Admiral Yi Sun-sin

Thinking back at some of my favourite games throughout the years I thought it would be nice to look at a famous historical figure behind one of my favourite factions of a RTS war game that I used to spend many hours playing.
That game is Empires: Dawn of the Modern world.

This game was made by the now defunct Stainless Steel Studios inc. This game was released during the era of Age of Empires which was taking the RTS world by storm.

Playing the game I found that my favourite factions to play were the Koreans for the insane amount of gold through research then evolving into the Russians for the World War era. This was to provide me with T-34 tanks which were very powerful and conscripted infantry to back them up.

When using the Koreans you find that they have some really powerful ship in the later stages with the Turtle ships.

These ships you find are very interesting in design and were some of the most powerful ships at that stage of the game before the World War era.

When you look into the Turtle ship you tend to find out about the famous Admiral that was famous for using them. The more you look into him the more you admire the feats at which he achieved.

This is a man who decided to live a life in the armed forces at a time when it was not fashionable to do so. He was shunned and demoted several times due to politics and from several high ranking officials purely because his success was making them look bad.

Although he was hindered continuously he was eventually promoted to the rank of Admiral several times due to invasion. The Japanese forces were massive in scale and were hardened from a large period of war called the Sengoku Jidai which lasted over a century.
When Admiral Yi engaged the forces he was able to inflict maximum damage while losing the least amount possible. Even now he is regarded as THE greatest Admiral that has ever lived, participating in 23 confirmed battles and winning every single one without losing a ship. This is unheard of.

The battle I wanted to use as an example to illustrate how great he was are the battles at Hansan Island and Myeongnyang.

At the battle at Hansan Island, Admiral Yi and his fleet of around 55 warships caught sight of a Japanese scout vessel to which he gave chase. Upon seeing a Japanese fleet he broke of the pursuit in order to set a trap. He sent fourth a small unit of ships to lure the enemy fleet into open waters. In their arrogance they followed without hesitation.
When the enemy fleet was far enough in the open Admiral Yi's forces fell upon them like a lightning bolt and flanked their forces with a U formation which he dubbed the "Crane formation".
While he encircled the larger force he sent into their midst his Turtle ships. These armoured ships had cannons on all sides and wreaked havoc amidst the enemy.

The battle raged for the best part of the day until the Japanese fled the battle and Admiral Yi called off the pursuit.
After hearing of this a nearby Japanese fleet heard of the battle and amassed near the shore in the hopes of drawing the Admirals forces into shallow waters.

Admiral Yi found the fleet and did not play to their advantages, he used some of his smaller ships with a very long range of weapon and had them cycle shots at the enemy and rotated to allow others to loose salvos onto the enemy. This assault lasted hours and Japanese knowing that the battle would be lost abandoned their ships and escaped later in the day at Admiral Yi's discretion.

The good Admiral lost a reported 19 men and over 100 wounded. However he had sunk over 100 ships and stopped the naval attacks on the south.

The Battle of Myeongnyang was one of the last stands of Korea, should this fail then the whole of Korea would fall. After Admiral Yi was demoted into the abyss he was brought back to lead them at the brink.

The Korean fleet was all but destroyed leaving little to nothing, yet Admiral Yi put all his trust in the Turtle ship and the small fleet that he had.

With this small fleet Admiral Yi had to make the best use of the terrain in order to assist in the coming battle. He chose to make his stand in the Myeongnyang strait, this was a strait which had a temperamental current which was familiar to Yi, however not to the Japanese.
Admiral Yi waited for the Japanese fleet of over 300 warships to enter the strait and then for the current to give his forces the advantage. He then engaged, his fleet was afraid to join in the fight based on the overwhelming size of the enemy, however after witnessing the admiral they eventually followed suit.

Admiral Yi's forces scattered the Japanese fleet back into the sea, sinking over 30 ships and another 30 crashed and useless. Admiral Yi, once again did not lose a single ship.

This changed the face of history and would later lead to the Japanese defeat and liberation of Korea.

There was a movie made based on the events of this battle called, The Admiral: Roaring Currents.

This is a man well worth looking into and merits great respect among any who learn about him.

Game of Thrones season 8 is a joke

I will not lie, I was on the fence before this season even came out. After the content from the books had dried up the drop in quality writing was there for all to see.

Starting with the first episode, I thought that it was a poor start. I feel like all that they did was to confirm all the things we already knew was going to happen:
Jon meeting Arya and Bran,
Daenerys meeting the Northmen and Starks,
Jaime arriving in the North,
Arya meeting Gendry and the Hound,
Jon's reaction to finding out his true heritage,
the Golden company arriving in Westeros.
My main problem is that they all felt half baked, like there was something missing. In the case of the Golden company we know what is missing....the damn ELEPHANTS.
Why are there no elephants? to save the budget again!
We had Mammoths in an earlier season plus Giants and Dragons and the budget was less for those.

Thanks to these problems I had a bad feeling going into this already shortened season.

Moving on to episode 2 it gives some more life to the scenes we were waiting to see. Like the battle plans and the meeting of Daenerys and Jaime, the man who killed her father. This was the high point for me.
We also get to see a reaction to Jon's heritage from Daenerys.
Then we got pretty much nothing else, nice going.

Then we get to the episode that every Game of Thrones fan was looking forward to, The battle between Ice and Fire. This is the fight that give the books their name sake, the battle that was built from the pilot and the penultimate battle of the whole series.....in episode 3. Well that is a warning sign. I thought this battle would be a loss for our heroes and that they would continue to march south however I was wrong.

Now on the first viewing of this I was watching it on my TV, I know what a terrible idea. Being a dark screen with a dark contrast I could not see a damn thing, I understand that from some artistic view having us be as blind as the heroes can be a good idea however the whole episode was so dark I had to stop mid way though the episode shortly after the retreat into Winterfell in order to retreat myself to the PC and watch on a lighter screen with the contrast turn up to full so that I can actually make out who is doing what.

I can tell you a night battle that didn't have this issue that was by far superior to this crap, The battle of the Blackwater.

Now some of the visuals that can be seen in the Battle of Winterfell are great and some of the ideas like a literal wave of dead hitting the ranks of the living was fantastic however the overall strategy is so bad it give me a headache.

These plans have been torn apart by many already, however, I will go over my biggest concerns as they are massive.

Firstly What the hell is this for a Battle line?

First things first why the hell are there only TWO units inside the castle?  Why are almost all the forces outside the castle? I know that Theon already mentioned that the Castle was defensible enough to repel a massive force with a minimal one yet they decide to go outside?
Even the dictionary definition of a castle is: "A large building, fortified against attack with thick walls, battlements, towers and in many cases a moat."
Why don't you use the damn thing as, I don't know, the epicentre of your defence!

secondly why make the extra fortifications behind your forces? this will hinder the inevitable retreat caused by your stupid battle line.

The cavalry are in front of the main force however they are not archers and instead charge to their deaths because why the hell not?

next in line is the catapults and trebuchet because......they were badly made? what? why are they there? in what world does that make sense? its like putting the submarines in the fish pond. Who thought this was a good idea. at least put them behind the trench they made.

At least Cersei learned to hide them from attack in the next episode.

Moving on, Why are there no Giants or Mammoths again!!!

What are you saving this massive TV show budget for if there are no Giants, Mammoths, Elephants, Army of the dead due to the crap Light and no more White walkers.

Also why are there no White walkers fighting in this battle? there are no generals in the front lines despite they are almost invulnerable. They don't know that the army of the living has got access to the Dragon glass weapons yet they stay right back away from everything. I was looking forward to seeing some of our heroes struggle vs some of the white walkers amidst the battle while bot sides readjusted and altered their strategy.

I still remember the tale told by old Nan in the first book/series and I have to ask where are the spiders! I wanted to see some massive spiders that could fight Ghost or something. Yet another missed opportunity for impressive visuals.

If you asked any fan of the series about why they like it I can guarantee that "you don't know who will die and when" will come up however this has been turned into very impressive plot armour for all of our heroes as the death toll is pathetic. I would have expected one of: Brienne, Jaime and Tormund to die defending the other two.
I was expecting Grey worm to die in battle and someone like Varys to die in the crypts being torn apart by Ned or something like that as a reminder of the last time they saw each other.

All this on top of who already died.


The main excuse I get for the reduced visuals and the darkness is, Budget.
Really? Budget?
Look at something like the Lord of the Rings The Two Towers and the Return of the King. Both of these movies had a large budget of around $94 million per movie which was spread across the whole movie. These also had far superior battles in terms of what was going on and how it was shot. They were also released back in 2002/03 where those special effects would have cost a damn sight more in order to create this world.
This season of 6 episodes will cost around the same $90 million however to same a hell of a lot of money they do not have to create the locations as they are already made from the other 7 seasons, plus it also revolves around the characters and established rooms with a lot of talking. These first two episodes proved this.
Looking at some of the other battles like the: Blackwater, Castle Black and of the Bastards you can clearly see that the battles were not only better in terms of you can see the bloody thing but also the tactics and drama was far greater.

Looking back at the Battles in the Lord of the Rings you can not only see what is going on.

You can see that the fortifications were used,

This forces the enemy to attack this fortified position causing the defenders to have a force multiplier which would have been needed at times like this. I mean Why did they create that massive wall and the Nights Watch for to begin with?

They put the Trebuchet inside the fortifications.

They even had Elephants!!!

Well, Mumakil/Oliphaunt.

I hate this episode and would give it no higher than a 4/10 and that would be a nice result to be honest.

The last episode is just as bad tactically but better than that other one. First of all can someone please tell Daenerys to use her strengths to her advantage and stop killing her own people as it is so annoying.

Daenerys has the stronger ground army, would have been bigger if she wasn't so stupid in the last couple of seasons. So why does she keep going into the water? Most of her defeats to Cersei and Euron have come from the sea with the only exception being that of High Garden which was swiftly dealt with while Jaime and Bronn were on the road back to Kings Landing.

Stay on the bloody ground and out of the ocean. Also they know that Cersei has hired a massive army using money on loan from the Iron bank. Why is waiting to gather your strength a bad idea?

One side fights out of loyalty and the other for money that they don't actually have.
One side is tired from fighting a battle and will dictate the time of the next battle, the other is rested and waiting for you to make the next move as they were preparing during the last battle.

There is no reason to force the issue. just wait for your army to get back to full strength.

Every great tactician throughout history has used their strengths to their advantage.

The battle of Helms deep they used their superior positioning to aid them.

At the battle of Pharsalus, Caesar used his positioning and terrain to good use plus the desperation of his men to win the day.

At the battle of Agincourt, Henry V used his positioning and superior archers to rain death on the enemy while they were bogged down in the thick mud.

most battles in those periods are won or lost on the positioning of their armies as well as their use as normally you only have one shot at the battle line. There are very rarely, if ever, a chance to re-position your army after you engage.

Someone who used this to his advantage was Admiral Yi Son-sin of Korea who fought in many battles and never lost a ship. completing a victory record of 100% at a time where political infighting was normal which hindered him more than once when the stakes were at their highest.

Two notable battles were:
The battle of Busan, where he fought over 500 ships with his 166 destroying around 130 while losing none of his own.

The battle of Myeongnyang, where he fought 330 ships with his 13 destroying 30 and damaging another 30 which caused the enemy fleet to flee while losing none of his own.

This man used his strengths to his advantage in every battle and came away with absolute victory during a time where they could not afford any losses, as the fate of Korea was at stake.

Game of Thrones should take examples of this wide range of historical work and the wonders of the internet in order to improve the series, however you just get the feeling that they don't care and want to get it over with, which tends to lead to problems like this.

These episodes are rushed and forced and they feel that way which angers the community and the fans.

At least the books are not finished and the creator George R.R. Martin doesn't seem to like it so we might get a better ending than this crap.
Only time will tell.

George Lucas Museum

Over the last year I have taken a keen interest of the father of Star Wars, George Lucas, in particular his vision and the construction of a museum in LA.

I love that the man who gave us one of the greatest franchises in cinema history, who changed the way we look at movies and creating one of the greatest buzzes in pop culture that captured the eyes of the western world. But he will continue to give in the form of a museum that will archive and continue to show some fabulous pieces of art.

The museum is expected to hold not only Paintings, Photography and illustrations like like a traditional art gallery but it will also hold Cinematic and Digital art which is more to my liking. However the key attraction for me and something that I would like to see at some point is the Star Wars Exhibit.

Not only does all that look and sound fantastic for me but the build designs also look just as awesome, I hope that the actual finished product will look just as amazing.

Please check out their site and show some support.

Youtube channel

I am being more active on my Youtube with games of Destiny and Destiny 2.
I am now starting to play a new character on the first game although I do not have access to the expansions. I will be playing through the story almost exclusively then porting him over to D2 to complete and have a new alt to play when i'm sick of my Titan.

If you would like to check out some of my vids and plays then check me out on my channel.

My view on the Guardians of Destiny.

I have been playing Destiny 2 for a while now at the discretion of my Brothers. After putting in hundreds of hours into the game I would like to put forward my views on the Vanguard as they are the ones you are supposed to look to for leadership in this universe.
I do not want to cover what their character traits are, or their abilities. I just want to go over what they do and my opinion of them based on their actions throughout the game.
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Lets start with the more senior member of the group, the one who makes the final decision. Zavala.

This man is the Titan vanguard, he is the tank of the group and draws the fire and attention of the enemies.
However I have never got this feeling from him.
Looking at just the second game (because I didn't play the first one that much), we open up with the vanguard keeping vigil over the last city however the enemy is on them before they even consider anything being amiss.
After the light was taken the first thing that this warrior and protector of the people did was to run away to Titan (ironic, the Titan going to Titan) and requested that all Guardians return to him so that he will be able to tell them where to go and fight.
Never once during this trying time did he attempt to do anything that could have put him in harms way.
During the darkest time for the people of the Last city he hid and let the player do everything, he didn't even lend a hand during the opening mission to set up a base on Titan. This is before he realized that the player has managed to regain the light.

The rest of the vanilla game he is at a base giving missions, granted to the player for gameplay purposes and in the story to someone with the light that has a better chance of survival but still, he does nothing.
When he does finally get into the fight during the climax he is of course the last of the vanguard into the action with Cayde-6 going in first taking out the Cabal on the perimeter which then let Ikora ride into battle. Zavala finally wades into the fight where he was able to overpower a Cabal and shoot another in the back. He was then quickly incapacitated and almost killed before he was saved by Hawthorne (a human without the light).
That is right, the leader of the Vanguard is bested and could not overcome 4 cabal.

In the Forsaken expansion he did not want to avenge his fallen comrade nor did he even send anyone out to ensure that this action was actioned upon to help discourage and prevent the loss of other guardians, he decided it was better to call it a day and let no action be taken.
In other words I get the feeling that he did not like Cayde-6 and was not going to pursuer someone who "did him a favour" by removing someone he would otherwise been unable to.

The definition of a Vanguard is:

1. a group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas.
"the experimental spirit of the modernist vanguard"
2. the foremost part of an advancing army or naval force

The definition of a Guardian is:

1. a person who protects or defends something.
"self-appointed guardians of public morality"synonyms:
protector, defender, preserver, champion, custodian, warden, guard, keeper

This man to me this man is not a Vanguard nor is he a Guardian or even a soldier. He is a coward who hides behind his shield of guardians and refuses to put himself at risk. He cannot stay away from the front lines and be called a Vanguard and he cannot be called a Guardian if he will not protect anything and just get someone else to do it. It is for these reasons that I hold him in very low regard.

If you want to see a Leader, Commander and Warrior that would put himself  into harms way for the betterment of those who follow him then look to Big Boss/Venom Snake.
This video is when Big Boss returns home from a dangerous solo mission to recover vital intel from a threat to his people. Upon returning home he discovers that it is on fire, blowing up from the inside and sinking into the abyss.

Mother Base destroyed.
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Next we have Ikora, now she is a better than Zavala however he usefulness is also very minimal.

When the light was taken she searched for enlightenment at the last place the traveler touched which makes sense. She then guides the player to recovering more power which was very useful.

She didn't hide from the cabal nor does she go down easy.
When Cayde-6 died she wanted to attack his killer with full force to ensure that he was avenged and discourage others from trying to kill one of the Vanguard.

She is not a front line fighter like a Titan so I would not expect her to do this however as a warlock I would expect her to find enlightenment and try to discover new ways to proceed while trying to understand more about the travelor while she would guide others to attain powers to better the whole.

She is what I would expect from her role. however I would like to see more missions from her at the tower, she is kind of pointless.
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Finally we have Cayde-6. Now this is the fan favourite and for good reasons.

Is is a true hunter, according to the lore the Hunters are assassins and scouts who write their own laws and blaze their own trails.

This is Cayde-6 in a nutshell.

As opposed to Zavala, Cayde would not hide from a fight and would put himself at risk at any moment in order to save others. When the light was taken the first thing he did was to go to Nessus to attain a transporter which he was going to use to kill the leader of this new enemy.

He would then peel off from the main group during the attack and reclamation of the Last city and work solo with the focal point of the mission (the teleporter), doing all of this without the light yet still battlinjg with the flair of our favourite exo.

During the Forsaken when there is a riot at the Prison of Elders which contains high value and very dangerous people he did not cower like Zavala would have. He waded into the fray and got his hands dirty.

When Petra reported that Uldren escaped, Cayde's first action was to head after him and cut him off before he could escape. This cost him his life.

Although he was a thrill seeker and enjoyed these sort of things, this is what I would expect from a Vanguard. First into the action and putting himself on the line not the lives of others.

Zavala is the Rearguard. Protecting from the back, staying as far away from the front line as possible and only sees action during a retreat or when the enemy bypasses the front lines and attacks from behind their forward forces.

Activision layoffs!

Last week the gaming giant Activision reported a record financial performance. In recent news from the company starting from the end of 2018 they parted ways with their Chief financial officer (CFO) Mr. Neumann for a breach in his contracted agreement where he was in talks with and interviewed by Netflix for the job of CFO in their company.

Activision then appointed Mr. Durkin as their new CFO, this was followed by a signing on bonus of $15 million worth of awards. This probably includes shares in the company however the details have not been released for obvious reasons.

The atmosphere at Activision and in particular Blizzard Entertainment was very ropy to say the least. The employees were offered a more favorable deal from the company to part ways with an offer of up to a years pay to resign. This was accepted by hundreds of employees who saw the writing on the wall, however during the next few months rumors were circulating that hundreds of jobs will be lost for employees of Activision Blizzard.
This culminated in the Activision report that stated they had reached record financial figures that year!
this was immediately followed by the mass layoffs of almost 800 staff.
Reports stated that several of those employees were crying in the car parks after the loss of their jobs.

Activision were already seen as a bane on the industry by several games enthusiasts however this has really put the public in a state of awareness. Comparisons to the late Nintendo chief Iwata who took a massive pay cut of 50% twice in order to save the jobs of hundreds of employees was thrown into the discussion.
He stated that the reason he took a pay cut was to help with the morale of the staff as they would not be able to create content that would could admire throughout the world if their jobs were on the line.

This was very admirable. Personally I do not know what is going on at the company or what they aim to do however I am certain that this is not going to bode well for them as the consumers were already angered at the company, now even more so.
There are even partitions to remove the CEO Mr. Kotick from power which are already in the thousands of signatures. If these people spoke with their wallets then this could spell disaster for the company who has already dropped almost 50% of its stock value with no hint of a resurgence in sight.

Fixing the League cup and FA cup.

The state of the cup competitions in the English football scene you will tend to hear some common comments. "its only the *** cup, we need to focus on the (Premier) league".

This is because of the amount of money you get from the TV deals for just being involved in the Premier League.
Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham came into the league this current season and spend in the region of £100 million each on players due to the excessive amount  of money that comes with being in the Premier League.

When you take everything into account for the English game you will come to the conclusion that all the teams want to get into the Premier League and are content with staying in that League. The Top teams are happy with getting in the top 4 so they can get the extra money for getting into the Champions League.

Only Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are actually fighting to win the title while spending the amount needed to challenge however they tend to have problems with their managers and players so their forms tend to dip and knock them out of the top 5.

Arsenal are consistent in the way that they do not have a full and capable squad and will miss out on the top spots due to neglect from their owner, Tottenham Hotspurs are only slightly better in the way that they have a complete squad however they will fall very soon as they are not  spending they money they get from these deals to create squad depth while they have the chance.
They have not won a single title or cup in almost 11 years or rather almost 4000 days. This was the League cup and as I stated, this means very little.

I think that these cups are irrelevant and need to have their value reassessed so as to create more meaning in the way people think about them.

The easiest way to change the cups is to change the rewards for winning them, this will provide more incentive to compete in the competition.

I would have the League cup change by removing the Premier League teams from the competition and having the reward for winning the cup the money that it is already linked with plus the third spot for the Premier league promotion. Removing the third promotion spot from the Championship gives a greater sense of emergency in fighting for the top spot of that league. The Playoff will also change as we can have three games in the knock out format where the 2-5 place finishers will play against each other in the fight to get into the premier league.

The FA cup can stay the way that it is in the current format however I would have the price be the 4th Champions league spot. This way you can have strong teams in the Championship (contradiction in terms) try and fight to get into the champions league!

This will be incredibly unlikely as the Premier league teams will fight harder to win this title due to there being only 3 spot in the Premier League now. This way teams  like Arsenal and Tottenham who do not deserve to be in the Champions League will no longer be gaining entry unless they make improvement and spend money in transfer windows in order to keep up with the current leaders in the title race.

With the Top 4 teams in the English game being Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. Where they spend the money required to keep them competing for the honours, Tottenham and Arsenal will have to focus on the FA cup to get into the Champions League. This also opens up the possibility that teams that want to spend and would have been focusing on breaking into the top 4 will now be looking to staying in the Premier League and winning the FA cup. This will make the cup ties a lot more interesting as teams that are struggling for form will still have the chance to battle the European elites.

Imagine Everton, Leicester and West Ham who have struggled for form this season will be able to and actually will fight for a trophy in the hopes to get into the Champions League.

Update

I am going through topics that I would like to cover that do not gravitate around Football however I have a lot of opinions on football that I can share easily due to the fact is does not change or evolve as frequently as the game industry.
Sometimes when I get around to posting something on my Blog the info on the games industry has become outdated and would become irrelevant.

I am trying to be active on my Blog and these posts will eventually become more game oriented.

I am looking forward to trying the new Apex Legends game from EA despite trying to avoid their games like the plague until they start churning out some quality products instead of the fruit machines they are focusing their business around. However at a free to play model I feel obliged to give it a go.

I will be playing on PS4 and PC.

one of my favorite reviewer Angry Joe has his impressions video out as well as a Jimpressions video from Jim Sterling.
You can find these here in respective order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfFDOfUJHyo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byefmfIvAJ4&t=672s

Man City vs Arsenal match ratings

Going into the game I was just hoping that we did not get smashed like Burton did earlier in the season. less than a minute in the game and we had already let in a goal. Iwobi was unable to convince the world he is a professional footballer. He was awful the whole game.

We managed to stay the Man City attack and fight back into a 1-1. we played well today for the most part however we still show glaring problems throughout the pitch.
The only  plus we can take is that we showed some fight and that our goal keeper is quality.

My ratings are:

Our back line played well for the most part and get bonus points for how much they had thrown at them but I cannot give them any higher than this, however, Lichtsteiner was left wanting for more cover from Iwobi. This does not excuse the fact that the right side of the pitch was left open to be exploited which it was. He later started to cover the right side however it was too late at this point.

Iwobi was terrible from start to finish. He should no longer start in my opinion and we should start playing Suarez despite not being used to the team or the League.
Torreira and Guendouzi played well for the most part however they had little to work with. Kolasinac didnt do much so gets a basic score.

Aubameyang and Lacazette looked dangerous when at the other end however we lacked the creativity needed to break the defence of city down.

Man of the match - Leno, without him it would have been a lot worse for us and he showed that he is a top quality keeper.

Worst of the game - Iwobi. All the goals can from open play down the right hand side. Iwobi was more at fault for the goals. not tracking his man and not showing desire to get the ball back or make a tackle.

He showed his full capability in the first goal. He runs into the opposing player and loses the ball, he has very poor ball control and lacks the experience and judgement of a first team footballer.
He needs to get dropped into the under 23s or reserves so that he can get back to the way he was at the start of the season.

Star Wars: A disappointing end to the Skywalker story

I have always loved Star Wars, from the first time my Dad took me to see the special edition in the cinema. This was my first steps into the larger world that was Star Wars.
I grew up with the movies, I acquired the toys and to this day the special edition Millennium Falcon toy that I got for Christmas back in the day still works with the original battery still holding up and the box in good condition in my parents attic.

I am now reading through the Han Solo trilogy written by A.C. Crispin again and have just finished reading Revan by Drew Karpyshyn, and I would recommend them to anyone who loves the Star Wars Universe. I still play the Knights of the Old Republic games, thinking about going back through the Old Republic story lines again.

I am a massive Star Wars fan through and through. However what I cannot do is endorse the Disney Star Wars content.
I watched the entirety of the Rebels series and was relieved when the story came to a dismal close, ending one of the greatest characters in Star Wars, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Thrawn ended up being as great a character as we all remember however was under used and removed from the tale all too quickly. Darth Vader also stole the show whenever he was present and I feel that Darth Maul was degraded even from the Clone Wars version where he was made a lot weaker as a character in my opinion.
The Rebels were never at threat as they made the Empire look a far less threat than the wet/sticky bandits from home alone ever were.

This will be a post for another day however. Today I would like to look at the Skywalker story that has declined so far that many are calling for a boycott of all Star Wars movies.
Now these movies have been torn apart by thousands and discussed to death. If you would like to hear a break down of the movies in detail then I would recommend that you watch the youtube channel MauLer as he shares a similar view as mine and goes scene by scene into several problems on the movies.
You can find his video on the Last Jedi on A Critique of Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I will go through a top 10 list of things I liked and did not like about the two current Star Wars sequel trilogy movies, named the Force Awakens (FA) and the Last Jedi (LJ):

Like number 1,
Including the Original cast. Now I say like however I am sure that everyone Loved this move. We get a continuation of the saga we love with the people that made the journey an epic that spawned the franchise that we know and love.

Hate number 1,
The way they treated the Original cast. Now this move was a contradiction of the first good move that Disney did. They treated the original characters so poorly that the outrage still makes news today. How Disney purchased a franchise for around $4 billion then poured so much money into it just to destroy the things that people love. This was a horrible move from both an artistic view and a business perspective.

Like number 2,
Opening to the FA, When I first saw this I was in awe. I thought Disney got it and understood what the fans wanted. The build up and the WWII style drop-ship landing of the Stormtroopers followed buy the decimation of a village with all its armed forces swept aside like they were nothing. The amazing score and the introduction to the poster Villain of the new series. It was almost flawless and ranks among my favourite scenes in Star Wars.

Hate number 2,
The story of the FA being too much of a rip off. Lets face it, everyone knows that the FA is basically A New Hope just re-skinned. Some say that it was a love letter, some say it is a rip off.

Like number 3,
John Williams, now including this man is basically cheating. The guy is a genius in movie scores.

Hate number 3,
Rey, I will not go into everything however I will just cover the basics. She is a Mary Sue, in fact she is a worse character than a Mary Sue.
Her motivation is weak, her skills are unexplained and confusing, her knowledge is also unexplained and confusing, People love her for no reason other than it is demanded via the plot, her Power level is stronger than any that has come before, Her ability to learn is supernatural and make the greatest geniuses look like helpless fools.
Everything about her character is insulting.

Like number 4,
Finns character arc in FA, Now Finn had a good character arc in the first movie, with the exception of there being too much bumbling moments, he was overall a good character. He was almost seen as the movie version of Kyle Katarn from the Dark forces and Jedi knight game series. However he could not live up to the Stormtrooper turned Jedi. Finn starting as a Stormtrooper that eventually decided that he was not going to be a cold hearted killer that would kill without question. He kidnaps the Resistance Pilot Poe and they flee the Star Destroyer to collect the BB unit and try to reach the Resistance. He would on his travels meet Han Solo and Chewbacca where he would be told that the tales of the Jedi are true, shortly afterwards he gets given the Lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker which he would use to try and fight off a Stormtrooper attack. He would also lead a suicide gambit to bring down the shields of the Death Star 3 (sigh), where he would stand against the poster villain in a lightsaber on lightsaber fight.
Remove the cowardly, Jar Jar like comic parts and you have an amazing character right here.

Hate number 4,
The treatment of the new Characters, Well I went over Rey already so I will skip her. Finn had his character arc remade in the LJ, this made no sense. Poe was made pathetic to make way for a new female leader character made to replace Leia in the movie. Kylo Ren was made pathetic the moment Rey got introduced. As soon as she arrived and took BB-8 he went to a tantrum throwing crying emo waste of space. General Hux became a rag doll where you face palm when you see him. Snoke is a Joke (pun intended) and Phasma is forgettable and brings nothing to the table. LJ wasn't better.

Like number 5,
Trailers, Now I loved the trailers. More so than the movies. They made me excited to see the movies however we now know what we are to expect.

Hate number 5,
Weak social agendas. Star Wars was about getting lost in a galaxy far far away now it is about Pro women, Anti white males. They push an arc about animal cruelty and capitalism yet they forget that there are human slaves in the same scenes. You watch the movies thinking that they are just ticking of a check list.

Like number 6,
Locations, some of these places are absolutely beautiful.

Hate number 6,
Weak Characters, When LJ was coming out I was looking forward to seeing what Rose and Holdo was going to bring to the table, I was interested to see what the character D-J was going to be like and the character I was most interested in knowing more about and seeing on the big screen was Tallie Lintra.
I was looking forward to seeing an A-wing pilot fight against the first order along with Poe, I was thinking we might get a new Wedge Antillies that will with no doubt perform some incredible FEATs in a fast and maneuverable interceptor. She dies with seconds of screen time, OMFG. Why even have a name for her? this is pathetic.
D-J is a waste-man. Rose's character was so poor the actor got targeted by so much hate that it is speculated that she left social media. Finally Holdo is the embodiment of the Feminazi ideal. I hate everything about her character especially when better ones had to die to make way for her. She is a disgrace.

Like number 7,
Battle at Takodana, This was awesome. The X-wings especially, Poe was masterful in the air.....a little too much so. the score was great and the ground battle just gets you imagination worked up on what could happen in the future.

Hate number 7,
Everything about the story in the LJ, Now this is a classic on how not to write a story. Rian Johnson should feel ashamed of himself and the creative directors at Lucasfilm should have a serious look at themselves or hand in their notices for letting something like this go through.
The story missed crucial elements from the start. How did the first order take over the galaxy already, is there no resistance to this take over even after they lost their greatest weapon?
A real world scenario like this would be if North Korea were to nuke the UN, lose all their nuclear power to the US Marines yet still complete world domination that day without any armed forces moving to invade.
It makes no sense. The galaxy rallied and fought against the Empire for about 20 years and they are going to be taken over just like that? this is not how things work!

Why is Leia flying? What the hell happened to Luke? Why doesn't anyone care about what happened to Han? How is Rey so powerful? Why is Finn doing the same story arc, has he got amnesia or something? Why are those bombers so terrible? Why are the First order so useless? Who is Snoke and how did he manage to do all this?
Everything about this movie is pathetic and it should be renamed Space Balls 2: The last of the Shwartz, it would suit it better.


Like number 8,
Art Design, I am not overly keen on the Stormtroopers new design however the rest of it is amazing. Well done to the artists.

Hate number 8,
That Yoda puppet, No matter how Rian Johnson spins this, that puppet is terrible. I was so disgusted I vocally said in the cinema "What the fuck is that?" and spoke the person I came to the cinema with about it during that scene. It was terrible. They were talking about using the same mold from the Empire Strikes Back, using the same people to paint it and making it a true representation and recreation of the puppet.

Like number 9,
Special effects, The people behind this should be very proud of their work. It looks wornderful.

Hate number 9,
Rian Johnson, Rian Johnson is always talking about Subverting expectations however it is not always a good thing. If I invited you to a birthday party and gave you a goody bag you would expect some cake, but if I gave you a massive kick in the genitals and said that I wanted to subvert your expectations you would be angry. How can he not expect this outrage?
Also, if i meet that man I will do just this, offer my hand then kick him hard enough to cause him serious damage and say "look I subverted your expectations, did you like it?".
I hope his career goes down in flames with this movie.

Like number 10,
Sound effects, the Sound effects are very good, the blasters and when the blasters connect sounds very good. Top draw talent over there in every department with the exception of the story writers and directors.

Hate number 10,
Killing the franchise, There is no tension anymore. No threat, no challenge and no mystery, there is nothing anymore.
The original cast have been killed off and the one remaining has passed away, god rest her soul.
The new characters are not interesting and don't bring anything to the table.
The stories are terrible and people are not interested in finding out what happens next.
There is no villains that can push our "heroes" to the brink.
It is just going to be a terrible movie about a massive army without end that has complete control over the galaxy for some reason that has got to battle a dozen or so people who have the most overpowered character in movie history who could eliminate every single one in an afternoon without any training or build up. She just wins. In fact she has already won. They could probably finish the saga with a trailer and no one will care.

My Arsenal

Throughout the season Arsenal have showed defensive frailties having only attained 4 clean sheets in the premier league. This is joint second to last in the league and if you ask the fans, that just isn't good enough.

Now Arsenal have suffered some more injuries in the defensive area the goal of getting back into the champions league is on the verge of impossible. The fans are crying out for reinforcement however with the admission that Arsenal will only be making Loan signings the excitement of the window is already dead and the likelihood of us getting any quality is nill.

As with many fans, I look to the current squad and think about who I would keep and who I would like to be sold and replaced.

This is my list of players that I would keep and who I would drop.

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GoalKeeper.

I would keep Leno, although he is not the highest quality, he has shown some very good skills at shot stopping and is very good with his feet. Now at 26 and about to enter his prime, I would keep him to see if he can improve, and with the amount of action he sees at Arsenal, he will get a lot of experience.

I would drop Cech (retirement thank god), Ospina (going to be sold already) and Martinez. Cech has been truly dreadful at Arsenal and truth be told I would rather have pursued Casillas who was rumoured to be interested at the time. I love Ospina however he is already on his way out and there is little chance to talk him into staying. 

Martinez is the same age as Leno and he cannot get any game time. With him at a ripe 26 with a fairly long contract we should seek to offload him for a good fee.........I hope.

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Defenders.

I would keep Bellerin, Sokratis, Holding, Mavrapanos, Mustafi, Chambers and Kolasinac. Simple reason being that we cannot get rid of all of them right now. With Bellerin, Sokratis, Holding, Chambers and Mavrapanos being the ones that I would want to keep for a long term basis. Chambers was showing some promise before he was loaned out, hense the new contract under the new regime. Holding and Sokratis really excelling at centre back, the glowing improvements of Bellerin and the hype behind Mavraponos.

I would drop with immediate effect Koscielny, Lichtsteiner, Monreal and Jenkinson. Monreal due to his age and injury record and the other three are just not good enough. Lichtsteiner started well and I would like to give him another chance as it is an adjustment to a new league with a poor team but I don't see much of a future for him here.

Mustafi will join them soon however I would keep him in case of injury.

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Midfielders.

I would keep Torreira, Niles, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan and Ozil. Ozil is our best player on his day however the rest of the team is of such little quality that it is no wonder we fail to impress. I do not blame Ozil for this. Mkhitaryan is a good player in the wrong position for the most part and he has performed well at times however he needs to show improvement in the final third.

The rest are still young and are only going to get better however they still need to improve and we need to get some reinforcements to take the pressure off them. They should not be first team regulars at this age unless they excel past experienced players like Sane has done at City.

I would drop Ramsey (already gone but I would have sold him 2-4 years ago) Xhaka and Elneny. Elneny is not good enough, Xhaka is too prone to mishap and Ramsey thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread however I look at him more as the mould behind the toilet. All these back heels and turns that lead to nothing except an oposing counter attack. 

Worry about getting the ball in the net, or better yet getting the ball to someone who will put the ball in the net. He is infuriating to watch and I would have sold him years ago. He is not as good as some fans make out.

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Forwards

Lacazette and Aubameyang. Yup that is enough said on those. I would give Welbeck a 3 year extension with the goal for him to either show that you belong here next season or we sell him that summer.

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Who do I want to sign this window?

Don't care, its all rubbish at the moment. anyone would be better than nothing. Cahill? fine cant be worse than what we have. maybe bring chambers back.

The Punisher Season 2

I have just now finished watching the Punisher season 2 on Netflix and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

When I was watching the first season I felt that it dragged a lot and had more about the personal life of Frank Castle where he is talking to people rather than being the actual Punisher. This really slowed the pace and was turning me off from the whole season. This time around I felt it had better pacing and a better use of action that the previous season.

Jon Bernthal was a fantastic choice to play the Punisher and I was easily able to accept him in the role. He was able to hold both the tough vet on a rampage as well as the protective father type that he was meant to portray.

The troubled path of Russo trying to get to grips with what had happened to him in the last season and why was entertaining and I enjoyed how it ended which really hits home where both Russo and Castle were in their tale.

The new arrival of Pilgrim was also entertaining and I enjoyed his presence and always felt that he was a threat that could really get the better of Castle. I liked how he was portrayed and how his tale ends.

Overall I was very satisfied with how it went and I hope that it is able to continue, if not as a series then at least getting some of the characters to turn up on the big screen with some characters like Spiderman.

Arsenal transfer perspective

TL:DR at bottom.

Now that the January transfer window has opened there was hope that Arsenal would go out and start to make several purchases that would help complete the squad in the quest for Champions league football. These hopes were crushed when Emery admitted earlier this month that the club will only be making loan moves this window. This has got the fans in a state of outrage, demanding to know where the money has gone.

Due to the activity last year, where Arsenal signed Aubameyang and Liverpool signing Van Dijk, Arsenal fans have set their sights high claiming that "Players of quality CAN be found in January" and practically demand that money is spend on the team on a similar caliber of player.
The fans have taken to look into Arsenals expenditure on the current squad and calculate the total wages that they are on and try to imagine the transfer budget that can be created from that money.

Ozil being the highest paid player in the club it is only natural that he gets added to the list of players however there are a few key points that need to be addressed in this line of thought:

1. Even if you sell the player and stop paying those wages, this does not mean that you will get that money for another transfer/player.

2. Wholesale changing the squad will mean that you get less money in the transfer of our players as every club will know that we want to offload a large amount of players and their price will reflect that.

3. When rebuilding the squad with players that are "better" than what we currently have, clubs will take this into account when naming their price on players we want.

4. Player wages are not based solely on what they do on the pitch, in fact most of the wages come from what they do off the pitch.
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If we look into the first point, history at the club will show that we will not spend the money to replace the player that we sold. Look at the sale of Vieira and Van Persie for examples.
Vieira was sole to Juventus and it took over a decade to replace the club captain with a new DM.
Van Persie was sold to one of our rivals on the cheap and was replaced with a clear downgrade in Giroud.

Even looking at these last few transfer windows, we sold Walcott, Sanchez, Campbell, Perez, Gibbs and Oxlade-Chamberlain. These players have not been replaced and now we lack width in the attacking third which has really hurt our ability to go forwards and our ability to create chances has been severely hurt as a result.
This is why Emery is currently looking into getting some wide playing midfielders at the moment.
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The second and third point are very tightly woven together. If you look at a wholesale change of the team you will find that clubs will take our player for less than we are currently getting for them, which is already terrible.
Then when you want the get a replacement you will find that the prices will rocket up. When you translate this into business terms, we will be selling low and buying high and with an owner who wants to build a self sustaining model this is never going to happen.
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The final point, wages are based on what you bring to the club, NOT what you do on the pitch alone. For an example, Ramsey works hard on the pitch and earns 110,000 a week, however he wanted to earn more in line with the wages that Ozil gets. This was never going to happen as although Ramsey works hard on the pitch and is considered a leader in the club, he will never shift the merchandise that Ozil does.

Ozil is consistently one of the top jersey selling names even out selling big names like Bale, Lewandowski and Aubameyang and is more on par with players like Ronaldo and Messi. In fact Arsenal shirt sales gone up to as much as 12 times the usual since the arrival of the mega star.

Arsenal have managed a reported number of 1.23m jerseys which manages to keep us in the top 10 football kits for sales. This is very note worthy as we reportedly sell a great deal more kits than European giants PSG kit sales of approx 0.69m or Premier league leader Liverpool sales of 0.7m. Ozil is seen as a key reason for numbers like this.
With Arsenals new deal with Adidas and some brand new kits incoming, a man Like Ozil becomes a very highly sort after asset.

Finally, Arsenal are not as attractive a team for players as we used to be. We have not challenged for the either the Premier league or the Champions league in over a decade. We are settled in the Europa which is a negative point for attracting players.
However Arsenal still sign some amazing players despite this. When you look at what the new arrivals say you will see a trend and this is probably the reason a lot of these players come to Arsenal.

"It's incredible really to be able to be in the same squad as a player like ​Mesut Ozil and obviously other players too, players that have achieved a lot and have great quality. It makes me proud."

"I'm happy to be able to be in the same squad, and I try to learn from them when I'm on the pitch. It's about gelling and trying to enjoy myself on the field of play so that fans have something to shout about." - Lucas Torreira

TL:DR - Keeping Ozil at Arsenal is worth more than selling him. We wont get any transfer money anyway. We cannot offload players that easy as we need to replace players already without losing more as this will cause the prices we pay to soar.

About.

This year I'm going to be looking at trying to maintain a blog.
I have a lot of stuff that I want to talk about and I have a lot of stuff that I want to get out into the world. This blog will hopefully allow me to do that.

About myself?

Well firstly I work in retail. I have a strong passion for video games of all sorts, however I of course have some preferences. I tend to play a lot of action games however I will play puzzle, turn based, MMO, RPG, shooter, racing, kart, mobile, sports, VR, AR, horror, stealth, beat em up, fighting, platformer and so on.

I also have a passion for football, following the team Arsenal FC. There are several problems at the club and it will be nice to vent somewhere. I also follow AFTV as although it has a bad reputation at times I feel that it is a genuine channel that gives the fans a voice, the toxic nature of the comments just reflects the feeling of the fans.

I have a passion for story telling, this draws me to movies, series and games. The stories that I follow the most are Star Wars, Mass Effect, Marvel Cinematic universe, Marvel, DC, Pixar, Sony and Dreamworks animation, Game of thrones, various Netflix series, Warhammer, the Grand tour, Hideo Kojima and many others.
Video games have a very big list and I follow as much as I can in my spare time, this spreads to games of the movies and series that I watch however I also follow Metal Gear, Plant vs Zombies garden warfare, Fifa, PES and several Sony exclusives.

Star Wars has left me feeling raw in terms of how much damage the hierarchies at Lucasfilm have truly damaged the franchise beyond repair. A strong reminder that even the strongest franchises cannot survive poor management.

I have a passion for cooking and food in general. I follow Gordon Ramsay and love his work. Although I am not a gourmet cook and received no formal training I do try and make some fancy food every now and again.
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I have an Arts degree in Computer games design labelled as Digital games. Mainly I try to focus on modelling, being either environment or character modelling. I have used Maya in the past however I have focused most on my time using 3ds max and Zbrush. My current computer is very weak in terms of its graphical prowess and I will look to upgrade at the next available point however this is what I have to work with.
I have created many assets already however they are not textured as my computer has a cry about using the texture programs that I wish to use and Paint is probably the only one that will not crash.

I will create a lot of stuff that are either off the computer or assets that I can create so that when I get my upgrade I can texture and complete my projects.
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I currently have assets developed for two Star Wars projects, the first being based on the Old Republic, this tends to revolve around Revan and the temple on Dantooine.

The second being based on the 1313 game that was cancelled. I love the idea of a more rugged and dirty version of Star Wars, it was one of the things that I liked from the Rogue One movie. I have done research into the underworlds of the USA ranging from the wild west to modern PMC groups.

I have also looked into Warhammer 40,000 and have designed a bunker that I will have built into the side of a small mountain, similar to the helms deep fortification. This will have a trench and an aegis defence line that will provide an early defence that will sit behind some dragons teeth.

I have been thinking about trying to make assets for a mobile game that I should be able to make myself.

The first will be a racing game that uses starships, I am thinking about either making a temple run style game or one that you turn the tablet/phone to turn for corners.

the other game will also be a mobile based game that I will base off the Cybernator game that was made for the Snes. This will be a platformer game with a mech suited warrior.

I have a scene that I have made based of the VR horror game called Dreadhalls that I fell in love with a while ago.

Finally I will mention that I am designing some scenes based on the movie the Martian, this will be a planetary colony like the one Matt Damon lived in, this extends to games like Mass Effect where you search several colonies for life.
I am also designing a "dream" home. this will be a large home with several things that I would love to have at my disposal.
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I will leave it at this for now. I hope to keep this blog updated regularly and hope that someone will enjoy reading and viewing what I have to show.