 Discontinuity for the sake of clarity --
posted by Dante on 10.2.2003 - 3:01 pm
This was actually the third strip idea we came up with, but it jumped to the top of the pile because it allowed us to easily introduce the characters, and the basic premise.
We debated letting it stay in the order it was devised, but then the launch of the site was 'delayed', so we figured some creative license on the chronology wouldn't even be noticed. 'Delay' is a reference that only holds if a span more than 12 months of complete inactivity can be considered a delay. I might be more inclined to consider it an abandoned project that was started up again.
What can I say? The artist decided he liked eating food and having walls? That without a job the electricity that powers his Wacom tablet would be no more? He's employed again, so its off to the races. Until the next time his own petty needs get in the way.
In any case ... it begins.
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 hot damn
posted by Christopher on 10.4.2003 - 9:28 pm
i'm really happy w/ the way this one turned out
however, just as i feared, premiere v02 looks a lot better than the next three strips. if you look at the original, you'll understand why it had to be redone. well, bear with us... strip 5 looks almost as good as this one, and 6 on should be even better.
i'm starting to get into texturing the backgrounds.... seems like it makes a huge difference. also, i'm finally very comfortable w/ the layer layout in photoshop.
timewise, panel 4 took... well... like 6 hours or something. about 1.5 hours for inks and coloring, and 3.5 hours to shade. it's a big panel with a lot of nitpicky little details in it, so it makes sense that it would take as long as it did... panel 3 was by far the quickest, clocking in at 45 minutes for inks and colors, and another hour for shading. i'm hoping to get it down so an entire strip takes roughly 10 hours.... that way i'll be sure to hit my week deadline even if stupid crap comes up.
this is actually my first pseudo-real rant... i may even keep it.
umm.. now i feel like the jackass that stepped up on open mic night at a comedy club, and wasn't prepared to speak.
oh well... bye
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school of rock
posted by Christopher on 10.5.2003 - 3:55 pm
probably not going to do full-on movie reviews in my posts - just a sentence or two. siskel and ebert probably had the best system... it takes learning the reviewers, but once you do, a simple 'yes' or 'no' is often better than trying to pick the damn thing apart.
school of rock - yes.
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final fantasy tactics: advance
posted by Christopher on 10.8.2003 - 10:29 am
the gameboy advance sp is the only video game system i have time to play anymore. this is just as well, because i'm a picky bastard when it comes to games. i've only found a few gamecube and ps2 games that held my interest for long, but when i do, they consume my life. the gba allows me to play games i like, but doesn't destroy 14 hours of my life in each sitting.
after logging about 20 something hours into final fantasty tactics: advance, i have to say that i still like tactics ogre far better.
fft:a has a lot going for it - by all means, if you like turn-based tactics strategy games, it's probably a good bet - but it has a few things that drop its rating in my book down to maybe a 7.
1. it appears to be too easy. i don't really bother with a white mage anymore, because my characters rarely take enough damage to waste a turn on healing. this seems to be the going trend with final fantasy games these days... really easy until you do 30 hours of sidequests to be able to fight a hidden monster that totally wastes your party in one shot, in which case you need to spend another 30 hours building your characters up.
2. most of the classes seem useless right now. because you can mix and match skills, it seems like you should be able to just pick the best abilities and make a team of half magic-strong characters and half fighting-strong characters, each a clone of the other for redundancy purposes. kind of defeats the point of a "team". of course when you have your band of super-badasses, it's not all that fun to just waste the a.i. in a single turn (ok, maybe fun the first few times, but then...)
3. the interface leaves a lot to be desired. too many buttons to see how equipping an item will affect you. no class guide, so unless you hit gamefaqs, you have to guess at what it even takes to use higher classes (which isn't levels... it's the number of skills you learn as lesser classes). no idea what the hell skills really do until you try them out. they just need to take some lessons from tactics ogre.
4. the music, while catchy, gets redundant. i end up having to turn the sound off while i'm cycling through my characters to figure out who needs new weapons and stuff. also, i miss the patented final fantasy "battle won" music.
sounds like i just tore it apart, but i still enjoy playing it enough to keep on going. maybe it gets harder as it goes on? maybe i just have to get used to the mechanics? we'll see... i'll probably post again after another 20 hours of play.
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