Decent updates incoming

Been chocka with work stuff and no time to wipe one's backside so my apologies for a delay in new posts. Plenty of interesting tales are in preparation for future updates including some choice words on NMS freebies, Maximum, more top tat, Go magazine and others. Wrapped up Blue Dragon a week ago and it wasn't too bad at all. Ending was a little easy due to some insane power levelling that boosted the shadows till nothing could touch us. Blasting my way through Orange Box now so I can clear the decks for COD4!

Puzzling Tat of our Time

Now when you think of pastimes that rival video games in terms of fun and sheer pulse-racing excitement what is the first thing that comes to mind? Freakin’ jigsaws that’s what! They don’t come any better than this T.Hawk 108 piece classic either. Who needs Gears of War 2 when you can idle away the hours figuring out which part of Hawk’s jeans you have in your hand.
Ken ftw!
Capcom announced a new Street Fighter game with a cracking trailer which you can watch now on Eurogamer TV. Trailers aren’t the best way to get me enthused over a game but this particular example is truly superb. The paint splash effects and the stylish use of tones and shading are really nicely implemented. It’s unlikely the game will look anything like this of course but it’ll be interesting to see what Capcom have done to the brand this time around. What we don’t want is another SF EX okay!

Don't be blue Mistwalker…

…because Blue Dragon isn't all that bad! It got torn apart by 'professional' game reviewers (I know exactly how writers react when get forced to take a RPG on) and from the demo it appeared to be an endless string of brain-killing monster encounters. Blue Dragon isn't perfect by any means but its true old-school RPG nonsense in the traditional Japanese vein. It's got enough boxes ticked to please pretty much anyone who gets a kick out of playing one of Square's efforts. Heck, any game where you battle crabs & snakes made from 'poo' and has Boss battles drenched in glorious Ian Gillan rock music has to be a winner! Well, until Orange Box hits at least…

One of the first but not the final

Another very old image drawn right at the start of all things Mean Machines. Final Fight was a big arcade favorite of mine so it made it an ideal choice for this comic strip-tips combo. I did two pages but the second was wrecked when I attempted to colorize it and made a right pig's ear of things. What a monkey.

Mean Issue Zero

Dug this parchment out of my old college art binder, which was a big surprise, as I did not realise I had it anymore. This Ninja Gaiden doodle was my first ever image for Emap and also the first time I had combined ink and paints. Looking at it now I can see that blending orange and yellow hues with a solid black cloud inked with pen was a disaster waiting to happen. Still, the cover console strip that ran down the left hand side managed to hide most of it.
Art Class incoming
Going to begin a step-by-step series of posts that show how I draw a little comment character. Starting soon, I have chosen a Leadbetter figure and Bioshock is the game he will be customized for. In fact, I reckon Rich will make an excellent Little Sister as he is already used to skipping around in tight skirts with his hair in a ponytail…
Thirsting for games
There’s a bit of a good games drought in the Harrod household at the moment. I picked up Blue Dragon on Ebay the other day for under £20 but the post strikes are keeping it from me. I wasn’t overly impressed with the Blue Dragon demo but it will serve to pass the time while I wait for something better. Valves Orange Box might be the ticket. Played Half Life 2 to death but it was a superb game so I can quite easily go through it a second time on Xbox. Very interested to see how it controls with a pad this time around. That and Team Fortress 2 will hopefully be enough to tide me over till COD4 kicks down my front door.
Better in the red than miss Led
It now seems I am one of the 980,000 other people who never got that email with the Led Zeppelin concert code so I only have one thing to say. Arsecakes. Still, it might get recorded so I could at least see what went on and skip through the support acts, which no one cares about anyhow.

To read this post turn to page 45

I picked up a few copies of Proteus magazine off Ebay recently. Proteus was published by IPC magazines and was a blatant attempt to cash in on the Fighting Fantasy book phenom. I worked with other regular artists to produce the artwork for each issue. The magazine did not last long but was a nice supplement to my other work for Games Workshop.
Kick to the Kods!
COD 4 beta ended yesterday and I am already suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Curse you Infinity Ward! Make it a little less addictive and more like Halo then I won’t be sobbing at the demo screen trying to launch the game!
Last FM
You may or may not have noticed the smart music-playing widget that sits over in the sidebar to the right. This neat pop-up allows you to listen to the kind of stuff that fills the air at Harrod towers. The constant barrage of guitar-filled noise keeps me sane during deadlines and now you can make your soft, easy-listening attuned ears bleed to real music!

Heavenly Hill or Silent Pigswill?

Silent Hill. Love it. Played all of them to death and both of the forthcoming Hill games are starting to generate some great buzz across the interwebs. The horror series has a passionate following and the fan forums have probably written a billion words on the decision to take the development reins away from Inamura and Team Silent. I am pretty confident that both games will kick ‘monkey ass’ judging by the trailers and screenshots for both Origins and Silent Hill V. The Xbox 360 developers, The Collective have gone back to the visual style of SH2 which most people agree was the best of the series. You can also see plenty of nods to the Gans movie and we can all agree that the visuals where the only thing that movie had going for it. Still, I'll be buying both when they get a shelf date. Thinking about it, Origins will be the only reason I will turn on my PSP since I got the system from LA when it launched a few years back! Go Sony!