Statistic Report

Recently I passed the 17,000 mark. I'm not really sure how my fan blog got this many views, but I can try to figure it out.

When I first started I asked another SHSO blog that I was following at the time, (Time Hound Times), if they would put my blog up on their blogroll. They in turn had gotten many views because they had a friend who worked on the game, and had posted a link to their blog on the official SHSO Facebook page. So the tree goes like this: Official Facebook Page > Time Hound Times > My Blog.

My first experimentation with what would eventually become my most popular feature, What-Ifs, was a small model I had created based on the character Darkhawk.

After that, I mostly reported on news and other things until I released my first What-If, Batman TDK in SHSO. It was released in July. As you can see, in July that year my views spiked and climbed upwards from there. I passed the 1000 mark. It was awesome.

The view count continued to climb and peaked when I released my Thunderbolts What-If. It has declined since then, but that's mainly because I've been reporting on the news. But this month, the view count is on a slight incline, and I think it bodes well for the rest of the month.

Anyway, I thought you'd be interested to see how my blog got the views that it did. And in case you're wondering, my TDK Batman post is still the most viewed post on this blog.

Remember to check back tomorrow for my JLA What-If Week 2's behind the scenes post!

-- SHSOFan.

JLA What-If - Week 2

Note: the following post is fictional, and does not represent any actual gameplay or announcements from Gazillion Entertainment, Marvel or DC.

---

Flash and Wonder Woman have been released! I was fortunately able to purchase both! :D

Makes me wonder who'll be coming next week, maybe the Darkseid mission and Green Lantern? I hope so.

WONDER WOMAN

EXPLORATION

Wonder Woman is a fun hero to explore the zones with, mostly because of her double jumping ability and her flight ability. (seen below)

I'm so glad she's a double jump hero, it'll make collecting her Hero Tokens all the more fun.

I give Wonder Woman's EXPLORATION a 5/5!

FIGHTING

Wonder Woman fights really well, due to an amazing power attack that I've never seen before, where she deflect an enemies' attacks using her wrist gauntlets. Her combo attack is a fast and furious series of  freestyle kicks and punches, followed by a quick twirl of the Lasso of Truth around an enemy that leaves them stunned and usually K.O.s them, and if that weren't enough, a flying punch to the stomach.

I give Wonder Woman's FIGHTING a 4.5/5!

COOL FACTOR

Wonder Woman isn't what I'd call a "cool" hero per say, but the wrist gauntlets and the fact that they used a newer costume of hers instead of her old one is awesome!

I give Wonder Woman's COOL FACTOR a 3.5/5!

OVERALL: Get Wonder Woman for her great attack combo, double jump and spiffy boots.

I give Wonder Woman an OVERALL score of 4/5!

THE FLASH

EXPLORATION

Flash's exploration is awesome, because he actually runs quickly through the zones! His speed in the zones is about as fast as when you get a speed boost in the missions. Just because of this, I'm willing to overlook his otherwise standard jumping ability, (no flight).

I give Flash's EXPLORATION a 4/5! :D

FIGHTING

Flash has a few great attacks, such as his Hero Up in which he runs in circles around the enemies, knocking them out. His attack combo is mostly made up of super-fast punches, which isn't anything we haven't seen before, (Superman). His first power attack is like Spidergirl's seismic jump attack.

I give Flash's FIGHTING a 3.5/5!

COOL FACTOR

Flash is in his Barry Allen costume this time around, and I certainly appreciate it. I'm not sure how good a tin hat would look in this game. :P

I give his COOL FACTOR a 3/5! :D

OVERALL: Flash is certainly a fun hero to play as, and I'll enjoy reaching max level, especially because of his EXPLORATION.

I give Flash an OVERALL score of 3.7/5! :D

---

I hope that after this month we'll get to see more obscure JLA heroes, and maybe even some Young Justice characters. At the very least Impulse, (a personal favorite of mine).

I can't wait to see what the next two weeks have in store!

-- SHSOFan.

Mayhem Mode and A New Hero

Looks like these maniacal masterminds have taken to the streets! Unfortunately I can't get into the game at the moment, due to my slow computer. :(

I will follow up as soon as I can with a post with images.

Also, Arachne has been released! Is she awesome or just a Spider Woman repaint?

Sadly, I won't be finding out, because I'm not a member.

Hmm, I need a faster computer and a new membership really badly, don't I?

-- SHSOFan.

JLA What-If Week 2 - Teaser

Looks like two more JLA members are on their way... who could they be?

-- SHSOFan.

Wonder Man Released

Wow, it's Wonder Man! I WONDER what its like to play as him! Unfortunately, I cannot find out, seeing as I still don't have enough gold! :(

Speaking of Wonder, guess who's coming next What-If week! ;)

-- SHSOFan.

JLA What-If Week 1 - Behind the Scenes

My long-awaited Justice League What-If is finally here, and this week, I "released" Superman and Classic Batman in what is actually my 150th POST OF ALL TIME! Yay! :D

Now, you know by now that I don't like to repeat myself, and I've already gone over how I made the Thunderbolts loading screen, and how I composited the TDK Batman gameplay pictures, so you'd think there wasn't much to say as far as how I created these images. Except that I haven't gone much into detail as far as the actual modeling process of these heroes goes.

Each hero starts with a cube. Not a box, which is 2 dimensional, but a cube, which is in 3d space.

I then began manipulating the cube using various tools, which is where things start to get complicated.

Here is the cube after I have subdivided it, which basically means that wherever there was one side, now there are four. But it gets even more complicated. This type of subdivision is called a Catmall Clark Subdivide, which rounds out edges. Of course, I don't think about this kind of thing while I'm modeling a hero. That would be distracting.

Here, I pushed around the polygons a bit, by bringing down a point to form the top of the chest, and flattened the sides of the cube.

Here, I extruded the sides to form the arms, and pushed a few more points to strengthen the chest area. I could go on like this for many, many more steps. I could describe how I carefully add symmetry modifiers, weld separate objects together, convert to points and invert the selection to get rid of unneeded objects, etc. etc. But I know that that would probably bore anybody who doesn't really understand it to death, so I'm going to stop here. You can, however, request a full tutorial if you would like to know, down in the comment section, and I might be tempted to write one if enough people are interested. 

The real reason I showed you all this was to impress upon you how much effort goes into these What-Ifs. It's not like I have a team that models, textures, rigs, poses, lights and renders these heroes for me. Each hero takes me roughly thirty minutes to an hour to model, twenty minutes to texture, and two to three minutes to rig.

Here's what Batman's model looks like, un-subdivided and without textures:

I'd also like to mention that I actually model the hands and legs separately, and then attach them later to the body model. And that, in the final model, the cape is rigged for movement as well as the skeleton.

Another new thing that I did involved Superman.

You'll note that my Thunderbolt What-If didn't require any male characters with their faces exposed, which made it really easy for me to model them.

I did need to model Moonbeam and Songbird's faces, though. Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job, as a closer inspection reveals.

But for this What-if, I needed two completely exposed faces: Superman and Wonder Woman.

I spent a lot of time on Wonder Woman's face, trying to make it not completely flat. And Superman's head gets re-used for every other male character except Batman, because I liked it so much. I think it works best on Flash and Green Arrow.

Here are the hero icons:

I can't wait for you to see the rest of this What-If, it's going to be AWESOME!

-- SHSOFan.

JLA What-If - Week 1

Note: the following post is fictional, and does not represent any actual gameplay or announcements from Gazillion Entertainment, Marvel or DC.

---

Today SHSO kicked off their amazing new DC crossover event with this new loading screen, which featured six new JLA heroes and a new villain, Darkseid. 

This is the second DC crossover since they released The Dark Knight Batman, which sadly did not get a follow-up with the release of the final sequel movie. But, seeing as SHSO didn't release a new Amazing Spiderman repaint for THAT movie either, (hopefully when ASM2 comes out!), I can forgive them for it.

Anyway, so they're new line-up of heroes is: Superman, Classic Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, an awesome assortment of characters we know and love from the comics. 

And this week saw the release of Superman and Batman, as I thought when I first saw the announcement for it. Luckily I was able to get both, and here are their hero reviews!

SUPERMAN

MOVEMENT

Superman can fly, obviously. He flies in his usual arms in front style, which is fun. He has standard jump though, which is too bad, since I've been dying to play a double jump hero.

I rate his MOVEMENT 3.5/5!

FIGHTING

My computer crashed during a mission so I wasn't able to test out his fighting skills TOO much, but from what I've seen Superman is an awesome varied attacker, using eye-lasers, punches, super-breath to freeze enemies, and a Hero Up where he picks up a car and hurls it at attackers.

I rate his FIGHTING 4.9/5!

COOL FACTOR

I've never really been a fan of Superman, so I'm probably biased when it comes to cool factor. All I'll say is that I'll be glad when they come out with a Man of Steel variant.

I rate his COOL FACTOR 1.5/5!

OVERALL: Superman is a fun, fast hero to play as, and fans of the old comic books will no doubt be overwhelmed by nostalgia. My only complaint is that he's slightly overpowered when it comes to fighting. I rate Superman a 4.5/5 overall!

CLASSIC BATMAN

Aw yeah Classic Batman! I've been waiting for this hero since TDK Batman's release. Let's get on to the review, shall we?

MOVEMENT

Classic Batman can scale walls with his grappling hook, and fly down to earth from rooftops. He also has a double jump, which instantly makes me a fan.

I rate his MOVEMENT 5/5!

FIGHTING

Playing with TDK Batman in the Joker mission

Classic Batman uses his grapple, batarangs, and various martial art moves, much like TDK Batman. However, the animations are not a complete copy, which is nice.

I rate his FIGHTING 3.5/5!

COOL FACTOR

He's Batman.

I rate his COOL FACTOR 4.6/5!

OVERALL: Classic Batman is a fun callback to the old comics, and is a must buy for Batman fans. Overall, I rate Classic Batman a 4.8/5!

---

Well, anyway, I guess the review section of this post is over. I'm looking forward to the other Justice League releases, especially Wonder Woman and the Darkseid mission.

Look for future follow-ups soon!

-- SHSOFan.