Thursday, August 07, 2008
Back To Articles
That time of the month again to start cranking out more GameAxis articles.
Also, we have now seen an early preview of the ad for the Liquid City comic anthology which lists all the big names that will be appearing in the comic. We, apparently, fall under the category "And others."
That time of the month again to start cranking out more GameAxis articles.
Also, we have now seen an early preview of the ad for the Liquid City comic anthology which lists all the big names that will be appearing in the comic. We, apparently, fall under the category "And others."
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Creating Comics, Journalism, Writing
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Slow Wednesday
Only two things to do, play more Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and start on another IGN article.
Only two things to do, play more Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and start on another IGN article.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism
Monday, June 09, 2008
The Monthly Ritual
Yup, back to GameAxis articles for the next issue. And watching the Wife begin a slow but truly frightening mastery of the nuances of resource management in Civilization: Revolution. I don't think I've ever seen her in this much anticipation of a game. She's alternately flipping between getting the PC version to tide her over until next month, or importing the UK version because for some reason, Europe gets the title a month before North America. This week, in fact.
Yup, back to GameAxis articles for the next issue. And watching the Wife begin a slow but truly frightening mastery of the nuances of resource management in Civilization: Revolution. I don't think I've ever seen her in this much anticipation of a game. She's alternately flipping between getting the PC version to tide her over until next month, or importing the UK version because for some reason, Europe gets the title a month before North America. This week, in fact.
Labels: Games, Journalism, Writing
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Back To Articles
Started up on the next round of GameAxis articles, played some games, and have to gear up for more IGN stuff next week.
Started up on the next round of GameAxis articles, played some games, and have to gear up for more IGN stuff next week.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Writing
Monday, May 26, 2008
Writing Things Up
Aside from finishing up and sending off an article to High-Def Digest not much to talk about...
Aside from finishing up and sending off an article to High-Def Digest not much to talk about...
Labels: Journalism
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Semi-Productive Sunday
Sent off the last of the GameAxis articles for the month. Other than that, it's more time spent in the stinking, chaotic bowels of Liberty City.
Sent off the last of the GameAxis articles for the month. Other than that, it's more time spent in the stinking, chaotic bowels of Liberty City.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Saturday In The Neighborhood
Aside from the Wife feeling a teensy bit under the weather, it was an otherwise quiet, day with great weather. I meandered down to my favorite game store to pick up the title to the left, which is technically a game I already have, sort of. Persona 3: FES is actually the original Persona 3 RPG with some minor additions to the existing game and an all new additional adventure tacked on that provides the "true ending" of the game, since the original game ended somewhat ambiguously. Aside from that, I started up on the last GameAxis article for the month and slowly crept up a few percentage points in completion for Grand Theft Auto IV. I've now stolen a bunch of exotic cars for a 'roid enhanced maniac and struck down the 10 most wanted criminals in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The moral of the story; cops pay crap for outsourcing.
Aside from the Wife feeling a teensy bit under the weather, it was an otherwise quiet, day with great weather. I meandered down to my favorite game store to pick up the title to the left, which is technically a game I already have, sort of. Persona 3: FES is actually the original Persona 3 RPG with some minor additions to the existing game and an all new additional adventure tacked on that provides the "true ending" of the game, since the original game ended somewhat ambiguously. Aside from that, I started up on the last GameAxis article for the month and slowly crept up a few percentage points in completion for Grand Theft Auto IV. I've now stolen a bunch of exotic cars for a 'roid enhanced maniac and struck down the 10 most wanted criminals in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The moral of the story; cops pay crap for outsourcing.Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto, RPGs, Writing
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Still Boring
Finished the High Def Digest article, messed around with some of the new content in the Playstation store, and, of course, went back to Grand Theft Auto IV. Also the Wife surprised the hell out of me by going out of her way to track down an Atlus RPG all on her own on eBay, just because she's that big a fangirl of the company now.
Finished the High Def Digest article, messed around with some of the new content in the Playstation store, and, of course, went back to Grand Theft Auto IV. Also the Wife surprised the hell out of me by going out of her way to track down an Atlus RPG all on her own on eBay, just because she's that big a fangirl of the company now.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Being Boring
Writing articles, hunting down pigeons. That's about it.
Writing articles, hunting down pigeons. That's about it.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Back To Work
And slower play. Time to start on another High Def Digest article as well as get prepped for more stuff for IGN. In the meantime. I've killed 5 pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV. Just 195 to go...
And slower play. Time to start on another High Def Digest article as well as get prepped for more stuff for IGN. In the meantime. I've killed 5 pigeons in Grand Theft Auto IV. Just 195 to go...Labels: Games, Journalism, Writing
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday In Downtown
The Wife needed to meet someone in downtown to discuss some work related things so we meandered over to the fairly large Indigo's bookstore branch to do the deed and promptly got suckered into spending waaaay too much time looking at nice books.
Bookstores are evil.
Also, wrote a bit more of the next High Def Digest article and made a little progress in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Of course, in just over a week, everything grinds to a halt for the majesty of gaming that is Grand Theft Auto IV. My God, to think it's almost here now... feels like I've been waiting for freakin' ever for this game to release...
The Wife needed to meet someone in downtown to discuss some work related things so we meandered over to the fairly large Indigo's bookstore branch to do the deed and promptly got suckered into spending waaaay too much time looking at nice books.
Bookstores are evil.
Also, wrote a bit more of the next High Def Digest article and made a little progress in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue.
Of course, in just over a week, everything grinds to a halt for the majesty of gaming that is Grand Theft Auto IV. My God, to think it's almost here now... feels like I've been waiting for freakin' ever for this game to release...
Labels: Games, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto, Writing
Weekend Of Work
Started on the next High-Def Digest article, did some tax-related stuff plonking receipts and their amounts into an Excel sheet, wrote a bit of comic, a bit of novel and raced a bit in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. I have bought and raced my first Ferrari.
Okay, so NOW I understand what the big deal is with those cars, good God, those things are BEASTS on the road...
Started on the next High-Def Digest article, did some tax-related stuff plonking receipts and their amounts into an Excel sheet, wrote a bit of comic, a bit of novel and raced a bit in Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. I have bought and raced my first Ferrari.
Okay, so NOW I understand what the big deal is with those cars, good God, those things are BEASTS on the road...
Labels: Creating Comics, Games, Journalism, Novel Writing, Writing
Monday, April 14, 2008
Monday Of Writing
Aside from churning out another GameAxis article, the rest of the day consisted of a) getting my ass kicked in Baroque and b) slogging through another ass kicking in Devil May Cry 4. Man these games are HARD...
Aside from churning out another GameAxis article, the rest of the day consisted of a) getting my ass kicked in Baroque and b) slogging through another ass kicking in Devil May Cry 4. Man these games are HARD...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Quiet Sunday
Finished up an article for GameAxis (it's that time of the month again, after all) and finally got around to eating in a restaurant we'd walked by a million, buzillion times. Called The Indian Rice Factory, we only just found out it's rated as one of the best Indian restaurants in the city. It certainly compared favorably with my Singapore experiences, but then I never ate Indian food at a really decent restaurant in Singapore, all my sampling was always done in hawker centers and food courts.
Finished up an article for GameAxis (it's that time of the month again, after all) and finally got around to eating in a restaurant we'd walked by a million, buzillion times. Called The Indian Rice Factory, we only just found out it's rated as one of the best Indian restaurants in the city. It certainly compared favorably with my Singapore experiences, but then I never ate Indian food at a really decent restaurant in Singapore, all my sampling was always done in hawker centers and food courts.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Just Another Tuesday
A bit of shopping, a bit of writing the comic, the children's novel, and getting approval for the next High Def Digest article. Oh and playing more Dirge of Cerberus.
A bit of shopping, a bit of writing the comic, the children's novel, and getting approval for the next High Def Digest article. Oh and playing more Dirge of Cerberus.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Creating Comics, Games, Journalism, Lost In Loveless, Novel Writing, Writing
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Gallery Stuff
The Wife attended a couple of talks being held at the local gallery where her bear is being shown. I went down with her, and it was an interesting couple of talks on a) the publishing of art books because it's fun and b) designer toys and how the market is slowly growing. After that it was back home to start cranking out this month's GameAxis articles, and mess around with Obscure: Aftermath and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus some more.
The Wife attended a couple of talks being held at the local gallery where her bear is being shown. I went down with her, and it was an interesting couple of talks on a) the publishing of art books because it's fun and b) designer toys and how the market is slowly growing. After that it was back home to start cranking out this month's GameAxis articles, and mess around with Obscure: Aftermath and Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus some more.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto, Writing
Friday, April 04, 2008
Friday Is All Over The Place
Kind of doddled with a bunch of different things today, including continuing my masochistic march through Devil May Cry 4's "Dante Must Die" mode (it hates gamers. It really, really hates them...) and in a fit of gamer nostalgia, firing up the old PS1 game Vagrant Story by Squenix, back when they were still Squaresoft. Man, what a difference 8 years makes... I look at these PS1 year 2000 graphics--remember how blown away I was at the time--and all I can do is shake my head. Also continued to crank out some pages of the comic for the Wife, and gave some thought to the next High Def Digest article. I think I have it nailed down and will get in touch with the editor about it soon.
Kind of doddled with a bunch of different things today, including continuing my masochistic march through Devil May Cry 4's "Dante Must Die" mode (it hates gamers. It really, really hates them...) and in a fit of gamer nostalgia, firing up the old PS1 game Vagrant Story by Squenix, back when they were still Squaresoft. Man, what a difference 8 years makes... I look at these PS1 year 2000 graphics--remember how blown away I was at the time--and all I can do is shake my head. Also continued to crank out some pages of the comic for the Wife, and gave some thought to the next High Def Digest article. I think I have it nailed down and will get in touch with the editor about it soon.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Creating Comics, Games, Journalism, Writing
Thursday, April 03, 2008
More Writing
Sent off the High-Def Digest article and it was accepted with very minor tweaks. Other than that, wrote more of the comic, wrote some of the children's novel and once again got annihilated by Green Grass & High Tides on Rock Band...
Sent off the High-Def Digest article and it was accepted with very minor tweaks. Other than that, wrote more of the comic, wrote some of the children's novel and once again got annihilated by Green Grass & High Tides on Rock Band...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Creating Comics, Games, Journalism, Lost In Loveless, Rock Band, Writing
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Typical Wednesday
Finished off the High-Def Digest article, though I'll sit on it and give it the once over tomorrow before sending it off. Also started on a script for a comic the Wife's been meaning to do for a while now. This is always fun. We make a good team. In other Wife-ly news the picture below that I once featured:
Has been selected to appear in a Street Fighter Tribute art book by Udon Entertainment.
And I should really get around to checking out Sunshine now that I've got that Blu-Ray disc sitting around...
Finished off the High-Def Digest article, though I'll sit on it and give it the once over tomorrow before sending it off. Also started on a script for a comic the Wife's been meaning to do for a while now. This is always fun. We make a good team. In other Wife-ly news the picture below that I once featured:
Has been selected to appear in a Street Fighter Tribute art book by Udon Entertainment.And I should really get around to checking out Sunshine now that I've got that Blu-Ray disc sitting around...
Labels: Artwork, Creating Comics, Journalism, Writing
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Working Day
Started cranking out the next article for High-Def Digest. Other than that, got back into some Rock Band and have garnered a new appreciation for Coheed & Cambria. I dunno why, but their DLC song Tenspeed has suddenly catapulted itself into my "Oh my God, this song kicks ass!" category...
Started cranking out the next article for High-Def Digest. Other than that, got back into some Rock Band and have garnered a new appreciation for Coheed & Cambria. I dunno why, but their DLC song Tenspeed has suddenly catapulted itself into my "Oh my God, this song kicks ass!" category...
Labels: Games, Journalism, Rock Band
Thursday, March 27, 2008
It's Up
My first article for the website High Def Digest has gone up. It's here. And now, back to killing infidels that dare to defile the Holy Land with their outrageous Christian God.
My first article for the website High Def Digest has gone up. It's here. And now, back to killing infidels that dare to defile the Holy Land with their outrageous Christian God.
Labels: Games, Journalism
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Errand Day
In which laundry was done, minor groceries were purchased, a cat was force fed a pill, some Devil May Cry 4 was played (because the new PS3 refuses to recognize my game save as belonging to me and denies me access. Bleah, I hate re-starting...) and I finally saw the new Hulk trailer, only to be amazed to find that apparently New York bears a striking resemblance to Yonge Street, right down the Sam The Record Man store and Zanzibar club. I finished up my first article for the High Def Digest and sent that off, I expect it'll probably go up next week. I learned quite a few interesting things about the history of High Definition gaming in the process, so I'm quite glad I got to write it. I also put down some deposits at the local game store for the Atlus RPGs Baroque, Persona 3: FES and Grand Theft Auto IV.
April is gonna' be a brutal month for games...
In which laundry was done, minor groceries were purchased, a cat was force fed a pill, some Devil May Cry 4 was played (because the new PS3 refuses to recognize my game save as belonging to me and denies me access. Bleah, I hate re-starting...) and I finally saw the new Hulk trailer, only to be amazed to find that apparently New York bears a striking resemblance to Yonge Street, right down the Sam The Record Man store and Zanzibar club. I finished up my first article for the High Def Digest and sent that off, I expect it'll probably go up next week. I learned quite a few interesting things about the history of High Definition gaming in the process, so I'm quite glad I got to write it. I also put down some deposits at the local game store for the Atlus RPGs Baroque, Persona 3: FES and Grand Theft Auto IV.
April is gonna' be a brutal month for games...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Whole Day Inside
Toronto pretty much looked like the picture to the left for the entire day. This wasn't that big a deal to me, having grown up in Edmonton where 30 degrees below zero is pretty much a given at some point during the winter. It was also not a big deal to the Wife, surprisingly, because all the movies and my horror stories of walking to school in deep snow had led her to expect that all of Canada was one continental sized, never-ending episode of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. This weather merely confirmed her expectations.
However, for most of our friends and neighbors here in Ontario (Best Friend, Tactician and Math Genius excepting who also hail from Edmonton) this was pretty severe and much chaos ensued from drivers totally unprepared for winter driving conditions, despite the fact that they are Canadian and have lived here all their lives. Apparently to the life-long residents of Toronto, the current weather is quite a big deal, and despite the fact that the snow still hasn't reached--at least for me--alarming levels, they are pretty much in awe of the weather this year. Oh these Eastern Canadians and their delicate sensibilities... how quaint.
Aside from that, a day spent gleefully cooped up at home resulted in the completion of grinding for all Final Fantasy IX characters, who are all now level 99. The only thing left to do now is finish off a couple an optional boss, and the game will be done. After sitting in my collection for 8 years, it will finally be done.
Also the biggest blog site about videogames, Kotaku, has made it known that they are looking for a Weekend Editor. I figured, "What the hell," and let them know I was available. Guess we'll see whether or not they can use me...
Toronto pretty much looked like the picture to the left for the entire day. This wasn't that big a deal to me, having grown up in Edmonton where 30 degrees below zero is pretty much a given at some point during the winter. It was also not a big deal to the Wife, surprisingly, because all the movies and my horror stories of walking to school in deep snow had led her to expect that all of Canada was one continental sized, never-ending episode of Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. This weather merely confirmed her expectations.However, for most of our friends and neighbors here in Ontario (Best Friend, Tactician and Math Genius excepting who also hail from Edmonton) this was pretty severe and much chaos ensued from drivers totally unprepared for winter driving conditions, despite the fact that they are Canadian and have lived here all their lives. Apparently to the life-long residents of Toronto, the current weather is quite a big deal, and despite the fact that the snow still hasn't reached--at least for me--alarming levels, they are pretty much in awe of the weather this year. Oh these Eastern Canadians and their delicate sensibilities... how quaint.
Aside from that, a day spent gleefully cooped up at home resulted in the completion of grinding for all Final Fantasy IX characters, who are all now level 99. The only thing left to do now is finish off a couple an optional boss, and the game will be done. After sitting in my collection for 8 years, it will finally be done.
Also the biggest blog site about videogames, Kotaku, has made it known that they are looking for a Weekend Editor. I figured, "What the hell," and let them know I was available. Guess we'll see whether or not they can use me...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Mean Streets Of Toronto, RPGs
Thursday, March 06, 2008
More Work
Aside from still playing Final Fantasy IX and writing GameAxis stuff, I also finally solidified an agreement to be a new contributor. I'll be writing articles for a website called The High-Def Digest, which I've been frequenting for a while now. They have the best reviews of Blu-Ray discs, and unlike other websites during the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war, they played a mean games of Swiss Neutrality and refused to endorse one format over the other. As as a result, it was a refreshing island of rationalism in a sea of frothing, boiling format fanboy hate. I'm looking forward to writing for them since I've enjoyed their content so much over the last year.
Aside from still playing Final Fantasy IX and writing GameAxis stuff, I also finally solidified an agreement to be a new contributor. I'll be writing articles for a website called The High-Def Digest, which I've been frequenting for a while now. They have the best reviews of Blu-Ray discs, and unlike other websites during the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war, they played a mean games of Swiss Neutrality and refused to endorse one format over the other. As as a result, it was a refreshing island of rationalism in a sea of frothing, boiling format fanboy hate. I'm looking forward to writing for them since I've enjoyed their content so much over the last year.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, RPGs, Writing
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Routine Continues
Ran errands around the neighborhood, tried a new restaurant, wrote GameAxis article, wrote children's novel, played Final Fantasy IX, and that's about it...
Ran errands around the neighborhood, tried a new restaurant, wrote GameAxis article, wrote children's novel, played Final Fantasy IX, and that's about it...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Lost In Loveless, Novel Writing, RPGs, Writing
Friday, February 29, 2008
More Quiet Work
Just another day in which a snow fall was avoided by hiding indoors, a GameAxis article was started and finished, more writing to the children's novel was eked out and some Final Fantasy IX was played.
This, apparently, is what happens you're "settled down."
Just another day in which a snow fall was avoided by hiding indoors, a GameAxis article was started and finished, more writing to the children's novel was eked out and some Final Fantasy IX was played.
This, apparently, is what happens you're "settled down."
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Lost In Loveless, RPGs, Writing
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Articles Done
And it's back to Devil May Cry 4 to finish assorted secret missions.
And it's back to Devil May Cry 4 to finish assorted secret missions.
Labels: Games, Journalism, Writing
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
First Big Feature
It took a while, but today, IGN finally put the first of a two part feature on their Insider section that I wrote. Whoo hoo, not an interview, not a news piece, but an honest to gosh old fashioned Gamer's Rant by yours truly. Hopefully this won't be the last. Unfortunately, no one can read it unless they have a subscription to IGN Insider, but here's the introductory link.
It took a while, but today, IGN finally put the first of a two part feature on their Insider section that I wrote. Whoo hoo, not an interview, not a news piece, but an honest to gosh old fashioned Gamer's Rant by yours truly. Hopefully this won't be the last. Unfortunately, no one can read it unless they have a subscription to IGN Insider, but here's the introductory link.
Labels: Gaming Industry, Journalism, Writing
Friday, January 11, 2008
Still Writing
And of course, I've finished up Uncharted on Hard and am now working through it at the hardest difficulty level, Crushing, which is... Really, DAMN Hard... Also, in a total surprise move, the whammy bar on my Fender Strat Rock Band controller has died. Time to put in that order for a replacement. Good thing it's still under warranty...
And of course, I've finished up Uncharted on Hard and am now working through it at the hardest difficulty level, Crushing, which is... Really, DAMN Hard... Also, in a total surprise move, the whammy bar on my Fender Strat Rock Band controller has died. Time to put in that order for a replacement. Good thing it's still under warranty...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Rock Band, Writing
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Back To Work
Oh hey, I'm supposed to be writing articles for a monthly videogame magazine, aren't I?
Oh hey, I'm supposed to be writing articles for a monthly videogame magazine, aren't I?
Labels: Journalism
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Quiet. Occupied
Finished off the GameAxis articles for the month, and started on some stuff for the kid's comic. In an effort to keep the momentum going (just a little over two weeks now!) here is a video of songs that appear in Rock Band. It's not quite up to date, but it still covers the majority.
Finished off the GameAxis articles for the month, and started on some stuff for the kid's comic. In an effort to keep the momentum going (just a little over two weeks now!) here is a video of songs that appear in Rock Band. It's not quite up to date, but it still covers the majority.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Creating Comics, Journalism, Rock Band, Writing
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Another Boring Day
Wrote articles. Did some shopping in the neighborhood. Downloaded new stuff off the Playstation Store. Oh, and I forgot to mention the Wife bought this for herself yesterday:
For people that don't know their Final Fantasy-lore, the creature on the left is known as a "Tonberry." It is a cute little lizard thing that wields a tiny butcher's knife. This seemingly harmless creature is the bane of any encounter in a FF game simply because it has an obscene number of hit points (think 9999) and slowly advances towards you with each turn as you try in panicked fashion to pummel it. If it should manage to get within striking distance of your character, it pokes you with that little knife which means instant death. It is the Wife's favorite FF monster. She could not resist when she saw this, and bought it a funky vintage gaming store on Bloor and Spadina. I think she scored major points for a) being a girl and b) being a girl that actually KNEW what this was...
Wrote articles. Did some shopping in the neighborhood. Downloaded new stuff off the Playstation Store. Oh, and I forgot to mention the Wife bought this for herself yesterday:
For people that don't know their Final Fantasy-lore, the creature on the left is known as a "Tonberry." It is a cute little lizard thing that wields a tiny butcher's knife. This seemingly harmless creature is the bane of any encounter in a FF game simply because it has an obscene number of hit points (think 9999) and slowly advances towards you with each turn as you try in panicked fashion to pummel it. If it should manage to get within striking distance of your character, it pokes you with that little knife which means instant death. It is the Wife's favorite FF monster. She could not resist when she saw this, and bought it a funky vintage gaming store on Bloor and Spadina. I think she scored major points for a) being a girl and b) being a girl that actually KNEW what this was...Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Gaming Industry, Journalism, RPGs, Writing
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Another Low Grade Work Day
Finished up a comic script, started on another article for GameAxis. That's about it...
Finished up a comic script, started on another article for GameAxis. That's about it...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Comics, Journalism, Writing
Monday, October 29, 2007
One Of Those Quiet Days
Not much happening except the completion of an article, start of a small script for a short comic strip, and some hope for the Blu-Ray format that Warner Brothers might defect, which, if it were to occur, would pretty much end the format war. Oh and Guitar Hero III is suffering from a large number of defective guitar reports. Karma against Activision for attempting to kill the Soul of Rock continues and I'm shamefully enjoying it.
Not much happening except the completion of an article, start of a small script for a short comic strip, and some hope for the Blu-Ray format that Warner Brothers might defect, which, if it were to occur, would pretty much end the format war. Oh and Guitar Hero III is suffering from a large number of defective guitar reports. Karma against Activision for attempting to kill the Soul of Rock continues and I'm shamefully enjoying it.
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Guitar Hero, Journalism, Writing
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Fighting For Reasonable Wakefulness
Today we took a stand against advancing sleeping hours and actually tried getting up earlier, which was mostly successful. We might even try something similar today 'cause we're Just That Wild N' Crazy.
Once again, writing continues. I finished up an article for IGN which I'll be sending them tomorrow, and sent off my resume to GamePro, who, it turns out, are looking for Freelancers. So I dropped them a line, showed off some links with GameAxis and IGN and will see if they bite. It would be nice to do even MORE game writing, since this will feed my bottomless habit of questing for game knowledge and bitching about games on the internet anyway...
Speaking of games, once again, I continue my love affair with Rock Band. Here's the latest list of songs, with songs in bold being original master tracks.
Today we took a stand against advancing sleeping hours and actually tried getting up earlier, which was mostly successful. We might even try something similar today 'cause we're Just That Wild N' Crazy.
Once again, writing continues. I finished up an article for IGN which I'll be sending them tomorrow, and sent off my resume to GamePro, who, it turns out, are looking for Freelancers. So I dropped them a line, showed off some links with GameAxis and IGN and will see if they bite. It would be nice to do even MORE game writing, since this will feed my bottomless habit of questing for game knowledge and bitching about games on the internet anyway...
Speaking of games, once again, I continue my love affair with Rock Band. Here's the latest list of songs, with songs in bold being original master tracks.
- "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" - Jet
- "Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
- "Blitzkrieg Bop" - Ramones
- "Brainpower" - Freezepop
- "Celebrity Skin" - Hole
- "Cherub Rock" - Smashing Pumpkins
- "Creep" - Radiohead
- "Dani California" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
- "Detroit Rock City" - Kiss
- "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult
- "Enter Sandman" - Metallica
- "Epic" - Faith No More
- "Gimme Shelter" - Rolling Stones
- "Go with the Flow" - Queens of the Stone Age
- "The Hand That Feeds" - Nine Inch Nails
- "Here It Goes Again" - OK Go
- "Highway Star" - Deep Purple
- "I Think I'm Paranoid" - Garbage
- "In Bloom" - Nirvana
- "Learn to Fly" - Foo Fighters
- "Main Offender" - The Hives
- "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- "Mississippi Queen" - Mountain
- "Orange Crush" - R.E.M.
- "Paranoid" - Black Sabbath
- "Reptilia" - The Strokes
- "Sabotage" - Beastie Boys
- "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer
- "Should I Stay or Should I Go" - The Clash
- "Suffragette City" - David Bowie
- "Tom Sawyer" - Rush
- "Vasoline" - Stone Temple Pilots
- "Wanted Dead or Alive" - Bon Jovi
- "Wave of Mutilation" - Pixies
- "Won't Get Fooled Again" - The Who
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Journalism, Lost In Loveless, Writing
Friday, October 19, 2007
Anniversary Tonkatsu
Today was spent in a remarkably Japanese way. Never mind the fact that we woke up at our usual obscenely late hour that would probably have qualified as morning in Japan anyway, the Wife decided that since we'd been satisfying many of her Asiatic cravings (such as proper Dim Sum) It was now time to do the same for me. Although I don't actually many Asian cuisine cravings, one thing in particular I developed a fondness for in Singapore was a dish known as Tonkatsu Curry, which is essentially breaded, deep fried pork cutlet with rice and some of that unique Japanese curry that does NOT kill my tongue for hours afterwards the way normal Singapore spices do. Back in Singapore, there was a little restaurant in the basement of the big Japanese department store Takashimaya, and they happened to have Tonkatsu Curry as their house specialty, offering it both as a dish with rice and as a sandwich. It was VERY tasty, and I'd obviously not had any of it since coming back to Canada. It turned out that further into the downtown core was a restaurant that had Tonkatsu, and they even offered Japanese curry as a side order, it just never occurred to them that this particular combination was, in fact, an actual dish in Japan. So though they were mighty confused about my wanting both, when we arrived, they did indeed serve it to us. It wasn't as good as the stuff in Singapore, but then you have to make allowances when you eat Asian food in the West.
Other than that, the Japanese theme continued with playing some Gran Turismo Prologue (now that the demo for this game is finally available in Japan; thank you internet, and thank you Sony Playstation Store dummy account) and it's good. And HARD. It would probably help if I had a steering wheel, but we'll worry about some other day.
The only other thing of note is that I finally have an IGN article out that you don't have to be subscribed to IGN Insider in order to read. Whoo hoo, I'm finally in the free, "normal, mainstream content" channel. The article is essentially just my impressions after finally getting a chance to play Rock Band on the Playstation 3, a particular concern for me since I obviously have one, and I wanted to see whether or not the game was going to be butchered on the PS3 the way Guitar Hero III has been (it looks like the Xbox 360 version is the one to get, Neversoft/Activision have pretty much given The Finger to owners of Sony consoles past and present) and it turns out... IT'S NOT! Whoo hoo, Harmonix still has a place of respect and affection in their hearts for Sony consoles, so I was relieved when I tried it... and it didn't suck.
The full article is here.
Today was spent in a remarkably Japanese way. Never mind the fact that we woke up at our usual obscenely late hour that would probably have qualified as morning in Japan anyway, the Wife decided that since we'd been satisfying many of her Asiatic cravings (such as proper Dim Sum) It was now time to do the same for me. Although I don't actually many Asian cuisine cravings, one thing in particular I developed a fondness for in Singapore was a dish known as Tonkatsu Curry, which is essentially breaded, deep fried pork cutlet with rice and some of that unique Japanese curry that does NOT kill my tongue for hours afterwards the way normal Singapore spices do. Back in Singapore, there was a little restaurant in the basement of the big Japanese department store Takashimaya, and they happened to have Tonkatsu Curry as their house specialty, offering it both as a dish with rice and as a sandwich. It was VERY tasty, and I'd obviously not had any of it since coming back to Canada. It turned out that further into the downtown core was a restaurant that had Tonkatsu, and they even offered Japanese curry as a side order, it just never occurred to them that this particular combination was, in fact, an actual dish in Japan. So though they were mighty confused about my wanting both, when we arrived, they did indeed serve it to us. It wasn't as good as the stuff in Singapore, but then you have to make allowances when you eat Asian food in the West.
Other than that, the Japanese theme continued with playing some Gran Turismo Prologue (now that the demo for this game is finally available in Japan; thank you internet, and thank you Sony Playstation Store dummy account) and it's good. And HARD. It would probably help if I had a steering wheel, but we'll worry about some other day.
The only other thing of note is that I finally have an IGN article out that you don't have to be subscribed to IGN Insider in order to read. Whoo hoo, I'm finally in the free, "normal, mainstream content" channel. The article is essentially just my impressions after finally getting a chance to play Rock Band on the Playstation 3, a particular concern for me since I obviously have one, and I wanted to see whether or not the game was going to be butchered on the PS3 the way Guitar Hero III has been (it looks like the Xbox 360 version is the one to get, Neversoft/Activision have pretty much given The Finger to owners of Sony consoles past and present) and it turns out... IT'S NOT! Whoo hoo, Harmonix still has a place of respect and affection in their hearts for Sony consoles, so I was relieved when I tried it... and it didn't suck. The full article is here.
Labels: Games, Gaming Industry, Icky Couple Stuff, Journalism, Rock Band, Writing
Monday, October 15, 2007
Another Quiet Day
Aside from starting on another IGN article, all that occurred was messing around with a demo for some Japanese horror game (which still managed to creep me out despite the fact that I had no idea what was going on) and bought some donuts. Yup, exciting stuff...
Aside from starting on another IGN article, all that occurred was messing around with a demo for some Japanese horror game (which still managed to creep me out despite the fact that I had no idea what was going on) and bought some donuts. Yup, exciting stuff...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Sony Day
So today we actually got up before noon and managed to navigate to the southeast portion of downtown Toronto to find "The Carlu" an old, deco building from the 30's, that has had its 7th floor--formerly a concert hall--renovated and restored to its former Art Deco glory. Today, however, all the deco was playing host a metric ton of silicon in the form a legion of Playstation 3s, some Playstation 2s and even a few Playstation Portables set up by Sony Canada to show off their wares for the upcoming holidays. Or most of them, anyway, with Assassin's Creed being notably absent despite its upcoming November release. This was a much quieter--and thankfully less accident prone--affair than the Microsoft X '07 event I attended a couple of months earlier. For one thing, this was media only, so since the power didn't short out (as it did at X '07) there was no confusing morass of humanity as gamers who had dreamed for months of playing Halo 3 pushed journalists and camera-men out of their way in their frenzy to get their hands on a controller and drool in opiate-like bliss as they proceeded to shoot people in the head with sniper rifles and then "teabag" them (the 360 multi-player, FPS version of a victory dance, that involves crouching over your opponent's head so that your virtual testicles dangle over his virtual face. This, I am told, is a sign of l33tness in multi-player console gaming, and all the cool people do it. This is also why I don't play multi-player games on consoles.).
Instead there were simply a bunch of media people--almost entirely not from the game press arena--the likes of MTV, and, if you can believe it, Toronto's own Naked News team, though the reporter on hand was heavily clothed. MTV was doing the Completely And Utterly Expected by just "happening" across Rock Band--the game they are publishing in partnership with developer Harmonix and distributor Electronic Arts--and covering the hell out of it as if it was some wonderful, random find. The Naked News team, I think, was surprising the hell out of everyone by simple virtue of the fact that their reporter wasn't actually naked. But this all beside the point, which is THE GAMES.
Rock Band
I can't actually talk too much about this, or at least, my "newsworthy" finds, since that's all been written up for IGN and is now sitting with them. But having played the game (and not gotten kicked off this time! Because I had other games to look at!) a bit more now, I can safely say that it still kills. It may not that magical "first time" experience of Guitar Hero (then again, even GH didn't have that for me since I'd already had a few years under my belt of playing in the arcade) Guitar Freaks in the arcade), but there's still something special about sitting down at those drums, or strapping on the Fender Strat and rocking out the Pixie's Wave of Mutilation. The game is fun, it's really that simple. I can talk about the character creation system, or the upcoming downloadable songs, but it all boils down to indefinable Something that separates a competent game from a great one. This is still shaping up to be my favorite game of the year.
Eye of Judgement
Or, as PennyArcade dubbed it, "The Judgemental Eye" is one of those games I am rapidly beginning to suspect is going to what some call a sleeper hit, and what others call crack cocaine with a light dusting of PCP for flavor. The premise of the game is that you buy it with the whacky new accessory called the Playstation Eye, which is essentially a redressing of the old PS2 Eyetoy, which is essentially a redressing of a webcam. When you set up your camera as your "eye of judgement" you spread out a grid on a cloth map, and start playing a Magic The Gathering style card game, the difference being a) the camera allows you to play online with other people, b) the camera allows you to play against the computer, c) the camera reads the properties of your cards and then, much like the Holochess game in Star Wars: A New Hope, conjures the image of your card's creature right there, on screen, sitting on top of your card, at which point, it proceeds to execute your command and attack the neighboring card with appropriate explosions, oscillating balls of magical energy and all that other pyrotechnical stuff Magic the Gathering card players formerly had to imagine. Despite the fact that I have no interest in card games, I enjoyed this, hell even the Wife enjoyed it, and I can see how this bizarre little product could end up drawing in the Magic the Gathering crowd, who might have formerly ignored the PS3. The fact that this card game was actually dreamed up by Wizards of the Coast, inventors of Magic the Gathering--not to mention the fact that they're repeating past history and already manufacturing "booster packs" of card decks to rake even MORE cash--merely adds to the geek cred of this monstrosity. It will make money, a LOT of money is my current sneaking suspicion.
There are other games as well like Haze--a first person shooter that may do well--and Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction which will probably do very well. All in all, an interesting range of games for a system that only recently dropped to US$399, as long as you're willing to sacrifice your backwards compatibility with PS2 games to get it at that price.
So today we actually got up before noon and managed to navigate to the southeast portion of downtown Toronto to find "The Carlu" an old, deco building from the 30's, that has had its 7th floor--formerly a concert hall--renovated and restored to its former Art Deco glory. Today, however, all the deco was playing host a metric ton of silicon in the form a legion of Playstation 3s, some Playstation 2s and even a few Playstation Portables set up by Sony Canada to show off their wares for the upcoming holidays. Or most of them, anyway, with Assassin's Creed being notably absent despite its upcoming November release. This was a much quieter--and thankfully less accident prone--affair than the Microsoft X '07 event I attended a couple of months earlier. For one thing, this was media only, so since the power didn't short out (as it did at X '07) there was no confusing morass of humanity as gamers who had dreamed for months of playing Halo 3 pushed journalists and camera-men out of their way in their frenzy to get their hands on a controller and drool in opiate-like bliss as they proceeded to shoot people in the head with sniper rifles and then "teabag" them (the 360 multi-player, FPS version of a victory dance, that involves crouching over your opponent's head so that your virtual testicles dangle over his virtual face. This, I am told, is a sign of l33tness in multi-player console gaming, and all the cool people do it. This is also why I don't play multi-player games on consoles.).Instead there were simply a bunch of media people--almost entirely not from the game press arena--the likes of MTV, and, if you can believe it, Toronto's own Naked News team, though the reporter on hand was heavily clothed. MTV was doing the Completely And Utterly Expected by just "happening" across Rock Band--the game they are publishing in partnership with developer Harmonix and distributor Electronic Arts--and covering the hell out of it as if it was some wonderful, random find. The Naked News team, I think, was surprising the hell out of everyone by simple virtue of the fact that their reporter wasn't actually naked. But this all beside the point, which is THE GAMES.
Rock Band
I can't actually talk too much about this, or at least, my "newsworthy" finds, since that's all been written up for IGN and is now sitting with them. But having played the game (and not gotten kicked off this time! Because I had other games to look at!) a bit more now, I can safely say that it still kills. It may not that magical "first time" experience of Guitar Hero (then again, even GH didn't have that for me since I'd already had a few years under my belt of playing in the arcade) Guitar Freaks in the arcade), but there's still something special about sitting down at those drums, or strapping on the Fender Strat and rocking out the Pixie's Wave of Mutilation. The game is fun, it's really that simple. I can talk about the character creation system, or the upcoming downloadable songs, but it all boils down to indefinable Something that separates a competent game from a great one. This is still shaping up to be my favorite game of the year. Eye of Judgement
Or, as PennyArcade dubbed it, "The Judgemental Eye" is one of those games I am rapidly beginning to suspect is going to what some call a sleeper hit, and what others call crack cocaine with a light dusting of PCP for flavor. The premise of the game is that you buy it with the whacky new accessory called the Playstation Eye, which is essentially a redressing of the old PS2 Eyetoy, which is essentially a redressing of a webcam. When you set up your camera as your "eye of judgement" you spread out a grid on a cloth map, and start playing a Magic The Gathering style card game, the difference being a) the camera allows you to play online with other people, b) the camera allows you to play against the computer, c) the camera reads the properties of your cards and then, much like the Holochess game in Star Wars: A New Hope, conjures the image of your card's creature right there, on screen, sitting on top of your card, at which point, it proceeds to execute your command and attack the neighboring card with appropriate explosions, oscillating balls of magical energy and all that other pyrotechnical stuff Magic the Gathering card players formerly had to imagine. Despite the fact that I have no interest in card games, I enjoyed this, hell even the Wife enjoyed it, and I can see how this bizarre little product could end up drawing in the Magic the Gathering crowd, who might have formerly ignored the PS3. The fact that this card game was actually dreamed up by Wizards of the Coast, inventors of Magic the Gathering--not to mention the fact that they're repeating past history and already manufacturing "booster packs" of card decks to rake even MORE cash--merely adds to the geek cred of this monstrosity. It will make money, a LOT of money is my current sneaking suspicion. There are other games as well like Haze--a first person shooter that may do well--and Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction which will probably do very well. All in all, an interesting range of games for a system that only recently dropped to US$399, as long as you're willing to sacrifice your backwards compatibility with PS2 games to get it at that price.
Labels: Games, Gaming Industry, Journalism
Friday, October 05, 2007
Taking It Easy
Friday was yet another quiet day, with the exception some busy-ness on the freelance front. First, after the interview with Jonathan Mak, creator of Everyday Shooter--and that interview isn't up on IGN just yet, but probably by next week--I got the obligatory heads up from Sony Canada. It's funny how when you say "I'm with IGN," that just blows the doors wide open on access to anything in the game industry. I could really get used to this after all the "I'm with GameAxis," lines which were inevitably replied to with "Game-wha?"
Anyway, the point of this, is the heads up that I was given was an invite--presumably for the media only--to a much bigger Sony Media Day that's going to be held at some swanky, restored concert hall that had its heyday in the 30's deco period, and has been renovated back to its former, pre-WWII glory. Not knowing whether this was going to be a big deal or not, I threw the invite back at IGN and asked them if they'd be interested in once again having a "Canadian correspondent" pick up some slack on their behalf since none of them are crazy enough to live in the Great White North. It turns that they're VERY interested, and so I will be going to this event on Wednesday. However, considering how many games there are on hand, it's going to be a bit busy what with all the questions, playing games (and getting kicked off Rock Band. Again...) and making sure I get all the details, so it's going to be hard for me to do all that and get some pictures. Fortunately, I have already cleared it with Sony Canada and they have allowed me to bring a guest, so The Wife will be attending to gawk at the geekiness, and take pictures since she knows how to use the camera way better than I do. This frees me up to tackle the games and ask questions without worrying about whether I got the shot or not.
Gonna' be an interesting Wednesday. Looking forward to it.
Friday was yet another quiet day, with the exception some busy-ness on the freelance front. First, after the interview with Jonathan Mak, creator of Everyday Shooter--and that interview isn't up on IGN just yet, but probably by next week--I got the obligatory heads up from Sony Canada. It's funny how when you say "I'm with IGN," that just blows the doors wide open on access to anything in the game industry. I could really get used to this after all the "I'm with GameAxis," lines which were inevitably replied to with "Game-wha?"Anyway, the point of this, is the heads up that I was given was an invite--presumably for the media only--to a much bigger Sony Media Day that's going to be held at some swanky, restored concert hall that had its heyday in the 30's deco period, and has been renovated back to its former, pre-WWII glory. Not knowing whether this was going to be a big deal or not, I threw the invite back at IGN and asked them if they'd be interested in once again having a "Canadian correspondent" pick up some slack on their behalf since none of them are crazy enough to live in the Great White North. It turns that they're VERY interested, and so I will be going to this event on Wednesday. However, considering how many games there are on hand, it's going to be a bit busy what with all the questions, playing games (and getting kicked off Rock Band. Again...) and making sure I get all the details, so it's going to be hard for me to do all that and get some pictures. Fortunately, I have already cleared it with Sony Canada and they have allowed me to bring a guest, so The Wife will be attending to gawk at the geekiness, and take pictures since she knows how to use the camera way better than I do. This frees me up to tackle the games and ask questions without worrying about whether I got the shot or not.
Gonna' be an interesting Wednesday. Looking forward to it.
Labels: Gaming Industry, Journalism, Writing
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Nearly Done
Just putting the finishing touches the last of the GameAxis articles for this month. And, of course, now conducting my weekly ritual of checking the Playstation Store online to see what new goodies are available. So far, nothing too hot...
Just putting the finishing touches the last of the GameAxis articles for this month. And, of course, now conducting my weekly ritual of checking the Playstation Store online to see what new goodies are available. So far, nothing too hot...
Labels: Boring And Insipid Posts, Games, Journalism, Writing
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Broken Bones & San Vanelona
I started transcribing today which is, of course, No Fun At All. I love interviews, and I love big, meaty answers with substance, and I got that from yesterday's interview, but of course, it means a lot rewinding, relistening and retyping, since I'm one those journalists that rips out a digital recorder, puts it on the table and then just lets the guy GO. This, obviously, means a LOT of answer to get through. But it'll be worth it.
But now let's talk about the game to the left, Skate, developed by Black Box in Burnaby, BC, owned by, of all people, Electronic Arts, the Company That Can Do No Good. Except that miraculously, this time, somehow, against all my expectation, they have made something very good.
The story behind my sudden enthusiasm is a lesson in hype. Recently on the Playstation Store, free demos of both the latest Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground and this game were made available. I downloaded both of course, but immediately started up the Hawk game, remembering how much fun I'd had with the first two, then recalling with minor sadness the gradual downward spiral the series had experienced over the years, getting needlessly complicated and clumsy to the point where I just ignored it. I thought maybe they might have recovered.
What greeted me upon trying that demo was a dark, gritty, somehow mean-spirited demo that calculatingly portrayed skaters as rebels fighting for freedom on the streets. It was an obvious, shallow attempt to "celebrate" skating as a cool, anti-authoritarian, completely non-commercial movement, that just happened to be filled with some of the big names in skating, and the now traditional, almost clunky Tony Hawk control system that hasn't changed too drastically in the 8 years the game has been out, except to become even more ornate and unwieldy. A dark, gritty, New York-esque, crumbling sprawl from out of a decaying 80's is what greeted me, with hard-nosed gangs of skaters that fought for territory and even each other as they struggled to "Skate because they couldn't do anything else." Throughout the entire demo, I kept getting the nagging suspicion that someone was whispering to me, "This is cool, this is anti-establishment, this rebellion, JUST LIKE YOU, brought you to by Activision. Activision, purveyors of fine software for cool kids, just $59.99 at a store near you." It smacked of an incredibly obvious attempt to be "commercially subversive," and I kind of resented it. It didn't help that the game itself was just as Not Fun as I'd remembered previous versions that followed in the wake of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.
Then thinking I was going to end up deleting the demo within minutes--'cause let's be fair, this is ELECTRONIC FREAKIN' ARTS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, MERCHANTS OF SWILL--I booted up Skate, confident in my expectations that this was going to be an even more incompetent, badly conceived, clumsily executed, poor man's rip off of the Tony Hawk games.
I was so damn wrong it's not even funny.
I went into this game with zero expectations. Actually that's a lie, I went in with full on NEGATIVE expectations, I was already hating it from the moment I saw that "EA HD" logo on the screen, because that logo has already become synonymous with unoriginal crap destined to be recycled for the next 20 years and people will STILL buy it.
Skate wasn't that. It wasn't anything remotely like that. I played the demo. The control system was new, fresh, fun and brilliant. It was one of those moments where you lay your hands on the controls, see how they've done it, and question "Why in God's name have we never done it like this BEFORE?!" Somehow, Black Box pulled a Guitar Hero in that, despite the fact that is obviously NOT the real thing, they have managed to create a control system that mimics to a certain degree some of the basic mechanics of skating. When you want to crouch, you pull back on the right analog stick, to jump, just flick it up. To jump to the right, flick up from that couch slightly to the right. None of this hit "X" to auto-skate/crouch, and then release to ollie followed by steering the left stick around to maneuver in the air. Suddenly, just like a real skater, when you were in the air, the only thing standing between you and a bail was your own skill, a little luck and gravity.
Also, the demo took place in a sunny, fictional, California city called San Vanelona, a combination of San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona. It was a bright, beautiful town, perpetually drenched in sunset light, and it looked the kind of place you'd actually want to live. It was also, unsurprisingly, filled to the gills with advertising from actual skate companies and Adidas, who are major brand sponsors, and yet, somehow, because this is EA, I expected no less and it didn't bother me; they, at least, were being honest with their crassness.
I played the demo, enjoyed the controls, played some more, and somehow ended up playing that demo every single day. This was the first time since I'd started messing around with Playstation Store demos that the intended purpose of the demo worked; instead of me playing through it thinking "Glad that showed me what a stinker THAT title is," I was hungry for more. I saw the gates locking me into the skate park with that whole town outside, and I wanted to explore it.
So when the game went on sale, on the same day as Halo 3, I surprised the EB Games clerks by buying Skate instead of The Big One, since they had lines of people wanting that.
Since then, I've been enjoying the game like no one's business. The Wife loves it because she finds the constant abuse of the skater (which looks painful in the EXTREME) to be a source of never-ending hilarity. She's actually cried tears of laughter at some of the accidents I've gotten my poor bastard skater into, and feels that so far this is one of the best purchases we've made based on sheer entertainment value for viewers.
I myself am really digging the game for a variety of the reasons. There's that control I mentioned before, but there's also the fact that unlike Tony Hawk they've really toned it down, and brought the game more to the level of a simulation. Tony Hawk games had gotten to the point where skaters were routinely grinding across an entire series of rooftops before careening off at sonic speed to bounce of flagpoles and eventually the tips of skyscrapers. In other words, Tony Hawk games had turned skate games into a ridiculously exaggerated parody of the sport. Skate made something as basic as grinding off a stair handrail difficult and just aiming for it, doing your ollie and STAYING on it was a major accomplishment in and of itself.
On top of that, there is an AMAZING online component to this game. You can play modes where you simply have a time-limit and try to score the highest within that amounted time by doing tricks, you can play with others at a designated spot, battling to see how can pull off the stunt at a dangerous location, or you can race to see who gets to a certain position first. You can play "ranked servers" in that your accomplishments go towards determining your overall score within the entire Skate community, or you can create your own "unranked server" to just mess around with friends.
But what I really love about this game is the built in video-editor. Skate is constantly caching roughly the last 30 seconds of whatever you're doing, so that if you pull off a spectacular grind, or an even more spectacular accident, you immediately jump into "replay mode" and choose the exact length of your "skate clip" choose camera angles, drop in effects like B&W or sepia tones, change the speed for slow motion at critical junctures, and save your video. Then, at the press of a button, you can upload your video for the entire Skate community to see. In just a few short days I've seen some AMAZING tricks viewed directly from an in-game menu that connects you to the internet. It even has a feature called "SkateTV" where you can check into other games as a spectator, and see how other people are doing real-time, or even check in to see what the currently highest ranked skater who happens to be online is playing at that very moment, to see how he does it live.
The game's not perfect, obviously. You can't do handplants, a glaring omission, and for some reason, in character creation, you're stuck with a male, they decided that girls don't skate. Another irritating point is that you're stuck to your board, so if you see a flight of stairs, you can't simply get off your board and climb them, you either go looking for a ramp, or get up enough speed to ollie over them.
But these are minor issues, and, as horrified as I am to say this, you can bet that Electronic Arts will address them.
In the inevitable sequel.
Which I now know I will get.
If I had to review this game--which I'm actually kind of now regretting I didn't get the chance to--I'd give it an 8.5 The game is a jewel with a few rough spots here and there that is already fun to play, but shows immense promise for a sequel. But I'm going to stop writing now so I can get back to playing. The Wife is cruising around San Vanelona right now on my behalf, looking for a gnarly ramp...
I started transcribing today which is, of course, No Fun At All. I love interviews, and I love big, meaty answers with substance, and I got that from yesterday's interview, but of course, it means a lot rewinding, relistening and retyping, since I'm one those journalists that rips out a digital recorder, puts it on the table and then just lets the guy GO. This, obviously, means a LOT of answer to get through. But it'll be worth it.
But now let's talk about the game to the left, Skate, developed by Black Box in Burnaby, BC, owned by, of all people, Electronic Arts, the Company That Can Do No Good. Except that miraculously, this time, somehow, against all my expectation, they have made something very good.The story behind my sudden enthusiasm is a lesson in hype. Recently on the Playstation Store, free demos of both the latest Tony Hawk game, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground and this game were made available. I downloaded both of course, but immediately started up the Hawk game, remembering how much fun I'd had with the first two, then recalling with minor sadness the gradual downward spiral the series had experienced over the years, getting needlessly complicated and clumsy to the point where I just ignored it. I thought maybe they might have recovered.
What greeted me upon trying that demo was a dark, gritty, somehow mean-spirited demo that calculatingly portrayed skaters as rebels fighting for freedom on the streets. It was an obvious, shallow attempt to "celebrate" skating as a cool, anti-authoritarian, completely non-commercial movement, that just happened to be filled with some of the big names in skating, and the now traditional, almost clunky Tony Hawk control system that hasn't changed too drastically in the 8 years the game has been out, except to become even more ornate and unwieldy. A dark, gritty, New York-esque, crumbling sprawl from out of a decaying 80's is what greeted me, with hard-nosed gangs of skaters that fought for territory and even each other as they struggled to "Skate because they couldn't do anything else." Throughout the entire demo, I kept getting the nagging suspicion that someone was whispering to me, "This is cool, this is anti-establishment, this rebellion, JUST LIKE YOU, brought you to by Activision. Activision, purveyors of fine software for cool kids, just $59.99 at a store near you." It smacked of an incredibly obvious attempt to be "commercially subversive," and I kind of resented it. It didn't help that the game itself was just as Not Fun as I'd remembered previous versions that followed in the wake of Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2.Then thinking I was going to end up deleting the demo within minutes--'cause let's be fair, this is ELECTRONIC FREAKIN' ARTS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT, MERCHANTS OF SWILL--I booted up Skate, confident in my expectations that this was going to be an even more incompetent, badly conceived, clumsily executed, poor man's rip off of the Tony Hawk games.
I was so damn wrong it's not even funny.
I went into this game with zero expectations. Actually that's a lie, I went in with full on NEGATIVE expectations, I was already hating it from the moment I saw that "EA HD" logo on the screen, because that logo has already become synonymous with unoriginal crap destined to be recycled for the next 20 years and people will STILL buy it.
Skate wasn't that. It wasn't anything remotely like that. I played the demo. The control system was new, fresh, fun and brilliant. It was one of those moments where you lay your hands on the controls, see how they've done it, and question "Why in God's name have we never done it like this BEFORE?!" Somehow, Black Box pulled a Guitar Hero in that, despite the fact that is obviously NOT the real thing, they have managed to create a control system that mimics to a certain degree some of the basic mechanics of skating. When you want to crouch, you pull back on the right analog stick, to jump, just flick it up. To jump to the right, flick up from that couch slightly to the right. None of this hit "X" to auto-skate/crouch, and then release to ollie followed by steering the left stick around to maneuver in the air. Suddenly, just like a real skater, when you were in the air, the only thing standing between you and a bail was your own skill, a little luck and gravity.
Also, the demo took place in a sunny, fictional, California city called San Vanelona, a combination of San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona. It was a bright, beautiful town, perpetually drenched in sunset light, and it looked the kind of place you'd actually want to live. It was also, unsurprisingly, filled to the gills with advertising from actual skate companies and Adidas, who are major brand sponsors, and yet, somehow, because this is EA, I expected no less and it didn't bother me; they, at least, were being honest with their crassness.I played the demo, enjoyed the controls, played some more, and somehow ended up playing that demo every single day. This was the first time since I'd started messing around with Playstation Store demos that the intended purpose of the demo worked; instead of me playing through it thinking "Glad that showed me what a stinker THAT title is," I was hungry for more. I saw the gates locking me into the skate park with that whole town outside, and I wanted to explore it.
So when the game went on sale, on the same day as Halo 3, I surprised the EB Games clerks by buying Skate instead of The Big One, since they had lines of people wanting that.
Since then, I've been enjoying the game like no one's business. The Wife loves it because she finds the constant abuse of the skater (which looks painful in the EXTREME) to be a source of never-ending hilarity. She's actually cried tears of laughter at some of the accidents I've gotten my poor bastard skater into, and feels that so far this is one of the best purchases we've made based on sheer entertainment value for viewers.
I myself am really digging the game for a variety of the reasons. There's that control I mentioned before, but there's also the fact that unlike Tony Hawk they've really toned it down, and brought the game more to the level of a simulation. Tony Hawk games had gotten to the point where skaters were routinely grinding across an entire series of rooftops before careening off at sonic speed to bounce of flagpoles and eventually the tips of skyscrapers. In other words, Tony Hawk games had turned skate games into a ridiculously exaggerated parody of the sport. Skate made something as basic as grinding off a stair handrail difficult and just aiming for it, doing your ollie and STAYING on it was a major accomplishment in and of itself.
On top of that, there is an AMAZING online component to this game. You can play modes where you simply have a time-limit and try to score the highest within that amounted time by doing tricks, you can play with others at a designated spot, battling to see how can pull off the stunt at a dangerous location, or you can race to see who gets to a certain position first. You can play "ranked servers" in that your accomplishments go towards determining your overall score within the entire Skate community, or you can create your own "unranked server" to just mess around with friends.
But what I really love about this game is the built in video-editor. Skate is constantly caching roughly the last 30 seconds of whatever you're doing, so that if you pull off a spectacular grind, or an even more spectacular accident, you immediately jump into "replay mode" and choose the exact length of your "skate clip" choose camera angles, drop in effects like B&W or sepia tones, change the speed for slow motion at critical junctures, and save your video. Then, at the press of a button, you can upload your video for the entire Skate community to see. In just a few short days I've seen some AMAZING tricks viewed directly from an in-game menu that connects you to the internet. It even has a feature called "SkateTV" where you can check into other games as a spectator, and see how other people are doing real-time, or even check in to see what the currently highest ranked skater who happens to be online is playing at that very moment, to see how he does it live.
The game's not perfect, obviously. You can't do handplants, a glaring omission, and for some reason, in character creation, you're stuck with a male, they decided that girls don't skate. Another irritating point is that you're stuck to your board, so if you see a flight of stairs, you can't simply get off your board and climb them, you either go looking for a ramp, or get up enough speed to ollie over them.
But these are minor issues, and, as horrified as I am to say this, you can bet that Electronic Arts will address them.
In the inevitable sequel.
Which I now know I will get.
If I had to review this game--which I'm actually kind of now regretting I didn't get the chance to--I'd give it an 8.5 The game is a jewel with a few rough spots here and there that is already fun to play, but shows immense promise for a sequel. But I'm going to stop writing now so I can get back to playing. The Wife is cruising around San Vanelona right now on my behalf, looking for a gnarly ramp...
Labels: Games, Journalism, Writing
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Journalist Day
We're almost back to normal human being hours, in that this time we got up at around the same time farmers normally do. Had a fairly productive day in that I went down to the Toronto HQ of Sony and was offered orange juice, bottled water and an obscene amount of food. Sadly, no games were offered, but I suppose that would fall under a compromise of journalistic integrity.
Can't talk too much about what happened, suffice to say that I now have to transcribe a 38 minute interview with the guy who created this:
And now I'm going to face plant a few more cars...
Also, the Wife has been so tickled by the various crippling mutilations I've subjected my character to in Skate that she was prompted to create this:
In short, I still suck.
We're almost back to normal human being hours, in that this time we got up at around the same time farmers normally do. Had a fairly productive day in that I went down to the Toronto HQ of Sony and was offered orange juice, bottled water and an obscene amount of food. Sadly, no games were offered, but I suppose that would fall under a compromise of journalistic integrity.
Can't talk too much about what happened, suffice to say that I now have to transcribe a 38 minute interview with the guy who created this:
And now I'm going to face plant a few more cars...Also, the Wife has been so tickled by the various crippling mutilations I've subjected my character to in Skate that she was prompted to create this:
In short, I still suck.Labels: Games, Gaming Industry, Journalism, Writing
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Cheating Time Travel Post
It's not actually the end of the day chronologically speaking, but the body clock says it is now Officially Late and so the post time on this blog post reflects that. First, I have now ranted ad nauseum about my take on the Games As Art debate with a truly monstrous essay that crossed the seven page mark when written in MS Word. The rant, however, is not on GameAxis, or even IGN, and instead is now gracing the blog of Ragnar Tornquist, a recent buddy of mine and creator of The Longest Journey and The Longest Journey: Dreamfall. Anyone who's curious to read this thing--and you do so at your own peril--can find it here.
Also, it looks like there is an interview with a truly interesting and new game developer on Wednesday, and tomorrow, fates willing (and mobs of Halo fans notwithstanding) I will pass through the hordes of Xbox 360 fans desperate to "finish the fight" with this:
It's not actually the end of the day chronologically speaking, but the body clock says it is now Officially Late and so the post time on this blog post reflects that. First, I have now ranted ad nauseum about my take on the Games As Art debate with a truly monstrous essay that crossed the seven page mark when written in MS Word. The rant, however, is not on GameAxis, or even IGN, and instead is now gracing the blog of Ragnar Tornquist, a recent buddy of mine and creator of The Longest Journey and The Longest Journey: Dreamfall. Anyone who's curious to read this thing--and you do so at your own peril--can find it here.
Also, it looks like there is an interview with a truly interesting and new game developer on Wednesday, and tomorrow, fates willing (and mobs of Halo fans notwithstanding) I will pass through the hordes of Xbox 360 fans desperate to "finish the fight" with this:
Labels: Games, Journalism, Writing
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Worky Sort Of Day
Started on a new article for IGN, sent out some writer-ly related e-mails clarifying details of other articles, and spectacularly failed to find any of the rare weapons I was looking for in the bowels of a Persona 3 dungeon.
Just another day in the life of a geek, folks...
Started on a new article for IGN, sent out some writer-ly related e-mails clarifying details of other articles, and spectacularly failed to find any of the rare weapons I was looking for in the bowels of a Persona 3 dungeon.
Just another day in the life of a geek, folks...
Labels: