Potty Training

Last night I finally finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (which delayed me a bit from finishing a page of Samurai Sis... Gah. The book's quite a read... in fact, I'd say it's topped Prisoner of Azkaban which was my favorite of the series up to now. The setpiece events- the World Quidditch Finals and the Tri-Wizard Tournament itself- were quite exciting and the book gets more intense as a certain Dark Wizard returns to the world of the living. Now I'm ready for the movie version, though after watching Azkaban and seeing the story aspects that got lost in the translation, I'm expecting a lot of stuff to be left out. Still, I'm pumped at the trailer and interested to see how the new director handles things after Albert Cuaron did POA. We'll just have to see as Goblet of Fire ignites theaters next month.

Sneak Peek

Here are two sample pages from my own Project Hero story, Samurai Sis. I really went for a look that's intentionally different from the art I did for Changing Channel, in that here it's a bit more detailed (with some attempt at a background) yet less on the finesse. It's reminiscent of my very early, early way of drawing... where quantity of lines (and lots of cross-hatching) made the art look a lot nicer than it actually is. Heh. Anyway, I think the more 'messy' way the lines look gives more character to the 'messy' state of affairs the characters are presently in. And yes, I didn't ink the pencils, so these are heavily-scanned and cleaned up from the original drawings. Does it work? I think it does...

Anyway, I'll be working on Samurai Sis pages for the rest of the week, as well as trying to sneak in work on Kunoichi Boy, which I have pretty much promised for the Komikon this weekend. It's gonna be close...


A day in the life of the Sobek household.


Careful, Sissy... those aren't chopsticks. Or at least, not ordinary chopsticks...

Samurai Sis will be coming out with other cool new superhero comic stories later this year in Project Hero from the gang at Comic Quest. Wait for it!

Resurfaced

RememberKunoichi Boy? Let's reminisce. I started thinking about an idea roughly described as 'Ninja Girl Boy' months and months ago. It would be a light-hearted mixing of elements from Ninja Scroll, Inu Yasha and Ranma 1/2. The end result was Kunoichi Shonen or more simply, Kunoichi Boy. I pitched the title to then-still alive Questor Extreme Mangamania, who accepted it as part of their upcoming lineup.

Unfortunately, delays followed long periods more delays and non-activity, until it soon became apparent that Questor Extreme, along with mother mag Questor, was DEAD. As in KAPUT. That left me with Kunoichi Boy without a home, and wanting for a release.

Anyway, after all this time, I'll finally be releasing the adventures of cross-dressing ninja warrior Jin Dragu AKA The Pink Ninja as he/she travels the land on an epic quest. The first release will be, barring any delays, a 32-page photocopy sampler comic that will contain The Pink Ninja's battle with 'One-blow Mikoto', a super-strong girl with a rock-hard body. A later, more substancial release, fully-printed and containing a larger amount of pages, will hopefully be produced in the future.
Kunoichi Boy will be seeing release this weekend, October 22, at the Komikon 2005 at UP Diliman's Alumni House. Along with the KB advance comic, I'll be selling copies of K.I.A. at a highly-discounted price (Komikon-only) and back issues of Angel Ace. Most likely, I'll be selling my stuff at the Alamat Comics booth, so check us there.

Fore more info on the Komikon, click here.

Changing Channel



Chelsea Chan could easily have been just your average, normal 15 year old girl with dreams of dates with her crush. But of course, when your parents are unnaturally addicted to Television, there's bound to be something weird in the mix. Chelsea got exposed to some strange radiation from her parents' television sets (note 'sets' as in more than one) right from her mom's belly, so when she was born she had powers far beyond that of mortal men. She has the ability to summon and materialize any character from any television show to do her bidding... how COOL is that?! And so, with her Universal Remote Control in hand, Channel the TV-tuning Superheroine is off to battle evildoers everywhere!

Changing Channel is created and written by Nikki Alfar (KC Strange, Siglo: Freedom) and drawn by Yours Truly. It's just one of the many new superheroes and super-stories to be featured in the upcoming Project HERO comic anthology, out later this year from the gang of lay-abouts at Comic Quest.

While Channel's in the bag, I'm still working on my own title, Samurai Sis, and hopefully I'll be done within the week. Then I'll have time to do some stuff for the Komikon this weekend.

WOOOHHH!!! Busy, busy, busy!!!!

Speed

I've slowed down a lot since my last stretch of doing comics. Saturday was supposed to be my Now-or-Never day for finishing Project Hero, but unfortunately I slept through several hours in the late afternoon after the kids played Playstation in The Sanctum after lunch. I started doing inks late night, and it looks like that I'll be finishing Nikki's story tomorrow. I'll be starting my own Samurai Sis story as well, and hopefully will do much progress on it.

Sigh. It doesn't help that my lower back hurts, so every moment I just want to lie down and just sleep. BAH. I should get more exercise, I guess. And maybe a diet. I'm so sluggish. Well, all that can come after. For now, I have a comic to finish.

Chaos

Or, the 3-day Weekend Sale. It starts today and ends on Sunday, which just hits on a payday, which pretty much guarantees a flood of humanity to gush into the Bermuda Triangle of shopping, Ortigas Center. I don't want to waste any time- gotta make a beeline for home after work, and then sequester myself for the duration as I try to do all I can in the space of two days or so to finish my quota for Project Hero. I truly haven't been able to accomplish anything during the week- which means I have to double-triple-quadruple my efforts on Saturday and Sunday to finish 14 pages of comic book fun.

If I do manage to pull it off though, it'll mean I got my comic book groove again.

I can do it. No problem. Right. I guess. Hmmm. Whatever. Gonna be busy-busy-busy.

Tech Lust


The Video-capable I-Pod. DAMN.

Okay, hang onto those bonuses and Christmas pay, people.

The new I-Pod will be coming with VIDEO. Og! Yep, Apple just announced that the latest incarnation of the widly-popular music player will finally have the ability to play movies and videos on a 2.5-inch color screen. The new video pod will come in 30 or 60 gig-variants, which is a HELL of a lot more than any SD card or portable mobile hard drive (the recently announced HD for PSP clocks in at 4 gigs) can give. Wow. 60 gigs. 60 FRICKING GIGABYTES of video and music. My Gosh. And given the long-life of I-Pod batteries, you may actually enjoy a good number of these vids before needing to recharge.

And the kicker is, the new video-pod will be thinner and lighter than past models. It's designed like the recently-released I-Pod Nano, thinner than a box of light cigarettes, and can load 150 hours of video. MY GOSH!

Am I impressed? Yes. Am I interested? Yes. Still, the loveliness of having a phone that plays video is that it IS a phone, and you carry it along with you as a matter of course. An I-Pod is a wholly separate device, something you have to bring along because you want to play the stuff you have in it. But darn... this is awesome.

It's a toss-up now. Xbox360 or I-pod Video. Heh. Why not both? We'll see. We'll see. HOHO!

Fembot

Here's an update on the Dead or Alive-HALO connection. Remember when I reported that there will be a character from the Halo universe guest-starring in DOA4? We were all expecting hologram-babe Cortana to be the one, but it appears we were all wrong (goes to show that the most obvious choice is seldom the right choice).

Nope. According to the latest Game Informer magazine, complete with pics, the Halo guest character is none other than a Spartan, or Spartan 458 to be specific, which is, as Halo gamers would know, a female version of the game's main character, Master Chief. From afar it's kinda hard to distinguish that the bulky battle-armored borg is actually a babe, but that's the fact. Now, while it's not likely that the Spartan will have a bounce, I'm actually looking forward to seeing this cyborg in action against the rest of the DOA ladies.

Dead or Alive 4 is slated for release later this year along with the launch of the new Xbox360.

Aaaaaaawwwww...



Darn, isn't she so cute? The Japanese just do cute so well. This is actually from the anime Basilisk, a pretty violent and action-oriented ninja anime along the flavor of Ninja Scroll. The cutie is a kiddie version of the show's female lead, Oboro. Basilisk is one of the latest anime by Gonzo (Hellsing, Gatekeepers, Samurai 7), and is about a war between two ninja clans and the love of their two leaders caught in between.

Gah! She's so cute! Musn't... look... into... eyes...

Board Games

Zathura is the story of two young brothers who, along with their entire house, get transported into space when they start playing a mysterious, retro-scifi boardgame named Zathura. If this whole thing sounds suspiciously similar to Jumanji, wonder no more- it's written by the same author. Anyway, substitute aliens and meteor storms for lions and flash floods and that's pretty much what Zathura is. Still, it looks interesting so I'll probably check it out when it shows in theaters this November.
So what's next? How about a CLUE boardgame murder mystery movie? Or a Dungeons and Dragons-type game? Or RISK?

Silent Hill


Tough ladies battle spooks to rescue a little girl in the Silent Hill movie.

The eerie survival-horror videogame series Silent Hill from Konami bucked the trend started by Capcom's Resident Evil. From gory monster mashes, SH instead went to more visceral, more psychological sources for it's scares. Well, after several games, the franchise has finally spawned a movie. The film version of Silent Hill stars Radha Mitchell (Man on Fire, Finding Neverland), Sean Bean (Boromir from LOTR) and Laurie Holden (Fantastic Four).
The story revolves around Rose (Mitchell), young mother who is desperate to find a cure for her dying daughter. She finally resolves to take the girl to a faith healer, and this leads her through a portal that sends her to the spooky town of Silent Hill. The half-abandoned, mist-shrouded town is inhabited by strange creatures and a mysterious darkness that twists and corrupts all that it touches. The only other humans in Silent Hill are fighting a losing battle against the darkness.

Soon Rose, joined by a female copy named Cybil, must make a pact with a demon to save her daughter's life. How far will these hapless prisoners go to survive? And will they be able to escape the twisted borders of Silent Hill?

Unlike other videogame movies, SH has a good chance of being a stand-alone feature that can cook up its own scares and chills without having to resort to cheezy videogame effects or out-of-place action sequences. This should be something to look forward to when it creeps into theaters in 2006.

Coming: The P990


Sony Ericsson's upcoming communicator.

No, it's not the P1000 gadget whores have been lusting for, but it's almost as good. In fact, it's just ten points away. The upcoming Sony Ericsson P990, which has just been scooped by Infosyncworld, is a long-awaited update to SE's communicator series (of which the latest, the P910i, has pretty much been overtaken by most other superphones as of late).
Incredibly enough, the P990 looks very similar to previous models, however there are significant changes. The thumbboard is now integrated into the main body of the phone, instead of on the keyboard flap. As before, you can open up the phone to use the lovely, large touchscreen (this time with 262,000 colors). A true communicator, the P990 will come with everything- texting, calling, Bluetooth, WiFi and even 3G for videocalling (it comes with a front-mounted camera just for that purpose). Furthermore, it comes equipped with a 2-Megapixel camera that's just as good as the K750 (and comes with photolight, natch). The hefty 80MB onboard memory can be upgraded by Memory Stick Pros which will go up to 4 Gigabytes (WHOA).

You'd think that I'd be excited. Not really- it's a Symbian phone (and supposedly will not run any apps made for previous P-series phones) and I just can't see myself leaving my Pocket PC for it. Still, it's a cool device and a sign of things to come... perhaps the first great phone of the next generation of superphones. We'll just have to see (as well as how much this monster will be). The P990 is due out in 2006.

Remote Control

The one really good thing I happened early today- I managed to figure out how to program the VCR in my room, so now I can set it to record shows even when I'm away at work (which is pretty much all the time). Now I can tape episodes of X-Play and FINALLY learn if indeed Jack TV has only four episodes or if they're showing new stuff on Tuesdays. Ah. This tech stuff if pretty cool.

Security

Yesterday night, I rushed over to Megamall's Cyber Zone to find myself a new holster/beltcase for my mobile. Wouldn't you know it... almost every single holster in the shop has that crappy 'clip' attachment. You know... the kind that tends to let go from your belt when you sit down, leaving your nice, shiny cellphone behind without you knowing. Why aren't there more of the standard 'loop' beltcase, which neatly fits through your belt and STAYS there until you take off your belt to remove it, or if someone either cuts it, or your belt, off. THAT'S Security. THAT is how a beltcase for equipment worth several thousand should be.
You know, I'm pretty convinced that the damn beltcase makers are doing this on purpose- the whole transition to clips and the apparent 'phasing out' of reliable loop beltcases. They do it so people will LOSE their phones and cases more often, so they buy more cases. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. It probably has the involvement of some Cellphone Beltcase Mafia and goes up into the Leather Products Industry, the Telecoms themselves and perhaps even into our black-souled government. Yes. It's true. Laugh if you will, but I believe this is so. Nothing about how evil and greedy people can be surprises me anymore.

VANISHING RAY. All of you.

Anyway, I found ONE loop-equipped beltcase and luckily, it fit my phone perfectly. Joy, joy! I'm back in business.

National Angst

I didn't get up on the right side of the bed this morning in terms of National Pride.

I hate Filipinos. We're a horrible race. Half of us are soulless plundering bastards, while the other half don't even care. Yeah, most of us who blog are part of that uncaring half. We don't care since we believe nothing we can do will help anyway. Not unless EVERYONE picks up and bodily ejects the crap from our political system.

On the radio, it's all about the government going for that 'State of Emergency' nonsense. Meanwhile, some wise guy is proposing the formation of a Railway Academy so we will never be lacking for educated train operators. WHAT THE FOCK? So how many untold millions and kickbacks will be bandied around this time for a whole school for people to operate our rotting trains?

GOD DAMN IT. I hate Filipinos. GOD DAMN IT We are so screwed. FEH.

Liability

These past few months ever since I got my O2 Mini, I've been using the leather case included with the box. The case fit with a belt clip and up to yesterday had been working pretty well. However, the clip has suddenly gone iffy on me. For some reason, the case seems to 'let go' from the belt clip pretty easily now- it's already dropped to the ground about twice, once yesterday and once today (alarmingly on the street!)- good thing the thick protective leather has kept my mobile safe and unblemished.
Then, right after we had lunch at a nearby resto, my heart pretty much leapt into my throat when I felt for my phone at my waist and found NOTHING. Again, the case clip had disengaged, but luckily my Mini was just sitting there next to me on the seat.

I have to get a new beltcase- I just don't like putting my phone in a pocket; I'm too far familiar with the skill of local pickpockets. Preferably I'll get a case with a loop- one that fits around a belt and does not 'let go' with the click of a button. The chances that I could leave my lovely mobile behind on a cab, bus or car, or worse, drop it onto the road unknowingly, are just too great. I'm headed for the phone accessory shop first thing after work.

Birthday Bash and Book Binge

Yesterday my friend and ol' college bud Pot had his birthday and the UP gang got together at Super Bowl in Greenhills to celebrate with fried rice, crispy chicken, noodles, spicy shrimp, beef n' broccoli and other Chinese food staples aplenty. Afterwards, we ranged about the Promenade mall to cap the night.

Passing by Fully Booked, I surprised myself by picking up a couple of books: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Thousand Orcs by R.A. Salvatore. I have always seemed to make it a point to read the actual book before watching a Harry Potter movie translation, and I don't want to break that tradition now, even as it's only a month to go to the showing of the fourth HP movie in theaters. The latest trailer was pretty exciting, so I'm pretty stoked on seeing perhaps the final movie to feature the movie series' original leads (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint) before they turn into blooming adults.
Meanwhile, it's been quite a while since I've read the adventures of dark elf adventurer Drizz't Do'Urden, but for some reason I just felt like picking up the first chapter of the latest trilogy featuring Drizz't and his comrades. As the title suggests, the main antagonists are orcs, the footsoldiers and grunts of evil... so how formidable will these low-level baddies be against heroes who have faced drow armies, demon lords and high-level assassins and come out smiling? Well, it will be interesting to see.

I will have to try and resist pouring into these new volumes since I have to finish my stuff for Project: Hero (of which I have finished the pencilling for Nikki Alfar's story) within the week in time for Saturday's deadline. Then there's the Komikon the week after that and... AAARGGHHH...

The fun never stops in the MADman's world. MAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

PSP Trojan

According to Malware Specialist Symantec, there now exists a trojan (a malicious program) that specifically targets Playstation Portables (PSPs). The trojan takes advantage of recent entrances to the PSP which allow users to run non-signed code (programs and apps not sanctioned by Sony). The trojan, dubbed Trojan.PSPBrick, masquaerades as a download which offers to enable additional capabilities to users. But instead of letting PSP owners execute 'homebrew" codes, the trojan deletes four vital system files required for the PSP to boot its OS, causing the device to become, literally, a useless brick.
Judging from how the trojan does not contain the means to spread to other users from affected PSP units, Symantec reports that the malware isn't causing big damage as of yet- PSP owners who refrain from using unsigned code will be safe.

WHICH leads the conspiracy theorist in me to believe that this 'trojan' may be something that could have been engineered intentionally FOR Sony's interest in punishing users who want to bend the rules a bit to get more out of their PSPs. Hmm? If players get scared of free downloads, they'll stay and use Sony's regulated software. Far-fetched? Maybe. Maybe not. Hmmm.

Now, if Sony got their act together on their portable and provided support for encoding video, internet browsing and other cool stuff, then maybe hacking or getting homebrew software won't be necessary. And maybe (but not likely given how crappy the game lineup is) I'd consider getting myself one of these bricks-er, I mean, PSPs.

Soul-searing Demo


Taking Soul Calibur III for a spin.

I managed to get my hands on a demo for the upcoming uber-fighting game Soul Calibur III for the PS2. It cost a pretty penny (the dvd comes with a copy of Official Playstation Magazine, which is pretty pricey) but it was worth it to play a bit of the game and get a taste of the sword-swinging goodness that's sure to come.

The Demo itself is kinda minimal- there's a mini-intro movie/trailer that has a bit of CG (though none of the awesome footage seen in the latest online videos) and ingame fighting. Pass that and you'll have options for Single Player play and VS Combat. For VS, there are only two characters playable- old foagie samurai Mitsurugi and newcomer psycho-cutie Tira. You'll have access to both of the characters' alternate costumes. There aren't any move lists, so playing with Tira will be kinda touchy-feely, though she looks quite cool as she moves- sexy and impish, and that razor hula-hoop looks scary. However, I've heard that it's going to take a bit of skill to make her an effective player.
The meat of the Demo is in the Single Player modes, of which there are two usable in the demo. There's the Story Mode which gives you control of Kilik, the staff-swinging hero. The Story Mode is pretty cool, with text telling you actually what happens and there are points where you are prompted to choose from one of two directions to go. Unfortunately, the Demo only gives a tantalizing taste of what's to come. Namco are such teases...

The best fun to be had on the Demo is the Character Creation Mode, of course. As expected though, the stuff you can do is pretty limited. While you can make either male or female characters, you have only two occupations to choose from- Ninja (basically like Taki) and Dancer armed with tambourines. There are quite a few items of clothing to put on and layer on your created fighter, or of course you can just strip them down to their cloth-wrap skivvies (heh). The character models aren't as detailed as I would like (they seem even less detailed than those in SC2), but they animate quite well and are quite hi-res so that's no big. Once all the options are unlocked in the final game, you should be able to come up with quite a few interesting created fighters, including some familiar faces from other games (Dante from Devil May Cry and even Cloud from FFVII are favorites among Create-a-Fighter enthusiasts).

The fighting is slightly different and faster from previous installments, but old hands at Soul Calibur should be able to jump right in with no problem. Tira seems very interesting, though I have to say I'm most interested in trying out killer geisha Setsuka. I can't wait to have the whole game- there's bound to be a mind-boggling amount of extras, playability and fun to be had with this, the latest and greatest chapter in the popular series. The finished game should be arriving in the next several weeks.

Project: Hero


United Against... GOOMBA the Three-Eyed!

Here's a scan of the pencilled initial study for the cover of Project: Hero. Comic fans will no doubt notice the resemblance to the classic Fantastic Four cover. The heroes include characters from six of the eight featured titles in the superhero anthology- including Yaya Cadabra by Andrew Drilon, main man Awesome and members of The Craft Century by Dean Alfar, Nikki Alfar's Channel, Vin Simbulan's Kid Continuum, the battle armored Tri-tech by Jamie Bautista and Elbert Or's Jet Titanium the Space Ranger. I'll be adding several more characters before this artwork goes to ink, if it's approved by the almighty editors.

Darn. Gotta get working on the pages...

Heroes Unlimited



Years ago, I've always been a fan of the old Superfriends cartoons, and even more so of the more action-oriented Superfriends vs the Legion of Doom episodes. But while it was cool to have a direct hero vs. villain series back in the 80s, they were always a bit too simplified and kiddy. Now, since we were all kids at the time, that's really not something we could help. Now that a lot of comic fans these days are grown, it's really nice to see that some of our cartoons have grown with us.
Which is probably the best compliment I can give to Justice League Unlimited. I've always liked the original Justice League series (which comprised only of the core DC heroes). But when they added the 'Unlimited' to the title and turned the League into an army of superheroes, I just freaked. It was awesome to see characters like the female Doctor Light, Black Canary, The Creeper, Wildcat, Fire, Red Tornado and countless others appearing, even if just in cameos. Nobody had ever had the ambition to do this- certainly nothing from competitor Marvel Comics. It was incredible to just show off your Universe like this, and JLU arguably has made it's own mark as having a setting and back story that is as gripping as the actual comics.
Justice League Unlimited's best plots of course have to do with Project Cadmus, the shadowy government organization dedicated to creating solutions to the possibility that the Justice League may go rogue. Led by the no-nonsense Amanda Waller, having unlimited resources and influence, Cadmus is a great counter-group against the seemingly all-powerful League. The latter episode Panic In the Sky, where the Watchtower itself is attacked by an army of clone superhumans, is easily the single best superhero battle I've ever seen, animated or live-action.

But along with the action and multitude of superhero cameos, what surprised me is the maturity of the series. There are things taken up in JLU (and even in companion series like the Batman titles) that years ago could never have been thought of- among them, the topic of death. In the (unaired) JLU season finale "Epilogue", this is shown in a poignant scene between Batman and the young, dying supervillain Ace (of the Royal Flush Gang). The dialogue, the mood and Batman's actions (or non-action) is touching in a way I never thought I'd see in a superhero cartoon.

In terms of animation style (Bruce Timm's art style ROCKS!), voice acting (JLU regularly uses veteran actors among its vocal performers) and stories, JLU simply is the best comic to animation title I know today. I can only hope that the next season doesn't take too long in coming. That would be true injustice.

Addendum: Justice League Unlimited's FIFTH Season (or Season 3 as JLU) will continue to focus and give light to other heroes in the DC Universe, as well as signal the arrival of JLU's version of The Legion of Doom, led by Gorilla Grodd. Wowsers! It's gonna be awesome.

Halo goes DOA

It's not a joke... not just a rumor... and I've checked the calendar and it's nowhere NEAR April. And now Bungie themselves have confirmed it. So... it must be true!

Okay, rewind a bit. A story surfaced some time ago that there will be a non-Tecmo franchise character appearing in the upcoming Xbox 360 brawler Dead or Alive 4. Speculation grew but them one rumor proved stronger than most. The guest character will be from Halo, the best-selling sci-fi first person shooter. As mentioned, Bungie has already confirmed that they have met with Team Ninja and have actually 'seen the character in action'. And, they were blown away. So it seems to be a GO.
Now, who is the Halo character playable in DOA4? It has already been confirmed that Halo's main hero, bad-ass cyborg super-solder Master Chief won't be it. That leaves a gaggle of space marines and officers and Halo's menagerie of Covenant aliens... none of which conforms to DOA's overall theme. But then, there's also Cortana, the sexy hologram babe/A.I. that accompanies and guides Master Chief through the game. The only other human female character is a minor personality, the woman Cortana was based on... so, needless to say, our money is on Cortana to tussle along with the DOA girls later this year when DOA4 launches on Xbox360. According to Bungie, they actually supply the back story to how or why their character is appearing in the DOA Universe... though it will be tongue in cheek. Just who the character really is will just have to remain a titillating secret till we get our Xbox Next this holiday season.


"A DOA Girl? Me?"

Paint it Black

Over the weekend I got Ninja Gaiden Black for the Xbox. This is basically a souped-up, everything-on-it version of last year's uber-action game starring Tecmo's superninja, Ryu Hayabusa. The original NG got top marks, often cited by gaming websites as 'the best action game ever', and I would concur that it's pretty awesome. The graphics and animation are DOA3-quality, Ryu is so incredibly bad-ass with an arsenal of killer ninja moves, enemies are killer and the barely-there-plot serviceable thanks to some cool cinematics. NG was also HARD AS FRICKING HELL- even the first enemies you face are dangerous and can kill you if you're not careful, and it only gets harder into the long game. From apprentice ninja you move onto samurai horsemen, assorted monsters, heavily armed commandos, elite assassins, demons and oodles more adversaries just ready to cut down your life bar to zero. The good thing is that Ryu has all the skillz- defeating any of the enemies in the game is never impossible, never unfair... you just have to know what to do.

Well, that doesn't make it any easier. Superninja or no, you shouldn't have to face a fully-loaded TANK on foot. Well, not without a tank-busting RPG. Or a man-portable particle disruptor cannon. Or a Vanishing Ray.

Anyway, NG Black adds in a ton of stuff, including all the recent add-on packs, or Hurricane Packs, that were made available off Xbox Live after the original game was released. Black also adds in new missions- in fact, about 60 of them- which basically concentrate on what Ninja Gaiden does best- combat. Add in some new cinematics for the story mode and you indeed have an even better version of the best ninja action game yet released on a console. And best of all, there's a new 'Easy' mode for all us who failed to start playing videogames when we were three. Heh. Anyway, action fans should check out Ninja Gaiden Black asap for pure ninja-fighting fun.

On the Way to a Smile

Attention FFVII fans! If you haven't already, I really recommend reading On the Way to A Smile, a series of FFVII novellas. While stuff like this is usually never seen outside Japan, english speakers like us are fortunate that some talented dudes and dudettes took the time to translate the multi-chapter stories for all to enjoy.

On the Way to A Smile comes in several chapters, all of which bridge the gap between Final Fantasy VII and its movie sequel, Advent Children. So far, four chapters have been released and translated.

The first three chapters center on Denzel, the orphaned boy who lives with Cloud, Tifa and Marlene Wallace in Advent Children. While not starring any of the popular FFVII heroes (though Reeve appears in the story with a surprising revelation), it's an interesting read and shows the world of Midgar through the eyes of 'normal' people.

The most interesting chapter of course for fans will be Chapter Four, or Tifa's Chapter, which basically fills in the gap between the end of the FFVII game right up to the start of Advent Children. It explains just what happened after Meteor got swallowed up by the Lifestream, how the heroes separate, how they cope with their losses from the war and how they all try to get their 'normal' lives back together again. It's a great read and shows in great detail the relationship between mopey Cloud and his long-standing martyr childhood friend/maybe-maybe not girlfriend Tifa. I highly recommend it. And best of all- it's canon, not some fanfic. This is the real deal, people.

You can check out the chapters of On the Way to A Smile at Advent Children.net. You can check out the Tifa Chapter here. Enjoy!

Immortal MTV Version 2



Here's a new edit of my Final Fantasy VII My Immortal MTV. This new and final version uses better-quality video sans subtitles. While the scenes used are mostly the same, there are a few changes particularly towards the end and in the ending itself (which I think is a lot better than the original edit). This edit gives the ending a bit more of a happy, hopeful bent than before... at least as happy as you can get with FFVII. Heh.

You can download either this WMV Version, or this AVI Version specially made for Pocket PCs (Betaplayer) but also playable on updated Quicktime players. Enjoy!

Komik Biz

GYAAAAHHHH!!!!

I've been so busy lately that I've been neglecting my comics. No, not the stuff I filch from The Blood Bank each week... I'm talking about the stuff I actually write and draw myself. Darn it. Anyway, I've got pressing deadlines like the Cover and pages for Project: Hero, which is due very soon. Just how soon remains to be seen though.

Also pressing is the upcoming Komikon, which I really really really want to attend. I plan to have at least an ashcan ready for giving away (which will hopefully contain at least a K.I.A. story and snippets of the under-development Last Angel Ace Story inside it). I'm also planning on selling K.I.A., at a discounted Komikon-only price.

We'll see how much I can pull off before the deadlines hit. Stay tuned to this panel.

Inu Yasha Movie 4


More dog-boy action.

Yeah, I'm still an Inu Yasha fan. Even though they killed off my favorite character in the manga, even though the anime series is on indefinite hiatus, even though the ever-there cast is still nowhere near getting close to defeating their ultimate enemy, the seemingly unkillable Naraku. Well, it seems that offing the big Heavy isn't really a priority, and there are endless sources of evil and mischief in Feudal Japan.
Inu Yasha the Movie 4: Fire on Mystic Island is yet another filler Inu Yasha adventure that happens in a limbo-esque time after the last few episodes of the anime, since Dogboy already has his Diamond Spears attack. Anyway, the movie starts off with a mysterious island that appears once from the fog into the real world every fifty years. On this island are a bunch of hanyou children- half-youkai/half human kids who are now orphaned and apparently under some dire circumstances. The youngest of the brood, since she is unmarked by the mystical claw-marks that imprison the rest- is told to escape the imprisonment of the island.
Of course, it doesn't take long for the kid to get pursued by the bad guys- or in this case, bad fireball-hurling Giant Dragon Turtle thing. In the nick of time, the Inuyashagumi arrive to save the kid from being fried or flattened. After the initial battle, it soon is revealed that the kid knows Inu Yasha, and soon the whole gang is more or less drafted into helping free the hanyou kids and defeat the evil Four War Gods of Mystic Island.

Okay, this has action and more action and some more action thrown in for good measure... but seriously... I was bored. This pretty much follows the apparent template the Inu Yasha movies tend to follow- new threat appears, beats up Inu and company, the gang fights back to save whomever being oppressed, then eternal hangers-on Kikyo and Sesshomarou do their share helping the heroes 'unintentionally' and then moving off again. The only thing that changes are the excuses for lots of KAZE NO KIZU action, using the BAKURYUHAAA and whatever new super attack of the moment.
The villains in this case however are pretty boring in design and motivation- and even when they get their FULL POWERS back, they're still pretty lame. Sango and Miroku are once again trapped in the expected butt fondle-slap combo joke, Kagome does her 'Osuwari!' several times, so on and so forth.

In short... yeah, too late... it's a run-of-the-mill Inu Yasha movie... trapped in the 'Monster of the Year' monotony. In this case, I'd say that newcomers will probably enjoy this a lot more than longtime Inu Yasha fans like me, who will probably be seeing Menoumaru or Kaguya or the Evil Sounga in the bland Four Gods of Hourajima. Meh.

Well, that's probably the bitter Kagura fan in me talking. Anyway, it's not glaringly bad... just un-exceptional. There wasn't even enough fan service- not even the appearance of a Kikyo clone spiced things up. Bah. I can see it now. Inu Yasha the Movie 7: Attack of the Generic Demon Lord. Guh. Progress, Takahashi-san! Progress! Feh.

Fresh from Japan

Just got my original copy of the Japanese DVD release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. As expected, the movie is crystal clear and awesome in terms of picture quality, though there are no subtitles except for default Japanese (which will only be of use to deaf Japanese people, I guess). The extras are pretty sparse- there's a section called Reminiscence of FFVII which is basically a half-hour's worth of scenes from the FFVII game, both CG FMV and In-game scenes that take you through the story of FFVII. Of course, the words are all in Japanese. Then there's the Compilation of FFVII which are a collection of trailers from the FFVII games/features due out or already out- this includes the Japan-only cellphone game Before Crisis, the upcoming FFVII FPS Shooter Dirge of Cerberus (which is pretty cool since it shows off a lot of stuff I haven't seen before), the enigmatic Crisis Core (which has anime segments from the FFVII Last Order anime) and of course, Advent Children itself. That's about it for extras.

Aside from that, the original DVD is just basically my support to Squaresoft for giving me AC. And a nice souvenir piece, albeit a bit pricey. Still, I think it's worth every centavo. Yay!

Nuts

I went off this afternoon to Greenhills with the pretense of getting the latest anime and some new games, but what I was really hankering for was a box of Gonuts Donuts. Unfortunately, I got to the Promenade's branch and there was no stock of my favorite kind of holed treat- Chocolate Cake and Vanilla Frosted. Apparently they don't prepare certain variants every day. Darn it.
So what could I do but go off and drown my loss with some new playthings.

Got several PS2 games: Urban Reign, yet another street-based multi-fighter out this time from Namco (Tekken, Soul Calibur), Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, the fighting game based on the new Marvel Comics title about some new, hardcore superhumans busting into the Marvel Universe and finally, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks. The final game is a fighting-adventure hybrid set in the MK Universe, bridging the gap between the first two games.

Nice stuff. But I wanted donuts. Bah.

Surprise Birthday Bash

Last night we had a surprise birthday party celebration- only it was the celebrant, Charles, who surprised us. Now that's a turn. Anyway, we had a nice meal at Chili's before we saw the birthday boy home and Vin and Andrew went off to go Karaoke Krazy with the Alfars. Thanks for the libre, Charles.

Game Bits

Metal Gear Solid 4 has been shown in trailer form at the recent TGS2005 Gaming Expo in Japan. The footage shows a grizzled, aged and one-eyed Solid Snake still fighting even though he seems pretty sick (he needs drugs to keep him going), and STILL smoking his health-reducing cigs. The old soldier is shown in some kind of deserted village, hiding from a large number of troops accompanied by what seems to be bipedal battle armor. Snake is also accompanied by a tiny Metal Gear- a wheeled droid which serves as a monitor for Snake's brainy comrade, Otacon (who doesn't seem as old as Snake himself). The graphics look on par with CG cinematics, though there's no word about story yet. Will we indeed be playing as a Dark Knight Returns-old Snake? Will other characters like Revolver Ocelot and Meryl Silverburgh be showing up? We'll just have to wait. Metal Gear Solid 4 is headed for the PS3. Still a ways to go...

Dead or Alive 4 for the Xbox 360 will appparently have quite a few changes, including the addition of new animations for knockdowns which basically make the fighting more fast-paced. All the characters will have new counters and moves over their last incarnations in DOA Ultimate for the Xbox. Aside from the so far revealed new characters- Kokoro the long-haired kimono girl, Eliot the blonde kung fu boy and veteran fighter Gen Fu's apprentice, and the masked female luchadore wrestler/kickfighter La Mariposa (we suspect she's Lisa from DOAX)- there appears to be room for up to SIX more competitors. New characters? Team Ninja has hinted that there may even be a guest fighter from a non-Tecmo title appearing in the roster.
On the Story Mode, much emphasis seems to be placed on the events within DOATEC, the evil corporation that's been holding the DOA Tournament. Opera singer Helena Douglas has apparently become the head of the company, and is now in the thick of the conspiracies that are running inside it. Ninja brethren Hayate and Kasumi have FINALLY linked up and are set to take out DOATEC directly for the corporation's experiments on both of them, with the help of ally Ryu Hayabusa. As for the game's final Boss, a mysterious female figure known only as Alpha 152 is said to be the new heavy awaiting competitors at the end of the game.

Darn. I can't wait. DOA4 has been given a release date along with the launch of the Xbox 360 in November or December of this year.

While Soul Calibur 2 was pretty forgettable, the third game in the series looks pretty awesome. Soul Calibur 3 will feature oodles of goodies when it comes this October/November. In fact, SC3 looks to show every other fighting game how things are done- from an interactive and cinema-laden Story Mode, to an ultra-awesome Character Creation Mode, to lots of minigames and even an RTS-style Conquest game.

Great games for the existing consoles and the debut of the first next-gen platform should make Holiday 2005 something for gamers to look forward to. HAZZAH! Better start saving...

Retro Batman

They’re showing Batman Forever on HBO. This was infamous director Joel Schumacher’s first Batman tryout, and while it isn’t as horrible as Batman and Robin (which should have been entitled Batman and Robin and Batgirl and Alfred), it approaches the gaudiness of his sophomore caped crusader flick. I remember when I first watched it, I kinda liked it, kinda didn’t. Val Kilmer was a solid Bruce Wayne, though his delivery of some dialogue seemed too stiff. His Batman DID have some nice catch phrases (“Chicks dig the car.”). Chris O’Donnell’s Robin wasn’t as irritatingly stupid as he was in the next movie, while Nicole Kidman as the token love interest was pretty hot.

There were quite a bit of crappy things in this as well- such as Tommy Lee Jones’ Two Face- what could have been a pretty intense and cool villain (as portrayed in the Batman Animated Series) turned into your generic babbling, giggling, cackling, raving madman villain that tries too hard to emulate Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Then there’s Jim Carrey’s Riddler- on one hand, it’s great to see the rubbery one do a villain (other than his Cable Guy character), and he basically is given a lot of room to steal the show with his antics. However… he just turns out too GAY in some of the scenes… well, it’s a Schumacher film…

Well, all in all, Batman Forever ranks as the fourth best Batman for me… well, for me, the Burton Batman is still top, then Batman Returns (thanks to Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman), then the recent Batman Begins, then Batman Forever. It’s still pretty cool to watch these older Batman flicks every now and then. But I’ve had more than enough Schwarzenegger Mr. Freeze to last me a lifetime.

Farewell

In the space of a few months, The Salt Mines has lost another member, but thankfully under very different circumstances. Our art director and friend Hegel Ganias and his wife, our former Strategic Planning Head Teye will be heading off very soon to their new jobs and life in the country of Dubai. Incredibly enough, an ad agency there had an opening for both an art director AND a planner- it was pretty perfect, so they went for it. Well, not so perfect if you hate sand and sun. Oh well.

Good luck, Heg and Teye! Keep cool. Heh.

Fantastic Sales

UPDATED: In just over a week, the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Japanese dvd has sold over 420,000 copies- that's 93 percent of all available stock.

And rightly so. Like everywhere else, Final Fantasy VII fans have been waiting so long for this movie. I, for one, am overjoyed that not only has this proper finale and closure to FFVII been accepted... it may be the key to further adventures into the world of Midgar.

Unfortunately, us english-speaking fans will have to make do with the fansubs as Square has yet to even announce a proper date for the US english release. Oh well. At least we have super-clear fansubs to suffice for now. Heh.

Age of Empires

Last night, I was able to catch this incredibly cool new show on Discovery Channel called Battlegrounds: The Art of War. This series of one-hour long specials takes into detail a decisive battle in history, recreating the events and the tactics that led to a glorious victory for one side, and terrible defeat for the other. What makes this special, well, special, is the apparent use of some graphical engine- perhaps similar to the MASSIVE program used in the LOTR flicks to recreate the battles as they looked back then.
The first episode was about Alexander the Great, and his decisive battle at Gargamela (if I'm not mistaken)- the final battle between him and the Persian Emperor Darius (which I find out after all this time to be pronouced as Dar-eye-use, not D-ahr-ee-you's). The odds seem incredibly off-balanced; the Persian army stands at about 200,000 men, supported by deadly scythe-bladed chariots. The Macedonian army on the other hand, consists of about 40,000 men.

However, while the Persian army is vast, it is also made up of various factions from all over the place, with different languages, weapons and leaders. Most of its soldiers are also un-armored conscripts and levies. On the other hand, the Macedonians are professional troops- disciplined, armored and totally dedicated under a charismatic, brilliant leader. They also have the Phalanx, a seemingly invincible battle formation that is basically a meatgrinder on the battlefield. It's pretty incredible to see how Alexander's new tactics work- ranging from a special formation that totally renders Persia's scythe-chariots useless... to a brilliant cavalry movement that opens up a gap in the Persian army's lines enough for a charge at Darius himself.
The battle of course ends with Alexander winning for himself forever the title of 'the Great'. Even today, the young conqueror (who basically mastered the known world before he turned 30) is seen by military tacticians as perhaps the greatest military mind of all time. Whoa. How's that for a resume?

The special continues throughout the week. Darn, I'd love to have this series on VCD or DVD. Pretty cool history. Heh.

Sobra Talaga Overtime

I'm STILL at the office, bleary-eyed and STILL at my computer, typing away when I should be snoring my head off at home in The Sanctum. But noooo... The Salt Mine crew has been working on stuff for a big pitch since the weekend, and last night (which was a few hours ago) was the last stretch. The presentation is after lunch, but we still have materials to finish and put together, and there just isn't enough time to go home, get rest, get back and do stuff. So here in the office I stay, until everything's done, including the darn presentation. I may have to try and get some shut-eye sometime before then, or I may conk out on the way there, or draw a blank while presenting.
Hopefully after this there will be some rest... I hope to take tomorrow off, if I can. Body clock's all frazzled. Crossing fingers... gonna need luck to get through this one. Hoping we win so all this wasn't in vain. Sigh.

FFVII Advent Children MTV



Okay, watching Final Fantasy VII Advent Children got me all emotional and inspired again, and I had a bit of time on my hands in the early morning hours. So I whipped up this MTV with scenes from the CG movie to the music of Evanescence's My Immortal. You can download the MTV in Windows Media format here. Nothing really fancy, but I think the scenes and the music work well together, especially considering the story behind the images. Have to warn you people though- the scenes contain BIG SPOILERS, so anyone who hasn't watched the film and don't want the ending or crucial elements of the story revealed just yet may want to pass for now. For the rest though, download away and enjoy the glorious melancholy. Heh.

Ultimate Fan Service: A Review of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children


The best game-to-movie flick EVER.

Eight years ago, Squaresoft released Final Fantasy VII on the Playstation, a defining chapter in the mega-popular RPG series. A groundbreaker in more ways than one, FFVII captured the hearts of countless gamers for the epic story, the endearing characters and the surprising emotion once thought unheard of in a videogame.
Gamers laughed and cried along with hero Cloud Strife, his allies and companions in the battle to save the planet against the depredations of a power-hungry mega-corporation and worse, the threat of total destruction by a mad, would-be god. In the course of the quest, lives were lost, and sacrifices were made. The ending of Final Fantasy VII left a lot of questions unanswered, many things unsaid, many feelings bottled up. I should know, since I myself wrote my first and only attempt at fan fiction for FFVII, moved by the story and wanting closure for the embattled heroes.

Eight years after, Squaresoft finally delivers that closure, with what is probably the most awesome ending to a videogame. For that is what Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is… a long overdue epilogue and reunion in the world of Final Fantasy VII.

Two years after hero Cloud Strife and his companions defeated the Shin Ra Electric Power Company and it’s rogue creation, Sephiroth, the world is in flux. With the stoppage of the use of Mako Energy, the very Life Stream of the planet, the world has had to sacrifice the luxury and easy life of the past. Furthermore, a new threat has appeared in the form of an incurable disease called Geostigma (Star-Scar Syndrome), which is said to be incurable.

Despite this, everyone is rebuilding and pitching in to put the world back together- everyone, it seems, except for Cloud himself. Sinking once again into depression, Cloud has begun to withdraw from those who love him- his childhood friend (or perhaps more than a friend?) Tifa Lockheart, his comrades and the orphans they’ve taken under their wing. This bout of melancholy is brought about by two things- the return of a feeling of guilt for having failed to save someone very dear to him, and the fact that Cloud has himself contracted Geostigma.

Complicating things even more is the appearance of three malevolent and inexplicably powerful young men- Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo- mysterious silver-haired villains who are dead-set on recovering the last remaining trace of Jenova, the ancient source of evil that spawned Sephiroth himself. If they are not stopped, anything can happen… even the return of the fearsome One-Winged Angel himself. To protect what is dear to him, Cloud must somehow find the strength and will for battle… one last time.

What can I say about this movie? I’ve been waiting eight years for this. I had to suffer through that faker Spirits Within flick before I got here. But you know what? It’s worth the damn wait.

In terms of Story, I have to say that the plot of Advent Children is simple and to the point: It’s all about Cloud and his finding redemption. Which is really expected since the movie really is an Epilogue, an extended ending to the long and complex saga which was the Final Fantasy VII game. That said, the only way to truly and fully enjoy this masterwork is by having played and lived through the game that bore fruit to it. Otherwise, it’s simply not possible to really identify with the world, the characters, the story.

How can outsiders understand just who or what the mysterious girl who appears in teasing dream sequences is unless they’ve met her themselves and known her fate? It is the identity of this person that pretty much holds a lion’s share of the emotion and gravitas of AC.
How can anyone not knowing the game understand what Shin Ra was, who the Turks are, and how it is so amazing to see them working to rebuild the planet this time around. Knowing the history between them and the heroes is crucial to the enjoyment of their scenes.
Why is there a red-robed Spawn-wannabee named Vincent wearing oversized pointy shoes? Why is there a talking anthropomorphic cat with a loudspeaker riding on a talking red lion? Who’s that super-cute ninja girl? Who’s the brother with the cool gun for an arm? And why does everyone seem to have super powers?
If you’ve played the game, know the story and the cast, nothing in this movie will puzzle you… you’ll be too busy being giddy with nostalgia, excited at seeing a familiar world and characters come to life before your eyes like never before.


Old enemies and friends get together one last time.

But then, aside from the sheer nostalgia factor and the fan service, there’s the action.

Simply, frickin’ unbelievable.

The action and battle scenes in Advent Children are UNREAL. Part anime, part magical Wuxia cinema, part Matrix, part comic book super action… all mashed together and supercharged to produce some truly awesome fight scenes that simply blow away anything filmed live- Oh, the magic of CG.
What can I say about the fight scenes in Advent Children?
The numerous running skirmishes between Cloud and the Silver-haired Men… amazing ballets of ridiculously overpowered weaponry and oversized blades. After seeing Cloud and company in battle, you WILL believe that huge, man-sized swords are light as feathers and more effective than, say, rocket launchers and guns. Then there’s the jaw-dropping fight between Tifa Lockheart and the burly Loz in the Ruined Chapel- though relatively brief, it stands right up there with the gravity-defying fights in Kung Fu Hustle.
Then there’s the battle for Midgar between the many heroes of FFVII against a MASSIVE, winged Summoned Monster that just has to be seen to be believed. THIS is how superhero comic book action should be done. Suspend disbelief and just WATCH. You will enjoy and you will believe.
And then, finaly, there’s the finale- the awesome final battle between Cloud and… his worst foe. This, I must say, easily puts the equivalent finale from Matrix: Revolutions to shame. WHOA.

It’s amazing to see how AC has progressed from other CG flicks- characters move and look so realistically, and the detail is breathtaking- there’s no more of the dead-eyed blankness and marionette feel of Spirits Within. The way the Japanese do CG is different from the US, such as with Pixar, and it’s refreshing to see the newness of style from things like The Incredibles to this.

There’s eye candy galore in the offering, and for the outsider, that’s sadly the best that AC has to offer. I would dare say that this is a lot, regardless, and the film does try to explain things. Still, while the astute, casual watcher can understand the movie, they probably won’t feel the emotion behind it. Not like the true FFVII fan.

That’s why I say with total conviction that Final Fantasy VII Advent Children is THE ultimate fan service. This was made for us. For me. And darn, I love it.

Is it perfect? Well, if I had control, I’d have asked for a few things. Tifa back in her old outfit. I would have loved to have seen more Yuffie ninja girl action. I would have liked even more of the other heroes. I would have asked for more decisive kickbutts to have been dealt to the Yazoo and Loz from Cloud in the final stretch. But in the end, these are all just nitpicks, really. This is, seriously, as good as it gets.


So does Cloud end up with the lovely Tifa here? Watch and find out.

All the loose ends that matter are tied up. Heroes are reunited and fight together for one more good fight. Goodbyes long overdue are finally said. There are no real earth-shattering changes or developments, but really, that’s not the point. Advent Children is meant for us to see and leave the world of Midgar in a good place, alive and perhaps ripe for a new string of future adventures. But for Cloud and his friends and newfound family, this story, the story of FFVII, has come to and end. And what an end it is.

Thank you, Squaresoft for taking this calculated risk- this incredibly niche, but wonderful project. Thank you, director Tetsuya Nomura, musical genius Nobuo Uematsu for bringing back the sounds and emotion, and all of your team for keeping the world of Midgar alive for us. Thanks for giving us this wonderful gift. I’ll cherish it always.

Gosh, where is my copy of FFVII? I want to play. Again. Heh.

The Wait is Over.



I've got it.

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. Also got Last Order, the anime short film by Madhouse (Ninja Scroll) about the events in Nibelheim within the FFVII game's story. I can't wait for this weekend's overtime session to be over so I can hie off and enjoy it in The Sanctum.

Review to come soon. WOOHOOO!!!!

Wet Wet Wet

This is the kind of day when you'd just want to spend the whole time curled up in bed, lulled to sleep or half-consciousness by the pelting sounds of rain. On the good side, I was able to spend half the day at home, thanks to last night's overtime. But then, I had to force myself out of my sheet cocoon and hie off to work. Of course, everything seemed to be soaked today- the rain isn't always strong, but it never stops. There are flooded streets, and wouldn't you just know it, I get myself splashed by a son of a bitch's car just steps away from the office. Feh.

Anyway, all I can do is just do my stuff, finish it and brace for more work into the weekend. It's a living. Sigh.

Geddemit!

I haven't been able to do ANYTHING on Project: Hero yet! AAAHHH!!!

Looks like overtime this weekend though... so I can probably scratch Saturday off. Maybe I can get my groove started on Sunday.

Now, it's all a question of what to do first... Nikki's story, my story, or the cover.

Ah, decisions, decisions. Well, whatever. I work best under pressure...

Famous last words.

MAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

Too Many Voices

Internet forums can be cool. You find a nice forum where everyone is polite, follows the rules and contributes to healthy discussions, it's great. You can find great stuff earlier than anywhere else. But then there are the times when TOTAL IDIOTS just appear and you just wish you had a 'PUNCH' button you could press for all those grammatically-incompetent, got-nothing-else-to-do but complain aimlessly Trolls that just seem appear out of the woodwork. I guess you gotta expect Random Monsters to appear sometime.
Damn, I'd probably wear out that Punch Button. Like I wore out my Vanishing Ray. Heh.

Rising Angel


Fallen Angel #1 coming for the Holidays.

Newsrama just posted a preview of Fallen Angel #1 by writer/creator Peter David and new artist J.K. Woodward. To recall, the original FA series was originally released by DC and cancelled after a 20-issue run. However, the loyal fan base has been so vocal and supportive of the title that Mr. David was able to swing a resurrection and give the character of Lee a new lease of life under IDW Publishing.

The pages... well... the pages look incredible. As was said in my previous post, Mr. Woodward's photo-realistic style isn't limited to covers... his interior pages have the same quality and it's pretty awesome. It's like seeing Fallen Angel: The TV series. Anyway, it's good to see that despite the change in art style, the character will remain true to her previous incarnation- from her costume to the creepy, creepy way her feet never touch the ground. Fortunately readers both new and old will finally find the truth about Lee's aversion to the earth and more when the character's origina is revealed in the new series. The new first issue will be a jumping-on point for new readers, as well as giving loyal fans good service. Yayness!


Alternate FA#1 cover by Fernando Blanco.

Fallen Angel #1 comes floating in this December from IDW Publishing.

Final Fantasy Advent Children Released

... in Japan. Yep, the dvd and umd versions of the CG movie sequel to Final Fantasy VII is now widely available. I expect bootlegs and fansubbed-versions to make their way here very soon. Whatever happens though, my own Japanese copy of the dvd is already being shipped to me as I write this (I'll have it in 4-12 days according to the seller).

I'm so hyped for this, and I know a lot of you out there are excited as well. I do know that quite a few of you out there might not have had the pleasure of playing FFVII, and therefore I have to warn you... full enjoyment of Advent Children really is only possible if you played the game. There's so much story, plots, characters and emotion wrapped up in the over 60+ hours of gameplay that a 97-minute movie can barely manifest the richness of FFVII. Much is left to the imagination and the knowledge of the source material to fill up.

All I can recommend to non-FFVII players who want to see AC is to either get a good plot-guide and do your reading, or just grab a copy of the game and start playing. Still, by itself Advent Children is a sight to see. The action and CG quality are worth the price of admission alone. However, the story and revelations, the continuation of what the game left off... for fans, this is priceless.

The next time I write about AC, it will be after I've seen the film myself. Till then, this is the MAD Advent Children report, signing off.

Advent Children Hong Kong

Yeah, we hate the Venetians for being able to watch FFVII Advent Children ahead of the rest of the world. We can now add Hong Kong to the hit list, as the CG movie is now available there, right now. Thanks to HK's liberal trade policies, they can release earlier than Japan (where the laws are more stringent and thus release dates have to be followed to the letter).
Already, spoiler pics and discussions are spreading in various forums. I can't resist taking a look, but then again, how can I even be more spoiled? I just want to see the darn movie already and marvel at the amazing CG, the awesome fight sequences and the pleasure of seeing the Final Fantasy VII cast in living, bigger-than-life motion. Well, I'm expecting my Japanese copy of the film perhaps in a couple of weeks- probably a bootleg will appear soon in local anime shops. Hope, hope!

Superheroes and Fairy Tales

Over the past week and this weekend, I watched two cool flicks; Disney's superhero teen movie Sky High and the dark fantasy-period adventure, The Brothers Grimm.

Sky High stars a cast of new and veteran performers to bring a superhero-filled world to life. The film focuses on Will Stronghold, the teenage son of the world's two greatest superheroes (played by Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston. Aside from dealing with the fact that he secretly has NO POWERS, he has to contend with super bullies, finding his first high school crush and the decidedly negative way that his new alma mater segregates people into 'Heroes' and inferior 'Sidekicks'. A long-thought-dead arch villain's return and quite ingenious plot complicates things even further.

For a Disney movie, this is pretty cool. Some parts seem 'TV-movie'-ish, like some of the CG effects and some stage-play acting, but overall I had fun and there were some neat action effects. That and there's a guy named Warren Peace. Heh. Incredibles-lite... and that's really not a bad thing.

Dean and Nikki were raving about The Brothers Grimm, so I was really excited to watch this. Beforehand, I already wanted to see it thanks to the creepy atmosphere and premise which kinda reminded me of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. Anyway, BG stars Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the titular siblings- two wandering con artists who poses as supernatural ghostbusters/witchhunters. Their exploits eventually lead them to being drafted by an evil French General (Jonathan Pryce) to investigate the disappearances of some children in a supposed enchanted forest. Some creepy atmosphere, bizarre manifestations of fairy tale conventions and Monica Bellucci as an evil queen make this a winner, as does the hilarious performance of character actor Peter Stormare (he played the Devil in Constantine and every cool Russian in movies, I think) as Italian psycho/torturer Cavaldi. The minuses are that there are some dragging bits, and the film takes its time to get to the meat of the matter. Otherwise, a happy ending to my weekend.

Both these flicks are showing right now. Catch them while you can!

Antsy

The last time I had problems with ants and a piece of tech, it was with my scanner. But that was perhaps a year or two ago. What a bitter campaign that was. Days and days of hard battle, to smoke out the invaders who had been able to gain a foothold inside the equipment, building what seemed to be the startings of a whole goshdarn colony. Ultimately, I lost that war... I got a new scanner to replace the ant-violated one. This time though, it's another story.

This time it's my laptop. My Mac Powerbook G4 15-inch laptop. I came in and found ants crawling in and out of the keys. Why are they doing this now? Perhaps a bit of food got into the keys? Or is it the heat that draws them in? Well, I got some alcohol and gave the Mac a once over... and then repeated blowings into the crevices dislodged some of the buggers. Thankfully, it seems that I detected the threat early... but now, I may have to store my Mac somewhere safer than just on the table. I don't want another war with these six-legged infiltrators, dammit.

Lolligaging

According to Advent Children Net, Square-Enix, the producers of Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, have announced that the recent rumors of a US release are untrue, and while there will conceivably be a limited/collected edition release in the US, nothing has been confirmed or announced. So far, on the official website, FFVII AC has a 'holiday release', which means probably November or December. Or later.

What the heck? I really can't figure out these guys. There's already an Italian version. The Japanese version is coming out in several days. Why delay the english language version for months?

Well, knowing the way things really work, fansubs of Advent Children will be available once the DVDs or UMDs of the Japanese version are released. There will probably be copies here very soon. I for one have ordered the Japanese DVD... I am not waiting any longer than I really have to. Keep your frickin' english dubbed crap. I just want my original Japanese with subtitles.

Hang delays. I want my FFVII yesterday, damn it.

Luxour

First it was Bubble Trubble years ago. Then it was Apeiron. Then recently, Snood and Bejeweled.

Now, the new game craze sweeping the land (well, The Salt Mines at least) is Luxour, a furiously addictive game on the Mac which can be described as Snood but with all the weird heads and characters turned into rolling marbles which roll inevitably through a spiraling path towards a goal which you must try desperately to hold back. Whew.

Anyway, the sound effects of this Egyptian-themed puzzler/strategy game probably makes up a lot of the enjoyment. A lot of the crew can be seen, playing furiously, mouthing expletives for every step the marbles take closer to the end, a cheer for every victorious setback.

I fear to get into this game. I might not get anything done if I do...

INCONCEIVABLE!!!

I was just about to watch the Disney superhero teen-flick Sky High last night, watching through the trailers before the last full show, minding my own business, when something suddenly flashed and before me, flooring me in utter amazement.

There is actually a SECOND Dungeons and Dragons movie.

Yes, you read that right.

You will of course remember the original D&D film (which we've flogged on this blog multiple times in the past), that horrid piece of orc turd trying to pass itself off as high fantasy but only serving to be a tombstone to the genre if not for the appearance of the LOTR Trilogy. Well, we heard rumors before that producer/director Courtney Solomon had succeeded in using a charm spell to rope someone into funding a second film in the series... well, it turned out to be true.

It started off quietly. I saw what seemed to be an old, or at least, low-budget-looking fantasy film trailer before me, with knights and warriors and elves and dragons. I stared at it in confusion, thinking maybe it was the upcoming Bloodrayne film, or maybe something from Europe. But it wasn't... I stared as suddenly I recognized Bruce Payne, aka the evil warrior Damodar from the first movie, appear. DAMODAR??? Didn't he DIE in the first one? He got thrown off a tower. Well, for some reason, Mr. Payne reprises his role in the sequel, but now has gotten rid of the blue lipstick (heh) and has been bumped up to head baddie (since Jeremy Irons turned into dragon feces at the end of the first turd of a film).
Anyway, apparently Mr. Payne is the only cast member to return from the first film... the new heroes are pretty much unknown actors to me. Anyway, the movie is called Dungeons and Dragons: The Elemental Might AKA Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God, and apparently it is a straight-to-video release in the US. But for us Pinoys, we get it in theaters.

The plot is apparently as follows: The country of Izmir is once again under siege, this time from the black sorcerer Damodar (Payne) and his growing army of gruesome creatures. To save the land, four heroes representing strength, intelligence, dexterity and wisdom (what? No Hero of Comeliness?) must come together, form their own army, and use the elemental might to defeat Damodar before he unleashes the terror of a Black Dragon.

Woah. So how did an evil fighter (Damodar) survive a fall from hundreds of feet, and become a master sorcerer? Class change? What happened to the heroes of the first movie? If this is anything like the first film, it'll probably all be explained offscreen.

Anyway, the trailer was actually put together quite well, despite some cheap-looking special effects. I'm actually curious to see it. I want to see if it's actually possible to make a movie worse than the first D&D movie.

Hey, who knows... maybe it'll be good for a laugh. Another dead dragon to flog. MAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Elemental might... phah...

Visionary

After she had her first eye operation last week (her next one is tomorrow), Mom had to wear a weird transparent eye shield over one eye whenever she goes to bed. The thing is, she has to keep her eye dry, hence the cover. So it was that Mom kinda looks like a retired member of the Universal Soldier project. Or, Cyber-Ma! Anyway, it's really cool to hear her remark about how her vision is sooooo much better now. She can, apparently, now totally appreciate watching TV since she never before noticed how COLORFUL the TV screen was. As it turns out, her vision was washed out and getting progressively blurry before- things she just took as a sign of her advancing age.
But now, she's enjoying things and perhaps seeing everything again for the first time. It's wonderful to hear that.

While she was talking to doctors and stuff, she also found out that apparently, my grade of myopic vision can already be treated (my eye grade is pretty high)... So conceivably I can have my eyes operated on myself to get better vision... if and when I can bring together the money for it. The amount isn't impossible- it's about as expensive as a comic book release like K.I.A.- so perhaps maybe next year or so, I'll be seeing stuff in a whole new light as well. We'll see.

For now though, Mom can see well. That's enough.

Back to School


The Mythology Class is back.

The first time I read Arnold Arre’s Mythology Class was years ago, in parts, even before the comic reached the printing presses. Back then, when me and Arn were in college (UP Fine Arts), I’d immediately go “Pa-Xerox! Pa-Xerox! Pa-Xerox!” whenever he came up with a chapter of his incredible, personal comic project. And being the friendly guy that he was, and is, he’d oblige. I still have those Xerox-copies of the original Myth Class somewhere in The Sanctum, locked away under lock and key, with half-aswang, half-kapre guards ever watchful.
Myth Class hooked me at the time initially thanks to the fact that about 95 percent of the characters in the book are based on real people in and around our college (including me, in a very short, very small role…heh). But while I came for the art, I stayed for the story, and never left.
This new, collected Special Edition of Myth Class is a mix; the ‘Lucasisms’, or revisions, are sporadically sprinkled throughout. They range from different treatments of scenes (and some discreet censorings…), to slight modifications of dialogue, to totally new segments that, thankfully, fit in well with doses of humor and levity to the already light banter of the Class. There’s even some updating of technology- originally equipped with audio cassettes, the techie members of the Myth Class are now packing CDs to make with the times. There’s no texting though, strangely enough. Heh.

For the most part, The Mythology Class is a wonderful re-presentation of Arnold’s classic, easily one of the most impressive local works of graphic storytelling in recent times, and even after more than six years I still consider it my favorite among Arnold’s works. Not because of art, but by sheer volume, depth, detail and the spirit that was infused in every page and character.
At more than 350 pages, it’s a lengthy, immersive read, full of fantastic images, witty dialogue, impressive action and a wide-eyed sense of wonder that Arnold always infuses in his comics.

Arnold’s original, self-published run reached a lot of people, but this new, collected release by Anino looks to reach even more. The only bottleneck is the inevitable high price, since it IS a 350-plus page monster of a book… but it’s still cheaper than any foreign graphic novel, and you’re getting a LOT of bang for your buck. Highly recommended to any fans of local pop culture and comic readers in general. Class is in session. Attendance is a MUST!

The Mythology Class tells the story of a band of travelers from antiquity, their epic, endless quest, and the wonderful mish-mash of unique youths they gather to join them in the adventure of a lifetime. Story and art by Arnold Arre, soon to be available in major bookstores and comic shops in Metro Manila.

For more information and a view of more art based on the book, visit the Mythology Class Website.

Reunion


Arnold and Cynthia Arre with MY copy of the Mythology Class Special Collection.

Not a rumor. Not an urban legend. Not a myth. Wait a minute, it is. Ah, whatever. Anyway, have you all been hearing that the Mythology Class comic book by Arnold Arre is being collected into a single, mammoth collection? Well, it's true. Now fans of the cult local independent comic book can rejoice in a remastered, refurbished, rejuvinated Myth Class, complete with new pages of art and even new dimensions into this modern komiks classic. And those long-suffering fanboys who've been asking and searching for in vain for elusive First and Second issues of Myth Class can finally see what they've been missing.

I know. Cause I HAVE A COPY RIGHT IN MY HANDS RIGHT NOW. WOOHOO!!!

Arnold and Cynthia passed by today at The Salt Mines, for a chat and to give me my free sample copy. Oh my! The truly monumental Special Collection clocks in at over 350 pages of story and extras that include colored pinup/past cover art, sketches and artist notes, and some nice odds and ends. Arnold took the time and effort to smoothen out some parts of his original masterpiece, along with some all-new pages and some changes to update the Class for the times (the gang now sports cellphones and CDs).

I expect to dive into the book as soon as I can, to see what has changed and what has remained the same of this comic opus.

Anyway, the LAUNCH of the Myth Class Collection will be on September 16, 2005, evening (6-7ish) at Rockwell. Expect to see Arnold and Cynthia there with a boatload of engkantos- er, enchanted fans. Also, you can check out the New Mythology Class Website that's loaded with new pieces of fan art, including a couple of pieces from me. Yay!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a Tikbalang to run down. Hoho!

The Mythology Class is released by Anino Publishing. Catch it soon at bookstores and comic book shops everywhere in the metro.

Advent Voices

Just for fun and otaku giddiness, here are some info on the voice actors (Japanese) for Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and info on their previous anime roles. Some interesting stuff.

Cloud Strife, the main man and seemingly eternal imo boy, will be played by Takahiro Sakurai. The actor said in an interview that he really loved FFVII and Cloud in particular, so he was literally floored when he was asked to play the role. His previous anime voice credits include Shun Ukiya from Gatekeepers and Arihiko Inui in Lunar Legend Tsukihime. He's also played a villain, as Kagami Kyouji in Getbackers.

Tifa Lockheart is played by lovely actress Ayumi Itouh, who looks just as pretty as her CG/game counterpart (look for her online). She has been cast in the films All About Lily Chou-Chou and Swallowtail Butterfly.

Yuffie Kisaragi is played by Yumi Kazaku, whose previous anime roles include Aya Mikage from Ayashi no Ceres, and other roles in Full Metal Alchemist, Raxhephon and Initial D.

Aeris Gainsborough is played by none other than Maaya Sakamoto, who's basically a megastar in anime and Japanese music. Her previous roles in anime includes the voice of Hitomi Kanzaki from Escaflowne.

The Wheelchair-bound Man is played by Tohru Okawa, who also voiced Roy Mustang from Full Metal Alchemist. Interestingly enough, Wheelchairman's bodyguard, the red-haired Turk Reno, is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, who played Mustang's best friend and subordinate Maes Hughes in FMA.

Sephiroth will be given his villainous voice by veteran seiyuu Toshiyuki Morikawa, whose past vocal performances include game characters Kazuya Mishima in Tekken 4 and Heishiro Mitsurugi in Soul Calibur. He also voiced the mega-villain Naraku from the Inu Yasha anime.

For me, the optimal way to watch Advent Children will be with the original Japanese dialogue and subtitles, but that's just me.

I wonder who the english voice actors will be? Speculating on that would make a great topic by itself. Heh.

Advent Reading



In but a couple of weeks, FFVII: Advent Children will be released on DVD and UMD (PSP Format) in Japan. But forget about the Nippon for a bit; if we’re going to be jealous of someone, it should be with the Italians. That’s because the final, 100-minute cut of FF7 AC has already been shown in Venice Italy.

I don’t really mind spoilers, so it was fine for me to read a super-detailed report on the movie, with tons o’ spoilers. And so, without necessarily spoiling details for the rest of us FF7 AC virgins, here are some bits of info.

FF7 AC is Cloud’s show. It’s all about him, his internal conflicts, his ongoing turmoil even after the story in the game. Everyone else is secondary, with most of the cast (including the other FF7 heroes) in roles that are little more than cameos. This is to be expected, as Advent Children originally started out as a 30-minute feature that really just focused on Cloud and little else.
For the most part though, it is apparent from the script that Aeris the Flower Girl will have a huge impact on the story, beyond the simple flashback. Next, Tifa and Vincent will also have good screentime, as will members of Shinra and The Turks.

Bottom line, there are cool moments aplenty for pretty much all the fan favorites.

Expect LOTS of fanservice like signature attacks from the game shown in full CG loveliness. The battle scenes and fights are supposed to be beyond awesome. Well, we’ll just have to see them for ourselves.

The story though is not without flaws- nothing extremely world-changing really happens, and it’s all pretty linear and not unexpected really. However, it should be stressed that you really can’t expect to satisfy everyone; by all indications though, this movie is going to rock. Fans of FFVII should expect to be majorly impressed by perhaps the ultimate in fan service ever. Everyone else who enjoys a good sci-fi fantasy adventure with unparalleled animation, drama and action should be in for a treat.

FFVII: Advent Children takes place a couple of years after the end of the story in the classic Playstation RPG. The heroes and villains of the world of Midgar must now face a new threat together- the deadly disease known as Geostigma, and the dangerous group of Silver-haired Young Men who plan to resurrect the world's most dangerous enemy- Sephiroth. Cloud Strife, fallen hero, must find it in himself to rise up and defend what he values, or die trying.

Damn, I can’t wait to see this movie. NOW. NOW. NOW.

Wild Week

Yet again this week was pretty hectic. And not without a hiccup or two. Well, there's nothing else to do about it but learn from the experience, take it all in stride and move on. All in all though I still count this week as being pretty good, and myself still pretty lucky.
Maybe next week won't be as hectic as this one was, maybe not. I remember a week or two ago, Vin asked me why I was still looking blasted after coming off a hard week of work. It's really not like after a straight run of overtime and finishing a week's worth of Job Orders that your boss will come to you and say, "Marc, you did a great job. Here's a ton of cash. Take a month's off and enjoy yourself!" It's really more to the tune of, "Marc, you did a great job. Here's some more work."

It's not like back in school when you knew when breaks came, and you could look forward to long, long periods of vacation and relaxing. I kinda miss those days, but I'm not the kind of guy who'd like to go back to school. I love working and earning my own money. I like being the master of my ship. I like not having periodical exams. I like not having to answer to some crummy professor who's more bark than real bite. Ooh.

But whatever... I'm still thankful for weekends. Those lovely oasis of calm between these hectic weeks. Without weekends, I surely would go mad. But then again... I'm already MAD aren't I? MAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

Eye-OK

My mom had her operation today, and it went well. Thanks to everyone who gave in their prayers and well wishes. I'm sure they all helped a lot.

Things they didn't teach in Roman History


Agrippa knows how to handle the ladies.

Another of the PS2 games I've been playing recently is Shadow of Rome by Capcom (hey... Capcom's been putting a lot of games out recently. Where's Streetfighter 4??!). It's loosely based on the history of the Roman Empire. I say loosely because most probably any history professor who watches the stuff happening onscreen will most likely throw up his hands in dismay at how this game pretty much cuts up historical fact with abandon.

But then again, SOR is all about cutting up stuff- particularly people. Well, mostly enemy gladiators, at least. Set in an alternate Rome which is without a doubt greatly influenced by Ridley Scott's Gladiator movie, the game puts you in the leather sandals of two individuals and friends. Agrippa is a centurion who, after finishing a major campaign against the Germanic tribes, finds his world tumbling into a nightmare when his father is accused of assassinating Julius Caesar.
Yeah, Julius Caesar gets assassinated in Shadow of Rome. But taking a big historical flip, in the game the Roman emperor is killed not by a bunch of senators but by apparently a lone assassin in the shadows of a hallway in Caesar's house. Agrippa only learns of his father's plight after he races home. Prior to that, his friend and the game's other playable character Octavianus (who looks all the world like a Roman version of Metal Gear's Raiden) starts his own investigation into the great lord's murder.

About two thirds of the game is all about gory arena fighting- Soon after he comes home, fate throws Agrippa into the role of a gladiator, in order to somehow save his father. You then take command of the burly Roman warrior as he tries to survive waves of deadly fighters, mainly by turning the opposition into tiny bloody chunks with various weapons and tools of death. Suffice to say that SOR is probably one of the goriest and bloodiest games you'll see; decapitations, dismemberments and severing of limbs is pretty commonplace, and you get high scores for the more stylish kills. Ouch. Well, it's all in good fun (?) and desensitized kids will probably get a laugh out of this... for responsible parents though, keep this out of youngsters' hands.
If SOR was just all about fighting, this would be a solid title. But then, a third of the game consists of sneak-and-hide missions with the fey, effete Octavianus as he tries to uncover the conspiracy behind Caesar's murder. You spend several chapters infiltrating mansions and buildings guarded by patrols of careless legionnaires, occasionally conking some poor buster on the head with a pot or choking them unconscious so you can grab their toga. These missions aren't all that bad, though it kinda sucks that if you're ever seen, all it takes is one hit from any enemy to kill you and end the mission- throwing you back to the start of the round. If you know what to do it's all about getting from point A to point B, but still the action just grinds to a bit of a stop when Octavianus answers the curtain.

It's much better to just kick butt with Agrippa, sometimes fighting sexy gladiator babes, most of whom sport thongs and a couple, high heeled shoes which are probably years ahead of their time. It could easily turn into a mindless button masher (which has good points), but there are techniques to master which will turn you from a simple killler to a virtuoso of gore.

Historical blunders aside, Shadow of Rome is a fun, mature action title for the PS2 that those looking for some bloody stress relief would do well to check out. Et tu, Brute?

Superhero Students and Fanservice-laden Car Chases

I just said in a recent post that there seemed to be a shortage of nice films to watch in recent weeks. Well, that may change this week. Just opening today are a couple of fun-looking flicks: Sky High and The Dukes of Hazzard.

Sky High is about a high school for would-be superheroes, and has the cool casting of Kurt Russell as a superheroic dad and Linda 'Wonder Woman' Carter as the school's principal. The main plot is about Kurt's son who is still trying to find his niche either as the next big superhero or as a second-class sidekick. Though this is released by Disney, it looks pretty slick with cool special effects and a storyline that just oozes comic book appeal.

The Dukes of Hazzard is a movie remake of the old 80s TV series about some car-riding outlaw brothers (this time around played by Sean William Scott and Johnny Knoxville), their hot sister in cut-off jeans (this time played by Jessica Simpson, who looks DAMN fine) and their continuing tussles with the local sheriff and his evil boss, Hogg (now played by Burt Reynolds). Lots of car chases, Miss Simpson showing off skin and white trash humor.

Hoho! I'll try to catch Sky High soon. As for the Dukes... maybe the DVD's out already?

Phoneman


The Sony Ericsson W800i.

A friend at The Salt Mines just got herself a spiffy new Sony Ericsson W800i, more popularly known as The Walkman Phone. I got to see it (after grabbing it from her with grasping hands like claws) and it’s pretty neat.

The gadget can’t be any larger than the older, classic T610 but darn, it’s got tons of goodies and functions up the wazoo- a great camera (2 megapixels make for great shots) with video and of course the much-touted musical functions. Unfortunately, while the phone is supposed to play great through earphones, sound through the phone itself isn’t too loud (‘cept when there are rings or text tones… pretty cool) for music. I expect though that, like an I-pod, it would suffice as a pretty decent music source if you plug it into a good sound system. And with about 15 or so hours of playtime, that’s a lot of music to enjoy.

Anyway, the reviews have said that the W800’s good enough as a music player against real, stand-alone mp3 players, and that I can believe. It’s compact, gives you a really nice camera, videocam, gaming device (though the two pre-loaded titles are pretty blah) and music jukebox. And the 512mb Memory Stick (included) is pretty cool.
Still, I’m not budging a centimeter from my lovely O2 Mini (hehe). The screen’s far too small, there’s no OS for me to run my apps and Betaplayer videos, and no phone Java game beats 32-bit Playstation 1 games. HOHO. As for music, I have Windows Media Player and ultra-small WMAs. It was nice to see the new device, and feel a bit of the giddiness of something new. But, well… it’s beneath me.

To anyone else not into smartphones though, the Walkman phone’s highly recommended. Run, don’t walk… to your nearest store for your own.

Interesting Times in the DC Univers

I FINALLY got to read a good-sized chunk of the new comics I’ve been purchasing. The stuff consists of DC Comics, particularly those in the direct OMAC Project and build-up to the Infinite Crisis storyline. Now, Vin and Dean have been raving about this, and I guess I have to agree.

The more dangerous atmosphere of the DC universe these days makes for gripping reads, what with villains coming together to form super-syndicates, heroes learning dirty secrets that lead them to mistrust each other and an army of secret anti-superhuman agents ready to pop up anytime to zap anyone, bad or good. Dangerous times make for great comics.

Though I have to say I’m not totally convinced by some of the story elements- such as the whole issue with (SPOILERS) Dr. Light and the big SIN the JLA members did to him and in the course, Batman. Yeah, it makes it all more human and gritty and raises issues of morality but come on… they’re villains. Expect bad things to happen when you call yourself a baddie. Anyway, I like it, and I guess I’m in for the ride. I’ve been a DC fan ever since the original Crisis (on Infinite Earths), and this new hullabaloo coming for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and their ilk looks to be a humdinger.

Anyway, I don’t want to be the only one out of the loop when the gang starts talking about the latest Infinite Crisis buzz. Heh.

Dead Air

Is it just me, or there just no good movies anywhere right now? I mean, after watching Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Fantastic Four, things just kinda... stopped. There's nothing much to look forward to in the next couple of months, I think. Perhaps everyone is saving their eggs for the holiday season. That's when stuff like King Kong and Chronicles of Narnia come out. Still, they're nowhere in the league of a LOTR or any similar movie event. The only things that tempted me to even consider watching recently was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Great Raid. I guess it's just as well... don't have much time to go to a theater these days. Hopefully that, and the fare in cinemas, will change soon. Sigh.

New Challengers


Singer/martial artist Lili joins the Tekken crew.

More info on Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. The two new playable characters are named Dragunov and Lili. Dragunov is a decidedly evil-looking man in a militaristic uniform who is described as a 'human weapon'. Lili is a singer who uses her dance moves to fight. Meanwhile, aside from the newbies, all of the characters will be getting more costumes and accessories. Now, if we'll be getting bikinis for Nina and Asuka, I'm sold. Heh.


Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is set for a late 2005 release in Japan arcades. No telling on a home version yet, but we'll just have to see first whether it's worth taking home or not.