Friday, August 26, 2016

MH Generations N3DS XL GET!


 Never intended to play MH Generations but after some goading by my friends, in the end i gave in. As my old 3DS got worn out from thousands of hours from Monster Hunting, i decided to get a new 3DS and thought might as well buy a new 3DS. There were 2 candidates for my new 3DS which were the Animal Crossing Home designer version N3DS and MH Generations N3DS XL which in the end i picked the latter. While i think the Limited edition for MH4U N3DS XL was cooler, the MH Gens limited edition doesn't look too bad with Glossy exterior and Matte interior. Surprisingly the data transfer between the 3DS is much less complicated than what i would have thought.

Since i have clocked few hours in MHGens prior to the Data Transfer, i might as well share my first impression about the game. I was on the fence with MHGens due to some mess that Capcom did with 4U and it appears that Generations did fix some of them. The most apparent one is in the Palico system such as acquiring Equipment for Palico doesn't rely on annoying minigame anymore and Weapon variations doesn't get too redundant with the new forging mechanics. I hate to admit it but Capcom did a good job on hooking older players into this game with the nostalgia factor and certainly the solo experience on this game felt better than 4U. While Generations lack of G-Rank, the game will bombard you with high number of quests so it will take a while to complete all of the quests. As of now, i managed to reach 6* Village and the new Flagship monster is not half bad. As always i am still a Lancer and i use Guild style since i like the versatilty that this style provide even though i know that most people are probably using Striker style. I will share my overall thoughts about this game again once i reached the endgame with my First char.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

ACI Toys Greek Hoplite 2.0


  When i saw the pictures for this year's Hongkong Toy Show highlights, a company called ACI Toys caught my attention with their product. It appears that they make high-end 1/6 Scale posable figures comparable with Hot Toys lineup. One of their featured products in the exhibition is their Greek Hoplites which looks gorgeous and soon will be available in 4 different styles. The Hoplite comes with Linothorax Armor along with Xiphos and Greek Shield as the armament. When i check the ACI website for the Hoplite 1.0, Hoplite 2.0 is designed as another variation of 1.0 which come with Cuirass and Javelin. Apparently they will sell the Hoplite's Equipment separately from the figure for some reason, probably because of production cost. Even though i am not to familiar with High-end toys like Hot Toys, but i think the Hoplite 2.0 will cost around 100-200 USD.

 Hoplites were the  Heavy Infantry of Greek in classical period which are mostly composed of Free Citizens of Greek City States and have been used as mainline infantry through the famous battles in Classical Period. Usually They fight with Spear and Shield and when 2 Forces of Hoplite fight against each other, the sight looks like 2 Porcupines sticking out on each other . Some of the more outstanding tactics using Hoplite in the period were the Oblique Formation used by Theban General Epaminondas and the Hammer&Anvil tactics by Alexander the Great. The Linothorax armor itself are rather interesting piece of equipment, made of layers of Linen Cloth, the armor provide better comfort than cuirass and at the same time capable of protecting the user from arrows in the period. The armor also had been featured in Homer's Iliad and seen to be worn by Alexander the Great on a famous mural. Nevertheless the depiction of the Hoplite's equipment looks accurate enough for a history amateurs like me and the Hongkong based company deserved a praise for putting respectable amount of effort on their research.

 Apart from the Hoplite 2.0, ACI Toys also made the figurine of famous Greek character based on Troy movie which starred Brad Pitt and i do see Paris and Achilles prototype from the exhibition which looks gorgeous. However the ones that i look forward the most is ACI Toys prototype for Sengoku Period famous Warlord, Shingen Takeda which is spot-on in terms of looks which will wait for its preview.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Some shots for Shiranui UN version


 I accidentally deleted my photoshots on Shiranui UN for stupid reason and here are some of what i can salvage from. I intend to do another take on this guy which i will do once i finished reading Muvluv Alternative which i intend to do in near future despite 6 months of procrastinating. This time i will do it with better setups compared to last time since these pictures are taken with Digital Camera instead of DSLR. Anyway case here are some of the shots that were taken for the Review.