Dreams, Zombies and Art Nouveau
EPIC DREAMS, EPIC FAIL
My dreams are sometimes a better source of entertainment than shows on TV. The recurring themes are: war, gunfights, chases, the occasional mystery. Of course, since I'm an action game freak (who, as a child, wanted to be - among other things - in Special Forces), and since I'm usually very much aware of the fact that I'm dreaming, it's always a challenge to stay in that dreaming state to find out how stories pan out.
Last night, though...
I had the weirdest dream of being in Left4Dead (the multiplayer zombie shooter I'm forever playing with my mates in the US)... not as a player, but as my character, Louis. And I was running around this large sewer chamber, up and down the stairs, as bait for a giant Tank. Only my friends, who were supposed to be shooting the damn thing while I was luring it around the place, were... sitting in a corner, watching. Every time I passed them, I called out sarcastically, "Aaaany time now, guys!"
I wouldn't even mention this dream, only... today, I managed to get in about an hour and a half of gaming time with TankMagnet (and two bots), where we did the No Mercy campaign on Expert difficulty. We could tell, from the sound the Tank was making, that it had spawned on the upper floor of the generator room, so I told her, go to the door, lob your molotov and get the hell out of there. - I'm not sure how she managed to screw up, but before you knew it, TM and the two bots were all dead, leaving a very healthy Tank - and *me*. Running in circles around the upper floor and taking the occasional potshot, and ducking the giant chunks of concrete the damn zombie kept throwing in my direction (not an easy task when your partner is alternately screaming and gushing, "I screwed up, I'm sorry!"). Sound familiar? And just when I thought I might actually beat him after all...
... I lost connection.
There was a damn Steam client update. [facepalm]
AUGH, ALL THAT WORK!
BIOSHOCK 2 SCREENIES
I love the new Bioshock 2 (the one that came out on 9 Feb), even if it seems to be at least a quarter shorter than the first game. (Having a thirteen-button mouse to play it with certainly doesn't hurt either). Without giving too much away, it's a retro SF-ish shooter set in a fictional 1960s underwater city called Rapture, with a backstory based on Ayn Rand's dystopic novel Atlas Shrugged. I'll probably do a review of it sometime later, but here are a couple of screenshots from the game, mostly for the benefit of Despard, whom I know likes vintage (although this might be a little "new" for her taste), diving and Art Deco, and would probably love to roam about the locations, even if she's unlikely to ever actually play the game:
I BET MUCHA NEVER THOUGHT OF EQUATIONS...
Am doing an Art Nouveau-inspired picture for a friend for an art trade:
Lineart:
What the hell was I thinking, inking it digitally?! I could've done it in a third of the time if I'd used normal technical pens. [facepalm]
Still doing the base colours and gradients (a long way to go...):
It tickles me immensely that the picture is stuffed full of math and physics easter eggs that absolutely no one is going to pick up on (with the exception of TM, who was totally on to my nasty habits). What can I say, I'm a sucker for inside jokes.
My dreams are sometimes a better source of entertainment than shows on TV. The recurring themes are: war, gunfights, chases, the occasional mystery. Of course, since I'm an action game freak (who, as a child, wanted to be - among other things - in Special Forces), and since I'm usually very much aware of the fact that I'm dreaming, it's always a challenge to stay in that dreaming state to find out how stories pan out.
Last night, though...
I had the weirdest dream of being in Left4Dead (the multiplayer zombie shooter I'm forever playing with my mates in the US)... not as a player, but as my character, Louis. And I was running around this large sewer chamber, up and down the stairs, as bait for a giant Tank. Only my friends, who were supposed to be shooting the damn thing while I was luring it around the place, were... sitting in a corner, watching. Every time I passed them, I called out sarcastically, "Aaaany time now, guys!"
I wouldn't even mention this dream, only... today, I managed to get in about an hour and a half of gaming time with TankMagnet (and two bots), where we did the No Mercy campaign on Expert difficulty. We could tell, from the sound the Tank was making, that it had spawned on the upper floor of the generator room, so I told her, go to the door, lob your molotov and get the hell out of there. - I'm not sure how she managed to screw up, but before you knew it, TM and the two bots were all dead, leaving a very healthy Tank - and *me*. Running in circles around the upper floor and taking the occasional potshot, and ducking the giant chunks of concrete the damn zombie kept throwing in my direction (not an easy task when your partner is alternately screaming and gushing, "I screwed up, I'm sorry!"). Sound familiar? And just when I thought I might actually beat him after all...
... I lost connection.
There was a damn Steam client update. [facepalm]
AUGH, ALL THAT WORK!
BIOSHOCK 2 SCREENIES
I love the new Bioshock 2 (the one that came out on 9 Feb), even if it seems to be at least a quarter shorter than the first game. (Having a thirteen-button mouse to play it with certainly doesn't hurt either). Without giving too much away, it's a retro SF-ish shooter set in a fictional 1960s underwater city called Rapture, with a backstory based on Ayn Rand's dystopic novel Atlas Shrugged. I'll probably do a review of it sometime later, but here are a couple of screenshots from the game, mostly for the benefit of Despard, whom I know likes vintage (although this might be a little "new" for her taste), diving and Art Deco, and would probably love to roam about the locations, even if she's unlikely to ever actually play the game:
I BET MUCHA NEVER THOUGHT OF EQUATIONS...
Am doing an Art Nouveau-inspired picture for a friend for an art trade:
Lineart:
What the hell was I thinking, inking it digitally?! I could've done it in a third of the time if I'd used normal technical pens. [facepalm]
Still doing the base colours and gradients (a long way to go...):
It tickles me immensely that the picture is stuffed full of math and physics easter eggs that absolutely no one is going to pick up on (with the exception of TM, who was totally on to my nasty habits). What can I say, I'm a sucker for inside jokes.