Halo 4 Series 1 Elite Zealot

     Finally getting around to reviewing it, the Elite Zealot from the upcoming Halo 4. What can I say, he's pretty badass. He's taller than your average elite, and sporting some pretty sweet armor. It reminds me of a crab's shell, orange and spiky. He's got pretty good articulation, as well, but can't hold his sword worth a damn.

 He's got four eyes sculpted into his helmet.

And four mandibles on his jaw.

 The arms are articulated at the shoulder, elbow, a swivel and a hinge at the wrist, and his two fingers move. Head moves as well, at the top and bottom of the neck.

 The energy sword is pretty awesome, too bad he can barely hold it. None of the other figures from the first series can hold it either.

His legs have weird articulation, but it works, because this Elite can actually stand on its own.

 His back is covered in plates of armor, adding to the new organic look of the Covenant troops. The Covenant's going green this time around.

 Dat ass.

He's got a peg for his sword on either leg, but it's so big it looks out of place.

 Everything about this figure is finely sculpted, especially the armor pieces.

 Party time!

 Bring it on.

Overall, a really good figure to add to your collection. Look for upcoming reviews of the other three in the series.

If I were a bard in skyrim, ...

Oh Great Dovah!

Who battles 'mongst the sky,

Hot do your fires burn,

Far-reaching are your cries!

Soar from peak to valley,

Marauding as you please,

Destroying any enemy with the utmost of ease!

The son of man, he stands up,

Bolstered by his cause.

As he inhales sharply,

Dearest Dovah, he does  pause;

For this man's peculiar:

He fears no flame or claw.

Dovah's life was forfeit when he shouted, "FUS RO DAH!"

Dragon's Dogma, guys.

Dragon's Dogma, a recent release by Capcom, had me wowed before it even came out. When I first glimpsed the announcement trailer for this bad boy, I had high hopes. And ever single expectation I had was met ten-fold. DD is a free roaming game with standard story-line (with a few plot-twists) and plenty of random baddies to beat up on.

You start of the game with a prologue/training level, where you play the first "Arisen", a chosen one/dragon-slayer of sorts. After that is character creation, which is very in-depth, going so far as to let you change height, weight, posture, and definition/shape of each major body part. You'll also build your main "Pawn", or sidekick a little ways into the game. The pawn mechanic makes up the online part of the game. Whenever you rest at an inn, your pawn is uploaded to be rented out by other players, scoring you rift crystals to spend on new accessories and skin dyes for your character, and to rent other pawns. Your main pawn will also bring back the knowledge they gained while off questing with strangers.

There are 9 classes in the game, two melee, two ranged, two magic, and three that combine the the rest, such as the Assassin, Magic Knight, and Magic Archer. The three special classes are only available to the player. On top of the staggering amount of creation and build customization, there is a massive amount of different armor in the game. 

The main draw of the game is the combat. It's a mix of hack-and-slash and strategy. The game world is full of random small critter, mostly goblins, wolves, harpies, and bandits. In certain areas, however, one is prone to finding larger enemies, bringing to light a interesting mechanic: climbing. The game lets you grab onto larger enemies and shimmy your way to their weak spots, bringing some strategy into these (sometimes excruciatingly) long battles. Unfortunately, when climbing the player has another battle on their hands; the game camera can be very finicky and a lot of the time you'll be trying to figure out which way you're pointing so you can climb up.

Overall, Dragon's Dogma is a really great game with some camera issues and a inclination to destroy players early on. You may have to resort to grinding on little baddies before you can take out your first chimera, and that can get a bit tedious. I recommend the game highly.

 

  

Oh, and the copy I got came with a voucher for early access to the demo for Resident Evil 6. Yeah, it's looking really good.