SiD the Turtle » Galleries

Blade Runner: DVD vs Blu-ray Comparison

Kieran — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:24:43 +0000

I recently picked up a LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive for my HTPC (model number LG GGW-H20L), along with Casino Royale and Batman Begins to show it off. Blu-ray is indeed a step up from DVD, though not quite the revelation that was VHS to DVD. There is one movie however, which has been acclaimed as the disc to pick up if you want to really appreciate the jump to high-definition: Blade Runner.

Putting the movie itself to one side, Blade Runner is renowned as a visual masterpiece, though notorious for its various cuts and editions. The DVD was one of the first I ever bought, a first generation print that while an improvement, isn’t exactly a massive jump from TV quality.

After years of edits and editions, a ‘Final Cut’ was released. This cut, overseen by Ridley Scott himself, cleans up the picture to a staggeringly beautiful level, without the George Lucas-esque need to replace everything with modern CGI. I first saw this cut on Sky Movies (still in standard definition), though you could still tell that it was a movie born in the eighties, the picture was as crisp as a movie released today. This prompted me to pick it up on Blu-ray.

The final cut is available on DVD and Blu-ray, but in a predictable moment of studio stupidity, the UK Blu-Ray edition contains less content than the DVD, and less content than the US version. Thanks to the fact that most studios aren’t enforcing region encoding on Blu-ray discs, I was able to buy a US copy without any hassle. I picked it up from axelmusic.com, which seems to be a UK based company that imports from the US and through Europe so you don’t get hit with import duties. It did take 10 days to arrive, but comparing costs, it was cheaper to buy the US import than pick it up in the UK!

I’ve included a quickly put together gallery of screencaps, comparing my original DVD and the Blu-ray disc. This is not a fair comparison for two reasons: I’d imagine the DVD of the Final Cut is a lot better quality than my original DVD, and I’ve had to scale down the high-def picture to match the DVD picture. Still it’s useful nonetheless to appreciate how much difference can be seen in the same move, thanks to high definition.

Neca Gears of War Action Figure Photos

Kieran — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:50:56 +0000

Or: A Post On My Decent Further Into Geekdom

A catalogue from Forbidden Planet dropped through the door the other day and amongst the myriad of Star Wars memorabilia, Doctor Who tchochkes and slightly disturbing animé statuettes were the new Gears of War action figures designed by Neca. They stood out from the rest of the catalogue through sheer detail alone and ignoring the part of my brain that asks why I need such things I bought two.

One thing that concerns me when buying figures like these is that the product shots you see are often of high detail reference models and what you end up with is of a much reduced quality. For this reason what follows is a series of photos and my opinions on these models.

When viewing these pictures, click on them for a much large view and compare them with the official photos on the Neca website: http://www.necaonline.com/features/gears1/

My fascination with Gears of War stems from the fact that it was the first ‘triple A’ game I played on the Xbox 360 and ended up sucking up a lot of my time. Though the hyper-macho Gears themselves with their enormous boots, biceps and necks are staples of Epic games and not exactly original (see just about any Unreal Tournament game from the last ten years), I thought they would make good figures to sit on my shelf. For that reason I ended up getting Marcus Fenix – the protagonist of the game – and a Locust Drone:

I ended up buying the figures from Play.com as they were a shade cheaper at £9.99 each, my first thought would be that they were not packed very well. The figures are stored in cheap plastic ‘blister-pack’ boxes. This has two problems: firstly as Play only sent them in a jiffy bag the boxes had taken quite a beating on the way to me and secondly you will need to get out some sharp scissors and a box of plasters, the former to break into the packaging and the later to put on the wounds you’ll get from cutting into the plastic. This of course means that unless you are careful you can pretty much forget keeping the packaging.

Packaging aside the figures are impressive to see first-hand. They are quite hefty for their size- a side effect of the characters’ armour. They stand up freely without needing to be propped up (they come with no bases or dioramas). This fundamental design of the characters means that the models have an annoying limitation- although the figures boast several points of articulation they are severely limited in movement. The static pose you see in these photos is pretty much what you have to work with.

Marcus comes with a Lancer assault rifle (famous for the chainsaw bayonet) and a snub pistol. He has no holster for the latter weapon though you may spot in one photo I blu-tacked it to his leg. The rifle is a slight disappointment in relation to the rest of the package, mine was quite bent out of the box as it is flimsy and the blood you see in the official photos could easily be mistaken for rust in mine. Also Marcus’ hands are too big for the gun which means it balances in his hands rather than it being held in place. Still, we are talking about a gun with a chainsaw on the end of it, so it all balances out! The paintwork and detail on the figure is impressive, the armour does look distressed and used (as you would imagine it would) compared to the slightly more polished look in the official photos.

The Locust Drone comes with a Hammerburst rifle and a revolver. This figure does have a holster for the revolver. Again the level of detail on the figure is high, the head in particular is fantastic. Neca have perfectly captured the hideous Locust in this figure, it is an imposing figure on the shelf.

I am personally quite pleased with these figures. I was surprised to get such good quality figures that almost mirror the official pictures for only ten pounds each. I would recommend them for fans of the game who would appreciate the detail and complexity of the figures and want something interesting and different on their shelves.

Many thanks go out to my brother for the loan of his camera and a crash course in taking non-shaky-cam pictures. I have a lot to learn about photography and may put up more pictures when skills allow!

Exploring Guild Wars Eye of the North: Mega post

Kieran — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:00:39 +0000

Although I never got round to the long planned series of posts on Eye of the North, I did take plenty of screenshots. I have included the best of the bunch below.

Exploring Guild Wars Eye of the North – Part 1

Kieran — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:14:40 +0000

The journey into the world of the Eye of the North begins in one of the three main cities of Guild Wars, Lion’s Arch in Tyria, Kaineng Center in Cantha and Kamadan, Jewel of Istan in Elona with frequent earthquakes. At the start of the sneak peak weekend, fissures opening up nearby which the player character must investigate. I chose to begin my journey in Lion’s Arch as my character is from Tyria, though it would turn out that each starting point ends up in the same place. Journeying outside of the city, the first new addition to the landscape is this enormous fissure:

Travelling into the fissure, an area called ‘beneath Tyria’ loads and players get the first taste of the scale of what Arenanet is trying to achieve with the dungeons:

Here we quickly meet the game’s first two heroes who you can add to your party: the Dwarf Ogden Stonehealer and Vekk of the newly discovered race the Asura. According to the lore, the Asura are highly intellectual to the point of arrogance and who live underground away from the rest of the world, until of course this expansion:

Unfortunately the exploration of the dungeon is cut short by the invading Destroyers, the main threat in this expansion and the reason for both the Asura appearing above ground and the previously mentioned earthquakes. This was a shame as I didn’t get a chance to capture a fair amount of the detail of this new dungeon as I was being pursued by quite a large force. This ended in the player character being forced through a magical Asura gate:

More screen shots below:

Exploring Guild Wars: Prophecies – Part One

Kieran — Tue, 29 May 2007 19:03:37 +0000

Welcome to Ascalon City

The original Guild Wars campaign is known as Prophecies. Starting this campaign takes your newly created character to Ascalon City, the largest city in the Kingdom of Ascalon:

Ascalon City is not the capital of the Kingdom, that title goes to the city of Rin, which lies on the other side of The Great Northern Wall.

Ascalon City is the main hub of activity for players new to the game. Home to merchants, armourers and smiths new players often return here after adventuring to buy better equipment, pick up quests, or participate in an impromptu dance.

Views of the city are dominated by The Great Northern Wall. This vast stone structure was built over a period of hundreds of years to defend the Kingdom from the Charr: a race of upright-walking beasts that appear to worship the flame as if it were a god, who have fought a long war against the human peoples of Ascalon. The Great Northern Wall is the main defence against the Charr onslaught which can be seen in near-perpetual war with the Ascalonian army from many of the Wall’s ramparts. Visitors to the Kingdom are strongly advised against going north of the Wall, if they must they should go in force and avoid contact with the Charr hordes.

Gallery