Gavin

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"][b]What college do you attend?[/b] University of Limerick [b]What are you studying?[/b] Bachelor of Business Studies w/ Japanese (Majoring in marketing and advertising). Hopefully going to use this to spring-board into Post-Graduate Medicine. [b]Do you live on campus?[/b] Not quite. I live in student-centred accommodation about 10 minutes walk away from the university.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Hmm, bit of a toughie. Inclined towards [spoiler]Master Li[/spoiler] from Bioware's Jade Empire, if only because he's a gigantic Magnificent Bastard who entirely lives up to his title of the Glorious Strategist. [spoiler]Saren[/spoiler] from Mass Effect would also get a mention but I usually [spoiler]convince him to end it all in the opening dialogue[/spoiler] which makes the final fight against [spoiler]resurrected-Saren[/spoiler] less epic feeling. [/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Trasnformers: War for Cybertron's final Autobot boss [spoiler]Trypticon[/spoiler], not that the fight was easy by any stretch of the imagination (although that may have been due to playing on the hardest difficulty from the get-go) what really made the fight anticlimactic was the fact you had to [spoiler]find specific little hidey-holes on the different segments of the map to dodge Tryp's litany of attacks before getting 2/3 seconds every 30 to counterattack and failure to hide during the 27/28 other seconds would result in certain death.[/spoiler] I didn't particularly like the game overall, but as boss fights go that one just felt very contrived and half-polished.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Picked up the gold edition of Dawn of War 2 for PC yesterday, played through the first couple of missions and I have to admit I'm a little divided in terms of opinion. Having come from the original Dawn of War which I loved (enough to buy Soulstorm and listen to Indrick Boreale's repeated use of "SPESS MEHREENS!! FOR THE EMPRAH!!") the small squads and RPG management vary between feeling like a very fresh take on traditional RTS or being incredibly annoying by forcing the player to micromanage absolutely every encounter in the game lest you lose all your troops very quickly. Also, the fact I need Steam to play this game is absolute BS.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Sweet, seems like Grana is about to take to the field in the next chapter.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Agreed, it's bad enough having to put up with entire filler arcs between any major manga arc but it seems the "let's insert filler/flashbacks into regular episodes" has become the standard lengthening tool. Of course I blame the terrible pacing of the manga for creating this in the first place.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Hmm Blue Basic isn't too bad, although I still think I'm going to stick with Wet Paint, it's still the cheeriest one available. I also swear that if Des or anyone else tries to bring back Carameldansen I will track you down and drown you in your own latrine.[/size][/font]

[size="2"][font="Tahoma"]*cracks neck* Alright, let's do this. [center][img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ouC92wvILSw/SKliimgacWI/AAAAAAAADSg/ExotNu41aQ0/s400/Uchiha-Sasuke-naruto-pictures.jpg[/img] [b]Uchiha Sasuke - Naruto[/b] [size="1"]"Revenge is a dish best served with every course of every meal you're ever going to eat...with the wrong cutlery!"[/size][/center] I'm one of those people who actually liked Sasuke when he started out, he was a nice alternative to the obnoxious, loud, generally clueless Naruto who better fit the generally accepted style of a ninja. Over the years however he's transformed into a one-dimensional, omnidirectional betrayer obsessed with avenging his clan despite learning they're a hereditary group of assholes and traitors themselves (except for Itachi of course). He's become dull and predictable where as Naruto has grown and developed into an interesting character who's carrying a hell of a lot more emotional baggage than Sasuke on his worst day. [center][img]http://zeitgeistglee.250free.com/Orihime2.jpg[/img] [b]Inoue Orihime - Bleach[/b] [size="1"]"KUROSAKI-KUN!!KUROSAKI-KUN!!KUROSAKI-KUN!!" *Pauses for breath* "KUROSAKI-KUN!!KUROSAKI-KUN!!KUROSAKI-KUN!!"[/size][/center] Again another character whom I initially liked but now raises bile in my throat the moment I see, or more precisely hear. Between her various incredibly stupid decisions, general uselessness, deus ex machina powers and of course, that one line, I'm thanking God the current arc does not involve her and likely won't for a few more weeks at the least. [center][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/85/AizenAnimeEp60.jpg[/img] [b]Aizen Sousuke - Bleach[/b] [size="1"]"So you've taken a path which just opened based on a completely unpredictable variable to challenge me ? Just as planned."[/size][/center] *Coughs* OK I may be noticing a pattern emerging here. Again initially Aizen's ability to strategically outmanoeuvre everyone to set up his own little kingdom in preparation to take over the world was quite cool. Now however with absolutely no development beyond "I must have more power", power-ups to Beyond the Impossible, and the ability to predict every move every other character will ever make flawlessly with the perfect counter especially in situations where he just should not have that knowledge he's slammed right into Boring Invincible Villain territory. [center][img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_XFGuSZ6n1LY/SL1Lzk8OiDI/AAAAAAAAB-M/4WpG30FVZME/s400/bleach_hitsugaya_005.jpg[/img] [b]Hitsugaya Toshiro - Bleach[/b] [size="1"]"What do you mean I only keep winning because of fangirls?"[/size][/center] Yes, it's true, lil Shiro-chan has only survived due to his immense popularity when any other writer would've run out of asspulls to avoid keeping him alive a long time ago. This is new territory as I've always actually disliked Hitsugaya, most down to his whole general demeanour and said asspulls keeping him alive, despite the fact he's jobbed every fight he's ever been involved in and yet still believes himself to be a superbly capable warrior. [b][EDIT][/B] VINDICATION!!! As of the "Masked" Bleach databook Kubo has admitted he only keeps certain characters around because they're popular with female fans! Granted it sucks that Hitsugaya will never die because of plotkai but it's nice to know I was right. [center][img]http://keikakudoori.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/nn.png?w=225&h=332[/img] [b]Nina Einstein - Code Geass[/b] [size=1]"Euphemia-sama!! Filthy subhuman Elevens!! Ooh table-kun <3"[/size][/center] I actually lack words to describe properly my feelings towards Nina Einstein. On the one hand there's an overpowering hate for the psychotic, WMD-developing, table-humping, xenophobic lesbian and on the other there's immense disbelief that the level of stupidity required for Nina to do all the terrible things she has done and remain ignorant of this stupidity (Armed rebels don't like it when I use racist names to their faces? Really?) or evil (A nuclear weapon augmented with the most potent superconductor in history detonated over a heavily populated city will kill tens of millions of people? Truly?) could actually be real. I suppose disgust fits best but the hate is there propping it up.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Bit disappointed in this week's chapter, the Don/Matsumoto interaction should've taken up considerably less page-space, as should Tatsuki and Keigo's chatting at the end. Gin is as enigmatic as ever, we don't see him actually injure Matsumoto, so there can be a number of interpretations to that scene. A half-mention of Ichigo's fight after the amount being built up around it, I expected more. Hopefully next week's chapter will be better.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Hmm, interesting. I'll have to keep an eye out for that.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The ending was good, if a bit cliché and obvious. Actually I was always annoyed by the fact that despite their legion of crimes, up to and including the use of WMDs on civilian targets, Schneizel and Cornelia seem to be able to walk away without any kind of prosecution. Of course after Charles' Darwin-inspired speeches all through R1 I wanted his real intentions of exiling Lelouch to have been a test to see whether Schneizel having been raised with everything or Lelouch having to gain everything himself would make the fitter successor to the throne. The Evangelion-esque reveal we got was rather disappointing, as was seeing nothing of the E.U. despite Britannia's seemingly genuine concern of their military capabilities. As for R3, as far as I know that side story set in Japan isn't the official sequel, nor is the new one featuring Suzaku. Given that Word of God confirmed Lelouch as dead it's a bit of a shame, would've loved to see him take over C.C.'s role in the sequel and deal with the bane of immortality as well as seeing how the world was affected by his and Suzaku's sacrifices.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Ahh. I do know what you're saying though, I expect despite Bioware's intent to avail TOR to the largest possible market a lot of their fans are going to upgrade/replace their rigs to run it at max graphics. I'll probably succumb to the temptation myself.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Just finished rewatching Code Geass (both series) and have to say each time I watch the series I still get the sense they screwed the pooch completely with the final half/quarter of the series. Probably going to go rewatch Gundam 00 at a later date just to get in the mood for the new movie.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]A poor end to a poor World Cup indeed. Sepp Blatter needs to get his ass kicked into getting some better referees trained, actually bringing in goal line and video referees and instruct referees to start red-carding divers to drive the practice out of the game. Thank God at least vuvuzelas have been banned from all future World Cup events. Also grats to Spain on their first win, commiserations to Holland on their loss. Still say Germany were the best team in the whole thing though.[/size][/font]

[quote name='Shy' date='14 July 2010 - 02:02 AM' timestamp='1279069376' post='697257'] I've never been a fan of MMORPGs, but this really interests me. Star Wars is a huge passion of mine, and I'm eager to learn more about this era in the Star Wars Universe. Non-Jedi FTW. I'm hoping that the classes allow a great deal of customization in terms of races and abilities. -Shy [/quote] One of the major selling points to this game, at least to a huge SW lore nerd like me is that actually it's pretty much a blank canvas for Bioware to work with, I expect to see some references to what happened in KOTOR, and Tales of the Jedi/Sith but all that stuff is three or four hundred years in the past now. [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Also bah at you not wanting to play a Jedi. [/size][/font] [quote name='CaNz' date='14 July 2010 - 02:26 AM' timestamp='1279070788' post='697259'] yeah, I have never picked up an mmorpg before so i didn't consider myself the most eligible candidate, but hopefully i will snag a spot in the beta eventually... i certainly signed up early enough. [/quote] [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The one thing I would say CaNz is that a beta shouldn't be treated as just "Yippee, I get to play the game ages before anyone else", you have to look for bugs, weigh up how abilities work and whether they need to be buffed/nerfed and then write fairly detailed reports on it. Obviously yeah there is the "Yippee" part but at the end of the day you're trying to make things better for other player when the game does come out.[/size][/font] [quote name='Blue' date='14 July 2010 - 07:49 AM' timestamp='1279090183' post='697274'] After the ridiculous amount of money that was invested in this (Already over 100 million for sure), it would be sad for it to be mediocre or just any other MMO. But I know its going to be kick ass. I'm going to need to get a whole new machine to just play it. [/quote] [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Certainly the financial investment in SWTOR is going to give Bioware/EA great incentive to make the game as successful as possible, but as a WAR player I've already heard many sighs of "It's just a PvE game" uttered. On getting a new rig to play it, I doubt that unless you've got a really old (like 4 years) computer you should be able to handle it. The whole reason Bioware are using their "stylised realism" is so that they can allow as many players to get into the game without requiring the latest Alienware PC. [/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Only the first round of testing yet CaNz, keep up hope and you never know.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]*Casts Breath of Sigmar* Anyone still playing this by any chance ? GOA have finally given up their ghost and now we European customers have access to the Mythic American servers, after two years of playing Order I'm in the mood for change.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Well after months of waiting it seems Bioware are finally ready to begin beta testing, and not a moment too soon in many eyes. Sadly at the minute it's confined to US only but hopefully I'll get a chance to beta the game when the European one opens.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]The problem with making Wonderweiss an Espada is, aside from the obvious big reveal of his power-level, that the Espada are intended to be analogous of the Gotei 13, the captains of what was (at least originally intended to be) Aizen's Hollow Army (an idea which has since been dropped it seems). Wonderweiss's inability to communicate with any being aside from Fura and perhaps Tousen would make that impossible, as well as the fact he seems to possess very little intelligence which is more comparable to the instinct of an animal. That's why, despite his power, Urahara was able to hold him off without any visible effort and was from the looks of it, ready to finish him off before the Negacion came into effect and the Espada withdrew. Sure, some of the Espada fights have been lacklustre, contrived but to say that Wonderweiss deserves to be an Espada is pushing it a little in my opinion.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]From the original Transformers cartoon series. Humans will immediately be able to tell good extra-terrestrial robots from bad ones without any obvious information. Jesus Christ was just Optimus Prime's holoform.[/size][/font]

[quote name='Magus' date='01 July 2010 - 10:51 AM' timestamp='1277977910' post='696268'] I've been watching [b]Dragonball Z Kai[/b] on Nicktoons despite my better judgment, but honestly, this's not as bad as I thought it'd be. The new voices do sound fairly nice, and the dialogue's not attrocious like it used to be. From what I heard so far (I haven't really caught this from the beginning) characters actually sound like they know what they're talking about. However, I do miss Faulkoner's music, but I suppose those themes didn't really kick in till Goku arrived and the sudden Funi voices came about. I still roll my eyes everytime I hear "we need Goku". Back to voices though. The new Frieza (sp?) and Zarbon voices are pretty good, although I do like Paul Dobson as Zarbon (Viz) and Funi's Frieza (I can't remember her name for nothing.... I know she was Genkai) But yeah, I'll keep checking with this whenever I can and hopefully I won't run into anymore excessive/elitist fans. [/quote] [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Given that DBZ was the first anime I followed seriously I've been waiting to see how the (re)dub would be handled. Quite happy to see so many of the old cast return although I'm curious to see how the new Gohan will work out (if any of them needed changing it was Cell Saga Gohan). I am very disappointed however we're not going to have Bruce Faulkoner's music this time around, as personally I thought his work far exceeded the originals. [/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]I admit, when they showed up with about 5 minutes to go in the episode I figured we were going to see the Vizards mask up and [spoiler]tear apart Fura's Gillian horde[/spoiler]. The flashback was rather pointless, unless of course they're assuming people have completely forgotten about how the Vizards are after the long spell away in Hueco Mundo. At least we get to see them do their thing next week. Regarding Wonderweiss, if you go back to the episode where he first appeared and entered the real world, his power reading from Soul Society was [strike]over 9000!![/strike] crimson, the same level as Grimmjow, Yammy and Luppi which puts him on the same scale as the Espada. The fact he was intended to [spoiler]take down Yamamoto's zanpakutou also would indicate he was intended to survive for some period against Yamamoto[/spoiler] in combat, which would necessitate him being quite powerful on his own. Therefore in my mind him being able to take down Ukitake from behind when he wasn't expecting him isn't hugely far-fetched, nor shattering Hitsugaya's ice-tower thing. Also please remember to use spoiler tags here guys for stuff that's not yet happened in the anime that has happened in the manga.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Quite a bit of speculation about how Matsumoto is going to affect forthcoming events. We know Gin is still quite attached to her, or at least he was before the traitors left for Hueco Mundo, so if Aizen decides she's someone to be gotten rid of, we may indeed see Gin's heel-face turn. I don't see her actually betraying Soul Society, although with Kubo Trollo you never know.[/size][/font]