Defiance!

Last week I managed to get a weekend off in Perth instead of heading out to the Great Sandy Desert to Telfer and Nifty mine sites on another run. It was supposed to be a dual purpose weekend – take delivery of the new truck and attend Supanova with my daughter and her boyfriend. I felt a bit guilty about turning down the Telfer/Nifty run but figured that because I haven’t had a holiday since mid 2011 (and that I would be working on the new truck anyway) I was entitled to take at least a couple of days off to do something I have always missed out on in previous years.

Ok, that’s the plan and true to form – nothing went as planned. I went to Supanova at the Claremont Show Grounds on the Saturday and had a great time, bought a House Stark keyring for the new truck (which has “Iron Throne” written across the bug deflector) but we didn’t take delivery of the truck that Friday as we had expected. Yes, the brand new Western Star prime mover we had ordered over seven months ago wasn’t ready. In fact, it took another week so I had to put all my gear back into “Yippy Ki Yay” and go back out on the road for another twelve day stint. “A little bit disappointed” doesn’t quite sum it up.

But the unexpected free time gave me a chance to switch on the PS3 (do the updates) and download a game called Defiance which had caught my interest. The (M)assively (M)ultiplayer (O)nline game is available for the PS3, Xbox and PC and has been released in conjunction with a TV series of the same name. Events that occur in the game are supposed to influence the script of the TV series.

Now, I’m not a huge gamer and I’m not sure if its because I don’t have the luxury of the free time required to become good at it or if I’m simply no good at it. But I have enjoyed watching the TV episodes as they become available and playing the game (after the initial weekend I have only managed about 2hrs gameplay broken up into 30min each – sucks being a long distance truck driver). I actually find myself wanting more time at home so I can indulge myself, you know, like a normal person.

A quick search on the net shows plenty of results for Defiance including forums for the game and the show, numerous podcasts and plenty of videos on YouTube. If you have a Kindle or the Kindle software on your computer or mobile device you can download and read “Defiance:The Essential Guide” put out by SyFy and Trion and it’s free. The ebook does a pretty good job of introducing the game and the show and has lots of pretty pictures too.

I’m not going to try and review the game because plenty of people have already done that and I’d suck at it anyway but I will say have a look, you might find you like it. As for the TV series, well I’m always drawn to a good sci-fi show and, unlike “Firefly” (all-time favourite show) Defiance has been confirmed for a second season. In fact, it is quite likely Defiance will attain a cult following similar to Firefly and I reckon we’ll see Nolan, Datak, Irisa and Kenya cosplay at next years Supanova. Just not sure what the fans will call themselves instead of Browncoats.

One last note – most Australian and New Zealand TV viewers will recognise the actor playing Joshua Nolan, the lawmaker. He is New Zealand born, Australian raised Grant Bowler and his likeness is also used in the game along with the Irisa character.

Cheers, Mike.

The “Defiance” TV show.