Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas, Ina and Yori, you frisky kids!
So I’ve been playing me some Star Wars: The Old Republic (and by some, I mean a lot). I’m on the Lord Adrass RP-PVE server, smuggling spice and running blockades with my gunslinging smuggler, Captain Postle Wattle. (‘Postle-wattle’ technically, since they won’t allow spaces in names). You know, I tried WoW long ago and didn’t care for it at all, but SWTOR is just so much more immersive in its story telling! And this is some seriously good storytelling. I can almost pretend the prequels never happened. But, no, the prequels will never go away… Still, SWTOR almost makes up for it.
I’ve been sketching Star Wars stuff lately, but can you blame me? The dude on the left is my idea of what the Sith Emperor looks like. He’s totally immortal, you know. The other two are just Jedi and Trooper dudes. OH MAN IT’S COMING IN JUST FOUR MORE DAYS (assuming I get early access on the 13th, that is).
This is so far from the badass stuff I usually draw, I’m almost ashamed. Almost…
I’ve been playing some Uncharted 3, and, geez, that Nathan Drake is such a great guy! Forgive and forget is his eternal motto. Try to choke him to death? He’s cool with it. Shoot him in the arm? Well, he might shoot back, but it’s all in good fun! And, I mean SURE, Drake’s killed, literally, HUNDREDS of dudes. But they were all bad people, so it’s justified! No hard feelings!
Ok, this is a total nerd moment (as are most of my moments), but today is the release date for the latest Star Wars novel; Revan by Drew Karpyshyn. I shall now tell you why I think this is awesome. Firstly, it’s a novel focusing on the lead character from Knights of the Old Republic, specifically what happened to him after the end of the game. As far as Star Wars lore goes, this is some big revealing stuff that touches on the origins of the seemingly immortal Sith Emperor! Also, Karpyshyn (what an awesome last name) is the same guy who wrote the Darth Bane trilogy, as well as the Mass Effect novels. He’s got a fantastic writing style, especially when it comes to action scenes. I dig how he uses words like ‘pulp’, ‘grind’, and ’snap’ in his description of violence. The visuals that come to mind are always wonderfully gorey! Makes me want to draw some bloody fanart.
Anyways, I’m picking up the audiobook asap.
Do I even need to preface this rant with the fact that I’m a huge Star Wars nut? Probably not.
So I found myself with access to this weekend’s Star Wars: The Old Republic server stress test. I told myself I wasn’t going to spend all weekend playing the game since I’d lose all the progress I made and have to start from the beginning once the actual game releases on Dec, 20th. Yeah, I TOLD myself that, but I still ended up taking a Smuggler, Jedi Consular, and Sith Warrior up to level 4, and a Bounty Hunter all the way to 10. I can, I think, potentially see my life draining away when this game’s released. I always try not to dip into RPGs for the simple reason that I tend to love them, and lose myself in them for 80+ hours. And those are the ones that actually have a concrete ending! Now I’m faced with the first MMO that’s ever interested me (not including Star Wars: Galaxies, but I didn’t have a proper PC to run it when it was in its heyday), and it actually focuses on a single player experience!
In fact, it really IS like playing Knights of the Old Republic, which was one of the best Star Wars gaming experiences I’ve had to date. For someone who’s turned off by MMOs due to their steep learning curve, SWTOR is the perfect balance, letting a new player focus on learning at his own pace while playing the game as a(n enjoyable) single player experience until he’s feeling confident enough with the mechanics to start jumping in with other players. Very social gamers have no problem just jumping in and asking for directions in standard MMOs, but I’m sure plenty of gamers like me tend to be a little more wary when it comes to socializing in online games, and usually just stick to single player experiences. SWTOR may honestly be the ultimate beginner’s MMO, giving a player who’s no into MMOs or even social gaming in general a perfect diving board for the genre.
Anyways, I’m not certain how social I’ll inevitably be when I’m playing the full game. I admit that this weekend I pretty much just treated the game as if there was no online component, but I can potentially see myself making plenty of like minded Star Wars obsessed friends over the course of my inevitable 1000+ hours of playtime. Is anyone else as stupidly excited about this game as I am??
Alex and I will be attending Matsuricon 2011 in Columbus, Ohio this weekend!
This is our sixth year at Matsuricon and, as is our tradition, we will be participating in a avalanche of panels ranging from the informative (Photoshop for Illustrators, Flash 101, Making Webcomics) to fanatical (Cone Wars, Avatar TLA).
When Alex and I aren’t jabbering away, we’ll be meeting fans and selling our wares in the artist alley. Keep an eye out for the giant vertical banner of Yorikiro:
Ok, Deus Ex is blowing my freakin’ mind. I have, in fact, pre-ordered it, and I haven’t pre-ordered anything since Metal Gear Solid 3! Deus Ex has everything I want in a game; multiple solutions to problems, a convoluted conspiracy story, mechs, cyborgs, scifi noir, retracting arm blades, personal cloaking devices, guns with awesome reload animations, and sunglasses at night! So I painting a little portrait of protagonist Adam Jensen, and his badass sunglasses.
I don’t usually care much for Zelda in the Legend of Zelda series. She often comes off as cold and distant, except for, perhaps, in Wind Waker. But the Skyward Sword Zelda seems like my kinda girl! She’s playful, she flirts with Link, she’s a daredevil, and she’s got that girl-next-door quality that I find irresistibly appealing. So I did some fanart because I was feeling inspired.
