End of Year Reflection: Articles and Projects that never made it.

As we draw closer to the new year I have been reflecting on the quality and type of articles that I’ve been putting up. Initially the articles were quite a good deal more wordy than they have become and there is a simple reason for that. When I started out, I didn’t have a job, so I could devote much more time to the articles and still put out an article each week. That changed after a few months and whilst I have managed to release something each week, the focus has moved away from telling and more towards showing. Usually in an article like this bloggers/ Youtubers and “influencers” would thank their viewers/ readers for their patience and pledge to up the quality of their outputs in the future.

Instead, I think it would be more insightful to take a look at a few concepts for articles that simply got left behind on the cutting room floor so to speak. The fact that these didn’t get an article of their own doesn’t mean I think they are bad ideas, just that I doubt I will ever assign the time to do them properly. The fact that they were ever considered at all probably means that you could well see a similar article in the future.

Vampire hunter D Bloodlust the game

This would have been a review of the videogame adaptation of the 2000s anime film which I am quite fond of. The first problem was that in order to feel good about dedicating an entire article to a videogame, I would want to have completed the game. Not necessarily 100% completion, but at least having seen the credits. This was a problem here because to be honest the game just isn’t that fun to play. The fixed camera and tank controls really do not mesh well with “D” the story’s main character who is supposed to be a lightining fast, agile swordsman. Instead they serve to frustrate at every turn, of which there are plenty, seeing as the game takes place in a maze-like castle.

Upon finding the early game to be quite frustrating, I went online to see what other people thought of it and found an article from another blog that sum’s up my thoughts almost exactly. That blog can be read here: https://superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com/2011/10/vampire-hunter-d-psx.html

Room Diorama

This project was probably doomed from the start. Most projects start with a concept and then are planned out before beginning the execution, but in this case the project came about as a spur of the moment decision intended to use up some excess materials from the terrain board project that I didn’t want sitting around. This started with building 2 walls and a floor for a diorama with no consideration for the setting. On a whim, I decided that I would create a barracks scene with a bed set into an alcove with a sloped roof. This would let me use up some foam and plaster. Well after 2 attempts to seal the area, liquid plaster was still finding its way out and even worse than that, it took many days to cure, resulting in this tacky, discoloured mess you can see below.

The one saving grace of this diorama was that it had almost no material cost associated with it. After a month or two of this lingering on my workstation I had enough and threw it in the bin.

Evangelion Manga Review

This one has been buzzing around my mind since the first month of the blog. The main problem is that Evangelion analysis is a dead horse at this point. It has been discussed to death and I don’t have much to add to that discussion. It has also been a long time since I read this series, so it would require a re-read which would be a significant time investment, time that I would rather spend painting. The art is nice and it is a satisfying and concluded story, read it if you like.

Heavenly delusion Part 2

As much as I enjoyed and still do enjoy Heavenly delusion, the fact is that the pace of new chapter releases is absolutely glacial. This is only compounded by the fact that in my initial article I crept slightly outside of the scope of volumes 1-3 as I wanted to present commentary that was relevant to the material that the anime had covered. At this point I would say just watch the anime as whilst there has been a good deal published beyond what is covered there, there hasn’t been much in the way of resolution to outstanding plot threads.

Alien Romulus Review

When this film came it I saw it catching a fair bit of flak for being a cynical cash in. I went to see it for myself and thought it was the third best Alien film, right behind 1 and 2. Unfortunately, it is true that the film relies a little too much on nostalgia for previous films. This doesn’t make it a bad film, but it does prevent it from being a great film in its own right. Another problem with this one is getting images from the film that aren’t just stock images. This was the film that put alien back into my mind and is the reason that I picked up the arcade game miniatures.

Now that we’ve had a look at the articles that never were, I’d like to thank everyone who has been reading the blog up until now and wish you all the best for the new year. I hope you’ll stick around to see what I get up to in the coming year.