kajnrig

Some more small updates. By the by, I forget who was working on it, but I remember seeing a Super Sylph and/or Mave in the works as well.

Yeah, I bought a whole raft of games when I purchased a VR2 last week, though I've been busy with work and the ones actually enjoying the fruits of my labor are the rest of the family.

That said, RE Village is great in VR. Making the gun handling fairly elaborate does so much to ramp up the tension, aside from being fun in its own right.

Kayak VR Mirage is... alright... but it really shines when you just want to paddle around, relaxed, in any of its various open-world settings. It also made me a bit nauseous occasionally.

Tetris Effect and REZ Infinite, similarly, are still good games to just sit down and vibe to. REZ has a new-to-PSVR2 eye-tracking mode where the targeting reticle follows your eye focus, and that alongside the ability to look around in general allowed me to blitz through the levels with zero problems whatsoever. VR has really broken that game.

RUNNER is an 80s anime-skinned arcade bike shooting game. Its gameplay is fairly basic - you ride your Akira bike along a highway, and you take out enemy police with your bike's autocannons and handheld SMGs. It's very hard and very fun.

Horizon: Call of the Mountain is the VR2's mascot game, and you can really tell. It really gets the most out of every bit of the VR2 hardware. It's also a lot of weightless climbing, which can cause a whole bunch of vertigo (though mine wasn't bad).

Swordsman VR costs $20, and the kids wanted it and paid for it, and it's the VR game they've played the most by far. I... I don't even know, man. Hey, if they're having fun, who am I to judge, right?

Pistol Whip is the closest of these to Beat Saber so far. It's an on-rails shooter, with an optional rhythmic timing mechanic. Your character basically runs straight through a level, and you shoot enemies and dodge their shots and obstacles. You get a bonus for shooting on the beat. It's very fun. Really scratches my lightgun shooter itch, too, and makes me wonder how possible it would be to bring any number of those back with VR support. Time Crisis again, but in VR? Yes, please.

IIRC, No Man's Sky has already been updated for PSVR2, but I haven't installed it to try yet. I got it hoping to get to the flight part ASAP, because IIRC there is literally no other VR2 game with a flight component. Oh, how I wish AC7 would come out with an update...

As far as emulating a VR1... I wonder if it would be possible with relatively minor headaches. I think the biggest hurdle would be mimicking the different camera setup; couldn't the VR2 just (well, "just") designate an arbitrary point in space to act as the "camera" and reverse calculate tracking relative to it? You could do the same with the controllers; use their positional data relative to the inside-out tracking of the headset and translate that to positional data relative to the "camera."

I can't imagine it would be THAT hard for the software engineers at Sony to reverse engineer back compat. But what do I know, I'm just armchair developing.

Oh, that reminds me. Caught this a couple days ago. Still a WIP as I understand it, but very far along.

So it took a lot longer and a lot more cajoling than I'd have liked, but they finally got me a refund on Wednesday. Better late than never.

So just an update on the Gundam Model Center order:

1) Got a response after the New Year ended that consisted of a picture of the tracking information.

2) I responded with my interpretation of the tracking information: The package was apparently not claim-eligible [by me] because I, the recipient, filed the claim;  "there is a contract or account restriction" in place between UPS and Gundam Model Center that only allows GMC to file claims... or something. Nevertheless, the same tracking info said that "a claim has been issued [by UPS] to the sender [GMC]," and for me to contact GMC. I asked GMC for an update and/or clarification if my interpretation was wrong.

3) GMC responded requesting that I "please be patient for update."

4) A month has passed since then with no word from GMC.

I'll be sending them another update request, but I gotta say, my patience is wearing thin.

I think they just wanted to target the 12-14cm tall range, and 1/100 was a common scale that most closely matched that range. 1/72 kits would be too big, and 1/144 would be too small.

Courtesy MacrossCentral. The first half is a bit of a retrospective on the OVA/movie, and the second half is mostly stuff we already know.

If anyone is really in need, I've been seeing tons of them on YJA, both built and unbuilt: https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/search/search?auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&p=HG+1%2F100+YF-19&x=0&y=0

15 minutes ago, Angesdad said:

Is this a water slide decal sheet that will be included with the new Alto fig? If so I may be interested.😀

Do the VF nose cones not come with decals?

How many Striker packs ARE there? Did these all exist beforehand, or were they just made up specifically for X kit or Y Metal Build?

I remember being somewhat disappointed with the Vol. 1 kits. I think the parts fit was the main problem for me. It's very... "Chinese knockoff Gundam kit," if you know what I mean. Every part is sliiightly too big or sliiightly too small, such that even when you cut pegs and drill out sockets, parts still might not fit together completely. It's nothing you can't ultimately overcome, but it IS more problem than it's worth, IMO. It's certainly more problem than the price and size would warrant.

These are all up for preorder now, btw. HLJ links:

Xenogears Structure Arts Vol. 1 re-release (Weltall, Vierge, Heimdal, Brigandier): https://www.hlj.com/1-144-scale-xenogears-structure-arts-plastic-model-kit-series-vol-1-reissue-enx34840-2

Xenogears Structure Arts Vol. 2 (Xenogears, Crescens, Renmazuo): https://www.hlj.com/1-144-scale-xenogears-structure-arts-plastic-model-kit-series-vol-2-enx37197

Xenogears Structure Arts Plus (Seibzehn): https://www.hlj.com/1-144-scale-xenogears-structure-arts-plus-plastic-model-kit-series-zeputsen-enx37144

Xenogears Bring Arts Maria Balthasar and Chu-Chu: https://www.hlj.com/xenogears-bring-arts-maria-balthasar-chu-chu-enx36632

Kind of appalled by the prices, though. Everything is 2-3x more than they used to be, with the Seibzehn for 15000 JPY/$110 being particularly insane. That's damn near the price of the bigger, prepainted Weltall-Id figure from the same company a year or two ago. No amount of inflation can mask such naked greed.

The Oiran Sheryl and Maiko Ranka are among my favorite of the various releases. I've thought about getting multiples of them just in case something should happen to mine on display.

I'm in the same boat as most of you, it seems. Congrats to... it looks like... @Big s and @Chronocidal?... on their good luck.

I'm in no rush, so I'm fine waiting... is what I'd say if I didn't in a panic preorder three from USAGundamstore when I wasn't charged after two days.

I think it was just a very matter-of-fact assessment. The big things I took were 1) M+ is a mixture of their visions and styles, and 2) Kawamori can be very particular and eccentric. On the first, that statement tracks with, well, what's already on screen. And on the second, that seems to jive with the impression I'd worked up about Kawamori over the years.

So I don't get the impression that there exists any "dirt" beyond the usual workplace politics, nor that they have any strong lingering resentments towards each other.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2023/01/26/shinichiro-watanabe-on-making-cowboy-bebop-and-what-he-thinks-of-the-live-action-adaptation/

The interview covers the entirety of his career, but a good few paragraphs are dedicated to his M+ days.

Quote

“The first anime I worked on where I was in charge of the overall direction was Macross Plus. However, in reality, the director for that was Shoji Kawamori and I was more like a co-director. In the credits though, Kawamori is listed as something like supervising director, but he really was the director. It was also totally different from working as an episode director; I was much more responsible for a wider variety of things including the story. I was in charge of the entire direction and I gained experience in how to look at the overall aspect of production.

“For Macross Plus, the overall setting and world setup were done by Kawamori, so in that sense, I was there more to support all of that. The end result was an anime that was a mixture of my tastes and Kawamori’s tastes. I didn’t plan to work on Macross Plus either, the offer just came up and I took it. In addition, at that time, Sunrise didn’t hire directors as employees. That meant when I became an episode director, I was effectively released from my contract with Sunrise. That meant I became freelance after that.

“With Takahashi [Ryosuke], he doesn’t do tasks on his own, but he is instead very good at delegating tasks to other people and maximizing their abilities for the benefit of the overall production. He’s a very good manager of people. However, with Kawamori, it is completely the opposite. He wants to do everything on his own. That meant working with Kawamori was very different from working with someone like Takahashi. Takahashi was always very gentle though, but by contrast, Kawamori was quite eccentric. He was very calm but eccentric. He was very pure with eyes sparkling with fascination. Kawamori is a very interesting person.”

....

“Even though I was a director on Macross Plus, Kawamori was really the main director. That meant the situation didn't allow me to do everything I wanted. That frustration turned into a huge amount of energy inside of me. It made me want to do my own original things. So Cowboy Bebop ended up being the first anime where I could do whatever I wanted. That means you don't really need to pay attention to what I worked on before Cowboy Bebop.

They came out with the VF-31 and SV-262 molds just a few years ago. And the -25 either a bit before or a bit after that. I'm still hoping for an Armored/Tornado kit of that.

In the court of law, yes, he still is. The court of public opinion has never had to meet that burden, for better and worse.

But Rick and Morty was insufferable anyway, so... 🤷‍♂️

5 hours ago, electric indigo said:

Leave it to the private contractors to come up with attractice camo schemes again:

Am I correct that custom vehicle livery is no longer allowed under military doctrine? It's just a thing I heard somewhere (maybe even here) and never thought to confirm whether it's true or not.

I have to agree, I think on future rewatches I'm going to grow tired of the overreliance on nostalgia, after the initial high of those flight scenes final wanes. It certainly won't stand the test of time as well as, say, Macross Plus has done and will continue to do. But I'll enjoy said flight scenes for as long as possible.

Ah yep, just as I thought. I sent them an apology email earlier today for it.

Just updating:

I contacted GMC via their store contact page. No reply.

Contacted GMC via their provided customer service email.

Opened a claim with UPS.

GMC replied to the email saying UPS had started an investigation.

UPS completed the investigation, saying a claim has been sent to GMC, and for me to contact GMC.

I emailed GMC Tuesday 1/17 letting them know. No response.

Emailed GMC again this morning. Awaiting reply.

(It just occurred to me that it's around Chinese New Year period, maybe why no response yet. Maybe I jumped the gun a bit on that last email, oops.)

On 10/19/2022 at 4:55 AM, JB0 said:

I blame Harmony Gold, if only for old times' sake.

Sound strategy.

Box art:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=2990664744411807

14 hours ago, Bolt said:

Caught the first episode of The last Of Us. As I've never played the game, I thought it was well done. 

As I've played the game, I also thought it was well done. (But then again the game was already as close to being a TV show as can be...)

The stealth fake-out after the opening scenes stood out to me particularly because it was funny without standing out. A little Easter egg for fans of the games that doesn't disrupt the story at all.

The episode was looong, though. I'm always thrown off a bit by how long these HBO episodes can run. An entire hour or more, uninterrupted by commercial breaks... Still weird to me, some 20+ years after they started doing it.

Around the 32:40 mark they talk about the stickers, and like half a minute to a minute later they show a slide about... a new layering technique? Or something? Anyone know what that's about?