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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Blitz



There's only a couple of games that I would ever say that I love.  Ico and Motor storm PR are the easy ones to mention. The original golden eye, Free space 2, Ocarina of time and Vice city are in that love zone and orbit there proudly with a couple of others. But the all time leader in amount of time sunk into, is the original Blitz for the N64, and sits squarely at the top of that pile. And I don't really follow foot ball making my love for it that much more impressive. So just after the new year EA release a update to it on the download services. Aside from a  difference in play speed it's a very good and accurate reboot that  has captured my attention like the original did. It's great and frustrating (in a good way) fun.
In the reviews of the game they mention (a lot) the lack of late hits in this reboot. A trade mark of the original,  it has gotten a lot belly aching about it's absence form this version. I personally miss them a little but I don't think the game suffers that much from there absence. Besides the NFL has been clamping down on that type of crazy behavior. However Playing the game I often think that it would look weird for the players to give the late hits in this update. I think that unlike the old Blitz I don't find the players wacky or cartooney enough to be doing that. This is not a knock against EA by the way, I think they did a great job all around. I just think since it's a download they probably needed to design the players to take advantage of the more realistic madden engine's animation system or the NFL had a say on there look. Regardless when I love something I want to paint it.
So I thought how would they have to look for it not to seam odd them doning late hits. I thought they needed to be more distinct in difference according to the positions they play, not unlike what team fortress 2 did. Looking a the N64 one I couldn't help but notice that because of the graphics you could not see there eyes on the players making easier for them not to look real. So I tried to caricature the face, and hide the eyes more in shadow. I tried to make the defensive line men more lumbering slow but powerful the tanks of the field. The quarter backs/ defense men  thicker good all around but squarely in the middle in strength and speed, arms built for throwing. And the wide receive/ running backs more lean and built for speed but not that strong.  Blitz is a arcade game so I simplified the types of player types to just 3.
And again this is not a knock against EA I really think they did a fantastic job and I love this version in it's own way. I just thought it would be fun to paint some football players. Also like I said I don't really follow football so I didn't research the who wears the numbers on there jersey. So excuse the inaccuracy of said numbers.  Crazy 81 followers thanks for looking folks.
 I only play in big head mode!

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