what have you done to my excitebike

Another round comes to a close at Arcadia, so I figured I might as well post the second part of my entry over here. See the entire thing here. The round is over and voting is now closed. Since I split from the two main factions I now don’t feel so bad about dropping in and out since I joined the Renegades.

So now I’m just waiting for UPS to deliver my newly repaired PS3 back to me. Stupid Sony with their stupid faulty Bluray drives. I just love how I don’t even watch Blurays on the thing, and yet when that aspect of the hardware bites it, the system can’t even play any disc based games. Well at least you won the next gen movie format wars, way to go.

On the bright side I really couldn’t have asked to get it back at a better time with all the super deluxe games that are coming out/plus the ones I missed out on. I really procrastinated on sending it in, but I’m glad I did because I think I’m going to have to buy Borderlands.

I also downloaded the new Excitebike for Wii and as a huge fan of the original, it is a pretty big disappointment. I read some reviews and they were pretty positive across the board. Reviewers threw around a lot of “if it aint broke don’t fix it” and “updated visuals” and enhanced controls” but I just don’t see it. I think I finally downloaded something regretable. Too bad I can’t gift it to someone else after the download, they should work on that.

I’ll post a few of my thoughts here just in case there’s any one on the fence about downloading it. I’m kind of a maniac for the original EB so consider that as you continue reading on.

happy halloween meatbags

“What kind of party is this? There’s no booze and only one hooker.”

‘Twas an excellent Halloween season this year, with not one, but two crazy costume parties. I don’t have any pics from these events, so if you have any, let me know. Hit the jump for a couple more images, plus the original blueprints for the costume.

assualt at the asylum

I hopped back into battle over at WfA. I updated my profile as well, so here’s that…

You only get one week to produce your pages, and here’s the seven pages for my first entry of round nineteen. I had a little spare time so I laid down a layer of color. If the pages are too small to read just give them a click to enlarge.

I wanted to set things up a bit more than I usually do, but I’m sure things will get more exciting as the round goes on. If you please, you can follow it here.

I also just finished a flier for an upcoming hip hop show, and if you enjoy that type of thing, you’d do well to make an appearance. This shows lineup is an absolute monster.

round five redux

Back in July of 2007, I got in a little fight. Unfortunately, for some reason or another, I kinda wussed out and automatically lost. It brought much shame upon my family. At the time, I had actually sketched all my panels out, only to eventually abandon them. It was a really cool battle however, and you can read all 30+ pages of it here, with my newly restored pages to boot.

Here’s the six new pages, feel free to click them for larger, more readable versions. Or just hit the above link to War for Arcadia since you kinda need to read the whole thing for it to make any sense anyways.

remember remember the 9th of september

This is not the greatest and best console in the world, no. This is just a tribute.

^click for bigger^

I am ashamed. I contributed to the untimely demise of the Sega Dreamcast by being a late adopter. Only a decade later, can I look back and see the errors of my ways. It may not be the greatest console, but it sure as hell is one damn fine piece of hardware. To go on in length, about the greatness of the Dreamcast would be a pointless endevour, as its all been said before. Possibly the greatest American launch lineup in history. Better than arcade ports. Blazed the trail for online gaming. VMU. The games, the sweet sweet games. We all know why it was great, and we all know why it failed.

I cooked up this fanart for the DC once I started to see all the articles and stories popping up on the net this month. To see the noisy little devil surface again for it’s anniversary has been a great excuse to jump back into all the games that were, and still are, extremely entertaining. It took me over a week to complete this, but I knew I had to do my part as well. I chose to use only games that I own, or have at least played, which is why you wont see many obscure or rare characters.

First lady or chap to list what 14 games are represented in the image, gets a desktop version in their choice of screen size. Don’t worry about being too specific about the game, if the character is in more than one, than the name of the franchise is good enough.

EDIT: Alright it’s been a few weeks, and nobody got em all, so consider the contest over!! Heres the 14 games for those who don’t know…

-Samba de Amigo
-Chu Chu Rocket
-Skies of Arcadia
-PowerStone
-Jet Grind Radio
-Seaman
-Street Fighter
-House of the Dead
-Bomberman
-Space Channel 5
-Sonic Adventure
-Ikaruga
-Sega Rally
-Crazy Taxi

I can still always make some sort of desktop if people want it I guess.

I am the best GoldenEye player of all time

I always fancied myself as a pretty good player of GoldenEye for Nintendo64. It’s hard not to be, when you devote as much time to playing games as I do. It feels like just yesterday (1997) that I got my first chance to play one of the finest first person shooters ever to grace a console. My uncle Dean borrowed my 64 for a few weeks and in return, said he would buy me any cartridge I wanted. I had it narrowed down to a few titles, but in the end I made my decision, and I couldn’t have been more right. (much thanks to dean)

I played this game all through high school. I played it with Jamie, I played it with Eban and Rachel I played it with Sebastian, Chris, Harris and Phil. I played it with just about anybody willing to sit down and play. It’s kind of sad really what I might have accomplished in my academic career had it not been for things like these. Once I left for college at NHTI, I thought nobody could possibly be as fanatical about this game as me. Sure enough, what did I see displayed on the big screen in North Hall? I played it with Shorty, Tom, Josh, and Scott. I played it with Chainsaw, Garret, Pat, Chi, Huff and Saoul. I always took pleasure in frantic pace of the game, and its addictive nature just always calls me back.

As the chart below shows, amongst my group of six friends I’m still at the top of the pecking order. It’s good to know I’m still at the top of my game.

We played with the levels set to random, and the kills to 10. At the end of each match we took our total kills and subtracted how many deaths we each had. We ended up playing in the facility, caves, basement, and the complex, some of them multiple times. I would have liked to play in the temple at least once, but I knew nobody wanted to play me on that level. If I could move to the temple in actuality, I would pack my bags immediately. That is how dearly I hold the temple.

The player who previously won would get to pick the weapon set of their choice. We used automatics, lazers, heavy, grenade launchers, and the golden gun. The last time I played with Luke, he put forth a valiant effort, so I knew I had to keep an eye on him this time too. What I was not prepared for however, was Teddy coming out of nowhere and nearly beating me out in the end. With 2 matches to go, we were in a dead heat, so it was clear it would come down to the wire. In the end, a good time was had by all, except for maybe Keith.

At work today I did a little doodling during my 15 minute break. I almost always do this, but I usually forget to take them home with me. This time I remembered, so I thought I might as well post this too.

Doin’ Things

Finished the design on the new CD for Ape & Undu a few days ago, and now we have boxes full of singles ready for the distributing. Overall I am pleased with how everything came out. Trapjaw definitely knows how to do his thing. He-man on the other hand, seems pretty content with hating from the sideline.

All of the 10 elements for both the front and back were photographed separately, and manipulated into one image.

Originally, I thought the single would use a more illustrated approach, but after considering a Robot Chicken inspired cover, it seemed so much more effective. Thanks to Chris for providing the photos of the hot tub, without that the piece wouldn’t have been able to come together. There just aint too many nice hot tubs in New Ham. Also good looks to DC for hooking us up with the Trap figure, it’s good to know I’m not the only one who still hoards action figures.

You can hear a few of the tracks from the single here.

District 9

Went to go see District 9 yesterday, and it was everything I hoped it would be, though I really didn’t know what to expect going in. Both the special effects and the acting were solid, but the most striking things about the movie were the ideas presented within. With all the garbage alien movies floating around, it’s kind of shocking to see one as well thought out, and unique as this one. It’s not your typical Hollywood summer blockbuster flick, but at the same time, it managed to satisfy me in that regard as well. I don’t really want to go on about it, because it seems like the type of movie one should just go see, without knowing that much beforehand.

Now I just want to go see Ponyo and my appetite for cinema should be appeased for awhile. Studio Ghibli has just had the most amazing track record throughout the years, and this one looks to be no different. It kind of irks me that Disney had to go and get there fingers into everything, but at least it pretty much guarantees a good translation, and that lots of people will get the opportunity to see it.

Put down some colored halftones on that 7L ES piece, so now it’s finally done. Haven’t really tried this method before, and I think some more practice is in order.

Have a closeup!