As I mentioned in a recent “artboard” post I’ve recently become interested in the intense, deep, gothic sci-fi table-top wargame and fantasy book series Warhammer 40k. I love it. The lore, the races, the strategy. It’s everything I’m interested in all rolled into a compact expressive, creative package.
Admittedly I only became interested after playing the excellent Space Marine on PS3 (my favorite game of last year) and became more obsessed after I played through the Dawn of War series, read some Black Library books and an old 3rd edition rulebook from a local used book store.
Like Hans Gruber from Die Hard (maybe not the best role model…) I always enjoyed models as a kid but hated painting them. All those tiny parts with horrible paint that never went on cleanly… I just wanted to put my tank together. Putting together Citadel miniatures has been a new experience. Not only do I like putting them together but I actually enjoy painting them. It requires a lot of focus, steady hands, and patience, which thankfully I do actually have (thanks to years of drawing and old-school gaming…) Though I have a couple of battleforces in boxes ready to emerge onto the battlefield, I started with the easy-to-put-together miniatures that came with my starter paint set.
These guys were supposed to be Dark Angels but because I grew to love the Dawn of War Blood Ravens characters I decided to go with that paint scheme. They aren’t finished (I haven’t put any wash on them and I plan to print off some chapter-specific insignia) but I thought I’d share my progress!
It’s my first time painting anything like this…definitely anything this small so there’s nothing but room for improvement but I’ve enjoyed it and I hope the future models will only get better.
This was the first guy I ever painted. I primered in Chaos Black, air brushed in Mephiston Red and layered from there!The backpack.
The Dawn of War series also introduced me to the Orks and I love those guys. Their gruff, simple demeanor. Their remarkably descriptive slang. Their ultimately unruly appearance and junkyard tech. Gotta love orks. Because I’ll mostly be playing with myself (hey, you in the back, stop laughing. Care to share what you thought was so funny with the rest of the class?) to learn the rules and get used to the complicated ins-n-outs of the game I bought Assault on Black Reach at a local hobby store and started painting the Orks as well. Not only are they a lot more details in their equipment and appearance than vanilla marines, but they also present a lot of variety and possibilities in painting. I’ve only painted some of them so far, but I feel my abilities and techniques have improved from what I did with the Marines. They are still very beginner but I’m happy with them so far!
I didn’t follow the model in the Black Reach book and went my own direction on a few aspects, like the checks on his orky belt buckle.The twin guns and boss pole on the back of the warboss. I used the new Citadel paints as well as a couple older ones. Then drowned them in Nuln Oil. I figure I’ll get the hang of shades by the time I get to my Zagstruk finecast…The start of my little Waaagh! The warboss, a couple of boyz (one wiff a big shoota) and a nob. I decided to make them Goffs, not only for the color scheme but because I like the idea of a horde of infantry.The side of my first deffkopta. This one took some time and didn’t come out perfectly…but I was still pleased with my first vehicle effort.A pic of my Nob (you again? I said stop laughing!) It was the first chain weapon I painted and I liked the messy splatter effect.Drawing inspiration from the bigger ork, I painted this littler guy up to match him.My Waaagh! so far.
I hope you enjoyed my first painting attempts. As I go on and get a little more experienced I plan to share more. Once I get into live firefights I’ll be posting on those as well!. It’s been a fun, and fascinating entry into the 41st millennium so far!
Inspiration hit again this weekend as I came across a movie I cannot resist watching: Independence Day. I have seen this movie dozens of times, and it gets better, and worse in some cases, every time.
I realized during this viewing that Independence Day was my first alien invasion film. It was my first “aliens are not our our friends and will kick our ass” Sci-Fi movie.
A lot of people may scoff because I had not yet seen classics like Alien, War of the Worlds, or Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but I loved slasher films and Pulp Fiction more than anything at that age. Independence Day actually inspired me to watch the other alien movies.
I remember seeing Independence Day and being mesmerized by the shots, the White House being destroyed, and it was during this movie I came to love Will Smith.
So, for a fun Sunday read, here’s what I learned and loved about Independence Day.
1. Special effects could look real. This movie sucked me in from the first strike to the final escape from the mothership. After the first assault, there was something so disturbing and admittedly cool the Statue of Liberty laying face down in the ocean. The effects were not over-the-top or goofy; they were almost too believable. I guess that’s what earned Independence Day an Oscar in 1997 for Best Effects, Visual Effects.
Photo courtesy of Pop Culture Ninja
2. Will Smith was awesome. I watched Fresh Prince with everyone else, but it wasn’t until this movie that I appreciated his smart/bad ass side. He punched an alien after taking it down and talked trash to it. You don’t get much cooler than that.
3. Bill Pullman is not a very good actor. No offense, I love him in this movie and While You Were Sleeping, but he forces emotion. The script was well written, but Pullman did not bring me to tears or make me pull for human survival. I love watching him, but I am convinced it’s his eyes and smile.
4. The world needs heroes. In this movie, there were regular people doing amazing things for survival. Who could forget Russell (Randy Quaid) telling his kids he loved them as he helped save the planet? Or Jasmine (Vivica Fox) trying to get her crew, including the First Lady, to safety? In an alien invasion, there are no super heroes, only real people.
5. Jeff Goldblum made being a computer geek cool. I wanted to block cell calls, decode weird signals, and help save the world. The Smith-Goldblum team was movie magic as they raced off to to the mothership.
6. Not all aliens are like E.T. These aliens were intelligent, huge, well defended, and not playing around. They were not cute, would use your body to take the planet, and they did not care. This movie showed with enough fire power, a city could be destroyed in a matter of minutes.
So, what do you think? Where does Independence Day rank on your list of Sci-Fi alien movies? It may not be a Sci-Fi/horror movie, but it’s a good action flick that makes you realize we’re not as tough as we think.
Anyone who has read my section in “About Us” knows I have of late gained a massive interest in Warhammer 40k. Thereby giving me +100 to my “King Dork” abilities.
Honestly, I didn’t even know much about it until “Space Marine,” which was my favorite game from last year. Purists might scoff at my console-game entry into this vast universe, but, to quote James Rolfe: “To be a fan of anything, you have to be exposed to it first.” Since discovering the incredibly deep and detailed world of the far future, I have read several novels, collected many art books, played through the Dawn of War series, watched the fun Ultramarines movie, and even started my own army (pics of my first painting attempts coming soon!).
Though I began my knowledge with the Ultramarines and read books about both Space Wolves and Grey Knights, it’s the Librarian-Knowledge-Centric Blood Ravens from Dawn of War that appealed the most to me.
I utilized this overwhelming interest to exercise more of my recently acquired, albeit limited, Illustrator skills. While I’m still in the “look what I can do with polygons” phase using only the limited tools that come with Illustrator (the preloaded color options, shapes, etc), and creating objects and/or figures that just stand there, I was impressed with how much could be done using just what was learned in a few Google-found tutorials. This has been a fun exercise in making something I’m interested in to try and learn to operate Illustrator and make using all the tools and functions second nature. It was also an exercise in mass-production as I started with the basic marine and used parts from that piece to create the others. I also created two artboards of “stuff,” weapons, insignia, and symbology that could be used over and over in various places to prevent having to re-create anything.
How impressed I’ll be with these early efforts next year only time will tell, but for now I give you my 2D squad of cartoon-style Blood Ravens!
My first effort. Basic tactical marine all cartoon’d out. I gave him a standard bolter and a couple of grenades.This one was a nice exercise in different equipment. Making that chainsword was a blast and the first part of the Blood Ravens’ motto can be seen on its blade.A heavy-support devastator marine with heavy bolter. This one proved tricky and needs the most correcting. I made him a veteran just to mix up the colors a bit.Captain Angelos with the Godsplitter. Making the artificer parts of his armor were an immensely fun challenge. Also he’s the only one with a human face. He’s still a cartoon but mostly recognizable!The final piece of the squad, Davian Thule as a Venerable Dreadnought. This one was obviously the most difficult, I could borrow very little from the others. It was also the most fun to build! There’s some canonical text on his armor. Davian Thule was my favorite character in the Dawn of War series. I wanted to ensure his venerable dreadnought state got the respect it deserved.
These were fun creations and made for nice self-taught Illustrator tutorials. They’re still 2D flat objects, but are pretty far from my first “magnifying glass” creation, even though they were created essentially using the same concepts. Next I’m going to try some expressive orks and maybe more dynamic character art. These were fun though and hopefully they’ll be enjoyed!
During my early NES days I considered platformers and action games to be my favorites. I bought nearly all of my games used from a local hobby store and only ever got new games for Christmas or my birthday. Contrary to popular belief, the price of games has always been high. It’s only gone up with current generation games and then only $10 up from the glory days of NES and Sega Genesis. Because there was no internet and I didn’t have any magazine subscriptions the only way I could find out about games was from other kids talking about them or renting them from the local video store, The Video Place, which is long defunct and had a limited quantity. Because of this I never owned some of the most popular games of the time. Despite my love of platforming games and action games I never owned Super Mario Brothers 2, Double Dragon, Ninja Gaiden, or Contra. I did own Mario 1 and 3, Double Dragon 2, and Mega Man 2, but I also had some weird/bad stuff like Narc, the Predator game (based on the movie) and some from the now infamous LJN movie series, Nightmare on Elm Street and even worse…Jaws. Since I didn’t know what was out, good, or popular, I went with what was familiar. I liked Freddy so I bought the game. Narc was cheap and available. I loved (and still love) the Predator movie so I bought that one too (though it sadly didn’t work…talk about one disappointed kid…). Not only did I go with what I knew, but I was also usually restricted by what the local comic book/used media store had in stock. Often this meant buying obscure titles but sometimes I lucked out; like when I wanted a Game Boy for my birthday but they only had Game Gear which was both in color and awesome to the 12 year old me. Another lucky find was Dragon Warrior.
I bought Dragon Warrior (or Dragon Quest to Japanese fans) because I thought it was a Legend of Zelda-style adventure game, or hoped it might even be a Double Dragon 2 style beat ‘em up. I played the hell out of Double Dragon 2 and hoped for something similar in a fantasy environment. Shockingly, when I put the game in I saw the most rudimentary graphics I’d ever seen on the NES. My character was a barely animated sprite. Most of the game was text. And then there was the game play… Why am I talking to guards? Who are these people? Is that mass of blocks with the brown square a shop? Is that smiling blue thing really a bad guy? Is the ghost making a face at me? Why don’t they move? What am I doing? Why doesn’t this damn bamboo pole do anything?! Why is it in the game if it doesn’t do ANYTHING?! These were my first thoughts on Dragon Warrior. And I hated it. Or at least I said I did. But for some reason I kept playing it. And kept playing it. I had no idea what I was doing so I wandered randomly, kept fighting creatures, leveling up, and collecting money. I died. A LOT. I wiped every couple of hours and was magically transported back to Tantegel Castle where I was robbed of my gold and forced to walk back to where I died where, if I was still too low in level, I would wipe again rinse and repeat.
When I first played this game ye olde timey dialogue was easily mockable. It eventually grew on me to become some of my favorite video game text. Which is good…since most of the game is text…“Who are you people?! Why do you keep repeating the same unhelpful advice ad infinitum?!” That accurately expresses my initial feelings on NPCs in Dragon Warrior.
Because I didn’t play any of the table-top RPGs I had no concept of RPG conventions. Character traits, character status effects, enemy levels, listening to NPCs, attack-misses, and running away…it was all a mystery. So I wandered aimlessly for hours and hours. I had no idea I was actually power-leveling and grinding. Every now and then I’d come across a new town, village, or environment texture and was thrilled to see something new. As I progressed further into the game I started to figure out the methodology. I listened to all those guys who said the same thing over and over (and over and over) again. I started following their advice, and found Erdrick’s Sword and armor and figured out how to defeat the Golem. It was immensely rewarding to easily best the Green Dragon and save Princess Gwaelin and get my status updates by using her “love.” There was nothing more satisfying to a young gamer than to eventually grind your way (on purpose!) to the Dragonlord’s Castle.
The fight with the Dragonlord was harrowing. I remember my heart pounding in my chest as the music came up and he changed from a warlock into the massive dragon. Beating Dragon Warrior was by far the most memorable video game victory of my youth. In most games of this era, once you figure them out you can beat them quickly and easily again and again. This was the first game I ever played that required as much toil to beat again as it did to beat it the first time.
It is still the best RPG I’ve ever played. Its simplicity and design taught me patience in gaming, strategy in tactics, how to listen to characters, to pay attention to the surroundings, to remember details, and even how to “trick” the game to make things easier.
Yeah that’s a shop-pe. More specifically a weapons shop-pe. You can tell from the little sign. Simple and clear!
Modern RPGs have abandoned many of Dragon Warrior’s “slower” tendencies. Most of them now play more like action games to compete with flashier titles and more instantly gratifying games. Everything happens quickly, fighting is rarely turn-based, and few necessary story elements require serious problem-solving. To me (and yes I’ll show my age here) there is something far more entertaining and rewarding about going through a game line-by-line to dissect the correct course of action.
As was stated in my “Value of Life” post, success and failure meant something in this era. Often it meant starting over from the beginning (or in this case the beginning place which was punishment enough based on how slowly you moved…) This required you to get good at the game. It rewarded you for your progress with little short cuts, power ups, and story elements. Even in the many Dragon Warrior remakes they’ve removed many of these elements to make it a “faster” more “friendly” game. Give me standard NES Dragon Warrior any day. There’s a reason I still have my original poster (with map on back!) framed on my wall.
It’s still my favorite game of all time and perhaps the one that taught me some of the best traits to add to a gaming/personality skill set; patience, attentiveness, strategy, problem-solving, plus text swordsmanship/”HURTMORE” spell mastery. If you get the chance, break out the cart and play it. Even today it might teach you a little something.
My original Dragon Warrior poster. I thought it was lost forever and found it folded in a book. It’s hanging in a place of honor next to my High School Diploma and College Degree In many ways it represents my entertainment media education!
Just don’t join the Dragonlord…seriously…don’t do it…
Have you ever visited a site and music immediately began playing? I don’t know how you feel when that happens, but I hate it. I will go back and visit another site, or quickly grab the info I need and bail.
I was afraid this chapter would be dry with technical language or encourage the idea of using sound upon entering your site. However, I found that the same rule applies with sound as it does with images and movement: sound needs to have a purpose and move the story along.
Felder does a good job of explaining the process for adding sound — from idea creation to recording tips. She even explains how to create a pop filter to get rid of those nasty pops and cracks from microphones to use during podcasts.
This week instead of summarizing the chapter, I want to share a Korean ghost story. This story correctly incorporates images, movements, and sound.
The comic is imaginative, beautiful, and creepy. I have seen it several times and am still uneasy every time I read it. It is one of my favorite stories I have read recently, and you will notice everything I have discussed in the last few weeks applies. This is a great example of what to do and how to do it well.
This story is a webtoon, which is an animated comic strip that is available online. I warn you, this webtoon is not for the faint of heart. If you do not like scary things or are not an adult, I would proceed with caution. If you don’t believe me, check out their warning before you read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
The first post in this series was a fun one, so this one will be an actual lesson I learned from game-master Hideo Kojima. Also telling this story to the other half of the RevPub team provided inspiration for the Life Lessons series.
Most of us play games without giving thought to life or death. Even when we die in games it’s never terribly critical. I’ll show my age when I say this but…there was a time when dying in a game could bring up a dreaded GAME OVER screen that actually meant something. It usually meant starting over from the beginning. Of course this was after expending a number of lives, so even then your own character’s death meant little, let alone the countless enemies that were stomped, shot, burned, or blown up during your gaming rampage.
This has changed in the last few years with games like Demon’s Souls and its sequel, Dark Souls, where death is more than just a minor inconvenience and can change the alignment of the world and the style of gameplay. But even in these games slaughtering countless monsters and faceless knights was a positive and absolutely necessary as it provided you with currency.
And that’s the classic relationship of games. They reward you for offing enemies; the tougher the enemy, the greater the reward, and this trend is true across genres; mindless shooters, over-rated RPGs, basic platformers, and even the earliest arcades. I won’t go into a preachy lecture about what this teaches gamers. Games are entertainment, they aren’t meant to teach players how to behave and anyone who thinks stomping on someone’s head is a viable method of problem-solving needs help anyway (though I could be persuaded it is likely the best technique when dealing with giant belligerent mushrooms…) This doesn’t mean games can’t occasionally teach you something about the value of life and one such game for me was Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
Get ready…if you played through the first time like I did…this is going to be a long walk….
Hideo Kojima turned the gaming world on its head with Metal Gear, a game series that rewards players for not killing, not being seen, and not interacting with enemies except when deemed necessary by the narrative. MGS3 brought this to an entirely new level, however. I played MGS3 the first time through like most of players. I tried to sneak, got busted a lot and had to shoot my way out of danger until the alarms ceased, usually after I killed nearly every guard in the hemisphere and dove under a convenient truck. Even when not getting caught sneaking around, I would camo myself up and use my trusty knife to off hapless guards unfortunate enough ventured by my position. I went through that game like John Rambo on a Red Bull binge until…The Sorrow. After a thrilling chase through the sewers and a Fugitive-style dive into a stream you enter a near-death, dream-like state where you walk down a river. Walking for what seemed like eternity I kept passing shadowy figures of faceless guards all screaming and showing wounds. It took so long to walk though the river I thought I’d hit a glitch. Until I saw The Pain, an unmistakable early boss, crawl by. Then dozens more soldiers…and The Fear. It finally dawned on me: the countless soldiers I walked through…were all the people I’d killed in the game… I walked through the river for no less than 15 minutes. It’s a long time just to press forward on the analog stick and an even longer one when hundreds of men I’d killed screamed in agony around me. By the time I got to The Sorrow, the boss of the stage, I barely wanted to play any more. Before the battle commenced I reset the game…and started over. The second play through I killed no one, was never spotted, and (yes it lowered my ranking) used only the tranq gun and CQC. Never had a game so brutally shown the consequences of my actions and blatantly shoved my easy-way-out choice of gameplay right in my face. Only Kojima could think of something like that.
Hideo Kojima, the dude that made me question my morals…
Since then games like Heavy Rain have offered similar experiences to face the consequences of your actions but MGS3 still stands out, not by punishing you through points, fewer power-ups, altered story-telling, or reduced game play time, but by making you literally face your victims. In the end it is just a video game but it gives me some hope in humanity…because if a machine, a video game, can learn the value of human life … maybe we can too ; )
Electronic media: saving humanity from itself since 1991…
Revenant Publications 