Callitechnologica 1 - March 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Updated/Improved Textures Modfor Mass Effect Preview Pg. 2

NBA 2K14 reviews andexclusive downloads Pg. 18

PES 2014 reviews andexclusive downloads Pg. 31

NEWS ANDCONTESTSPg. 6

Interviews Pg.7

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EDITORIALFacemakers. Modders. Game artists. Talented people orchestrating a symphony of light, directing thousands of pixels to display specific colours in such a way, as to suspend your disbelief. So that you, the gamer, will feel like you have entered a new world, similar to our own but at the same time so dif-ferent, so distinct.

We have come a long way. Images are still made out of tiny little boxes named pixels, as they did many years ago. But the pixels nowadays are plenty, and their sheer number results in images that have made it possible for games to transgress into the areas of art. The level of realism achieved is beyond anything we had witnessed before in the history of electronic entertainment,

Another thing that has changed compared to the past is that nowadays it is not only game develop-ers that produce art. The evolution of the internet has made technical know-how available to a much larger demographic than in the past. Modding is here to stay and it’s spread out all over the world. Just a little glance out our interviews sections attests to that. They are people from Peru, Philippines, Europe... Straone, the modder who made the PES facepack is from China. There is a plethora of great bits of game art coming out from all around the globe and that is what Callitechnologica is trying to bring to the spotlight.

Callitechnologica is a neulogism, a word that is derived from the words Callitechnica - fine arts in Greek - and technology. It will come to your home and it will bear gifts. In the first issue of Callitech-nologica, we have a little present for NBA2k14 and PES2014 players. Bundled with the magazine, you can find the cyberfaces of Lebron James, Anthony Davis, David West, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Karim Benzema, and Franck Ribery.

We also have a preview of the upcoming Mass Effect 1 Updates / Improvements mod by CDAMJC. You can read interviews with two NBA2k14 modders, Sean John and Scarface and one PES2014 modder, M4rcl310. The two former ones have retired while the latter has recently made a return to the modding scene.

Callitechnologica will show support to the modding community in various ways. We have donated a little amount of money already to the facemakers who have granted us the exclusive downloads. We will share a little money also with the winners of our contests. A little support from our readers would be welcome as well. Please help to spread the word about the magazine. Join our forums. Write your opinion about the articles. Join the magazine. There are many ways you can help if you think it as important as we do to document the works of these great artists.

A. K. StielarExclusive Downloads

The exclusive downloads can be found in the rar file. You can also find installation instructions. Pleasenote that these faces are available exclusively through Callitechnologica for a duration of 30 days from

the date the magazine was released so do not share this on the Internet before this time has expired.

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Mass Effect 1 was a hallmark of great storytelling in video game history. It brought gaming and cinema one step closer to each other. A dialogue system based on choice offered a great deal of replay value as well. Although the graphics of the game were quite brilliant for the era this game was released, the times have changed significantly since then.

Replaying the game in vanilla mode could make some tech-ob-sessed gamers cringe with the low resolution textures. This is where CDAMJC comes into the picture. His Updated / Improved Textures mod significantly enhanced the vi-suals of the game. In combination with injector effects Mass Effect 1 could easily pass as a game that is being published today for the first time.

At the early stages of development the mod was not flawless. You had to load the textures with a special program called Texmod. Bugs were omnipresent, especially for those using 32-bit Operating Sys-tems. But since then CDAMJC has

ironed out most of the problems and made the installation proce-dure a piece of cake.

Soon he will release an enhanced edition of his mod and he shared with us some information about the changes this will bring to the table.

The biggest change he says is full language support. In his own words:

The mod should contain all subtitle languages in the installer version. The files .mods and tpfs will add the textures without changing your lan-guage so they will also be universal language due to their nature.

The second most important change according to CDAMJC is Multiple formats:

- The mod will be in installer for-mat. As usual an easy installation, no need to uninstall anything.

- .mod , which is a bit complicated and should be chosend only by advanced users. It needs to run on

a vanilla install.

- .tpf . The same as .mod but works with newer versions of ME Explorer and can install directly. However they will not contain the format fixes in the .mods. They maybe useful when format fixes are found that don’t require the overrides found in the .mods ie: low res fixes/bugs like N7 armor or Wrex’s + Garrus’s faces during cutscenes .tpfs contain the textures in an unaltered state.

The .mods and .tpfs will be grouped together for download and separat-ed by category based on contents. They are designed for people who want to pick and choose textures and not deal with the large installer when they only want to use some of the textures.

The installer is still CDAMJC’s recommended way of running the mod for your average user who doesn’t like to spend hours pick-ing and choosing and installing everything part by part.

The .mods and .tpfs are for custom-

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ization but be warned the process is not simple and you may need to install each one multiple times for them to show up in game. Lastly, the process will take at least a couple of hours vs. the installer which is about 5 minutes.

CDAMJC will update also vari-ous characters, armors and outfits. Tali’s default outfit will be over-hauled with the metal being redone and receiving many touch ups, fine details, and even embroidering on

her knife sheath. Now all six of her outfits/armors are HD and true to their original concepts.

Slight tweaks will be applied to the default C-Sec armor worn by Garrus. His medium Colos-sus armor will be more accurately re-textured, and it will stay true to original concept including lights.

CDAMJC had reworked Shepard’s face previously from ME3 style to ME1 style. Now he has added even

more detail and added his whiskers to the normal map for that extra bit of detail. He still looks like a fresh ME1 Shepard (not the worn down ME3 version) just with some extra oomph.

Captain Anderson will be receiv-ing some fixes on his scalp and his face, correcting some errors that were visible under certain lighting.

All human faces have had their normal maps increased in detail in order to capture the depth of the textures. Under certain lighting the vanilla normal maps would clash with the HD textures and it looked out of place.

The scientists uniforms have had some overshadowing cleaned up. Random civilian clothes have had overshadowing fixed. Particularly the consort outfit. All human teeth have been whitened a bit. The fe-male teeth have been straightened and fixed from his last version,

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it was particularly noticeable on Ashley.

Final Saren has received a true HD re-texture from head to toe, he has been completely redone including lights. Husks have been re-textured from vanilla.

Geth soldiers will contain a proper HD overhaul while geth hoppers have been smoothed out. CDAMJC has removed the blockiness and added some details. He may return to them in a later release, but for now he feels quite happy with the way they look.

The female Femshep faces have been toned down a little so the shine in certain lighting is not blinding and they no longer shim-mer or grainy. GI Jane hair’s re-turned - in the last version he played with an option of a shaved head like Jack in ME2. Some people did not like this so it will be option-al in the .mod form or tpf form.

Ash’s phoenix armor has been up-dated with minor tweaks and some lighting changes. Turian Councilor outfit had a misaligned color on the spec map and this is now fixed.

All NPC outfits worn by the council when they are in hologram mode have been redone too. The holos and those outfits on random npc’s will now all be in HD. CDJAMC has worked on miscellaneous updates as well, for instance the Normandy and the Mako have minor detail tweaked updated from the previous HD versions.

N7 armors now contain all mips, no shimmer. There is a drawback to this. Due to the engine when creating a character some N7 armors will appear low res. After that they will look as they should in-game. The only way to avoid this is to remove all mipmaps (previ-ous method) but then there will be shimmer. Many people complained about shimmer so it has been cor-rected.

DLC content will now be re-textured. The tpfs and .mods will automatically update the dlc, and the installer will install it. He might make a separate DLC installer but it will have to be used with the new version of the mod or the game will likely crash to to check-sum fail-ures. So if he goes down that route you must install the main installer first and then the DLC. If you skip the main installer because you are happy with the old version you will break the game and you will need to install the main installer to fix it. Among other minor fixes, he will also have a new batch of bioengine.ini tweaks for even better shad-ows and some color profile tweaks people can play with.

All this sounds very exciting. If this is released before the end of March as it is supposed to, we will feature a full review in the next issue of Callitechnologica.

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JOIN CALLITECHNOLOGICA!

If you enjoyed reading this magazine and if you would like to take part in the process of documenting the chron-icles of game artists you should join the staff !

We need people to write articles (reviews, previews, inter-views). If you are a devoted fan of one particular game and you can keep track of the mods released for this game on a regular basis then you can definitely help us out. We could also use modding experts to write tutorials.

People to help spread the word are always welcome too, so if you think you could help by being a PR manager for the magazine please make yourself heard. You could also help populate our forums and keep everything neat and tidy by being a forum moderator.

If you are interested please send a mail to the following address: [email protected] and write a little bit about you and how you would like to help out.

TOP 10 2K14 CYBERFACES

In the next issue of Cal-litechnologica you will be able to read a TOP-10 2K14 Cyberfaces list made by the editor of the magazine.

There will also be a Readers’ Top 10 2K14 Cyberfaces List. The Reader’s Top 10 List will be compiled by people’s top 10 lists in the forum. So let’s say for instance, that user PJAtrue gives his top 10 list. The cyberface who is number 10 on his list will receive one point.

The cyberface who is number 1 on his list will receive 10 points.

There will be a stand-ings board that will be available on the first post of the thread. When the competition ends the top 10 cyberfaces in the standings will comprise the Reader’s TOP 10 2K14 cyberfaces list.

So if you want to play a role in the way this list will look in the next is-sue of Callitechnologica join the forums and vote for your favourite Cy-berfaces.

SCREENSHOT OF THE MONTH CONTEST

The magic of Graphics Injectors like SweetFX and ENB but also the wide selection of both hardware and software that is available to PC gamers have made it possible for everyone to customize the experi-ence of a game so that it meets their

own personal requirements and needs. It is almost as if every one of us experiences a different game on his own PC.

In order to help us share these experiences but also emphasize on the artistic side of gaming, Cal-litechnologica will be running a Screenshot of the Month contest. In order to participate all you have to

do is to upload one or more screen-shot of any game in our forums in the Contest Section. The top 5 screenshots will be included in the next issue of Callitechnologica. The person who will have taken the second best screenshot will win 3 euros and the person who will have uploaded the best screenshot will win 10 euros.

BASAGRE’S LBJAbout a month before the release of the 1st issue, there was an attempt to run a Cyberface of the Month contest for 2K14 and PES. There was no interest in the contest, assumingly due to various reasons (no one knew about the maga-zine at the time, there was a lot of work to create one cyberface without any guarantee that one would win etc).

But Basagre did make a very good Lebron James. Due to the fact that we al-ready had the LBJ v4 by Scarface as an exclusive download and as a review it was deemed unecessary to put the two cyberfaces in competition, we include it as a download with the magazine and let you de-cide which one you like best.

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Callitechnologica: Thank you for accept-ing our invitation for an interview.Your recent global files for NBA 2k14 PC have been real game changers and I am sure that plenty of NBA 2k fans will be interested to find out more about you. So let’s begin with some personal questions first. Can you share with us a little bit about the real SJ? What is your real name?

SJ: Thanks again for appreciating my proj-ect.. even though that is the last. My real name is Noel B. Monzon Jr.

Callitechnologica: How old are you? Where are you from?

SJ: Should I tell my real age?? Hahaha. Im 30 years old and im from the Philippines.

Callitechnologica: What are your favourite computer games, apart from NBA 2k14?

SJ: Mmm.. apart from NBA 2k series, I love to play action, and strategic games. I also love DOTA and DOTA 2

One of the most popular NBA 2k modders has decided to retire. Before he left the modding scene, he decided to give everyone a parting gift. His latest global, named Reign, has im-proved vastly the visuals of 2K14 taking the game one step closer to the consoles version.

interview with

SEAN JOHN

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Callitechnologica: Do you play basketball in your real day to day life? What is your favourite NBA team?

SJ: Yes, I loved to play bas-ketball. Favorite team? Mmm.. maybe Heat and Lakers.

Callitechnologica: What was the first 2K game you ever played? What memories do you have from that game?

SJ: I think its 2k9. The first time I played that game I know I will stick to it all series ^^

Callitechnologica: What do you think of the latest NBA game, 2K14? What do you like and what don’t you like about it? What do you think 2K should do for the PC ver-sion of 2K15?

SJ: Mmm.. 2k14 is I think the best 2k series when it comes to gameplay. The game is smooth and very realistic. But the graphics is way beyond 2k11 (my most favorite series). I hope there will be Next Gen in PC in 2k15 but if not, I hope that the graphics of 2k15 will be the same or more smooth than 2k11 or 2k10.

Callitechnologica: When was the first time you got inter-ested in modding? What was your first mod?

SJ: Actually, back in 2k10, I used to mod cyberfaces. I transferred cf’s from 2k9 to 2k10.

Callitechnologica: You are

some sort of “global god” for the 2K modding community. Some people who read the magazine though might not know what a global file re-ally is. Can you explain in a few words what a global file does? What sort of game at-tributes do you impove when you edit a global?

SJ: hahaha nah.. not global god that’s too much. Maybe I’m just lucky to have friends who supports me in mak-ing shadowmod globals. And also for my family that gives me moral support. Yeah some gamers don’t know what a global file is. Global file is the main file in the nba2k series game. This will not affect the shoe color, the scoreboard, the crowd, and also the stadium. It can change the graphics (but not too much) like changing ac-cessories, color of skin tone, make shadow, etc., etc.

Callitechnologica: How

many hours does it usually take to edit and release a global?

SJ: Actually you really need a lot of time just to edit a default global (not yet mod-ded). From my experience, my first ever global back in 2k12 took a month or two before I released it because maybe I was just a beginner at that time. But when I got the hang of it, it only took maybe a week.

Callitechnologica: How many downloads does a global of yours usually have? What was the most down-loaded global you have ever released?

SJ: Mm… actually I don’t know. Hahaha honestly I don’t know. Not because I don’t like my projects (duh?! Hahaha ) But just to know that they are happy when I released my projects, it made my day. Feels like it

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was downloaded a million times hahaha..

Calllitechnologica: Your last global was Reign. Tell us a bit about this global of yours. Do you consider it to be the best global you have ever released and if so why?

SJ: Actually the Reign global is not perfect, (sorry guys) maybe because of time, because I needed to spend my time with my family first before I leave to Macau to work. But I am proud of my last global because it chang-es the feel of the game when it comes to graphics.

Callitechnologica: After global you decided to hang your modding gloves – we stole a boxing term here - and you announced that you will retire from modding. What led you to this deci-sion? Is there any chance we will see another mod of yours in the future or is your deci-

sion final?

SJ: Yes, its hard for me leav-ing the community and also all the people who supportes my work. Its just that I don’t have a choice but to work in Macau, China to provide for my family. You know that I don’t sell my projects be-cause if I do, many gamers can’t enjoy the game that I’m enjoying. I just don’t feel like making a business in modding. I don’t know if I will mod again but hey, its not the end.

Callitechnologica: Last year you also released a Stadium Feel mod but this year you have not updated it. Why did you decide against updating your stadium feel mod?

SJ: Actually, stadium feel mod is originally made by my mentor, JohnDoe22, he just lent me that project to make it just like in 2k11. My main concern here is that not all

the gamers enjoy this be-cause it eats frame rate and also I decided not to contin-ue this one in 2k14 because the original author of this is returning to modding again.

Callitechnologica: Apart from your own mods what other mods are you using for your own 2k14 game.

SJ: I love all the projects of all my fellow Filipino. We have a group in facebook where all the Filipino modders share their projects.

Callitechnologica: Do you consider games as an art form nowadays? Do you consider yourself an artist?

SJ: Art? Mmm… maybe yes.. hehe.. maybe im an artist.

Callitechnologica : Thank you for the great interview Sean John. If there is some-thing you would like to add you can do so here. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I hope you will get back to modding some day and we will see more of your creations.

SJ: Thank you too for this interview. I know that if i did it, others can do it too. Just keep pushing yourself to the limit. Don’t think that you can only do this or that. Think about what you can still do to make it better. And the very important thing is, stay humble and always thank God . And don’t worry guys… remember termina-tor? Hehe I’ll be back!!

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interview with

SCARFACECallitechnologica: Scarface, thank you for accepting this interview request. Would you like to share with our read-ers your real name or would you rather remain known as Scarface? How old are you? What is your occupation?

SCARFACE: Thanks for invitation to this in-terview, It’s an honor for me. So my real name is Andris, for Russians it would be Andrey and I guess for Americans my name is Andrew, you can call me any of these or just use my nickname Scarface. I am 22 years old and

work as a security guard on a local en-terprise.

Callitechnologica: According to your profile in the NLSC forums you are from Latvia. Tell us a little bit about your coun-try and how it is to live there.

SCARFACE: Yes that’s correct, I live in Lat-via. Living in Latvia is not that bad at all, it’s a beautiful place especially in summer time. As you may know recently we got in the Eurozone and we are now of-ficially a Europeean country. Also our cur-rency has changed

from Lats to Euros this year. I am still getting used to this money. Many say that here in Latvia we have the most beautiful girls in the world and I can confirm that, you should totally visit us and see for yourself. I am proud of being a Latvian. How it is to live here? Well as I said not bad, dur-ring winter time we have pretty cold weather up to -30 degrees and I would say it’s the only con because I hate win-ter ;D Everything else is awesome. As I live in a small city, there is not so much en-tertanement here, just one night club,

few places where you can work out like gyms, basketball courts, a huge foot-ball field and so on. But if we talk about our capital city Riga, there is a lot to do there, one of my favorite thing is going to Arena Riga dur-ing KHL season and watch some hockey games. Overall I like living here.

Callitechnologica: You released a large number of mods for NBA 2k14, mostly cyberfaces but also other goodies as well like Nba balls, enb settings etc. What was the easiest to make and what was

Scarface is a prominent member of the NLSC forums and a former cyber-face maker. Before he retired he used to produce high quality cyberfaces. His best achievement so far is his V4 Lebron James, which was also some sort of a parting gift for the community. Apart from Lebron though he made some other memorable cyberfaces like Al Horford, Derek Fisher, DaMarcus Cous-ins and David Lee among others.

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the most difficult?

SCARFACE: Let’s see. I think cyberfaces are taking more time to make them, and I was always trying to make them as good as possible. I would say cybers are pretty difficult to make but since I had a bit of experience in doing stuff on Photoshop I think it turned out well and I also en-joyed making and sharing them. The easiest were balls and courts, cause there is not that much of textures to modify, it took me about 15-20 minutes to make a court and for NBA balls about 5-10 minutes.

Callitechnologica: There have been numerous attempts at making a convinc-ing Lebron James cyberface, and yours is considered by many to be the best so far. Was it a direct NG port? What differ-ences does it have compared to the real NG version?

Scarface: Heh, yeah Lebron is my favorite player so I always wanted to make for him the best cyber-face in the game, He is also the cover ath-lete on NBA 2K14 and I think he deserves a better cyber in-stead of 2K deafault which is nothing like

real Lebron. Was it a dirrect port? Nope, just few good screens from my man Kidow from NLSC since I do not own a Next Gen console and Next Gen version of the game. Differences may be in the head-shape, I admit that it’s not perfectly the same as Next Gen but it’s the closest thing so far I believe. I was trying to make a perfect texture and It’s my favorite part in making cyberfaces, Did it turn out well? You tell me, cause you guys are the judges. Personally I think it’s okay.

Callitechnologica: Tell us about the rest

of your cyberfaces. Which one was your favourite to make? Which was the most difficult one? And which one do you think is your worst at-tempt so far?

SCARFACE: Ou there is so many to choose from, I would say my favorite was Lebron James Next Gen ver-sion the final one, I spent few hours on it and it was really fun to make it. The most difficult was Anthony Bennett cause I was struggling with the skintone, He’s so dark in real life I got his face greenish at my first attempt :D I think Cam did a bet-ter version of Ben-

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nett. The worst one...hmm... First attempt of Eric Bledsoe I think is one of the worst I made. I am also not satisfied with my Chalmers and Aminu. But it’s difficult for me to judge which is the best or the worst be-cause all of the NLSC good fellas are the judges of my work and I respect their opinion.

Callitechnologica: Unfortunately you have decided to retire from modding, leaving your NG Tony Parker cyberface right in the middle of development. What led you to this deci-sion. What are the chances you will get back to creating more cyberfaces in the future?

SCARFACE: Yes, I will explain to you guys why I left. I had some family issues which were needed to take care of, my grandpa got verry sick and me and my family were preparing for the worst, but thank God he got better. He’s on his feet now ;) The second reason is my job, I have a lot of stuff to do, now I have more shifts especially at night so I can t get too much of a good sleep at night. Also it’s a big responsibility. During my holidays I can recieve phone calls when there is a situa-tion at my workplace and I have to imme-diately take care of things. So now I have less free time on my hobbies. And I could get back to modding

from time to time... this summer I will take a vocation, I will be able to spend more time on modding. I also have few good ideas and projects which I would love to try out and make them a reality.

Callitechnologica: You are not the only one who has quit as of late. SJ de-cided to quit too. Amarowaade de-cided to stop releas-ing cyberfaces for free. Others have stopped releasing mods for free in the recent months. What do you think are the reasons behind this recent surge of people quitting? Is it too demanding? Does modding start to feel like a job after a while?

SCARFACE: It’s a shame that so many good modders have quit because I really liked their work too and people were expecting from them more stuff comming out. The reasons may be similar to mine, they might have more impor-tant things to do, because personal life comes first. Why are people quitting now? I don’t know. It’s like time has come or something, maybe they got enough of it, it’s hard to tell, you should ask them, be-cause I would like to know as well. To me it didn’t feel like a job, I did it for fun and I am considering to con-tinue after a while.

Callitechnologica: There have been

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many debates re-garding the issue of payment for mods. What is your opin-ion about it? Do you think modders should be allowed to get paid or should mods be shared freely with everyone?

SCARFACE: Mods should be shared freely for sure be-cause no one likes to pay for this kind of things I guess, but at the same time every modder should have a donation link in his signature for those who really admire their work and would like to say thank you by a donation. I’ve had a donation but-ton as well and I was not forcing anyone to pay me, that’s their decission. No one should force people to pay, they will if they think it’s worth it.

Callitechnologica: Sometimes looking at a new cyberface evokes similar feel-ings to looking at a marvelous paint-ing or a beautiful photograph. Do you consider cyberface makers artists?

SCARFACE: Yes for sure. Everything you make is an art and cybers are too, It’s a thing that gets made by inspired and tal-ented people.

Callitechnologica: What are some of the best cyberfaces you have ever seen for the NBA 2k series (14 but also previous ver-sions as well)?

SCARFACE: Definitely cybers by Ama-roWaade. He’s a ver-ry talented guy and he is my idol. Too bad he left. But also I like many modders’ work

from NLSC forums like Kidow and Bamz.

Callitechnologica: Do you usually prefer direct ports from the NG version or do you prefer original cre-ations?

SCARFACE: Both are good as long as the result is good looking, but original creations are tougher.

Callitechnologica: Apart from NBA2k14 what other games do you enjoy playing on your PC?

SCARFACE: I am a huge fan of sports simulators, I have played all FIFA se-ries, NBA Live, NBA 2K, NHL from EA and many others, I like sports games because you can play them with your friends and have a good time. Also I like

different genres. Like GTA series, Max Payne, Need for Speed, especially Need for Speed Most Wanted.

Callitechnologica: What was the first 2K game you have ever played? Do you have fond memories from that game?

SCARFACE: The first was 2k9, after 2k9 I was getting into 2K series and I started to play older 2k NBA games. So far I think it’s the best basket-ball simulator. Good times is all I can say, It was few years ago when I was in Middle School. We were playing the game like crazy and after that playing basketball in our yard.

Callitechnologi-ca: When was the first time you ever worked on a mod?

SCARFACE: First I was working on mods for NHL 09, I did cyber-faces, uniforms, are-nas and all that stuff. It also was long time ago, but it was fun. Back then we had our own community called NHLLATVIA it was verry popular project in our coun-try, maybe you have heard about it.

Callitechnologica: Do you work with 3D graphics for other purposes other than making cyberfaces?

SCARFACE: I used to make silly stuff on 3D Studio Max like cars, people, houses just for fun.

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Callitechnologica: What is the process to create a cyber-face? How long does it take you and what skills do you have to possess to make a good looking cyber-face?

SCARFACE: All you need is some quality pictures of the player from both sides and front, then goes the hardest part making a texture and work-ing with skintones, I am trying to make faces on textures without loosing their detail, because when you scale and resize every part of each layer you can loose detail of the face and skin. Only when the texture is done I am doing a 3D headshape

with blender, it’s not that hard when u get used to it. Some modders like to edit 3D headhsape be-fore texture is done, I find it easier to make texture at first be-cause you can apply texture in blender and it’s better to make shapes of the head when you are seeing texture on 3D model. I am thinking of making a tutorial for cyberfaces some day, to show how I do cybers and show some of my tricks as well.

Callitechnologica: Do you like NBA 2k14 for PC? What would change for the next version if you were working at 2K Sports?

SCARFACE: Yes I do

like it, even though they didn t release the Next Gen ver-sion on PCs, it’s still a good basketball game with all the new animations and stuff. What would change If I would work with 2KSports? Never had a thought of that. Maybe more accurate faces of the players, who knows.

Callitechnologica: Would you like to add something else?

SCARFACE: Sure, It was a plesure an-swering your ques-tions, It feels nice when you get recog-nized for your hard work. Also I would like to say that I am sorry for my English, it’s not perfect since

my native language is Latvian, secondary is Russian and only then goes English.

Callitechnologica: Thank you very much for the opportunity to find out more about yourself. We certainly hope that you will find the time and the will to return to 2k14 modding because you have released some great art for this lovely game.

SCARFACE: You’re very welcome friend. Nice talking to you. Thanks for inviting me to this interview, I ve had a lot of fun answering your ques-tions. I will let you guys know when I will start doing mods again. Be safe and good luck.

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interview with

M4RC310Callitechnologica: M4rc310, thank you for partaking in this interview. Your contri-bution to the PES modding community is very much appreciated and it is great to have the chance to delve into the depths of your per-sonality. Let us begin with some personal questions. Is your real name Marcelo or is it something else? Where are you from? How popular are football video games in your country?

m4rc310: My name is Mar-celo Caro, I’m Peruvian and I am a fan of the best team of the Universitario de Deportes Sports video games of foot-ball are played around the country and there are peo-ple who spend hours play-ing. I personally spend hours editing for everyone to enjoy my humble work.

Callitechnologica: The eter-

nal football game question. PES or FIFA and why?

m4rc310: It’s a very good question and is hotly de-bated by all the fans, I tradi-tionally prefer the PES. Since childhood I started playing the Winnig Eleven. This modi-fied graphics engine is ques-tioned by many, but I am sure it will improve for future editions. In conclusion I pre-fer the PES.

Callitechnologica: What is your favourite PES game of all time?

m4rc310: I really like the PES 13

Callitechnologica: What is your day work? Does it have to do something with 3d modeling?

m4rc310: I am 17 years and

M4rc310 is a PES facemaker. At the moment of the interview he had stopped working on faces but lately he has been active once again. Some of his best works include Vargas, Farfan and Arda Turan. Recently he also pub-lished a preview of Jakub Blaszczykowski that was quite a spectacle.

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currently I am only study-ing. Editing faces for PES is a hobby,

Callitechnologica: Do you watch football? What is your favourite football team?

m4RC310: I like to see more South American football, but here in South America we live football with passion. As I said earlier my favorite team Universitario de Deportes (Peru Team) and if you have me choose one of Europe I would choose Fiorentina since there is one of my fa-vorite players (Juan Vargas) and it is also a good team.

Callitechnologica: Let’s move on to your PES faces. Would you like to share with our readers what techniques

you are using when making a face?

m4RC310: The method I use is FaceGen - blender - photoshop, I spend hours editing a single face and I don’t have many secrets. You just have to have patience and you have to be very thorough.

Callitechnologica: How long does it take you to create one face? What are the biggest chal-lenges you have to face in order to display some-thing that is similar to its real life counterpart?

m4RC310: Working time depends on you. The more you want to resem-

ble reality the more hours of work it is going to take to get the closest thing to real life face ... I think the minimum time to create a face is 5 hours.

Callitechnologica: Which face do you consider to be the best you have made so far in PES 2014?

m4RC310: I like my face Juan Vargas.

Callitechnologica: There are plenty of PES face makers out there. Who do you think are the best?

m4RC310: Today I think it’s Tunizizou. His faces are very real.

Callitechnologica: When was the first time you cre-ated a face for PES? How do you think the methods have changed since then? Has face making become easier or more difficult?

m4RC310: I started to edit PES in late 2012 and much has changed for this edition. PES 2014 seems to me the most laborious one but gets better resemblance to the real face.

Callitechnologica: Do you think that making faces is an art form? Could you imagine that someday there could be a museum with portraits of computer game faces?

m4RC310: I think that it is an art form. And a museum of faces sounds like a great idea.

Callitechnologica: Do you think mods and faces should be available to everyone for free or should the creators of these mods be paid for the art they produce?

m4RC310: interestingly, not everyone has the means to pay for faces but adfly is an alternative and would be a great token of appreciation.

Callitechnologica: What do you think of the latest PES game? What aspects do you think KONAMI has to im-prove on for PES 2015.

m4RC310: I think we should improve on physical play-

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ers. In the game they have very large bodies. But they must also have many more licenses.

Callitechnologica: In the early days of PES, the game was not released annually but it was released instead maybe once per 2 years or 1 and a half year. Do you think it is better to have a new PES every year or should the de-velopers wait until they are ready to release a full title?

m4RC310: I think Konami should take their time and give a complete and well prepared work to their cus-tomers and not selling an in-complete game that leaves a lot to be desired, it is good for them and us.

Callitechnologica: Do you think KONAMI should try to hire some of the people who create faces and other mods for PES?

m4RC310: Of course, many modders do a better job than KONAMI, and they de-serve a chance.

Callitechnologica: You have not released a new face pack for some time now and your thread has been in hiatus. Have you been busy? Do you plan to release more faces soon?

m4RC310: I see that many people no longer playing PES 2014 as they are very disappointed and I see no point in making some at the moment, but when I want to make a face I will make one.

Callitechnologica: Apart from faces, what other mods do you use for PES and what would be one mod you would love to have for PES 2014 but does not exist yet.

m4RC310: I would like to choose clothes for the goalkeepers and selecting gloves for goalkeepers.

Callitechnologica: Is there anything else you would like to add?

m4RC310: Telling gamers to support modders and links as if they put adfly wait 5 seconds that costs nothing compared to the hours we spent editing faces.

Callitechnologica: Thank you very much for the op-portunity to conduct an interview with you. We wish you all the best with your future endeavors.

m4RC310: Thank you for the interview, it was fun. Thank you very much for your wishes and sorry for my bad English.

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2K14 is his game. He is on the game’s cover. There is a special mode made just for him in the PC version. Since the release of 2k14, modders around the globe have attempted to create a cyberface that does him justice. Hun-dreds of attempts later, the search is over. Scarface took the NG texture and sculpted the best Lebron James ever released out of it.

ALL HAIL THE KING

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Getting Lebron James right has been an obsession for 2K14 art-ists since the early days after the game’s release. There have been more faces made for him than any other NBA player.

Some of those faces, made by a plethora of popular modders such as Amarowaade, Basagre, TWN-Love and others, were very close to perfection. Despite their valiant efforts no one had released a Leb-ron that could surpass the next-gen version.

After a while people tried so many new versions of him that many even remembered that png1013 is the filename corresponding to his cyberface. Scarface decided to stop going against the wind. Instead he copied the NG version and released the first version of his NG Lebron a couple of months ago. This turned out to be an in-stant success.

A few days after the release of the most accurate LBJ cy-berface until then, Scarface had an unpleasant surprise for his fans. He announced that he retired from mod-ding.

In order to honor his contribu-tion to the community it was quite fitting that the first issue of the magazine should fea-ture an interview with one of the best modders out there who recently retired.

However, he wasn’t com-pletely done yet. He had another surprise, this time a pleasant one. A parting gift.Callitechnologica was al-ready in the works, his inter-

view already submitted and now Scarface teases the modding world by releasing some preview pictures of an updated version of his al-ready perfect Lebron James.

After some brief negotiations performed by email we man-aged to secure the exclsuive download rights by Scarface and we can celebrate the release of the first issue of Callitechnologica with this rare piece of art.

Whether you play with the Heat or with another team, it is great to have such an im-portant player, whether ally or adversary, be displayed in such a believable form.

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ATTENTION TO DETAIL

It is quite evident that LBJ v4 is a labour of love. Scarface has paid attention to the most min-ute details in order to provide us with a cyber-face that is as close to the real thing as pos-sible. 1. The receeding hairline has become a trade-mark of Lebron James as of late. The shine added makes the face stand out from the rest during game time.2. Probably the only part of this cyberface that leaves some room for imrpovement. Scar-face darkened the area around the nose and cheeks so LBJ looks a bit less interesting when he has a headband on.3 and 4. Scarface improved the areas around the ears, he worked on Lebron’s sideburns and he did some minor adjustments on his chin and his beard.5. His hair has received some new details here and there which makes the back of his head more interesting.6. Scarface removed the black line from Leb-ron’s neck.

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Lebron James V4 shows beyond any doubt that Scarface put a lot of effort in his works. He used to be open to criticism and this made his cyberfaces even better. His work will be certainly missed.

We hope that his last Lebron James will inspire other modders to put a similar amount of time and effort in their own creations.

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AL JEFFERSON &ANTHONY DAVIS

FrowardaXL83 is a talented artist who has improved immensely in the past few months. He was one step away from retir-ing, but fortunately for all of us he recon-sidered.

Some of his latest cyberfaces are true masterpieces and we have the honour to provide you exclusively with two of his latest achievements.

Read on to find out more about them.

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Anthony Davis is a new basketball prospect. A talented player, who took part in the Rookies All Star game. In a few years from now he might be one the league’s super-stars. So you might be thinking of making a cyberface for him.

Let me save you some time. Stop right now. Because Frowardaxl83 nailed that one! There had been a couple of good Anthony Davis re-leased already but this one takes the cake.

Davis’ face is quite peculiar with the long thick eyebrows, the short fore-head, the puffy cheeks. Froward-aXL83 has managed to capture all those characteristics that make the countenance of Davis so unique.

The skintone and the hair, areas that the artist has had some difficulties with occasionally in the past, are also top-notch. There really isn’t any-thing that could be done better.

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FrowardaXL83 has not jumped on the next gen bandwagon and this is why his cyberfaces are well-known for their photorealistic fea-tures. The same applies to the Al Jefferson cyberface.

No one else has made an Al Jef-ferson cyberface so close to real-ity. There is however quite a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the skintone.

Some parts of his skin look some-what reddish. This however is also the result of graphic injectors like SweetFX cooking up the colours. If you play 2K14 without using enbs or SweetFX settings, the skintone is much better.

Nevertheless, most cyberfaces don’t turn to red when SweetFX or Enb is applied, so this comes as a disadvantage, not one that ruins the rest of the experience though.

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Bamz is the NG conversion expert of the 2K14 modding community. He has succesfully converted NBA athletes like Jason Richardson and Trevor Ariza. We have two new faces converted from the NG version of 2K14 by Bamz as a little present for our readers. DeMar Derozan of the Toronto Raptors and David West of the Indiana Pacers.26

DeMar Derozan’s de-fault 2k14 face was in serious need of a replacement. Although the conver-sion is not exactlly identical to the NG version - Derozan in NG looks slightly different than the conversion made by Bamz - he still makes up for a far more interesting

Derozan than we had be-fore. However, by looking at his face one cannot help but feel that something is off. Maybe his headshape could use some modificatiion, as his forehead seems uncharac-teristically inflated. David West on the

other hand looks perfect. He is not an identical copy of the NG version either. Bamz has a distinct style in convert-ing NG faces. Sometimes it works wonders, and in this case it absolutely does. West has all the good qualities of his Next Gen counterpart, the shiny

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scalp, the sinister look, the goatee. At the same time Bamz managed to eliminate all the disadvantages of the NG version, even though they were not that many to begin with, as the David West in the consoles version is quite spectacular.

What I mean when I say that he eliminated the disadvantages is that David West by Bamz, does not look like he just had multiple botox injections and he looks less cartoony than the Next Gen one. This is why the NG con-versions by Bamz stand out,

because it is as if he blends elements of both worlds. It is unfortunate that something went awry with Derozan. One could assume that the NG Derozan’s face does not translate well on the headshape of the PC Dero-zan. Still, he looks much bet-ter than the vanilla one.

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Kylemayuga, released a Tyson Chandler Next Gen conversion in the last days of February.

He claimed to retire after this last release of his. His cyberface looks rather fantastic and it is a pity that he won’t release any more faces.

Alongside Tyson Chandler he also released a Nick Young cyberface but that one is not as noteworthy since the skin colour is nothing like the skin of the body and the face does not really look like Nick Young.

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EXCLUSIVE FACEPACK BY STRAONE

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Real or digital? It is easy to get confused nowadays. One search for Ronaldo PES 3-2014 will show you how much things have changed recently.

Straone’s depiction of Ronaldo shares the same characteristics with the real CR7. Up-tight lips, extravagant hair style and the same snobbish stare.

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Konami should do them-selves a favour and hire Straone. Seriously, have you seen a better Messi in any installment of PES or FIFA?

The only asoect that could use a little fine-tuning is his hair. Actually in some pics you see a version with light hair colour, but this was buggy and Straone provided us with another one, albeit with darker hair.

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Franck Ribery has a rather unique face. The scars on his cheeks and his forehead and the irregularly receed-ing hair line make him stand out from the crowd.

Straone has sucked all those features out of the real Ribery and put them all in his face in great detail. I couldn’t think of anything that would make this cyber-face any better than it already is.

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Another testimony to Straone’s artistry. In some other faces like Messi and Iniesta, the hair was his Achille’s heel.

In this certain one, he nailed Xavi’s hair. You can almost feel the hair being all sticky from the excessive applica-tion of gel, just like Xavi does in real life.

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It’s hard to continue writing about Straone’s face without repeating yourself.

The element that catches the eye on Ben-zema’s cyberface is the thin, sort of sour-look-ing lips and the distinct nose shape.

Once again, a fantastic job by a fantastic artist.

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Andres Iniesta’s cyber-face is probably the only one that feels a little less polished than the oth-ers. The area around his mouth come out as rather plumpy and his hair could also be portrayed better.

Still there is no Iniesta face that comes to mind that is better than this one. But Iniesta could be done better.

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