Hello everyone. Sorry for being silent for so long but several projects needed attending to and I didn't exactly had time to talk. But I can't let it pass that one of my predictions for the highly anticipated Final Fantasy VII remake already came to pass.
Remember when I mentioned that Uematsu might not be willing to work on the remake on account of being a tired old man?
Well as it turns out I was right. In a recent interview he flat out said that he has absolutely nothing to do with the remake.
This might sound scary for some as the maestro is truly one of a kind, but I already gave a few examples of possible replacements.
You know what would be nice? If you, dear reader(s) could post a comment of who you want to replace Uematsu as the new composer.
Thanks in advance.
Love you all.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Paris and the attack against democracy
Good evening everyone. This time I will be talking about real life lore.
As you all know last night, on friday the 13th, Paris fell victim to a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. The results are horrifying to say the least.
All our thoughts are with the people of France and we all try to do our best to support them during these tragic times.
However we must not forget who was reponsible and what is at stake here.
ISIS already took full repsonsibility for the attacks. It wasn't the refugees fleeing from Syria who did it. It was the ones the refugees were fleeing from.
Likewise it wasn't an attack by muslims. It was an attack by terrorists, who happened to be muslims.
Barack Obama said that this was an attack against democracy itself.
If that is true the responce must be democracy as well. If we respond with hate, segregation and religious intolerance we play into the hands of the attackers.
If we begin to hunt every muslim as if they were all terrorists we won't be better than those we claim to fight against. And the inevitable chaos it would turn into is their ally. Not ours.
Despite what stereotypes would have us believe the French are pretty strong and tend to keep fighting even when the odds are stacked against them. Fight for your values, people of France! Our eyes are on all of you to look at your example and to support your fight in every way we can.
All our thoughts are with the people of France and we all try to do our best to support them during these tragic times.
However we must not forget who was reponsible and what is at stake here.
ISIS already took full repsonsibility for the attacks. It wasn't the refugees fleeing from Syria who did it. It was the ones the refugees were fleeing from.
Likewise it wasn't an attack by muslims. It was an attack by terrorists, who happened to be muslims.
Barack Obama said that this was an attack against democracy itself.
If that is true the responce must be democracy as well. If we respond with hate, segregation and religious intolerance we play into the hands of the attackers.
If we begin to hunt every muslim as if they were all terrorists we won't be better than those we claim to fight against. And the inevitable chaos it would turn into is their ally. Not ours.
Despite what stereotypes would have us believe the French are pretty strong and tend to keep fighting even when the odds are stacked against them. Fight for your values, people of France! Our eyes are on all of you to look at your example and to support your fight in every way we can.
Monday, November 9, 2015
BlizzCon - part 2
So we already covered World of Warcraft and Diablo III. But BlizzCon had so much more to offer. And this is when the real vrow eating has to begin on my part.
For starters StarCraft II didn't end, The main campaign might be over with Legacy of the Void but the story will continue with character focused DLC campaigns. The first of these is Nova covert ops,
which is basically StarCraft: Ghost with a different camera angle. We happy, Vincent?
Heroes of the Storm meanwhile got a new map, a new game mode aaaand four new heroes. A Driad, Genn Greymane king of werewolves and everyones favorite doomsday cultist and team rocket fan: Cho'Gall. Funny thing about Cho'Gall is that he will be controlled by two players. It will either be loads of fun or a complete disaster.
And the fourth hero? Tracer. The cheerful time traveling girl from Overwatch whose backside reached memetic status impressively quickly even by time traveler standards.
And it is at this point that I would like to mention another thing that Blizzard is a master of along with ways to make a fortune out of free to play games. And that is cross promotion. Before we discuss anything else regarding Overwatch's reveals, and there was quite a lot revealed for a game already in a beta phase, we should talk about Overwatch Origins edition. As it turns out Overwatch won't be free to play. Honestly this surprised me, but that is beside the point now. There will be a normal version and a slightly more expensive Origins edition. This version will come with a few exclusive character skins that give us a glimpse of a select few soldier's origins, hence the name. But that is not all. The pack will also contain in game goodies for every other Blizzard game. Yes, every single one. Well every current one. HotS will get Tracer, StarCraft II will get portraits, Diablo III will get cosmetic wings, WoW players will get a pet, aaand Hearthstone will get a new cardback. More on Hearthstone later.
Going back to Overwatch: we got three new heroes. Wohooo. Two of them are girls. Double yaay. The two girls are chinese and korean while the one guy is japanese. Triple yaaaay. Oh yes, they are a geologist, a professional StarCraft player riding a mecha and a robot ninja respectively. Crazy awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Oh, we also got a new map for good measure.
And there is Hearthstone. Remember how I said that it received a new expansion not long ago so there is no chance something comes here. Well, dang. Not only will we get a new expansion this week, but it will be the biggest one yet. So far we either got new adventure modes with a few new cards, or new card packs with one or two new mechanics introduced. League of Explorers will combine the two. Unfortunately I am two wings behind on Blackrock Mountain. The massive RNG factor is a big turnoff so I am always short on gold. Oh well, the Realm Reborn servers are down for pre-patch maintenance.
Last but not least there is the movie. Warcraft: The Beginning. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but the movie doesn't do it for me yet. Sure it looks good, but I don't know how well the retcons will fit. In this version Anduin Lothat hooks up with Garona and joins forces with Durotan, Draka, and maybe Orgim Doomhammer against the evil Gul'dan and Medivh to settle the war peacefully and grant the orcs their permanent land on Azeroth.
The canon ending is this: Khadgar is cursed, Garona kills King Llane, Stomwind is burned to the ground with only Lothar and young Varian making it out alive, Gul'dan survives but falls into coma when Medivh dies, Durotan and Draka dies, Orgim kills Blackhand for being a week minded puppet of Gul'dan, assumes leadership of the Horde and continues his conquest to kill all humans and conquer everything.
So either the end will involve lots and lots of crying or the movie will completely change the established canon at the risk of not being able to adapt Warcraft II, III and everything that follows.
Yikes.
All in all it was a pretty good BlizzCon. In fact it was probably one of the best,
For starters StarCraft II didn't end, The main campaign might be over with Legacy of the Void but the story will continue with character focused DLC campaigns. The first of these is Nova covert ops,
which is basically StarCraft: Ghost with a different camera angle. We happy, Vincent?
Heroes of the Storm meanwhile got a new map, a new game mode aaaand four new heroes. A Driad, Genn Greymane king of werewolves and everyones favorite doomsday cultist and team rocket fan: Cho'Gall. Funny thing about Cho'Gall is that he will be controlled by two players. It will either be loads of fun or a complete disaster.
And the fourth hero? Tracer. The cheerful time traveling girl from Overwatch whose backside reached memetic status impressively quickly even by time traveler standards.
And it is at this point that I would like to mention another thing that Blizzard is a master of along with ways to make a fortune out of free to play games. And that is cross promotion. Before we discuss anything else regarding Overwatch's reveals, and there was quite a lot revealed for a game already in a beta phase, we should talk about Overwatch Origins edition. As it turns out Overwatch won't be free to play. Honestly this surprised me, but that is beside the point now. There will be a normal version and a slightly more expensive Origins edition. This version will come with a few exclusive character skins that give us a glimpse of a select few soldier's origins, hence the name. But that is not all. The pack will also contain in game goodies for every other Blizzard game. Yes, every single one. Well every current one. HotS will get Tracer, StarCraft II will get portraits, Diablo III will get cosmetic wings, WoW players will get a pet, aaand Hearthstone will get a new cardback. More on Hearthstone later.
Going back to Overwatch: we got three new heroes. Wohooo. Two of them are girls. Double yaay. The two girls are chinese and korean while the one guy is japanese. Triple yaaaay. Oh yes, they are a geologist, a professional StarCraft player riding a mecha and a robot ninja respectively. Crazy awesome doesn't even begin to describe it. Oh, we also got a new map for good measure.
And there is Hearthstone. Remember how I said that it received a new expansion not long ago so there is no chance something comes here. Well, dang. Not only will we get a new expansion this week, but it will be the biggest one yet. So far we either got new adventure modes with a few new cards, or new card packs with one or two new mechanics introduced. League of Explorers will combine the two. Unfortunately I am two wings behind on Blackrock Mountain. The massive RNG factor is a big turnoff so I am always short on gold. Oh well, the Realm Reborn servers are down for pre-patch maintenance.
Last but not least there is the movie. Warcraft: The Beginning. I don't want to be a spoilsport, but the movie doesn't do it for me yet. Sure it looks good, but I don't know how well the retcons will fit. In this version Anduin Lothat hooks up with Garona and joins forces with Durotan, Draka, and maybe Orgim Doomhammer against the evil Gul'dan and Medivh to settle the war peacefully and grant the orcs their permanent land on Azeroth.
The canon ending is this: Khadgar is cursed, Garona kills King Llane, Stomwind is burned to the ground with only Lothar and young Varian making it out alive, Gul'dan survives but falls into coma when Medivh dies, Durotan and Draka dies, Orgim kills Blackhand for being a week minded puppet of Gul'dan, assumes leadership of the Horde and continues his conquest to kill all humans and conquer everything.
So either the end will involve lots and lots of crying or the movie will completely change the established canon at the risk of not being able to adapt Warcraft II, III and everything that follows.
Yikes.
All in all it was a pretty good BlizzCon. In fact it was probably one of the best,
Sunday, November 8, 2015
BlizzCon - part 1
Well looks like I have an obligation to eat some crow now. Blizzard gave us lots of things to talk about that aren't related to Diablo III.
Moreover, we didn't get an expansion reveal. Granted, patch 2.4 will still arrive with a massive ammount of stuff.
Sadly none of them are Xiansai or Alien related. Unless of course Leoric is hiding a small green guy in his manor.
One new zone, two new areas, new rift types, set dungeons, UI reworks and so much more. This patch might be big enough to be called a patch by Square Enix.
Speaking of Diablo III it looks likeWorld of Warcraft is looking at D3 for ideas. If nothing gets cut along the way, a common fear of WoW players, Legion will include Diablo's random world drop legendaries, transmog log, bounties and even nephalem rifts. Sort of. Diablo III is a bit of a black sheep now as it is the only recent Blizzard game that can't really work as an e-sport, but it may have found a new calling as the R&D division for World of Warcraft.
Wether all of this will be enough to save WoW is a different matter. It largely depends on the number of announced features making it into the game. So far I personally am very impressed. The number of unfamiliar artifacts could use an adjustment. The most recent census revealed that warrior is the most played class. Despite this, all three of the artifacts are new additions to the lore. Gorehowl would have been a natural choice, Speaking of orcish weapons, there is a slight problem with the Doomhammer as well.
For reasons unkown Thrall will give enhancement shamans (shamen?) the Doomhammer. Of course cement shamans dual wield they will use a magically created Doomhammer replica in the off hand.
But why? Alternate Universe Draenor has another Doomhammer. And since Orgrim Doomhammer is dead he won't be needing it anymore. Why not dual wield two actual doomhammers? Too epic? No such thing as too epic.
Moreover, we didn't get an expansion reveal. Granted, patch 2.4 will still arrive with a massive ammount of stuff.
Sadly none of them are Xiansai or Alien related. Unless of course Leoric is hiding a small green guy in his manor.
One new zone, two new areas, new rift types, set dungeons, UI reworks and so much more. This patch might be big enough to be called a patch by Square Enix.
Speaking of Diablo III it looks likeWorld of Warcraft is looking at D3 for ideas. If nothing gets cut along the way, a common fear of WoW players, Legion will include Diablo's random world drop legendaries, transmog log, bounties and even nephalem rifts. Sort of. Diablo III is a bit of a black sheep now as it is the only recent Blizzard game that can't really work as an e-sport, but it may have found a new calling as the R&D division for World of Warcraft.
Wether all of this will be enough to save WoW is a different matter. It largely depends on the number of announced features making it into the game. So far I personally am very impressed. The number of unfamiliar artifacts could use an adjustment. The most recent census revealed that warrior is the most played class. Despite this, all three of the artifacts are new additions to the lore. Gorehowl would have been a natural choice, Speaking of orcish weapons, there is a slight problem with the Doomhammer as well.
For reasons unkown Thrall will give enhancement shamans (shamen?) the Doomhammer. Of course cement shamans dual wield they will use a magically created Doomhammer replica in the off hand.
But why? Alternate Universe Draenor has another Doomhammer. And since Orgrim Doomhammer is dead he won't be needing it anymore. Why not dual wield two actual doomhammers? Too epic? No such thing as too epic.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Geek day
Hey folks. Remember what I said about not posting till Blizzcon?
I lied.
Well Blizzcon is a little over two hours away, but still. This day is going to be legendary in geek circles. All the stuff to talk about.
Yesterday it was announced that a Witcher movie is set for 2017. Wohooooo. Who can I play?
We also got the official synopsis for Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. It will indeed be set excluisively in new york. Mehhh
Today we are of course waiting for BlizzCon. The Warcraft movie trailer will debut and we will also get lots of new info on World of Warcraft: Legion.
But I feal I must stress that the juicy stuff will come from the deceptively short Diablo panel. There is no BlizzCon without a big reveal. Overwatch beta is underway, the movie is common knowledge, Star Craft II is near its end, Hearthstone got a new expansion recently, there is nothing major to do with Heroes of the Storm, and the next wow expansion was revealed at gamescom. Diablo is the only answer.
But before that we can still read the preliminary patch notes for As Goes Light so goes Darkness, the 3.1 patch of Final Fantasy XIV, and watch and rewatch the new japanese trailer for The Force Awakens.
The former reveals all the miriads of stuff we will get to play next tuesday. While we get fewer main scenario quests and trials compared to what has been the norm 3.1 still has more playable content than what other MMOs offer, and a generous ammount of quality of life changes are also included in the package. Once the final patch notes are here and I have put some playtime in it I will provide a more detailed description.
The latter gives us several never before seen scenes and lines of dialogue. Daisy Ridley shows us that John Boyega is not the only one who can do a superb 'oh crap' face. We also hear the latest version of BB-8's voice, along with the ever popular wilhelm scream when chewie blows some bad guys up.
Every fandom gets something
This is a good day to be a geek.
I lied.
Well Blizzcon is a little over two hours away, but still. This day is going to be legendary in geek circles. All the stuff to talk about.
Yesterday it was announced that a Witcher movie is set for 2017. Wohooooo. Who can I play?
We also got the official synopsis for Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. It will indeed be set excluisively in new york. Mehhh
Today we are of course waiting for BlizzCon. The Warcraft movie trailer will debut and we will also get lots of new info on World of Warcraft: Legion.
But I feal I must stress that the juicy stuff will come from the deceptively short Diablo panel. There is no BlizzCon without a big reveal. Overwatch beta is underway, the movie is common knowledge, Star Craft II is near its end, Hearthstone got a new expansion recently, there is nothing major to do with Heroes of the Storm, and the next wow expansion was revealed at gamescom. Diablo is the only answer.
But before that we can still read the preliminary patch notes for As Goes Light so goes Darkness, the 3.1 patch of Final Fantasy XIV, and watch and rewatch the new japanese trailer for The Force Awakens.
The former reveals all the miriads of stuff we will get to play next tuesday. While we get fewer main scenario quests and trials compared to what has been the norm 3.1 still has more playable content than what other MMOs offer, and a generous ammount of quality of life changes are also included in the package. Once the final patch notes are here and I have put some playtime in it I will provide a more detailed description.
The latter gives us several never before seen scenes and lines of dialogue. Daisy Ridley shows us that John Boyega is not the only one who can do a superb 'oh crap' face. We also hear the latest version of BB-8's voice, along with the ever popular wilhelm scream when chewie blows some bad guys up.
Every fandom gets something
This is a good day to be a geek.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Alien is the new black
Hello everyone!
This is going to be my last blog before BlizzCon. It is not exactly related, but it might tie in to it somewhat, as the topic is a trend that can be observed
I don't think I will get a nobel prize for pointing out that pop culture always had a favorite creature that gets most of the attention. This is pretty much common knowledge. This became apparent when vampires began monopolizing books, movies and video games. Inevitably the ammount of vampires, especially the sparkly ones, got too much and people began to get bored of them. Nowadays I am in the minority for still being interested in vampires.
When the general consensus became: bloodsuckers suck, the public turned towards another icon. Zombies. We had White Walkers and Walking Dead. Zombie's got their own land and even their own World War. They also found their own arch nemesises in the forms of plants. Unfortunately being an uninteligent slow moving corpse limits your possibilities, so zombies soon became old news. Of course they still get their regular game mode in call of duty releases, but call of duty is a swear word in civilized company.
So who next? For a time it looked like ghosts would take the stage. A new ghost busters movie is in development, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will feature an evil ghost as a main antagonist, the latest Lego Ninjago season was against a ghost and Kung Fu Panda 3 was intended to have a ghost bad guy back when Mads Mikkelsen was still attached to the project.
But their place was taken by aliens. Our little green (and sometimes grey) friends began their gradual crawl towards the top with the release of Grand Theft Auto V and the beginning of the still unsolved Chiliad Mistery.
Well that's not much......
And next week we will see the release of Final Fantasy XIV patch 3.1 with a very UFO looking location: The Void Ark. Hey, does FFVII have aliens? Yep. For starters, Jenova is one. And technically so is Shinra.
And of course Fallout 4 which might have aliens in it (the last two games had). Team Fortress 2 also received some alien stuff with its latest update. Overwatch also has hints of beings that "came from beyond the moon". Speaking of Blizzard, the final installment of the StarCraft 2 trilogy will come on November 10. Also Blizzcon will give details about the warcraft movie (aliens use a dimensional portal to invade humans) and of course the latest WoW expansion, Legion which is about how orcs, draenei (both aliens) use artifacts left behind by the Titans (also aliens) to defeat the invading forces of the Burning Legion (all of them aliens). Makes you wonder wether we will get to explore a crashed alien ship in Diablo 3. Would be a nice adventure mode dungeon if we dont get an expansion after all.
But that's just vid....
Oh and there is a movie comming out called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Might have heared of it. After that disney will make another five star wars movies. Totally unrelated to the recent SWTOR expansion though. Well maybe. Star Trek also gets another movie next year.
Yeah but...
Along with a new TV series. Oh and X-files also returns to TV as a mini series. Next year we will also get our hands on Deus Ex Mankind Divided, which might have grey aliens, and Mass Effect Andromeda, which definitely will. Don't know if it counts, but Dragon Ball Super, one of the surprise anime releases of 2015, will end its run on November 8. And next year will also give us the long awaited movie about Bruce Wayne fighting a destructive alien messiah wannabe.
I'd call this more than enough. All we need now is NASA giving us a news and we can accept our new alien overlords. After that? Well let's ask Kanye West:
Tell me what's next? Alien sex.
hmmmmmmm
This is going to be my last blog before BlizzCon. It is not exactly related, but it might tie in to it somewhat, as the topic is a trend that can be observed
I don't think I will get a nobel prize for pointing out that pop culture always had a favorite creature that gets most of the attention. This is pretty much common knowledge. This became apparent when vampires began monopolizing books, movies and video games. Inevitably the ammount of vampires, especially the sparkly ones, got too much and people began to get bored of them. Nowadays I am in the minority for still being interested in vampires.
When the general consensus became: bloodsuckers suck, the public turned towards another icon. Zombies. We had White Walkers and Walking Dead. Zombie's got their own land and even their own World War. They also found their own arch nemesises in the forms of plants. Unfortunately being an uninteligent slow moving corpse limits your possibilities, so zombies soon became old news. Of course they still get their regular game mode in call of duty releases, but call of duty is a swear word in civilized company.
So who next? For a time it looked like ghosts would take the stage. A new ghost busters movie is in development, Pirates of the Caribbean 5 will feature an evil ghost as a main antagonist, the latest Lego Ninjago season was against a ghost and Kung Fu Panda 3 was intended to have a ghost bad guy back when Mads Mikkelsen was still attached to the project.
But their place was taken by aliens. Our little green (and sometimes grey) friends began their gradual crawl towards the top with the release of Grand Theft Auto V and the beginning of the still unsolved Chiliad Mistery.
Well that's not much......
And next week we will see the release of Final Fantasy XIV patch 3.1 with a very UFO looking location: The Void Ark. Hey, does FFVII have aliens? Yep. For starters, Jenova is one. And technically so is Shinra.
And of course Fallout 4 which might have aliens in it (the last two games had). Team Fortress 2 also received some alien stuff with its latest update. Overwatch also has hints of beings that "came from beyond the moon". Speaking of Blizzard, the final installment of the StarCraft 2 trilogy will come on November 10. Also Blizzcon will give details about the warcraft movie (aliens use a dimensional portal to invade humans) and of course the latest WoW expansion, Legion which is about how orcs, draenei (both aliens) use artifacts left behind by the Titans (also aliens) to defeat the invading forces of the Burning Legion (all of them aliens). Makes you wonder wether we will get to explore a crashed alien ship in Diablo 3. Would be a nice adventure mode dungeon if we dont get an expansion after all.
But that's just vid....
Oh and there is a movie comming out called Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Might have heared of it. After that disney will make another five star wars movies. Totally unrelated to the recent SWTOR expansion though. Well maybe. Star Trek also gets another movie next year.
Yeah but...
Along with a new TV series. Oh and X-files also returns to TV as a mini series. Next year we will also get our hands on Deus Ex Mankind Divided, which might have grey aliens, and Mass Effect Andromeda, which definitely will. Don't know if it counts, but Dragon Ball Super, one of the surprise anime releases of 2015, will end its run on November 8. And next year will also give us the long awaited movie about Bruce Wayne fighting a destructive alien messiah wannabe.
I'd call this more than enough. All we need now is NASA giving us a news and we can accept our new alien overlords. After that? Well let's ask Kanye West:
Tell me what's next? Alien sex.
hmmmmmmm
Fantastic Beasts and where you won't find any
Welcome everyone for another unscheduled blog post.
Photos are finally arriving about the new Harry Potter trilogy: Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. If the name rings a bell it is because FBAWTFT is one of the required books in Hogwarts. The new trilogy will supposedly chronicle Newt Scamander's research that lays the foundation for the book he will be famous for.
Except the movie will be set in New York City. London, Liverpool and a movie studio will be a stand in for 1920s New York.
Now there is some overlap between the habitat of the creatures in Scamander's book, but most of them only set foot on US soil if smugglers bring them there.
The places with more magical beasts than the entire North American Continent are the following: Eastern Europe, Britain, Asia, Africa, and Northern Europe. In fact Northern Europe has almost twice as many magical beasts as the US, Canada and Mexico combined. Oh and none of the creatures are indigenous to North America.
They pretty much picked the worst continent for finding fantastic beasts. And then decided to focus on one city on that continent.
Granted, the movie isn't out yet, and it will be the first installment of a trilogy but based on what we know. This won't be a good Potter movie. Then again, none of David Yates' Potter movies were.
Photos are finally arriving about the new Harry Potter trilogy: Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. If the name rings a bell it is because FBAWTFT is one of the required books in Hogwarts. The new trilogy will supposedly chronicle Newt Scamander's research that lays the foundation for the book he will be famous for.
Except the movie will be set in New York City. London, Liverpool and a movie studio will be a stand in for 1920s New York.
Now there is some overlap between the habitat of the creatures in Scamander's book, but most of them only set foot on US soil if smugglers bring them there.
The places with more magical beasts than the entire North American Continent are the following: Eastern Europe, Britain, Asia, Africa, and Northern Europe. In fact Northern Europe has almost twice as many magical beasts as the US, Canada and Mexico combined. Oh and none of the creatures are indigenous to North America.
They pretty much picked the worst continent for finding fantastic beasts. And then decided to focus on one city on that continent.
Granted, the movie isn't out yet, and it will be the first installment of a trilogy but based on what we know. This won't be a good Potter movie. Then again, none of David Yates' Potter movies were.
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