Reilly2040's Blog

I’ve now had my trusty HTC Desire for around 6 months. In that time I’ve also upgraded it from Android 2.1 to Android 2.2. With Android phones becoming a major player in the market, and Android tablets starting to appear as alternatives to the iPad, I thought it might be interesting to put down a few thoughts.

I got my Desire on day of release in the UK. I’d previously had (and been very happy with) a Blackberry Bold, but I felt for my next phone I really wanted something with more of a consumer slant, with a better web browser and stronger app market than the Blackberry.  To my mind, the Blackberry was (and probably still is) the king for email, IM and that kind of thing, but the web browser (since replaced by a new WebKit based one I must point out), was never that brilliant, and despite being built on Java, and having had a third party developer community for years, the apps that were being created didn’t seem to tick the same entertainment boxes as those on the iPhone and Android.  I’ve always felt that the enterprise nature of Blackberry was very apparent in even their more consumer-oriented devices.  They’re by no means bad phones, and I was very happy with my Bold.  Its just that when I came to upgrade, the HTC Desire ticked more of the boxes in terms of what I wanted out of my smart phone.

I’ve been very happy with the device. And very interesting to me is just how many of them I’m seeing on the streets. Several of my friends now have the Desire as well as some of my work colleagues. Bit even on my daily commute they’re a common sight on the train. I guess this is, for me, because its been the first really sold competitor for the iPhone. It looks nice, the software is polished and, probably key to the mass adoption I’ve seen, unlike the iPhone it tends to come free on contracts.

Checking back through my blog, I discovered I’ve never really talked about my phone or Android since I got it.   Right from the word go, I was quickly won over by the phone and its OS.  The experience is slick and responsive.  The call quality was noticeably improved from my Bold and the Google integration was great for me, since I was already using Google Calendar and had Gmail storing all my contacts (and being synced to my Blackberry).  Granted, some people may dislike having to sign up to all the Google services in order to get the most out of the device, but if you’re one of the millions already using Gmail and the like, the phone just provides a more convenient way to access them on the go.

Of course, with these smart phones, the app store or marketplace is a big focus.  The Android takes a different approach to the Apple effort, by being much less regulated.  This has advantages and disadvantages (as some of the recent stories about malicious apps have proven), however I’ve been incredibly happy, and despite Apple’s app store having a larger array of apps to choose from, I don’t think I’ve ever struggled to find what I’m looking for.

What is really nice, is down to the more open nature of Android.  If there’s an element of the OS or its behaviour you’re not happy with, then its worth taking a look on the app store, as Android allows apps which hook right into the UI.  For example, by default, when text messages arrive, there’s a notification, and the “Messages” icon will get a number beside it displaying the number of unread messages.   Alternatively, by going to the app store, you could get SMS Popup, which brings up a nice popup dialogue when a new message is received that can display the message, a picture of the contact, and give you quick options for replying or deleting.

Another example would by the keyboard used for typing.  Again, if you’re not keen on the one that came with your phone, you can download a new one from the Marketplace.  I’m personally using Smart Keyboard Pro as it offered more customisability than the stock keyboard, however other keyboards, like Swype can completely change the way you input text into your phone, replacing the traditional typing.

Aside from those apps that change the UI of the phone, I’ve also downloaded various others.  From great mobile games like Gem Miner and iPhone-favourite Angry Birds to more practical (well, sort-of ) apps, like the official WordPress app, that lets me work on posts for this blog on the move, as well as view stats, approve comments etc.  Various Twitter clients let me keep up to date with those goings-on, and I’ve got c:geo, a geocaching application that pulls information from the geocaching.com website and combines it with maps, and the phone’s GPS and compass to help me find and record Geocaches.

It really has turned out to be a really handy device.  While I did have my email, IM and calendars syncing previously, sitting on the couch being able to quickly check websites through the web browser has been a breeze, and I find myself using the Google Maps and Navigate software quite a bit as well (Google Maps is great on a nice big touchscreen device).  Another great thing has been related to the uptake of Android I mentioned above.  As more of my friends start using Google Calendars through their phones, and sharing them, then I can pick up those other calendars through my phone, as well as sharing my own.  Very handy for making sure you’re keeping up with events and arrangements.

The only real downside I’ve found with Android has been its fragmentation.  I mentioned above that I’ve upgraded to 2.2, but its a downside to the Apple approach.  As Apple control everything, in general, when they announce a new version of iOS, you can jump straight onto iTunes and get it.  When Google released 2.2, there was then the wait for HTC to release their version of 2.2 (with their own SenseUI sitting on top of it), and then I had to wait for my network to release their version of the HTC release.  This can be frustrating when the other networks (and thus other people you know) get their releases sorted out faster and so you’re stuck waiting on it.   That being said, I was perfectly happy with Android 2.1 and it was ticking all my boxes, so even if I’d been stuck on it it wouldn’t have been a bad thing.  The only downside would be when Google releases version-specific applications (like Navigate which needed Android 2.1), if you’re stuck waiting for that latest release and can’t get the new software.

As you can probably gather I’m incredibly positive on Android.  I’ve been incredibly happy with my phone, however I know people who aren’t even as tech-saavy as I am who are similarly addicted to their Android smart phones in the same way I’ve described I use mine above.  And with sales of Android-based Smart Phones ever increasing, and Android-powered tablets now starting to appear, things look very rosy for the OS.

The race to find the entities continues in Green Lantern, as Atrocitus and Sinestro track down the Butcher and Adara finds a host.

There’s a lot still being juggled in Green Lantern, and this issue is no exception, with about 3 separate plot lines being focused on throughout the issues.

It starts out with Atrocitus hunting down the Butcher with Sinestro.  Its a nice scene that underlines that as bad as Atrocitus can be, there’s still a sense of justice (albeit an extreme one) underneath what he does, as they discover the prison attacked by the Butcher, and he vapourises a bus-load of convicted murderers.  Its a nice character scene that helps underline the depth to Atrocitus, as well as the power of the Butcher from the devastation at the prison.

The action then picks up where last issue left off, with Hal, Larfleeze and Carol on Zamarron.  We see rebuilding is already underway, and I thought the Zamarrons building a statue to their fallen Queen in their central battery was actually quite a nice touch.  Hal and Carol’s confrontation nicely touched on a couple of beats I’ve mentioned before, with Carol challenging Hal over his relationship with Cowgirl which he seemed to have forgotten about (surely she’s dumped him by now?).   Its a nice scene mainly because it allows Carol to grow up a bit.  Throughout Green Lantern, she’s often been defined as “Hal Jordan’s love interest”, and even in her latest role as a Star Sapphire this has been a factor, as she took the ring to help protect Hal and has been following him around since.  Its nice to see Carol stand up and be her own person, accepting that sorting out the Star Sapphires and getting them back on their feet is something she has to do.

That being said, I don’t expect her to be gone for too long.  The Predator being on Zamarron is probably not nearly as safe as she thinks, regardless of how many Star Sapphires are there.

With the Red Lanterns and Sapphires having been spotlighted, the action then goes to its third phase, with Adara, the entity of the Blue Lanterns finally selecting a host.   The missing girl from last month we discover was kidnapped and is rescued when she forgives her captor and Adara recognises the hope in her and bonds with her.

Most interesting in this scene is the reaction of Saint Walker.  He is in awe of Adara (she’s like Jesus to him I guess), and cannot see to the fact that she’s bonded with the girl, Nicole,  immediately talking about how Adara must come back to Odym with him.  To be honest, its a scene that really doesn’t do Walker any favours at all.  Unlike Warth’s amusing calm in Emerald Warriors, Walker is verging on coming across quite creepy, and Hal rightly calls him on it, pointing out that Nicole had only just escaped one kidnapping and he’s not going to let Walker do the same to her.

I have to be honest and say, that since their initial introduction, I’ve really not been a fan of the Blue Lanterns when Geoff writes them.  They haven’t exactly featured much in other books, but I still like the concept of a more spiritual group of Lanterns, but in Geoff’s hands they never seem to come across that well.  Walker especially I find a more worrying character than the likes of Atrocitus.   At least you can see why Atrocitus thinks what he does, and that there’s a kind of logic to his actions (not that I agree with them).  Saint Walker however, is a guy who was responsible for the deaths of his family through his blind faith, got rewarded with a blue ring for it, and now wants to drag a little girl back to Odym without even talking to her about it (in fairness, Nicole herself points out Saint Walker that she’s not just Adara, so I suspect he wouldn’t have been able to go through with it, but just that lack of thought makes the character quite worrying to me).

Of course, at this point, the Flash shows up, setting the stage for a showdown with Hal next issue over how the “new Guardians” have been running amok on Earth.

Aside from these big moments, there’s a couple of interesting asides going on in the issue.  When Predator’s host from last issue is alone with Larfleeze (who now appears to be sticking around with Hal in true “buddy cop movie” style ), he says he remembers that Larfleeze has a history, and that Larfleeze isn’t even his real name, prompting a very violent reaction.  Later, Adara tells him that his parents are still alive.  There were quite a few unanswered questions about Larfleeze and the Orange Lantern even before this issue, so I can only assume Geoff is building up to a very Larfleeze-focused issue where we’ll find out his backstory, and what drove him to be who he became.  Which given Geoff’s love of the character should be pretty interesting and I’m looking forward to it.

The other side scene, which I guess also dovetails nicely with Barry’s appearace, is Salaak on Oa, realising that since Blackest Night, Hal’s basically gone quiet, with no arrests or confrontations (I guess he’s set his ring to keep quiet on all the fights he’s gotten into).  With Hal’s (sensible) distrust of the Guardians, it makes sense that he’s been trying to keep quite what’s been going on on Earth, so with Salaak figuring out something’s wrong, it’ll be interesting to see what he does next.  I wonder if we’ll be seeing Salaak heading to Earth himself to investigate?

All in all, another good issue.  I still worry that there’s perhaps a bit too much going on, but I look forward to seeing how this all unfolds over the next couple of months.

Now that the Breen series of weekly missions have been finished for a couple of weeks (giving players a chance to get that nice Breen Bridge Officer before he went away), now Cryptic have launched the next set of weeklies, starting with Skirmish.

Immediately different from the Defera missions, this series is taking place in the existing Eta Eradani sector that forms the border between Federation and Klingon space.  The devs have mentioned this was deliberate, as they wanted to work the new content into existing sectors, rather than be continually creating new sectors, as they’ve tended to do thus far.  I must say, I think its a great idea, as there’s a lot of sectors in the game that there’s pretty much no reason to visit once your character has out levelled its missions.  Adding in new content to those sectors will help give them a more populated feeling once again, and draw attention to features you may not previously have visited (for example I never really knew about Drozana Station before).   Hopefully the user generated missions that are going to be coming up soon will also help in this regard, as my understanding is the devs intend for user missions to take place in the main game universe (rather than some kind of simulation, like the Mission Architect in City of Heroes).  As well as populating the older sectors, it also gives the developers the excuse (and resources) to go back and revamp aspects of those older sectors, like the revamp Drozana Station has received ahead of this set of weeklies.

This time, the action focuses around the Devidians.  Fans of The Next Generation will recognise them from the two-parter Time’s Arrow, and indeed they already appeared in game, in the mission Ghost Ship, although as part of these weeklies, that mission is due to be revamped slightly to include the redesigned Devidians to make it more consistent with the newer content (and may already have been, I admit I’m not sure).

Skirmish finds you heading to the Federation/Klingon Neutral Zone, after being directed there by Section 31 operative Franklin Drake.   A True Way (Cardassian/Jem Hadar) fleet has been detected in conflict with Klingons in the area.  Its well out of their way, so Drake is suspicious and wants it investigated.

On arriving, you quickly get caught up in the fight, but once its over, one of the Cardassian ships is left disabled, allowing you to board it to look for clues.  However once on board, you find something spooky is going on.

With us now on the run up to Halloween, the Devidians were a great choice for this new series of weeklies.  They provide a nice opportunity for some ghostly goings on, as the environment slips in an out of phase with the Devidians, and you see them in battle with the Cardassians, and floating through the ship.   They were similarly well used in the mission Ghost Ship, so its nice to see that idea expanded upon, and the spooky atmosphere definitely suits the time of year.

In terms of the mission itself, its the high quality we’ve come to expect from this newer content.  From the big fleet battle at the beginning, to the more familiar combat with various Cardassian stragglers onboard the ship, we also get a little puzzle similar to the Deferi medical aid mission.  On completing the mission, there’s the unique reward of a new ship device.  I confess I’ve not tried it yet, but I none the less appreciate that the devs are trying to make each mission reward something new and interesting, rather than just “here’s a slightly different set of impulse engines”.

All in all, another winner by the developers, and this content still has people amassing at the zone come Saturday, and talking about it in the forums, so the weeklies are still a really strong offering in the game.  I’m really looking forward to seeing how the plot of this series develops, since the teases about upcoming missions point to an old Starbase (should be a really atmospheric setting) and some time travel (with a shot that looks suspiciously like a classic Trek interior).  Roll on Saturday

Things kick into gear a bit this week in Emerald Warriors #3. With Guy, Arisia and Kilowog now off of Oa, we get a lot of action and some revelations on Odym as they face off against Red Lantern Bleez.

We also get to see a little more of Sodam Yat, who awakes on Daxam to find he’s being sheltered by a church that’s sprung up around him, and that he’s also being hunted by his father and the rest of Daxam, who are keen to fling him back into the sun and regain their powers. Charming.

Actually, the development of the church around Sodam will be an interesting one. I’m expecting the Daxam plot to be resolved in the next issue or so once Guy and co arrive, however at least it’ll let us see a more balanced view of Daxam. Until now they’ve all been a nasty bunch of xenophobes who, to be honest, got what they deserved when the Sinestro Corps turned up on their doorstep. Its nice that Peter Tomasi is going to give us a look at some of the general population who are hopefully more moderate than Sodam’s father. Of course, the fact they’ve formed a church around Sodam could just mean they get portrayed as crazy in a different way, with Sodam ending up abandoning the planet in disgust again. But hopefully it’ll be used to add some new depth to the Daxamites.

The conflict on Odym provided some good moments as well, as Bleez intercedes in Guy’s attempt to be purged of his Red Lantern infection.  What I loved was Warth’s reaction to the whole thing, standing by the sidelines, suggesting everyone should calm down and talk it out, before finally getting involved, pinning Bleez and using his ring to allow her to speak to the group.

The idea that Guy’s red ring infection may actually be of benefit while in the uncharted territories is an interesting one, but also seems very dangerous.  If Guy does get to the point where he has to rely on the red lantern power, they don’t have any way to undo it.  I was slightly disappointed when Warth didn’t join the group, as I feel the Blue Lanterns have been pretty underused, and having him along incase of issues with Bleez (or even Guy) would’ve seemed like a natural step.

Also interesting is the idea that something is tapping the power of the central battery on Oa, leaving the Green Lanterns slightly depowered.  I’m assuming its our usual mysterious friend who’s been grabbing the entities, and who makes his first appearance in this book as we discover he’s also in cahoots with the series new villain.  Of course, it also puts the Guardians back to being either ignorant of threats, or concealing things from the Lanterns, so I really have to wonder if they’ve learned anything at all by the events of Blackest Night.   The Guardians remain a source of frustration in this franchise, as we don’t ever really see them learning from their mistakes.  Instead they just remain an obstacle to the Green Lanterns.  I’d hoped some of the Blackest Night fallout would see their attitude addressed, but I now have to suspect they’re going to be carrying on as if they didn’t nearly get the universe killed by Necron.  A few scenes focusing on them would be one of my wishlists in terms of things that have been glossed over recently (such as Ganthet’s powers, and the Blue Lantern’s reactions to suddenly having lost both Guardians).

Of course, Guy’s also a hub of conspiracy on his own.  Again we’re teased the fact that whatever pact he’s got with Ganthet and Atrocitus is likely to bring him into conflict with the other GLs (teasing the upcoming War of the Green Lanterns which I should probably jot down a few feelings on), and he’s also keeping secrets from his immediate companions.  Conspiring with Bleez that he may have to kill Sodam Yat, as they suspect he may linked to the energy drain.  I’m sure Arisia’s going to be thrilled about that.   I can’t help but think Peter Tomasi’s working his way through a mine field at the moment.  In the interests of building mystery, the nature of what Guy’s up to is being hidden from us.  But by doing so, we the readers aren’t allowed to understand why he’s suddenly keeping secrets and plotting against his own allies.  Its working out fine for now, as we see Guy’s turmoil over what he’s doing, but there’s also the danger of painting the character into a corner and making him unlikeable if they’re not careful with how this is handled. I think we’re supposed to find out more about the pact in a few months though, so hopefully it won’t ever get to that stage.

Overall though, probably the best issue of Emerald Warriors yet.  For the first time, there’s a sense that things are moving forward, rather than just setting up the characters.  The confrontation on Odym was a great action scene, and there’s plenty of mystery as to what’s actually going on.  I’m looking forward to next issue to seeing how the various plots on Daxam are resolved.

Being a version number junkie, the minute I see a new Ubuntu upgrade released, I’m always keen to upgrade.

Especially interesting with this release was the netbook edition with its new, much-vaunted Unity interface.   Regular readers will know that a few months back I finally decided to nuke the default Xandros install on my trusty EeePC 700 and install the 10.04 netbook remix, and boy was I happy with it.

So with 10.10 coming out, I was keen to upgrade and play with the new interface.  Unfortunately being an old EeePC 700, a default install fills my measly 4Gb hard disc to the point where a normal upgrade is impossible.  Thankfully I don’t keep any files on my EeePC (its just for web browsing anyway, so hard disc space isn’t much of an issue), so I decided it’d be easy to just wipe and install 10.10.

So I downloaded and setup a USB stick (as with 10.04, a superb and painless process, top marks to those that wrote the installer) and as I tend to do, I booted up to have a play with the new system prior to installing.

Oh dear.

I have to say, it took only about 5 minutes playing with it, before I decided I thought Unity was terrible and I’d be better sticking with 10.04.

The redesign of the interface, removes the various panels of launchers from the previous release, and instead you get an empty desktop with the new launcher panel down the left hand side.   Immediately brought to mind was Apple’s OSX.  The launcher panel I found very evocative of the panel found in Apple’s OS (albeit shifted from the bottom of the screen to the left.   You could also make easy comparisons with older Window Managers like AfterSTEP or WindowMaker, although the scrolling animation used by the launchers is more evocative of Apple’s.

However my first problem was: “where is everything?”  In 10.04 (see left) there were clear sections of applications laid out, with launchers in each section.  In Unity, its no where near as obvious.  For example, I thought I’d try and find the Administration section, and to be honest, I’m still not completely sure where it is.  Admittedly, I was running off of a USB stick, but the panel response was clunky (probably down to the USB stick to be fair), and within the 5 minutes I ran it, it completely crashed once.  Not a brilliant first impression.

Thinking I’d try clicking on the “Applications” button, I was presented with a panel (on the surface slightly similar to the panels in the old interface), however within it was what could only be desribed as a screen dump of all my apps.  It just looked like a mess, and there was no way I was going to find anything in it.  I’m not completely sure what I’d been expecting, but I guess at least the apps sorted into categories.

So far so bad.  Aside from the key apps that you can easily find at the top of the launchers, finding things seems difficult, and its crashed once.

To test out things, I decided to run Firefox, to see how the new interface handled the screen real estate.  I’d alway been quite pleased with how Ubuntu 10.04 combined the top menu bar and the top of the window decorations (such as the close button) in order to save a bit of screen space.

Oh dear.  Another disaster.  On running Firefox, the immediate killer issue was that the launcher panel remains fixed on the left hand side of the screen.  So even maximised, the browser couldn’t take up the full width of my screen.

Now, I’m on a EeePC 700.  That means I’ve only got an 800 wide display.  So losing any of the width at all is a major issue with the OS.  This was pretty much the final straw for me, and I decided to stick with Ubuntu 10.04, which I’ve been incredibly happy with.   Granted, it could be argued that I didn’t give Unity much time to grow on me, but then, the immediate reaction was so bad (and I’m especially including the crash in that), and I have to think about the fact I’m not the only one using this netbook.  So if I’m struggling to find things in Unity, how will the other users cope?  Nope, sorry Canonical, but I think I’ll give Unity some settling in time before it’s something I’ll adopt.

Fortunately 10.04 was an LTS release, so I’m good for the next 18 months at least.

Taking a quick look at Ubuntu Forums, and various news stories, I see that there seem to be quite a few users with similar complaints about 10.10 and Unity, so I hope Canonical take it all on board, and work out the issues for 11.04.  I’m not against a new interface, but I found Unity to be a step backwards in usability, however I’ll happily check out the 11.04 netbook release to see what its like there.  In the meantime maybe I’ll see if there’s any demonstration videos or something online that’ll convince me to give Unity another chance.

As for 10.10 itself?  I must admit I’ve not gotten around to upgrading my main laptop, so I’ll be doing that over the weekend to see what the desktop release has to offer.

So, I’ve managed to tear myself away from Star Trek Online (briefly) to pick up some PS3 gaming.  And my latest purchase is the new Spider-Man game, Shattered Dimensions.

I do love a good Spider-Man game.  For my money, the best one money could buy was the Spider-Man game on the PS1, however subsequent games brought in some fun innovations.  Spider-Man 2 on the PS2 had the rendered version of Manhatten, and the reworked web slinging mechanics, which was great fun just web swinging around, although the missions themselves didn’t work too well, often distracting from the web swinging fun.

With this latest game, the developers decided to take a step backwards with the gameplay style.  Out goes the free-roaming Manhatten, and back in comes a more traditional level structure.  And I have to say, I think the game is all the better for it, as it allows them to build up a stronger narrative that the free-roaming makes trickier to do.

However, they’ve also introduced something else that I don’t think any other Spider-Man game so far has done.  Rather than focus exclusively on the traditional Peter Parker Spider-Man, the developers decided to embrace the Marvel Universes in all their shapes and forms, and have set the game across 4 distinct universes in the form of Amazing, Ultimate, Noir and, much to my delight, 2099.  Its another reason for abandoning the free roaming aspect, as coming up with four distinctive cities would’ve been a huge undertaking and possibly not worked as well, with the players having to get acquainted with all four, rather than learning every nook and cranny of the previous digital Manhattens.

There’s a lot of love gone into developing these different Spider-Men.  For a start, just that the game brought them all in was terrific, but then they brought in some great voice acting talent as well, as various Spider-Man voice actors from previous cartoons all get to play each of the distinct Spider-Men.  Neil Patrick Harris (who voiced the character in the 2003 MTV cartoon) takes on the main Amazing Spider-Man, Josh Keaton (who voiced the 2008 Spectacular Spider-Man) providing the voice of Ultimate Spider-Man, Christopher Daniel Barnes (from the brilliant 1994 animated series) voicing Spider-Man Noir, and the one I got a real kick out of was hearing Dan Gilvezan voice Spider-Man 2099.  A voice very familiar from my youth, as he voiced Spider-Man in  Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends.  Just brilliant!

The script as well is full of nice nods, with Spider-Man 2099 in particular quickly building up his world by mentioning Alchemax and the Public Eye being some of the first baddies you need to beat.  As Madame Web augments each of the Spider-Mens powers (explaining the game’s implementation of Spider Sense), you’ve also got Noir mentioning that she’s upgraded his web slinging and wall crawling powers (I’ve only read issues 1 and 2 of that series, so I have to assume they were traditional powers that this incarnation lacked).

So far, I’ve completed the tutorial levels, and the Kraven and Hobgoblin 2099 levels, so I’m not that far into it, but my first impressions are overwhelmingly positive.  As well as the above, you’re automatically invited into the game by a great voiceover from Stan Lee.  Something that’s been omitted from the last few Spidey games I’ve played, and was really welcome to hear.  From the tutorials, most of the Spider-Men are pretty similar, however as you go on, you unlock additional powers and bonuses that’ll start to to set them apart more, building on their unique backgrounds For example, Spider-Man 2099 gets accelerated vision powers, while Ultimate Spider-Man gets strength bonuses from the symbiote suit he’s wearing (to differentiate him from Amazing Spider-Man and explained in the plot as being Madame Web’s doing).

Totally different though, is Spider-Man Noir.  Weaker than his counterparts, this Spider-Man is much more stealth oriented.  To a large extent, its in these sections that the impact of Batman: Arkham Asylum is felt, as the designers have clearly borrowed from its gameplay.  You’re invited to stick to the shadows, zipping from vantage point to vantage point with your webbing, silently taking out enemies using stealth attacks in much the same way as Batman.

The main difference though is Spider-Man Noir is a lot less tough than his caped counterpart, so if you get into a fight with even one enemy goon, odds are you’re taking a kicking unless you can get out of there.  Batman was more forgiving in this regard in that you could tend to fight your way out of smaller groups (as long as they didn’t have guns).  I could see this having the potential to get a bit frustrating depending on how these levels are laid out later in the game, but at least in the initial tutorials its fun, and helps add some variety to the game.

There’s also thought been given to replayability.  The game includes what it calls, the Web of Destiny, which effectively charts the various challenges available in the game throughout the various levels.  Completing challenges unlocks the next set of challenges, but also gains you points and opens up new sets of unlocks you can purchase to add new abilities to the Spider-Men, boost their stats, or provide them with a range of different costumes.

Its not all roses in the game.  There’s a familiar bugbear with these games which again raises its head which is the in-game camera.  The viewpoint for the game is the traditional third person, however as you start quickly web swinging around and changing direction, the camera can get confused which can sometimes get you a bit stuck until you can find a ledge to rest on and get your bearings.  For me though, the great, solid fun that the game has been so far outweighs this.

So overall, so far I’m really enjoying the game.  The audio is top notch and has loads of recognisable voices, the graphics are great, and the different dimensions have their own identities and keep things interesting.  From what I’ve seen I’d really recommend the game.

Just another quick update with some reviews I’ve done for Outpost Skaro.   I’ve been fortunate enough to get some of the first episodes for LivingTV’s new show Nikita, and season 4 of Chuck, so I’ve got reviews for the first episodes of both up now for your reading pleasure

Nikita Episode 1

Chuck vs the Anniversary

Look for reviews for the second episodes next weekend, and with two new Green Lantern books out this week, and Ubuntu 10.10 released I should get some stuff up here as well

This is it.  The starmap has been completed and the race is on to discover the Preserver legacy hidden within the Deferi sector.

And what a great finale this mission was.   I was fortunate that I was online at the time it became active, and so it became one of the few that my first run through was with other members of my fleet.  Working together as we ran through the mission was great fun, and with us all being pretty reasonably kitted out Admirals, the Breen didn’t have much of a chance.

If I was going to have a complaint about this mission (just to get it out of the way) its that the final boss, Thot Trel, who had been built up throughout the series, was actually a bit of a pushover.  I’ve now completed the mission on all three of my Federation characters, and each time he goes down pretty easily.  The boss from the week before was a much tougher fight, and so it would perhaps be nice to see Thot Trel given a bit of a power boost to make a more fitting final confrontation.

However, that’s the only negative I can say about a brilliant finale.  Most of the mission takes place on the ground, and there’s some very nice classic Trek imagery.  My whole fleet were squeeing when we went round a corner in the map only to be confronted by a replica of the Preserver obelisk that Kirk found in the episode The Paradise Syndrome.

The revamped caves get another airing as you descend into the area hidden underneath the Obelisk, and again the devs have put together a nice puzzle to unlock the Preserver Archive.  Sound-based this time, its a simple puzzle compared to, say, the starchart puzzle on Defera however its still fun, and nicely broke up the combat.

The really great thing about this mission, is the sense of the impact the events will have for the unfolding universe in Star Trek Online.  The reveal of exactly what the Archive is, will surely come back to the fore in future missions as it represents a major resource that galactic powers are going to squabble over.  And not to mention, with the continual threat of the Iconians lurking somewhere in the background, I can’t help but think the Archive will become a pivotal piece of that conflict when they finally make their move.

The rewards are again inventive, and a testiment to the devs.  The main quest completion reward being a special Breen freeze rifle which I’ve found myself using quite a bit as it provides a good main attack and a devastating secondary fire (neatly counterbalanced by quite a long build up which can be interrupted).

However, this being the finale to the series, there’s a a special reward in the form of a Breen bridge officer.  He’s a purple officer and comes with some neat ground abilities.  Of course, the devs have stated that this reward will only be available prior to the release of series 2, but to me it helps make the weeklies a bit more special, as well as providing a nice incentive to make sure people are checking in on the new missions regularly.   To be honest, knowing the game, I imagine the Breen bridge officer will turn up in the C-store in some form in a few months time, but since we get him for free for completing this set of weeklies, if it does happen, I won’t be complaining.

There’s a couple of weeks until the second series of weeklies, this time featuring the Devidians from Time’s Arrow and promising spooky old Space Stations and some time travel.  This first series of missions has certainly proven to be a massive success, with a lot of love and attention evident on the mission design, so I really can’t wait to see what this second series brings.   If nothing else, its nice to see a really positive buzz about the game following its very rocky first six months and I look forward to it continuing.

This last week saw the story of the Alpha Lanterns wrapped up in Green Lantern Corps #52.

When we left off, Ganthet was trying to return the Alpha Lanterns to normal, while Hannu’s attack on Boodikka had damaged her battery, breaking her programming, but also leaving her dying.

This issue is all about the final showdown with the Cyborg Superman, as the Honor Guard Lanterns and Stel’s people rise up against him.

Its nicely played to show the strength of the Cyborg Superman, as he manages to take control of all of Stel’s people.  It really showcases his power, while also giving an epic feel to the battle, which is then nicely contrasted with the more intimate showdown between Henshaw and Boodikka.

If any complaints could be made about this showdown, its that perhaps its over a little quickly.  However it was nice having Boodikka as the one to take revenge on Henshaw, and perhaps symbolically striking out against everything that’s happened since she was made an Alpha Lantern.   It was also good to see Henshaw’s nature as an energy being used, as its perhaps something that’s been a little ignored over the last few years in favour of focusing on him as a Cyborg.

Of course, I don’t for a second believe that Henshaw’s actually dead from that psychic encounter, but it does nicely accomplish the task of providing some closure to the character for now, while the Green Lantern titles have moved onto new threats.  I’ve no doubt that as soon as someone comes up with a good idea for him, the Cyborg Superman will be quite easily resurrected.

The other big plot point for this issue was to resolve the long-running Alpha Lantern storyline.  Setting this issue from Boodikka’s dying perspective worked wonderfully, and it was great to see her original form again in the fight against the Cyborg Superman.   The final resolution, with the Alpha Lanterns remaining in their converted form, but with their original personalities freed of any programming works well for me.  At the time it was stated that the conversion to an Alpha Lantern would be permanent, and Tony Bedard doesn’t contradict that here.  It nicely resolves the menace that the Alpha Lanterns represented, while leaving open plenty of story opportunity.   Now freed of their programming, how will the ex-Alpha Lanterns cope with the physical transformation they were subjected too?   Especially those Lanterns who were forcibly captured and converted into Alpha Lanterns by the Cyborg Superman.   I can see that generating some interesting character moments.

All in all, I think this was definitely a cracking opening arc for Tony Bedard.  He had a lot to juggle, setting up his new regular cast (since the majority of the previous cast have moved to Emerald Warriors) as well as addressing Cyborg Superman and the Alpha Lanterns.  With that done, I’m hoping he gets to take things off in his own direction now, rather than dealing with old plot threads.  And I’m hoping the next arc keeps some of the focus on John Stewart (as much as I’m a Kyle fan), as he’s been a neglected character since Rebirth and its nice to see him finally get a proper chance to shine.