Forz of one

I'm LOVING Forza 2. Its the best driving game I've come across in years. I have even bought a steerring wheel. I look like a right prat mind, sitting on the sofa with a a great plastic dashboard on my lap and a steering wheel in my hands, sweating and grinning like some kind of dangerous sexual criminal.

Its the steering wheel that makes it all work so well though. Its taken me about  two weeks to get the subtleties of control down, but damn if it doesn't feel the closest thing to actually driving a car other than actually driving a car.

I haven't got very far in the single player, but thats all I'm playing at the moment. I have no wish to have the beautiful illusion of my "expertise" shattered online by some young gun who lives inside their 360. Hey, I even came second with all the driving aids off and with the AI set to Hard. I'm nails me.  Speedy Gonzales.

The main reason I haven't got very far is that I'm enjoying actually DRIVING the cars. I've only bought one car with credits so far - the Honda Civic Type R, of course - but I've won quite a few. No Ferraris as yet, but the variety in my garage is more than enough to play around with for the moment, and the endless variables with upgrades and tuning is awesome even with just 12 cars in your garage.

My favourite car so far has been the Peugout hot hatch - I've primped and tweaked this baby until it can go round any corner as if it were a dragstrip. The front wheel drive cars are the easiest and the most satisfying for me at the moment because they feel like MY car - I can feel when the understeer begins and just enjoy that judder and squeal as I keep it on the edge round another bend. Blinkin fantastic. Rear wheel drives are trickier. I'm not used to them yet, but the feedback from the wheel should allow me to get a handle on that.

The other reason why I've not been able to get far in Forza is the massive extension work going on in the house at the moment, plus the need to actually keep working for a living.
I've been busy updating the site, and have finally got my backside into gear to produce a teeshirt.

Bought Flat Out Ulitmate Carnage the other day too. Little bit disappointed, must say. Looks splendid though and good fun with a beer, but not a keeper methinks.
I like the way that when you drive your car off the track and crash into a tree (which happens often to me) the grass underneath the chassi simply pops through, as if the chassis has simply disappeared. Oversight on the designers' part? Or just pure laziness......hmmm, lets see.

Posted by louiecat @ 6:13 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Monkey Temple and MySpace

new stuff at the site by Monkey Temple. I love these textures and am hoping I can get some canvases out of Mr Temple soon.
PLus, finally, finally got around to putting up a MySpace page. 
Chuffed because although I only have one friend so far, its the immortal Michael Berryman!! (well, probably only a goon who helps out with his page anyhow....)

Posted by louiecat @ 4:08 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Polar Bear canvases are a GOOO!!!

This little guy is now available as a canvas. I've done 25 of them and I've got one myself - he's my favourite character of all and he looks great at 20 x 20 inches.
Have a browse at the olde online shoppe!!!

Posted by louiecat @ 11:27 am EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

fun job

well chuffed - I got a double pager in my favourite videogames magazine !

Its nice when you get the chance to contribute to a magazine you subscribe to and I've always loved the art direction in Edge. It was a mad dash to finish though since the deadline was very tight and there were alot of characters to draw -

hope you can recognise all of em!

Posted by louiecat @ 3:35 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

latest meanderings

So, in between bouts of motorstorm, Virtua Tennis and Guitar Hero 2, I've managed to get some work done too! I've been generating some content for a website on recycling, which is being sponsored by Pepsi, so I had to add little pepsi icons everywhere of course....the guys I worked with are in Seattle and on the whole it was a really easy, rewarding experience.

I found it strange to be working for poeple who are eight hours behind me, but the nice thing was that when they asked for something to be ready in the afternoon, it seemed like I had an extra day to get it all done. We had some telephone conferencing after 7pm my time some evenings, which meant I had to delay my wine drinking and gaming till later.......


heh heh

Have to say, that playing Guitar Hero2, although immense fun - especially going head-to-head with my brother, who was staying at the time (I convinced him to buy a copy immediately, which he gladly did) - is a killer on my tendons and I find it hard to play for long periods. Since I make my living using my hands, I'm not anticipating EVER completing this game on any level other than medium!

Anyhow, with the Seattle job ended, I've had time to do some personal work, so here is the Toucan I did yesterday as a prezzy for my mum!



He makes me laugh, so he passes the test and I've stuck him on the portfolio site. You can see him in his full glory here

Speaking of laughs, I had a great time that was totally unanticipated with some co-op Gears of War with a very good mate from the UK-based Terrible Gaming Stats Network. I never thought I'd go back to Gears single player once I'd finished it, but I'm loving doing this on Insane level and only finding the wretches the difficult thing so far. After having attempted the rather stale and disappointing Resistance on the PS3, Gears is like coming home to a very good meal indeed!!
Also gotten in a few drunken and hilarious rounds of co-op Rainbow Six Vegas, where I managed to fall off a ladder under heavy fire and die. But somehow, it just made everything so much more enjoyable.........I continue to not understand why I ever attempted to enjoy adversarial games on xbox Live.

Other news....none really........trying to find someone to sell my greetings cards and just looking around for the next job....getting irritated by Virtua Tennis 3's stupid BGM, and getting bored with the missions in Crackdown....I'll collect the orbs, but bollocks to those bosses baby......

Posted by louiecat @ 6:10 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments