clarividencia

One of our wedding gifts allowed us to purchase a new digital camera. Being that Wendy somehow jacked up her old one, we needed a new one fast. Mostly because we both really want pictures of our honeymoon trip in Hawaii. So we bought a nice Panasonic camera and have been playing with it since yesterday. Wendy has been pouting because she couldn't find a case she liked but the one we got is good enough me thinks. Anyhow, Digital Cam + SC IV = Pics to Share.

This is a character I made for myself. It is supposed to represent me but the tools given can only take you so far. As you can see, the left hand side contains all of the tabs for customizing your character (currently its on coloring your outfit) and the right hand side has all of your stats. This new camera rocks, I didn't think the image would come out so clearly.

I picked Taki's style because I love her two Ninja Blades and she is pretty quick. Some of her air combos are sick to watch:

Now, for the funny/cool part of this blog. I created a few of you on here for some shits and giggles.

Here we have Eric and Ozzy. I made Eric a Ninja because when he grows up, he plans on becoming just that. I think Ozzy looks pretty damn close to what he normally looks like. Minus all those muscles, I was being nice Ozzy.

Dave actually does have a hat just like this, so making his was pretty damn easy. Also, the fact that he is always trying to be a Monk pretty much sealed the deal:

Finally, there is Wendy. She actually had a hand in picking out her outfit and colors. I don't think she's seen her new helmet though as I just bought it last night. As to my character, Ozzy brought up a good question last night when we were playing "How the hell can he see?" I thought that was pretty damn funny.

The images came out a lot better than what I was hoping for, good stuff. All of the gear you see above doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all the stuff you can mix and match. I never thought that this portion of the game would be so fun. Now, time to finish unlocking the rest of those Uncharted trophies.

-Alex Out

Can't stop. Won't stop creating new characters in SCIV. I spent all of 3 hours the other night just buying new equipment to pimp out all of my created characters. Addicting doesn't even begin to describe it. Oh, you can fight with them too, but thats besides the point. The game features a huge assortment of equipment to put on your character, you can edit the colors of the equipment, skin, hair, color and eyes. The faces included are very little but thats forgivable.

After you've finished your masterpiece, you can take that character online and level him or her up. So if you make a Samurai on Crack:

You can show him off online. This is especially cool. Last night alone I saw remakes of Ken from Street Fighter, He-Man, Afro Samurai, Sailor Moon, Kratos, Chun Li and Wolverine. Funny as hell.

I was trying to get my grubby little hands on SCIV Limited Edition last week from Best Buy because they were selling it for $10 cheaper. The problem with Limited, is...well, it's limited! Needless to say, I had a tough grabbing a copy but eventually prevailed and all the Gods were slain. Checkout this funny conversation:

Me: "Yeah, do you guys have Soul Calibur 4 Limited Edition?"
BB Employee: "Let me check...hmm, no. We only have Soul Calibur 5 regular edition."
Me: "You mean 4."
BB: "No, we only have 5. Not 4."
Me: "You mean 5 copies of 4?"
BB: "I mean, only copies of 5."
Me: "But they haven't released 5 yet. Matter of fact, 5 hasn't even been announced and probably won't be announced for another 3yrs. Look at it again, its not 5."
BB: "Can you please hold sir."
Me: "Sure."

I'm assuming she put me on hold to ask someone if IV = 5. She was wrong of course. IV = 4 people! I mean, I'm no genius with Roman numbers but the small numbers are easy to figure out. C'mon now. After she answered again she said she was wrong and that the only copy of the game they have, is the regular edition.

Aside from abusing the character creation tools, I've played all of the single player modes and have even tried out the online portion. Word to the wise, don' t ever, ever ever ever play against anyone with 1-3 bars out of 5. I made the mistake of playing against someone who's internet connection was 3/5 bars and got worked because all of my attacks were delayed by 1-2 seconds. Frustration city. Luckily, you can see people's levels and connection before you jump into the room with them. I just didn't think 3/5 would be that terrible. Now I know.

As some of you might know, the PS3 version came with Darth Vader and the 360 version included Yoda.

Both versions include the Apprentice from the upcoming game, The Force Unleashed. It is pointless to use any of those characters for anything other than having fun. They will not be included in future games so trying to be badass with them will make you obsolete for the next iteration of Soul Calibur.

The only gripe I have about the game, is that it can be killed by button mashers. I was in a room with a friend who is pretty good at the Soul Calibur series, whereas I am not. I'm more of a Street Fighter badass. Anyway, I was getting my ass kicked playing and winning here and there. He then invited a friend of his who proceeded to pound us a whole new asshole. She was using a quick character in the game and just taking us to town. At first I thought she was good, but after a while I noticed a pattern in her attacks and got suspicious.

She eventually left and I told my buddy that I thought she was button mashing. He said, "maybe". Well, we started playing again and she calls him and tells him, that she didn't really know what she was doing, she was just mashing buttons. Thanks Namco! I told him, watch, I'm gonna pick a quick character and just hit buttons. I went 5-0 against him. Lame.

The game works best when your opponent uses some sort of strategy to take you down. Because then it becomes a dance of anticipating your enemy's moves and countering them. Besides that, the game has some amazing sound and the godamn graphics are gorgeous as fuck. I can't tell you how awesome it sounds to pound an opponent into the floor. The subwoofer just goes BOOM! Love it.

The game is an awesome fighter with an absolute abundance of moves. Seriously, the move list will boggle your mind. There are some combos in there that will leave your mouth gaping if you sit down to practice. If you ever get tired of fighting, creating a brand new character with an existing style hardly ever gets old.

-Alex Out

This is exciting, Fox Studios is planning to make a live action Cowboy Bebop movie. I know most of you haven't heard of Cowboy Bebop, but it was a cool sci-fi/western anime that came out in Japan back in 98. To this date, it is one of the most impressive Anime TV shows I have ever seen. The story takes place in the future, mankind has moved to the stars but the show retains a western/jazzy feel where bounty hunters are paid to hunt down criminals. The main character is the suave Spike who has many secrets from his past life and uses kung fu to subdue is quarries.

What made the show funny at times was that the bounties were only paid if the criminal was caught alive. For the crew members of the Bebop, this was always a problem and therefore they were broke most of the time.

What is especially cool, is that Keanu Reeves is rumored to be playing Spike:

Not that Keanu is an amazing actor, but he's got the look down. Give him some guns and kung fu and he'll be right at home. Here's hoping Hollywood doesn't murder another franchise. For more info, check out firstshowing.net

-Alex Out

The San Diego comic convention is fun for a gamer because it isn't only comic's anymore, but damn near close to everything a nerd can love. Sci-fi, action figures, comics, movies, books, games, tech etc...

I've always loved the Comic Cons because cool shit always gets announced, and some nice new action figures. Yummy.

Anyhow, I saw two pictures that I thought were awesome and superbly creative. Here is the first one:

Obama Palmer Lincoln!
 

At first, I had just looked over the picture really quick and thought "Abe Lincoln" but did a double-take as it threw me off. Very, very cool.

This next picture, is very popular down by the border. Mostly because that is the only place where you can find this certain design.

Zombies Chasing Mexicans!

rofl, fucked up!

-Alex Out

I know what you're thinking. I'm good like that. I know most of you saw the trailer for this gem a while back and thought "wow that shit looks really gay." Ok that was my reaction, but I'm sure yours was somewhere in that ballpark.

Besides the style that most likely turned you off, your next thought is "its not my kind of movie". And sure, it might not be but I feel compelled to tell you to atleast give it a try. The story is very well written (especially for those of you who despise huge corporations; I'm looking at you Gaby), the characters are loveable/funny, the action is amazing and Mathew Fox as Racer X is fucking badass.

The style takes a bit of getting used to, obviously as all the characters filmed their scenes infront of a CG backdrop. This has been done before but not with such an amazing finished effect. The best way I can think to describe it would be: a real-life cartoon/anime. Like I said, at first the movie might throw you off, but when Speed is racing you'll forget all that and just be mesmerized by the amount of colors and action on the screen.

Think of the movie as an amazing pop corn flick. I mean, the main characters first name is Speed and his last name is Racer. Yes, that is his actual name in the movie. Speed is not a nickname. Love it. Even with that said, you'll fall in love with the characters because of the relationship that they all share with each other. I just can't say enough about this movie, you must watch it. Do it for humanity.

The movie is set to hit dvd/blu-ray this September. And I'll tell you this, when Speed Racer hits Blu-ray , it'll be the movie you use to show off your brand new HDTV. The amount of colors, backdrops and action will make your HD set sing in God's choir. Shit, it'll even be the movie God shows His set with.

-Alex Out