Halo Wars: Stuff, part 2

I promise to make this the final part, though it may get very long! I felt it was important to go over the cast of the story, but equally exciting are the new vehicles and threats introduced in this version of Halo and a great way to see the larger scale of the war.

UNSC Vehicles

Grizzly








A variant of the classic 'Scorpion' tank featured in the Halo trilogy. This modification, designed by Sergeant Forge himself, features a double barreled turret for increased fire and a much improved armour design.

Gremlin








The Gremlin is a combat support unit that aids UNSC forces by using a focused EMP to disable enemy vehicles and defenses, allowing the humans time to take them out or evade them. Vulnerable against infantry, they could modify their beam to provide a weak, close range defense.

Rhino






A long range artillery unit, the UNSC were field-testing these units to try out different weapon methods. Essentially a larger version of the Scorpion with a larger turret that could 'lock down' for longer range fire, a number of these units were modified to use plasma-based weaponry like Covenant units. Some of these prototypes were on board the Pillar of Autumn when it was tasked to Arcadia and they were used to disable a large Covenant shield by the Spirit of Fire crew.

Wolverine







An anti-air unit employed by the UNSC, featuring large laser-tracking missile launchers to defend bases and ground units from air attack, capable of taking down Covenant Banshees in seconds. It has only light armour do to the need to track air units, but it can adapt it's missile launchers to take out ground units if under attack.

Cobra







A slow, but powerful anti-vehicle unit the Cobra uses two powerful rail guns to decimate enemy forces. They need to be protected by other units due to their slow rate of fire, but the power of their weapon is able to decimate even the strongest opposition, especially when they lock down.

Cyclops







An offshoot of the project that produced Mjolnir powered armour, Cyclopes were modified to provide support instead of being combat units. Used to maintain and repair structures and vehicles, they repaired Spirit of Fire's generator during a Covenant attack. They could also use their abilities to take buildings apart is needed and could deal devastating blows to any infantry who got close.

Covenant Vehicles

Locust








Similar to the Scarab in it's power and mode of transport, the Locust is much smaller, tough it still stands tall over a Scorpion tank. It has one weapon, a long range focused plasma beam, which earns it the title 'building killer'. It is a slow firing weapon, which makes it vulnerable to fast moving targets such as air units. However the Locust has strong shields and is incredibly maneuverable, able to scale cliff faces with it's strong legs.

The Covenant were also building a 'Super Scarab' on Arcadia, much larger than even the gigantic vehicle feared by many. The UNSC forces destroyed this vehicle before it could be finished.

UNSC Aerial

Shortsword







A cousin to the UNSC's space fighter the 'Longsword' this smaller fighter is designed for tactical strikes on ground unit, initiating lightning-fast bombing runs from orbit. Able to precisely drop explosive ordnance, or special weapons such as cryo bombs, Shortswords provide welcome support to ground units.

Hawk





A powerful air-support vehicle, based on the design of the Hornet, this unit was faster and featured a mounted 'Spartan Laser' in addition to it's powerful chain gun to deliver devastating firepower. In large numbers these units were nearly unstoppable, however repair problems caused them to be discontinued, meaning the UNSC relied on the Hornet for air support for most of the war.

Vulture








One of the most powerful units the UNSC has at it's disposal, the Vulture is reserved for the heaviest conflicts. Fitted with front mounted auto-cannons and multiple missile launchers the Vulture can unleash a barrage of fire, unleashing heavy damage over a wide area.

The Spirit of Fire is also equipped with 'Pods' which can ferry prefabricated Firebases onto an area from orbit.

Covenant Aerial

Vampire









An aerial unit with heavy firepower, the Vampire is used primarily as an anti-air unit due to it's powerful stasis beam which can cause aircraft to either be frozen in place or lose power and crash. It attacks with a heavy needler which has a high rate of fire suitable for tracking and taking down aircraft.

Forerunner Aerial

Super Sentinel









Simply a larger, more powerful of the sentinels encountered in the trilogy, these Sentinels were activated when the Flood reached the centre of the Shield world.

Flood Aerial

Swarm Form






Another animalistic flood form on the Shield World, these flying creatures use powerful barbs to attack targets from the air, swarming them in large numbers, wheeling around them to evade attacks.

I don't have a decent picture, but there are also Bomber Forms that fly and drop infection forms into infantry to convert them into Flood soldiers.

Nearly there - but I think we do have to refer to...

Spaceships

Spirit of Fire






This Phoenix class ship was originally designed to transport supplies for new colonies, able to drop large structures and supplies from orbit and oversee operations. With the outbreak of war it was refitted to serve as a warship and as a ground support, now dropping in bases and heavy ordnance. If needed the Spirit could give heavy damage to other ships or structures with it's MAC cannon.

Unidentified Forerunner Ship








Sitting at the heart of this Covenant plot, this powerful array of starship were hidden in the Forerunner shield world and would be used by the Covenant to annihilate humanity were it not for the Spirit of Fire crew's brave actions. As seen in Halo Legends these ships had firepower beyond even the best Covenant ship and would have been an unstoppable threat to humanity.

And that's it - Halo Wars was a great experience and I hope maybe some of these vehicles turn up in future projects such as Reach.

World Names: Firefly

I apologise in advance as this post will likley just turn into a long list of names - but I've been watching firefly and playing Halo recently and I'm quite interested in the direction creators take for naming their worlds, all the worlds in Firefly fit, from classy Alliance worlds with mythological names, to remote border moons with simple descriptive titles.

We'll start off with the Core Worlds - these are often named after ancient Gods or famous people, perhaps reflecting the scientific community's penchant for naming heavenly bodies after such things today. I guess it also reflects the civilization of the Alliance, wanting to name their w0rlds after majestic and great things to reflect the new civilizations they build.

Ariel- perhaps not named after the mermaid it is still a fanciful title. As opposed to the Wild Frontier of most worlds featured this world features a large, clean cityscape. The Serenity crew pull off a heist at a hospital here.

Beaumonde - French for 'the fashionable world'. Again, directly named to reflect the civilization of the world. It features a larger city and an industrial district, where the crew meet their contacts at the start of Serenity.

Bellerophon - Named for the Greek hero, this is a playground world for the uber-wealthy and uber-classified who live on secure, floating villas over the sea with servants aplenty and robotic drones to remove their trash. The crew break into one of the estates to steal a priceless artifact.

Miranda - Not necessarily named after a character, maybe just it's discoverer. SPOILERS - this is has spacious cities in a lush green world, but it was the site of an Alliance experiment to release a compound to calm the population, which killed most and turned the rest into horrific Reavers. Central to the plot of Serenity.

Osiris - Named after an Egyptian God, this is where Simon Tam worked as a Surgeon before becoming a fugitive to rescue his sister. Likely also the world where they grew up.

Persephone - Named after the Greek Goddess, this world has a mix of elegant culture with fancy balls and gentleman quarrels solved by sword duels, and shady urban areas run by smuggler kingpins like Badger. The crew pick up their passengers on this world and return there for business.

Boros - not sure why the name, but an Alliance world where Serenity was headed at the start of her adventure.

Pelorum - Again not sure on the name, possibly more in the 'sound futuristic' phase, in one comic the crew take a holiday on this world after a successful heist.

Sihnon - Named with a more Chinese name, to reflect the strong Chinese influence of the colonies. This is the homeworld of the Companions and their training houses.

Greenleaf - An Alliance world with a more pragmatic title this time, more akin to the border planets.

Ok, onto the border planets and moons, these tend to have more descriptive names, showing what the world looks like and certainly not harping back to some ancient mysticism when there's work to be done just to stay alive.

Haven - Named because it is a safe place, beyond Alliance control generally. The world is a place where the Serenity crew go between heists. The world was hit by the Alliance in an attempt to get to the crew.

Higgin's Moon - Named after the owner who uses indentured workers to make big business making ceramics. After a botched heist where he he had to ditch his cargo to get away Jayne Cobb became a folk hero.

Jiyangin - Again reflecting the Chinese influence this planet has a small settlement where the crew offload cargo, there are also hill folk who live primitive lives.

Lilac - Named for how it looks from space the crew pull off a heist here when the world is attacked by Reavers.

Regina - A mining colony, advanced enough to feature Mag-Lev trains, but not enough to get medicine to cure a disease caused by work in the mines.

Santo - named 'Saint', this is a primitive world. The crew get into on of their many barfights here.

St. Albans - named after the Scottish town, this snowy world is home to a former associate of Mal's

Triumph - an optimistic title given by settlers, this world features primitive traditions which meant that Mal got inadvertently married.

Whitefall - Again a descriptive tile - the crew pull off a job here, with the usual accompaniment of violence.

Constance - Named by the puritan values held by many settlers, the crea pull of a heist on this world.

Madcap - named for it's wildly changing weather conditions, this world is a hot-spot for extreme-adventure junkies. Wash made a delivery here before joining Serenity.

New Melbourne - named after the Australian city, this is an ocean world famous for it's fishing.

Shadow - likely a dark world, this is where Mal was raised.

Three Hills - likely named after the original settlement, this was mentioned as a possibility of work for the crew.


I've gone on a bit, but I think World Names are a fascinating insight into the creative team's vision for what humanity will be like in the future, what we name an entire planet after surely indicates something of our nature.

It makes me wonder what I'd name a planet after, would I name it after me, would i trawl through my books for the most fanciful name I could find, or look at it to see what it evoked. What about you? What would you call your world?

Star Wars Legacy: The Imperial Mission

Well the penultimate issue of the series just hit comic book stores across the land, and I'm determined to squeeze some more comic content in before the series meets it's end. I'd imagine the momentum for Legacy posts may die down after #50 hits the shelves, so I may not get to tell you about the spaceships, planets and creatures featured in it, but I'm going to at least finish off telling you about some of the Characters in the series.

I may not get round to all of them, but I'll finish off the characters of the Sith Empire with one final group - The Imperial Mission. Set up in the founding days of the Fel dynasty, the Mission aims to expand the Empire through offering aid to planets and species that need it, gaining planets and materials through willing volunteers rather than conquest. After the Sith took the throne the missionaries decided to carry on the work, making the Empire a better place.

The mission house on Tatooine









Imperial Missionaries

We've already met the head of the order, Konrad Rus, as he is on the Moff Council, as are the heads of other departments. So we'll crack on and meet some of the people on the ground.

Astraal Vao
Species: Twi'lek
Sex: Female
Homeworld: Unknown
Position: Missionary, Socorro
First Appearance: Legacy#2 (Broken, part 2)


Astraal is the sister of Jedi Knight Shado Vao. At an early age, Astraal and Shado crashed on the planet Vendaxa, a crash that took the lives of their parents. They were rescued and raised by Imperial Missionaries. Her brother was taken for Jedi training, but she stayed, feeling her place was with the order. She worked with the Fel Empire and continued in her role under the Sith regime. She had contact with the Fel Empire and gave refuge to Sia Fel at her mission house on Socorro. She stayed with the princess after Darth Talon attacked, helping her escape and arranging to meet up with her brother on Vendaxa. However she trusted Konrad Rus, who betrayed their location to Darth Krayt. They took a transport with Cade Skywalker and were there to see Cade reunited with his old master. After the battle she went with the princess to Bastion and stayed there.

Ethan Adare
Species: Human
Sex: Male
Homeworld: Unknown
Position: Missionary, Tatooine
First Appearance:Legacy#38 (Tatooine, part 2)


Ethan Adara was a senior member of the Mission House, a converted Hutt palace, near Mos Eiseley. When Deliah Blue posed as a missionary to scam engine parts off the Empire he took her in, knowing she was a fake, to show her the good work of the Mission. When she revealed her plan he simply helped her, believing that there was more worth in her than she believed. He had a background in mechanics before the mission and helped her get the Mynock going again.

And that's it! With Darth Wyyrlok's takeover however things have changed - the Missionaries are now tasked with spreading Sith beliefs among the Empire so that all with follow the way. What will become of them?

Halo Wars: Stuff

It's been a while since I posted about this game and even longer since it came out. Being a large-scale strategy game, there was plenty of opportunity to see a lot more of the Halo universe, despite it being set 20 years prior to the first game. Let's start with...

Characters

Captain James Gregory Cutter
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Reach



Captain of the Spirit of Fire and leader of the missions in the game. A recognised leader he chose the modified colony ship as his command, using it to set up bases and deliver ground units to conflicts. He bravely led the crew into unknown territories, battling the Covenant and worse...

Sergeant John Forge
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Earth





A charismatic leader, Forge had as many demotions as promotions in his career, though he usually had his reasons for his behaviour. Nevertheless his men would follow him anywhere and he was the leading officer on the ground for the Spirit of Fire's forces. He bravely battled the Covenant, working alongside Spartans and earning their respect.

Professor Ellen Anders
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Arcadia




A leading expert in xenobiology, Anders was recruited by the UNSC to study the Covenant and deployed to the Spirit of Fire as they headed to recaptured Harvest. She discovered a Forerunner relic, and after activating it, realised the Covenant would be headed to Arcadia and instructed the Spirit of Fire to follow. While there she provided support to UNSC forces, directing them to take down an advanced Covenant shield, but after the battle she was captured, prompting the UNSC to follow deep into unknown space...

Serina
Species: AI
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Spirit of Fire




Serina is the 'smart' AI of the Spirit of Fire directing the ship through slipspace and managing the operations of the ground forces providing real-time updates. She has a sarcastic personality, frequently quipping jokes even in high tension situations.

Spartan Red Team
Jerome-092 / Douglas-042/ Alice-130




These Spartans, along with Omega team, were stationed on Arcadia and fought to buy time for the civillian evacuation there. After the UNSC offensive they joined the Spirit of Fire to the forerunner world and lead the fight against the Covenant Honour Guard forces.

Ripa 'Moramee
Species: Sangheili
Allegiance: Covenant
Homeworld: Sanghelios




Once disgraced for leading a failed rebellion, Moramee was made an Arbiter to redeem himself and served the Prophet of Mercy, investigating Forerunner relics and invading Human territory. He led the Covenant forces on Harvest and Arcadia then took Ellen Anders to a Forerunner world to capture the secret weapon hidden within. When the Spirit of Fire followed, he evacuated the Prophet and stayed to fight the Humans.

Hmmm...running out of space - as we're doing characters I'll finish off with infantry units then come back for vehicles etc.

UNSC

Hellbringers







A deadly close quarters unit, Hellbringers are equipped with back-mounted flamethrowers dealing immense damage to infantry. Particularly effective against Flood units they deployed in pairs to cause maximum damage. They could modify their weapons to include napalm for a longer burn, and also use flashbang grenades to further disorient foes.

The Covenant had a few units that were modified version of existing infantry, such as suicide grunts which charged in and detonated their methane packs for a large explosion. But on an unnamed Forerunner world, the UNSC also had to contend with...

The Flood

Thrasher form
Species: Flood
Allegiance: Flood
Homeworld: Unidentified Forerunner Construct



The Flood fought with large animal-like creatures like the thrasher. About the size of an elephant it would charge in an begin physically assaulting anything in range, doing immense damage even to armored vehicles by jumping on them and 'thrashing' them with large claws and tentacles.

Units also had to contend with clouds of flood spores emitting from various flood growths and fauna, if an infantry unit wandered into a cloud it would be quickly transformed into a flood monstrosity.

There are plenty of vehicles etc. to look at so I'll leave those for another post that I'll do soon(ish!)

Doctor Who: New series, new species part 28

Who has very nearly reached it's conclusion here in the UK so we'd better get caught up on what's been happening on the new aliens front. We seem to have a lot of returning species this series, but there are one or two new faces getting in here and there.

Eknodine










These were interesting as they were a part of a dream, yet a real species plausible enough to confuse the Doctor. They were your bog standard Who villain, quick bit of CGI layered over something otherwise harmless to create thrills, but with the dual plot and that fact they might not be real it worked out well. If they'd stood on their own they'd be rubbish but as part of a larger plot they served their part well I felt. It's just a pity that the final reveal was so dreary, some conveniently psychic seeds or something projecting the Doctor's dark side.

The Eknodine were a race of creatures that had the ability to dwell within a human host, only exposing themselves through extending their eye-stalk out of the host's mouth to communicate or see. Their process of inhabiting have long life and strength to the host. To defend themselves they could emit a deadly gas powerful enough to disintegrate a life form. In the Doctor's dream their world had been destroyed and they took revenge on Earth, what happened in reality is unclear.

More Who soon.

SF at the Movies June '10

I'm shocked that I've kept forgetting about this one, but yet am still in the confines of June, I'm doing well.

And there is....nothing!!! In what I think is the first time ever there are no SF movies around as far as I can see not even a dubious thriller or naff kids flick - tell you what I'll compensate with a load of movies from the great event of the year - E3!!!

We kicked off with a cinematic trailer for The Force Unleashed II, set in the clone labs of Kamino it shows the Apprentice fighting some new enemy types and also sheds some light (or maybe darkness) on what happens after the epic end to the first game.

Video Games | The Force Unleashed II | E3 2010: Exclusive Betrayal Cinematic Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

We also had a new cinematic trailer for Assassin's Creed Brotherhood continuing the story of Ezio from the second game, not the leader of a larger group of Assassins. The trailer doesn't show any of the SF stuff, but that tends to be sealed up until the game release anyway but it's worth a watch.

Video Games | Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | E3 2010: Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

There was also a demo of the multiplayer which features a modified version of the Animus for training Templars and allows players to compete in what seems like an elaborate version of the College game 'assassins' where you are assigned a target and have to track them down and kill them, but there are also people tracking you down too.

We also got some more infro on Halo:Reach, with an in-game trailer of some Campaign action - I won't say anything until you've watched it.

Video Games | Halo: Reach | E3 2010: Campaign Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

SPACE COMBAT!!!!! I cannot wait for this!! There was also a demo vid of 'Firefight' from ODST which has carried over into this game- with more customization and air strike opportunities, it looks like a heck of a ride.

There's so much that I haven't even got around to seeing some of what I'm gonna post - Star Wars: The Old Republic has a new cinematic trailer and ther's been a ton of new videos and info, including the fact that Each player gets their own starship - cool!

Video Games | Star Wars: The Old Republic | E3 2010: Hope of Alderaan Cinematic Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

That's enough for now i think, but for more on these games, brand new releases, Kinect and the new Xbox head over to Gametrailers.com where I get all my info!!

Bounty from the Beta

Not long ago thousands of players stormed Xbox Live to do one thing: Beta test Halo: Reach. We'd been teased with information about the game, learning that the characters are largely Spartan-IIIs a group relatively unknown compared to Master Chief's Spartan-IIs. We've seen a new vehicle type, a stack of new weapons, but for the first time players got to get inside the game, testing out the multiplayer modes for the new game.

Due to a catastrophic Xbox failure I couldn't do much and only had a few days to play. While I was out enjoying the fun I was also eagle eyed and tried to spot any story content, particularly while playing Invasion a 6v6 mission.














The Spartan-IIIs on the planet Reach defend a key target...














...from the deadly Sangheili (Elites) who attack using deadly weapons such as the Needle Rifle shown here.













Their battlefield is a decommissioned UNSC Frigate, which is being scrapped...














...along with a number of other UNSC vessels to damaged or old to be of service.














The frigate is the UNSC Commonwealth, a frigate that once carried John-117 through a battle in his early days as a Spartan soldier against the Covenant.













And inside is something both sides will fight to the death for - the frigate's navigation core, containing co-ordinates to Earth.

And that's all I managed to nab, though it looks like there's plenty of fun to be had with headhunter, a similar 'defend the generator' game and many more - but what I really can't wait for is to delve once more into the Halo universe and the tragic story of Reach.