Reilly2040's Blog

With the last issue establishing Guy’s quest to explore the uncharted sectors, this issue gets the job of moving the other pieces into play, so we get quite a few character moments with our other regulars.

The plot surrounding Sodam Yat is picked up pretty quickly, with Arisia having nightmares about having left him in the Daxam sun.  Of course, we saw last issue that he’s now on Daxam itself, but this does nicely set up the team heading over there to find him in the next issue or so.

Likewise, we get a nice scene with Kilowog as he’s approached by a new rookie Lantern, and ends up being chewed out by Kilowog, who’s still suffering from Blackest Night, and seeing so many of the rookies he’s trained die over the years (and then come back to haunt him).   Its a nice scene giving us a view of where Kilowog is at, and while long time readers will know this is why he stepped down, however as this is a new book, its important to introduce these things for any new readers.

It also nicely sets out how the various characters are wanting to get away from Oa, and how the group would relish the chance to head out on their own to the uncharted sectors.  About the only recent character point not touched upon was Arisia losing confidence in the Guardians for their actions with Sodam, the Alpha Lanterns and the like.

What was very welcome for me, was Guy’s decision to go to Odym first to be cured of his Red Lantern infection.  Its nice to see this addressed so directly and quickly, and we’ve seen so little of the Blue Lanterns that it was nice to check in on their homeworld.  I assume we’ll not get the more detailed questions addressed (who’s running them now Ganthet and Syad have switched Corps?) but its still nice to just see them again.  Bleez’s appearance at the end may have been prompted by the cover image, but it’ll be nice to see what reason will be given for Guy not having the Blue Lanterns just cure them both on the spot (I’m going to guess it’ll be a condition set out by Atrocitus for his part in the secret plan).

Talking of which, we get another scene of Guy wondering about this mysterious plan he, Ganthet and Atrocitus have, and how the others will react to what he’s going to do.  I must admit, this plot makes me slightly nervous as I really have no idea what they could be planning that Hal, John and Kyle could have massive issues with.  I guess time will tell as this particular plot gets revealed.

The new villain properly gets his debut this issue, and seems suitably horrific.  Its nice to have it cleared up that this is a new character, as last month’s tease left some people wondering if he was Bolphunga.  It’ll be interesting to see how Peter Tomasi develops this character.  He’s done good work in the past with intergalactic warlords in the shape of Mongul, so I expect we’ll see this new character built up as a sizable threat in a similar way.

All in all, its difficult to review this issue too heavily, as we’re still very much in a setup phase that Peter Tomasi is taking his time with, reintroducing the core cast and the new villain.  There’s an argument that you could assume anyone reading the book is already aware of plot and character developments from GL and GLC, but I guess coming off of Blackest Night, it does make sense to assume a new GL book might have some new readers.

With Bleez turning up, next month we’ll hopefully finish off this setup phase, and head off to Daxam to pick up Sodam Yat as well.  I don’t mind setup, but I don’t think I’ll want to see it dragged out too long, so hopefully the GLs will actually get to the unknown sectors in a couple of issues.

I’ve been busy on another Big Finish review for Outpost Skaro, and this time its the third part of the recent 5th Doctor, Tegan, Turlough and Nyssa trilogy: Cradle of the Snake.

The Mara’s back once again, and the crew end up back in the Manussan Empire where it was originally created, however they’ve arrived a few hundred years early.  But what did I think?

Head over to OutpostSkaro.com to read my full review

Saturday’s been and gone, and with it part 4 of the 5 part Breen storyline.

Things have hotted up now, with the ruins on Defera coming back into focus.  As you return to investigate the possibility of some ancient information being left there.

Of course, the puzzle relating to this episode has actually been in the game since this weekly series launched, so many players had previously discovered the star map fragment earlier, but it was nice to see how it actually worked in with the plot.

The rest of the mission then brings to mind the Next Generation episode, The Chase, as you run from system to system across the sector trying to find the other pieces of the star map before the Breen can get to them. As with previous missions there’s some nice visuals in these systems, especially the system with the ringed planet and all the asteroid debris.

My only real complaint with this week’s mission is that I didn’t find all the running around that involving. There’s some nice stuff in the previously mentioned system with the stellar debris for example, but it was crying out for another puzzle or bit of thought, rather than my bridge officers always telling me where to go and what to shoot. The opening puzzle was great, but slightly spoiled by being found in the first mission, so with that in mind a second, similar puzzle would’ve been the icing on the cake.

I guess I was slightly spoiled by last week’s episode really getting me to stop, read things properly and think, and having already completed the opening puzzle didn’t help.

There is some nice combat though.  The devs have nicely balanced the encounters out, so that some of them are actually pretty easy, whereas others provide more of a challenge.  And it all builds up to a confrontation on an ice planet against a pretty tough Breen boss.

The weekly reward is quite amusing too.   Its a freeze grenade, but unlike the previous ones, this one is more for the role players, as it only targets friendlies and doesn’t do anything beyond a visual “freezing” effect (so if you get hit, it doesn’t stop you moving or getting on with your gaming).  I daresay though there’ll be a few people complaining about it being used a lot around the Sol starbase, but I don’t mind it as some harmless fun

Next Saturday, its the final part, wherein we’ll finally face off against Thot Trel and discover the secret the Preservers have hidden away.  I can’t wait

Back in December 2007 I blogged about a new service Marvel were launching, in the form of an online comics archive.  You paid an annual fee for access, and in return you got a nice backlog of comics, with new issues being added regularly.

Admittedly, its coming up for 3 years later, but I blame OMD for me not getting around to subscribing until now

Anyway, following SDCC Marvel had a special offer on the subscription, so I decided to go for it.

What a brilliant service.  Ok, yes it needs an annual subscription, so you’re only borrowing the comics, and yes, you need an active internet connection to view them.  But once you’ve accepted those limitations, its a brilliant archive.

For the meagre sum of $60 a year (currently around £40) you get access to what I have to say is a fairly extensive archive of Marvel comics.  There are hundreds of series whose complete runs are available, and for me the best thing is that its not just older stuff, but also more recent comics as well.  I loved being able to read the new (and sadly final) issues of Spider-Girl on the day they came out, and I’m currently enjoying going back and catching up with the Iron Man issues I’ve missed over the last few years, starting with the much-hyped Extremis.  Also on my radar are reading Annihilation (Pie Man 70′s been telling me how great it was for years)  going back and re-reading Agent X (Gail Simone’s Deadpool spin-off) and reading through the many issues of Spider-Girl I missed when my comic shop stopped getting it in regularly (or weren’t ordering enough copies, one of the two).

If you’re into Marvel comics at all and haven’t been collecting them for a while, then to my mind, its well worth the money.  The flash interface to the books works well, zooming into each panel, and the fact Marvel are keeping it pretty up to date with new comics being added all the time is excellent.

For me there’s no question as to whether or not I’ll be re-subscribing at the end of the year.

http://marvel.com/digitalcomics/ Definitely recommended

This week’s weekly episode in Star Trek Online provided an interesting change of pace from what’s come before.

Following on from last week’s Breen attacks on the Deferi, you retrieve a distress signal from another ship that’s being attacked.  By the time you arrive, the ship has been driven off, and the crew are tending to repairs and injured crew members, not to mention prisoners taken from a Breen boarding party.

And that’s the big difference between this and the previous weekly episodes.  This time, there’s absolutely no combat in the mission, and its much more the format of a diplomatic mission.

There’s two main parts to the adventure, with the first finding you helping out, treating the wounded.  This involves questioning the patients, and then determining the correct drug to administer.  This was great fun, and I loved having to pay attention to what was being said, so as to be sure I picked up the right treatment.

The second patient though leads into the next part of the mission, as you must interrogate the Breen prisoners about an implant you discover in the patient.

Its a pleasant change of pace from the combat of the previous episodes, and serves to drive the plot along in a couple of interesting ways, as you discover the Breen are using the implants to examine the Deferi’s childhood memories, but also that there’s a splinter faction in the Breen that are not happy with the way they’re constantly being driven to attack civilians.

The only real complaint I can make about the mission is that its much too short.  As long as you pay attention, and pick dialogue options carefully, you can work through this mission quite rapidly, and it really feels like the mission could’ve used a third section (perhaps helping to fix the ship).

Also debuting this week was the addition of another mission to the Deferi sector.  There’s now a Breen Patrol added to the map, that if you intercept, you can discover they have Deferi onboard, and you have to figure out the best way to help them escape the Breen.  There’s a few different ways to complete this, but the way I went for felt suitably “Star Trek” to me.  Again this was probably a bit too short, but as a nice extra to the weekly mission, I enjoyed it.

While there are doubtless going to be those players who were unhappy with the lack of combat in this week’s episode, for me it helps highlight how the developers are trying to add to the gameplay mechanics, making the game feel more like the Star Trek TV show we all watched and loved, and add variety into the game.

The hunt for the entities continues, as the focus of the book switches to the Star Sapphires and leads them to Las Vegas in search of the Predator.

I’ve made comments in the past that these days Hal seems to be a guest star in his own book, and this issue is very much no exception with Carol taking centre stage.

Which is not to say though, that this was a bad issue. In fact I enjoyed it more than some of the other recent issues and it was nice to see the dangling plot thread of the destroyed Sapphire battery picked up.

The resolution of the Star Sapphires’ power woes also made a lot of sense, neatly using an established bit of the Green Lantern mythology to explain why they don’t need a new power source for the battery to function.

In fact the only downside to this issue was the non-resolution of last month’s cliffhanger. Ophidian/Hector takes off to find Carol in Las Vegas, however the rest of the issue is spent there and Ophidian never shows up, even after Hal and Larfleeze get there. I have to assume there’s a missing page somewhere where the mysterious chained figure grabbed him (in which case, what happened to Hector?). Hopefully we’ll see what happened to them next month.

The main plot for the issue though is Carol, having been sent to Vegas in order to track and capture the Predator as a replacement power source for the Zamaron battery.

And it was nice to see Carol spotlighted like this. Previously I’ve always just seen her as “Hal’s love interest”, however her current role as a Star Sapphire is making her a much stronger character for me, especially since its very much Carol with the powers as opposed to how Star Sapphire always used to be a separate personality possessing her.

The actual threat of the Predator is fairly straightforward, as it joins with a creepy stalker dude, and Carol, Hal and Larfleeze must then try and separate them.  More interesting is the revelation that the Predator is actually affected by its host, rather than the other way around.  It seems like an interesting extension of the emotional spectrum that we’ve seen so far.

We know that the farther you get from the centre of the spectrum, the more influence the power exerts over its wielder, so that by the time you get to the Red Lanterns or the Sapphires, the power can be very corrupting (with only Carol and Atrocitus seeming to maintain proper control over it).  This revelation about the entities would seem to be similar to this.  We know that the yellow and orange entities can overwhelm their hosts (Parallax is well-documented, and Ophidian was speaking through Hector at the beginning of the issue), whereas Ion seems very neutral by comparison, just boosting its host’s power.    I wonder if we’ll see this trend continue with the Red Entity dominating its host, with the Indigo and Blue entities showing traits of being influenced by theirs, making a chain of influence, with it balanced in the middle of the spectrum with Ion.

Maybe that’s not entirely right, but I do wonder if we’ll see something analogous to the spectrum influence with the entities.

Overall, while this book still feels more like its “The Corps” rather than “Green Lantern”, this was still a nice showcase for Carol and the Star Sapphires.  The ending with Carol (once again) being made Queen of the Zamarrons will be interesting, although I suspect next issue will move quickly on to the next entity.  Hopefully we’ll get a similar showcase for the Blue Lanterns in the coming issues, as they feel like they’ve been woefully neglected since their first appearance.

Last week saw the second of the new Star Trek Online weekly episodes released, and after the huge success of the first episode, could this one live up to expectations?

Well, yes and no. From a plot perspective, this is very much in the middle of the story. Too early for any major plot revelations, so instead things are just moved on a little, with the revelations that the Breen are now not only attacking Deferi vessels in space, but have also been capturing their people alive for some unknown reason.

The rich level design from the previous episode is here in force as well. The space combats are set against what looks like several giant meteor fragments and the ground segment brings a much needed revamp to the “underground cave base” style of map to make it look like a much more realistic base.  Hopefully we’ll see this style of map added to the star cluster missions to revamp their cave bases as well.

Its slightly harder to talk much about this mission.  It was definitely a lot of fun to play, and the time and care being spent on the level design on these missions to my mind helps show the developers dedication to make these episodes into more of an event, and help turn around some of the bad press the game has gotten since launch.

And that feeling of an event is a great thing in game.  With so many players spread across the game, its really nice on a Saturday to log in, and see things buzzing.   Having seen a lot of negativity in the past, its great to see the player base enthusiastic about these missions, and its a lot of fun, logging in on a Saturday at 6, and seeing the sector filled with players all waiting on the new content.   Certainly the weekly episodes seem to be a big hit, and I look forward to seeing them continue for some time.

My second review for Outpost Skaro has just gone live. This time, its me rambling on about a Big Finish release or two, in the form of Jago and Litefoot.

With pre-orders for series 2 underway, I take a quick overview of both the Companion Chronicle that started the ball rolling, and then the series 1 boxset (spoiler alert: I really liked them).

Jago and Litefoot Review

With all the fuss about Brightest Day, its easy to overlook the fact that DC actually have a second fortnightly series on the go, which is actually a Brightest Day tie-in itself: Justice League – Generation Lost.

When it was announced, I’d been really excited about the project, as it was focused on the old JLI team (or what was left of them).  They’ve long been fan-favourites as those books were filled with great characters and a brilliant sense of humour and dialogue.

However the first two issues I found to be a major disappointment.  Spinning out of Brightest Day, Max Lord performs his biggest mind control experiment ever, wiping all knowledge of his existence from the world.   The only ones left who know who he is are his old team mates from the JLI, Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Fire and Ice who must find some way to expose him.

The main problem with the first couple of issues was that they just seemed too serious.  The sparkle and wit that the team was associated with was gone, and I quickly lost all interest in the series.

However I then heard that things had picked up a bit, and not only that, I discovered that the series was being released every fortnight on the DC Comics iPhone application in line with the paper release.

This was ideal, as it provided a cheaper way to pick up the issues to give the series another chance.  And so I picked up issues 3 and 4.

We’re now up to issue 8, and the amount this series has turned around from those first two issues has been amazing.  The pacing has been great throughout, with the story moving on quickly as the team attempt to track down Maxwell Lord.

There’s been some interesting new elements thrown in as well. Blue Beetle Jamie Reyes joining the team was a bit of a no-brainer. He’s picked up Ted Koord’s legacy, and has worked with the JLI on several occassions. He’s also a character that DC are looking to push heavily, and this series presents an ideal place for him.

However more important was the addition of the new Rocket Red to the team. The Rocket Red who previously worked with the JLI was killed some time ago, and its a spot that’s long sat dormant on the team (although Mary Marvel would often be added as another heavy hitter).

The new Rocket Red has really brought that missing element to the book. Humour. Straight away from his debut issue, that spark that made the JLI so popular arrived with him. Between that and the nice pace of the book, as the team infiltrate Checkmate and we discover Captain Atom knows the true cost of letting Max run unchecked, this book has really clicked into place for me, becoming one I’m really looking forward to every fortnight. All credit to the writer Judd Winnick, its an incredible turn around for me.

I have to mention quickly the digital format, as its something I’ve been vocal about supporting on this blog for a while.   Don’t get me wrong, its absolutely not a replacement for a proper, physical comic book.   However, with me trying to cut back on books as $3.99 slowly becomes a more prominent price for new books, and storage space vanishes in my house, its a great option for picking up those books I might otherwise have skipped, and its great to see DC finally starting to make some headway with the digital stuff, rather than just leaving it to the pirates.

I like being able to log on with my iPod Touch every fortnight and download this book, however its still a bit disappointing to see that Generation Lost seems to be about the only book DC is doing this kind of regular release with. Marvel is still way ahead of them in this game, and I really hope that Generation Lost does well as a digital book, so that DC can be convinced to further support this medium.

I’m quite excited about this upcoming Spider-Man game.  I’ve got fond memories of the Spider-Man games on the PS1 which excellently captured the character, and were filled with loads of fun unlockables.  I played those games a lot.  Then on the PS2 I bought the first two movie games, with the second having that great free roaming aspect as you swung your way around Manhatten (the best bit of the game in truth, the missions just distracted from it).

So I really hope this game brings a similar great feeling of having captured what it would be like to be Spider-Man, to the next generation consoles.   And its got different costumes in it which catches my attention straight away.  Especially the unexpected appearance of Spider-Man 2099.   I’ve seen that the Scarlet Spider can be unlocked too.

Can’t wait for the first reviews and demos to appear.  The game’s got a lot to live up to, especially with the recent Wolverine and Batman games being great fun.