Couple rather random thoughts:
1. Last Exile - I’m not a huge anime fan. I mean, I like a few things I’ve seen, mainly movies, but I had yet to find a series that I really found interesting. Well, I take that back a bit - when I was younger I was really into Robotech - LA’s channel 13 showed the Macross Saga - one episode per day every day of the week…Anyway, I found Last Exile due to Netflix’s Watch Now feature and figured, “What the heck, I’ll take a look,” and I’m glad I did. It’s got a crazy steampunk vibe to it - giant airships that look like they came out of the 1920’s, smaller personal airships (called Vanships) that fly one some water-based technology. I’m not even sure I could explain the plot, but for whatever reason, it has managed to suck me in for now. The animation isn’t always great, and some of the dialog is pretty atrocious, but it keeps me coming back for more. That can’t be all bad, right?
2. My final week at work - I’m down to my last week at work before I start my first animation job. Now that I’ve made it through Monday, I’m down to my last 4 days. 4 days isn’t so bad, right? RIGHT?
3. Roxanne - back to work now on my Roxanne shot. I really need to get this thing wrapped up and taken care of so that I have some new material to put on my reel. I imagine I’ll wind up with some good stuff from my job, but I have no idea when it will become available to me. I know in at least one case, the actual game isn’t scheduled to be released until nearly the end of the year, so if I’m given any shots from that game, I probably won’t have them accessible to me for a while…So I need to get this Roxanne shot finished up, and hopefully one more as well.
4. Mafia 2 - I just found out about this game today. Mafia was one of my all-time favorite PC games. It was a GTA-style, “sandbox” game that took place in the 1930’s and follows the story of taxi driver Tommy Angelo who, through a twist of fate, gets caught up in Don Salieri’s organization, one of two warring mafia families in the city of Lost Heaven. Tommy finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into the family, initially acting as a driver, then moving up the ranks while completing jobs involving extortion, bootlegging, assassination, arson…you know, all the good wholesome aspects of gaming.
Anyway, a few years back I had heard rumors that Mafia 2 was going to be in the works, but nothing ever seemed to come of it. Then today I was just browsing through Wikipedia, happened upon the entry for Mafia, and saw that Mafia 2 had been announced - Happy Day! This time around the action takes place in the 40s and 50s in Empire City and the player must take control of another young man involved in organized crime. To say I’m looking forward to this is an understatement. I’ll post updates as I find out more.