Fallout 4

OK so here is my review of the game Fallout 4, well I say it's a review it's more of a glowing fanboy love in, where I extol my undying love for it!! 

I do like gaming and have played games consoles ever since they first appeared, I used to play a fair assortment of games but in recent years I have become very exclusive with my gaming time. I suppose it started when I bought my 1st Fallout game, I played it to death. I only started playing them when Bethesda games took over the franchise with Fallout 3 in 2008 and I was immediately hooked. They also licensed Obsidian games to create Fallout New Vegas and that was pretty decent although I found some of the new mechanics to be less interesting than 3. I preferred the way the Fallout 3 skill books worked and I wasn't bothered at all with all the gun additions and bullet types of New Vegas either. Not to say it was a bad game at all, it had a great story, cool & crazy characters and interesting locations to explore. However I have never been able to play the Ultimate version of New Vegas with the Down-Loadable Content as I have the PS3 and it was badly glitched with the DLC and the frame rate made it totally unplayable. It's a shame, the Fallout games have had more than a few problems on initial launch quite often which are normally resolved by patches but no patch was available for the New Vegas DLC it was just too much for the machine. After playing nothing much really other than Fallout 3 and New Vegas for ages I moved on to Bethesda's other big franchise, The Elder Scrolls, with game V in the series Skyrim. I played that one to death, the only time I got off it, playing it both on Xbox 360 at my partners and PS3 at my own place, was when I finally got Fallout 4 for Christmas 2015. As the number suggests this is the 4th major installment in the Fallout franchise but there have also been other non-numbered games like Fallout New Vegas and Brotherhood of Steel. I have played it pretty much exclusively ever since. Once again I have it on both Xbox One & PS4 and have spent so much time playing it. I spent over a month of playing time on the Xbox alone in the 1st year of owning it and at least a few weeks more on the PS4.

The real longevity of the game is down to the settlement building mode that came in with Fallout 4. I have spent hours building up my defenses and fixing up ramshackle houses and building settler shops and the fences, oh the fences to keep out attacks from the horrors of the post apocalyptic wasteland. I have posted up a ton of settlement tours and build videos and playthrough videos on my YouTube channel. 

A cool build video

One of my settlement tours

A playthrough/review of a mod

Check out my full Fallout Playlist here

My YouTube Fallout videos

Another element to the games longevity is the addition of mods for console play. Mods, which are additional fan made content, have long been exclusive to PC owners only but now they are available for the Xbox One & PS4!! New mods, which are free to download are being added to the Nexus and Bethesda.net every day!

Also there is Creation Club which is a new paid content addition which has just been launched. It is quite controversial at the moment with many people calling them paid-mods and saying that the free mods are better than them. I personally think that Bethesda should have kept a team permanently assigned to bringing out new DLC every few months, I'd certainly have signed up for that and I am sure plenty of others would too!

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Now Bethesda have brought out the Game of the Year edition which is the perfect time for new players to get on board. This new versions of the game contains all the DLCs, it has all the gameplay updates and graphical enhancements on board too so you get the ultimate version of the game. So which format should you buy it on? Well that depends on what console/pc system you have really.

I use the PS4 mainly and it does have some limitations when it comes to mods as Sony wouldn't let certain mod aspects be used on their consoles so the choice of mods is less than with the other 2 devices.

Fallout 4 GOTY (PS4)

XBox One doesn't have the same mod limitations as the PS4 but it doesn't have the same share functionality as the PS4 does either. The share function on PS4 is simplicity itself, whereas with the XBox One you need a digital capture device and then have to upload to YouTube. I am not an expert on it at all so I may be doing it all wrong or missing something but I just find the PS4's share button a great idea. This is not a problem though if you are not into sharing your gameplay or building online at all. Also with Xbox I experienced a lot of save problems too which meant I lost a save where I had 40 days of solid play and building work gone for good :'(

I've managed to resolve that issue now but the loss is still felt!

Fallout 4 GOTY (Xbox One)

I'd like to have the chance to play Fallout 4 on the PC, I am sure you have all the greatest mods available on there plus the use of console commands. The graphics must be the best too but the cost of a great set up for PC gameplay makes me avoid it myself

Fallout 4 GOTY (PC DVD)

1 complaint I am aware of on all these game of the year discs is that the DLCs are accessed through a download code which has angered many as it limits their usage of the game. They can't pass it on as a full game as the DLC are not in built to it, which does make it less of a bargain to many.

If you don't own the game already this is the ideal way to get to play it though as you have the full package here, with all the great extra DLC content providing plenty of extra building stuff, you can craft robots, fight arenas and your own vaults! Also the added gameplay from Far Harbor & Nuka World adds hours of great extra content to the base game.

I am a total geek for Fallout, I have the t-shirt, the hat and even the lunchbox but there is so much more awesome stuff to collect, I'll probably be working my way through this assortment of goodies for my upcoming birthdays and Christmas

Fallout collectibles

Get some Fallout threads!!

Geek Tee Friday - Fallout

Check out my other Geek Tee BLOGS

I posted this picture up around a few times, this is me posing like the guy on my shirt. That guy is Vault Boy, he is used in the style of Government Public Message announcements telling people what to do in the event of nuclear war. He is kind of the Corporate mascot for the nefarious Vault-Tec from the Fallout video games and features in their adverts, manuals, products and training films.

Check out my previous POST telling all about my Fallout love.

I will post pictures up here of my hat and lunch box too.

Also check out my videos on YouTube, I have a ton of Fallout related ones with settlement build videos, mod playthroughs and the like for you to check out.

Please subscribe 😁

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Star Wars

Star Wars

So the new Star Wars movie is coming out soon! Number 'lord knows' in the ever expanding series!! Haha I am not complaining though, Star Wars has a massive cult following and I am glad that the hordes of people who love it are getting catered for. The films are high action blockbusters and I saw the 1st 3 at the cinema and I did rather enjoy them at the time but not in the fanatical loving way that many seem to have for them. The prequels that followed always struck me as a strange idea to be honest. They should have just carried on with the sequels whilst the characters we loved from them were still young and vital in my opinion, rather than show us baby Vader. How were we meant to feel and root for the character, or feel any trepidation at his pod racing when we knew his time of death exactly already??

Check out this silly video I did for the Royal Mail Star Wars stamps that came out in October 2017

With Disney's acquisition of the franchise all manner of new Star Wars projects are in the works apparently, I am not sure how many have been green lit, but we had Rogue One the Prequel to the 1st film, which is the 4th in the story sequence, (or is it the 5th now?)! There is also a young Han Solo movie in the works and I did hear talk of a Boba Fett movie, although that was perhaps wishful thinking. I never really collected the Star Wars toys as a kid and I just found out very recently that they ushered in the death knell of my favourite toys ever, the Action Man! I did have a large sized Boba Fett figure though which I sold during an Ebay frenzy a few years back. I very much regret that now as he was in great condition. I have just realised that if you are unfamiliar with the Star Wars timeline it does get a bit freaky! Then you have the expanded universe of the books and graphic novels based on the characters and the cartoons too of course. I am not sure how many of these stories are still considered canon any longer. I imagine being a Star Wars fanatic must be a bit confusing!

 

Fallout 4 - The Great Old Ones

Here is my video review of a Fallout 4 mod called The Great Old Ones by Haasje01

Discover the secrets of the abandoned military base beneath the Fort Hagen satellite array and prevent the cult of the the great old ones from completing their sinister plans.  

Explore the 4 zones beneath fort Hagen in this 1,5 to 3 hours quest. 

Ellen, The Cartographer by Guicool138 is my companion on this quest

At one point I used a special weapon I picked up playing this mod

Thicket Executions by Neeher

and also mention in passing his other mod Xander's Aid

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I mention my heavy metal podcast and my annual H P Lovecraft themed shows. Check them out at this LINK if you wish to.

Check out my Fallout BLOG too

Ladybird Books: Always for kids but now for adults too!!

I have always been a lover of books, my mum loved to read and her delight in reading was passed on to her children. I can not remember ever learning to read, I doubt I was born with the ability but I must have certainly picked it up quick.

I remember taking a reading test when 1st attending infants (or maybe it was juniors school and I remember being quite proud of myself for being able to read the word 'Refrigerator'!! It's funny the things that our young minds retain sometimes isn't it?  

I don't know what books/comics I started reading with but I certainly remember reading plenty of these Ladybird Books in my formative years. They had such a wealth of great subjects. There were all manner of fairy tales like Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk and history books too about the kings and queens, Robin Hood, Vikings, The Great Fire of London, The Romans, the list seemed endless. 

At school we had the numbered series of learning books, I don't recall how the numbers ran but they started off with easy words like 'ball' and 'dog' and got incrementally harder. As I said in the video the book started in 1940 and are still going strong today, helping children to learn to read and opening their minds and imaginations. They have cool art too :D 

Ladybird Books for Kids

Now I certainly can not recall all the Ladybird books that I read nor do I have any of them now, except for this one book! Well I say 1 but I actually have 2 copies of it!! It is the GREATEST Ladybird book EVER!! Heck maybe the greatest book by any publisher ever full stop!! haha well I certainly loved it as a kid. Those scaly terrible lizards enthralled me as a boy and probably still do. Dinosaurs, simply put, are cool as heck!!

Ladybird Book of Dinosaurs

I dare say this book was my introduction to dinosaurs and the wonder of our world's prehistory, they were amazing, awesome, terrifying!! How I wished I could see one!! The sheer size of them! The claws, the spikes, the teeth!! Dr Who fought the Dinosaurs I seem to recall, and there were those great Ray Harryhausen special effects in films like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi(1969).

Then came later blockbusters like Jurassic Park and it's sequels, absolutely great films in regards to special effects, I remember seeing the 1st one in the cinema and that early scene where they 1st spot the enormous sauropod Brachiosaurus plodding along and stare at it in amazement. I was doing the same in my seat, smiling like a loon.

I'm not the only person who thinks they are cool either, dinosaurs are every where! In books and TV shows and films and comics, there are even 2 heavy metal bands aimed at children where all the band members dress as dinosaurs!!

DINOSAURS!!! GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Hmm I went off on a bit of a dinosaur shaped tangent there! I was talking about Ladybird books and got distracted... dinosaurs are cool though aren't they? Which one is your favorite? I find it very hard to choose just one. I like Brontosaurus because it was a dinosaur, then it never existed then it was a dinosaur again!! Ankylosaurus and Stegosaurus are kind of cute but them big carnivores though!! Oh my!! Whoops sorry I was meant to be talking about books!

Yes, recently Ladybird Books have launched a great irreverently fun range for 'Grown-ups' with some amazing titles. They pay homage to the old books of the 60's, 70's and 80's even using the same art and writing style but the subjects are treated a lot differently.

Comedy writers Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley,  adapted Ladybird’s archive to create a series of titles that includes The Ladybird Book of the Hipster, The Ladybird Book of the Hangover and How it Works: The Husband. In an article from The Metro they say "Our books are loving pastiches, not savage parodies, so they’re done with enormous affection: the joke isn’t at the expense of the publisher. The joke is that life looks bloody silly from some angles." One thing is for the sure, the joke, whoever it is on, is damned funny. Check out some of these titles they are going to make great stocking fillers for Christmas, I will have great fun working out which one is best to buy for which relative or friend! How it Works: The Cat for my dad for sure, torn between How it Works: The Mum or How it Works: The Sister for my sister! Perhaps I'll treat myself to The Ladybird Book of The Sickie ;)

See this article from the Metro for more details

Ladybird Books for Grown Ups!!

Masters of The Universe

I had a rummage in my loft and found some treasures I had not played with in years, perhaps even decades! Check out the video

This video says it all really :)

I will add more detail here though as I remember it.

I was in the USA for the World Speedway Championship in 1982 it was being held in America for the 1st time at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The American Bruce Penhall won the title and I remember being incensed cos we thought he cheated and that Englishman Kenny Carter should have been the winner. I have found a video of the meeting here from YouTube, I need to watch it again myself for sure. Perhaps I'll see little me in the crowd somewhere!!

We had two weeks travelling on a coach around Arizona, California and Nevada. I had my 13th birthday whilst we were there although I was pretending to be a year younger so we got a cheaper ticket haha my dad's a cheeky chappie lol

We saw the Grand Canyon, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, (I was too young to gamble!! or drink but I had a few cans of Coors!), San Francisco (I never knew about the Bay Area thrash scene although this might have been a bit too early for it!), saw the prison at Alcatraz, Ripley's Believe It Or Not and loads of other great sites.

I am sure it was right at the end of the holiday that we went to a Toys R Us, I don't think the stores had arrived in the UK yet, I am sure that the Masters of the Universe toys that I bought there hadn't either as I had never seen them before. I picked up Man-at-Arms cos he is by far the coolest looking dude and Beast Man as he's a good feral looking villain. I played with them on the plane all the way home.

After that I collected as many of the figures as I could, getting them for birthdays and Christmas. I was probably too old for action figures, all my mates had grown out of them but I didn't want to. I remember thinking that growing up sucked and once you stopped 'playing' life would be a joyless thing. I did 'grow out' of them eventually but I also proved myself right. Never give up your play time, being an adult sucks!!

If you want to reject your adulthood and rekindle your imagination through the medium of Masters of The Universe then check out this link for some great stuff that you can pick up.

Masters of The Universe

I remember the cartoons came later to UK television and I was never a fan, I had already created my own stories, mythos, pantheon whatever for my toys and the cartoon version was decidedly not for me. It felt childish to me, I was probably 14/15 by then and it felt like they were aimed for a much younger audience. I still watched them but with the teenage arrogance that my MOTU world was better than the cartoon canon.

I imagine that it would be like the old Batman 60's TV show, as a kid I LOVED it, it was THE best. I would bristle with excitement knowing it was coming on and stare rapt at the TV then await feverishly the resolution of the cliffhanger on the next show. Then as a surly and wiser(?!) teen I saw the Batman movie again and watched slack jawed, amazed, astounded at how absolutely rubbish it was. I berated younger me for ever thinking it was cool. "Bat Shark Repellent Spray" I seethed?! For an obviously plastic prop shark! Young me was an idiot!! I think teen me was like that with the MOTU cartoons, they came at the wrong time for me to appreciate them with childish wonder and awe. Like the Batman cartoons though I am able to appreciate them with an older head. Yes they are twee and camp and daft and totally unbelievable as stories and characters but that becomes charming and fun and quirky and downright enjoyable as you get past your teen angst and are able to grasp their simplistic charm. I used to have the old 60's Batmobile, I think I sold it in the end on Ebay. As a young adult I wanted room for other things, booze, girls, gigs, whatever... I wish I still had it now cos it was damned cool!

After the TV series came the live action film, I was kind of excited as after the cartoons I thought a live action film would be grittier, harder, with more action & violence. It had Dolph Lundgren in it who was bad to the bone as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. It wasn't too terrible but as an 18 year old, wanting to pretend to be mature and grown up (whilst still playing with toys) I was not impressed. Again as an older person, less angry, less hungry for experience, less hormonal maybe, I can appreciate it for what it is and am quite keen to check out the re-make which is in development and is slated for a 2019 release.

If you can't wait til then why not check out the 1987 version again, or even the cartoon versions.

     

Wonder Woman

I have always been a fan of superheroes, from a young age I loved the colour and the art of the comic books and have bought and read thousands of them. I can remember the excitement when I'd pick up a new issue of The Flash or Spider-Man. I loved The Brave & The Bold, a team-up book starring Batman and a different super-friend every month. Doctor Fate was the 1st team-up I picked up and I love that character still today.

With all the books I bought the heroes were all men, as a male myself I suppose I wanted role models and fantasies that I could relate to. There were female heroes in some of the books, the X-Men had Jean Grey (Phoenix) and Storm for example and I recall The Wasp and The Scarlet Witch from The Avengers. I liked those characters for sure but there were very few female leading character comics around really and those I recall were mostly of the 'female version of a male hero' type. Like She-Hulk & Spider Woman for example.

Storm and Jean Grey (Phoenix)

Wasp & The Scarlet Witch

She-Hulk & Spider-Woman

Then in the 70's we had the Wonder Woman TV show! We loved that as kids, Lynda Carter played the character well, she was beautiful and vivacious, the action was exciting and a much younger me probably fell in love with her quite a bit. We'd do the spinning move and play at beating up the baddies, snaring them with our washing line 'Lasso of Truth' and flying in our invisible planes. The show ran for 3 seasons from 1975 - 1979. Every now and again I'd catch some of the old shows being repeated on a satellite channel or other and obviously seeing it as an older person you view it a lot differently. Much like the old Batman series of the 60's it is camp and a bit silly but it's still good innocent nostalgic fun. I have the old Batman series and enjoyed them on a whole different level when I re-watched them as an adult. The Wonder Woman series is available as individual series or all together on one box in various multi-disc versions. Certainly something I am considering adding to my Christmas gift list :)

A fun fact about Lynda Carter is that as well as contributing greatly to my entertainment as a child she has continued to contribute now in my adulthood as she does voice acting and singing, (playing the character Magnolia) on the video game Fallout 4 that I have been playing practically non-stop since it came out in 2015!!

I have just discovered that they made a pilot for a proposed 2011 Wonder Woman series too! I found a video that someone made on YouTube featuring clips from the pilot with the music of the 70's show added to it. This video has a lot of negative feedback on YouTube but I actually think it looks really good. I'd have watched this for sure, and that theme tune may be daft but it is fabulous!! :)

The actress playing Wonder Woman in this is Adrianne Palicki who actually played the heroine Mockingbird (Bobbi Morse) in the series Marvel's: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In comic books I never really bought that many Wonder Woman adventures though, I'd buy an issue if she was teaming up with one of my regular comic purchases or involved in a massive crossover event like Crisis or The Manhunters. The character was born in 1941, created by writer and psychologist William Moulton Marston, she has been a staple of DC Comics catalogue since then with only a brief hiatus in 1986. Steeped in tales of Greek Mythology, she is an Amazon, formed from clay and imbued with life by magic. Her character has seen a lot of changes over the 75 years she has been around and her current tales are getting great reviews, making me want to check out her saga. This 75 year anniversary box set special contains graphic novels from four monumental creators--Gail Simone, Brian Azzarello, George Pérez and Phil Jimenez--in a beautiful slipcase set it's perfect for new fans & collectors. It holds the following 4 much vaunted books, Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Gods and Mortals, Wonder Woman: Down to Earth, Wonder Woman: The Circle and Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Blood. This is another item I am adding to my Christmas wish list. Take note my loving relatives :)

It's a fun and slightly mind blowing fact that as well as creating the Lasso of Truth (sometimes called the Lasso of Hestia) for comic fiction, William Moulton Marston also created the systolic blood pressure test, which became one component of the modern polygraph (lie detector test) invented by John Augustus Larson in Berkeley, California.

As a long time superhero fan I absolutely LOVE the number of great comic book movies we are getting now. The production and special effects are AMAZING, really bringing the comic books to life. Marvel and DC comics are both very active in bringing their comic book creations to the big screen and I make sure that I buy every single one of them. I don't want the superhero tv show and movie craze to ever end. I remember the long, fallow years when all we had were terrible effects and poorly realised versions of the comics, produced on shoestring budgets. A superhero movie is a mega million dollar, blockbuster event now and I love them all! I am sure we all have our favourites, I loved the Green Lantern movie for example even though many did not! Give me a new Green Lantern over Dead Pool any day!! (I suppose I am biased though as I have read 100s of Green Lantern comics and practically no Dead Pool ones.) I may be alone with this thought but this summer opinion was pretty much unanimous that the Superfilm event of 2017 was the Wonder Woman movie. Starring Gal Gadot who 1st played the role in 2016 for the action packed Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.

In the film she reminisces on her 1st adventure into the world of man during the time of World War 1. Steve Trevor an American spy working with British Intelligence crash lands on the Amazon's secluded island Themyscira. Pursued by German soldiers a battle ensues between Amazons and Nazis after which Diana (Wonder Woman) is convinced that Ares the God of War is abroad in man's world and plans to confront him. It's a great action packed adventure with fight scenes that are truly 'wondrous'! I have a BIG superhero movie collection, I buy every box office hero movie when it comes to DVD and this one is definitely going in my collection.

Well I hope you enjoyed this blog giving you some of my thoughts and a few facts about the mighty Amazon warrior and Superhero Wonder Woman. If you are interested in the character and want to investigate her adventures in the comic books then you can seek out The Amazon on Amazon! Isn't that Amazong? Erm, I mean Amazing.... sorry I couldn't resist that terrible pun!! That could be my Supervillain name!! The Putrescent Pun-Master!!!

The Amazon on Amazon