Burny

There are techniques that rely only on one or the other (like dipping), but none of them are fit for showcase or very high quality gaming models. You have to do both. By painting shadows and highlights you basically compensate that the shadows and highlights on the model's details aren't as pronounced, as we would expect them to be, if the model was in 1:1 scale. If you look at objects in the light you will see that the edges appear lighter and parts where shadows are cast on appear darker. By only applying washes you only get the shadows, but not the highlights. Over exaggerating highlights on edges can be a good idea, when you want details to be distinguishable from some distance. That's exactly the problem with unpainted sand or rocks (one layer of wash doesn't count ). Fapping around with the brush on some cloth until there's only very few color left and than brushing the model is called drybrushing. It's ok for details like fur or feathers if you're careful. For large parts with very many small and close details like that, which have to be in one color, this can even be a valid technique for high quality models. For everything else, you should avoid it wherever possible, when you don't have a whole army to paint. Also, you will want to have a look at Vallejo colors (model paints), if you don't know them yet and if you've had enough of the Citadel one's. They're marginally cheaper and require some getting used to, but they won't dry up that quickly and are on par in terms of quality. Use Mithril Silver! It's an amazing "color" for highlighting metallic parts, not for painting them completely. Have a look at the edges of this model's metallic parts. Without Mithril Silver you wouldn't be able to distinguish half the details from the rest. So, where is that dragon? ^^

Sounds or feels? Have you played the game or do you just imagine what it feels like? I must say, concerning Epic Mickey I'm torn between enthusiasm and skepticism. Junction Point and Disney seem to be really committed to the project, but the footage I've seen so far certainly lacks some wow-effect. On the other hand, the game's premise sounds genuinely interesting (Oswald as some forgotten brother of Mickey and possible enemy or friend) and Warren Spector was behind Deus Ex, so I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt. If you play Deus Ex (which everyone should), you'll probably find that the game isn't a very good shooter in the same way, that the Metroid Primes aren't very good shooters. But in the same way that the Metroid Primes are outstanding adventures, Deus Ex is an outstanding RPG. So I'll have a very close look at reviews before getting the game. I'm not so much concerned about the length. 10-20 hours for playing through is a decent average today. Given Warren Spector's track record for substantial branches in the game's story depending on the player's choices there will hopefully be a lot of game, that the player won't see in one run. I'm only partly with you, here. Spraying stuff with one liquid or the other doesn't sound like the most exciting of mechanics, to be sure. Hopefully they have given some thought about making the mechanic itself challenging. But branching and consequences might just be what will make the game. What we've already seen in some footage, is branching depending on what liquid the player uses to destroy some machine. Destroy enemies or turn them into friends? This can very well have consequences later. At the very least, the mechanic is no more one dimensional, than spraying stuff with bullets or not spraying stuff with bullets.

That's an excellent play-quality miniature! It looks very clean, even if it seems to me you've brushed some details. If I might give you some advice: Do give a bit more thought to the bases. You don't need to make it a diorama, but especially unpainted sand or stones clash with a painted miniature. So, think about covering the base with sand before using the primer on it. You can then brush it in several steps to your hearts liking. I'd be a bit less generous with the static grass, too. One more thing about the gold parts: It's quite a nice effect, if you highlight the edges with a mixture of that gold color and some "Mithril Silver". It's tedious and requires a good brush and a steady hand, but it should be worth it.

12 Missions in the game and loving it. Even as a great Warhammer 40k fan I, must say (sadly maybe), There was more game in those 12 missions, than in pretty much the whole DoW 1 game + Addons (all 3). Not because it's longer, but because everything shows so much attention to detail. The Missions are incredibly varied and interesting, the talking sequences are excellently produced and Blizzard's CGI scenes are in a league of their own. Ok, Raynor isn't the most interesting character video games have ever seen, his German voice isn't any better than in SC1 (it's the same, sadly), the Story isn't particularly deep and goes for "epic" rather than "subtle" wherever it can (typically Blizzard ). It's just fun. I definitely won't touch the regular multiplayer though. I'm just not good at it and the time needed to get any better, provided I wasn't a hopeless case, I can spend on other games, that don't require me to constantly make about 150 "APM". Hopefully there'll be a lot of interesting fun maps. ^^

If you mean gyrometers, they could maybe be used in combination with (imprecise) head tracking. But it also means looking at the device from angles it's not meant to be looked at. The gyrometers alone wouldn't help much, I think. They can only tell how much you tilt the 3DS along certain axes. Imagine you're playing lying on the couch and hold the 3DS above your head instead of sitting upright. The "zero position" would have to be calibrated every time you budge.

Sure. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers Games need three titles, sentences need multiple punctuation marks... The more, the better!

Mainly: TVs (should have) got better speakers and you can plug other stuff into the back, too. Like scart and component cables. These Samsungs are hybrids between both. I have got a similar screen from Samsung (Syncmaster T240HD) for the PC and the Wii and found it to be good value for the price. As long as I don't rely on the internal speakers...

As far as I know, that won't work. The in game camera's angle won't change a bit, no matter how you move your head. So there is no looking around objects, even if you perceive depth when you're looking at it from the right angle. The only solution I can see to this, would be to employ the inward camera for head tracking. Considering that the right angle for perceiving the effect is so limited however, that probably wouldn't work either.

...says the man with with links mug from an artwork of the most brownish and grayish Zelda game to date (aside from Link's Awakening) as an avatar.

CRT. Personally, I've played the Wii on a 40+'' Full HD Screen (between 1.5-2m distance from the screen) and had no complaints about the image whatsoever. Sure, there will be visible pixels and aliasing in SMG2 etc., but if you're afraid, that your essential parts might rot off, if you spot a pixel, you probably shouldn't own a Wii in the first place. You like LKS however, so you're not that much of a Sissi. If your budget is that low, you'll have to look for a small TV anyway (probably < 30''). On such screens the issue of pixelation won't be so pronounced. I couldn't recommend a certain TV however. You should find enough sites dedicated to testing such things with rankings etc..

Ah, the joys of high fantasy. That girl's armor rivals a full plate in terms of protection, I'd say. Edit: Another pair of new pants for LostOverThere? :p

That question was much more serious than you thought. What do you exactly want? You can hook your Wii up to pretty much any flat screen HD-TV. There is no definite Wii-TV. It's all down to what you want from the TV. Do you want a wall of a TV, a small one, has it to be dirt cheap or do you want to spend a small fortune, etc.?

You mean like Braid? Which had many tributes to the Mario J'n'Rs? So a tribute to the tribute? Well seriously, Braid's kind of "time bending" could make for an intriguing mechanic combined with Mario's precision jumping and running. I wouldn't mind if Nintendo took some inspirations from there. ^^ Portal is another example of an absolutely unique mechanic, that could make for a good combination with Mario. Yeeah, has totally been for like ten years. I won't mind if it stays there the way SMG2 did. ^^

Or even worse: bad English voice acting! :P Yes, it could. There is nothing in WW, that cannot be mapped to the Wiimote + Nunchuck setup, aside from multiple "quickbuttons" for items. And that can be replaced with a ring menu like in Skyward Sword, which I would even consider a vast improvement. Camera controls have already been done with the Dpad in Okami. It may not be perfect, but it works.

Which flavor? Cherry or strawberry?

The controller part is absolutely not true, imo. I never experienced even the slightest problem with it or had the impression, that the controls hindered me in doing what I was supposed to do. Although I think even the few bits we know about Skyward Sword have shown, that large improvements can be done with the Wiimote Setup (quicker item selection etc.). The 3D town part is nitpicking, imo. OoT had a fixed camera in parts of Hyrule, too. That's only a question of style for me. The real issue I had with Twilight Princess was, that from memory, I would say that WW's main town was more lively than half of TP's world. Not to mention MM. Nevertheless, I perceived TP as a great game (even a great Zelda), On the other hand: Here, I would disagree in putting WW in that sentence. The control complaints you have with TP, I have with WW. The inventory and sailing got more on my nerves, than anything I have experienced in a Zelda game to date. I like the idea of sailing, fair enough. But each time I got back to WW, I usually had to travel to some other island across half the map. That meant going into the inventory, exchanging some item for the conductor's baton and some other item for the sail. Play teleportation song, play song for changing the wind direction, set sail, on arrival change halve your inventory back etc. Just to get were you wanted to be, you had to change half your inventory twice and play two songs in addition to the remaining travel by boat. So, that's the incredible versatile GC controller for me. :P Still, I think WW was an outstanding Zelda despite the complaints I have. If Nintendo only did a "New Play Control" re-release, I would be all over it...

That's not the "Zelda is always perfect" crowd however, but rather the "They have ruined my Zelda" crowd. So, exactly the people we were complaining about.

You mean component cable? Yes, you should get one. The difference between 480p and 5xxi(?) essentially is, that the Wii outputs a 60 complete image every second, as opposed to 60 half images, that the eye combines to 30 full images. I was definitely able to tell the difference on my PC monitor/TV hybrid. The Wii's menu for example never seemed to stand still and the edges seemed to "flow" or tremble when I used the Scart output.

There might just be a certain fan base, that's giving them a good run for their money. You know, color's eeevil, 'cause our click-three-gazillion-monsters-to-death-and-then-do-it-again-on-a-higher-difficulty-game is soooo mature. :P (I would link to certain mockups of Diablo III screenshots, but apparently I'm not allowed yet)

Am I the only one, who couldn't care any less for a comprehensive Zelda time line and takes each new game as a time line of its own?

Yes, such ordinary and real things as bathrooms somehow clash with a game world, where, until now, every other wall had an exactly morph ball-sized ventilation shaft to the enemy's headquarters. How are they going to explain bathrooms?

o.O Ok, why would I use the video chat again, if I'm sitting right next to the other players? ^^ Anyway, might be my first Pokémon game since the red edition.

Finished the game a couple of weeks ago. Personally, I loved it. I even managed to convince a fellow student to get it, when he asked me for good overlooked Wii games you can get for cheap. He enjoyed it, too. ^^ Some bosses really were a bit of a pain. Especially those, who had instant kill moves. :P Couldn't be bothered to get all collectibles, but thats the case with every game for me. How can I take Verde to the last battle? I can't remember having the option. My only technical complains are the lack of pointer control, clumsy group management and the lack of 480p. Neither killed it for me and the game controlled well enough, but seriously, what were they thinking when they decided not to include the pointer functionality? Some "shake the mote for sending all minions with the same class as the first one at once" command wouldn't have hurt either. It uses real world art and themes, that you could describe as mature (at least as mature, as the 1001. whack-a-mole WWIII shooter, anyway), and packs it into a... well, that would be a spoiler. I'd describe it as an extended playable fable. There's lots of subtle irony in it and if you are so inclined, you can well call it art. Plus, the game's mechanics may have elements of Pikmin, but they're really quite unique. Looking back, I can see why the game is so overlooked. When the creators deliberately chose an art style like a child's fantasy, they practically asked for it. I'm just happy the game came into being and sad, that only so few people will look past the visuals and enjoy the game they hide...

Action in a JRPG. Interesting. Ok seriously, I'm enjoying the gameplay mechanics of western RPGs far more than those of JRPGs. But Xenoblade an Last Story have me really excited, because they both seem to bring something new to the table. Especially the combat seems unusually dynamic for JRPGs. However, I really don't get why everyone seems to be jizzing in their pants so much lately, especially on joystiq.com's comment section. Even if the trailer really rocks. The music gives the trailer a very epic touch. I'm surprised it's so dark and so grayish/brownish. Gears of Fantasy? ^^

Because there's no use in options, once motion controls have been fully embraced in the game's design. It's not a matter of just mapping a certain motion to a button press. When the exact angle at which a motion is executed matters, there are already problems translating it to buttons and analog sticks. It might work well enough for horizontal and vertical strikes, as seen in the SS demo, but for anything in between they'd have to implement a special system that does not exists so far. Problem is: He is absolutely right. Also he doesn't bash Zelda fans in general, but the general kind of fan that always knows better than everybody else, including the creators, what a sequel to their favorite game has to look like (preferably dark and err.. "mature"!).