Free Form Friday: Gettin’ down on Friday

Welcome to this week’s Free Form Friday. Instead of writing a witty intro, I’ll just get right into it.

See anything you like coming out of E3? – via email

Mass Effect 3, HALO Anniversary (as well as the announcement of a new upcoming HALO series), BioShock Infinite, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Tomb Raider, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Star Wars Kinect are insta-buys for me.

What’s on your TV watch list for the summer? – via twitter

I’ll be watching True Blood, Falling Skies, Alphas, and Warehouse 13. I’m also looking forward to the new ThunderCats series. Primeval and Game of Thrones are about to wrap up, so I don’t count them. And I’ll be springing over that horrible-looking new Voltron series like Derek Miles in Beijing.

Wrasslin’  – via student

It’s no secret that I’m a wrestling fan. I’ve been into professional wrestling since 1983 with very few breaks in between. And I want to out myself here on GC as a John Cena fan. And just why would I do that?

John Felix Anthony Cena Jr. is, in my opinion, the hardest working performer with the WWE right now and has been for several years. Nobody works harder to build the WWE brand and has the work ethic that he does.

John can get a good match out of a really terrible opponents (Batista, Umaga, Great Khali, etc.) and great matches out of really good opponents (Michaels, Jericho, Edge, etc.). He doesn’t squash or bury anybody.

He’s also the strongest pound-for-pound wrestler I have ever seen – and that includes guys like Hogan, Henry, and Arcidi. Anyone who can dead-lift Big Show and Edge on his back – unaided – is a freak of nature. He’s got great mic skills and is a natural winner for marketing shirts for kids and moms. And me, too.

Don’t fault the guy for doing what he’s told by the office. He has to make a living. It’s like hating on R. Truth for being a heel. It’s what they told him to do.

I love you, John (in a platonic, manly way, of course).

I only watch WWE nowadays. I gave up on TNA Impact Wrestling a long time ago. I mean, they have Sting, Mr. Anderson, AJ Styles, Jeff Jarrett, and Kurt Angle, as well as the always-amusing on the mic Scott Steiner, but other than that the roster is pretty much a disaster. I don’t know what the problem is, because Eric Bischoff knows what he is doing – so I can pretty much blame Dixie Carter for not knowing what to do with a wrestling show and Hogan for trying to pretend it is the mid-80s.

I know the WWE can be tiresome at times with how the talent is handled, but look at the roster: Guys like Alberto Del Rio, Big Show, CM Punk, John Cena, John Morrison, R-Truth, Chavo Guerrero, Sin Cara, Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, and Sheamus are all quite awesome.

Since you’re a Star Wars fan, and a supporter of the Prequels – what is your take on this post? – via twitter

I saw “Blah-blah-blah buy my best-selling ebooks blah-blah-blah social media” and gave up. I get a little turned off when I realized I got suckered into reading a marketing blog.

I got a kick out of your Tweet after the last Game of Thrones episode. When are you going to start reading the books? – via email

Okay – I know that everyone out there who has read the series laughed a little when I *sniffled* about the end of the relationship between Eddard Stark and his head. Sue me.

Seriously, I never really heard anything about the A Song of Ice and Fire series until the original RPG came out in 2006. I read a lot of books, and there are quite a few series that I am working through right now (not all at the same time). It went on the list that year after hearing about how great the story was – but I am still about a month or two out from starting it.

I’m so wrapped up in this series, which I think is the best show on TV – and has been since Rome – that I am sure I’ll love the books. Just give me some time.

What wargaming have you been up to lately? – via email

I’ve come to the decision that there just aren’t good wargames out there right now – at least none for me. 40K and Warhammer Fantasy are just getting too expensive for me anymore. It isn’t that I don’t like the minis, but between the prices and the recent (poor) new editions the games aren’t worth it to me. Warmachine, Hordes and Malifaux aren’t for me, as I’m not a hipster teenager with angst issues. AT-43 is dead. Dust Tactics is a beginner’s game. Flames of War is too expensive and has ugly minis, and Infinity – well, I don’t know a single player in the country. Kings of War is also out, because it is pretty much a “GW or nothing area”, and no-one wants to play it, even though it is a nice system with great miniatures.

How about RPGs? – via email

Our group’s interest in 4E didn’t last quite as long as I’d hoped it would, and fell out of favor really quickly. We went back to Pathfinder (finding it more familiar and comfortable, as well as far-better supported). By the way, having just finished up the Cult of the Ebon Destroyers module, I cannot recommend that mess to anyone… but I digress.

We’re also playing the fantastic Dragon Age RPG, set in our own campaign setting of:

Now, I know what you’re thinking – but don’t. This isn’t the Open Design project. I don’t see the need to anglicise everything to death, so we use the “proper” aa-spelling – and besides, Midgard is a German RPG – currently in 4th edition and in print since ’81!  Anyway, Midgaard is to Thedas what Krynn is to Greyhawk. It’s the same, but different. It allows us to add beasties and such that don’t compromise the “official” setting at all, and we’ve had a ton of fun working on it as we go. Anyway, if you haven’t tried out Green Ronin’s AGE system – it’s awesomesauce.

Lastly, we’re still doing the Star Wars Saga RPG. There are some things that will never go away from our gaming table, and Star Wars is one of them.