The design side of things of the new Star Trek film has come across as a bit of a mixed bag so far. I love the fact that the uniforms are very true to the 60s original, but I’m not sure about the bridge of the Enterprise seen in the same promo shots (although unlike some, I don’t have a hard-and-fast “hate it” opinion yet. I need to see more of it).

With the advent of the new Enterprise hitting the net last night, it seems to capture this “mixed bag” concept well. There’s a lot to like in the new design. Its recognisably the Enterprise, and the saucer seems to be lifted from the motion picture refit (Ent-A) which is a good thing. I like how it seems to have retained the turbine-type-things in the nacelles from the original, and the deflector looks like its a raised dish (again, like the original) but with the blow lighting of the refit, which I think looks quite neat.

However, the mammoth vent-things on the nacelles (which meet the pylons) really ruin the look of it for me. Granted, this is just one shot, and it’ll probably look better in motion, and in other promo shots, but they look too much like something added to make it look different. Changing the slope of the neck joining the saucer and engineering sections doesn’t bother me as much, and the pylons now sit right at the back of engineering as a result.  To me, the whole engineering section doesn’t quite work in terms of its lines.  

Of course, for me, they never bettered the movie refit design anyway

I imagine though, that following the first trailer and seeing shots of the new Enterprise in action, I’ll decide it looks really cool afterall

Newsarama have a nice interview with Greg Pak about the upcoming War Machine ongoing here.  There are some pages from an upcoming online preview as well, with very nice art indeed.  I hope that’s the same artist that’s doing the ongoing.  Interestingly, from some panels, it looks like the artist has used Iron Man’s movie suit as a guide.  The helmet design suits War Machine though and does look reasonably like the original.

I’ve been really enjoying the Weapon of SHIELD storyline in Iron Man at the moment (their Secret Invasion crossover, since Tony’s tied up in the main SI title). I hadn’t realised how much of a setup for the monthly it was though (ok, it should’ve been obvious). The fact that Rhodey’s keeping the satellite Tony had setup incase of emergencies seems like a good HQ for him. The fact that it can transform into a giant War Machine armour for him is just fun

It sounds like Greg Pak is intending to keep a lot of the feeling of the original War Machine ongoing though. In that series, Rhodey ran an agency called World Watch, who operated to try and raise awareness of, and ultimately stop and prevent atrocities around the world. Of course, what his co-workers didn’t realise until later on was that, when things got really bad, Rhodey would don his armour, and wade in and sort the mess out himself. This series sounds similar, being grounded in more real-world atrocities that Rhodey will work to stop. Only this time, operating on his own, without the benefit of the diplomatic organisation behind him.

I’m looking forward reading this.  Once again my attempts to reduce my number of monthly titles fail.

I’ve been really enjoying the new series of Knight Rider so far. While the first couple of episodes were perhaps a bit formulaic, over the last two or three, it really seems to have found its footing, and they’ve been really solid, enjoyable stories. Granted, last week’s Halloween episode could’ve done with a bit more KITT-action, but the teases about KARR were more than enough to make up for that.

However, the big news this week is the leak of cast changes, following a two-part story over episodes 10 and 11. This is interesting, as previously it looked like episodes 12 and 13 would be the KARR 2-parter. I wonder if those plans have changed, or if its just a mistake in the story.

However, the affected characters are Graiman, Carrie and Torres. To be honest, I’ve felt Graiman and Carrie have struggled so far int he series, and haven’t had an awful lot to do. Torres has received more focus, but then he basically nicked Carrie’s role as the FBI liason. I’ll be sorry to lose Graiman though. I like Bruce Davidson as an actor, and he filled the older, mentor slot in the show’s cast nicely (Devon for the new series if you like). Its telling that both FBI characters are leaving, and with the show being said to be getting away from the terrorist-of-the-week formula, and focusing more on Mike and KITT helping the everyman (more in line with the original show), it seems obvious that the fallout from the KARR storyline will have Knight Research severing its official ties with the Government.

I can’t help but think this may be a good thing though. If only because there has been the danger of the episodes becoming a bit formulaic over the start of the season. There seems to have been an awful lot of state-of-the-art weapons smuggling going on that the FBI were powerless to do anything about for some reason.

I am sorry to lose Graiman though. It does slant the cast younger, and I presume this is to appeal more to their target demographic. And of course, while I do like the idea of the character, as I say, it doesn’t feel like he’s had a lot to do this season so far.  I do hope that in amongst these changes though, they address some of the forced humour between Zoey and Billy.  While I wouldn’t necessarily want to lose either character, giving them a bit more depth wouldn’t hurt either.

Regarding KARR, well going from the revelations in Knight of the Living Dead, I’m still waiting to see how this plays out.  Its not been explicitly said that this new KARR doesn’t use the original’s CPU, although it is looking like a new prototype borrowing the name of the original.  Of course, given that Graiman was supposed to have been key to the original KITT’s development (and so you presume the original KARR’s as well), it does leave him looking like a bit of an idiot that he gave both prototypes not only the same name, but also the same dodgy programming that resulted in them going a bit evil.

I’ve had a good bit of time to get my teeth into Fallout 3 now, and I’m loving it.

Having spent a bit of time in Megaton wandering round (and acquiring a house. Very handy ) I’m now starting to head more into the Washington DC part of the game. At the moment I’ve been sticking to the main quest to guide me through the game, and not really exploring much, but I’ve had a few random quests come up (investigated The Family attacking a town in the Wastelands, and another town under seige from giant Fire Ants).

Moving into Washington has shifted the landscape though. Kicking around Megaton etc, felt very much like the Wastelands they’ve called. There wasn’t much to see outside of the odd town. When you get to Washington though, they’ve captured the ruined city feeling well, as you constantly find yourself working your way around debris and surrounded by ruined buildings, as opposed to the more open terrain of the wastelands.

Its nice that it doesn’t take too long before you start picking up a variety of weapons as well. The very initial stages of the game were pretty dangerous, as I was very underarmed compared to most threats in the Wastelands. However after my first run-in with a group of raiders I picked up an assault rifle and a hunting rifle, and from there things started to get a bit easier.

The V.A.T.S. targetting system is a nice concession to those players who miss the turn-based style of combat, versus the FPS stylings of combat in this game. As long as you’ve got action points stored up (they regenerate reasonably quickly over time), you can engage the system, which lets you target specific areas of your opponent’s body, and then get a cinematic of you taking those shots. Its very handy for quickly disarming or crippling enemies.

Its also given me a good look at how gory the game can be. Raiders don’t tend to last long when I’m targetting their head with my combat shotgun, as their heads explode with a satisfying (if “urgh”-inducing) squelch. However, there’s also plenty of severed limbs and the like on display should you happen to step on a landmine or the like. Unlike Oblivion, which wasn’t bad (if at all) on the gore factor, this game doesn’t pull its punches. I’m slightly surprised there’s no option to turn it down or off. The game is 18 rated though so people can’t say they aren’t warned.

I’m now looking forward to exploring the ruins of Washington DC properly tonight.  The only real problem I’ve got with this game so far is the sleep I’m losing playing it…

Its been a thorn in my side for months now, but yesterday I thought I’d have another stab at getting my wifi working on my laptop (glutton for punishment, I know) yesterday. Imagine my surprise when, on booting, the wifi connected no problem.

Despite not working on its initial install, it now seems quite happy. I’m still not completely sure how well the default driver (b43-fwcutter) is supporting my card as, while the connection seems stable, the blue wifi light on my laptop keeps flicking on and off. Could just be an asthetic thing though, but I may try switching over the driver to ndiswrapper and seeing what happens.

Still, if this test install runs smoothly for the next week or so, I reckon I’ll completely repartition the laptop and setup Ubuntu Intrepid as its main OS. Which given how creaky the 3-and-a-half year old WinXP installation was getting will make me a lot happier. Looks like a win for the new network manager.

Bit of a light comics week this week for me, which is a boon this month as money’s tight following my trip to London. The standout issue from the few I picked up though, was definitely Iron Man: The End.

I’ve been looking forward to this one for a while. Originally pitched back in 2000, Bob Layton and David Michelinie’s story was the last Iron Man story. For various reasons, the project never went ahead, however Bob Layton did eventually make the plot outline available on his website for anyone who was interested. I really enjoyed the story from the outline, so was very happy when I heard that it was finally going ahead.

The story focuses on an elderly Tony Stark as he struggles against the realisation that he’s getting older, and that a lifetime of superheroing has caught up with him.   He’s attempting to complete one last big project, his gift to the world.  The world’s first orbital elevator that will allow cheap travel to the stars for all of humanity.  Its his final legacy to mankind, but the project has been riddled with problems that continually force Tony to don his Iron Man armour, despite his ailing health.

Its a great story, with Tony struggling against his old age and having to try and accept that he can’t keep doing what he did in his 30s.  He’s on medication for a condition that resulted from the continual knocks he took as Iron Man, and his judgement is slowly, resulting in some near-catastrophic mistakes.

I loved some of the ideas with the future armour as well.   While the reconfiguring armour was used a lot in the cartoons, I loved the  liquid armour idea, and how when he wasn’t wearing it, it formed into a briefcase.  A nice nod to how Tony always used to carry his armour.  

This is very much the final story of Tony Stark as Iron Man, and while it doesn’t mesh with some of the other looks to the future of Iron Man we’ve seen (thinking specifically of the Iron Man 2020 stuff from years ago) its a great read, and makes for a brilliant final story (of course, the nature of comics means this is really more of a “What If” type affair.  It’ll be endlessly contradicted in years to come).  Its poignant and hopeful, with Tony looking to the future.  Which is entirely appropriate for the character.

I got around to quickly installing Intrepid on my laptop last night, but with the usual mixed results sadly.

Most hardware was detected and works out of the box no problem (graphics, sound etc), but networking is still an issue. The restricted drivers manager did ID my wireless card no problem and installed the driver for it, so that side of things is working, but the actual connection to my wifi network is still problematic. Network manager does seem happy that its connected, but I’m assuming the WPA encryption is still failing, as I can’t actually do anything with the connection.

Ethernet’s proving an issue with this new release as well. Whenever I reboot and want to use an ethernet cable, I’ve got to re-enter all the details. The new network manager (which I’m not actually that impressed by, I don’t think the interface is as obvious to use as the old manager) doesn’t seem to be saving the settings properly. Although I presume that’s something I can fix by setting up the config files manually, since it works fine in my upgraded main PC.

I’ve not really mucked about with it much yet, this is just first-install impressions.  To be honest though, aside from the issues with the network manager, the wifi stuff is exactly the same kind of problem I’ve been having with other releases, so I don’t think that’s anything to do with Intrepid.  Its something more fundemental that’s going wrong I feel.

Last week saw the release of the latest in the Fallout series of RPGs.

I’ve got Fallout 1 & 2 in the house, but I’d never really played them much (should really dig them out), however when I saw the hype for Fallout 3, I was very excited.  I’m a huge Oblivion fan, so the idea of an Oblivion-style, post-apocalyptic future-set RPG was very interesting.

And so far, the game is living up to expectations.  I’m not far in, having just completed the introductory level where you define your character, and run a couple of quick quests for the first town, but its off to a promising start.    Starting your character from birth and then jumping to various events in your childhood (10th birthday party for example) is quite a nice way to break you into the game, and build a bond with your character.

The feel of the game is very similar to Oblivion so far.  Graphically, its obvious this is a souped up version of the same engine (or at least, that’s what it looks like), and the introductory level being used to define your character and establish the main plot reminded me a lot of the prison break sequence at the start of Oblivion.

Visually however, the landscape is very different.  Whereas Oblivion was lush landscapes, woods and mountains, this is the world after an atomic war.  Outside of the vault you are greeted by what’s left of the town where the vault was located, only most of it has been reclaimed by the desert, with only a few shells of buildings remaining.  The main feature you quickly find is the town of Megaton, recognisable by its town walls, welded together from various bits of sheet metal.   The whole town has the feel of something thrown together from scavenged materials (which it is), which is in sharp contrast to Oblivion’s towns, which felt like great care had gone into their construction and layout (especially the likes of the Imperial City).

Atmosphere is also added via the radio stations your wrist computer (Pip-Boy) can pick up.  From the start, the main radio station setup by survivors is only static (there’ll be a quest there I imagine), however you can listen to the Enclave Station and have the sound of President Eden (Malcolm McDowall) to keep you company as you explore the wastes.

So far the feel of this game is spot on for me.  The immersion and everything I loved about Oblivion, but the post-apocalyptic setting is a sharp contrast and well-realised.  I’m looking forward to exploring this game properly over the next few weeks and getting to grips with it.

Well, as the countdown I posted on the blog should be indicating, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex was released today.

I’m always quick to nab new updates and try out the new stuff, so I upgraded my PC straight away, and the good news is that so far it seems to have been a painless process. The new Gnome theme feels a little more polished, but other than the general stability I’ve not played with it much. Of course, given that previous upgrades have tended to break something (the 7.xx series tended to break my sound, fortunately something that the 8.xx series has fixed), the main thing for me is the upgrade has been smooth. The only bit of weirdness so far is that the window title bars sometimes go a bit weird on me, but there’s nothing major going wrong.

Knights of the Old Republic is really firing with full thrusters at the moment.

For those that haven’t followed the series, its about Zayne Carrick, a failing Jedi Padawan, who finds himself on the run with the local wannabe crime lord and various others when the Jedi Masters kill his fellow padawans. Finding himself framed for their deaths, he has to find out why his friends were killed while avoiding being caught by the Jedi or the Republic. Fortunately at the same time, the Mandalorians go to war with the Republic, which provides him ample chaos to have all kinds of adventures in.

And now, series writer John Jackson Miller is wrapping up this main plot thread.  After over 30 issues, Zayne has closed in on the Jedi Covenant, and we’ve discovered how they’ve been manipulated from the beginning.

I love how Miller is not taking the option of keeping that plot thread running indefinitely, and instead giving us a conclusion to Zayne’s fugitive arc.  We get to see how Haazen has manipulated the covenant into becoming his instruments as he attempts to seize power for himself, and the one who has most been manipulated has been Zayne’s master, Lucien.   There’s a real feeling here that with his world unravelling around him, Lucien’s really lost the plot, and the hints from Haazen that Lucien coul go onto become Darth Sion were a big twist.

While Legacy tends to be the series that gets the most attention online, Knights of the Old Republic has always been my favourite of the Dark Horse series (and indeed, is currently the only one I’m buying monthly).  Its got a great balance between humour and adventure that I think is important to Star Wars.

I’m also pleased to see Brian Ching return to the art duties with this issue.  The art on this series has sadly been a mixed bag lately, so its nice to see the original artist returning to wrap up the story arc that started with issue 1.

Roll on issue 35.  I can’t wait to see how this ends.