Reality Sucks! (Emo)

Greetings friends!

So on Saturday I went to 2014.

As you know I was super psyched to go to this, but the reality turned out to be very different from what I envisioned...

Ok so this was the third I had been to, the first in 2012; where the majority of stalls were covering historical games, most of the game tables were for historicals but there was still some other stuff that was of an interest to me.

Next was 2013. That year there was a lot of new stuff that was interesting. It was the first year Infamy were there, first year of Timeline 300 (I think that was it's name) and the first year for Sphere Wars.

Now we're at 2014. I'll be honest, it was an eye opening experience for me.

I can see for a lot of people the event would have been the best yet, as there were loads of other brand new games there including Warzone Resurrection, Spy or Die Trying and Dead Man's Hand. Of course there were the old classics such as Drop Zone Commander and Mantic had a stronger presence than previous years.

The issue for me is that none of these games interested me...

We spent a while at the Prodos stall (makers of Warzone Resurrection and the upcoming AvP game) this was largely because Andrey who I was there with loved the Warzone stuff and wanted to arrange an interview with them.

I have to admit, their models are dynamic and highly detailed etc. they are also made from digital sculpts.

I haven't talked about this before, but I've been secretly holding a dislike for digital sculpts. It took me a while to realise, but that is why I am not a fan of the recent games we're seeing for the past year or so.

I know what people say, how it let's you put so much more detail and create poses not previously possible, BUT!! to me these sculpts appear 'soulless'.

That's a hard word to try and describe as to what I mean. Ultimately though it comes down to the generic look of the sculpts. I find that while digital sculpts often look suitable and fitting for the game they are made for, but other that they look very similar, there is very little 'visual signature' behind the sculpts.

This is the thing for me. I like models to have a visual signature behind them allowing you to look at them with a glance and seeing who sculpted them.

Now however, I can put almost all digital sculpts next to each other and to me I would honestly say that they looked like the same sculptor made them.

Of course there are still hand sculpted games out there who had a presence at Salute, including Bushido, Sphere Wars and Eden, but these were largely games I have no interest in.

Eden looked interesting, however their stall was so poorly constructed to show case what the differences were between factions etc (plus by the time we got there it was super crowded and I was feeling pissed off, so I left it to check out on my own time).

- last but not least, I learned something: I don't give a crap about looking at other people's painted models. I don't know if it's attention span or what, but for me it's a lot like going around an art gallery (my idea of hell). I know this makes me a philistine but I can't help that.

Anyway, butch mode: turn off!

Stay safe everyone and I'll see you Cryptside!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley