Realm of Chaos – “Oldhammer” Part 2

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So after the positive feedback I received for the first batch, I thought I’d put up some more of my old Realm of Chaos models for perusal.

First up is a Champion of Slaanesh. This guy is counterpart to the Champion of Khorne (3rd from the top) posted last time, and like the Khornate fellow, was sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This was one of my early attempts are painting properly pastel armour, and I’m still happy with it to this day. When I rebase this guy I’ll have to paint his mouthparts with gloss, though! His shield has a decal – not freehand on this guy.

This guy isn’t especially amazing, but he’s bloody old – predating the RoC books. I’ve included him here partly because of that, and partly because of the freehand on his shield and tabard/groin protector. Funny – even back then, I’d often rise to a good sculpt with one of my better paintjobs, and just try to get it done when on a lesser sculpt.

Technically, this guy isn’t a chaos model at all. it’s actually the Troll figure from the Talisman series. Given his small size (he’s on a 25mm square base) I painted him with flesh tones and called him a beastman, since they had a lot of flexibility of appearance back then. Goat-heads were just one of many types…

Again, not strictly speaking a Chaos model (well, sometimes but not always, depending on packaging over the years!) This familiar was a quick and easy paintjob. and I still have an affection towards the little blighter all these years later.

I don’t recall exactly which range this guy came from, and until I rebase him down the line I don’t plan to pry him off the base to find out. I suspect that he might be from the old Night Horror line. The Night Horror figures were a Citadel Fantasy figure sub-range that included all of the typical Hammer Horror-type figures – vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc – as well as tombstones and gargoyles and other odds and ends, both scenic and character-based. I drilled into the base of the decapitated guy’s head and left a pin hanging out, which I put some droppy gloss PVA onto, along with some segmented paint to represent spinal column, and of course, some blood.

Aside from all that – he makes a fine beastman!

An actual Beastman this time. I’m still happy with how his face and teeth turned out and still mildly annoyed at how his shield hides it all. The drybrushing on his chest is a little rough, but I’ve never noticed that before posting up this picture. Isn’t it wonderful how large photos magnify all the minor flaws in our painting and make them look huge and hideous?

One of my favourite beastmen of the day. I still really like the figure and sculpt, the paintwork I did, and the freehand on his shield (no decals involved at all here). If I had to criticise my own work here, I’d perhaps point out how the clean and bright shield doesn’t quite gel with the more grungy figure holding onto it.

Lastly for this round, an old Champion of Nurgle, sculpted by Jes. It looks a little shitty in the picture, but the armour is deliberately corroded and messed up looking – and it looks quite decent in person. Note the early version of the symbol of Nurgle on his gutplate and helmet. I always wondered about that, and wasn’t in the slighted bit surprised when it got changed to three circles/flies/etc.

Review: 007: Quantum of Solace – Treyarch Invention, LLC – Xbox 360

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My wife picked this up for me out of the bargain bin at an opening of a new branch of a well-known Australian Hi-Fi, music, games, computers, etc chain. What I knew about it was that it was built on the COD4 engine, but wasn’t nearly as good.

But hey, it was cheap.

Awhile back, someone asked me why I play trashy games instead of the good stuff, and while what I said then was valid, he did have a valid point. After all, I’ve got a pile of games I know are better than QoS sitting unplayed. I guess it’s in part because I’m “saving” the good/best ones, while the less good ones can be played and disposed of without caring if I really savour them properly. So anyway, I threw this on today since I’ve been in a bit of a Bond mood recently, and, yeah, a short, disposable game was what I felt like playing, since I can probably/hopefully finish it over the weekend, inbetween a couple of DVDs and WoW-dailies.

So anyway. Based on the plots of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. CoD4 engine. Treyarch – before they got good with Black Ops. Slightly-crappy Gears-wannabe cover-shooter mechanic bolted on. Bond plays through a series of vaguely-based on the films scenarios, mostly using a series of various high-powered weapons just like he didn’t use in the films in an odd sequence vaguely related or not to the actual plots of the two films. I guess many of the weapons did cameo in the films while other people were using them. And James has the famous cover shot with the HK UMP-9.

This is what Parkour looks like. Apparently.

I’ve in fact just paused the game after having acquired an M60, and shot up a building with it, while slowly fighting forward while taking cover against waves of heavily-armed goons armed with AKs. You might remember this scene from Casino Royale as the parkour chase from the beginning of the film. Which puts me at the 1/3 of the way through point according to GameFaqs.

There are cell phones scattered about, which fill in little bits of intel. They’re vaguely interesting, but nothing to worry about if you miss any.

Anyway. Is it fun? It’s alright, actually. It’s nothing like the films, of course. But it’s an alright shooter. I’m not even going to bother checking out the multiplayer, since it’s an older game at this point, and let’s face it, every FPS/3PS of the last decade has a half-assed MP shooter aspect tacked onto it, but most people just play one of the better/more popular ones, and anything shy of that tend to be a ghost town.

So, yeah. As I said, CoD4 engine. Treyarch. Slightly-crappy cover system. Still a decent enough game. Not an awesome one to pick up at full price, but perfectly okay as a weekend rental, or something to fish out of the bargain bin and then either inflate your games collection or pass onto a friend.

Gears of Bond.

After another hour of play, including the exciting rooftop helicopter battle and exploding elevator shaft sequence that you may not recall from Casino Royale since they never happened in the film, I do have to reiterate it’s definitely not a bad game. I’m enjoying myself well enough, with of course the bargain-bin price caveat. The cover mechanics aren’t bad either, they just don’t really add anything to the FPS formula or this FPS title. At least they did make an effort to replicate the final section of the parkour chase, and while it wasn’t awesome, it was playable.

Final remarks – finished it. Had fun enough, though the I found the wild deviations from the film(s) to be annoying. It also features one stage where you get to play as drugged-cardiac-arrest-Bond from CR, which is almost as little fun as the Nightmare stages in Max Payne. At least it’s faster and you can see. Overall though, it’s still an ok game. Better as a rental rather than a bargain bin buy, since there’s not much to do with it once you finish it in 10 or so hours, unless you want to play through all the difficulty levels or achievement whore, since the MP is a ghost town.

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Verdict: Rent it. Or buy it cheap. Or don’t – It’s all good.