Been busy catching up, getting further, and looking forward.

Created in Illustrator.

A snippet of a work in progress - Nerd Pickle lamenting his salty watery prison when there is other "more nerdy" things to be done. It’s missing a lot of details at the moment but I’ll move back onto him as soon as I finish a few other items.

There has not been too much to report lately as I have transitioned out of one job and have found myself working on little things for the time being. I’m back to playing World of Warcraft and I am revisiting Chrono Trigger on the DS. I’m also cooking more thanks to an absence of a commute time in the evening.

I am furthering my skills in Illustrator though - which is helping fuel some more research into putting things into Flash. It was something I tinkered with at my last job but never really sat down and pushed at because I was usually too busy doing things related to my job title(s).

I loves me some drop shadow.

For some people it's lens flair, for me it's drop shadow.



Created this for my desktop at work Illustrator. Photoshop just for sizing.

Been playing with Animal Crossing again - this time on the Wii. It's familiar... possibly TOO familiar. There's not much new, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, I think they could have chose to do much much more with it.

A huge thing could have been the way the townsfolk interact with you. Now, I've only been playing for a week... but so far it's been the same ol' behavior. Why not have them recognize when you are wearing something they gave you, or mention how they saw you at Nooks selling what they gave you, or even aknowledge when you take one animal's gift and gave it to someone else. Simple things like this might actually have a meaningful effect on how the player views these otherwise random animals.

I think they could have introduced small games that you could play against animals and could also be played against friends when they are visiting. I'm thinking checkers, connect four, ect. Hell, just throw the clubhouse games in there, Nintendo! If you couldn't give us the NES games like in the first Animal Crossing... this would have been fun too.

I do like the DS connectivity and the fact that I could download my Wild World catalog. Thumbs up for that. I spent A LOT of time in there.

I'll keep playing though to see how things go in the game (tho I have a pretty good idea). One thing that is nice about A.C. is that it is one of the best games I have that I can just relax with.

You never know when it might come in handy...

Sometimes you wonder things... such as... what is the word for a fear of nipples. Apparently 2.7 million other people were wondering the same thing. Makes me wonder... how many of these people would buy a game about mammillaphobia?

Fable II

I have a confession to make...

I like Fable II.

I say this coming off of watching the latest Zero Punctuation where Yahtzee tears into the game with his usual zest. Sometimes it's hard to argue things he brings up because he has a point – however, this time I would argue it was more personal. Like a jaded ex-lover tearing into his former's creation... still bitter over promises from the past.

Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating it a little - but there is also some truth.

I've read quite a bit of criticisms about the game and so many of them are from people who listened to Peter and what Peter promised. And even though some of them say they didn't believe him in the first place... I know they hoped... and it lead to disappointment.

Lesson? Don't pull a Peter.

I was fortunate enough to dodge him this round and I think it lead to me enjoying the game more. Also, fair to note that I did not play the first Fable so any expectations of 'x' and 'x' being improved/corrected/whatever were not there. I went in aiming to have a game that I could enjoy at whatever pace I wanted and I walked out with that exact experience.

Maybe I'll address other things later on (such as “holy crap there were a lot of bugs that made it thru but the game had to be such a biatch to test and you have to draw the line somewhere” and “why does my dog have five stars in attacking but he takes more time to smell the flowers than chomp a Hobbe”) but for now I'll leave with this thought.


**Possible Spoiler**

I read someone who had the criticism that the game peeved him off because it was lacking a huge boss battle at the end. I would like to quote T.S. Elliot here...

"This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."

I can understand if your years of gaming gave you a Pavlovian expectation when you neared the end of a RPG but I welcomed the change that ultimately the choice that came afterwards could be the bigger battle. Unfortunately, I think this was undermined by the fact that not everyone develops the attachment that makes this a meaningful choice. Therefore a Final Fantasy-esque dedication requirement that you can boast to your friends afterwards seems much more like a real accomplishment than “I chose 'x'.”.

In any matter, this is the first game I finished on the 360 in ages and for that I give it a lot of credit. I tend to be married to my DS and make little time to sit in front of my TV religiously and many game's endings suffer because of it.

Lionhead does have an announcement to make in a week or so regarding the game and I'll be interested to hear what they plan on doing. I'll not so secretly hope those of us who ordered the LE can still get our Hobbe.

Feeling wiser...

... prehaps that why this little guy came into being.
(Photoshop and Illustrator)

Test Puppy...

(Photoshop)

Currently under construction...

... more to come. Fiddling with the new format first!

Edit: Alright, think I fixed some bugs in the template. Speaking of, I'd like to mention that I grabbed this layout from http://gosublogger.com/. They did a wonderful job!

Now that I have this sorted, more posts when it is not after Midnight and I have to work in the morning. *chuckles*

Edit #2: I guess construction is now over for the most part. Enjoy!