Back on the crusade to bring more giant robots to the site and my choice this time is another blast from the past.  Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was along with Macron-1 and Robotech, a staple of my early morning viewing when I was a child.

The show is your basic futuristic western. The Star Sheriffs protect the New Frontier from Outriders, vapour beings from another dimension.  Because they turn into a puddle of vapour when shot, there’s a lot of killing of bad guys which wasn’t something you’d see in many other shows of the time.  Their boss Nemesis even goes as far as getting his forces to kidnap all the Wilderbeasts (think buffalo) just because he thought it would amuse him.  How can you not love a bad guy with so much power he invades another dimension and kidnaps an entire species just for fun (oh and he’s voice by Peter G1 Optimus Prime Cullen).

Big Giant Robots

Ramrod aka Bismark is a spaceship that transforms into a giant cowboy robot, his head is shaped as if wearing a cowboy hat and he has his gun in a holster at his waist – nice.  He also has an abundance of cannons built into his chest which are used simultaneously to obliterate enemies once they are stunned long enough to not dodge.  The packaging on the Complete Collection DVD would have you think that Ramrod, also voiced by Peter Cullen is the star of the show. That’s cobblers. The interactions between the characters is so much better and for the record, Ramrod is piloted, has no personality and only speaks during the same transformation used in every episode  – it’s good yes, the reason to watch or buy, no. Peter Cullen does deserve praise if only for voicing the Heroic robot, the Commander of the Star Sheriffs and the Commander of the bad guys which must be some sort of record for key roles in a good dub (he always does a number of bit parts too). I say good because I’ve heard the dub of Transformers Headmasters and I think there’s about 3 people did the voices for the lot lol.

The Star Sheriffs

One of the great things about this show is that the team is made up of sheriffs from different countries and are proud of it, wearing their country’s flag on their helmet and armour (although the Union Jack and the US Flag are deliberately mis-coloured for ease of animating).  The voice casts for the sheriffs are all superb and sound like they are having a great time with the different accents they get to use and it really brings the characters to life.

Saber Rider is a wonderful blend of the best of England and Scotland.  He has a great English accent and a Scottish family and plays bagpipes – wears the Union Jack and is the veteran leader of the Star Sheriff (despite not being that old at all) and is known as Top Sword as he is the best swordsman in the galaxy. He rides a mechanical flying horse named Steed and uses a saber (duh) and a hunting rifle. Even as a kid I knew there was something up with the way Saber Rider delegated everything to Fireball and sure enough in the Japanese version Saber wasn’t the leader but he’s definitely the brains behind the team whichever version, he’s dull but there weren’t many British commanders of big giant robots back then, wait there still aren’t… He also gets big props for calling everyone chum ^_^

Fireball – the youngest world champion car racer ever and the real hero of the show – he pilots Ramrod and drives a 6 wheeled racer called Red Fury Racer/Turbo (he calls it both inside one sentence in one ep.)   Regardless of the name, it looks good when drawn properly (and any car with a chain gun that comes out of the roof and rocket launchers out the sides is cool in my books.

He has the Japanese flag on his uniform but displays no sign of any Japanese behaviour other than that of typical anime hero, well except using chopsticks in one episode.  He was the first anime character I ever cosplayed as, of course back then, I didn’t even know what cosplay was, I just wanted a red suit of armour like his.  I don’t know if any pictures exist, it was terrible, foam pads on a red tracksuit but it made me happy.  Why Fireball when as I know now and yet my brother knew back then, Colt is far more awesome, well Fireball gets to pilot Ramrod and I’d love to say it’s because he gets the girl in the end but the truth is he gets to press the red button tha transforms Ramrod and everyone knows my love of pushing buttons hehe.  Actually with hindsight I don’t think I even had that habit until I saw this show.

Colt – The man, phenomenal ability to go from clown to badass cowboy in 0.2 seconds.  His helmet has a cowboy hat rim to it and when he is not wearing that, he wears a real one and never leaves it behind.  He has the US flag on his armour and a superb cowboy accent.  He flies one-man fighter named the Bronco Buster and was a bounty hunter before he joined the Star Sheriffs.  His mentor in the art of gun slinging looks suspiciously like Clint Eastwood. He chases girls and gold with equally reckless abandon but when he draws his gun you know vapour beings are going home.  He also has the coolest theme tune and has great arguments with Fireball and April which are often highlights of the shows.

April Eagle – chief designer of Ramrod and daughter of Commander Eagle (head of the Star Sheriffs) has a French flag on her armour but like Fireball displays absolutely no trace of her native county’s behaviour or accent.  She has a pink robotic horse named Nova early on which isn’t used again and she usually stays behind in Ramrod to swoop in and save the boys bacon. Trained in karate, she’s not afraid to put anyone in their place but still has odd moments where she’s the helpless damsel in distress.

Changes

Originally a 1984 anime Star Musketeer Bismarck,  the mind blowing list of changes is available on wikipedia, I suggest checking it out to get an idea of just how much was changed, from replacing episodes and renumbering almost the entire series to creating an extra 6 eps of the show to replace existing episodes

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saber_Rider_and_the_Star_Sheriffs

Music

Also changed was the music, and the Japanese and US versions of this show couldn’t be more different and for once, the US comes off far better! It varies from the rocking futuristic western the show is to fun to epic. Colt’s theme is just awesome, when you hear it, you know good things are coming – it could be comedy or it could be action but Colt always delivers and his theme lets you know its coming. A huge thank you to Dale Schacker for creating a soundtrack I still listen to and love. It’s genius, especially the bull whip at the end of the intro, inspired.

Toys

Saber Rider didn’t make a dent in the UK so toys never came out, it was bigger in Europe though (especially Germany who got the DVDs long before we did grrr) and I did see some of the toys when on a holiday in France.  This would cause one of longest running and biggest rages of my life as we visited a town (don’t ask me which) and I saw a toy of Ramrod in a toy shop that was closed because it was a Sunday. My parents refused to go out of their way to visit the town again just to go to a toy shop to buy me a toy I couldn’t afford.  They had no idea just how rare this toy was, how important to me it was and just how much grief this would bring them.  I spent the rest of the holiday in a huff and would not see any Star Sheriff toys again for another 8/9 years until, thanks to the internet, I finally found a yahoo listing for a Bismark DX – for $300! Naturally I couldn’t afford it and that re-sparked the fire again. It would be another 8 years before I finally got my hands on the toy, thankfully for a mere $200 while on holiday in the US but still, when I think I could have had it when I was 9 for a fraction of that I still weep.

For a few pictures of it see here  http://www.flickr.com/photos/85964213@N00/sets/72157624024108482/

What do you think Top Sword?

The animation in Saber Rider is usually good for its time, peaking at very good for scenes they want to make the Sheriff’s look extra awesome. The exception seems to be some scenes with the Red Fury racer which make it look like it was drawn by me but on the whole good. More consistent than a lot of the shows its age.  As mentioned, the music is great, sound effects are ripped from the usual sources used for Transformers (you will hear Prime’s gun), GI Joe etc.

The only negatives are some throwaway episodes and flashback eps.  Sadly the story doesn’t always make sense due to some episode re-ordering which is inevitable but after initial wtf, it makes immediate sense.  Does it matter? to some maybe.  Me, I’m always happy to overlook this shows flaws because the upside is that its always fun.  The nameless Outrider troops are always comical (I love their dodgy accents) but at least unlike the droids in the Clone Wars, they are always shown to be a lethal threat to innocents and non-sheriffs, which makes the Star Sheriff rescues all the more enjoyable.  The big robot fights are your typical 80s/90s affair but Ramrod is one of the cooler looking robots out there IMO and having Prime’s voice during transformation always helps.

By now you’ve read how much of an impact this had on my childhood so I’m about as biased  as they come and obviously going to immediately recommend it to EVERYONE.  Naturally it isn’t for anyone that wants long drawn out story arcs or massive character development but it is a whole lot more fun.  It isn’t available in the UK but you can import it as it is region ALL and plays perfectly on the PS3 – Thank you World Event Productions!

Overall, a perfect 5 for anime robot lovers, probably rates about a 2 to normal viewers who probably stopped reading a long time ago as this was never going to be a show for them and is as much an ode to my childhood as it is a blog about the show. That is how intertwined this show and me are.

Now I was not totally new to Manga, I had seen some before but never really knew it was a specific genre all its own. Things like “Battle of the Planet” and others had been on TV and I had always loved that Japanese style. But don’t forget this was before the Internet, there was no way of finding out any of this stuff. Looking back at it now I wonder how I ever managed… but you had what you had, and I was luckier than most.

As it turns out I had seen the Studio Ghibli classic “Castle in the Sky” year before and loved it. But with no way of ever really finding out anything about it, other than its name and the fact I loved that style. If I had seen “Totoro” or “Spirited Away” at that age I would have been forced to find out more about these amazing films.

But I digress, just looking at the cover I knew I had to watch it!

The first viewing

Nikobe was insistent we had to watch it straight away, no time for the normal “Street Fighter II” on the SNES. This was the most important thing that day, and I have to say he was right.

We watched it in silence, right from the beginning it was no ordinary film. Even now it has a style all its own. The visuals were astounding, the sound work amazing, everything about this film was polished and first rate. Unlike anything I had seen before this was animation as I had always wanted it, and it had a strong message that.. in places on that first viewing.. I didn’t understand.

When it finished we watched all the way to the end of the credits. Partly out of respect, I have always tried to stay right to the end. If someone can spend so much of their life making something, the very least I can do is stay to see their name appear on the screen for 20 seconds. But also because we were both dumb struck. What was that we had just watched? Did all that really happen just then? What happened at the end again? Did they solve it? Was that Akira? So Tetsuo can do that thing with his mind, and so can the other kids? Sol is fantastic, can you really make space lasers like that? And he could fly.. is that the mind thing again? Where did those creepy kids go? Are they kids at all? That bit with the flying thing in the lift was cool, what about the bikes at the start.. yep!… how about that bit…… and so on. I think it is probably fair to say we descended into just listing out the cool bits of the film at this point. In my (and Nikobe’s) defence. We were 13 at the time.

The upshot was.. we watched it again. I don’t think we even discussed it. While we were saying how cool it was we just rewound it (yeah.. remember doing that?) and watching it from start to end again.

Eyes open

Akira is a very abstract film in many ways. It has a lot of idea you need to get into your head and no explanations at all. You either love it or hate it, and if you can’t keep up then you have a problem.

After about the fourth of firth viewing (I had my own copy by then) it all starts to come together. Now you are over the shock of just how amazing this film is you are down to its story and production, and this is one of those very rare films that does not disappoint. The sound track is excellent, and every frame is filled with stunning art work.

I can only hope that everyone sees this film as their introduction to Manga and Anime. This film is a true masterpiece, just don’t expect every anime to be this good.

Where to now

So once you have seen this where do you go next? Fortunately this was the time Manga really took off in the UK. I started collecting “Manga Mania” from about issue 4 and saw a whole new world. I just fell in love with Anime and Manga and wanted everything I could get.

At the time “Manga Mania” had just started the complete strip of “Dominion: Tank Police”. That was my first introduction to Masamune Shirow and started a love of his work that would eventually lead me to “Ghost in the Shell” another of my favourite film, and I believe sets the standard by which all Sci-Fi should be judged. But his earlier work was showcased and I really enjoyed it. “Dominion” of course, but “Appleseed” was just as good.

Many others came and went, and I can’t say that many others really grabbed me until I saw Adam Warren’s “Dirty Pair” or Kenichi Sonoda’s “Bubblegum Crisis”. Among all the manga that I thought was OK, there were some that really stood out, these alone were worth getting the magazine for. But all of them were interesting and new.

A fortune on video

So when ever I had the money (not often) I would have to make the trek to one of the larger towns and check out the videos. There was an influx of anime to match the growing demand.

For me this was a blessing and a curse, because along with all the good films there were utterly crap ones. Not just bad, I mean really terrible. Manga Entertainment who were one of the main importers had the most wild quality control. By now I had managed to convince Sideswipe he would like this stuff, little did I know he would go on to become the ultimate collector and otaku (Thanks!). So we would go and look at the videos and buy a few, most of the time we were disappointed but sometimes hit gold. It is thanks to him I found out about Lupin III, and I was able to find Tenchi Muyo and Gunsmith Cats. These were the things we lived for.

This lead to one of the other tricks that really annoyed us all. They would release the first video, not telling you it was the first in a series of 100 episodes (I’m looking at you Slayers). This is what finally put me off, I still love it and look for the best bits but I hated being drawn into these cons. Sideswipe however has never really got out of that trap, and I am hoping at some point he will put up some pictures of his front room.

My pride and joy

From my love of Anime and Manga sprung my love of Japanese culture. That has lead me on to watch Japanese films, something that I don’t think I ever would have done without my start in seeing Akira. I might never have seen classics like “Seven Samurai” or “Battle Royal” without it.

Thank you Nikobe for getting me started, and thank you Sideswipe for taking it to 11!

But there is one other thing Akira has given me. Two amazing posters that have sat in my closet untouched for about 15 years. Sideswipe and I went to a little exhibition, we were a little disappointed but I came away with three things. A cell from Akira itself (which got damaged when it was taken off my wall.. different story) and a pair of limited edition numbered prints. There were only 1000 made in the first run and were supposed to retail for £100 each.. I managed to get them for £15 because the person selling them had no idea what they were.

At some point this year I will finally get them on my wall. I promise!

I don’t know what it is that has never really worked for Downey, but is has certainly re-established himself since Iron Man came out. He can carry off the narcissistic Tony Stark like no one else, and is definitely fun to watch.

The concept of Iron Man itself is one of those comics that passed me by. Of course I know of Iron Man, and a basic understanding of the story but beyond that I really don’t know how Iron Man fits into the Marvel universe. Some of that history is coming out in this film, along with references to other films in production. I counted three, but I might have missed something.

So how does this one stand-up? In short it has its moments, but overall it does not have the same feel or impact of the first.

What’s happened?

This is still a great film! There is plenty of action and the effects are even better than the first film. But it just does not have that feel that makes the first film so much fun. In the first you have a very gritty opening and the growth of stark from a self-obsessed arsehole to self-obsessed super hero.

Here I didn’t feel there was much in the way of story. There were plenty of characters, and quiet a few of them were very interesting. From Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury, or Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow but none of them had much time to do anything.

There was some action with them, and Black Widow had a chance to show her fighting credentials, but that was about the sum of it. Which is a shame because I was expecting something more between her and Iron Man.

While Nick Fury was there to push The Avengers idea into the film, again his character was never really explored in any way. Not really a surprise in this film I suppose, but a shame.

For me the star of the show has to be Sam Rockwell. He is always fantastic in everything he does, and again here he is stealing the show. But the film doesn’t give him the chance to do much more than just be a pissed off CEO who likes to shout and resent Tony Stark. But his scene where he is showing off his weapons is great fun.

The biggest let down for me was Whiplash. The scenes where he is not fighting are OK, passable. But when it comes to action there is just not enough. Even though the film is long enough, and plenty of time is given to show the characters. Nothing much seems to happen. I didn’t feel like I saw much growth apart from a tiny moment with Tony Stark and his dad that I thought was very nicely done.

Conclusion

There is no denying this is a good film. It is great fun to watch and the effects will make you smile. But there was a lot that I think could have been trimmed or at least taken in a different direction.

Get your popcorn and settle in!

Don’t forget you need to stay right to the end of the film. Get right through the credits and there is a treat waiting for you!

The World

So asides from that mechanic how’s the rest of the game? good but nothing groundbreaking sadly.  For when it was released in Japan (ie last year) the graphics are good but have since been superceeded a lot. I have to give props to the town designers though.  The towns are lively and although they aren’t filled with side quests for you, they are often full of background info and pointers to help you out if you are lost. It is a welcome change to see multiple shops of the same type in the big city – not enough games have this even if the duplicates sell identical ranges. It just seems more real and is another draw into the world.  The world itself is split into areas, you have bog standard fields, desert and canyons as well as mines and caves & dungeons – typical fair asides from the awesome city on the back of a giant creature.

Characters

At the start you create your own avatar, who is a member of your party and used in the online mode. Sadly it isn’t you who transforms, Leonard is the main character in the story mode and the one who transforms. Still, you can do some nice setups for your avatar in single player, using the White Knight to knock a golem senseless and let your avatar pick up the final hit for the VERY satisfying kill.  There isn’t a single character I absolutely wanted to gut but at the same time, I can’t say Leonard or any of the others are characters that will stick in my mind for life.

You get plenty of options for building your character’s appearance, but when it comes to upgrading their skills it’s no Dragon Age Origins – you only chose which weapons/magical powers to use for your character and the others in your party. Essentially you pick whatever skills you want from different skills trees, the more from one tree you pick, the more skills (and more powerful) you unlock. The catch is, that there are general stat boosts in each tree so just maxing out one tree without paying attention to the others is going to end up with you missing a ton of various hp and magic,dext upgrades while spreading them out and you may not have enough deadly techniques. A surprisingly good system.

Combat

Combat is plentiful due to respawning random encounters. You can see the enemies on the map but if you or your allies stray too near then the enemies will move towards you. With that said, you can just keep running in a lot of cases and not have to fight if you so wish, which is a relief if you are directionally challenged like me.

You use action points to do attacks and can make custom combos. You are restricted to assigning moves to 3 command bars and then chose pick attacks during combat from there. After each attack you have to wait for your character to recover from the attack and then you can pick another attack. The heavier the armor, the longer this takes.  You can switch between characters but its a case of using select and then picking from a list rather than the more refined button combos of games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2.  My biggest annoyance with the system is that you can’t pause the action to send commands to your team. After playing games which let you (and to great effect) I found myself not worrying about using my allies. The AI is in fairness, good enough to keep them alive and they do fine at healing you and your other allies when they can. You can set up some great individual combos but again sadly these don’t link up with your teammates.

Also it should be mentioned that the fights and enemy HP are designed fairly well. Killing regular foes is fairly quick but killing a giant foe as a party of humans will initially take a long time, transforming and it’s a relatively quick and fun experience. I didn’t have to grind through any area repeatedly killing enemies because the next group were one shotting me. The difficulty throughout is set on the side of easy but boss fights are still a challenge if you didn’t prepare and used all your action points on your way to the boss.  I’ll still take a fun 5 minute over a laborious 10 minute boss fight just because the boss has insane HP.

Online

There is also a fairly large online mode to keep you busy. The online is a pain to set up – there is an additional free signup required on top of PSN and it’s case sensitive… Anyway once set up it’s easy, you can set up your own guild or join a friend’s or some random person and take part in quests. You can build up your guild from a grassy area with a couple of equipment vending stalls to a small town which may appeal to some. I’m more interested in wailing on trolls but I appreciate it is there and did waste an hour or so building up a little village just because it was there. By building up to a town, you also gain the ability to just mine/farm items required for mixing into new items which if you were going for those trophies would be invaluable. The quests are up to 4 player and while some can be solo’d, you’d need to be a much higher level to try.

Story

I enjoyed the story but minor spoiler hated the Bowseriffic rescue efforts throughout the early goings on but it improves as you get further in to the game. The story wants to be epic but doesn’t pull it off in the same way FFXIII does. I wouldn’t be suprised if this was intended as being a trilogy and that this is just the first part. In fact by the time you get to end game, things were just getting really good and it is set up nicely for a sequel which has already been announced and I would readily recommend that based on this game.

Overall

White Knight Chronicles is a highly enjoyable action rpg, or is it an mmo? it kind of blurs the lines. The graphics and story are good, but like pretty much everything bar God of War 3 and Uncharted 2 get blown away by FFXIII.  If this had come out a few months earlier it would have had a much better chance of making a big impact. Same applies to Yakuza 3 which I have brought and remains virtually unplayed because Sega decided to bury it by releasing an rpg the same week as a new FF… STUPID.

Back to WKC and given the lack of competition for online multiplayer console rpg/mmo games, I hope it will find its own place amongst gamers as I enjoyed my time with it and I hope to get back to it at some point as the single player story mode is only part of the many things to do in it.

The only thing I can say is that this is the year for games with stories and rpg elements, FFXIII and Dragon Age Origins Awakenings, more Valkyria Chronicles DLC and even Yakuza 3. My free time has never been more keenly contested.

Anyway, the first thing about Dragon age: Origins is the choices available. You have the usual choice between 3 races, humans, elves and Dwarves and 3 classes, Warriors, Rogues and Mages (unless you’re a Dwarf) and there’s plenty of customization to be done once you pick.

Initially you play through one of 6 different origins stories depending on your race and class.  From here on the real choices that affect the whole Dragon Age world begin.

Tough Choices

Throughout the game you are presented with a number of choices which will determine your allegience to one party at the expense of another and a whole bunch of seemingly low importance side quests that appear to have little impact, many of which do have little impact but some of which you just won’t appreciate until you finish game, and it tells you what happened to the dwarf who asked for your help. Over the course of the game, a King dies and you will have a big say in who the new monarch is. Play your cards right and it could even be you as King or Queen but again, that depends on if you’re eligable – race,class and background and choices made.

Combat

Combat in Dragon Age Origins runs in realtime, but depending on your style of fighting it may seem a straight forward slugging contest, especially if it is a fight between warriors but it is quite possible to run around as a rogue and stab people in the back. You can bring up a menu and pause the action and assign each of your squad members a target and action. It’s not until you play another game that doesn’t give you a chance to pause that you realise how awesome that is (White Knight Chronicles I’m looking at you!).

The difficulty is well adjusted. Normal provides an enjoyable challenge without really causing any times where you’ll hit a point and go I can’t do this. The difficulty can be changed at any time and the console versions don’t differentiate between difficulty when handing out achievements/trophies. Easy is just that, easy. A useful way to burn through the game if you are more interested in the story but you may feel a little unsatisfied. You won’t be up against as powerful foes and things like potions will rarely be needed as opposed to vital. It is much faster though as you won’t need to pause the action to dish orders as enemies will fall sooner.

Hard and above introduce you to friendly fire, the number of times I’ve been hit in the back because I gave the ai mage access to the biggest spells in the game is a lot but in fairness much of the time it was following orders – if a group were attacking the healer, burn them all. Of course that was me being cheap and abusing friendly fire not being on. On higher difficulties I’m sure you order them around more or don’t give the AI orders to use the big spells and then you manually switch to the mage and use them yourself when the time is right.

Allies

Building up your allies to fight the Darkspawn invasion is the main aim of most of the game, these allies will be useful fodder/footsoldiers in the final fight and along the way you recruit members for your party (or not in some cases depending on your choices). Even once you recruit members, you have choices in how you deal with them which can result in them hating your guts to ultimately challenging you or at the other end of the spectrum, getting romantically involved. Allies perform better if they like you and cheap gifts only go so far, you may end up going off on side quests for them or coming to a decision and thinking twice about if you really want to do that because you know that they are going to go mental over slaughtering innocents (of course a couple are the opposite and rage at you for going out of your way to help people).

Sidequests

On the subject of sidequests there are many, many of which offer little reward other than a token reward but a clean concience. Others provide more substancial rewards in XP, gold or loot. And there is a lot of loot to be had in this game. Some people may get annoyed that they can’t carry it all and at times even if you buy every backpack you can, you will still end up passing over some although as you get further through, you don’t need to worry as much about looting as your gold rewards get bigger and some of the loot gets far more valuable than others so that you can dispose of without real fear of needing that 5 silver seeing how that helm was 3 gold. If you gotta get them all then if you buy the Warden’s Peak DLC you can store items you won’t need for a while there once you have completed it. The DLC has also some nice equipment and is a good buy.

DLC

On the subject of DLC, it’s been confirmed they will be providing DLC for 2 years! From what they have done so far, it integrates well. The Golem Shale is well worth getting and not just for his brilliant rants about birds (spend years as a statue outdoors and you’d probably feel the same), anyway he is awesome. There is a big expansion pack scheduled for March but apparently DLC doesn’t work with that, I’ll post an update once it’s out but even if that’s the case, with new NPCs, equipment and areas I expect it will turn out to be worth it, if there’s one thing I can say is that more Dragon Age is always a good thing.

So with so much more DLC to come, the potential for certain choices to affect things could be somewhat daunting but there’s no use guessing what will come. If all else fails and you don’t like how a choice ended up comes the end of the game or when a new DLC is released then you can always play through again, and you won’t mind either. I’ve been through three times and found new things each time. Using different team members at different times can give different choices and dialogues and can make fights far easier or difficult. There are still endings I haven’t seen and ideas for characters I’d like to try out.

Which Version?

If you are in the slightest bit interested in RPGs, you have to get this. Then you may have the choice of what to get it on. Well the 360 loads faster than the PS3 and the PS3 is behind on DLC because of the Sony testing program or Bioware being lame depending on who you listen to. On the flip side, the PS3 looks a bit better than 360 and is less likely to die from being on for long hours. Nikobe’s 360 started dying during DAO and my 360 started dying from Mass Effect 2 so if possible you should probably go with the PC, its better than both and has tools to let you do all sorts of modding. For the record I got the Collectors Edition on PS3. The bonus DVD wasn’t great to be honest but it had a code for more Dragon Age goodies and an armour for Mass Effect 2 which as it turns out is by far cooler than any of the other armours in the game even if statiscally it isn’t better than the pre-order bonus ones. Yes it is weird unlocking 360 content with a PS3 but well done to EA for getting it to work.

In Summary

Massive replayability with a great storyline and more content coming makes Dragon Age Origins an easy recomendation to anyone with any freetime. Actually it doesn’t matter if your time isn’t free, this is a game that you make time for. While playing you think I’ll just finish this sidequest, which leads to this and another well I’ll do this… before you know it you’ve been playing for hours more than you intended.

Out now is “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”, the latest home release from Dreamworks Sony/Columbia. Their work keeps getting better and better, the last film (Monsters vs Aliens) is probably the best they have done. But there very best just does not compare to the standard set. Gaff-tastic: My fault! I even laughed out loud when they showed the classic Columbia title screen that has brought me so much joy over the years, should have remembered that.

Cloudy is a great film, we all laughed out loud at various bits. The voice acting is top notch, the story is a lot of fun, the animation is excellent. But somehow its missing something…

Characters are king

Dreamworks Everyone is very slowly learning what it is that makes Pixar the masters when it comes to animation. It is nothing to do with the technology used or how spectacular you make it look, it is all about the characters. You have to feel connected with them, then the audience will go anywhere you want them to go.

The first thing that struck me about the film are the actors they have managed to get to voice these characters. Casting Mr T is pure genius, he is a stand out character that is a lot of fun to watch, without having to reference “The A-Team”. I would love to see a film with just him. But the rest of the cast are just as good, and the addition of Bruce Campbell rounds it all out nicely.

Designed by test screening

The story is a little goofy, but you are willing to suspend your disbelief because it is just so much fun. Any story where it rains steaks is not going to be a serious drama, but there are some odd moments. You will be watching, laughing along quiet nicely and just enjoying the ride, then something just stupid happens and snaps you back to the idea they designed this film with test screenings and 10 year olds in mind.

I will give you an example. You are watching the two main characters having their heart to heart, it is all going well when the phone rings to break the moment. Classic story fare, nothing wrong with that. The guy, uncomfortable, says he has to answer it and breaks away… and walks straight out of a window. What? Why, just because there has not been a laugh for a minute and the test screening said the 10 year olds where getting bored. There is nothing wrong with doing stupid things, but there has to be a good reason for them otherwise you are just playing with the audience and that is no fun for the adults who are enjoying it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love abstract humour and this film has it in spades. Just these little jolts were a shame.

Conclusion

This is a great film, lots of fun for the whole family. Is it worth buying? Probably, it is worth seeing. There are some excellent scenes, and you will laugh a lot. By that measure alone it is great. But it does feel hollow, where as Pixar film will leave you with something to think about, this will leave you with nothing. There is nothing wrong with that, it is just a shame.

Get it, see it, enjoy it, and tide yourself over until “Up” is released next week.

The day of the Triffids makes its return

Some time ago I wrote about one of my favourite Sci-Fi TV Series “Day of the Triffids“. Made in 1981, much like “Blakes 7” it is a little known British gem of a show that never really seemed to get the regard it should have got. Over Christmas the BBC have finally shown the new version. With some excellent actors, and a more grown up feel it is an excellent addition to the growing catalogue of remakes of this classic story.

I have to confess I have not read the book, and now I am starting to think I should. Every remake of this story has something new, while the core story still remains as chilling as ever.

What’s new?

Once you have remade the same story a few times can you really bring something new to it this time round? Simply put yes! I personally find this a very strong story. It probably appeals to my love of zombie films. You have a very simple enemy, who is slow moving, unintelligent foes who can do very little. But their power is in their unrelenting progress . With no fear and lack of respect for the human race you have an unstoppable enemy that create a very tense and claustrophobic atmosphere.

This version is very much like the older series. The stories are surprisingly close, but I much preferred this version explanation of the event that blinds the majority of the population. I also enjoyed the more detailed look at the triffid farming and the explanation of why the male and female plants are kept separated.

Which do you prefer?

If I am honest I prefer the 1981 version. Not because I think it is a better telling of the story, but just because they had more time to go into the ideas. While the initial story is very straight forward, the stories that evolve from it are far more interesting. While the new version touched on these emerging stories, and even created a new one with the nuns sacrificing their useless residents. It never had the time to really explore any of these.

There is a whole six part series just in the idea of a safe haven the where the Triffids show no interest in attacking. Once you know the secret it makes perfect sense and that reveal could have been much more dramatic and thought provoking. Is it so wrong to sacrifice a dying old man to save a fifty more? Where do you draw the line? What if you could save a thousand for someone who would die anyway, or was no longer interested in helping the whole? This is actually something I miss from Dr Who.

British Sci-Fi Rant

You have to love David Tennant as the doctor, in fact you have to love the doctor in general, it is an amazingly clever and simple idea for a show. It exemplifies something I love about British Sci-Fi and Horror in general. In US shows you know the core people are safe. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are safe, they are definitely coming back. McGyver will get into a tough spot, but he will find away out of it (even if you do steal the whole ending to “The Italian Job”.. you bastard!).

But British work is not so simple (at least it never used to be.. but that’s a different story). You are totally entitled to kill your main hero and all his friends if you like. You can never be sure who is safe. “Blakes 7” has to be the epitome of that, your main hero doesn’t even appear in the last two series to the point you are sure he is dead. Only to have him pop up right at the end, only to be killed by his friend Avon (you Bastard!). If this is a spoiler to you… grow up! You should already know this stuff, there is no excuse, it was made in 1981 for god sake!

Dr Who is the pinnacle of that idea, you have a character that you can kill off at any point. There is no guarantee he will be about to help. Yes you know he can come back, but each iteration is a little different so you do lose one character and gain another.

This was the feel I got from the the old Triffid series, any one of them could go at any point. That unpredictability makes the show watch-able. With no clear villan you are never really sure who you should looking out for. Yes the acting is not the greatest, but I love that. Dr Who would be nothing without Tom Baker hamming it up for all he’s worth.

Failing

So this was the failing I felt in the show, Torrance was just there you make you dislike him, he didn’t serve much purpose apart from that. So there was no really need to spend as much time as they did on him.

Because of all the time lost to making you hate him, we lost a lot to Triffid time. Towards the end they talk about the Triffids using the sewers and over running the city. But we didn’t get to see any of that, and that was a real shame. It would have given a chance for Izzard to really make you dislike Torrance as he sacrificed his own men so he could make his escape.

Again this is something I miss from current Sci-Fi, Dr Who is the biggest culprit of this. It used to be that a single story would take six episodes to play out. It would start of all nice with some strange happenings, until the really weird stuff would come out, then the doctor would step in and save the day. Fairly standard stuff, but at least there was time to play with the ideas and come up with something with a little meaning. Admittedly not all the stories deserved all this attention but some of the classics are better for it. This is where I think Triffids could have done with being a few episodes longer. Rather than being a film cut in half they should have gone for more shorter episodes. But that is just my personal opinion.

My conclusion

This new version was excellent, the visuals were good, and the acting was excellent. But something was lost. There was too much time spent on the run, and not enough time to see the tragedy unfold. It is worth seeing, and I especially liked the new design for the Triffids.

Check out some other peoples thoughts on the new show:

• Den of Geek – A great in depth look. Points out some things I had not even considered.
• Dan’s Media Digest – Also talks about the rushed nature of the new series. But overall a good show.
• BCS – I think this sums up my thoughts.. it was good, but doesn’t quiet hit the mark.

All of these things should make this the best games? Until two weeks ago you were right and I was ready to fight to preserve it as the best game I played all year. But all that has changed. While it is still the high point for me in terms of stealth/action/super hero games there is now one game that does all of that, but only much better.

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

This is how the game starts, and doesn't let up

I had seen (but not played) the original, and played a little of this one before I managed to get my hands on it. Both of the other two BGR’ers have been telling me for some time it is their favourite game, I was not convinced.

My initial reaction to this game was that it was OK, but nothing special. Right at the start while I thought it looked nice, I wasn’t getting on the the controls very well. But once I had got over that slight problem this game opened up to me and showed me what a true cinematic experience a game can be.

The Setup

You are following the fortunes of Drake. You start in the middle of incredibly well done train wreck and through the course of getting out of it you are taught the basic controls. From there the story goes on to explain you are on the hunt for Marco Polo’s lost treasure.

This games really does play out like an Indiana Jones story with travelling all over the globe looking for the clues that Marco Polo has left behind. On the way you are shown some of the most amazing scenes I have seen in computer game. But the thing that really got to me was not the stunning detail but the grandeur of set pieces.

But the best part is the game expects you to explore all the aspects of these huge scenes. They are not just window dressing, they are integral parts of the story with secrets for you to find and cinematic cut scenes which flow seamlessly into the game to let you explore them even better.

The actual story is so well done I would actually love to go and see it at the cinema, it puts Indiana Jones to shame. I especially enjoyed the various subtle touches and comedy that are woven perfectly into the story that really will have you laughing with the character and thinking “Oh crap!” just as they say it on screen.

Quality production

The quality of the voice acting in this game is second to none, I didn’t think Batman could be beaten but I could not have been more wrong. All of the characters are voiced perfectly, and I genuinely enjoyed listening to everything they had to say. Even the little pieces of in game dialogue were fun and I didn’t notice any glitch moments where it repeats the same phrase.

The most fun part of the game beside the great story are the excellent fighting mechanics. Running and gunning actually works perfectly, and I have found the most fun thing to do is to run up to your target shooting then beat the living crap out of them. This is especially fun because of the huge number of fighting animations that makes them a joy to watch.

Stealth can also be a big part of this game if you want it to be. You sneak about in most places and take out the guards silently. The actual stealthing mechanic is perhaps not as fluid as it could be, but again once you are used to the way it work you will not have any problems.

Extras

Beside the fact that I am going to play this game through again at least once there are all sorts of extras included for you. There is actually a very fun multi-player mode where you can play the normal array of game modes like death match and king of the hill. But they have also included some behind the scenes videos and various art galleries.

Conclusion

This is a must own game. I played the entire game through in 10 hours, and I was actually disappointed when it finished, I could have happily played it for twice that long. But its the tight story that keeps the game fun to play, so I guess I will just have to wait till Uncharted 3 comes out.

Accompanying the awesomeness of being one of the first super robot shows I saw, it was given a soundtrack comprised of covers of then contemporary music. To this day I still hear the voices of Kathy and Jason as they shoot robotic skeleton warriors whenever I hear “Hit me with your best shot”. Other 80s songs covered included Beat It, The Reflex, Electric Avenue and more.

Click to view Macron 1 European Intro

A Bit of History

At this point I will admit that Goshogun isn’t particularly well loved in Japan but they had had Mazinger Z and countless other super robot shows. Us UK cable TV viewers had Transformers, Voltron, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Macron-1 and Robotech and I’m not sure that some of those weren’t after Macron-1 (my memory sucked when I was 7 too).  Anyway, I loved and still love robot shows and being one of so few I saw in my highly impressionable youth definitely helped make this all the more memorable.

The Cool

Feel the Power!

Macron-1 had some nice bits of editting, where you’d see the action split screen for each fighter jet and with some other little bits that at the time weren’t used in other series and gave the show a fresh look that coupled with the background music helped the show stand out from Voltron and Transformers. Robots aside, the main pilots Kathy, Scott & Jason have some great interactions and the customary kid Nathan isn’t the worst kid in a robot series by a long way.

The english dub is actually very good but your milage will vary on the translation depending on if you see the US or European versions of the show, more on that later…

Unavailable Everywhere, and Different Too

One of the few things I can state that I would definitely do if I could go back in time would be to video tape and protect the tapes of this show with my life. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.  Macron-1 had a couple of VHS tapes released in the UK which I managed to snap up over the years. I also managed to track down a few tapes from America only to find out that replacing the music and changing the names of everyone and everything was barely touching it compared to the brutal butchering Goshogun received Stateside.

Goshogun Butchered

Remembering this was before Wikipedia (dark ages indeed), imagine my shock when I watched the first of my US tapes, happy that I was finally getting more Macron-1 only to find that midway through, they cut to scenes from another anime altogether! Parallel Universe it seems… I have nothing against Akū Daisakusen Srungle but it had no right being inserted into Macron-1. As such I am supremely sorry for all Americans that had to sit through this version of the show.  It doesn’t make sense and is sadly the likely reason why it isn’t well remembered Stateside and isn’t available on DVD.  The bad news continues as the show isn’t loved enough to be fansubbed and the rights for it have no doubt expired decades ago.

While he is certainly not revered in Japan to the extent of my love for him, MacStar, sorry Goshogun did receive a magnificent die cast figure in the Brave Gokin toy line.   I managed to track him down on a visit to Akiharabara and can only feel sorrow for the poor shop clerk that had to listen to my broken Japanese excitedly shouting Goshogun kudasai and pointing towards a locked glass display cabinet.  The figure was absolutely fitting of my 20+ year wait for a toy of of MacStar-1 and even if you don’t like the anime, the robot is superb and looked glorious going through the metal detectors at Narita airport

The 3 mini jets combine into a robot and also are able to be stored inside Macstar who is a die-cast figure with enough articulation and a great likeness. He comes with all his weapons and is easily one of my favourite 3 toys.

At least I know I am not the only one who thinks this robot is in the top tier of robot toys, check out this review for an in depth look check out
Collectiondx.com

(Some great toys there)

Goshogun : The Time Etranger

There was a movie sequel made but it took everything that was good about the show (badass robot obliterating masses) and umm, ignored it. Well that’s being harsh, it followed on years after the series ended and chose to not ignore the ending of the series or just cheaply bring back Macstar. Instead it was a re-union of the characters. While the lack of super robot in a super robot show is mind blowing, this is actually a good film although it took me a couple of watches to fully appreciate it.

In Closing

Even by standards for the time, Macron 1 has a large amount of animation re-used in battles but that isn’t anywhere near enough to make me not recommend this to anyone who likes their super robot shows.  It’s a fun show with plenty of action and laughs and I did I mention the cool looking super robot?

If anyone comes across a download of the entire series in either the raw Japanese version of Goshogun, or the European version, link me up. If you have the entire series on dodgy DVD, VCD or even VHS let me know. If you have the US version, well I can always fast forward…

For Humans Only

Over the weekend I got the chance to see “District 9” but what I can’t tell you is whether I enjoyed it?

This is technically a very good film, the CG work is outstanding and the plot is good. The film is shot like a documentary at the start, talking about various events like the arrival of the ship 20 years earlier, and how once we eventually got inside they found it filled with aliens. A camp is created, and the aliens are basically left there. Coming back to the present the camp is almost a prison, squalid and over run with crime.

Various groups are exploiting the aliens for their own ends and we are introduced to Wikus, a mostly useless middle manager for the company in charge of looking after the aliens. The style continues as we follow him around the camp doing the dirty work of the corporation.

Thoughts

This is a very good film, I would recommend you go and see it. Did I really enjoy it.. I don’t know, it was not bad. I can see how it could become an important film in this genre. It did manage the most important thing which is to make you think, and discuss what you have seen.

I will see it again, but I don’t feel the need to to go the cinema to do it.