So the end of the year means, here I am trying to consolidate shit into some kind of organisation, for whom exactly? Anyone really.
Woo, what an odd year for gaming it was for me. I've spent a lot of time playing stuff on my PS3, which has been a lot of fun.
I do have a very definite game of the year though.
So let's start with that then hey, just to get it out of the way.
Here we go, the post the absolutely no-one looks for, my yearly wrap up toys and toys of the year.
It's been a pretty low amount again, but more than last year, but then again the quality has been generally pretty high.
Here is the link to last year's one, which also has the link to all the previous years as well.
Let's go.
I spent way more than I was supposed to this year... which is both a good and a bad thing on balance! Makes for a fun blog post at least. Mine will be jam packed with lots of goodies, especially some unmissable games. Well, I guess we can't say they're unmissable, since poor old Tets missed a bunch of them. That fellow seems like he's aging 5 times faster than me, dude must be 70 or so by now! Maybe we can inspire him to finally pick up some gems. Let's get started!
Now it's time, after all the lovely fun I had with the Legacy Stunticons, I have finally managed to gather the whole team for the joy that is Menasor! YEAH.
Just for the record, here is the individual dudes:
Finally, it is time to finish this awesome little team with a group shot of monsters/robots and a combined batch of
Eeeeeeeevvvviiiiiiillllllll!
Back in my list of games for 2022, I listed Sonic Frontiers as my game of the year, and I stand by that. I really did enjoy it. It was not perfect, but the gameplay was fun, the story made sense and the characters acted like you would expect them too. Plus Knuckles wasn't portrayed as a dumbarse.
However in typical SEGA fashion, it was obvious that the game was rushed and things didn't quite seem finished. Ignoring the technical issues like pop-in and the weird juxtaposition of cartoon characters and real world looking er, world, it was very bad at explaining mechanics and gameplay bits n pieces.
However after a year, we have the "Final Horizon" update for it, which really makes things fit together well.
At all.
I have 4 main complaints where I think the game manages to mess up:
Beware spoilers (for the DLC)
Released today, of all days (August 22, 2023), I managed to bag one of these bad boys and made a nice, terrible video, to join all the other terrible videos on youtube.
Please watch my terrible video.
So, the last Gaming diary post I did was actually one on Warhammer 40K; Space Marine.
I've given Sonic Unleashed a crack between now and then, but I feel that I am at the point where I am just not feeling it.
Why? Well the bad parts of the levels seem to outweigh the bad parts aaaannnnd the piss-farting around in the hub world to get to the levels is kind of annoying.
YES, it could add to the world building and make the story better.
YES, it probably makes some kind of logical sense and links the levels together.
BUT
I juts don't care enough. I took a break and can't remember what I am supposed to be doing, or where to go, and after spending probably a good 20 minutes slogging through some not too bad, but definitely should be shorter than it was Werehog level, I am feeling that I have run out of good natured Sonic love for this game.
Like seriously, I believe the last level I completed was long and had this annoying platforming section, which if you fell from equaled insta-death. The level in general was too long to get to that section, and that section was definitely too long to be enjoyable.
Like the Bay Transformers movies, sometimes people need to know that less is indeed more.
Good old Optimus Prime! What a champ, what an icon this red truck is. Here I have the Earthrise version of Optimus, which I rather put off getting for some reason. I heard that it was actually a pretty good figure with a rather nice transformation, but for whatever reason, I was never deeply compelled to hunt one down like I have with many, many other figures.
Were my initial feelings correct? Or had I made a huge mistake and the part of my life without this toy in my possession was a huge waste of never to be claimed again biological energy?
Well, whaddya know.
After posting this post, I sat down and managed to knock the game off. I did have some trouble with the final boss fight. Really there are only two boss fights in the whole game. Both times has you facing off against hordes of plebs rather than the boss.
What's it like?
Here we are ladies and gentlethings, the last of the Stunticons has arrived! Not only that, it is my favourite character! Oh boy oh boy, the Legacy Stunticons have been pretty good so far and gotten some nice homage action going, I sure do hope they gave my beloved Breakdown the respect he deserves! I mean, the vehicle modes are all pretty different, while I can easily accept using the same bas transformation schematic, surely, surely they wouldn't just use a repaint and call it a day right?
Getting to the pointy end of my run with the Power of the Primes Terrorcons, as today we'll be taking a gander at the gluttonous Hun-Gurrr. What a nifty name, where does it come from? With a lsight sound of "hunger" with it being split to homage the Huns, and finishing up with a beast-like Grrr at the end. Maybe, that is juts my speculation, but I would say that Hun-Gurrr has just as awesome name as Sinnertwin.
His G1 toy manage to do rather well on the articulation front thanks to his beast mode and looked pretty good. This POTP, while not based off of the Silverbolt body shares quite a bit of stuff and ends up being all right.
So, let's get into it shall we?
Aw yeah, with the release of preorders (lol) for Shadowstrip here in Japan, we have now another issue of the two page advert, er manga of the Velocitron thing. Continuing our adventures with Cosmos and the incredibly unstable political system that Velocitron (the speed planet) seems to exist with.
Just two weeks have passed since Override took the crown, and here we are witnessing another race for the top seat of Velocitron. Strange.
And the Japanese. The original was stored on a PDF, and they are a PITA to slap up on blogger so PNG it is:
Some things to note:
So there we go. Hope you enjoyed this ;)
Deadend was my second favourite car of the Stunticons, the reason? Well it all stems down to his go-fast stripe that ran along the top of the car. Damn, that my friends was the absolute PEAK of top class 80s car coolness. It immediately elevated the ranking of a car in my mind. A Lamborghini Contache with a stripe like Deadend's would have me dying from too many nerdgasms I suspect.
Now with that imagery freshly planted in your minds, let's take a wee gander at Deadend.
The Cybertron/ Galaxy Force line of Transformers really resonated with me. I loved the design of most of the toys and the cartoon I enjoyed mightily as well. In case you're wondering, I watched most of this as Galaxy Force at the time it was out, so often the Cybertron character names are hazy to me. Also as a result of this, I see this toy as Nitro Convoy. Galaxy Convoy (Optimus Prime[I got two]), Vector Prime, Starscream and Master Megatron(and Galvatron) were all clear winners in my book. I'd even say that Galaxy Convoy would be my favourite Convoy/Optimus toy.
So I was obviously excited to see some Galaxy Force representation in the Legacy line. Oh, but it isn't, it's quite plainly marked as Cybertron, even here in Japan. Oh well.
So er, then let's take a gander at Override.
So after playing through the first bit and giving up on that stupid plane section, I tried again and this time was successful in defeating the Egg Cauldron while pressing the buttons. I was successful, but also extremely bored.
Luckily, I can happily say that the same section hasn't cropped up again.... Yet. I have a disgusting feeling it will torment me again.
OOh baby, Targetmasters.... If you regularly read my blog and ramblings, (thank you very much!) you'll know that I love me some (any and all)masters action for my Transformers. So of course, here I am talking about the Targetmaster Pointblank, who actually comes with his targetmaster partner Peacemaker. Noice!
Is this post full of unconditional love and totally biased rambling because Pointblank is a proper, real, fully equipped Targetmaster who can Roadblaster-ise his vehicle mode? Well, you'll have to read on to find out.
So after finishing my session (not the game) of Sonic Adventure 2, I decided to give another try to Sonic Unleashed, called Sonic World Adventure in Japan.
I remembering preordering this game for my Wii back in the day, purely because it came with a Sonic the Werehog action figure. When I picked it up, the staff told me I was the only person to preorder. ha ha ha.
The game at the time was fine, I remember that the Sonic day time levels were quite something and I was pretty impressed with the speed, but the Night-time Werehog levels were kinda boring, long and a bit of a drag.
Since I've been looking back at older Sonic games, I had discovered that the PS3 version is deemed better than the Wii version and that the Werehog levels were different. So here we go. SA2 down, no inclination to take on Sonic '06 (seriously, I've tried like 8 times), how do I go with Sonic Unleashed?
With some messing about, I did eventually have it ready for play. So, how did it go?
Ah Blot the other Terrorcon I owned as a kid. Making the Terrorcons the most complete combiner team in my collection, although I didn't think of it as a collection at the time, more of a well, toybox to be honest. Although unlike Rippersnapper, I managed to avoid losing any of his accessories. Yay me.
I liked Blot a lot, despite his stubby limited robot mode and baffling monster mode. What was he? A robot gorilla? That kind of made the most sense to child me, like Rippersnapper being a nutty shark creature with claws and legs, why couldn't Blot be a nutty gorilla creature with claws and burst of flame every time he breathed. How awesome is that?
I preferred that theory to one that called him a "nose-monster."
Does POTP manage to give poor Blot, with his low intelligence and low self esteem a little push up the ego meter?
Wow, it’s been a while since I started talking about these guys, time to get back to it, it would seem.
Power of the primes was a bit of a left over line for me. It had a little bit of this and a little bit of that. One of the 'thats' were combiners though, so that's cool. Even better was that it involved my beloved Terrorcons! HUZZAH!
So far I’ve covered Sinnnertwin and Cutthroat and today I’m gonna have a look at my beloved Ripppersnapper. I had this guy as a kid and was terribly traumatised when I dropped his tiny little cyclone gun pistol outside somewhere, never to be seen again. It was bad man, I was bawling like a sprinkler with severe emotional issues.
So, I have a nostalgic connection to RS here.
Let’s take a look!
Well, this was a pleasant surprise. Back when rumours were floating around about this guy, I raised a curious eyebrow. The rumours were saying that the trailer would be the base of Menasor and it was very G1 Cartoon looking.
I thought to myself, "You know, that might actually work!"
Then the pictures, it looked nice! Motormaster was to be a commander sized toy, which pleased me greatly. So far my experiences with Commander toys has been wonderful; Sky Lynx is a blast and Rodimus Prime is great fun. So there I was preparing myself for the unholy glory of the bullying leader, the first nemesis of Optimus Prime, the square headed tough guy, to blow me away.
Can he live up to the hype?
This here is a review of the PS4 version of the Mad Max game. When I first became aware of the game, I had a feeling it would be something I would like. Recently I've been playing a lot of sandbox games and have played them quite extensively.
The Arkham series and their simple combat and stealth mechanics started it off I guess and that spread into the Shadow/War of Mordor, Just Cause games and to the Witcher 3. Which are pretty much the majority of the "big" games I've been spending my time on.
At the time of release(2015), I think was playing a lot of Just Cause(maybe). I remember seeing articles about Max and thinking that it looks fun, but thought I would be reaching the end of my tether for Batman Arkham style sandbox games. I was also still playing Red Dead Redemption as well.
Reviews were ok saying it was standard fare and I felt satisfied with my decision to not bother with it. I have always enjoyed the world of Mad Max and absolutely loved the movie Fury Road; it's such a simple premise but done very well and expands the Max lore quite nicely, but felt no strong urge to get the game that was released the same time. The Mad Max game has little to do with Fury Road, but theoretically is set before it.
So eventually (2021) I see a tweet stating that the Mad Max is cracking a 5.99 price and I just so happened to have that amount hanging around on my long untouched PSN account. So I grabbed it.
Stunticons, Stunticons, how shall I count the ways I love you?
One Mississippi, two Mississippi. Man, Mississippi is a strange word when you type it out.
Going along with my love for evil Decepticon cars, I have here the beautiful Wildrider. Having been stunned at the Delightful faithfulness of Dragstrip and being super impressed at how close Wildrider's vehicle mode looked to the original Ferrari 308 GTB, I had to get this guy. Plus I was determined to finish Menasor. So here I will be talking about the Legacy version of Wildrider as I count down to Menasor.
How is he?
Enjoy
Well, here is an interesting one. I got this guy a long long time ago and the photos have been either
A) Transferred over 3 computers
B) Sitting on an external harddrive for about 7 years.
C) had an unfinished draft on blogger for 1 year.
And so I thought I would finally do something with them. Following along in doing some simple posting of toys, which I like reading about, I'm going to do a post on this here Marvel Legends Thor figure.
Must put the pictures up so I can look at them, which I did.
So I had these images since 2013 apparently and it would seem I really wanted a Thor figure. Let's have a look at this Thor from the Terrax Build a figure line.
So after many, many, MANY years of harassment from a pal, I finally got around to playing a Metal Gear Solid game again. It was Metal Gear Solid, Ground Zeroes, a kind of demo version of MGSV Phantom Pain.
It's a big step for me.
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| Crappy editing dot com |
I heard about the Legacy Stunticons and a rumour soon started wafting about the internet saying that Motormaster's trailer would be a skeleton for Menasor. I immediately thought, hey that sounds cool and thus, another quest for Stunticons starts.
I previously thought the Unite Warriors Stunticons were fairly good. I still feel this way, but looking at these Legacy ones, they are a definite different breed. Today I'll be looking at Dragstrip. The Unite Warrior one was pretty good for a modern take of the character. The Animated one was an Arcee re-colour which managed to work reasonably well. Let's check this new one out.
Yes, I like the Stunticons...
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| I played the Ps3 one ok? ok! |
I remember thinking about buying this in Australia, but I don't think I ever did. It was low priority for me, being a movie tie in game and therefore very likely shit. I was waiting for a good price, which it never seemed to reach for some reason. Then, stuff happened and I got around to paying it now.
What's it like?
A bit strange this one. Let's goooooooooo
Okay, I was going to save this for my yearly summary, but it ended up being a bit too long, so I've decided to make it a whole post.
Sonic Adventure DX on Playstation 3, a review.
It's been a while since we had one of the bigger cars from Transformers Masterpiece. Check out the review for Trailbreaker!
Cyclonus of the Transformers has always been a bit of a loved chap by all. I remember my friend's one when I was a kid and I liked it, but never enough to want one then. Plus his forward swept wingyness always made me wonder if a plane of that design could realy fly. Oddly, yes they are a thing! Which is cool.
Anyhoo, with the advancement of technology, we eventually got Kingdom series Cyclonus. It's quite obvious this guy fits into the Studi Series line as well, but, hey who am I to care? Personally I found the old henkei henkei Cyclonus of yesteryear quite satisfactory.... Until I saw this one.
Hooooo baby!
