Valkyria Chronicles

Yes, it's been a while. I've been busy, give me a break. Anyway, it's 2009! What better way to start a year of blogging than with the most important issue of the previous (or any) year: video games. One of those games (which I got for Christmas - thanks Heather) is called Valkyria Chronicles.

The game takes place in a fictional version of 1930's Europe with situations resembling those in second world war. You play a squad leader for the small country of Gallia, desperately struggling to fend off "the Empire" which is fighting to gain control of their land and it's ample supply of Ragnite (their main source of energy).It's a tactical RPG which you play both from a bird's eye view of the battlefield (selecting which unit to move) and from a third person view (within which you actually move the unit, playing like any 3rd person shooter). It also uses a clever turn-based combat system and a distinctive art style. An ad for the game has already played off another popular war poster featuring Uncle Sam (itself based on an earlier poster from Britain featuring Lord Kitchener).I like this image so much I wanted to do something similar and since one of the characters in the game is named Rosie I thought Rosie the Riveter would be appropriate.

Back to the games of 2008: Game of the year? Metal Gear Solid 4, followed by Valkyria Chronicles and Little Big Planet.

Right now I'm playing:

Valkyria Chronicles - If you can't tell I love this game. A lot.

I've recently finished:

Mirror's Edge - The concept feels fresh and the graphics are phenominal. When it's working it's wonderful, but unfortunately it becomes too frustrating too frequently in the latter part of the game. Still, definitely worth a look.

Gears of War 2 - I played this after hearing people go on and on about it on the gaming blogs and podcasts. Due in part to these lofty expectations I came away from it feeling it was only marginally better than average and certainly nothing special.

Prince of Persia - I ended up really liking this game. It's fun to play and nice to look at. It did feel a little repetitive by the end, but it's a great new direction for one of my favorite franchises.

Dead Space - A competant blend of Bioshock and Resident Evil 4 with a bit of it's own identity mixed in. I hoped the game would be more frightening but enemies are thrown at you so relentlessly that the tension never has a chance to build.

Anyway, what are you playing? What was your favorite game last year?

Is that you Santa Claus?

Merry Christmas!

The Archer

The new Avalanche blog topic is Zodiac and I'm a Sagittarius.

Ana Lucia Cortez

In getting back to my LOST caricatures I'm following up my favorite character (Mr. Eko) with my least favorite. I can't stand her, I cheered when she died.

BOLT!

BOLT the movie opens in theaters today and the video game came out a few days ago. These are a few screenshots from the two areas I worked most on, the cave and the helicopter battle in the Yucatan jungle. I'm quite happy with the finished product so go out and play it!

Halloween '08 Pumpkin

I wasn't going to post this, feeling the season had passed and it was time to move on, but I have nothing else to post right now so here was my pumpkin this year before it met it's eventual demise in our compost heap.

Fun Shall Overcome!

I've had LittleBigPlanet for a few weeks now and it is genuinely wonderful. I've never seen a game with such ineffable charm. Whether it's the inspired art direction or the delightful narration by Stephen Fry or the marvelous soundtrack or it's sweeping accessibility- the game is just impossible not to love. My two year old son watches me play and frequently laughs because the game is adorably captivating. He likes to wave at the Sackboy on the screen (I, of course, always make him wave back). Heather wants a Sackboy or Sackgirl as a pet. When playing it with others, everyone ends up laughing. This game is for everyone and it's just plain fun.

I just finished and published my first created level over the weekend (and I think it compares fairly well to other user-created levels). It's called "Sackboy Jones" by kanyn. Play it, heart it, give me feedback. Thanks!

Right now I'm playing:
LittleBigPlanet - Endlessly fun!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - Better than I expected but not quite the home run it could have been.

I've recently finished:

Silent Hill: Homecoming - This ended up feeling like a montage of the most popular elements of previous Silent Hill games and the movie. Anything new it introduces doesn't fit the unique SH atmosphere. Ultimately it feels like a competent tribute to SH games instead of a real addition to the series. There are a few small additions that I love but they're too small to carry the game beyond the realm of mediocrity. The SH franchise is in real need of a reworking the way RE4 so successfully did with Resident Evil. Until that happens I just can't muster the enthusiasm I once had for this series.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - This is a must play for fans of old-school J-RPGs. I loved it.

What are you playing?

Happy Halloween!

The Grave Digger

The Evil Lord of Destruction!

I've never loved anything the way I loved He-Man when I was 5-7 years old. This was when I called Saturday - Cartoon Day. My brother and I would get up so early Saturday mornings that we would watch the color code thing until the broadcast would start at about 6 am and be swept away in a blissful haze of terrible animation and toy commercials for 4 hours. Smurfs, Thundarr the Barbarian, Transformers, Thundercats, Voltron, and, of course, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. The 80's was a great time to be a kid.

Dracula

"What manner of man is this,

or what manner of creature is it in the semblence of man?"
-Bram Stoker

I love the original Dracula novel, but, as is almost always the case, none of the film adaptations have portrayed the spooky specter the way the book does. Bram Stoker provides the following details:

-Dracula has a full mustache, but is clean shaven everywhere else.
-He is an old man with aquiline features and slightly pointed ears.
-He has bushy eyebrows and a full head of hair but is balding around his temples.
-He has stubby fingers and hairy palms.
-He dresses in black and has a cruel look in his eyes.

This is a far cry from the suave gentleman many picture when they hear the name Dracula. I decided I wanted to paint the famous bloodsucker and stay fairly close to the original description. I found that it's hard to make a mustache scary. Some of my sketches look like a hook-nosed Borat with a mohawk. I was convinced it could be done, however and I eventually ended up with the sketch that turned into this painting. I'm quite pleased with it, and it sorta creeps me out a little.

Homecoming

Within the last month two of my favorite video game franchises have had new releases. Dragon Quest IV hit a few weeks ago and Silent Hill: Homecoming hits retailers today. I figured there's no better way to celebrate than with a painting of everyone's favorite Silent Hill denizen, Pyramid Head! It's also a wonderful way to begin the month of Halloween. Few games can compete with the immersive atmosphere and interactive narrative most Silent Hill games have. I'm always looking forward to going back there.

Silent Hill fans (myself included) are fairly intense when it comes to the foggy town. Many are intelligent and interesting. But among any fanbase can be found the fanboyish whiners lighting up the internet with their self important observations and complaints. Team Silent out of Japan created and developed the first 4 games, the first 3 of which are held in the highest regard. SH4 was a bit of a departure for the series, it was more experimental and openly surreal. It was met with much criticism from the SH fanboys. I enjoyed it but fatigue for the series was becoming evident in Team Silent's work. When speaking of the future of the series the creators wanted to push it even further away from the traditional Silent Hill gameplay and atmosphere. Fans complained. So the next game (SH Origins for the PSP) was handled by another studio and some (myself included) found it to be a competent and worthy addition to the series. Homecoming was also handled by an outside studio and so the fanboys have been outspoken about their disapproval of this from the day it was announced. They all object to the series being handled by someone else, despite the fact that the original studio has all but said they don't want to make any more and if they were to they would be very different from what we've come to expect. Personally I'm happy either way, I like the original games enough that I'm fine with playing variations on the theme or letting the series evolve. I get irritated by those who just want every new SH game to be a remake of SH2 (rightly considered the masterpiece of the series though the first game is my personal favorite). Homecoming could very well be no good, reviews have been all over the map (some rank it as high as 95% and others as low as 60%) but that's beside the point. Making up your mind about a game before you've played it is unfair. Being so exacting in your expectations that you're nearly impossible to please does not make you an intelligent and discerning individual. I know the internet will never be lacking in pretentious people with unfounded opinions, but they still bug me.

Right now I'm playing:

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen - The DS is the perfect home for the DQ games, I'm enjoying every minute of this one.

Half-Life 2: Episode 2 - I've been enjoying this more than the original HL2 or Episode 1 -and I loved those!

I've recently finished:

Killzone - I played this because the sequel looks so cool. Unfortunately it kind of deflated my enthusiasm. It had some cool moments but overall...meh.

Anybody else playing anything good?

Bella

This is a protrait of my neighbor's kid I just finished. I've never really tried a portrait of a child before and in doing so I now realize why they are so rarely done well - they're hard! It took me 3 previous attempts and many long hours to finish something I was happy with. Thankfully, they also like it.

Mr. Eko

Mr. Eko is my favorite character (so far) from LOST. RIP.

Bumble

The current Avalanche blog theme is Snow Monster. I decided to depict an encounter (not included in the show) between Yukon Cornelius and Bumble from "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." I translated the characters into my own style, but left the mountains in the background essentially the same as they are in the movie. It may end up looking a little inconsistent but I like it for some reason. Hope you like it too.

Claire Littleton

During the LOST hiatus I'm going to start doing the characters from the show who are either dead or missing or a ghost or posessed or brainwashed or a zombie or something. I have no idea which category Claire falls under, maybe none of them...I love this show.

Desmond Hume

Everyone's favorite "bruthuh."

I never got a chance to do a LOST caricature for the season 4 finale and I've been meaning to catch up. Even though the finale didn't focus on any particular character I felt that Desmond had the best moment.

Why So Serious?

More fan art for my new favorite movie.

The Dark Knight

As is no doubt apparant by the lack of new content uploaded on this blog I am very busy lately. I have, however, fortunately found time to go see The Dark Knight. My wife and I saw it last Saturday and enjoyed it so much we saw it again last night (this time on IMAX!). This is not only the best Batman movie, but the best superhero movie. Period. I've never had the experience before where I'm completey in love with a film while at the same time annoyed with it for being so good that it's made a lot of other movies I like, in comparison, seem pretty crappy. So yeah, thanks a lot Batman.

Team Logos

These are a few logos for local sports teams I did for some people in my neighborhood. They were actually pretty fun.