Winding Down Year Two

Been off the radar a little bit recently, mainly due to alcohol related tomfoolery and wanting to say goodbye to people I won't physically see for 4 months.

Without getting weepy or turning this into a awards-ceremony speech, its been a good year. I feel I have worked a lot harder on my degree, learning a whole bunch of stuff both on and off topic. I think I would like next year to be the same, but different still. I'm expecting a lot of work, so maybe Gran Turismo 5 - which will be released as we return - is not such a brilliant idea, but GTA4 didn't affect my exams as much as I worried about (pencil that in, I don't have my results yet...) so I'm sure we can get away with a few hours/days/weeks here and there.

As per comics - although some are planned, I have not got around to doing them yet. I have another week in Coventry, so will probably get around to at least one by the time I head home. Until that time, I bid you good-morrow.

JB

Skrullos 12 points.

This weekend marked the passing of possibly one of my favourite nights of the year, and at the risk of losing any modicum of cool I have earned from you dear readers, I am of course talking about...

Eurovision

This year it was won by Russia who's neighbours appear to have figured out who controls all the oil and power. My personal favourite of the night however did not win, and no it wasnt the UK entry. It was in fact the one from Bosnia and Herzegovina and whilst having watched it many times I am still no clearer on what the hell was going on, I suspect thats why I liked it to me its what all of Eurovision would be like if it was directed by Tim Burton. I suppose we can all be grateful they didn't use the original staging of the song which consisted of the slightly scary looking lead singer coming on stage with a live chicken accompanied by dancing farmers, which I can only assume was a searing indictment of the growing urbanization of western culture and mistreatment of rural workers as a result, or more likely just plain bonkers.

And on the subject of bonkers, everyone's favourite comedy lawyer and purveyor of WTF's has been at it again. This time having been called up before his peers for his actions over the last few years he has decided that the judge assigned to the initial stages of this process is infact a fake judge , and no doubt a skrull to boot.

Further updates will follow shortly, atleast whenever I find time.

T/K

The Hazeless Future...

The team (...?) met up today to go through a few ideas that should last most, if not all, summer - while we take a break from failing teh big one at Uni. It was a generally good meeting - I ate a sandwich, and then Terry drank brown water out of a machine*.

Should have some older comics hitting first - or at least comics that relate to events that are not quite current - but is still content we nontheless originally wanted to get out there. In fact, the only written-in-stone desision made today, was that I did not want to make a Haze comic - so there won't be one. Simple as that. It barely came up in conversation - I had a worse desision to make with the spicy cheese slice in my Subway...

Enough of comics - time for inanity! Yaaaay!

Things that have amused me this week:
- Penny Arcade's game (demo).
- Crysis - FINALLY! (...20 fps on a mix of Low and Medium settings...)
- Zero Punctuation.
- Painkiller's unashamedly rediculous run 'n' gun shite-but-really-good DX9-y ...ness.
- MGS5 - Apparently Kojima-san would like an en-suite in his moon-castle-fortress, which will be purchased as MGS4 hits, so he can view the world degenerate into fanboy madness over his latest installment.
- Spicy. Cheese. Brilliant.

Anyway, thats a brief summary of my week. Ahh, procrastination, my faithful, faithful companion.

Next up, Terry, with a rant about something or other...

JB

* - Just gotta clarify - it's coffee... Not what you were thinking.

Dr. Mario Bellic

As promised - a new comic now my exams are done:


Note - its subject to change as Terry hasn't had his 2-pence over it yet - he was busy at the time of going to press web. Were supposedly meeting up soon, with the sole purpose of planning some comics; so expect a flurry of them, as-and-when we design/plan/write them.

Its very strange going from so much pressure and stress over revision and examinations, to utter procrastination. I find myself having to emulate stress by making a big deal over little things - 'what game to play next', 'how much soy sauce goes on the rice'...

Hopefully the next entry on this blog will be by Terry - and I've been promised a 3 page rant on things. 'Things', being, everything.

For now however, I have run out of interesting/relevant things to discuss, so, hope you enjoy the comic!

JB

We have to move the island.

I apologize for my absence of late but rest assured soon I shall be back polluting the internet with more of my very own special brand of rhetoric and as everyones favorite purveyor of fine art and anime girls says we have more comics coming soon, so stay tuned.

Expect a series of posts covering all the topics I missed, or atleast anything I can moan about.

Until next time readers, same dotgif time, same dotgif channel.
T/K

A little somethin' somethin'

Whilst revising bored this afternoon, I decided to leap into my folder containing all my A-Level work. Some interesting views on computing from the a-lot-younger me. The nostalgic trip was fun, and accompanied by the sounds of (the artist formerly know as 'The artist formerly known as') Prince's 'Purple Rain', that happened to be playing at the time, so the trip was also emotionally powered.

I found this - a result of my impossible-to-stop addiction to drawing wide-eyed waif-like girls, and also acting as some of the concept art to the video game I 'made' for my Media studies course. The sharp eyed will spot the file name is 'aynee-kurayami' - Aynee is the character, Kurayami was the game (and 'Echo Studios' was the 'developer' name I plastered on everything).

Its still in beta.

Where is her left arm/both feet??

Comics coming soon - celebration of the passing of the exam period will involve maybe several of them. At once.

JB

How was this fun again??

On Kotaku, I spotted this link. More of a bookmark for me here, so that if I forget to bookmark it on my other install, its on here for me. And I thought GTA was going to ruin my exams - enter 'Hell of Sand'...

You have single-pixel represented particles - Sand (yellow), Water (blue), Salt (white) and Oil (brown). Mix them up, add fire, add explosives, add -erm, wax... The best bit is watching a Java application rape your computer when you manage to fill the screen with particles. I'm particularly impressed with their interaction though. Sand sinks in water, Oil floats on water. Salt mixes with water to create a whole new game dynamic... Take a look - perfect distraction for work/revision/childbirth.

It is - literally - Sandbox gaming. Though storyline implementation may have proved challenging. There seems to be no goal. Or protagonist for that matter...

And yes, I appreciate the irony of blogging a link, from what is effectively, a link found in ANOTHER blog... Epic meh.

JB

Exams Exschmams

In the middle of my 2 glorious days of exams. My first, today, went well, but I'm shattered now. The prospect of revision and doing it all again tomorrow makes me shudder-out-loud.

Still, this didn't stop me going to see Ironman again on Sunday evening. Still good, and this time, stayed for the super-secret bonus scene after the credits (which, by the way, last twice as long when you need to pee really badly), that I unashamedly 'wooped' at, after the immortal line is mentioned. Of course, as Terry has not seen it yet, I cannot utter said line for fear of a wordy retribution. That, and the fact that every one thing I spoil for him, he can spoil a dozen for me in return.


The only other thing that has wow-ed me recently was the footage from Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm (baaaaaaad name...) for the PS3 - fans of the show will barely notice a difference between the in-game video, and the actual animated show. Apart from the framerate... It comes complete with strange coloured flashing and that cel-shaded dust. As it's Naruto, I'm assuming it will be about 50 hours of game play, incorporating probably 2, maybe 3 fights.

That's a Naruto joke there.

JB

Iron Men - Men made of Iron?

Yes. I have seen Iron Man. Yes it was fucking good fun. No, I will not spoil it for you.

Easily the best Marvel film to date (imo) - I'm looking at you here Spidermen's - Downey Jr. proves that he is indeed the best actor in the goddamn world. Its clearly the culmination of several people (Favreau, Downey, Bridges, Paltrow) having fun, making a film - which is then beamed onto the screen using the secret magical ingredient of a high-tech 'hotrod-red' battle suit. I'm not sure how Hulk will compare. Trailers so far haven't done much for me personally.

So, now its waiting until Indy 4, Speed Racer, Dark Knight and Hancock come out - the next films that tickle my fancy somewhat.