Mental Covers: Captain Heidi.

Fighting crime is a tough job. Not so much when you have super powers, but when crime also has super powers, things can get painful. So what happens when you run out of stories and your superhero needs a break? Invent a new power that lets him give them to his girlfriend of course.

Back when I was planning out the original series, Mental's powers were in his mask. If he took it off, he'd lose them and revert to his old personality, and stop breathing. Nowadays he's got his own super powers, and the mask is pretty much grafted to his face. Back then his powers also included reality manipulation because he was a rip-off of The Mask, I have cured this, though he can still grab weapons from nowhere due to his TARDIS-like hoodie. In this case Mental gave most of his powers, and she goes nuts with them and they eventually break up over it. Looking back, this wasn't a very good idea.

I KILL GIANTS: Fallout 3 cont.

I had previously said that in Fallout 3, 'After killing something you feel like you can take on anything. Unfortunatley anything usually shwos up shortly afterwards and makes you it's virtual bitch.' I have recently found that these words are actually somewhat harsh, since as of yesturday I have claimed the lives of about ten Super Mutants. When I said you feel like you can take on anything, I was referring to groups of Raiders, some mole rats, or a Mirelurk. Killing a Super Mutant made me feel as if I could literally punch out Cthulhu.

By what I remember, I was wandering a city when I was attacked by a Raider and his robot. After dispatching the Raider, I hauled ass as I don't think I'd be very good against a non-living opponent. I was running when I used VATS to make sure his friends weren't nearby. What I found instead was an angry Super Mutant charging at me. This was definately an 'Oh Crap' moment, but I decided I'd die fighting again. However, this time I was carrying more than my usual Pea-Shooter, and was very surprised when the Super Mutant eventually fell to the ground as a corpse instead of me. I was very pleased with myself, and it was all I could do to then empty a few rounds into his buddy, who DID have a gun. I was very irritated to then get slaughtered by Talon Mercenaries. I've decided they are a much bigger problem than Super Mutants because there is a lot of them.

I also have to say that the satisfaction you get from Head-Shots in this game is very high, so seeing your bullets knock a Super Mutants head clean off, or reduc it to a stain on the floor is an awesome experience. What makes it even better is when they have captives. I have rescued two Super Mutant captives, and both times I felt like I had genuinlet helped. And hell, I killed a Super Mutant to do it, that is hard core.

The second event was much cooler though. I had read about the AntAgonizer, a woman who beleives she is a super villain, and that you could actually access Hubris Comics ('her' publisher). Once I found it I decided that instead of just wallowing about terrified as I usually did, I'd just go in and introduce all hostiles to my Boomsticks. I ran into some Feral Ghouls, who are essentially the games version of zombies, and blasting their heads off with a shotgun is nowhere less satisfying as doing it to the regular brand. After briefly getting over powered, I started looking around. I found the comics company but it wasn't that exciting. I decided I wanted to leave when I took a wrong turn and ended up in a courtyard of sorts. After looking for a minute, I realised there was a man tied up in the centre. And he was being guarded by Super Mutants. About eight Super Mutants. Needless to say, many bricks were shat.
Nontheless, I decied to help out anyway. After irritated one with a hunting Rifle for a bit, I had their attention. They climbed the stairs towards me, but I gave them Frag Grenades. I then used my new Combat Shotgun, but eventually found myself dead. Two Super Mutants were still standing. I was very impressed with myself. After another failed attempt, I was very happy to report that the captive was now a free man. This success was mainly thanks to me stealing a Super Dead Mutant's mini-gun once I was low on bullets.

I later decided to deliberatley find Super Muties to try out my new Minigun on, but found that it eats up its ammo rather quickly. Works a charm of Centaurs, though.

Let's Talk Fallout 3

Yes, this will probably become a recurring segment, just a heads up.
This isn't so much a review, but just my experience with the game, but it will contain some review elements for a better understanding.

I'm a gamer, so I'm always eager to play something new and invariably awesome. I didn't really get in on looking for what was upcoming, nor did I even own my third generation console (PS3, yes I know) until like two or trhee years ago, so Elder Scrolls Oblivion slid past my radar completley, and I had no interest in it because by what I could tell it was just another RPG thing. I finally picked it up at the Video Store and was delighted to find that I was completley wrong. It was actually an extremley well done RPG that even I could enjoy. It had plenty for me to enjoy, even if I did get curb stomped at every encounter. Admittedly I was quite bad at it and could barely figure out where I was going, and I usually ran away when ever confronted by something that shoots magics at me. I did once take down a band of bandits though, so that was pretty cool. I stole their stuff and my mum told me I was a terrible person. I was horribly frustrated so I took my anger out on more bandits.

So anyway, I eventually discovered Resistance: Fall of Man. This game has arguably gotten me into FPS games, so I was in the mood for them. I mistakenly picked up Fallout 3, believing it to be one of these. I was quite shocked to discover that the game could be summed up as 'Oblivion with Guns,' and let me tell you, if Oblivion did have guns I wouldn't have died as much.

The game is set after the Nuclear Apocolypse of this alternate Earth. As Hellboy explains it, the world built these special shelters known as 'Vaults' where people could live out the life threatening radiation. Once the radiation wore down, everyone was on their merry way rebuilding society. However, that wasn't the case for Vault 101, which stayed locked. That's where our story begins. Your mother dies just after childbirth leaving your father to take care of you. I should mention here that your father is also King of Olympus and God of Lighting:


After learning the basics, you advance in time until your about 19, and your father takes his hoard of Lightning Bolts and hauls ass into the Wasteland for some reason. You run after him and end up in the emersive world of Fallout 3.

First of all I 'd like to point out the Karma System. In order to help yourself on your way towards being a mass murdering monster in the Wasteland you can gain Bad Karma in the tutorial. Unfortunatley your choices include telling your friends that the birthday party that they arranged for you sucks, suggesting ways to bullies as to how they can be mean to your friend, and basically being an ungrateful bastard. Now I may have massacred people by the truckload in Grand Theft Auto 4, but I feel that's just a bit harsh. I nfact I wanted to take the part of an Evil Overlord, minus the army, but I found it much too hard to slaughter anyone who didn't start the fight in the first place. I don't know whether to be irritated or happy that the designers put that much work into everything.

This game is also somewhat depressing for me. Whenever I play it I feel somewhat upset for reasons I don't understand. I don't start sobbing, I just feel like something is wrong with my soul. This is probably because while Oblivion had a lush landscape full of friendly faces and whimsical wonders, Fallout 3 gives us horrible mutations and is generally not set in a very nice place. For example, one mission I keep accidentally entering has a young boy tell me that his settlememt has been attacked by giant fire breathing ants. I decided to help him, but found myself dying a fair few times by the ants jaws and eventually I realised I had no idea what to do after killing half of them. When I finally did, I had run out of ammunition. I decided I wanted to do something else with my time, but leaving the kid after telling him made me feel like a Grade-A douchebag, so I continued to die a lot trying to help.

But the game isn't bad by any stretch of the word. In fact, it'ss probably not because the game is hard, but because I'm not very good. This just sweetens all your victories. For example, just yesturday I was playing it and was ridding a the Super-Duper Mart of Raiders. I was a bit worried at first but then I introduced them to by Sawn-Off Shotgun and I was home free. Then I sold all the crap I stole from them and went along with the storyline.
On the way I encountered some more Raiders, but once they realised I had a gun, they ran screaming. I took their stuff too. Then I was confronted by this walking crab-beast called a Mirelurk. I decided that if a small army with guns didn't take me down, I wasn't going to let ONE crab thing do it either, so I emptied a few round from my Hunting Rifle into it's face, and just because I could, ate some of it's flesh. I tell you, once you've killed anything remotley dangerous in this game, you'll feel like you can take on anything. Unfortunatley, Anything usually shows up a few minutes later and makes you it's digital bitch.
I of course refer to a moment shortly after the Mirelurk encounter inwhich I met two more Raiders. They had much bigger guns than me, so I hid behind a car while they wasted their ammo, but they eventually wised up and ran over to me. I then made use of the games targetting system (VATS) and began making it a fair fight. This wouldn've gone better, but another one decided to show up, and they killed me as I was loading.

It's also wise to be careful what you wish for. I wanted to encounter a bigger monster so that I could feel awesome for emptying my gun into it. I got my wish in the form of a Super Mutant. That was all well and good, but what I didn't realise is that it's friend was with him. Not only that but someone had built armour in his size, and even more bizare, someone had given him a very large gun. I was surprised to find that if not for the gun, I may have actually stood a chance as my bullets were affecting them much more than I'd have expected, but they were still owning me, so I ran off a bridge. They found me, so I realised I was going to die. Well you know what they say, "Some may never live, but the crazy never die." I then proceeded to pull out my baseball bat and pound him on the face wit hit. Needless to say this turned out to be surprisingly effective, and the Super Mutant seemed very confused by my change of tactic. Unfortunatley it wasn't long before my organs were replaced with hundreds of lead pellets and I was missing an arm. But I bet they'll be talking about this at the water cooler.

That also reminds me of an event inwhich I was being attacked by a pair of Raiders. This was probably my second time playing the game, so I wasn't really used to it. Forunatley I was saved by the intervention of a hungry Mole Rat (which is roughly the size of a large dog). The Mole rat began combating the Raider and with my half of the battle already done, won, leaving me to just put a few bullets in the mangy creature. I really liked the idea of seeing these fights, so when I saw a 'Centaur' and a Mirelurk in the same area, I deliberatley got their attention. Unfortunatley the situation ended with me running from both of them Scooby-Doo style, and then a Super Mutant showed up.

Also it might be good to mention something else that makes the game somewhat emotionally difficult. I came across some people standing around a fridge. My scanners revealed they were escaped slaves. That sounded good, someone for me to talk to, because being in a Desert Wasteland full of things that want me dead can be rather stressfull. They then tell me that they found the purified water, and are not planning on sharing it. I had the option to try and haggle for it, but I wasn't really interested so I told them I'd leave. Instantly upon doing so, they opened fire on each other. I was a bit shocked, having them picked as a team. Confused, I eventually joined the fray and came out victorious. I decided to go about my usual business, looking them, take the water, but then I noticed someone else was there, someone I didn't recognise. If I had to guess, this was someone else who also wanted the water, and tried to take it during the fight, and ended up dead instead. In an act of grief I spared her from my looting, but I took the water. This was done mainly because it restores a buttload of health, but also because I previously met a man who was dying of dehydration. I gave him a bottle and recieved some delicious good karma, so at least things went well in the end.

I also feel that part of the reason for my feelings is that I may be killing things and getting Good Karma, but since I'm so bad at this, I have and probably never will really become the hardened badass the game can mold you into. Perhaps its my inability to enter buildings due to being somewhat of a coward and havinh a slight aversion to dying. I also briefly felt like going on a rampage in Megaton. I could bring myself to it, really. I have a particuler fondness for Gob the Ghoul. I think one of my goals if I ever do get 'good' at this game will be to go back and shoot Moriarty.

Above all, while the game is somewhat more emmersive than Oblivion, you'll find Oblivion to be the one you'd much rather live in. I know that's obvious, but even with overlapping awesome, this game is not for the faint of heart. I haven't even got to the High Octane Nightmare Fuel.

Crowning Moment of Awesome.

I know I've used it before, but...this picture. Just this picture.

Mortal Kombat 'Trailer.'

I'm a fanof Mortal Kombat. I haven't really played it that much, but I like the charcters, and what I have played was addictive. It's just there's like one MK game for the PS3. While I enjoyed the first movie (I know the second one is bad, but plan on seeing it anyway) I've gotta say this new one looks a bit odd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy2CGY4c55k

By odd I of course mean awesome, but by what I can tell from that short film and my sources, the finished film will omit any supernatural elements. The wy the film does it makes it look feasible but I just have to ask...how? How can you do that? That's like making a film about Superman and having him be in the costume, but instead of having super powers he's just a body builder with a jetpack. The villain is a wizard, one dude is a god in human form, and one guy is a half dragon prince with four fudging arms! Admittedly there are multiple badass normals throughout the series, but you cannot just throw away something that big. And I know he's much more popular, and heck I like him much more, but I'm pretty sure Liu Kang is supposed to the be the good guy, not Scorpion.
All in all, I have to say that if the film is made, I'd probably see it.

One more thing, I know theres a crimewave, but isn't it a bit much to have the police ordering killings? I mean yeah, that's the plan and they probably all deserve it, but dude, your a Policeman. And your supposed to have robot hands, another reason why we require the supernatural.

Haiku Review: Savage Dragon.

Green Fin Headed Man.
He dies an awful lot.
Story confuses me.

This Months Haul.

Today I thought I'd talk about the hoard of comics I bought yesturday. This probably won't take too long, but meh I thought I'd share some feelings. I can't be bothered putting up the covers, so heres a random picture. I'll mainly be talking about stuff that bothers me, but on a whole I'd say that this was a good month.



Deadpool.
Deadpool is still very much awesome as usual. The storyline at the moment of the main series is pretty good, and longtime Butt Monkey Weasel gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome. Unfortunatley this storyline has somewhat confused me in regards to Deadpool's current motivation. The last eight or so issues focussed on him deciding to help people, and now he's turned into a jerkass again. It is awesome, so I won't actually hold it against the series.
Merc with a Mouth has also been pretty good, but the zombie universe is getting a bit boring. Well maybe boring isn't the right word, but I'm not a fan of Marvel Zombies, and while I am definatley a fan of Headpool I guess I prefer my zombies Angry Mob style.
Finally, I like how Deadpool's been growing in popularity, but I have to say that I'm almost experiencing the same problem that we get with Superman and Batman. DP has yet another miniseries going on, which makes like what? Six series? And I'm buying all of them! They're good, but if I hadn't been in from the early days, I'd be lost as all hell!

Gotham City Sirens.
This is everything you'd want from a series staring Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. It's technically not a Villain Protagonist story, but more of a...Reformed but not friendly Villain Protagonist story. Okay, basically they're villains, but they don't do evil things any more,but neither do they activley fight crime.
This is going to put me in a very small minority but Ivy is really starting to bug me. She uses her seduction powers to get a high class job at S.T.A.R. Labs, then fires half the staff to show she means business. An employee tries to take revenge upon discovering her identity, but it dosn't quite work and now Ivy is working on threatening her for some purpose. This is the sort of thing I'd expect from the villainous side of a comic, which makes perfect sense, but I just want to punch her! Which would then get me killed, so it's a lose-lose situation!
And also, for some of The Goddamned Batman's greatest enemies, they sure get their asses kicked a lot. A while back they get their asses handed to them by a midget clown disguised as the Joker, they were just over equally matched by an old man with a walking stick, and in this issue they get the snot beaten out of them by Catwoman's Batshit crazy nun sister.
Also, it's not portrayed as such, but robbing a Church is what I'd use for a Kick the Dog moment Ms. Kyle.
Harley's doing fine though.

Savage Dragon.
This month's release is nowhere near as depressing as last months. It's pretty clever, especially how Larsen subverts the Big Bad status of Overlord. He's insanley powerful and actually managed to finally kill off the hero for good, but he's not really doing too well with the evil scheming and stuff. He also feels terrible about sending the mooks to their deaths in the previous issue. Larsen continues to make this a turning point by killing OpenFace, one of Dragon's more memorable villains, and a guy whose been with us since pretty much the start. At least he died trying todo something awesome. But I already said I'd be discussing the negatives, so here we go.
There's a major squick factor in the suggestion that Angel should hook up with her brother Malcolm. Granted, Angel recognises the squick and has no interest, and her dumb friends are he ones who suggested it, and it is pointed out that they aren't blood related, but good god this is Chicago, not a stereotypical Redneck town.
Speaking of Malcolm, good god when did he start taking steroids? I understand that it's Larsen's intention to have him take up the mantle of Savage Dragon, but I think he should have remained sort of lanky. I mean...dude! That does not look natural. I swear a few issues ago he actually looked like he was 13. If I saw him I'd assume his early twenties!

Invincible.
I bough the Invincible One-Shot 'Invincible Returns,' which is actually the real issue 71, but it's longr, while Issue 71 is technically issue 72, but lets not enter a loop here.
Okay, I don't actually have any complaints about this issue. Well, that's a lie actually. There's a few odd bits of dialogue, but that's more likley my opinion, I mean they have to get their exposition from somewhere, right? Next up is that it's shaking up the status quo so much. We're going to be spending like six or so issues in the Viltrumite War, which is set in space. I'm sure it'll be good, but I was liking what we had on Earth. Besides, I know it's been about ten months, but we're still recovering from the Invincible War. And finally Invincible switches back to his classic yellow costume. Man, I liked your blue costume! It kicked ass! This one makes your head look long. There's an instory explanation that I find hard to disagree with. Invincible recently stepped over the Moral Event Horizon by killing an innocent man possessed by the aliens known as Sequids. He's decided to not kill any more full stop, and switched to his old costume because blue one reminded him of the incident and made him feel disgusted with himself.
All on all, I'd say it was an excellent jumping point for new readers.

Booster Gold.
I stopped buying Booster for a while because I thought the series ended. As it turns out, I was wrong, so I started up again. You can't blame me, the current storyline concluded, it had a somewhat finalistic tone and it was issue 30, which would be a good number to end on. Anyway, complaints...during a fight with Skull Agents, Booster reflects a laser blast and kills a little girls dog. It leads to a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming at the end, but the way they react to it. You killed a dog. Not the Little Girl, the dog. You didn't mean to. The Dog didn't explode into a gory mess. And you have a Heroic BSOD about it, and they start hurling abuse at him. Seriously? There were evil super villains running around causing havoc, putting hundreds of people in danger, and you start telling the hero he's compleley worthless because of something like that? He stopped all the Agents, I mean come on! Yes, you should be upset, but you need to get your priorities straight!

I also bought five issues of Amazing Spider-Man (and I'm still behind). I'm going to read one weekly until my next comic Store Trip, so I haven't read them yet. However,I hear that they are awesome. Nevertheless, Deviling away twenty years of continuity cannot be patched up one very awesome storyline.