Bionic Commando

So I finally got a chance to play Bionic Commando… and I liked it.  After so many negative comments, I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did.  The negative reviews drastically lowered my expectations, so I think I was able to enjoy the game for what it is, not what I was originally expecting.  And what it is, is a great reincarnation of an old-school 8-bit game.  Just like the 8-bit Bionic Commando, the new BC keeps you on a strict path, gives you an underpowered basic firearm, and includes some frustrating grappling sections where you’ll fly off-path and instantly die… just like the old days.  There’s a lot of negatives that make this game annoying, but it’s a solid game once you accept it’s shortcomings.  And in my opinion Bionic Commando’s high points far out way it’s low points.

I could ramble on and on about the details of what’s good and what’s bad about the gameplay, but there are a thousand critiques out there by people far more eloquent, so I’ll just say a few things here about the visual design - I think it’s absolutely beautiful.  From concept to completion it manages to maintain some of the cheesy aesthetic quality of the 8-bit original (the enemies in brightly colored suits, the rotund robots, etc) but it uses the influence sparingly and combines it with some over-the-top yet modern sensibilities.  The mass of dreadlocks, the ludicrous muscles, the blue ‘radiation’ all serve to weave the kitchy old design together with the current trend of desaturated colors and post-apocalyptic imagery.  And the bionic arm design is a thing of beauty – a tip of my hat to whoever designed that stunning piece of machinery.

 

    

    

The New Website is LIVE!

I finally finished my new website and portfolio.  I rebuilt it from the ground up, and now it’s formatted so I can update it easily and slip in new pieces without it being a major hassle…  At least, I hope it will work that way.   It now has a 3D gallery, and all the other galleries have been refurbished with newer work.  For my first foray into web design I’m pretty proud of it, so check it out – www.aaronpanagos.com.   And, as always, I’ll continue to put my random sketches and B-list stuff here on my blog. 

 

E3!!!!!

Yes, this year E3 deserves five exclamation points in the title.  Absolutely amazing expo this year.  I obviously wasn’t there, but I listened to 6-8hours of podcast coverage a day plus all the G4 coverage…  I had a LOT of work this week, so it was perfect timing.  There’s no way I could have consumed so much coverage if I hadn’t been chained to my desk 16 hours a day. 

I was really impressed by most of what I saw.  Rumors about some fantastic tech turned out to be true (I’m looking at you motion sensing cameras!).  Amazing stuff, assuming it all works half as well as the demonstrations suggest.  Only a couple disappointing things, like the price tag on the PSP Go.  Too many interesting games to even go into (Scribblenauts? Bizarre and amazing).  And a number of huge announcements.  After all, a second new Halo game was announced alongside a new trailer for the other new Halo game and it was ho-hum news… that would have blown people’s minds a couple years ago but there was so much going on compared to years past that it hardly registered!

I’m a little surprised that I followed E3 so obsessively, and though I’m completely burned out on videogame news for the next couple weeks, I’m glad I did.  If nothing else it was really fun watching the frantic dance of the PR peoples. 

Fable 2

I finished Fable 2 this week.  Really good game, if you liked Fable you’ll love Fable 2. The writing is absolutely brilliant, especially in the tertiary characters and the random townsfolk you encounter – it was a constant pleasure to listen to the dialogue and chuckle at the persistent flow of oddball jokes and bizarre characters. Buying property and managing the economies of the different towns, especially early on when I was working mundane jobs to get the seed money to start my real estate empire, was really cool.

The lack of armor was an interesting design choice, but it made customizing the character with clothes and dyes pure fun with little impact on gameplay. Without the need for considering an outfit’s armor value I was just able to dress my character in whatever I thought the coolest costume was – which is kind of nice change from having to tolerate a ridiculous avatar just because some horrifically ugly helmet gives me a +1 bonus.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed it, after a little while I started to feel like the combat was rather perfunctory (just like the original Fable). And when my character had a family to maintain it started to feel a little like The Sims with swords – I’d have to stop bashing bandits and run home because my virtual wife was unhappy with the relationship. Interesting the first time or two that it happened, but it got really old really quick.

All in all, a very good game and I definitely recommend it.

    

Building The New Portfolio

I’m rebuilding my portfolio right now.  In part because I’m overdue to drop out some old work and put in some new, but also in preperation for job hunting for a full-time gig in the video game industry.  So I’m going to be posting some of the pieces that didn’t make the cut for the new portfolio, and the new website with new work should be going live in a couple weeks…

Saint Yoshimi VS. The Pink Robot

I have no idea what strange little part of my brain that this sketch wriggled out of, but I find it rather charming. :) 

It’s ballpoint pen in my moleskine sketchbook.

My Xbox is dying…

My Xbox 360 is is slowly breaking down.    Started out not being able to play a couple disks, then more and more disks were giving me problems.  Now recently it started locking up while I’m playing and today it took a couple tries to get it to turn on.  Looks like it will be dying soon, I hope it’s still under warranty!  And I finally joined Xbox Live a couple days ago and had rediscovered my obsessive enthusiasm for video games I had when I was a kid – it’s rotten timing.

When the it inevitably goes I think I’ll pick up a Playstation 2 and play through some of the legendary games that are on the system.  Some education videogaming to keep me busy while I get the 360 fixed.  There are a bunch of games that I’ve wanted to play since I missed out on most of that generation… I don’t know why I let school get in the way of the important stuff. 

3D is coming soon…

The 3D portfolio is finally getting fleshed out!  After getting dragged off course by a number of jobs that I couldn’t turn down (either cool subject matter or good money), I’m finally back on course working on the 3D stuff.  There won’t be the range of subjects and skills represented that I want (at least not for awhile), but I think I have a solid base to start from – enough to start applying for jobs anyway.  It’s been taking awhile since I still have to make a living and I don’t have the time I want to fill my portfolio with the 50 models I’d like to include or learn the 20 programs that I’d like to build them with.  Since my poor old computer can’t handle working on ultra high-poly models, I’m somewhat restricted in what I can experiment with - and she takes around an hour to render a single angle of a 3,000 poly model with a simple lighting setup, so I’m also kind of limited on how much experimenting I can do with lighting as well.    BUT, it will all work out, and in the very near future I should be sending out my 3D resume!  That will be a very exciting time for me.

Until then, I continue to work diligently at my publishing gigs, and cram as much 3D work as possible into the few remaining hours of the day.  So keep your eyes peeled, I’ll be posting some 3D stuff soon!  

Mechs!!!

These are some mech designs that I did a couple years ago for a guy who was working on an anime inspired mecha tabletop battle game.  He said he loved the designs but he forgot to pay me and disappeared after I sent them to him … funny how that happens.  And that’s the thrilling story of how I learned to require a down payment from people I don’t know.  Sad that it’s necessary, but such is life.

Anyway, I might make one of these in 3d.  I think I might combine the two bulky designs and make it more of a power armor design with a marine’s head in place of the mechanical one ala Warhammer 40k.

    

         

Cityscape

Nothing new to post – I’m swamped with work that’s covered by NDAs so I won’t be able to put anything new up for a little while.  So here’s another environment sketch to keep the blog alive…