The Bitterness of Guns and Religion

2nd Lieutenant Mira: a woman in sensible armor

2011-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

2nd Lieutenant Mira - 203 Cadian Gaurd

I recently discovered Women in Sensible Armor over on Tumbler and I'm not sure that this sort of nerd feminism is anything new, but it certainly puts a fine point on the realization that all of us have made after playing through our first few RPGs. And that realization is, why the hell would that chick be dressed like that to fight Orcs?

Now, this site certain gets it's share of traffic thanks to digital boobs and hot chicks in video games so I'd be a little hypocritical to say I haven't been guilty of the "digital male gaze" from time to time.

But still I was pretty gratified when I stumbled across this character in the recently released Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. Full disclosure, I work at THQ, so I should probably point out that I am a huge warhammer nerd and would have played this game even if I didn't work for the publisher. But I am also going to give any sort of review. But what I will give is kudos to the character designers who chose not to give 2nd Lieutenant Mira a cleavage revealing slit in here breast plate and chose to let her wear pants into battle. She's even a pretty imposing figure when stood next to the emperors own champions, the Ultramarines:

Working at a video game publisher and playing through a lot of games co-op with my wife I find that I am often more than a little embarrassed by some of the crop up.

Take for example a character from the recently released Wii title Conduit 2. She basically fills the same role in the script for Conduit 2 that 2nd Lt. Mira does in Space Marine, she's a tough military woman that the main character meets up with early on in the story. She wears battle armor...but of course it's been designed to ensure maximum "cleave":

Hell, even Red Faction Armageddon had a Kara, a "tough military woman the main character meets in Act 2" role in the script that 2nd Lt. Mira has. Let's just take a look at her next to the main character for a second:

Sensing a pattern here? As I'm writing this I'm starting to realize that there are two overlapping tropes here. One is the "cleavage armor" and the other is the "tough military woman the main character meets in Act 2".

Follow up post? Most likely, but for now, let's all make the sign of the aquilla in honor of 2nd Lt. Mira and her sensible armor:

whiteqube Galaxy Theater, May 19, 2011

2011-05-20T22:47:00.001-07:00

Whiteqube stuff is finally online!

2011-05-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Jason and I had our first full scale run through over the weekend and it was really great. The stage show is turning out even better than we could have imagined.

Only a few more tweeks and we'll be ready for our fist gig real gig, opening for Combirchrist on May 19th! Hopefully everyone can make it out to the show. But just to be sure here are a few of the latest tracks to get you hyped.

not on your side by whiteqube

get down by whiteqube

metalliqube by whiteqube

bingbong by whiteqube

Pics from the Namm show

2011-02-17T16:11:00.001-08:00

Playing the sweetest note of my life on a Keytar

I went to the Winter NAMM show a few weeks back and snapped some pics with my blackberry. Thought I'd share. First up I got a little hands on time with the Ion Audio iCade. This thing is basically a little "arcade cab" that you slip your iPad into. Currently they have a licensing deal with Atari so they only had Asteroids playing, but the controls felt like genuine HAPP. It wasn't clear if you'd be able to load up your own Roms or if the software was closed. The guy at the booth was more of an audio guy so he didn't really know. All in all it seemed like a great purchase if you have an iPad:

Seems like the "things you plug into your iPad" is going to be a big niche industry for the music industry. Since the next thing I drooled over was the Korg MS20 Legacy Midi Controller. This thing is so sweet. It's all knobs and patch chords. I've used it to interface with Korg's MS20 soft synth on a computer, but at the show they had the MS20 software running on an iPad. IT was a totally portable set up and it sounded great:

Next up we have an official Tron themed iphone / ipad doc. Not much to say here, it is an ipad doc shaped like a Tron Data disc. As UK Mike would say, it does what it says on the tin:

Here is my buddy and band mate DJ Bractune playing a Moog Theremin. If you're not familiar with this device you should really Read up on it, it's totally crackers:

Down stairs in the basement was a wonderland of "home baked" synths and music gizmos. There were all sorts of Chinese outfits selling all manner of boards and chips and such. I'm not much of "chip bender" but some of the things these guys came up with was pretty impressive:

Next up we had a booth of guys who were showing of a vintage Fairlight CMI 2 synthesizer. This thing was a real treat. These babies were used by all sorts of musicians in the 80s but what I found most intriguing was the sweet "Light Pen" interface. This thing was pre-midi and pre-mouse controller. Totally ahead of it's time. The line was too long for me to get to try it, but I snapped a few pics over people's heads:

And I'll end up for something a little more "Rock and Roll" since I know not everyone on this forum is a big synth geek like myself. The classic UK outfit Orange Amplificationwas on hand with a wall of some of the finest amplifiers a man could wish for:

And all being drivin by a head unit with quite possible the greatest name ever bestowed on a piece of hardware the "Terror Bass":

It was a great show, didn't get to snap a picture of it but the Electron guys were there with their SIDstation, a device that I WILL own one day, mark my words.

Fallout New Vegas Mods - Better Body

2011-01-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

My post from a couple years ago on Fallout 3 Mods is still extremely popular. With the release of Fallout New Vegas I thought I'd dig around and see what new mods I could find.

Looks like the "Better Body" mod is now on Version 3. Here is a gallery posted at the New Vegas Nexus by users and the mod's authors:

Weekend Confirmed finally hits. Can it live up to the hype?

2010-04-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of full disclosure, let me start off by saying the Jeff Cannata was one of my college housemates. We did plays together, we went on road trips together, we even moved to LA together those many years ago. So I am obviously, a little biased when I say that I have nothing but respect and love for the guy. He is one of the most intelligent, insightful, enthusiastic people I know.

When he started doing the Totally Rad Show it just felt like such a perfect fit for him. And the show's hordes of fans were well deserved.

The show is a little heavy on the Movie subject matter for my tastes, which is why I was so excited to hear that Jeff was planning on starting a game-centric podcast with former 1Up editor Garnett Lee, now of Shack News.

When Garentt was on the 4 Guys 1Up show, I always the passionate counter point to the l33t cynicism that seemed to underpin most of the opinions of the other editors on that show. I really couldn't wait to what Jeff and Garnett would bring to the table. Now the show has been out for a few episodes. It's still finding it's voice, but I feel that I've heard enough that an informed critique is at least possible.

So what do I think of weekend confirmed? Well, let me tell you.

Let's start with the hosts. Jeff, is bringing it home about how I'd have expected. If I had to describe Jeff's editorial voice, it'd be by saying that he is "insightful" or maybe "analytical". Have a discussion on almost any topic with Jeff and he will always strive to look at it from a different perspective. He constantly strives to achieve a unique understanding of whatever it is he is talking about. The standard arguments "take" on things is rarely enough for Jeff. He constantly attempts to find a deeper, truer meaning. And I'd say that most of his contributions to Weekend Confirmed are along these lines. From his impassioned arguments for the iPad to his surprising arguments against Microsoft game room. In either case I have to say he made me think about the subject in a different light than I had at first blush.

Garnett's role is surprisingly different. This feels like much more his "god damned show" than 4 guys 1Up ever did. Even though he was ostensibly the host of the 1Up show, it always felt like Garnett's grip on the proceedings was somewhat tenuous. With personalities like Shane and John Davison, throwing their weight around it often felt like a show without a true "guiding personality". On Weekend Confirmed Garnett comes of as much more comfortable, and seems to be "running the show" a lot more directly than on 1Up where it was more like herding cats. Interestingly, in the dialog Garnett comes off a lot more of the grizzled cynical game industry type, which is an interesting switch from his "role" at 1Up.

The third host Brian Leahy is the host with whom I am least familiar. I admit that I wasn't much of a shack news reader before this podcast, so I think that this is the first time I've ever come across much of Leahy's work, so my opinion on him is based solely on what I've heard in Weekend Confirmed. Brian basically occupies the same role that Ryan Scott had on the old GFW Radio show. And that is of the extremely jaded PC Gaming elitist. I'll be curious to listen to more of Weekend Confirmed to see if Brian is more open minded than he initially appears to be.

But what about the show itself? What do I think about that? Well let's start off with what I like. First off, I love the personalities on the show, I am very interested to hear these guys talk about games, industry news, and trade shows. The inside baseball kind of stuff, I just think they're all intelligent, informed, and insightful, so the discussions are a great listen. My only hope is that they really chew into this even harder. I miss the old Next Gen podcast with Gary Whitta and John Davison. That show was an NPR level of discourse about the game industry. Ever since that show's demise there hasn't been a replacement and I think /hope that Weekend Confirmed can pick up the mantle of in depth discourse about the video game industry.

Also, I like the segmented nature of the show, I think that the classic "4 Guys 1 Up" style of show, meaning the "what ya been playin, news, new relesaes, emails" format is kind of dated. Everyone is doing this now. I would say that it has been perfected by the Bombcast guys. Anyone else doin a podcast needs a new take. And I think the Game Informer show style of themed segments is a great direction to go in. I really hope that Weekend confirmed take it even further and not get to tied into a rigidly defined structure. I'd love to hear these guys talk about specific big releases, news stories, and trade shows in great detail. So that rather than having it be something where the "next segment" is always "4 minute warning" it would be more like "The next segment we're going to talk about Ubisoft's DRM problems".

It's a little too early too make any final judgement as I feel like the guys are still figuring it out. For example, I'm not too sure about the newly introduced "Drunk With Power" segment as I feel it removes Garnett a little too much from the discussion (although it does help to cement Garnett as the 'host'' as opposed to 'one of the hosts'). But it's obvious that they are experimenting and that is a good thing.

I guess for me I'd hope that this show ends up being a cross between the Next Gen and Game Informer Podcasts. The hosts are great, and I think it has a lot of potential. If you haven't checked it out yet you can download the episodes here. If nothing else these guys definitely get me thinking about games that I haven't thought about in years. This week it was SSX 3, which I will have to dig out of the closet. I never did finish the WHOLE mountain.

I'd love to hear these guys do a retro podcast as well. "Childhood Confirmed"? "Nostalgia Confirmed"?

Just an idea.

Fallout New Vegas Trailer

2010-03-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

So I know that this is a little bit late. And I know I haven't blogged in ages, but I was a little busy getting married so sue me.

Anyway, among a lot of other crazy things that happened while I took two weeks in hawaii was the release of a Trailer for Fallout New Vegas. It's no secret to anyone that knows me that I loved Fallout 3. I probably played aroudn 100 hours of it and still haven't finished all the DLC stuff. Anyway, the trailer stays pretty close to the usual Fallout Trailer script, but it still has me geeking out none the less. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to blogging a little more now that things have quieted down for me and I'm enjoying Married life:

how BGNR would have voted for Spike's VGAs

2009-12-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

Pictured above: three HUGE gamers

So the VGAs were held over the weekend. My buddy Jeff tweeted the following about 5 minutes into the show:

"Jack Black wins best voice? Travis-sham-ockery. And I turn off the #VGAs :("

And that about sums it up. Destructoid posted an article appropriately titled "VGAs: Tribute to Gaming or Exercise in Self Loathing", which expands on the sentiment Jeff and many others were tweeting.

Some of the presenters seemed to be pretty convincing, I was buying Jake Gyllenhal, but Zachary Quinto was almost sneering at us fat bastards in the audience. Then you had ladies like Olivia Wilde and Trisha Helfer, who seemed to be genuine, but still had the wiff of insincerity about them. Maybe they just read a teleprompter better than the kids from Jersey Shore.

I'd really love it if Video Games had an "Oscars" a legitimate serious award show that those of us who are enthusiastic about video games could get behind, but I'm afraid that the VGAs is not that show. I mean, they started off the show with Jack Black destroying his trophy, I mean what does that say about the legiticmacy of your award if you have the trophy get destroyed as a bit? You think someone would do that with an oscar? Maybe Sean Penn would, but he'd just be trying to make a point about how little he cared about something that everyone else would be totally excited for. Also, the script was extremely suspect, stuff like "Viceral, heart stopping, and amazing are all words used to describe the world premiere trailer for True Crime". Really? By who? If it's a world premiere who has seen it to say these things? Activisions marketing department perhaps? Also, the 'exclusives premieres" were not that earth shattering (excluding UFC 2010...I mean THAT was amazing). Even games I was truly hyped for like Halo Reach seemed a bit "meh".

Having said that it was pretty sweet to see THQ beat out Wii Sports, Tiger Woods, FIFA, and Fight Night 4 to win Best Solo Sports award.

Here's a list of the winners:

Winners at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards:

• Game of the Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios
• Best Independent Game: Flower
• Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
• Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• Best PC Game: Dragon Age: Origins
• Best Handheld Game: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
• Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin's Creed II
• Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
• Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
• Best Team Sports Game: NHL 10
• Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
• Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
• Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
• Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
• Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Best Game Based On A Movie/TV Show: South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!
• Best Performance By A Human Female: Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
• Best Performance By A Human Male: Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
• Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
• Best Voice: Jack Black (Brütal Legend)
• Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
• Best DLC: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
• Most Anticipated Game of 2010: God of War III

And now here's my list. I should point out that I obviously haven't played every game out there. I don't own a PS3, so all I know of those games are what I've played in the break room at the office. And there are a lot of games I loved, but for which there isn't a great category. Games like Ghostbusters, Trine, Red Faction, Battlefield 1943, and Resident Evil 5 all got a little over looked even by myself. And it's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm a notorious Halo fan boy, so sorry Modern Warfare 2, you ain't gettin any more love from me, not that you need it. Anyway here's my take on the list of categories Spike was judging:

• Game of the Year: Borderlands
Any game encourages me to skip the gym so I can come home and play has something going for it.

• Studio of the Year: 5th Cell
• Best Independent Game: Torchlight
• Best Xbox 360 Game: Halo 3 ODST
• Best PS3 Game: KillZone 2
• Best Wii Game: House of the Dead Overkill
• Best PC Game: Torchlight
• Best Handheld Game: Scribblenauts
• Best Shooter: Halo 3 ODST
• Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter 4
• Best Action Adventure Game: Batman Arkahm Assylum
• Best RPG: Borderlands
• Best Multiplayer Game: Borderlands
• Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
• Best Team Sports Game: Warhammer Blood Bowl
• Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
• Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
• Best Soundtrack: House of the Dead Overkill
• Best Original Score: Battlefield 1943
• Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Best Game Based On A Movie/TV Show: The Biggest Loser
• Best Performance By A Human Female: Arleen Sorkin - Harley Quinn Batman - Arkham Asylum
• Best Performance By A Human Male: Bill Murray - Peter Venkman - Ghostbusters
• Best Cast: Ghostbusters
• Best Voice: mark Hammil - The Joker - Batman Arkham Asylum
• Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
• Best DLC: Mothership Zeta (Fallout 3)
• Most Anticipated Game of 2010: Darksiders (I know it's a THQ game, but that has to tell you something if I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a game I've seen around the office for months).

German Street artists use Doom to Ad Bust a bunch of Billboards.

2009-12-08T15:52:00.000-08:00

Animal New York posted some great pics of some recent billboard "take overs" that incorporate graphics from Doom. Pretty great stuff, check it out:

Got a few "Thanks" links from various sites, might as well return the favor:

Destructoid
Joystiq
Kotaku

Photographer Enrico Ricciardi creates Ultima-inspired Calendar - Mystik 2010

2009-11-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

Armchair Arcade just posted some links to a new calendar created by Italian photographer Enrico Ricciardi. I can't read Italian, but according to Armchair Arcade the calendar is inspired by the Ulitma of Games.

Here are some link so you can check out the Calendar as well as some "Behind the Scenes" stuff . But I know some of you are to lazy to click, so I'll post some images below. Enjoy, Lord British commands you!

Calendar Images

Behind the Scenes

Halloween Contest Winners

2009-10-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

Today at work was the company's annual Halloween contest. This years winners are:

Scariest Costume

Funniest Costume

Most Original(Creative) Costume

LEAST LIKELY TO BE TAKEN HOME TO MEET MOTHER COSTUME

Best Couple/Group Costume

Best Overall Costume

HONORABLE MENTION

HONORABLE MENTION

HONORABLE MENTION

HONORABLE MENTION

I didn't win, but I got a lot of compliments on my costume:

The rest of the costumes can be viewed here.

Links for 2009-10-19 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-20T00:00:00-07:00

Adrianne Currey might read BGNR.

Adrianne Curry might read BGNR.

2009-10-19T11:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows my thoughts on Slave Leia. Looks like Adrianne Curry might be a big BGNR reader because after she appeared as Slave Leia at the Big Apple Comic Con she showed up the next day with my Number 2 "alternative to Slave Leia costume" the classic Silk Spectre. Hollywood Tuna has pics of both the Slave Leia and Silk Spectre. I'm just going to post the Silk Spectre as I don't want to encourage any more celebrity Slave Leias.

Links for 2009-10-15 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-16T00:00:00-07:00

Is Ivana Milicevic the only thing that could get me to play an RTS on my Xbox 360?

Links for 2009-10-14 [del.icio.us]

2009-10-15T00:00:00-07:00

Top 10 alternatives to "Slave Leia".

2009-10-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

Now, maybe someone who has gone as "Hunter S. Thompson" for the last ten years has no room to judge, but Halloween is coming up and you know what that means.

Fucking Slave Leia costumes. I don't know why, but I am so sick and tired of slave leia costumes. I'd rather see a parade of Jugglos tromping down santa monica than one more slave Leia.

The polar opposite of the slave leia is the Silent Hill Zombie nurse. These will never get old and are always the best choice for any alterna-chix who are stumped what to whear on the Halloween Party Rounds:

But what if you were a Silent Hill nurse the last three years? Why not dust off the old Slave Leia you might be thinking. First things first. Stop. Quit winding up your hair buns. I have an alternative. Here are my top ten alternatives to Slave Leia.

10. The Witch

Alright, plain and simple. This one is a fucking classic. You can not go wrong with a sexy witch. And I'm talking a "Wizard of Oz" style pointy hat witch, not a sassy pre-teen witch like in Harry Potter. There are some "sexy" harry potter hogwarts costumes out there. But those give me the serious "ut oh feeling" so don't go there.

9. The Geisha

This one is not just for the AZN CHIX. You walk into a party, you will turn heads.

8. The Nun

Another classic. Let's say your really dedicated to the goth scene like a few people on my friends list who will remain nameless (but you know who you are). This will allow you to wear a costume, but not feel to "normal" when you head out to the Malediction Halloween victorian ball.

7. The Gladiatrix

Personally I think if you covered yourself with blood spatter and walked around with a big sword this costume might move up a few spaces.

6. Bat Girl

I really debated on this one. I mean the obvious choice is Harley Quinn, but most of the costumes I could find (see the link) were all aimed at tweens for some reason. Not sure why, are there any 12 year old girls out there clamouring to be HQ? The other alternative was Cat Woman. But that's borderline Slave Leia lame, especially when half the costumes are based on that horrible cat woman movie from a few years back.

So yeah, Bat Girl. A classy alternative. Especially if you can get one of your tattooed hipster chix friends to go as Robin.

5. Ghostbuster

Paula Veinkman, Edna Spangler, Rachel Stanz, Wendy Zedmore? You and three of your friends walk in wearing these and it's pretty much "game over" for any other poseurs trying to walk away with the costume contest trophy at the bowling alley come halloween.

4. Jessica Rabbit

The main aspect of this costume that makes it a winner is that it involves red heads. The more red heads at a halloween party is always better in my opinion.

3. Silk Spectre (Modern)

What can I saw, If you've got the moxie to walk around in this thing all night then I'd say this is the last Halloween costume you ever need to buy. I mean look at this thing. Fucking Silk Spectre, giving the Mai Shiranui Cos Players something to wear on the 2nd day of Comic Con.

2. Silk Spectre (Classic)

Oh yes. This is secretly my number one. But officially it's number 2, for political reasons. Damn, this is maybe the greatest costume of all time. Maybe even better than the Zombie Nurses.

1. New Hope Princess Leia

But of course, the die hard Star Wars chix are going to have a hard time putting aside a costume that gets them so much attention from the neck bearded counterparts. So here is an alternative. The Sexy "new hope" leia costume. It's classy and will still allow for plenty of photo ops with all the darth vaders, han solos, and Jar Jar cos players partying down at Universal City walk.

Bonus Halloween Story

When I was a kid, my mom made me the sweetest Han Solo costume. It had a bad as vest and a holster and the whole bit. It was amazing. I was so excited for weeks to wear it. Unfortunatly, for me my 2nd Grade Teacher went as Princess Leia. Not Slave Leia, but the hoth snow leia. The one that kisses Han. so the whole day everyone was teasing me and telling me to kiss her. God it was horrible. Maybe that's why I hate slave leia so much.

Anyway, most of these costumes should all be available here, so do us all a favor and leave the gold bikini at Jabba's this year.

Update

Fucking internets. I should have seen this coming. The google ads in my feed all point to this:

I'm part of the problem. Sigh.

Tomb Raider mods character mods.

2009-10-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Following up on my post about Fallout 3 mods, I've got a bunch of Tomb Raider Underworld mods that I figured I'd post up here.

Most of these are from this sort of exhaustive repository of Tomb Raider mods.

The funny thing is that what led me down this twisted path was a search I ran for "Silent Hill 3" after listening to the most recent Retronauts podcast and their disucssions of the Silent Hill Wii game that's about to come out.

Anyway, that search lead to me stumbling over this image:

And then I was curious to see what else people had come up with. Probably the two other coolest mods are Bloodrayne:

and Leeloo:

But there were a whole lot more there. Here's an overview of some other interesting TR mods:

CG Artist of the Day - One Shots

2009-10-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today, I'm going to post up a few CG Renders that I've found where the users in question don't have a huge body of work on display in their portfolios. I'm going to link to their blogs or sites so that you'll be able to see anything new that they post at a later date. For now enjoy these "one shots":

Aaron Hunwick

Jon-Troy Nickel

Somogyi Donát

Michor Lu

Josh Ruthnick

Sarwar Zahir Khan

Márk Mészáros

Rodolphe Le Page

Carl Fredsberg

Ben LUCAS

Russell Barton

Tor Frick

CG Artist of the Day - Ding Wang

2009-10-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

today's CG Artist of the day is a Chinese freelancer named Ding Wang. According to Ding's Bio Ding is currently living in Montreal.

He's got some amazing pieces up on his CG Society page, but by far the most stunning (for a video game nerd anyway) is his render of Poison from Final Fight. This thing is just tops:

But Ding has a lot of other great character and vehicle pieces up on his page as well. Here's some more of his stuff:

CG Artist of the Day - Antony Ward

2009-10-08T10:05:00.000-07:00

Today's artist, Anthony Ward is a freelance artist from Leeds England.

His professional bio lists a number of game projects and even a couple of "how to" books. He maintains a blog and has an extensive portfolio of both 2D and 3D projects.

There really is way to much good stuff to post it all so I encourage you to check out his site. Here's a taste of what's on offer:

further down the rabbit hole with Fallout 3 mods...

2009-10-07T16:24:00.000-07:00

Don't know what it is, but I'm really intrigued by all the Fallout 3 mods. Probably because I spent so much time with that game...on Xbox 360. I really wish XBox would support user mods. That'd be sweet. Anyway, here's some more sweet mods for Fallout 3:

Fallout 3 Armor Mods

2009-10-07T15:16:00.000-07:00

OK. So I started playing Mass Effect yesterday. I know. A little late to the party. I actually bought Mass Effect right when it came out , but got caught up playing a bunch of other stuff(mostly bioshock and Halo 3 if memory serves) and never opened it (just like Fable 2 actually).

As usual, I make my avatar a hot red head and named her Bekka just as I had done in Knights of the Old Republic, Fallout 3, and Sacred 2.

Anyway, one thing I wish that these games had was some kind of HTML based avatar viewer, so you could upload your avatar and post it on your blog or what not and it would update as your avatar got new armor or whatever. I haven't looked, but I 'm sure there is stuff like this for World of Warcaraft characters. Hell you can even get statues and action figures of your WoW characters.

So anyway, I was poking around for some kind of Fallout 3 avatar view and I came across a great (if somewhat tangentially related post over on Gosip Gamers. They have a post up which details 5 Awesome Fallout 3 avatar armor mods, and I have to agree, they are pretty Awesome.

First up ,you've got the Persona Mod:

Which seems to be related to the "Temptress of the Wasteland Mod", the weakest one of the bunch I'd say:

Now that we have the T and A out of the way to "GET THE CLICKS" let's move onto the good stuff. First up there's this incredible Warhammer 40k Space Marine chapter mod:

Not to be outdone by the Zero Suit Metroid mod:

And finally one of the "true" Fallout fans. The "Advanced Power Armor" from the original fallout games:

And here's one that I found while I was skimming around for more. Looks like a riff on the Persona mod. But this chick is way more bad ass then those two hussies up top:

File Planet has a nice repository of these mods if you are playing Fallout 3 on the PC and want to spice things up.

CG Artist of the Day - Marc Tan

2009-10-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Today's CG artist Mark Tan aka The Hand hails from Singapore.

I was first stumbled upon his work when I was searching around for some good steampunk concept art.

I came across these:

Which he was working on before he did these incredible "Gotham by Gaslight" Batman Steam Punk Models:

Here's the amazing final version:

Also, he's started on a steam punk catwoman which looks to be shaping up pretty nicely:

Most of his other work shows an amazing modeling ability. I'd guess he's intersted in working in the video game industry based on the subject matter. Here's hoping we start seeing some of his work on a major console or PC release sometime soon.

CG Artist of the Day - Ankit Garg

2009-10-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

Destructoid sort of stole my thunder on this one. But I had Ankit Garg in the queue of CG Artists I wanted to post up, so I'm going to move him up and get it on here now rather then a few weeks from now when it's 'old news'.

Dtoid only posted his stuff from Zbrush Central, so at least I can put up some additional images and not feel like a total joiner.

Stuff like this:

Dtoid said this is like "borderlands" remake, but I'd say (and Ankit himself would agree) that this is really more of a Milla Jovavich in Resident Evil Extinction:

Anyway, acording to his bio , Ankit is a freelance CG artist from India.

But the guy has an obvious talent for Video Game characters and gruesome creatures. Check out more of his work below:

CG Artist of the Day - Alexey Kashpersky

2009-10-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if today's artist is what most would think of when they think CG. Such is his skill that most of his works look as if they are painted or photo manipulated. His name is Alexey Kashpersky currently he is a student at Poltava National Technic University in the Ukraine. His expressionistic work is reminiscent of Klimt, but I think it reminds me most of Micheal Parks.

As an example of the work that goes into his pieces, first take a look at the gird and wip pics:

And now take a look at the finished piece:

Stunning. But it's not all figurative fantasy stuff. He also has posted a series of landscapes and creatures, which I will link below:

CG Artist of the Day - Tyrone Maddams

2009-10-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Today's CG Artist, Tyrone Maddams, is another guy I stumbled across when I was looking for 40k wallpaper. According to his bio he's worked on a number of CG Cinemas for games including:

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, Warhammer 40k: Dawn Of War 2, Ghostbusters, Bioshock, S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow Of Chernobyl, Edge Of Twilight, Mafia 2, Borderlands, The Darkness, Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, Hitman: Blood Money, Hitman: Contracts, Constantine, NBA 2K9, Ultimate Band, Justice League, Duke Nukem .

He works for a company in Australia called Plastic Wax. These guys were responsible for the amazing opening Cinematic in Dawn of War 2 (that's where the above space marine comes from).

Here's a couple more stills of his work. It's intersting that most of the 40k Guys also have Bioshock stuff. Guess when you get good at "Bulky guy in a suit" it just goes hand in hand.

Game Blog Design - The ubiquitous cos play gallery

2009-10-01T16:47:00.001-07:00

So I have a friend who is working on creating a "professional grade" blog. Meaning not just a place that he'll jot down what he had for lunch or what he thought of Inglorious Basterds, but a blog that will intelligently discuss a variety of specific topics related to a facet of the entertainment industry.

Lately we've been discussing blog design. And this has been causing me to take a closer look at some of the blogs that I frequent. Mostly I've been paying attention to the usability of the design decisions. It's interesting as I know that most of these blogs are revenue based so a lot of my problems with the web design is usually stuff that's only there because these sites need to get their clicks.

As anyone who reads my twitter feed knows, I'm no stranger to cosplay. So I've read through a lot of the cos play posts that the game sites have been throwing up last week and I definatly notice a few differences. Here's my thumbnail thoughts...what do you think?

First, you've got joystiq:

Starts off pretty good with a nice grid of clickable thumbnails.

Then when you click an image it drops the grid down and puts the clicked picture up. The "forward and backward buttons" are awkwardly placed so that they incorporate the ad to the right of the image...kind of lame, but I'm sure it gets a few accidental add clicks. Over all clean and straight forward.

Then you get Kotaku:

I like this one as it uses the same "grid pattern" but the thumbnails are a little bit easier to see. Also, the "Next" button is incorported a little bit better. They used to have a nice flash "arrow" overlay so you could browse without mousing around too much, but that also hid the images behind a flash wall so you couldn't download them. which isn't a big deal for a cosplay gallery, but is kind of lame if it's a screenshot or wallpaper you'd like to download.

Then there's Destructoid:

This thing is a hot mess. Naturally basicaly just says 'here's the babes" in usual destructoid "this is why no one respects gamers" narrative voice. The flash encoding is totally broken. I get the images over running hte horrible 90's style "next" hyperlink in both Google Chrome AND firefox. The images themselves are better than Kotakus or Joystiqs. Like they have a bit of fun and personality, where as kotaku's come off sort voyeristic.

Finally, you've got Wired's.

As usual wired keeps it classy and "periodical". Meaning it looks like it could be a Time Magazine "slide show". the pictures are all high quality and each is accompanied by a caption with just enough editorial discussion that even my mom could click through and get some idea of who "chun li" is or what exactly is going on in that crazy Tokyo she's heard so much about.

CG Artist of the Day - Erasmus Brosdau

2009-10-01T10:15:00.001-07:00

Today's artist is Erasmus Brosdau. Naturally I was drawn to his work because of this incredible 40k image that he and another artist created:

Here are some close up views, as you can see this picture is incredibly detailed:

He also posted some "Clay Renders" I'm not up on my CG to know if this is a render done in a program like Maya or if he actually sculpted this...that's how good CG is now, I cna't tell if it's a render or a real clay model. Check out the detail:

A HUGE version of this image can be downloaded here.

But the guy also has a lot of other incredible stuff up on his CGPortfolio. Stuff like this:

this:

this:

this:

this:

and of course "Breaking through the ice":

I don't know if this guy is working professionally or not, but I hope so, he has a lot of talent.

Links for 2009-07-14 [del.icio.us]

2009-07-15T00:00:00-07:00

Oh just come on now.
From Break.com

Links for 2009-05-20 [del.icio.us]

2009-05-21T00:00:00-07:00

RYU'S FORM SITE

Links for 2009-05-15 [del.icio.us]

2009-05-16T00:00:00-07:00

Windows 7 Release Candidate

Links for 2009-04-29 [del.icio.us]

2009-04-30T00:00:00-07:00