So i just finished playing the new Tomb Raider a couple of days ago, and found it quite enjoyable, atleast gameplay - wise.

Thanks to my new, relatively powerful laptop (in comparison to my old PC) I was able to push the settings up to (almost) max and still get a good framerate.

The animations are beautiful, and Lara moves, runs and jumps fluidly. I'd say the animations and the gameplay are the best parts of this game. Love the small details in the game, like the way she sticks out her arm to touch the walls of the caves as she runs by them :D

The story though... was sort of disappointing. Having not followed much of the news/ reviews surrounding the game, I didn't really know what to expect, but I'd gathered the game had been getting quite a lot of praise. And as I started it and played about the first hour of the game (before she begins going crazy with guns) I got the feeling that this game was going to be perfect both gameplay and story - wise.

It felt like a mix between Far Cry 3 and Assassin's Creed in the beginning, and I thought the story and atmosphere was going to be something similar to LOST. I began to expect good pacing, exploration (and stuff like hunting around in jungles) and a really deep character driven story.

Unfortunately though, all that was thrown out of the window a couple of hours into the game, as it took a sharp turn towards a fast paced heavily action/ combat oriented game. The character progression turned from survivor to murderer, and the exploration turned into exploding bridges and similar running sequences.

I soon realized that I had begun to expect something different from the game than what it was really offering. After swallowing my disappointment, I began to enjoy it for what it was. So in the end, it wasn't all that bad.

And after a long time, I recorded footage of me playing a game and made a music tribute for it. I tried capturing the major emotions and character drive that I noticed during the game, and with Linkin Park's "By Myself" (I like(d) Linkin Park :) - you know, the first 2 albums) made a tribute to this reboot!

(MAJOR SPOILERS IN THE VIDEO)

Hope you enjoy!

(Reposted as blog)

So I'd been waiting an ETERNITY for this game. Ever since trailers started coming out I was very interested. And then they went ahead and cancelled it for the PC, and that's all I have! And then I spent the coming months searching "Alan Wake PC" on google quite regularly, only to come up with disappointing fake images and rumors.

But finally, it was announced for the PC and I got it! And I wasn't disappointed. I loved the game. Although some of the sections were a bit too stretched and the gameplay wasn't my favorite part (although it was quite enjoyable from time to time), the highlight was the story and the atmosphere, which was what had got me excited about the game in the first place.

SO, after completing the game, I made a music video for it (as I usually do) made up of all the cutscenes and gameplay i'd recorded.

The song I used, infact, has been written and created by me and my friend, and it's called "Marrying the Tide". Our band is named "Retarded Compound".

I chose my own song as the lyrics seemed to be matching the theme of the game beautifully! So anyway, here's the video. Oh, and the vocals aren't the best :P But the music's pretty alright imo

Here you go!

Video description:

A music video tribute to the Remedy game "Alan Wake (PC). I used a song from my own band (Retarded Compound) for the video as the lyrics seem to match the theme of light and darkness, hope and struggle, very well!

Enjoy and comment!

I do not own Remedy or Alan Wake, this is just a music tribute. The song is by my band (Retarded Compound)

Follow Retarded Compound on Facebook!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Retarded-Compound/140781369310207

===LYRICS===

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

You kept a dream within

and left your heart unlocked

like a child you wore it on your sleeve

and all that they said you would believe

Standing by the cliff

you were pushed before you could even leap

they gave you back your heart in pieces

and stole your will to dream

[CHORUS]

I know its hard but you must believe

Coz there's a way out of this darkness

You must keep moving on for me

Behind a bend may be the light you seek

You closed your eyes to another life

you dreamt of what you wished to see

but now that youve been woken up

you no longer wish to breathe

Into the sea you dint follow

you've drifted along but you cannot dream

yes, you stayed away from sorrow

but happy you cannot dare to be

[CHORUS]

I know its hard but you must believe

Coz there's a way out of this darkness

You must keep moving on for me

Behind a bend may be the light you seek

Theres nothing to which you can hold on

what you have today tomorrow will be gone

valleys are made by hills, sorrow through delight

love what you have and everything will be alright

Remember my attempts at painting on photoshop with my new (now an year old) drawing tablet? So I did a few more drawings after that which turned out pretty decent.

Then I was forced to take a big break as college work took over all my time. But before that I had managed to start a new painting as a tribute to one of my favorite movies of all time The Last Samurai (strange choice? maybe :P) So about an year later, I finally found the time and completed it! Here you go giantbombers :) (and thanks for all the help during my learning process!)

(so irritating, giantbomb's having trouble uploading images, so here's a flickr link:) http://www.flickr.com/photos/48092420@N04/7529517492/in/photostream/lightbox/

update: proper image upload-

So I was gonna make one of my game - music videos, this time showing the beauty of Skyrim with some pleasant music, but I ended up getting heavily addicted to this Oasis song (who put the weight of the world on my shoulders) and ended up making a video with that instead.

It somehow developed a very interesting theme of the internal conflict that a person in the Dragonborn's position would probably experience, one of having to deal with a huge responsibility thrown on his shoulders. Watch as the Dragonborn sits in a corner, trying to deal with his emotions, as the HUGE mountains, rivers, and endless plains of the world of Skyrim create a contrast to him, while symbolizing his confusions :D

So here's my latest work! I asked a friend of mine whether she would like me to make a portrait of her, and she was all up for it. It wasn't possible for us to do it live at that moment, so i decided to take a photo of hers as a reference.
Did this in 4 hours (can't believe it! My last one had taken me 4 days! But that was much more detailed as well) sitting from 12 am to 4:30 am (almost on a deadline, as I had to move my PC the very next day) 
Personally im very happy with the results, and im hoping i can keep up this momentum of drawing regularly. The shorts didn't come out that good though, as I began to lose a little bit of patience at the end. :P   But im pretty happy with the shirt.
 
No background yet, might add that in later
 
Critiques and comments welcome :) 

 
 
 
 
Oh, and needless to say, my lady friend was impressed.
Mission accomplished ;)

 
  Now that i'll probably be spending most of my time playing Skyrim, and not Oblivion, I thought of making a little video tribute for Oblivion as a way of saying goodbye 
 
Youtube description:

So it's finally time for a new Elder Scrolls! With the oncoming release of Skyrim, I doubt many people will still be playing Oblivion.
Having spent many happy years playing Oblivion, and living in the world of Cyrodill, I thought of making a little music video tribute to it before I journey on to Skyrim for the next many years. :P 

Music - Coldplay - Lovers in Japan

So I got my first drawing tablet a couple of weeks ago, and since then I've been trying to get a hang of it by practicing.   
 
I made a couple of drawings following some beginner tutorials, and then, since I just started playing Fable 3 (and am loving it), I thought of ditching tutorials and making an original artwork.
So, using Fable's art style as an inspiration, I spent 4 days (Im a beginner, so it took me a LONG time) doing this:  ( upload on deviantart)
 

Separate upload of just the landscape

Ok so for the past 3-4 days I've been trying my hand at photoshop in order to prepare a portfolio for my interview at NID (UG for communication design). I thought it would make my portfolio stronger if I had some photoshop work in addition to my regular sketches (which is all that we need to get)

So anyways, I thought i'd present me amateurish work to the talented people of giantbomb. Here's my progress in the past few days. Feel free to comment :)
Oh, and all of them are done with a mouse:

MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS

So here's another music video from me. Contains spoilers. Enjoy :)