Godzilla and painting

Who remembers the old day of "Nintendo thumb" when you had blisters on your thumbs from button mashing all night long? Now I've got "Nintendo arm" where my arms are feeling sore from so much vigorous movement on the Wii to play Godzilla Unleashed for two evenings. But unlike the old Nintendo thumb it feels like my arms are sore from growing new muscles rather than blisters. Thanks to Nintendo for changing the unhealthy way that people play video games. My kids and wife are getting more exercise thanks to the Wii Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Even the neighbor kids have come over during the day for dance sessions already.

The game I'm really obsessing over these days however isn't electronic, it is old fashioned paint and play Miniatures game of Anima: Tactics. Both my wife and I are playing this game and I try to get the occasional game in at the Friendly Local Game store when I can escape for a while. The models are exquisitely beautiful and we are enjoying the Anima inspired setting. The rules are also very simple, yet allow a lot of great tactical variation. The organization I've chosen to play is "Church", the figures are obviously inspired but some of the beautiful medieval imagery of Catholic church. Story wise they're based off of some of the weird medieval groups like the Spanish Inquisition. Pictured you'll see a nun, an Inquisitor, and.... a girl with wings who can fly and fight.


The winged girl and the Inquisitor are my own paint job while the Nun was painted by my wife.
I choose purple and pink and dark colors for them to represent the flamboyant clothes worn by what I consider the corrupt and decadent churches of the medeival era in Europe.

Does my painting suck? got suggestions, praise or something else? Feel free to leave comments.

Gaming update

Well I took a break from Lord of the Rings Online in December when a cousin of mine died. Haven't felt inspired enough to go back currently though I'm sure I will in the future.

I picked up Neverwinter Nights the original, a good game that I never picked up when it was all the rage because I personally don't care for D&D settings. Bioware makes quality games however and I envision spending more time with it when I have a chance.

What I've really been into is miniatures gaming again. Yes, still more VOR but I also found a new miniatures game to play for the first time since VOR - Anima: Tactics. A great small-scale skirmish type miniatures game, the rules are simple but allow for many tactical possibilities. The minis themselves are the best part having a mange/anime theme to the imagery. Both my wife and I have picked this up making it our latest "couples" game.

While we do that, we're looking at getting and setting up a Wii for the little ones. Have to start the kids out right so they can connect on a gamer level with their parents when they're older! That and if they don't get out much in the rainy weather this will allow all of us to get more exercise than sitting and playing computer games. Hopefully more developers get the idea of "active" gaming in the future.