Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Releasing the neurotoxin


GLaDOS, the sweetest AI since Shodan.
I don't know what's with the "seemingly omnipotent AI with a fragile insides" -thing, but internet has proven that I'm not the only one having a sweet spot for such brilliantly written female AI's.
Pushy, childishly selfish and calculatingly rude, still smart, ah-so-sweet, and in absolute control of the whole goddamn facility/spaceship you're in, kinda. Ah<3.
Behavior like that just feels somehow cute and acceptable when it comes from a malfunctioning machine :p.

I've been wanting to draw GLaDOS for some time now, Portal had a huge impact on me when I finally bought the Orange Box some months ago. I didn't think that such a beautiful yet simple writing existed anymore in games. Oh the black humour.
As the credits rolled I truly realized what love is.


Feels nice to have a place where I actually enjoy writing and drawing stuff for.

0rigins

Or Silent Hill Zero, originally for PSP.
My friend bought it for PS2 and we played it through somewhere during last month. I had my initial mood based mostly on early screenshots like this utter poop one, so I'd set my expectations to nil.
So at first I couldn't avoid being positively surprised; hey, at least it actually looks pretty good.
Oddly though the characters, their modeling and everything, were kinda lazy and basic stuff compared to the surroundings, not to mention characters in any other Silent Hill.


The story told is just what we already knew, stuff that lead to SH1, moviefied with some bleh-effects including flying!Alessa in a stiffy prerender and other stuff to surely blend the overall feel downward. But also with some nice puzzles and neat surrounding aestethics and some demons of Travis' past.
And it was good to see Lisa alive again :>.

The soundtrack is excellent. One of the best in the series I'd say, too bad the game itself left so little memories to strenghten the music even more.


I guess it could sound kinda neat as a puzzle concept that Travis has the ability to switch from this side to the Other by sticking his finger in any mirror at any time; ping, you have two worlds to explore for the prize of one puzzle. Too bad Travis isn't supposed to be Raziel and the whole effect kinda ruins Everything.
Why? Because I as one enjoyed the otherside transitions most when they were subtle and you'd find yourself wondering 'Wait, were those walls that rusty and dirty just before..?'. The feel how the town itself seemed to lure you somewhere you didn't want to go and slowly changing around you into something you didn't want it to change. Now it kinda nerfs the unpredictability and replaces it with a feeling that Travis has somehow subjugated Silent Hill itself by having this kind of awesome power to go however he pleases. Bleh.


Also, the combat kinda sucks donkeys. The problem is that every single weapon you'll find breaks after about ten or so hits.
It seems logical enough when the huge glass bottle you're carrying around shatters when you forcibly place it into someones face, but when the same happens to your solid iron wrench after just a bunch of swings it kinda leaves an awkward feeling. And since stuff breaks, there has to be a lot of stuff around to replace them. Even to the extent where you'll wind up carrying multiple copies of everything imaginable from IV drip stands to small TV-sets and file cabinets to be used as a weapon.

Oh well, done whining.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Wounded forest

ouch

So here's for another sleepless night.

..I had a dream of being some kind of monster hunter last night, somewhere in the middle Europe I think. It was all really confusing, I think there were bears too.

Monday, July 28, 2008

White rabbit & silk fox

Fran

A little giftart from some days ago made all colorful and stuff.

HA HA I'M USING THE GLORY DEVICE

phead

So I heard pyramid head is going to have a big role in Silent Hill: Homecoming, formerly known as Silent Hill 5.

GG The Collective, among other brilliant stunts you've pulled this far. Should I get worried, and just how worried, when probably every fan out there knows more about the world than these people who are actually writing an official game about it?
A brief spoiler to explain my nausea; James' subconscious created phead, with a little help from the town of course. So I guess they better have a sassy explanation for this -- the movie was a borderline case as it still was possible to see it just as an adaptation (and since it sucked ass apart from the visual side).
The existences of any incredibly 'clever' twists in plot I do highly doubt, and phead has been just a sad fangirl-magnet ever since the movie.
Dear god, I never get tired of ranting about this, but somehow I do not wish to see phead as some kind of Cid making totally unrelated appearences in every possible game there's gonna be. That's Robbies job anyway.

Come SH2, let's make sweet love in moonlight to reminiscence the neverfading memory of your name's former glory.

Monday, July 21, 2008

This blog in *orz*

English it is
So much to change, edit, tweak and *dance*, hopefully this works out in the end.

Photobucket

http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Orz_communications

Ja alussa oli alku

Joka siis alkoi jotakuinkin näin. Nyt.

Jonkinlaista kuvablogijuttua olen halunnut pitkään, tämän tämmöisen luonti tänne oli hyvin pitkälti muutaman sekunnin sisään mahtuva keksintö, että katsotaanpas miten tässä käy.

Metsäseikkailulta napattu kuva, rakennettiin tuontuommoinen kivitaideteosjuttu Sakarin kanssa tuohon metsikköön. Lähinnä koska pystyttiin siihen.

Photobucket

Sitten säätöä blib blob.