Mafia Wars added in a class change option

A totally ideal job - zero point cost and +50% bonus xp

So I started playing it again. It took a little while to get the 14 reward points together to do the change, but once I did, I could get the Fearless - Top Wheelman option in other people's Top Mafia, and it made a huge difference to the game. As you can see in the above pic, occassionally jobs don't cost anything. It's hugely unfair to the other classes who couldn't get that sort of option, and one of the reasons I stopped playing it in the first place - I had the gimped Mogul class which occassionally earns more money in the old shop system that is no longer in use.

Anyways, now that I'm one of the chosen classes instead of one of the downtrodden peon classes, the game is a good way to spend my lunch break at work. :P

Upsen.

City of Heroes - Free Reactivation Weekend

Speak of the Devil...

Double XP and Re-activation Weekend Starting March 4th!

• Double XP and Re-activation Weekend Start: Thursday, March 4th at 8:59am Pacific Time (11:59am Eastern Time)
• Double XP and Re-activation Weekend End: Sunday, March 7th at 11:59pm Pacific (2:59am Eastern Time)

City of Heroes - Issue 17: Dark Mirror

It looks like there's going to be a graphics rendering update for City of Heroes in Issue 17, coming in April. The details on the COH website show some nicely upgraded screens, but I guess the character models aren't going to be updated, just the scenery.

Out of a bunch of nice features like mailing your alts influence and taking 7 missions at a time instead of 3, I like the Posi change the best.

Positron is going to be cut into 2 Task Forces. About time, that particular task force was absolutely brutal, low level characters forced to fight against no-resist toxic DOT attacks, as well as enemy holds before you get any hold resistance. the second half looks like it's going to take place in the Faultline Dam. Didn't we hear something about a TF in Faultline, way, way, WAY back in time? 8)

I might go back and try this out when it gets released!

Upsen.

City of Heroes - Going Rogue

The upcoming Going Rogue upgrade for City of Heroes got a site update today - they've added in a Dual Pistols powerset, which is available right now if you purchase the upgrade, and a Demon Summoning powerset which is available some time in April.

Interesting tactic, selling packages now, so you can use the powersets, and then releasing the actual upgrade in July with all the maps and story/missions after they're done composing them.

Anyways, the video on their site shows off some really cool looking Gun-fu moves, and the pistols even have slides that cycle back and forth as the pistols fire. I'd comment on the shell casings flying around too, but CoH has always had that nice little feature for their shooty heroes and villains. 8) It would be kind of cool to check these out if there's ever a free play week or something like that in the future.

Upsen.

Darker Than Black bullet blooper

Look at me jam my revolver!

What do you call inconsistencies in a show? Bloopers? Anyways, here is one from an anime called Darker than Black that bugged me enough to write a post about it.

In Episode 10 when the mafia girl is loading her revolver, she is loading it with automatic pistol rounds. Wonderful, as they will slide right through the revolver cylinder instead of firing, or jam nicely at an inconvenient moment. The rim on a automatic round doesn't stick out (flare) as it does for revolver rounds.

Btw those are seriously thick rims on those bullets. It's like the artist thinks the notch there is cosmetic.

Here's two similarly sized bullets here for comparison -

• The top one, a 9mm Luger, is an automatic round (no flared rim) These are designed to be stackable. The inset rim is for the mechanism to grip the end of the casing for loading.
  
• the bottom one is a .38 Special, a revolver round.. Note the flared rim. These flared rims are a stopper to prevent the shell from sliding through the revolver cylinder.
  

Just as a curiosity, the cop listens for 5 shots and then runs across mafia girl's field of fire, with the revolver going click-click. I thought it was weird that it was 5, so I looked it up - it seems the standard police/security .38 revolver in Japan is a 5-round cylinder, not 6. Pretty risky though, to assume mafia girl is using a police revolver and not an import.

Darker than Black isn't really a gun otaku type anime, so I guess they didn't really consider it. In case I need to clarify, I actually do like this show, it's just that occasionally some things in it bug me.

Upsen.

P.s.

I think the worst I've ever seen in anime is in Dogs: Bullets & Carnage - The animator didn't realize that the gun's slide (on the top half) moves back when firing, exposing the barrel. Instead they animated the barrel thrusting forward out of the gun, in gratuitously slow-motion shots. Somehow this passed QC in a show with "Bullets" in it's title. Someone shoot them please.

P.p.s.
I had a stack of empty casings for like 2 years, with both 9mm auto and .38spl samples in it, that I threw away during the new year. It ALWAYS happens - throw something away and find that you need it soon thereafter. A closeup photo showing the difference would have been perfect for this post.

Wet - Wetwork a la Kill Bill

I know what you're thinking — "Did he fire six shots or only five?
Here it doesn't really matter since you have infinite bullets and no need to reload.

Yesterday, I tried the old Wet demo that I've had kicking around for a while, and it seemed like a lot of fun. So today, I traded in Borderlands and picked up a copy of Wet plus some credit for future use.

Wet is short for "Wetwork", which refers to jobs that involve killing and spilling blood. I think they should have just kept the name as Wetwork.

It's basically a 70's action flick come to video-game life, or something that Quentin Tarantino would be involved in today. Its entertaining in a Kill Bill sort of way. I'll have to load up the actual game some time, and see how it is.

Also, the main character Rubi reminds me of a friend of mine, which is a chuckle.

Upsen.

Objection! Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney

From Left to "Wright" - Miles Edgeworth, Ema and Lana Skye, and Phoenix Wright

Lately I've been playing with my Nintendo DS - I picked up an old copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (2005) . Its a fun game in which you play a defense attorney, cross-examining witnesses. (Which seems to mean tearing down witness testimonies and calling them into question)

There is a also lot of running around collecting case information, and even a scene where you get tasered, but the most fun part of the game is the cross-examination. It's like a boss fight. :D

There's a bunch more of these games in the series, I will probably check them out after I'm done with this one.

Upsen.