Time to take back Earth!

Today I finished Mass Effect 2 for the second time. Why a second time? Because on my first playthrough, nearly full renegade femshep turned out like Helena f***ing Caine with a sniper rifle. Also, many of my favorite characters died, because I did not know that I could upgrade my ship. 

So, I simply imported another of my Mass Effect 1 saves and this time did everything right. 

Well, mostly right. 

Okay I fucked up occasionally. But this time in ways I am more okay with.

Bring it on, Reapers!

Also, I am now a registered Star Citizen. Fenris was sadly, already taken, so my call-sign will be:

Bengal Tiger! 

(Yeah, took me hours to find something I was at least okay with. -,-) 

I'm still undecided if I should pledge for a Freelancer and live the life of a space trucker or get a Cutlass and hire myself out as a merc or bounty hunter. I'd love to splurge on a Constellation, but that's a little more money than I'm comfortable with. And to post another cool trailer: Galactic Gear on the Origin M50. 

I love those trailers.

Spaaaaaaace!

Fenris

Any sufficiently advanced psychological warfare is indistinguishable from the paranormal

Nemesis was to be humanity's greatest weapon. A warship so powerful as to take on a Compact's chariots. And so she did. But though victorious, Nemesis saw her crew perish that day. That day, she saw Earth burn. That day, Nemesis started to hate.

2000 years later, the Compact has continued to grow and advance, and all that remains of Humanity is Rally, a single colony the Compact has found, whose population has long since been culturally subverted into loyal citizens. Sectator Citizen Grace Alice Proctor is a cadet in the Compact Space Force. 

Joining her on the training ship Bequeathed is her alien friend, Allyria, who was resettled from the recently conquered Verrish homeworld onto Rally to help the young Verrisha assimilate into Compact culture. Grace is a model Compact citizens who believes in the ideals that the Compact is built on, but Allyria nurses a hidden disdain for the civilization that conquered her home.

Then Bequeathed stumbles upon a massive alien ship, apparently derelict in a remote star system. It's the find of the lifetime, and the Bequeathed's captain wants to take the credit. Salvage teams are sent to board it and evaluate the technological treasures within.

But not all is right. There's a warning in Common drawn on the ancient walls of the hangar bay, there's a pounding coming from deep within the ship, and sometimes... maybe... you think you hear laughter in the static on the radio. Grace is worried, her section leader is having nightmares, and Allyria... seems to know something.
Nemesis still hates. She hates with cold, machine, precise, insane, impossible, calculating hate.
She's dead, broken, but she lives and hates.

And she wants revenge!

Do you like hard SciFi blended with horror? Well, I do and I'm currently reading the story described above, though "devouring" might be more apt. Interested? Find it here:

The Last Angel by Proximal Flame

Not yet convinced? Have a try.

There, rising from the depths of the storm-wracked clouds, was the human warship, thick streamers of hydrogen and gases roiling from its hull, flashes of incandesce sparking as its screen flared to life, igniting pockets of gas. It would have been vulnerable during its ascent... had there been any eyes to see it. Sensor alarms howled as the hostile surged with power, its own targeting systems locking on to Redemption of Sol.

It was here, the Bastion Leader realized. It was waiting for us all along. It was never about Rynnien. It wanted us. It was waiting for us. Before she could issue any orders, a comm channel beeped.
The machine spoke in the soft tones of a young woman, one barely out of maidenhood. Against all logic, Tribune Danele could feel the emotion behind each syllable, the words dripping with venom. There was hatred unlike anything the Tribune had ever heard before as she listened to an immortal being whisper its rage.

“Burn with me.”


Echo is fuckin' scary!
Fenris

A Game of 302 Mad Roses

I am currently watching The White Queen to tide me over a bad case of Game of Thrones withdrawal. It is a series about the War of the Roses, a very turbulent episode of Britain's history that apparently served as inspiration for GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire and it shows. It has the same amount of politicking and backstabbing (not as literal as in ASOIAF). But it's surprisingly tame on violence for the period it depicts. It took five episodes for a battle to happen that we actually get to see. Still it is interesting to watch, since I know little about the War of the Roses.

I also recently watched 300 Rise of an Empire, which had all the battles The White Queen lacks. On ships. If you liked the first one, you will like this one, too. Though, this time they tried to flesh out the pretense of story. And stopped at tried. It still does not make much sense.
Although this time there is an actual fighting villain in the person of Arthemisia instead of the faceless Persian hordes and there is less Spartan overacting. (Ahu, ahu ...) The visuals are still great and who really watches 300 for the story?

Something else that is sadly lacking a story is Mad Men. I watched the first season, but stopped once I realized that basically nothing had happened. Women bitched at women, men bitched at men and the status quo staid the same. Still, the look of the series was cool. (But everybody seems to have smoked about a pack a day back then)

Speaking of stories, I'm also sketching out a continued story for the Iron Kingdoms roleplaying game I ran for some friends. I'm still not decided if I'll fling pirates and zombies with a bit of survival horror at them or if they'll be going on a simple rescue mission in a full blown war zone. Either way, it's gonna get steampunky since two of the characters have a more technical background. (A gobber mechanik and a human warcaster)

Even if the last game made me feel a bit like Scar here, I'm already wondering what shenanigans they are going to come up with.

And which curveballs to throw at them. The forums suggested a Warjack that's afraid of flowers.
I've got a great twist planned, but that's for a later adventure.

In other news: Steamsale happened. I bought trousers. And some games. God, my backlog is soooo long.

Signin' off
Fenris

2014! Yay!

It's already a different year. Feels like it was just summer in 2013 and suddenly I need a new calender to replace the old one (especially since that one is from 2012 and stuck in June. Hey, I like the picture!)

Anyway, my new years resolution is 1920x1080 thanks to a new Laptop.

Nah, actually  it's making less god-awfull puns.

.

.

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Dammit!

May your 2014 be as cool as my 2013!

Fenris

Another successful Reboot!

Yesterday I finally found the time to watch the Judge Dredd remake. And it was awesome!

Sooooo much better than the original.

It's a great, straight forward action movie, with good pacing and good actors. Great visuals, especially in the scenes involving the slo-mo drug. But, oh boy, it is bloody! Nothing for the visually squeamish. Lots of blood and gore.

Lena Headey makes for a great villain, Karl Urban is a lot more badass as Judge Dredd than Stallone was, since he does not overact so much. Olivia Thirlby makes for a infinitely cuter and infinitely less annoying sidekick than Rob Schneider. She kicks nearly as much ass as Dredd himself. (say that last part aloud) Then she basically mind rapes one of the baddies.

Only weakness would be the story. It is a bit too straight forward and lacks twists you don't see coming a mile away. But it never really feels forced, so it's not that bad either.

Final verdict: 8/10 years Iso-cube for exaggerated coolness!

I am the law!

Fenris

Tomb Raider Reboot is awesome!

I just finished playing through the new Tomb Raider. It was a blast. Great story, enjoyable game play awesome graphics and really good pacing. Only minor nitpick I have is that Lara went quite fast from vulnerable young archaeologist to Katniss Everdeen as trained by Captain Price. But that's something I'm willing to overlook, since Ms. Croft went from a bland action-girl with big boobs to an actual character.

Not only Lara got her origin story, but also her two iconic pistols. Which she used to blow away the big Bad, after using a bow most of the game.

I have to confess, I have played Tomb Raider 1-4, but never finished one of them. I watched the movie, though, which had cool action scenes. (that's probably the only good thing you can say about it)
I still have Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Legend and Underworld lying around in my Steam account and will probably play those one day.

In a funny coincidence, Freebooter Miniatures revealed a new Mercenary a few weeks ago. Clara Cadora, who is blatantly inspired by Lara Croft. Sadly she is more along the lines of the old Lara, slinging around two huge pistols, while wearing only little more than most of the Freebooter Amazons.

Here's to hoping there are more Tomb Raider titles like this along the way.


I's like to try archery some time
Fenris

Giantesses and Spanish Art

Monday this week I managed to snag Guild Wars 2 of ebay for cheap and have been leveling a female Norn guardian (think giantess valkyrie). She is now level 9 and kicking a lot of butt. I never really got into Guild Wars 1, but found part 2 very enjoyable during the weekend trial.

I just received the Infinity Artbook I preordered and it is awesome! Chock full of full color art and concept drawings from the spaniards at Corvus Belli. Along with it came ten full color DIN A4 prints I originally planned to hang on my wall. But looking at them now, I might have to frame them, so they don't take damage.
The book also has revitalized my interest in my Caledonian Highlander Army. I have researched tartans since they are all wearing kilts and they are bloody hard to paint.

Also I am still listening at least once a week to the newest Amon Amarth Album. Favorite songs: Shape Shifter, We shall destroy and Snake Eyes


Thinking about buying a kilt
Fenris