Star Wars: Agent of the Empire - Iron Eclipse

You're going to be getting a few of these in the near future as I catch up on my general backlog, but then I am cutting down on my overall comics consumption so enjoy them while they last!!

Agent of the Empire is a new series following the adventures of Jahan Cross and agent for Imperial Intelligence rooting out corruption and deceit with a selection of handy gadgets and contacts in his hourneys around the galaxy - this story sees him following a lead into the independent Corporate Sector to uncover a plot that threatens the entire galaxy.

New Characters

Jahan Cross
Species: Human
Sex: Male
Occupation: Imperial Intelligence Agent








Jahan Cross joined the Empire as soon as he was able, after seeing the devastation caused by the Clone Wars and the corruption of the Old Republic he believe the Empire would give stability and peace to the galaxy. As an intelligence agent he rooted out corruption among senior Imperial officials among other assignments.

Armand Isard

 Species: Human
Sex: Male
Occupation: Head of Imperial Intelligence






OK well not exactly a new character but for me it was the first visual appearance of this character, the father of legendary New Republic era villain Ysanne Isard. He is the head of Imperial Intelligence and therefore Cross's boss.

Iaco Stark

 Species: Human (Cyborg)
Sex: Male
Occupation: Criminal








Stark was once famous for causing the 'Stark Hyperspace War' in which a nanovirus caused Republic warships to malfunction and crash. After hiding away in the Corporate Sector he fused his body with a droid and created another virus that could turn all droids to his command, with the ability to turn the millions of mechanical servants of the galaxy to his power Stark planned to take on the galaxy one more time...

New Droids

IN-GA 44

"Inga" was a Human Replics droid modified for combat and subterfuge and assigned to agent Cross. Inga lacked the usual synthskin coverings of HRDs and instead masqueraded as a protocol or assistant droid but was fully capable of nusing her retractable blasters at any given opportunity.

New Vehicles

Well not all are new but  this series marks the first visualm appearance of vehicles used by 'Espo' security forces in the Corporate Sector

GX12 Hovervan

 










 This is a standard personnel carrier used on planets by the Espo security forces.


JX40 Jailspeeder

This vessel is used by Espo forces to transport prisoners quickly from the scene of a crime to a local detention centre. It is also used for riot control.

SX20 Patrol Airskimmer

Another patrol vehicle used by Espos it carried a pilot and a gunner rapidly to the scene of any distress. 


K-222 Aero Interceptor
 








 A atmospheric vehicle powered by powerful repulsorlifts this vehicle was designed to pursue targets and intercept them before they left the planet's atmosphere.

Ambassadorial Shuttle

 










Apparently Imperial Ambassadors get access to flashier vehicles than the usual Lambda shuttles, or maybe the corrupt Imperial Ambassador was using creds gained by getting in with the Starks. 

New Technology

Parawings

No agent is complete without his gadgets. Cross took these from Experi-Tech on Coruscant, they were designed to help TIE pilots who bail out in atmosphere.  

Map

My usual contribution - it starts from Wayland where Cross is taking out a corrupt Imperial, finding his lead that takes him to the Corporate Sector. 

Story

Jahan Cross is an Imperial Intelligence agent sent into the Corporate Sector to trace down a plot involving the Stark family. Quickly finding out that there is much more going on he is framed for murder and has to go to the bottom of the plot which involved Iaco Stark, thought dead involved in a plot to hijack the galaxy's droids in a bid for power. .

Blogga's Video Game Diary - 3/5/12

 Well I've had another chance to play Gears of War 3 with my mate, playing it the only way it truly can be played, in the dark, with the TV as the only source of light available and that only showing a dark cave full of creepy monsters about to attack you!

Diary

As I've said I've been busy, though I've made some more progress in Assassin's Creed as well, I'm focusing on getting up my Multiplayer skills to unlock more of the Templar storyline, which is quite interesting, getting some nice glimpses into Templar history and ongoing projects while I'm at it.

But on with Gears...

New Enemies

Shrieker

 









These nasty creatures are capable of flight, emit a nasty shrieking noise as their name suggests, and like many locust creatures explode on death. These beasts defend Queen Myrrah of the Horde and repeatedly harrass Delta Squad as they cross the Deadlands and other territories to investigate the secrets Dom's father left behind.

Gas Barge

These bloated beasts play a key role in Act 2. The Savage Locust are now living above ground and use the strange gaseous creatures as a way of moving troiops and equipment around the Deadlands and also as attack vehicles. The Gears hijack one of these beasts to take a shortcut across Locust territory.

Tempest

This massive beast is the mount on Queen Myrrah who leads the remaining Locust forces that aren't savage or lambent. It seems to be a huge beetle capable of carrying the Queen and protecting her with armoured legs and wings. It is also capable of igniting things with it's breath, such as the gas barge Marcus hijacked!!

Corpser

Well not a new creature really, but the addition of young Corpsers was a great gameplay moment. As the Gears treck across the Deadlands they notice the sand moving, suddenly from out of the sand a claw bursts, attacking anything near it. This is revealed to be a juvenile Corpser, many of which jump out at Delta Squad on their journey. As they enter a cave they find tiny baby corpsers abut the size of a dog, but they are soon defended by their full size mother, who they have to take out on foot!

Story

Marcus and co regroup with Anya  and other survivors from the destroyed ship. Finding Prescott mortally wounded he reveald that Marcus's father is at a hidden base called Azura, but the information he gives them is encoded. Sending Anya and Sam to secure the survivors Marcus and his team head across the Deadlands to Anvil Gate base to get more help, running into plenty of trouble along the way!!

Don't know when there'll be more Gears so enjoy it while it lasts!!

SF at the Movies - April/May '12

I'm doing a double post to give myself a bit of breathing room for the big catchup - I think most April movies are still out so it's ok to post I think!!

Battleship

  Lockout The Divide Avengers Assemble Iron Sky Men in Black III Phew! Quite a lot! More in June!!

Blogga's Wall Catchup

Well it's gonna be catch up central on this blog for a while I'm afraid!! Get ready for a few comic series reviews and old video game content while I'm at it.

I hope you'll let this blogger off as the delay in content is due to HIS WEDDING!!!! So obviously the preparation for said event and changes afterward have caused a bit of a delay but I hope to be posting more regularly soon. It was a lovely day by the way!!!

So here are a few things that went up on my wall during this busy time.

1) Halo: Ghosts of Onyx

 I really enjoyed this book and look forward to the sort-of sequel 'Glasslands' which is apparently going to tie in to the upcoming Halo 4 (release date in November has been announced by the way!!!). The story of the Spartan IIIs was very well done as well as their battle with Foreruner forces on Onyx. I did find the Covenant side of the story very confusing as it was hard to place within the context of the games, it seemed to be around the time of the Covenant civil war, yet the Elites are still warring against the humans - it does make sense but it was a bit hard to follow for my muddled brain - I might do a more in-depth review of this book at a later date so I'll stop here.

2) Star Wars: Agent of the Empire # 1

 A nice new series from Dark Horse and Legacy writer John Ostrander, sort-of James Bond meets Star Wars. This first run of the series 'Iron Eclipse' has come to and end so I'll be posting a full review up soon, so I won't say more on that either!

3) Assassin's Creed: Revelations

 The latest  game in the series lets you play as both Ezio and Altair as Desmond tries to puzzle his way out of a coma in the Animus. Fun additions are the opportunity to play some of Desmonds memories (in a weird 3D puzzle mode) and the Multiplayer which now has more of a story to it, you're still a Templay fighting other Termplars in the Animus but you can now unlock Abstergo files and there are even cutscenes as you progress - a good game so far!

4) Star Wars: Episode 1 3D

I enjoyed this loads more than I actually expected - even as a die-hard Star Wars fan. I love watching the movie in the big screen and the added scenes were fun, especially the extended Podrace sequence and extra details on Coruscant were a delight - worth another trip to the cinema for me!!

5) Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #0

This is a very exciting new series by the Legacy team chronicling the origins of the Jedi Order. This was a very handy guidebook to the series, which I am reading with my wife as it is perfect for new Star Wars readers as almost all the story content is new and the guidebook helpfully explains the stuff that isnn't such as the Sith species and the Rakata, which might otherwise confuse a new reader - this is a great new era to explore.

And that's it - movies next I think!!

Video Game Diary - 8/3/12

OK, this should be the last Gears post for a bit and I can try and catch up with Assassin's Creed, yes don't expect any new stuff for quite a while as I will be behind on Mass Effect 3 anyway as that comes out tomorrow in the UK, anyway, nothing new for this blog though!

Diary

Haven't been gaming that much really, I've played a bit of Assassin's Creed: Revelations but I'm at the stage where playing the economy side of things slows your overall progress but it's great fun to be part of the world of Constantinople. I'm enjoying the Desmond segments, though I would have preferred straightforward memory sequences to moving blocks around a weird physics space. Multiplayer is good too, I like that there is more of a story to it and you can unlock Abstergo files as you progress.

New Enemies

This is the interesting one, in the first act several new lambent types crop up in both phases of the game to attack our Gears, though it seems there has been some peace from the lambent as they are generally surprised to see them pop up.

Lambent Stalk










These stalks are generally how the lambent reach the surface with these enormous mutated plants bursting from the ground or sea, carrying the lambent soldiers in pods that burst open explosively.

Polyps










The most common of the new lambent forces, these small spider-like creatures attack in swarms to overwhelm enemy forces. Like most lambent creatures they have a tendency to explode when shot at or fought hand to hand.

Lambent Drudges














Drudges are the powerhorse of the lambent forces in the first act, initially they attack much like locust drones only they are capable of mutating into a range of forms, from a brute with two massive arms to rooting themselves in the ground and forming a tree-like structure that spews imulsion at you.

Lambent Leviathan











This is the set-piece of the first Act, an enormous sea-creature mutated by the imulsion attacks the Sovereign where Marcus is based, they defeat it with the help of Cole's team who come up with a very creative solution...dropping a mass of captured tickers onto it!!

Gunker










A very nasty creature - the result of a Boomer meeting the imulsion, results in a very powerful and very explosive creature.


And that's it, except for the Locust group that Cole and his team meet up with which have gone rogue because they are stranded from the main group and hounded by the lambent so they have become savages. They are originally thought to be a vicious group of Stranded who won't let anyone near them.

And that's your lot for now - I'll be playing Act 2 soon so there might be more content before long, you never know...

Some Trailers...

Hot on the heels of the box art we have the first teaser trailer for Assassin's Creed III

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Assassin's Creed III - Debut Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

It gives us a few hints as to the gameplay, looks like tree climbing is gonna take up a lot of the free-running and that tomahawk is definitely coming in handy for out new Assassin!

Also out are a few trailer for Halo 4 - well they're more interviews really but we get a few in-game glimpses as well.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Halo 4 - Spring Showcase ViDoc: First Look, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Looks really exciting - loving the giant Cyclops being built in the multiplayter map - and Spartan 4s!!! Wonder why they are fighting each other though?

All good fun - can't wait for these!

Assassin's Creed III

Something new for once!! This is the box art for Assassin's Creed III, confirming the rumoured setting of the American Revolution and it looks like our new assassin might be a Native American or certainly a gfuy who knows how to handle a tomahawk!!