The Flags - Gundam 00 Grunt Suits

So A lot of people like Gundam 00 Right? Well so do I. So to mark my return to this blog I wanted to talk about one of my favourite parts of Gundam 00, grunt suits, but more specifically The Flags.

The Flags are, at the start of the first season, the American Unions grunt suit. Their chief ability is that they can transform between a fighter mode and a mobile suit mode. The standard Flag is grey with black trim and forms the basis for every single one of it's descendants as you will see. We don't really see any of these mobile suits close up in the series, so as such, the only pictures of a close up version are the official pictures.

An original flag. The AEU's 

Enact is merely a copy.

The next mobile suit to spring off from this lineage is the custom Flag made by billy Katagiri for Graham Aker. This was named 'Graham's Flag Custom'. The chief differences between it and the normal Flag are the upgraded Linear Rifle, the removed G-force limiter, which was originally for pilot safety but was removed at Grahams request to improve it's performance against the Gundams, and the addition of two blades for combating the Exia.

Grahams Flag - The original custom mobile suit

Graham's suit was then followed by a limited production model for the rest of the Over-Flags and as such was called an Over-Flag, named so for it's increased performance over the regular Flags

The next major upgrade was the suit used by Graham against Exia in the final battle of season 1. This was another Graham Aker custom suit and what made this one special was that it was equipped with a pseudo GN-Drive to increase it's performance to match the Gundams. Ultimately it failed but the suit is one of the most interesting suits of the entire series. The suit was equppied with this GN-Drive so that Graham could keep his promise to his dead comrades to defeat the Gundams with a flag

Graham's obsession with transformable GN

suits begins.

Until near the end of the second season no new flag-type suits appear, but boy once they do are we in for a treat, where we get two. The first of these is the Masurao. This new suit is built yet again to go up against the Gundams, but unfortunately never sees battle as the improved model appears before the Masurao gets to sortie. This improved model is the Susanowo. Featuring two blades named after Graham's dead compatriots, this is the machine that finally allows Graham to fight the 00. Even still Graham almost keeps his promise to defeat a Gundam in a flag as when the suit is nearly destroyed, it is revealed that it has a flag face beneath its new exterior. The only issue with these two suits is that they cannot transform and have no ranged weapons. Instead these machines were built with one goal in mind. An honorable duel with the pilot of the 00.

The Susanowo, the ultimate realisation of

Grahams lust for the Gundams

Again we don't see any flag-suits again until the movie, where we get the final flag-type. This is the Brave. This suit is the ultimate end goal of the flag-type. Featuring two drives, a beam-rifle styled after the linear rifle, and a reformed pilot to go along with it, the Brave is the suit that Graham Aker was destined to pilot. In the end, it helps Setsuna live on and save the world.

The Brave, the final suit Graham Aker

piloted and the ultimate Flag-type.

So I hoped you liked this little look back at one of my favourite parts of one of my favourite series'. Now that school is calming down a lot, I would like to get back to writing these articles more often. Also, I have plans to start a Youtube channel that focuses around the same things as this blog does, Gundams, and Videogames.

-Dallywoop

Hype and Expectations - my thoughts on Fallout 4

It was set to be the biggest game release of the year, Bethesda's new post-apocolyptic RPG. We all expected something like Skyrim with guns, but even better than that. What actually shipped was something I have played a massive amount of time into and have enjoyed immensely, enough for it to be my personal game of the year, but talking to friends it seemed that all was not as rosy in other peoples gardens. The main reason I bring this up is that a friend leveled many of the same complaints that both of us had with Fallout 3, the small map, the lame questlines and the boring story. He said that Fallout 4 was too small and too linear. I would dispute this, as for the first time in a 3D Fallout game, I feel like the world is quite large. Sure the map of Fallout New Vegas is really big, but with how scattered everything is, and how far apart the main towns are. Not to mention the large areas of empty space between them, making them pointless to explore, Fallout New Vegas felt small because of its linearity. I don't feel this way with Fallout 4, sure the map may be smaller, but due to the abundance of towns with which to do buisness and other activities in them, as well as the sheer number of locations between them to explore, the world of Fallout 4 feels much larger than any previous 3D fallout game, I could waster hours just walking to a far away point and checking out every stop on the way, and enjoy it far more than with either of the other 3D games.

But more to the point of the hype game. Having avoided all exposure to the game pre release, I went into the game with a fresh mind and an openness that none of the other people I know had. They all went into the game with a real purpose of what they wanted to do based on what features they liked from the pre-release videos and demos. This way I was truly able to immerse myself in the game world and experience every thing it had to offer in a way that made me excited to see what was next and eager to explore the new features. This way I was not disappointed when certain feature weren't as expansive or as good as I had hoped based on what I saw before the game came out.

Anyway thats my theory so far. Wait with baited breath for the release of Pokemon Sun and Moon in which I will avoid all the hype and release info and see if the same thing happened.

-Dallywoop

HG Revive Kits and full inner frames on HG's

So Bandai has been making high grade revive kits for about a year now. To most people this is nothing new as, well, we have been receiving them for a year. But to me, after finally picking up my first revive kit, the Gundam Mark II titans version, I am very impressed. So the first part of todays article is dedicated to my thoughts on the model kit I have just purchased, as well as the whole concept of revives in general. Enjoy.

Now, as the MK II is one of my favourite UC mobile suits of all time, as well as being in one of my favourite colour schemes of all time, this kit is very impressive. The amount of parts separation, combined with the great sculpt just make for a nice looking kit, even straight out of the box. However, its improving this out of the box look without putting substantial time and effort into the kit proved to be more of a challenge than I though, and as such we encounter my first problem with revive kits. They have very little in the way of complex surface detailing that panel lining would highlight. This isn't necessarily a problem with the line as that is the look that Bandai are going for, a simple design that mimics the TV, but with the proportions that would be expected of A kit in 2016. This is a problem for me, as, being as in love with the RG line as I am, I love my kits to have a high amount of surface detailing and panel separations that, when panel lined makes the kit a real visual treat. Another problem specific to the MK II, also stemming from my love affair with the RG line, is the lack of marking stickers that have the ability to make the kit truly unique to a variant that you like. Halfway through this and it seems that I am comparing the high grade line to my treasured real grades, however, looking at other high grades coming out around the same time as these revives, such as the origin series, these fix a lot of the problems I have. Lots of surface detail and marking stickers that add to the look of the suit. You now could say "well these kits are a lot cheaper than the origin kits" to which I would respond, fair enough, but what about the IBO kits. These feature really nice surface detail and almost all are cheaper than revive kits, whilst featuring many of the same basic accessories, the only thing they lack are the marking stickers. But in the end this comes down to the philosophy behind the line, revives are meant to capture the look of the TV show, being simple and clean, whilst having realistic proportions. And to be honest, I would rather have these kits than to not have them. Now when are Bandai going to do Exia and 00

For this first article on Gundam, i have to be frank. I haven't watched a Gundam series for 2 weeks now, so I didn't really want to tackle the TV show. I would rather talk about things that are fresh on my mind, and this week that just happens to be model kits, whether or not I will start doing a weekly feature that is solely focused on model kits depends. Anyway, inner frames on HG kits.

I bought into the hype around the time that the IBO kits were first being announced, and I ordered the Barbatos, The Graze standard/ commander, and both the schwalbe Grazes, yes even the P-Bandai one. After receiving these kits I was just as shocked as everyone else to discover that all of them feature basically a full inner frame. Obviously as I had bought into the hype I thought these were amazing especially considering the price. But after missing both the Hyakuri and Hyakuren I found myself reflecting on those initial feelings in the same way that a child reflects on getting a new game. Even if its not really the greatest, we still lapped it up as the next best thing. I got to comparing it to what happens with master grades, with similar kits sharing the same inner frame, and then it hit me. By using the same frame for as many kits as possible, it would actually be cheaper than the old method by which each kit has different skeletal parts even if the underlying design is similar, ala the build fighter strike Gundams. This would in turn lower the price of the kits, thus showing to the buying public two innovations; inner frames on high grades, and cheaper high grades. But behind the scene the two innovations were the ability to lower the overall cost of producing toys for a new show, and the ability to make the buying public accept this change through a feature that many of the buying public like on the other model kit lines. Sure call me a cynic, but despite the conspiracy theory, I really do like the new IBO kits, I think they look great and yes, I do like the inner frames on the kits. Almost enough to like the design of the Hyakuri.

-Dallywoop

The PC part 'Sweet Spot', Nvidia vs AMD

I have recently upgraded my gaming PC. This build marks the most powerful for the time PC I have ever built. A lot of time was spent discussing with friends and people in the know, about which parts that gave the best value for money. Something I heard a lot of is that I should be buying a part that was in the 'sweet spot' for performance vs price. If we were to look at the current graphics card landscape in Australia, taking into account our horrible dollar value, the parts with the best value for their performance would be either the GTX 960 for the green team, or the Radeon R9 380X if you swing for the red team. I bought neither of those parts. In fact, I am the proud owner of a Gigabyte R9 390X (yes I bat for the red team). This decision was made not with the idea of the best value for its performance, but rather it was made with the idea that I should buy the most powerful graphics card that I could afford. The rest of the build also reflects this. An intel i5 6500, A mid range Gigabyte Z170 board. The entire build was made with the knowledge that I would not be getting the best value for money. Instead, I have a more powerful PC, that I am sure that I am much more happy with, then had I instead gone for the best value for money.

Nvidia and AMD, The two current Graphics processor heavyweights. Never a more fierce war was waged. Until we get to AMD vs Intel. I am A man squarely in the red corner, aside from two, all the PC's I have built in my life have had A red heart. And again, all but two have had red eyes as well. But in this current climate it seems that these eyes may stop working, I of course refer to AMD's abysmal graphics processor market share, around 18%. This is not unprecedented, as since the ATI takeover, AMD have lost money, and Nvidia has gained money. This would allow them to sink more money into R&D, with which they could make far superior graphics processors, destroying all competitors in their wake, except their cards are not superior. Lets break it down. Firstly, I will only be looking at the mid range forward for both companies, anything lower does not interest me and as such will not be discussed. Secondly, I will go in descending order from the top of their respective product lines for comparison, R9 Fury X vs 980 ti, Fury vs 980, 390X&390 vs 970, 380X & 380 vs 960. Lastly, This is not designed to persuade you either way, it is simply just a quick look at some graphics cards.

R9 Fury X vs 980Ti.

This one is the only comparison in which i would recommend the Nvidia card. The 980Ti is just such a superior card to the R9 Fury X, and this is not exclusively due to HBM 1.0's current limitations. The 980Ti gets higher framerates in tests that do not max out the R9 Fury X's limited Vram. But if this was a comparison of technical achievement, the R9 Fury X does win. It is only the second graphics processor ever that features a reference water cooler (The other one being the R9 Radeon 295X2) and the fact that it incorporates the next defacto standard in Vram technology a full generation before its common adoption in the majority of flagship cards and a full two generations be fore its inclusion in any consumer grade products is simply an amazing achievment. My condolences to AMD, as this would have been the best graphics card of the year, and probably the decade, had it not been for the 980Ti

R9 Fury vs 980

See the above except substitute the water for Air.

R9 390X vs GTX 970

This is the first comaprison in which i favor the AMD product, shipping for around the same price, with twice the Vram, and with higher framrates, this is why i chose a 390X over a 970

R9 380X vs GTX 960

Again a win for the red team. Available with both the same or double the amount of Vram as the Nvidia offering and trumping the 960 with its inclusion in PC powerplay's budget build with the tagline 'AMD's new 960 killer'. This card was the spur that I needed to build a new system, although it wasn't actually used in the build, it pulls the win over the 960.

Welp thats all for today folks, tune in soon for a gundam related post, and then again for a mainstream gaming post. Later 

- Dallywoop