Happy Halloween 2015

Check out the cool Stromtropper costume I got!  Can you believe it only cost $2.50?  I know I overpaid, but it was worth it.  I was bummed the gun logo didn't come out a little clearer, so below is an enlarged version.  Now I'm off to lock the doors and turn all the lights off as we don't even have any candy this year, so beat it kids!

Force Friday Forever

I've got some good news and some bad new, so I'll give you the bad news first.  I've already mentioned that I planned to do a video of my Star Wars Battlefront adventures, but unfortunately my piece of junk XBone put a stop to that.

I already said I had trouble making the video clips, so was making short clips in hopes it would work better.  I went through and made a bunch of smaller 4 min size clips of Drop Zone footage.  My video clips section was packed with stuff, so since I already cut out the good stuff I just went and deleted all the original Drop Zone clips.  You can probably see where this is going.

When you create/edit a clip it also uploads it to One Drive, the Microsoft cloud.  I downloaded all the clips from the cloud to edit them on my computer except they were corrupted and wouldn't play.  They would play for a bit and then freeze up all pixelated.  I checked the versions on my XBone and they were the same.  I guess it got screwed up in rendering or uploading or something and since I already deleted the originals I was outta luck.

I still have all the raw videos of play time on Walker Assault, but if you want to see them you'll have to come over to my house and watch them straight off the XBone.  I tried making a small clip of me flying around in the Snow Speeder and it also got messed up.  Is it too much to ask for something to what it's supposed to do?  I should've got a PS4.

Now the good news!  I bought some Star Wars trading cards!

I got this dual type pack of Topps Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens cards at Wal-Mart.  They were at the front mixed in the with the impulse buy stuff at the tills.  They had a section of various trading cards.

Cards from my pack.  I like the retro type design of the cards.  The set covers all the movies, I know I did some research and saw the check list.  The good news is that the first three movies are glossed over in a mere twenty cards.  Episodes IV to VI take up sixty cards and for some reason The Force Awakens is thirty cards.  All the images for The Force Awakens are just pulled from the trailer, so really the trailer for The Force Awakens gets thirty cards.  

My pack also had these green and black coloured cards which are parallels.  The Jabba Slime Green Starfield cards are 1:1 packs while the Black Starfield cards are 1:2 packs.  There are other colours as well at differing ratios.  They are the same as the blue base cards, but just coloured differently.

I also got some inserts in my pack in the form of a Darth Vader sticker card and a Power of the First Order Snowtrooper.  The sticker looks cool!

The card pack had a little tiny "Exclusive Cards!" logo on it and while doing my research I found out Wal-Mart has an exclusive 9 card mini insert set.

I got the Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress card in the Family Legacy set.  These are are one in every pack, so if you want to get all nine cards, make sure you keep buying packs at Wal-Mart.  How devious.

While I was reading about the cards I found out there are autographs inserted into packs, but they are hard to get falling only 1:545 packs!  The range from main Star Wars actors like Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, Kenny Baker to actors who only had small background parts.  So if you are lucky enough to get an autograph card hope it's of someone good!

The main set is only 110 cards which I guess isn't that much and shouldn't be too hard to complete.  There are also seven subsets of inserts to collect, make that eleven subsets if you include the Wal-Mart one and I guess there is a Target exclusive set too.  I've also read about a Blueprints set and Lightsaber set, but we'll see if I ever manage to get one one of those. Yep, you read that last sentence right, I'll be buying more packs of these Star Wars cards.  I gotta get a Billy Dee Williams autograph!

Throwback Thursday

We are going way back to last Tuesday when I was in Cranbrook.  I was there, but now I'm back in Calgary.  I actually came back on Wednesday.  There was no official announcement here about visiting Cranbrook, but I told Cam in an e-mail and Mike probably figured it out from some Instagram pictures.  The trip was good, I had lunch at the Vietnamese place again.  It's not bad, check it out sometime.  They still need to add subs to their menu.

Pet sounds

FORCE FRIDAY X!!!!!

Another Force Friday is upon us and I'm sharing the brand new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer which was just released.  Check it out!

Just like when the last trailer that was released Cody and I will be making a video of our thoughts/reactions of the new trailer.  It might be take a few weeks, but we will do it and it might even be better than the last one.  May the force be with you.

What did I do to deserve this?

I got a little package in the mail yesterday.  I get crap in the mail all the time, I buy lots of junk online so packages are always showing up.  The weird thing about this package is that it's something I didn't order.

It was a package from China and while I've ordered stuff from there before(remember my R2-D2 phone case and the phone camera lens), I wasn't expecting anything from Shenzhen.  It did have my name on it, so I still opened it in hopes of getting something cool.

I did not get something cool, I got this, which I think is wine bottle phone charm.  I'm not sure what else it could be.  The moral of the story is I have no use for it and I don't want it.  But wait!  This weekend is my mom's birthday and I still haven't gotten her a gift.  Maybe a mini wine bottle to hang on her phone?  Thanks China, you really bailed me out this time, you guys are all right.  Keep up the good work!

Force Friday WIP

So the Star Wars Battlefront beta ended on Monday and I played a bit of it and I even recorded some footage.  I thought it would be easy, record a few clips, slap them together and upload to YouTube.  Of course when the clips are just me getting killed or running around trying not to be killed, it's not so fun to watch.  Plus the stupid XBone messed up some clips I already uploaded and they were corrupted, so I had to start all over again.

I originally uploaded 20 minutes clips of raw footage, but maybe that was too large.  I'm making smaller clips with edited footage in them I can just assemble them later.  I will get it finished eventually and then you'll get to see me do stuff like get killed(obviously), fly a X-Wing, fly a snowspeeder, blow crap up in a AT-ST and even kill somebody!  But mostly die.

Here are a couple quick screen shots...

Luckily, DICE really dumbed down the flying controls for Battlefront.  I can't fly anything in the Battlefield series, but I can stay in the air usually when I crash it's because I did it on purpose.

One of Cody's biggest complaints is that Luke shows up in the Hoth battle dressed in his black ROTJ gear.  Wrong colour light saber too.

STAR WART

While I was at Bianca Amor's on Monday I had to look around for more awesome bootleg Lego sets because I wanted to get Avery a "Lego" pistol kit for Christmas.  I did find one, the last one that I could see, that was cool, but they also had new stuff!

These are some cool Marvel Avengers rip off sets called Heroes Assemble.  There is a Nick Fury set, Hawkeye set, a Red Skull set, for some reason a Riddler one and there was actually another one, but I couldn't figure out who he was supposed to be.  I like these sets, but they pale in comparison to the new Star Wars rip off sets they had.

STAR WART!

You know I bought just for the name alone and if you don't think it's funny, then just leave right now.  This is a total straight up rip off of the Lego Star Wars Microfighters.

This is a picture of the official Lego Microfighters X-Wing that I took right off the Lego website.  It's pretty much identical to the Star Wart box picture.  Let's put it together to see what it looks like.

Here we go!

They really make you work for this as the guy doesn't even have his arms or even hands put on.

The instructions weren't bad, pretty much as detailed as regular Lego instructions.  I did manage to assemble the whole thing.

The build quality is pretty solid, a lot sturdier than I expected.  Despite the plastic feeling a bit "different" than actual Lego, the pieces snapped together just fine.  Looks pretty good though.

Well, it wasn't 100% perfect as one of the pieces wasn't one of the pieces I needed to complete the set.  They used a clear piece with a hole on both sides to put the "rods" in that go on the end of wings.  I got one clear piece that had a cap on one end so I couldn't put the piece in.

Almost, but not quite.

Rebel scum!

I had few extra pieces left over, but unfortunately, not that one piece I actually needed.

You ain't gonna be very happy.

Collect the entire series!!

Again, they didn't make up stupid names for the ships or anything like that.  I'm tempted to go back for the TIE Interceptor and the Millenium Falcon, even just for the mini figures.

Bianca Amor's I love you!

Bug out

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving and turkey, I know I didn't.  I was lazy and didn't have turkey of any kind, not even the crappy Hungry Man tv dinner like last year.

Cody went to Memory Express today to get a new keyboard, so he can kill guys better.  Since it was on the same street as Bianca Amor's, I don't have to tell you where else we went.

I got a pair of awesome digital camo gloves that were only $3!  The inside is nice and fuzzy, but the overall quality is pretty cheap.  I have a feeling they won't last half the winter, but you can't expect a whole lot for three dollars.  I plan on leaving them in my car anyway.  I also got a Japanese garden spider that's encased in acrylic(or something like that) for Avery.  Kids love bugs.

If you think thats all I got then you're in for a real treat, but you'll have to come back tomorrow night to read about it.  I'm not saying it's spectacular, but it's at least funny, or maybe amusing.  I'm sure Mike will like it out of pity.  He's cool like that.

Split decision

I really the Guacamole Doritos way back when Lays made then and was bummed when they were discontinued.  Not that long ago they were brought back for a limited time, but unfornately I was late to the party and didn't any at all.  Luckily, they are back (sort of), so I can get it enjoy them once again.

They are back in Doritos Collosion which has two flavours in one bag, Habanero and Guacamole.  I wasn't too keen on Habanero, but I was willing to put up with it to get the Guac.

Don't let that picture fool you!  The amount of guacamole to habnero is not fairly represented here.  I assumed it would 50/50 each flavour, but it seems like there are far more habanero chips in there.  I feel a bit ripped off.  I should've dumped the bag out after opening it and sorted them out.  I eat the guacamole and the habanero goes in the garbage where it belongs.  Just because something it spicy doesn't mean it's good.

pewpewstarwarspewpew

This morning I got up just after six and went downstairs and fired up the XBone to download the Star Wars Battlefront beta which is live today.  For whatever stupid reason it wasn't showing up in the store which was annoying.  I wanted to start downloading it, so it would be done when I got home later.  Luckily I only worked a half day, so when I came home at 12pm as soon as I came in the door I turned the Xbone back and and finally it was there.  I downloaded it.  I played it.  I died.  I died again.  And I died a whole lot more.

I played the Survival mission first just to get the feel of what to do and how it plays.  The game looks and sounds pretty awesome.  Survival only goes through the first five waves of enemies.  Then I tried to play Drop Zone and couldn't get into a match at all.  It couldn't find a game and once in a while when I did get into a lobby, once the match started I'd get kicked out with the message "Lost connection to EA servers."

So I that only left me with Walker Assault.  While the Hoth battle is an unforgettable part of the franchise, it seems just a little bit lopsided in the game.  In all the matches I played I think the Empire won them all except for one time.  They get the AT-ATs and AT-STs and the rebels don't even get tauntauns!  Even in the original Battlefront game you can ride tauntauns.  I'm just not a fan of the wide open map layout, I'm always getting killed from a guy a mile away I can't even see.

Again, playing as Rebel you always seem under the gun, getting blasted by AT-ATs or AT-STs any time you go out on open ground.  In a WTF moment, I did destroy an AT-AT with only my blaster, and I was using the pistol.  I only got 350 points for it, I think it should be more like 1000 points.

Most of my kills came from inside vehicles or turrets because I suck on foot.  I got to use the AT-AT which follows a set path, so you can't drive it, but you can control the direction of the head to blast the hell out of anything below you.  It can totally obliterate the enemy, I was just blasting straight inside a hangar where one of the objectives was and those poor fools didn't have a chance.  You only get a set time inside before you get sent back as infantry.

I also got to try the AT-ST which I admit I need more practice with.  Second time with it I did better and you can use until it gets destroyed or you bail out, there is no time limit.  I think, maybe I just get blowed up before the time limit expires.

I also flew a Snowspeeder and blew up a AT-ST by crashing into it.  It was my first time flying, so I wasn't exactly sure what to do and I was a little bit low and clipped the AT-ST blowing it up, but luckily I was still alive, but damaged.  I also got a Tie Fighter but flying up high up you can't get a good view of the ground, so I was doing low strafing runs.  Guess what happened?  I crashed, but at least I crashed into a guy on the ground and got points for the kill.  Later on I got to fly a X-Wing and tried to stay in the air and engage Ties which led to me being blown out the sky by said Ties.  Either way I blow up.

I'm hoping to get to try the Drop Zone mode as it's 8 vs 8, so it's smaller than Walker Assault which is 20 vs 20.  I think it's infantry only too which may or may not be a good thing.  If I'm feeling ambitious I'll try to record some game play footage.  The hard part is finding something where I do something cool and not getting killed.

Top gunning

Forgot to post this up, but this is what Cody got me for my birthday...

Pretty sweet, but I almost wish he had just gotten me a pistol because that rifle looks like a lot of work.  I didn't take a picture, but Cody did put together his Desert Eagle I got him.  It actually looked pretty awesome once assembled.  It was pretty close to a 1:1 scale, so it was pretty big.  He said he was impressed with the build quality and the instructions were good.  It took him an hour and a half to do the pistol, so I guess add on another hour maybe for the rifle?  I need a six year to put this together for me.

Force Friday V

While I've been on the look out for the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise, not to buy it, but just to check it out, I still wanted to get one of the new Stormtroopers.  After looking at two Toys R Us stores and like four Wal-Marts I was coming up short.  Turns out it was right under my nose the whole time.

I was at work and actually was looking at the current week's flyer and we had Star Wars figures on sale.  These were the larger size ones, but chances are we probably had the smaller ones.  After my shift I went to our toy department and was lucky to find the the last First Order Stormtrooper.  They also had a Darth Vader, Tie Pilot and Flametrooper plus the other new guys.  Best part was that I also got my 10% discount.

He actually stands all by himself!  I'm not sure why he needs such a wide stance.  Maybe this helps with his aim, a problem of Stormtroopers past.  I like how his blaster is black and white to match the rest of him.

I also bought a box of Star Wars chocolate snak paks.

There are also C-3PO and R2-D2 cookies, but there weren't in my pouch.  Also the "cookies" suck.  Avoid at all cost.

This afternoon I received an e-mail for Post Food Canada with some big news!

What is it?  Cereal?!  Toys?!  Free shirts?  A Star Wars cereal with a free Star Wars shirt code inside?  It's like a dream come true!  If you follow them on Facebook you'll be the first to find out!  I know Mike is on Facebook, so Mike make sure you Follow Post Foods Canada on Facebook to be the first to find out, then you can tell me and I'll be the second to find out.  I'll get all excited and then it will be something totally lame, then I'll be sad.  I'll never get my hopes up again.