Earlier in the month I had some time off work. It was supposed to be a family vacation that vanished into nothingness, but I didn’t feel like cancelling my time off, so I used it to my advantage. A full-blown colour piece. It was initially supposed to be just a quick one-night pin-up. No perfect ink or colour. But after finishing that, I found I wasn’t satisfied. The piece wasn’t strong enough to post or share, but the concept was strong enough to warrant a do-over, and so I did. Roughly 4 hours a day spread out over the 7 days off. And the result I am very happy with. Got it turned into one of my annual posters for the wall rotation too.
Aloy, from Horizon series. Below is the Ink, some details, and the final.
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What I’m Reading
In an attempt to improve, I recently got some new art books, focused on composition, and figure drawing. As I mentioned in a post earlier this month, my goals for 2023 are to do more colour and scene pieces, less straight up pin-up left at the outline stage. I want to add more to the inked piece, with shadow and rendering, and then add more background or scene elements, lighting, etc.
Also just finished reading another auto-bio-graphic-novel It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood. Like Ducks, which I read earlier this year, it’s a journaling of the writer’s life and career over a 6-month period, about her story, her art, her mental health struggles, etc. That’s a disservice of an explanation, but the book is very good, and deals with some heavy material, so not recommended for anyone that might not be in the best head space themselves. But one might find it relatable. I dunno.
Less: A Novel
The Wheel of Time Book 10
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What I’m Playing
Finally jumped back into The Witcher III after a brief trip that was Immortals Fenyx Rising. I had started The Witcher first, but it had a slow start and I was craving something a little more action-y. But now that I’m done with Fenyx, back to the Witcher. And happy to report that I’m fully invested again. The story has really picked up, and the combat gameplay, I’m starting to learn, has many strategic layers.
In the co-op space, after finishing Far Cry 6, we’ve moved onto Gotham Knights. A very pretty multiplayer Batman universe game. You can play as Batgirl, Red Hood, Nightwing, or Robin. It’s a very strong presentation, but maybe not quite at the level that the Arkham series left us expecting. It’s very pretty, as I mentioned, but the combat is not as nuanced. There’s also gear scores which are lame. But we’re still early on, so more thoughts on it later.
Recently Completed: AER
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What I’m Watching
The Last of Us
Andor
Babylon
The Witcher S2
Ted Lasso S3
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Lastly, I haven’t shared these in a while, last posted here was Episode 4 I believe?… but I’m up to Episode 9 of my Halo Minute: Co-op Misadventure Halo Infinite video series:
This year one of my goals is to colour more. I find I do a lot of detailed, inked, pin-ups, but then leave it at that. I always say I’ll go back and colour it but instead I just move on to the next drawing. I suspect this is because I colour infrequently enough, that the idea of it is daunting, so I always put it off. I’ve also lapsed on the Stranger Than Friendship comic for almost a full year now if I don’t get a new one out before April. I just need to sit down and think of some ideas. I did have one ages ago regarding Wordle, but I fear that fad has passed. Maybe I’ll do it just to get it out of my system.
So yeah, back to colouring – I think doing the colour step more regularly will help keep those skills sharpened, and allow me to work more efficiently as I continue to improve. And to make the idea of it less daunting. And less time spent on the actual figure/ink steps, so I don’t burn out.
With that, since this is the first update this year, I’ll share what I’ve done, in order:
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What I’m Drawing
I started this year playing Immortals Fenyx Rising (more on that below in the gaming updates) and I really enjoyed the art style, so I kicked off the first drawing of the year with Fenyx herself. This version is her most basic starting gear before I even realized the many, many, different customization options available. I do want to colour this piece, but I may go back to the gear design first (there’s so many more ideas).
Another quick drawing, in Lollipop Chainsaw. And a work-in-progress update of The Gwen Who Laughs. As it had been a while since my last Spider-Gwen variant I figured it was time (my wife would say never again is too soon), and the idea of a Batman Who Laughs version was really intriguing to me. Very fetish, latex look. Corset and belts. Very harlequin type look. Could pass for a Harley Quinn variant instead almost. It was after struggling with this WIP that I decided to take a break and focus on more colour for a bit.
Gender bent Johnny Bravo. Modern day Miss Bravo if you will. There’s actual an episode where Johnny Bravo does get turned into a lady so that he knows what it feels like to be hit on incessantly.
Sasha Banks / Mercedes Mone. Former WWE wrestler who made her debut recently in New Japan.
And Supergirl. Got excited after watching the most recent Flash movie trailer, with Michael Keaton and the reveal of the new Supergirl.
So yeah, colour. A little less focus on the ink outlines. After the sketch is cleaned up, I basically just jumped right into colour. And a simple background. Supergirl probably has the most detail as I did a semi-rough ink version to go with it. The other big change is I am working 100% in Photoshop for these which I don’t typically do. I usually sketch and ink in CLIP and then move over to PS if I need to for colour. But it felt kind of refreshing to stick with the one program and explore some new brushes. Hopefully more to come.
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What I’m Playing
Immortals Fenyx Rising: A very solid adventure game, very much like Zelda Breath of the Wild. In art style and gameplay. This is the game that’s kept me the most busy between January – February.
The game is a very vibrant soft coloured game and there are lots of different arena and puzzle style challenge rooms to mix up the standard-type combat. Ability to fly and ride a horse for traversal. And the collectibles usually involve some sort of challenge puzzle as well. Story is decent, and a good length – a humorous take on the Olympus Gods and Titans stories. Basically a big evil has been released and has turned everyone to stone and taken away the godly powers. Zeus and Prometheus are the two narrators of the story. Prometheus is more of the lead storyteller, and Zeus provides his colour commentary. Telling the story of how this mortal, Fenyx, will save the day. Combat is fairly easy to understand once you get used to the light attack and strong attack button mapping.
As I mentioned above, there is a lot of customization options with the gear you unlock throughout. Each gear item has its own perks, etc, but you can always change the look of that gear while it’s equipped to another style, if you wanted to stick to a theme, but needed the perks.
Roughly 40hrs to beat the story, but I didn’t stick around to finish all the various dungeons, or DLC packs.
Returnal: Returnal which was a PS5 launch title exclusive was recently ported to PC and I wanted to give it a try. I’m not a big fan of rogue-like games. But I thought I’d give it a shot.
I understand the appeal of the genre, and this game is gorgeous, and from a die-repeat-die-repeat perspective it’s not actually that bad. It is, however, difficult, and that was a turn-off. I understand that this genre does require a certain level of difficulty to ensure the player improves and advances and unlocks new stuff, but I unfortunately don’t have the time to dedicate to a game like this when I have so many others in my queue. A friend invested over 100 hours into the grind, and still hasn’t “finished” the story. That’s just not my style. So, I am content with the fact that I did “trial” it, but it’s not for me.
Somerville: A quick 4-hour game, like Limbo, or Inside. Same idea, with the puzzle mechanics that allow progression. A cool alien invasion story too. And very cool looking – I really liked the art direction with this one. And its a little bit more 3D level design than those of its kind. Which made it a little bit clunky to play, but still fun.
Far Cry 6: Oh man, finally, finally, knocked this story out in co-op. There’s one thing that can be said about playing in co-op with ILLESTRADER, and that’s when we start a game, we know it’ll take like 6 months to finish. Since we only get a few hours per week, if we’re lucky, and that if we play that game. Sometimes we switch it up, like jumping into Halo Co-op campaign, for example. But it feels good to say we finished the campaign. I think our next outing is Gotham Knights, but we’ll wait for the next sale. In the meantime, we’ll play through some of the DLC in FC6 and some more achievement collecting.
I typically don’t write video game reviews like I once did, and that’s a shame. I wish I had the time. Instead, now I typically just blurt out my thoughts in real-time during my semi-monthly updates, when and where I can. But I do still like to do a year-end review, of sorts.
One reason I do this is to remind myself exactly what I played. At any given time, I usually have a few games on the go, and I don’t replay games as a rule, one and done, on to the next. So, I burn through a couple dozen games each year. And it’s nice to look back every now and then.
So, the following list is the big games I played in 2022. Doesn’t necessarily mean they were released in 2022, as some games can sit on my shelf or on the HDD for years before I find the time/motivation to start them. In most of the cases I have beaten the game or abandoned it, sufficiently happy with my time/money invested.
Where did January go? I swear it was just here when I was working on this list. February is half over? Seriously? I don’t even have any excuses…
Let’s jump into it:
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The Gunk (2021)
The Gunk felt like a call back to simpler times in games. No micro transactions or loot crates or season passes. Just a stand-alone game with no multiplayer component. Like N64 RARE games. Only now with modern visuals. You’re dropped onto a planet and then you fight / puzzle your way to the end of the game. You unlock upgrades / abilities naturally, as dictated by the level design requirements. There’s not even a lot of fighting / combat in this game, mostly puzzles and platforming and an overall enjoyable experience. I played the game at the start of 2022 to offset my time in Halo Infinite and wrote a bit about it [HERE] and [HERE]. Here’s some in-game photos:
Watch Dogs Legion (2020)
One of the few games I’ve written a full review on, [HERE]. To summarize my impression of the game:
Overall the game was just OK. The main story villains played their role, but like our generic operatives, didn’t leave any lasting impressions. The final “who did it all” bad guy was a let down. The gameplay remains a fun mixture of stealth and gunplay. The anybody-is-a-recruit idea makes for a fun playground. However I did experience some issues with the collectibles and completion type of activities, like drinking at every bar location or completing all the paint-up wall paintings, as the achievements never unlocked for me.
The Pedestrian (2022)
Pedestrian started out being an enjoyable puzzle game. Imagine a street sign: flat, very simple design. That is the level design. Now add a 2D man, and then add platforms and elevators and doors, on the sign surface. Pretty smart design and initially fun but got very complicated and I never finished it. The game starts involving multiple rooms and background to foreground doors and intricate switch mechanics that involved multiple steps and screens and puzzles. And it stopped being fun. A shame really.
Maybe the difficulty peaks at that point and then dials it back but I’ll never know.
Borderlands 3 (2020)
Sadly, this game fell off our radar. I really should go back to finish it. Maybe I can convince the wife to play it with me in co-op. Borderlands has always been a great property with multiple main titles and spin-offs and just a lot of fun to play. But it’s one of those games I enjoyed playing in co-op, and if you can’t get the friends to sit down and play, then it falls off the radar into the background and eventually uninstalled. But I want to play through it, and then get Tiny Tina’s Wonderland expansion.
Far Cry New Dawn (2019)
Another Far Cry game, this time a sequel set 17 years after the events of Far Cry 5 (one of the endings, anyways, where the nuke goes off – spoiler alert) and it’s a very colourful and vibrant game, in a post-apocalyptic setting, with mutated animals and Mad Max style gangs. For the most part it was fun, as is all Far Cry games, but the gameplay is very boring now as there hasn’t been any changes to that formula. They try and mix it up with how your levelling and progression works but the core gameplay loop of running around with a gun, shooting enemies, and capturing outposts/bases, with animal hunting on the side, is still all the same as previous games in the series – just a new map. Or in this case, not even a new map – a recycled recoloured map. Another complaint I have with this series is the co-op progress does not retain. You can join another player’s co-op game and play the missions and complete the outposts/bases, but all you will get in return in the resources and money and XP progression, but no “story” progression. If you load up your own save you will not be any further in the story or made any progress unlocking the map. You also don’t unlock “story” related achievements. A real bummer. See Far Cry 6 further down for more of the same complaints.
Golf Club Wasteland (2021)
A fun, quiet, somber 2D indie game. The story is that Earth is now a wasteland and humanity has left. Only those rich enough travel back to Earth, and what do rich people do? They play golf. So, the setting is a run-down wasteland where you play golf through sewers and abandoned factories and malls. 2D level design. A fun game though.
Grounded (2020 early access)
Grounded has been a game that’s been interesting to watch progress through Early Access. Started out as essentially just a playground with a short introductory story, and as the years have passed, the team has added more content, story, achievements, and now they’ve finally gone 1.0.
The game is Honey I Shrunk the Kids for all intents and purposes. You play as shrunken kids with no memory about why you are suddenly small and in your back yard. You walk among ants and other small bugs, and fight off menacing spiders, and explore, and try to find out what happened and how to return to normal. Game is playable in 4 player co-op.
The game involves quite a bit of crafting and base-building that allows you to build up your character to take on bigger and badder bugs, like stink-beetles and ladybugs, and mosquitoes.
I’ve jumped into this game during a few of the early stages, and then spent quite a few hours once the achievements started popping. But I have not yet jumped in since the game went 1.0. Not sure if I will.
Shredders (2022)
Shredders is a fun indie snowboarding game with absolutely, terrible writing and voice acting. But I think that’s part of its charm. You play as a snowboarder who has a friend filming him doing fun jumps and stunts and sort of stumble your way into a X-Games-ish tournament only because the original participant broke his leg and saw your social media videos. Pretty solid mechanics, easy to learn but deep enough to try harder tricks made this game fun enough to jump into on occasion – but mostly because it’s been a few years since I’ve gone snowboarding myself due to covid and struggling to find the time after having kids. There was a bit of yearning that made me keep coming back to this game.
Mortal Kombat 11 (2020)
The Mortal Kombat / Injustice games haven’t really evolved much. Better visuals, and more characters. But the story is usually decent and lengthy. I played through the main campaign but haven’t made it through the Aftermath DLC expansion yet.
Sea of Solitude (2019)
An emotional indie adventure game. Has themes dealing with loneliness and depression. You sail a little boat around a sunken submerged city and work through navigation puzzles and some minor platforming. I liked the visual style, reminding of Rime. A short game, completed in a few couple-hour sittings.
FAR Changing Tides (2022)
FAR Changing Tides is a sequel to the previous FAR game. You’re tasked with piloting a land-boat-ship thing with a big multi-faceted sail. Requires a lot of micromanagement of the different parts of the ship, whether it be the sails, or the furnace that powers the engine. Sometimes parts break down or catch on fire. You also need to exit the ship occasionally to do some minor exploring to gather resources like fuel, or minor puzzles to open the gates or doors or barricades that block your path. The game is like a 2.5D side-scroller left-to-right deal. The sequel also added an under-water component, so now the ship is part submarine. Fun little game.
Dead Cells (2018)
Typically, I’m not a fan of rogue-like, rogue-lite? games, where every time you die, you re-spawn at the start of the game. There are minor progression elements where you can unlock newer weapons or perks or abilities, which would make each subsequent run theoretically easier or allow you to explore further into the game. There was a recent update to this game that made it much easier to play. With that difficulty adjustment I did enjoy playing this game.
Sniper Elite 5 (2022)
Played Sniper Elite 5 in co-op with Illestrader. We played 3 and 4 like that, and the Zombie spin-off games. New story, new map, but the series hasn’t evolved much. Still WWII setting.
Grand Theft Auto III Remastered (2021)
I sadly have not played this game as much as I had originally hoped. Haven’t gotten to Vice City or San Andreas either. Nostalgia alone hasn’t kept me interested.
Hitman 2 (2018)
I really wish I could just play this game in a linear fashion without feeling compelled to replay each mission to complete the different kill scenarios. I sometimes feel that my drive for achievements ruins games for me. After repeating the same level over and over, my interest will wane and then I stop because I’ve grown bored, and then I don’t advance the story. I should finish this so that I can move on to Hitman 3 in another 4 years, probably.
A Plague Tale – Innocence (2019)
I sat on this game for far too long, and only started playing it when the sequel was nearly coming out, and this one was leaving Game Pass. The game originally came out in 2019, but I played the Xbox Series X visual upgraded version from 2021, A very decent stealth adventure game. The setting is in medieval times and there’s a plague of rats, but they are supernatural, and your quest is to get your sickly brother to the doctor to heal him, but what ails him is related to this supernatural thing. Long live the rat king.
GRID Legends (2022)
A very standard racer, like previous GRID games. This time around they’ve added a story campaign about a rivalry between different car teams, using live action videos for the story elements. I’ve always liked the GRID games, but much prefer the DIRT series. But the open map in the Forza Horizons Series will always be top.
Riders Republic (2021)
Another Ubisoft attempt at a big online multiplayer filled world, like Steep but now with bikes and lots of other terrain sports, not strictly tied to the snow. I haven’t gotten as heavily engrossed in it like I did Steep, but it is fun in co-op on occasion. My chief complaint is the odd numbered achievements. I mean, WHY!? Why 16G and 32G Why?
Death Stranding (2019)
Wow, OK Death Stranding. My game of the year. Here’s the in-game photo album. Originally, I bought this game on the PS4 in 2019 when it came out, but never got around to playing it (see: I don’t really play PS4 as much, still haven’t played Days Gone or Last of Us II). But then it somehow made it’s way to PC Game Pass WITH XBOX ACHIEVEMENTS, and suddenly I made time. Sometimes all I need is the right motivation. This game is amazing from a technical gameplay perspective and bizarre from a story perspective. Both sides very much Hideo Kojima. You play as Sam Porter Bridges as a delivery person. You must carry boxes and gear and equipment as you try and reconnect the small cities remaining after the world ending event. The navigation and traversal of the land is the core gameplay loop. Mountains and gullies need to be crossed, while you are carrying huge amounts of cargo on your back and shoulders and legs. Balance and stamina need to be monitored so that you don’t fall over and lose everything you’re carrying. Sounds boring and tedious right? I can’t even begin to explain the story – but I’ll try. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic future where an event called the Death Stranding wiped out most life on earth and sort of caused life and the afterlife to merge in a way. Our job is to basically reconnect the remaining cities to the same network, and we are a bit special because we can survive in this world and the afterlife “beach” and travel in between in a fashion. The game is very good, also very weird. And I cannot do it justice with my words.
Forza Horizons 5 (2022)
More car racing. Like its predecessors, pushing the visual boundaries. Game takes place in Mexico now.
Fall Guys (2020)
I got back into this game when it switched to a free-to-play cross platform model. I played through the 1st season pass unlocking everything, and still jump in occasionally now. My son also enjoys playing.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2022)
Another game I got mostly to just play with my son. Cartoony beat-em-up game like arcade games of old.
Far Cry 6 (2022)
Another Far Cry played in co-op. These games are “fun”, but they don’t add anything after each iteration. Tired gameplay. Tired story. I feel like the last good one was Far Cry 4. But I continue to play these because co-op makes it worth it.
Halo Infinite (2021)
I’ve talked a lot about Halo Infinite this year and it wins the award for “most played game” of the year. For the first chunk I strictly played the multiplayer, completing the first season pass. Haven’t pick up multiplayer much since. After the first season I jumped into the Campaign and played that solo Legendary. Currently now playing the campaign co-op. The game is the best campaign of the series in my opinion.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)
GotG was a treat. A single player story with great writing. Gameplay was fun, a 3rd person action game with a mix of shooting and exploration/platforming/puzzles. You don’t really see stand-alone single player games like this with no multiplayer or seasonal content or micro transactions or DLC to speak of. I think they’re hard to sell, even harder to justify buying I think at full price. But it made its way to Game Pass and that’s when I got the chance to play it. Here’s some in-game photos of my time:
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Well, that was my 2022. Looking forward to 2023. I’ve kicked off this year with Immortals : Fenyx Rising, and have committed myself to playing The Witcher III, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has me hooked. I’m trying to complete at least one chapter a night as I steadily make my way through the game. Hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year.
The game is a fun play through, with solid writing. And besides that actual story writing that drives the narrative, there’s just a lot of dialogue that is mostly background noise between crew mates. You really get the impression that this crew has been together for a long time and their banter just sounds natural. I stepped away from the computer at one point while the characters were just sitting on the ship awaiting me to progress the story to the next mission, and when I left they were talking, and when I came back they were still talking. It’s mostly Rocket and Drax that talk the most. With the occasional “I Am Groot”. But to be fair, its mostly Rocket.
And the game includes a surprising amount of “swearing”. It’s not true swearing because its mostly “flark” and “flarking” but I guess they can get a way with it because its not English. Sounds pretty close. I guess it’s similar to Firefly, where they were able to get away with swearing in Chinese without upsetting the sensors.
Speaking of the end of the year, it has been a pretty solid year of games. I have my curated list of games I played this year, ready to go for my year-end Games Reviewed Quickly post:
The Gunk (2021)
Watch Dogs Legion (2020)
The Pedestrian (2022)
Borderlands 3 (2020)
Far Cry New Dawn (2019)
Golf Club Wasteland (2021)
Grounded (2020 early access)
Shredders (2022)
Mortal Kombat 11 (2020)
FAR Changing Tides (2022)
Dead Cells (2018)
Sniper Elite 5 (2022)
Grand Theft Auto III Remastered (2021)
Hitman 2 (2018)
A Plague Tale – Innocence (2021)
GRID Legends (2022)
Hot Wheels Unleashed
Riders Republic
Death Stranding
Forza Horizons 5
Fall Guys
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Far Cry 6
Halo Infinite
Guardians of the Galaxy
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What I’m Playing
As I mentioned above, I’m playing GotG (hoping to wrap it up by the end of the year), Halo on co-op nights, Fall Guys, Lego Star Wars with my 4 year old, Far Cry 6 on co-op nights, Need For Speed Unbound, and even tried Gungrave GORE.
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What I’m Drawing
I haven’t been drawing at all, sadly. I put like an hour into one of my comic pages, just flatting one of the panels. I also tried re-drawing the first panel in my book, as black and white, kinda like a manga to see if I like the style. I’ve been struggling a lot lately with the idea of continuing where I left off or starting over in the format below, in the interest of saving time. Drawing, inking and colouring is a huge undertaking, and I don’t know if I’m cutout to actually progress. I might have to make some sacrifices to my original vision just to actually move ahead and make progress. Whether that means changing the art style , or changing the colour method.
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What I’m Reading
I recently picked up Ducks which is a illustrated memoir about Kate Beaton’s 2 years in the Albertan Oil Sands. Paints a very real picture of what life is/was like there, how lonely it can be, how being a woman in a male dominated industry is like. A very good, honest, bleak, book all around. On the top 10 lists for non-fiction books for 2022.
Also picked up the Classic Collection of Spawn Batman, the combo DC and Image published books, as well as the latest edition that Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo did, that released this month. Among my many other comics that I pick up every week.
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Below is the most recent (3 weeks ago) episode of our Halo playthrough. Unfortunately after finishing this episode, the next two nights that we played, the capture get messed up as it didn’t encode properly. So I got 2 hours of audio, and no gameplay :(. They were some good sessions too. So the series will have a little gap, but hopefully our next session I’ll be able to pick up the recording again and jump into more editing.
That wraps up the last few weeks for sure. Next update should have me completed GoTG, a new Halo Episode (fingers crossed) and my 2022 Reviews Done Quickly.
There’s an emotional feeling when a game comes to its conclusion, but Death Stranding has, like, 4 endings, in a row, which takes the wind out of the sails. You’ll sit back, feeling accomplished, and then there’s more. Nothing left to mystery here, every minor detail over-explained. Leaving you fulfilled, but also relieved that its actually finally over, but maybe it should have been over 3 hours ago.
Either way, its still a great game, and the ending doesn’t take away from that, but in some people’s eyes, I can totally understand why it would. Especially those that value their time.
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What I’m Playing
Now that Death Stranding is in the rear-view mirror, I’ve slowly moved onto Guardians of the Galaxy. But also simultaneously, Halo Campaign Co-op released, and I’ve been playing that too.
Halo Campaign has been fun. I’ve been playing it in 4-play co-op and recording the footage, tip-toeing back into video editing, and posting the results:
Returning to editing (I say that like I used to do it regularly, which I totally did not) has been enjoyable. Fulfills my creative impulses, but is not necessarily as taxing on me, mentally or physically. I can usually pump one out in about two hours, and I have (will have) lots of footage to use as we make our way through the game. I’ll probably have Episode 4 completed tonight.
I will say one downside, is that video edition requires both visual and auditory senses, which is a downside. When I draw, I can usually reserve my ears for music, or “watch” TV or a movie, so I can sort of multi-task. But not with video editing.
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What I’m Drawing
I was able to add one more drawing to my Drawtober list, day 20, before Death Stranding / GotG / Halo totally took my attention. Day 20 was Spider-Man. And it granted me the time to go back and fix my Green Goblin, from Day 4, and make an action piece. There were a lot of things in the GG piece that I wasn’t happy with, but had to abandon as the day was over and needed to move on. The glider namely, and smoke. But also his proportions were off – legs too big. So when I decided to add Spider-Man I was able to go back, and go over GG again.
PowerGirl is #21 and I hope to get to that before the end of the month, just having too much fun with other creative outlets at the moment.
Idly Playing the Waiting Game 