I love the looks of swords, so i thought i should model one. This is the Tenseiga sword "heavenly life fang" from the Inuyasha (©Rumiko Takahashi) anime/manga series. I decided to model this particular sword because i have the mini-model on hand, from one of the figures it came from.

I did this a few weeks ago, but just now added the colour and some extra shapes. Probably will add texture material to the hilt(handle) when i learn to.

Here i experimented with the different lightings to make the metal of the blade look more realistic.

Here is my Dalak. This was was first time modelling something using extrude and scaling the vertices, so i am happy with the outcome.

Since some people have already done the usual 'ray blasting and fire' dalek, i thought i should do something different. So here's my 'watering the flowers' dalek!

Here is the nurb car i finally completed! Thanks a lot to Bobby for teaching me how to do most of the stuff, as i was stuck doing the nurb car on my own. I especially enjoyed playing around with the scenery. I can't wait to do more!

Start playing now!- www.runescape.com

RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Jagex Limited. Developed over the years, it is thought to be one of the most successful and popular indie games that has ever been created.
Jagex Ltd is a UK-based company that develops online computer games using Java. It was formerly know as Jagex Software, which was founded by Andrew Gower, Paul Gower, and Constant Tedder. Andrew Gower, a Cambridge graduate, invented RuneScape while he was at University and then operated it from his own bedroom. The profits from RuneScape's online subscription make the Gower brothers worth £32 million and joint tenth place in the young rich list, according to the TimesOnline- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist/fullSearch/0,,2006-4-0,00.html It just goes to show that an indie game can become very successful.

So why is RuneScape so popular and successful? Well it is designed for both people who want to play for free and paying members, who pay by subscription. One of the best things about it is that you can access RuneScape anywhere where there is an Internet connection and in an ordinary web browser, thus making it very accessible and easy to log on and play straight away.

One of the main features is that there is not set task of what you have to do. You can decide what you want to do in the game, whether it may be levelling up skills, doing quests or simply exploring and interacting with the world and people. There are also regular updates that are monthly, which are mainly for the paying members, but there are also the occasional free player updates. When there is a holiday coming up, like Christmas, there is an event where both free and paying members can complete tasks to obtain unique items, which is always fun.

The difference between free players(f2p) and member(p2p) is that with being a member you can get access to more skills, the larger part of the world, armour/weapons. Both types of players can interact with each other, on the free world servers. They can chat, trade and fight each other if desired.

You start off by creating a new character, by giving a name, to which everyone can see you by, choosing clothes and whether you are a male or female. Then you get taken to Tutorial Island, where you get to learn about the different skills you can do, like fishing and cooking and of course fighting. This gives a general feel to how you play the game and teaches you at the same time. After that you get transported to a town called Lumbridge, which you can then start exploring and doing whatever you want. Learning is easy as there are lots of guides that can be found on the website page and in game, while playing.


One of the key elements is the variety of skills that you can choose to level up, you can level up to 99. As you level up a skill you obviously become better and can access more things, for example at level1 fishing you can only a net to only fish shrimp, every shrimp you catch you gain experience towards the next level. When you reach level5 fishing you can use bait to catch sardine. Every few levels or so you will have greater access to things, even the fighting skills, you will be able to fight stronger monsters and do the harder quests.

Other skills for free players are magic-be able to cast spells, mining and smithing-being able to mine different types of ore and make armour/weapons, crafting, woodcutting, firemaking, cooking, runecrafting and prayer. With members there are member-only skills, such as slayer, farming and agility. You can choose what you want to level up and specialise in, or you may want to try them all!

Another key element is the community within RuneScape. As there is a high level of interactivity with other players, while playing you get to chat and make in-game friends who you may travel around the world exploring and doing quests together. Some may form clans and go out into the Wilderness, an area where players can fight each other and monsters, or they may group together to each help level up their skills. There are the official forums that people can discuss the game as well and ask help is needed.

In terms of the graphics, it isn't the best, compared to big MMOGs like World of Warcraft, but it does means that even dial-up users can play, so it is more accessible to due not having very specific requirements for running heavy graphics. There is a high and low detail option for players to choose from, depending on their connection. Jagex are updating the graphics, but not to an extent that low Internet connection users can't play or have a lag playing.

Overall, because of its easy accessibility, RuneScape can become addictive to play when you want to. After a year or so of playing it does become less fun to play. It can become repetitive and a sometimes tedious, if you are just doing the same thing over and over again, like levelling up one skill. This can be the case if for a free player, the quests are all completed and there is only levelling up to do. With this, you could pay and become a member. This would open up the game once and game and enhance the playing, making it more fun.

I give this game:

Gameplay 9

Graphics 8

Sound 8

Value 9

Tilt 10

Overall- 8.8

Indie Game Review

Clash N Slash:Worlds Away

http://gametunnel.com/games/index.php?PAGE=game_detail&AID=566

I looked at several indie games, but the one that appealed to me the most and that i found addictive is the game, Clash N Slash:Worlds Away. It is a shooting game, but is only played on one screen. You control a spaceship that is suppose to protect a planet, which is located in the centre of the screen. With the spaceship you can move around the planet and shoot in all directions at incoming enemies. The controls are just using the mouse to move the spaceship around the planet and using the left-click button on the mouse to fire the shot.

There are a variety of enemies, some stronger than others, meaning you have to fire more shots to destroy it. There are 'cans' of different explosives that suddenly appear on the screen that you can shoot at and they will cause a bigger impact to the surrounding enemies near by. This is useful when you are surrounded by too many enemies at once and can't shoot at all of them, due to they will make contact with the planet before you destroy them all.

One of the features is that after you complete a level you can do some upgrades to the spaceship, for example choosing a plasma weapon, to increase the weapon fire and also upgrade the shield, so you can increase the defense on the spaceship. After each level you get a few points to which you can allocate what certain points to upgrade, meaning you can kind of customise what you prefer.

You can look at the life bar of the planet, which is in red and then the life bar of you, the spaceship, which is yellow. They will decrease if you get hit by the enemy. It isn't too hard to die, so the game lasts longer and you don't get fustrated dieing, making it a satisfying game to play. The good points to this game is that you can just simply play for a while when you want to and get addicted instantly. The down sides is that it can get repetitive, since you see the same screen every level, but if you play a short while then it will be fun to play.

Gameplay-8

Graphics-8

Sound-n/a

Value-7

Tilt- 7

7.5

Okay here it is. I did an online painting for the GamesMaster magazine and thought i'd send it in and hey they actually put in in the mag! It's in the lastest nov06 issue, the one with Link on Epona on the front cover. If you read the 'We Love Games' section, you can see my 'Handheld Wars' pic and my name is mentioned. So if you want to give it a try you can, at http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ and send it to gamesmaster@futurenet.co.uk subject heading 'We Love Games'. Remember to save your painting for yourself, as it's hard to find it again on the site.
The actual pic is at http://artpad.art.com/gallery/?j39utq14frbw You can 'skip to end' to see it finished,
Anyway, here's a scan on the section i appeared in:

EDIT-Can now click on the thumbnails to view the larger pics in a new window.

Here are some of my best drawings from my new sketchbook:

This is my first drawing in the new sketchbook, of the Britannia Mills building. I only managed to draw three windowd in one section and there are suppose to be seven! That is one thing i'll have to work on. Done in pencil.


This is my best drawing so far. It is of my halls corridor, with my room on the left. It took quite some time, however i didn't really notice the time passing by because i was enjoying doing this so much. It looks neater than the Brit Mills drawing because i used a ruler. Done in pencil.


Here is a corkscrew bottleopener, which was quite hard to draw and get right. First sketched outline in pencil, then went over in black pigment ink.



This one was done in black biro. I loved drawing the can opener because it had a lot of detail in it and i like drawing details.

Square Enix develops, publishes and distributes games which tend to be mostly role-playing franchises. Two of the most popular of the franchises are FINAL FANTASY®, which has sold over 68 million units worldwide and DRAGON QUEST®, which has sold over 40 million units worldwide. Square Enix was formed from two seperate companies, Square Co. Ltd and Enix, who merged together to for the company today.

The headquarters are located in Tokyo, Japan, but there are also situated in North America, Europe and Asia. In London, Square Enix Ltd. deals with the PAL versions of games that are distributed in Europe. They handle the sales, marketing and publishing side for Europe.
Sometimes Square Enix work together with other companies, such as Buena Vista Gamea (BVG) for the Kingdom Hearts series. They publish and license the games, as part of the Kingdom Hearts games are Disney, so they they were a part of it.

Did some adjusting of the front wheels. Kept looking at the previous images and they annoyed me seeing them out of proportion, lol.

Does it look better now?

Hello, i've just finished the 3d car model and omg i'm so pleased with it! It was my first time creating an actual model! I decided not to use any tutorials or references, just to see what the outcome would be like. This is 100% true!! Some parts i wasn't sure what i did, but it turned out right anyway. I'm not sure how to make it a completely smooth model, there still seems to be gridlines of some sort showing.
I was going to have a roof, but i wasn't sure how to make one, so i took the easy root and didn't add one! I think it looks like a Cadillac(my flatmate saw it and said so, but i'm not sure myself). I'm somewhat a perfectionist and i struggled to do 'just a basic car model'. I like it to look like a car, with mirrors, seat, door handle and even foot step! (i think i went too far there...)
Yes, so overall i'm pleased because when i started this lesson i didn't know how to navigate Maya or even create a simple model! Now tonight i experimented and used what i learned today just in the lesson(nowhere else) and created this! Yay!