This is my latest piece of work of Rey. It was inspired by a scene from the commercial for Rey's Jedi training uniform skin in Star Wars: Battlefront 2. It looked so damn cool that I just had to draw the scene. Originally designed to be a vertical image, I knew I had to change to horizontal to show off the Millennium Falcon.
I tried a lot of new techniques on the coloring for this one. My favorite was the grass. It was time consuming but worth it.
Recently, I've begun a creative art stream on Twitch & Picarto to allow people the ability to finally see my art in projects creates live. This can be my personal projects or even art commissions. It's been fun putting on a show for people, and I hope to start interacting more as I work. I'm very new to streaming.
I normally stream to both at the same time, but I'll stream to Picarto exclusively, if a project contains nudity. That's not too often. I try to be online around 9PM EST for about 3-4 hours, but still trying to work out a more steady schedule.
The game LIFE IS STRANGE really stood out for me this year. Not that I play a lot of games, but I'd be comfortable enough to claim it was my favorite of 2015. I can say without a doubt that it's a game that has been one of the most emotionally impactful games I've ever played. Other games have had great 'moments', but this Dontnod joint hit so many spots through all five episodes. You Tube is awash of play throughs of the game to create a figurative river of tears.
What made LIFE IS STRANGE stand out from so many other story adventure games from other publishers, such as Telltale, was the ability that allowed you to contemplate or try out various outcomes on the fly, thanks to the premise of time control. In other games of its kind, they throw dialog options and life choices every few seconds. There is an appeal to the idea of having to make snap decisions on a ticking clock. However, haven't we all made what we thought was a reasonable dialog choice but the outcome of the conversation takes a wildly different tone than you had intended? You're basically stuck with that choice -- unless you reload a check point and the game neglected to auto save.
With LIFE IS STRANGE, you have the freedom to play around with results for most of the game. If something turned out in an awkward way that you hadn't intended, you just have Max rewind time to try out the other option. Something about that made me feel more invested in the outcome.
Those Endings
Now, if there's anything that irritates me in any game is when the developers force failure onto the player. That brings me to the finale of LIFE IS STRANGE. Once more a game based around your choices pulls the veil off the premise of your choices having meaning. Regardless of how you play, you're going to get one of two endings, and it's basically letting the player choose which way they fail. Either you fail to save Chloe or the city. This after the game forcing you to repeatedly save Chloe just to progress. It's a frustrating end to a remarkable story.
It made me wish there was some third, self-sacrifice option to end the game. For example, Max goes back in time to be the one shot by Nathan's bullet. As she dies in Chloe's arm, she passes on a message about Rachel and Jefferson, and gives Chloe some touching farewell that only the audience would understand. Nathan would be arrested, he'd confess -- as he does in the story after being arrested anyway -- and Chloe gets to live along with the city. Yeah, a downer, but you succeed.
I however reject idea that this game has a "good" or "bad" end. That's a leftover we have in our brains from other video games. They're subjective, and each is terrible in its own way. You pick between giving up your childhood friend that you've invested so much time with, or give up a town that everyone is miserable with and filled with corruption.
Fan Interpretations
The conclusion frustrated me, but in the months prior I've read some interesting theories constructed by the fans to put the end into focus. One person suggested that the reason Max got her powers wasn't to save Chloe. It was to give Max time to be with Chloe before she had to die. A sort of wish fulfillment many people have when they lose a friend they had been estranged from or neglected. While interesting, it's not one I subscribe to, because it implies the game only has one 'proper' end. The developers have said that the ends were designed so neither are a bad choice. It's what you want as the player can can fill in the blanks as you see fit.
The theory that I found the most interesting is the more philosophical and profound. How many of us have lost a loved one, friends or family; and thought, "I would give anything, do anything, to have them back." What if the ultimate lesson of LIFE IS STRANGE is to really challenge the player with that moral dilemma? Would you really "do anything" to have that person back? Would you say, sacrifice a town to get the most important person in your life back, be it a lover, parent, or your child?
Second Season?
I enjoyed the game and the story so much. There's a part of me that would love a second season, and the other side is wondering how you'd even do that. Dontnod has talked about another game but has said it would have a different cast. The interview I read pointed to examples of TRUE DETECTIVE, but that is a rather clumsy analogy. The second season of that show was a mess of interesting characters that lacked a plot to justify them. Most importantly, it was Max and Chloe that I became attached to most of all.
A large portion of the fun of this game comes from time manipulation. Those are the mechanics that I want to play with more. After the reveal that using the powers is what causes a massive catastrophic storm, how would you justify their further use? It would be like making a direct sequel to SIXTH SENSE. You only get that twist ending once.
I've known for a long time that online trolling could be a problem, but I never imagined that things could get to this level of bad. Today, I read an article about a teen who was convicted of what is being called "SWATTING". For those of you who don't know -- which included myself yesterday, this is a disturbing trend where people are back tracing the IP and home addresses of live streamers they have a grudge against and calling in threats to police in hopes of triggering a police raid during a live stream.
I'm not sure which part I find more disturbing about this. That even a single person thought of this idea and followed through with it, or that it's been happening enough to have a colloquial nickname. Sort of akin to that ridiculous trend a few years back where people were putting vodka directly into their eyes to get drunk.
EDITED:
After learning the original article I had read about a 15 yo being convicted for 25 to life for SWATTING was based on a hoax, I've opted to edit my posting. A thanks to those who pointed that out to me. However, that doesn't change that the event is happening to people. This is an incredibly serious issue, and a conviction for calling in a fake threat such as this could very well lead to such an outcome.
The Giant Bomb community suffered one of its most profound losses since the inception of the website and community as a whole. Sure, we've had people move on to other sites or different parts of the country, but nothing like this. Almost a week ago, we lost Ryan Davis. My heart goes out to his family, his newly married wife, and his friends. I'm sure Jeff is taking this especially hard.
I never had the privilege to ever meet the man. Yet, he always came across to me as a consummate gentleman and over all nice guy. The kind of guy you'd want to play a game with and invite to a cook-out with all your friends. He was more than just the host of all our live shows. He was the franchise's ultimate ambassador back when it was Whiskey Media. You honestly felt his love for games, comics, tech, movies, and even anime. A true man without borders.
I held off on writing his post, becasue I wanted to collect my thoughts. Strange how the death of a person you've never met could be so impactful. Though, I think that just speaks to the kind of man he was. I spent the last day or so absorbed in many of his older videos that had been gracing the front page since his passing. This is how I want to remember him. Sitting in the host chair, laughing that infectious chuckle, and sharing his life with us. Thanks, Ryan.
I honestly can't think of a better way to end such a post than to add to it a special video that was taken at the end of one of the Live Shows a few years back and some photos from that show. A job well done, Ryan. Rest in peace, Duder.
Sony saves me for the next generation of gaming systems.
Something I edited together last night.
I was just about ready to give up on this entire next generation of gaming systems after the XBOX One announcements. I don't like some company mandating to me on how to use the system I paid for. One of the biggest issues I had was that 24 hr. check in or you can't even use offline functions. Don't even get me started on the Microsoft press conference. They basically tell you that if you don't have high speed internet or don't want your system online, then just go buy their left overs that they're going to stop supporting in a year or so.
Everyone was so convinced that the PS4 was going to have all these same issues. I don't need to play games. I'd just like to, and I wasn't going to jump through their hoops like some trained monkey.. Thankfully, Sony saved the day for me. They are going to have none of those restrictions, no creepy "always on" camera", and at a lower cost.
The only real change Sony is making is putting a gate up on the once free multiplayer. That's fine. I really don't care much for multiplayer games to begin with. I don't even use that function on some of the games I own (ASSASSIN'S CREED 3). The only multiplayer I even play now is UNCHARTED 3. I actually bought UC3 partly becasue I had so much fun with the UC2 multiplayer -- both competitive and co-op. (I've posted some You Tube videos of some of my UC3 games in my Giant Bomb blogs.) I own PERSONA 4 ARENA, but I've only played one online match since buying it -- for the trophy -- and I won that fight.
I'm a casual gamer, don't find any appeal in paying for access to features in the game I purchased. Feels more like I'm renting the game. It's not as if we all don't know that more and more games are just going to start adding more micro transactions to these online multiplayers. They want me to pay to play, and their added features? No thanks. I can pass on that.
Ultimately, there's no way in hell I'd buy a PS4 on launch. I remember all the issues the PS3 had at the beginning. Better to wait down the line for them to iron out all the issues, then put out a better version -- at possibly an even lower price by then. It just feels that Sony has completely undercut Microsoft. When the holiday season comes around, and the non-hardcores are deciding which to buy. Odds are strong that people will pick the one that costs less and has no restrictions.
While I haven't played out the latest BIOSHOCK INFINITE game myself. I did recently finish watching a play through of the game. This game continues the grand tradition of mind-f%$#$%& the audience in the best possible ways. Few games are capable of such rich world building and plot.
Jeff and Ryan weren't lying in the least about some of the racism in this story during the Quick Look. The imagery gets very raw. It's a bit surprising more people don't make a bigger deal of it. Especially when we remember the history of RESIDENT EVIL 5. I think BIOSHOCK INFINITE gets a pass, becasue they never glorify it and the era they choose. It's pretty obvious that these are ignorant and horrible people.
I'm not going to go into any details of what the grand revelations were for the third installment of the franchise. I think I can best sum up my reaction without spoiling anything with a single image.
This is a round of UNCHARTED 3's Team Deathmatch that I played solo in a random public match. We were losing pretty regularly through much of the match, but I was able to pull out the win for my team by pushing us ahead. That shotgun can be a beast, but it's only short range.
This is a round of UNCHARTED 3's Team Deathmatch that I played with a group a few weeks ago, one of which is a Giant Bomb community member X19. While I came out on top of this match with a 14-4 K/D, Pete normally kicks my ass in score whenever we play together. I kind of got lucky this match.
I know the video ends suddenly at the end, but I was having a problem converting the video when I let the video go too long. It would lock up my PS3. This was the only version that would work right. This video as my first time using the annotation options.
I heard recently that in Japan they're going to be making official glasses with frames based on PERSONA 4 designs.
I love these styles. I could actually use a new set of frames. The set for the main protagonist are my favorite. It's just sad that I doubt these will come to the US anytime soon.
Here is a bit of photographic proof that I may be playing BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY a bit too much. I was just goofing around, having fun, and trying to beat my previous score on one of the Catwoman combat challenges. I'm not a leader boards chaser. I scored pretty well in the challenge, and out of curiosity I decided to check the leader boards. I think my jaw dropped when I saw I ranked 77th on the entire PSN leader boards. This is a year after the game has been out.
I love playing as Catwoman in these challenges. In the predator challenges, Catwoman can move so damn fast and no one can hear you. It feels so awesome to clear a room of three guys before the alert goes out on the first.
I was surprised to see there were no guides made on Giant Bomb for ARKHAM CITY. I think I may be interested in putting together a guide for the combat challenges. Have you ever played the challenges and not sure what you need to do to score big?
-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ FoxxFireArt
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