War machine, Final Arc

This was initially going to be a post about the second arc of War Machine, but this arc has also been the final. Its been fun, and lasted just a little less than half the number of issues of the first ongoing, still, 12 issues is better than none, and at least calling it an ongoing showed confidence from Marvel.

First, the story itself, this concerned War Machine and his crew travelling to the US following the trail of the Ultimo Virus seen in the previous arc. This pits Jim directly against the US army, HAMMER and even Tony Stark's brother Morgan. During this he sets up Bethany Cabe and Jake Oh as armoured support and encounters his old buddies from the West Coast Avengers. The final two issues have Jim on trial for war crimes, mainly set up by Norman Osbourne as a distraction after Jim revealed inpropriatories by various Politicians.

Not to spoil for anyone trade waiting, but basically by the end Rhodey has beaten Osbourne (in a subtle way) is cleared of all charges and placed in his cloned body. In short he has been set to a basic point where he won't seem completely unfamiliar to movie audiences should he appear in Iron man after the release of Iron Man 2. But to the comic.

I've loved Greg Pak's writing, for starters it is very obvious that he has read a lot of War Machine, perhaps more than me. Yes he may have got hold of that "tales of the Marvel universe" where Rhodey looses the Eidolon warwear. It's not referenced but I believe he has read it. The art was a little inconsistent but again used various flashes which referred back through War Machine's history. The story itself really brought out Jim's humanity, despite his cyborg nature in this series, whether it was his past love and old friend in Glenda and Parnell respective, or his relationship with his mother as seen in the first issue of this arc.

Overall it was a worthy run, and I look forward to seeing much more of War Machine after his upcoming big screen appearance.

Finally, this is covered very well on my good mate Reilly 2040s Blog Here.

I Miss Late Night TV

I will warn the intrepid reader (Hi) that this contains nostalgic ranting and may include rose tinted memories of the 90s. Warning over I miss late night TV.

Now, some observers may question me on this, after all, in our multi channel age there are many channels that broadcast 24hrs, and often with content the likes of which I’m nostalgic for. Indeed come the digital switchover this point will be technically moot, but this is a nostalgic rant so reality doesn’t need to apply.

It may surprise younger reader to know that as late as 1990, only ITV ran 24hrs (And skies were bluer, and chocolate tasted better and pints were bigger) now I first started being allowed to set my own bedtime at weekends around 1992/3 and at this point while on a Friday and Saturday BBC1 and Channel 4 might run programmes until as late as 2am sometimes after which on the BBC you got the national anthem and then dead air. BBC2 showed Ceefax until the morning and C4 was similar dead air. ITV however was a bizarre combination of eclectic programming.

ITV’s late night was where they aired shows that they reckoned were to grown up for a Saturday afternoon/evening, but too unpopular for anything resembling prime time. Indeed it is on ITV night time TV that Prisoner Cell Block H obtained its cult status amongst students. For me, initially it was the hope of some sex/nudity on TV (I was 12/13, these things were important and harder to come by then) but it opened the door to some great TV.

First and foremost, late night was where ITV would graveyard shows, so it was where you could see the War of the Worlds TV series, Old US shows like Magnum PI, The Equaliser and Hunter, and newer cop dramas like Hardball and Tropical Heat. Things which just have no home even in our current multi-channel world.

Similarly there was a odd selection of non-US programming, ranging from the good, like Video review show “The little picture show” to the average, like “The big E” (A cheap mans eurotrash) and the bad like “Whale On” (Find out why “Shock Jock” James whale is better on Radio) It had dross and some gems, but regardless it was better than the rolling quiz games we now get.

In the mid 90s ITV received competition as Channel 4 went late night, if memory serves it was only on Saturday nights, but it was a start. They also launched with an interesting array of programmes, most interesting was the showing of Anime series late at night. In fact Channel 4 went through bouts of brilliance in their Late night programming, it was all low budget, however this is the slot that gave us some great post pub TV (in the 90s Channel 4 were the masters) and we were treated to shows like Vids and Bits both gave a bit of an anarchic take on the film and video game review shows.

In short, yes we have much in the way of late night telly these days, but very little of it is purpose designed, and with late night gambling more profitable than low audience graveyard programming I can’t help but feel we’ve lost the choice to see some things that now don’t even get an airing.

Games That Stole My Life - X-Wing

Back in the mists of time LucasArts was virtually a by-line for excellent game. They really couldn’t go wrong and obviously Star Wars Licences were a big draw. In 1994 they released every fan’s dream. X-Wing, a space combat simulator that put you in the cockpit of the mighty X-Wing Starfighter.

X-Wing

The basic concept of the game is simple; you play a rebel pilot flying various missions for the rebels. The core game contained 3 Campaigns, leading up to the Death Star mission as seen in Star Wars Episode IV, and was followed by two expansions, Imperial Pursuit, which focused on the evacuation of the Yavin Base (Just because they lost the death star doesn’t mean the empire is just going to leave it there) and B-Wing, which focused on the development of the B-Wing Starfighter and the relocation to Hoth. These expansions were later available in a collector’s edition.

It was great, addictive fun, on top of the campaigns there were training missions which simulated real missions, or flight training where you flew down an assault course. This meant that I spent a lot of time on X-Wing. In fact, I never finished the B-Wing expansion (one really tricky mission) but overall it was great fun clocking up medals and the like. These were then displayed on your Rebel uniform which could be viewed on the menu screen.

X-Wing allowed you to fly The X-Wing (All rounder), the A-Wing (Nippy interceptor) and the Y-Wing (Heavy Bomber) with the B-Wing being introduced in the B-Wing expansion. Sadly it lacked the option to select the craft for the mission (Not really a biggie) and the weapons loadout (A bit worse); your wingmen were pretty useless as well. Also, while there is a fanboy thrill flying the trench run, I would have actually preferred it as a training mission since it kind of made you Luke Skywalker for the mission. I generally try and justify it by saying I was the guy who missed first, see I used my targeting computer rather than the force. Still, a few annoying missions aside it was a great fun game. The sequel was even better

Tie Fighter

Tie Fighter was a sequel in terms of technological advancement and release date, but didn’t technically follow on from X-Wing (This could be argued it does, as X-Wing ends prior to the battle of Hoth and Tie Fighter picks up just after) Instead it put you in the post of an Imperial pilot. Tie Fighter was bigger, more campaigns, more ships (With expansions up to 7 compared to X-Wing’s 4) and in general a more involved story.

A notable point is that you spend very little time doing “evil”; instead you fill the empire’s general role of keeping order in the universe. In fact an early mission has you performing customs inspections at an imperial post. The interesting part comes from the side missions, issued by a mysterious cloaked figure which allow you to progress through the ranks of the secret order of the empire. These uncover the imperial coups that feature prominently in the campaigns. For fans of the expanded universe you also get to serve under Grand Admiral thrown and fly on the wing of Darth Vader.

A criticism of the game would definitely how the game develops. It starts off being a different game to X-Wing, with the Tie-Fighters being flimsy beasts you really rely on your piloting Skills as the Tie fighter can take about 2 hits (And that first will fry half the systems) and the hardiest is the bomber (4 IIRC) but aside from the odd missions in the Assault gunboat (Which sacrifices speed and manoeuvrability for shields) and the Tie-Advanced (Much rarely deployed), you graduate on to always using some craft or the other which possesses Shields, letting the game fall into a more X-Wing like mould. It also has a little too much love for the Missile boat but that’s a personal preference.

These don’t get in the way of what is an awesome game.

The success lead to two sequels, the first, X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter was based more around Multi-Player gaming, and while it did feature a proper soundtrack (based on the CD) I really wanted (ideally and orchestral version) of Tie-Fighter’s specially created soundtrack included, sadly not to be. By this point it was beyond my machine and while it was popular, it sacrificed story for multi-player. However it is still played online.

Finally X-Wing Alliance, which went back to a single player focus and featured the opportunity to fly the Millennium Falcon, however it included some unpopular tweaks and failed to capture the imaginations like the predecessors did.

Still, like X-Com, if stable versions were released on Steam, I’d be very tempted to pick them up.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers

This finished up a while ago and I thought a review was in order.

I’ve followed just about all of the Young Avengers stuff, but this one had me nervous. In true Dark Reign style, we were going to see an all new team of kids, who may not be as nice and wholesome as our first team. Indeed 4 of the 6 were named after villains (Melter, Enchantress, Egghead and executioner) while the other two Coat of Arms is a bit questionable and Big Zero is a neo Nazi.

It was quite a shift but be assured, the original Young Avengers turn up and a big fight, mentoring and rebellion ensue. It was a nice touch of Cornell to have the Young Avengers try and assess and recruit some of the new batch, and indeed the new set’s turn to Osborne was equally predictable when only one of them made the cut.

Cornell’s writing is good and I thing he made the most of having a big set of original characters to play with, although he wasn’t too shabby with the existing avengers or the dark avengers for that matter.

For me the stand out character was the new bacth’s leader, Melter. Cornell builds a great take on the old Marvel trope of powers being more of a curse, and Melter, we discover has killed many people, often by accident, in fact often by comedy accident, with his powers. This makes him not just reluctant but utterly terrified.

My main criticism would be the hint that Big Zero and Egghead are an alternate universe version of Stature and Vision which wasn’t followed up, but with rumours referring to this new team as the Young Masters, we may well see them appear in some shape or form in the future, and I’m interested enough t hope so.