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Signal Booster
Posted 11 months agoFriend of mine 
vertex-chiral is starting to stream art on twitch => https://www.twitch.tv/the_volpin
We're hanging out today, and we're probably gonna do some co-streams somewhere in the future, so go check it out.
I hope to do a big update for everyone on what's happening on my side in the new year. If you have questions to that end, you're welcome to post them here.
LYA~
vertex-chiral is starting to stream art on twitch => https://www.twitch.tv/the_volpinWe're hanging out today, and we're probably gonna do some co-streams somewhere in the future, so go check it out.
I hope to do a big update for everyone on what's happening on my side in the new year. If you have questions to that end, you're welcome to post them here.
LYA~
Terms Of Service [pending review]
Posted 5 years agoAlright, so since I‘m going to be opening for commissions again, I suppose I had better be putting down a few rules as to how we’re going to be interacting with each other as artist and commissioner. Now, I realize this is going to be really boring and dry, but I’m going to try and word it as simply as possible to avoid any legalese induced hemorrhages. For those who are impatient, there’s a tl;dr-version at the bottom.
iPoke’s TOS or “how to get me to draw for you”
1. Provided Service
When commissioning me you are paying for my service as an artist, to create a piece of art (product) along specifications we will define (in written format) beforehand. Once we have agreed on a basic framework and price for what it is you want me to draw, I will begin working on the product.
Depending on the level of commission, I will send you updates upon completion of a stage of the product (sketch => lines => flats => ~). These updates will not be full-scale, but will provide you with enough visible detail to ascertain whether the desired progress has been made.
Alternatively I also provide live streaming options via picarto for immediate input while I work. Depending on the degree of detail, this option may need time allotted specifically for it in both our schedules – plan accordingly.
If you want to have your image completed towards a deadline, this will have to be agreed upon before any work is done on my part. If you fail to do this, I reserve the right to cancel the commission, or adjust the price to compensate for any conflicts that may arise from this.
When the last line is drawn, we arrive at …
2. Payment
Payment is only admissible upon completion. I realize this is unusual, but it’s what I’ve done up to now and so far I’ve made good experiences with my customers.
Once I deem the product complete, I will provide you with a final preview for approval. Once you’ve approved this final preview I will send you an invoice, either by paypal for direct transfer, or email for a bank transfer. Either way, once the payment clears, I will send you the full scale version of your commission, as well as potential downscaled versions (for upload purposes and such) – remember that banks, especially international transfers, take a lot longer – again, plan accordingly.
Should you find some minor details out of place or fixes you want me to make at this stage …
3. Revisions and Refunds
I will generally accommodate those free of charge. However, I ask you to use common sense. Down-tuning the glint on a surface, adding a tuft of fur here or there, or nudging a single finger a millimeter to the side is not that much of a hassle. Artwork revisions such as changing your assault rifle into a shotgun, or repositioning portions of a character is going to cost you extra though.
I consider it a personal matter of pride to provide my customers with the best possible product and I will go to some lengths to accommodate your wishes. In the unlikely event that we arrive at a finished product and you find something that is entirely out of place (due to false interpretation or oversight on my part) and we, for some reason, cannot reach an agreement on how to proceed on fixing it, we can discuss (partial) refunds.
Full refunds are out of the question, as my workflow provides you with ample opportunity to provide input on the product as I’m creating it for you, so there’s no reasonable chance that the entire body of work I submit is somehow compromised after the fact.
However, should you at any point during the creation process feel we’re not going in the right direction, or something else happens to make you want me to stop, there’s always the option of …
4. Cancellation
Shit happens. Either you can no longer afford the full price we agreed upon due to unforeseen circumstances, you’re dissatisfied with the progress of the commission, we reach an impasse, … ~whatever. There’s a hundred reasons why a commission should not go forward at a given time. If that is the case, let me know as soon as you possibly can.
If a commission is cancelled mid-progress, you will only have to pay for the last completed stage of the product. However, again, please use common sense. If I’m five lines away from finishing a high end piece I’ve been working on for you since the start of the month, with consistent progress, revisions and general good mood, and you cancel on me, I will expect you to pay me for the additional work already provided (this will be a partial of the full price determined by me). As with completed products, you will receive the full resolution of my work, once the payment clears.
Once I’ve sent you the finished product, and we’ve ironed out any potential creases, you’re going to want to start showing it around, which brings us to ...
5. Copyright and Distribution
Unfortunately there is no such thing as international copyright law, however there are similarities in almost all jurisdictions. The two which are relevant in this case are those of Austria, as that is where I live and produce my art, and the US, as that is where the majority of this art will be hosted upon completion. In both jurisdictions "The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work.", which means I as the artist retain any and all rights to the work I produce. Unless I specifically grant the patron the right to the work in tangible format, the rights to distribute the work, for profit or otherwise, are continued to be held by me, from moment of creation. The privilege to host or distribute my work online is not the same thing as giving them copyright of the work. Permission to distribute is granted traditionally to the patron unless otherwise stated in commission discussion before payment (this covers things like private commissions that either you or I do not wish to become public, for whatever reason). I retain the right to include your commission in sold works of my own such as prints, digitally distributed or printed portfolios, patreon or other similar services, etc. So in simple terms:
You May:
-Upload it on your own free-to-access accounts.
-Use it as an icon/profile image on your accounts.
-Print it for yourself as a badge/etc.
-Colour or ink it, or get another artist to colour or ink it, if you bought a non ink/colour piece.
You May Not:
-Use it to generate revenue for anyone, even me, without my permission.
-Put it into SL image packs, paysite galleries, or paid-type image dumps.
-Heavily edit or rework the image.
Speaking of things you may or may not …
6. Commission Subjects
There are things even a furry artist wont do. I realize I probably have a far lower tolerance threshold than many other an artist, but even so, there are things I either don’t want to draw, am uncomfortable with, or are not permissible by some other function of the universe (for instance FA upload policy :b ). Here’s a list of things I just straight up wont draw. Don’t bother asking, because it’s not going to happen, no matter how much money you wiggle in my face.
Anything including body waste, cub, pregnancy*, gore*, inflation, un/birthing, rape, torture*, feeding, snuff, fisting, hyper, transformation, herms, crossdressing, cuntboys, dickgirls
* sexual/fetish context
Aside from these hard no topics, there’s a couple’ things I’m somewhat on the fence about, or am more tending towards declining.
- The first of these is copyrighted characters or characters you don’t directly own. I would think I don’t need to explain this one, but just for clarity’s sake; if it’s a fandom character, ask the owner. It’s not that hard to do and sometimes people just don’t want their characters drawn by others and I respect that. I will be counter-checking you having asked and I will wait for confirmation, so don’t bother trying to sneak this by me.
Characters of popular franchises I will decide on on a case-by-case basis, simply because I don’t want to do the n-th rendition of Krystal fucking X character – seriously, the hot dog’s not even traveling down a hallway anymore at this point, more like ICBM launch tube
- The second, which is perhaps more surprising and controversial, is homo-erotica. Now, before you get all up in arms: I have no problem drawing two people, deeply in love, enjoying each other, and I don’t care which bits they have for doing so either, but if you’ve watched me for a while, you will have noticed a distinct absence of this in my gallery. The explanation is fairly simple – I am not passionate about the subject.
I’m not saying I wont draw homo-erotica at all. I’ve done it before after all. If you have a deep emotional connection to an idea involving your and your mate’s character and you desperately want me specifically to draw this for you, I will be happy to. I just don’t want to do another one to “add to the pile”, if that makes sense.
In before “Yea! Duh ghays R takin’ ovah!” and “wowyouhatehomostoohuh?” -No, fuck you! Get out and burn yourself you utter trash! I just don’t want to drag myself through an artistic process I have no passion for, when there’s people out there better suited for the job.
I reserve the right to refuse any proposition for no reason whatsoever, but any other topic I will be happy to discuss with you in person, once contact has been established. Which brings me around to …
7. How to apply for a slot
I will open for a set amount of slots at the beginning of a month. Once I post the announcement that I’m open (will be an FA submission), you can send me a note here on FA. Please write this note in the following format:
Subject: commission request dd.mm.yyyy – Type X (the date should be the date of the announcement)
paypal address:
number of characters:
references:
description:
Short summary of what it is you’d want to have happen in the image.
You don’t need to make it an essay, but a little more than “cat in a box” would be nice to have something to go on.
-
Anything else you can think of wanting to include; personal notes, details, etc. *entirely optional
I will hold onto the info, and sort through the notes I get, but it's not a waiting list or guarantee. Since the in-box is likely going to be rather full, I can’t promise to reply to every last one of them, although I do try – I will definitely reply to the ones I’m taking on, as well as the ones I’m declining for whatever reason.
I will be displaying a(n anonymous) public list of slot openings for a given month and crossing people off the list upon completion, however I will not be posting another announcement for openings until the next month.
If you see a slot in this list as open, you can submit a commission request as per the format above. If you didn’t hear back from me after the opening announcement and the slots were already filled before, this is an opportunity to perhaps get your idea in this month after all. <<< failed to function
tl;dr-version
1. What do you do?
You hire me to draw something for you.
You get updates along every stage of the commission.
You want to get it done by a specific time? Tell me!
2. What about payment?
You pay me after I’m done.
You get a preview image when I’m done. After you pay, you get the big, pretty version :3
You can tell me to fix minor details within a reasonable measure.
3. How do I make you fix things?
You use common sense.
You tell me what’s wrong during the update stages. Makes it easier.
You’re not satisfied with what’s happening or has happened? We can talk.
4. How do I get you to stop drawing?
You tell me to.
You pay me for any intermediate completed stages of work – within reason, of course.
You’ll get the full resolution of what I’ve done up to that point + intermediates.
5. What may I do with the art?
You can show it around for free.
You can crop it and use it as icons.
You cannot sell it, or prints of it, in any way, shape or form.
6. What will you draw for me?
You don’t get a short answer.
You scroll up and see above for the list and reasons to avoid misunderstandings.
You refrain from starting flame wars about any part of this list.
7. How do I tell you what to draw?
You send me an FA note.
You adhere to the following format:
Subject: commission request date-of-announcement – Type X
paypal address:
number of characters:
description:
-
anything else
You sit and wait for me to get back to you.
iPoke’s TOS or “how to get me to draw for you”
1. Provided Service
When commissioning me you are paying for my service as an artist, to create a piece of art (product) along specifications we will define (in written format) beforehand. Once we have agreed on a basic framework and price for what it is you want me to draw, I will begin working on the product.
Depending on the level of commission, I will send you updates upon completion of a stage of the product (sketch => lines => flats => ~). These updates will not be full-scale, but will provide you with enough visible detail to ascertain whether the desired progress has been made.
Alternatively I also provide live streaming options via picarto for immediate input while I work. Depending on the degree of detail, this option may need time allotted specifically for it in both our schedules – plan accordingly.
If you want to have your image completed towards a deadline, this will have to be agreed upon before any work is done on my part. If you fail to do this, I reserve the right to cancel the commission, or adjust the price to compensate for any conflicts that may arise from this.
When the last line is drawn, we arrive at …
2. Payment
Payment is only admissible upon completion. I realize this is unusual, but it’s what I’ve done up to now and so far I’ve made good experiences with my customers.
Once I deem the product complete, I will provide you with a final preview for approval. Once you’ve approved this final preview I will send you an invoice, either by paypal for direct transfer, or email for a bank transfer. Either way, once the payment clears, I will send you the full scale version of your commission, as well as potential downscaled versions (for upload purposes and such) – remember that banks, especially international transfers, take a lot longer – again, plan accordingly.
Should you find some minor details out of place or fixes you want me to make at this stage …
3. Revisions and Refunds
I will generally accommodate those free of charge. However, I ask you to use common sense. Down-tuning the glint on a surface, adding a tuft of fur here or there, or nudging a single finger a millimeter to the side is not that much of a hassle. Artwork revisions such as changing your assault rifle into a shotgun, or repositioning portions of a character is going to cost you extra though.
I consider it a personal matter of pride to provide my customers with the best possible product and I will go to some lengths to accommodate your wishes. In the unlikely event that we arrive at a finished product and you find something that is entirely out of place (due to false interpretation or oversight on my part) and we, for some reason, cannot reach an agreement on how to proceed on fixing it, we can discuss (partial) refunds.
Full refunds are out of the question, as my workflow provides you with ample opportunity to provide input on the product as I’m creating it for you, so there’s no reasonable chance that the entire body of work I submit is somehow compromised after the fact.
However, should you at any point during the creation process feel we’re not going in the right direction, or something else happens to make you want me to stop, there’s always the option of …
4. Cancellation
Shit happens. Either you can no longer afford the full price we agreed upon due to unforeseen circumstances, you’re dissatisfied with the progress of the commission, we reach an impasse, … ~whatever. There’s a hundred reasons why a commission should not go forward at a given time. If that is the case, let me know as soon as you possibly can.
If a commission is cancelled mid-progress, you will only have to pay for the last completed stage of the product. However, again, please use common sense. If I’m five lines away from finishing a high end piece I’ve been working on for you since the start of the month, with consistent progress, revisions and general good mood, and you cancel on me, I will expect you to pay me for the additional work already provided (this will be a partial of the full price determined by me). As with completed products, you will receive the full resolution of my work, once the payment clears.
Once I’ve sent you the finished product, and we’ve ironed out any potential creases, you’re going to want to start showing it around, which brings us to ...
5. Copyright and Distribution
Unfortunately there is no such thing as international copyright law, however there are similarities in almost all jurisdictions. The two which are relevant in this case are those of Austria, as that is where I live and produce my art, and the US, as that is where the majority of this art will be hosted upon completion. In both jurisdictions "The copyright in the work of authorship immediately becomes the property of the author who created the work.", which means I as the artist retain any and all rights to the work I produce. Unless I specifically grant the patron the right to the work in tangible format, the rights to distribute the work, for profit or otherwise, are continued to be held by me, from moment of creation. The privilege to host or distribute my work online is not the same thing as giving them copyright of the work. Permission to distribute is granted traditionally to the patron unless otherwise stated in commission discussion before payment (this covers things like private commissions that either you or I do not wish to become public, for whatever reason). I retain the right to include your commission in sold works of my own such as prints, digitally distributed or printed portfolios, patreon or other similar services, etc. So in simple terms:
You May:
-Upload it on your own free-to-access accounts.
-Use it as an icon/profile image on your accounts.
-Print it for yourself as a badge/etc.
-Colour or ink it, or get another artist to colour or ink it, if you bought a non ink/colour piece.
You May Not:
-Use it to generate revenue for anyone, even me, without my permission.
-Put it into SL image packs, paysite galleries, or paid-type image dumps.
-Heavily edit or rework the image.
Speaking of things you may or may not …
6. Commission Subjects
There are things even a furry artist wont do. I realize I probably have a far lower tolerance threshold than many other an artist, but even so, there are things I either don’t want to draw, am uncomfortable with, or are not permissible by some other function of the universe (for instance FA upload policy :b ). Here’s a list of things I just straight up wont draw. Don’t bother asking, because it’s not going to happen, no matter how much money you wiggle in my face.
Anything including body waste, cub, pregnancy*, gore*, inflation, un/birthing, rape, torture*, feeding, snuff, fisting, hyper, transformation, herms, crossdressing, cuntboys, dickgirls
* sexual/fetish context
Aside from these hard no topics, there’s a couple’ things I’m somewhat on the fence about, or am more tending towards declining.
- The first of these is copyrighted characters or characters you don’t directly own. I would think I don’t need to explain this one, but just for clarity’s sake; if it’s a fandom character, ask the owner. It’s not that hard to do and sometimes people just don’t want their characters drawn by others and I respect that. I will be counter-checking you having asked and I will wait for confirmation, so don’t bother trying to sneak this by me.
Characters of popular franchises I will decide on on a case-by-case basis, simply because I don’t want to do the n-th rendition of Krystal fucking X character – seriously, the hot dog’s not even traveling down a hallway anymore at this point, more like ICBM launch tube
- The second, which is perhaps more surprising and controversial, is homo-erotica. Now, before you get all up in arms: I have no problem drawing two people, deeply in love, enjoying each other, and I don’t care which bits they have for doing so either, but if you’ve watched me for a while, you will have noticed a distinct absence of this in my gallery. The explanation is fairly simple – I am not passionate about the subject.
I’m not saying I wont draw homo-erotica at all. I’ve done it before after all. If you have a deep emotional connection to an idea involving your and your mate’s character and you desperately want me specifically to draw this for you, I will be happy to. I just don’t want to do another one to “add to the pile”, if that makes sense.
In before “Yea! Duh ghays R takin’ ovah!” and “wowyouhatehomostoohuh?” -No, fuck you! Get out and burn yourself you utter trash! I just don’t want to drag myself through an artistic process I have no passion for, when there’s people out there better suited for the job.
I reserve the right to refuse any proposition for no reason whatsoever, but any other topic I will be happy to discuss with you in person, once contact has been established. Which brings me around to …
7. How to apply for a slot
Subject: commission request dd.mm.yyyy – Type X (the date should be the date of the announcement)
paypal address:
number of characters:
references:
description:
Short summary of what it is you’d want to have happen in the image.
You don’t need to make it an essay, but a little more than “cat in a box” would be nice to have something to go on.
-
Anything else you can think of wanting to include; personal notes, details, etc. *entirely optional
I will hold onto the info, and sort through the notes I get, but it's not a waiting list or guarantee. Since the in-box is likely going to be rather full, I can’t promise to reply to every last one of them, although I do try – I will definitely reply to the ones I’m taking on, as well as the ones I’m declining for whatever reason.
I will be displaying a(n anonymous) public list of slot openings for a given month and crossing people off the list upon completion, however I will not be posting another announcement for openings until the next month.
If you see a slot in this list as open, you can submit a commission request as per the format above. If you didn’t hear back from me after the opening announcement and the slots were already filled before, this is an opportunity to perhaps get your idea in this month after all.
tl;dr-version
1. What do you do?
You hire me to draw something for you.
You get updates along every stage of the commission.
You want to get it done by a specific time? Tell me!
2. What about payment?
You pay me after I’m done.
You get a preview image when I’m done. After you pay, you get the big, pretty version :3
You can tell me to fix minor details within a reasonable measure.
3. How do I make you fix things?
You use common sense.
You tell me what’s wrong during the update stages. Makes it easier.
You’re not satisfied with what’s happening or has happened? We can talk.
4. How do I get you to stop drawing?
You tell me to.
You pay me for any intermediate completed stages of work – within reason, of course.
You’ll get the full resolution of what I’ve done up to that point + intermediates.
5. What may I do with the art?
You can show it around for free.
You can crop it and use it as icons.
You cannot sell it, or prints of it, in any way, shape or form.
6. What will you draw for me?
You don’t get a short answer.
You scroll up and see above for the list and reasons to avoid misunderstandings.
You refrain from starting flame wars about any part of this list.
7. How do I tell you what to draw?
You adhere to the following format:
Subject: commission request date-of-announcement – Type X
paypal address:
number of characters:
description:
-
anything else
You sit and wait for me to get back to you.
Sudden Influx
Posted 6 years agoOkay, I haven't uploaded anything in a week and suddenly there's a massive influx of watches today. What gives?
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm just wondering whether I've been shared somewhere <.<
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm just wondering whether I've been shared somewhere <.<
Signal Booster
Posted 8 years ago*coughcough* Egheh ... wow ... this place gets dusty after a while
Hey everybody. Long time.
Those of you following me over on the dedicated FT account know I'm not completey inactive, but other art has been on the backburner since I began to try and actively improve.
Anyway, this journal is really just meant to throw attention at a friend of mine who's holding a raffle in celebration of his advancement as an artist here.
So, if you want a chance at some awesome art, check this out!
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8227314/
I promise I will dedicate some time to bringing everybody here back up to speed on what's been happening and explain myself. I've been fighting with myself for the last year and it's resulted in some radical changes in how I see myself and my work, but more on that another time.
Until next time!
Be well.
Hey everybody. Long time.
Those of you following me over on the dedicated FT account know I'm not completey inactive, but other art has been on the backburner since I began to try and actively improve.
Anyway, this journal is really just meant to throw attention at a friend of mine who's holding a raffle in celebration of his advancement as an artist here.
So, if you want a chance at some awesome art, check this out!
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8227314/
I promise I will dedicate some time to bringing everybody here back up to speed on what's been happening and explain myself. I've been fighting with myself for the last year and it's resulted in some radical changes in how I see myself and my work, but more on that another time.
Until next time!
Be well.
ZOOTOPIA: afterthoughts [SPOILERS]
Posted 9 years agoSo me, the mate and a bunch of friends watched Zootopia last night.
Worth all the wait and every cent.
I agree with what a lot of guys have said by now; never has the message of this movie been more relevant for the world than now and Disney truly has outdone themselves once again.
People have mentioned all the different influences and multi-facetted topics it adresses and the wonderful thing is, it does so without hammering you in the face with them. They're just there and part of the story, woven in so well you can't tell the story or the message apart from eachother.
All the puns are either backdrop or flow so well with the characters you couldn't have imagined them 'not' pulling that one at that particular instance, same as the entire world built around Zootropolis. While it's never addressed in detail, the city and it's habitats are constructed really well and it's done well enough that you don't want to or even need to question any part of it.
I'll admit that there's some obvious cues and I feel they really could have done with a few less clip releases, but there's far more than enough material left in the movie to laugh at and enjoy, even if you have been spoiled on a corner or two.
A word on the characters;
Judy Hopps has managed to assert herself as the most solid, likable and believable female role model out in fiction today. Her motivation and character are real and tangible and it makes her struggles, failures and success that much sweeter and emotional, both on the level of the characters and as an audience watching her.
One nitpick I do have to make is that one big screw-up she makes, which I really just accredit to having to have the story progress. To be fair, she realizes almost immediately how badly she messed up on that particular instance, not only because she alienates her only 'real' friend in the city on a vry personal level, but I think the other characters are a little too oblivious about it/see it a little too lightly (again, story advancement and a little bit of young audience pandering).
Having said all that; as much of a gender identity as Judy might be, she stays well away from an actually sexual character and I think that is actually one of the movies biggest accomplishments. It handles the topic of gender equality so delicately within itself you almost don't notice it's there and yet it's probably one of the most central points of the movie.
Her relationship with Nick (see it as you will) is so well balanced it feels natural, exactly the way it's supposed to be. Neither one ever really has the upper hand in a way that would suggest their gender has anything to do with it and not one of them calls the other out on any of it either (at least on that particular topic ;b there's more than enough character jokes between 'carrots' and the 'sly fox').
To those of you who'd hoped I'd start doing some r34 fan arts, I'm afraid you're going to have to look elsewhere, because I have far too much respect for the wonderful specks of light characters that are Judy Hopps and Nicholas P. Wilde to ever go there now. That is not to say I wont be drawing fan art of them when I feel like it, cutesy couple ot otherwise, but don't expect any kind of actual porn from me. There's enough artists out there who are more than willing and capable to do that, several of them have already, but I feel this is a line I wont be crossing.
I will be watching the movie again with another set of friends next week (the dubbed version unfortunately) and potentially times after that aswell, but let it be said that this is the first movie in literally years I'm actually going to buy the DVD of and that's saying something.
To everyone who read this and has seen the movie, fire away your discussions.
To everyone who read this and has yet to see the movie; get your asses out of your chairs and into a cinema, double time.
Be well.
Worth all the wait and every cent.
I agree with what a lot of guys have said by now; never has the message of this movie been more relevant for the world than now and Disney truly has outdone themselves once again.
People have mentioned all the different influences and multi-facetted topics it adresses and the wonderful thing is, it does so without hammering you in the face with them. They're just there and part of the story, woven in so well you can't tell the story or the message apart from eachother.
All the puns are either backdrop or flow so well with the characters you couldn't have imagined them 'not' pulling that one at that particular instance, same as the entire world built around Zootropolis. While it's never addressed in detail, the city and it's habitats are constructed really well and it's done well enough that you don't want to or even need to question any part of it.
I'll admit that there's some obvious cues and I feel they really could have done with a few less clip releases, but there's far more than enough material left in the movie to laugh at and enjoy, even if you have been spoiled on a corner or two.
A word on the characters;
Judy Hopps has managed to assert herself as the most solid, likable and believable female role model out in fiction today. Her motivation and character are real and tangible and it makes her struggles, failures and success that much sweeter and emotional, both on the level of the characters and as an audience watching her.
One nitpick I do have to make is that one big screw-up she makes, which I really just accredit to having to have the story progress. To be fair, she realizes almost immediately how badly she messed up on that particular instance, not only because she alienates her only 'real' friend in the city on a vry personal level, but I think the other characters are a little too oblivious about it/see it a little too lightly (again, story advancement and a little bit of young audience pandering).
Having said all that; as much of a gender identity as Judy might be, she stays well away from an actually sexual character and I think that is actually one of the movies biggest accomplishments. It handles the topic of gender equality so delicately within itself you almost don't notice it's there and yet it's probably one of the most central points of the movie.
Her relationship with Nick (see it as you will) is so well balanced it feels natural, exactly the way it's supposed to be. Neither one ever really has the upper hand in a way that would suggest their gender has anything to do with it and not one of them calls the other out on any of it either (at least on that particular topic ;b there's more than enough character jokes between 'carrots' and the 'sly fox').
To those of you who'd hoped I'd start doing some r34 fan arts, I'm afraid you're going to have to look elsewhere, because I have far too much respect for the wonderful specks of light characters that are Judy Hopps and Nicholas P. Wilde to ever go there now. That is not to say I wont be drawing fan art of them when I feel like it, cutesy couple ot otherwise, but don't expect any kind of actual porn from me. There's enough artists out there who are more than willing and capable to do that, several of them have already, but I feel this is a line I wont be crossing.
I will be watching the movie again with another set of friends next week (the dubbed version unfortunately) and potentially times after that aswell, but let it be said that this is the first movie in literally years I'm actually going to buy the DVD of and that's saying something.
To everyone who read this and has seen the movie, fire away your discussions.
To everyone who read this and has yet to see the movie; get your asses out of your chairs and into a cinema, double time.
Be well.
With comments this time: ZOOTOPIA - Thoughts and Speculation
Posted 9 years agoApparently, being the dolt that I am, I managed to deactivate journal comments the last time around. Pretty retarded, considering I wanted you guys to discuss and birng in your own two cents and stray thoughts. So here we go with a second try. Fire away!
So, since Zootopia is still about a week away for most of us and I'm in no shape to really art tonight, I figured I'd finally jot down my thoughts, hopes, expectations and such for out favorite upcoming Disney feature for you all to read and potentially start a discussion on.
Just as a reminder; I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET, so all those of your fortunate enough to be in a country where it's already out, you will be keeping spoilers out of the comments or I swear I will find a way to punch people through their screens. Spoilers also include any material released in clips which aren't the actual trailers (see movie clip "Elephant in the room", "Skunkfur", etc.).
There may be spoilers ahead for those of you who have managed to remain absolutely trailer and material free. Just a fair warning.
This stuff will be in no particular order, so just scroll to the points that interest you :b
Main Plot
I think we all know by now what the movie is about.
Judy Hopps, a young, spunky bunny from out of town, with an idealistic approach to justice, enrolls with the Zootopia Police as the first rabbit officer. She also appears to be the first female officer, judging from what's seen in the ready room, but that might still be disproven in the movie.
Unhappy with the prejudice and position she's put in because of it, Judy begs the Chief to give her a shot at solving "the big case" that's on the table, missing persons through Zootopia of all shapes and sizes. He begrudgingly gives her 48 hours to make headway, provided she resigns from the force should she fail.
With a bit of smarts and a soda bottle, she identifies a witness by ways of his tail, namely Nicholas Wilde, a scam artist fox who'd previously cheated a giant popsicle out of her kind heart. What he used that popsicle for I'll redact here, because it's funny and smart, but not plot central (I asume).
At this point the exact progression becomes blurred, since most of the scenes are likely shown out of order. They visit a nudist club, obviously trek through all the varied districts of Zootopia, like Tundra Town, where they track down a car in which one of the missing persons seems to have been transported, who also appartently turned feral ... and get captured by the local polar bear Mafia, headed by a shrew (whom Nick pissed off real bad at one point in his past, btw., again redacted, because Nick's antics are genius material).
Nick gives up his past, a building gets infiltrated, Judy gets fired and they both end up saving the day in a climatic chase scene on public transport rails, because it's the right thing to do, badge or not.
-- this is what I've gathered from trailers so far.
Thoughts and Speculations
Turning Feral
Why are people in Zootopia disappearing and turning feral?
My first guess, which I mentioned on one of the fanarts last week, was that there might be a predator somewhere who feels things should return to "the old ways", because life was so much simpler then and you really shouldn't argue with the order of nature. However, due to something I read somewhere (and I’m not gonna say what it is, because it is a potential spoiler), this is no longer on the top of my possibilities list.
While I’m pretty sure it’s still about upsetting the order in Zootopia, I’m not entirely certain it’s a predator anymore. In fact, I have someone very specific in mind as the ‘big bad’ and while I again wont say who it is, I’ll tip off that the character is one of the very few I’ve noticed falling out of the scaling of most others in universe.
Spoiler: All the disappeared mammals are predators. A lot of leading figures are large, powerful mammals (e.g. Lionheart, Bogo, etc.). So my thought is, this someone is trying to discredit preds from power positions/sow fear and prejudice against them enough to promote ‘non-risky’ population groups and more of the physically weaker demographics.
This would also create an interesting moral dilemma for our young Judy, seeing as she too is struggling with the prejudice that she can’t be a proper police officer, because she lacks size an strength (though I’m pretty sure a kick from her would be pretty damn painful). We’ll see whether I’m right on that one.
Judy Hopps
Is the prejudice justified?
Let’s get this out of the way; I would not be intimidated by Judy herself. I’m pretty sure that goes for all of us. However, I’ve seen a lot of police officers who’m I wouldn’t be intimidated by, if they were out of uniform. IN uniform it’s a different matter. Judy in a uniform represents not her, but the authority of the law and the promise that disobeying her will bring consequences, which would very likely be respected by enough decent citizens outside of extreme situations.
Having said that, you still need to be able to hold your own if things get messy. This is where Judy is a double-edged sword. On one hand she’s small and nimble and very likely has a lot of power to spare in those legs, which should give her well enough opportunity to evade opponents stronger than her, not factoring in that police officers are taught self defense, both offensive and defensive strategies and the like. Using a good fulcrum or leverage point will bring even larger opponents to their knees if done right, and Judy strikes me as physically fit enough to pull that off. Maybe not on a rhino or an elephant, but d’you honestly see a wolf pulling either of those? So you call in a big guy to handle a big guy, means you’re capable of delegating and judging what your assets are good at ... now say you have a small perp who keeps slipping through the cracks in the wall ... who do you call if all your officers are at least the size of a wolf?
What’s Chief Bogo’s issue?
As much of a jerk as he might seem to be for succumbing to prejudice against Judy, Bogo has several points on his side about why not to want Judy on his force.
Apart from the size aspects described above, which means Judy has only a limited field of operation, there’s other things to take into account; where does she change/go to the bathroom? Custom cut uniforms and equipment for her? All of that kills budget and it’s likely an organization inconvenience too. If Judy really is the first and only officer of her size and shape to make the grade, they had to get all of her gear custom made, including that cutesy e-scooter she uses for getting around (where she’d likely be faster just walking places).
Here’s my problem though; Judy made the grade. No matter what he says, if Judy actually got through all the trials and qualifications of becoming an officer of the ZPD and was granted the right to wear the uniform by all the right standards, he has no place being grudgy at her for it.
Now, despite what we might say/hope, this is still a movie targeted at a far younger audience than most of us are, so chances are they never adress this/training isn’t actually as harsh as real police training (pretty sure Judy never gets to see pictures of gunshot/mauling victims or the like, never mind actually firing a weapon, ever). Taking that into account, I’ll let it slide. Just my two cents to the matter is all ;3
Judy gets fired/suspended
I’m pretty sure of this. At which point exactly I don’t know, but I’m going to venture a guess it’s after she and Nick break into (what I presume to be) the Mayor’s office and sifting through a good deal of classified stashed data which, given the right nudge and combination, would reveal who’s responsible for the disappearances.
Spoiler: Hints;
In (what I think is) the final chase scene, Judy doesn’t wear her uniform, but a checkered button shirt, just like she does when she gets ‘emotional’ with Nick under the bridge (likely back in her home town). The emotional scene, I think, is likely Nick coming to fetch her to finish her job, i.e. something along the lines of „the Judy Hopps I met would never turn her back on a problem, no matter how much bigger than her it might seem. Besides, there’s two of us now, right?“ ~ or something like that.
Nick Wilde
Who is this guy?
A fox. No shit. Foxes are sneaky bastards. No shit. They’ll do just about anything to get ahead, if they can ...
This seems to be the general consensus about foxes in Zootopia. While I have yet to see actual proof that foxes are shunned with the kind of mischief and trickery prejudice that seems to be common place in every universe (hint-fucking-hint), Nick Wilde is a product of his environment, of this I’m sure.
SpoilerCase in point; little boyscout Nick Wilde.
Like all lovable thief-heroes, Nick too seems to have been the cute, happy kid from next door, with a loving family and hopes and dreams. In one of the trailers we see a young Nick, who very proudly puffs up his chest in his little boyscout uniform, just before his mom tickle-deflates him. It’s childs play, but you can see the good character being there.
So my guess is this; young Nick wanted to be a police officer himself, or at the very least had no intention of becoming the sneaky fraud he appears to be at first. But then the world happened. I’ve been subject t a good deal of mobbing and bullying in my time for various reasons, so I might be projecting, but I’m pretty sure Nick was bent ouf of shape as he grew up, getting more and more disdain and prejudice thrown his way as he grew older until he eventually decided he’ll turn his back on the world and just fall into the stereotype, letting the hopeful inner boyscout receed into a bitter cynic with a smart smirk.
Now here comes Judy, a young, idealistic BUNNY of all things, in a uniform. While I’m sure it doesn’t tag him personally at first, when she seeks him out as an aide and they go on their adventure together, Nick sees in her the potential that he could have been, had he not given in to what everyone else thought of him.
This I’m pretty sure is not just Nick’s big turn around, but also what makes him come back for Judy after she gets dumped/gives up, reminding her that he made that mistake once before and she was the one who showed him that he had been wrong in doing so.
So what’s to become of Nick?
This I have the most trouble with, not just in speculating, but also consequently with the fan arts I’ve been producing.
Those of you who have been watching me for a while know I’m a big fan of doing character driven, canon specific works. But there’s hundreds of directions Nick can go at the end of the movie.
Maybe he’ll turn around and start a day job, maybe even fulfilling that boyscouts dream and becoming an officer like Judy. Or a detective, cuz foxes are sneaky and such ... or maybe just as a consultant/informant for a more street savy or promoted Hopps. Or maybe he decides that he’s best off doing what he does best and turning a living out of his slight of hand and wits, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the winner ^^;
Final thoughts
Shipping
The big question pretty much everyone on this page wants answered; do Judy and Nick hook up?
I have no answer. I’ve been confirmed that the end and the resolution of their personal relationship is supposed to be very sweet and charming indeed, but I have no confirmations on whether or not they’ll decide they want more out of eachother than just a good chat and a friend - and to be honest, as itchy as I am at this point, I’m willing to wait for the two of them to do their magic for us on screen.
My guess?; it’s unlikely that they’ll end up a couple directly on screen, but considering how self aware this movie has been in all of it’s released material, I find it’s very likely that, even if their bonding lines don’t fall on screen, it’ll possibly be implied that they both have an interest in potential romance eventually.
Misc
The one thing I’m sort of sad about is that Zootopia is not a Pixar feature and there’s a very specific reason for that.
Most, if not all fo the Pixar movies, had a series of outtakes at the very end during the credits run .. and I’m sure they could have come up with a great deal of antics for that considering the ‘actors’ sizes etc. .
A reason why I’m happy that wont be included though is, that the outtakes take just a little bit of tangibility away from the characters being the characters in the story that was just told and no matter whether or not we get a shipping confirmation, I want to remember Zootopia as the actual event, not as a filming set ;3
That is all.
I’d be happy to hear all of your opinions, speculations and the like if you’re willing to share them. Again, those of you who have already seen the movie ARE TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ON DETAILS! <3
Be well.
So, since Zootopia is still about a week away for most of us and I'm in no shape to really art tonight, I figured I'd finally jot down my thoughts, hopes, expectations and such for out favorite upcoming Disney feature for you all to read and potentially start a discussion on.
Just as a reminder; I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE YET, so all those of your fortunate enough to be in a country where it's already out, you will be keeping spoilers out of the comments or I swear I will find a way to punch people through their screens. Spoilers also include any material released in clips which aren't the actual trailers (see movie clip "Elephant in the room", "Skunkfur", etc.).
There may be spoilers ahead for those of you who have managed to remain absolutely trailer and material free. Just a fair warning.
This stuff will be in no particular order, so just scroll to the points that interest you :b
Main Plot
I think we all know by now what the movie is about.
Judy Hopps, a young, spunky bunny from out of town, with an idealistic approach to justice, enrolls with the Zootopia Police as the first rabbit officer. She also appears to be the first female officer, judging from what's seen in the ready room, but that might still be disproven in the movie.
Unhappy with the prejudice and position she's put in because of it, Judy begs the Chief to give her a shot at solving "the big case" that's on the table, missing persons through Zootopia of all shapes and sizes. He begrudgingly gives her 48 hours to make headway, provided she resigns from the force should she fail.
With a bit of smarts and a soda bottle, she identifies a witness by ways of his tail, namely Nicholas Wilde, a scam artist fox who'd previously cheated a giant popsicle out of her kind heart. What he used that popsicle for I'll redact here, because it's funny and smart, but not plot central (I asume).
At this point the exact progression becomes blurred, since most of the scenes are likely shown out of order. They visit a nudist club, obviously trek through all the varied districts of Zootopia, like Tundra Town, where they track down a car in which one of the missing persons seems to have been transported, who also appartently turned feral ... and get captured by the local polar bear Mafia, headed by a shrew (whom Nick pissed off real bad at one point in his past, btw., again redacted, because Nick's antics are genius material).
Nick gives up his past, a building gets infiltrated, Judy gets fired and they both end up saving the day in a climatic chase scene on public transport rails, because it's the right thing to do, badge or not.
-- this is what I've gathered from trailers so far.
Thoughts and Speculations
Turning Feral
Why are people in Zootopia disappearing and turning feral?
My first guess, which I mentioned on one of the fanarts last week, was that there might be a predator somewhere who feels things should return to "the old ways", because life was so much simpler then and you really shouldn't argue with the order of nature. However, due to something I read somewhere (and I’m not gonna say what it is, because it is a potential spoiler), this is no longer on the top of my possibilities list.
While I’m pretty sure it’s still about upsetting the order in Zootopia, I’m not entirely certain it’s a predator anymore. In fact, I have someone very specific in mind as the ‘big bad’ and while I again wont say who it is, I’ll tip off that the character is one of the very few I’ve noticed falling out of the scaling of most others in universe.
Spoiler: All the disappeared mammals are predators. A lot of leading figures are large, powerful mammals (e.g. Lionheart, Bogo, etc.). So my thought is, this someone is trying to discredit preds from power positions/sow fear and prejudice against them enough to promote ‘non-risky’ population groups and more of the physically weaker demographics.
This would also create an interesting moral dilemma for our young Judy, seeing as she too is struggling with the prejudice that she can’t be a proper police officer, because she lacks size an strength (though I’m pretty sure a kick from her would be pretty damn painful). We’ll see whether I’m right on that one.
Judy Hopps
Is the prejudice justified?
Let’s get this out of the way; I would not be intimidated by Judy herself. I’m pretty sure that goes for all of us. However, I’ve seen a lot of police officers who’m I wouldn’t be intimidated by, if they were out of uniform. IN uniform it’s a different matter. Judy in a uniform represents not her, but the authority of the law and the promise that disobeying her will bring consequences, which would very likely be respected by enough decent citizens outside of extreme situations.
Having said that, you still need to be able to hold your own if things get messy. This is where Judy is a double-edged sword. On one hand she’s small and nimble and very likely has a lot of power to spare in those legs, which should give her well enough opportunity to evade opponents stronger than her, not factoring in that police officers are taught self defense, both offensive and defensive strategies and the like. Using a good fulcrum or leverage point will bring even larger opponents to their knees if done right, and Judy strikes me as physically fit enough to pull that off. Maybe not on a rhino or an elephant, but d’you honestly see a wolf pulling either of those? So you call in a big guy to handle a big guy, means you’re capable of delegating and judging what your assets are good at ... now say you have a small perp who keeps slipping through the cracks in the wall ... who do you call if all your officers are at least the size of a wolf?
What’s Chief Bogo’s issue?
As much of a jerk as he might seem to be for succumbing to prejudice against Judy, Bogo has several points on his side about why not to want Judy on his force.
Apart from the size aspects described above, which means Judy has only a limited field of operation, there’s other things to take into account; where does she change/go to the bathroom? Custom cut uniforms and equipment for her? All of that kills budget and it’s likely an organization inconvenience too. If Judy really is the first and only officer of her size and shape to make the grade, they had to get all of her gear custom made, including that cutesy e-scooter she uses for getting around (where she’d likely be faster just walking places).
Here’s my problem though; Judy made the grade. No matter what he says, if Judy actually got through all the trials and qualifications of becoming an officer of the ZPD and was granted the right to wear the uniform by all the right standards, he has no place being grudgy at her for it.
Now, despite what we might say/hope, this is still a movie targeted at a far younger audience than most of us are, so chances are they never adress this/training isn’t actually as harsh as real police training (pretty sure Judy never gets to see pictures of gunshot/mauling victims or the like, never mind actually firing a weapon, ever). Taking that into account, I’ll let it slide. Just my two cents to the matter is all ;3
Judy gets fired/suspended
I’m pretty sure of this. At which point exactly I don’t know, but I’m going to venture a guess it’s after she and Nick break into (what I presume to be) the Mayor’s office and sifting through a good deal of classified stashed data which, given the right nudge and combination, would reveal who’s responsible for the disappearances.
Spoiler: Hints;
In (what I think is) the final chase scene, Judy doesn’t wear her uniform, but a checkered button shirt, just like she does when she gets ‘emotional’ with Nick under the bridge (likely back in her home town). The emotional scene, I think, is likely Nick coming to fetch her to finish her job, i.e. something along the lines of „the Judy Hopps I met would never turn her back on a problem, no matter how much bigger than her it might seem. Besides, there’s two of us now, right?“ ~ or something like that.
Nick Wilde
Who is this guy?
A fox. No shit. Foxes are sneaky bastards. No shit. They’ll do just about anything to get ahead, if they can ...
This seems to be the general consensus about foxes in Zootopia. While I have yet to see actual proof that foxes are shunned with the kind of mischief and trickery prejudice that seems to be common place in every universe (hint-fucking-hint), Nick Wilde is a product of his environment, of this I’m sure.
SpoilerCase in point; little boyscout Nick Wilde.
Like all lovable thief-heroes, Nick too seems to have been the cute, happy kid from next door, with a loving family and hopes and dreams. In one of the trailers we see a young Nick, who very proudly puffs up his chest in his little boyscout uniform, just before his mom tickle-deflates him. It’s childs play, but you can see the good character being there.
So my guess is this; young Nick wanted to be a police officer himself, or at the very least had no intention of becoming the sneaky fraud he appears to be at first. But then the world happened. I’ve been subject t a good deal of mobbing and bullying in my time for various reasons, so I might be projecting, but I’m pretty sure Nick was bent ouf of shape as he grew up, getting more and more disdain and prejudice thrown his way as he grew older until he eventually decided he’ll turn his back on the world and just fall into the stereotype, letting the hopeful inner boyscout receed into a bitter cynic with a smart smirk.
Now here comes Judy, a young, idealistic BUNNY of all things, in a uniform. While I’m sure it doesn’t tag him personally at first, when she seeks him out as an aide and they go on their adventure together, Nick sees in her the potential that he could have been, had he not given in to what everyone else thought of him.
This I’m pretty sure is not just Nick’s big turn around, but also what makes him come back for Judy after she gets dumped/gives up, reminding her that he made that mistake once before and she was the one who showed him that he had been wrong in doing so.
So what’s to become of Nick?
This I have the most trouble with, not just in speculating, but also consequently with the fan arts I’ve been producing.
Those of you who have been watching me for a while know I’m a big fan of doing character driven, canon specific works. But there’s hundreds of directions Nick can go at the end of the movie.
Maybe he’ll turn around and start a day job, maybe even fulfilling that boyscouts dream and becoming an officer like Judy. Or a detective, cuz foxes are sneaky and such ... or maybe just as a consultant/informant for a more street savy or promoted Hopps. Or maybe he decides that he’s best off doing what he does best and turning a living out of his slight of hand and wits, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the winner ^^;
Final thoughts
Shipping
The big question pretty much everyone on this page wants answered; do Judy and Nick hook up?
I have no answer. I’ve been confirmed that the end and the resolution of their personal relationship is supposed to be very sweet and charming indeed, but I have no confirmations on whether or not they’ll decide they want more out of eachother than just a good chat and a friend - and to be honest, as itchy as I am at this point, I’m willing to wait for the two of them to do their magic for us on screen.
My guess?; it’s unlikely that they’ll end up a couple directly on screen, but considering how self aware this movie has been in all of it’s released material, I find it’s very likely that, even if their bonding lines don’t fall on screen, it’ll possibly be implied that they both have an interest in potential romance eventually.
Misc
The one thing I’m sort of sad about is that Zootopia is not a Pixar feature and there’s a very specific reason for that.
Most, if not all fo the Pixar movies, had a series of outtakes at the very end during the credits run .. and I’m sure they could have come up with a great deal of antics for that considering the ‘actors’ sizes etc. .
A reason why I’m happy that wont be included though is, that the outtakes take just a little bit of tangibility away from the characters being the characters in the story that was just told and no matter whether or not we get a shipping confirmation, I want to remember Zootopia as the actual event, not as a filming set ;3
That is all.
I’d be happy to hear all of your opinions, speculations and the like if you’re willing to share them. Again, those of you who have already seen the movie ARE TO KEEP THEIR MOUTHS SHUT ON DETAILS! <3
Be well.
Updates once again
Posted 10 years agoHeyho everybody. Figured it's time for another one of these.
Life's been busy, as always and there's lots of things I could drop on you guys if this were a self-help group. However, I have other people to bother with that shit :b
RL-Job Situation
The new store has finally picked up regular sales. We get an almost constant customer and work stream, so I'm nine kinds of certain the books are looking a lot better in recent months. However, due to Austrian tax laws changing next year, the little bonus I get paid will fall flat come January.
We're having a discussion on our current situation this coming tuesday (I hope, this is the third time we've tried to set it up) to make sure everyone knows what's coming.
In all honesty, I'm still unhappy with the place. I mentioned previously that one of the bosses is dropping out of customer care, which is mostly extended to dropping out of day-to-day business entirely and I take issue with that. I understan dhe has a lot of other things to do around the store; he's basically our in-house mechanic and electrician, but I constantly see him handling personal shit during work hours. The other week he was downloading Qbass, which I'm pretty sure he'd have hard time explaining to me as work related, but hey ...
I'm mostly just tired of being their replacement. I was originally hired as a fulltime support worker. Three years later I frequently run the store by myself. It's short of me balancing the books and paying the bills (and actual legal ownership) that it's not my store, but I digress.
Personal Situation
I have no recent updates on my aunts leukemia situation. Considering I haven't heard anything, I'm asuming things are either the same as before or getting better.
Financially we're finally going up again. While it's not great, we're finally managing to save a little bit each month, instead of living from paycheck to paycheck. We've also finally gotten an agreement for deferred payments to cover the massive utilities debt RN's mother left us the flat with (thanks a lot, bitch), so that's good and with support from friends and family and the disciplined saving I might actually be able to afford a replacement for my poor old laptop at the end of the year (here's hoping for good post-christmas sales).
The Maid Café concept is getting a little more momentum, but thanks to a few dropouts and miscalculations, this also means I have to get more involved, which in turn eats time away from art and brainwaving. Still, we've so far made positive numbers with the events we've held and the next one is upcoming November 29th.
Apart from all the positive stuff, I'm just starting to get really fed up with the world. I've lost pretty much all interest in the shape of the world, since there's hardly a way I can do anything about it and I've resolved to limiting my scope to me and mine to protect my sanity.
Art Situation
My run with HSD is completed for the moment, so I've turned my attention back to doing those commissions I took on ages ago. Those of you who this concerns will get your updates as I make progress.
Comic Projects;
I've had a list of progression bars on my front page for a while now, with no particular explaination as to what any of the comics will be about, so I figured I'd give you guys a short summary here.
-Resurgence 2- (Resurgence Universe)
Right what it says on the can. We follow Shane of Ishara as he quests through the lands and puts his learned skills to use for his benefit and that of others. You can probably guess what happens :b
(Cast: Shane, Ishara, various folk from around the world...)
-Royal Escort- (Crossover)
The Si'itian Empire hosts a political summit at an undisclosed diplomatic location and Commander Makune and his crew are part of the task force that serves as security.
The summit draws to a close and parting friends make sure to leave lasting impressions.
(Cast: Antar Makune, Ayn Miyur, with guest appearances by Tankana and Tara)
-Inappropriate- (Si'itian Universe)
EUS R&D division is developing full immersion simulations and has requested Samia Ashaih'vae as a UniForm technical consultant during beta testing.
Full immersion equipment has other applications than just military training though, just be careful you dont get caught~
(Cast: Samia Ashiah'vae, Matthew Wilkins)
-New Clear Dawn- (Post-Apocalypse World)
In a world that has collapsed far beyond any kind of society and civilization, two strangers happen to seek shelter from the night in the same place.
With no common language and the paranoia of survivalists in a world without a moral compass, careful gestures and symbols of trust eventually earn them both their companion for the night.
(Cast: Unknown, Unknown)
To avoid taking away too much of the story progressions, I wotn be answering any direct questions about the comics to keep them fresh when I get to upload them. However you're welcome to let me know if there's any one project that interests more, I can divert a little more attention towards it's completion when I have the time.
Forest Tails obviously isn't in the list, because it's a continuous project that flows on the sidelines as I feel inspired to work on it and you all already know what it's about.
Patreon Situation
Suspended until I can wrap my head around it properly. There's too much going on in various capacities for me to open on that front until I have a proper bearing on my actions.
Gonna spend the rest of this weekend chilling right the fuck out, hopefully to the point where my brain melts out of my skull and I don't have to go back to work on monday, but that's unlikely :b
Be well.
Life's been busy, as always and there's lots of things I could drop on you guys if this were a self-help group. However, I have other people to bother with that shit :b
RL-Job Situation
The new store has finally picked up regular sales. We get an almost constant customer and work stream, so I'm nine kinds of certain the books are looking a lot better in recent months. However, due to Austrian tax laws changing next year, the little bonus I get paid will fall flat come January.
We're having a discussion on our current situation this coming tuesday (I hope, this is the third time we've tried to set it up) to make sure everyone knows what's coming.
In all honesty, I'm still unhappy with the place. I mentioned previously that one of the bosses is dropping out of customer care, which is mostly extended to dropping out of day-to-day business entirely and I take issue with that. I understan dhe has a lot of other things to do around the store; he's basically our in-house mechanic and electrician, but I constantly see him handling personal shit during work hours. The other week he was downloading Qbass, which I'm pretty sure he'd have hard time explaining to me as work related, but hey ...
I'm mostly just tired of being their replacement. I was originally hired as a fulltime support worker. Three years later I frequently run the store by myself. It's short of me balancing the books and paying the bills (and actual legal ownership) that it's not my store, but I digress.
Personal Situation
I have no recent updates on my aunts leukemia situation. Considering I haven't heard anything, I'm asuming things are either the same as before or getting better.
Financially we're finally going up again. While it's not great, we're finally managing to save a little bit each month, instead of living from paycheck to paycheck. We've also finally gotten an agreement for deferred payments to cover the massive utilities debt RN's mother left us the flat with (thanks a lot, bitch), so that's good and with support from friends and family and the disciplined saving I might actually be able to afford a replacement for my poor old laptop at the end of the year (here's hoping for good post-christmas sales).
The Maid Café concept is getting a little more momentum, but thanks to a few dropouts and miscalculations, this also means I have to get more involved, which in turn eats time away from art and brainwaving. Still, we've so far made positive numbers with the events we've held and the next one is upcoming November 29th.
Apart from all the positive stuff, I'm just starting to get really fed up with the world. I've lost pretty much all interest in the shape of the world, since there's hardly a way I can do anything about it and I've resolved to limiting my scope to me and mine to protect my sanity.
Art Situation
My run with HSD is completed for the moment, so I've turned my attention back to doing those commissions I took on ages ago. Those of you who this concerns will get your updates as I make progress.
Comic Projects;
I've had a list of progression bars on my front page for a while now, with no particular explaination as to what any of the comics will be about, so I figured I'd give you guys a short summary here.
-Resurgence 2- (Resurgence Universe)
Right what it says on the can. We follow Shane of Ishara as he quests through the lands and puts his learned skills to use for his benefit and that of others. You can probably guess what happens :b
(Cast: Shane, Ishara, various folk from around the world...)
-Royal Escort- (Crossover)
The Si'itian Empire hosts a political summit at an undisclosed diplomatic location and Commander Makune and his crew are part of the task force that serves as security.
The summit draws to a close and parting friends make sure to leave lasting impressions.
(Cast: Antar Makune, Ayn Miyur, with guest appearances by Tankana and Tara)
-Inappropriate- (Si'itian Universe)
EUS R&D division is developing full immersion simulations and has requested Samia Ashaih'vae as a UniForm technical consultant during beta testing.
Full immersion equipment has other applications than just military training though, just be careful you dont get caught~
(Cast: Samia Ashiah'vae, Matthew Wilkins)
-New Clear Dawn- (Post-Apocalypse World)
In a world that has collapsed far beyond any kind of society and civilization, two strangers happen to seek shelter from the night in the same place.
With no common language and the paranoia of survivalists in a world without a moral compass, careful gestures and symbols of trust eventually earn them both their companion for the night.
(Cast: Unknown, Unknown)
To avoid taking away too much of the story progressions, I wotn be answering any direct questions about the comics to keep them fresh when I get to upload them. However you're welcome to let me know if there's any one project that interests more, I can divert a little more attention towards it's completion when I have the time.
Forest Tails obviously isn't in the list, because it's a continuous project that flows on the sidelines as I feel inspired to work on it and you all already know what it's about.
Patreon Situation
Suspended until I can wrap my head around it properly. There's too much going on in various capacities for me to open on that front until I have a proper bearing on my actions.
Gonna spend the rest of this weekend chilling right the fuck out, hopefully to the point where my brain melts out of my skull and I don't have to go back to work on monday, but that's unlikely :b
Be well.
The river that is life
Posted 10 years agoSo EuroFurence has come and gone and it was pretty much all I had hoped it would be. A chance to turn off my head from thinking about everything going on at home and all the crap that still needs to be done 9.9
I met good friends, both old and new, and just generally had a blast very much thanks to people like Silkpaws, ANTIcarrot, Inuki, Evil Fox and FinnOWolf, just to name a few in no particular order. You know who you are ;3
Unfortunately, coming back also brought with it the harsh grit of reality. Post-con was only overshadowed by my mom going to finland to be at my aunts side who was diagnosed with leukemia. She'd held out on us about it for a month or two and she's now in therapy, so I'm back at my mom's place house-/cat-sitting while she's up there and while I may never had a huge amount of contact with the finnish part of my family, this is depressing none-the-less
This also means I'm back to the laptop and its limited resources in terms of operability. All I can do at the moment is sketch work, so I'm trying to catch up on projects and commission sketches and do some fun stuff here and there, like that piece I'll upload in just a moment. This isn't really how I imagined I'd spend the last week of my vacation, but I know there's people with real problems out there, so I'll stop yammering and get back to the grind tomorrow morning.
Asuming my mom sticks with her flight plan, she should be back tuesday, so expect a return to regular work and business at the lastest by friday night.
The usual asortment of personalized non-mail goes in the comment section below.
Be well.
I met good friends, both old and new, and just generally had a blast very much thanks to people like Silkpaws, ANTIcarrot, Inuki, Evil Fox and FinnOWolf, just to name a few in no particular order. You know who you are ;3
Unfortunately, coming back also brought with it the harsh grit of reality. Post-con was only overshadowed by my mom going to finland to be at my aunts side who was diagnosed with leukemia. She'd held out on us about it for a month or two and she's now in therapy, so I'm back at my mom's place house-/cat-sitting while she's up there and while I may never had a huge amount of contact with the finnish part of my family, this is depressing none-the-less
This also means I'm back to the laptop and its limited resources in terms of operability. All I can do at the moment is sketch work, so I'm trying to catch up on projects and commission sketches and do some fun stuff here and there, like that piece I'll upload in just a moment. This isn't really how I imagined I'd spend the last week of my vacation, but I know there's people with real problems out there, so I'll stop yammering and get back to the grind tomorrow morning.
Asuming my mom sticks with her flight plan, she should be back tuesday, so expect a return to regular work and business at the lastest by friday night.
The usual asortment of personalized non-mail goes in the comment section below.
Be well.
Update on what's been happening ...
Posted 10 years agoSo a lot of you guys have probably been wondering what's been going on as of late;
iPoke doesn't upload much at all for months on end and then he starts drawing ferals all of a sudden, on an almost daily basis. What's up with that?
Well, let's spool back a long swing at the topic.
RL-Job Situation
Over the course of the last half a year we've been evicted from our store, resorted to working from my bosses condo and basement parking garage and have moved into a new store. Upon opening we ran a massively downgraded opening sale, along with all the necessary advertising campaign stuff, and thus we had a huge surplus of customers to work up (beginning of June).
One of my bosses is dropping out of customer care entirely and he also had the bright idea to put the new guy into the store DURING the damn opening sale, while he decided his best course of action would be to sit on his thumbs ... had a word with both my bosses and that cleared up.
Now we're sitting in meltingly hot summer weather (38°C ... yes, that's hot here) with hardly anything to do in the store, because everyone is on vacation somewhere.
Personal Situation
As I announced a couple' months back, me and my mate
ryuukiinek0 have finally moved in together. This brings about a lot of advantages, but also some rough spots here and there, like having to figure out where all my stuff goes and how to schedule what we do when in order to not get into eachothers' hair. This is also my first time living with someone who isn't directly related to me in any way, so new experience and all.
Then, just after the opening sale, my mom went on a five+ week tour of the US, leaving me and RN to house sit/keep the cat company (for those who wonder, this is the little fuzzball in question http://www.furaffinity.net/view/262428/). So now I only had m old, dying laptop to work on, which only barely kept up with the Cintiq being attached to it or running any sort of visually challenging applications, so I was left with very few choices of what to do.
I then decided to re-visit an old idea of mine with Tobur and Nele, which you've all now come to know as Forest Tails, which has apparently now developed a life of its own which I spew into my sketchbooks (my sketch books have never seen so much dialogue ... ever).
During all this time I had two nervous breakdowns in as many weeks and I realized I'd been loading myself down with too much work again. I and several others were expecting too much of me with too little resources, both in time and energy and it was frustrating me that I had to admit to myself that I do have limits and I need to start looking out for my own happiness first, before I can take care of others. Next to just being a concept I and you enjoy, Forest Tails has also been a sort of art therap to climb back out of the hole I dug myself into and it fits nicely into my self-imposed 'one completed work a day' measure to re-boost my confidence in my abilities. You all are also doing a very nice job of picking me back up, so thanks out to everyone here ;3
The financial situation also hasn't been too great. I very much have two of my close friends to thank for getting us through spring. We got through and thanks to the vacation bonus payment from work we’ve also managed to scrounge up the finances to afford calling EuroFurence our vacation for this year, so we’re very much looking forward to the chance to get away from it all for a bit.
Art Situation
You've seen Forest Tails, so obviously I'm not dead. Far from it even, but there's a few of you out there who are waiting on stuff from me and who might feel like they're being left out in favor of other things I deem more suitable to fill my time with.
Rest assured, this is not the case.
In fact, I've been kicking myself about how very little progress I've managed to make on commissioned work when I really, really, really need to get my art business going and I've kept you all waiting for months now.
The truth of the matter is that I very narrowly scraped by a burn out this spring when I tried to cram personal work, commissions and a social life into what little time I get outside my full time dayjob and I've had to rethink my time-management.
So to clarify what the situation is right now;
I've still been attached to the HC SVNT DRACONES Pen and Paper RPG project since it's publication and me and a lot of other artists are working very hard to produce follow up material for those of you who've taken notice of it. Since I'm now back at my tower PC, which can handle full size illustration imagery, HSD takes priority.
When time allows it or the next round of things forHSD is completed and I feel like I can handle it, I will very gladly work on the commissions I took on at the beginning of this year, so please, please hang in there with me. Those of you who have worked with me before know I always follow through.
When all this is done, I will open up one, and only one, commission slot that will be negotiated at that time, to allow me to work on the projects that are running in the background. This includes the Resurgence Sequel, which I know some of you have been holding your breath for since two years ago when we (that is, me and Skimike) finally went public with it.
Since Forest Tails has taken off so well, I’m considering advancing my sketch style, maybe add color and eventually tell stories from my Sci-Fi Universe in sketch comics aswell, but that’s all in a future I can’t predict.
Patreon Situation
I’ve repeatedly been asked about a Patreon and I, in turn, have asked for some advice from you guys as to what it is you’d like to see.
Considering my situation right now, I can’t open on patreon with any amount of tiers or incentives. Not in good conscience.
My production rate is too inconsistent and there’s nothing I deem worthy enough to pay for that would warrant tier-bonding.
What I will do, is open an account and treat it as a tip-jar, so at least those of you who have been asking about how to support me can send a token of appreciation my way. Anyone is welcome to drop a dime in it any time, but there will be no rewards to be had, of any sort, until I can reliably produce at an acceptable rate to warrant any kind of tiers.
“Credits“
Hope that answers all questions and tides you over until I can get back to things that more directly concern you, my fan base :3
Questions, hate mails, death threats, tax-declarations, birth- and death certificates, notices of eviction and other assorted messages that may or may not be directed at me go in the comment section below.
Be well.
iPoke doesn't upload much at all for months on end and then he starts drawing ferals all of a sudden, on an almost daily basis. What's up with that?
Well, let's spool back a long swing at the topic.
RL-Job Situation
Over the course of the last half a year we've been evicted from our store, resorted to working from my bosses condo and basement parking garage and have moved into a new store. Upon opening we ran a massively downgraded opening sale, along with all the necessary advertising campaign stuff, and thus we had a huge surplus of customers to work up (beginning of June).
One of my bosses is dropping out of customer care entirely and he also had the bright idea to put the new guy into the store DURING the damn opening sale, while he decided his best course of action would be to sit on his thumbs ... had a word with both my bosses and that cleared up.
Now we're sitting in meltingly hot summer weather (38°C ... yes, that's hot here) with hardly anything to do in the store, because everyone is on vacation somewhere.
Personal Situation
As I announced a couple' months back, me and my mate
ryuukiinek0 have finally moved in together. This brings about a lot of advantages, but also some rough spots here and there, like having to figure out where all my stuff goes and how to schedule what we do when in order to not get into eachothers' hair. This is also my first time living with someone who isn't directly related to me in any way, so new experience and all.Then, just after the opening sale, my mom went on a five+ week tour of the US, leaving me and RN to house sit/keep the cat company (for those who wonder, this is the little fuzzball in question http://www.furaffinity.net/view/262428/). So now I only had m old, dying laptop to work on, which only barely kept up with the Cintiq being attached to it or running any sort of visually challenging applications, so I was left with very few choices of what to do.
I then decided to re-visit an old idea of mine with Tobur and Nele, which you've all now come to know as Forest Tails, which has apparently now developed a life of its own which I spew into my sketchbooks (my sketch books have never seen so much dialogue ... ever).
During all this time I had two nervous breakdowns in as many weeks and I realized I'd been loading myself down with too much work again. I and several others were expecting too much of me with too little resources, both in time and energy and it was frustrating me that I had to admit to myself that I do have limits and I need to start looking out for my own happiness first, before I can take care of others. Next to just being a concept I and you enjoy, Forest Tails has also been a sort of art therap to climb back out of the hole I dug myself into and it fits nicely into my self-imposed 'one completed work a day' measure to re-boost my confidence in my abilities. You all are also doing a very nice job of picking me back up, so thanks out to everyone here ;3
The financial situation also hasn't been too great. I very much have two of my close friends to thank for getting us through spring. We got through and thanks to the vacation bonus payment from work we’ve also managed to scrounge up the finances to afford calling EuroFurence our vacation for this year, so we’re very much looking forward to the chance to get away from it all for a bit.
Art Situation
You've seen Forest Tails, so obviously I'm not dead. Far from it even, but there's a few of you out there who are waiting on stuff from me and who might feel like they're being left out in favor of other things I deem more suitable to fill my time with.
Rest assured, this is not the case.
In fact, I've been kicking myself about how very little progress I've managed to make on commissioned work when I really, really, really need to get my art business going and I've kept you all waiting for months now.
The truth of the matter is that I very narrowly scraped by a burn out this spring when I tried to cram personal work, commissions and a social life into what little time I get outside my full time dayjob and I've had to rethink my time-management.
So to clarify what the situation is right now;
I've still been attached to the HC SVNT DRACONES Pen and Paper RPG project since it's publication and me and a lot of other artists are working very hard to produce follow up material for those of you who've taken notice of it. Since I'm now back at my tower PC, which can handle full size illustration imagery, HSD takes priority.
When time allows it or the next round of things forHSD is completed and I feel like I can handle it, I will very gladly work on the commissions I took on at the beginning of this year, so please, please hang in there with me. Those of you who have worked with me before know I always follow through.
When all this is done, I will open up one, and only one, commission slot that will be negotiated at that time, to allow me to work on the projects that are running in the background. This includes the Resurgence Sequel, which I know some of you have been holding your breath for since two years ago when we (that is, me and Skimike) finally went public with it.
Since Forest Tails has taken off so well, I’m considering advancing my sketch style, maybe add color and eventually tell stories from my Sci-Fi Universe in sketch comics aswell, but that’s all in a future I can’t predict.
Patreon Situation
I’ve repeatedly been asked about a Patreon and I, in turn, have asked for some advice from you guys as to what it is you’d like to see.
Considering my situation right now, I can’t open on patreon with any amount of tiers or incentives. Not in good conscience.
My production rate is too inconsistent and there’s nothing I deem worthy enough to pay for that would warrant tier-bonding.
What I will do, is open an account and treat it as a tip-jar, so at least those of you who have been asking about how to support me can send a token of appreciation my way. Anyone is welcome to drop a dime in it any time, but there will be no rewards to be had, of any sort, until I can reliably produce at an acceptable rate to warrant any kind of tiers.
“Credits“
Hope that answers all questions and tides you over until I can get back to things that more directly concern you, my fan base :3
Questions, hate mails, death threats, tax-declarations, birth- and death certificates, notices of eviction and other assorted messages that may or may not be directed at me go in the comment section below.
Be well.
Support Exposition and Take 2 on Patreon
Posted 10 years ago1. Indiegogo Campaign of Raikadelanoche
ATTENTION, ATTENTION!
Fellow artist Raikadelanoche has asked me to share a little promo on her behalf. Her T-shirt production business is having some hicups due to a supplier changing his conditions, so they need some boosting.
Read all about it here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/.....rve-and-expand
2. Orbital vectors for Patreon
Those of you who viewed the submission two weeks ago already know I'm planning to set up on patreon. For those of you who didn't, here's a link to that specific submission for a read: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16094488/
The reactions to just that submission were mixed and I expect an announcement that I set up on patreon proper will probably garner comments from both pro and con camps aswell. So I thank you all for what input you had for me, both positive and negative. It's given me a good deal to think about and I'm going to use this journal to clarify a few things and ask for some more input.
1. I'm not planning to set up a pay-wall.
My gallery isn't meant to migrate from FA to patreon for future uploads, which is what I've seen a lot of artists do and it bothers me on some accounts. Mostly because it makes me miss out on art which would be nice to view and I'd like to spare you guys of that.
My art will still be freely available on FA (and if I can finally get off my ass and update my other galleries, on other sites aswell), this is true for both general artwork and commissions.
2. Commissions will not count into patreon
As feedback from some of you suggested, some artists have tried to offer discounts for commissions if you're a patreon or tie commissions directly with patreon in some way or another. That's not going to happen, mainly because it's too much to keep track of and it can create resentment between customers.
Commissions will run at regular rates and will be posted to regular public galleries (unless you, the commisioner, specifically requests otherwise).
3. Patreon will mostly hold WIP, behind the scenes and tutorial style stuff
For the aforementioned reason, I'm not very fond of the idea of doing patreon exclusive artwork. It creates resentment between people, antagonizes the artist to some degree and it's a shame to lock artwork away. If I produce something nice, I don't want to have to limit it's viewer base. After all, I'm still running here because I want to showcase my work.
However, patreon would offer a nice opportunity to serve as an alternate gallery where I can upload the WIPs, character studies and similar stuff I produce outside of my finished artwork, without cluttering my regular galleries with it.
WIP sketches of the comics that are in production and general WIP of works of art I'm working on would then be available for patrons in that gallery. Any comic WIP would be sans text however, to keep the final product and plot fresh and exciting for everyone involved.
Traditional sketches from the sketchbooks I carry around with myself on a daily basis would also be included.
Since there seems to be an interest in it, I might do tutorial style stuff in the future, so you guys can see what my workflow is like, outside of watching me stream for hours on end :b I'm going to have to look into recording and cutting software for that though.
4. Things I'm considering including...
- Patreon stream&skype sessions
In essence, stream sessions where I set up a skype call for patreons of a certain tier while I work. Non-patreons would still be able to view the stream, but only patreons have access to the skype address.
A potential expansion of this would be to make streams of 'tell me what to draw' once or twice a month, or even 1on1 personal skype streams, if there's any interest in that, though it'll have to maintain a balance on how far the 'tell me' goes in order to not end up like a commission ... perhaps topic or quality limitations, this is where your input is needed for this to work.
Skype sessions for commissioners obviously remain non-patreon related.
- Ask the artist / ask the cast
I've seen a lot of guys do this and it looks like a lot of fun for both viewers and artist.
Again, everybody gets to see the final results, but the question asking would be limited to patrons, I'd just have to find a way to manage the questions in that way, perhaps with a dedicated skype group or some such thing.
This would also finally push me to make a proper character line-up and put more work into background material. I just hope it doesn't antagonize the patrons too much when uploaded. Trial and error, I guess.
The amount of questions asked/answered would probably have to be limited to one every week, or twice a month, both to allow for time to ask and for me to draw both the answer and other stuff.
- Pre-release access
This feels dangerously close to the patreon-exclusive artwork that I expressly said I did not want to do, but I know there's some people out there to whom this appeals for some reason, so I might include an option where certain types of completed content (most likely the comic pages) can be accessed before public release, say maybe a week or so in advance?
- Work files and high-/native-resolution files
Access to .psd saved files of my work and native resolution of completed pictures, so you can see all the ugly shit I cover up by shrinking the files :b
Since I work in openCanvas 4.06E Plus, most of you wont be able to open the actual original files, but I can luckily save them as regular .psd files, for those fo you who are interested in that.
- Open for suggestions
My idea for patreon tiers is as follows;
Tier 1 (1$+)
Basic access patron. This is what I suspect most of you will sign up for.
This tier would give access to all regular WIP artwork uploaded to patreon and qualify the patron for the question asking escapade, however that might pan out.
Tier 2 (5$+)
Qualifies the patron for .psd and high res file access. The regular upload versions still go in my normal galleries, but you can see all the gritty missed lines and pixels that nobody else knows about <.<
This would also include pre-release access, when available.
Tier 3 (10$+)
Qualifies patrons for all of the above and for stream&skype sessions. These spots will have to be limited to an extent, though I'm not exactly sure to what number and timeframe.
The following things have to be kept in mind;
- I live in Vienna, Austria, which is GMT +1, that is 6 - 10 hours ahead of mainland USA and any number of hours from other global locations. I work from 9:00 - 18:00 Mo - Fr, so earliest I can start is usually around 20:00 and last exit is 1:00, for me to get enough sleep. Plan pledge and availability accordingly.
- I don't want to limit this Tiers user base, but a certain amount of order has to be kept. Not all of those who pledge this amount will likely want to make use of the stream&skype feature, but for those who do, Skype can host up to 25 users in a group call. However, calls of 6 or more people tend to become clusterfucks really fast, so depending on how well you guys can behave yourself and take turns talking, 5 - 10 people may be active callers for any one S&S session.
Asuming there is enough interest in this, priority is given to parties who could not be present for the previous stream, not to amounts pledged.
- The only exception to this would be the 1on1 stream&skypes, though those will definitely be limited to one or two slots at most, happen once a month max for a prearranged time. Price will be agreed on separately, but can be expected to start at 30$. Whether or not these will be streamed with a public announcement is subject to the patron.
This is all subject to change, but it's a rough outline of what I'm considering doing. Suggestions are always welcome and any wishes for milestones or more Tier classifications can be dropped here. This is basically me calling out for help, because I don't know what I'm doing :b
Now then, let the shitstorm commence. Comments, criticism (constructive or not), love letters, hate mails, death threats, bills, tax declarations and other assorted messages on and/or off topic directed towards me go in the comment section below. Fire away.
Better late ...
Posted 11 years ago... than never.
Hello all, new and old watchers alike. I figure it's time I show my face again and explain a few things, like why my art has been dwindling lately.
Let's just get right into it;
Part of it has to do with my not producing as much of it as I used to for various reasons, or at least not as much of it that I can show around. I have a backlog on things I've done a while back, but somehow the motivation to upload that is illuding me. One main reason is that a lot of the stuff I have produced lately I'm either not allowed to upload because of NDAs I've signed, or I'm reluctant to upload, because I know myself for running incomplete projects into the ground as soon as I show them around (e.g. Company of Idiots, I'll address that in a moment).
A lot of my main universe is getting a design rework, both in the background and in the visual and it's taking a good amount of time to put it all into comprehensible formats. However, I am, admitedly, also incredibly lazy and hesitant on making things solid, because I've noticed my visual aesthetic seems to be a very fluid things in recent months <.<
My ability to concentrate has been lacking for the last year or so due to several issues, mostly real life, the most persistant being the tinitus I acquired at a rock concert last summer because I was an idiot. The other thing is that I haven't really had a moment of spiritual rest for the last half a year. Something's always come up and I'm finding myself at a loss for time to do something just for myself.
The dayjob isn't helping the matter. I've been on my feet constantly for the last two months. My only hope is that the new coworker we're getting is gonna pull his weight properly, but I don't expect my bosses to let off on the mental pressure. Just to set things straight, no, they're not harrassing me, but they're not pulling their weight at work, something I may have to address again if things don't improve.
As I mentioned before, I'm under NDAs (multiple), meaning I'm working on two separate projects that are unrelated to eachother, though they share at least one very general similarity in that they are sci-fi. That's about as much as I'm allowed to say at this point. One of them should be complete some time next year if the schedule holds up. The other is indefinite, so we'll see whether or not I'll get to share my contributions with you guys at any point in the near future.
My computer has also been acting up pretty bad. I'm working on the issue, but I'm currently writing from the laptop. The fact that the computer doesn't work straight is also one fo the reasons why it's difficult for me to immerse myself in my art as I used to, which brings me around to what I mentioned in my last upload; my dissatisfaction with my work.
A friend of mine brought up a valid theory about art skill and art observation skill, but I've been growing more and more dissatisfied with the work I've been producing lately, specifically my color and effect work and I'm currently at a loss for solutions to that problem.
I'm pretty sure I could probably get back into things as soon as the computer works again and I take some time just for myself, but until then I'll still be super scarce in terms of uploads.
Another thing that's thrown me off is the crimea crisis. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but remember that I live in Austria, that's only a countries worth away from Ukraine and the political situation has had me rather worried.
For various reasons it has led me to question a great deal of things, both about the world and myself. I don't really want to roll it all out here, and as much as I'll appreciate any concern, I've been talking to my confidante's enough that I'm at least mentally stable enough to keep going on a daily basis. Suffice it to say, I've had one of my last solid faiths in this world shaken and I had a bit of a hard recovery.
Questioning myself has also led me to question my "image" if you want and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will be retiring Antar as my official representative and fursona. He will most definitely remain my male lead, but I'm no longer sure I identify with him on a personal level or as an alter ego, especially after the rework I've been giving him in accordance with the new universe and the insights I've had about myself. He also has far too much (hi)story attached to him, so I'm currently in the process of figuring out what my new 'sona will look like. Something I can say with relative certainty is that he will be a si'itian with a build closer to my actual self and a new fur coat, but we'll see about that.
One last reason why I've been so scarce lately is that I have been loading myself down with too many things at a time, so I'm currently in the process of eliminating excess weight and cutting projects that are wearing on me without progress. Unfortunately this means letting go of things both you and I treasure.
It's not really a secret anymore, so I might as well make it official; Company of Idiots will not continue.
I've been dragging it along for far too long and there just hasn't been any progress on it whatsoever for the last year and I don't see a window of opportunity for me to start it up again any time soon. What I will do is upload what little material I have left over from back in the day though, so as not to hold out on you and then put it on the shelf.
I wouldn't have brought that downer without having a positive announcement to make to pick you guys up though. Last month I started sketching on the pages for the sequel to RESURGENCE. It's advancing at a slower pace than I'd want it to, but so is everything lately, so I'm not letting that throw me off.
I will start keeping track of the projects WIP on my front page via loading bars, so you guys know what's going on without me shouting journals every once in a while. This also includes commissions I hope to be taking on again after I've cleared the air a bit. Yes, I know I say that every damn time, we'll see if I can actually follow up on my promise this time around :b
I think that covers all the bases. If you guys have any questions left, you're welcome to ask here.
I hope you guys have been having a good time and that you'll continue enjoying the art I share with you.
Stay tuned and healthy and lots of hugs,
yours truly, iPoke
Hello all, new and old watchers alike. I figure it's time I show my face again and explain a few things, like why my art has been dwindling lately.
Let's just get right into it;
Part of it has to do with my not producing as much of it as I used to for various reasons, or at least not as much of it that I can show around. I have a backlog on things I've done a while back, but somehow the motivation to upload that is illuding me. One main reason is that a lot of the stuff I have produced lately I'm either not allowed to upload because of NDAs I've signed, or I'm reluctant to upload, because I know myself for running incomplete projects into the ground as soon as I show them around (e.g. Company of Idiots, I'll address that in a moment).
A lot of my main universe is getting a design rework, both in the background and in the visual and it's taking a good amount of time to put it all into comprehensible formats. However, I am, admitedly, also incredibly lazy and hesitant on making things solid, because I've noticed my visual aesthetic seems to be a very fluid things in recent months <.<
My ability to concentrate has been lacking for the last year or so due to several issues, mostly real life, the most persistant being the tinitus I acquired at a rock concert last summer because I was an idiot. The other thing is that I haven't really had a moment of spiritual rest for the last half a year. Something's always come up and I'm finding myself at a loss for time to do something just for myself.
The dayjob isn't helping the matter. I've been on my feet constantly for the last two months. My only hope is that the new coworker we're getting is gonna pull his weight properly, but I don't expect my bosses to let off on the mental pressure. Just to set things straight, no, they're not harrassing me, but they're not pulling their weight at work, something I may have to address again if things don't improve.
As I mentioned before, I'm under NDAs (multiple), meaning I'm working on two separate projects that are unrelated to eachother, though they share at least one very general similarity in that they are sci-fi. That's about as much as I'm allowed to say at this point. One of them should be complete some time next year if the schedule holds up. The other is indefinite, so we'll see whether or not I'll get to share my contributions with you guys at any point in the near future.
My computer has also been acting up pretty bad. I'm working on the issue, but I'm currently writing from the laptop. The fact that the computer doesn't work straight is also one fo the reasons why it's difficult for me to immerse myself in my art as I used to, which brings me around to what I mentioned in my last upload; my dissatisfaction with my work.
A friend of mine brought up a valid theory about art skill and art observation skill, but I've been growing more and more dissatisfied with the work I've been producing lately, specifically my color and effect work and I'm currently at a loss for solutions to that problem.
I'm pretty sure I could probably get back into things as soon as the computer works again and I take some time just for myself, but until then I'll still be super scarce in terms of uploads.
Another thing that's thrown me off is the crimea crisis. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but remember that I live in Austria, that's only a countries worth away from Ukraine and the political situation has had me rather worried.
For various reasons it has led me to question a great deal of things, both about the world and myself. I don't really want to roll it all out here, and as much as I'll appreciate any concern, I've been talking to my confidante's enough that I'm at least mentally stable enough to keep going on a daily basis. Suffice it to say, I've had one of my last solid faiths in this world shaken and I had a bit of a hard recovery.
Questioning myself has also led me to question my "image" if you want and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will be retiring Antar as my official representative and fursona. He will most definitely remain my male lead, but I'm no longer sure I identify with him on a personal level or as an alter ego, especially after the rework I've been giving him in accordance with the new universe and the insights I've had about myself. He also has far too much (hi)story attached to him, so I'm currently in the process of figuring out what my new 'sona will look like. Something I can say with relative certainty is that he will be a si'itian with a build closer to my actual self and a new fur coat, but we'll see about that.
One last reason why I've been so scarce lately is that I have been loading myself down with too many things at a time, so I'm currently in the process of eliminating excess weight and cutting projects that are wearing on me without progress. Unfortunately this means letting go of things both you and I treasure.
It's not really a secret anymore, so I might as well make it official; Company of Idiots will not continue.
I've been dragging it along for far too long and there just hasn't been any progress on it whatsoever for the last year and I don't see a window of opportunity for me to start it up again any time soon. What I will do is upload what little material I have left over from back in the day though, so as not to hold out on you and then put it on the shelf.
I wouldn't have brought that downer without having a positive announcement to make to pick you guys up though. Last month I started sketching on the pages for the sequel to RESURGENCE. It's advancing at a slower pace than I'd want it to, but so is everything lately, so I'm not letting that throw me off.
I will start keeping track of the projects WIP on my front page via loading bars, so you guys know what's going on without me shouting journals every once in a while. This also includes commissions I hope to be taking on again after I've cleared the air a bit. Yes, I know I say that every damn time, we'll see if I can actually follow up on my promise this time around :b
I think that covers all the bases. If you guys have any questions left, you're welcome to ask here.
I hope you guys have been having a good time and that you'll continue enjoying the art I share with you.
Stay tuned and healthy and lots of hugs,
yours truly, iPoke
Credits Roll and another call for help!!
Posted 12 years agoHello there :3
Hope you guys all had a pleasant start into 2014. I personally did, however another friend of mine did not and the situation isn't improving by the looks of it.
anahi's cat Bumble has fallen rather badly ill and the last vet bill (plus a few others) have left a bad hole in her already strained finances, not to mention possible additional costs for future treatments for bumble.
However, we are not asking for donations!
Anahi has restocker her etsy store and is selling several choice items and hand crafted accessories, among other things. Please go and have a look at it via the link posted below
>>>>>>>>>>> http://www.etsy.com/shop/CrazyCorvid <<<<<<<<<<<
Please, please, please, pretty please go and at last take a look. Greatly appreciated by yours truly :3
Now, for all those of you involved with new years, here's the list of characters, going from left to right;
SPECIAL GUESTS
- Left Top Area -
Neesah (by ReiVagan)
Rei
Tankana
Jace
Greex
Coyotek
Shinigamigirl
Erilo Crown
- Main Floor -
Light_reborn
Kijo
AmonOmega
Cherushi
NecroDrone13
Mercy
demfox19240
Strype
Cooper
Sykes (by Iveryke)
Champagne (by Evil_Art_Nazi)
Kathy_Lu
TheMike
ZigZag (by MaxBlackRabbit)
Draekos
Anymouse
Fleki
LavenderKhajiit
Foshu
Kittiara
Wolfy_Nail
Rotarr
Kemanotter
Catwolf
Endenden
Alecrast
Avette
Karakina
Scar3cr0w
Serpentus
Raze1984
Ultraviolet
Panzardragon
Luciole
- Yours Truly ;3 -
Aedaha (by Silverone)
[koh]
Karove
Tanek_Woofer
Iggi
Tenza
Anahi
Seradhe
Tara (by anticarrot)
Wuhmkii (by Su-Al)
Tsenaya (by Scappo)
Amberkitty (by Ambberfox)
SnowroseRivenstar
EnderRivenstar
Pliskin
Muzz (who uses a different character nowadays >.< )
Spunkyrakune
Zen
Iridon
Cinnamon
Kio (by Keovi)
Furball
Ayn
meesh
Meeko (by Severus)
Mikhaila (by Tsampikos)
Tygon
Skidd
Phsuke
Kafkawolf ( - non-furry - )
Eve (by Coffinberry)
Overlord Fox (by Foxenawolf)
Inuki
DeLago ( - non-furry - )
SecreT
Decaf (wherever it is you went :< )
Sandro ( - non-furry - )
Laura ( - non-furry - )
NikiKitty (by Ryuukiinek0)
Yamuna ( - non-furry - )
Vertex-Chiral
Ayuka
Elijah_Rayne
The_Evil_Fox
Kisagi
Makichan ( - non-furry - )
Fisk (by Fisk)
Kadath
Silkpaws
Kaylii
KittyFlame
Sinarissoftpaws
Michi ( - non-furry - )
Benni ( - non-furry - )
Alex ( - non-furry - )
Lurinare
Yamavu
Zaush
Kaylee
Qilin
Shadow
Right Top Area
Wylde
Jailbird
Turkituck (all the best on your ways!)
Roogryphon
Zwerewolf
Very Back Area & Viewscreens
Foxamoore
Karmasi (by moi)
Fredrik Miller
All those who read non-furry next to their names are people I know in RL, but who do not have a fursona, i.e. I created one for them =^-^=
Hope you guys all had a pleasant start into 2014. I personally did, however another friend of mine did not and the situation isn't improving by the looks of it.
anahi's cat Bumble has fallen rather badly ill and the last vet bill (plus a few others) have left a bad hole in her already strained finances, not to mention possible additional costs for future treatments for bumble.However, we are not asking for donations!
Anahi has restocker her etsy store and is selling several choice items and hand crafted accessories, among other things. Please go and have a look at it via the link posted below
>>>>>>>>>>> http://www.etsy.com/shop/CrazyCorvid <<<<<<<<<<<
Please, please, please, pretty please go and at last take a look. Greatly appreciated by yours truly :3
Now, for all those of you involved with new years, here's the list of characters, going from left to right;
SPECIAL GUESTS
- Left Top Area -
Neesah (by ReiVagan)
Rei
Tankana
Jace
Greex
Coyotek
Shinigamigirl
Erilo Crown
- Main Floor -
Light_reborn
Kijo
AmonOmega
Cherushi
NecroDrone13
Mercy
demfox19240
Strype
Cooper
Sykes (by Iveryke)
Champagne (by Evil_Art_Nazi)
Kathy_Lu
TheMike
ZigZag (by MaxBlackRabbit)
Draekos
Anymouse
Fleki
LavenderKhajiit
Foshu
Kittiara
Wolfy_Nail
Rotarr
Kemanotter
Catwolf
Endenden
Alecrast
Avette
Karakina
Scar3cr0w
Serpentus
Raze1984
Ultraviolet
Panzardragon
Luciole
- Yours Truly ;3 -
Aedaha (by Silverone)
[koh]
Karove
Tanek_Woofer
Iggi
Tenza
Anahi
Seradhe
Tara (by anticarrot)
Wuhmkii (by Su-Al)
Tsenaya (by Scappo)
Amberkitty (by Ambberfox)
SnowroseRivenstar
EnderRivenstar
Pliskin
Muzz (who uses a different character nowadays >.< )
Spunkyrakune
Zen
Iridon
Cinnamon
Kio (by Keovi)
Furball
Ayn
meesh
Meeko (by Severus)
Mikhaila (by Tsampikos)
Tygon
Skidd
Phsuke
Kafkawolf ( - non-furry - )
Eve (by Coffinberry)
Overlord Fox (by Foxenawolf)
Inuki
DeLago ( - non-furry - )
SecreT
Decaf (wherever it is you went :< )
Sandro ( - non-furry - )
Laura ( - non-furry - )
NikiKitty (by Ryuukiinek0)
Yamuna ( - non-furry - )
Vertex-Chiral
Ayuka
Elijah_Rayne
The_Evil_Fox
Kisagi
Makichan ( - non-furry - )
Fisk (by Fisk)
Kadath
Silkpaws
Kaylii
KittyFlame
Sinarissoftpaws
Michi ( - non-furry - )
Benni ( - non-furry - )
Alex ( - non-furry - )
Lurinare
Yamavu
Zaush
Kaylee
Qilin
Shadow
Right Top Area
Wylde
Jailbird
Turkituck (all the best on your ways!)
Roogryphon
Zwerewolf
Very Back Area & Viewscreens
Foxamoore
Karmasi (by moi)
Fredrik Miller
All those who read non-furry next to their names are people I know in RL, but who do not have a fursona, i.e. I created one for them =^-^=
Help another fellow artist
Posted 12 years agoHello everybody. I know, it's the back half of the month, bad time to ask people for money and all, but another of my friends needs help. He's not of the fur kind, but he does awesome photography work all the same.
Here's the deal. He's been getting more attention lately and several places are looking to hire him for shoots, but his hardware isn't really on par with what he's being asked for and his current job is barely paying bills.
He's put up a call on gofundme.com to pull money together for a new camera and some additional gear for it. In turn for donations, you get corresponding discounts on current and future material at his print store until times specified on site.
Every little bit helps ^^
In other news, I've started work on some projects and I'll probably have something to upload again some time soon. Hope everybody is having a good slide into winter :3 hugs to all
peace out!
Here's the deal. He's been getting more attention lately and several places are looking to hire him for shoots, but his hardware isn't really on par with what he's being asked for and his current job is barely paying bills.
He's put up a call on gofundme.com to pull money together for a new camera and some additional gear for it. In turn for donations, you get corresponding discounts on current and future material at his print store until times specified on site.
Every little bit helps ^^
In other news, I've started work on some projects and I'll probably have something to upload again some time soon. Hope everybody is having a good slide into winter :3 hugs to all
peace out!
Help a fellow artist
Posted 12 years agoHey folks. Sorry I'm being quiet again. Promise I'll have something for you guys at least by the end of next week ^^
Anyway, my dear friend Kathy-Lu has stumbled into a bit of a bind over the last few months and she's in bad need of some monetary assistance.
Two ways you can help her out:
1. put some money in her comic 'First Touched' http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10735894
Page price is 60$, of course, you don't have to donate the entire amount yourself, but every dollar helps.
2. She'll be having a pay what you want sketch stream later tonight here
Pleeease guys, head over there and drop her a dime or two :3
Anyway, my dear friend Kathy-Lu has stumbled into a bit of a bind over the last few months and she's in bad need of some monetary assistance.
Two ways you can help her out:
1. put some money in her comic 'First Touched' http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10735894
Page price is 60$, of course, you don't have to donate the entire amount yourself, but every dollar helps.
2. She'll be having a pay what you want sketch stream later tonight here
Pleeease guys, head over there and drop her a dime or two :3
Continuous blood circulation and respiration...
Posted 12 years agoI am still breathing and my heart is still pumping through my body.
Lessons learned in the last couple' months:
- When going to a concert indoors, wear ear-protection. Especially in the first wavebreaker (no exceptions)
- Arrange and plan projects that exceed 100€ or a month of work at least two to three months in advance MINIMUM
- I need to get my ass back into gear about art ... and I especially need to streamline my artistic process
Also: you folks left me with ~800 comments, about ten times as many favorites and +500 watches after Resurgence. I'm sorry I haven't really supplied a lot of art lately.
I'll be off to EuroFurence tomorrow. All those of you attending, I'll see you there. The rest of you will get to see art after the con ^^
Peace out everyone;
iPoke
Lessons learned in the last couple' months:
- When going to a concert indoors, wear ear-protection. Especially in the first wavebreaker (no exceptions)
- Arrange and plan projects that exceed 100€ or a month of work at least two to three months in advance MINIMUM
- I need to get my ass back into gear about art ... and I especially need to streamline my artistic process
Also: you folks left me with ~800 comments, about ten times as many favorites and +500 watches after Resurgence. I'm sorry I haven't really supplied a lot of art lately.
I'll be off to EuroFurence tomorrow. All those of you attending, I'll see you there. The rest of you will get to see art after the con ^^
Peace out everyone;
iPoke
Short Update
Posted 12 years agoHello everyone, sorry about my absence.
To make it short, I slipped into a pretty bad depression for a while and am only slowly recovering.
My friends and my mate are helping me through this, so there's nothing to worry about, but I'm reordering my thoughts at the moment.
I'll let you guys know when I'm operational again, though you'll likely get to know about that with a picture anyway.
Peace out everyone!
To make it short, I slipped into a pretty bad depression for a while and am only slowly recovering.
My friends and my mate are helping me through this, so there's nothing to worry about, but I'm reordering my thoughts at the moment.
I'll let you guys know when I'm operational again, though you'll likely get to know about that with a picture anyway.
Peace out everyone!
In Memoriam
Posted 12 years agoI said good bye to a friend the other day.
She had spent almost 17 years living at our home and sharing our life. She was always with my mother, following almost every step she did in the house and curling up somewhere close or in her lap.
She never asked for much, always stepped aside for everyone else and observed guests and strangers from afar. The only exception was food time, when she would not cease to remind you that she was hungry until the bowl was on the ground.
She had a good life with us. She was loved and she loved us back and now that she decided it was her time to go, we did her a last favour. She's in a better place now, where she lacks not food, nor drink, or wrapping tape to play with for as long and as much as she'd like.
Saying good bye hurt, but handling what comes after gives me closure, and I sleep well knowing that she had spent a happy life with us and left without pain.
She had spent almost 17 years living at our home and sharing our life. She was always with my mother, following almost every step she did in the house and curling up somewhere close or in her lap.
She never asked for much, always stepped aside for everyone else and observed guests and strangers from afar. The only exception was food time, when she would not cease to remind you that she was hungry until the bowl was on the ground.
She had a good life with us. She was loved and she loved us back and now that she decided it was her time to go, we did her a last favour. She's in a better place now, where she lacks not food, nor drink, or wrapping tape to play with for as long and as much as she'd like.
Saying good bye hurt, but handling what comes after gives me closure, and I sleep well knowing that she had spent a happy life with us and left without pain.
KLEOPATRA
05.1996 - 27.06.2013Recent Events
Posted 12 years agoI know I promised an updated journal soon with a bit of Q&A on both Resurgence and other matters.
Unfortunately, recent events are keeping my spirits in no condition to be cheerful enough for much of anything.
To give a brief summary; one of our cats (more my mom's cat, Kleopatra) is getting old. She had a pretty bad episode in december, recovered from that, but she's not been quite the same ever since.
My mom flew to the states last thursday for seven weeks, which I'm pretty sure has upset Kleo, which obviously doesn't really improve her condition either, which has been worsening over the past few weeks.
Mom told me that, if it came down to the coice, I'd have to make the call ... and it's a pretty heavy weight on me.
She refused to eat most of what I offered her today and she didn't have any of her meds, which didn't really improve my mental condition either, as you can imagine.
So, as sorry as I am to say this, until this episode has been resolved one way or another, I'm afraid I'll be scarce. Perhaps I'll find the energy to answer all your wonderful comments and thanks a lot for the support while I'm at it here.
I'll make sure to do this properly once I'm in the clear againw ith my head.
Peace out!
iPoke
Unfortunately, recent events are keeping my spirits in no condition to be cheerful enough for much of anything.
To give a brief summary; one of our cats (more my mom's cat, Kleopatra) is getting old. She had a pretty bad episode in december, recovered from that, but she's not been quite the same ever since.
My mom flew to the states last thursday for seven weeks, which I'm pretty sure has upset Kleo, which obviously doesn't really improve her condition either, which has been worsening over the past few weeks.
Mom told me that, if it came down to the coice, I'd have to make the call ... and it's a pretty heavy weight on me.
She refused to eat most of what I offered her today and she didn't have any of her meds, which didn't really improve my mental condition either, as you can imagine.
So, as sorry as I am to say this, until this episode has been resolved one way or another, I'm afraid I'll be scarce. Perhaps I'll find the energy to answer all your wonderful comments and thanks a lot for the support while I'm at it here.
I'll make sure to do this properly once I'm in the clear againw ith my head.
Peace out!
iPoke
Re: Feedback
Posted 12 years agoHey everybody,
Thank you all very much for your open and honest replies. I've had a read through all of them and, having had time to mull it over, things are in a different light at this point. I'll admit to having over/underestimated a lot of factors and having taken things a little too serious for various reasons.
As a result of the reactions, both positive and negative, on the last journal, the further updating of the comic will go as follows. Donations are still open. The Page tally limit is 50$. Whatever donations go beyond the tally of the currently incoming page will be added to the next pages tally (as it would have been before, but apparently I left some unclarities in my previous information). Pages will be uploaded whenever a tally limit is reached (and I have access to the machine where I have the finished page files), as opposed to on the next due date.
As a note to myself and a word of advice; don't write journals when you're in a hurry and just had a beer after a 9 hour workday.
--
Artist Collaboration Network
I hinted at this yesterday and it seemed to have gathered some interest. There are no definites yet, but I'll put together a summary of what I'm thinking of for you guys to read and share your thoughts on.
Peace out, everybody!
Thank you all very much for your open and honest replies. I've had a read through all of them and, having had time to mull it over, things are in a different light at this point. I'll admit to having over/underestimated a lot of factors and having taken things a little too serious for various reasons.
As a result of the reactions, both positive and negative, on the last journal, the further updating of the comic will go as follows. Donations are still open. The Page tally limit is 50$. Whatever donations go beyond the tally of the currently incoming page will be added to the next pages tally (as it would have been before, but apparently I left some unclarities in my previous information). Pages will be uploaded whenever a tally limit is reached (and I have access to the machine where I have the finished page files), as opposed to on the next due date.
As a note to myself and a word of advice; don't write journals when you're in a hurry and just had a beer after a 9 hour workday.
--
Artist Collaboration Network
I hinted at this yesterday and it seemed to have gathered some interest. There are no definites yet, but I'll put together a summary of what I'm thinking of for you guys to read and share your thoughts on.
Peace out, everybody!
December Meltdown - Emergency Commission Notice
Posted 13 years ago*sigh*
So... apologies all around for my last journal. I pretty much poured all my frustration about everything happening around me into that H4LO rant. I'm still pissed about it, but some things were inappropriate, which I've already removed.
On other notes. Due to unforseen circumstances, I am now 200€ in debt, barely more than a week into December. I have three pictures in progress that will cover some of my expenses, but by the looks of it I may actually have to open up for a batch of emergency commissions.
As per usual, I will not be accepting payment until the work is done, but I would ask all those of you interested in a picture to be:
a) serious about it and
b) ready to pay on demand.
To clarify -THIS IS NOT YET A CALL FOR OPEN SLOTS-
I will be doing this in a separate journal once I know what my workload looks like and how much time I have on my hands.
-
Now, to improve the general mood on my page, here's a link to an awesome comic and a pair of artists I've followed for years now, but never really gave a lot of exposition for, since I didn't think they'd need it.
http://www.ozfoxes.com/fauxpas.htm
The artists in question are Robert and Margret Carspecken from R&M Creative Endeavors, who create real neat G and PG rated classical artwork and the hillarious and adorable comic Faux Pas, which is linked above.
Make sure to leave them some appreciation in their in-box after enjoying the comic.
Take care everybody!
So... apologies all around for my last journal. I pretty much poured all my frustration about everything happening around me into that H4LO rant. I'm still pissed about it, but some things were inappropriate, which I've already removed.
On other notes. Due to unforseen circumstances, I am now 200€ in debt, barely more than a week into December. I have three pictures in progress that will cover some of my expenses, but by the looks of it I may actually have to open up for a batch of emergency commissions.
As per usual, I will not be accepting payment until the work is done, but I would ask all those of you interested in a picture to be:
a) serious about it and
b) ready to pay on demand.
To clarify -THIS IS NOT YET A CALL FOR OPEN SLOTS-
I will be doing this in a separate journal once I know what my workload looks like and how much time I have on my hands.
-
Now, to improve the general mood on my page, here's a link to an awesome comic and a pair of artists I've followed for years now, but never really gave a lot of exposition for, since I didn't think they'd need it.
http://www.ozfoxes.com/fauxpas.htm
The artists in question are Robert and Margret Carspecken from R&M Creative Endeavors, who create real neat G and PG rated classical artwork and the hillarious and adorable comic Faux Pas, which is linked above.
Make sure to leave them some appreciation in their in-box after enjoying the comic.
Take care everybody!
Because I haven't quite yet bitched about enough games...
Posted 13 years agoLadies and gentlemen, boys and girls and everything inbetween and beyond...
You are once again witness to one of my game rants, where I essentially rip off Yahtzee in shortly praising a game and then making a list of comparisons to all the things I hate about it.
In this ~semi-annual issue I will be letting go of all my frustrations about the much anticipated and equally as flawed H4LO
[red]SPOILERS AHEAD[/red]
To start things off, I really don't want to be doing this. I love the HALO franchise, even if I was disappointed by REACH at first, I grew to like it for various reasons and even though it violated canon on a few occasions (and some major character creation points), it was still a solid game, both in terms of story and multiplayer gameplay. The addition of armor abilities added a gameplay dynamic that took some getting used to, but quickly settled as a core factor you could account for while still retaining the original feel of the previous HALO games, also because it was essentially an extension of the HALO3 collect and drop abilities.
BUT, I will be pouring negative opinion on this game, in terms of gameplay, design and story tellling, all of which have their own unique flaws and drawbacks.
So without further ado, let's get on with the show.
The good bits
Visuals
As I played through H4LO for the first time I strained my memory back to the first time I played H:CE way back when. I remember the feeling of this new game that changed my feel for gameplay and that had massively cool visuals and enemies. Weapons that shoot little pink shards that you are afraid of... good times. And for all the negative comments I have on the story, I had that feeling again as I progressed through the story.
The bit that stood out for me particularily was the second level (funny how it's always the second level). In H:CE, when you step out of the escape pod, you see HALO for the first time and I had this chill running down my spine, because I had never seen anything quite as awesome or as original (at least in my ignorant eyes, it's not like a 12 y/o has any idea of Larry Niven or anything, at least none I know of. If you did know of him at that age, respect to you).
There is a scene like that in H4LO, which was very obviously set up to be just that, but it works so very, very well to recreate that effect of awe before these alien constructs, namely when you leave the crash site of the F.u.D. and the covenant fleet, and the “cave” opens up on this massive vista of floating forerunner spires over huge areas that dwarf your existence to a tiny speck in the landscape.
Very majestic, very cinematic. Something I can generally praise H4LO for is how it depicts things. Even though they’re essentially backdrops, the game does its best to show you all the beautiful landscaping work the artists have created, like you were dropped directly into the concepted matte-paintings. I have some big issues with other parts of the visual aspects, but we’ll get to that later.
Story
Spartan 117 returns ... and yes, he is a worthy successor to the man we played back on the Arc.
343 announced that they wanted to get into the Chiefs head and depict his psyche a lot more than in any of the previous games, and yes, they’ve done a fairly good job of it. What I liked a lot was him actually responding to Cortana and other characters when he was spoken to, which made him feel more... personal, more like a human being. However, the script was done well enough for him to seem distant and sociophobic, preferring to be on his own, as a Spartan, rather than part of the “other humans” who show up aboard the Infinity, which goes very much hand in hand to how Spartan II’s were depicted in the expanded universe.
The separation of Spartans vs. Humans actually plays a big role in H4LO in that the Spartan IV program is now a separate division of the UNSC military arm rather than being an addition to the ONI Special Warfare Group. Especially Sarah Palmer enforces a strict separation policy of Spartans to Non-Spartans, at least in terms of addressing official issues.
However, while the Master Chief is also a Spartan, he is very much depicted as separate from everything. Almost everyone, including other Spartans, view John as a Legend, but even so, as an aging Legend. He is a memory from a war past, an obsolete piece of equipment even to some, seeing as Spartan II’s were still considered military hardware.
Despite all this, what I really loved was the way the Master Chief handled it, namely exactly how I would expect his character to do ... stay indifferent to all of it. John is exactly the kind of functioning semi-machine I expect a Spartan II to be and he plays the role brilliantly - bravo to 343 for characterizing someone who hardly shows any emotion ever and still making him likable. There are minor issues, but I’ll get to his relationship with Cortana later ... and her character.
Needless to say though, John kicks massive ass still, even with some 46 years of age on his back, so look forward to the Master Chief living up to his name.
The addition of Spartan Ops is an interesting concept, even though it bothers me that 343 is likely to start charging for additional seasons/episodes after this set ends. Another thing that is a little weird is how it doesn’t matter at all how many Spartans die on the mission, so long as you eventually kill the last enemy and while SpartOps has it’s own little side story after the H4LO events, the integration of said story in bits of campaign maps and some of the multiplayer maps is rather cheap and often poorly executed, so unless they really pick up on involving the story with the missions, 343 will get no points from me for that.
Multiplayer
Unfortunately, this section remains empty, as I have nothing positive to say about the Multiplayer mode at all, which also means I’ve run out of good things to say and we are on to...
The bad bits
As much of the original as H4LO has retained in its feel, it has lost very badly to... well, the fuck I know what it’s lost to, too many things at once is what comes to mind.
Visuals
I had some good things to say about the feel of the landscapes, but there’s a lot of bad things in many of the other visual aspects of the game. What I’m mostly addressing is what we used to call over-design in University, where the designers put too much into it when less would have been enough and would have served the purpose better.
The result is that the forerunner constructs no longer look like solid, static objects that stand as monuments that endure over millenia, but like clockwork that’s been left running for... some reason. They still retain some monumental character, but I can’t be the only one who thinks the new forerunner architecture looks very distraught and somewhat agitated compared to previous designs.
Continuing with the forerunner; the Didact looks ridiculous. I’m sorry, but I can’t take him seriously, he looks like a human fish with orc teeth and clowns make up on, same as his wife, the Librarian ( minus the orc teeth, for some reason 9.9 ). I realize that the forerunner were supposed to be very humanoid in shape, but they really could have done a far better job of it, even with the limitations of having two arms and legs... and even that wasn’t technically a given, if you follow any of the games.
Now, I realize that the forerunner were a caste-socitey, so this next complaint of mine might be 343’s idea of depicting the differences between the castes, but why the fuck did they have to rip off TRON with chrome bits?
I’m serious, stop me if I’m wrong, but the Prometheans look like the anal child of a drej and a TRON lightcycle. How did they manage to go from this to this?!?!
The weapons and their effects also don’t look at all like Clu designed ranged weapons for his army of invading megabytes, no sire at all >.O
You’re welcome to disagree with me on this, but there’s a perverse resemblance, which might actually be explained with the story [red]SPOILER ALERT 2 - you have been warned [/red]. I’ll get to that in a bit.
One last issue I have with the visual designs is tied to the Multiplayer bit, but I’m putting here to have it out of the way.
The Spartan mods don’t look like military hardware. I don’t care one bit how much more advanced we supposedly are at this point, because we reverse-engineered forerunner technology (with the Hurragok apparently), military hardware should still look like what it is, especially when the weapons do.
Spartan IV armor mods look like the design team was told to “just go fucking nuts” or “just make something cool”, with no regard to what the UNSC “style” is ... or attachments to reality for that matter, or is 343 really going to try and tell me that this did not walk straight out of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Honestly, I do not understand what some of the designers were thinking when they submitted their ideas. There are some very few ideas that look like something that looks like a logical expansion, but take a look at these “favorite” examples of mine.
The offroad motorbiker link
The Gundam link
The Big Daddy link
The EVA link
The Isaaclink
Just to name a few...
And the rip-offs don’t stop here, but we’ll get on with that later...
Story
I admit to not having read past Ghosts of Onyx. I have not read Contact Harvest, or Cole Protocol, I know I should and I will, because I hear these are still alright.
What I also haven’t read and what I refuse to touch is the HALO Forerunner series of books, because from what I hear the author was channeling a little too much [blue]spice[/blue] when he was thinking up that shit, if you catch my drift. We used to be a highly advanced, millenia old empire that fought the forerunners and the flood once before?Come on, are you being serious? We’re humans! We are literally the scum of the earth and you want to put us up on a pedestal next to a species that held a protective hand over all inteligent life in the galaxy? Go fuck yourself sir, you and the horse you rode in on ... and yes, I pulled that joke, sue me.
However, whoever was writing the script for H4LO clearly walked straight out of TRON:Legacy and put down everything he remembered while playing through bits and pieces of the previous HALO games, because how else do you come up with an evil version of the fucking grid-laser as a central plot and design point for a damn HALO game.
Seriously? Are we that badly out of ideas? We could not have had the forerunners come back... or the precursors? Because from what I hear, a precursor would be a pretty bad-ass antagonist... no?
No, we do not get to have an insanely powerful, immortally ancient being as an adversary, we get the Didact.
The Didact was supposedly the forerunner who activated the Halo array, but he’s gone through quite a change from how he felt as a caring, yet clerically devoted soldier and husband, who was fighting a losing battle against an alien parasite that was destroying, not a lifes work, but the work of millenia and countless generations of his kind to protect natural diversity in the galaxy.
Instead, thanks to the previously unrevealed human/forerunner war, the Didact is a ruthless, embittered tyrant, who lost his entire family, save his wife, in a war that could have been averted if both our species had been more diplomatic to begin with (something I will be addressing later) and who suffers from serious domestic issues, judging by how his own wife locked him up in what easily passes as an entire planet just for himself.
Admittedly, he deserved that one, seeing as how he apparently completely lost sight of what he was doing and instead pointed the grid-laser at everything that wasn’t far, far away by the time he counted to three... as I said, a rather drastic change from the Didact I knew from the H3 terminals, who was begging the Librarian to come home behind their defenses instead of jetting about the galaxy, cataloging species.
And about the Librarian; Seeing as how the forerunners devolved and settled us on earth, there is no way you can convince she didn’t know what planet she was on when she stranded her entire fleet of ships behind enemy lines to keep working on the Arc-Portal and likely eventually be consumed by the Flood... which raises the interesting question of how the fuck did she lock up the Didact... after he fired the Halo array... from earth... with no ship?!?!
Egh, moving on... Cortana.
Cortanas development actually makes sense... to a degree. Yes, A.I. deteriorate after 7 years of operation, she’s 8 years old, technically even older. However, what doesn’t make sense to me is that that would mean she’s 4 years old when she and the MC get stranded in outer space and the explaination for A.I. deterioration is that they accumulate too much data after a certain point in their lifetime and start thinking themselves to death... alright. So if she spent 3 years floating about on the F.u.D. , what data did she accumulate in those 3 years? Did she monitor John’s arrousal patterns in cryo-sleep to find out how to get him off - what? There is literally nothing to do out there, it is fucking dead space.
One last bit on her:
343 pulled massive bullshit with the TRON rip-off at the end where John is apparently in some form of digital world with Cortana before he gets dropped back into... reality? I guess? Which btw saved him from a nuclear explosion you just set off, in your own hand, during a QTE...
IF Cortana is dead ... as in dead - dead (and I really can’t see how she shouldn’t be)... I will be really badly pissed at those so called fans who work at 343.
However, seeing as how H4LO had several ass-pulls on impossible situations concerning the HALO/TRON crossover fanfiction, maybe we’ll see a miraculous return of Cortana as a parallel human being to Catherine Halsey as we all learn we’re really living in the Matrix...
Multiplayer
I will now shortly address what I mentioned earlier about our species being more diplomatic. I don’t know what exactly happens at the end of the Glasslands novel, so I don’t know how far the Covenant have “re-wronged” us for us to become the over-aggressive bullies we are shown to be in the opening video to Spartan-Ops, but considering how the UNSC behaves throughout the entire game, I am not tempted but forced to agree with the Didact when he said we were dangerous.
"Humanity stands as the greatest threat in the galaxy. Refusing to eradicate them is a fool's gambit."
The way we treat the other species we’ve previously encountered just makes me lose all sympathy for humanity as a whole. At the end of H3 the war was over. Admittedly, the Covenant in H4 are never expressively defined as a larger portion of same, but we don’t exactly skimp on our entrance when the Infinity just comes out of slipspace and cuts clean through a Covenant ship because it didn’t get out of the way fast enough... yes, the Covenant in the game are your enemies, but we, as players, have lost the double perspective we had been shown in H2 and H3 with the Arbiter... and I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the bastard!
Seriously though, with how the UNSC is portrayed in H4, I would side with the Didact any time to make sure humanity knows its place at the bottom of the Galaxy. Bullies don’t get to be the heroes.
Now then, on with the multiplayer mode, which I still have a lot to say about, but mostly that it’s turned into a sad Modern Warfare rip-off.
A lot of changes have been implemented in gameplay, with the addition of the sprint function for all spartans, not as a replacement for any other armor mods, which makes a lot more sense. However, as I mentioned before, what doesn’t make sense is the visual aspect of the armor modifications, because they just do not look like logical choices, especially considering that a lot of the torso pieces don’t even protect the torso properly.
None of the regular armor mods are true game-breakers, they’re all nicely balanced out, except for Promethean Vision, which is basically seeing through walls and having yourself highlighted as a big red blob in the other guys screen. However, I’ve noticed that several of the systems have been downgraded.
For one thing, the motion tracker has less range, which can be remedied via an upgrade in one of your loadout slots, but in its place you will lose the ability to take advantage of other modifications, like reloading faster or carrying more ammo (which btw means you get to carry as much ammo as you did in previous games), all of which would be fine if everyone else didn’t have those upgrades instead, so you can never have the specs of previous MJOLNIR systems, because if you upgrade one to spec, you lose the opportunity for another.
downgrades for upgrades? If 343 wants to tell me that Spartan IV’s are cheaper and more mass-produced than the original Spartan II’s, which they are, and the UNSC gives them less powerful gear, I can understand that from a story standpoint, but otherwise it just doesn’t make sense to me to outfit your best soldiers with less-capable gear the further technology progresses...
Another downgrade happened to invisibility. I never really used invisibility, it doesn’t suit my playstyle, but just taking into account what I said previously, how do you downgrade a technological device like active camo as tech improves? The camo now flickers at the slightest hint of movement and you no longer have as many decoys floating on the motion tracker, so you’re even easier to track than you already were in REACH.... and HALO:R at least had the excuse of being set earlier in time.
I never really could make sense of the scoring system at the end of matches, but now it makes even less sense to me, especially given that you get neat team-play bonuses like playing the decoy for your team mate to kill an opponent and such things. Your game performance never truly reflects in the amount of XP you get at the end of a match.
Which brings me about to ends and beginnings of matches.
We no longer have fixed matches. You can join and leave a match at any given time, so like in MW or in BF, you are very likely to drop into a game that is somewhere in the last third of its length and you will obviously be spawned on the losing team, because the other guys don’t really need support, do they?
However, this means you don’t really have an influence on whether or not you get to win the matches you play in and players are less devoted. What I really liked about REACH was that you had a chance of winning big credit boosts for routinely finishing matches and you got disqualified from your chance if you quit a running match, because in REACH, player slots that were unfilled stayed that way until the end of the match.
With joining now being possible at any time, so long as there’s a free slot and leaving the match at any time carries no penalty, it gets really hard after a while to keep track of everything that’s going on. I really hope they’re going to fix this in H5, but I doubt they will... yes, I’m beginning to lose faith at this point.
You can’t multi-vote for maps anymore, so if you’ve put down your vote, there’s no more changing your mind... which is made doubly annoying because there is no count-down timer for when the match is gonna start.
Friendly Kill notifications are now absent and the FFA tags are insanely hard to read compared to REACH’s clear color guide.
Spawning is apparently fixed with your team, which means flanking tactics for single opperatives is a moot point, since any team mate who is killed in the firefight will be spawned on you and if that happens for your entire team, the firefights over and new positions have to be found and you can do it alllllll over again.
Maps are now built so there are no shielded one way pathways anymore. Any position on a map that has any significant view of a larger part of it can be seen and accessed from at least two routes, which are just far enough apart that you can’t monitor both of them, even if you do shift your view to between them.
And the absence of Blood Gulch and a properly large forge map is just fucking appalling. Who the hell made that decision.
There are still several smaller issues which I might be able to overlook, but one last big problem I have is THE FUCKING KILLCAM
No, I will not “listen to reason” or “go with the times” or accept this gameplay mechanic in any way whatsoever. The killcam is an unnecessary addition to any shooter and its only purpose is to show the enemy where you are, meaning you cannot hold a stationary position, ever.
Before you start going on about camping and sniper whores, go fuck yourself. Apart from the fact that using a weapon you actually have to aim with is a form of art, I’d like to see you survive 5 minutes in a warzone if you run and jump around like we’re now forced to do in all playable shooters, simply because you cannot stay hidden properly anywhere.
...
...
...
Alright, I think that’ll do for now. One last thing I guess I can address is that the sound department did a really shitty job on the weapons and vehicles. If you’ve played H4 at all, you will know what I mean when I say I’m not afraid of the cricket...
Alas... I really wish H4LO had turned out better, given how long we’ve waited for it and that 343 is supposedly full of people who loved the original games and expanded universe.
I don’t understand why NOW all of a sudden they want to start sticking to the book canon when it’s turned into spice induced diarrohea. I don’t understand why they took out all the wonderfully heavy armor pieces that made your Spartan look like the walking tank he should be... or who the fuck came up with the idea of including a walker of all things...
Ah well... I enjoy what little I can and hope for improvement.
If you’ve actually read this far, you are insane and I thank you for that. You are now welcome to release your own shitstorm on me.
Updates on work as needed, two massive projects in progress.
Peace out
You are once again witness to one of my game rants, where I essentially rip off Yahtzee in shortly praising a game and then making a list of comparisons to all the things I hate about it.
In this ~semi-annual issue I will be letting go of all my frustrations about the much anticipated and equally as flawed H4LO
[red]SPOILERS AHEAD[/red]
To start things off, I really don't want to be doing this. I love the HALO franchise, even if I was disappointed by REACH at first, I grew to like it for various reasons and even though it violated canon on a few occasions (and some major character creation points), it was still a solid game, both in terms of story and multiplayer gameplay. The addition of armor abilities added a gameplay dynamic that took some getting used to, but quickly settled as a core factor you could account for while still retaining the original feel of the previous HALO games, also because it was essentially an extension of the HALO3 collect and drop abilities.
BUT, I will be pouring negative opinion on this game, in terms of gameplay, design and story tellling, all of which have their own unique flaws and drawbacks.
So without further ado, let's get on with the show.
The good bits
Visuals
As I played through H4LO for the first time I strained my memory back to the first time I played H:CE way back when. I remember the feeling of this new game that changed my feel for gameplay and that had massively cool visuals and enemies. Weapons that shoot little pink shards that you are afraid of... good times. And for all the negative comments I have on the story, I had that feeling again as I progressed through the story.
The bit that stood out for me particularily was the second level (funny how it's always the second level). In H:CE, when you step out of the escape pod, you see HALO for the first time and I had this chill running down my spine, because I had never seen anything quite as awesome or as original (at least in my ignorant eyes, it's not like a 12 y/o has any idea of Larry Niven or anything, at least none I know of. If you did know of him at that age, respect to you).
There is a scene like that in H4LO, which was very obviously set up to be just that, but it works so very, very well to recreate that effect of awe before these alien constructs, namely when you leave the crash site of the F.u.D. and the covenant fleet, and the “cave” opens up on this massive vista of floating forerunner spires over huge areas that dwarf your existence to a tiny speck in the landscape.
Very majestic, very cinematic. Something I can generally praise H4LO for is how it depicts things. Even though they’re essentially backdrops, the game does its best to show you all the beautiful landscaping work the artists have created, like you were dropped directly into the concepted matte-paintings. I have some big issues with other parts of the visual aspects, but we’ll get to that later.
Story
Spartan 117 returns ... and yes, he is a worthy successor to the man we played back on the Arc.
343 announced that they wanted to get into the Chiefs head and depict his psyche a lot more than in any of the previous games, and yes, they’ve done a fairly good job of it. What I liked a lot was him actually responding to Cortana and other characters when he was spoken to, which made him feel more... personal, more like a human being. However, the script was done well enough for him to seem distant and sociophobic, preferring to be on his own, as a Spartan, rather than part of the “other humans” who show up aboard the Infinity, which goes very much hand in hand to how Spartan II’s were depicted in the expanded universe.
The separation of Spartans vs. Humans actually plays a big role in H4LO in that the Spartan IV program is now a separate division of the UNSC military arm rather than being an addition to the ONI Special Warfare Group. Especially Sarah Palmer enforces a strict separation policy of Spartans to Non-Spartans, at least in terms of addressing official issues.
However, while the Master Chief is also a Spartan, he is very much depicted as separate from everything. Almost everyone, including other Spartans, view John as a Legend, but even so, as an aging Legend. He is a memory from a war past, an obsolete piece of equipment even to some, seeing as Spartan II’s were still considered military hardware.
Despite all this, what I really loved was the way the Master Chief handled it, namely exactly how I would expect his character to do ... stay indifferent to all of it. John is exactly the kind of functioning semi-machine I expect a Spartan II to be and he plays the role brilliantly - bravo to 343 for characterizing someone who hardly shows any emotion ever and still making him likable. There are minor issues, but I’ll get to his relationship with Cortana later ... and her character.
Needless to say though, John kicks massive ass still, even with some 46 years of age on his back, so look forward to the Master Chief living up to his name.
The addition of Spartan Ops is an interesting concept, even though it bothers me that 343 is likely to start charging for additional seasons/episodes after this set ends. Another thing that is a little weird is how it doesn’t matter at all how many Spartans die on the mission, so long as you eventually kill the last enemy and while SpartOps has it’s own little side story after the H4LO events, the integration of said story in bits of campaign maps and some of the multiplayer maps is rather cheap and often poorly executed, so unless they really pick up on involving the story with the missions, 343 will get no points from me for that.
Multiplayer
Unfortunately, this section remains empty, as I have nothing positive to say about the Multiplayer mode at all, which also means I’ve run out of good things to say and we are on to...
The bad bits
As much of the original as H4LO has retained in its feel, it has lost very badly to... well, the fuck I know what it’s lost to, too many things at once is what comes to mind.
Visuals
I had some good things to say about the feel of the landscapes, but there’s a lot of bad things in many of the other visual aspects of the game. What I’m mostly addressing is what we used to call over-design in University, where the designers put too much into it when less would have been enough and would have served the purpose better.
The result is that the forerunner constructs no longer look like solid, static objects that stand as monuments that endure over millenia, but like clockwork that’s been left running for... some reason. They still retain some monumental character, but I can’t be the only one who thinks the new forerunner architecture looks very distraught and somewhat agitated compared to previous designs.
Continuing with the forerunner; the Didact looks ridiculous. I’m sorry, but I can’t take him seriously, he looks like a human fish with orc teeth and clowns make up on, same as his wife, the Librarian ( minus the orc teeth, for some reason 9.9 ). I realize that the forerunner were supposed to be very humanoid in shape, but they really could have done a far better job of it, even with the limitations of having two arms and legs... and even that wasn’t technically a given, if you follow any of the games.
Now, I realize that the forerunner were a caste-socitey, so this next complaint of mine might be 343’s idea of depicting the differences between the castes, but why the fuck did they have to rip off TRON with chrome bits?
I’m serious, stop me if I’m wrong, but the Prometheans look like the anal child of a drej and a TRON lightcycle. How did they manage to go from this to this?!?!
The weapons and their effects also don’t look at all like Clu designed ranged weapons for his army of invading megabytes, no sire at all >.O
You’re welcome to disagree with me on this, but there’s a perverse resemblance, which might actually be explained with the story [red]SPOILER ALERT 2 - you have been warned [/red]. I’ll get to that in a bit.
One last issue I have with the visual designs is tied to the Multiplayer bit, but I’m putting here to have it out of the way.
The Spartan mods don’t look like military hardware. I don’t care one bit how much more advanced we supposedly are at this point, because we reverse-engineered forerunner technology (with the Hurragok apparently), military hardware should still look like what it is, especially when the weapons do.
Spartan IV armor mods look like the design team was told to “just go fucking nuts” or “just make something cool”, with no regard to what the UNSC “style” is ... or attachments to reality for that matter, or is 343 really going to try and tell me that this did not walk straight out of Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Honestly, I do not understand what some of the designers were thinking when they submitted their ideas. There are some very few ideas that look like something that looks like a logical expansion, but take a look at these “favorite” examples of mine.
The offroad motorbiker link
The Gundam link
The Big Daddy link
The EVA link
The Isaaclink
Just to name a few...
And the rip-offs don’t stop here, but we’ll get on with that later...
Story
I admit to not having read past Ghosts of Onyx. I have not read Contact Harvest, or Cole Protocol, I know I should and I will, because I hear these are still alright.
What I also haven’t read and what I refuse to touch is the HALO Forerunner series of books, because from what I hear the author was channeling a little too much [blue]spice[/blue] when he was thinking up that shit, if you catch my drift. We used to be a highly advanced, millenia old empire that fought the forerunners and the flood once before?Come on, are you being serious? We’re humans! We are literally the scum of the earth and you want to put us up on a pedestal next to a species that held a protective hand over all inteligent life in the galaxy? Go fuck yourself sir, you and the horse you rode in on ... and yes, I pulled that joke, sue me.
However, whoever was writing the script for H4LO clearly walked straight out of TRON:Legacy and put down everything he remembered while playing through bits and pieces of the previous HALO games, because how else do you come up with an evil version of the fucking grid-laser as a central plot and design point for a damn HALO game.
Seriously? Are we that badly out of ideas? We could not have had the forerunners come back... or the precursors? Because from what I hear, a precursor would be a pretty bad-ass antagonist... no?
No, we do not get to have an insanely powerful, immortally ancient being as an adversary, we get the Didact.
The Didact was supposedly the forerunner who activated the Halo array, but he’s gone through quite a change from how he felt as a caring, yet clerically devoted soldier and husband, who was fighting a losing battle against an alien parasite that was destroying, not a lifes work, but the work of millenia and countless generations of his kind to protect natural diversity in the galaxy.
Instead, thanks to the previously unrevealed human/forerunner war, the Didact is a ruthless, embittered tyrant, who lost his entire family, save his wife, in a war that could have been averted if both our species had been more diplomatic to begin with (something I will be addressing later) and who suffers from serious domestic issues, judging by how his own wife locked him up in what easily passes as an entire planet just for himself.
Admittedly, he deserved that one, seeing as how he apparently completely lost sight of what he was doing and instead pointed the grid-laser at everything that wasn’t far, far away by the time he counted to three... as I said, a rather drastic change from the Didact I knew from the H3 terminals, who was begging the Librarian to come home behind their defenses instead of jetting about the galaxy, cataloging species.
And about the Librarian; Seeing as how the forerunners devolved and settled us on earth, there is no way you can convince she didn’t know what planet she was on when she stranded her entire fleet of ships behind enemy lines to keep working on the Arc-Portal and likely eventually be consumed by the Flood... which raises the interesting question of how the fuck did she lock up the Didact... after he fired the Halo array... from earth... with no ship?!?!
Egh, moving on... Cortana.
Cortanas development actually makes sense... to a degree. Yes, A.I. deteriorate after 7 years of operation, she’s 8 years old, technically even older. However, what doesn’t make sense to me is that that would mean she’s 4 years old when she and the MC get stranded in outer space and the explaination for A.I. deterioration is that they accumulate too much data after a certain point in their lifetime and start thinking themselves to death... alright. So if she spent 3 years floating about on the F.u.D. , what data did she accumulate in those 3 years? Did she monitor John’s arrousal patterns in cryo-sleep to find out how to get him off - what? There is literally nothing to do out there, it is fucking dead space.
One last bit on her:
343 pulled massive bullshit with the TRON rip-off at the end where John is apparently in some form of digital world with Cortana before he gets dropped back into... reality? I guess? Which btw saved him from a nuclear explosion you just set off, in your own hand, during a QTE...
IF Cortana is dead ... as in dead - dead (and I really can’t see how she shouldn’t be)... I will be really badly pissed at those so called fans who work at 343.
However, seeing as how H4LO had several ass-pulls on impossible situations concerning the HALO/TRON crossover fanfiction, maybe we’ll see a miraculous return of Cortana as a parallel human being to Catherine Halsey as we all learn we’re really living in the Matrix...
Multiplayer
I will now shortly address what I mentioned earlier about our species being more diplomatic. I don’t know what exactly happens at the end of the Glasslands novel, so I don’t know how far the Covenant have “re-wronged” us for us to become the over-aggressive bullies we are shown to be in the opening video to Spartan-Ops, but considering how the UNSC behaves throughout the entire game, I am not tempted but forced to agree with the Didact when he said we were dangerous.
"Humanity stands as the greatest threat in the galaxy. Refusing to eradicate them is a fool's gambit."
The way we treat the other species we’ve previously encountered just makes me lose all sympathy for humanity as a whole. At the end of H3 the war was over. Admittedly, the Covenant in H4 are never expressively defined as a larger portion of same, but we don’t exactly skimp on our entrance when the Infinity just comes out of slipspace and cuts clean through a Covenant ship because it didn’t get out of the way fast enough... yes, the Covenant in the game are your enemies, but we, as players, have lost the double perspective we had been shown in H2 and H3 with the Arbiter... and I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the bastard!
Seriously though, with how the UNSC is portrayed in H4, I would side with the Didact any time to make sure humanity knows its place at the bottom of the Galaxy. Bullies don’t get to be the heroes.
Now then, on with the multiplayer mode, which I still have a lot to say about, but mostly that it’s turned into a sad Modern Warfare rip-off.
A lot of changes have been implemented in gameplay, with the addition of the sprint function for all spartans, not as a replacement for any other armor mods, which makes a lot more sense. However, as I mentioned before, what doesn’t make sense is the visual aspect of the armor modifications, because they just do not look like logical choices, especially considering that a lot of the torso pieces don’t even protect the torso properly.
None of the regular armor mods are true game-breakers, they’re all nicely balanced out, except for Promethean Vision, which is basically seeing through walls and having yourself highlighted as a big red blob in the other guys screen. However, I’ve noticed that several of the systems have been downgraded.
For one thing, the motion tracker has less range, which can be remedied via an upgrade in one of your loadout slots, but in its place you will lose the ability to take advantage of other modifications, like reloading faster or carrying more ammo (which btw means you get to carry as much ammo as you did in previous games), all of which would be fine if everyone else didn’t have those upgrades instead, so you can never have the specs of previous MJOLNIR systems, because if you upgrade one to spec, you lose the opportunity for another.
downgrades for upgrades? If 343 wants to tell me that Spartan IV’s are cheaper and more mass-produced than the original Spartan II’s, which they are, and the UNSC gives them less powerful gear, I can understand that from a story standpoint, but otherwise it just doesn’t make sense to me to outfit your best soldiers with less-capable gear the further technology progresses...
Another downgrade happened to invisibility. I never really used invisibility, it doesn’t suit my playstyle, but just taking into account what I said previously, how do you downgrade a technological device like active camo as tech improves? The camo now flickers at the slightest hint of movement and you no longer have as many decoys floating on the motion tracker, so you’re even easier to track than you already were in REACH.... and HALO:R at least had the excuse of being set earlier in time.
I never really could make sense of the scoring system at the end of matches, but now it makes even less sense to me, especially given that you get neat team-play bonuses like playing the decoy for your team mate to kill an opponent and such things. Your game performance never truly reflects in the amount of XP you get at the end of a match.
Which brings me about to ends and beginnings of matches.
We no longer have fixed matches. You can join and leave a match at any given time, so like in MW or in BF, you are very likely to drop into a game that is somewhere in the last third of its length and you will obviously be spawned on the losing team, because the other guys don’t really need support, do they?
However, this means you don’t really have an influence on whether or not you get to win the matches you play in and players are less devoted. What I really liked about REACH was that you had a chance of winning big credit boosts for routinely finishing matches and you got disqualified from your chance if you quit a running match, because in REACH, player slots that were unfilled stayed that way until the end of the match.
With joining now being possible at any time, so long as there’s a free slot and leaving the match at any time carries no penalty, it gets really hard after a while to keep track of everything that’s going on. I really hope they’re going to fix this in H5, but I doubt they will... yes, I’m beginning to lose faith at this point.
You can’t multi-vote for maps anymore, so if you’ve put down your vote, there’s no more changing your mind... which is made doubly annoying because there is no count-down timer for when the match is gonna start.
Friendly Kill notifications are now absent and the FFA tags are insanely hard to read compared to REACH’s clear color guide.
Spawning is apparently fixed with your team, which means flanking tactics for single opperatives is a moot point, since any team mate who is killed in the firefight will be spawned on you and if that happens for your entire team, the firefights over and new positions have to be found and you can do it alllllll over again.
Maps are now built so there are no shielded one way pathways anymore. Any position on a map that has any significant view of a larger part of it can be seen and accessed from at least two routes, which are just far enough apart that you can’t monitor both of them, even if you do shift your view to between them.
And the absence of Blood Gulch and a properly large forge map is just fucking appalling. Who the hell made that decision.
There are still several smaller issues which I might be able to overlook, but one last big problem I have is THE FUCKING KILLCAM
No, I will not “listen to reason” or “go with the times” or accept this gameplay mechanic in any way whatsoever. The killcam is an unnecessary addition to any shooter and its only purpose is to show the enemy where you are, meaning you cannot hold a stationary position, ever.
Before you start going on about camping and sniper whores, go fuck yourself. Apart from the fact that using a weapon you actually have to aim with is a form of art, I’d like to see you survive 5 minutes in a warzone if you run and jump around like we’re now forced to do in all playable shooters, simply because you cannot stay hidden properly anywhere.
...
...
...
Alright, I think that’ll do for now. One last thing I guess I can address is that the sound department did a really shitty job on the weapons and vehicles. If you’ve played H4 at all, you will know what I mean when I say I’m not afraid of the cricket...
Alas... I really wish H4LO had turned out better, given how long we’ve waited for it and that 343 is supposedly full of people who loved the original games and expanded universe.
I don’t understand why NOW all of a sudden they want to start sticking to the book canon when it’s turned into spice induced diarrohea. I don’t understand why they took out all the wonderfully heavy armor pieces that made your Spartan look like the walking tank he should be... or who the fuck came up with the idea of including a walker of all things...
Ah well... I enjoy what little I can and hope for improvement.
If you’ve actually read this far, you are insane and I thank you for that. You are now welcome to release your own shitstorm on me.
Updates on work as needed, two massive projects in progress.
Peace out
Updates v2.0
Posted 13 years agoHey everybody, it's been a while.
I'm guessing some of you are wondering why it's been so quiet on my end. Well, several things are happening in my life, most of them having to do with growing up, I suppose.
To put out the big news, I'm no longer enrolled with the University of Applied Arts. Management of that place was just driving me up the wall, so I decided to get out of there. I might start over somewhere else, but for now, I got myself a comfortable job at a local PrintShop store around the corner. It's not my dream job, but it's fair and honest pay and it's enough to support me and my mate without much trouble.
So I'm not at a 9-5, which obviously cuts a lot of my time. In addition I have been spending a lot more time at my mate's place lately, which means I haven't had access to my PC and thus have not been able to work as much as I would have liked.
My most recent upload, the comic panel, is a WIP from a project "hopefully" completed on this years side, but seeing as I've been unable to stick to almost any of my work goals, we'll see about that <.<
A professional project I was attached to was put on hold, so that frees up a bit of time for personal stuff, but even so, I'm not advancing on anything on nearly the speed I would like.
On a side note, I'm looking forward to H4LO. You're probably sick of hearing this, but of course, I already have my issues with some aspects of the game XD then again, I'm also looking forward to some of the many good aspects of the game, some of which I was able to experience at the GameCity Expo here in Vienna.
I don't know when I'll be open for commissions again. Honestly, it's difficult for me to find joy in doing them... not for any particular reason I can think of, maybe it's just my expectation of professional illustration, I dunno.
Anyway, I'll be answering comments now. Sorry I've been so poor about replying. You're welcome to ask questions here too and I will be uploading some cover art I was commissioned for a game project, hopefully soon to be.
Hugs and love to everybody.
I'm guessing some of you are wondering why it's been so quiet on my end. Well, several things are happening in my life, most of them having to do with growing up, I suppose.
To put out the big news, I'm no longer enrolled with the University of Applied Arts. Management of that place was just driving me up the wall, so I decided to get out of there. I might start over somewhere else, but for now, I got myself a comfortable job at a local PrintShop store around the corner. It's not my dream job, but it's fair and honest pay and it's enough to support me and my mate without much trouble.
So I'm not at a 9-5, which obviously cuts a lot of my time. In addition I have been spending a lot more time at my mate's place lately, which means I haven't had access to my PC and thus have not been able to work as much as I would have liked.
My most recent upload, the comic panel, is a WIP from a project "hopefully" completed on this years side, but seeing as I've been unable to stick to almost any of my work goals, we'll see about that <.<
A professional project I was attached to was put on hold, so that frees up a bit of time for personal stuff, but even so, I'm not advancing on anything on nearly the speed I would like.
On a side note, I'm looking forward to H4LO. You're probably sick of hearing this, but of course, I already have my issues with some aspects of the game XD then again, I'm also looking forward to some of the many good aspects of the game, some of which I was able to experience at the GameCity Expo here in Vienna.
I don't know when I'll be open for commissions again. Honestly, it's difficult for me to find joy in doing them... not for any particular reason I can think of, maybe it's just my expectation of professional illustration, I dunno.
Anyway, I'll be answering comments now. Sorry I've been so poor about replying. You're welcome to ask questions here too and I will be uploading some cover art I was commissioned for a game project, hopefully soon to be.
Hugs and love to everybody.
An-niversary
Posted 14 years agoSo, in the last journal I offered to review one of either of the "recently" published games, Modern Warfare 3 or HALO:Anniversary - and as per popular demand, the latter won as a contestant, so here's my personal opinion on the re-issue of the XboX's most successful and longest running titular franchise.
HALO: Anniversary
A lot of people claim that, back in the day, HALO:CE revolutionized the way shooters were played and I can't seem to disagree when I think about it. Yahtzee is right in saying that many, many games developers march in step behind the HALO franchise, but when you get really technical, most of them probably copy H2s gameplay. Regardless though, this isn't necessarily what I want to talk about here, although I do agree that the adherence to certain gameplay traits has lessened variety in the video game world.
The one thing I do feel needs to be said about the franchise is, and this might just be me having grown up with it, that it's the first and so far only pure shooter series of games that has a consistent sci-fi theme that's believable, fun and deep. While I wont deny that it has its flaws, a lot of people calling it out on cliché issues, which I don't really feel are waranted, the entire series is still enjoyable to play. Actually my opinion on REACH has improved over time, much like that of ODST.
But now lets get to the review and start with the positive stuff.
Well, I guess the most obvious part that is to be said is that it's just awesome that a company would go to this much trouble just to re-release a previous game for what is essentially fan service. I've heard of this happening before every once in a while, even for really popular games, but usually they're just a retooling to modern code of everything that was in the old game, including the eye-strain graphics - then again, I will admit to myself that I enjoy playing games that have been far outclassed in terms of graphics achievements for gameplays sake, so wtf am I complaining about 9.9 I was really happy when I found out it was being done to the original Perfect Dark and I'm still a proud owner of that re-release, but that's a whole different story. A fun note here, during the campaign you can actually switch between the old H:CE graphic and the new and improved version of Anniversary.
Another thing that's commendable is the environments. I remember first playing H:CE at my cousins place in finland when it was published. The alien environments of the ancient ring world were fascinating for me, with long and sprawling levels full of enemies to kill and new adventures and perils waiting around the corner. H:Ann takes the original environments to the level of the REACH engine and really fleshes out the looks for me, which isn't really surprising when you think back to what REACH showed us in terms of environmental effects. In fact, the retooled environments are probably what sells me on the single player campaign, because as much as I have to bitch and nag about it in a bit, I can't help but feel a certain amount of familiar comfort and yet still be excited over its new looks.
The last thing to mention here in the positive section are the multiplayer maps. I haven't played all of them yet, but the one map, the one BIG map that absolutely sells me for Anniversary, if for no other reason than to play that map again, is Headlong/Breakneck. We played that map almost exclusively back in the days of Halo2 and now it's back in all its damn glory, wohooo, what a damn crazy, awesome time that is... but okay, enough of being nice to Anniversary, I know it's always more fun to listen to someone rant than gush.
I know someone's gonna call me out for what I'm gonna say next (fluff, I'm looking at you here), but HALO:Anniversary has several fatal flaws for me that do sort of lessen its impact, the most glaring being that it's literally an overlay onto H:CE. For a reference as to why fluff will take issue with this comment, see my Battlefield 3 review ;3 - HOWEVER, let me make my point in a short summary.
What I complained about with Battlefield 3 was that they essentially went from BF2s more realistic, squad and hierarchy based gameplay to BF:BCs one man army, nobody gives a shit about teamwork gameplay, plus they removed map bot gameplay entirely, which was probably my major issue.
HALO:Anniversary has the reverse issue of leaving out every single last advancement that the following HALO games had made, both gameplay and bot AI wise.
Why do I complain about this, when I had the opposite opnion with BF3? Well, the HALO series never really entirely changed its gameplay. Only with H3 were slight perks included for multiplayer and even then they were additions, not regime changes. Same goes for REACH, even if you can now select perks for you to carry into battle right from the get go, of which sprinting is still the most useful of all.
In H:Ann the movement is reset back to its original H:CE state, which is more of a downgrade than anythng else. While the loss of the dual wield function does not pain me, because that is actually reasonably explained back in H2, the exclusion of all weapons from H:REACH, H2 and H3 does annoy me quite a bit, especially because it creates continuity issues, at least in my personal little brain... I dunno, maybe I'm just retarded 9.9
Something else that pisses me off - you can't play Campaign in Co-Op. Oh sure, you can play Co-Op with one partner, but you can't play with 4 and while I realize that this would also create continuity issues, that seem to be no problem in H3 or REACH, where you can throw 4 Spartans in the spot of one >.O
The other thing I hinted at before is the exclusion of more sophisticated AI. The AI and enemies in REACH are seriously intimidating, especially when you start putting in skulls. When I was playing H:Ann I realized you can literally use ALL the old tricks on them, including firing missiles and shots at pre-scripted enemies that appear in ALL the same spots. Even the weapons and corpses are in the same spots. I'm aware I paid for a remake here and a lot, if not all of this, is done so you can switch back to the old H:CE graphics, don't get me wrong, but I just didn't think they'd be this literal about just upping the graphics, which brings me about to my last big point of critique, the graphics upgrade.
Now, I know what you're thinking - wasn't this guy praising the graphics upgrade just before? - now here's the thing. First thing, I praised the environmental graphics upgrade and second, they included the worst choices of redesign and left out the good ones.
The new actually titular HALO looks absolutely desecrating - not alike to anything that looks remotely like forerunner technology. You're welcome to think of my opinion what you will, but the new Elites (from REACH) look shit compared to the bas-asses from the original HALO series. Not only that, but the Master Chiefs Mk V armor looks like crap compared to the versions you can earn in H3 and REACH multiplayer. I'm serious, both of them look more like Action Man figurines made by fisher price than anything that came out of a good concept artists hands, but I digress, maybe I'm just kicking pebles here.
I guess what I'm really asking is, why couldn't they just have taken what they had in REACH and built the new H:Ann on that. The only thing I remember them bringing over from REACH besides the multiplayer is those horrible, HORRIBLE abominations of Keyes and Johnson, who look nothing like their H:CE counterpart. Admitedly, a lot of things are not the way they were, duh, but Keyes and Johnson were the only key character next to Cortana to have a face, so wtf business do they have changing it up? >.O
*sigh* alright, stepping down from the complaint/soap box, H:Ann is in all technicality exactly what was advertised, at least during the marketing. Don't believe them when the box says they've improved the campaign in any way, the only thing that's changed is the addition of terminals to find, like in H3.
The multiplayer DOES hold up with all that was promissed and if for nothing else, Headlong/Breakneck was absolutely worth it, even if 35€ for one map is a little bit much, but for what little there is to have otherwise it's enjoyable and if you don't know what the HALO mythos is about, but don't want to step back down to 2001 graphics, Anniversary will deffinitely introduce you well, even if you'll find it a little retreading old paths a bit... now reconsider where those paths come from ;3
To summarize; The graphics being up to date is awesome, but the design choices are poor. Gameplay hasn't changed from the original H:CE at all, right down to every cut scene and scripted event, but this goes with the feature of being able to switch between visual modes. The multiplayer maps hold up to what they were and are now, so those are no disappointment and since it's not full priced you'll feel less guilty about re-buying it for your collection, should you have one.
Now all that remains to be hoped for si that they don't fuck up H4LO, or else I might really start getting political about this >.O
HALO: Anniversary
A lot of people claim that, back in the day, HALO:CE revolutionized the way shooters were played and I can't seem to disagree when I think about it. Yahtzee is right in saying that many, many games developers march in step behind the HALO franchise, but when you get really technical, most of them probably copy H2s gameplay. Regardless though, this isn't necessarily what I want to talk about here, although I do agree that the adherence to certain gameplay traits has lessened variety in the video game world.
The one thing I do feel needs to be said about the franchise is, and this might just be me having grown up with it, that it's the first and so far only pure shooter series of games that has a consistent sci-fi theme that's believable, fun and deep. While I wont deny that it has its flaws, a lot of people calling it out on cliché issues, which I don't really feel are waranted, the entire series is still enjoyable to play. Actually my opinion on REACH has improved over time, much like that of ODST.
But now lets get to the review and start with the positive stuff.
Well, I guess the most obvious part that is to be said is that it's just awesome that a company would go to this much trouble just to re-release a previous game for what is essentially fan service. I've heard of this happening before every once in a while, even for really popular games, but usually they're just a retooling to modern code of everything that was in the old game, including the eye-strain graphics - then again, I will admit to myself that I enjoy playing games that have been far outclassed in terms of graphics achievements for gameplays sake, so wtf am I complaining about 9.9 I was really happy when I found out it was being done to the original Perfect Dark and I'm still a proud owner of that re-release, but that's a whole different story. A fun note here, during the campaign you can actually switch between the old H:CE graphic and the new and improved version of Anniversary.
Another thing that's commendable is the environments. I remember first playing H:CE at my cousins place in finland when it was published. The alien environments of the ancient ring world were fascinating for me, with long and sprawling levels full of enemies to kill and new adventures and perils waiting around the corner. H:Ann takes the original environments to the level of the REACH engine and really fleshes out the looks for me, which isn't really surprising when you think back to what REACH showed us in terms of environmental effects. In fact, the retooled environments are probably what sells me on the single player campaign, because as much as I have to bitch and nag about it in a bit, I can't help but feel a certain amount of familiar comfort and yet still be excited over its new looks.
The last thing to mention here in the positive section are the multiplayer maps. I haven't played all of them yet, but the one map, the one BIG map that absolutely sells me for Anniversary, if for no other reason than to play that map again, is Headlong/Breakneck. We played that map almost exclusively back in the days of Halo2 and now it's back in all its damn glory, wohooo, what a damn crazy, awesome time that is... but okay, enough of being nice to Anniversary, I know it's always more fun to listen to someone rant than gush.
I know someone's gonna call me out for what I'm gonna say next (fluff, I'm looking at you here), but HALO:Anniversary has several fatal flaws for me that do sort of lessen its impact, the most glaring being that it's literally an overlay onto H:CE. For a reference as to why fluff will take issue with this comment, see my Battlefield 3 review ;3 - HOWEVER, let me make my point in a short summary.
What I complained about with Battlefield 3 was that they essentially went from BF2s more realistic, squad and hierarchy based gameplay to BF:BCs one man army, nobody gives a shit about teamwork gameplay, plus they removed map bot gameplay entirely, which was probably my major issue.
HALO:Anniversary has the reverse issue of leaving out every single last advancement that the following HALO games had made, both gameplay and bot AI wise.
Why do I complain about this, when I had the opposite opnion with BF3? Well, the HALO series never really entirely changed its gameplay. Only with H3 were slight perks included for multiplayer and even then they were additions, not regime changes. Same goes for REACH, even if you can now select perks for you to carry into battle right from the get go, of which sprinting is still the most useful of all.
In H:Ann the movement is reset back to its original H:CE state, which is more of a downgrade than anythng else. While the loss of the dual wield function does not pain me, because that is actually reasonably explained back in H2, the exclusion of all weapons from H:REACH, H2 and H3 does annoy me quite a bit, especially because it creates continuity issues, at least in my personal little brain... I dunno, maybe I'm just retarded 9.9
Something else that pisses me off - you can't play Campaign in Co-Op. Oh sure, you can play Co-Op with one partner, but you can't play with 4 and while I realize that this would also create continuity issues, that seem to be no problem in H3 or REACH, where you can throw 4 Spartans in the spot of one >.O
The other thing I hinted at before is the exclusion of more sophisticated AI. The AI and enemies in REACH are seriously intimidating, especially when you start putting in skulls. When I was playing H:Ann I realized you can literally use ALL the old tricks on them, including firing missiles and shots at pre-scripted enemies that appear in ALL the same spots. Even the weapons and corpses are in the same spots. I'm aware I paid for a remake here and a lot, if not all of this, is done so you can switch back to the old H:CE graphics, don't get me wrong, but I just didn't think they'd be this literal about just upping the graphics, which brings me about to my last big point of critique, the graphics upgrade.
Now, I know what you're thinking - wasn't this guy praising the graphics upgrade just before? - now here's the thing. First thing, I praised the environmental graphics upgrade and second, they included the worst choices of redesign and left out the good ones.
The new actually titular HALO looks absolutely desecrating - not alike to anything that looks remotely like forerunner technology. You're welcome to think of my opinion what you will, but the new Elites (from REACH) look shit compared to the bas-asses from the original HALO series. Not only that, but the Master Chiefs Mk V armor looks like crap compared to the versions you can earn in H3 and REACH multiplayer. I'm serious, both of them look more like Action Man figurines made by fisher price than anything that came out of a good concept artists hands, but I digress, maybe I'm just kicking pebles here.
I guess what I'm really asking is, why couldn't they just have taken what they had in REACH and built the new H:Ann on that. The only thing I remember them bringing over from REACH besides the multiplayer is those horrible, HORRIBLE abominations of Keyes and Johnson, who look nothing like their H:CE counterpart. Admitedly, a lot of things are not the way they were, duh, but Keyes and Johnson were the only key character next to Cortana to have a face, so wtf business do they have changing it up? >.O
*sigh* alright, stepping down from the complaint/soap box, H:Ann is in all technicality exactly what was advertised, at least during the marketing. Don't believe them when the box says they've improved the campaign in any way, the only thing that's changed is the addition of terminals to find, like in H3.
The multiplayer DOES hold up with all that was promissed and if for nothing else, Headlong/Breakneck was absolutely worth it, even if 35€ for one map is a little bit much, but for what little there is to have otherwise it's enjoyable and if you don't know what the HALO mythos is about, but don't want to step back down to 2001 graphics, Anniversary will deffinitely introduce you well, even if you'll find it a little retreading old paths a bit... now reconsider where those paths come from ;3
To summarize; The graphics being up to date is awesome, but the design choices are poor. Gameplay hasn't changed from the original H:CE at all, right down to every cut scene and scripted event, but this goes with the feature of being able to switch between visual modes. The multiplayer maps hold up to what they were and are now, so those are no disappointment and since it's not full priced you'll feel less guilty about re-buying it for your collection, should you have one.
Now all that remains to be hoped for si that they don't fuck up H4LO, or else I might really start getting political about this >.O
Some news on me...
Posted 14 years agoHey everybody.
After that last rant on BF3 I actually have an update on art for once, though the news isn't pretty.
Let's get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first:
About two years ago someone approached me about drawing a picture of Antar and Shandi sharing some quality time together. I talked to
spottythecheetah and the picture turned into a story turned into a comic, a small cut out of which I updated quite a while back when I had gotten started on the colors. I was dedicated to finishing this project for once, because I have so many open ended things lying around, and I liked it very much, but I now have to announce that Project OpFor is cancelled.
I'm not going to go into detail about it, but to clarify a few things;
- No I don't have any bad blood between myself and Spotty (though I guess he wont be very happy when he reads this journal. Sorry Spots :<)
- No, I have not started a fight with the person who originally approached me about it
- No, it does not have anything to do with me having a mate (for 7 months now)
The reasons are of a extremely personal and sensitive nature that I refuse to discuss further than saying that certain aspects of the project have now haunted me for a good year and have become hazardous to my stability as a person in both artistic process and offline life.
Having said this, the project files that actually HAVE been finished WILL NOT go online, save perhaps the first few pages that don't relate to my issues.
- END BAD NEWS HERE -
On the happier side of things; As I mentioned before, recently celebrated the 7th month with my "new" mate, with whom I've been very happy and I'm looking forward to a bright future with :3
I will upload some artwork soon. One piece today, the other likely tomorrow.
For all the people waiting on me to produce artwork for them; no, I haven't forgotten you, even if it might seem like I have.
University is drawing a lot more time and energy out of me than I'm comfortable with, especially now since my project team fell apart and I have to work on my own >.O
Maths and Geometry test coming up in two weeks... or three, not sure... but hey, whatever.
I hope you guys are all having a good time and that I'll actually manage to return here again some time soon, with a little more productivity from my side.
Since my game reviews seem to be rather popular with you guys, I'll offer a choice of Halo:Anniversary or MW3 next, if you guys are interested. If not, I'll just spam you with it anyway when I get the time X3 Skyrim wont happen, because I've seen what that game does to people's time and I'm not a super fan of fantasy RPGs >.O
After that last rant on BF3 I actually have an update on art for once, though the news isn't pretty.
Let's get the unpleasant stuff out of the way first:
About two years ago someone approached me about drawing a picture of Antar and Shandi sharing some quality time together. I talked to
spottythecheetah and the picture turned into a story turned into a comic, a small cut out of which I updated quite a while back when I had gotten started on the colors. I was dedicated to finishing this project for once, because I have so many open ended things lying around, and I liked it very much, but I now have to announce that Project OpFor is cancelled.I'm not going to go into detail about it, but to clarify a few things;
- No I don't have any bad blood between myself and Spotty (though I guess he wont be very happy when he reads this journal. Sorry Spots :<)
- No, I have not started a fight with the person who originally approached me about it
- No, it does not have anything to do with me having a mate (for 7 months now)
The reasons are of a extremely personal and sensitive nature that I refuse to discuss further than saying that certain aspects of the project have now haunted me for a good year and have become hazardous to my stability as a person in both artistic process and offline life.
Having said this, the project files that actually HAVE been finished WILL NOT go online, save perhaps the first few pages that don't relate to my issues.
- END BAD NEWS HERE -
On the happier side of things; As I mentioned before, recently celebrated the 7th month with my "new" mate, with whom I've been very happy and I'm looking forward to a bright future with :3
I will upload some artwork soon. One piece today, the other likely tomorrow.
For all the people waiting on me to produce artwork for them; no, I haven't forgotten you, even if it might seem like I have.
University is drawing a lot more time and energy out of me than I'm comfortable with, especially now since my project team fell apart and I have to work on my own >.O
Maths and Geometry test coming up in two weeks... or three, not sure... but hey, whatever.
I hope you guys are all having a good time and that I'll actually manage to return here again some time soon, with a little more productivity from my side.
Since my game reviews seem to be rather popular with you guys, I'll offer a choice of Halo:Anniversary or MW3 next, if you guys are interested. If not, I'll just spam you with it anyway when I get the time X3 Skyrim wont happen, because I've seen what that game does to people's time and I'm not a super fan of fantasy RPGs >.O
Battlefield 3 - a game review (tl;dr - really this time)
Posted 14 years agoAlright, so I'm stuck at home, because I'm sick. Being sick I also have very little drive to do anything constructive, which just pisses me off more, but I can't help it. So I spent some more time on the newest Battlefield title and figured I'll give you guys a peak of what I think, now that I've also gotten a deeper look into the multiplayer.
DISCLAIMER: I warn you in advance that this review will probably sound very negative and the part about the single player might include spoilers for some of you. You have been warned.
To start it off with the positive stuff: The Frostbite engine is everything it was promised to be. When you first hop out of the back of that APC it's almost like you're actually jumping into the middle east, all that's missing is the feel of the sun baking you in your camos and the smell of grease, gunpowder and kevlar.
Light feels like light, shadows feel like shados and the pyrotechnic effects are amazing. I have to admit I can't fully enjoy the bits of open terrain we get to see because the video-card on my laptop apparently doesn't quite understand what it's supposed to do with the texture on such big areas, but I'm willing to forgive that for the outstanding job the graphics team has done.
Movement also feels very natural, jumping over obstacles with heavy-handed grace and the sound effects, if a little too hectic at times are also very nicely implemented. It all becomes especially cool when you start blowing shit to pieces, which is one of the major selling points here, I’ll attest to that.
I'll also note here that I feel the Campaign mode deserves a lot more credit than it's given. Yes, I'll admit there's a few hick-ups, like it's the French getting it in the ass 'again' and nukes being the central plot device, but considering that Nukes are pretty much as bad as it gets, it at least makes sense for everybody to be freaking out. All things considered though, I'm not asking for a story driven singleplayer mode in a multiplayer game. That being said, this feature has it's up sides and down sides, the latter of which I will address in the negative section.
And the one last thing I congratulate the developers for is to remember that one last round I have left int he chamber. When you reload your weapon without having fired every round in the mag, you slam in a fresh one and have one round more in your ammo counter. This falls flat with the beltfed weapons because you have to recharge the belt when loading, but even so, this is the first game I know that takes this into account.
-HOWEVER-
...this is already the part where we start getting to the bad stuff of Battlefield 3.
As cool as it is to have that one round in your chamber, giving you a miniscule edge in tight spots, Battlefield 3 makes the same mistake as its two Bad Company predecessors, namely counting ammo via rounds, not via clips or magazines.
In Bad Company this was excusable. Bad Company was never meant to be a serious Battlefield game, being far more arcady in gameplay and thus cutting on it's realism value, I can understand one bullet clips, but Battlefield 3 was supposed to be a return to form. At least for me it was supposed to be a come back to the harsh feeling of the BF2 environments where you'd find yourself in a really tight spot really fast if you keep reloading after every two shots you fire.
And this brings me effortlessly to the weapons.
As fun as it is to be able unlock things, there's a limit as to how far it should go in a game like this and what sort of advantages and disadvantages it needs to bring. I'll say this much, it's true that you have to play one class for a long time before you get it's good weapons, but ever since the concept was introduced with BF2, it's blurred recognizability of sides and certain weapons and upgrades make it really tough for newcomers to get in, especially when there's people sick enough to have all the available unlocks within the first two weeks of release.
Another problem I feel is very present in the game is missing characterization of weapons. This is another holdover from the Bad Company series of games. Correct me if I’m wrong, but so far I’ve seen practically every primary weapon kill a player with two or three shots out of the barrel, regardless of distance (exceptions being super short range weapons, like SMGs). Back in the days of BF2 it was really hard to kill someone with a support weapon from beyond 50 yards. In BF3 I’ve seen machineguns put down more accurate fire than sniper rifles, meaning that, especially with the suppression function brought in from the official Project Reality mod, automatic weapons will “always” have the advantage unless I’m shooting from beyond 600 yards, which none of the maps offer you to do (at least I haven’t really gotten a chance). The weapons just don’t feel like they have any character to them, they all just do the same thing while looking slightly different.
It also just doesn’t feel right that you can unlock almost every weapon for both of the two playable factions, US and Russia, because it just doesn’t make sense for US Marine to be handed a KH2002, especially when it’s got nothing to do with either sides combatants.
Which brings me to the factions and the story mode and something that’s very much amiss.
Battlefield 2 was fun as a multiplayer based game in a conflict that didn’t exist, with one faction that had rarely ever been featured before and another that’s completely made up but super fun, namely the Chinese PLA and the Middle Eastern Coalition.
In Battlefield 3 we have two entirely separated worlds. We have the story mode, which pitches you, a US Marine called Blackburn (haha, for all those of you who know of the Somalia crisis ‘91, Black Hawk Down for everybody else), against the PLR. Supposedly they are a militia, but they’re armed and armored like a regular army, with solid weaponry, T-90 tanks and the KH2002 running almost like a standard issue with them... now wait a minute though, the KH2002 is the regular service rifle of... uhm.. Iran... and a lot of the game (at least from what I can gather) takes place in Tehran. ...oh wow, how subtle 9.9
The alternate reality of the multiplayer pitches the US against the Russian Federation and now please tell me how exactly this adds up? So Modern Warfare has the Russians become Ultra Nationalists and Bad Company had them go on another post-soviet world-domination power trip, but in the singleplayer we have the russians HELPING to prevent a WW3 and in the multiplayer they’re all of a sudden the bad guys again? WTF?!
I also miss having the multiplayer tell me in what way a specific battle is relevant to the conflict at hand. Admitedly, I had no story to tie it to, but at least I could paint a picture of what the hell it was I was fighting for and a wee little glimps of where I was in the world.
The maps have a massive problem for players like myself too, which I’m pretty sure comes from EA and DICE having it in for snipers. There’s no way to get into good cover or hiding spots. All the stairs that lead up either lead me to rooftops I can’t shoot from when I’m prone or to positions that don’t allow me to fire anywhere where my shots could count for something. This is especially true in my personal nemesis level, the grand bazar, or whatever the fuck it’s called. I run around in corners and come across this corner where I discover a staircase and I think to myself “omg, what a perfect position to cover this flag from.” so I climb up there to find that the ground level where people need to be to take the flag is covered by concrete barriers I can’t shoot through from both floors I can get to AND the second flag I can cover is only barely visible from ‘under’ a massive set of highway signposts. The introduction of IR-scopes is also a massive pain in the ass for me, especially since BF3 doesn’t offer an option to be IR neutral like Modern Warfare does, but that’s another problem. There’s so much cover around that is simultaneously useful and useless, since whether or not something will actually protect you from incoming fire is up to whatever the programmers felt like when they were placing a particular object somewhere. It also means that it’s almost impossible to navigate around your map, especially because it only shows you about 20 yards in all directions of yourself, which is a great help... not <.<
Another point is the kill-cam, or rather killer-cam, which shows you the guy who killed you ad his backdrop. HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO STAY HIDDEN WHEN MY POSITION IS LITERALLY SHOWN TO THE ENEMY IF I MANAGE TO KILL HIM?!?!
A full map of the battlefield has also been completely lost, apparently DICE didn’t think it was necessary for people to know where the fuck they are or what everybody else is doing. Which brings me about to what’s missing from Battlefield 3 and what has been missing since 2142 - Singleplayer Battle Mode.
I realize this is a sideeffect of EA being retarded enough to take the maps and everything related to them online, which is probably the most ultimate dick move I’ve ever seen by them ever, but this is really the one big reason it pisses me off.
BF2 allowed you to play the small 24 player maps in singleplayer against bots, which allowed you to get accustomed to your weapons, each class’ strengths and weaknesses and most importantly, the maps and -ALL- vehicles.
Ever since Bad Company you’ve practically had to learn on the fly how to fly a helicopter or a plane, because those controls have changed (no, I will not accept counter arguments) since BF2, which means you either learn it really fast at the beginning when everybody else is as inadequate as you are, or you get a lot of really mean looks, messages and teamkills shot your way because you just crashed a perfectly good chopper, cuz you’re a newby and can’t practice flying it anywhere else but online, where it actually matters what assets you have. Admittedly, apart from actual people standing next to the helipad waiting for it, a crashed chopper goes unnoticed to most people, which brings me about to the last couple of things I have to say about general gameplay.
It took me a little while to notice this, but EA DICE really have brought all the wrong things along into the Battlefield franchise from Bad Company.
Battlefield 2 had a nice ranking system and you actually had to be around ridiculously long on the ranked servers to become a high rank, which hampered your advancement on weapons a bit, but it at least assured that you had to fucking earn them.
You could be a lonewolf, running around, doing your own thing. You could join a squad or make one yourself and be a squad leader with some other guys and if you had the luck of having a commander on the team you could ask him for all sorts of nifty support options, which not only you or your squad could profit from, but your entire team if you did it right. (I’ll admit, I was probably a lot more pissed off at the enemy commander than anything else, because he did have a couple’ options that were somewhat harsh on ‘mortal’ players, but if you had a good team, you could outmaneuver any enemy commander - still, I played mostly on servers where there were no commanders allowed).
What I’m saying is that Battlefield 2 had a good, solid ranking structure and supported team play. People played with VoIP and more than once I found myself performing tactical operations in what amounts to an arcade environment when compared to Project Reality or ArmA. 2142 not so much, but it was still there.
With Battlefield 3 it’s all just become a clusterfuck. You join a server ‘somewhere’, play on ‘a map’ in ‘some conflict’ on ‘some faction’, you unwittingly join a team?... or a squad? of ‘someone’ with whom you go do ‘something’ and shoot ‘someone’ over there, with no idea where you’re going, because you have no world map to orient yourself on and you have shit going off in your face every five seconds and everybody runs ALL-THE-TIME because sprinting is unlimited (at least I haven’t found a limit yet). It doesn’t really matter what class you play, because all the classes have weapons that have properties suitable for all ranges and all roles, with the exception of bringing down tanks, but then killing vehicles in BF2 wasn’t a piece of cake either when you weren’t an AT class, but that’s beside the point.
The HUD is so ungodly fucked up I wonder if they placed a blindfolded visual amputee with Parkinsons infront of the screen with only a mouse and the shapes selected at random. Every text message takes up almost a quarter of your right side peripheral vision because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to give all text a semi-transparent backdrop. You get to have a big fat icon right above your targeting reticle whenever you’re capturing a flag, so all the unattentive little retards who can’t glance in the lower left corner for a half second can be absolutely sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do and no offence, but playing as a recon I need my field of vision as unobstructed by shit that doesn’t interest me as it can possibly be. And wtf is up with having my health bar and my ammo counter in the same exact spot. Apart from the fact that neither of them are designed very well, unless I divert my full attention to something I need to know in a split second, because I’m hiding around the corner from a firefight I need to lay into to help my team members ‘somehow’, I can’t tell which is which.
I don’t know if EA and DICE have just lost track of what Battlefield is, or rather, what it used to be, or if it’s because they feel they have to compete with Modern Warfare, but BF3 just isn’t what I thought it was meant to become. I’ll admit that the Battlefield spirit is in there ‘somewhere’ and I did preorder it for the ‘Back to Karkand’ Expansion pack which will at least bring back some of the most awesome maps from BF2 and I’m hoping I’ll at least get to enjoy those, if only in nostalgic character.
All things being equal, here’s my futile little wishlist for EA: Stop trying to change shit. Seriously. It’s okay to want games to evolve, but you don’t do that with game series’. Never. Ever. Evolution is to game series’ what salt is to a snail, it’s pure poision. I guess it’s a little too much to ask from you to learn from your mistakes, I mean you just kept destroying the C&C franchise when it’s real fans were already broken, bruised and battered from Generals, but I thought Battlefield being your own franchise you’d show at least a little more respect to it... guess I was wrong.
I’ll obviously remain a fan of Battlefield, or at least Battlefield 2 and it’s additions and I’ll play that and Project Reality until everybody else loses interest in it, but I’ll be very, very careful about buying any new Battlefield releases, unless I hear they’ve returned to the BF2 formula.
Yeah, I can see comments coming in here scolding me for wanting things to stay the same, that I should embrace the new ways and let the past be the past. EA knows what they’re doing, right? It’s not like they became a multi-million dollar company for nothing, right? Well, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, because you are the same kind of pop-culture obsessed moronic sheep like the ones who buy an iPhone just to have one for the next time they meet their friends at Starbucks to talk about how Lady Gaga was hitting on Justin Bieber at the Oscar Nominations.
DISCLAIMER: I warn you in advance that this review will probably sound very negative and the part about the single player might include spoilers for some of you. You have been warned.
To start it off with the positive stuff: The Frostbite engine is everything it was promised to be. When you first hop out of the back of that APC it's almost like you're actually jumping into the middle east, all that's missing is the feel of the sun baking you in your camos and the smell of grease, gunpowder and kevlar.
Light feels like light, shadows feel like shados and the pyrotechnic effects are amazing. I have to admit I can't fully enjoy the bits of open terrain we get to see because the video-card on my laptop apparently doesn't quite understand what it's supposed to do with the texture on such big areas, but I'm willing to forgive that for the outstanding job the graphics team has done.
Movement also feels very natural, jumping over obstacles with heavy-handed grace and the sound effects, if a little too hectic at times are also very nicely implemented. It all becomes especially cool when you start blowing shit to pieces, which is one of the major selling points here, I’ll attest to that.
I'll also note here that I feel the Campaign mode deserves a lot more credit than it's given. Yes, I'll admit there's a few hick-ups, like it's the French getting it in the ass 'again' and nukes being the central plot device, but considering that Nukes are pretty much as bad as it gets, it at least makes sense for everybody to be freaking out. All things considered though, I'm not asking for a story driven singleplayer mode in a multiplayer game. That being said, this feature has it's up sides and down sides, the latter of which I will address in the negative section.
And the one last thing I congratulate the developers for is to remember that one last round I have left int he chamber. When you reload your weapon without having fired every round in the mag, you slam in a fresh one and have one round more in your ammo counter. This falls flat with the beltfed weapons because you have to recharge the belt when loading, but even so, this is the first game I know that takes this into account.
-HOWEVER-
...this is already the part where we start getting to the bad stuff of Battlefield 3.
As cool as it is to have that one round in your chamber, giving you a miniscule edge in tight spots, Battlefield 3 makes the same mistake as its two Bad Company predecessors, namely counting ammo via rounds, not via clips or magazines.
In Bad Company this was excusable. Bad Company was never meant to be a serious Battlefield game, being far more arcady in gameplay and thus cutting on it's realism value, I can understand one bullet clips, but Battlefield 3 was supposed to be a return to form. At least for me it was supposed to be a come back to the harsh feeling of the BF2 environments where you'd find yourself in a really tight spot really fast if you keep reloading after every two shots you fire.
And this brings me effortlessly to the weapons.
As fun as it is to be able unlock things, there's a limit as to how far it should go in a game like this and what sort of advantages and disadvantages it needs to bring. I'll say this much, it's true that you have to play one class for a long time before you get it's good weapons, but ever since the concept was introduced with BF2, it's blurred recognizability of sides and certain weapons and upgrades make it really tough for newcomers to get in, especially when there's people sick enough to have all the available unlocks within the first two weeks of release.
Another problem I feel is very present in the game is missing characterization of weapons. This is another holdover from the Bad Company series of games. Correct me if I’m wrong, but so far I’ve seen practically every primary weapon kill a player with two or three shots out of the barrel, regardless of distance (exceptions being super short range weapons, like SMGs). Back in the days of BF2 it was really hard to kill someone with a support weapon from beyond 50 yards. In BF3 I’ve seen machineguns put down more accurate fire than sniper rifles, meaning that, especially with the suppression function brought in from the official Project Reality mod, automatic weapons will “always” have the advantage unless I’m shooting from beyond 600 yards, which none of the maps offer you to do (at least I haven’t really gotten a chance). The weapons just don’t feel like they have any character to them, they all just do the same thing while looking slightly different.
It also just doesn’t feel right that you can unlock almost every weapon for both of the two playable factions, US and Russia, because it just doesn’t make sense for US Marine to be handed a KH2002, especially when it’s got nothing to do with either sides combatants.
Which brings me to the factions and the story mode and something that’s very much amiss.
Battlefield 2 was fun as a multiplayer based game in a conflict that didn’t exist, with one faction that had rarely ever been featured before and another that’s completely made up but super fun, namely the Chinese PLA and the Middle Eastern Coalition.
In Battlefield 3 we have two entirely separated worlds. We have the story mode, which pitches you, a US Marine called Blackburn (haha, for all those of you who know of the Somalia crisis ‘91, Black Hawk Down for everybody else), against the PLR. Supposedly they are a militia, but they’re armed and armored like a regular army, with solid weaponry, T-90 tanks and the KH2002 running almost like a standard issue with them... now wait a minute though, the KH2002 is the regular service rifle of... uhm.. Iran... and a lot of the game (at least from what I can gather) takes place in Tehran. ...oh wow, how subtle 9.9
The alternate reality of the multiplayer pitches the US against the Russian Federation and now please tell me how exactly this adds up? So Modern Warfare has the Russians become Ultra Nationalists and Bad Company had them go on another post-soviet world-domination power trip, but in the singleplayer we have the russians HELPING to prevent a WW3 and in the multiplayer they’re all of a sudden the bad guys again? WTF?!
I also miss having the multiplayer tell me in what way a specific battle is relevant to the conflict at hand. Admitedly, I had no story to tie it to, but at least I could paint a picture of what the hell it was I was fighting for and a wee little glimps of where I was in the world.
The maps have a massive problem for players like myself too, which I’m pretty sure comes from EA and DICE having it in for snipers. There’s no way to get into good cover or hiding spots. All the stairs that lead up either lead me to rooftops I can’t shoot from when I’m prone or to positions that don’t allow me to fire anywhere where my shots could count for something. This is especially true in my personal nemesis level, the grand bazar, or whatever the fuck it’s called. I run around in corners and come across this corner where I discover a staircase and I think to myself “omg, what a perfect position to cover this flag from.” so I climb up there to find that the ground level where people need to be to take the flag is covered by concrete barriers I can’t shoot through from both floors I can get to AND the second flag I can cover is only barely visible from ‘under’ a massive set of highway signposts. The introduction of IR-scopes is also a massive pain in the ass for me, especially since BF3 doesn’t offer an option to be IR neutral like Modern Warfare does, but that’s another problem. There’s so much cover around that is simultaneously useful and useless, since whether or not something will actually protect you from incoming fire is up to whatever the programmers felt like when they were placing a particular object somewhere. It also means that it’s almost impossible to navigate around your map, especially because it only shows you about 20 yards in all directions of yourself, which is a great help... not <.<
Another point is the kill-cam, or rather killer-cam, which shows you the guy who killed you ad his backdrop. HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO STAY HIDDEN WHEN MY POSITION IS LITERALLY SHOWN TO THE ENEMY IF I MANAGE TO KILL HIM?!?!
A full map of the battlefield has also been completely lost, apparently DICE didn’t think it was necessary for people to know where the fuck they are or what everybody else is doing. Which brings me about to what’s missing from Battlefield 3 and what has been missing since 2142 - Singleplayer Battle Mode.
I realize this is a sideeffect of EA being retarded enough to take the maps and everything related to them online, which is probably the most ultimate dick move I’ve ever seen by them ever, but this is really the one big reason it pisses me off.
BF2 allowed you to play the small 24 player maps in singleplayer against bots, which allowed you to get accustomed to your weapons, each class’ strengths and weaknesses and most importantly, the maps and -ALL- vehicles.
Ever since Bad Company you’ve practically had to learn on the fly how to fly a helicopter or a plane, because those controls have changed (no, I will not accept counter arguments) since BF2, which means you either learn it really fast at the beginning when everybody else is as inadequate as you are, or you get a lot of really mean looks, messages and teamkills shot your way because you just crashed a perfectly good chopper, cuz you’re a newby and can’t practice flying it anywhere else but online, where it actually matters what assets you have. Admittedly, apart from actual people standing next to the helipad waiting for it, a crashed chopper goes unnoticed to most people, which brings me about to the last couple of things I have to say about general gameplay.
It took me a little while to notice this, but EA DICE really have brought all the wrong things along into the Battlefield franchise from Bad Company.
Battlefield 2 had a nice ranking system and you actually had to be around ridiculously long on the ranked servers to become a high rank, which hampered your advancement on weapons a bit, but it at least assured that you had to fucking earn them.
You could be a lonewolf, running around, doing your own thing. You could join a squad or make one yourself and be a squad leader with some other guys and if you had the luck of having a commander on the team you could ask him for all sorts of nifty support options, which not only you or your squad could profit from, but your entire team if you did it right. (I’ll admit, I was probably a lot more pissed off at the enemy commander than anything else, because he did have a couple’ options that were somewhat harsh on ‘mortal’ players, but if you had a good team, you could outmaneuver any enemy commander - still, I played mostly on servers where there were no commanders allowed).
What I’m saying is that Battlefield 2 had a good, solid ranking structure and supported team play. People played with VoIP and more than once I found myself performing tactical operations in what amounts to an arcade environment when compared to Project Reality or ArmA. 2142 not so much, but it was still there.
With Battlefield 3 it’s all just become a clusterfuck. You join a server ‘somewhere’, play on ‘a map’ in ‘some conflict’ on ‘some faction’, you unwittingly join a team?... or a squad? of ‘someone’ with whom you go do ‘something’ and shoot ‘someone’ over there, with no idea where you’re going, because you have no world map to orient yourself on and you have shit going off in your face every five seconds and everybody runs ALL-THE-TIME because sprinting is unlimited (at least I haven’t found a limit yet). It doesn’t really matter what class you play, because all the classes have weapons that have properties suitable for all ranges and all roles, with the exception of bringing down tanks, but then killing vehicles in BF2 wasn’t a piece of cake either when you weren’t an AT class, but that’s beside the point.
The HUD is so ungodly fucked up I wonder if they placed a blindfolded visual amputee with Parkinsons infront of the screen with only a mouse and the shapes selected at random. Every text message takes up almost a quarter of your right side peripheral vision because some idiot thought it would be a good idea to give all text a semi-transparent backdrop. You get to have a big fat icon right above your targeting reticle whenever you’re capturing a flag, so all the unattentive little retards who can’t glance in the lower left corner for a half second can be absolutely sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to do and no offence, but playing as a recon I need my field of vision as unobstructed by shit that doesn’t interest me as it can possibly be. And wtf is up with having my health bar and my ammo counter in the same exact spot. Apart from the fact that neither of them are designed very well, unless I divert my full attention to something I need to know in a split second, because I’m hiding around the corner from a firefight I need to lay into to help my team members ‘somehow’, I can’t tell which is which.
I don’t know if EA and DICE have just lost track of what Battlefield is, or rather, what it used to be, or if it’s because they feel they have to compete with Modern Warfare, but BF3 just isn’t what I thought it was meant to become. I’ll admit that the Battlefield spirit is in there ‘somewhere’ and I did preorder it for the ‘Back to Karkand’ Expansion pack which will at least bring back some of the most awesome maps from BF2 and I’m hoping I’ll at least get to enjoy those, if only in nostalgic character.
All things being equal, here’s my futile little wishlist for EA: Stop trying to change shit. Seriously. It’s okay to want games to evolve, but you don’t do that with game series’. Never. Ever. Evolution is to game series’ what salt is to a snail, it’s pure poision. I guess it’s a little too much to ask from you to learn from your mistakes, I mean you just kept destroying the C&C franchise when it’s real fans were already broken, bruised and battered from Generals, but I thought Battlefield being your own franchise you’d show at least a little more respect to it... guess I was wrong.
I’ll obviously remain a fan of Battlefield, or at least Battlefield 2 and it’s additions and I’ll play that and Project Reality until everybody else loses interest in it, but I’ll be very, very careful about buying any new Battlefield releases, unless I hear they’ve returned to the BF2 formula.
Yeah, I can see comments coming in here scolding me for wanting things to stay the same, that I should embrace the new ways and let the past be the past. EA knows what they’re doing, right? It’s not like they became a multi-million dollar company for nothing, right? Well, you know what? Fuck you. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, because you are the same kind of pop-culture obsessed moronic sheep like the ones who buy an iPhone just to have one for the next time they meet their friends at Starbucks to talk about how Lady Gaga was hitting on Justin Bieber at the Oscar Nominations.
