The Official Marvel Graphic Novel Collection

The official Marvel graphic novel collection has just started appearing in newsagents and is also available for subscription. First issue is £2.99 and the 2nd £6.99 (to get you hooked) with the normal price being £9.99. Now that is not cheap as there are two issues a month but what you get it is pretty awesome.

Graphic novels are usually £6-8 a piece and these are pretty decent quality hardback versions. They seem well bound and the paper is thick and glossy. They smell awesome too *sniff*. In the back of each issue is extra material like interviews and draft art. At the front is a handy summary of the events leading up to the story you are about to read. If you subscribe there are host of freebies too, including issue 3.

And if you have any doubt as to the quality of the stories here are the first 4 issues:

1. Spider-man: Coming Home by J. Michael Straczynski & John Romita Jr

So that is the creator of Babylon 5 and the guy who I think draws the best Spider-man. Plus the story is a cracker with some important implications (or they were until ‘One More Day’ *sigh*) for the Spider-man title. 

2. X-Men: Dark Phoenix by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

Written by the Godfather of X-Men comics Chris Claremont (before he completley lost the plot and started churning out utter trash) and widely regarded as the best X-Men story of all time. The fact it was the basis of the third X-Men movie should not put you off.

3. Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov

Ellis would be the creator of Transmetropolitan (Go read it!) and Extremis is ranked as one of the best Iron Man stories and has very realistic artwork. Oh yeah and the retconned Iron Man origin story heavily influenced that of the Iron Man film and the Extremis armour itself being the basis of the Iron Man 2 armour.

4. The Ultimates: Super Human by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

You might have heard of Millar, he has this fairly popular comic and film called Kick Ass recently. The Marvel universe gets as 21st century reboot almost a decade before DC thought it was a good idea and Marvel didn’t kill off their main titles in the process. This is the first story of the Ultimate Universe’s version of the Avengers which sees them taking on a very nasty version of the Hulk. Both the Ultimate Universe and this title have heavily influenced the recent Hollywood films. 

So if you don’t think you are getting your moneys worth in just the first couple of months then I sniff haughtily, vaguely in your direction. Basically it is good stuff.

If the Marvel Figurine collection (which also had for a few years) is anything to go by then a DC version is on the cards. It is probably just sitting, waiting to see how the Marvel version fairs. If that comes out too I’m going to be perpetually broke.

My Fav Skyrim Mods

Here is a list of my favourite Skyrim mods that have been released so far. That some of these even exist before the content creation kit has been released shows how creative some in the modding community can be.

Notice the lack of Anime/JRPG armour/weapon replacements in this list? Want to hazard a guess why? Hint: It is related to them and their source material being utter shite.

In no particular order:

1. Arrowsmith

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1178

Lets you use feathers, firewood, leather strips and metal to craft arrows. Very useful as arrows are oddly rare in Skyrim. I prefer this over some other mods because they go to far and let you craft items that pretty much ruin the game.

2. No More Blocky Faces

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30

Nice mod that smooths out the blockiness that is sometimes apparent in characters faces.

3. RWT Realistic Water Textures

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=711

Greatly improves the water textures on all types of water. Based on photos of actual real life water.

4. Vurts Skyrim Flora Overhaul

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=141

Improves much of the flora in the game by replacing with higher res textures. Makes the woods very pretty indeed.

5. Serious HD Retexture Landscape Skyrim

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2146

High res texture replacer for many of the ground textures in the game. Near photo realistic frankly. 

6. Enhanced Distance Terrain

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1598

Basically adds a little noise to the distant terrain so it looks less blotchy and smooth. Also make texture/model pop in less obvious in the distance.

7. Calientes Female Body Mod Big Bottom Edition

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2666

It wouldn’t be a list of PC games mods without the obligatory nude mode. Female obviously. Install it, look at the boobies and then forget it is even installed. Comes in slim, regular and stupid big boobs sizes. There are male equivalents but you can look those up yourselves, I find them disturbing.

8. Enhanced Night Sky

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=85

Give the night sky a bit of pizzazz. Different colour options and the choice to have nice pretty nebula in the sky.

9. High Res Dragons

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1154

Make the Dragons pop a little more without having them totally redesigned by some no nothing wannabe art student. Keeps the same essential Bethesda design but increases the detail and improves the colour.

10. Skyrim HD

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=607

Project to replace ALL the textures in Skyrim. Has some overlap with the other big texture replacers I have here so I install this first as base and overwrite with the others.

11. 360 Hotkey Enabler

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=310

Allows you to use all 1-8 hotkeys on the keyboard rather than just the 2 on the 360 controller. Better than other mods that add these shortcuts to the 360 controller as it doesn’t make changing weapon’s into a mini game of Street Fighter 2.

12. Readable Road Signs

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=387

Make the signposts in Skyrim legible so that they are useful rather than just decoration.

13. Killable Children

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=774

Depraved or important change to improve realism? You decide but once you have met that snotty little brat in Edoras Whiterun you will seriously consider installing it. The Daily Mail would shit bricks over this, which frankly is just another reason to install it.

Has the weird side effect of letting you select a child during character creation. Odd.

14. Skyrim Enhanced Shaders

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=822

Improves the palette and lighting in the game. Greatly improves the look of the game but can have a significant hit to your frame rate. It has varrious different options and presets but I prefer the ‘Darker Nights and Dungeons’ version. Guess what does? Watch out for the fucking bears when you go wandering in the hills of night though. You also feel less of a tit when sneaking through the shadows when it looks like you might be actually be in the dark.

15. Nexus Mod Manager

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/content/modmanager/

Not really a mod but an application for downloading, installing and managing mods for Skyrim. Makes managing multiple mods much simpler. Was so buggy even I would have been embarrassed to lay claim to it (which is saying a lot considering some of the crap I have written over the years) but has improved in recent versions. Only halfway decent application for this purpose anyway.

My Freebie Five

Leanne over at Babbleanne did I blog post about her ‘freebie five’ early this week and I thought I’d do the same. Why? Because I often copy other people’s blog posts as I rarely have a good idea myself. Plus any excuse to look up pictures of hot women on the internet.  :)

Scarlett Johansson

Why? Well, she has a great rack and a nice arse. 

Kelly Brooke

Why? Well, she has a great rack and a nice arse. Can you see a pattern yet? 

Tricia Helfer

Why? I’m in danger of repeating myself a lot so lets just say I’d really really like to have sex with her.

Charisma Carpenter

Why? Guess?

Jewel Staite

Ah haaa! That caught you off guard didn’t it? Who would pass up the opportunity to get it on with the actress who played Kaywinnit Lee Frye? Firefly, oh how we miss you. :(

Obviously this is completely immaterial as I’m not with anyone to get mad should they insanely unlikely situation of me getting my ‘wicked way’ with any of the above ladies come about.

Should I print this off and laminate it?

iOS Development Sucks

I have come to the conclusion that iOS development sucks. I have not developed in such a frustrating environment since I developed a Windows CE application in Visual C++ back in 1999. Nothing I have used before has been so intent on getting in a developers way as much as Objective-C and Xcode.

Things to do while I have 2 weeks off work

Here is a list of things I should get done over my summer break. All 2 weeks of it. My hope is that if people know I have this crap to do I might actually be shamed into doing some or all of it. I am a terrible procrastinator so I doubt it will work but you never know.

• Clean up. This place is a pig sty.
• Clean the car. If pigs could drive cars then they would be like my car.
• Mount my pictures on the wall.
• Go through my big box of cables/parts and streamline it for cables/parts that actually fit in things I have.
• Go on a day trip somewhere, anywhere.
• Get my PayPal account back in full working order.
• Put the 3 DC Figurine collection issues/statues I have on eBay.
• Put the 100s of gadget boxes on top of my wardrobe into the loft
• Write an Android application
• Archive my comics.
• Finish reading Game of Thrones and get started on the rest of series
• Maintain this despicably cheery mood I have been annoying everyone with these last 2 days.
• Junk this old knackered xBox 360 I have knocking around and put the accessories on eBay.
• Finish my blog redesign.
• Source a decent portable hard drive after returning the one Dixons miss-sold me. 
• Attain omnipresent supergalactic oneness. Alllllllrighty then!
• Visit my Nieces.
• Decide what new car I am going to buy and work out if I can afford it yet. 
• See Super 8 and Rise of the Planet of the Apes at the cinema.
• Meet up with friends (this is a cheat as I already arranged it).
• Put my Captain America shield on the wall.
• Re-establish my exercise regime. Not running though, my knees can’t hack it.
• Do something awesome (not decided what form the awesomeness shall take yet).
• Decide if I am going to The Entertainment Media Show or not.

Likelihood is that I’ll have hardly any of it done by the end of next week and will be complaining I’m bored. I have the same attitude to holidays as I did when I was a kid.

Don’t forget to nag me periodically. I’ll mark them off as they are done. If you have any suggestions for things for me to get off my arse and do stick them in the comments. The best one wins a no-prize. 

Captain America: The First Avenger - Review

“Captain America: The First Avenger” is a good film. It is fun action packed and does justice to the character. It celebrates the spirit of the American ideal without being smug, superior or jingoistic. It even manages to give non-North American countries there due in WWII, something even ‘serious’ US war films usually fail to do. It is polished, well acted (considering), well paced and entertaining. I’d say it slides in just under the Iron Man and Thor films. I enjoyed it a great deal.

Chris Evans is actually spot on with his portrayal of Steve Rogers. Putting aside the more usual jocular performances that made him ideal for The Human Torch he gives us quite an earnest and noble Captain America.

However I still feel just a teensy bit disappointed by it. Marvel seem to have found the perfect formula when they made Iron Man and I feel they aren’t trying to push the boundaries because of this. It was a good film but they could have made it brilliant. Instead of having parts that made you go “Wow! Cool!” it could have parts that made you go “OMG! WTF! Awesome!”.

There is also did get a very small feeling that the film was more of a set-up for The Avengers than a stand alone film in its own right. This is probably because it is, in reality, just that. Doesn’t stop it being worth the £10 for a ticket. Don’t forget to stay after the credits to see a teaser trailer for The Avengers. It doesn’t look like Stark and Thor will get on.

Still at least Marvel have shown (yet again) they can make a good solid action film. Captain America is still way above the dregs of this summers blockbuster season. Pity they couldn’t recover the rights to the Spider-man franchise.

My top 5 favourite films

Now I bet you are thinking that is an easy one right? Guessing my favourite films should be simple because I am living breathing geek cliché. The list will be something like:

• The Empire Strikes Back
• Aliens
• Terminator
• Back to the Future
• Jurassic Park

Right? Wrong! Felt a bit like Lex Luthor then. In your defence I do like all those films a great deal and I’ll often say they are amongst my favourite films of all time. Indeed, I’d put them in the top 10/20 easily. So you want to see my real top 5 films list? The films I really like are:

• High Fidelity
• Almost Famous
• Chasing Amy
• Easy A (This is new entry)
• Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind

Not a spaceship, explosion, superhero or CGI monster between them. A shocking revelation to many I am sure. Though I am disturbed that these are all quite popular with critics and the list makes me feel more than a little pretentious.

Temporary Blog

I think this shall act as my blog in the short term. Should surfice till I find out what is going on with my hosting.