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!

FPS FFS!

The first person shooting genre wasn’t much to shout about during the Emap era. Sure, we had a classic selection of blasters on the PC like Doom, Duke Nukem, Hexen etc but setting them up for play on our crappy office PC’s was a nightmare. During the Maximum years (well, months actually!) we begged for a decent console FPS but always had to turn to the PC for a decent LAN match along with the essential control combo of keyboard and mouse. That day is now over I believe. It seems the biggest FPS names are making the headlines first on the consoles and Xbox is clearly leading the way. Bioshock, Gears of War and Halo 3 have already kerb stomped the PC to the head. Now we have Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and the bullet to the brain, has at last, been finally delivered. No painful installation process, no Starforce protection b*llocks, no performance issues because your graphics card needs updating. It is just amazing, incredibly solid online action with stunning graphics and one of the best character customization features of any shooter to date. Oh and did I say it plays like a dream on the control pad? Sadly today is the last day to enjoy the beta build so if you have an account then hop on and pop some more terrorist scum before it’s turned off!

Attack of the Mutant Tat!!

Probably one of the nicest gentlemen in video games today is Shigeru Miyamoto. I doubt I met or interviewed anyone as much as this chap and he always had time to talk to you, answer any question and scribble his name on anything thrown in front of his face. One such item was this hand crafted ocarina we picked up in Japan and took with us for one of many interviews we had at NOJ headquarters. These instruments are readily available in Japanese stores so they are quite easy to come by. Purchasing one that is signed by the legend who also adorned it with a little triforce drawing will be next to impossible though.

Feel old just thinking about it!

Long before NMS and Mean Machines existed I sat at home in my bedroom earning a few bob drawing fantasy art for various tabletop games companies and magazines. Most of my work was for Games Workshop in the form of Warhammer 40k. The success of this work earned the occasional stint for TSR and White Wolf but it was with GW that I did most of my work. Games Workshop was a cool and laid back company in those days. Not anymore it would appear. I found this out when I tried to secure some of my old artwork back from their evil dungeons earlier this year. I was up against the modern day equivalent of a castle wall with automated phones, personal assistants and legal departments throwing up every defence imaginable to prevent access to my old artwork. They were just too lazy to fish a few pictures out of a drawer and mail them to me. What was annoying was the fact that they placed an ad across the internet asking for artists to reclaim the material as they were clearing out the old artwork! They tell you to get in touch and then tell you to get lost when they change their minds. Any budding artists out there take note: Never send originals!

Tat of our Time

Not Japanese and not particularly desirable but this ancient Time Boy is purest tat nevertheless. It was considered the coolest of covermounts at the time and did it’s fair share in shifting NMS when it was first launched. Didn’t know I still had one but found it lurking under a crateful of hoarded tat up in the attic.

Halo good? A myth surely...

Living in a games-filled household I naturally keep an eye out for upcoming product that might entertain me or my boys in the future. I have several categories for the games which I update each day based on reviews, recommendations from mates and other sources. Bioshock was classed as a must-buy. No plodding through Ebay looking for a bargain, no wait-for-weeks Tesco rental. I had to own it without delay! Other games like Overlord and Prey were listed under wait and see. They looked decent but did not quite justify those extortionate retail price tags. I got both of them for silly money on Ebay after waiting patiently for a decent auction to appear. With so many products shipping in the next few months I have a huge list to work my way through. One game that’s not on my list is that pile of spank known as Halo 3. I find the whole Halo experience quite boring and shamelessly derivative. The Sun are calling it the 'Game of the Decade' and I am willing to renounce my Halo-hating ways if Micro$oft write me a cheque for a similar amount. Bungie need to return to their roots and bring back a updated version of Myth. Maneuvering a pus-filled explosive zombie behind your opponents line of archers and then… boom! Now that’s magic!