Long Time, No Post!

Hello my lovely friends!

I realise that I have been extraordinarily absent for the last few weeks!

In a nut-shell, work roster changes and medical problems coming out of the wazoo changed my routines somewhat and haven’t had a lot of change for posting.

Onto Updates in the land of Gaming!! (But just to warn you, this is mostly PC gaming to follow!)

So I got accepted into the Hearthstone BETA and this game is RIGHT UP MY ALLY.
A deck building card came with fancy digital effects? YES THANKS, I’LL TAKE TWO.

I have actually entered an Australia store-chain run tournament for this, and am currently sitting 18th out of 60 players in the tourney. This is going to win me NOTHING, but it’s good fun none-the-less.

So far, my focus has been on Druid. But I’m starting to branch out a little to the other classes and am thoroughly enjoying Hunter.

Why don’t you love me anymore? You’re leaving me for HIM!? A HUNTER?
DOES HE EVEN LIFT?

In addition, I also got accepted into the Dawngate BETA.

Needless to say, it’s a lot like playing a less enjoyable version of LoL. Like, don’t get me wrong, I know it’s BETA and I know it’s a MOBA but – naaaah.

At least their character art is pretty?

OH! OH OH OH! I finally got around to playing a bit of the new Tomb Raider game! The reviews were absolutely correct.
I must say, best handling Tomb Raider I’ve ever played (and I’ve loved nearly all of them).
The UI is smart, the controls are organic, the cut scenes are amazing and the game play is involving and challenging without bordering on “Repeat this as many times are required to luck out actually getting it” as the Tomb Raider games sometimes had a tendency to do.

Welcome to my home. Hope you enjoy the lovely decor.

I have to admit, thoroughly impressed with the graphics.
As much as I think Lara Croft’s “face” is not quite the Lara Croft I have come to know at love (and let’s face it, unless she looks like a young Angelinda Jolie, I’m probably not sold), the faces are damned impressive.

The above snip, is GAME PLAY. Like….WHAT? That’s awesome.

Welp, I might leave it there for the moment – and blog a little bit more later in today if I have a chance.

Love you all my friends!!

~ as always,
A Highly Caffeinated Ellie

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Finally an update!

Uuugh, sorry for the delayed replies, comments and posts folks. Life has kind of exploded with family, school and work and I haven’t had a chance to do much of anything!

Hello everyone. This is me in Pokemon land – just casually posing for my trainer license like a pro model.

1 thing I have been filling in my short breaks between commitments is the new Pokemon X game! I have bought and played through every Pokemon game since my original obsession with Blue way back when – and I must say, I’m between feelings on the new one.

If you don’t follow the games as I do, you may not know this already, but this is the game Nintendo announced was their start to changing the experience of the Pokemon gaming franchise. It has a big story, cut scenes, 3D animation and all that jazz (in addition to a bunch of additional internet connectivity and bonuses related).

So, here are some snaps I took of my screen while playing:

For starters, this game is a lot more customisable in regards to what you look like. So I took the general route of making my character “somewhat” like myself.
This is the wholly arrogant and obnoxious fist pump my character does when beating a trainer for plot required purposes.

I honestly don’t know if the change view makes exploring dungeons better or worse to be honest.

At least it’s pretty, I suppose?

As tradition dictates, I chose the fire starter. Now this is the second stage evolution (Braixen).

This thing actually pulls a ‘branch’ out of it’s tail and uses it like a wand. I actually hate it.

The main evil ‘TEAM’ in this game is a group named ‘Flare’. Now, don’t get me wrong, Team s always have a tendency to look rather comical.
These guys are absolutely no exception in that regard.

One of the things I do very much enjoy about this game is the customisation through hair cuts and various accessories.
For once I have a character I’m playing in Pokemon that I identify with.

At least it’s not the mushroom headed girl from Black, anyways.

And finally, another feature they have added is on occasion you encounter a sign with a camera on it. This summons a photographer to take a commemorative ‘snap shot’ of you on your adventures.
The DS responds in your hands the same way a camera would (ie. tilting the device, tilts the camera angle).

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Other than Pokemon, all the painting I have been doing has been for my Rotten Harvest entry for the Wyrd painting competition and due to rules I can’t post anything about it. 😦

The only other thing I have managed to find the time to do, is to keep up with the ‘Paint-along’ thread for free handing. As of week 3 highlighting has been completed:

I found the highlighting on this really tricky, as there was no obvious ‘light source’ for where I had done the highlighting on the coat initially!
I ended up doing a few shades of the gold/yellow colour to highlight – but it appears only one shows in this photo.

I shall have to get a better picture when I do the next round of touch ups!!

Well, Love you all!!
Sincerely,
Ellie.

To Infinity and Beyond!

Sooooo…I couldn’t come up with a better title. That’s all I’ve got.

After some more painting sessions with le Painting Sage , I have nearly finished my Infinity Aleph crew!
My plan is that when I have all 6 of them done, to go back through them one by one and do a line of final touch ups – as I’ve noticed through posting photos there are some glaring errors that need correcting.

What’s that? SORRY CAN YOU SPEAK UP? Wait! Let me cup my ear to hear you.

Why she’s holding her head like that constantly baffles me. I look at her arm and think, ‘are you struggling to hear?’ ‘are you itching something?’ ‘DO YOU EVEN HAVE EARS!?’.

I also just realised how bad the above picture is. Better one coming soon…..

I stuffed up the white ‘shading’ technique that Painting Sage was showing me – you can see a better rendition of it on his own work, and ended up having to try to hide it by re-painting a lot her white. *siiiiiiiiiiigh*

We also had a ‘test run’ game. This was less of a game than it was more ‘scenarios’ of ‘Ok, so if he was here, and I was here – I could shoot this weapon and roll 3 dice to try to roll below 14’ etc etc. So far I quite like how this game plays.
It seems….closer to the feel of what a real fight might play like than say, Warmachine. But in that being said – I don’t really understand how to play either of them to be making any judgments hahaha.

My little bat-bots ready for their fight.

Painting Sage has added some other items to his print and play Infinity terrain. It looked so cool with the little figures on it! Kind of made my imagination go into over-drive imagining large mechanical foot steps shaking the surrounding shipping containers as my bots slowly moved towards the enemy.

Other than Infinity, as you know I have been painting up Madelyn from Warmachine. I have been picking her up and doing little bits here and there to touch her up.
I wasn’t happy with how the paint ‘water stained’ under her bum, so I tried to blend it back a bit to hide it and re-highlighted the grey. Now it looks very 2 dimensional – ugh, more stuff to fix.

Sorry for the bad photo quality, I’m half asleep – it’s 1am – and I spent all of no time trying to focus/light this picture.

In addition to touch ups, I thought ‘Hey, I see people paint eyes on this mini all the time cause they’re pretty easy to access, why not give it a try?’

Worst. Idea. Ever.
Never painting eyes again. I ended up painting back over the pupils and left them white, but even then she looks….creepy.

Good night everyone!

Sincerely, El.

Battle for Sophia Oct 2013

Ok everyone! I would like to begin this post by advising that I am not connected to this event in anyway – merely that I have been reading about it and thought it deserved a spot on my blog.

So, the Battle for Sophia is an Oxfordshire-based wargaming club are set to play the popular tabletop game; Warhammer Fantasy, in an endurance marathon for 48 hours in a bid to raise donations for Sophia – a young Witney resident with Spastic Diplegia, a form of Cerebral Palsy, who is in need of a crucial operation and months of post op physio.

The event, dubbed ‘The Battle for Sophia’ will take place Friday 25 to Sunday 27 October, at the club’s headquarters in Carterton.

Sophia having her photo taken for the local news paper

The tabletop game will play continuously for 48 hours with players taking shifts, and will be broadcast live over the web for supporters to see the action progressing. The game will be played on a massive 12’ by 4’ table, will use more than 50 terrain pieces and over 2000 miniatures, many of which have been beautifully hand-painted.

And here are some links to further information:

http://innsmouthgamingclub.wordpress.com/

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?380215-48-hour-Warhammer-Game-Battle-for-Sophia

http://www.sophiassteppingstones.co.uk/

Paintball, Painting and WTF did I just play?

Let’s begin this story with the fact that I participated in Paintball this weekend.
Now, as much as I can hear you doing a fist pump and a ‘Hells yeaaa’ this was more of a revolutionary awakening for myself to absolutely know – I will not survive the Zombie apocalypse.
Honestly speaking when the virus ridden cannibals start roaming the streets – I’ll already be one of them, don’t worry about coming to save me.

Now for a small update on painting!!

So I’ve been experimenting with paper to see if there’s anything comparable to the P3 parchment paper to use to put my paints on. Here’s how I went:

• Standard Paper = No. It dissolves easily.
• Baking Paper = No. The wax being placed either up OR down creates a water repellent barrier that doesn’t allow the paint to remain wet.
• Tracing Paper = Maybe. I’ve had a limited amount of success with tracing paper keeping paint wet for about 24 hours. But not much longer.
• Tradesman Paper = Maybe. This is actually paper made of a type of stone. It’s oil and water proof, but this actually made it PAINT proof, meaning that if the paint was thick enough, it just sat around on the top with the water keeping liquid for about 48 hours. Not bad but not great.

TRADEY PAPER. FOR THE TOUGH MAN… Or for the 5 foot nothing woman trying to paint tiny people.

The tracing paper on the left, and the Tradesman paper on the right after 24 hours.

So, using my ‘temporary’ wet palette, I got to trying to fix horsey.
I did this by adding an orange/brown type colour to the original brown and re-going over the highlights and then toning them back again with flesh wash. I think it’s a bit of an improvement but not great.

You still haven’t fixed my saddle woman. I mean seriously, who rides a saddle without stirrups?

I also used black wash to give him a slightly darker tone on his hocks. I was going to do him full bay colour and black them out, but I figured – he’s obviously no REAL breed of horse anyways, so we shall cheat! MWAHAHAHA.

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In PC gaming news, I have gotten addicted to the Mighty Quest for Epic Loots.

So the point of this game is to build a castle, and other people can attack it. If they beat you castle they get a % of your loots (gold and gems) – if you attack them back you get a % of theirs.

How anyone travels from castle to castle is currently a mystery. Pegasus ponies maybe??

My castle in all it’s glory. AAAAANNND can be beaten in about a half a minute. Sorry gems, it was nice while it lasted.

The idea is that people get more and more creative with how they set up traps and monsters and try to catch you out. So far mines a pretty straight forward Walk in > Beat obvious frog guys > Take my shit.

There’s just a heart warming feeling knowing the loots you scored were actually another players. MWAHAHA.

Other than this – I also got Anna some time back if anyone remembers? But I hadn’t actually played it.

Regret.
So much regret.

Welcome to Anna. Where the best part of the game is the font the title shows in.

So it’s a horror puzzle game. Where the puzzles are actually ridiculous. After 10 minutes of kicking around in this pretty outdoors area I had to google what I was supposed to be doing.
Would you believe I was meant to go find a branch, use to to move rocks in the river, fill up my canteen and catch a glass shard – and then just HAPPEN to work out that I need to set this glass shard on fire using a pinecone while sitting in the groove of a stone eye.
Like…what the actual fuck?

We’re trying to look dark and ominous. Instead we’re just giving you a headache with the overdone music and shitty lighting.

You fumble around in the water mill for a while finding random objects, like this prize winning message on a handkerchief.

I’m pretty sure I follow the 14 year old girl that wrote this on Tumblr.

I ended up giving up the game after I illuminated some magical bridge over a puddle and got to enjoy the ‘horrific’ image of a stick figure hugging kids in the water.

The scariest part of this entire ordeal was the art work for the kids. Really? REALLY? We allowed someone to publish that nightmare?

Neeeeedless to say, I won’t be finishing this game. I have plenty of better ways to spend an hour. Like you know, sniffing paint.

Well, that’s all for this evening folks.
I have a tendency to waffle – my apologies.

Night all!!

Minis in the Sun

This is just a little post, for like the first time in forever we actually have sun light, so I thought I’d try to get a few shots of my Malifaux crew thus far!!

Will be posting more later! Haha, I have too much fun photographing these.

Gordon Ramsay Won’t Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

No miniatures this post, as well, I’m a bit ashamed of my new ones so, I’ll keep practicing a bit before posting another. q-q

An odd title for this post? Yes.
But, I’m sitting here watching the US edition of Master Chef (with Gordon Ramsay as a judge) and playing Dead Island realising, that he would never survive the Zombie apocalypse. He’d be too busy running around after zombies judging how they were filleting people and telling them they’re doing it wrong.

I love Human Flesh Sashimi, and I feel you seasoned this just right.

Aaaaanny who.
So I’ve been playing Dead Island, as I got it during a Steam sale for a few dollars. I do have to admit, this game is nothing like I assumed it would be.
Is there like…no story?

Of course I’ll come with you, I need someone to run faster than when shit starts hitting proverbial fans.

It’s basically, talk to someone at base camp -> get quest to survive sneaking past/killing zombies to get something -> return.
I was expecting something a little more Meet character -> have objective involving that character being with you -> Objectives switch between story, stealth, fighting etc -> proceed along beach line … buuut apparently not.

So basically, I’ve just been roaming about exploring and snapping images.

WTF IS THAT? AND WHY IS IT MID AIR?

Buddy, if you wrote this in your own blood ‘we’ aren’t anything, ‘you’ are a lunatic.

Now, this next image, looks good. Like Bow-chika-wa-wow good, but then when I look at the girls individual parts (legs, hips etc) I can’t help but think that this is also wildly out of proportion…or is it my imagination after staring at it for some time?

Buy ‘Coke’. That is all.

I love touches like advertising, books on the floor with proper covers and extra little scenic bits really exciting in games. I love studying and reading everything.

Well, that is all my friends!

Love you all!
~ Ellie

20 Things you probably didn’t know about PS4

These are mostly just ‘little’ features and things that haven’t really been focused on with the whole E3 game trailers and Xbox One funeral – but I actually found it quite interesting.

Suspend mode? Now that’s something I can get excited about!!

Dragon Age: Inquisition

So stoked, can’t wait!! …Now to finish Origins hahahaha.

XBox One – Still Sucks

I don’t care about any of Microsoft’s recent backflips. They didn’t stick the landing on this at all, 1/10 for effort.