In Bravery We Trust

So, I didn't make that post for day 3 of Meet the Pyro, I'll be honest, I think everyone was too busy trying to be that lucky guy crafting that new hat, and it wasn’t me. I did make a last breath, and some other cool goodies though, which almost mate up for the huge amount of money I spent crafting. I even crafter together genuine hats. That’s how bad it got. In any case, I have decided to give up crafting… until the next major update. However, this did not stop me from unboxing, and ended up getting the Bird Man, the Ushanka and, an Infernal Orchestrinal. So, it hasn’t been too bad, but I still have to sell all of these items, and to make it all better, I found a Killer Exclusive yesterday; I guess things are starting to turn around.

But enough about TF2 for now, let’s talk about movies! I’m pretty cheap so I don’t tend to go to movies I don’t think I’ll like, but I always have one major exception for Pixar movies—I haven’t missed one in theatres since Toy Story 2. I don’t know why it is, but I love Pixar, I still hold that Up and Toy Story 3 are probably some of the best movies of all time, and this means I went to see Brave.

This isn’t to say that I was automatically thinking Brave was going to be bad, I thought Up would possibly be bad, and I had to go flail myself for thinking such things of Pixar. However, I was wary. I hold that Pixar has never made a bad movie, but Cars 2 came close. Cars 2, I feel was a Disney ploy to make more money off of the Cars franchise, since for whatever reason, Cars toys sell so well to kids. I thought that Brave was giving off the same Disney Princess vibe, and I have to say, it scared me to think Pixar may have been selling out to their evil corporate overlords.

So, going into the theater for Brave with my brother, I went to get the snacks (since he gets to refill them during the movie since I’m quite lazy) and where does he decide to sit? In between a full row of children, with just one seat left for me. I’m not a small guy, so when they see this 7’24” behemoth coming to sit down, I think I scared some of them. I got those looks from their parents that told me that they thought I was nothing, and what was this big guy doing at a little girls’ movie? But, I have no pride, and don’t care, and I hunkered down for the movie, shoving my mouth with the salty mess we refer to as popcorn.

Brave is a movie that takes place in Medieval Scotland, with the protagonist, Merida, a Scottish princess about to be married off to one of the members of the clan. She doesn’t want this, and of course, with the queen (her mother) behind all of the planning in this case, she has to come up with some way to change her mind. When she stumbles across a witch who gives her a spell to change her mom, the story kicks off in an unexpected adventure. Riveted with a beautiful landscape, wonder character animation, great voice actors and a plot that ties together fairly well, Brave is a good movie. The only thing that lets it down, like almost every other movie, is how it ends. I personally feel that Brave could have had a stronger ending, and that Pixar just… left it there. It works, but I expect more from the animation giant. They make a movie per year, they can do I bit better I feel.

Overall score: 8/10

Brave is not Pixar’s crowning achievement, but it’s still a nice piece of work. If you’re into the whole fairy tale stuff and love pretty, tom boy princesses, then this is the story for you. I think this is one I’ll pass on, it’s just not my normal piece of pie, but Pixar still makes it in a way that everyone from little girls, to their parents, to a big gamer like me can enjoy such a normally niche story.

--Santa

Post 100: Meeting New (Old) Friends

Well, here we are. This is post numbro 100 for the old Workshop. We’ve come pretty far, eh? Well, I thought it would only be right to give it a bit of a wait, after all, we’re seeing what could be the biggest, and best update in the history of TF2 since the Mannconomy update: Pyromania.

Yes, the long awaited meet the pyro update is upon us, and with it is coming a giant hat dropping party, the name was originally planned to be called “Safety Dance” but when they realized the band’s horrendous name, they decided it would be better off to use their own creative name, “Pyromania.” We are now in day one of the supposed 3 day updates (and if we remember to the über update, then it could actually be 4 days of updates) and we have been showed a new gametype: Doomsday. The mission is to relay a bomb to famous space chimp, Poopy Joe, only one team can win, etc, etc… Looks interesting, but there were no hats released today, which makes day 2 seems all the more exciting.

Another thing to note is the page found on Adult Swim, saying that they have teamed up with Valve, and for reasons we have yet to learn, that something extremely good will come out of this:

“are teaming up for something that you'll probably enjoy. To learn how their video game peanut butter will be getting in our network's chocolate, come back next week.”

This will of course, probably lead to the Meet the Pyro update being on Adult Swim, but this also raises the question, will this mean that Meet the Pyro will be much longer than previous “Meet the” videos? Looking at both the Medic’s and Spy’s videos, which were the two latest, and have gotten longer each time, it would make sense for there to be a long episode, say 15 or even 30 minutes long, but this could end up being much more than even that.

Talking with some friends, I have come up with the theory that it is completely possible that Valve is going for a TF2 series, and if this at all true, then I will need about 15 pairs of pants every time it comes on. I’m not much of a TV guy anymore, but if there’s one thing I do love, I do enjoy myself a good slice of lore, and the old style, super complex storyline of Team Fortress 2 is without any debate my favorite of all time, we will most likely not know until Wednesday if this is what’s really going down, but I’m excited to see what Valve does next. Expect an update per day on this big update, this is it.

--Santa

E3

So, its like a week or 3 after E3, and I’ve finally found the time to stop trading, and talk about some of the things I found interesting! We’ll be doing this in chinks, via game, with 2 in the Spotlight, and then a few just for notes.

Pikmin 3.

It’s happening! Oh god, it’s happening! YES! YEEEEES! This is, except for HL3, probably the game I’ve wanted to see most. I did a whole post on my secret lust for the little flower people, but it’s actually coming! YEEEEEES! Oh, wait…. It’s only on the Wii U. And, according to Gamestop, the pre-order price is… $99.99…. excuse me while I go flush out my childhood dreams.

Personally, I feel that this new installment into one of my personal all-time favorite franchises should be on both systems, so I still have an excuse to keep my old Wii lying around. I really don’t want to go out and buy a new console for… pretty much a one use wonder. I only use my Wii because I feel bad for it, and I’m too lazy (and it helps that my Xbox broke) for Netflix, which I’m not proud about either. Pikmin 3 is a game that I will watch with begrudgingly high interest, since I want nothing more to play it, but nothing less than to buy it.

Watch Dogs.

This is a game that I’ll bet most of you didn’t notice, and it’s a shame. If anybody’s seen Person of Interest, it gives off the whole “Big Brother” vibe, but it looks almost like a cross between a modern day Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto. This is extremely relevant to my interests.

To give a recap of THIS TRAILER, what you see is a man, a contracted killer I presume, possibly working with the US Gov, possibly freelance, is out about going onto his mark. He has the ability to do numerous things, including hack people’s cell phones, tell their age and occupation, tell the likelihood of violence (useful for a fight), and can also cause havoc with other technologies (like when he turns off everyone’s cell phones.) Inside, he gets information on his target, and goes to wait for him out in the rain, and when he’s crossing through the intersection in his car, he changes the lights. Yes, this man is like Solid Snake inside of Sam Fischer. He goes in to finish the job by “sending a message” and killing his mark. A wild chase ensues by the police, and you get away safely by controlling a drawbridge to go up, and you make a sick jump. Yeah, this is by all means relevant to my interests.

Other Objects of Note.

We have the introduction of Smartglass by Microsoft, and later on the introduction of the “Surface” which I will admit is also quite relevant to my interests. The Microsoft factor as I’ve always referred to it, is to build off of ideas around it in the form of “see iPad, make one better.” However, this isn’t always the case, I do remember the Zune/iPod wars, and we all remember the winners.

There is no news on HL3, but in other news (and this is completely E3 unrelated) keep your eyes open for a possible TF2 update this Friday, with the 7 new items, there’s a lot of speculations that this is the “Meet the Pyro” update, and its just it time for summer!

I’m thinking that Halo 4 looks interesting, and I’m also thinking the new South Park game may be fun. I have no idea if I’ll buy them but I’m keeping them on the shortlist.

--Santa