http://www.flickr.com/photos/yushimoto_02/
Why you may just like this Flickr:
Lovely architecture done in color. The bright colors and strong composition makes it a favorite for me.
I’ve been excited about the new Tomb Raider for a while now. After playing through Uncharted 1 & 2, I realized that once Crystal Dynamics got their shit together, they could make an AMAZING Tomb Raider game.
And finally they pulled it off.
Now just to be clear, I’m not some crazy Tomb Raider fanboy, I actually hated the original games. They played like a tank stuck in four feet of cement, and looked bad even during their time. The only ones I played through were Legends and the remake of the first game based on the Legend engine about a few years ago. They weren’t amazing, but pretty fun in their own right. I didn’t play Underworld yet mainly because swimming is almost always awful in any game, and like hell if I was going to mess with a game with 70% swimming. It always was a series with great potential but very poor execution. A reason I liked Uncharted, it was a Tomb Raider done right.
Flash forward to 2013, and Tomb Raider has been made great, and also isn’t a Uncharted clone to boot, but stands on its own two feet. Nothing would have been wrong if it was a clone, since it is cloning a damn good game. Instead we have a game that gives more of a Dead Space vibe, everything is out to get you, and you die really fast. I didn’t expect it, I was ready for action and instead got a survival horror, which was a pleasant surprise
About to get screw over. Again.
Lara Croft, as prone as she is to bad luck, tends to have quite good luck getting new equipment. The bow is her staple weapon, and up until a later point of the game, was my weapon of choice 90% of the time. It is accurate, and great for stealth kills. The melee is also quite good, and adds a layer of variety to the combat, causing you to have to swap between bowing down foes to hacking them down. You aren’t a sponge for bullets even on Normal, so you can’t quite just melee your way through, as that is a quick way to get yourself killed.
The bow gets two major attachments later, the Rope Arrow, and the Fire Arrow. The fire arrow is your standard affair, but the rope arrow is something a wee-bit more special. You can use it to pull objects to you, and create roped paths for you to cross. They do a good job of having you use this type of arrow often. Other weapons have their utilities, such as the Shotgun being able to break down wooden barricades, and the Grenade Launcher destroying metal ones. This might be the first game I’ve played in a while where the Handgun feels next to useless. I’ll use it on the super rare occasional that my bow runs out of arrows.
Combat constantly feels fresh
The set pieces are done well, you are constantly moving, Lara is constantly under some sort of pressure, and you are always running into some sort of problem. All of these are done in good ways that keep you engaged all the time and wanting more. I wish there were more instances of being surprised by something, there were a few early one that caught me off guard, then no more appearances. Also wish the Rope Arrow had a bit more action during combat, but I also haven’t tried to straight up grapple an enemy with it.
There is alot more to the game (leveling, tombs! multiplayer?) that I’ll get into later. Right now I’ve played maybe 6 or so hours and it shaping up to be one of the more refreshing games I’ve played in a while.
Anyone who knows me knows I’ve said on many occasions how much I hate abstract. Also said the same for portraiture Think a better way to word it is that I actually hated the portraiture and abstract work I see other people though, but not that actual form of art. I only say this because now that I’ve dabbled a bit in both, I found a way to work with the subjects in a way that I enjoy.
My abstract work has been coming around really well, though if its a conhesive, unified project remains to be seen. You can see a bit of I have done related to my new series on it below and more in this set on my Flickr.
My portraiture has been linked directed to my work in Baltimore. I’ve been meeting more and more people on the streets, and now finally understand my work and its documentary tone to it, I’m getting to know these people and photograph them. It’s really a huge step for me to interact with people like this, but extremely exciting as well. Spring Break is going to be a hoot with going around and shooting in Baltimore for an entire week, I’m now more pumped than ever to get down there! Here are a few newer ones I scanned today below, and a link to the Flickr containing the latest here.
So right now I’m happy. My art is picking up momentum and while I recent found out my funds are a lot tighter than expect, which is locking out some of my artistic options, at least I know what I want to shoot photographically! I can worry about presentation later.
So I changed the name of these posts from i heart photography to i heart art. Think it just makes more sense to have it more open.
Anyways, my developed film I’ve been sitting on for a while did not turn out as exciting as I hoped. I had a lot of usable one-offs, and some decent starting points for bigger things, but nothing concrete. Nothing to make me feel accomplished. The biggest downer was all my photos based on gravestone textures. It was out of focus, or just very boring. I needed to get back out there and shoot more. One nasty habit of mine is that I shoot a bunch, then just work on those shots. I STOP SHOOTING. What a nasty habit. I’ve learned I need to be constantly shoot . Having a stream of negatives to work from constantly just sounds like a better idea and not as bad as I initially thought.
Art, or I should say life itself, is about making mistakes, taking chances, so you can figure stuff out. Won’t learn a thing if you are too scared to fail.
After talking with my partner in crime at my ceramics job, we went over a bulk of stuff, more importantly what I should work on next. Now with some motivation, last weekend I went out a shot at this burnt down house seconds away from me. I nabbed some texture shots of the building, worked on my doors and found objects a bit more as well. The following day I developed the rolls
Man they are looking so much better! There is almost more usable photos in two rolls then there was in the seven rolls I developed previously. Hopefully Wednesday I’ll scan them all in, I intend on going to the digital lab in the morning to get it all done, hopefully two hours is enough time to do so.
So I show up to my photography class for once, and talked a ton to my professor. After he looked at some of the stuff I’m currently trying to do, he recommended that I look into a photographer named Aaron Siskind. I looked at some of his works, and intrigued by it, picked up a few books from the big-ol library about 30 mins out via bus.
Active during the late 1920s onwards, this english teacher had many friends in the art field, and after acquiring a camera as a wedding gift, started to dabble in the wonderful field of photography. His works feel flat, but work well without that depth. I’m still reading away at his stuff currently, but what I find most interesting about him is that he shifted from more documentary work to what one could consider abstract expressionism. Which I find amusing, since I’m messing with both currently it seems.
So I’m going to research more about this man, abstract expressionism, and hell, art in general. I think I want to be a Art Jock, I just want to know about the art, so maybe I can understand where I want to go myself. I have a general idea, but I’m still experimenting with all sorts of ideas. Think really I want to know how artist think and feel as they work. To me now, sometimes it isn’t about just winging it. There is an underlying thought process to it all. And I wanna know what it is.
So here is my little write-up on Trickster Rogues up to level 10. This post also goes into a bit more detail on Combat altogether, which was touched upon over yonder.
Combat skills are broken into several little sections:
As you can tell above, you can only have a certain amount of each skill at a time, which gives the game sort of a Guild Wars 1 vibe with limited skills during combat. I like this, as it means I have to make choices on skills. For right now I’ll go over what the Trickster Rogue has access to from levels 1 to 10.
At-Will Powers are not unlike auto-attacks in the sense they are always available to you. From what I’ve see, every class’s left click is just a spam-able attack. Right click is different for every class. You do gain more as you level (indicated by the powers tree).
Encounter Powers are your old-fashion skills with a cooldown, you can hold 3 at any given time, and get more to choose from as you level (but always capped at having three to use at one time). Trickster Rogue’s encounter skills gain added effects once you have access to their Stealth ability.
Daily Powers worried me at first because of the word “Daily.” I was worried these were literally usable once a day, but in this game they are associated with the Action Point gauge located in the center of the skill area. They have different requirements to build up based on the class, Trickster Rogues build it up by dishing out some damage, or having their decoy from Bait and Switch get attacked. Once the meter is maxed out, you can use your Daily Power. It doesn’t take too long to build up, I usually can use it once every 3-4 fights. You can also sit on it if you wish.
You start with only being able to slot one of these skills, but gain another slot later, allowing you to have two available to use (but share the same AP stock).
Stealth is their class feature, and is tracked on the left side of your character via a little stealth meter. Here are the important notes on this ability:
Stealth is powerful and fun, as one would come to expect. Bonus points for them not making separate skills that are stealth only, but instead giving all skills a stealth version as well. I was worried I’d have to learn a whole new skill set at level 10.
So far so fun! They don’t die instantly as I was afraid of, and are pretty mobile. Up there right now in terms of what I’d play at launch!
So after a rather busy week, I finally got a nice little surprise, I got into the Neverwinter beta! I’m not going to say I was ultra excited about it, but the game got my attention because Cryptic decided to go a more third-person action RPG route rather than a top-down action RPG, which is a genre I’m getting sort of sick of at this point.
So earlier in the week I went ahead and installed the client to get ready, and played a bit on Friday and Saturday, but didn’t get some seriously game time until Sunday. After clicking random on everything but my class (seriously, I don’t have time anymore for names), I got right into it.
The quick verdict: It’s funner than I expected, but still needs some polish.
The rundown of what I have done so far in the beta;
So not alot, but the game overall is fun. Combat is not extremely fluid, but still alot looser than say, Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO). There is a good chance I’ll compare what I’ve seen so far to DDO, as its another free to play MMO using the D&D ruleset, and has similar gameplay elements.
Combat is quick and fast, you fight groups of enemies, and the lesser enemies die in a few hits. Red circle appear on the ground when more dangerous attacks are being used, and moving out of them prevents the damage. Regular attacks also are directional, promoting the usage of movement and not sticking to one place. This feels very much like Guild Wars 2, except you can’t really move and attack, the auto-attacks still sort of stick you in place. So it still feels rough around the edges and not as fluid as I’d hope.
Shift executes a defensive action based on the class; Guardians block, Rogues roll, Clerics dash. Block is rather weak, reducing damage by a small amount, I can hope this gets buffed in later builds (though it did just get the nerf, as it absorbed ALL the damage previously). Roll is fully invincible from start to end. Dash has greater distance than roll, but is only invincible during the first frames as a sort of trade off. These actions get their own meter as well (Guard meter for Block, Stamina meter for Roll/Dash).
Combat is discussed in more detail in my write up on the Trickster Rogue up to level 10.
Quests are a standard affair, kill x y amount of times, loot something, no real surprises here. Instanced quests are very straightforward, which was mildly disappointing. Even early DDO quests felt like you were exploring a dungeon, and had all sort of knooks. This game is quite linear by comparison, but I can only hope the Foundry fixes that later one (more on Foundry in a bit). Or maybe during later levels. Its too early to tell, but DDO gave you alot of what I just said rather early, so I dunno how I feel.
Skirmishes are little instanced quests. You queue up, then after a group forms, meet up and tackle whatever objectives they throw at you. The first one involves battling waves of undead until their leader appears, then wrecking him as well. It’s simple, and did feel like it needed a tank or cordination for that matter. I liked that, as I’m a fan of sort of pick up and play setups, and this caters right to that.
At the end of the first Skirmish
In terms of other stuff in the game, we have The Foundry. This has been a staple in Cryptic games, Star Trek and Champions Online both have this feature, and it is player created dungeons that can be uploaded, and played by other players. This feels right at home for the dungeon makers around town, and sadly not available to me during the beta test weekend. Only a handful of players did have access to the creation suite, but everyone had access to try out the created maps. The one I tried was straightforward; go down alley, kill bad guy, get loot. I want to mess with the creation suite and see how fancy you can!
The cash shop is all of what you would expect, cosmetics, character slots, XP boosters, and other goodies. There is a in-game currency called Artifact Stones that you can use to purchase ZEN (the cash shop currency). So you can earn cash shop items that way. As of writing this, I do not know the conversions of the two currencies, so I’m not sure if its a fair trade or outright awful. Hopefully not that latter.
Bugs were all over in this beta build. The two I happen to run were not pleasant One disabled my quest tracking completely until I logged out or zoned out. This is an instance where I’m thankful quests are linear. The more annoying one was at the end of a skirmish, it would not let me exit until I looted the treasure chest, but the chest could not be looted! I had to end up killing myself then click on the entrance of the skirmish in a certain location. Super annoying.
JUST LET ME LEAVE MAN
Hardcore D&D’ers who are looking to RP might be slightly disappointed in their options, while you can choose your starting town and deity, as well as write a personal story, alignments and factions have both been omitted for the time being by Cryptic. You’ll have to RP both those aspects out yourself if you really want it, but they won’t show up on your character sheet for others to see. Also while this game is based in the D&D world, it doesn’t exactly follow a ruleset like DDO does. Action Points are a super meter of sorts, Dailies are tied to said super meter, and Mana is non-existent. This personally doesn’t bother me, as I’m not really into D&D, but I can see it putting off people who are.
Crafting and PvP were both not present in the build I played, but I would bank on them both appearing during the next beta. Also didn’t get to the first dungeon or companions yet, but still some time before the beta ends, so I might just try to get to both features! At worst I’ll know when the next beta weekend rolls around.
There are some things I didn’t go over, and perhaps another time I will (or once I encounter it in game). Next weekend is the 22nd (tail end of my Spring Break, AWESOME), I’m hoping they add the Great Weapon Fighter in that build. So I’m sure to write more stuff later.
My Trickster Rogue
Above are the questions I hope to address with the first step of my final project setup!
First I want to possibly do a design for the visual arts gallery at AACC. I work within the Visual Arts department doing a wide variety of things, including work for the CADE Gallery (check out this post for information on our latest show). So gaining information and content for the website is easy, as I already have ties to various professors in the department linked directly to the gallery itself.
Secondly, I would try to design a portfolio site. I have one at the moment, but having on I could design myself from scratch tells people how resourceful and self-sufficient I can be. I have a wealth of content I could put on there, so approaching this idea would not be bad either.
So I’ve been either busy, or sick, and have had NO time to sit down and post some new content that isn’t web design related.
Hopefully I can sit down during this upcoming snowstorm to try to get some posts queued up. I rather now blow up with five posts in a single day or something along those lines.
Week 6 comes to close, and so does the banner project! I did some fine tuning to my banner, mainly reducing the size of the banner to 50kb or so, from 200kb. I was looking at the wrong number when I was exporting the file, so I though I was under the required file size (which was 50kb). As a result, I had to do two changes to my banner.
The reason for both was because, well, it was just better looking. The animation was smoother and the image was much clearer. Not that the new version is AWFUL, but still makes me a bit sad to have to lower the quality. Here is a comparison of the two (you may have to refresh to see them):
It’s noticeable, but again, not awful. A lesson learned on quality verses file size.
I then turned my attention to the next project; a resume site! Below you have the basic HTML markup for this, which uses a great deal of code we have already used in previous weeks, so not much in terms of new material here.
My HTML-based resume!
Where it does get new, however, is with the exploration of how Photoshop can be used as an aid in web design. After watching some Lynda videos, it poses me with the question to use Fireworks or Photoshop with my workflow. Both have its advantages and disadvantages, and honestly, I enjoy using both in tandem with one another to accomplish my needs. I utilized Adobe’s Kuler to create new color pallets, which you see an example of below in a Style Tile (another new element presented in the week’s lecture).
So as usual, its a great deal of new work ahead of me, but always exciting!
Week 5 of my web design class brings me to the conclusion of my banner project! The last element that was added was animation. First and foremost, we read a few tidbits of information including this link;
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/10/30/motion-animation-new-mobile-ux-design-material/
This link goes over the 12 basic principles of animation, which are as following;
Now I won’t bore you with explaining every single one, that is what I put the link above for so you can read away. What I chose to use is the ‘follow through and overlapping action’ principle. This is the idea of different objects moving at different rates. Instead of one action following another in, they work in tandem with each other. My banner is right below! You may have to do a quick refresh in the event you can’t see the animation, it is set to not repeat.
My final banner!
There are a lot more changes to the banner, including:
This took longer than expected, the sun was what fixed my biggest problem; setting up a focal point, as I struggle with it for atleast a hour before it clicked. I think it works really well. The alternative was having a sort of wind sway for the flowers, but that is time consuming with my current skill-set in Fireworks, so perhaps another time.
Michael's Great College Adventure 