AirLooney

I'm not going to sugar-coat this anymore (well, maybe a little 😓). As much as I was glad to get back into livery creation for a bit, and I realize that I have not been communicating on "le Internetz" as much as I wanted to, I'm going to have to come clean on some things 😩. I might not be able to get the next Forza Horizon (Forza Horizon 5) this year or even, for that matter, an XBOX Series X/S. For starters, the "Great Console Shortage" (YES, THE SHORTAGE!!) has made it next to impossible to get a new console before the end of the year, or even into NEXT year (although, as of this writing, PlayStation 5 consoles are slowly starting to pop up again, if only briefly, I'm not sure). Second, even without *whispers* [THE SHORTAGE], I'm not in a financially stable position to afford a new console. Third, there is a 10-year-old soul in me that is dabbling with the possibility of owning a Nintendo Switch as a new console. And if (and that's a very BIG "if") THAT happens, what then? Creating the content that I have created (Forza and Trackmania liveries, custom characters in Soul Calibur and other games, Minecraft maps [though I'm not an expert when it comes to redstone and commands, 😅], as well as some of the other stuff on my DA) has been my life and I honestly wouldn't trade that for anything. However, I'm going to have to come clean on some other things.

This past month and a half has been hell for me. For one, I haven't been making any new content because I've started to play other games. And, really, I feel like I need to. Terraria's new Journey's End update on console has been quite enjoyable. And that's saying a lot considering that, prior to JE, I hadn't played Terraria in God-knows-when, and I'm typically not the biggest fan of the core game, so I didn't really have a vested interest in playing it again other than for achievements. I'm still waiting for Minecraft's Caves & Cliffs: Part 2 update, so I'll probably give that a go once it's released. I'm about ready to "extinguish my soul" in a matter of speaking. By that I mean, I'm 90% confident that there WILL NOT be a Season 3 for Soul Calibur VI, which is a shame because, in my opinion, even in the absence of DLC characters, a third season could have given us more CAS parts, just saying (Nightmare's SC2 helm, ). I grew up playing a lot of the original Castlevania on the NES (I sucked at that, 😅) as well as Harmony Of Dissonance on GBA. With that in mind, I wanna give Symphony Of The Night a go, as I own it on XB1 through backwards compatibility. In my college years, I played a lot of the Metal Slug 1 NEO GEO cabinet. With that in mind, I own Metal Slug 1, X, & 3 on Steam [published by DotEmu] and 4 & 5 [from the ACA NEO GEO collection] on XB1.

On the topic of character creation, I also decided to get Fire Pro Wrestling World on PC through Steam this year. I gave myself the opportunity to re-introduce myself to watching wrestling within the last half-decade. And because FPWW has so much modded content, the sky might be the limit and I actually gave myself some plans for this.

Soooo, I don't remember a whole lot about the show WMAC Masters other than:

1. One of the key selling points of the show were the "Ki Symbols".

2. It was the first cable TV show I watched as a kid that delved into the world of mixed martial arts.

3. Hakim Alston "The Machine" and Ho Sung Park "Superstar" were BEASTS.

4. My favorite master, when I was watching the show, was Jaime Webster "Great Wolf".

5. From what I remember, the show itself felt just a tad more wholesome compared to similar programming.

After spending some time with Fire Pro Wrestling World I've come to realize that I could probably start up a similar federation. My goal isn't so much to replicate the show as much as it is to create something inspired by the show, but with my own flair. As of now, I'm currently working on logos and I may or may not have decided on company and faction names. The biggest challenge will be to work on the belts (just the belts as a displayed image, not as how the fighters would show them off during an entrance/match), the roster, and the ring. I'm not gonna bother making custom Create-A-Wrestler mod parts. Trying to make my own dedicated CAW parts looks daunting to me and I'd rather use the game and downloaded mods to create my wrestlers (low-key, if I decide I DO want to make my own CAW parts, I'd rather make them shareable on Steam's Workshop, we'll see).

I'm kind of on edge over the new AEW and WWE 2K22 games. If either one of those games actually turn out to be good (as of this writing, they haven't been released), I'll look into those as an alternative.

Okay, okay! I'll be the first to admit that the memes got me into this song and…can you blame me? Listening to the whole thing, I've concluded that…it's a genuinely good song and it may the reason I play my first Yakuza game. I currently own Yakuza 0 and the Yakuza Kiwami games on XBOX ONE but I'm having trouble deciding where to start. I'll also admit, I DID watch a bit of Yakuza 0 during a Twitch stream, so I might have been spoiled a bit, 😂.

Now with regard to my Forza liveries. I might work on a few new Forza liveries in Forza Horizon 4, but only as a secondary hobby. If I'm going to paint liveries in a Forza game as a primary hobby again, I'd rather wait until I play a new Forza game, be it FH5 or the next Forza Motorsport, and as I mentioned before that will probably not happen this year. Forza Horizon 5 is marketed for the XBOX Series X/S, but is also slated to be compatible on XBOX ONE, so we'll see. Also, on the off chance I DO get a new XBOX Series console, I feel that the most realistic thing for me to do would be to wait for Motorsport at the earliest. I'm going to be candid. Even though I generally prefer playing the Forza Horizon franchise (and it's not to take away from painting on any other car), there's something about painting a livery on a thoroughbred racecar that just ticks my boxes.

Examples below (The exception here is the Lexus RC-F. When you equip the widebody kit on the Lexus, it just happens to give off that "racecar" stance, similar to the RC-F GT3):

I may not have the best PC setup or the expertise to optimize Trackmania Nations Forever for screen captures, unless TM Canyon on Steam IS optimal and I currently don't own that. But, if I decide I want to get back into creating liveries for Trackmania, I might get back into it. I personally find creating liveries in Forza more enjoyable and doesn't involve modifying the game internally, but, who knows. I'll probably work on a Forza Horizon 4 livery or two here or there, but the goal now is to make any FH4 content future-proof (compatible with FH5 and beyond). By the way, the benefit of owning FH4 digitally is the fact that I can play it on XBOX Series X/S should I get it somewhere down the line.

On another topic, remember these:

If you recall, I didn't grow up owning a SEGA Genesis and, as a result, I had never actually played the Streets Of Rage franchise. Well, I now own the SEGA Genesis Classics Collection on Steam, SEGA Vintage Collection: Streets Of Rage on XB1, and Streets Of Rage 4 on XB1 (and PC through Windows's "Play Anywhere" program). And speaking of the Genesis Classics Collection, I kind of want to play the Shinobi games (Revenge Of Shinobi and Return Of The Ninja Master, specifically), and Shining Force, as well as some of the other games in the lineup.

Especially between mid-September and the end of October, I've also had to deal with a lot of other crud in the real world, which is probably the biggest factor in why I've been pretty silent on the Internet. I'm not gonna delve too deep into that 😔. I'm not exactly quitting, but, as I said, I needed a refresher. If I don't end up getting Forza Horizon 5 this year, don't worry about it. There are a lot of other games that I've been playing or have been meaning to play, many if not all of which I own 😉, that I won't bother discussing in detail. I might get back into drawing as well, so, we'll see. Thank you for understanding and I'll talk to you guys later.

If I haven't been as active on DeviantArt and working on any new liveries in Forza Horizon 4 is because I have been heavily invested in Minecraft lately (I play Minecraft Bedrock Edition on XBOX ONE). It's not that I'm not playing anything else, but honestly…since the pandemic, Minecraft has just been a breath of fresh air for my soul. I feel like Minecraft today is a much better game now than it was when I first played Minecraft.

Before 2012, I was one of those skeptics who didn't think would gain any enjoyment out of Minecraft. Then I got a digital copy of the version developed by 4J Studios on XBOX 360. Needless to say, I was HOOKED (What was so intuitive about the 4J Studios version of Minecraft was the inclusion of an interactive "Tutorial World"). The years go by and I get an XBOX ONE S. Then, Minecraft Bedrock replaces the 4J game on XB1. I start fiddling around with Bedrock and my biggest issue was the touchiness of the controls. The other thing was, because I was "jumping into" the game, I felt a bit lost on how to do things (with regards to crafting, farming, and all that fun stuff). There is a "How to Play" menu, which is quite intuitive, but, even to this day, a good portion of how I play the game relies heavily on…the Wiki and YouTube. However, I'm much more comfortable playing the game on Easy difficulty now. When I was playing the 4J game, I would grind in Peaceful to build my eventual home. After the inclusion of the Ocean Monuments in Title Update 31 (Content Update 19 for XB1) and the Woodland Mansion in TU54/CU44, however, Peaceful difficulty was out of the question, in terms of achievements anyway. More time passed and I started to get a bit bored with the game (to the point where I would fall asleep sometimes). Then…pandemic happened.

I hadn't played in months prior to March of last year. I realize that the game has had WAAAY more content than it ever had in years past (not nearly as much as Terraria, a game I stopped caring about , but still). Then I thought, 'eh, what the heck. I'm gonna jump straight into a world on Easy'. "DO HARD YOU COWARD!! YOU WEAK *** B****!!" is what I'm expecting to hear from a lot of you, but this is coming from someone who was sooooo used to grinding in Peaceful…PEACEFUL! There were moments where surprise attacks from blind spots (especially explosions from creepers and fire charge attacks by ghasts) would catch me off guard. My biggest nemesis so far has been the magma cubes…AAAAAARGH! Boy, do those things have a knockback ability and insane agility, but what's most annoying is their hitbox. At times, whenever I try to attack them with the sword it feels like they don't have a hitbox. Finding a nether fortress that contained nether wart so that I can brew potions was another major obstacle that ultimately required the use of an Internet resource. Apart from a few hinderances, I have had the time of my life playing the game. As I am typing this, I have a full set of Enchanted Netherite armor, slayed the Ender Dragon, AND I have a pair of elytra. Now I'm just on pins and needles waiting for the "Caves and Cliffs" update.

Now with regard to Forza Horizon 4, I still play the game for new exclusive cars, obviously. However, several months ago, I also began working on a side project that didn't involve creating liveries.

"Welcome to…Adventuuuuure Racing!"

If you're familiar with "Beetle Adventure Racing!" for the Nintendo 64 then you might enjoy some custom routes and blueprints I created in FH4. What I wanted to do for the blueprints was create the representation of being at the tracks from the games. Also, rather than just being a VW Beetle themed set of races, I thought I'd make the entire manufacturer the theme (just in case any new exclusives make it into the game, looking at you Beetle Final Edition 😉). I will admit, before working on this project, I wasn't too sold on Route Creator because of my previous experiences in seasonal championships. Also, Route Creator in itself is not exactly the best feature, IMO, because of its limitations. For one, there are no props such as; ramps, roadblocks, directional markers, etcetera to really justify a custom route (especially for Cross Country events where ramps are somewhat vital). Also, I have had to retrace some of my routes several times to get it right and it was a bit time consuming.

If you want to play my blueprints, I have share codes down below. That's because all events are titled "VW Adventure Racing" and I don't want there to be any confusion:

Coventry Cove: 699 365 217

Mount Mayhem: 677 029 579

Inferno Isle: 967 728 151

Sunset Sands: 103 383 934

Metro Madness: 819 141 846 (There's a Spring version of this blueprint in my Creative Hub, but please disregard that. This blueprint is meant to take place in Summer and I couldn't erase the Spring version because…this game won't let me, 😂)

Wicked Woods: 171 166 033

Over Christmas, I did manage to get some deals on games for XBOX/Windows and Steam (I've started to fiddle with Steam and it's a little easier than people make it out to be). I'm also waiting for any information/rumors regarding a potential Season 3 for Soul Calibur VI, if indeed that ever does happen. My latest livery, the [Fictional] FD #1231 Air Jordan RB Lexus RC-F, is live (share code: 558 783 909). From here on out I'm making it a policy to include the share code in my screenshots. I may add on to the "VW Adventure Racing" side project and include some complementary liveries, but I have had a lot on my plate lately and I'll leave that for another time.

I also plan on making changes to my profile pics/banners sometime this year 😉. I love my profile pics/banners, I really do. However, the past two years or so have been a pile of emotional misery and I hope a change can bring in positive vibes, especially during one of the most difficult times in the world (Also, I turn 35 this June 😐). Anyway, I'll talk to you later guys. I gotta get back to my adventures in cubical crafting.