Tuesday, 13 June 2017

E3, FH, MCU, spiders, etc. - June 13

So, where do we stand with ‘FH’ the game? Nowhere, apparently, as it is not being mentioned anywhere at all. No, seriously, there were some videos around May 16, (2017) about the new PCs – the centurion and the shinobi, about people playing them, (or against them), and – that is it. 

...Considering that in the Alpha/Beta runs “FH’ videos appeared daily – and we’re talking official releases, not unofficial ones of users downloading their favorite kills or whatever – not like that, no. Official videos, official releases, official updates, etc. – none of that, and no promos, no hoopla, no excitement – this isn’t what ‘FH’ needs, it needs quite the opposite, as Injustice 2 shows – yes, its’ peak is passes, its’ release is done, but it keeps on going – it released new characters, it did its’ best to utilize the release of the WW movie for itself; kind of selfish, but practical. ‘FH’ did none of that. Pity. Now warning – spoiler alert coming on below!

In other news, of course, there is the entire E3 event, and it is overwhelming. I feel like pointing out only two out of the numerous reveals that took place there, (such as the new version of ‘Age of Empires’ game. Hm?). Firstly, the new ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ game, where Ultron and Sigma utilized two of the Infinity stones to fuse themselves into an Ultron Sigma entity and take over both Marvel™ and Capcom™ universes, killing everyone in the process and letting the machines rule instead. Ergo, the heroes – from Captain America to Mega Man to Rocket Raccoon to Chun-Li – will work together to defeat the new villain, and-

And they will need help from Thanos, who is currently captured by the Avengers, (somehow), and is willing to help, because Infinity Stones, yeah? I believe that at some point he and Ultron Sigma will fight each other, especially in the story mode, and-

And yes, this is me harping again on the poor quality of the story mode in ‘FH’. This is one of the main ways as to how they have failed, when compared to Injustice 2 or ‘Marvel vs. Capcom’ game, and I have no idea if they have fixed it for real or not. If not, they are in trouble, period.

The other point that I want to make is about the new and upcoming ‘God of War’ game, where Kratos is going to the Vikings, (make your obligatory pun about the North/Norse here). On this road trip, he has switched his twin blades for a battle-axe, (BTW, you can find a video on ‘AWE Me’ YouTube channel where MAA make their own version of it, as they did for WW’s sword and shield, for example). Oh, and his son is coming along for the ride – apparently, sometime during the first games Kratos has acquired one as well as a beard. Seriously, the man is still bald as a knee, but now he has this really thick and bushy beard – WTF with it? It makes Kratos look ridiculous…and not very Viking, so I really hope that once the game is released for real, one can customize Kratos’ appearance so that he does not have the beard, because so far, it does not appear to have any game value, but – you never know.

Oh, and apparently Kratos and son may end up working with Jormungandr, the World Serpent, which is something else. You see, for the Vikings, the World Serpent was one of the children of Loki, and one of the monsters that would be instrumental in destroying the world in Ragnarok. Most important, in that world-ending event, (literally speaking), the World Serpent would battle Thor and both would kill each other in the end. …With Kratos on its’ side, the World Serpent just might survive, instead, so it’ll be interesting to see how the new game works out in the ‘story mode’, so to speak.

The other thing is that none of this probably applies to the upcoming ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ movie, because Hela, or Hel, who is one of the movie’s main villains, was also Loki’s child, and the World Serpent’s sibling, in the original myths. So far, there is no indication of this being the case; apparently, Loki is still a bachelor in MCU, as is Thor, so Hela is unlikely to be his daughter, period. In addition, I doubt that the World Serpent will be appearing either – it usually appeared only in comics rather than in any other media form, (though it did appear in the Avengers 2010 cartoon series, from what I understand). Therefore, we will have to wait and see how the new movie will turn out to be.

Now is probably a good time to return to real life. Firstly, if you see the video of ‘God of War’ behind the scenes motion capture, it is awesome. Secondly, the Nat Geo site aired/promoted a video of a spider overpowering a scorpion with its’ webbing. It too is awesome, just in a different, a RL, manner.

Why did the spider win? Because it used its’ web. See, while in vertebrate’ battles, (think AFO) size and strength matter, (though how AFO did it on its show is another thing, and one that I have discussed before), in invertebrate battles, other aspects matter just as much, if not more. One of them is venom – many invertebrate carnivores have it; another is webbing, and really, it is primarily the spider that uses it, (though other creatures, such as the larvae of New Zealand firefly, can use it too, BTW).

Basically, webbing is a tool, it is manifested by a spider’s own body, and can be used as a weapon, or not, if the spider uses it make a cocoon for its’ egg sack instead. Different species of spider can produce different sorts of webbing, and several spiders, (especially the tarantulas and the like), do not even use webbing to hunt.  

Okay more precisely, there are two types of spider. The first spiders like the orb-weaving spider, which lives in its web – it has a smooth body, (especially by human standards), small eyes, (proportionally speaking), skinny legs and small fangs. It is a passive predator – it waits for its prey to end up in the web by its own doing, then it senses the prey tangled in the web via its’ feet, (yes, spiders are strange like this also), it goes down the web, immobilizes its prey with silk, and kills it with venom, as it did with the scorpion in the video. Basically, spider silk is one of nature’ superweapons – so far there are no direct ‘antidotes’ against it. Not that that spiders are invulnerable – there are predators and parasites that eat them, from smaller vertebrates down to certain parasitic insects and other spiders…

This brings us to the second spider type that does not make webs for hunting. Rather, they stalk and ambush their prey, overpowering it through brute strength and venom, before wrapping it up in silk, (the first type of spider does it in reverse, remember?). Such spiders are usually bigger than their passively waiting cousins are; they are often hairier, proportionally stronger, with bigger eyes and fangs to hunt and kill their prey. The tarantulas and the raft spiders are that type of spider.
Indeed, spiders are very unusual and exciting creatures; not even their cousins – the scorpion, the false scorpion, the whip scorpion, the camel spider, the tick, the mite, etc. – are as unusual as the spiders are…but that is another story.


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