Long Time No See

Sorry I've not posted for ages as my laptop has been broken and I've only just got it back. So what's been going on whilst I've been away?

Destiny Beta

So the Destiny Beta happened and when it first started there was a free for all on Facebook and twitter as people were giving out beta keys left, right and centre. I don't know where all these people were getting the codes from as I thought you only got one when you pre-ordered. Not that I really care as I managed to nab one so it was a win for me! But because of this mass give away it brought the PSN store to its knees with everyone clamouring to claim the game.

After the dust settled and the store was back up and running I got in to the game. Having already played the Alpha I knew the basic feel of the game but in the beta the campaign missions were new so that's where I started. There weren't too many to ruin the full game, I think there were 6 in total, but there was enough to give you an idea of the story. The plot seems good and will no doubt pull me in further down the line. It does help that they have hired some good actors to provide the voices with Peter Dinklage as your Ghost (a small flying cube that guides and helps you). I didn't realise it was him at first since he is not using a British accent and is talking with his normal American accent. Once I knew it was him I no longer had a flying cube in the game, I had a dwarf in medieval garb walking behind me.

Once the campaign was done I moved on to the PvP which was an experience. I came last on the losing team ever time but enjoyed every minute of it. Its brutal and the other players take no prisoners, it will take some time to get better but it will be fun learning.

Overall this game is the nuts and I can't wait to get the full game. But one thing I did find was it was more enjoyable with a friend. The missions play better with two and PvP was as quiet as a monastery on a Monday night (are monasteries quieter on a Monday night?).

Comic-Con

San Diego hosted its annual convention of comics, films, TV shows and all other forms of geekery and there was a lot of news and announcements. As there was so much I'll just pick out my top 5 pieces of news from comic con.

Number 5
Fight Club and Django Unchained will have sequels but not in film as they are being released as comics. Great news and I will most definitely be adding Fight Club to my monthly buy pile as it is one of my all time favourite films. Yet to see Django so not as hyped but I've heard its meant to be Tarantinos best film since Jackie Brown so I will watch it at some point.

Number 4
The new Mad Max film had a trailer released

Sin City: A Dame To Kill For also got a red band trailer.

Number 3
Telltale games have announced there will be a season 3 for their award winning The Walking Dead series. No release date or platform details but just knowing that there will be a 3rd season is good enough for me.

Number 2
We get a look at Wonder Woman

Too skinny for an Amazonian in my honest opinion. She looks like she would get her arse kicked right through to breakfast if she got into a fight. But it is good to see her invisible jet in the background.

Number 1
Early footage of Age of Ultron has been shown and from what I've heard it's good and that is all I need to know for it to be number 1.

Well that's all I've got for today but I will leave you with this leaked Deadpool movie test footage.

A Raccon With A Ray Gun

Rocket Raccon #1 Cover

In the words of Ice Cube “Today was a good day”. My monthly delivery of comics turned up and this months batch is a good'un. There were many good reads with the murder mystery of Original Sin making more twists and turns and The Uncanny Avengers finally working as a team, but for this post I'm going to focus on a shiny new #1. Rocket Raccoon

Skottie Young writes and provides the art for this title and it's his art work that made this a definite add to my subscription list. His variant covers for other Marvel titles have always been top notch and full of humour and having never read any titles he has written it was nice to see his writing is just as funny. The cartoony art style young brings is a perfect fit for our anthropomorphic hero and all the panels just pop off the page.

The story starts with a quick flash back of a prison break before returning to the present to find Rocket taking a date to watch Groot in a intergalactic wrestling match. From there its non stop action and humour, with a phone call to Star Lord being a particular highlight. But then it ends all to quickly and leaves you wanting more. Which is good considering his big screen arrival this summer.

I've been following Rocket in his most recent outings with his fellow Guardians of the Galaxy in Bendis' latest run. That title has been good but Skottie Young's solo run with the furry member of the team already looks to be 10x better. Although its probably not fair to compare the two due to the complete difference in the tone the two books have, what with the serious feel of GotG and the zany action of RR.

If you have already guessed I liked this book. Really liked this book. I recommend people go out there and jump on this bandwagon as it looks to be going a long way and the journey will be enjoyable all the way.

Rating: Two Thumbs Fresh - Excellent.

P.S If he don't like being called a raccoon, why the hell is it his last name?!

P.P.S Below is a selection of my favourite Skottie Young art work

The Dark Knight Returns.....Again

Evening peeps! I know I've been a bit slow in releasing new posts, its just a bit hard to find the time. When I do have time I don't know what to write about, so I end up playing Playstation or reading comics so that I have something to write about. Then  I have no time to write because I've been gaming and reading. Anyway no such problem today as there is a guest writer today!

Helena Jidborg Alexander has this to say on Batman:

I have a complicated relationship with comic book films, well I should suspect a lot of us do. I love it when they get it right, but when they get it wrong, man do they get it wrong. Batman has most likely suffered this more than most.  I first saw Batman in the form of the very campy 60's TV show when I was around 10 years old. Even then it seemed a bit silly to me. Little did I know that Batman had started out as a very dark and not afraid to kill vigilante character many years earlier.

As I young teen I rented with excitement the 1989 Batman film by Tim Burton and then my love for Batman was born. I sat through the sequel and loved that, but I fell out of love again with the two following Joel Schumacher films. About 7 years after I watched the horribleness that was Batman and Robin a workmate told me I really needed to read the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel. We had been talking about Superman and how neither of us was really a fan. Back then I wasn't really that in to comics, I had read Watchmen and been blown away and my work mate had just lent me some Sin City. And I guess he wanted to further my education. It is safe to say that the Dark Knight Returns was a turning point for me and was the catalyst of me starting to read more and more comics.

The Dark Knight Returns came somewhat as a turning point for Batman as well, he had after the Adam West TV series turned rather campy in the comic too and after the TV series was cancelled the sales of the comic started failing. So in stepped Frank Miller and created what I can only describe as one of the best comics ever.

The premise of the Dark Knight Returns is an aged Batman forcing himself out of retirement as Gotham is falling apart. He has to battle his old foes such as Two Face and the Joker. The latter snapping his own neck in order to implicate Batman in "murder". Batman also gets a female Robin in the form of a 13 year old called Carrie. But the story that interested me the most is his battle with Superman.

Superman no longer of secret Clark Kent identity is working as an agent for the government and during a mission he cocks up a bit and makes a nuclear missile crash, causing the US to be hit by an electromagnetic pulse creating a blackout (well he did save people too I suppose, he didn't just mess up). Cue a lot of loitering and chaos all over the US. In Gotham Batman takes charge and keeps the city running with help from some former foe gang calling themselves Sons of Batman. The government finds it very embarrassing that Gotham is doing so well and sends Superman to deal with Batman. I won't give away the ending because you really need to pick this comic up if you haven’t read it.

You see with this new Superman vs Batman film coming up, which is said to be influenced by the Dark Knight Returns I do worry that they might cock it all up again. After all, Batman got good again with the Nolan silver screen incarnations after Schumacher had caused the franchise to nosedive yet again. So this film following on from the Man of Steel and then (if it is indeed going ahead) leading onto a Justice League film I keep on seeing flashing warning signs (big exclamation marks carried around by George Clooney). But hey, let's give ‘em a chance shall we? Meanwhile if you haven't already I urge you to read the Dark Knight Returns because I suspect Batman may never be better than this.

Helena Jidborg Alexander is a web editor from originally from Sweden but now living in the UK. She is a Whedonverse obsessed nerd who spends most of her time online, reading comics or watching clever TV series. Married to someone she met in 1998 known as Deckard in an #industrial IRC channel, they now have two sons, Tycho and Huxley. Loves a really good TV-series, blippy music, Sushi, A.M Homes books, Heidy Kenney Urban Vinyl figures and comic book heroines. Find her on Twitter under the name Hyperism.

The Punisher: An All Time Great

Today I thought I'd write about one of my favourite comic book characters. The Punisher, the man who carries out vengeance on all criminals since his family were killed in a mob hit.

His first appearance was in The Amazing Spider-man #129 in 1974. In that issue he was an antagonist for Spider-man who went about killing mobsters without a care in the world as he waged his one man war on crime. Spider-man was on his kill list as he was wanted for killing Norman Osbourne. From this initial arc The Punisher was found to be a hit with the readers and went on to feature in other titles like Daredevil and Captain America before finally getting his own solo run.

My first encounter with Frank was back in the mid-nineties. After being pulled in to the Marvel universe by the awesome animated X-Men series I decided to go to my local comic book shop, Comics Unlimited, and pick up a few comics. After browsing through the long boxes of  X-Men back issues, I decided to broaden my horizons and try something new. The first thing that caught my eye was picture of man in a black uniform that had a giant white skull emblazoned on his chest, emerging from some water while a fire burned behind him. In his hands were a grenade launcher and a machine gun. Even today I still consider it a brilliant piece of artwork. The issue was entitled Fire Fight and was 1 of 3. After a quick check I had all three in my hands.

The story was about The Punisher trying to stop an arsonist who is trying to burn down New York City. Whilst dealing with this problem Frank is being pursued by a vigilante task force who are out to capture him. I loved every bit of these books and would go back and read them again and again. From there I went about researching him where ever I could. This was hard work due to the lack of wikipedia back then!

 After about ten years away from comics I returned to them as an adult and the first thing I bought was Vol 1 of the Garth Ennis run on The Punisher Max. The Max imprint is where The Punisher belongs.  A place where there is no holding back in terms of language and violence. A place where The Punisher can truly punish. Ennis is the definitive writer when it comes to The Punisher and I especially love his story The Punisher: Born. This is a story that shows the soldier Frank Castle fighting in Vietnam before the death of his family. The dark events he faces in the war is where The Punisher is truly born.

There have been three films made of The Punisher and they go from being ok to god damn awful! The first film made in the eighties is not too bad. It has Dolph Lundgren in the main role and it hasn't aged well to be fair. Then in 2004 Thomas Jane wore the skull and again this was ok but what followed next with Ray Stephenson is just too bad to write about. Maybe now the rights have come back to Marvel they could do him right. I think the best place for him to be brought back would be as a recurring character in the upcoming Daredevil TV show. There they could use the classic stories written by Frank Millar to really establish Castle in the MCU. If all goes well there then maybe even his own show. The following short film shows how to do it right.

 I think the thing that makes me really like The Punisher is the fact he is just a normal man, maybe a bit unhinged but still normal. No super power. No money. Just a cold hard desire to stop evil in any way possible.

My Big Fat Q & A

Sorry I've not been written for a while, I've been caught up with work, family and the World Cup. I've also had a case of writers block. Because of my lack of inspiration I turned to the good people of Facebook for a helping hand. I just hope that my group are not like the majority of bat shit crazies that Internet tends to attract.

1st question is from Pete off of The Big Fat Geek Life Facebook group.

When did you first realise you were a geek?

Probably when I realised my friends were always asking me about comic book characters and I would just spiel out that character's entire life story. I think I could tell you more about most people in the Marvel Universe then I could about my own family!

 
Shane:
If you were to slide a hotdog down the A1 how likely would it be for it to touch the sides?

Errrr yeah ok. Quite likely?!


Helena has a few:
Who would win in a fight Spider-man or Batman and why?

Easy, hands down it would be Batman. If Batman cant beat Superman like he did in Dark Knight Returns then Spider-man would be a walk in the park and also Batman would win because he is Batman.


If you could write yourself into GOT what character would you be?

I would have to be a friend of Tyrion. That man is the coolest mofo in all of Westeros and he knows how to have a good time. I would end up killed in some painful way just as everybody was starting to like me!

What level on candy crush are you on?  

Level 2 I think only played it once to see what the fuss is about. 

What's the most embarrassing (to you) TV program/series you like?

I would have to say its most of the crappy day time shows on BBC1 like Homes Under the Hammer. They have a way of drawing me in and making me want to know what happens in the end.


Helen:
What makes the perfect game?

Good question.  For me it has to have a good story that pulls you in and makes you care about the characters. This doesn't have to be an all Hollywood blockbuster type story but there has to be a story of some sort. For instance Journey and Thomas Was Alone, both were simple but engaging stories that made you want to go on. Top notch graphics are not an essential, again see Thomas Was Alone, you play as different coloured blocks!

Pete:
What's the meaning of life?

42


Most under/overrated superheroes?

Most underrated would have to be Daredevil. Prior to the disaster of Ben Affleck DD had a good few runs but after the film bombed Hornhead fell out of favour. Recently the man without fear is back riding high under the excellent guidance of Mark Waid.

Most overrated would have to be, and I afraid to say it, but its Wolverine. This is purely down to the X-men films and their overuse of Logan. Non comic book reading fans of the film believe that there is no X-men with out Weapon X. I love Wolvie I do but I think I agree with Marvel and it's time for him to take a little dirt nap. 


Well that's all from The Big Fat Geek Life Facebook group. If you are on Facebook and you would like to join the group add me (Stephen Sowden) with a little message letting me know you are from here and I'll invite you in as it's currently a secret group.

When Will The Dead Stay Dead?

I've just finished issue 3 of Marvel's latest event, Original Sin, and it has got me thinking about death in comics. It seems to me that unless your name is Thomas and Martha Wayne, Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacey, then death is never the end.

If you look at the Marvel 616 universe Jean Grey has died something like 14 times! Xavier is not far behind either. Recently we have had Nightcrawler and Peter Parker come back from the dead and with Marvel planning to kill Wolverine this year how long until he is back?

Maybe with the death in Original Sin things might change and people will stay dead. It would have more of an impact when it does happen and story lines could build up some genuine fear for the safety of our favourite supes. But we all know that money talks and the cash sure does roll in when its announced a hero will die and it rolls in again when they come back.

E3 Special

E3 is on and the big dogs have done their presentations. We now have an idea of what the year ahead looks like in the world of gaming.

One thing that stands out from the conferences is the focus on co-op. It seems to be the way forward. I'd have no problem with this if I had more faith in the general public when it comes to co-op in gaming. As I stated in a previous post, people tend to be dicks online. Further on in this post will be a trailer for The Division, this is the way co-op needs to be played for it to work. Everyone communicating and working together for the greater good. What ends up happening when I play is silence, people doing their own thing not helping each other out and just chaos in general.

Anyway here is a brief round up of whats been announced.

No Man's Sky 

This game has a bit of Star Trek feel to it what with the exploration side of things. Loving the idea of a battle taking place in space and on a planet too, with the change between the two appearing seamless. The biggest thing this game has going for it though is the fact its a new IP. Its also colourful and bright compared to the usual beige and grey that most games are today. Just look at the colours, so beautiful!

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

Now I know I've been bashing sequels and calling for new IPs but there are some games that deserve to have sequels. Besides its not like Naughty Dog release Uncharted on a yearly basis. The Uncharted series has been nothing but hits all the way. All of them have had tight storytelling, gorgeous visuals and slick game play. Hopefully that will continue in number 4. One downside is that it seems that this might be Drake's last outing considering the subtitle.

 Evolve

Now this looks like fun. You and a group of friends track down a giant monster and try to slay it or you go it alone as the monster and hunt the hunters. Made by the same people that brought us Left4Dead, this is another game that needs you to have a reliable group of friends to co-op with. If you don't have any friends I suppose you could be the monster and smash those happy little people who have friends whilst stomping about in a jealous rage. My one worry is will this get boring quickly being as it is multi-player only?

The Division

As I have already written about this a bit earlier all I'll say now is I WANT. But only once I have some friends on PS4.

There are more game trailers from E3 over on the trailer page as well as the conferences from Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and EA. Enjoy!

My E3 Wishlist

E3 is right around the corner and with it (hopefully) some news on whats coming soon to our next gen machines.

Here is a run through of what I want to hear:


1) A definitive answer to whether or not The Last Guardian is being released as I'm sick to death of hearing that this is the (insert gaming expo name here) that we will get a release date.
2) Assassin's Creed is NOT going to be released yearly, then I can start building up my hunger for another game rather than being force fed it like COD.
3) COD is not being made anymore so all the obnoxious little butt monkeys that play it online can now leave gaming and go back to shouting at random passing cars and licking windows.
4) All sequels are to be cancelled and only new IP will be developed for the next 2 years.

Now I suppose I better give you some more realistic announcements that I am hoping for:

1) More news on Tom Clancy's The Division. After being announced at last years E3 its all gone quiet but this needs to be out NOW

2) News on whether or not AVI, MP4, MKV and MP3 playback will be enabled on the PS4
3) Big name games coming soon to PS Plus

That's all really as I'm quite easy to please. Anyway not long now so there will be more to write about once it starts.

Smell ya later.

Top 5

Hey guys I apologise in advance for the short post today been a bit busy with work and daddy duties.

This is my top 5 games of all time

5) Final Fantasy 7
 My first venture into JRPG's. The story was told well and that heart wrenching twist was one that I never expected.

4) Grand Theft Auto 5
After number 4 I was done with this series. It just seemed to be so boring and samey. Then GTAV dropped and I was pulled back into the life of virtual crime. The new addition of multiple characters to play as was a good one. But the best addition was the fact that they made it fun again and the online mode is one of the best online games I've played in a very long time.

3) The Walking Dead Season 1
This point and click adventure has probably the best story ever told in a video game. Rich characters and a well executed plot made this my game of the year when it came out.

2) Batman: Arkham City
This should be called "The Batman Simulator" because that is exactly what it is. If you just want to glide around Gotham and stop crime then that's what you can do. There are a lot of side missions that introduce you some lesser known villains from the Dark Knights expansive rogues gallery and really fun to play.

1) Metal Gear Solid
When this game came out I wasn't aware of its history on the NES, so the idea of stealth in a game was a whole new concept to me and it was  concept I fell in love with straight away. This game also has some of the best boss battles ever. The game kept you on your toes and would make you think outside the box with things like, fighting Mantis with the controller in the other port and looking for Meryl's codec number on the CD case. Pure genius. This game created the stealth genre and now there is not a game I can think of that doesn't have at least one stealth section. Take a bow Snake, you are number 1!

A Comic Con Experience

A couple of weeks ago the Excel Expo Centre in London hosted the MCM London Comic Con Expo. Two of my friends (Helen aka Porkchop and Shane aka Hoofbite, aka Hoof, aka Oi Git) were in attendance so I asked them about their experience.

Whateverman: Before we get started, can I just ask you to let the readers know a bit about yourselves.

Helen: I am 30 and I have been gaming since I was 4yrs old. I am engaged to Shane and we have a son who is also a big gamer too. My dad got me into gaming on his old Amiga 500. I think I played a game called Nutz first, which led me down the path of the NES and SNES, then I became hooked! I am also a collector of gaming merchandise. Love figures, clothes and bags that are to do with gaming. I'm a casual gamer, I love all sorts of games ranging from puzzle based games to shooters and horrors. I also enjoy watching movies, mostly action/SciFi/horror stuff. I used to watch a ton of anime religiously but I don't really have the time to get into a lot of it now but I still do enjoy the odd series that I hear good things about and make it a priority to watch. I also enjoy SciFi/action TV series, things like supernatural or Arrow. So as you can tell I am a big geek, the only thing I don't do is read comics ha ha!

Shane: I'm pretty much the same as Helen except I went the route of Sega, I love fighting games and I do read a hell of a lot of comics!

Whateverman: So was this your first experience of a convention? 

Shane: No, we had been to the Eurogamer Expo in September 2013.

Whateverman: As that was specifically games and this covered a broader range of things, what did you expect?

Helen: Lots of comics and cosplays

Shane: The same, only I expected a map ha ha

Whateverman: Did it meet your expectations or better them/fall short? 

Helen: Not so many comics on sale as I expected but tons of cosplayers so it was better than I expected but fell short in some aspects what with the lack of comics

Shane: I didn't expect it to be so crowded or so difficult to get in and out of the place once you had got in. It seemed over the top compared to Eurogamer where access was much easier if you needed to get some air or have a smoke if you were a smoker. It was quite upsetting that they made you queue up again to get back in.

Whateverman: When you were inside what was the atmosphere like?

Helen: Sweaty! Ha ha.

Shane: It felt very fast paced with the amount of people there but there was a happy buzz about it.

Whateverman: As with all conventions today, you can't throw a stick in these places without hitting someone cosplaying. What was the best Cosplay you saw? 

Helen: It's gonna have to be the Tank cosplay (Left 4 Dead) he had his tongue sticking out and it was HUGE!

Shane: Oh God that's a hard one, there were alot of fantastic ones, I'd probably have to go with this one guy dressed up as a Survey Corps (Attack on Titan) He had the 3D gear and it looked incredibly well made.

Whateverman: Some people really do go to town when cosplaying so what was the strangest cosplay you saw? 

Helen: This one girl, I have no idea what she was cosplaying as but you could see everything bar her naughty bits.

Shane: Has to be the guy with a Geodude for a head.

Whateverman: Did you guys cosplay?

Helen: Yeah we both did. I was Sir Trooper, basically a Clone Trooper from Star Wars but very 'dapper'

Shane: I went as a Ninja themed Sith

Whateverman: It's good to hear you were original with your cosplaying. How did you come up with the ideas for them?

Helen: I wanted something easy and cheap that hadn't been thought of yet.

Shane: Well, I had a Sith outfit and I wanted to mix it up with something, initially I wanted it to seem Pirate themed but as it came together it fitted better with a ninja look.

Whateverman: How did you make them and were they easy to create? 

Helen: I didn't make it I bought it, so pretty easy really, I did add the smoking pipe, mini top hat and moustache to the helmet though and the top hat took some work.

Shane: Pretty easy once I bought all the parts.

Whateverman: Conventions always sound like fun places to be, but was there anything that you didn't like? 

Helen: The crowds

Shane: Ditto, it made it hard to browse stores or even take in half of what people were dressed up as.

Whateverman: So that's the bad out of they way, now tell me what was your overall stand out moment?

Helen: Probably when people kept stopping me to ask for a picture, it made me quite proud of my cosplay.

Shane: I'm going to have to go with when an amazing R2-D2 came rolling through the crowds.

Whateverman: Conventions are always a good place to buy some goodies, what was the most impressive thing you saw for sale? 

Helen: It's hard to say really, there was just so much awesome stuff.

Shane: I really can't say, there was so much there and the mass majority of it was amazing!

Whateverman: So what was the most expensive thing you saw for sale? 

Helen: Probably an R2-D2 hoodie that I came across, it was about £128.

Shane: Easily the metal Master Sword replica, it was beautiful but was over £300!

Whateverman: I can tell you seemed to really enjoy it so this is a pretty pointless question, but are you planning to go again? 

Helen: Yes!

Shane: Hell yes, but on a less crowded day ha ha.

Whateverman: Thank you very much Helen and Shane for your insight!

 
So there you have it, from my roving reporters on the ground, an all round good day out! Below is some pictures from their day that they've kindly consented to share:

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