February 26, 2019

Reaching A Student Through Kingdom Hearts [VIDEO]

I don’t have the right systems to play a Kingdom Hearts game but I’ve been watching PlayFrame’s Story Mode series focusing on the story of the games. (There are also playlists of individual games if you check their playlists.) It’s actually a very interesting story; as of this writing he’s barely started in Birth By Sleep. For the uninitiated, the series is a co-creation of Disney and Square Enix, taking place in a fantasy world that combines characters from both companies as they travel through different Disney worlds fighting various creatures of darkness using key-shaped swords known as Keyblades. The main series follows an original character named Sora and his adventures with Donald Duck and Goofy, servants of King Mickey, against the Heartless and a rival evil group known as Organization 13, but does tell other stories in that universe.

The creator of PlayFrame is also the creator of Extra Credits, a show that’s popped up here quite often. One of the recent additions is the “Because Games Matter” subseries, which discusses how video games have been a positive influence in someone’s life. In this installment a teacher reaches one of his shyer students through the power of the Keyblade…on her jacket.

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Posted by on February 26, 2019 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged , .

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February 26, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Iron Man volume 3 #25

“And…kiss.”

Iron Man volume 3 #25

Marvel Comics (February, 2000)

“Ultimate Devastation!”

CO-PLOTTER: Kurt Busiek

CO-PLOTTER/WRITER: Roger Stern

PENCILERS: Sean Chen, Bob Layton, Tom Lyle, Yancy Labat, and Bernard Chang

INKERS: Bob Layton, Rob Hunter, Mark Pennington, and Don Hillsman

COLORIST: Steve Oliff

LETTERERS: Wes Abbot & Troy Peteri

EDITOR: Bobbie Chase

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Posted by on February 26, 2019 in Marvel Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , .

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February 26, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Can Mass Effect Be Saved?

I never got to complete the first Mass Effect because I couldn’t get the darn ship to move, and I can’t on this computer because Valve won’t let Steam run on Vista. I can’t even download it to try again right now. The original trilogy had an ending that was controversial with fans and Andromeda was rushed out without the animation issues fixed and I think a few control issues that were patched later. However, that may not mean the franchise can’t resume, as Fansided contributor Eric Chrisman notes in this installment of App Trigger.

Posted by on February 26, 2019 in Video Game Spotlight and tagged .

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February 25, 2019

Chapter By Chapter: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center chapters 45-46

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

I’ve come to realize just how little has happened in forty-four chapters and 200 pages. So much time thus far has been spent on character histories that don’t matter in this story, as if they’re setting up the whole series rather than just this book. It’s unnecessary padding for flavor text that just shows off their world-building. This is how long it has taken them to even start investigating stuff since the early chapters. With viral attacks, characters you can’t really care for, and histories that have no impact on the story to define character traits that may or may not influence the series of events this book ends up longer than it needs to be.

Right now, Hwan and Donald in Korea is trying to stop a war being started by a group of extremists who want to kill each other. The title character are fighting a computer virus while the man in charge is worrying about his son and his second-in-command is off playing soldier…and by the way they still aren’t there. I don’t think 24 works as well in this book as it did on TV but I didn’t watch the show. I’m only invested in part of the story while the other half keeps slowing and bogging things down. At least we have two chapters filling the length of one rather than three or four, but I’d still rather only review one chapter at a time. It’s in the article series title after all.

  • Chapter 45: Tuesday, 10:05 AM, Op-Center: 6 pages
  • Chapter 46: Wednesday, 12:30 AM, outside of Seoul: 6 pages and a few lines of the 7th

Is South Korea really a day plus off from Eastern Time? Man, time zones are bizarre.

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Posted by on February 25, 2019 in Tom Clancy's Op-Center and tagged , , , , .

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February 25, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #29

“I want to be popular with the ladies, not the robots.”

Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #29

DC Comics (November, 2006)

“In My Father’s House” part 2

WRITER: Stuart Moore

PENCILER: Jamal Igle

INKER: Keith Champagne

COLORIST: David Baron

COVER ART: Brian Stelfreeze

LETTERER: Ken Lopez

EDITOR: Michael Siglain

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Posted by on February 25, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , .

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February 25, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Why Make Superhero Comics If You Aren’t DC/Marvel

When I interviewed Billy Tucci one of the pieces of advice he gave was that Marvel and DC Comics had such a lock on the superhero genre that nobody else should bother, and the small press comic community seems to agree. I don’t because I’ve been creating superheroes since fifth or sixth grade and I love superhero stories. Michael Terracciano, writer for the superhero web comic Star Power also disagrees with this advice and wrote a blog explaining why he and artist Garth Graham produced a sci-fi superhero comic.

Posted by on February 25, 2019 in Comic Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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February 24, 2019

Jake & Leon #397: Doomed Patrol

Maybe the show is good, but the trailer isn’t impressing me.

The problem with using the clips in place of my roughs was trying to fill in the spaces caused by the difference in aspect ratios between the video and my panel layout. It’s not A Scanner Darkly but it was an interesting experiment since I try to translate the screenshots into my art style.

As for the trailers for Doom Patrol I’m seeing I’m really not impressed. These people were broken even before they got powers. Negative Man is cheating on his wife with another man and they have a child (note that it’s the adultery I’m talking about…if they wanted to make him gay for some reason then just make him gay), Robotman was a jerk and Elasti-Girl was diva, Cyborg I’m not sure about, and Crazy Jane has multiple personality disorder. And then they gain superpowers and they’re even more broken. I’m not well-versed in the Doom Patrol but I thought their gimmick was that their normal lives were ruined until they became freaks due to their powers and had to deal with new lives. Also, I didn’t think Elasti-Girl was a Clayface/Plastic Man hybrid when it came to her powers. I thought she stretched and altered size. A good trailer makes the show something you want to watch. I’ve seen plenty of trailers and I don’t want to watch. What is it with the live-action productions that they don’t match even what’s good about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, never mind what DC should be…under someone other than Dan DiDio?

Meanwhile, over at The Clutter Reports that software organizing project is more involved that I intended but I’m still making good progress.

I started scripting a new video review, and I’m hoping to finish it in time. That includes recording and editing. In the meantime I still have articles to come. There’s another commentary coming this week, something a bit fun, and I’ll try to get another in-depth review in as well. I’d also like to get back to the Worldbuilding Project and some of the other artistic articles I started a long time ago, like Reconstruction Zone and Re-Covered. I even have some good choices for both series, but I have to get the time to work on them. Scheduling is my biggest weakness right now and that’s what I have to work on. Hopefully I still give you guys something to enjoy this week.

Posted by on February 24, 2019 in DC Spotlight, Jake & Leon, Streaming Spotlight and tagged , , , , , .

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