zondag 30 juni 2013

Sunday Ramblings: The Geek Life episode 3

I got flogged in a castle tower!!!

Yep, this tower to be precise, the window under the pointy rooof was where I lost pieces of skin.



No, in all seriousness, I've just returned from some good RnR with the girlfriend in Chateau Unpronounceable in the dutch village of Tegelen, near Venlo.  Very luxurious hotel I must say, even though we didn't do the hotel restaurant, opting for a steak house twice in the nearby village.

This week has been quite a lot of all things, with a great storming on the Playstation Challenge, see the report a bit earlier, and me achieving a fresh level in the PSN.

What Have I Been Gaming?



Well, as said, I reached level 16 and this was with the Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters game, the leveller trophy being the Bronze 'All In The Wrist' for using one of your weapons x times succesfully.  It is also one of the better film franchise games of DC heroes I played recently, and I think it is heavily underrated in the critics reviews.



Bar that, the main point scorers this week have been from my side (and the munchkin) GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  This game is a 'prequel' game to the first movie, in which MASS evolves into COBRA.  It's not a bad game, but not the ubergame around either, yet it is enjoyable for an afternoon of no brainer 'bambambam-ing' with the kid.  And you DO get the chance to play the Baroness raaaawrrr.



My girlfriend has been scoring a lot of trophies on We Dare!, basically a dance and minigame thingie which uses the Playstation Move.  It is according to the box and booklet required to have 'parental advisory' due to being 'sexually orientated', but either kids (or better, soccer moms) have taken a step on to the prudes ladder, or I'm missing the sexually orientated part of eating an apple together ingame... with chibi styled figures...



On the Vita the scorer for me was the new Lego game, Chima: Laval's Journey.  I finished the storyline so far, but I'll get back on it for a better 'impressions' piece once I have an idea of how many times a level must be regrinded to fully complete it.



What Have I Been Collecting?

I would have suprised the world and say nothing here this week... but then we went on a bicycle trip yesterday and found a local Intertoys toystore in a village which was 10 houses big.  Now as I always say, these 'backwater' stores are treasure troves, and so it proved.  Not only did we find a Lego set of Pirates of the Carribean for the munchkin (Isla de La Muerta), they even had a Prince of Persia set still, and I'v been doubting a long time to take it along.  In the end however, I found some waaaaay cooler stuff, in that they actually had a Dark Side of the Moon Mechtech Sideswipe



but more importantly, a LOT of Transformers Kre-o sets, so I walked out with both Sideswipe of that range, and OPTIMUS PRIME. 



Needless to say, it was a 'fun' return trip with the big boxes strapped to the back of the bycicle, over main roads we call a parking lot drive in here in the big city.

Now only to get Prowl and Mirage... Oddly enough, while Kre-o overhere hasn't taken off really, stateside it is gaining a lot of popularity, with even the recent BotCon presenting a special set of exclusive mini Kreons.



What Have I Been Reading?

The only thing I actually finished bar magazines about Formula 1 and the recent E3 for the PS4 (must... have... The Order 1866), I finished volume 6 (in french) of Saint Seiya Episode G. 

This series details the battles of the Gold Saints as they where younger, right after Saga's betrayel, in the battle against the Titans of Chronos.



I'm not really fond of the drawing style used, but the series, centered around Ailio of Leo, is sporting a very strong story arc, and I'm already into the next volume at the moment.

What Have I Been Watching?

Not much television for me this week, though I just finished watching a very tyre explosive Grand Prix of Great Britain, the Scuderia Ferrari taking a sweet third place while championship leader Vettel had to withdraw.  Niiiice, Forza Ferrari!!! 

It was an awesome GP, with great drives from Hamilton, Massa and Di Resta who all worked their way through the field from last position at one point into the points, and odd with no less then four different cars having their rear left tyre exploding.  Literally.



What Have I Been Tapping?

I only played an online draft at MTGO this week, a phantom one, but managed to come second and gain the Izzet Charm promo.  Yups, the same I won 'fysically' last week on the FNM.

Furthermore, I finally finished my Pauper 'mill' deck.  It has a lot of card draw and selfmill build in, so the key is to play one or more Jace's Erasure's asap, or I might end up milling myself to smithereens instead.  That one might turn out to be fun...



Well, that is the short rundown for my geeky life this week, tomorrow it's back to a paperwork thingy that is starting to haunt me, I really hope to get the administration all over and done with soonish, or I'll be spending my summer holidays growling and gnawing.

See y'all next week, where there will be quite a few mostly Magic updates I think, as July is one month I have booked into a lot of tournaments, starting for one with each FNM as I really, really want that new Rakdos Cackler promo, I play him 4 times in my deck after all.

donderdag 27 juni 2013

The Playstation Challlenge: part 6 of 12

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standing here, beside the door
But before I leave, this is what I have to show...

Yups, the monthly report, traditionally around the last weekend of the month, but now on the fridays as I'm leaving on a holiday weekend in a few hours.

The unthinkable has happened this month, in a very, very furious battle.  I actually overtook Andy!!!!




The investing in games during the first 4 months to grind them out from the second half of may, when I knew I would be having more time, payed of big time.  That and the fact that I literally got a truckload of 'new' games up and going for two reasons

1. The girlfriend has discovered the joy of the Playstation Move and has placed many a dance before the screen, so my team is finally fully active
2. I discovered the joy of the VITA and mainly as a platform for Indy Developpers.  This resulted in bronzes and silvers left or right, and the following score table for June


Deciding the winner:

Less then a gap of 8400 is a victory for me, more then 9000 points gap is a victory for Andy, and in between those two extremes it becomes a draw


The oversight of gained spoils, updated after every monthly update post.

Last update: 28st of June 2013

Yokai_Tomsche



Points: 48.720 +8115
Level: 16 - 9% +102%, +1 level

Platinum Trophies: 12 + 2
Gold Trophies: 125 + 33
Silver Trophies: 383 + 47
Bronze Trophies: 1588 + 231

Games played: 296 + 47
Games Beaten: 33 + 2

AnRoDr



Points: 48.705 + 2370
Level: 16 - 8% + 29% + 1 level

Platinum Trophies: 13 + 0
Gold Trophies: 122 + 5
Silver Trophies: 377 + 20
Bronze Trophies: 1605 + 88

Games played: 208 + 12
Games Beaten: 26 + 0

This means Andy starts the year with a lead of 8670 points, currently the gap is - 15 (WIN TOMSCHE)

As can be expected when one gains more then 8000 points, I completely outscored Andy and his team over the whole line, with the biggest hitters being the golds where I score no less then 28 more then him, and the mighty number of bronze trophies I raked in left and right.
It is only by the smallest of margins, being a single bronze trophy value, that I've overtook him at the moment, BUT considering I came from 8000+ points behind only two months ago after april... one could say I went into a 'mild' gaming frenzy.
And truth be told, it is rather mild actually, there haven't been that many all day sessions, nor even till the deep of night... so I could have gotten way more if I wanted to.

This result should mean i can make it through the hard two months to come: summer vacation, where both teams are complete and not bothered on the minion fronts by things like school hehe.  From september onwards till the end of the line, my gaming hours are dropping considerably, so I need to consolidate my position now before 'the grand finale'.

Normally, I would be giving national and global rankings, but the site I reference for on that, YGC has been having issues all month due to a server move and implementation of site v4, so no rankings on that part this month I'm afraid.




And Andy, your two months of contributions behind now ;-)

woensdag 26 juni 2013

Level Up!

Woop, did it this morning, levelled up to 16 on the Playstation network.



Thanks to a Bronze trophy (from a series of 8 scored trophies last night) of The Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters, I broke the 48.000 points barrier and ended, well, on exactly 48.000 points.  How`s my aim ;-)

Friday I`ll be posting the new oversight of this month`s PS Challenge, but it is turning out to becoming a real massacre for poor Andy.

Serves him right for keeping back articles for this blog for the past 2 months now ;-)

zondag 23 juni 2013

Sunday Ramblings: the Geek life episode 2

Welcome to the second episode of the trail of my lifetime, as I take you along a daring, adventurous voyage.  You will meet vampires, starships, giant robots and trolls amongst other mystical beings.



Yes, a life of a Geek is one big adventure, so bear with me brave reader and face the horrors of...

... episode 2!


Okay, so that sounded a lot more dramatic then what actually happened, but you have to catch the attention of a reader early on now, isn't it.  So on with the show as we walk through the weekly oversights.

What have I been Tapping?

Well, it was a good Magic week for me.  First off on tuesday, I got to play a completely unsanctioned, great fun Modern Masters draft as a friend of mine, Costa, wanted to 'not just open his box alone'.  Okay, I went 0-3, but three times I had the chance of actually winning.

What I started to do on friday.  I had installed at last Magic Online onto my PC, more to have a look at metagame statusses in events, as I don't want to spend money on cards I don't actually have in my hands.  But with the starter cards you receive of M13, I did manage to go 2 out of 2 friendly games.



This pulled through to the Friday Night Magic, where I went 2-1 and only lost out on the first round as I blew myself a humongous hole in my head with my Duskmantle Seer.  My drafted 'IzzMir' deck for the rest contained a Nivix Guidlmage, 2 Duskmantle guildmages, a heap of draw and mill, and 2 Fluxchargers to punch through after a Gridlock or a Cyclonic Rift on overload.

In a sens of poetic justice, I also won the roll for the promo afterwards... an Izzet Charm.



What have I been Gaming?

The week started good with a heap of Gold trophies on Terminator Salvation.  I could go for Platinum on that stuff by just doing it all over, but bleugh... maybe, maybe someday in the far future.  Doubt it.



Another 'in-between' game I have been doing has been Shrek Forever After.  This one I also *might* grind for platinum, but like Terminator I doubt it, unless to finish it off and then dumping it on Munchkin's also already humongous backlog of games.  It did score me the Achievement though of my 2000th trophy...



No the 'main attraction' I have been playing has been Star Trek.  Critics are harsh about this game, but truth to be said it is quit okay for me.  Okay, die hard shooters will think it really sucky, but I am really sucky in die-hard shooters so that evens out.



Pity I can't remotely hope to platinum that one though, as one trophy is about completing the whole game in co-operative mode..

What have I been Watching?

Seems a week of vampires and the likes.  I watched the witchhunter movie Hansel and Gretel, Witch Hunters.  Man, what an UTTER crap that thing is.  Leathers and Famke Janssen where okay, one or two jokes where smirking, but overal... bleugh



No, then I enjoyed our 'family movie' more yesterday.  With the munchkin we watched Hotel Transylvania, an animation movie about Dracula running a human free hotel for all his monster buddies... and then a human drops by at his daughters birthday party.

There is one line in that movie that literally made me piss my pants.  Drac goes of to recover the human boy, and as he catches up with the plane Jonathan is watching Twilight.  At that moment, Drac, seeing the film through the window, utters this legendary line 'Is that how we are represented these days?  Ridiculous!'

What have I been Collecting?

Autobots.  Been a good week for those, with the ultimate comical relief of the second movie:  The Twins, Mudflap and Skids, in their ice cream car mode!



Together with those, I also got Hot Shot from the Prime series, and yesterday in the local toystore during the village fair, I found the Kre-O Bumblebee 'deluxe' in discount at about 20 euros.



Now, being a Lego fanatic is one thing, I can live with the Hasbro versions.  The blocks are intermingable (okay, Lego IS sturdier material), they have cool licenses (Transformers, now Star Trek, I am so going to get the big Enterprise) and they are dirt cheap.

I also brought along a Cyberverse Legion Prime Cliffjumper along, just to round things out of an Autobot centric week.

The comming week, I'm going to prepare the blogpost for the monthly PS3 oversight.  That will be entering Heavy Time as school holidays begins and both times are full time available, so that is going to be battles of 1000s of points... but first I'm packing up my suitcase to go and lie back a long nice weekend in a village with an unpronouncable name... and hopefully no Vampires (okay, if you have to be bitten by a 118 year-old, let at least be it a animated version of Selina Gomez).

vrijdag 21 juni 2013

From the Vault: Chaos Man O` War and Bab5 Drakh for sale

Okay, so they ain`t from my `vault` at all, but heck.  Last week my buddy Guy, aka Nemesis, asked if I could perhaps help him off some models now that he ain`t playing those games anymore, or even hasn`t gotten around to play them at all.

Now, inserting them into certain well known auction sites would cost me an arm and a leg for placing costs, publicity costs etc etc and if they won`t sell there, it would cost me about 11 euros a week, and I`m only going THAT far in doing people a favor, so here are his two lots.

The prices are INCLUDING shipping `signed for` worldwide, mind you there is nothing I can do about the prices because
1. it ain`t my models, and as such can`t say fine or not.  It is what he wants for them.
2. Belgian postal rates aren`t exactly the cheapest in the known universe.
3. the lots are quit heavy, and don`t really fit into a padded enveloppe ;-)
4. They will be with tracking number, considering the value and the fact it ain`t mine, I will not run the risk of being held responsible for losses.

I can always relay any offers, but as I don`t see Nemesis on a daily basis, this may
a) take a while and
b) offers no guarantees

 Okay, so the rules of the pitch have been set out...


So up for grabs are

A Chaos Man O` War fleet by Games Workshop, containing 4 still factory sealed boxes, an unassembled Khorne Bloodship and a set of 3 painted Khorne Deathgalleys



The asking price for that whole shabang is 275 euros (that is including all the postage etc)


and a Babylon 5 A Call to Arms Drakh fleet, by Mongoose Publishing, and including the Fleet Box (4 Light Cruisers, 2 Fast Destroyers, 4 Light Raiders and 4 Heavy Raiders) unpainted and apart from 1 Light Cruiser unassembled, as well as 3 painted Scouts, a Painted Fast Destroyer and a Painted Heavy Cruiser.



The asking price for this lot is 175 euros (again, including postage)



Drop me a reply if your intrested or have further questions!

dinsdag 18 juni 2013

The Gold Saint issue

I have been looking at it from the sidelines since BanDai started releasing their Myth Cloth EX line.  Reworks of the older range, so far we have seen `version 2` bronzes and a large part of the Gold Saints already out.



The models are a definite improvement over their older Myth cloths, where basically their age really shows for most of them.  With now Deathmask out and within my grasp (I`m raising funds for him), I bit the bullet and am going to collect the series to go alongside my `regular` Myth cloths. 

Here you can see the old vs the new versions of the Gold Leo saint, Aiolia, as an example.



But that would mean I would have the Gold Saints double... and that would eat a lot of closet space.  So after pondering on it for a few weeks now, I found the simple and elegant solution.

The classic Myth cloths will be replaced in `saint mode` in the cabinet, while the older versions will be build into Cloth mode to go alongside them.

That way, I`ll have in the end all 12 of them (hopefully) with their armors beside them, woop woop, as will it be for the Bronze Saints released in the line.

Because say what you want, they do look mightily impressive!




zondag 16 juni 2013

Sunday Ramblings: the Geek life episode 1

A brand new feature on this bloggie thing, Sunday Ramblings: the Geek life will be just that, ramblings... of a geek... on sundays.

This will be the weekly column, bit of an improved (I hope), more intresting (hopefully) and immensly popular (fat chance) of a guy living in his own strange mindset.  Or psychosis, depends a little on your point of view against geeks (enter insane laughter here).

First of all, as told earlier my private life has been rummaged through severly the last month.  After 5 years, I waved farewel to the world of very shiny stones (well, the shipping them worldwide at least for an underpayed wage and a totally disrespectful clientele) and am since past thursday officially back to being a student.  And as such now enjoying summer vacation for 2.5 months... life is hard.

Well, it will be, as I'll be pressing Computeroperator, Networkoperator, Webdesing AND Gamedesign all together in two years of studying, which should result in that period in 2 Masters and 1 Bachelor diploma.  Life is going to become very hard...



And as such, less blogtime, and best to meld it all into one big post every week unless some cool stuff happens...

What Have I Been Gaming?

Mostly two games have been played this week, namely Transformers: Dark of the Moon on the Playstation 3 and at the same time Sunflowers on the Vita.

That second game is mightily simple... and incredibly addictive.  Basically, your the sun, and you have to shoot clouds to make them drop raindrops and have flowers grow...



... but it is a great time killer to do when your staring at the empty online lobby of the Transformers game, hoping that at times 3 more lost souls pass by and play a few rounds to reach the gold 'The Champion' (reach level 20 online) trophy.  Taking into account you'll need about 50 online rounds to accomplish that, many an hour have indeed been spent just, well, staring and watering flowers...

At least it's out of the way now, and the platinum grind can begin for the game, having to grab trophees like 'kill that many in such time', 'don't die doing this or that' etc etc... those kind of little bronze 'left over' trophees, so sometime during the holidays, the game will pop platinum after enough rince and repeat sessions.  First I'm going to try and give Andy a serious extra spanking though, to set up a safe margin for the severly limited time I'll be having come september.



I also received a note that my next pre-order is in, the Lego Chima game for the Vita, which I'll be collecting tomorrow at the store.  Nothing to fancy probably, but one has to keep his collection up to date.  Which reminds me I still need to finish the Batman one even.
Truth to be told, the Lego Chima series didn't rock my boat when it came out, I'm actually waiting more for this Lego game to appear in september:




What Have I Been Watching?

Well, Star Trek Into Darkness of course, which for some silly reason was released in Belgium almost a month after the rest of the world.  It's an enjoyable movie.  It is a reboot of The Wrath of Khan, though for me it doesn't come anywhere near the 1984 classic.  It incorporates some elements from the Search for Spock even (the new 'big ship' class for the Federation, here called the Vengeance, but we all know it's the new Excelsior), with Scotty sabotaging it's energy grid.
The new take of switching roles with the dilithium matrix is okay, Khan wasn't to bad, and there was one detail I found supreme.
At the admiral's office, there was a line of scale models of 'Enterprises', and it included non of the originals... but DID have the NX class in it.  Solving Enterprise's canon issue this way Mr Abrams?



All in all a good film, I would rate it in the higher half of the all the franchise's movies, but NOT for me the 'uberfilm' some people go around saying it is (usually, non Trekkies but heck).

What Have I Been Reading?

The best thing I read this week was the The Transformers volume 5 omnibus, Chaos Theory.  Oddly enough, this comic is HEAVY even for non Transformer fans.



Dealing with issues as being able to make a free choice; putting faith in, but being able to pick without, religious guidance; choosing between lifelong imprisonment or the death sentence; doubting believes that guided you all the way... that was definitly NOT a children's comic.



And with all the recent news about the bellringer Mr Snowden, the Syria war etc... oddly placed in the current day 'tijdsgeist' even though the comic is a few years old.

What Have I Been Collecting?

Some Transformers arrived this week (see for one my Dinobot post from a few days ago) including this very cool Transformers Generations Swerve model.  An elegant model in both vehicle and robot mode (even though he doesn't become a sleek sportscar at all) this was a great buy for 15 dollars thorugh a promotional offer.



On the part of my main intrest of all times, Saint Seiya, I finally bit the bullet and ordered these...



To many of the newer models are really intricate and heavy, that in order to stabilize them better, I finally went with the stands, and now if I see them pop by for a decent price on the belgian webstores, I'm snatching them up.

So that's about it for this first week of geekiness, feel free to leave any comments below and otherwise, I'll see you all next week for episode 2!

zaterdag 15 juni 2013

Saint Seiya Omega Crusade series 2

A few weeks ago, Cardass released their series 2 of the Saint Seiya Omega set in the Crusade system.  Telling the tale of the battles against the Gold Saints, I received my 'traditional' 3 booster boxes from Papermoon Japan.



Everything filed and sorted out, this resulted in me still missing three cards from the set, unfortunatly including the ultra rare chase card, the Purple CH-002 Saori Kido, alongside two gold saints, Red U-005 Libra Genbu and Grey U-004 Capricorn Ionia.

Bar some buy-a-box promos that is, but it isn't easy tracing down checklists of the japanese promo cards.

So if anyone has these cards, and is willing to sell them (or trade them, pop a list to hear what I have and you need), just place a post right under this blogpost.

Thanks a lot!

dinsdag 11 juni 2013

The 12th Platinum: Disney's Pixar Up

Up.  I always thought it one of the best, and underrated Pixar movies ever released, telling the tale of the old balloon widower and a boyscout, going to Angel's Falls with a house carried by balloons through the air.



THQ... before they folded, they did a good job on releasing the franchise games of most of these movies to the Playstation 3, but unfortunatly, some of their games are... well... crap. 

While The Penguins of Madagascar and MegaMind where quite funny and enjoyable, Kung Fu Panda 2 was uber rubbishness.  Unfortunatly, Up is more leaning toward the latter.

The good thing is that at least it doesn't get finished in half a day like the Panda game, but it does have some of the terrible errors of that game as well

* Controls are at times very 'unfriendly'
* Where in the Penguins you controlled the 4 heroes smoothly, the 2.5 heroes here (Dug pops in now and then) have a habbit of blocking each others paths, resulting in missing jumps, getting stuck, and on three seperate occassions even dropping of the screen forcing to restart the level.



Trophy wise, it is a bit of a challenge in that for some you trail away FAR from the game 'path', even if your collecting artifacts.  Anf not to decent a clue of where to go.

All in all, it was a relative easy platinum for the virtual closet, but in all honesty, a kid can get frustrated at times by the controls (and the plane levels are horrible to pilot).

Target in Sight

Okay, so we're nearing Andy's current platinum mark, as he is on 13 at the moment, and preparing ourselves to gain two more platinums this month, though not the most simple ones to get.

On the Vita, I'm one gold trophy away from reaching it, but Batman 2 on that platform needs the Justice League completed on gold level, not the easiest of things to do due to some controller issues, I'll explain those when I finish the game.

On the PS3 X-Men Destiny is also only 1 gold and 2 bronzes aways from platinum score, all three comming naturally through the remaining gameplay.  I'm at the irritating Magneto fight on that one,  but once I (finally) dodge jump guerilla smash my way past that hopefully, it will be a breeze to round it out.

After that, I'm going for the ultimate price of Transformers: Dark of the Moon, still a lot to do there, but first I'll need to struggle through the online part, not simple on a 2 year old game, to be able to start hunting the trophies and complete chapters in that game.

woensdag 5 juni 2013

Best `facebook Funny` picture ever

In my opinion at least, I can see myself cursing just the same if it should happen to me...






Now, apart from that, Optimus DOES lend himself to some great jokes, like these ones:




dinsdag 4 juni 2013

Dinobots, transform and beat the shit out of those Decepticons!!!!!

They`re here!!!!!!  FINALLY all my youth sentiments have come together as I have the full series of the Dinobots now residing in my display cabinets.



Grimlock, Sludge, Slag, Snarl and Swoop, the most powerful and dangerous Autobots, have aquired bit of a cult status in the franchise.  Partly because of their isolationism, their not respectation of authority, and sheer brute force make them in the Autobot strike team.

On more then one occasion, they have saved the Autobots from big do-do (the Movie, Rage of the Dinobots mini-series, etc...) and trashed about a heap of `cons.  And on more then one occasion, Grimlock has become (or tried to become) the Autobot head honcho... but let`s put it mildly and say that diplomacy isn`t his forte...



Snarl is the medic of the team, and he hates his Dinobot form, but he is as valiant as the rest.  Bit of the emminesce grise of the team (okay, so that would mean like he could count to 10, I`ll give you that).



Slag is the most ferocious (okay, now THAT means something) and as a result often gets in way to many fights.  The fact that he is still around means he is good at it to boot.  Toy wise though, it is my least popular model, the tail is just trailing behind in robot form.



Swoop is lither and smaller then the rest of the team, as he is the scout and transforms into a flying Pteradon.  But nevertheless a loyal and ferocious fighter, even he is mild mannered.



Sludge is together with Grimlock my favorite of the toys, transforming into a `clean` robot more then the other three members of the team.  Slow witted, he is a force to fear on the battlefield as he brings his sheer size to bear...




So there they are, the coolest Transformers ever made, now residing in their new residence...