Sports Champions Review

Sports Champions is one of the few PlayStation Move launched titles. The game consists of six sports, which are Disc Golf, Gladiator Duel, Archery, Bocce, Table Tennis and Beach Volleyball. Each sport utilises the PlayStation Move controller uniquely. Gladiator Duel, Archery and Beach Volleyball have the option to use a second Move motion controller for more involving gameplay.

Every sport in this game have quite an involving gameplay that could make a standalone PSN game but fall short of a retail game. Though Gladiator Duel and Table Tennis come close. Controls felt very close to the real thing, much more so than the competing motion controller games like Wii Sports for example. The game is trying for the simulation angle rather than easy pickup arcade style. To balance this out the game offers three different cups or tourney, bronze, silver and gold, with more unlockable once the three are completed. At the easier Bronze cup, there are plenty of assists and hints to ease the player into the game. The hand holding gradually ease off as player progresses.

The game is set up much like fighting games. Player chooses one ‘athlete’ and will need to go through each sport defeating each ‘athlete’ in the line up. Like some fighting game there is even some fun bonus round placed somewhere in the middle of progression. Awesome set up but sadly, this game doesn’t have online versus play. Two players versus play requires a lot of room and with sports like Gladiator Duel, playing it feels constricted with another player nearby.

The athletes are designed in caricature style for that iconic look but they look generic in the end. There just isn’t enough character in each athlete design. Stages also look rather bland and uninspired. But everything if functional and better compare to competitors. The amount of time was spent perfecting the control which what really matters really.

Sports Champions is an excellent showcase of PlayStation Move and it is a must have launched title.

PlayStation Move Review

I’ve been intrigued by the PlayStation Move since the announcement earlier this year. I loved the EyeToy when I got a chance to play it long ago. Anyway, I got the PlayStation Move starter pack, an extra PlayStation Move controller and the Navigation controller. The starter pack includes PS Eye, PlayStation Move as well as a demo disc.

The PlayStation Move controller itself is well build, the orb at the top is made of soft rubbery plastic and the body made of sturdy hard plastic. The orb lights to different colours depending on what the game tells it to do for PS Eye to track. The body has one large face button called Move button surrounded by the typical PlayStation Circle, Cross, Square and Triangle mini buttons. Below this is the Home button and on the opposite side, there is a trigger button. At the side is select and start buttons. In term of ergonomic, it is more comfortable than the DualShock controller or your typical remote control. I do wish they had included a digital pad of some sort though for faster XMB navigation.

The Navigation controller is like half of DualShock controller. It has analog thumb stick, d-pad, the Cross and Circle buttons, the Home button as well as the two trigger buttons. For one reason or another, it lacks the start and select button. The lack of start and select button was rather frustrating, as at least in one demo I had to reach for DualShock controller to press start. It felt light. It’s not as comfortable as the Move controller and there are more comfortable one handed PlayStation controller on the market that make this controller like a poor attempt in designed. For some reason this controller didn’t come with a strap. Even if this controller doesn’t have motion detection capability, your hand holding it will still typically move to balance the other hand with the Move controller. So the lack of wrist strap is puzzling to me.

Calibration of the Move controller typically involves pointing the orb towards the PS Eye, but each game will have different method of calibration, which can become frustrating, as some of the instructions are rather vague. It would be nice if they have a universal calibration for all games.

Once passed the calibration the PlayStation Move works as expected. I was playing Sports Champions and the controller work flawlessly. In Archery, Gladiator and Volleyball there is an option to use a second PlayStation Move controller, and it definitely adds to the experience and fun of those games. For example in Gladiator the first PlayStation Move controller acts as the Weapon while the other controls the shield. Sports Champions offers very high level of player assist for lower difficulty levels a.k.a Bronze Cup, but once you get to higher difficulty a.k.a Gold Cup, you really appreciate the accuracy and precision of the PlayStation Move. It is quiet something else compare to Nintendo Wii or Microsoft Kinect for example.

Lag was minimal in Sports Champions but I noticed certain demos do have higher lag than others, so I guess it’s up to game developers to keep lag as minimal as possible. I really loved the augmented reality style gameplay that was introduced long time ago through Eyetoy. On the demo disc Eyepet and Start the Party have that augmented reality gameplay which I love. The only bad thing about this is that PS Eye is still just a low-end webcam in the end. The picture quality is just acceptable and far from stellar.

Software support is currently slim but there are many games coming out in near future that will add support for PlayStation Move. I am most looking forward to Sega’s Virtua Tennis 4. I am satisfied with the purchased and highly recommend the PlayStation Move to any gamers. I reckon a second PlayStation Move controller is a must for games that can use both of them together. Well done to Sony for bringing this technology onto the market. Maybe a few years too late, but better late than never.

Pixar's Up Review

I watched Pixar's Up over the weekend. Honestly, I haven't been keeping up with Pixar's movies like I used too. I have yet to see their last few movies. After seeing, the trailers for Up, I just had to find the time to see it. It looks like a fun movie.

Up started very slowly, almost too slow by my liking, this introductory part of the movie started cute and ended sad, wasn't the most original story, but it was the setup for the whole movie, much like Pixar's other movies like Finding Nemo for example.

When the house started floating, I thought, here we go, it was definitely the highlight of the movie and even after they landed, the new strange place was just a great set up for adventure and discovery. However, here is where everything just went downhill. I didn't enjoy the second half of the movie. Pixar could have gone in many different directions, but they choose the most boring one. One talking dog was funny, a group was getting old fast, a legion was just too much. Another old fossil show Up and it was like watching an animated grumpy old men.

Though the lesson thought of letting go attachment to things to discover what was accomplished and gain new friendships by Pixar's Up was really good, the story and the way it was told just wasn't up to Pixar's previous movies. The animations and CGs imagery was top notch as always. Even with the Academy Award nomination, I found that the scores for the film weren’t all that spectacular. I give Pixar’s Up: three out of five stars, definitely, a miss opportunity to be one of the great classic animations.

Stereo-Blind and 3D TVs

I just recently discovered that I am stereo or 3D blind. I went to see those new 3D TVs that are all the hype now days, put on the glasses and didn’t see any 3D. The salesperson who was very nice, swapped me several glasses over several TV sets but no luck. The pictures that I saw was just flat, double image and dimmer. I was disappointed not being able to see 3D because all the impressions that I had read sounded fun. Image popping out like those pop-out picture books, or playing games that look like tabletop experience, I guess I’ll never experience that. Though I did some reading and they said there are some exercises you can do so you can see the world with both eyes, so there, maybe hoped for me.

Anyway, this month I was pretty much in pain from arthritis, I just don’t like winter. It’s getting better, but I wasn’t able to update Little-Way comic as I had hoped, but once I get better I’ll update for sure.

New Little-Way Update Soon

Mid year and I am swamp with work, but I think I can schedule some spare time to draw Little-Way comic very soon, once everything sorted. I am hoping for a regular weekly update, maybe more if I can spare more time. Please look forward to more updates.

Little-Way #00016 released

Little-Way #00016 is available here. Today we can order pizza online. Maybe in the future it can be delivered online too. Well if we can covert pizza to light and back to pizza, we would have discovered duplication technology, that we can just duplicate pizza. We probably need to use Fusion reactor to get the energy the process will use. In the meantime, I think homemade pizza is awesome. Till next time.

Little-Way #00015 released

Little-Way #00015 is available here. When you accidentally deleted an important file by mistake there are still ways of recovering it, but it’s very troublesome process. Sometimes I wish that Operating Systems had better files management system. The current systems in most OS just don’t handle thousands of files all that well.

Little-Way #00014 released

Little-Way #00014 is available here. Anyone ever lost important data, well I have. I lost an assignment when the floppy disk the file was on, failed. It’s like, “my dog chewed my homework” excuse that came true. Despite that, I still don’t have a good backup solution. Though now days the important stuff, I print them out as backup.

Little-Way #00013 released

Little-Way #00013 is available here. When presented with large number of choices, I get overwhelmed. Sometimes I’ll go empty handed even. It is quite funny when you have large number of choices you become fussier.

Drawing comic is like that sometimes, there are so many viewpoints and arrangement to draw a frame, and sometimes I take too long just to draw a single frame. I only have so many hours in a day to do it, so I try to limit myself a little, so hopefully I get more drawing done and less picky. The five frames format is sort of my way to limit the endless possibilities and so readers don’t have to scroll down. Anyway enough rambling, please look forward to the next instalment of Little-Way.

Little-Way #00012 released

Little-Way #00012 is available here. Another update, I really wish I had the time to do daily update, but I don’t think it’s possible for the time being. Maybe when I get faster workstation that doesn’t trash the hard disk for ten minutes each time it tries to access the Photoshop image cache, but I’ll try to update as often as I could. Please look forward to the next release.

Little-Way #00011 released

Little-Way #00011 is available here. Don’t you hate it when your computer goes wrong? I hated it even more when it is infected. Thankfully, it rarely happened to me. I think I only experience these troublesome episodes three or four times over the last decade or so. I guess I am lucky. But when I do get it, it’s always the troublesome variants that are hard to get rid off. More Little-Way on the way soon, please look forward to them.

Little-Way #00010 released

Little-Way #00010 is available here. The Trio is still up to no good but their plan is more reasonable. Here is another new character that will be introduced over the next several comic strips. Please look forward to them.

Little-Way #00009 released

Little-Way #00009 is available here. I reckon lost of memory is one of a cruel thing that can happen to you. Research said our brain actually stored more information that we can recall. Everything is there for us to recall. We just need to make better search engine for ourselves. Maybe in the future we can upload our memory into memory albums for easy browsing. Wouldn’t that be fun?

Happy Easter Everyone

I'm wishing everyone Happy Easter. Today, I given away buckets of delicious Easter eggs. I hope you all received your share too. Also lets not forget what Easter really is. Have a nice Easter Holiday.

Paleoparticle nicknamed 'Neutrinosaurus'

The Large Hadron Collider was put into operation just a couple days ago doing collisions successfully at 7 TeV and they already made some discovery. You can read the news article here. I find it funny that they nicknamed it ‘neutrinosaurus’. It sounded like something out of Domino’s Pizza menu. They said it was because of its repulsive appearance and prehistoric origins. To me ‘Neutrinosaurus’ sounded like something delicious. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to what else they’ll discover in the next year or two.

On another note, those people that claimed ‘black hole’ over LHC sure look silly now. I couldn’t believe it actually made a news piece here locally about LHC causing the end of the world. It was silly. I had a good chuckle over it. I hope those physicists discover how the universe came to be and good luck to them.

Little-Way #00008 released

Little-Way #00008 is available here. In this strip, meet Goby, very mischief character, designed to wreck havoc wherever he goes. Goby only speaks in binary language. Please excuse Goby he has no manners. Moby, Doby and Goby, the trio along with Fyodor are Cayden’s guardians. If you haven’t already guess so far, Cayden is an orphan.

In the next few comic strips, we will see the trio in action to get a pen, so Doby can sign the enrolment form for Cayden to enter school. Will they succeed or will they be stuck, repeating their failures in the time travel paradox infinitely? Please look forward to the next instalment of Little-Way.

Little-Way Archive

Dear readers, this is the archive of Little-Way comic strip. Please select the Little-Way comic strip to view. This page is updated weekly.

Little-Way #00001: Saint Valentine's Day
Little-Way #00002: Bowling Over The Line
Little-Way #00003: Bowling Over The Line The Aftermath
Little-Way #00004: Something Fresh
Little-Way #00005: Mesmerizing Reflection
Little-Way #00006: Merry-Go-Round
Little-Way #00007: Signature
Little-Way #00008: Failure to Infinity and Beyond
Little-Way #00009: Time Travel Subroutine
Little-Way #00010: Shock´n`Awe
Little-Way #00011: Luck
Little-Way #00012: Peace
Little-Way #00013: Wishy-Washy
Little-Way #00014: Hostage Negotiation
Little-Way #00015: Deleted
Little-Way #00016: Oversight

Subscribe to Little-Way

Dear readers, I had set up FeedBurner so anyone who prefers getting their updates through feed like Google Reader can click on Subscribe to Little-Way-Blog and Subscribe to Little-Way Comic on the sidebar. That’s two feeds one for the blog and the other for the comic. This way everything is easy to read. Finally got a chance to update this blog template. I’m not finished yet, there will be more updates when I have the opportunities. Now it's possible to read Little-Way comic by clicking on the big link on the sidebar. More Little-Way updates are on the way.

How to Draw Comic 101: Inking Tools

Inked comic show up better for printing or scanning. Furthermore inking adds another element of style to your drawing. If you read Manga, you would probably noticed that typically boys comics are drawn using bolder and thicker lines while girls comics are drawn using finer and thinner lines. Inking style can convey impressions like strength, energetic, feminine or simplicity. What you need to keep in mind is that comics are inked so it is easy to read. As long as your comic is easy to read, you're on the right path.

What you will need for inking are black ink, dib pens, technical pens, brushes, tissue paper and whiteout or white ink. You may need rulers, splines and some cotton wools.

For ink, India ink is nice, though it’s impossible to find where I live, but you’ll want waterproof ink that’s not too runny. If your ink bleeds excessively creating ugly lines or smear, you can leave the inkbottle open for few hours or over night to let it dry up for a bit. Too dry ink is difficult to use, so judge accordingly.

There are varieties of pen nibs you can choose. I suggest find one that you like, they differ from nib to nib and from brand to brand. This will be your main instruments so pick ones that will fit your style, give the best result and comfortable to work with. When you’re trying them out, be aware there are some break-in period for them nibs so don’t judge too quickly. Typically, the break-in period is after two pages worth of inking. Also new nibs maybe covered in oil to protect them, you may need to get some lighter to heat up the tip for a bit. Note that this process is very quick, don’t put the nib over the fire for too long or you’ll destroy it. In addition, nibs don’t last forever, with used the lines produced by them become thicker so used them accordingly. So make sure to clean them after each inking session to maximise their lifetime.

I typically use the Nikko Spoon pen. It gives smooth lines than the rest while still easy to control. For technical pen, I use Rotring Radiograph from my days of tech drawing, but I tried those disposable ones and they’re good enough for comics. Similar with pens, brushes are chosen according to preference. Though their use to fill blacks, you can ink with brushes too, for example Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes comic strips are skilfully drawn using sable brush. Similar with pens make sure to clean those brushes after use too. The rest of the items are self-explanatory. So next instalment in ‘How to Draw Comic 101’ will be ‘inking tips’, please look forward to it.

Little-Way #00007 released

Little-Way #00007 is available here. This Little-Way comic strip introduced Doby and Moby, they’re conjoint robot, back to back. When I started drawing this comic years ago, the theme was always about robots that are raising a boy.

The robots were always going to be stuck together, that didn’t change. What changed was the design of the robots. In the beginning, they were more ordinary like how people imagined robots with limbs and full-metal, with Doby stuck at the back and Moby the saddest looking hunk of metal. As much as I like the design, fitting them into each frame was troublesome. I had them transfer into the form seen in this comic strip quite early. I used different style of lettering for Doby, hoping it is easier for readers to tell who is who.

Cayden is starting school, what troubles will he get into ? Please look forward to the next Little-Way webcomic.

Playstation Move announced at GDC 2010

Instead of drawing comic, I was watching the stream of Sony’s GDC 2010 Press Conference where they announced Playstation Move, their answer to Nintendo Wii motion control. Sony’s solution requires three gadgets, Playstation Eye camera, Playstation Move motion controller and Playstation Move sub-controller. Yes, they are calling it ‘sub-controller’. For the longest time, medias were referring to Move as Arc. You can tell that the changed to Move was a last minute effort because the current logo is shaped like A for ‘Arc’ I presumed.

On the first look, Sony’s solution looks like a blatant copy of Nintendo’s. The funny spherical orb on top of Move appears to be Sony's solution to avoid a Nintendo lawsuit. However, if you have been following GDC for a very long time Sony Eyetoy team had demo this concept long before Nintendo revealed Wii. I remember the Sony Team demo Eyetoy using two spherical coloured red and blue on sticks with virtual creature resembling something like Eyepet, as well as pouring virtual water using glasses via Eyetoy. It left an impression on me. I guess the head at Sony did not see the potential of this technology until Nintendo showed them how.

In the presentation, they rather admitted to Nintendo innovation. If it were I presenting, I would not admit to it. I would present the history of Eyetoy instead, make sure everyone know who had the technology first. Than again the demo reel that followed was rather embarrassing since it was Nintendo inspired (read rip-off) rather than something interesting or original. They did not know what to do with the technology five years ago and they certainly did not know what to do with it today. It was quite sad, I am very sure that the audience had déjà vu to Nintendo E3 2006 presentation.

Now looking at their implementation I hope they would change the spec before release. Sony needs to combine Playstation Move and sub-controller into a single controller. If a game need the use of the sub-controller, player can use two Playstation Move instead. Currently the sub-crontroller does not have the spherical orb. The Playstation Move lacks any d-pad, analog stick and a second trigger button.

We all know that add-on peripherals are difficult to gain support and traction. For Sony sake, I hope they can manufacture the components cheap enough that their solution becomes standard controller with every PS3 sold, as well as plenty of good games for it.

Little-Way #00006 released

Little-Way #00006 is available here. I have not been on a merry-go-round in a while. When I did, it was always fast spinning until we empty our stomach content. I heard our local council removed many merry-go-rounds because they were too dangerous to be on playgrounds. I remember that I twisted my ankle on one but I was up and running the next day.

Anyway, out of swings, seesaw, monkey bars, I like merry-go-round the best. The splitting headache is all worth it. For a moment, you know what is like when galaxy was born, so awesome.

How to Draw Comic 101: Preparation

You have drawn your comic and satisfied with the result but it is full with pencil marks, smears, extra lines and all sorts of other things that dirty up your hard work. Not too mentioned it may not be on the ideal piece of paper to ink on. What you need to do is get a paper that suits your inking, a light table and a non-photo blue pencil. Lines drawn by non-photo blue pencil will not show when photocopied. When you get comfortable with drawing your comic you can start from this step. If not you will make too many mistakes and you will find that it becomes difficult to ink your comic.

Clip your comic and the fresh paper of your choosing together and place them on the light table. Now use the non-photo blue pencil and trace your comic with the help of the light. This will be your template for inking, so try to keep the lines as clean as possible so you do not make any mistakes when inking.

I normally go left right top bottom, so I do not miss anything. It is good to keep to something systematic because you will be doing lots and lots of this. Peak through as needed. If you are into animations, the process is similar but you do not trace but draw the next key frame using the reference frame, if you draw enough of this you can flip the pages and watch your animation. I must admit I like animation more than comics but it is too time consuming and CG are more popular now days. Enough sidetrack, once finished you are ready for inking. Next instalment of ‘How to draw comic 101’ is inking. Please look forward to it. Thank you.

Little-Way #00005 released

Little-Way #00005 is available here. This strip was a little character building I did for Cayden and Madelaine several years ago. Looking at our own image is always an interesting topic for me. Do we look at ourself in the mirror for self-reflection or self-boasting? Our image is supposedly the truth about our condition, but in today’s world, image seems fake for one reason or another.

Children tackle image better, their own image just means series of funny faces to laugh at. Without the innocence, it wouldn’t work for the world to forget about image even for just a single day. It would turn to chaos if we did.

How to Draw Comic 101: Introduction

I often get questions on how to draw comic. To get started is actually very easy. All you need are a pencil and a large piece of paper. I myself prefer at least 2B pencil something soft and dark are easier to work with, for paper anything large will do, I like A3, but even A4 will do, since you can tape them together. Since this is your draft you do not need to use better paper, so photocopy paper will do. However, if you are going to ink on this get some of the heavier variety paper that absorbs inks better.

Before you start drawing, have an idea and do a small sketch using stick figures for every panel to work out the kinks in your comic layout. Workout the speech bubble, sound effects, character actions, rough environment. It should look like a thumbnail of your comic. Make sure the each panel is balance and easy to follow.

For beginners, the easiest way to get started drawing is to place dots on paper and connect them. Placing dots will make you more aware of space available. This way you can gauge how things are going to look, it will help you visualise the arrangement better. If you do not have good hand-eye coordination for drawing, connecting dots will train your coordination so later you can control your hand to draw what is on your mind.

When you are drawing pivot at the elbow instead of the wrist. This is why you want large paper to draw on. Small size paper will make you pivot at the wrist. Drawing on an inclined instead of flat surface also help. Since we are not working with canvas, we have the luxury to rotate the paper. Rotate the paper as needed to make your life easy. Use any aids you deemed necessary, straight lines use ruler and curve lines use spline. Draw as many guide lines, as you need. Use eraser when things are getting too messy.

For every panel, there is a best order to draw them. First, draw the panel borders if any. Second, draw the speech bubble and/or sound effect text if any. Do some rough lettering to make sure everything fit. Then draw the rest. With this order, you do not waste time on unseen things.

Once finished, you have completed the sketch of your comic. Next instalment of ‘How to draw comic 101’ is going to transfer your sketches to better paper ready for inking. Until then have fun drawing.

Little-Way #00004 released

Little-Way #00004 is available here. I am going to admit that I only ever caught one fish, ever. I went fishing on many occasions but only ever caught one single fish, not even the eatable type. I had tried many different types of bait and fancy lure, no luck.

I watched other fishermen got bucket load of tasty fish but not me. I even try their spot and many even offered useful tips but to no avail. I guess it’s just one of those thing that I am lousy at. The fresh air of the sea is rather enjoyable. Somehow, even if I don’t catch anything it is still nice to go fishing, though it would be nice to be rewarded for your effort. So, this Little-Way comic strip is dedicated to people who never caught a fish. Long live fresh air.

Little-Way #00003 released

Little-Way #00003 is available here. This is the continuation to the previous comic strip. When I was a kid I was always curious how bowling alley brings back the pin into upright position again after being knocked down or how it gets the ball back to you after a gutter ball.

In one of my school excursion we got to see the behind the scene stuff. I remember things were quite messy and not as interesting as I thought. It surely wasn't pretty. My thought was those pins and bowling balls must be traumatised to go through the process. But then again if pins and bowling balls were alive, they definitely would run away. Life being thrown and knocked down wouldn't be fun. That's before they go through the 'reset' process. Just imagine being picked up the head and rotated. Keep that in mind when you go ten-pin bowling.

Little-Way #00002 released

Little-Way #00002 is available here. Unfortunately, I experienced this rather embarrassing slip in a bowling alley somewhere. I didn’t roll towards the pin just a loud ‘BOOM’ as I hit the ground. Luckily, only few bruise and hurt ego.

I’m never any good at bowling. My best score was like around 160 with average more like in the 90, but bowling is fun to do, especially in the summer, it’s one of the few activities you can do and not burnt by the sun. I wish I’m better at it though, gutter ball after gutter ball gives me nightmare.

Little-Way #00001 released

You can view the first Little-Way comic strip by following this link. I drew this strip several years ago. This is not the first Little-Way strip I ever drew, however I chose this one because it was near Saint Valentine's Day when I launched the Little-Way site and this strip has Valentine's day theme. The original strip had only 4-panel, I added the first panel so it's a 5-panel comic strip.

There is an overall story to Little-Way, it's not just a gag a day comic strip. I am going to release the Little-Way in out of order sequence, but minor story arc will be kept in order.

Welcome to Little-Way Blog

Hello and welcome dear readers. This is the official blog to Little-Way webcomic. That sounded too formal, lets try again. Since the design of the Little-Way webcomic page is just for the purpose of viewing the Little-Way comic, this blog is for my personal blog, it'll contains news and updates, requested tutorials, my views on everything and perhaps other goodies too. I am going to revamp the template for this blog to my liking sometimes next week also Little-Way webcomic is going to be updated on regular basis very soon once everything are sorted out. I hoped you'll enjoy reading Little-Way. Almost forgot, click here to go to Little-Way webcomic.