Archive for the 'Personal' Category

Gaming Rants

Published on June 24, 2010 in Fun and Games, Personal and Rants. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

I don’t write about Video Games for some time now, but the latest news from E3 kinda triggered this post. So, with no further a do, my rants :D

Nintendo 3DS

As usual, Nintendo invest more into their portables than the home consoles and this is obvious because the portable consoles have always saved Nintendo from being defeated by the competition. From what I’ve seen so far, the 3DS seems impressive.

The 3D screen is a huge sales factor, but the true value of this console it’s in the kick it delivers. The demos shown on E3 make me think that the 3DS graphics engine is way more powerful than a GameCube and a PSP and until Sony releases the PSP 2, which they should have announced on E3 instead of milking the fail that is the PSP Go, the 3DS will sucker-punch the competition out of the map.

Third party support has never been so strong for a portable that is yet to be released, but still, I can see the 3DS being plagued by ports of old games, like it happened to the PSP when it was launched.

It’s been rumored a few changes to the DS Ware shop, which I hope they do because compared to other console marketplaces it sucks. Another rumor is that the 3DS will feature even more social and network capabilities, which is always good. I really hope they include a faster and more friendly version of their Opera browser and deliver a working Internet experience and not just a gimmick like we have on the DSI.

The future will tell, but I’m betting that this will probably be the best portable Nintendo has ever made. Don’t screw this one up Nintendo!!

What I’ve been Playing

As a BIG Mario fan, of course I bought the new Super Mario Galaxy 2. At first it may look as “more of the same” but Nintendo really managed to improve the game mechanics by including new power-ups and 2.5D levels.

Sometimes it feels you’re playing New Super Mario Bros Wii but suddenly the entire level transforms and you’re back to the full Super Mario Galaxy 3D experience . The basics are still the same and there are common elements between the games, but the new stuff is really fun and has a big addiction level, not to mention that this time you have Yoshi :D

What amazes me (in a mixed way) is that Nintendo continues to provide tutorials and in-game help for new players. Super Mario Galaxy 2 even comes with a DVD explaining how to play the game as well as the Superguide that plays some stages for you (if you want) when you die more than 10 times in a level… I understand that this is way to get more inexperienced gamers to buy and play the game, but isn’t it part of the fun to find out how to finish a stage???

Old school baby… those were the times ;)

Besides SMG2, I went back to finish Metroid Prime 3 Corruption. Sadly, I remembered that I didn’t finished Prime and Prime 2 Echoes… although I have the games for the Gamecube, I managed to get my hands on a Metroid Trilogy copy and I’m going back to the start!

The Metroid Prime Trilogy games are still 3 of the best games ever made for Nintendo consoles, and the collector’s edition for the Wii allows you to play the 2 first games as the 3rd one, with the wii mote pointing at the screen, and believe me, it’s a all new experience to play Prime and Echoes that way.

And that’s all… there’s not much time to play games nowadays but I’ll have more time next month when I’m on vacations :D

Stop Consuming and Create!

Published on June 21, 2010 in Personal and Rants. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

My last post was not written out of boredom. I wrote it because I was, and still am, mad at me. Mad because I’m letting myself go, I’m caving in into a state of information overload.

I find myself consuming more information that I should and this is having a downside effect on one of the most important aspects of oneself: creativity.

I can strongly say that I’ve stopped being a creative person, I’m an active consumer but a passive creator… Creativity is like a muscle, you stop exercising it and it goes limp, dull, gray and flat. Your ideas are no longer your own, they are someone else’s ideas because when you come up with a concept, a photo, a text, an algorithm, someone else already did it. And they did it better than you, and the worst part is, you know it, because in your dormant, numb stasis you were waiting. The same information you consumed was also consumed by others, the difference is that they didn’t stopped working out their brains and creativity. The used it.

Remember Polaroids? Those old instant film photo cameras? Most people think the brand died… well it did, but two entrepreneurs saw an opportunity in a market that was being taken by the digital photo technology. They resuscitated the brand and called it “The Impossible Project”, a name that’s suited to what could be considered a failed industry, but they went the extra mile on the road not taken by many.

They innovated, they used their creativity and created a brand that restored a product still demanded by fans of the iconic Polaroid brand. Time will tell if they are successful, nevertheless their products are tools to stimulate creativity.

It’s like a cycle, creativity generates creativity.  I know that the outcome of the creative process is above all else a product of consumption, but don’t take it too lightly, use it as inspiration, learn from it.

Be creative above all things.

I Need a Wake Up Call…

Published on June 17, 2010 in Personal and Rants. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , .

I took some time to look at my blog and it saddens me to say that I my post count has never been so low, both in quantity and quality.

I still rant and have my own opinions (DUH!) but the need to share my different views with the world (the five persons who visit my blog) has changed. Don’t ask my why, maybe it’s laziness, procrastination or just the “plague” of Twitter and Facebook micro blogging… this or perhaps the excess of information available on the Internet.

Face it. It has never been so easy to get information on whatever topic you want, specially if you’re into technology and video games. There are millions of sites and blogs replicating every bit of news and info that comes up, it’s like an infinite echo of information. What value do we, as bloggers,  add to the flow of information? Our personal opinions? Rants? Sometimes we might even mislead our readers when our posts have little or no quality…

I guess the true reason I stoped blogging is because I “looked around” and found out that I’m not actually creating, I’m not adding value, I’m copying what’s being copied millions of times per second. I’m an echo…

Yup… I need a wake up call. We all do.

RIP Shamika

Published on April 11, 2010 in Personal. 2 Comments Tags: .

A nossa querida Shamika faleceu há horas no hospital veterinário depois de lutar valentemente durante 5 dias com um prognóstico terrível.

Felizmente foi-nos possível visitar a Shami durante este últimos dias, de modo a que nunca se sentisse abandonada num ambiente estranho e fora da sua casa.

Na nossa memória ficam agora os momentos de amor e carinho que diariamente nos dava, como parte da nossa familia. Foram 3 anos de muita felicidade e que para sempre ficarão no nosso coração.

Obrigado Shamika, foste muito amada.

True…

Published on March 10, 2010 in Personal and Rants. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Like Tears in Rain

Published on March 3, 2010 in Fun and Games and Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Blade Runner – Tears in Rain (in LEGO) from Zach Macias on Vimeo.

Masters of the Universe Classics

Published on February 14, 2010 in Action Figures, Fun and Games and Personal. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Masters of the Universe

My last post worked like a kind of a trigger. Remembering all those cool toys and shows we had when we’re kids really brought back some strong memories of how much I loved some of that stuff. From all those toys / shows the one I was most fond of was definitely Masters of the Universe. To this day I still remember how I was introduced to He-Man and his buddies, a TV commercial showing the first figures, vehicles and what was probably the greatest playset ever made: Castle Grayskull. The commercial was very cool, with a strong voice behind singing “He-Man, He-Man” and kids playing in a huge diorama with all the figures… how could a kid not be instantly hooked???

My initial reaction was “WANT!!!” and there I went to ask my parents to buy me the entire collection… this was how advertising worked the kids on those days :D Curious, my parents went to the usual toy shop and found out that each figure cost, back in 1982, 2500$00 (in escudos our old currency), €12,50 on today’s “money”! WOW, talk about huge money back on those days! Guess that He-Man and company was out of the question for me, my parents told me thay couldn’t buy toys with those prices… I was sad, but it didn’t matter, I was a smart kid and understood this things, Christmas was almost there and I knew the usual Lego toys were there for me (yes, I loved Lego as well).

So, Christmas came, and by then I knew that I was going to get a Lego Space Station, I saw the big wrapped box stored on my parent’s dresser, I was already making plans on the ships I was going to build to play with it… I just didn’t know how wrong I was. At midnight we started to open presents, I went to the big box, my Lego Space Station, which was really Castle Grayskull! What a RUSH! My parents got me the most awesome toy of that year, I was nearly exploding with joy, my reaction was funny, still it wasn’t near the Nintendo 64 kid’s reaction.

But wait, there was more! With the Castle I also got Attack Track, He-Man’s all terrain vehicle and the mighty Battle Cat. But, (there’s always a but), the two figures I got were not from Masters of the Universe :( I got two bootleg figures from a cheap mock collection that were sold back then. So, I had the Castle, a vehicle, He-Man’s tiger, but no He-Man or Skeletor… or anyone else from the line :D

There was a reason for this. My parents bought all the toys from a Spanish shop that sold wayyyy much cheaper than it was sold in Portugal, but He-Man and Skeletor were sold out everywhere! That’s how big this line was back then! Years passed and I got a few more figures, real ones this time, but naturally I grew up and stopped playing with them, still I had them all stored in perfect conditions. Sadly, my mother gave all the Masters of the Universe toys to my cousins… I only manage to save He-Man and Battle Cat which I have until this day.

After the original MOTU line, two more followed, New Adventures He-Man, that changed all the universe of the line, He-Man went to the future followed by Skeletor, new heroes, new foes, crappy figures. In 2002 Mattel tried to resurrect the brand with a new cartoon and line of figures, this time more anime styled. The cartoon show was good, and they followed the classic line, including all the original characters and new ones, all with a new design. The line was well accepted by fans but not much by the real target audience, kids, and it lasted until 2007.

Back in October 2009 I was surfing the web and some how (can’t remember) I came across with Mattel’s Masters of Universe Classics line. A new line of figures had been started in 2008, this time only available through Mattel’s collector website – Mattycollector.com. Masters of the Universe Classics, MOTUC as it’s known among the fans and collectors, is a line for adult collectors, featuring figures from the original Masters of the Universe line, New Adventures He-Man and the 200x line. It’s an amazing line, the figures are sculpted by the Four Horsemen Studios, the same as the 200X line, but so far, no action features are included in the figures. They are highly posable, with 20 to 25 points of articulation and have very good paint jobs and extremely detailed.

I was very disappointed with one thing. I could get no figure whatsoever from Mattel’s site. You see, this figures are sold mainly through an annual subscription, which is only available to buy from July to August or when the figures are released, generally at the 15th of each month. This is a highly sought line, by collectors and scalpers alike, which means that if you want a figure for a low price, you have to get it from Mattel on the day it’s released. If you miss this window of opportunity, eBay is your destination.

When I visited Mattycollector.com they had He-Man announced to be re-released on November, along with two new other figures. I booked the day on my calendar and in November I ordered He-Man… and learned that in December Skeletor was being re-released… and booked the day and got the sucker. And that’s it. I said to my self that I was going to stop there. I just need the main guys, the good and the bad. This was until 31st December, when He-Man’s figure got delivered (yes, Matty’s packages take forever to get here).

Wow… The figure was even more amazing that I thought it was, bringing back that 80′s feeling I was so fond of . That was the He-Man I played with as a kid, adapted to the 21th century action figure standards. In January, Skeletor came, and I was even more amazed. The figure is probably one of the best of the line.

I decided to collect the line, and by now I already have eight figures, all amazing and that I will review here in the next days. This line has the best action figures for adults available out there, and if you were / are a fan of the old Masters of the Universe line, you need / you have / you owe it to yourself one of this figures.

Closing this post, that’s going very very long, there’s a rumor that with the upcoming Masters of the Universe movie, Mattel will release this line on retail, still it’s just a rumor. For now, if you want to score a few figures, your best chances are Matty’s website on the 15th each month (16th this month and it’s Battle Cat day :D ), eBay or the He-Man.org forums, where all the collectors and fans unite to discuss and trade / buy / sell figures and other merchandise MOTU related. You can even find some of the old figures there ;)

The Years of Nostalgia

Published on November 22, 2009 in Personal and Rants. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

He-Man and The Masters of The Universe

I’m 31 years old. If you’re somehow like me, in your 30′s, there’s a big chance that we share some common memories of our childhood. The toys, the cartoons, the TV shows, the video games, stuff that most of us, as kids enjoyed and remember fondly to this day. Looking at today’s entertainment market it’s cool to see, that the ones that were kids on the 80′s and 90′s are now pulling the strings and resurrecting the stuff that made our dreams back then. Check this:

  • The Transformers – Huge cartoon on the 80′s as well as a huge line of toys. Now there’re two big motion pictures on the brand with a third one on the way, a cartoon series as well as two toy lines that were created for both movies and cartoon series.
  • V and Battlestar Galactica – Two of the most rememberable sci-fi TV shows from the 80′s are back with brand new shows (I know Galactica is over but it’s a good example).
  • He-Man and The Masters of The Universe – If you’re a kid back then you probably had a MOTU figure. It was that big! A new cartoon was made in 2003 along with a new toy line but it wasn’t so successful as the original. Now Mattel is creating a new line of figures just for collectors inspired in the classic line. Oh, and there’s a new movie being made!
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Another cartoon and toy line that were everywhere. The brand completes it’s 25th Anniversary this year and to celebrate they’re made a new animated movie named Turtles Forever, as well as a re-issue of the original action figures. A new cartoon was made in 2003 and a CGI movie in 2007 along with a toy line for both.
  • Fame – One of the biggest TV series back then was graced with a motion picture this year.
  • Video Games – Well, I’m not even starting a list here. Remakes from classic games are born every day. Retrogaming is really catching up among developers and it brings the opportunity to new players to play old games.

So, are we running out of ideas or are we just resurrecting our passions from the past? Are we that nostalgic or are we just trying to make old successful formulas work again?

My take is that it’s a little bit of both. What’s your’s?

This has made my day :)

Published on October 8, 2009 in Personal and Rants. 0 Comments

Batman

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Published on September 23, 2009 in Personal. 0 Comments

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