I must apologize that the posts on toyconstruct have dried up for the past few weeks...graduate school caught up much faster than I expected. I am in the middle of my final exam week, and I will be done with them in a week's time and good to go with more posts! (JQ also got a new job and he's adjusting to the change too)
But I wanted to share something I spotted just the past week. Ever wonder why games nowadays are so generic in feeling? The sense of innovation and originality of today pales greatly in comparison with the past. I hope I'm not the only one, but I feel so much more attached to games in the past...even though the graphics were crap compared to today, I feel that games at that time were more like the games we wanted to play.
Today's game publishers are mostly listed publicly and have shareholders to please. Business-wise, they need to make profits every fiscal year in a very competitive environment that's saturated with others who want to make the gaming buck. Upside to this is increased production values and good variety of games to play...but there's lots of downsides too. Rushed games with tons of bugs, boring mechanics, and sequel-itis are some that come to my mind. Just as an example...Call of Duty used to rock my world and reached its pinnacle with CoD 4, and it became the "Madden of FPS" with yearly releases :/
Unlike most game publishers, Valve has something really good going on. For one, they're known to consistently release blockbusters of games, Portal 1&2, Left 4 Dead, and Half-Life come to mind. So how are they able to that at this age?
Recently, Gamespot found out about Valve's new employee orientation manual. It captures the culture of Valve pretty well. And if you have the time, I highly recommended reading through it.
There's no strict hierarchy of employees, the company has kept itself privately funded, and employees get to decide what they want to work on. And it appears that their corporate culture is very different than that of its competitors, and I feel that they have kept true to their passion of making games...encouraging creativity and camaraderie among its employees. They may not be releasing a ton of games, but at least what they release is quality.
Dang reading the employee manual makes me want to work in Valve!
And the elephant in the room: WHEN IS HALF-LIFE 3 COMING OUT???
Hope you are doing well and JQ has been delivering great stuff onto the blog! The Leopard 2A6 is also one of my favorite tanks of all time, it's power and sheer maneuverability make it a force to be reckoned with.
I am slow on this, but man is HBO's Games of Thrones awesome! I do not have HBO so I have settled for (painfully) waiting for each season to finish and be transcribed onto blu ray/DVD. Right now I am in the middle of season 1, and while there are no spoilers since I read the books...it does remind me of parts that I have forgotten over time. Like those of us who have read the stellar books, I can wait for this season to pass....I hope :P
It's a sure bet that many of us are aware of the trailer for Season 2, and I've just added it and the soundtrack below for our enjoyment. One of the best trailers I have seen in my life.
And for those interested, there's a well-written article from Foreign Affairs that explores the many themes/theories that The Game of Thrones explores, on how it is radically different from the LoTR archetype, and the powerful lessons it holds for its readers, both political and humanistic. Also, there's another erudite article that examines the historical setting of The Game of Thrones and finds that George RR Martin's imagination trumps historicity, which then becomes the ingredient for the compelling narrative of the series (real life medieval Europe was boring apparently, battles lasted roughly 30 minutes long).
Just curious, do you all have houses that you "swear" by? Whenever I read the books, I find myself rooting for House Stark and imaging myself as a part of them...and yet have my dreams shattered by the heaps and mounds crap they go through LOL. There's a fan-made quiz on finding what House fits you, and yes...mine is unsurprisingly House Stark. But I find myself rooting for Tyrion and Daenarys (who is super hot) too.
While the TV series is widely acclaimed, particularly for Peter Dinklage's Tyrion, the same can't be said of the video game side...yet. A Game of Thrones: Genesis was released a few months ago by Cyanide studios to a mixed reception, and it makes me wish how awesome it would be if they went to The Creative Assembly and did a Total War take on GoT (I really hope someone out there is making a mod for it!).
And there's another RPG coming out soon, Game of Thrones - The Game, which again features Cyanide Studios making a RPG set 1000 years before the books. One thing's for sure, George RR Martin is involved in its creative process, and if he's happy with it so far...I guess that should at least be good enough for us. Looks-wise, it may not be a work of art...but I am hoping that its dark storyline will shine.
And just to cap this Game of Thrones post...here's something for laughs:
The Leopard 2A6 is the by-product of modification throughout the many years since the Leopard 2 was first manufactured in 1979.From the sloping armor improvement made after the Leopard 2A4 to the new Rheinmetall 120 mm smoothbore gun L55 improvement made after the Leopard 2A5, the Leopard 2A6 is the current mainstay and latest Leopard 2 tank.
The Leopard 2A6s passing through a town. (Hope you guys like a different type of diorama from the usual plain flat grassland with no buildings.)
Even as the Leopard 1 tank was rolling out, the German Army was already looking for the successor of the Leopard 1 to keep up with newer Soviet designs. They went into a joint venture with the US to develop a new tank through the MBT-70 Super-tank Project. However, due to large overruns in cost, Germany withdrew from the project and started the development of the Leopard 2 to complement its Rhienmetall L44 120mm gun.
Even from just this picture alone, the obvious difference between the Leopard 2A6 and the 2A5 is its way longer gun length.
Aside from its Rheinmetall L55 120mm smoothbore gun (an improvement from the older L44 in Leopard 2A5s), the Leopard 2A6 has 42 rounds comprising of DM-53 APFSDS-T anti-tank round and German DM12 multipurpose anti-tank projectile. Last but not least, Rheinmetall has input an upgrade to Leopard 2 tanks enabling them to fire the LAHAT anti0tank missile through the main gun.
Leopard 2A6s moving in combat formation.
It has a combat weight of approximately 60 tons and can travel in excess of 65km/h forward and 30 km/h backwards. It has a combat range of 550km. The Leopard 2A6 is by far, a great formidable compare to the M1A2. Besides, the MBT-70 project, while a failure, was the grandfather and root of the creation of the M1A2 and Leopard 2A6 tank.
I always take particular liking for taking pics of tanks lining up..SO here is the Leopard 2A6s in a line!
In terms of Combat history, the Leopard 2A6 has perform well, providing great protection for Canadian Soldiers manning the Leopard 2A6 in the Afghanistan Conflict.
The Leopards entering a rural town to engage the enemy.
On top of the fact that the Leopard 2A6 is but the descendant of the superior German Armour technology. I find the Leopard 2A6 a really awesome looking tank with a great design. (I would even say better looking than the M1A2)
Isn't she a beauty? I really can't emphasize how much I like the German Leopard 2A6 design.
And as Much as we might deny it, even the American MBTs starting from The Patton tanks right to The Abrams were developed with much influence from German expertise. Since, they were renowned for the Tanks in WWII.
These Leopard 2A6 tanks that you see here are from Takara Toys (Now defunct and has merged with Tomy to form Takara Tomy). They are from the World Tank Museum Series 6 Collection which feature a selection of Modern Battle Tanks. It is designed Akira Tani and produced by Kaiyodo. Unfortunately, from the looks of World Tank Museum website and searching to get these tanks, your best bet on getting the 1/144 scale tanks would be to look at ebay. Apparently, Modern Battle Tanks aren't as lucrative to sell compared to Transformers and other popular Kid toys now.
These lil Tanks come in a great packaging with informative japaneesy info of the tank inside the package as shown below.
In my opinion, Japanese packaging is always awesome.
Speaking of the Leopard 2A6 and how I am really attracted to its design, have gotten myself the 1/72 Leopard 2A6M by Revell!! It will take awhile before I paint it but that is how much I really like the way this German Tank rolls!
Hope you guys enjoy the current surplus of awesome posts. There have been much discussion and I would like to add that the last article by Joshua on the Human and Robot dichotomy was really intriguing. It was great to see so many people putting great pointers and opinions on the topic.
As you have noticed recently, I have been putting up many figures from the Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai X anime as the release of the live-action film of Rurouni Kenshin is coming soon. Weirdly enough, my week has been centered around much of ancient Japanese culture. From passing my Aikido grading to doing all these Samurai blog post, it seems that the Bushido spirit has washed over me.
Today though, I shall be talking about an epic game that Josh and I have been playing that pretty much showcase the Bushido Spirit of the Samurai and the Traditional Japanese Culture of Feudal Japan. The game is none other than Shogun Total War 2
This game is a true example of the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Creative Assembly (Designers of the Game) decided this time round to go back to its roots and bring back Shogun Total War in this new sequel.
Taking everything the fans loved from the old Shogun Total war and implementing new modifications taken from the development of the Total War Franchise, Shogun Total War 2 was everything I imagined it to be. From the great graphics to the improve AI that enabled allies to act as allies rather than distrusting backstabbing enemies, this game was awesome. The last game from the Total War series that I played was Medieval Total War 2. I did pretty much skipped the entire Napoleanic era, including Empire total War, so for me, it was a great delight to discover that there is a Multiplayer Co-op Campaign feature in Shogun total War 2. While this was something that was already implemented in Empire Total War, it was something new and great to me. (If my late friend Qamarul were here, he would have been overjoyed at getting his hand on this game and join me and Josh in some awesome Samurai fun)
I must reiterate the part in which Creative Assembly had taken all the good stuff from the Old Shogun Total War and implemented it to the new one. Things like the Samurai Music and Soundtrack which gave me a nostalgic feeling of the old game, to the Ninja Cutscenes which are so iconic to the old STW.
All in all, the Total War gameplay mechanics is addictive and the result in endless fun replaying single or multiplayer campaign mode. PC Gamer mentioned that the average Shogun total War 2 players plays about 100 hours, which is relatively true. I am in my 80th hour soon and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. And I can easily say the same for Joshua.
So far,
Josh and I had successfully impose our Mighty Rule in our first Multiplayer campaign using the "Easy" Difficulty level.
Together, our Takeda-Tokugawa Alliance was strong
Takeda-Tokugawa Alliance
Joshua's Daimyo, Takeda Shingen
Tokugawa Ieyasu, apparent heir in our game for the Tokugawa Clan
While this alliance was not meant to be of any historical significance, I could safely say that there were only a small handful of times where our growing influence and power was ever challenge. It was really awesome and ecstatic to see strong clans falling under our might which culminated in the showdown between our alliance and the Ashikaga shogunate.
Our second failed campaign involved us getting in over our heads and choosing "Hard" difficulty using the Date and Uesugi Clan. We were swiftly disposed off by neighbouring clans, ending off in a sad misery of defeat as the Massive Hatakeyama Army marches to eliminate the last of Joshua's provinces while I had to contend with a double assault from the Mogami and Honma Clan. Our folly was the result of getting in over our head and sending an attack force against our enemy that was too small. We should have slowly build up ourselves but we were underestimated and lost big time.
As of now, we are in the midst of a "Normal" Difficulty campaign in which we are doing pretty well. Josh taking the Shimazu Clan and I using the Chosokabe clan. Our dominance is note-worthy and it will be a matter of time before we come in contact with the Shogunate. Hopefully, we can do well to gear us to take on "Hard" difficulty again.
This brings me to the next part of this entry,
Shogun Total War must have definitely gotten a lot of its inspiration in terms of battle gameplay from old films like Ran and Kagemusha directed by the great Akira Kurosawa.
Kagemusha (Courtesy of Wikipedia) Winner of Best Direction and Costume design for the BAFTA awards
For me personally, my first samurai battle film I had ever watch was Heaven and Earth by Haruki Kodakawa. An epic film that depicts battles between the Uesugi and Takeda clan. While not as critically acclaim as Akira's films, it was rated as Number one japanese film in the Japanese Domestic market in 1990.
Snippet of Heaven and Earth.
It would be the start of my fascination for Samurais and the Bushido way of thought. It was after this that I was introduced by my late buddy, Qamarul to Aikido and we also began sharing our interest and conquests in Shogun Total War.
And then the Last Samurai film came along, and it would be this iconic song that he and I would never fail to sing along the yelling part that really just brings me back good memories and gives a warm feeling in my heart even today.
So for those who are into the whole Samurai thingamajig, this game is guaranteed to be pretty darn awesome. The downloadable content are also pretty damn great. Furthermore, if you were a sucker for the Last Samurai movie, the latest expansion, Shogun Total War 2: Fall of the Samurai would be a fitting game to fulfill any imagination and fantasy construct you might want to play out in that expansion.
Aside from my review of STW2, i have also recently discovered an upcoming tabletop game called Bushido.
It is a 2 player tabletop 'skirmish' type wargame that is based on Oriental Fantasy storyline. Much of the game play is represented by 32mm figures in which players are to outwit and defeat each other to achieve their personal objectives. I for one, particularly like the Prefecture of Ryu starter set as seen above as it is very Samurai-orientated. While it is a new tabletop game, it will take awhile for it to establish itself, but if you are a fan of skirmish tabletop wargames like Warmachines and Hordes, this might be something you can embark on.
As of now, that is all from me. Hope you like the Rurouni Kenshin and Samurai extravaganza for the past few weeks. Will be coming back with the usual Model kits and Miniatures real soon!
Till then, Any Samurai or STW fans out there? Give me a holla on what do you think about the New STW 2 and its latest DLC, the Fall of the Samurai.
Today, I would like to talk about Sanosuke. Like how Ironman had War Machine by his side, Luke Skywalker had Han Solo and Batman had Robin, Sagara Sanosuke was Kenshin Himura Wingman and Closest Buddy.
Sagara Sanosuke was a fighter for hire before he met Kenshin Himura. But before he even became a fighter for hire, he was formerly from the Sekiho Army.
Born 1860 in Nagano, Sanosuke was a member of the Sekiho Army. He had a very great admiration for the leader of the Sekiho Army, Sagara Sozo. Unfortunately, when the revolutionary government encounters financial problems and wanted to bury their promises that they owed to the Sekiho Army, they labelled the Sekiho Army as a fraud and in the process executes Sagara Sozo, leaving Sanosuke as one of the only survivors.
Because of the predicament that had occurred to him, Sanosuke was consumed with hatred for the Meiji Government and becomes a fighter in Tokyo. Ten years onwards, he gains notoriety as one of the strongest fighter for hire in the city. The Kanji Word that he wears on his back 惡aku means "evil' on which is a symbol of his loyalty toward his past in the Sekiho Army.
Initially, Sanosuke wields a huge zanpakto which he uses as a weapon that crushes and smashes enemies rather than cut them. The first fateful encounter between him and Kenshin Himura is when Sanosuke was hired to fight Kenshin. It was at this point that Sanosuke comes in first hand contact with the skill and prowess of Kenshin. Kenshin easily destroys his Zanpakto and Sanosuke learns of the truth of Kenshin's no-kill approach which leads him to become one of Kenshin's allies. (Usually, I would share the fight scene via one of the youtube links, but this time, wasn't able to find it. My apologies, but do take note that the fight scene was epic!)
Throughout the entire series, we see how Sanosuke develops a close buddy relationship with Kenshin. Unlike many other sidekicks in other various stories, Sanosuke had come to be Kenshin's best friend. Sanosuke was a wingman that was willing to punch Kenshin when he was sad to wake him up from his sadness.
While he does not match up to the talent and skill that Kenshin has, he is a great fighter himself. After his zanpakto is destroyed, he chooses to focus on hand combat which he excels in and improves even further along the TV Series.
At this point of time, I kind of have a lapse in memory of other wingmen that have been influential and supportive to their various respective main character heroes but this I can say for Sagara Sanosuke. He has been always there for Kenshin. During the entire TV series and onwards, he has always cheered up Kenshin when need be and given tough love to him.
What really moved me is that here you have Kenshin Himura, who was the Hitokiri Battousai and is still the Top dog of Samurai Swordsmanship which usually would give the impression that he is invincible and need not have anyone to help him at all. But much as Sagara Sanosuke can't compare or compete to Kenshin in skill, he has been a great buddy and wingmen in helping Kenshin throughout other aspects of his life. In several occasions, Kenshin even learns from Sanosuke's advice.
Brotherhood and Friendship is really golden. And while Words just fail me now, It does bring back memories of the Bro and Great Friend I had.
Nonetheless, I am appreciative of the awesome close wingmen around me. That includes you JOSH!
Help me out here though guys, What other wingmen from various stories or shows do you think are one of the greatest wingmen? Do share..
Today, I shall continue and proceed on to the next action figure that I have procured from the Samurai X/Rurouni Kenshin Anime. The action figure for today is Kamiya Kaoru. The main girl in the Rurouni Kenshin, and ultimately she would be the romantic party that will get involve in Kenshin's life as the TV Series progresses.
Developed by Toycom, this action figure is Kamiya Kaoru in her iconic Yellow Kimono as she dusts and sweeps her dojo. If I can recall correctly, though my memory does not always help me that much, she rarely wears a kimono, but in the TV Series, when she does wear it, it would be this yellow kimono that looks simple yet wonderful and amazingly beautiful.
For Non-fans of the Series, Kamiya Kaoru is one of the main characters in Rurouni Kenshin Anime. Born in Chiba in 1862, Kamiya Kaoru is lead instructor of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu School. Inheriting the fighting style and dojo from her late father Kamiya Koshijiro, she struggles to get students and seemed likely to lose her dojo. Partly because at the start of the series, there was an assailant who claimed to be the Hitokiri Battousai, harassing the dojo too.
Of course, the REAL Hitokiri Battousai, Kenshin, whoops the assailant, and the adventure begins as Kaoru and Kenshin gets acquainted. Obviously, since she is the first lady to be introduced to the series, you sense a certain connection the She has with Kenshin. Before we know it, she falls for him.
Kamiya Kaoru is sort of an enigma. While she can be short-tempered and posssessive, she is very selfless. Kaoru does tend to get jealous when another girl gets close to Kenshin but never fails to show a compassionate, courageous and independent side when need be. However, it is noteworthy to point out that one of her iconic traits is that her cooking is horrible but her ability to see good in others is something that deserves recognition too.
As a practioner of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu, Kaoru uses the bokken, a wooden sword to practice her technique. Since she is a teacher of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu, she also has mastered successions technique of the art.
All in all, Kaoru has provided much love, joy and animated humor to the Rurouni Kenshin Manga and Anime series. All the while that I have been watching Kenshin in the OVAs and what he has gone through, you'd believe that there could be noone who could make Kenshin smile or goof around.
But then Kamiya Kaoru came along, and was able to show that she could do it.
That's it for me today! Stay tune next week for more Toyconstruct posts!!!
Apologies for being offline for quite awhile, my weeks turned out to be busier than expected and I've been collecting quite a lot of stuff to share with you all :) Many thanks to JQ for his recent posts on all things geeky and awesome.
This time, we're going into sci-fi stuff and it's about Quantic Dream, the French video game developer behind the groundbreaking interactive movie video game "Heavy Rain" (and also "Omikron: Nomad Soul" and "Indigo Prophecy"). Interestingly, they've been trying to recreate real life experiences in their games ever since MMX was the cream of the crop for computer processors (I'm old), and they've come a long way from their roots.
Lo and behold, Quantic Dream recently released a new PS3 developer demo titled "Kara", which demonstrates that the PS3 is still able to produce awesome graphics despite its age:
What strikes me about "Kara" is its exploration of one of the most prominent hot button topics in the realm of sci-fi: the human/robot dichotomy. Thoughts about the Terminator, Blade Runner, the Matrix/Animatrix, I, Robot, A.I., and Battlestar Galactica would surely come to mind in some of us...
Thinking about Animatrix's "Second Renaissance" still gives me the creeps.
It always captivates me how we (as humans) are repelled by robots/androids that either try to be human or appear too life-like to be cute anymore. What does it mean to be human? Are we playing gods when we "create life" like robots? Are our bodies simply biological machines?
A discussion on this topic can go on forever, but what I've found is that back in 1970...a Japanese robotics professor, by the name of Masahiro Mori, coined the term "The Uncanny Valley" to describe human responses to objects that lie within the spectrum of human likeness from an industrial robot to a healthy person.
Masahiro Mori, the man who coined "The Uncanny Valley" in a time long long time ago...
Mori actually got his inspiration from a 1906 essay written by Ernst Jentsch titled "On the Psychology of the Uncanny", who tried to describe how people's moods in uncertain events. In particular, Jentsch touched a little on the added emotional effect of storytelling is achieved by placing an automaton instead of a human character.
The graph below illustrates the main point of Dr. Mori's essay, that familiarity rises gradually until it takes a sharp dive at the zombie/corpse stage, before rising up to a healthy person's level. Falling sick and dying actually brings a person towards the bottom. I've added a picture of a bunraku puppet for illustration (if you ask me, a bunraku puppet looks rather creepy, like the Puppeteer from Saw).
I guess it helps to put a name on that creepy feeling I get from seeing robots/automatons that resemble humans, and the fear that comes when robots become 99.999% human. For one, I am unsure if we will see the day when robots will completely resemble humans, but I will be a fool to say that will not happen at all. A Japanese school has already started to try out Saya, a human-like teacher that is capable of facial expressions and calling out students's names.
Looking at how much science has advanced so fast over the fast few hundred years, and seeing how robots today are starting to look a lot more human than before...we can be in for an interesting time. Science fiction is indeed slowly becoming scientific reality...
