Dusk til Dawn

Posted on December 7, 2021 by iRogan

Oh, how the hours turn into days, and days turn into weeks. Busy just livin’, but where does the time go?

What I’m Drawing

I always like to start with this category first because it makes me feel accomplished. Everything else I do is just a time-wasting hobby, or cost a lot of money (see: What I’m Reading 😉 )

More GwenVerse additions this week. And this will be the final two of the year. I swear. We have Silk Gwen, which is just a SILK variation; not as original but I was challenged to do another drawing with her on pointe. I struggled with a few different poses for a few days but inevitably settled on this one to make it work. I may go back and try another pass at the colour to see if I can switch it up. Maybe the blue will work? And also Grifter – GwenC.A.Ts. I couldn’t come up with a witty Gwen name for Grifter that didn’t sound dumb. So instead I decided to change the team name. GwenC.A.Ts. Now I have an excuse to make more Gwen variations from that team 😉 .

What I’m Playing

Not much in the way of gameplay over the last week. Although I did quickly try out the new Game Pass addition: Townscaper. Not really a game, more like a toy / tool box to play around in. You basically just plop down blocks that turn into houses. You can make some pretty cool, colourful cities. Either way it was a quick 1000G.

Also I’ve been playing Dirt 5. Playing through the DLC races. Really just to check it off my list/queue so that I can focus on Forza Horizons 5 instead. I don’t like have too many same-genre games on the go.

What I’m Reading

The Department of Truth #14
Human Target #2
The Me You Love in the Dark #5
SPAWN #324
Wonder Girl #5
The Scumbag #11
Fine/Print Vol 1 (not pictured)
DIE Vol 4 (not pictured)

So I was partially right about Decorum last week. The main titled comic is ending but a sequel series is replacing it. No word on the creative team, if Hickman will continue writing? I’ll have to look it up.

Also sadly, The Me You Love in the Dark ending after #5. Just a short brief series, probably better served as a trade / graphic novel. Its been a fun series with gorgeous art.

It’s getting close to that holiday time, house lights and trees are going up. Time to sit by the fire eating cookies with milk.

Happy Holidays.

G 308,341
iRogan

Aliens, Orcs, and Zombies Oh My!

Posted on October 26, 2021 by iRogan

Games:

Back 4 Blood has been the reliable venture in our latest coop game nights, but its hard to say if I like it or not. Its fun, and the card/desk system adds a needed variable to the game-play, but we haven’t made much progress really. I can say for certain that I have played through the first 4 levels of Act 1 a handful of times, and started the 2nd set, level 1. And that’s it. It seems like every time we’ve sat down to play it, we’re introducing a new team member to the party and it would be unfair to them to jump into the middle of it. But the game is also setup in a way that you can kind of jump into any level and you don’t really need much story explanation. But the levels are harder without your stacked deck building up, so its almost worth playing from the start again as a new run to see how far you can get.

Aliens: Fireteam Elite we beat. I don’t think we’ll be looking back either. The last 3 levels are probably the best but the ending is so underwhelming. Spoiler: you see the queen and you run away. The End. The game-play is fun and hectic at times, fighting off waves and waves of aliens, big and small. But after the story there’s a horde mode, and then replay the story again and again? To unlocked emotes, and cosmetics. And level up your guns. Maybe try a different class? My game time is so limited, I’d rather just uninstall and move on. Maybe there’ll be DLC expansions down the road.

Shadow of War: I’m still plugging away at Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. About half way through. Just fought off the Balrog. Its a nice change of pace from the other coop games. I am looking forward to its completion though as I’m eager to try Watch Dogs 3 – Legion next. A proper new-gen game to finally play on the Series X. Assassins Creed Valhalla is lurking in the sidelines as well.

Art:

My original plan from #drawtober was 5 completed pieces. It will actually be 3.

Magik, Supergirl, and now Wonder Woman. Just a few days ago was a Wonder Woman celebration day, so I’m posting just the line art, and then next week I’ll add the full colour/background piece.

Comic Shout-out:

CROWDED. Picked up Vol 1 and 2 of this series.

“Ten minutes in the future, the world runs on an economy of job shares and apps, including Reapr: a crowdfunding platform to fund assassinations. Charlie Ellison leads a quiet, normal life until she’s suddenly targeted by a million-dollar Reapr campaign. Hunted by all of Los Angeles, Charlie hires Vita, the lowest-rated bodyguard on the Dfend app. As the campaign picks up speed, they’ll have to figure out who wants Charlie dead before the campaign’s 30 days—or their lives—are over.” Seemed like a fun read. 🙂

Be Good.

iRogan

Back 4 Blogs

Posted on October 18, 2021 by iRogan

Welcome back to the working week.

Games:

There’s a new game to play and it’s Back 4 Blood. We tried it for a bit over the weekend to get the hang of it. Made by TurtleRock as a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead. It is VERY much like Left 4 Dead, but with a new card-based progression system to augment your play-through. The game’s campaign looks like a decent length and quite challenging from my initial attempt. Haven’t tried the PvP yet. I should have more impressions next week after I’ve had the chance to spend more time within the game.

Art:

I missed last week but the week before was Week 2 of Drawtober and I was able to complete SuperGirl as shown above. I didn’t get any drawing down last week but hopefully will have something for this Friday. I don’t know if I’ll have the energy/motivation to continue my original plan of fully rendered drawings. Maybe one more before the month-end, but I think I’ll focus on something less time consuming and draining. Which brings me to Pouchtober.

Such a funny concept. May try to get a few of these out before the end of the month. Summon my inner Leifeld. Simpler, quick pieces. Lots of pouches. No feet. Pencil or ink. Minor shading. B&w either way.

Comics:

What I’m reading: The Fall by Jared Muralt. “After just losing his wife, one father will have to face a world in freefall; shaken to its core by an economic, social, political and health crisis without precedent. Facing seemingly unreal and very unexpected dangers, he will do whatever it takes to protect his loved ones in a country on the brink of collapse. In this internationally acclaimed series, Jared Muralt not only tells the story of one family struggling to survive, but also questions the very reasons that brought mankind to this apocalypse.”

It’s a pretty dark book. Dire circumstances. Basically take Covid scenarios at their worst and turn them apocalyptic. But he started writing it and working on it in 2016 having no idea what 2020 had in store.

Achievement of the Week:

Be good.

IROGAN

12 Minutes a Surgeon

Posted on September 12, 2021 by iRogan

Wrapped up 12 Minutes this week. So spoiler warning if you’re interested about the ending, I’ll be discussing it a bit.

Ok. I enjoyed the game but I found it tricky. The game essentially takes place in one small condo. Living room, one bedroom and one bathroom. So every clue and solution is here somewhere. After 10 minutes a cop shows up and places your wife under arrest. Asking about a watch. And then kills you to get the answer from her. That’s the gist.

The idea is you are stuck in a twelve minute loop and after you die or leave the condo the loop restarts until you get the endings. To progress requires a series of trial and error attempts. Each loop you ask new questions and find out more about the situation, and your character remembers everything from previous loops.

It’s a cool concept and pulled off well, and I think the simplistic restricted setting helps a lot. I was confused about the endings though. The finale has you find out that you and your wife are actually brother and sister and have a kid on the way. You share the same father as a result of an affair and your mom died early and you were never adopted by your father. So you never knew you had a sister.

But the confusing part is the death of the wife’s father which is the reason the cop is even here. She believed she killed her father and ran away and kept it a secret this whole time. But the dad actually survived and was killed later on by you the main character. But somehow you don’t remember that? And the endings see you confronting the dad earlier and he’s telling you you can’t continue to see his daughter. Or go through with the pregnancy. And you can choose different outcomes. One had you agree to leave her alone. One had you fighting for your love and killing the dad. And one had you hypnotized. I was kinda confused as to when these happen in the timeline as they mention the pregnancy. Anyways. I’ll probably have to read up on it. Someone smarter than me can explain better.

This door allows us to go forwards but not back in time.

I’ve also been playing more Surgeon Simulator 2, and I’m really happy about the story. It has a Portal vibe. Doors are locked. Lots of questionable scenarios. You’re being directed along by this woman doctor voice, but keep hearing this random voice through the vents which is the doctor’s assistant. Then you escape the main floors into an underground network, and start doing surgeries in the dark basements. Very cool and excited to see where it all goes.

Playing in co-op has its challenges due to the physics and the stability of the network. Sometimes your co-op buddy will be holding a tool or syringe and suddenly they get all glitchy and their character will start ghosting all over which inevitably leads to the patient getting mutilated and failing that level. But definitely a fun title.

-IROGAN

Outriders – Photos and Opinions.

Posted on September 1, 2021 by iRogan

Overall a very cool game. Same formula as Destiny / The Division. Supports 3 player coop, and you can choose beteeen 4 different player classes.

A decent length for the campaign. 30hours for me to complete 100% story and side missions. There is also postgame expeditions which are like challenge zones at a higher difficulty to unlock better gear.

It does get a little repetitive at times and lots of traveling back and forth between zones to turn in quests. I would have preferred the in-game map be better too, but it does have a handy gps-type waypoint to find your objectives.

All-in-all an enjoyable experience for a triple-a title that came to Xbox Game Pass day one.