Prince Volus's request

As promised here is the next part of David Hunter's first adventure. I'm retelling the events from memory and I hope to be as accurate as possible, but for the sake of the story I might change a few things slightly to fit the account better.

Hounds of Hell

Ian and David were led down a corridor at the end of which was a big hall, where the two gentlemen that had entered earlier where already waiting in front of a big throne. The throne had giant batwings and on it was an impressive figure, who could only be Prince Volus. Next to him was a man dressed in a suit but with a hideously disfigured face. It didn’t help that he was probably in his sixties, when he was turned. The Nosferatu was probably the Prince's right hand and therefore also a person of respect. David threw a quick look around the room and he immediately noticed the abundance of guards stationed in the ballroom. One of them was strangely scratching his ear with his foot. When the four had finally assembled in front of the throne, the Prince cleared his throat and spoke, “Thank you for coming. As you probably already know you have been called upon to help in a bloodhunt, called out by the Gangrel clan. A fellow Kindred has gone on a killing frenzy and what is even worse, he is killing our own kind. My Seneschal Charles Taylor will get you up to speed.” The Prince glanced over to his left side and the Nosferatur stood up to address the four bystanders. His gaze momentarily locked with David’s eyes sending shivers down the young vampire’s spine. “As my master just told you, this task is of the utmost importance. There have been several violent deaths and we need you to investigate the scenes and report back here with your findings. One of our dormitories has been prepared for you and you will also find some gear downstairs if you need to stock up first.” At this moment the Prince stood up and walked out of the room. It was only at this point that the four realized that the giant wings were not actually part of the throne, but of Volus himself. ‘He must be a very old and powerful Gangrel to have such explicit animal features’, David thought to himself. The Nosferatu made a bow in his master's direction and continued, “Prince Volus is one of the first Gangrel who managed to create a civilized society amongst his Kindred, right here in London. Therefore, the conduct of the frenzied vampire is even more disruptive than usual. You have to stop him at all costs.” - “What’s in it for us?” David turned his head to see who had been so insolent as to ask such a thing. It was none other than the gentleman who had first entered the building. “Well Mr. Vathek, first of all you will help to keep up the Masquerade and prevent a possible clan war along the way. As if that wasn’t reward enough, the Prince has also agreed to please you with a proper monetary recompense.”

The boy could see a smile creep on Mr. Vathek’s face. ‘He must be of the Ventrue’, he thought to himself. His sire had often warned him about them and he still remembered his voice from the day he had been introduced to the Masquerade and the different clans. “The Ventrue are the nobility of our kind. These blue bloods hold the Masquerade very dear and are often leaders in our society. As such they surround themselves with worldly possessions and often sport an entourage of both humans and other Kindred. So beware, as they don’t take kindly to our more open-minded clan members. They think us mad and a danger to the secret nature of the Kindred.” He knew he could trust his master, but the fact that this Ventrue had chosen to apply for a reward other than the fact that he would protect the Masquerade took him aback. Maybe there was more to the different clan members than the strict teachings of his master had led him to believe.

“So if there are no other questions I would suggest you all get acquainted with each other, as you will be spending a lot of time together from here on out. Consider this your Haven for the next few days, we keep a small herd if you get thirsty. Just make sure that you don’t fall into a frenzy and destroy our home while satisfying your hunger.” David couldn't help but notice the Nosferatu's pointedly glaring at Brunswick while delivering that last bit. As the heavyweight seemed to have gotten the not so subtle hint the prince's Seneschal turned his attention to Mr Vathek, while whispering something to his personal guard. The sentinel went to the adjacent room and came back with a laptop that he handed to Taylor, who immediately started typing, still throwing an awful lot of glances at the Ventrue. The guard then came over to the quartet and led them to the cellar entrance. The four of them were left alone and as they were standing there in the room filled with shelves and what seemed like several large rectangular boxes on the floor, the man with the scar broke the silence. “Well this is quite a mess we got ourselves into. My name is Dr. Victor Brauner, some of you might know me from the papers, I’m quite a famous scientist.” - “Bronswick’s the name”, said the giant with the leather jacket. “Let’s get to it, got me a sweet lady waiting back at the chop shop.” Noticing the puzzled expressions, he added “Gotta bend her frame back to shape”, which didn't really help. “Chopper needs a new transmission,” he explained. Bike repairs. 'S what I do when I'm not busting punks. Anyway, ain't you a bit green to be part of this?” Now the doctor was also looking at the young man: “What’s your name son?” David looked up at Ian and then over to the other two men and gulped loudly, “My name is David… David Hunter.” - “If they expect me, Ruthven Vathek, to sleep in these twenty dollar coffins, those animal clowns are sadly mistaken. I guess I’ll have to call James to send over a decent bed.” – “Coffins? Those are coffins? And they want us to sleep in them? Are they insane????” Vathek looked at the boy and replied, “Well the Gangrel are not particularly known for their hospitality, but aren’t you freaking out a bit?” But David couldn’t hear him. He backed away to a corner and sunk on his knees talking to himself. “This can’t be happening…. How did I get myself into this mess?”

The hounds are unleashed

Today some of us got together and we started the first chapter in a Vampire the Masquerade campaign that a friend of mine had prepared over the last few weeks. For all of you who are not familiar with the game, you can find out what it is all about here and here. I decided to rewrite the events of the game into a small story and share it with you. As such a game expands over several hours, the story will probably be quite long. I'll post one part every day and hope you'll enjoy it.

Hounds of Hell

It was around midnight when the young David Hunter got out of his taxi in front of the big building situated on the Isle of Dogs. He was sent there by his sire and was supposed to partake in a bloodhunt, a concept he was not at all familiar with. He only knew that his sire Dr. Carl deGras had chosen him to represent the Malkavian clan and that Prince Volus, a high-ranking member of the Gangrel, had requested his help.

Ever since he had found him in St.John’s Asylum all those years ago, the doctor had been good to him. David never really understood why his grandmother had put him there in the first place; maybe she was just overburdened after the death of his grandfather. Death had always been a big part of David’s life, ever since his parents had perished in a car accident after a frontal collision with a drunk driver. As if by a miracle David had survived the accident but he had been stuck in the car for several hours before he was finally rescued. The memory of his mother’s dead body hanging over him, dripping blood all over him, still haunted him to this day. When his grandparents adopted him, the boy had not spoken in days. At first it had seemed as if they could provide a secure and loving haven for him. After a while however David had realized that his grandfather talked an awful lot about the First World War. Apparently he had served in the war when he was only a teenager and kept recounting all the horrible tales of the things that had happened to him in the time he had spent in the trenches in Ypres. When he was not spinning tales from the war he schooled David in the importance of faith. By the time he was fourteen, the boy could reproduce every last bit of scripture, as his grandfather had made him learn the bible by heart. The pressure put on the youngster by the old man grew from year to year until the grandfather died in a mysterious accident at home. One morning his wife found him at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck. When she tried to tell David what had happened she found him standing at his window, preaching the Book of Revelation to the outside world. She tried to snap him out of his religious trance but when she touched his left shoulder he turned around and bellowed military commands at her. At a loss, the old woman turned to St.John’s Asylum to seek help for David. It was the last he had ever heard of her.

There he was now, standing outside the impressive building, not knowing what to do next. He threw a quick glance at the entrance where two guards were stationed, but he could not muster up the courage to walk over to them. Instead he put on his headphones and was listening to “the Cure” when suddenly another taxi arrived at the curb. A man, who could only be described as a giant, stepped out of the backseat, and walked over to him. The guy was wearing a black leather jacket and was all muscles. David gave him a quick glance, saw that he was mouthing something in his direction, which he couldn’t understand due to the music still blasting at full throttle, and he quickly shifted his gaze back at the floor. As the colossus didn’t move, the boy decided it might be better to put away his Ipod and as he did this, yet another car arrived around the corner. This time it was a black stretch-limousine, the kind that David had only seen on TV until this point. A middle-aged yet very handsome gentleman, wearing an expensive suit, stepped out of the car and walked straight up the stairs towards the two guards. After a few words with a raised voice, he was let in. Before any of the two vampires still standing at the bottom of the stairs could say anything, yet another taxi drove up the curb to reveal a man in his mid-thirties emerging gracefully from the backseat. He was dressed in a way that seemed appropriate for a man of wealth and David thought he knew the man with the striking scar on the right cheek from somewhere. He too went straight up the stairs and vanished inside the enormous front door after a few words with the guards. As the door closed, one of the two guards came over to the boy and the giant with the deep voice and asked if he could help them. The big guy identified himself as Ian Brunswick and added that he was probably expected. The guard checked his list looked at the boy and said, “So then you must be David Hunter, am I right?” The boy just nodded and both of them were granted permission to enter the building.

The Lord of Darkness is back

At the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide International this weekend the newest installment of the Diablo game series was finally unveiled. This is exciting news as it has been already 8 years since we last heard from the world around the Lord of Chaos. A small peak can be taken at the official Diablo 3 page that launched today (expect heavy online traffic). Let me know if you are looking forward to his as well. Further information will be added here if it gets available.

Metal Gear the story so far...

As promised I will provide the means to brush up on your Metal Gear knowledge on the internet and in any other ways I can think of. First off all, those who are not aware of this yet: Konami has released a standalone encyclopedia on the PSN store that includes all the information on the past titles and everything on the newest game. Still I would like to give you some links and possibilities to revisit the waste story of Solid Snake’s past. I will post them in chronological order (story wise).

Metal Gear Solid 3 – Snake Eater:

The limited edition of the Subsistence release of the game included a third DVD that had the cut scenes, some codec messages and the boss fights cut into a 3 hour movie.

The youtube user alexfung23 has added an extremely large collection of Metal Gear Walkthrough videos that include the whole game and are interesting if you want to see EVERYTHING that happened to Naked Snake. I created a playlist of MGS3: here.

Metal Gear Solid – Portable Ops:

There is sadly no video that I know of on the internet and no comic/novel depicting the events of this game.

Metal Gear 1+2 (MSX):

Here is another playlist created with the videos of alexfung23.

Metal Gear Solid:

Now this is the title you will probably find most ways to recap. First of all you can view the cutscenes and the codec messages when you have finished the remake Twin Snakes. Then there is the possibility to relive the events of Shadow Moses through the comic by Ashley Wood and Kris Oprisko, which was such a success that it was even released in a digital version for the PSP called Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel. This digital comic includes music and sound effects. It will be released with voiceovers on DVD once the second part including the digital comic of Sons of Liberty will hit the shelves.

The most recent addition to the Metal Gear Solid franchise is a novelization of the game by Raymond Benson.

And for all of you who still have not enough here is the playlist of Phoenix9215987’s videos.

Metal Gear Solid 2 – Sons of Liberty

MGS2 was also treated to a comic book again with the artwork of Ashley Wood and story adaptation by Alex Garner. The digital version has not yet been released but will probably include complete voiceovers by the cast of the game series.

Here is the final video playlist of alexfung23.

This is it. Several hours, if not days, worth of material for all of you who cannot get enough of the world that Hideo Kojima created over 20 years ago. I’m tempted to write a review on the newest title, but I’d also like to shift my attention to something else. So who knows…

Solid GOLD!

It’s the year 1998 and the Sony Playstation has been around for a few years. With the new CD-Rom support, game developers got the opportunity to vastly increase the multimedia elements of their games and amongst them was also Hideo Kojima who had heard a lot of good things about Sony’s first console. It is not surprising that he decided to continue his most popular franchise on the new console, enriching the game world with a new adventure of Solid Snake dubbed Metal Gear Solid. On September 3, 1998 Kojima’s newest masterpiece finally hit the shelves and became an instant hit selling over 6 million copies worldwide.

The story continues Snake’s adventures several years after the incidents at Outer Heaven. Once again the soldier is recruited by his former chief Roy Campbell, to infiltrate a facility on Shadow Moses Island that has fallen into the hands of terrorists. This time the villains are none other than members of Foxhound, the special unit that Snake was a member of himself when he was still in active duty. He has to rescue several hostages, amongst them Meryl the niece of Campbell, and stop the terrorists from launching a nuclear strike against the US. Everything works according to plan until one of the hostages dies of a heart attack. As Snake proceeds to the ArmsTech president Kenneth Baker he faces Revolver Ocelot in a challenging gunfight. However their duel is cut short when a ninja in a strange exoskeleton appears out of nowhere and cuts off Ocelot’s hand. Snake’s opponent runs for cover and the ninja also disappears using high-tech stealth camouflage. After telling Snake that the facility is only a cover for a new Metal Gear, Baker also dies of sudden heart failure.

On his search for a way to disable the powerful walking weapon Snake runs into Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, the scientist behind the new Metal Gear called Rex. Once again the ninja makes an appearance and divulges that he is in fact Gray Fox, who was supposed dead after the Zanzibarland incident. Snake defeats him in an honorable fistfight and makes his way to the holding facility of Metal Gear. On his way he defeats most of the other members of Foxhound until he finally faces of with their leader, Liquid Snake. Liquid reveals that he is in fact Snake’s twin brother and that they are both the result of a cloning project in which a group of scientists tried to replicate the legendary soldier Big Boss. He jumps into the cockpit of Rex and tries to kill his brother, only to have his precious weapon sabotaged by Gray Fox. Fox disables the tank’s radar but gets crushed in the ensuing battle. After destroying Rex Snake and Liquid have a face-off on top of the burning carcass of the tank and ultimately Snake emerges victorious. He frees Meryl and tries to leave the facility but moments before they could escape Liquid reappears and just as he tries to kill them, he falls to his knees and dies of a heart attack. It turns out that Snake is carrying a virus that was programmed to eliminate the terrorists and everybody who knew too much about the Metal Gear project. Ultimately the virus should also kill Snake, but the programming was changed last minute.

Metal Gear Solid had such a huge success that it was remade for the Gamecube in 2004. The game was called Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and retold the events of Shadow Moses with updated graphics and more impressive cut scenes.

I have left out several characters and key plot parts about this recap, since I don’t want to spoil too much of the games for you. I have also decided to stop my recap session here, since Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty is way too vast to summarize in such a short blog entry. However I will post several links, where you can brush up on your Metal Gear history in my next post, so keep your eyes open.

Last time I posted the first of GameTrailers.com’s recaps. The others, can be found here: MGS recap

Eat your fruit and vegetables!

Remember all those years ago, when you just didn't want to eat that portion of green beans but you still had to? Well it turns out that your mom was right. I stumbled over this interesting article just now and I thought I'd help to spread some knowledge, especially since I know some people who wouldn't touch a fruit or a vegetable if it hit them in the face.
Sally Squire (Health and Nutrition columnist over at the Washington Post) summarizes briefly which vitamins and other helpful elements are present in the different fruit and vegetable groups.
Click here
So enjoy the read and remember to eat healthy!

Metal Gear: a retrospective

Most of you who are into games will probably have heard, or even anticipated the release of the latest Metal Gear Solid games. “Guns of the Patriots” is in fact the last game that will be spearheaded by Hideo Kojima himself, but in an interview he said he would be looking forward to a new generation of Metal Gear games by younger developers. Over 20 years ago Kojima pitched his idea of a sneaking based game to Konami and after some initial doubt the development firm agreed to producing the game, without knowing it would turn into one of the most important gaming franchises of our time. In Metal Gear initially released on the MSX2 in 1987, you control a special agent with the codename “Solid Snake” on a mission to infiltrate Outer Heaven, a fortified military state supposedly having a WMD. On this mission he is also supposed to rescue another agent (Gray Fox) that is held captive inside the base. It turns out that the WMD is in fact a bipedal walking tank called Metal Gear and the legendary mercenary leading the base is none other than Snake’s mentor Big Boss.

The game had such a success that a few years later Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released (sadly only in Japan). Once again Snake has to infiltrate a base, but this time in the mercenary nation Zanzibarland. He is supposed to rescue a scientist who has developed a new way to refine petroleum in a very effective and cheap way. However during his mission he finds out that once again the real threat is a Metal Gear tank. He has a run-in with Gray Fox who has defected to Zanzibarland and also Big Boss survived the destruction of Outer Heaven to take revenge on Snake.

Gametrailers have created a recap anthology of the Metal Gear games which I will include with each small article on this page. Next up will be a revision of Snake’s first adventure on the Playstation called Metal Gear Solid.

Back in time... continued

Last time I talked about the two most popular TV shows from my childhood, but there were several others that I really enjoyed at the time and still love today.

One of those has to my delight been recently released on DVD. I’m talking about the Misfits of Science, a show revolving around a group of people that could be labeled as superheroes. The team had 4 members: Dr. Billy Hayes (Dean Paul Martin) is the leader and the only one who has no special powers. He was a scientist at the Humanidyne Institute and worked together with Dr. Elvin "El" Lincoln (Kevin Peter Hall), who gave himself the ability to shrink to doll size. They are joined by Johnny Bukowski, a.k.a. Johnny B (Mark Thomas Miller) a Rock n Roll musician who after an accident gained the abilities to shoot lighting from his hands and run extremely fast as long as he is “charged up”. The final member is Gloria Dinallo (Courteney Cox) a teenage girl with telekinetic abilities. Together they help people in need and study supernatural phenomena. The show has a decent mix of action and comedy and became quite popular in Germany. Sadly it never took off in the US and we were left with only 16 episodes.

Another short-lived show from the 80s was Street Hawk, which has sadly not yet been (and probably never will be) released on DVD. Street Hawk was about the police officer Jesse Mach secretly picked to test a new weapon against crime - a high-tech motorbike capable of speeds of over 300mph and equipped with a laser. Jesse was joined by Norman Tuttle, the technical genius behind the Street Hawk project, who stayed in touch with Jesse per computer and lend him remote assistance in his crime fighting. The show had a similar charm as Knight Rider. Although there are only 13 episodes the show still has a huge fan base.

"This is Jesse Mach, an ex-motorcycle cop, injured in the line of duty. Now a police troubleshooter, he's been recruited for a top secret government mission to ride Street Hawk. An all terrain attack motorcycle, designed as a fighter of urban crime, capable of incredible speeds up to 300 miles per hour and immense fire power. Only one man, federal agent Norman Tuttle knows Jesse Mach's true identity. The Man... The Machine... Street Hawk."

All work and no play...

I'm sorry that I have not been able to continue my "Back in TV time" series in the last few days. I'm extremely busy writing a paper on Franz Kafka's "Das Schloß" (which I have started working on way too late) and have therefore no time to work on my blog efforts. As soon as I have handed in said paper I'll continue the series, which will probably be in the week after the 15th of June.
Until that time here are some trailers of the new Batman movie and the animated "Prequel" that are coming up soon to keep you entertained.
Enjoy: