The call for entries left editor, Daniel Wade, more than 2600 pieces to sift though and this year, we get 358 new characters to appreciate and drool over.  You may recognize a few gaming characters like Reiko Nagas from the Ridge Racer series, Sarah from Tabula Rasa, characters from and inspired by The Legend of Norrath, Magic: The Gathering, and even fanart of Marvel comics character, Ms. Marvel.  The programs used for each piece varies.  Most have been created using Photoshop and Painter with a complete listing of the programs used featured in the book’s index.  The index also features a list of artists with email addresses, websites, and page numbers of their featured artwork.

I’m always so impressed with not only the artist’s skill with the digital paint programs but their unbridled imaginations as well.  One of my favorite pieces featured in this collection is entitled “Sakura” by ScarletGothica from Italy.  It features a beautiful Geisha with Sakura branches growing painfully from her back with a big red sun, cherry blossoms, and koi fish in the background.  The background also features the famous wave from the Hokusai woodblock print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.  While I say that this piece is one of my favorites, with so many wonderful pieces, it’s very difficult to narrow it down.

Exotique 7 is a must have for people who love and appreciate digital character art.  Use it to inspire your own artwork or just to enjoy some of the hard work and endless imagination that these artists have shared with the world.

Exotique 7 is available for pre-order now though Ballistic Pulbisher’s website in a standard soft cover edition for $59.00 and a hardcover edition for $115.00. The hardcover edition is bound in black leather and features gold metallic embossing.  The first 100 customers to purchase Exotique 7 will also receive a  free A3 poster print of “Nimhue” by Omar Diaz which is featured in the collection and will be sent separately in a flatpack mailer to keep the print fold-free.

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Petz Fantasy 3D is slated for released later this summer.

Hunted: The Demon’s Forge will be set in a dark fantasy world and will feature cooperative action gameplay.  You can take the role of either E’lara, a ranged weapons expert, or Caddoc, a master swordsman.  The game is powered by the Unreal 3 Engine and will be a mix of a dungeon crawler and modern-day shooter.

The game sounds like it will be a lot of fun when played with a friend as you can combine E’lara’s ranged attacks with Caddoc’s melee attacks to pull off co-op combo kills, special attacks, or even be able to heal each other regarless of where they are on the battlefield.  You can play using either melee attacks or by attacking several enemies at a time using bows and spells.  You can even use spells to boost your partner in battle.

Norm and I have spent many hours playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2 so this announcement is very exciting to both of us.  We’ll definitely be watching this game’s development closely.  The screenshots look pretty intense too!

The game is being developed for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.  There is currently no release date at this time.