Creepers gonna creep

One of these days I'll draw something and have it be an actual finished image, but sketching is nice and relaxing in the meantime. For those of you not familiar with the game, this is Bloodwing from the Borderlands series - Mordecai's pet bird-bat-alien thing. I'll probably do an actual drawing with both of them at some point but I mostly just wanted to get her anatomy figured out.

( Cut for size )

I will be streaming the final storyline in Hatoful Boyfriend this weekend, so once again, please join me at twitch.tv/shichahn, and on skype, once I go live! I haven't settled on a date and time yet; I want to pick something that works for as many people as possible. How does 8PM Central on Saturday work for you guys?

I've already received word that Saturday is no good. 8PM Friday (tomorrow), anyone?

Portal 2 spoilers. Probably funniest if you hear these in-game first, if you are currently playing it.

So I finished Portal 2 last night. Well, the single player anyway.

So very, very much love for this game and this series. Portal was great, and Portal 2 manages to be even better in some truly spectacular ways. And while I feel like the ending is pretty conclusive... I didn't see how they could make a sequel after the first one, either. So we'll see. I would be satisfied if it ended here, but how can I not want more?

Favorite random trivia bit from the Half-Life wiki: apparently Valve originally intended for Wheatley to be voiced by Richard Ayoade, but decided Stephen Merchant fit better. And while I think I agree... just the very thought of Richard Ayoade in a Portal game is so freaking amazing that I hope they find a role for him somewhere one of these days.

As a heads-up to all of you who don't already know, I will be doing my usual summer disappearing trick as of this coming Sunday, and will be between various isolated places in Oregon while I train new banding interns. And so as always, I will be semi-difficult to reach until sometime in August, but I will do my best to check my phone and email when I have service.

(This probably goes without saying, but spoilers are in the comments.)

So I talked to GLaDOS today. Just briefly. I didn't want to bother her too much as I am sure she is very busy, with everyone pestering her and demanding more puzzles to solve. We've pretty much hit a wall with what we have been given, but it sounds like something big will be coming soon.

I do hope GLaDOS will take me up on the offer of the cake, though. I can't say I know how to get one to her, but I totally would do it.

Yeah, yeah, most of you aren't gamers. I wouldn't even say I'm that serious a gamer in that I don't play the majority of games because a) I don't have the time and b) I don't have the money. That said, I do play a few, which usually would be my favorite games in a year anyway. I probably would have enjoyed Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Halo: Reach, and Red Dead Redemption, but to my knowledge those are Xbox-only titles. Or at least, they don't have a version for PC. If I'm wrong, do correct me.

So basically that leaves two games that stood out to me this year. Fallout New Vegas, and Mass Effect 2.

I may as well re-title this post MASS EFFECT 2 WINS HANDS DOWN.

I mean, okay, New Vegas is fun, if you can ignore the constant game-breaking glitches and the overall sense of disappointment at how unfinished it is. Obsidian had such high hopes for New Vegas, and early promises of a truly vast landscape sure set my hopes high, as the part I most enjoy about the Fallout series is the ability to explore absolutely everywhere, whenever you like. But as it turns out, NV is smaller than Fallout 3, despite having more locations and quests, to the point where it just feels cluttered. It also looks a lot like an uglier version of Fallout 3. I'm sure you all remember my Wasteland Photography posts. I loved wandering that game and taking screenshots of scenery and NPCs because it was such a beautiful game. I had no such desire in New Vegas, even though the game provides you with a camera (which doesn't actually save your images, which is also a letdown). So... nice try, Obsidian. There were a lot of things I really did like about New Vegas or I wouldn't have spent so much time playing it, but everything I liked about it, I liked even better in Fallout 3. What a shame.

Mass Effect 2 on the other hand... Okay, there were a few things I liked better about its predecessor. But there were so many things that were streamlined and improved. The whole game feels very cinematic, both in terms of how beautiful it is and how well-written it is, and I love the camera work that manages to really bring simple conversations to life. And honestly, who didn't replay Mordin's Pirates of Penzance tribute over and over again? This game, like Mass Effect 1, draws heavily from classic science fiction sources such as Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, to create an engaging space opera that truly lives up to the definition of an epic tale. It has an all-star cast - Seth Green and Tricia Helfer (Cylon Number Six) make an especially great team as Joker and the ship AI, EDI. Combat is fun and challenging, and exploration is once again enormous, enabling the player to visit a wide range of star systems across the entire galaxy.

Anyway, I'll stop now. I have a feeling fewer of you care about this than my music post. But I just had to say something, because, well... I wanted to. Take that, Black Ops.

Mass Effect 2 is one gorgeous game. So I've been making icons. Well, sort of. Only six so far, but there will be more. Three are of Tali, who I am heavily considering playing in Aphelion, and three are of Jack, who Mandy is apparently considering. Yeah. That's all.

Should've known I'd fail at updating a daily meme.

( Here's posts for days 2, 3, 4, and 5! :D;; )

Portal progress bar: 75/76! Slightly less than one hour to go! omgomgomg

Edit: Well done, internets. Well done.

So I finished Borderlands. And it made me think. A lot. TL;DR I liked it, for entirely the opposite reason most other people do.

( I think about only one person on my flist cares and she already finished it but eh, cut for spoilers anyway )

So, okay, I usually don't care a whole lot about actual Halo. The games are entertaining, but, you know, I don't have a 360 anyway so it doesn't much matter. But this trailer for ODST? Incredible. It makes me think that if they ever do actually make a live-action Halo movie, I just might go see it. And so I can't help but wonder if that's part of the point of this trailer, in addition to advertising ODST.

Speaking of movies, going to go see 9 tonight. Woo~