shall die by my hand, your sins of working with xenos can not be forgiven in the Emperors judgment!” she shouted as the blade came down hard, narrowly slicing Everduns arm off. Everdun quickly ducks to the side, drawing his pistol and firing off a few shots, one hitting the joint piece in the chest armor, causing the Cannoness to retreat, but quickly retake her composer and attack again. As the tank made a sharp turn, Everdun was floored, rattling his sword against the plates, he catches it under the rocket launchers hydraulics, and quickly drops it, fearing he might break the device. Unarmed, Isobel hovers gently over him
“Your time has ended” she said as she soared up slightly, yet as she rises, the sudden crackle of energy rips across the sky, causing everyone to duck. In an instant, a single bolt strikes upon the Cannoness, sending her plummeting to the ground, and crashed into the trees beyond.
"Wow...what are the odds?" Elisia blinked as she watched Isobel slam into the earth some distance away. Elisia let out a sigh, slowly slipping a book back into her bag “Pray I didn’t have to do it” she said, the blue book slipped snuggling into her pack, a glimpse of a Fure De Leirs on the front.
--
Tanya covered herself with a branch, she sighed, she hated the rain, it not only messed up her tracking ability, but it made her cold and her fur soaked for days. She growls, this day couldn’t be any worse, stuck with a hyper curious kid, a lugging idiot, and a private whose greener than yesterdays twingshoots...she sighed, and twingshoots were very green. She suddenly heard the rumbling coming towards them, catching a sudden glimpse of white lights, the group was ambushed by a single tank, Atop it, Everdun, Elisia, and Caiden, Taxi, popped his head out of the tank
"Heya, welcome to my neck of the woods"
--
"Were going to get frost!?"
Tanya exclaims excitedly as the tank rumbles slowly towards the "predicted" Sisters line. Elisa sighs "Stay still dear, can’t fix you up" she said as she replaced the Jerry rigged brace on the vulpines ankle. Elisia knew how Tanya felt about the other members, yet she was the only one Tanya respected and that pleased her, she always looked out for the Vulpines, and is able to see and respect them better than most her patients. She fixed applying a proper medical instrument that would cut down healing by half, coupled with the Vulpines fast metabolism and healing "there, all good to go" Tanya nodded and slung her rifle back up "Gonna get me some payback...by the way, were is the Cannoness?" she asked
Everdun walked over "She got struck by lighting...guess the Emperor is with us"
Tanya shook her head "Nay, the moon is full, the Luna Goddess plaid a hand in that"
Everdun sighed a bit, to each his own, he always figured.
"A'ight, everyone hide" taxi shouted as the tank reach the edge of the forest just inches from the perimeter of the sisters camp, the plan was to sneak in, wire the tank to fire its missile in a delay shortly after the team enters to cause confusion at one end and firing off bolter into another. It was to provide confusion and located Frost, Tanya said "knowing him, he might be hiding out a kill spot" she muttered as the team readied their operation. This was going to be tight.
--
Taxi slammed a few commands into the firing computer, tapping a bit here and there until he figure to delay the launchers for 5 minutes
"That should do it' Everdun mentioned as he and the rest of the squad left the tank to its own devices. Slowly, with weapons shouldered, they begin their silent march towards the sisters camp, inside, the nuns still buzzed about, causing a bit of a new risk towards the squad, the sisters were in an uproar
"Man, this isn’t going to be easy" Tanya mutters as she and the rest of the team take cover behind another parked tank
"Frost could be anywhere" Cadien muttered "We need a signal for him"
Elisia smirked slightly "I may just have it" She slowly draws out a mirror "If im not mistake, this is the universal symbol for a signal" she said as she grabbed her flashlight and shined it upon the mirror, causing a reflection. She wiggled it in place a few times until she got an answer, a sudden barrel of a gun perked from behind a few barrels, catching the light and shaking
"He’s over there" Elisia says as the squad checks their surroundings before moving closer. Avoiding Sister patrols every so often, running their luck to the wire until they get to the barrels and are reacquainted with Frost. The Vulpine was in bad shape, they had mended his arm, but he bore several; scars of interrogation
"Don’t worry...didn’t talk much" he said with a subtle grin as the team check their watches
"5...4...3...2...1.." Everdun whispers as the sudden chorus of a missile launcher in the distance echoed around the camp, within seconds, several powerful missiles landed smack dab into the camp, kicking up dirt and debris, some sisters paroling nearby were vaporized by a missile strike, Everdun quickly grabbed frost
"LETS GO!" he barks as the team hoofs it towards the exit, letting their presence be known now
"Intruders!" came a shout as the team ducks behind crates, Tanya cracking a few shots along with Reed into a troupe of sisters which caused them to duck behind a shed.
"We can’t stay here!" Reed shouts "were gonna get killed!"
"Shut up!" Frost said taking aim again and firing upon another sister "We got to do this right"
The sudden sound of jetpacks brought fear to the whole squad, looking up, Miko yelps, Seraphim sisters began to decent towards them
"Sisters...annihilate them" Spoke their Sister Superior in a monotone voice, no emotion in her gaze as they slammed into the crates, kicking up both squad and material in a sudden ambush of jet wash and metal boots.
Miko screams, her arm was pinned to the ground by a crate as a Sister hovers over her, yet she was quickly removed as Hugges slammed a barrel right into the side of the Seraphim, causing the female to crumple to the side. Already the squad was getting into the thick of it. Caiden was dodging and slashing his twin blades at a pair of Seraphim while Frost and Tanya continued to move to find better firing lines. Elisia was with Everdun, using her own knife against a Seraphims bolt pistols while the LT was dodging and slashing with the Superior
"Geeze, don’t you girls ever quit!" Everdun mutters as the Sister continues
"As aide to Cannoness Isobel, I, Sister Superior Avriel of the Seraphim shall do my duty and destroy you xeno sympathizers." She lunged at Everdun, causing a shatter of sword upon sword. Clanging and buzzing with energies
"Damn...well if that’s how it is" He smirks, ducking back and causing the Seraphim to follow with him. As she fell forward, Elisia turned from the flank and slammed her dagger into the Superiors side armor. The female seemed to flinch as Elisia removed the blade
"Your weapons...aren’t efficient" the sister muttered as Elisia pulled away.
"Were done" Everdun muttered as he and his team begins to withdraw from the base, moving as quickly as they made their way to the exit amidst the confusion.
--
"Your dropship is en-route sir" Came his Vox officer to Commander Elionem, he nodded in return as he watched his men evacing
"Well...what can we saw we accomplished here?" the vox asked
"We took a blow, but made them bleed just as well" Everdun said, walking up to the Commander
"Everdun...were have you been?" Elionem asks
"Rescue op" he says, pointing to his Sniper who was helped forward by Elisia "they captured him, we went in and got him"
Elionem nods slowly "Well that’s good, were pulling out, the Sisters want this piece of dirt so bad they can have it, we made em pay for it at least"
Everdun nodded, sighing as he watched the mix of men and equipment roll off into the distance...eventually seeing the world turn black.
"Don’t worry Miko" Hugges said with a tone of kindness "If you want, I can lug you around instead" he chuckled a bit, Miko frowned "Hey, I’m not some prissy princess!" she exclaimed, stamping her foot a few times. Hugges chuckled as Miko strode towards them, walking past Hugges with a huff as Reed stopped her. "Hold on" he mutters as he points to the distance, slowly raising his weapon. Hugges and Miko quickly lower themselves to Reeds level. Miko and Hugges looked at one another then at Reed; they saw nothing.
"What?" Miko asks "I don’t see anything!" she mutters as Reed eases forward slightly "I know something’s there" he says, both Hugges and Miko are confused, yet they do not follow, Reed must be seeing things. "Maybe he took a hit to the head?" Miko whispered as Hugges looks at his comrade.
Reed wasn't sure, but something was drawing him forward into the brush. Ever since he was a kid, he had a strange ability of feeling things, being guided by something toward something else. He never mentions it to anyone since it was rare, but the times it did, usually ended with something major. As Reed took another step, he suddenly felt a pang of warning from behind, a force pushing him to the ground. His body crumbles as his legs are yanked from their place, landing him on his stomach with a knife to his neck. Reed's vision hazed from the impact, but as it cleared, he saw Tanya with the knife
"Tanya!?" He exclaims as the female quickly eases off "Reed?" she replied as the solider stood up.
Tanya apparently had been running on her own for the past hour, she had managed to ditch the Cannoness chasing her, but she caused the death of a whole squad looking out for her
"They did their duty" Miko said as Reed and Tanya regrouped with Hugges and Miko "I'm sure their death was for something, keeping you safe." Tanya sighed, Miko was right, but she felt those men didn't need to die just for her.
"Any word of Frost?" she asks, hoping something had turned up. Yet the three just shook their heads "Everdun took Cadien, Elisia, and Unil to find him and Taxi"
"Taxi?" Tanya replies
"Yeah, he went missing, go figure, always knew that guy would leave at the first sign"
Hugges shook his head "Meebe he got lost, this is a big forest"
Tanya nodded "I don’t think a Veteran would just go missing, he must have found something."
The group shrugged amongst themselves and began to make way towards their primary objective "We got to find the break between the forest and the field, so lets keep going and be ready to contact the commander as soon as we do" Reed noted, the rest nodded and began to walk, only to have Tanya yelp in sudden pain. Everyone turned, now realizing the furry xeno had a cast on her leg
"What happened to you?" Miko asked as Tanya was clutching her leg
"I...feel off a building" Tanya replied in a slight ting of pain. There was a sudden string of silence as she looked about the three. "HEY ITS NOT LIKE I HAD A CHOICE!" she barked "Stupid, jet pack Cannoness was hot on my tail!"
Reed sighed a bit "okay enough" he muttered "lets keep going"
Tanya huffed "If its still possible, she may be around, I would suggest we keep quite"
The group nodded, the last thing they needed was a stomping mad Cannoness right at them with a Power Weapon and Inferno Pistol.
On the other hand, Everdun and his unit have yet to come across anything; they had trudged through the underbrush for the past half hour and had come up with nothing more than squabbles and back pain. Everdun was fine with the brush, he had trained in it as a child, but Caiden and Elisia were constantly bickering, Unil kept his distance and his ears to the horn, so far news wasn’t good. 2 Squads had been pinned down by Exorcist fire, and another was engaging Sisters in mid range fire fight. What’s more, Sisters were still sweeping through the area searching for them, and Frost and Taxi were yet to be found. Everdun cursed under his breath, he needed a plan, anything to get them going.
He was answered by the low rumbling of treads plowing through the brush. It was plainly obvious something was heading towards them. Everdun rose his fist into the air, signaling a complete stop, despite the crews fighting, the hand signal rage clear, showing that despite their flaws they were still a team. Each one slowly knelt to Everduns level, each one shouldering their weapon. Everdun hand signaled to the others "Tank...Sisters...ready....AT Move" he said. Slowly he drew a krak grenade as did the others, as soon as the tank moved close, toss and run. With luck, that should knock out the beast. Slowly the tank crept ever closer, until the team could see it rushing towards them through the foliage. Evberdun closed his eyes, visualizing the tank moving into position and a successful grenade toss, that’s how it was done by the book. But within inches of their "kill zone", the think stopped. Out of the hatch came Taxi
"Hey guys...need a lift?"
--
"Man, were are they?" complains Miko as she, Tanya, Reed, and Hugges continue to trudge their way to whatever place they had to find. Originally it was the break in the forest, but after running into Tanya, the pair seemed to forget their original mission.
"So...uh what now?" Reed asked, seeming to have lost his "cool guy" attire prior with finding Tanya. Elisia and Tanya sigh "we track out way out of here and hope to god someone finds us before the sisters do" Elisia mutters, Tanya simply nods, not really wanting to talk to the other squad mates. This was a common thing between Celestiens and Imperium, though the guard regiment sees them as allies, the Celestians believe not to trust them fully, originally a lot of tension was on Celestien in the earlier years, before the Signing of the Wolfrien, a doctrine to dedicate peace between the Vuplines, the original allies of the Guard and very noble allies, to the Celestians, a wolfen type race long since run underground by the Vulpines by numerous hidden wars. The Vulpines had superior technology, but the Celestians had powerful forms and crafted magic skills, easily dwarfing any Vulpine that may try to tackle one. Some were as tall as 8-10 feet. Vulpines can only grow to 6', but that's rare
"You seem quite down" Miko sudden asks, causing Tanya’s train of thought to stop.
"I’m...okay...just..." she sighs, turning her head aside to try and duck the conversation...she knew she had nothing much to say about it, but...she missed frost, terribly.
"Its alright, don’t worry about your leg, it will heal soon"
Tanya stopped, did Miko...Tanya couldn’t really like Miko, she was the youngest, everyone knew she had lied about her age and just came around to be with some "solider boy" before she gets caught. It was the entire rave for most human girls, from what she observed when the Guard landed on their planet. She huffed a bit "I'll be fine...” she barks back, in a somewhat offending tone
"Well...relax, I don't mean to harm you"
Tanya kept her eyes on Miko for awhile, but eventually took her attention back to her work.
--
"A Exorcist?" Everdun asks as he spoke with taxi in front of the tank
"Yes Sir" Taxi replied
"I say again...an Exorcist....how the hell did you manage that?"
Taxi smirked "like i said sir, if it moves, i drive it...not that bad sort of way sir, i mean vehicle's, you know like tanks, trucks...cars...that sort of thing..." Taxi grew silent quite quickly...Everdun sighed
"Well...whatever your reasoning...i cant really condone against this...fuck this is perfect"
taxi blinked "uhh sir?"
Everdun cracked a grin
"We have a way to get out Frost"
--
Frost...cold. Silent...really that’s all he is good with, but Frost in a hot zone...he isn’t so cold. Sisters...everywhere....and not a nun to rump. The arctic fox kept himself calm, slowly studying the world around him. Though the sisters were skilled, when shit hit the fan in their own backward, they couldn't act as coordinated. They needed to see the enemy to be able to smite them, when the enemy is a shadow...its harder.
Inquisition seemed to scatter the Celestian Guard, for years, the Inquisition has attacked Celestian Guard at their bases and outposts countless times, trying to drive away this maverick army. For countless months after their re-founding on Celetian, the Inquisition had been targeting them, marking them as traitors even though they continued to fight for the Emperor. There have been cases were Celestian forces had fought against Imperium and with its enemies, but these cases were solely for benefiting the army. Take for example the raid alongside an Ork warmob. The Boss saw the Vulpines (as they were called back then) as a good asset, and as the battle against a Space Marine chapter whittled down, the Vulpines turned on the Orks, saving the few remains of the chapter that had been hard pressed by the Orks for months. Tactical advantages was the reason the Celestians had joined foe armies, even against chaos, they used them as a means to get closer to them and destory them.
Frost sighed, the Sniper, lone man, now he was stuck within a bushel of nuns with deadly guns to his fragile frame. He growled, he didn’t even have any sound suppresser to mount his gun with to kill a few lone chicks. He held his knife tight by his side, hoping to get a chance to make a commit to run, but never finding the time
"Bolters...why did it have to be bolters..."
--
Isobel was not one to be left out, despite her Sisters triumph, she felt that not killing that one xeno she would taint her record, demoralize her sisters. But the possibility of nodding off the "saint-hood" talk by the sisters did seem appealing. The possibility of nearly finding the letting escape xenos could tarnish her record slightly to ease off the pressure, but all the same, the risk was against her emperor and she HAD to commit to his name, nothing else. Suddenly the distant rumble of an armored unit caught her attention, could it be a Celestian tank...no...That couldn’t be right, she had killed the 2 Celestian tanks that arrived while the third lay immobile and out of ammo. She had no reason to suspect a hostile, this was her lost tank.
Rushing towards it she can catch a glimpse of its snow white armor and crystal blue siding as she nears, but is shocked and horrified to see the xeno sympathizers atop it.
Those...tainted souls..." Isobel muttered to herself "Why must they vie off the path of the Emperor" she added as she rose her sword
--
"aye...gimme one too" Uril muttered in his thick Scottish accent "could us one of the tall's" he said as he knock back a drink from his "stash" in his bag. Uril was a bit of a braincase, he was Irish, but had an intelligence that almost rivaled any known scientists in the world. Some people wondered why he took combat duty
"Because battle is in me blood laddie" he had remembered saying to some Imperial officer before he enlisted.
Now, here he was, seven years beside Everdun and all the battle he wanted. Yet his mind was put to good use "To learn the enemy" he had mentioned, his plan to study all races of Xeno in the universe and when finished his tour, use it to help the Imperium fight and even work together with in battles for humanity. He looked up at the sky, slowly, it began to rain. He laughed slightly "ah..rain...the one thing that controls us all" he muttered. Still he knew the problem with his company, Inquisition, a problem and a political blackout, able to end him instantly it was a miracle his industry power had not been squashed.
Not like the plate of armor Uril sat next too, as he looked up, a power sword came slashing down, ripping into the metal panel with a dull buzz. Everdun was already up, his own sword drawn and pistol ready. Elisia was scrambling onto the top of the tank while Cadien was struggling to get his Knives out of his tangled Gellise suit. Uril simply looked up at the Cannoness jetting along side, gave a smile and ducked into the tank quickly
"Holy shat!" he exclaims "i need a drink...nearly pissed me pants!"
Everdun growled slightly, this was their main commander; a Sisters Heroine was a tough contender. He had read the reports on the Inquisition, noting their Cannoness having been majestic yet powerful females that bear the most experience and will in battle, capable of commanding their sisters with deadly efficiency. Everdun knew he might not survive, his squad might not, with this Cannones, but even so he braced. The female came at him hard, her jetpack rumbling in the night as their swords met atop the tank. Taxi kept the vehicle in motion as Caiden continued to scramble topside, but failed due to the rough road they drove on, for now Everdun was on his own.
“You shall die by my hand, your sins of working with xenos can not be forgiven in the Emperors judgment!” she shouted as the blade came down hard, narrowly slicing Everduns arm off. Everdun quickly ducks to the side, drawing his pistol and firing off a few shots, one hitting the joint piece in the chest armor, causing the Cannoness to retreat, but quickly retake her composer and attack again. As the tank made a sharp turn, Everdun was floored, rattling his sword against the plates, he catches it under the rocket launchers hydraulics, and quickly drops it, fearing he might break the device. Unarmed, Isobel hovers gently over him
“Your time has ended” she said as she soared up slightly, yet as she rises, the sudden crackle of energy rips across the sky, causing everyone to duck. In an instant, a single bolt strikes upon the Cannoness, sending her plummeting to the ground, and crashed into the trees beyond.
"Wow...what are the odds?" Elisia blinked as she watched Isobel slam into the earth some distance away. Elisia let out a sigh, slowly slipping a book back into her bag “Pray I didn’t have to do it” she said, the blue book slipped snuggling into her pack, a glimpse of a Fure De Leirs on the front.
--
Tanya covered herself with a branch, she sighed, she hated the rain, it not only messed up her tracking ability, but it made her cold and her fur soaked for days. She growls, this day couldn’t be any worse, stuck with a hyper curious kid, a lugging idiot, and a private whose greener than yesterdays twingshoots...she sighed, and twingshoots were very green. She suddenly heard the rumbling coming towards them, catching a sudden glimpse of white lights, the group was ambushed by a single tank, Atop it, Everdun, Elisia, and Caiden, Taxi, popped his head out of the tank
"Heya, welcome to my neck of the woods"
--
"Were going to get frost!?"
Tanya exclaims excitedly as the tank rumbles slowly towards the "predicted" Sisters line. Elisa sighs "Stay still dear, can’t fix you up" she said as she replaced the Jerry rigged brace on the vulpines ankle. Elisia knew how Tanya felt about the other members, yet she was the only one Tanya respected and that pleased her, she always looked out for the Vulpines, and is able to see and respect them better than most her patients. She fixed applying a proper medical instrument that would cut down healing by half, coupled with the Vulpines fast metabolism and healing "there, all good to go" Tanya nodded and slung her rifle back up "Gonna get me some payback...by the way, were is the Cannoness?" she asked
Everdun walked over "She got struck by lighting...guess the Emperor is with us"
Tanya shook her head "Nay, the moon is full, the Luna Goddess plaid a hand in that"
Everdun sighed a bit, to each his own, he always figured.
"A'ight, everyone hide" taxi shouted as the tank reach the edge of the forest just inches from the perimeter of the sisters camp, the plan was to sneak in, wire the tank to fire its missile in a delay shortly after the team enters to cause confusion at one end and firing off bolter into another. It was to provide confusion and located Frost, Tanya said "knowing him, he might be hiding out a kill spot" she muttered as the team readied their operation. This was going to be tight.
--
Taxi slammed a few commands into the firing computer, tapping a bit here and there until he figure to delay the launchers for 5 minutes
"That should do it' Everdun mentioned as he and the rest of the squad left the tank to its own devices. Slowly, with weapons shouldered, they begin their silent march towards the sisters camp, inside, the nuns still buzzed about, causing a bit of a new risk towards the squad, the sisters were in an uproar
"Man, this isn’t going to be easy" Tanya mutters as she and the rest of the team take cover behind another parked tank
"Frost could be anywhere" Cadien muttered "We need a signal for him"
Elisia smirked slightly "I may just have it" She slowly draws out a mirror "If im not mistake, this is the universal symbol for a signal" she said as she grabbed her flashlight and shined it upon the mirror, causing a reflection. She wiggled it in place a few times until she got an answer, a sudden barrel of a gun perked from behind a few barrels, catching the light and shaking
"He’s over there" Elisia says as the squad checks their surroundings before moving closer. Avoiding Sister patrols every so often, running their luck to the wire until they get to the barrels and are reacquainted with Frost. The Vulpine was in bad shape, they had mended his arm, but he bore several; scars of interrogation
"Don’t worry...didn’t talk much" he said with a subtle grin as the team check their watches
"5...4...3...2...1.." Everdun whispers as the sudden chorus of a missile launcher in the distance echoed around the camp, within seconds, several powerful missiles landed smack dab into the camp, kicking up dirt and debris, some sisters paroling nearby were vaporized by a missile strike, Everdun quickly grabbed frost
"LETS GO!" he barks as the team hoofs it towards the exit, letting their presence be known now
"Intruders!" came a shout as the team ducks behind crates, Tanya cracking a few shots along with Reed into a troupe of sisters which caused them to duck behind a shed.
"We can’t stay here!" Reed shouts "were gonna get killed!"
"Shut up!" Frost said taking aim again and firing upon another sister "We got to do this right"
The sudden sound of jetpacks brought fear to the whole squad, looking up, Miko yelps, Seraphim sisters began to decent towards them
"Sisters...annihilate them" Spoke their Sister Superior in a monotone voice, no emotion in her gaze as they slammed into the crates, kicking up both squad and material in a sudden ambush of jet wash and metal boots.
Miko screams, her arm was pinned to the ground by a crate as a Sister hovers over her, yet she was quickly removed as Hugges slammed a barrel right into the side of the Seraphim, causing the female to crumple to the side. Already the squad was getting into the thick of it. Caiden was dodging and slashing his twin blades at a pair of Seraphim while Frost and Tanya continued to move to find better firing lines. Elisia was with Everdun, using her own knife against a Seraphims bolt pistols while the LT was dodging and slashing with the Superior
"Geeze, don’t you girls ever quit!" Everdun mutters as the Sister continues
"As aide to Cannoness Isobel, I, Sister Superior Avriel of the Seraphim shall do my duty and destroy you xeno sympathizers." She lunged at Everdun, causing a shatter of sword upon sword. Clanging and buzzing with energies
"Damn...well if that’s how it is" He smirks, ducking back and causing the Seraphim to follow with him. As she fell forward, Elisia turned from the flank and slammed her dagger into the Superiors side armor. The female seemed to flinch as Elisia removed the blade
"Your weapons...aren’t efficient" the sister muttered as Elisia pulled away.
"Were done" Everdun muttered as he and his team begins to withdraw from the base, moving as quickly as they made their way to the exit amidst the confusion.
--
"Your dropship is en-route sir" Came his Vox officer to Commander Elionem, he nodded in return as he watched his men evacing
"Well...what can we saw we accomplished here?" the vox asked
"We took a blow, but made them bleed just as well" Everdun said, walking up to the Commander
"Everdun...were have you been?" Elionem asks
"Rescue op" he says, pointing to his Sniper who was helped forward by Elisia "they captured him, we went in and got him"
Elionem nods slowly "Well that’s good, were pulling out, the Sisters want this piece of dirt so bad they can have it, we made em pay for it at least"
Everdun nodded, sighing as he watched the mix of men and equipment roll off into the distance...eventually seeing the world turn black.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Sonic and SatAM: Pet peeve and admiration
*sips tea calmly* Okay, as the title may suggest, this is going to be a talk about Sonic the Hedgehog; everybody favorite blue hedgehog that can run at the speed of sound and even light.
Sonic the Hedgehog, that name goes back a long time for me. Ever since i watched the Saturday Morning Sonic TV show, I was blown away by the characters, and from there i decided to start drawing Sonic the Hedgehog. Yup, that's right, i drew Sonic stuff when i first began my path to an artist, go figure eh?
Anyway that's not what I'm talking about at this point, rather im going to talk about the whole "Fandom and Franchise" of Sonic as well as a few person peeves about it.
Okay, so lets go over what Sonic is.
Sonic made its debut as Sega's Mascot for the Sega Genesis back in the 1990's with Sonic the Hedgehog, a fast pace side-scroll were you collect rings and fight the evil Dr. Robotnik from taking over the world. After it made such a big success impact on the people, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog made its appearance on the TV around 1993. Sadly...and many people can agree, this show sucked donkey balls, big ass donkey balls. Along with this...terrible show, came another, Sonic the Hedgehog, or as many fans, myself include, will call; SATAM.
Satam was a BIG turn around from the prior show, it was dark, had a great story, characters and settings, and turned a normally empty game into a master crafted show. The downside was that it was canceled as a cliff hanger at the end of the Second Season. Even today people speculate "what would have happened" if DIC (owners of the shows copyright) had continued in their production and made a 3rd season; New Plot, Characters, maybe a very tragic event (cause that's what the 3rd Season should have, someones gotta die.) You know, if you asked me, the best idea i could see for something like this is to gather the cast again (since they were a great choice) and have Dan Abbet (creator of Gaunts Ghosts in Warhammer 40K) write the screen play. If that happened, the show would take itself to a new level of awesomeness, then again that's just me.
Its rather depressing that SatAM was canceled, many people probably cried their eyes out when they found out the news, though Sonic's TV streak didn't end there; mid 1990's brought about Sonic Underground. Not related to ANY video game at all, Sonic Underground was a branch in its own direction for Sonic, but like The Adventures...it was crap.
Let me run this down, Underground had Sonic, his brother Manic, and sister Sonia, as children of the Queen of their world, somewhat of a relation with SatAM. Robotnik, along with a army of new and sleeker Robots, attacked the Queens Castle in a coup, again similar to the SatAM series. Sonic's mother then abandon her children to the streets and flees the castle, though for the first bit of the series, people believed she was dead.
((if you dont belive me, take a look at Nostalgic Critics review of these two shows, hes right as rain when it comes to describing them: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/4762-adventures-of-sonic-the-hedgehog
Undergrounds main problem was that the theme of the show was based around Music...i mean seriously, fighting battles with Instruments...
Sonic, and this is coming from miles, used a Guitar that shot lasers
Sonia, the sister (who was purple and a love interest of one of Robotniks Minions) had a Electric Piano, which also shot laser, or something. Lastly, Manic, a street smart crook of a green hedgehog (like...some other character we see in the comics *cough*scourge*cough's and sips tea*) used drums that created shock waves. The characters go about meeting various peoples and going to various places, singing songs to fit in with various themes of the episode. The other interesting thing was the appearance of Knuckles, an Echidna from Sonic 2 and Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles was a bit of an egotistic prick, high and mighty for protecting his home turf, but very guillible and often falling for Robotniks simple schemes to turn him on Sonic. In truth, Sonic and Knuckles saw themselves as rivals; Sonic had his speed, but Knuckles had digging with his fists, allowing him to match Sonic's speed to a degree as well as a keen trait for setting traps. If i may be so bold, Knuckles is one of my fave Sonic characters.
It made little sense to watch this show, in fact, the plot line was almost non-existent. The overall idea i figured was for Sonic and co to defeat Robotnik, find their mother and bring peace back to their world, but i can recall so many "filler" episodes that went completely off the beaten path. Overall, Underground was the show that really turned me off on Sonic.
Around the same time however, and dating back to 1993, Sonic Comics were making an appearance, co-created with Archie Comics in New York, Sonic comics took the feeling and story of SatAM and made it more "downplay" in a sense more child friendly and understandable. For the first few editions, it was along those lines, but as they got into the teens and higher, the story began to show its "darker" side. Many plots and plans made themselves known and the comics were able to bring the same luster SatAM had with a whole new story line and plot. The comics really made it fun to enjoy Sonic, having back stories on all the key players as well as using its own plot devices. By issue 50, the comic had seen itself almost surpassing SatAM in terms of longevity and story, but that was all to change. In fact, they also made so many side stories, mini-series and single release issues that it add a new flare to the already awesome cast (They had a Tails Series and even a Princess Sally series.) They even made a Knuckles Series that was made of two 3 part mini-series, and a main series that lasted 30+ issues until it was wrapped up at Issue 32.
--
When Sega began to release sonic in the Late 1990's and early 2k, they put in a new cast of characters to replace all the others. Sonic the Hedgehog for Dream Cast was the first rebirth of the old Sega games, it added a 3D look to a classic and made the game quite interesting. It also added a new cast of Characters, such as Amy Rose (Sonic's "self proclaimed" girlfriend), Big the Cat, and E-102 Gamma. It also brought back old faves like Tails, and Knuckles.
Sadly, Sega didn't have much to continue to compete with the Video Game giants, and eventually was merged with Nintendo. After, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle made their appearance, bringing in Rouge the bat, a treasure hunting bat who had a thing for Knuckles, and Shadow, Sonics "Evil clone" and even allowed for Robotnik (At this time Eggman) to be playable.
Eggman...god...that names pricks me in more ways then id like. From the sadistic, dark dictator to a whiny fat guy who always chickens out and makes crummy robots...geeze its like they rebuilt Robotnik off some...other show...damnit.
Suffice to say, its these games and characters that changed the whole franchise, many people dont even recall what SatAM was or the characters because these new ones were given far more credit now that Nintendo was pulling the strings. Whats more, they came out with yet ANOTHER show to co-exist with these new games, Sonic X. Sonic X has Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Robotnik, and eventually Rouge and Shadow, taken from their world to ours (though the resemblance between the cartoon and "our world" is not even close.)
Sonic is taken in by a rich family were he spends his days living and fighting Robotnik. When Rouge arrives, she is taken by GUN, the "Military" power of this world. GUN is like the US army in so many ways, and at one point they even engage Robotnik's Island base with a squad of Special forces (including Rouge) and a fleet bombardment (So epic, it put the D-day landing to shame.*coughs*)
Anyway, im not going any deeper into this, suffice to say, Sonic went downhill, and they continued to make crummy games and increase Sonic X with crazy plot lines and useless characters. As the words of a great game Critic once said "Sonic should be taken behind a shed and shot." Hes been done to death...and that's the end of it.
--
Now...with that lil history lesson settled, lets get to the second topic, Sonic Art.
Sonic Art is the main stream sonic fan art, from character sketches, comics, stories, even mature subject matter, it all goes there; so big, that it seems more like a cult then a fandom. People worship Sonic art, those who can do it well get known, and those who cant get brutally criticized.
The real problem with sonic art is that there is very little originality in the characters, most are just re-makes of existing characters and there is little alteration in the style from the comics and what people draw. I too had been at fault with this, trying to copy the style of Sonic already shown to me, but ended up taking my own turn on that. Don't get me wrong, its not like everyone copies every detail, many artists put their own unique twists on Sonic and draw them in a style completely of their own. Still, its far and few to see many of them maintain that, but those that do are able to do it very well.
I guess my biggest peeve is that there is little creativity with Sonic art, everything is already done and any new character types people may come up with tend to spawn a stable idea that people will complain about. For example, lets say i draw a new kind of creature in sonic style, and a 100 people see it, immediately that "my style" of sonic character, and anyone who may copy is is ridiculed for it. My friend who is a comic artist mentioned "Sonic art is very limited, there is always a lack of creativity and uniqueness within the style since everything is already been created and people simply copy what they can, adding a bit of flare here and there."
In truth I have seen such things, people making simple recolors of Sonic or other characters, adding a new shirt or hairstyle on a existing frame. Admitting, i used to have a blue tails recolor, until i realized that it was to simple and decided to re-create it in a new style (only months later to find someone actually did make a recolor tails in blue...)
That's another problem, if you have the talent and skill, it wont matter if your character is Tails with one tail, taller and blue, your style masks the lack of creativity and your work is admired for how nice it is, not originality.
Okay, now I'm beating a dead horse, to sum up, Sonic art is a bit of a double egde sword, its an easy style to learn and replicate, its a hard one to make unique and put your own twist on it.
Sonic the Hedgehog, that name goes back a long time for me. Ever since i watched the Saturday Morning Sonic TV show, I was blown away by the characters, and from there i decided to start drawing Sonic the Hedgehog. Yup, that's right, i drew Sonic stuff when i first began my path to an artist, go figure eh?
Anyway that's not what I'm talking about at this point, rather im going to talk about the whole "Fandom and Franchise" of Sonic as well as a few person peeves about it.
Okay, so lets go over what Sonic is.
Sonic made its debut as Sega's Mascot for the Sega Genesis back in the 1990's with Sonic the Hedgehog, a fast pace side-scroll were you collect rings and fight the evil Dr. Robotnik from taking over the world. After it made such a big success impact on the people, The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog made its appearance on the TV around 1993. Sadly...and many people can agree, this show sucked donkey balls, big ass donkey balls. Along with this...terrible show, came another, Sonic the Hedgehog, or as many fans, myself include, will call; SATAM.
Satam was a BIG turn around from the prior show, it was dark, had a great story, characters and settings, and turned a normally empty game into a master crafted show. The downside was that it was canceled as a cliff hanger at the end of the Second Season. Even today people speculate "what would have happened" if DIC (owners of the shows copyright) had continued in their production and made a 3rd season; New Plot, Characters, maybe a very tragic event (cause that's what the 3rd Season should have, someones gotta die.) You know, if you asked me, the best idea i could see for something like this is to gather the cast again (since they were a great choice) and have Dan Abbet (creator of Gaunts Ghosts in Warhammer 40K) write the screen play. If that happened, the show would take itself to a new level of awesomeness, then again that's just me.
Its rather depressing that SatAM was canceled, many people probably cried their eyes out when they found out the news, though Sonic's TV streak didn't end there; mid 1990's brought about Sonic Underground. Not related to ANY video game at all, Sonic Underground was a branch in its own direction for Sonic, but like The Adventures...it was crap.
Let me run this down, Underground had Sonic, his brother Manic, and sister Sonia, as children of the Queen of their world, somewhat of a relation with SatAM. Robotnik, along with a army of new and sleeker Robots, attacked the Queens Castle in a coup, again similar to the SatAM series. Sonic's mother then abandon her children to the streets and flees the castle, though for the first bit of the series, people believed she was dead.
((if you dont belive me, take a look at Nostalgic Critics review of these two shows, hes right as rain when it comes to describing them: http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/4762-adventures-of-sonic-the-hedgehog
Undergrounds main problem was that the theme of the show was based around Music...i mean seriously, fighting battles with Instruments...
Sonic, and this is coming from miles, used a Guitar that shot lasers
Sonia, the sister (who was purple and a love interest of one of Robotniks Minions) had a Electric Piano, which also shot laser, or something. Lastly, Manic, a street smart crook of a green hedgehog (like...some other character we see in the comics *cough*scourge*cough's and sips tea*) used drums that created shock waves. The characters go about meeting various peoples and going to various places, singing songs to fit in with various themes of the episode. The other interesting thing was the appearance of Knuckles, an Echidna from Sonic 2 and Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles was a bit of an egotistic prick, high and mighty for protecting his home turf, but very guillible and often falling for Robotniks simple schemes to turn him on Sonic. In truth, Sonic and Knuckles saw themselves as rivals; Sonic had his speed, but Knuckles had digging with his fists, allowing him to match Sonic's speed to a degree as well as a keen trait for setting traps. If i may be so bold, Knuckles is one of my fave Sonic characters.
It made little sense to watch this show, in fact, the plot line was almost non-existent. The overall idea i figured was for Sonic and co to defeat Robotnik, find their mother and bring peace back to their world, but i can recall so many "filler" episodes that went completely off the beaten path. Overall, Underground was the show that really turned me off on Sonic.
Around the same time however, and dating back to 1993, Sonic Comics were making an appearance, co-created with Archie Comics in New York, Sonic comics took the feeling and story of SatAM and made it more "downplay" in a sense more child friendly and understandable. For the first few editions, it was along those lines, but as they got into the teens and higher, the story began to show its "darker" side. Many plots and plans made themselves known and the comics were able to bring the same luster SatAM had with a whole new story line and plot. The comics really made it fun to enjoy Sonic, having back stories on all the key players as well as using its own plot devices. By issue 50, the comic had seen itself almost surpassing SatAM in terms of longevity and story, but that was all to change. In fact, they also made so many side stories, mini-series and single release issues that it add a new flare to the already awesome cast (They had a Tails Series and even a Princess Sally series.) They even made a Knuckles Series that was made of two 3 part mini-series, and a main series that lasted 30+ issues until it was wrapped up at Issue 32.
--
When Sega began to release sonic in the Late 1990's and early 2k, they put in a new cast of characters to replace all the others. Sonic the Hedgehog for Dream Cast was the first rebirth of the old Sega games, it added a 3D look to a classic and made the game quite interesting. It also added a new cast of Characters, such as Amy Rose (Sonic's "self proclaimed" girlfriend), Big the Cat, and E-102 Gamma. It also brought back old faves like Tails, and Knuckles.
Sadly, Sega didn't have much to continue to compete with the Video Game giants, and eventually was merged with Nintendo. After, Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle made their appearance, bringing in Rouge the bat, a treasure hunting bat who had a thing for Knuckles, and Shadow, Sonics "Evil clone" and even allowed for Robotnik (At this time Eggman) to be playable.
Eggman...god...that names pricks me in more ways then id like. From the sadistic, dark dictator to a whiny fat guy who always chickens out and makes crummy robots...geeze its like they rebuilt Robotnik off some...other show...damnit.
Suffice to say, its these games and characters that changed the whole franchise, many people dont even recall what SatAM was or the characters because these new ones were given far more credit now that Nintendo was pulling the strings. Whats more, they came out with yet ANOTHER show to co-exist with these new games, Sonic X. Sonic X has Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Robotnik, and eventually Rouge and Shadow, taken from their world to ours (though the resemblance between the cartoon and "our world" is not even close.)
Sonic is taken in by a rich family were he spends his days living and fighting Robotnik. When Rouge arrives, she is taken by GUN, the "Military" power of this world. GUN is like the US army in so many ways, and at one point they even engage Robotnik's Island base with a squad of Special forces (including Rouge) and a fleet bombardment (So epic, it put the D-day landing to shame.*coughs*)
Anyway, im not going any deeper into this, suffice to say, Sonic went downhill, and they continued to make crummy games and increase Sonic X with crazy plot lines and useless characters. As the words of a great game Critic once said "Sonic should be taken behind a shed and shot." Hes been done to death...and that's the end of it.
--
Now...with that lil history lesson settled, lets get to the second topic, Sonic Art.
Sonic Art is the main stream sonic fan art, from character sketches, comics, stories, even mature subject matter, it all goes there; so big, that it seems more like a cult then a fandom. People worship Sonic art, those who can do it well get known, and those who cant get brutally criticized.
The real problem with sonic art is that there is very little originality in the characters, most are just re-makes of existing characters and there is little alteration in the style from the comics and what people draw. I too had been at fault with this, trying to copy the style of Sonic already shown to me, but ended up taking my own turn on that. Don't get me wrong, its not like everyone copies every detail, many artists put their own unique twists on Sonic and draw them in a style completely of their own. Still, its far and few to see many of them maintain that, but those that do are able to do it very well.
I guess my biggest peeve is that there is little creativity with Sonic art, everything is already done and any new character types people may come up with tend to spawn a stable idea that people will complain about. For example, lets say i draw a new kind of creature in sonic style, and a 100 people see it, immediately that "my style" of sonic character, and anyone who may copy is is ridiculed for it. My friend who is a comic artist mentioned "Sonic art is very limited, there is always a lack of creativity and uniqueness within the style since everything is already been created and people simply copy what they can, adding a bit of flare here and there."
In truth I have seen such things, people making simple recolors of Sonic or other characters, adding a new shirt or hairstyle on a existing frame. Admitting, i used to have a blue tails recolor, until i realized that it was to simple and decided to re-create it in a new style (only months later to find someone actually did make a recolor tails in blue...)
That's another problem, if you have the talent and skill, it wont matter if your character is Tails with one tail, taller and blue, your style masks the lack of creativity and your work is admired for how nice it is, not originality.
Okay, now I'm beating a dead horse, to sum up, Sonic art is a bit of a double egde sword, its an easy style to learn and replicate, its a hard one to make unique and put your own twist on it.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Racing Tribute
October 02/09
Shannonville Motor Park (SMP)
(pictures soon)
I not much of a driver, in fact I don’t drive at all; never got my license pass a G1. I guess you can say I’m a “transit child” because I love to take the bus. Anyway, my dad took me to a SAAB club event, an Advance Driving school for tips and tricks to drive better, especially with sport cars. Of course, this means my dad brought up his Corvette, Ret as he calls him.
We arrived in Belleville at around midnight on October 1-2, and slept in a Best Western. After a quick, yet tasty breakfast at 7am in the morning on October 2, we began our 30 min drive from Belleville to Shannonville at around 8am. The schedule here is quite intense; it goes a 45 min class followed by a test on the track, rinse and repeat. My dad has to do 2 of them, and then we have lunch. Afterward there are 3 more classes followed by track work until the final hours were its free drive around the track until around 5pm.
So far I cat say much, I’m writing this during the first class so ill be looking towards an exciting day at the track.
(Picture 01) – (picture 05)
In terms of Car Types, I’m surprised to see a lack of sporty cars. Most of these cars are SAAB or BMW, but there are a few sport cars a long side my dads Vett. There is a second Vett, an older model in yellow, a BMW race card (just a normal BMW probably upgraded for race level) as well as a few Audi’s, Hyundai, Honda’s and even a Miata. One thing I was blown away by was a Nissan Skyline GTR, but a new model version; it’s not as cool looking as the old GTR, but I’m still blown away by it just being here. (Hope I can get a good gander at it)
Palkia’s: Its coooold *brrr* how can humans stand this cold. The noise is another thing, such a racket with these things…these “cars” as they are called, what use are they?
Masters father has a nice car; it looks very sleek, like me, I wish to ride within it as my chariot!
(picture 05)
Advance driving school…the name is curious. Safe practice of driving for wherever you drive, taken from racing on a motor sport track.
Here’s the question:
“Why on a racing track?”
Answer à Freedom of movement and speed, to test things as well as being safer. It’s designed for training, so it makes better sense than doing this on a city circuit (surprised why Young Drivers doesn’t do something like this for their tests, take of a lot of strain…)
If I ever did get my license, and ever did get my dream car (Shelby GT-500, 1967 Model) I'd love to do stuff like this.
Palkia: And that’s a dream you can keep having
Me: HEY!
Palkia: It is true is it not master, you admitted you don’t like driving?
Me: true, but I’ll eventually get my G2, hoping before I graduate (have till 2011)
Palkia: Well, I shall wait for the day…and hope you all the best
Safety seems to be a big issue
Palkia: Big issue
According to the teacher, every part of the car is checked, from the internal systems, to what you have inside the driver seat. The cold weather adds another level of concern
Palkia: Its cold…very cold
So driving with tires that aren’t set for this could be an issue, especially when only a palm size piece of rubber is sticking to the ground…and with my dad wearing All Season tires…causes some concern for so he has to be careful.
Tires…the major bit of this whole thing
Palika: What is a tire?
(BTW for those who are curious, the Palkia im reffering to is a small minature toy, one of those Pokemon figure collectibles. He had sotwed away in my bag when i packed up and decided to put his own input into the story. Its all cool with me, besides he is going to be part of "Life as a Miniature" soon enough *Spoil spoil*)
A tire is the rubber wheel around the metal rim (the thing in the center.) Tires come in various shapes, makes, and seasonal setups, all meant for a specific thing; driving in summer, winter, high performance, and so forth.
Tires are important because they keep your car moving and sticking to the road, so managing the tires is important to driving
Palkia: So…if you don’t have good tires…
As the instructor said “you drive on hockey pucks’ solid pieces of rubber.”
The last few bits were about hand signals (since no one has radios) and sitting in your car. If you think about it, it’s quite an interesting science and method behind sitting in a car when driving high speed, making sure your not only comfortable, but also in a stable position and using max power to your legs for gas and break when needed.
“Expect the unexpected” as people may consider this.
--
First Drive, Class and Skid Pad
Well, I was impressed, the first drive on the “Nelson” track my dad did was impressive, 3 laps of controlled running. I made a few videos and shots of it, so don’t take my word for it, I have proof here.
(Picture 06-08)
For the track run, it’s quite fascinating how people can drive so well on a track, maybe because it’s controlled, safer, or just fun and more relaxed. Still, watching dad do those three laps was quite spectacular. The Second bit was a “skid pad” run. A Skid pad is a small track meant to do intense maneuvers and pushing the car’s braking to the limit. The task was “obstacle avoidance”. At full speed, you drive toward a wet puddle and then break hard to avoid a wall, going left or right and then continuing.
Palkia: Agility like a Luxio…speed like a Dodrio…I am impressed
The second class mentioned about the brakes, and braking horse power. Braking horse power is the force a braking system can put onto the tires to stop them. Today’s braking systems have 1-2000 hp per break to slow the car. Years ago, before pad brakes, there were drum brakes, and for most cars, people had to de-clutch the car to break since they couldn’t stop easily.
Braking is important, they can not only save your life, but they help improve a car turning. What’s more, using them correctly is imperative to any city driver, especially in heavy traffic and on highways. Its knowing when and what force to brake with is key, a 6th sense in driving so to speak.
Palkia: Safety and security…and you need these for driving?
Yes…driving may seem all cool, but there are always risks. Not only that, there are numbers upon numbers of car types to choose from. Front wheel, rear wheel, full wheel…it’s confusing.
Paklia: The weather has warmed; it’s a good thing that the sun has shined its warmth on us
But it leads to a problem, the cold>warm thing is also a risk to the tires, because this was a gradual change, and because the tires were moving, I don’t think a bad thing will happen.
Now mind you I’m not in the car, I cannot be since the instructor takes the passenger seat, but I’m still able to get a good view. I wonder how it is, to drive around a track like this and the thrill of hard braking/turning.
--
Second Class, Skid pad & Lunch:
A corner turn….i never realized how much physics is put into one right turn. Upon studying driving in Young Drivers, I learned to simply follow the corner and turn with it, enough said. It was simple and very effective towards turning. What the instructor mentions about this corner is quite…well…mathematical…or something. You start off breaking and downshifting, not taking to much speed off nor going to fast; turning in gradually with a balanced motion until the apex of the turn and then floor it 100%.
This course is to provide the ultimate in teaching for car control, not speed, but handling and force of braking and speed. For me, not having driven, a lot of this stuff is quite confusing, I find myself asking my dad “What?” a few times, but the idea is pretty straight forward, teach people to drive safer.
As I said, its confusing, I'm not a driver but just listening to what is being said, and what has been mentioned in doing a “proper” turn…it was quite overwhelming.
The second skid pad work was known as Slalom, similar to the skiing type, the Slalom is meant to test your brake and turning abilities. I watched dad do it a few times and he did quite well. He mentioned afterwards that it wasn’t by thinking, but instinct; that’s the key to driving, instinct. You don’t think, just do what your gut tells you, and of course this takes time to perfect.
Lunch was…well Lunch
Palkia: I didn’t get any….
I didn’t think you’d like stake
Palkia: *grumbles*
--
Third Class, Track, Skid Pad
The Third class was quick, simply explaining the new setup of the track, which is larger than the prior one. It also has a lot more turns and twists, hence the practice of turning, slalom, as well as accident avoidance. The best thing to keep in mind, according to the teacher, is pay attention to the front
Palkia: The front?
Yes, I can actually vogue for this, playing Forza Motorsport, its true that when someone is ahead of you, you drive to your best, but when people are behind, you have a risk of messing up because you are paying attention behind you rather than ahead. In terms of turning, the most important corner in any race is a turn before a long straight away, because that can either make or break your game, so making sure you pay attention and drive well.
The thing is, when you’re driving at high speed, you don’t have time to focus on your front and back, if someone is behind you, let them pass. It’s bad to bother constantly with someone behind you, its even worse to put all your attention towards that. Let people pass, this training, not a race.
The next few driving things until the next class are 2 full track drives and one skid-pad of “over/under steer”. Unfortunately I won’t be going out this time, my hands are freezing and I don’t want to get too sick.
Palkia: As if Lugia decided to make everything cold
I thought that was Articuno
Palkia: Yeah…but Lugia still controls weather currents…he can alter this too
Uh huh….Anyway, pictures are limited at this point, both the camcorder and camera are very low on juice, so only a few shots can be taken
Palkia: Should have charged it
Oh back off *sneezes* It seems that we should have figure this earlier in the week and then decide upon charging them.
As the afternoon wore on, I remained inside the class room, keeping busy. It began to rain so it would give an interesting twist for drivers. I must admit, I’m glad dad brought me, I enjoyed this. I may have sat here in the classroom, but I listened to several classes during that time period, each one providing a unique experience in understanding “high performance driving”.
Palkia: Don’t forget, father mentioned he “spun out”
Yeah…that happens when you drive in the rain, he’s okay though, quite a scary feeling. When you spin out, you let go of the wheel, the car usually rights its self.
--
Fourth Class and Full Track
Driving in the rain, especially on a race type course is quite interesting; I'm learning things I never knew. For instance, roads for raceways are paved with a unique kind of asphalt/concrete to increase the grip for tires, in dry that’s great, but there is a weaker hold in wet, especially at this track. The last few rides around the course were by the instructor, and my dad was sitting in the instructors car during the prior rainfall. Seeing how the course handles now, its going to be great to see how well he can handle it.
Palkia: Its still cold…
Cold, yes, and I may have caught a bug, been sneezing a lot. Anyway, the fourth class deals with paying attention during bad conditions, as well as using your eyes to the fullest. In any bad condition, its important to keep 100% focused on the road, a lot can be going on around you, and it gives a great risk to the driver, yet feeling overwhelmed is normal, and the best thing to do is to just keep calm.
The track is a full course now, and I’m curious to see how dad will drive on a wet track.
Watching dad drive in the rain is a bit of a downturn, instictivly we drive slowly when it rains, and dad is no exception; he drove at a stready pace. Despite his slowness, he still handled perfectly, and it was quite nice to watch him take the turns and straights with some good speed and turn handling. Now, after watching him, we have a break until the last class. As for me…my hands and feet are now frozen and it hurts to move…
Note to self, carry warm pads for feet and gloves, the coffee does nothing!
Fifth class and rides:
Palkia: Before we wrap up the last bit, id like to complain that I was stuffed in a pocket this whole time….NOT ONCE did anyone gimme food!
Relax; ill give you some starbursts when we get home
Palkia:…curse you, you know my weakness.
The last class, seems to be a final debrief and wrap up, explaining how to get some more out of just these schools as well as after period driving and learning.
Well, that about wraps up everything, now to go for dinner then the 1.5 hour drive back home
Palkia: Oh joy…
Well that's all for now, hope everyone has had a good day, now if you will excuse me, i need to lie down...i caught a big x.x
Shannonville Motor Park (SMP)
(pictures soon)
I not much of a driver, in fact I don’t drive at all; never got my license pass a G1. I guess you can say I’m a “transit child” because I love to take the bus. Anyway, my dad took me to a SAAB club event, an Advance Driving school for tips and tricks to drive better, especially with sport cars. Of course, this means my dad brought up his Corvette, Ret as he calls him.
We arrived in Belleville at around midnight on October 1-2, and slept in a Best Western. After a quick, yet tasty breakfast at 7am in the morning on October 2, we began our 30 min drive from Belleville to Shannonville at around 8am. The schedule here is quite intense; it goes a 45 min class followed by a test on the track, rinse and repeat. My dad has to do 2 of them, and then we have lunch. Afterward there are 3 more classes followed by track work until the final hours were its free drive around the track until around 5pm.
So far I cat say much, I’m writing this during the first class so ill be looking towards an exciting day at the track.
(Picture 01) – (picture 05)
In terms of Car Types, I’m surprised to see a lack of sporty cars. Most of these cars are SAAB or BMW, but there are a few sport cars a long side my dads Vett. There is a second Vett, an older model in yellow, a BMW race card (just a normal BMW probably upgraded for race level) as well as a few Audi’s, Hyundai, Honda’s and even a Miata. One thing I was blown away by was a Nissan Skyline GTR, but a new model version; it’s not as cool looking as the old GTR, but I’m still blown away by it just being here. (Hope I can get a good gander at it)
Palkia’s: Its coooold *brrr* how can humans stand this cold. The noise is another thing, such a racket with these things…these “cars” as they are called, what use are they?
Masters father has a nice car; it looks very sleek, like me, I wish to ride within it as my chariot!
(picture 05)
Advance driving school…the name is curious. Safe practice of driving for wherever you drive, taken from racing on a motor sport track.
Here’s the question:
“Why on a racing track?”
Answer à Freedom of movement and speed, to test things as well as being safer. It’s designed for training, so it makes better sense than doing this on a city circuit (surprised why Young Drivers doesn’t do something like this for their tests, take of a lot of strain…)
If I ever did get my license, and ever did get my dream car (Shelby GT-500, 1967 Model) I'd love to do stuff like this.
Palkia: And that’s a dream you can keep having
Me: HEY!
Palkia: It is true is it not master, you admitted you don’t like driving?
Me: true, but I’ll eventually get my G2, hoping before I graduate (have till 2011)
Palkia: Well, I shall wait for the day…and hope you all the best
Safety seems to be a big issue
Palkia: Big issue
According to the teacher, every part of the car is checked, from the internal systems, to what you have inside the driver seat. The cold weather adds another level of concern
Palkia: Its cold…very cold
So driving with tires that aren’t set for this could be an issue, especially when only a palm size piece of rubber is sticking to the ground…and with my dad wearing All Season tires…causes some concern for so he has to be careful.
Tires…the major bit of this whole thing
Palika: What is a tire?
(BTW for those who are curious, the Palkia im reffering to is a small minature toy, one of those Pokemon figure collectibles. He had sotwed away in my bag when i packed up and decided to put his own input into the story. Its all cool with me, besides he is going to be part of "Life as a Miniature" soon enough *Spoil spoil*)
A tire is the rubber wheel around the metal rim (the thing in the center.) Tires come in various shapes, makes, and seasonal setups, all meant for a specific thing; driving in summer, winter, high performance, and so forth.
Tires are important because they keep your car moving and sticking to the road, so managing the tires is important to driving
Palkia: So…if you don’t have good tires…
As the instructor said “you drive on hockey pucks’ solid pieces of rubber.”
The last few bits were about hand signals (since no one has radios) and sitting in your car. If you think about it, it’s quite an interesting science and method behind sitting in a car when driving high speed, making sure your not only comfortable, but also in a stable position and using max power to your legs for gas and break when needed.
“Expect the unexpected” as people may consider this.
--
First Drive, Class and Skid Pad
Well, I was impressed, the first drive on the “Nelson” track my dad did was impressive, 3 laps of controlled running. I made a few videos and shots of it, so don’t take my word for it, I have proof here.
(Picture 06-08)
For the track run, it’s quite fascinating how people can drive so well on a track, maybe because it’s controlled, safer, or just fun and more relaxed. Still, watching dad do those three laps was quite spectacular. The Second bit was a “skid pad” run. A Skid pad is a small track meant to do intense maneuvers and pushing the car’s braking to the limit. The task was “obstacle avoidance”. At full speed, you drive toward a wet puddle and then break hard to avoid a wall, going left or right and then continuing.
Palkia: Agility like a Luxio…speed like a Dodrio…I am impressed
The second class mentioned about the brakes, and braking horse power. Braking horse power is the force a braking system can put onto the tires to stop them. Today’s braking systems have 1-2000 hp per break to slow the car. Years ago, before pad brakes, there were drum brakes, and for most cars, people had to de-clutch the car to break since they couldn’t stop easily.
Braking is important, they can not only save your life, but they help improve a car turning. What’s more, using them correctly is imperative to any city driver, especially in heavy traffic and on highways. Its knowing when and what force to brake with is key, a 6th sense in driving so to speak.
Palkia: Safety and security…and you need these for driving?
Yes…driving may seem all cool, but there are always risks. Not only that, there are numbers upon numbers of car types to choose from. Front wheel, rear wheel, full wheel…it’s confusing.
Paklia: The weather has warmed; it’s a good thing that the sun has shined its warmth on us
But it leads to a problem, the cold>warm thing is also a risk to the tires, because this was a gradual change, and because the tires were moving, I don’t think a bad thing will happen.
Now mind you I’m not in the car, I cannot be since the instructor takes the passenger seat, but I’m still able to get a good view. I wonder how it is, to drive around a track like this and the thrill of hard braking/turning.
--
Second Class, Skid pad & Lunch:
A corner turn….i never realized how much physics is put into one right turn. Upon studying driving in Young Drivers, I learned to simply follow the corner and turn with it, enough said. It was simple and very effective towards turning. What the instructor mentions about this corner is quite…well…mathematical…or something. You start off breaking and downshifting, not taking to much speed off nor going to fast; turning in gradually with a balanced motion until the apex of the turn and then floor it 100%.
This course is to provide the ultimate in teaching for car control, not speed, but handling and force of braking and speed. For me, not having driven, a lot of this stuff is quite confusing, I find myself asking my dad “What?” a few times, but the idea is pretty straight forward, teach people to drive safer.
As I said, its confusing, I'm not a driver but just listening to what is being said, and what has been mentioned in doing a “proper” turn…it was quite overwhelming.
The second skid pad work was known as Slalom, similar to the skiing type, the Slalom is meant to test your brake and turning abilities. I watched dad do it a few times and he did quite well. He mentioned afterwards that it wasn’t by thinking, but instinct; that’s the key to driving, instinct. You don’t think, just do what your gut tells you, and of course this takes time to perfect.
Lunch was…well Lunch
Palkia: I didn’t get any….
I didn’t think you’d like stake
Palkia: *grumbles*
--
Third Class, Track, Skid Pad
The Third class was quick, simply explaining the new setup of the track, which is larger than the prior one. It also has a lot more turns and twists, hence the practice of turning, slalom, as well as accident avoidance. The best thing to keep in mind, according to the teacher, is pay attention to the front
Palkia: The front?
Yes, I can actually vogue for this, playing Forza Motorsport, its true that when someone is ahead of you, you drive to your best, but when people are behind, you have a risk of messing up because you are paying attention behind you rather than ahead. In terms of turning, the most important corner in any race is a turn before a long straight away, because that can either make or break your game, so making sure you pay attention and drive well.
The thing is, when you’re driving at high speed, you don’t have time to focus on your front and back, if someone is behind you, let them pass. It’s bad to bother constantly with someone behind you, its even worse to put all your attention towards that. Let people pass, this training, not a race.
The next few driving things until the next class are 2 full track drives and one skid-pad of “over/under steer”. Unfortunately I won’t be going out this time, my hands are freezing and I don’t want to get too sick.
Palkia: As if Lugia decided to make everything cold
I thought that was Articuno
Palkia: Yeah…but Lugia still controls weather currents…he can alter this too
Uh huh….Anyway, pictures are limited at this point, both the camcorder and camera are very low on juice, so only a few shots can be taken
Palkia: Should have charged it
Oh back off *sneezes* It seems that we should have figure this earlier in the week and then decide upon charging them.
As the afternoon wore on, I remained inside the class room, keeping busy. It began to rain so it would give an interesting twist for drivers. I must admit, I’m glad dad brought me, I enjoyed this. I may have sat here in the classroom, but I listened to several classes during that time period, each one providing a unique experience in understanding “high performance driving”.
Palkia: Don’t forget, father mentioned he “spun out”
Yeah…that happens when you drive in the rain, he’s okay though, quite a scary feeling. When you spin out, you let go of the wheel, the car usually rights its self.
--
Fourth Class and Full Track
Driving in the rain, especially on a race type course is quite interesting; I'm learning things I never knew. For instance, roads for raceways are paved with a unique kind of asphalt/concrete to increase the grip for tires, in dry that’s great, but there is a weaker hold in wet, especially at this track. The last few rides around the course were by the instructor, and my dad was sitting in the instructors car during the prior rainfall. Seeing how the course handles now, its going to be great to see how well he can handle it.
Palkia: Its still cold…
Cold, yes, and I may have caught a bug, been sneezing a lot. Anyway, the fourth class deals with paying attention during bad conditions, as well as using your eyes to the fullest. In any bad condition, its important to keep 100% focused on the road, a lot can be going on around you, and it gives a great risk to the driver, yet feeling overwhelmed is normal, and the best thing to do is to just keep calm.
The track is a full course now, and I’m curious to see how dad will drive on a wet track.
Watching dad drive in the rain is a bit of a downturn, instictivly we drive slowly when it rains, and dad is no exception; he drove at a stready pace. Despite his slowness, he still handled perfectly, and it was quite nice to watch him take the turns and straights with some good speed and turn handling. Now, after watching him, we have a break until the last class. As for me…my hands and feet are now frozen and it hurts to move…
Note to self, carry warm pads for feet and gloves, the coffee does nothing!
Fifth class and rides:
Palkia: Before we wrap up the last bit, id like to complain that I was stuffed in a pocket this whole time….NOT ONCE did anyone gimme food!
Relax; ill give you some starbursts when we get home
Palkia:…curse you, you know my weakness.
The last class, seems to be a final debrief and wrap up, explaining how to get some more out of just these schools as well as after period driving and learning.
Well, that about wraps up everything, now to go for dinner then the 1.5 hour drive back home
Palkia: Oh joy…
Well that's all for now, hope everyone has had a good day, now if you will excuse me, i need to lie down...i caught a big x.x
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