Christmas Project

Christmas was drawing close and all deadlines have finished. I am snuggled up and thinking about the project that has recently just being given to us. “Evil Christmas character”. Now this is going to be fun! But where do I start. I don't particularly want to do a mainstream character such as a bad Santa stealing presents or a naughty reindeer. I want to go outside the box. So what better place than where did Christmas start. It was all based on the birth of Jesus on the 25^th December. So what could I do with that? Well there is baby Jesus, so let's try and use him and see where it takes us!?

General Mood Board

Refined Mood Board

I came up with many ideas to do with Jesus. Especially Jesus killing Mary and Joseph or killing the 3 wise men. But I realized that'd produce some debate and may cause some concern. But I only realised this when I was half way through digital painting baby Jesus. But because it is a baby I can change it into whatever I want. So how can I use a baby? I rammed my brain of ideas and none seemed to work and sometimes I just wanted to scratch it altogether.

In the end I started creating silhouettes of my baby holding a decapitated reindeer head. So it relates within Christmas since it has a reindeer head in its lap and it is based around Christmas Eve. I started detaching the antlers of the reindeer and putting it on the baby's head or just different positions of the reindeer head around the baby. I stuck to an idea that the antlers of the reindeer would be broken off and scattered. I then worked on the eyes of the baby. I wanted the baby to look like it was possessed. So I gave the eyes a cloudy effect to show it had been taken over but a sweet innocent baby on the outside.

Eye Experimentation

Reindeer Head Experimentation

But while I was working on my baby and reindeer I found it a struggle to adjust the reindeer head properly and in the end gave up. I decided that one side of the antlers I liked and used them. I used them in a way that they were behind the baby as if he hadn't done anything and acting all innocent, however he is covered in blood and there is bloody footprints around him and blood splatters everywhere. But I like how the reindeer antler is only a suggestion of what the baby could really do. As if it is only the start of something more. Now every time I look at this baby it creeps me out.

However I could improve. Maybe even work on the reindeer head more or make it even more christmassy be scrapping the idea altogether and starting from fresh. But with my very first major digital painting I am happy with the outcome. It at least put my tablet to good work!

Step 1

Step 2

Step3



Step 4

Review on my game

Games, games, games. I love them. I love games that are good, and I love games that are enjoyable. I've always played a range of games! Whether its RPS, FPS, Horror, 3^rd person, Action, children, anything! I've had many consoles too, the ones I remember having are Gameboys, Nintendos, Playstation, and even the Xbox. But what I am loyal to is the Playstation. Between the two consoles of Playstation and Xbox there are games that are only made for one type of console. Whether it be Blue Dragon for just Xbox or Uncharted on PS3. Some games never cross over. Which is quite a disappointment in all honesty. But that's life! But in this blog I am going to write about a game. I am going to review. Why? Because I want to rant on endlessly about a game that I have enjoyed playing!

EDI

“Shepard out”. I head towards out of the comms room and onto the bridge. I walk through seeing my soldiers working either side of the platform in their Normandy Alliance uniforms, proud to serve protecting the galaxy. As I enter through the door I see Jeff or known as Joker. What a man, a long term friend and a loyal one at that. He has never lost faith in me and that I respect. Next to him is EDI the intelligent AI. I was never a big fan of AI's but she grew on me. Thanks to the illusive man! But it was nice seeing Joker and EDI getting it on and although she was coming to terms with a new body she was looking pretty damn fine in it, and Joker thought that to. Having a loyal chat with Joker it was time to head down to the main battery, where none other than Garrus Vakarian was. Probably calculating some works with guns and re-adjusting a lot. Garrus a Turian and a very damn handsome one at that, and those scars on the side of his face was such a turn on for me. His voice is soothing with a little husk to it, and he was caring. So so caring and loyal. I wanted to be with him, wanted to be his girlfriend, who cares about inter-race love. I wanted him. I wanted him now. I remember facing the collectors, before we went through the Omega-4 Relay, he took my up to my room and we made love. He looked up some videos on how Humans romance which was at first a little weird, but hey. I enjoyed it. It was. Cute. He is getting better and thank god I found him on Palavans moon, Menae while looking Primarch Fedorian. Shame Fedorian was dead. But Victus is a good replacement and I'm sure he will do well as a Primarch.

Know what game I’m talking about yet?

The collectors were stopped but there was another threat on its way and no one is listening to me. The reapers are coming and it's only a matter of time!

What is going on? No one will listen to me, the council are useless and I am not working. When will this end.

What? What the hell was that? Why am I needed so urgently with the council. They need my help?

Shit, shit, shit. How can I be walking across the building with reaper ships landing, all I’ve got to do is follow Anderson. I need to get to the Normandy, I need to get out of here.

Know which one I'm talking about yet?

Mass Effect 3, a role-playing game developed by Bioware and published by EA for Windows, Xbox and PS3 (only the second and third Mass effect was released for PS3, but that has changed with the recent release with the trilogy on PS3 as a whole). It was realised on the 6^th March 2012 and marked the final chapter in the trilogy. It has the single player campaign and a multiplayer, with a 4 person co-op. From what you have played from the previous Mass Effects greatly influences your renegade and paragon scores as well as characters and influences upon the galaxy. It was a continuation from the previous Mass effect where you can import your character and still play as that. But if you wish you can start from anew.

A lot of the gameplay has changed from the two Mass Effects that I have played, so I am going to review Mass Effect 3 with a hint of 2. In both of the Mass Effects there were scores you can gain from conversations with people. These conversations can lead to having renegade or paragon scores and greatly alters the types of conversations you have with future dialogue. If you chose the path of the paragon, it means you are for the greater good. Paragon is what you could say, the way of light. It includes logical dialogue and affects other characters in a good way where they can become loyal to you. If you chose renegade you could call it the dark side. Renegade produces harsher more fierce interactions with others and is a darker side. This can affect your character by having less loyal characters and choosing different paths. Everything you chose within the dialogue affects what happens in the future with other species, councils and companions. This is the same for Mass Effect 2 and 3 but what I didn't like was in Mass Effect 3. When there are cut scenes in Mass Effect 3 you can choose whether to use a paragon or a renegade action. I like the idea of intervention to allow you to take control of how you want the conflict to end, but, to be honest, sometimes it had both options and I didn't know which one to go for. OK, that may be me being lazy to chose for myself, but shouldn't the actions relate into what your paragon/renegade scores should be, like in Mass Effect 2? Shouldn't it? But throughout the game I was a paragon. I did use some renegade but that was only in panic and sometimes I missed some paragon. Yes that annoyed me, and when I was distracted I also missed it.

The galaxy map. Where do I start? So I got confused with it! This time the galaxy map was set out into what seemed like to be sectors within the galaxy. Then within that where clusters and in that were planets and in that there where different areas of the clusters that you could travel across to AND of course you had to use the Mass Relays to get to each destination. But the scanning, oh thank god did they change the scanning! You needed to scan endless amount of planets to get elements to research and get new weapons and mods! What the hell Mass Effect 2?! But this time in Mass Effect 3 you only had to scan planets if there was a mission to gather some resources and assets to help you in the war effort. This came in handy! The only thing I didn't like was that every time you scanned a planet that was in reaper territory they suddenly came after you, and when that alertness bar was at max, the sheer noise coming from them made me panic! Yes I thought maybe if I wait they might board and I could fight them, no. “Critical Mission Failed” appeared. Bulls. Start again! It was nice having that sort of configuration within the map!

Interaction. Things. Doors. Pickups. It was okay. I mean I missed some vital assets to take back to the citadel and had to buy the from the spectre requisitions in the citadel embassies. So that's 1000 credits down the drain! That was only because things that you could interactive with didn't appear or light up enough unlike in Mass Effect 2. So things were pretty easy to miss! Things such as people too. Sometimes they didn't talk, but their lips kept moving, or the doors would take about 2 mins to open? I don't know if it was running slow, or it was my game, or it was having to think about things? It just seemed annoying.

So the weapons, ammunition and biotics! The biotics were good. It had a fairly simple upgrade system when you gathered points. For example if you wanted to upgrade your singularity biotic you clicked on it then used up the points wherever you wanted. After the 3^rd upgrade you get to chose between two options such as “increase damage to armour and health” or “decrease recharge time”. It was entirely your choice. You had a maximum of 8 upgrades per biotic which include in ammo, such as armour-piercing, incendiary ammo and cryo ammo (always go for incendiary, makes your life a hell of a lot easier!). The weapons were good, but there is one small point that I have to make! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS WEIGHT THING?! I understand guns weigh a lot, but your in a different galaxy and you have things called biotics! Why is it, that if you equip heavy guns your recharge time is increased or decreased! I had to chose 3 types of guns to keep my recharge speed as high as possible by putting on less weight. I know confusing. It confused me. It is ridiculous. Unlike in Mass Effect 2 you were allowed to equip about 6 different guns or whatever. But in 3, you had to be picky. Luckily with some weapons there were mods to allow you to give it ultra-light materials so it made it lighter for you to carry. It just annoyed me, but in the end the only gun I ever used was my Geth Pulse Rifle. It didn't have great damage but I trusted it!

My companions on missions, where do I start? I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS had Garrus as my companion. I never let him leave my side. I had to once or twice but that was it. The best combination was me, Garrus and Liara. All had different biotics and that's what came in handy! Was able to destroy shields with overload from Garrus and use Liaras warp and warp ammo with my smothering of gun fire, that takes them down easily! What I didn't like is that I had a limit number of companions on my ship to take with me. I used to have a massive squad and now I have 5 squad members to pick from. Maybe it is a good thing, I don't know, but I liked having a big squad and I like having all those people on my ship.

The graphics, are pretty good. I suppose. The textures worked well and there didn't seem to be much going wrong with it. Until I saw those eyelashes. What in gods name where my characters eyelashes doing?! Some times they stayed on the eyelid like they were supposed to and next thing I knew they had morphed into the eyelid and have disappeared! I'm sorry but that's poor and it happened in both Mass Effect 2 and 3! Sometimes the guns wrapped around the body, oh and one of my favourites was I started to float in the air and get stuck. I couldn't get out, I couldn't move forward or backwards, plus the more I tried, the more my buddies got stuck with me! In the end we were all floating in mid air in an invisible box with no where to go?! Oh and that kid in my weird crazy dreams, he ran like an idiot. I couldn't stop laugh and had to pause and walk away. It was ridiculous. The loading was pretty quick and didn't have to load at every new room I went into unless it was within the Normandy going to different levels.

So I want to summarise now. Those good and bad points about one of the most talked about games, and the one who has won a lot of rewards! I enjoyed the game a lot. I enjoyed the plot and the romancing and the side quests. It was scaring, entertaining, funny, serious and emotional. I won't spoil the ending. But if I had to play it again I would. Maybe I’ll work on my renegade scores and see what happens with that? Who knows. But everything you do affects the future and I want to take all avenues to gather a wider perspective on the game as the makers intended. Sure, there's more to be done. There's different people to romance, different people to kill and even to piss off. But that's all in due time. But those eyebrows, really? Just no.

“Shepard out”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLwZxUeJzK0 - here's a video of the kid in my dreams running!