Fragging Place

OK, So I have to sell my ‘87 RX-7. Which isn’t going to be like a walk through the park. Posting on Craig List is fine and dandy if you want 80% of the people responding to be scamming jerk offs. So I decided to make a flyer, YAY! It actually turned into something much bigger then I had planed. Now I am not complaining really because let’s be honest doing anything creative is just totally awesome.

Now a trip to Kinko’s…

and I am off to spread my love….

The last time I ever played a Remedy game I was running around old school style comics putting holes through hoodlums in bullet time. However, now thanks to Remedy I’ve gone from the dark sticky nights of New York City to crazy back woods deer hunting yokel town of Bright Falls. Nothing about this town is bright I might add. Well maybe except for the old guy with the eye patch rocking out to Coconut. Which I now find myself now singing “She put de lime in de coconut, she drank ‘em bot’ up” at random intervals throughout the day, very addicting song.

In a way Alan Wake reminds me a little bit of Jack Nicholson’s character in the Shinning. Well, minus the creepy kid who likes writing on doors backwards with lipstick, anorexic wife with snot bubbles and that he drinks imaginary JD while talking to a creepy ghost bartender named Loyd. OK maybe there are a lot of differences but the whole stressed out writers block attitude, while being stuck out in the middle of nowhere is all the same.

So far it’s an awesome game that will defiantly go into my list of treasured games.

Maybe I will be the only person that gets this image…. I can’t stop laughing though it’s the first thing that popped into my head when I was writing this post.

So I finished my zombie controller last night and it turned out a lot better then I first thought it was going to. There are a few things that I don’t like but seeing as this is only my second attempt at it I’ll let it slide. Originally I was going to sell this one but seeing as this whole thing is still trial and error I don’t want to sell someone something that will take a crap in a month. So I plan on beating the paint right off this controller if it’s possible.

With as many coats as it has on it I want to say that it’ll hold up to normal wear but we will see.I will upload another shot of it once I have it re assembled.

Yeah, I painted the girliest controller ever and I’m about the most non girliest woman ever. I am sure it could be worse though, I could have painted Hello Kitty.

I may sell this one on ebay or something soon.

My list of future controllers is getting out of control…

Male zombie controller

Female zombie controller (same as the one I am keeping)

Male Bioshock controller

Female Bioshock controller

Katamari controller

Modern Warfare 2 controller (still trying to figure out how to place it on the template)

Shaun of the Dead zombie controller

Gears of War controller (still in sketch process)

Frog controller (for my niece)

So I began working on my second 360 controller last night. Not sure how it’s going to turn out but my hope is I’ll like it so much I will fight with myself over selling or keeping it. Greedy? Maybe… But if I like it then it’s sell-able.

I definably wanted the background to be grungy/dirty with a feeling of “fire and chaos” but about halfway through I got frustrated with the colors and had Kenneth re-sand it down. While he sanded the as he put it “baby poop” colors off I sat down and began mixing colors to find what I was really wanting. A little moss mixed into a healthy glob of brick red later yielded the best results. I was extremely happy with the color I finally produced. It wasn’t brown but it wasn’t red or green either, it was just zombie theme perfect. Definitely nice when you’re going for that end of the world feel.

Colors in place I began again tackling my latest and greatest. I even took some time and used up my unwanted color mixtures to paint zombie silhouettes all over my cardboard stand. So I couldn’t be happier, well that’s a lie. I can’t seem to duplicate the zombies as well with a paint brush as I can in open canvas with my pen tool. Frustrating but do-able, and in the end I like how they came out, not a lie. Distance and very little detail works best when painting something this small.

I should have the controller completed sometime this weekend. Then I can have Kenneth put on the finish coats to seal in all my painting. Once that is done I just need to go purchase a new controller gut it and put the guts in the freshly painted controller, slap it into the new controllers packaging then sell it. Yeah that doesn’t sound complicated or anything….

When I sketch out my ideas for the controllers it’s a breeze on paper since I am working on a flat surface and I can simply erase what I don’t like. That all ends though the minute I try recreating that image on the controller with paint. All that breeziness comes to a crashing halt. Working around the curves and different sections of the controller can make a simple image complicated. Now I know why most people use sharpies or stick to simple designs like tiger stripes. But I am bad with pens, I hate the mess, and simple/plain is just not part of my vocabulary.

In the beginning I tried sketching my plans out on the controller before painting but the pencil marks get smudged and following those lines exactly never seem to work right. Worst thing about it is the pencil lead shows through the paint sometimes which bugs the hell out of me because I know its there even if no one else see’s it. It’s like having a black sheet of paper and sticking a fraction of a shade lighter black dot in the center of it. No one else might see it but if you see it, it drives you nuts.

At one point I even thought about taping off the images before painting but that’s just more work to me to have to do. One controller can take me about 4 -5 hours to paint that to me is too long so I’m not about to tack on another 5 hours. Besides cutting out strip after strip of tape to get it just right would drive me up a wall. Yeah prep is good but unnecessary if it’s not needed.

So I stick to just winging it straight through. To me it’s just easier to pick which image I want and just start painting, after much cursing, the controllers always kick ass in the end anyways and if it doesn’t it’s back to a sheet of sandpaper for a do-over.

I loved the first Bioshock, played it over a dozen times over and still couldn’t get enough of it. Now there is Bioshock 2 and I must admit I like it even more then the first one. It’s…. in a word a lot more “comfortable” to play. The mechanics are nice and the battles are hard earned, specially when dealing with a Big Sister or protecting your little sister. Protecting takes on a whole new meaning though when you can set up multiple traps that go above and beyond just killing splicers (FUN).

My favorite times in the game though are when I have a little sister. They are more interactive then ever and fun to listen too. So far my favorite lines are…

“MMMM, Marshmallows”

”Daddy’s giving you Star’s and Birdie’s”

“Don’t make Daddy angry”

“Angel belly, my belly, who belly, your belly.”  -  Reminds me of the ice cream song!

Talk about delivering the goods. Borderlands said they would give us down-loadable content and so they have.. unlike some games…but that’s a dead horse rant for another day. As for Borderlands, I fragging love it!

Even without the extra content I doubt I would bored with it. The characters are entertaining, the voice acting doesn’t make me want to punch my speakers and the leveling isn’t insanely long and intensive like some  games out there where you have to dedicate your entire being into it just to get to level 50.  Best part about it is the guns! I LOVE the guns, specially the shotgun class. Nothing says loving like a shotgun in your face.

To sum it all up the game is satisfying. The Co-Op is one of the best I’ve ever had the privilege of playing and I have played AL LOT of Co-Op games.

I LOVE CLAPTRAPS!!!

Last weekend I was graced with the pleasure of catching a fellow coworkers funk. It’s been so long since I have been sick that this cold is beating me up.

After much debating and my boss giving me no choice so I stalked off to see the Doctor, where I later learned that my cold went from typical cold to an all out sinus infection.So it’s medication and codeine cough syrup for me.