Intro Howdy quakers. I'm new to ppm reviewing, but I've read enough to know how they work. If there is something you think I should do differently, let me know by clicking here. Oh, and Phillip. If I give you a good review will you buy me a nice 3d card? If you did, the new screenshots I could put out would make your model look better! Originality Well this model's highlight was definitely its originality. A few slithering creatures have been put out by various modelers, with the highest award going to Evil Bastard's "Ratamahatta," but none have looked like this. I would call this model a cross between Ratamahatta and
Zumlin, although I wouldn't go so far as to say it compares with either of them. Read the skin and animation sections further down to hear more about the skins and animations, but in general, I wasn't very impressed by either in the originality area. The flip animation in particular caused me to dock a half point. I'm just so sick of seeing ppms defy the laws of gravity and
"backflip" for the flip animation. The Model As for the likeness, Maybe it's because I've become very critical of ppms after trying to decide which ones get to stay and which ones have to go from my cluttered hard drive, but Zarlag just won't be having an extended visit. Probably just enough to rate it, whoop it around in eraser bot so I can give you some screen shots, and then empty my recycling bin. It sounds mean, but so much has been done in QuakeII modeling, that you have to come out with something truly original and breathtaking to even make a dent in the modeling scene. Sorry Phillip, guess I won't be getting my 3d card any time soon huh? I wish I knew what he was supposed to look like. Then I could tell if he came out looking all right. Proportion-wise, I really can't say too well whether he is miss-proportioned or not, again owing to the fact that I don't know what he is supposed to look like. But all in all, he just doesn't look right. His head seems kind of small, and his hands are enormous without much detail or fluidity. Actually, I could say that for the whole model. There really isn't a single part of the body that I could say moved fluidly, although the boots were cool to look at. At least that dangly thing coming from his head to his backpack thingy was cool. His face is probably the worst part of the model. It should be were you look to see their expression and from their expression, get an idea of their personality (umm am I looking too deep here?). Instead, it was this two dimensional, detail-lacking thing that was too small for the rest of the body.
The Animations How should I do
this? Guess I'll just go down the list of animations. Some were
good, some were simple, and some were, well, sub par. The stand
animation in particular lived up to the latter category. Zarlag just
stood there like a statue. Had I made a demo of the motion for you,
you would be have been hard pressed to tell the difference between
it and a simple screen shot. The run animation was what first caught
my attention. Some models have that slipping effect when they run,
and it really ruins them. Zarlag pulled it off however. Phillip
never tells us what Zarlag is supposed to be, but I would guess some
sort of highly evolved snake-like creature. The jump and crawl
animations also emphasized this slithering aspect of Zarlag. The
pain animations were short and swift, just like they should have
been. But the flip animation was absolutely awful. Sorry if I seem
truly vehement about that belief, but the whole anti-gravity
backflip idea for the flip animation is SOOOOOO lame and played out.
The salute and the taunt animations sort of made up for the flip
however. In the salute Zarlag had a nice tilt of the gun, and in the
taunt I especially liked how he placed the gun down for support when
he pointed to the bottom of his shoe. Why he pointed to the bottom
of this shoe the world may never know. After careful examination
however, the death animations were where Zarlag really shone. I
liked them a lot, especially death2 (it think that's the one...I'm
working from memory). Death3 however was sort of weird. What's up
with Zarlag dying with his arm stuck straight up in a bizarre state
of rigamortis? All in all, the animations were sort of crude and
stick figurish, but there were some nice ones too. Perhaps you are wondering why I listed the model as only having 2 and a 1/2 skins. Well the answer is simple. There really are three skins included with the model, but the author didn't pay enough attention to notice the fact that for the green skin, the main pcx file is called zlwgren, and the icon file is called zlwgrn. Sorry guys, but I don't have much patience or sympathy for anyone who doesn't pay enough attention to their model to notice the fact that an entire skin just doesn't work for it. Oh wait, you want more? Well the skins are definitely lacking in the originality area.
See? Just a simple recoloring was the only obvious difference between the "three" skins. Maybe a few more original skins would have increased this model's appeal. One thing I can definitely say is that this model would have been quite easy to skin. I don't really understand too well how a pcx is placed on top of an md2, but if you look at the pcx file, it is simply put together, and would greatly facilitate skinning for a simple man like myself. The Sounds There are currently no sounds available, although had Phillip put out some sounds with Zarlag, perhaps I could have better understood what he was supposed to be. Visible Weapons Support Nothing at the time, but Phillip seemed bummed that there weren't any. He actually listed the fact that it didn't have vwep as a bug in the readme...woowa Phillip, chill! Don't sweat it if your model doesn't have vwep, not many do. Pack InclusionHmmm. I'd have to say no. Not because of any major bug, just that the overall model doesn't stack up against some of the other great models that people have been putting out.
review by a1sTeaKSauCe
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