I've been working on this custom Tunnel Rat for a while, and you go and release a new figure! One that I actually like a lot (except for the lanky arms, but that can be fixed). So I'm left without motivation to finish him. Thanks a lot.
And O-M-G. Is that a little EOD bot accessory? Did somebody say "Battlefield 3 M-COM station playset"?
I've actually got a pile of finished customs I've been meaning to share, I just haven't gotten around to photographing them. There's a neat little collapsible light booth at ThinkGeek that I've put on my Christmas list, that should facilitate better and more timely photography. I don't have room in my apartment for the abomination that is my current light booth.
No video game can be truly organic, at least not with the current technology. Everything that happens is governed by programming; even seemingly "random" events are just a series of scripts reacting to one another.
Still, the illusion of randomness and free will is one of the most compelling aspects of games. An excellent example can be found in Skyrim. Just the other day, I stepped out of a gloomy dungeon to a winding, rocky path beside a stream. A light snow had just started to fall, and I was ready to hit the road again towards my objective (some fort at the western edge, the details didn't concern me).
A dragon swoops in from the horizon. I was surprised, but after a few dragon encounters, I shouldn't have been. This was routine; dragon battles aren't scheduled, but they are predictable. But it was the manner of its arrival that surprised me the most. Just before attacking me, the dragon changed course to immolate a a gang of highwaymen further down the road.
After repeated requests for more customs, all I can say is, "I'm working on it."
Welcome to the jungle!
Fear not, got a batch in the works right now that'll make it off the table soon. Sigh... nothing ever seems to escape the table. I'm always going back and tweaking; I'm like the George Lucas of customs.
Anyhoo, I've got this G.I. Joe set coming up, among them Tunnel Rat. He's got an olive drab t-shirt right now, which may or may not have some straps or equipment covering it. Nevertheless, I'd like to paint a design on his t-shirt, just to make things interesting.
Thing is, I can't think of anything to paint on him. So any suggestions you'd have would be greatly appreciated. It'll be your little contribution to the finished figure. Drop me a line or post some pics in the comments. Keep in mind a few criteria:
Only a few colors (1 or 2 works best)
Fairly simple and recognizable. This will be quite small, and I have to hand-paint it on a 1/2" area
Subject in keeping with the G.I. Joe military theme. In-jokes and references to other media/properties are OK
Maybe Tunnel Rat's bio will help you with ideas. Good luck!
Congratulations are in order for Javis Ray. Legacy Control has been picked up for "syndication" in Kotaku's Sunday Comics feature.
While there were seven other equally worthy contenders, LC managed to pull ahead in the votes. Inside sources say the numbers were very close, so community support was doubtless invaluable.
So a big thank you from Javis, and from me for helping me help him. He's put a lot of work into LC over the past few months… a 3-day-a-week release schedule is very grueling. And I think you'll agree that he's really locked down his art and storytelling.
Legacy Control will be joining Kotaku's lineup of video game-related webcomics this Sunday, October 9th. And of course, you can still find it over at legacy-control.com.
Javis Ray's Legacy Control (featured here previously with Unicorn Soup), is now an official candidate for inclusion in Kotaku's Sunday Comics feature.
This is a huge breakthrough for the strip, which has been in obscure indie territory for too long. With your help, we can finally get it some much-deserved recognition.
Even if you don't read it (which is a shame, you really should), please take five seconds of your day to click some buttons and help Javis out. Wrecklaimer and I have a vested interest in seeing the strip succeed, and we're really pulling for Javis to make the big time.
Please show your support at Kotaku's voting page. And stop by Legacy Control for a thrice-weekly dose of funny bone dry humping. Oh, and Javis and the family are ill right now, so think of this as a charity event. No, we have no shame, but thanks for asking!
And for all you Battlefield 3 Beta "fans", I'll just leave this here...
With customs, "simple" and "straightforward" don't necessarily mean easy. Take Ivan the Space Biker, here. He's pretty much a GI Joe head on an Iron Man figure, but it's not as if I just popped a part of one and stuck it on the other.
Click for full size
Let's see… I had to sand and sculpt over the arc reactor on the chest, cut the neck peg off and replace with a new one that fits GI Joe heads, cut down and resculpt the stems of the new hands, sculpt the massive beard and sculpt the collar (barely visible under the beard, unfortunately).
Not to mention the head-to-toe silver paint job with Crom knows how many coatings of black wash and brown drybrush. The paint job was actually kind of fun; I didn't have to do a lot of sanding or sealing. So it was all my imagination and a paintbrush.
"Hey sexy."
Ol' Ivan doesn't fit a particular intellectual property… I just envision him as a hulking badass with a big gun. Maybe a steampunk Soviet soldier in power armor. In any case, the name comes from a concept version of Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. The resemblance is mostly in the big, bushy beard. I also had a character in Fallout 3 and New Vegas of the same name who was fond of power armor and big guns.
Ivan missed a career in pro wrestling
Sadly, no literal space biking, which would be cool. Also, no shoulder pads! I know, sacrilege. But how the heck could he rotate his arms more than 5 degrees with them? Homeboy's got a big gun to lift, after all.
Who's scruffy-looking?
My, what a big gun you have!
I also considered loading him up decal "tattoos" for the suit and bandoliers. But they seemed to detract from the beauty of the suit, so other than the faded red star on his chest (barely visible under the beard), his suit remains unadorned.
Seems the photography works well enough that I can start getting other projects documented. I have a bad habit of scrapping them and going back to the drawing board. Got a few more on the shelf, and a lot more in production. More soon, I promise!
What is there to say about George Lucas that hasn't already been said? It's been six years since the last Star Wars prequel, so the rabid fan hate has died down a little.
Cue earlier this week, when Lucasfilm confirmed that a clip from the soon-to-be-released Star Wars Blu-ray edition was genuine.
The scene in question is was one of the best in the Original Trilogy. Palpatine is cooking Luke with lightning while Vader looks on. There's no dialogue, but we can imagine the torture inflicted on the man behind the mask.
When Vader finally snaps, he wordlessly turns to the Emperor, picks him up and tosses his ass into the nearest bottomless pit. It was sudden, and all the more dramatic because the Dark Lord never uttered a word. You can imagine he thought "Enough of this shit," before consigning his master – and himself – to death to save his son.
The whole prequel callback is nothing new; the DVD edition of the OT (which came out shortly before RotS) inserted a Gungan into one of the final scenes and replaced Boba Fett's voice with prequel actor Temura Morrison's.
The phenomenon of Lucas' meddling with the OT is nothing new, but this is the final straw for me, and a lot of other fans, I'm sure. I don't own a Blu-ray player anyway, so the new release of all six films doesn't mean that much to me.
At this point, I'm inclined to shun the Special Edition/DVD versions entirely and pick up the original prints on DVD (quietly released a few years ago). Sadly, these haven't gotten the digital cleanup process (though they never fixed the lightsabers and "black slugs").
I wonder if Lucas is completely beyond redemption. In his battle to save his livelihood and vision, he lost sight of what made Star Wars great. Now he's obsessed with rewriting history, remaking classic films with technology that was but a dream in the 70s. It just doesn't work; perfectly good can't be made better retroactively.
You know what George, go make some new films. Not Star Wars films. He bitched for years that he wanted to make small, experimental features. Go do it! Money isn't the issue. And you obviously do not give a single fuck what people think of your craft.
Speaking of Lucas films, Red Tails will look pretty, but suck. Calling that right now. I don't care what is involvement was, anything the man has touched since The Last Crusade has been crap, at least compared to the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
Let's pray that Indy is done being raped after the Kingdom of the Crystal Meth. I'd hate to see the original three ruined… wait. You know what, do what you will with Temple of Doom, it's asking for it.
With 1280 Microsoft Points burning a hole in my account and an ongoing Fallout: New Vegas obsession, I figured it was time to pick up some DLC.
I had heard good things about all three of the currently released expansions, Dead Money being the least popular (though not to say it's bad). Old World Blues seemed like the best choice.
Fallout 3 handled DLC well, in that all items could be brought back to the main world. Only Old World Blues in New Vegas allows this, which is strange. OWB also allows haircuts, facial reconstruction, and skill reset. The first two were available in Fallout 3 without additional content, so I always wondered why New Vegas didn't have them.
Friends, I am truly blessed. I have not one, but two excellent webcomics to enjoy that were made by people that I know. Do yourself a favor and check them out. My personal (and very biased opinion) is that they're some of the best on the Web, while still newcomers. Check out...
This first got its start a few months back. Legacy Control features the madcap video game and pop culture adventures of two dudes and a pink rabbit. While I love Rabs to pieces, this ain't Winnie the Pooh… definitely an adult strip. Do not confuse "adult" with "mature", though. There's plenty of scatological and sexual humor. The commentary is spot on, too. I particularly enjoyed the strip on the Wii U.
The writer/illustrator/CEO is Javis Ray, a Cincinnati native who manages to find time for a thrice-a-week webcomic and plenty of Minecraft. Not to mention a full-time job, wife and two kids. Don't know how he does it… but we get to enjoy it.
Check out Legacy-Control.com MWF. The website will soon get a fresh coat of paint, thanks to Wrecklaimer, the webmaster. Yours truly designed the logo. Maybe someday I'll need to update it with a ™ symbol or something… Javis is shooting for the moon with the strip. Personally, I'd like to see it get a spot on Kotaku's Sunday Comics. That would be an excellent first step toward world domination.
Unicorn Soup
I don't know that Unicorn Soup would fit in with Sunday Comics. For one thing, it's a good bit longer than most. And while I love the day-brightening one-shot strips like Legacy Control, the Soup is more gourmet… you gotta savor it. Which is appropriate, because the current schedule is weekly.
I can't say enough good things about the art and writing. It's really no surprise that it's the product of "Jim" and "Jack", two blokes I know from Xbox Live who are fine, upstanding Americans (sorry, Canadian friends). The writing really speaks to gamers' experience, and the art is right out of a serial from the '50s. It's a very classy way to approach topics in gaming.
Check out Unicorn-Soup.com, which has some great web design, too. There are only two strips out at the moment, but fear not; Jack and Jim have many more in the can and will doubtless keep it up as long as they can.
The fact that Jim, Jack, and Javis can put out such quality work is amazing. They all have wives and kids and full-time jobs. What's your secret, guys? What drugs do I need to take to achieve your productivity?
Gentlemen, I salute you. Consider me your first and biggest fan. Keep up the good work.
Last week, I was standing in my local Gamestop (one of two that are less than a quarter mile from my apartment), lost in thought.
I had two Russian-themed FPSs in my hands: "Metro: 2033" and "Singularity". Unfortunately, there could only be one.
On a whim, I went with "Singularity."
I was intrigued by the "Bioshock"-ripoff vibe I got. Turns out that vibe was pretty accurate. There are a lot of other influences mixed in, particularly "Timesplitters" and "Half-Life." But "Bioshock" is the most noticeable; sadly, "Singularity" doesn't live up to its pedigree.
I don't always get drunk on Saturday nights; but when I do, I play Xbox.
Unfortunately, I'm not a savant that goes from average player to Drunken Master. In fact, the last time I played "Battlefield: Bad Company 2" whilst under the influence, I ended up trying to repair a shed instead of a tank.
You'd have to ask my friends whether or not I'm particularly obnoxious while drinking and playing… but I like to think I'm not a complete jerk. I'm normally a very self-conscious drunk, often apologizing for my poor performance (that's what she said). If anything, my stupor makes the conversations with my Xbox Live buddies all the more amusing.
After scoping out the Mass Effect 3 news, I decided to sit through EA’s E3 conference, waiting for my Battlefield 3 fix. The almost endless onslaught of sports game news quickly made me regret that decision. Through all of the promises that these games will be the best in the series (isn’t that kind of expected?), they didn’t really get my attention until they debuted The Sims Social.
And not in a good way. More of a ‘why would you go and do a thing like that’ way. Watching it made me kind of sad for humanity. Essentially it enables Facebook users to act out their awkward social life in The Sims (you know, what we did before Facebook, anyway). I'm not sure which I'm more upset by: that it actually exists, or that people will probably use it. The Facebook chat exchange of "where can I find a man like that?" responded to with "The Sims Social, girl! And if you can't find him, build him!" is all the more disturbing. Please don't clap, E3 audience! You're only encouraging them!
Browsing the front page of the local newspaper today (that’s right, a twenty-something reading a dying media), I came across something I hate to see in the news: video games. Below the main headline read “Brothers Played ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ Drank Before Officer Was Killed”.
The article is a follow-up to the recent shooting death of an area public safety officer. It presents updated information regarding the shooter (who was also killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound) and the circumstances leading up to the crime. The same article is available at Mlive.com here.
I was pleasantly surprised to find webcomic Legacy Control up and running the other day. I must say, Javis is still doing one heckuva job on the comics. The new site design is pretty boss, too. I recommend taking a look through all the comics, if you have a few spare minutes.
If my two cents is worth anything, I'd say that Legacy Control is above and beyond most of what you'll find in Kotaku's Sunday Comics. The artwork is especially good, and with some dedicated editing, I think the strip could really take off.
Take off into what, I'm not sure. Certainly a bigger readership couldn't hurt. All any artist really wants is for their work to be appreciated. When I say "don't quit your day job," I mean it in the nicest way, though. Because if he can manage a full-time job and a family, and still find time to put out such great work, that's the best of several worlds right there.
Having never played “Diablo” or any of the other famous dungeon-crawling, loot-mongering RPGs, I was intrigued by the console release of “Torchlight” on Xbox Live Arcade. While I very well could have picked it up on PC for much cheaper (and had no problem running it), we all know I’m a console man at heart.
Besides, the console port of “Torchlight” is very well done. The controls are simple and direct, with mapable buttons and triggers for spells. I wouldn’t call the game simple, but it’s a perfect fit for light arcade gaming.
In a distant wasteland, a lone wanderer approaches...
One of my weekend side projects is now complete. I'm in the process of making it presentable (i.e. I suck at photography and must spend a lot of time in Photoshop).
If work like this continues, I'll have to get a photo-sharing account to upload everything to. For now, the images will be hosted here; hopefully I'll have everything up shortly.
I'm quite proud of how it turned out, and can't wait to share it. Now that I have some more confidence in my craft, I should be able to buckle down and get a few more projects and complete. More on that shortly.
Now that I'm back from job training, I can get back in the groove and finish up some projects I've been working on. At least, I hope so. Work's still real nasty right now, so most of my time off work is spent chillin', ya dig?
Speaking of which, Rifflix Night on Xbox Live was inaugurated two weeks ago. It's an officialized communification of a tradition my brother (Wrecklaimer) and I started a while back. We'd watch a movie together over Xbox Live using Netflix instant streaming. Inevitably, we turned to mocking the films.
It's pure gold. Ba-zing!
XBL friends MichiganSniper5 and ImperialPie joined me for a viewing of "Leprechaun in the Hood." After some screwing around, trying to figure out how to get everyone watching the same thing, we had a great time. Unfortunately, Wrecklaimer had suspended his Netflix account on account of his school schedule, so it was just us three.
Thus, a tradition began. I've received some positive feedback from friends who want to join in, and a few questions about the whole thing. Here's a general overview/FAQ:
As a fanboy, it is my duty to offer baseless speculation on media or products that are months away from release. The hallowed release of the “Star Wars” saga on Blu-ray is no exception.
I may be a fanboy, but I’m a very selective one. Too many fans get stuck in a rut as Original Trilogy-defending curmudgeons, decrying anything “Star Wars” released after 1983 to be sacrilegious crap. And they’re mostly right, except for a few instances. They just need to remove the lightsaber from their Sarlacc pit and lighten up.
I bet you thought this linked to the goods.
Sorry, I suck at Web design, OK?
Hey, kids! Do you like "Star Wars"? You do? Super! Do you also enjoy foul language and sex jokes? Well golly, do we have the webcomic for you, courtesy of Javis Ray of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Click here to have a gander. Definitely NSFW. And I won't even insult your intelligence with an age verification widget (though I'd like to).
Tell me this doesn't make you chuckle... or haunt your dreams. Javis is a coworker of mine who's in the process of getting this sick and twisted webcomic series up on the interwebs. I'm not sure if you can really get more nerdy and obscene at the same time, but I'm sure he'll try.
And if you would be so kind as to suggest a title for the comic, it would be appreciated.
