Hey Dtoiders.

You know it's been a long time since you've last posted when you log on, and you can't figure out how to post a new blog cause the format has changed O_o

Life has been busy so I still don't expect to be around much for the next few months (I still owe people artwork though. It will happen. Srsly.)

In the meantime, I thought I post a question to the wisdom that is destructoid.

IHC's Periodic Table of Video Game Characters
http://iheartchaos.com/sites/default/files/periodic_2.jpg

Some of you may have seen that image. I can't figure out, for the life of me, what Ar, Se, and Np is. I think Ar is some sort of chozo from metroid, but I'm not sure. Anyway, it's driving me mad. Anyone know the source of those 3?

*edit*
blehman figured out Ar and Se for me


Here's what I've figured out. There doesn't appear to be a full list anywhere on the internetz

H- Han Solo
He- Heavy
Li- Link
Be- from Day of the Tentacle
B- Bomber Man
C- Cloud Strife
N- Nina Williams
O- Otto
F- Fox Mcloud
N- Nemo
Na- Naruto
Mg- Megaman
Al- Alice
Si- Sims
P- Pacman
S- Samus Aran
Cl- Clank

Ar- Arbitor (thanks blehman)

K- Kirby
Ca- CATS
Sc- Sonic
Ti- From Punch Out
V- Vectorman
Cr- Crash Bandicoot
Mn- From Grim Fandango
Fe- Marcus Fenix
Co- King of the Cosmos
Cu- Cutman
Zn- Zangief
Ga- Ganon
Ge- Gex
As- Astroboy

Se- Serious Sam (thanks againblehman)

Br- Bloodrayne
Kr- Kratos
Rb- Rob the Robot
Sr- Sephiroth
Y- Yar's Revenge
Zr- Zerglings
Nb- Niko Bellic
Mo- Mario
Tc- TJ Combo
Ru- Rush
Rh- Ryu Hayabasa
Pd- From Postal
Ag- Agent 47
Cd- From a Castlevania game
In- Lego Indy
Sn- Solid Snake
Sb- Strongbad
Te- Toejam and Earl
I- Pit
Xe- Xenmas
Cs- Carmen Sandiego
Ba- Batman
Lu- Luigi
Hf- Heffer
Ta- from that old ass atari tank game
W- Worms
Re- from some Unreal Game
Os- Olaf the Strong
Ir- Iron Man
Pt- from pitfall
Au- Auron
Hg- from final fight
Tl- tails
Pb- pacman ghosts
Bi- that weird thing from mario 2
Po- Popeye
At- from ready 2 rumble
Rn- Raiden
Fr- Gordon Freeman
Ra- Rash
Lr- Leisure suit larry
Rf- rafael
Db- Diablo
Sg- Sagat
Bh- one of those hammer bro's
Hs- homer simpson
Mt- Mike Tyson
Ds- Dr Stewart
Rg- Roger Wilco
Uub- from wolfenstein
Uuq- From outcast
La- Lara Croft
Ce- from WoW
Pr- Princess Peach
Nd- Nate from uncharted
Pm- Pikmin
Sm- Sam and max
Eu- that crab thing from spongebob
Gb- General Dripik
Tb- the boy and his blob
Dy- dr wily
Ho- also from day of the tentacle
Er- Earthworm jim
tm- karate kid
Yb- yogi bear
Ac- Space ace
th- gauntlet
Pa- parapa the rapper
U- ultraman

Np- ???

Pu- Pikachu
Am- Samba de amigo
Cm- cooking mama
Bk- bowser
Cf- from cannon fodder
Es- Eric the Swift
Fm- fireman
Md- madden
No- noobcybot.

What's up Dtoiders, happy holidays!

It's been awhile -_- But work is finally reached a point where I have free time again, so hopefully I can finally get around to finishing that painting I owe Conrad (I haven't forgotten man!). Ive only been occasionally commenting the past few months. It'e been so long that I took me a while to remember how to write a post due to some format changes (which are nice btw).

Anyway, I thought I post a quick lightning review of the games I played in 2008. This isn't all the games I acquired this year, just the stuff that was released in 08. I felt it unnecessarily to list the backlog of pre 08 games I acquired this year cause that would be a really long ass post.

Games that I had high expectations for that turned out to be utter shit
Alone in the Dark 360 - Buggy piece of shit.
Infinite Undiscovery - Lame Story, Lame Characters, Crappy Animation, Boring Gameplay
The Last Remnant - Lame Story, Lame Characters, Crappy Animation, Boring Gameplay, and Buggy and Unfinished

Games that I had high expectations for that turned out to be rather disappointing
Army of Two - Turned out to be not that fun. Co op gameplay left something to be desired.
Eternal Sonata - Very standard feeling RPG, slow, unnecessary, and long ass cutscenes.

Games that kinda sucked
Viking: Battle for Asgard - generic hack and slash.
Silent Hill: Origins - wtf is this?
Innocent Life: A Futuristic Harvest Moon - Harvest moon games are either really good or really bad. This was really bad.

Games that I wanted to enjoy, lied to myself and said I enjoyed while playing, only to realize that I didn't enjoy it at all after playing it
Fable II - I want my 15 hours back.

Games that were ok
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII - I guess it was cool to get some more story angles on the FFVII world. it was just an average game.
Culdcept SAGA - ok for a card game I guess. Gets really old after awhile.

Games that I bought and barely played
Phantasy Star Portable (jp) - just wanted to get a preview because I'm excited about the US version. Seems good so far.
Eternal Poison - Slow paced, lots of lot loading. I shelved this.
PixelJunk Eden - pretty
Soulcalibur IV - not a big fan of fighters. I bought it just because.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - I fell asleep.
echochrome - unique.
Warhawk - Operation: Broken Mirror - I think I've played warhawk like....twice.
Warhawk - Operation: Omega Dawn - I don't even know why I bought these.
Arcana Heart - school girl version of street fighter or kof.
Ikaruga - one of the hardest games ever. kicked my ass.
Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword - some one gave me this, never played it.
Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection - I bought this just cause I was missing the original games.
Wild ARMs XF - didn't play this yet. probably sucks.
Triggerheart Exelica - I have no idea how to play this.
N+ - I haven't played this yet.
Sins of a Solar Empire - I played like one tutorial level and gave up.
PixelJunk Monsters - your basic tower defense game.
Omega Five - I suck at this
Crash Commando - not sure what I'm playing here.
Castlevania Chronicles - haven't played this yet.

Games I let other people play for me because I didn't feel like playing it myself
Battlefield: Bad Company - stuff blows up
Dark Sector - you get some sorta sharp thingy on your arm.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 - people die

Flawed games that were still fun
Operation Darkness - this game is ugly, has a crap camera, but when you get a hang of the game play, it's actually quite fun. if only it were on valkyria chronicles level of quality, this game would of been amazing.

Games that were fun while it lasted
Mirror's Edge - Some of the levels really give you a rush. Pretty exciting, very short. Parkour is fun, fighting is not.
Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice - I never liked disgaea but I found this to be alot of fun. If you like tactical games, give this a shot.
SIREN: Blood Curse - pretty creepy. Challenging, but not frustrating like the Siren that came out on ps2.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - Cutscenes are long as shit. I enjoyed this the 2nd time through when I was able to skip all the freaking cutscenes.
Grand Theft Auto IV - Honestly, I never liked GTA that much, but I found this game to be far deeper then the rest of series. Nico was a rather likable character.
Patapon - pon pon pata pon!

Games that caught me by surprise in how fun they were
Valkyria Chronicles - I had really low expecations for this game. However, this is one of the best strategy games I've played this year. It was really lovely and involving. Beautiful pastoral color palette.
Dead Space - I never liked over the shoulder shooters, but I played through this 3 times. Beautifully lit, nice animation, smooth frame rate, well paced. All in all excellent craftmanship in the making of this game.
Silent Hill: Homecoming - I was apprehensive since this was made stateside, but I found myself very satisfied with this iteration of the series. Creepy. Great sound design and lighting.
Tales of Vesperia - Tales is another series that I've always been pretty neutral towards. It's very much like other tales games, but they killed a small amount of the suffocating cutesyness (now it's just bareably cute), which made it much more fun.
Lost Odyssey - I had really low expecations for this, but this by far trumps any Square Enix game I've played this year.
Burnout Paradise - most fun I've ever had in a driving game.

Games that I highly enjoyed
Rune Factory 2: A Fantasy Harvest Moon - I think the rune factory branch off is my favorite of the harvest moon series. if you like harvest moon, you should like this. Starts really slow though.
Left 4 Dead - Dear god this is alot of fun with friends.
LittleBigPlanet - I don't think I need to mention how cool this game is.
Castle Crashers - Quirky, fun, and fast
Bionic Commando Rearmed - Beautiful and nostalgic

If pants could get pregnant, I'd be having triplets games. none of these games need descriptions. they're just flat out amazing.
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Fallout 3
Mega Man 9
Braid

That was my lightning review. Hope everyone's having a merry christmas and happy new yeardespite the economy and the world going to utter shit this year! Hopefully I won't get piled with work in 09 so I can get some cool new paintings done for you guys.

also, bonus if you recognize what my new headphones are from.

Usually it's Rio making these sorta posts, but I'm gonna sneak one in.

So my messenger fell apart a week ago. For an artist, it's pretty shitty when they're trusty bag/pack/whatever falls apart.

I spent a couple of days shopping around for a bag but couldn't find one to my liking. All I really needed was something that could carry some books, drawing pens, and have custom pouches that were exactly the size of a DS and a PSP. That last one was the hard part, I'm surprised no one's manufactured such bags.


Anyway, being that I'm an artist and sewing is one of my disciplines, I pretty decided to just go buy some materials and make a gamer/artist messenger bag from scratch. The design is entirely made up on the fly (I didn't have a pattern or anything, I just sorta sewed shit together). I'm actually quite pleased despite the fact that the stichwork is a little messy due to the fact that my cheap ass sewing machine sucks (you get what you pay for).



The front of the bag with my floral motif. The panels are made of two layers of thick canvas and a layer of water resistant nylon.


Back of the bag. finally found something to stick one of my bajillion dtoid patches on.


Inside Pouches.


As you can see, the side pouches are spefically tailored for handhelds.

Whole process took about 12 hours from beginning to end and about 40 dollars worth of materials. I think I could do this much faster a 2nd time because I wouldn't be making it up as I go. I think next year when I get my bonus I'm gonna get a nice sewing machine and maybe make custom bags on commission for peeps if anyone's interested.


Also, I wanted to show off something I ordered today.



If your jealous, it's cause you should be. I generally wouldn't drop a ridiculous wad of cash for something like this, but part of it will be reimbursed to me so I'm really only paying like 120 bucks plus shipping and tax. Will take pictures when it arrives.

I'm gonna make this to the point. There is only one thing I actually "hate" in games, and that is things that are pointlessly not to the point.

IE:
- Scrolling text with no option of all text at once. I read like a demon on crack don't give me that slow shit and make me read at a kindergartner pace.
- Unskippable cutscenes.
- Shoddy controls trying to be innovative and making a good game take 10 times longer to play.
- Filler shit put in a game to waste time rather then add meaning.

That is all.

Pax was EPIC. Seriously, it was one of the best trips I've ever taken. It was great to meet all you destructoiders and I look forward to it again and again. You guys are all freaking awesome, fun, amazing, etc. in every way I imagined ya'll to be. To all you who didn't make it out, hopefully you learn from the mistake of not going.

As usual, all photos were taking on my cellphone so expect some grainy crap.

Lodging
I just wanted to hilite how awesome taumpytears lodgings was.


view from taumpytears window

another view from taumptyears window

room i shared with hamza, guitaratomik, and dr. tactix. not as bad ass, but free atleast

Exploring Seattle
There were moments before and after the conferance spent exploring Seattle abit.


monorail station

monorail station

on the monorail

sci fi museum

sci fi museum

gameworks

outside convention center

seattle library

at the pier market

Gatherings (Lunches, Dinners, and Drinking)








PAX 08

the convention center

registration

suffocat powerglove nintendoll and on other dtoider (I can't tell in the picture to blurry =P) on Rockband 2

fallout 3 trailer

late night outside convention center

convention center park pavilion

Dtoid Panel

330 Degree Showroom Floor Center

Tactix, Suffocat, Dexter, and Lib on Rockband 2

Concerts


one ups


Jonathan Coulton and Felicia Day

freezepops



Minibosses FUCK YEAH!

Stills




chad's adopted dolphin


booth babes really are hot

rick rolled by jonathan coulton

the one ups!

jonathan coulton!


it actually spewed gatorade


fuck yeah!


the asian crew + itemforty

FUCK YEAH MINIBOSSES!

Michael Phelps of Dungeon runners


Cheers Destructoid


Swag

Fruit Fucker Print, Street Fighter Tribute (1/3 fucking awesome 2/3s crap), SF Comic with Requested Drawing on Back (Morrigan Fuck yeah!)

One Ups V 1 and 2 signed, Minibosses Signed, Anamanaguchi Signed

Maken X, PSO DC, Threads of Fate, Saga Frontier, Phantasy Star Portable JP, Phantasy Star 2, 3, and 4, Sins of a Solar Empire

Pacman Shotglasses, The cork from the Champagne celebration with Dtoid, Vault Dweller's Guide, Aion Bracelet, Stardock usb thingy, skull bracelet won at gameworks (rio, guitar, suffocat, and chad have matching ones), kick ass pigeon smoking a cigarette wallet

Minibosses Shirt Signed, Jonathan Coulton Shirt Signed, Anamanaguchi Shirt, Dawn of War Shirt, The Code Shirt

Orange Knight, Signed

The best swag of it all, DS Signed by Niero. If I only got to keep one piece of swag, this would be it.

if anyone would like any higher res's just let me know

[i]Random Quotes:
-...hmmmm...taco meat...
-damnit rio jacked my box again
-apply ointment daily. don't worry, it happens to a lot of people
-one man's treasure, another woman's pleasure
-taking a dump gets my heart rate to 140 bpm
-you might have to sell a kidney. I can help you with that, I have medical training.
-souplantation is AMAZING!
-this may be heaving, but probably not cause I'm not going there.[/i]




ALSO!
Cblog Recaps. I discussed the future of this with Conrad at PAX. Basically, this going to be taken over by Conrad managing a bunch of community members doing it from now on. I'm going to finish setting up the account in the next day or 2 and hand over the keys to Conrad. It's been great providing the service to DToid, and I feel really great hearing that I managed to do it long enough that people want it to stay around. But in all honesty, my time nowadays is occupied by many art projects (several of which are dtoid-centric), and it's better if I hand the recap reins over to Conrad so that I may better focus on these projects.


shoutouts pt.1
I have so many shoutouts. but it's time for bed so that will come later.

-Niero, thanks for making this all possible. I probably would never have met so many great people and made so many friends in the last year if it wasn't for DTOID.

So, as few of you know, I've been into astrology and tarot since a really young age. Needless to say, I have quite a few tarot decks. For today's random selection, I decided to go with one of my new decks, the Corto Maltese Tarot published by Lo Scarabeo (that make a lot of nice decks)



The number is a random card drawn from the deck, shuffled 16 times, going like this:

The Fool- 1
The 21 Trumps- 2-22
Wands- 23 to 36
Cups- 37 to 50
Swords- 51 to 64
Pentacles- 65 to 78

The winning card:

The Queen of Swords
Number 63


Now the post count starts at 0, but there's one repeat post before the winner. Thus,

0 (card 1) + 62 (the rest of the 63) + 1 (adjustment for the repeat post), the winner is post #63, Shawnzzy.

Congratulations! Message me your mailing address.

Forfeit if...
a) If you live outside the states you'll have to agree to pay anything over a 10 dollar shipping, or I'll redraw.
b) I don't get a response by tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, this stack of games is all yours.

Community Regulars, feel free to make sure I didn't miscount. Maybe I missed a duplicate post or something.

On a side note of contests, I've narrowed your painting down to 3 thumbnails Conrad.