Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1) and YuYu Hakusho (Season 1)

Netflix live action adaptations.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

When the Fire nation decides to conquer the rest of the world it falls upon a recently returned child protagonist Aang (played by Gordon Cormier), to bring balance to the world. Hang on a minute, hasn't this already been made into live action?

Yes, but this series is better in that it has more time to develop characters, fix some pacing issues and show off more fight scenes. There's also some good martial arts in there behind all the "elemental bending" but overall I'd still rank this behind the live action One Piece series as the characters and script there are a clear step up.

YuYu Hakusho

A rough delinquent is given a second chance to defend the world against invading spirits, and holy hell is it super entertaining. Amazing wirework assists with the very physical confrontations in a no-filler plot that makes this five episode story (yep, that's all that's in season one) very binge worthy.

Just like Avatar (above) and One Piece I've not seen the source content but this is currently the clear winner among those three, even if some props are hilarious. Recommended!

Avatar: The Way of Water and the 100 (TV Series)

Featuring humans from space!

Avatar: The Way of Water

After betraying the greedy humans in the first movie to become a big blue cat person, Jake (Sam Worthington) has had a number of years of peace on Pandora - time enough to raise a litter of blue cat people - when the Sky People (humans) suddenly return. Having (stupid) kids has made Jake a coward, so he eventually takes his brood far away to try hide but since this is an action movie that doesn't work for long.

Like the previous flick the graphics here are gorgeous, and while there is almost too much time spent on the silly kids and the plot is just ok, there is more than enough violence to keep me happy here and to look forward to the next movie. Recommended!

The 100

After almost a hundred years of living on a space station, 100 juvenile delinquents are sent back to Earth to see if the nuclear radiation has dissipated enough to make it is survivable. Why delinquents? Because adults found guilty of crimes are quickly executed. Also that space station is quickly running out of air.

What I thought would be a silly, teenage drama with a light survival story is actually the opposite. It's all about survival and what the characters are willing to do for it. Good acting, good script (though it is really flaky with magic medicine and gets more and more far out there as the seasons go along) and an incredibly high death count which regularly includes main characters. Highly recommended!

Stable Diffusion: Portraits of Kantor

[Part of the AI Art Gallery]  

Today I'm back to AI generated imagery for my guild members and this is an attempt at my grandfather's  character. These look younger than what I thought they'd be, but maybe that's how he pictured himself?

You can see the unfinished diffusion as a spot on his cheek.

That's closer I think!

XCOM 2: Avatar

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

It's not long before the UFO finds us and forces us to land with an EMP spike. They then send loads of units to try capture the ship while our forces must push forward and destroy said (literal) spike AND return to the ship before lift off (an excellent mission which I aced)! Pretty we constructed those defensive turrets.

Once we've escaped, our scientists reveal what they learned from all the material we gathered so far. The alien leaders are dying and have found the correct host to be the titular Avatars. Millions of people are being secretly processed for the human component and the coordinates for their main base which sits underwater is located. The only catch is it needs an Avatar to open the gate.

Luckily we have one of those, so I volunteer to neural link up to pilot it and lead a squad into the alien infested base but find the psionic powers of the avatar to be super strong. Null Lance which pierces through everything and void rift which is huge AoE are amazing and let the team slaughter our way through easily. 

Is that a Saiyan under that mask?

That is until we find the three enemy avatars we must defeat (one at a time) who continually summon servants each round. Their worst ability is mind control, and Jane Kelly manages to become the bitch of all three - killing her teammates Rev with a point blank shotgun blast to the face and cutting William down with her plasma blade before I take her out of the equation with a Null Lance. Goose also gets ripped apart by a void rift (bad guys can do it too) before the final enemy avatar is slain and their base destroyed.

With the ADVENT plot exposed, their remaining and now leaderless forces worldwide are overrun by the growing resistance... a total victory for XCOM!

Tactics Tip: For that last fight I advanced really slowly and held on the right side before the bridge, then sent Jane alone to trigger the enemy avatar sequence.

XCOM 2: Facilities

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

Since hitting facilities really damages the Avatar project that's what the soldiers are sent to do, and a few more give their lives to the cause, the most horrifying being IzzBee being impregnated by a chryssalid (who are exactly the same from last time) - eventually dying on the field from its fluids and was turned into a fleshy birth sack that her team mates destroyed before full gestation occurred (which is +3 chryssalids on the field).

Also lost Katz who was obliterated by a pair of sectopods (huge, two legged war machines), Aaron who was beheaded by an archon, Squidman Dan who took cover behind a flaming truck (carrying explosives), Mickey and Rocio exploded by MEC missiles, and Cash who was melted by Andromedon acid.

These things are basically tanks.

During this time Jane Kelly managed to skulljack a codex which spawned what the science team refers to as an avatar, which her squad promptly dealt with as well as a psionic gate guarded by a large floating ball (which hides a psionic tentacle alien) which were all transported back to the Avenger for further study. All this has almost put the Avatar project back at square one, and the aliens are so pissed they finally send a UFO to hunt us down.

Fun Tip: If there is a "fixed" extraction point in a mission and it is not on ground level and somewhere inconvenient / dangerous, blow it up to force it to move.

XCOM 2: Arms Race

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

As ADVENT begins deploying more advanced units like the annoying shield bearers who can protect all allies around them, so we also start fielding more advanced tech: stronger magnetic weapons and the more durable Predator armor, but even these aren't enough as Lory is burned alive by the splash of a grenade, and Ex-Red Talon soldiers Beebo Bee and Chavez are ripped apart by an enraged (muton?) "berserker" when they misjudged how far the hulking monster could sprint.

Since more supplies are required for further upgrades, squads are sent on raiding missions which resulted in the loss of more soldiers: Old Mary was out sniped by a Codex, Helena and Beth were exploded by a grenade, Douglas was impaled by the spear of an archon (flying robot that looks like just the upper torso of a man), and Downey had the misfortune of discovering an Andromedon. These aliens only exist in a hazmat battle suit and despite managing to kill the alien with her shotgun, the suit powered up all on its own and proceeded to pummel her to death. Thanks to their sacrifices, the rest of their team mates now wield even more powerful plasma weapons and Warden powered armor.

I really dislike these things.

The arms race is enough of a distraction to almost let the aliens complete their Avatar project (the countdown timer that replaces the doom track is a nice touch) but luckily this can still be set back by destroying one of their research facilities. Rashida gains an extra medal of heroism for managing to extract with an unconscious Squidman Dan after her was KOed by a ninja.

XCOM 2: Skulljack

[Part of the XCOM 2 story]

We took another loss today from a team deployed to rescue our rebel allies against an ADVENT raid. While focusing on saving civilians from an imposing Muton (brute type alien), soldier Peyton found himself standing next to a new type of alien coined the faceless. These things look like civilians until you get close, which is when they transform into a towering clay humanoid with giant claws. Even with his shotgun Peyton didn't stand a chance.

Super tall things. I wonder how they hide all their mass?

On a more positive note, the development of the skulljack (think Wolverine's claws, but with USB tips?) is complete and Jane Kelly managed to shove it right into an ADVENT officer's noggin. For some reason this then spawned a digital ghost that needed to be defeated but her squaddies Rev, Squidman Dan and Ursula were more than a match for it.

Thanks to the intel gained from the skulljack and the vial Katz retrieved previously, we now know ADVENT is working on something called the Avatar program, and it comes complete with a visual doom clock and everything. Only bad things will happen if that time marker runs out so we need to step up our game, especially as ADVENT forces are now conducting midnight raids to reduce the potential number of volunteers available to us (bad event that doubles the cost of hiring people for the next month).

The Last Airbender (Live Action Movie)

A rushed telling of book one.

In a world where some people can manipulate the elements doing kata and tai chi, the fire nation has conquered almost all the known world as the Avatar, a force that usually brings balance, has been missing for 100 years. Unfortunately for the fire nation, the Avatar is just about to re-emerge.

1800-OMG-I-Spot-a-Narutard!

This M. Night Shyamalan flick has the problem of trying to squeeze the content of a very popular animated series which features children as the heroes. Child actors might already be off putting to some, but the pacing of the condensed story is much worse as it is up to narration to fill in the gaps as the team seems to zip across the world, with an evil general in pursuit half the time and reporting to his superior back in the fire nation the other half of the time.

Effects wise everything is quite good, but I did feel the uniforms of the various nations could have used more variation. I don't know, say red for fire and blue for water instead of black for both sides? Anyway, not one I recommend, I give it two fish spirits out of five. If you want to experience the story correctly, just watch the animated series.

Turn off the Engine

Just a small post in honor of my grandfather whose funeral was held yesterday. Having held a long, fruitful, and exciting life, Lolo (aka "the Avatar" and "Kantor" in Ultima Online) was a man of good character much loved by family and friends all over the globe.

A good portion of his 95 years was spent out at sea and when he would take people out on his (around 40 ft) sailboat that he built himself, one of his usual expressions would be to "turn off the engine" when the sails had caught the wind.

In his last days as he slipped in and out of the dreamland and in between making funny jokes and funnier faces to still make people laugh, he mentioned this again with a smile on his face. Eventually, his sails caught the wind and he was soon sailing off into the big blue sky.

Farewell Avatar. You will be missed.

Lost Planet 2: Master of None

I've been trying to hold off on reviewing this game until I get to try the co-op version of it, but thanks to the rather clumsy way the Windows Live accounts are handled and the simple fact that I have better games to play co-op on that doesn't look like it's going to happen.

So I'll start of with the positive bit first. The graphics are sharp and pretty damned good. As for the rest of the game... well... it's like they couldn't decide what they wanted the game to be. So they tried to make it everything. At it's core, it is a futuristic shooter - that has FPS elements when you aim some weapons and other times you are stuck with an over the shoulder camera and HUD crosshairs. You can dodge roll out of enemy attacks but also have a shield and health that you replenish by... picking up cartoony yellow cubes of... who knows what. Or shooting / being shot by your allies with healing rounds. Got to be careful to use the right ammo type though as there is friendly fire.

You also have a grappling line which lets you maneuver up towering structures and the maps occasionally have minor branching paths but generally they are all small areas separated by loading zones and with the amount of enemies you can expect to be respawning a few times. There are also combat robots you can climb in or hang on to gain more firepower at the loss of agility. From what I've seen you also spend at least half the time fighting alien creatures, some of which are gigantic bosses - while the rest of the time you fight human scum with ridiculous group names. In chapter one you go after the Jungle Pirates. Because they live in the jungle. Really? Also the cut scenes I've seen makes it feel like some guy was trying to copy Metal Gear.

There are timed obstacle challenge modes too which take place on race arenas. Complete it within the allotted time and you unlock something you can use in the main story. Then you can run the same map with more obstacles to unlock something else. This becomes increasingly difficult not only because of the obstacles themselves (from holes in the floor to missile turrets) but from the very awkward controls the game has. Yeah, maybe I can change the default key bindings but I don't feel it's worth it. As an example, mouse up changes your gun. Mouse down doesn't change back to your old gun, it switches your grenade types. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? Someone that doesn't play shooters no doubt.

Strangely it feels almost exactly like Avatar: the game (I played the demo), which suffered from much the same mess but at least there I got to kill off a few hundred Nav'i natives. Screw your tree, give me my Unobtanium! HUMANS RULE! RAAAAAAAHHHH! Alas Lost Planet 2 doesn't give me that same sense of team spirit, despite always having an NPC team with me (and they respawn as often as I do). In closing, Lost Planet 2 tries to be many things which ultimately degrades the game as a whole I think, and I give it 2 cartoony cubes out of 5.