Tag Archives: Xbox

Most Wanted

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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.

iRogan
G354,405

To Finish First, First You Must Finish

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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.

iRogan

November

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Don’t call it a come back, I’ve been here for years…

October is over, so TECHNICALLY drawtrober is over too. I’m conflicted as my prompt list isn’t done, but I’m kinda done, if you know what I mean. Here’s week three:

Android18 – DBZ
Frog of Thunder
Junker Queen – Overwatch 2
Elizabeth Comstock – Bioshock Infinite
Tank Girl

So, to date, I have completed 19 drawings. And I still want to finish my initial prompt list, but maybe a bit slower. 12 drawings left, maybe I can get them all done over the month of November. But I also want to get back to video games too, and my wrestling comic has been an annoying buzz in the back of my brain. So maybe over the next two months?

Speaking of games…

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What I’m Playing

I jumped back into Death Stranding after a month off. Finished Chapter 6 and 7. Got to brave the mountain during a white-out which was intense, only to find another Super Cell storm that completed chapter 6, and concluded with another dimension/time jump to WWII, and chapter 7.

I briefly took a step into Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which is what I’ll play more consistently once Death Stranding is done. And I’ve been playing Fall Guys, when I get 5-10 minutes to sit down (ie: my lunch break 😉 ).

That’s it for now, quick update.

iRogan

Time to Shine

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Ah… Fall. My favourite season. Cooler weather and rain, warm blankets and drawing late into the evening without sweating. When I was younger I’d always say Winter was my favourite season because of the snow, and snowboarding. And was always flabbergasted when my parents claimed they didn’t like Winter. But as an adult I get it. Its cold. There’s snow. It’s a pain to drive or walk around. “Snow belongs on the mountains” and now I agree.

So yeah, Fall. And back to drawing after a summer off.

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What I’m Drawing

I’m still playing a lot of Death Stranding, so I decided to draw Fragile. Work in progress as I have to finish her funky umbrella, and then ink. Not sure when I’ll get around to finishing this one.

Dusted off Photoshop with this one. I typically don’t sketch in PS as I leave that for colour. But I wanted to test out the brushes and I’m honestly happy with the results.

Crush, daughter of Lobo. Also a work in progress that I intend to ink tonight.

Back into Clip Studio for this one to test my brushes. New computer and all. Gotta get my settings setup still. It’s a process.

That also brings me to Drawtober or Inktober, or whatever you want to call it. October’s full month long drawing event. I have my own prompt list tentatively completed with some alternates as back-ups in case I change my mind. It’s mostly video game characters or comic characters, obviously.

So that means I probably won’t be playing much games as I try and draw every day. Hopefully I’ll have time for a weekly update here.

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What I’m Playing

Still playing Death Stranding, but I did take a brief 3 day break to start and finish A Plague Tale: Innocence, as the game was leaving Game Pass ahead of the sequel’s release. A good stealth / puzzle type game with lots of rats. Gorgeous visuals too. Excited for the sequel.

Death Stranding I finished Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. Chapter 4 was the WWI time jump sequence that was pretty crazy. And chapter 5 is Mama’s heartbreaking story. Seems like there’s a lot of heartbreaking stories so far, with Mama an.d Fragile. Still loving the game and hope to get in some time over the next month

Here’s some more photos and the rest added to the gallery: Photo Mode: Death Stranding

I think that’s it? Just a quick update this week.

iRogan

Everyday Delivery

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Everyday I’m deliverin’ …

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What I’m Playing

I’m playing a lot of Death Stranding. The past few days not as much as I’ve had other things on my plate (I’ll pick it up again tonight), but the game released into Xbox PC Game Pass Aug 23, I started playing Aug 28th, and between Aug 28 and Sept 6 I’ve put in over 20 hours. And I am loving it. I am a little concerned that I’m still only on Chapter 3 of 14 after 20 hours, but we’ll see where it goes.

I love the mechanics and gameplay, and the story is just the weird style that only Hideo Kojima can deliver. Looks and plays really well on my new PC too. And it has a photo mode!!

A few below, but here’s the link to the gallery I’ve created. 57 photos and counting:

Photo Mode: Death Stranding

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What I’m Drawing

Not really a lot lately as I’ve been busy with Death Stranding. But I did need to try out the software and monitor to make sure everything worked after switching over to the new PC, so I worked a bit on my Batwomen:

Sketch/Ink done, with flat colours.

But other than that, with my lack of time I’ve also felt a creative drought. Possibly just burnt out from life in general. I do have some new ideas cooking though.

Also recently was the #faceyourart2022 annual challenge that popped up, so I put together the faces of all my drawings this year. A few are missing from the May Sketch A Day as I wanted the clean 3×3 squares. Overall I am happy with my production so far this year. Its only September now so I still have a few months, and as the weather cools down I find I produce more.

  • Picture 1:
  • Psylocke, X-23, Storm
  • Kate Bishop, Rogue, Domino
  • DareDevil, Harley, Electra
  • Picture 2:
  • The Riddler, Ghost Rider Spider-Gwen, Hana Solo
  • Raven, Mystique, Baby Doll
  • Lady Deadpool, Spider-Man, Punchline

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What I’m Reading

I’ve been thinking lately about this section and I wanted to have a more focused view on what I’m consuming, instead of the weekly comic book day pull box, as after a month, that list just repeats itself. Maybe I’ll highlight new titles I’m getting or one-off graphic novels or something. This week I will highlight a few things:

Ping Pong Vol 1 and 2. A very popular sports manga about Ping Pong. I still am a regular listener of the Mangasplaining podcast, but don’t pick up nearly as many books as I did when it first started. But the occasional ones that pique my interest I will grab.

I purchased a few Frank Cho art books. Amazing stuff. 20+ career.

And late last year I backed a kickstarter project for Top Cow’s Cyber Force complete collection which hasn’t been in print in any form since 1994. Finally arrived 🙂

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That’s all for now I think. I will get back to more Death Stranding, and I have some ideas brewing for some more art.

Take care.

iRogan