Blogga's Wall catchup

So a bit of a catchup here, covering the latter half of the summer to a very cold British winter here in November. i must admit my new job hasn't left me weith much time to dedicate to this blog or to enjoy as much sci-fi as I usually like to so even with the backlog this won't be a big post.

First of all a massive thanks to all you who read this as Blogga the Hutt has now reached 100,000 pageviews!!! I never would have dreamed it!! Thanks for your interest and your patience with my scattered and random postings.

1) Star Wars: Red Harvest

A prequel to the author's previous Star Wars horror 'Deathtroopers' this novel was set in the era of the videogame The Old Repoublic based on a Sith Academy where the leader Darth Scabrous creates a formula aimed at guaranteeing immortality, but instead unleashes an army of undead Sith students across the frozen planet. Equally as creepy as the first installment it had the advantage of not having characters who we knew would live such as Han Solo who featured in the first book.

2) Star Wars The Old Republic: Revan

Not nearly good enough for missing out on Knights of the Old Republic III for the MMO but it was still exciting to find out what happened next to the hero of the awesome Bioware game. Revan takes a journey deep into Sith space to take on the dreaded Sith Emperor who had ruled for centuries and will give everything to stop him from reaching the Republic. A very exciting read for fans of the game.

3) Halo: Glasslands

I'm actually still reading this one even thoiugh I put it on the wall in October, like I said my time for enjoying Sci-Fi is more limited than it once was. Sort of carrying on from 'Ghosts of Onyx' the story takes us into post-war Halo, with the Sangheili struggling to find a purpose without the Prophet's rule and ONI taking steps to divide the splintering ranks among their former enemies even at the risk of destabilizing the peace talks between Admiral Hood and the Arbiter. With trouble brewing with insurrectionist colonies peace may not be all it's cracked up to be...

That's it - I was going to do a movies post, but there's nothing Sci-Fi in November by the looks of it so it'll be another Mass Effect post next!!

Mass Effect 3: The Citadel, 2

Yes more Mass Effect as Shepard returns to the house of galactic government to find things aren't as they should be...

Here are the War Assets gained during and around this mission.

The following are War Assets gained by aiding the Council on the Citadel

The Citadel Defense Force - a group of volunteers and armed forces commited to defending the galaxy's capital. Various missions and resources upgrade and enhance this force as the game progresses.

Asari 2nd Fleet - The Asari finally come to the table showing their gratitude by commiting their fleets to the overall War Effort

Asari 6th Fleet

The Destiny Ascension - Refitted for battle, the Asari have committed their most powerful dreadnought

Asari Science Team - the asari have given their insights to the Crucible project

The Salarian 3rd Fleet - A reluctant committal in gratitude for saving the councilor's life.

The following are War Assets gained by helping ex-Cerberus agent Din Korlack

Volus Bombing Fleet - A small Volus task force used for planetary raids

Zaeed Masani - The galaxy's best mercenary is ready for war!!

The following are War Assets gained on the Normandy

Zhu's Hope Colonists - A message from the colony shows that their experience with the Thorian has enabled them to fight with one mind, every civilian fighting with the experience of a hardened commando to drive off the Reapers.

Optimized Eezo Capacitors - A conversation among the Normandy's engineers provides a solution not practical for the Normandy's engines but better suited to the Crucible project.

Doctor Who - New series, new species part 40

A bit of a break from Mass Effect ass we look at the new alien species revealed in the new series of Doctor Who. As always for more in depth comments do check out the Impossible Podcasts website - well worth a listen!

Shakri

A somewhat dull ending to the on the whole intriguing episode 'the power of three'. Strange cubes appear that initially do nothing then perform a wide variety of functions to assess the human race. Then it turns out, in a plot line stolen directly from The Ultimates (but executed with a dull anti-climax instead of the epic battle fought against the Chitauri in the Marvel comic) they are the pest-controllers of the Universe who've decided to wipe out the human race and are incredibly easily defeated in such a purpose - presumably this is a set up for them to come again, but I don't care - try bringing in an interesting villain like the Trickster if you want to do some cool manipulation stuff.

The Shakri are a race believed to be mythical even by the Time Lords themselves. They see themselves as the caretakers of the universe and use incredibly advanced technology to manipulate and exterminate species they see as troublesome to the progress of the universe. 

The following episode returned us to the Weeping Angels, who managed to be creepy again like in Blink but their backstory got even more ridiculour with them 'taking over' other statues in the area including the Statue of Liberty, which somehow moved without anyone noticing - I'm giving up on the angels, hopefully christmas will give us something fresh!!

See ya!

Mass Effect 3: Tuchanka, part 2

So yes another Mass Effect video for you this week concluding Shepard's mission to Tuchanka to gain Krogan support for the War Effort. Here's the vid.

And here are the War Assets gained on this mission

The following are war assets gained by completing assignments on the Citadel and exploring related systems

Arcturus First Division - a makeshift group of civilians banded together on Benning to fight the Reapers

Shadows Broker Wet Squad - A special operations group working for the Broker now assisting the war effort.

Terminus Fleet - Aquiring some artifacts to trade to a dealer gets C-Sec off the Blue Suns' back, freeing them to join Aria's united band of mercenaries

Batarian Fleet - The small remaining force of Batarian Ships not wiped out by the Reaper have banded together under Balak, once Shephard's enemy he now grudgingly accepts that they must work together against the Reapers

Rogue Fighter Pilots - Working as mercenaries these fighter pilots are contacted by Cortez and agree to support the War Effort.

The following are war assets gained on Tuchanka

Urdnot Wrex - Clan leader and spokesman for the Krogan race

Krogan Clans - a strong force under Wrex and bolstered by shepard's support of them in an interview with Diana Allers

Clan Urdnot - a powerful Krogan clan

Krogan Mercenaries - news of the Genophage cure brings Krogan from across the galaxy into the fight.

Turian Seventh Fleet - The turians dispatch this powerful fleet to protect the Crucible project.

Turian 43rd Marine Division - These elite troops are pulled from Palaven to assist the galactic war effort in special operations


And that's it - more soon!!

Mass Effect 3: Tuchanka, part 1

Yes, it's more Mass Effect 3, with real life slowing down my game speed it's a chance to do a bit of catching up - so here's another video recounting the tales of Shapard's epic journey.

Befopre that some news - there's a new Free Mass Effect DLC pack out featuring new multiplayer content. There are updates to maps and weapons and a whole new enemy - the Collectors are back!! The Collector forces Shepard battled in Mass Effect 2 are coming in force,l including monster forces such as Scions and Praetorians - there's even the chance to play as a Volus!! Can't wait, maybe in the next pack you can be a hanar or elcor!!!

As usual I'll update the War Assets

* The following are War Assets gained while stopping the Cerberus attack on Tuchanka

Krogan First Division - a unified force of Krogan troops and armoured units pulled together from various clans which are now beginning to trust each other in the face of Reaper aggression. 

Turian Blackwatch - pulled from Palaven to assist in special operations around the galaxy, the blackwatch are among the Turian's best trained special ops soldiers

More soon!

Doctor Who - New series, new species part 39

So the Doctor is back on our screens and there are a few new exciting life forms for us to discover on his travels. As ever if you want more detailed discussion of the episodes themselves as well as Who in general I'll leave you in the expert hands of the Impossible Podcast team, who you can link to by clicking the sidebar.

Dalek Puppets

I'm not 100% sure about the term, but the Tardis wiki people use it and as I'm stealing this image from them I guess it'll work fine!! I liked this twist of the Daleks converting people into sleeper agents against their will and I even thought the Dalek probes coming out of their heads was a good idea. The only thing I didn't quite like was that the agent had too much personality when in Dalek mode, casually laughing about how they used her memories jarred a little and would have been better delivered devoid of emotion - the Alaska  crewers did a better job, starting confused and turning into scary Dalek mode.

And as for Oswin that was just tragic!

In the second episode we got a load of dinosaurs and a vaguely humanish guy plus a Silurian or two but nothing that could really classify as a new species - I did like the premise though, it remided me of Planetary stories - plus we did get a cool spaceship out of it!!

Silurian Ark Ship

Kahler

In this Western style episode the production team went down the Star Trek alien route featuring the 'basically human with a strange marking on the face' species type that so often encountered the Enterprise. This species seem to all feature distinctive green markings on their face, but on outward appearance are all basically human. However I suppose it did make sense for him to be more easily accepted by the townsfolk if he did basically look human.

The Kahler were a very technologically advanced race capable of building incredible forms of technology. At some point in their history they became embroiled in a catastrophic war that lead to the creation of cyborgs, mutilated beings that served to overpower their enemies. However, the cyborgs then turned on their masters and hunted down the men that made them into monsters.

More soon, probably Mass Effect

Mass Effect 3: Utukku

More Mass Effect 3 - here's the vid.

Here are the War Assets from this mission

* The following are War Assets gained on Utukke and the surrounding systems

Grunt (He is recovering from the mission but eager to get back into action!)

Aralakh Company (Due to the events of the mission most of Aralakh company was wiped out, reducing their effective strength)

Rachni Workers (The Rachni Queen sent skilled Rachni workers to assist building the Crucible - not quite the Rachni fleet I'd been hoping for but it was cool to see them nonetheless)

One of the Krogan squad sent to Utukke was Char, the Krogan who was reciting poetry to his love on Illium - later Shepard has the sad task of delivering his final love sonnet to his wife on the Citadel.