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Damn It SyFy Channel
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I don't watch that much television, but when there is something I want to watch and there are no conflicts on DVR then I'll set it to record and watch it at a later date. One of the shows that I have been getting into this season is Stargate: Universe. It takes place on an Ancients ship that has been wandering the galaxy for thousands if not millions of years planting Stargates on livable planets throughout this galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy. The show started this season with forty some odd survivors of an attack on another planet and they used a 9th chevron on the stargate to open a wormhole to the stargate on this ship. So far the show has been good fare with some main character development and lots of survivors in peril action. It seems to be formulaic at first with the first ten episodes covering the ship getting power, air, water and other necessities a ship that has been operating on auto-pilot for so long would need. The thing is the SyFy Channel decided right around the end of the year that they were going to do what they did with the new Battlestar Galactica and split the season in half. They showed the first half of the season through the end of last year and then are not going to show the other half starting until April 2nd. Sure they are going to run an all day marathon of episodes that day, but the show was just gaining momentum only to have it killed when they decided to split the season. Could Caprica not wait until the late spring/early summer where it would probably run uncontested instead of running against the Olympics. Yes, Stargate: Universe would have to go up against the Olympics as well, but it would give me something to watch besides repeats of every other show on television. Thankfully after the 28th of February we don't have to worry about an Olympics for another two years when the Summer Games are on.
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Star Trek MMO
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Back in early February Cryptic Studios, the makers of the long running Super Hero Massively Multiplayer On-Line (MMO) Role Playing Game (RPG) City of Heroes and the more recently released Champions MMO RPG released the Star Trek Online MMO RPG. The game from what I have been able to dig up is kind of like your standard MMO in that there are missions and you can gain levels (or ranks) and other neat stuff that you can do in any other kind of game, but instead of making you work up the ranks to command your own ship, you are given a ship of your own to command right off the bat. You don't get a Sovereign Class ship in the beginning, but you do get one that can hold its own in a battle. There are skills in the game, but not in a traditional MMO sense. Instead of having skills where you can go gather material and make something out of it, Star Trek Online has a skill system that allows you to improve your tactical or engineering prowess so you can handle weapons better or fix stuff faster and improve its performance. So there is no crafting to be done in the game. There are your traditional Star Trek races to play right off the bat like Human, Andorian and Vulcan, but instead of just limiting you to the few that the games makers wanted, they give you the option to customize the look of your own alien race. You want a one eyed; one horned, purple race then you can more than likely make it. While on the subject of races; there is an option (albeit a limited one) to play as a Klingon on a Klingon ship once you reach level 6 in the game. There is very little for the Klingon player to do right now other than pick space battles and do the occasional mission, but it looks like the game's designers have left something open for future expansion. From what I understand the space battles are a nice touch in what could have been just another bland RPG where you beam down to a planet and engage in scientific exploration or ground combat, but it is a nice feature to have in any case. Star Trek Online is not going to be a threat to any major MMO any time soon due to its extremely limited scope and unfinished quality, but the designers have left things to work with in the future. It would be a good buy for the Star Trek fan in your life that wants to try an MMO, but is not into fantasy or super heroics.
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HeroClix News
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The newly formed company of Wizkids/NECA has wasted no time in getting releases out for the HeroClix game. Late last year they put out the Hammer of Thor Expansion for Marvel HeroClix (which I have a case for and will get around to opening it some time soon). This year is shaping up to be a big one for the company with the release of three major items by this summer. First up, in April there is going to be the Brave and the Bold expansion for DC HeroClix. This expansion is focusing on dual figures like those that were introduced way back in the Crisis expansion with the Pied Piper and Trickster mini. On their web page, http://www.heroclix.com, they have some sample pictures of some of the dual figures and they are going to be some classic pairs. Two of The Flashes on one and another with Hawkman and Atom are probably going to be some of the more sought after ones. There are going to be some bad guys too in this expansion, but you can see more about them on the web site. Second, in May there is going to be a DC HeroClix starter released with seven clix mini's based on the seven different colored lanterns that are taking part in Blackest Night (one of each color). The starter's contents are going to be fixed so all you have to do is buy one and you're set. No price yet, but when I hear about it, it'll be on my twitter feed. Third, in July there is going to be a 25 pack of clix figures based on the Watchmen movie that did okay business at about this time last year. The set will be fixed and be packaged in display packaging for those of you who want other Watchmen goodie to go along with everything else that is coming out. Also in the tradition of offering something special at conventions there will be a 14-inch Dr. Manhattan clix in the same vein as Galactus and Fin Fang Foom. It is unknown whether or not it will be available with giant blue wang hanging out or covered up, but I'm personally hoping it is covered up. The 25 pack as well as the giant Dr. Manhattan will be available in Previews as well as Amazon.com for those of you too shy to enter a Comic Book Store or comic book convention to order them. That takes us through the summer convention season and what is set for the backside of the year. I guess we'll find out together.
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Rings Everywhere
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To go with the recent DC Comics promotion of giving away plastic rings based on the rings of the various corps introduced in Blackest Night. It appears that they are also going to be giving away a White Lantern ring with Brightest Day #1 that is taking the place of Blackest Night. There is also going to be a promotion of Green Lantern Rings and Flash rings for every set number of The Flash and Green Lantern comics ordered that are due out in April 2010; comic book stores are going to have a number of rings to sell. I don't know if you are going to have to pay the $4 cover price just to get one or if your local shop is going to have them to sell individually like mine did when the first seven were released. All they are lacking now is a Legion Flight Ring and that would be a good promotion with Adventure Comics or Booster Gold since they are used in both of those books in one form or another. I know my editor would be buying those up to keep. This link (http://www.dccomics.com/dcdirect/?dcd=14440) on the DC Comics web site has the order listing for the light up Blackest Night rings that are going to be $60. I would buy one and just take the Green Lantern Ring out of it and sell the rest on E-Bay because I don't think there should be any other colored rings other than Green and Yellow. Yes they do light up and have replaceable batteries, but $60 is a bit much for nine rings.
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Comic Con Away from San Diego
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There has been a lot of scuttlebutt going around on blogs and other news outlets about Comic Con not being in San Diego after the 2012 show. This link from Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24993) has some information straight from the horses mouth about their plans (albeit not much they can talk about right now) about either keeping the show in San Diego or possibly moving it up the coast to somewhere like Anaheim. It is my opinion that I think Comic-Con needs to be moved away from the San Diego Convention Center to a bigger and more person friendly venue. It is known by many attendees that the entire city of San Diego is sold out of hotel rooms that weekend and makes it hard for those of us that might go on the spur of the moment (or have a shorter planning schedule because days off are hard to co-ordinate) to stay for the entire weekend. Whether or not that means moving it up to Anaheim or out of the state of California altogether is something that is going to be up to them, but I would like to see a big convention like Comic-Con move somewhere like Dallas. I have something that I want to do. For those of you out there that read Random Crap every month I want you to write something (for fun) about why your city should be the one to host Comic-Con starting in 2013. E-mail it to me as an attachment in .doc or .txt format at Mathew_Bredfeldt[at]hotmail.com and I'll choose one that sticks out for me. It's not meant to be anything serious, but I would like to see what you all out there would say about your city to sway the Convention Committee into coming to your city. That's all for this month, as always story ideas and news bits can be sent to me at Mathew_Bredfeldt[at]hotmail.com just change the [at] to an at symbol and I'll get it.
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