This blog used to be hosted on a DCU server owned by Redbrick, until I switched to a more reliable & professional provider at Blacknight (famous last words), so although I had the old blog posts backed up in a .SQL file, hadn’t bothered to transfer the old database to the new server. Hence this blog being a bit thin in terms of content. Well not anymore! Huzzah!

In a feat of boredom mixed with … … well, more boredom, I started transferring all the old posts into the blog, just to make it feel a bit more complete & less empty. There’s a couple of hundred posts (man I talked a lot of shite) so it may take some time as despite being in the database, they are not showing up on Wordpress unless I resave them manually. All the same, it’s nice to see the posts that went along with my old artwork & 3D modelling. Particularly the old Forgotten Hope models (learn more about Forgotten Hope here).

Edit: It’s finally done. I also update all the posts’ links that pointed to the old portfolio location, just to make things a little tider.

It seems like a long time since Half Life 2: Episode 2 came out, nestled alongside Team Fortress 2 & Portal in Valves hideously packaged “Orange Box”; and whereas TF2 and Portal have gone to become mainstays in the gaming consciousness, both critically and culturally (witness the endless jokes about the cake being a lie), the Orwellian nightmare that was Half Life 2’s storyline has faded somewhat in peoples minds. Well. It has in mine & I couldn’t give a flying fook about anyone else, the lovable scamp that I am.

Despite ending with a shocker (and surely being a genuine example of a video game character / plot eliciting real emotion from the player), Valve have been utterly silent about the third chapter in the City 17 saga. The continued expansion of TF2, announcement of a sequel for Portal & the buzz coming from their new opus “Left 4 Dead” has dominated Valve’s media output. Not any more. Well … sorta.

The above thumbnail is a piece of concept art called “Advisor” by the trio of artists Ted Backman, Jeremy Bennett and Tristan Reidford. That it appeared on the plains of the Internet is because it will be part of an art exhibition taking place in Los Angeles, celebrating Art in Video Games. It’s called “Into the Pixel”, and more details about it can be found by clicking this interesting, coloured text here.

As far as I am aware it’s the first piece of hard evidence that Valve have at least contemplated Episode 3 at some point in the near future. The timing of its appearance is further enhanced by the fact that E3 2008 will be starting soon & there is still some question marks as to whether the Valve booth will feature ANY information on Episode 3. Time will tell, though whether the interest remains is another matter altogether.

http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=posts&id=1635&cc=US

Lever let it be said that the internet, and particularly its denizens, aren’t predictable; so sure enough, not long after the Pyro update appears on gamers’ Steam accounts, nearly every server around becomes clogged to near-bursting with Pyros. Their muffled unintelligible cries punctuating the monotonous hissing sound of their ‘throwers. So what was my first reaction on these servers? To play as a soldier of course and pick off those manic fire-happy spammers, figuring it would be like shooting rubber-clad fish in a barrel. That was my first mistake.

Within 30 seconds I was humming “Return to Sender” as I found my dispatched rockets steadily returning to cause serious grief to my immediate self. The Pyro’s new ability allows one to bounce rockets or grenades (or even other players) with a blast of air; in actual terms this means that if you’re not paying attention, your volley of rockets could come back to kill you. It will take some getting used to for sure & I’m not entirely convinced either way as to how fair it is. Of course, I play as Pyro 9 times out of 10 so I guess the answer will default to “Yes”.

The achievements though look fun & more attainable than those the Medic was given; naturally most of them involve some synergy of fire + an opponent. Certainly looking through them, there’s less “silly” achievements that invariably require deliberate planning so if nothing else it’ll be curious to see how many Pyros end up with all the new weapons.

http://www.steampowered.com/pyro/?pw=presspreview

Nice one - now that’s a free update. 2 new maps, lots of new achievements, with 3 weapon unlocks and a brand new ability for the Pyro that is certain to set the cat amongst the pigeons. If cats wielded flamethrowers that is.

Well this was a piece of unexpected news; Valve must have accidently slipped something suspicious in the coffee machine because hot on the heels of the medic upgrades come the same pack for the Pyro.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1932

Valve aren’t exactly known for being the speediest of development houses, but I don’t think even the wildest optimist would have predicted the new upgrade pack coming this soon.

Apart from various textures, web graphics & plenty of vector art, I have never really attempted to “paint” using Photoshop; ie, create something from blank canvas as a painting. It’s trickier than I thought it would be, especially as I did the following with just the mouse (graphics tablet is elsewhere):

It’s just a sketch, whipped up in the space of an afternoon, so is woefully unfinished & a bit “blobby”. I thought however it was an interesting exercise to see what one could achieve using Photoshop as a painting tool.

If I’m not running around TF2 maps as a medic & replying to those endless calls of “MEDIC!” with my mighty healomatic, then I’m relieving stress by happily creating human BBQs as a pyro. So doesn’t it make me a happy camper (figuratively speaking mind, I hate snipers) to learn that Valves next major class update will be aimed at our rubber-suited friend? To celebrate this, they released a piece of concept art for one of the new weapons:

It’s called the “Axtinguisher”. Yes, you heard me, the “Axtinguisher”. That right there is a jumbo, Buy-1-get-1-free pack of awesome right there. Though dealing only half the damage as a normal axe hitting non-burning opponents, if you hit an enemy you have set on fire, you get 100% crits each time you smack their toasty heads with this beauty. That though not the best bit; it’s called the “Axtinguisher” people. Marvellous.

After the obscene number of servers featuring achievement grinders posing as medics, the natural worry is that the same thing will happen with the Pyro. I don’t think so; whereas the medic could still be played as a medium to long range attacker, the Pyro is ostensibly more of a skirmisher / ambushing class. The flamethrower is a short range weapon & I can see a lot of potential grinders being put off by the more … “sneaky” method needed to play as the Pyro.

Having said that, more Pyros on servers is bad news for Spies, but hey. Fuck them.

I did this ages ago, but never stuck it up on the blog (which is kinda half the reason why this thought-dump exists. Well, a quarter the reason. Well. A third.): It’s just a “doodle” done up as a vector image, but I liked how the face came out anyway. As usual, I lost interest as I got close to the end of it, hence why the body & background are a bit weak.

It’s so easy to love playing a game when even in death you find reasons to smile. During the heat of battle, our Pyro happens upon a revalation:

“Ahhh ha!” Regrettably, he was later ’sloded by a one-eyed Scotsman, so we’ll never know what strands of genius course through our rubber suited friend.

What’s interesting about the new Medic achievements, is that for dedicated Medics like myself who prior to the major update, actually enjoyed firing syringes into peoples faces (I’m sure there was some other aspects to the role), the various awards are a doddle to pick up.

Within a few hours of playing I had already accrued approximately 10 of the buggers, just by playing the class properly, healing my team mates, supporting offensives etc. I soon picked up the first milestone and with it, the new syringe gun (The “Blutsauger”). Although you sacrifice “critical” hits with this new weapon, each syringe you manage to lodge up the opponents nasal passage nets you 3 points of health.  In my mind, this radically alters the offensive capabilities of the class. Prior to this, the medic was a soft target on the front-line, scouts and pyros taking particular glee when a lone medic came within sight. They are nearly always the first target for the other team. Now however, the tables have turned & I’m dropping Pyros & Scouts like I’m Michael Jackson on a balcony.

At the rate I’m going, it won’t be long until I get the next new weapon choice, the “Kritzkrieg”. 100% critical hits for 10 seconds in many ways seems like more of a potential game-breaker than the standard 10 seconds of invulnerability. Certainly in removing those sentry gun choke points.