Ranking the Primarchs part 2

The second installment of Ranking the Primarchs brought to you by the Crazy Gamer

8.  Alpharius and Omegon, Primarchs of the Alpha Legion

Spoiler alert!  If you haven't read the book Legion you may want to look away.


Still with me?  Okay, it was revealed that the Alpha Legion has two Primarchs who are exact duplicates of each other.  They were distrusted by their brother Primarchs because of their secretive ways.  Unlike the other Primarchs who were physically much larger and more powerful than their legionaries, the twins are only slightly bigger than an average marine.  They had to fight differently than their brothers and as such used deception and misdirection on a scale that was seen as repulsive to the other Primarchs.  Ask any Alpha legionnaire who is Alpharius and they will answer, "I am Alpharius."

I guess I put them so far up the list because they are so unique among the Primarchs and their characterization in the book Legion ,to me, make them very interesting.

7. Mortarion, Primarch of the Death Guard

See what I did there Death Guard fans?

Anyway, like so many of the traitor Primarchs, fate wasn't so kind to Mortarion who as a baby landed on the planet of Barbarous which was surrounded in a poisonous fog.  Everyone except the rulers who lived high above the poison fog, everyone else had to endure short painful lives.  Mortarion thought this was wrong and led the populace against their despotic rulers, one of whom had sheltered the young Mortarion.  Mortarion felt guilt and the thought of killing the person who had rescued him even if that act could not forgive the horrors his adoptive father reeked on the human populace.

Mortarion was almost successful but relented in killing his adoptive father.  When he returned to the humans they told him about a stranger who had arrived while Mortarion was waging his war.  This stranger was interested in him, and wanted Mortarion to come with him to a place called Terra to be one of twenty princes.

Mortarion was confused, why would this man be interested in him?  Mortarion didn't want to leave the people he had sworn to protect but the stranger seemed adamant.

Finally, the stranger offered him a compromise:

Defeat the tyrant who was Mortarion's adoptive father and the stranger would leave.

Fail and Mortarion would have to come with the stranger.

Mortarion confronts his erstwhile father but cannot overcome him.  As he is at death's door the stranger appears and with one sure strike he kills the overlord.

Mortarion must go with the stranger.

Mortarion is not happy.

The stranger turns out to be the Emperor of mankind and Mortarion learns that he is one of the Emperor's twenty sons called the Primarchs.

Mortarion is presented as being the reaper, striking from the shadows.

His fall to Chaos might seem very obvious given the enmity that Mortarion felt towards the Emperor for taking him away from his home world and killing his adoptive father when he had failed.  Still Mortarion is a deeply nuanced character that I found interesting.

6.  Magnus the Red, Primarch of the Thousand Son's

Cyclopean Magnus as he is known was wise, but his wisdom brought him arrogance.  I find it fascinating the philosophical questions that are brought forth with Magnus and his role in the Horus Heresy.  Magnus is the only psyker among the Primarchs and at first this gives him special status with the Emperor who is the most powerful psyker to ever exist.  Magnus delves too deep for the Emperor's liking and is rebuked officially at the Council of Nikea by the Emperor along with his brother Primarchs.

Does Magnus give up?  Of course not and as he is looking where he shouldn't he detects the daemons of Chaos trying to ensnare Horus.  He tries to help Horus, but is defeated.  Then he warns the Emperor that Horus has been turned.  He is correct, Horus had been turned, but the Emperor refused to believe him because Magnus had violated the edict of Nikea.

Magnus decides to show the Emperor using his psychic might and in so doing unleashes the daemons of the warp on Terra.  Oops!

Magnus's hubris leads to his downfall as the Emperor orders Leman Russ and the Space Wolves to destroy him.

But the fact remains; Magnus was right.

Is doing something wrong for the right reason okay?

Does the fact that a decision is wrong mean that everything that comes from it wrong also?

These questions fascinate me, and Magnus bring them out so I rank him high on my list.


Looks like I've gotten a bit long winded.  So join me for part 3 of my ranking the Primarchs!

Ranking the Primarchs

In the Warhammer 40,000 canon the Emperor created twenty "sons," to bring light to the galaxy.  But are all of his sons equal?

The Crazy Gamer says no!

I will now rank them from least to greatest.  I will use the official background, the history of their legion, as well as their characterization in the Black Library novels to decide who is the best.

Without further ado:

20 and 19: The two unknown Primarchs.  According to the lore of 40k two legions were wiped out prior to the Great Crusade for unknown reasons.

18: Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters

The gladiator Primarch.  Angron is a beserker who even before his fall was unbalanced.  He frequently is in a rage for one reason or another and because of this he is a very one dimensional character.

17. Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors

Perturabo is a master of siege craft and defense.  He ranks so low because he has never been explored in any major way.  He is apparently featured in John French's novella Crimson Fist, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

16.  The Khan, Primarch of the White Scars

Khan is presented as being a master of the hunt.  We know that he is present at the Siege of Terra but little is known about what he did there or what he did after.  Again the Khan is a victim of little attention from the Horus Heresy series so this might change.

15. Vulcan, Primarch of the Salamanders 

Vulcan is also a victim of little exposition from the Black Library novels.  His chapter is also difficult to understand as they seem, at least on the surface, to have no place.  They are portrayed as artificers and craftsmen yet the Iron Hands, Iron Warriors, and the Emperor's Children all seem to have greater legacies in this regard.

I admit that I have not read Nick Kyme's Tome of Fire trilogy that deals with the Salamanders so I don't want to be too stringent in my criticism.

Hopefully some more characterization will be coming soon.


14. Lorgar Aurelian, Primarch of the Word Bearers

Lorgar is the first Primarch that I have listed that is ranked low because of his characterization in the Black Library novels.  Lorgar is a huge feature in the novel The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. The characterization is of a son who desperately wants to please his father.  Not too bad in of itself but he does so by going against his father's express wishes.  When he is rebuked he locks himself away leaving his legion alone to attempt to figure out what to do.  Not the mark of a good leader in my book.  Lorgar is a petulant child who is jealous of his brothers.

13. Ferrus Manus, Primarch of the Iron Hands

Ferrus is the master craftsman who it is said has crafted several of his brother Primarch's weapons.  His arms are made of Iron thus how his legion received its name.  In many ways he and his legion are seen as the loyalist counterpart of Perturabo.  Ferrus is not portrayed as icy as his brother Perturabo.  If anything he is very trusting and that is his great flaw which undoes him on Istavaan V leading him to be the first Primarch killed.

12.  Conrad Curze; the Night Haunter, Primarch of the Night Lords

Curze was raised on the tortured world of Nostramo the planet of perpetual night.  Growing up on a planet in which crime rules and the only cause of death more prevalent than murder is suicide had a very negative impact on the young Curze.  He became the Night Haunter to combat the crime on his world.  Curze is another victim of not having very much written about him in Black Library novels as of this writing.  He is a deeply flawed character who is thought to have had two personalities the wise and protective Curze and the remorseless, brutal psychopathic Night Haunter.

11.  Lion El'Johnson, Primarch of the Dark Angels

He is the Lion of Caliban.  His chapter is very interesting with many nuances, but the Lion is very difficult, for me at least, to get my head around.  He is supposed to be a tactical genius but he makes so many bad decisions that if he was a CEO of a company he would probably get a huge bonus.

10.  Fulgrim, Primarch of the Emperor's Children

Fulgrim is a dandy, yet he a sublime warrior whose artistry in personal combat is near legendary.  He has two strikes against him.  First, his legion is pretentious to the extreme and that makes them annoying to read.  Second, he is tricked into using a daemon weapon causing the daemon to take over his body.  The daemon sides with the Warmaster and does all this depraved nonsense.  Fulgrim fights regain his body and once that's done he's like "I'm back , but all that gross stuff the daemon did, yeah I'm cool with it."

Pretty suckie Fulgrim. Not cool!

9. Corvus Corax, Primarch of Raven Guard

Corax and his legion had one of the Horus Heresy books dedicated to them.  The first half of the book characterized him, his legion, and his doubts very well.  Instead of taking a page from Lorgar's book Corax doesn't give in and sulk.  However, the second half of the book changes his characterization back to a brooding loner.  I'm not sure which is the real Corax, thus he ranks lower than he might otherwise.

So here is the first half.  Tune in next time for the final installment of... ranking the Primarchs! 

Clashes in Style: East vs. West in videogames

Video games as an industry have been evolving for decades now.  Once upon a time every new game came from a Japanese publisher and although localized for an American audience their aesthetic was by and large an eastern one.  

As time has progressed this has changed.  More and more games are created in the West and thus has begun a clash in stye between the East and the West.

Today many gamers despise the Eastern art style and feel that the Western art style is superior.

I disagree, but before you grab your gun let me explain why.


First: The difference

Western games typically have male protagonists with slab like muscles.  Usually they are older, scarred, tough, and frequently have a military background.

Common also is a protagonist who is ruggedly individualistic or who is part of a small band of likewise muscular, scarred, and toughened individuals.

Here are some popular examples:

From Gears of War

Sometimes the humanity is completely taken away as in Master Chief here

Don't worry if you like Fantasy games more.  We have beef cake there as well.

Apparently steroids are very popular amongst western game hero's.

Now the East:

Eastern art style game hero's are often younger, sometimes much younger, than their western counterparts.

Generally they are thinner and more effeminate.

They are also known for their very bizarre hair styles which frequently are very spiky.

Here are some examples.

Above is the main character from Square Soft's magnificent Secret of Mana

Even more reverent is Crono from Chrono Trigger

One of my favorite characters is Edgar Figaro from Final Fantasy VI.  He lacks the flamboyant hair but is still a young, slight built hero.

Now you have seen some of the differences between Eastern art style hero's versus their Western counterparts.

I personally prefer the Eastern art style.

I am not a football player.

I am not a marine.

I do not use steroids.

That said the East isn't perfect either

I don't get shirtless low rise jean style males.  I don't get drawing men so effeminate that I can't with a glance tell if he is supposed to be male.

The East style, in my opinion, however has much greater variety in character "types," for lack of a better word.

The West is a bit too obsessed with bald, steroid laced, he men for my liking.

But guess what!

There is an even better alternative!

Commander Shepard can look like anyone you the player wants.  My Shepard no doubt looks very different from yours.

I wish game companies would spend more time giving players tons of different options for creating characters instead of tacking on some lame muliplayer experience.


 

True General Challange (Warhammer and 40k) 2

These days when a new Codex or Army Book is released within days of it's release (and sometimes before that) the Internet will have savaged its contents and decided what units are worthwhile and which are not. 

Soon many armies look alike or are very similar to each other.  To a certain degree this is fluid as FAQ and new rules change things up, but by and large "builds," dominate the landscape especially in tournaments. 

How can we stop this and decide who are really good generals. 

Well I have two stories to tell you to illustrate my point.

The first involves myself.  We must go way back in time to 1997.

Are you with me?  We didn't even know what Y2K was and had zero concept of what a "smart phone," was but we got by.  Even then when the Internet was fresh and new (well broadband was anyway) we as players knew that some units weren't as worthwhile as others.

We were playing 5th edition Warhammer then.  I was playing High Elves and I had one unit of (poorly) painted archers.  They were my only fully painted unit and I was determined to use them even if they weren't the best. 

Some background in case you are wondering: High Elf archers had the same stats and equipment options as they do now and Warhammer had the same modifiers. 

My opponent and I decided to go get a burger and some 40k players volunteered to put out terrain for us.  When we got back the battlefield was covered with a large amount of the terrain in the middle of the board.

My opponent and I decided to go with it.  He played an Empire army, it was a 2000pt game. 

I had very little expectation for my archers, but that game they did awesome.

Wanna know why? 

My archers could move and shoot.  I had to move them so I could get shots because of the terrain.  My friend had units of crossbows and handgunners that couldn't do that. 

With a large amount of terrain that we played on my archers, normally irrelevant, became very useful. 

Units that are otherwise not seen as very good can be made better (or worse) based on terrain. 

Now the next story:

Jump forward a few years to a third edition 40k tournament my gaming group hosted.  Most of our players were WW 2 players who like a lot of terrain. 

Our tables were packed with terrain.  I'm talking dozens of pieces.  In addition we used a lot of the book special rules for the tables (go find a 3rd edition rulebook for examples of what I mean)

That weekend the best tournament player in the state (by tournament results, there used to be a name for it, but I have long since forgotten it) came to show us country yokels wha'ts what.

He got to his first table and found out there was a blizzard on it.  His response "Tournaments don't use these rules."

We must have missed that rule.  Our tournament organizer told him to deal with it. 

He lost the tournament.

The moral of this story:

USE LOTS AND LOTS OF TERRAIN! 

Take what you normally use and triple it!

No, I take it back quadruple it!

When that happens is your super list so super? 

Variety the spice of life

A quick post today.

First person shooters, I'm told, are at the cutting edge of fresh ideas and innovation.

Here are three images from three different first person shooter games.  Can you pick out the one that hasn't been released yet?

Innovation?

Fresh Ideas?

If you say so.

(Source: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 2, and Battlefield 3)

Fans vs. Fanboys

Today the specifics of the Wii U launch were unveiled. 

For those of you who are not in the know the Wii U is the successor system to the Nintendo Wii that came out back in 2006.  Reports are mixed but the systems specks are believed to be either slightly less powerful than the current PS3/ Xbox 360 systems or slightly more powerful than those systems.

I, the Crazy Gamer, will be getting a Wii U.

I hear you cry "Why?"

The new Xbox and PS4 will be so much more powerful!

You must be a fanboy!

Thus this posts title.  I am a Nintendo Fan.  I freely admit it.  I'm not ashamed.

But a Fanboy?  No, I am not, but you might just be. 

Am I just dealing with semantics here?  We have a fan and we have a fanboy.  What's the difference?  For many the only difference is the added word boy in the second word.

Ahem, I shall illuminate you. 

I bring you light, where once their was only darkness. 

Okay, that was obnoxious.  I'll stop.

Still with me? 

Oh good!

We all know what a fan is.  Somebody who enjoys something.

Here is my official (Websters got nothing on me!) definition of a fanboy

Fanboy: Noun- One who likes a particular thing so strongly that they must vehemently attack anyone who has a different opinion or different preferences.

So first, how do I prove that I am not a Nintendo fan boy?

I was a Nintendo child of the 80's.  My wonderful parents bought me a Nintendo Entertainment System in 1988 and I haven't looked back since.

This may lead you to believe that I am a Fanboy.

However.  I have also owned various PCs, a Dreamcast, PS1, PS2, PS3, and an Xbox 360.  I have enjoyed all of these systems.  Today I play PS3 the most, but I partake in and enjoy games for each system. 

I like games.  I like particular games.  The system doesn't matter.  It's the games!

While I play PS3 the most, I have had many countless enjoyable experiences on the 360, the Wii, and the PC. 

Will I get a PS4 or Xbox 720?  Probably.  The games will decide that for me. 

Now for the fanboy part.

Here is a very... um... passionate "Fanboy"

These are his words not mine.

I'm sorry but Assassin's Creed III is to awsome for the wii U it dosen't deserve it Assassin's Creed has been X-box,and Playstation exclusive it dosen't really belong on a Nintendo system Nintendo's titles should be a new mario game, a new Zelda,or starfox,or maybe a new F-Zero(haven't seen one of those in ages)etc not Batman Arkham city and assassin's Creed III those are hardcore games for hardcore systems the only hardcore Nintendo systems Ive seen is their ds's/3ds's adn the Wii no Wii U but Wii I know I'm hating but Assassin's Creed is just too cool 4 Nintendo.

Nuf said

Back to me!

This was posted on a game website showing Assassin's Creed III for the Wii U. 

If you don't want a Wii U don't buy one.

I don't like Justin Beiber, guess what? I don't buy his stuff.  I don't troll around music websites writing about how stupid he is. 

A fanboy is different from a fan, in my opinion, because they feel it necessary to attack things that they don't like. 

I will buy a Wii U because I want to play New Super Mario Brothers Wii U, Rayman, and Nintendo Land.  If Xbox 720 or PS4 offer games I want to play then I'll get those.

For all you Fanboys, just chill out and enjoy the games.

Oh and what the hell is a hardcore gamer anyway?  Stay tuned to see if I am one or not.

Games I'm looking forward to

Here are the games that I am looking forward to for the fall and winter.  I hope that you will check them out!  I don't think you'll be disappointed.


Resident Evil 6

I 'liked' Resident Evil 5 and from what I've seen of RE 6 I think it will be an improvement.  You should check out the demo on PSN or Xbox Live.


Next on my list is the quasi historical Assassins Creed 3

I was nervous when I first heard rumblings that the developers were moving the series to the time period of the American Revolution.  Colonial America did not seem an appropriate backdrop for the par core style of Assassins Creed.  However, after seeing countless images and video I can say that I am very excited about this third game.

Now, if only a historian would research piles of hay and its impact on society.

Lego Lord of the Rings

Some people despise the Lego games.  I think they are fun to play with a buddy or a spouse.  My wife and I played Lego Batman together and it was great fun (except when she as invincible Superman "accidentally," killed me. 

They might not be the deepest games in the world, but they are fun!


Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

If you like real time strategy games then Blizzard's masterpiece is still the best of them all.  From the finely tuned competitive multi player (which I don't play but I understand is quite good) to the master crafted single player campaign, it's still tops. 
Though it's any ones guess as to when it will actually be released.


Wrath of the White Witch

Please, I beg you, play this game if you like RPG's.  Level 5 has created a playable cartoon.  You owe it to yourself to see it in action.  Those who like to take part in the "Are video games art," debate then this can be one awesome piece of evidence that video games are art. 
It comes out early next year.  Please, please give it a chance! 


Torchlight 2

I don't have a picture for this one.  This is only available on Steam which sucks but I still want play this game.