Back to school

Here's a dude working out and flipping off Muscle Cat.

Here's a Draconian being grumpy in the morning. It's either the ones taking over the world as we speak, or the Dragonlance ones. You decide.

Well, at 25, after a 4-year break, i decided to go back to school. This means that i started doodling again, and that i am exposed to a whole new class of douchebags (no pun intended. Fuck you it was totally awesome.)

I guess school fees give you the right to walk and talk like a bitch when you're a girl, and to think you're an awesome and super-intelligent dude when you're a man. When you're a man you also get to walk around with a smirk, dreaming of being a high-impact warzone journalist.

One dude wears a tophat.

This other girl makes me think of my cat.

And this one other guy always argues respectfully with a 56-year old man in school, about really unimportant stuff.

When you have a blog you can also say oh yeah i have a blog, i have many interesting interests and need to be creative in my life. I guess i'm an artists. The internet is my canvas and the words, my paint.

Say that to chicks they are bound to let you smell their hair!

Stupid fucking cyclists

Why do cyclists cut me off when the light is green for me, and when i hit on the brakes to SAVE THEIR LIFE they flip me off? In a collison between me and him, i would be the winner, what with being incased in a tonne of METAL while this DICK only wears spandex or a hoodie of a indy band. I think mythbusters should do a slow-motion episode of it. With explosions. And that dude with the stach driving the WIN car

PS3 Games

As of my last post in July, i was the proud owner of a PS3, only owning Skate 2.

I am, since then, fucking sick of that game. However i purchased Resistance, call of Duty 4 (1), Fallout 3, NHL 10, inFamous, Batman, Crystal Defenders, Burn Zombie Burn, Critter Crunch, and 3 on 3 NHL Hockey.

Resistance is shit and Call of Duty was stupid since i already played the crap out of it on PC, but i bought them with Fallout 3, used, for 80$. Figured it was a good deal since Fallout was still being sold at 69.99$ at that time.
Fallout 3 was more of an emotional purchase for me as i am a huge fan of the first 2, and also of Morrowing and Oblivion. I spent 40 hours to finisht it but haven't been back. My friend however is fucking addicted and has finished the game on 2 occasions and has about 80% of the trophies. There's a lot to do on that game and if you're looking for a dolar/lenght of game ratio, this is it. There's also not 1, 2, but 5 expantion packs.

inFamous, same story. Bought it used for 40$ like 2 weeks after the game came out, played maybe 1/3 of the game and got bored. Haven't been back since.

NHL 10 is really sick, really fun, and really frustrating. I mean, i'm doing one-timers, dekes, passing around, using the board, puck doesn't go in. This douchebag comes next to my goalie, passes it to him. The PC-controlled goalie goes ''Aaaaaah SHIT i didn't train for THIS'' and just taps the puck with his stick. The opponent will just slapshot the puck and it'll go in, without fail.

it seems that the game rewards ugly-ass goals.

But it's addictive. So addictive.

Batman so far is AMAZING. Bought it used for 40$ again. There's so much to say about this game. I'll make it simple. Did you like Splinter Cell? Did you like the fighting in Assassin's Creed?
Well, the game is like Splinter Cell, the fighting engine is like in Assassin's Creed, only you are BATMAN.
Makes everything at least 6 times cooler.
Don't ask me the complex mathematical sequence i used to get the 6x factor, your brain's not overly active enough to get it.

As for the downloaded games, Burn Zombie Burn is the biggest waste. Tons of games like that are offered for free on the internet, and you don't even get trophies.

Crystal Defender, same shit, but at least you get trophies. Only buy it at 2 am when you're not working the next day and your girlfriend is and you're bored with the games you own (that's what i did).

NHL 3 on 3 is really fun for a gamer night party game, and only 5$!

Critter Crunch is another game type that can easily be found for free on the internet, but it's only 8$, there's a lot to do, cool trophies, the art is really cool, it's been recommended by pennyarcade.com AND my girlfriend played it like 20 minutes, so it was definetly worth it.

Overall i love the PS3, but sometimes it crashes when i'm trying to leave an online game. Poo.

Super-Fast Stairs People

i hate people who are really good at going down the subway stairs fast. Because they have such an attitude about it. They have that little smirk as they go really fast past me and i can't keep up.

Skate 2 Review

Hello folks and desperate review seekers (for indeed, you must be VERY desperate to end up here, in the most isolated corner of the internet).

Well, i must say, after being disenchented with gaming for the past few years, i've decided, after a jealousy-induced shopping spree, to become the proud owner of a PS3.

And boy, have i been missing out!

The whole ordeal started when i stumbled upon what i first mistook for skateboard videos.
I soon realised - to my surprise - that these were in fact short clips made using the Skate 2 videogame, made with the downloadable filmer-pack.

ARG!

I HAD TO GET IT!

You see, i've skateboarder from 1995 to 2005. I was never really good, but it's the only physical activity that i would do during 3 seasons a year, enjoying snowboard during our Québec winters.
And with this sport of course came the many Tony Hawk Pro Skater games.

I would sit with a fellow skateboarder friend, in his parent's basement with the lights off, all night long riding together in free skate mode. We'd find a spot, tear it up as realisticly as we could, and then move on. We would comment our landing, our smooth 180s, if a double-kickflip down 20 stairs 'looked' fake.

If you too were one of these persons, then my friend, you NEED Skate 2.


I purchased the game the night before a day off from slavery where my girlfriend woul also have to work, just to make sure i could fully appreciate the game. I plugged the time-consuming demon in the wall and TV, eroticly inserted the game in the console, opened a cold beer, turned off the lights, and skated away.

In 2 days, i cumulated 15 hours of gameplay, to my pets' frustrations.

First impression: smooth, pretty, realistic, entertaining.

A deeper look however reveals some frustrating habits.
First, there's the new ''meathall'' feature. Your biggest bails get you money. You can can get scores on especially violent bails. You can even see wich bones you fractured. This is entertaining at first.

Then, you start skating. The game is realistic, so you can't pop everything all the time efortlessly like THPS. This is okay. But bailing from failing to ollie on a sidewalk and having to watch you fall like a mongo-newb in slowmotion is incredibly frustrating after 4 hours of gameplay.

The controls are pretty cool. The left analog stick controls the movements and direction of your skater, and the right analog stick controls your feet. Think NHL 09, with the right control stick instead controling your hockey stick.

By the way, the in-game tutorial helps a lot. I couldn't figure out how to do tailslides and bluntslides, my 2 favourite, until i checked the video and looked at the precise gesture you have to make.

For exemple, an ollie will have you bring the stick down, and then up quickly. To make a kickflip, if you ride regular, would have the same movement but instead of directly up, you move the stick slightly to the left. Opposite when you ride switch, and from up to down when you ride Nollie or Fakie. It's so precise in fact that it can prove frustrating when you are making a video and need a specific flip trick in your sequence and keep getting the wrong one.

But, something makes it easier. Waypoints. I think that's what it's called hehe. Basically you can stop riding at any place in the world, place a little invisible waypoint with L1 and down arrow, and skate on. If you need to return to that specific point, you press L1 and up arrow, and are returned there instantly. You can only place one though.

I was making a little sequence, doing a shuv-it down a flight of stairs, then poping a smooth bs 180 kickflip on a curved bridge, and finishing with a bs boardslide down a rail. For some reason, i kept doing varial kickflip instead of the real kickflip. I would not even land that i would be returning to the waypoint to try again.

All and all, a very addictive game for skateboarders. I do not recommend it for people that don't give 2 damns about the extreme sport however, as the game can be very frustrating and not very spectacular when you compare it to THPS. No 60-foot drops doing a Madonna just to land on an overcrook, jumping from a ledge with a Laser flip onto a rail doing a feeble.

But for the retired skateboarding, this is heaven.

My cat's a whore

Every morning i get up, and both my cats are at my feet.

They are purring, they are meowing, they are rubbing slowly and intently against my bare legs.
Rocjy'll take nips at my ankles, and Willow will get up on her rear legs, reach for my hands and try to lick my fingers.

And then i feed them mushy food, and all is over. They leave me alone. I start the coffee machine, take a shower (yeah right), eat and/or head to work.

But then i get home, and she's there...

Letting go of a fat, affectionate, intentionate purr.
Half-squinted eyes...
She throws herself on her back, and starts to stretch all four.
Then she might arch her head and try to take a glimpse at me,
or will lick her neck fur-coat, desperate for affection.

And frankly, it's disgusting.

I feel like she's a dirty whore, trying to get all the attention she can get.

You have to understand that we found these cats in the country.
They were stay-away kittens rummaging the farm land in search for sustenance when we found 'em, kit'nap 'em and proceeded to save them from their fleece curse.

So she owes me and my girlfriend her life. She might be trying to express gratitude for the gesture, i don't know.

I just can't communicate with her.

Madman Comics!

Hello everyone!

So, as you can see from my father's previous blog, we've both been busy to my brother's needs.
Poor little bugger got in a car accident 2 days after his 20th birthday, and apparently if he had been in anything else than the car he was in (Land Rover i think), he could have been cut in half.

So, good job Land Rover!

However, since my bro is stuck in the hospital, I've finally been able to make him read comics.
He's never been interested in them at all, but he really liked the show Heroes.

My first pick for him was Astonishing X-Men, by Joss Whedon. I just finished it, and it was great. I thought... everybody likes X-men, here's a critically acclaimed book, and on top of that, it was written by someone that wrote tv shows.
He thought it was stupid at first, but kept reading, and really liked it at the end. He asked for Volume 2, wich i don't own yet.


I recently just started buying online again, wich i promised myself i would never do again, seeing how i maxed out my credit card buying Elfic Dice and Super-Hero statues...

But then, I discovered Amazon. How can the books be so cheap!

I've since started a crusade, ordering dozens of TPBs and HCs a month, from all companies.

And i discovered this:



Madman Comics.

The dude's from Snapcity, fights with yoyos, slingshots and disc-guns.

He's portrayed in vivid colors, drawn amazingly, and has the innocence of San Goku.

You have to understand... Madman is timeless. I could have been reading this 10 years ago, or i could have discovered this 10 years from now, and I'd still have a crush on him.

There is a certain feelings that settles on my shoulders when I'm reading the comics. Like an ancient Owl telepathicly inducing my brains will all of my most cherised childhood memories that i thought lost forever.
There's a certain honesty, style, innocence permeating from the pages and the vibrant colors that anyone with an open mind can enjoy.

I suggest you get Volume 1, give it a try. I'll never regret it!

Life and evrything

Last week my son (Étienne's brother) had a car accident and even though he had serious injuries it could have been much much worse.

I know it's a cliché but such occasions only reinforce the importance of what is important in life.

It's simple: love your friends, love your family and show them you do.

The uncertainty of DnD

There's something I really like about DnD, that keeps me coming back for more, both as a DM and a player.

By the title, you have probably guessed... uncertainty. Another important factor would be improvisation.

DnD is the root to all video games, but something that video games will never be able to emulate. The DM, instead of the computer, makes all the difference. Players remain players in both universes.

What i mean is that, a player of video games has a limited options and actions available to him, that might or might not work in his environment, cemented in codes. The fact that a DM, human, is running the game instead of a program, allows for much rule-bending. For exemple:

In one of my games, in our earlier adventures, one of my friend was playing with a Ranger that had 2 light crossbows. Okay, now we know, you can't do that. At the time we didn't know, and it was just so cool. Anyways.

At one point, they are climbing a cliff while running away from a patrol of Lizardmen. The Barbarian climbs quickly, tosses a rope down to the Ranger, who in turn tied it up around his waist. The idea was that the Barbarian would lift the Ranger up while the Ranger covers their back with his crossbows.
Already, this is pretty cool.
Then, eagles who were nesting in the cliffs started to attack the party. At one point the Barbarian dropped the rope. Now this is where D&D really starts to differ from PC games.

The Rogue asks me if he can drop a crossbow to try and get a holding on the cliff with his free hand. Cool idea, so i made him roll a reflex check. Passed.
The rogue then asks me if he can try and catch the falling crossbow with his feet! Even cooler!
DO you get it? DO YOU GET IT?

You can actually convince the DM to change a few factors of the game. And if the DM is willing, well it makes the game even more interesting. Linear adventures are possible in D&D, but it's everything between point A and point B that make it the game that it is.

Now if you excuse me, i have a fighter-based Prestige Class to design. I'll post this here when i do it.

K tnx bye.

Deadpool in Wolverine Origins

Weapon Eleven is NOT Deadpool in Wolverine Origins. They clearly state that the ''Deadpool'' is a project's name, a sort of gene pools to gather all sort of mutant powers, and that Weapon XI is their master weapon, the final project. If they choose to stay true to comics (but they never do), Deadpool will in fact be a dismissed body, a failure, abandoned in the ''deadpool'' facility. An early try. Wolverine is Weapon X. Why? Because he is the 10th attempt at an ultimate weapon. Sabertooth would be a Weapon # also. Alpha Flight maybe also? Who knows? Department H is up to a lot of things in the cold and desolate Canada of Marvel Comics. So quit telling me Deadpool shoots lasers, has diamond swords coming out of his arms, can teleport, cannot talk (?) and has bad tattoos. Deadpool's a fucking lunatic who shoots guns and cuts bullets YES, and in the comics CAN teleport but with the help of a device. End of similarities. And let's hope they disfigure him in his stand-alone movie.

Now that i think of it, i bet they made sure Weapon XI couldn't talk to specify that it can't POSSIBLY be Deadpool. He's known as the ''Merc with a mouth' for a reason.

Nuff said.

GRIDLINKED

Combine a kilometer long dragon made of flesh and circuits and who can travel instantaneously across the universe, intercept any communication between computers and create creatures of flesh for any purpose (and it is a crazy liar);

add a Japanese master who is 400 years old and who has survived Hiroshima;

incorporate a government agent that is so powerful that future historians will argue about his existence;

pour a totally fucked up separatist who wants revenge for the death of his no less fucked up sister;

and why not a few golems and amped up mercenaries.

You have the ingredients of a novel that is interesting and frustrating.

Interesting because the plot is inventive but frustrating because sometimes you wonder what the hell is going on and the end and most deaths (and there are quite a few) are anticlimactic. For example, Mr Crane, a seemingly invicible Golem is destroyed in a figth that takes something like 2 lines.

But Asher's work remains a page turner even if some of the characters survive impossible odds. He has a lot of imagination and his inventions are credible as are most of the protagonists.

A good read

8/10

THis is awesome!

New Star Trek

So i was sitting in the theaters, in front of an Imax screen, my girlfriend next to me.
I'm not a big fan of Star Trek, but just the fact that my girlfriend was watching this was an achievement in itself.

Opening sequence. A space battle over a planet. The camera pans down to show us the chaos raging. My girlfriend leans towards me an whispers: ''That shot is cool!''

I lean back slowly, and whisper back: ''It's cooler in Star Wars III''
I am of course refering to this:


I rest my back on my chair, satisfied. She looks at me with questions marks in her eyes, and i think: ''Thank you, Star Trek. Now she will watch the episodes with me for sure''.

And that's what it felt like the whole movie. Like they tried to make Star Trek feel like Star Wars.

Like my said friend, however: ''Sorry, no lightsabers. You lose. Bye.''

New City of Heroes expension

Hi all, it's been a while.

Let's jump straight to the point.

I tried City of Villains a few years back, loved it but not enough to pay the monthly fees. So after a trial period, i ditched it.

Now, a few years later, it seems that the game is still being played. And they just released a new expansion pack: The mission architect (say this out loud with a very ominous voice).

This apparently lets you (the player) create missions for the game, adding endless content to the game.

It was also said that in the 24 hours following the release of this mission architect, more content was created by users than what had ever been created by the makers of the game since 2004.

First. The makers of the game are pretty proud to announce this, but i think it makes them sound lazy.

Second. How many really, really bad missions created by weird stupid kids were uploaded? I bet this dude made one:




Granted, i would play his.


And last, and certainly not least:

City of Heroes has achieved everyone's dream: in releasing the mission architect pack, they actually succeeded in making people pay a monthly fee, on top of paying for the mission architect pack, to literally do their job for them.

Now folks, this is a pretty spectacular feat. If someone would be willing to pay me to do my telemarketing job for me, i'd be in heaven fornicating in clouds.

Because, you see, you might think that paying a monthly fee will ensure that programmers are working tirelessly to produce more in-game content, missions, items, territories. You know, like WoW. But no! In CoH, they were working on way for you to be able to do this stuff, so they wouldn't have to!

Amazing!

Who's stupid enough to do this? To actually pay a monthly fee to be able to add in-game content regularly, what the monthly fee should be covering in the first place?

Bewildering i tell you.

Off to bed. I'm going camping and woodsballing with 10 buddies for the rest of the weekend. Sure beats going through a mission created by a weird lonely 12-year-old where you probably have to... go in the sewers to... kill demons with bad gramar. I don't know. I don't care.

DARK YOU SAY????

holy macaroni,



I thought that Scar Night was a dark novel, with vampire angels, poisoners and assassins.



That was NOTHING.



Iron Angel the second book of the trilogy takes place mostly in Hell, but an Hell so terrifying with such terrible beasts and gods that it's a wonder I was able to sleep at night.



Imagine a dark red maze at the bottom of a pit. The maze is made of alleys and houses, alleys and houses made of human souls. Alleys and houses that bleed when attacked, feeding demons and machines that run on blood.

Blood flows in canals and kilometer long blind worms made of demons desire nothing but to devour souls. But the worms can see, the demons pass along the worm the thousand eyes of a slain god that was killed by Menoa a thousand years ago. And those are mild compared to the 500 hundred feet high fighting machines



Our poor friend Dill, the clumsy angel of the first book is caught by the bad guys and it does not go well for him or the human race for that matter.






And just when you think that there is a small ray of hope, the end leaves the reader faced with a terrible vision.



Dark, dark, dark, dark. but a great read, a real page turner. Can't wait for the next one which is supposed to be out at the end of summer. Darn!





9/10

Long time no see!

I know, i've been away. To all 3 people a day that visit this page an average of 2 minutes, i'm sorry. I've just been pretty busy.



It's a lie. I've just accumulated so many geeky hobbies recently that it has been impossible to keep up with all of them.



For exemple: My Savage Sword of Conan tpb sits in my bookshelf, half-finished.

I've read only a chapter of the last Dragonlance novel i bought.

I'm 3 games away from entering the playoffs with my NHL 2009 team.

I'm still at stage one of designing my own collectible card game.

The list goes on.



But there's a good reason.



At 25, i started playing D&D, and i love it.



I've been playing Magic for a couple of years now, slowly enticing all my friends to start playing with me, making them spend hundreds of dollars on the cardboard crack.

They all became quickly obsessed, and a weekly game meeting was the norm. Everybody knew the rules, or thought they did.

I speak in the past term, because i retired from the TCG around 6 months ago.



I couldn't take it anymore. I tried. I really did. I sat through what seemed like impossibly long games, made only longer by all the arguing and debating of the rules, fueled by the fact that every single rule in the game can be broken by one card or another.



So here we were, in my friend's new appartment, drinking booze, watching the hockey game and playing magic. I was sitting at the table quietly, sipping on rum n coke, watching the game unfold. To my right, the monster i created: a lawyer, playing magic. To my left, another monster: the sports dude who simply cannot wrap his head around the fact that everybody's different. Both drunk.

And I sit there, as they once again argue about: does a creature tap before or after the attack phase. Can you regenerate a creature you suicided. How can a Counterspell make sense when you use the stack: if the counterspell resolves before the spell, what does it counter?



It's finally my turn. I've been sitting there quietly for 5 minutes. Count 60 seconds in your head. It's pretty long, right? Do it again, 4 more times. My turn. I have a few options available. I could attack either player, i could boost a creature, i could just summon something. After about 6 seconds of mental debate, I chose the later, for no consequences from either sides.

After i put my creature on the table, i announce that my turn is over. The jock turns to me and says with some aggressivity: that's it?

At this point, i knew i was never going to play again. I finished the game not really doing anything great, since i was just testing a new deck, playing against guys that always use the same one. The guys thought it was drunk talk. I haven't played since.



And so i was left with an empty black hole in my life. All the hours that i spent looking at cards online, talking startegy in forums, building, deconstructing, analysing and testing my decks were now empty and scary hours of lifetime that i could use to do anything else. Like, for instance, concentrating on my finances, looking to go back to school, take a walk outside.



So you understand that i had to look for a new geeky obsession to fill my life, and fast!



Now, what is as time-consuming, nerd-associated and geek-points-awarding as Magic: The Gathering? Dungeons and Dragons, without a doubt!



And so my friends, this is why i haven't been posting a lot. Between rules clarification, book reading, character creating, adventure-writing, map-drawing, scenario-contemplating, game night organisation, and geek-recruiting, i don't have that much time left.



I still read comics, play NHL 09, play real hockey - Ice and Ball - spend time with my girlfriend, get drunk with my friends, workout. So, sorry to say, but the blog is kinda left back a little.



Mind you, whenever something grabs my attention, it'll end up here. Or if people actually start asking for more stuff hehe!

G'day

scar night

DO YOU LIKE DARK NOVELS?

If so you will be served by this book (the first of a trilogy) by Alan Campbell.

It is set in a city that is held by chains over a chasm where demons and gods roam.

If you have read China Mieville, you will probably find that the city and its inhabitants will remind you of New Corbuzon.

Cambell describes a world where a 3000 year old angel has to drink blood on scar night to survive. Why scar night? Because when she drinks blood she dies, resuscitates, sees what she has just done, stabs herself, creating new scars. It starts every month or so when a black moon rises.

A world where an young angel falls in love with the assassin sent to train him, where sould are sent to hell and where poisoners seek revenge.

Where priests are afraid that their god is building an army of the dead to climb up the chasm to claim more souls.

Where some humans have found the way to immortality only to be cut, have their bones taken out and be buried in the desert.

Etc, etc, etc.


I am in the middle of the second book which is even darker and I highly recommend the series



9/10

to crush the moon

Bizarrely the last book of the Queendom of Sol series reminds me a bit of the last book in the Lord of the Rings series. It also does remind me of the end of the Foundation series.

Lord of the Rings because at the end the remaining heroes go on a sort of quest across mountain ranges, through impossible weather, and survive against all odds; and Foundation because in a robot resides the key to the situation at hand (in this case the end of the human race).




Of course there are no elves or hobbits in Crushing the Moon (thank god!), and the robots are malevolent (they overrode the asimovian conditions), not benevolent like Daneel, but the whole ending had a sense of déjà vu, augmented by the fact that there are 2 endings, à la Lord of the Rings (who has like 46)

BUT the book reads very well and the story is very interesting: we are in the final stages of the war between house servants and the last humans, who live on the crushed moon and are back to being mortal.

Old king Bruno (about 3000 years old) is brought to the rescue by his son’s best friend (or to be more precise by the last remaining copy of the best firend of at least one of the copies of his son) in order to find a solution to the war and save what’s left of the human race.

We also learn why and how the earth was destroyed (Murdered Earth as it is called) and what happened of the colonies, all well written and based on possible science.

All in all a very good ending to a pretty good series:

8/10

My first ever D&D game

So.

The 4th edition came out, and with it came a chance to buy all the 3.5 books for cheap! I was able to get the 4 main books for 20$, pretty good considering that when they came out years ago, each one of them was 45$.

My girlfriend has been out of the country for the last 2 weeks, plenty of time for me to read the books and learn to play. But since i'm lazy i didn't completely read 'em, just the essentials to have fun.

And in between phone calls at work, i started designing my first adventure. A cool little story with a plot and a twist.
Then all my friends pretty much said they wanted to play evil.

So the workload got a little bigger. Creating a new adventure and a bunch of monster races was fun though, so it didn't feel too much like work hehehe.

The night before, people came over and created their characters, a process than can take up to several hours, especially for a first player. I was very surprised at the amount of people that showed up for the game, since D&D is the ultimate geek step!

To sum up the characters, and their handler:
I was the DM, so no characters or NPCs here.

My first friend, a lawyer in real life and the one that read all the combat rules for me, created a centaur ranger, and created a skill (Read the Stars) that only he can use. Basically, once a night if he can see the stars, he roles a 1D6. On a 1, all the party has -1 on saving throws the next day, but a 6 gives them +1 on all!
He became the leader since he had more charisma.

Second friend, a telemarketing dude who enjoys sci-fi and fantasy, was playing a Half-Demon Warlock. He's really the head of the party, thinking about good courses of action.

Third friend, a guy who always wanted to play so he could be a ninja, made a Human Rogue with skills in acrobatics and intimidate more than lockpicking or anything. Driven by mischief, he enjoys putting the party in difficult spots and trying acrobatic jumps to show off.

Fourth friend, a firefighter and amazing hockey player, was a Half-Vampire Fighter. He was the fearless fighter, often in difficult spots but always pulling through.

Fifth friend, a sports apparel salesman, was playing an Elf Rogue. Archer and lockpicker, he enjoyed doing stuff that a DM does not foresee.

The adventure went as follows: The group had been front-liners for the army of a rampaging Orc War-Lord, pillaging the human lands for decades now. Growing tired of little games, he hand-picks our ''heroes'' to become his private strike team. Their mission: To infiltrate a Lord's mansion and steal the Horn of Fog possessed by the human. This will give the Orcs an advantage in taking castles, hiding from the archers in the fog. The Warlord equips the team with weapons and adventuring tools, and tells them they can take all the loot they want. A 50 gold piece bonus is waiting for them if they bring back the head of their enemies. Those who don't will face 10 whips.

The funnest part of the adventure was right at the beginning, a complet surprise to me, the DM.
The group had to get on a raft and travel down a river until they could find a proper place to land. I put a Balance check of 10 to not fall in the water when you get on the raft, and a Swim check of 10 in the water. I also had put a Squid in the river if someone would fall. I didn't think much of it, with the DC being only 10.

Well, our Centaur leader gets on the raft just fine, along with the Warlock. The Fighter on the other hand, slips on the wet wood that makes the raft, and falls in the water! The Squid grabbed him right away, and started squeezing.

Seeing the fighter didn't come back up, the Rogue decides to throw his rope in the water for the fighter. No time to take off the Grappling Hook. A Dex check makes the throw perfect, and the Fighter was able to grab the rope. A strenght check from the Rogue and the Centaur who was helping him had them pull the Fighter back on the raft, along with the squid. Everybody misses their shot at the squid, except the Elven Rogue who hits the monster right in the head, almost killing him.

Memorable moment: The human rogue is tired of holding the rope. He tries to intimidate the elven rogue next to him into holding the rogue. The check fails. The human simply lets go of the rope, losing it in the process! Good laughs there. '' Take the rope! No. Allright, too bad! ''

The Centaur decides to use his natural weapon (Hoof, 1D4) to attack the squid. He misses critically, falls back down heavily on the raft. Balance check for everyone. Everyone falls in the water!

The Fighter decides to bite the squid's tentacle, who releases its grip after squeezing 1 HP out of him. He swims back to the surface. A ink cloud in the water signals to the party that the monster has fled. The Centaur came close to drowning, but after a short while everybody was back on board.

They finally found a good spot to land. The human rogue felt he had to redeem himself in the eyes of the elf, and attemps to front-flip out of the raft and on dry land. He fails miserably, landing right on his ass, while everyone started laughing. He tried to intimidate everyone into silence, wich didn't work.
After that, they started to follow a trail in the forest. Unknown to them, that was actually a trail for wolves! The Rogue was walking in the back, and was able to hear a pair of the animals before they were caught flat-footed. A failed check to handle the animals had one of the wolves jump at his neck, almost killing him in one blow!
Rogues went to the woods, trying to get ranged sneak attacks, while the fighter started doing his thing.
Memorable moments: the human was caught behind the centaur and could not get a clear shot. He decides to attemp to jump on the centaur's back, and then leap to the wolves. He miserably fails his jump check, jumps too low, and hits the horse ass hard! Good laughs there too.

The wolves had 2 of the villains almost dead, and so the party decided to take 24 hours and have the centaur heal them. The Fighter went exploring by himself. While he was gone, the human robbed the warlock, who had collected wolf teeth. He took the teeth and threw them in the woods, and ran to where he heard some noise. Turns out the fighter had found an old shack, where a zombie was sleeping. The fighter single-handedly killed the zombie, and the stench of the rotten corpse had the human take a fortitude check. Yup, failed again!
Memorable moment: the human is vomiting because of the stench, while the Fighter cuts the head off the monster. The head rolls to the human's feet, only to have him throw up again. Haha!

After that, the group re-joined. After an hour's walk, they arrived at a village in a clearing. The village looked abandoned. While the party was deciding about how to loot all the houses, the human left by himself and entered a house. Pitch-black, he wasn't able to see a giant spider, but laid his hand on it, revealing the insect as big as a cat!

The other players were actually contemplating burning him alive in the house, but instead chose to explore another house. 2 spiders as big as men attacked them, almost killing the centaur and the fighter with their poison. The centaur was still able to kill both of them however.

The human had run out of the house, and the warlock lit a torch and burned the first house with a bunch of spiders in them. The centaur then proceeded to burn all the houses in the village.

Memorable moment: the fighter is almost dead. The centaur rushes in the house to save him, trying to push the spider away, only to be himself poisoned hehe.

All in all, everyone had tons of fun, can't wait for the rest of the adventure!

Weird

In my quest to find D&D material to prepare for my first ever real game, and i stumbled upon this weird piece of fiction.

First thinking it was a humourous comic, i quickly realised it was a serious piece, put together by our nice little christian friends.

Enjoy!

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

Lost In Transmission

I just finished book 2 of the Collapsium series by Wil McCarthy



As expected it is much better than the previous book, The Collapsium.

We are once again in the middle of immorbids who have to colonize a planet because they once were bad kids.

But things are REALLY not going as planned.

The economy is breaking down, some people have DIED, and there is almost no hope for the future (of course there has to be SOME hope because there is a third book in the series).

At the same time there is prologue and an epilogue where we see glimpes of a war against home aplliances.

This book is a real page turner, a lot of things happen and most of them come as a surprise.

Of course there is the usual hard science not always easy to understand: "(...) even impervium breaks down at thirty megawats per square meter (...) a fraction of a fraction of that energy slips in between the pseudoatoms and the heat kicks the electrons right out of their quantum wells. the whole thing reverts to sillicon (...)" but McCarthy is showing off far less often than he did in the 2 previous books I've read.


The main characters are still there, bascal (now a king), xmary and conrad and there are very funny moments such as when the one-hour old princess tries to seduce conrad (yes she is one-hour old, as births are quite special on the planet Sorrow ... hint: a lot of kids are named Mary Faxborne).

A fun read: 8/10


PS Why the hell do they create such stupid covers ????? I look like a dumbass every time someone picks up a book on my desk

The life of Regar the Ruthless

Regar the Ruthless is an old man, for its time period. The medieval times were dangerous, and gray hair was seldom seen. Regar had long and white hair, a white beard, eyebrows that showed both determination, strenght of character, but also a little sadness from deeds done in the past.



There are no accounts of Regar's youth, of how he landed in Calradia, or of how he earned the acronym ''Ruthless''. The first sightings of this historical character were registered in the land of the Nords, where he, alone, approached many villages, recruiting individuals. Promesses of loot, battles, glory, travelling, rewards were made to the men fit to fight. A few farmers, bored young men and villagers with nothing to lose, chose to follow him.


The Ruthless characteristic of Regar soon became apparent. When his group grew in size, so did his aggressivity. At first happy with fighting looters and bandits, he then started looting villages, often right after asking the people of that village if they wanted to join him! Some saw it as the first trial of their journey with Regar... to cut down your own wife and steal your brother's riches.

The travels of this group took them everywhere around Calradia, from the snowy steps of mountains to the nordic seaside. Trading and looting seemed to be the way Regar made his fortune, slowly. He started recruiting experienced troops and individuals in taverns of many towns, until he was finally captured by an army of Nords, happy to bring his pillaging rampage to a stop. Regar however, escaped a few days later, only to be recaptured right away. His fighting spirit still intact and a testimony to his survival instincts, Regard escaped from the Nords' claws numerous times in the following days, until he could reach the safety of Vaegirs lands.


His renown got him a request from a Vaegir lord: to follow, with his personal army, the army of the Lord and join in the sieges of many keeps, wich Regar happily did. He played an instrumental role in many of these battles, one time almost taking over the keep in a single wave of pure aggressivity.


And this is where Regar stands, for now. Happy to be of service to the lord, wich gives him plenty of missions and shows him plenty of action over enemy walls and fields.
Patiently bidding his time, proving his worth to the lord, until he can finally prove his allegiance and obtain his own little piece of land to defend.

He was asked many times to do deeds that would result in declarations of war from the Khergits. However, he has refused to partake in those actions. Not for the sake of peace, but because he loves to recruit Khergits in his group. With time and experience, they can become dangerous horse archers, essential to his cavalry-heavy army.

He has started looting and attacking Swadians also, when times are hard or when he needs money. Adept at trading and training, Regar is a seasoned traveler and war-monger. Much has yet to be discovered about the history of this timely individual from our archeologists, especially about the rest of his life.


A little is known about his battle skills, however. It seems Regar preffered to fight by his men's side, very rarely not joining them in battle. Favoring a fast, unarmored horse, a jousting pole for taking down the enemy cavalry, he rides at the helm of his formation. He was also deemed very dangerous with his Halberd. One of his favorite plans of actions was to select a hill, post his archers and footmen on top, and sneak behind enemy lines with his cavalry to exercise a pre-emptive strike against unlucky archers and soldiers in the back of the line. One swoop of his blade was often enough to cut off a man's head.
He would then return to his designated hill to come to the aid of this fellow men against cavalry, slowed down by the ascension. Always keeping in movement, he would cut through archers and crossbowmen when they came into shooting range of his foot soldiers.
He was also know to carry a beautifully adorned metal shield and a morningstar for 1 on 1 fights. He would give the honor of a dual to the last survivor of an army, stepping down from his trusty steed to deliver the final blow, cracking the head of the remaining individual.
His mace was also used to knock soldiers unconscious instead of killing them, for the sake of taking them prisoner, later selling them into slavery.

He proved his bravery many times over during sieges, climbing over a keep wall, only to face down a dozen enemies with his shield. He would charge at archers with his shield high and bring them down with his morningstar. Known to fight up to 3 men at a time, he was also an accomplished archer. He is seldom seen taking down an enemy horseman's mount with a bow when the coward would not give up and was hard to catch, and then delivering the final blow from his horse.

-The Calradia vault of artifacts and history.

Chicken

The best chicken in Montreal?????


Ramados, on Rachel, a couple of blocks east of St-Laurent


You get a charcoaled chicken (take the spicy sauce, it's not that spicy), with a MOUNTAIN of succulent fries, rice and salad, bread, a small portuguese pie, an a soft drink for less than 10$.

And it's amazingly good.

There is often a long line but you can call in advance (514-849-1803), there is a line for orders and one for people who did not order, the whole thing served with a smile by Maria who calls everyone mon chéri.

Now, instead of waiting 15 TO 30 minutes for your order (I've seen the line go outside once) it might still be 15 to 30 minutes if you call, but so what, you feel like an habitué when you are in the quick(?) line.

Every time I go there (once a week) I first of all want to go on vacation in Portugal and second I buy an extra dozen of those great little custard pies that Beurre's brother, Decal, wolfs down like there is no tomorrow.

Please don't give me that dry St-Hubert crap or those animals that once were chicken that they serve at KFC ... I want my Ramados!

Mount & Blade Review

People of the gaming community!
Addicts of RPGs!
Fans of the Total War franchise!
I have good news!
Good news indeed!

Recently, my prospector friend Goran has unearthed a gem of multiple facets, of untold value! Previously unknown to me, this little piece of treasury has already been discovered by gamers and labeled a cult classic.

Populace of the internet, i give thee... Mount & Blade!

First introduced to me as ''A very cheesy, fun little addictive game'' by Goran, as he was striding on a green and open field on his black horse, 7 peasants running to his side.
''It looks like Oblivion'' I said.
''What?'' Replied Goran... He was concentrating on the computer screen and barely paying any attention to me. Males of the human species, you see, are not adept at multi-tasking.
A few warcries made me turn back to the screen. In the distance, 6 or 7 footmen were charging. My friend's hero picked up the pace, the horse going in a gallop. The warcries were getting louder. As he swoops by the enemy, he takes out his sword and swings at his left left side, delivering a killing blow to his hated enemy.
''Wait... much more cooler than Oblivion. You can't do anything when you're on a horse, you have to step down to fight''
''Oh.. Yeah, look. Very cheezy, like i said''
I watched as Goran moved some distance away from the group of footmen, got down from his horse, and proceeded to continue the fight on foot. The rest of his group were following right behind, some of them throwing javelins and rocks. He rushed in with his shield high, blocking the first shots and replying with his sabre, cutting down a few enemies.

Before long, the sounds of battle were changed to... hard throat yells of victory from his comrades, celebrating their victory, arms in the air. Sweet!

The graphics were not that great, actually a little bit older than Oblivion, but they felt right. The gameplay was smooth, and the collision recognition perfect.

After that, a screen appeared, showing us what loot he had aquired, how many prisoners he could capture (to later sell into slavery), and how much experience him and his comrades received. A character screen showed us what Goran looked like with his present armor, wich stats did he want to improve as well as his abilities. (Stuff ranging from power strike to horse archery to looting). After leveling up his character, we were transported to the map of the world.

A bird's view showed Goran and the number of his troops (8 + 5 prisoners), traveling around the country side. These soldiers were actually recruited from nearby villages. There are 4 factions in the world, and your actions decide if they will become allies or enemies. Loot the village or escort a caravan?

There are also tracks left by your horse, shown as arrows pointing in the direction you are going. Colors also show how long ago you passed there. The size of the arrows show how large the group was. This is all influenced by your tracking skill. I learned later during my own gameplay that you can recruit heroes in taverns (cheezy, yes) that have party skills. I have a monk good at healing, a tracker and kind of archer wh0 doesn't really do anything.
Since I had a good tracker on board, i was able to find giant yellow arrows on the ground, telling me that a large army was there not too long ago. By following the tracks i was able to catch up to an army actually laying siege on another town, and i was able to lend my hand in.

And let me tell you, it's even cooler. We started charging the wall, going up a ladder, my friends falling to the ground in cries of agony as archers were picking us out. Shields, my friends, where are yours?

When we finally took the wall and the courtyard, we took the castle. The allegiance of the keep actually changed to the color of the lord that took it! The lord was pleased with my effort and offered to give me a quest. I have now been following his army around and going on recon missions for his campaign, helping in taking 2 keeps! The Nords now HATE me.

Altogether, a great game. Character evolution is always important, and in this case you can see it first-hand, you are completely responsible for it! I went from being a looter and pillager to being a trader, to now being a mercenary at the command of a force of almost 40 men. You get to pick if you want your villagers to become archers, footmen, horsemen, although a good mix of the 3 is recommended. I started as a scruffy-looking guy with a ''Lame Horse'', no helmet and just a leather shirt and rusty axe, to a knight with fur armor, a speedy horse, metal greaves. I just bought a huge pole, jousting-style, and a helmet with those cool flat tops. I want to buy one with huge wings but they are too expensive.

I'm also told you can even capture towns and castles yourself and become a faction, receiving taxes and defending your properties. I think you can also try to seduce ladies, more on that as i discover the game more and more!

I strongly, strongly recommend this game!

Here's a few screenshots. The Map, the party meny, and my knight.

From Montréal Comics

From Montréal Comics

From Montréal Comics

From Montréal Comics

From Montréal Comics

la crise frappe l'industrie du jeu vidéo

Midway, les créateurs de Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe et autres jeux populaires vient de se placer sous la loi de protection de faillite.

Quand même surprenant quand on sait que l'industrie du jeu vidéo surpasse celle du cinéma en terme de revenus annuels

Soembody somewhere has made a lot of monnnnnnney

Dark Avengers revealed!

Spoilers ahead! But that's why you're here, right?

Dark Avengers # 1---------------- 5/5

I was like... Hmm. ANOTHER Avengers title by Bendis. This guy really likes to make teams. I mean... this guy LOVES to make teams! It all started in the good old Avengers title. Then they were disassembled. The book was rightfully named Avengers: Dissasembled (Cap used to shout Avengers Assemble! when going in battle, remember? It's been so long. We miss you Cap.)
Then it became New Avengers. Then THOSE guys broke up during Civil War. Then the Mighty Avengers AND the New Avengers were created.
ALL of those titles were written by Bendis.
I wanted to pick up the title though, to know what that super-american-Iron-Man was all about.

What a pleasant surprise! This title is awesome! Well, all it does pretty much is showcase the new roster for yet another Avengers team, classic Bendis Avengers recipe.
First we are shown a double-splash page of all the new members. I like splash pages, people.

My first reaction was exactly this: Mkay... Quicksilver in a new suit, Sentry, Ms Marvel in her old costume, some dude in an Iron-Man armor, Ares, Wolverine... but he looks taller and less hairy than usual, Hawkeye and Spider-Man wearing his black costume.

Woa!
Waitaminute!
Isn't Quicksilver completely off the map with all the mutant crap AND Inhuman crap he's involved with?
Isn't Sentry a good guy?
Isn't Miss Marvel with the Mighty Avengers?
Isn't Iron Man now an enemy of the state, War Machine... at war? Who's this guy?
Ares i can understand...
Isn't Wolverine in more titles than marvel-y possible? Why's he standing like he's got something up his ass? Why's he so tall? Why des he have a tattoo?
Isn't Hawkeye... Ronin? (Sometimes I really really hate you Bendis)
Isn't Spider-Man in the New Avengers? Is he still wearing his black suit? Because in his own title he's got the red n blue thights on...
Mister Bendis, you have some explaining to do!

Allright, so the issue starts with Norman Osborn contemplating his new new S.H.I.E.L.D. heli-carrier. He doesn't like the red n gold colors of Tony Stark so he's getting it repainted. Oh yeah, and he's remaining the organisation H.A.M.M.E.R....
Then he fires Miss Hill.
Then he talks with Bullseye... Tells him they are moving to Avengers tower.
Ms. Marvel is invited to Avengers tower. She is drawn standing like a slut. I know she's wearing a thong but nobody stands like that. She is basically told to get the fuck off the team, and that Ares and Sentry are staying with the Avengers. So if she's off the team, who's the babe on the cover?
Moonstone! Norman Osborn's other team leader. She was field leader in the Thunderbolts but was recently decomissioned. Osborn shows up at Thunderbolts Mountain with a costume of Ms. Marvel. OOoooh! I like where this is going!
We are then shown Venom, absolutely HUGE, being fed Skrulls. Yeah. Then he receives a pill from Osborn, goes into shock, and then reappears looking quite normal... So this is actually Venom on the cover, NOT Spider-man! I like where this is going more and more! And he's shown in the classic pose when Spider-Man first discovers the black suit, back in Secret Wars... Nice little touch there.
After that, we see Daken Akihiro. Who? Haven't you been reading Wolverine Origins, that really baddly written and poorly drawn (for a Marvel comic anyways)? He's Wolverine's son. He's got 2 claws, healing factor, a tattoo, and Teenage Angster. Only he looks more like he's in his mid-twenties though. Bad temper and mutant genes run in the family i guess... He is recruited for his fighting abilities, and also to ''tick off his dad''. Hehe!
Then, we meet Noh-Varr. Who? The guy that looks like Quicksilver? Well, a quick research on wikipedia lets me know he used to be Marvel Boy. Weird. Then i remember that he was that asshole during Civil War that declared war on earth. During Secret Invasion he changed his mind. Osborn is actually giving him what he needs: a second chance. As the new Captain Marvel.
We are also shown how Osborn gets to open the Iron Man armor vault, so that means that the American Iron Man is actually Osborn! Sick!
And from what I gather, Bullseye is the new Hawkeye. Makes sense.

So this issue is actually quite enteraining because of all the changes it offers. And you get to see Norman Osborn's plan unfold. He's going for something big. He's in power, and he wants to piss off some people...
We are also shown Dr.Doom battling Morgan Le Fey, so i gather he's going to be playing a big role soon.

All in all, a cool read, a perfect introduction point. Not as cool if you are not too familiar with all the characters showcased in the issue.

One thing leads to another...

Well, i'm a big fan of lolcats, and i'm a big fan of random cat videos from the interweb. Some people find it funny, some people find it gay, others will think it's weird. I just think it's distracting. I like being distracted. So here goes! An innocent search and a mind desperate for cheap entertainment can lead to all kinds of interesting videos on Youtube.

So first, The Real Garfield. Look at how he is sitting. Look at his facial expression and eyebrows from the side shot. My favorite part is when he turns around and uninterested, turns back to the tv.






The next one is Ninja Cat. I chose Hitchcock's Ninja Cat because i like the soundtrack. More dramatic.






The third one, shown below, is Talking Cat. Although he is not really talking... It kinds of makes me think about those crazy christian zealots talking in tongues...






And so, the next video doesn't bring us to Sarah Palin, but to this weird young lady: Crazy Screaming Christian at some jesus camp.





Now THIS was pretty entertaining. It also makes me think about Crazy lady screaming at skateboarders?





Lastly, this woman makes me think about Coach Hines, here's my favorite video of him.

January 2009 Marvel Comics Reviewed

Before we start, cool stuff to check out:

Iron Man Armored Adventures



Looks okay. Kinda sick of The Mandarin though... What about the Living Laser or Spymaster?

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2



I hope it's better than the first one... wich sucked balls dry. Civil War though? And i think i saw Cable? Nice!

And now, on to the comics.

Avengers: The Initiative #20 ----------------2/5

An alright issue if you've been following the book, not really worth anything if you haven't, except maybe for Hank Pym fans (are there any?) or for a little follow-up on Secret Invasion repercussions. Not really anything to say here.

Captain America #45 -------------------------------3.5/5

A good read as always, not a good point to join if you are interested in starting to read this series. A lot of action, good writing, okay art that fits well. Sadly, not a lot of background info is offered on the current villain Bucky is facing. The writer makes us feel like we should know him though, an we are salivating for details as we read on and on. A cool little venture into the past of Captain America is opening up. I do feel like it's taking more and more time for things to happen in this book however.

Incredible Hercules #124--------------------3/5

I've been following this book since Herc took over the Hulk title during World War Hulk, and have been finding myself going back for more every month. The Hercules/Amedeus Cho combo is working great. The present arc showed signs of slowing down for the writer, but a good amount of action and mythology saves the day. A surprise ending makes me buy the next issue!

War Machine #1-----------------3.5/5

A perfect place to jump in on a new series, just as I did! You don't need to be familiar with War Machine's past, nor did you have to be reading Secret Invasion to know what's going on here. A good recap is offered anyways.
Basically Rhodes as had a good power-up lately, and is back in action. Think Iron Man without the shiny armor. The issued deals with his new power level, what he's about, and in wich direction the title's going.
Fighting injustice like all heroes, except War Machine goes in war-zones and fucking shreds to pieces terrorists, war-mongers and mercenaries. We also learn that his power-ups is probably going to be temporary.
In the recent past, our ''hero'' received a hard hit that cut off his arms and legs and tore half of his face off, but Iron Man was there to offer him something different to save his life. Now more machine than man, Rhodes is using his new abilities to the fullest while waiting for a new body to be grown for him. But... he manages to exchange words with Norman Osborn, who happens to be one of the most powerful man in the world right now, and for retribution, steals Rhodes' new and waiting body! What a dick!

What If? Secret Wars--------------------4.5/5

I don't know why, but i love What If?s. That, and i loved Secret Wars. That, and i love Dr. Doom. That, and i love the Celestials. Wich makes for a pretty fun read. Pick it up! What if Dr. Doom retained The Beyonder's powers? Not saying anything more!

Wolverine #70 ''Old Man Logan'' --------------4/5

Great, great run right now. Great writer, great idea, great penciler, inker and colorist! Kind of a What If... A good peek in a possible timeline, yet another one where the heroes lose. Not as desastrous as Age of Apocalypse, but close. We finally learn why Wolverine won't pop his claws in this gritty future, and i'm happy to tell you why.
During the night where all the villains launched their massive cooperative attack on the heroes, everyone was asking where Wolverine was. Turns out, Wolverine thought he was fighting all his most dangerous villains, as shown on the cover.
Wrong!
Mephisto, of all assholes, was manipulating Wolverine with his illusions, and so Logan killed ALL of the X-Men. All the teams, all the members, all his friends. That's pretty BIG. And also pretty far-fetched. First of all, wouldn't logan be able to ''smell'' his enemies a little bit better? I guess that if Mephisto can fool Spider-Man's spider-sense (tm), he can fool Wolverine's Logan-sense (not TMed). But to say that all of the present mutants wouldn't be able to defeat him?
He looks severly beat up, granted.
After he realises what happened, a sad Logan walks in the woods alone, looking for a way to end his misery. He sees a railroad track with a train coming. He puts his neck on the track, and the train hits him dead on! Since he has an adamantium skull, it doesn't decapitate him... But you can imagine that being dragged by a train, from the spinal cord, against metal and red-hot metal wheels for several hundred yards is enough to put you through serious pain... Sick! I love it!



Well, due to my short attention span, i'm kind of tired of writting this blog. I will finish later this week however.

And also, from February and on, will write my reviews when i just read the issue and details are still fresh in my mind. Quality should rise! I will also offer spoilers for people who want to know what's happening but don't feel like reading the comics.

Hulk Vs. Reviewed

I've been buying Marvel Animation features ever since they been putting a lot of efforts in 'em, starting with Ultimate Avengers.
I was pretty pleased with U.A. The second one sucked though. Big time. And then the Iron Man one was pretty bad too. I was going to buy the Doctor Strange one also, but then i saw a cover showing him with a mystical two-handed sword and knew i wouldn't like the movie.

Then i saw this trailer:

And i thought... hey, looks like they might get the characters right for once! And it's not drawn like the faggy X-Men Evolution! I'm definetly checking this one out.

And so i did. A good double feature, packed with action, cool scenes, and winks at comics.

Hulk vs Wolverine was the one i liked the most. First of all, Logan's attitude and voice is perfect. How he moves, his body stance, makes me think of the good old x-men tv series (can't wait for them to go on dvd, see video at bottom of post!).

Hulk is also well portrayed, and finally they leave Bruce Banner almost completely aside. I know he plays a big role in Hulk's existence, but the real-life movies sucked because too much attention was put on Dr. Banner.

The bad guys are also well drawn and sound right, except maybe for Deadpool. I'm a big fan, and so more judgmental i guess. I think that his voice should be more gritty, but his attitude is just right. Except that he doesn't do anything useful in the movie, wich is a huge letdown. But still, a very funny character in general. I don't really understand why Omega Red is there though... i thought he was Russian?

Hulk vs Thor is also really cool, lots of characters from Asgard are shown, and character portrayal is very well done also. My favorite scene is when Hulk punches Thor through a mountain, but not with one single hit. No, Thor's back is to the rock, and Hulk keeps punching, punching, until it digs a tunnel all the way through hehe.

You also don't really have to be well-versed in Marvel lore but it helps. Some stuff you will ''get'' only if you read the comics. I was surprised to see blood and that level of violence. In both movies you watch Hulk pummel the unconscious bodies of both Wolvie and Thor without them trying to defend themselves. If i was a kid i'd be slightly disturbed. Then again, i didn't grow up with the internet since i was born.

All in all, a good pick and a worthy addition to your collection!

90s X-Men tv series:

Spider-Man 90s tv series just for fun!

NHL 09 Nordiques update!

Well well well, here we are once again, to Bassam's pleasure.

Another 15 games later, now 30 in the season. What has changed for the driven and newborn Nordiques? Much!

We are first in the league with 52 points for 30 games played.


Washington is second with 42 points in 33 games played.

Team record is now at 25 wins - 3 losses - 2 overtime losses. I would have had 2 more losses, but NHL lets you restart games without any consequence, so there are 2 games that i did because i lost both 0 to 1. First game, with more than 40 shots on goal on my side, and the other team had 2 shots on goal and 1 puck got in at 15 seconds from the end.

The other game, same story, except for some reason one of my players stole the puck from my goalie and put it in the net at 20 seconds from the end, instead of letting the goalie freeze the puck! Weird! But i will talk about retarded NHL 09 situations a little bit later. Now, on with the stats!

First of all, not happy with my team and instead of playing around with the lines (i do that a lot), i decided to switch the team completely around. Some of you might ask why i am not happy with my team when i am leading the league by far. I am simply not happy with the fact that none of my players are even close to being in the 1st spot for goals!

First, i thought that i was playing pretty good defense wise and didn't need a player like Dion Phaneuf gobbing up so much of my allowed salary (he was something like 6 millions a year). So i traded him for Roberto Luongo. I thought that a strong and constant goalie would help the team a lot instead of 2 rookies. I kept the two rookiers mind you, and sent the one with the lesser potential to the minors.

Then i went to the free agents and got myself Vincent Lecavalier and another big winger (Gougeon). Since i do a lot of checks, i thought that a big center would be more productive. I also traded Malkin and Backstrom for rookie defense players to lower my salary cap so i would get more profits. All these changes were done right after the last blog.

Gougeon is another one of my friends i made into a player. To be fair i had them all built with a stat of 81, and some of them have more of a weakness or strenght rather than be all around. Gougeon is a 6'4, 200 pounds center who is not really agile but excells in checks and accuracy.

I also finally found how to get in fights, and 5 fights later found out how to punch!

So the new lines are presented in this order: LW-C-RW.

Not much has happened in defense except that my rookies are faring pretty well.

I also just changed the lines prior to writing this because 3 of my players were on a cold streak.

Gougeon-Koivu-Lecavalier (3 centers on line 1!!!)

Michalek-Turris-Ryan (Turris has been producing steadily)

Dufort-Fraser-Kotalik (Dufort was on the first line but recently got a cold streak)

Sterling-Craig-Okposo (Okposo scored within 20 seconds of being on the team, and has been rather quiet ever since)

Koivu is my Captain, Lecavalier and Komisarek my Assists.

Lecavalier, who had no points before i recruited him, is now in 3rd place with 32 points in the NHL. He is in 8th place for goals with 15, and has 17 assists.

Koivu has had somewhat of a slowdown lately, that's why i sent him back on the 1st line.

He's still first in the NHL for assists with 21 but Malkin and many others are right behind him. He's the second for +/- with a +22.

Gougeon is leading the NHL in Short-Handed Goals with 5 and has an accuracy of 21.57%, the best in the team. Lecavalier has 4 SHG and leads the team in shots on net with 91.

My 2 star defenses, Fistric and Komisarek, have 113 and 102 hits respectively.

And finally, for my goalies, Luongo (who has been very disapointing considering the goals he gave away) has an save percentage of 90.59% and 2 Shut-Outs. The rookie goalie Johnson has a SP of 92.37%!

All and all i've been having much fun with NHL 09, but i realised something about the difficulty levels.

They are not about the level of difficulty your opponents will have. Hard just means it's going to be harder to cope with the stupid A.I. of the players.

The most frustrating thing would be - by far - when an opposing player comes flying to the net, stops right between the two face-off circles, and just sits there. Your players will start trying to pry the puck away from him, tackle him, pokestick him. These, very very very very often, result in an elbowing or charge penalty, and a pokestick gets you a slashing or tripping penalty. Or sometimes 4 players will be on him trying to get the damn puck and all of a sudden he will wristshot your ass into oblivion!

Another annoying thing that happens, partly due to my own stupidity, would be when i get the puck with one of my wingers but i'm in center position, and the center player will skate to his position right in front of me or exactly where i am standing at that time, stopping me in my tracks!

Well, enough bitching for now. I will have some Marvel comics reviewed by next week!

To my defense

To answer my dad's last post, i will be perfectly honest.
I reacted slowly and poorly to his shot.
I suck at breakaways and get nervous.

Now for my defense, here are a few stats:

My father is in his 50s, has been playing hockey for most of his life, has also been in leagues for most of his life playing at least once a week and is a cherry picker (granted he plays with people half his age so i get it that he doesn't want to sprint everywhere like a mad man).

I'm 24, been playing street hockey since i'm 22, been ice goalie and skating altogether since... well... around the start of January.

So you might understand that i did not have a really good chance at stopping this puck from hitting the back of the net.

You might think that i did not cover my angles right, was not watching the right part of the body, was not mentally prepared nor confident enough to make the save.
And you would be absolutely right!

In the meanwhile, let me just say this:

Hockey's friggin' great. I've been watching it more and more seriously for the past few years, been playing it more and more regularly also.
The few times a month i get to play, is also the few times a month i get to see many of my friends, do some outdoors activity, and downright have some good, manly fun.
Oh, and also enjoy nature.

Here's a few pictures of where we play:






And i know the name of this blog is Montréal Comics but we don't talk a lot about comics, but my reading habits have changed a lot since 2006 where i was most active. I do however plan on going back to my monthly reviews of as many titles as i can afford, so watch out for January reviews anytime soon.

See you on the ice!

HUM

I noticed that

my son

the goalie

with the fancy equipment

has not reported

on how I fared on a breakaway

against him

last Friday

Hint: the old man still has great MOVES!

Marvel title we should check out

Hey everyone,

so i was just browsing Marvel.com and saw the next War Machine issue announced... #3 to be exact.

I could not find an image of the cover, but it shows Ares taking an axe swing at Rhodes.

War Machine vs Greek God of War? Sweet!

As i was reading, direcly on marvel's website, about the upcoming issue, i kept finding more and more reasons to buy that title, starting from #1.

First, apparently War Machine has had somewhat of a power boost lately. He can now incorporate machinery and weaponry into his body and armor to heal/improve himself, and is now part robot permanently.

The write is also planning something big with him and Norman Osborn. I'm definetly picking up this title now!

And by the way, while looking for pictures of him, i found THIS:

War Machine in Iron Man 2!!!

Another strange tale from the real world

Scientists have discovered a 5mm jellyfish that is technically immortal!

The story, from telegraph.uk, here.

Budapest

Je sais que la plupart des gens qui lisent ceci n'ont peut-être pas les moyens de prendre des vacances en Europe, mais si jamais ... Budapest est une superbe ville, pas chère du tout.

Budapest a été formée à partir de 3 villes: Buda, Pest et Obuda. Buda et Obuda sont sur des collines et Pest (prononcer PESH) est dans les plaines.

On y parle le hongrois et en tant qu'ancienne capitale de l'empire austro-hongrois, on y retrouve une grande quantité de monuments et de villas somptueuses.

Mais comme le pays a vu ses ressources et même sa superficie grandement réduites par les guerres et l'ancien régime communiste, la ville est par endroit quelque peu en décrépitude.

La ville vaut quand même la visite, par exemple la vue des collines de Buda est imprenable. Le château royal (jamais habité) est également superbe et le soir, des rives de Pest offre une des ces vues inoubliables que l'on retrouve à Portofino ou Florence par exemple.

Il y a également de nombreux musées, dont le musée des horreurs, l'ancien siège social de la police secrète. Nous étions à Budapest le soir où les musées étaient gratuits, pour une nuit et c'était très impressionnant de voir la quantité de gens en file à chacun des musées.

Étant un pays pauvre, la Hongrie n'est pas dans la zone euro et on s'amuse beaucoup à calculer le taux de change puisque qu'il faut compter environ 180 florints pour un dollar canadien ... des heures de plaisir!

La bouffe n'est pas chère (environ 12$ pour 2 pizzas, un verre de vin et un coke, sur une terrasse - bon le serveur nous a oubliés dehors mais comme c'était une belle soirée chaude, on n'a pas vraiment souffert) et les plats locaux sont intéressants quoique plutôt lourds.

Les gens sont en général très sympathiques sauf les vieux communistes qui travaillent dans les lieux publics: vieux airs bêtes blasés, de vrais caricatures.

Ma blonde et moi aimons marcher dans les villes que nous visitons et nous pouvons dire que presque partout dans la ville il y a de quoi de beau à voir. Un peu exténuant par contre d'escalader Buda par 34 degrés de chaleur.

La langue est par ailleurs peu évidente. Jo a appris que pomoc! veut dire à l'aide! et évidemment hurlait cela à toutes les 10 minutes (elle le fait encore mais moins fréquemment).

Le premier soir, je me suis retrouvé devant 2 signes: ferfi et noy qui indiquaient les toilettes ... je vous laisse le soin de trouver lequel est lequel.

Une des attractions que nous n'avons pas visitée: les bains. On retrouve un peu partout de ces fameux bains de style turc, à l'architecture grandiose et aux nombreux services. Mais on a passé l'âge de se promer en maillots.

Ne pas manquer non plus les ponts, la place des héros et les petits pickpockets de 5 ans qui font semblant d'être affamés (ou peut-être le sont-ils vraiment)

Donc: belle ville, gens sympathiques, peu chère