Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Achievement Whoring

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I bought Batman Arkham Asylum on steam when it was on sale. Now I was holding out for Joker DLC, but sadly that never happened. Well, now I got every single achievement in the game so basicly I should go back to drawing..... but instead I turned my attention to other video games to check to see if there any other easy achievements to get. It's one of those moments where I start with the easy achievements and then I'm devoting an entire weekend onto getting super hard achievements.

By the way, I'm sharing my account with my cousin who has it tied with his children 360.
But anyway I have been sketching while the games are loading..... luckily Arkham Asylum has so little loading so it's very little from actual fighting.



Working on Bud and Lou, Joker and Harley's Pet Hyenas. Hyenas are so cute, didn't want to make them look vicious like they look on the animated series.

I love Harley and Ivy a lot, but I felt like there wasn't enough of an effort most artist trying to make them different. I do think it's funny as cartoon characters if they look the same but I do think they should be individuals in one form or another. Ivy has higher cheek bones, smaller eyes, longer legs larger bust, and Harley is rounder larger bottom, thicker hips large eyes for expression and a round happy smile

I actually don't mind the redesigns of Harley and Ivy in Arkham Asylum, the game felt a lot like reading a Graphic novel by Simon Bisley. But I did feel the motion capture and animation was a bit off since it didn't show them as cartoon characters. The Joy of Harley is really giver her really silly expressions because Arleen Sorkin's voice is AMAZING! One minute she's squeaky then the next she's crackling loud, the game's motion capture made her look like a cheap stripper, but then again everyone in the game is on steroids. Jim Gordon looks like he stomach crunches 3000 times a day and eats gravel. It's a style change I can live with.


To be honest I feel insecure how I draw women, so I'm like just going through a phase of analyzing my own work. Just working around eye size, and body shape.



I'm debating about doing an Arkham Asylum redesign cover, because the game should literally be just "BATMAN IN A MOSH PIT!" instead of Batman just casually standing there looking a bit lost.

4 comments:

AIM said...

Show off much? I don't think I've ever got all the achievements in a game. I think I cam close with DMC4.

Arkham is one of the best games I've ever played. Even watching my brother getting chased by Croc in the sewers was pure comedy gold.

You shouldn't ever feel insecure about the way you draw women, your proportions are unique and best of all they're well balanced! I'm always keen to see your iterations of DC femme fatales or any ladies for that matter. In fact it would be nice to see more simple pin-up art from you like the stuff Justin Coffee and Glines do.

Anyway I need to find a Taylor to make that cool Riddler costume there.

crithon said...

Oh I do, but most of my Achievements come from Team Fortress 2, sitting in a room with 32 players waiting my turn to get shot then return the favor
me getting killed for a medic achievement and school of medics and I think it's an achievement with a heavy
The saddest bit is working so hard for so many hours for another player to get the achievement and then I don't get the achievement in return.

I got DMC4 for PC, I actually held out because there's the Legend of the Dark Knight which is just a most pit. Basically they leave each of the rooms open for endless spawn points of enemies. So it's usually one little stab from a smallest enemy that ends your winning streak, but then you can also use two monitor support and see that little guy before he attacks you. Capcom's been doing a remarkable job with their PC ports.

There's a beauty to the simplicity of Arkham Asylum, actually it reminds me a lot of the Asteroids then most modern fighting games. I often come in say, "I'll play a quick challenge room," then it's 4 hours later.

I guess my big gripe with my style is that it feels a lot the same to me. I guess it's something I see and not through another point of view. It feels like a bit of a rutt.

Actually the ridder costume is from Long Halloween.

AIM said...

I pretty my much knock out the easy ones myself and delegate time consuming achievements (hopes he doesn't read this) to my brother lol.

Any game that has an endless battle or Mosh pit mode so I can casually come back and play is good in my book. It's probably the only reason I go back to old games.

I don't think you should mix your clever style and consistency in with the label "samey", heck, I'm even starting to do comics just to drill a little of that consistency you easily got going. People love familiarity. Just as long as the theme, context and ideas remain fresh it's all good.

crithon said...

right now, I'm looking at my Torchlight achievements and wondering if I should do some of these. They feel more like grinding "Fish 100 fish" or "reach level 100" and those sound basic but there's also like "retire 300 levels worth of character accounts." It gets to a point where I really question my own gaming habits just for those achievements. Considering TF2 already just consumes me on the silliest things, other games achievements just pale in comparison since it's about MANLY men challenging their manhood by the size of their hats.

legend of the dark knight mode Mosh Pit too many characters and Dual Monitor support I have to turn off anti aliasing when there's two monitor support, I think only Valve games I can crank up the anti aliasing, at least Capcom has the benchmark demos to test your PC settings before you buy one of their games.

I see your point, and it's a good tip at least to help me try more. Thanks man