TF Prime Toys: Vehicon Impressions

I finally opened my Transformers Prime Vehicon toy, since it was my birthday recently.  Yeah, I'm old and yeah, I'm a kid.  Hahaha.  I haven't really come up with a structure for toy reviews, so I'm kinda making up categories for right now.  Anyway, here are a few impressions of the figure.

Look
I don't know what's NOT to like about the look.  In car mode, it looks angular, menacing and sleek.  It might be a bit small, but it works with a scout/troop type robot.  The robot form is sleek as well, and doesn't have a lot of kibble.  It looks like the show, and I think it looks a bit better than that.  His proportions are also really good.  No ape arms, tiny head of scrawny legs.

Articulation
Vehicon has great inward arm articulation, and the shoulders are very posable.  The hips are pretty good, as they are the standard ball joint.  The knees bend some, but not fully back.  The feet are stable, but not really able to be put in different positions.  The wrists only go up and down, but they get the job done when combining with the arm articulation.  The outward arm movements are bad, and there is no waist articulation.  The head moves a bit, but not too much.  All in all, it's ok, I would like a bit better.

Transformation
Wow.  I really like transforming the Vehicon.  The whole top of the car folds up and becomes the bottom of the legs, storing them away.  It's not the prettiest, but it looks fine from the front, and more importantly, NO KIBBLE!  The front of the sides of the car are just sitting there, so there is a bit of kibble on the legs.  Compared to most car-formers, it is amazingly small.  The back panel of the car pulls out and brings the head with it, then folds to the back.  You don't even see it from the front, and on the back it looks fine.  To me, it is amazing how little kibble the Vehicon has in bot mode.  Whoever designed this should get a raise.  I'm serious, it's that good.

Weapons
The gun that it comes with isn't that great, but it gets points for being able to attach to several places on the figure.  It can hold the handle of the gun or be mounded to its arm, as if the hand transformed into it.  You can plug the handle into the shoulder, or attach is to the kibble near the leg as if it were holstered.  In car (alt) form, it can be plugged into the back of the side, or attached onto the side of the hood.  It might not look pretty, but great versatility with the Vehicon, and that matters more to me in this instance.

So was it worth the money I paid for it?  In short, yes.  I had to pay a bit more than retail ($20 from a fellow fan), but that is to be expected.  Hopefully the "revision" case that a future wave has with 2 Vehicons is real so more people can get this.  It is rare and unfortunately scalpable, but it is a great figure.

Quick PSP Impressions #1

I've recently being playing some PSP with a few of my old games and a few borrowed from friends.  I figured I would just throw up a few of my impressions.

Bounty Hounds
This is Bamco (Namco Bandai)'s version of Phantasy Star Online.  At least, that's what it plays like.  It is more action-oriented, which is hurt by the camera.  Like PSO, you use the L Button to center the camera, and that is the only way to control it.  I frequently have trouble turning it the right  angle, and fights get more complicated than they should be.  I like that you get 4 weapons, and fighting is pretty fun (except for the camera), but the inventory UI is cumbersome and I'd like to be able to hold more.  Also the active skills aren't that great.  The "shield" function is great for attacking (what?), but not that great for guarding.  I think I paid $5-8 bucks for this a few years ago, and it's probably only worth that.

Gods Eater Burst
A more fast-paced Monster Hunter.  Your weapon has a blade mode, gun mode and can guard.  It's really fun so far.  I don't have anyone to play it with, which I think would make it even better.  Also you have a move that bites the monster and powers you up briefly.  Eating a monster is how you carve it to get items.  Fun, weird, and cool.  I'm definitely getting a download copy of this (so I can transfer it to Vita when I get one) when it drops in price.  It seems to be worth the $20 they want, but I'm going to hold out for $10.  If you want a UMD, I believe it's already that price.

Grand Knight's History
It took me a bit to "get" this game and understand what to do.  I like that you make your party and can customize them to a decent degree.  Battles are fun.  It reminds me of Cross Edge, how you place your party and attack, but without all the crappyness of Cross Edge.  The game seems really basic, you just run around and do quests for money and experience, to beef up your party for the online component.  Unfortunately, the online component only works in Japan, so I couldn't try it out, even if I wanted to.  A real shame that Vanillaware didn't want to sell this in America, seeing as how they paid for and got a translation of it.  So, Vanillaware, you lost a good chunk of respect (and profit).  Tell Bioware hello down there.

Gungnir
I've only played about 30 mins of Gungnir so far, and I'm not too hot on it.  There seems to be a lot of things that affect battle, but none of them seem too important.  I haven't done poorly or anything, but it just seems like they threw in lots of unnecessary things to complicate an SRPG.  I mean, you only more 1 unit a turn?  Weird...

I'll have a few more quick impressions up shortly, so stay tuned!  Do people even say that anymore?

Best Laid Plans

Right now I should've been enjoying some time away from my kids.  I felt enough crap happened to me that the universe would have let this go through.  Nope.  For various reasons, the kids are not likely to be able to visit their grandparents for a few days, leaving me stuck with them.  So, no vacation before the oldest goes to school.  It feels like I'm so unlucky I can't even win an "Unluckiest Contest".  I can hope for a trip around Christmas, assuming one of us doesn't go crazy in that time.  This is more disappointing than Transformers: FoC being moved farther from my birthday.  So if I want to finish the platinum trophy on Heavy Rain, it looks like I'll have to do it in 1-2 hour bursts late at night.

A Break?! Finally...

If all goes according to plan, next week my rugrats should go to their grandparents' house for a few days.  Man, that will be soooo nice!  I'm already planning out some stuff to do while I have the freedom to do it.  I'm thinking of finishing off a few PS3 games, so I can delete the mandatory install.  Until I can get a bigger HD, I'm stuck with "only" 120GB.  I should finish my "trophy run" of Heavy Rain, getting most of the rest of the trohpies (I already beat it over a year ago), and hopefully beat the Wolverine game.  And for 360, maybe  play some Dead Island GotY edition that I picked up cheap a few weeks ago.  So many possibilities!

And I'll just sit around and enjoy the silence.  Seriously, it has been too long.

If Redbox gets Transformers Fall of Cybertron, I'll try that out for a day as well.  It's not on their site, but I can hope they just magically get it.  I'll have to play it somehow, and I don't want to just watch my friend play it when I go over.  That's even worse than not being able to play it myself.

I might as well finish a few more Youtube videos too, and post them.  We shall see!

2 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back

I played Lego Batman 2 at my friend's house the other night, and while this is "the most changed" Lego game to date, it's not that changed.  They added voice acting, and the Batman ones were slightly different in they had the suits, not different characters, to solve the puzzles.  Everything else is the same.  Same terrible camera, hit detection, targeting, sending endless guys while you try to figure out a puzzle, etc.  I'll get it cheap for my son, who will likely love it as he has the others, but I'm fine that the last one I played was Lego Batman.

Now on to the stupidest part.  Yeah, I would be skeptical after reading that, too.  In the Batcave, there is water underneath the stage.  This water is the most dangerous thing in the game, as it can kill 95% of the cast.  If you jump into it, your character dies.  Except Superman and General Zod.  They are the only ones who will fall in and automatically fly out of it instead of dying.  Everyone else will die a horrible death.  Green Lantern?  Check, even though he can fly.  Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman?  Check, even though they are "invulnerable".  A being named BRAINIAC?  Of course he's stupid enough to die, even though capable of flight.  Killer Croc?  Of course he would drown.

This brings us to Aquaman.  You must think that a guy named ****ing AQUAMAN could swim and not drown.  Well, you are wrong.  Even Batman dies in his own water.

A minor gripe?  Sure.  It's just remarkably stupid to have that in the game.  Why drown all but 2 people?  Why not have all flyers just auto fly when they drop in?  The developers are lazy, considering they have made the same game, what, 10 times already?  Just put a new coat of paint on the Lego guys and you're good to go?  I think the drowning thing is even stupider than my previous favorite, robots having ragdoll physics in Transformers Armada for PS2.  I actually liked that game, though.

Fall of Cybertron Demo Impressions

While I'm very excited to play this game, it's unlikely I will be able to afford it upon release.  I might use my birthday money for it (assuming I get some), but we will see.  Until then, the demo will have to suffice.  So, how was it?

I liked it a lot.  I was sad to see Bumblebee have a damaged voice box, so they are making the stupid Michael Bay Bumblebee cannon, I guess.  I don't like BB at all, but the voiceless one is even stupider.  Please stop doing it.  Other than that, his level was ok, but there are several scenes where they just kill nameless Autobots for no real reason.  I don't like stuff like that, it is very pointless.  I'm a fan of making a character's death mean something, not just have them fly out into space to show that it can happen.

Vortex's level was fun, I like his chopper/jet form.  I really wanted to explore it and look for collectibles, but I don't know if they are actually there, other than the 1 obvious audio log I found.  Both levels ended at strange places, so I hope it's nowhere near the full level for either.

Now for multiplayer.  War for Cybertron was one of the few games where I enjoyed the competitive multiplayer.  I managed to max out 2 of the 4 classes.  I could likely max out scientist, but it would take awhile.  The scout....nope.  I hated that class.  When trying the multiplayer in the demo, I at first wasn't impressed.  Sure, making your own Transformer is cool, if a little limiting at first, but I died a lot.  I slowly got the hang of it, but I felt really weak.  The warrior's Tornado ability seems a lot worse than it was in the first game.  I used to get plenty of kills with it, but it just seemed bad.  I still wish you had more than 4 weapons to choose from per class, as the biggest reason why I couldn't use the scout was I hated the weapons.  Seeing as how the only achievements I don't have in the first game are the last 2 for multiplayer, I'm not sure how much I will play it in the sequel.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing the game.  The demo gave a good feel for the game.  I might not like the competitive multiplayer as much as the first, but that could change after getting some time with the full version.

Tryin' It Out

I finally finished the first episode of one of my Youtube video ideas.  It's called "Tryouts".  If you've heard of "Let's Play"s, then this is more of a "Let's Try".  I don't play through the whole game, I just take one of my many backlogged/queued games, pop it in, and record myself playing it with live commentary.  It's a good way to get through some of the crap I have, and just might be entertaining.  As with my other shows/ideas, feel free to leave a comment on the videos or here for any game you would like me to try.  If I've already played it, that goes in another category...but more on that another time.  Within reason, I'll try to get my hands on a game and give it a whirl.

The first episode is about the Nintendo 64 game WCW vs. NWO World Tour.  I have played Revenge, but not the first installment.  I acquired this game at a "garage sale" for $1, so I might as well fire it up and give it a shot.  I'm thinking of getting the N64 games out of the way first, since I have the least of them, and it's already hooked up to the capture unit.  Side note: the recording was done over a week ago, I was just lazy in getting the front end logo done.  I'm not super happy with it, but I can improve it later.  It's more important to get some content out and make the logo look awesome later.  It's passable, but far from my best work (the logo that is).  Enjoy!