Jan

27

X-winged

Filed Under Pix, Toys | Leave a Comment

Chrome Chester Delta

When the kaiju-battling Night Raiders go to work, they don’t take the bus.

A photo of Bandai’s Chrome Chester Delta from the Ultraman Nexus toy line.

Jan

27

Elsewhere on the web

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Guild Wars: an educational MMOG.
“… building vocabularies through deadly combat.”

Planetside for free. [via]
New players will be able to try out the game (with restrictions) for 12 months for free.

Steve Jobs: bad for your mental health.

Jan

25

Urge to kill

Filed Under Games, Guild Wars | Leave a Comment

I’m not a fan of PvP gaming but there have been occasions when I’ve wished player-killing was allowed in towns in Guild Wars. This would be one of those occasions:

Guild Wars: Annoyances

Jan

24

Lead a life of danger

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Guild Wars: Ranger/Mesmer

The PvP preview for Guild Wars’ upcoming expansion, Guild Wars: Factions, has ended. I’m not much of a PvP player and I didn’t have a free character slot so I couldn’t play any of the new professions but what little I experienced of the preview did impress me.

I love the Chinese-inspired setting. It provides some striking imagery that makes a nice change from the Western medieval look that’s common in RPGs. The music is similarly Chinese-flavoured. The melancholic theme that plays during the log-in screen is recognisably a Jeremy Soule composition but it features Chinese instruments for that familiar-yet-different feel.

The main reason I’m looking forward to the expansion, though, is the promise of new skills and spells to play around with as this is the main appeal of the game for me. I just love the strategy and tactical planning that goes into creating a skillbar for a particular foe, area, quest or mission. If you’re a fan of tactical combat, this game is an absolute blast.

I’ve been playing my Ranger/Mesmer heavily over the past few weeks and managed to hit level 20 and ascend. I’m finding the Ranger profession to be tremendous fun. It may be second-best at almost everything but it makes up for it with its versatility and tactical options.

How shall I slay my foes today? Shall I use cunningly-placed traps? Shall I amuse myself by stymying my foes through interrupts? Or perhaps it would be more entertaining to see him hobble painfully towards me on crippled feet, bleeding poisoned blood all the while? A high-damage, rapid-fire fusillade perhaps? Or shall I instead rely on my faithful companion to tear my foes to shreds?

Decisions, decisions.

Jan

23

You’re not singing anymore

Filed Under Football | Leave a Comment

It didn’t look good for United at all.

The team had lost the local derby the previous week and had, in fact, not won in the Premiership in 2006. Injuries to players meant another untried central midfield combination against their bitter rivals, Liverpool. ESPN’s pundits unanimously agreed Liverpool would be victorious at Old Trafford. For long spells of the match it seemed they would be right.

United could hardly put together a decent offensive effort. Passes went astray and moves petered out. Not even the magnificent Rooney could inspire the team and the Liverpool keeper scarcely had to break a sweat.

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans were the happier and the louder of the two sets of fans in the stadium. They were reminding their United counterparts of the number of times their team had won the league and the European Cup. They were even singing songs about Cinema Ponggal. Who knew the Scousers were fans of Tamil movies?

Then United earn free-kick one minute before the end of regulation time. Giggs delivers a sweet ball into the box and Rio rises up and meets it firmly with his head. The Liverpool keeper gets a hand to the ball but can’t prevent it from hitting the back of the net where it belonged.

I’m going to have a smile on my face for the rest of the week.

(Reports: ManUtd.com, BBC, pix, Soccernet.)

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