Tuesday, July 28, 2015

The updated EMP!  

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Stuff: A friend I met via Twitter came to Seattle today, and we decided to meet up at the EMP to hang out and spend a few hours in meatspace. It was good timing since the museum had revamped quite a bit of its content since the last time I had been there. I took a few pictures...

So, as you'll be able to tell from most of these images, the high point was the new Star Wars exhibit. 




A rough Yoda model used for rehearsals. 





Amidala, of course. 





Palpatine's 'creepy guy' robe, pre-Emperorization.





The actual costumes. Not shown are diagrams that gave an idea of how the actors were strapped into these things. It looked really, really uncomfortable.





Leia's Boushh costume. I still love that mask.





I'm sure pretty much everybody in the Western world knows what this is.  





Female and male Tusken Raider costumes. I don't recall seeing the female used in the films. 





That vest is still sharp.





This picture doesn't really convey the scale of the costume, but it was frickin' huge. 





The signage said that 56 of these were made for the movies. That didn't seem like a lot to me... 





I'm sorry, I didn't mean to use the flash on my phone! It was an accid... ::GACKKK::




At this point, we transitioned into the rest of the museum. The Sci-Fi part on the bottom floor has been totally redesigned, and almost all of the displays were new.





The T-800 endoskeleton.





The shuttle that Ripley escapes in from the first Alien film. 





Sarris from Galaxy Quest.





One of the smaller bugs from Starship Troopers. 





They had a whole wall of firearms taken from various TV shows and films.





One of the O-O-O-O-G Dungeons & Dragons materials from the early '70s.





What, you thought I'd finish without an appearance from Boba Fett? 
COME ON. 



Overall, it was a great day and Even though we were there for several hours, I felt like we breezed through it pretty quickly without absorbing as much as we wanted to. I'm definitely going to head back on the next rainy day and spend a few more hours...


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by Brad Gallaway | 0 comments

Monday, July 20, 2015

Helldivers, Godzilla, Lost Dimension, Etrian Untold 2  

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Hey hey! Welcome back to Coffeecola!

My apologies for the hiatus! I wish I could say it was due to something exotic like taking a trip to Tahiti or winning the lottery, but it was just a simple case of life catching up with me.

I was working too many hours, not getting enough sleep, having my oldest son over for the summer, and having too much of a backlog when it came to everything. I needed to take a few things off my plate for a while, and the blog was something that was temporarily expendable.

Now that things have calmed down a bit, I'm ready to get back into the swing of things. So, let's start off with some games. What have I been playing?




Since I've been so busy, I've been spending a lot of time with my recent go-to, which is, of course, Helldivers. It's really easy to jump into the game and get a satisfying 30-45 minutes in, and then walk away feeling like something got accomplished.


Even better, the developers have been steadily supporting the game since launch, and the most recent update introduced three superbosses for players to tackle. These guys are incredibly tough, and pretty much impossible unless you're dropping in with a full squad, correctly kitted out. The wife and I took one of them down with two randos, but the other two bosses slapped us around and took selfies while they did it. We will get our revenge, though.


If you haven't already taken the plunge into Helldivers, now is a great time. All of the  major game updates are included for free if you buy the base game, and the DLC is really affordable and super useful, although totally not necessary.

Also, the game has been so successful that Sony is putting out a hardcopy version in August which includes some special gear not found anywhere else. It's possible that the new stuff will be available to the fans via separate purchase on PSN, but no announcements have been made there yet.




Besides that, I took some time to review the brand-new Godzilla game from Namco-Bandai. As much as I wanted it to be good… it's crap. 


There are a few cool things in there for hardcore Godzilla fans, but they're buried under so much bullshit that it's not worth the time and effort of unlocking them. If you want to read more, here's a link to my review, which just went up.




In other review news, I wrapped up my piece on the Vita’s upcoming Lost Dimension. It's still under embargo so I can't spill too much here, but the embargo drops 7/27. Look for my complete writeup then. 


However, in a PREVIEW sense, I can say that fans of strategy RPGs will want to check it out, although there are a few caveats that go along with that. More later.




Finally, it took me too long to get started, but I'm now deep in the middle of Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight on 3DS. This one also under embargo at the moment, but if there’s one series you can count on to be absolutely reliable, it's EO.


In a PREVIEW sense, it's another installment in the long-running series, and fans will know exactly what to expect: dungeon-crawling, mapmaking, and orchestrating nuanced combat abilities between party members. All great stuff.


However, one thing that I AM having a problem with is that it seems like series artist Yuji Himukai did not do the art here. I may be incorrect, but the style looks different to me, and I'm 99% sure it's a different person. I'm a big fan of Himukai’s art style, and it's tough getting over this new look. It's not bad, but the character art is definitely not as sharp as it has been in the past. 

Character art aside, I'm still really enjoying it in a PREVIEW sense, and would totally recommend it to anyone who's already a fan, or to anyone curious about it. The game has a reputation for being uber-hardcore, but the "easy" setting here is really, really, really easy, so it's pretty much the most approachable it's ever been. Have no fear.



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by Brad Gallaway | 0 comments

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Swamped!!  

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Hey y'all, sorry for the lack of updates lately... It's been kiiiinda crazy around here and I just haven't been able to find the time. Or rather, I haven't been able to stay awake at night long enough to get stuff done.



Things should be quieting down this week, tho. My hope is to get my schedule back to a semblance of its former normalcy and then get back into my usual groove.

Coffeecola is definitely not dead, I just need a brief hiatus to get everything back up to speed. Lemme catch my breath and I'll be back to the usual once-a-week refresh.

Thanks for your patience, and see you soon!

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by Brad Gallaway | 0 comments

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