January 2007

01/19/2007

Ups And Downs

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

God, what a week. These past two days in particular have been insane, to the point that I just want to pass out. Let’s see…

- Today was my last day at SVA.
- Today was my first real chance to settle down and get to work at my new job.
- Also found out today that the company I somewhat attribute to killing my own outfit is more or less dead.
- Yesterday I found out that I am no longer in the running to be Microsoft’s latest official blogger. Oh well.
- And the day before that I found that my big trip to Japan, which I was recently to believe to called off, is on again. Okay!

… Again, I just want crash, but I still have work to, primarily on the television pilot that I’m helping to develop. Some Friday night, eh?

From Out Of Nowhere

Oh, and also from yesterday, last night to be exact: I went to another EA press event here in the city. They had a bunch of stuff on-hand, with the definite highlight in my book being Boom Boom Rocket.

Its basically Fantavision (that first gen PS2 puzzle game with fireworks) mixed with Dance Dance Revolution (I have to assume most everyone knows what that is). And it happens to be the latest creation of Bizarre Creations, the folks behind the hit Xbox Live Arcade title, Geometry Wars. Boom Boom is also a Live Arcade game, EA’s first actually.

Any music fan is gonna totally eat it up. The game is drop-dead simple: rockets go up and you have to hit the appropriate button once they reach a line at the top of the screen to trigger an explosion (hit the button too early or too late or the wrong one, and no explosion, but more importantly, no points). Each rocket is color coded, according to the button on the 360 controller, plus they even have arrows to show where it is orientation-wise, which really makes it feel like DDR. I got to play a round of the one player mode, which was excellent, but two player mode is where its at; each person has their own half of the screen and again like DDR, you have to see hows got better rhythm. I played against the producer, in endurance mode, in which we dueled with the same song, three times in a row, and each time it gets faster.

Hella fun. Too bad you can’t use your own mp3s, but apparently they experiemented with it, and it just wasn’t possible (due to game balancing issues, and anyone that’s tried Vib Ribbon with their own music will know what I’m talking about). Another downer is that its not two player online, both folks have to be present. But still, I’m pretty sure its probably gonna be Live Arcade’s next big thing.

Also played the Burnout for the PS2. I think its called Dominator? Whatever, I’ll just call it Burnout 5. Anyway, EA has done the impossible: make one of my favorite series boring. I dunno… I just couldn’t click with it. Maybe if I had more time with it. At least now you can hit traffic head on, which was the dumbest part of 4 (and I’m pretty sure Criterion heard everyone’s bitching and moaning loud and clear).

Saw the new SSX for the Wii and it looked… okay I guess. Really wish I got the chance to play it, just to see if I could play it, because, for whatever reason, I fucking FLAT OUT SUCK AT SSX. Seriously. I’ve been playing the series, or at least have tried to, for literally years and can’t do shit. But the last game that truly impressed me… and I know folks are either gonna laugh or think I’m on crack, but it was the new Def Jam game (you know, the one with wrasslin’ rappers), Icon. I guess it all started with screenshot I spotted over at NeoGAF…

… I’ve actually decided to zoom in a bit and focus on the background. That building looks weird right? Well in motion, it actually “pulsates”. In fact, everything in the environment moves, to the beat of the music. Remember those Sketcher shoes ads from a few years back? Basically think that in a game. And trust me when I say this: it looks really awesome. Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to play Icon myself, but I did watch Steve give it a spin, and it looked fairly decent. For what its trying to be, its hits the mark. Especially the outlandish super moves, in which rapper scratch the air, to an invisible turn table, which caused environmental havoc, like the out of control helicopter in the background to come forth and knock one guy out of the way. The demo unit had an iPod Nano attached, so I have no idea if Janet Jackson’s Nasty Boy is part of the game or was added, but as a big fan of that song back in the day, it really helped sold the game for me.

And From All Sorts Of Places

So, with all the crazy shit I mentioned that’s been going on (and some stuff that’s TOO HOT to talk about), I really haven’t had any chance to surf the web for game related news. So instead, I may as well pass along some random pics I’ve been meaning to pass along that I just haven’t had the chance to “fit in” anywhere. Including…

- Actually, this is from this morning. One of the lab assistants at SVA decided to give me a going away present; a box of Japanese candy featuring pandas!

She also wrote this very nice note….

… if you can’t read it, a part of it says: “I hope you like Japanese biscuits, since you didn’t get to go to Japan” with actual Kanji used for Japan (a reference to when I thought the Japanese trip was dead, though as I already mentioned, it might not be). But there’s also a small message attached, also in Japanese, which she had no idea what is says….

Maybe someone out there could translate?

- Something else that’s cute, and from Japan: a Parappa the Rapper toaster. You toasting good!

- Courtesy of Jay comes the cover for some flick that, unfortunately, I can?t add to my Netflix que…

The original sized version can be seen here.

- Here’s a quickie from the Gaming Age Forums. There are two things you are guaranteed to get from that place: folks bitching about EBs and Gamestops, and folks who love to screw around in Photoshop. This image combines both, and I even I don’t know why I find it so funny…

- And here’s some Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles…

… btw, has anyone seen the trailer to that new piece of shit looking CGI flick? Yikes.

- Sticking with comic books/fine art, check out a Mexican delivery guy as Superman…

Robin as a male prostitue…

And Aquaman working in a fish market…

… from this site, which features various Mexican immigrant workers dressed up as assorted super heroes.

- MK passed this along: some guy who likes to create fan art featuring characters from the Simpsons and Futurama, all animu-ed, and it was popular/impressive enough to get him a job at Tokyopop. I’ll abstain from making the obligatory “they’ll hire anyone over at Tokyopop” snide comment since they do published a few good things. Anyway, for what it is, it?s actually not pretty good! And I have to admit, I have to give points for the Futurama one for including Fry’s dog (and I’m not ashamed to admit that I always get teary-eyed by that episode… always). Though having Space Pope would have been PERFECT…

… Not passing along the Simpsons one because I personally find that one creepy as all fuck. But instead, here’s something a friend of mine passed along many years back. Something that one of the actual animators created while screwing around, which I’m not sure has been passed around the web too much…

- And finally, a short whiles ago, Katie drew for me Hermione to go along with a mix CD she had created. She apparently had never seen what the character looked like from either the books or the movies; Katie only knew of my…. obsession for the character. Anyway, aside from being super rad, its super close too!

2 comments

01/18/2007

Tank Girl: Japan Style -OR- The End Is Finally Nigh For The Dreamcast

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Gaming News… Weirder Than Usual (And Other Assorted Bits & Pieces)

- First off is an item that perhaps everyone’s heard by now; a woman died last Friday while trying to win a Wii in a radio contest. The truly bizarre part is the cause of death: water intoxication, which basically means she drank too much water.

The contest was called the “Hold You Wee for a Wii” and had contesting seeing how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. For a more technical explanation of what water intoxication is, here’s one resource. But yeah, I had no idea such a thing could happen. Of course, too much of anything can be dangerous, yet… its just water!

Not surprisingly, people at the radio station have been fired, and there’s a lawsuit pending I think. Still, its such a freak accident…

- Next is also something that’s been making headlines everywhere: the story of a 41 year old man Michael Devlin, who kidnapped a 13 year old boy, Ben Ownby, and when authorities tracked him down, they discovered another boy, Shawn Hornbeck, who was kidnapped by Devlin 4 years ago, and is now 15.

Now here’s where it gets interesting, the video game part of the story which everyone seems to be overlooking: according to this article, the 41 year old man was a Xbox Live player and apparently allowed the boy whom he had captured to use his tag and play online. In fact, even though the name “DevilDevlin” obviously refers to Michael, the gamer pic was actually that of Hornbeck, which appears to have been taken outside of his captor’s apartment.

And according to this CNN report, at one point Hornbeck’s parents created a website to help gather info towards finding their missing child. Its so weird to think that on one end you have a website created by parents desperate to find their son, then on the other end of the vast internet webscape, you have that much sought after playing video games. Sounds like the plot of a movie, eh?

Furthermore are reports that many of Deviln’s neighbors have seen Hornbeck out and about, playing video games for some time, which has made many wonder why the kid didn’t just run away or try to call for help online.

- Of all places, Ain’t It Cool News was the first to break the story: there’s apparently a new Ghostbusters game on the way? They even have videos of the supposed return, which to me look kinda fake-ish, but according to Joystiq, its real… kinda. Apparently, the folks behind the game are still negotiating with the owners of the IP, but hey, anything’s possible (especially with something like Extreme Ghostbuster in existence).

- Another old item, but I guess still worth commenting on: Sony is saying no to porn on Blue-ray, so the industry is forced to go with HD-DVD as their next generation format. And anyone who knows why VHS was able to triumph over the clearly superior Betamax is well aware that it was due almost entirely to one thing: porn. And given that Beta was Sony’s baby as well, it seems that history may indeed repeat twice.

- Sad news for all Sega fans: they’ve decided to pull the plug on GD-ROM production next month. That’s the media that all Dreamcast games, as well as NAOMI games (the DC’s arcade counterpart) runs off, which means the official nail in the coffin for the system. Meaning that Karous will indeed be the very last Dreamcast game ever. Wow. Oh well… at the least the ride last long after anyone expected.

- Sticking with Sega for a bit, IGN has some of the first ever screen shots from Sega Rally Revo for the PS3. Looks decent I guess… though to be honest, any Sega Rally without Tetsuya Mizuguchi is not Sega Rally in mind, but I’m definitely still interested. Hell, I’m still interested in picking up Sega Rally 2006, if only because the soundtrack is so phenomenal.

- A couple of items courtesy of Insert Credit. First here’s info on a wiki for rom hacks, along with info on a few noteworthy titles, including one called The Muppets Take It All which sounds pretty… interesting.

Second is a special version of Super Mario Bros that I had no idea existed (and I’m pretty sure no one else knows of as well). It was created for a NEC PC in Japan back in the day and is totally bonkers, such as how instead of scrolling, you can only move one screen at a time. Here’s just a taste, noteworthy for the fact that the 1UP “trick” that most people pull off near the end of 3-1 is done here early on in 1-1 via a glitch.

- Along with the rumor of Guitar Hero: 80′s Edition, EGM claimed that part 3 would be produced by Neversoft, the folks behind the Tony Hawk series. Well, once again, a rumor of theirs has been proven correct! Which… kinda sucks (the news that is).

Last I heard, MTV bought the Guitar Hero license from Activision, but now I’m hearing that they actually acquired Harmonix/Red Octane, which makes sense since that would leave a whole to be filled, and Neversoft is Activison’s sequel pumping machine. Hmmm.

- Speaking of MTV, had lunch earlier today with Steve, and upon hearing about me venturing into the land of television, he alerted me to a new sitcom from Australia that deals with gamers (you can check out more info via good ol’ GameSetWatch). Interesting…

BTW, what do two video game journalists talk about during lunch? Pro wrestling of course.

Various Message Board Related Stuff

- Spotted over at Select Button: so there’s a game called Gadget Trial that apparently mixes Advance Wars with animu girls. I know… At least its a bit more original than all the idol simulators that’s glutting the doujin market. Anyway, here’s the trailer, which has been described by one person over at Select Button as “surprisingly dark”, whatever that means. Mind you, these are the same folks who recently described Super Mario Bros as a “lonely” joke…

Anyway, for those that are interested by such a premise, an English patch was recently released. And here’s a piece of art from the game…

- And SuperWes, an all around super nice guy, has been messing around with Fighter Maker (think RPG Maker, but with fighter, obviously), and put together a vid featuring some of the more sexually fueled moves that he’s created (slightly NSFW, extremely immature).

- Meanwhile, the helpful NeoGAF thread of the week goes to one that’s keeping track of all the upcoming releases for the PS2 here in America (proving that there’s more than enough life left in the system). Even though Pocky & Rocky hasn’t been officially announced for stateside, though one can certainly wish! At least we’ve got Red Star (finally), Raiden 3, and Disaster Report 2 (renamed Raw Danger?).

Another good one along the same lines is this one featuring DS screenshots.

- Elsewhere at the GAF, and something that I’ve seen all over the place, but I chose this one because of all the helpful pictures: instructions on how to make your Guitar Hero guitar quiet.

- Also, here’s a thread chock full of Samus fan-art, much of which is quite good! Plus there’s a few stinkers, but at least the Samus/My Little Pony one is interesting. Anyway some of my faves include…

- May as well squeeze this one in; two more shit-tastic boxarts from the fine folks at Phoenix games at the UK. First, Street Warrior!

And what racing fan wouldn’t froth with anticipation after seeing this?

- Want to see a budget game done right? Check out these fucking insane shots from Earth Defense Force X…

Toys! Toys! Toys!

- Those who enjoy Wii sports but wishes the Wiimote was a bit closer to the action might want to check out these nifty extensions…

- And check out this amazing Commodore PDA…

You can find out all that you need behind this sexy beast right here. Now I REALLY have no desire for a MacBook! I also love how the PSone LCD screen is now officially used more with homebrew hacks then the actual system it designed for.

- Stepping away from video games and just plain geeky shit in general comes something that some Star Wars folks may already know about (sorry to pass along old news, but been so busy that I’ve been out of the loop with friends). An R2 D2 projector! Unfortunately, even if I had the money, I would probably pass since its not to scale. Then there’s the R2 DS webcam (that’s pretty neat!) and the lightsabre Skype phone (ummm….).

YouTube Time: Let’s Shmup!

- Time to gander at some YouTube vids, with a focus on shmups. First, here’s the final boss battled in ProGear, one of those “lengenday” shmups you always hear about (provided you’re into such things). Its a shame no home port ever came about.

- Here’s the last boss from Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou (which I have yet to pick… better fix that soon). The very first piece of music in the vid is actually something I listen on a regular basis; its up there with the final boss encounter music from Thunder Force 4 in terms of awesomeness.

To see what a “typical” level is like, here’s a bit from level 5.

- And this clip of Soukyugurentai seriously pisses me off since I had the chance to pick it up for so long (it used to be at the old Game Express for literally years, just collecting dust) but didn’t since I had no idea till this summer when I finally saw it action at Otakon and finally discovered how amazing the fucking thing is.

- Finally a look at two other bullet-hells (and also via the Select Button forums, like the previous three videos): here’s Psyvariar 2 and Imperishable Night. Even if you can’t tell what the hell is going on, at the very least, you gotta admit that its very pretty.

YouTube Time: What Else Is Playing

Okay, enough game related crap. Time to go through a bunch of other vids that I’ve found along the way, as well as stuff passed along my friends, including…

- A pretty nifty (and very Michel Gondry-esque) Coke ad. Sorry if everyone’s seen this billion times already, but once again, I really don’t watch television much these days.

- Something on-top of the “holy shit that’s amazing!” pile: some German dude (of course) made a machine that produces small LEGO cars, and the device itself is also made out of LEGOs as well.

- Courtesy of Katie: a pair of miniskirt ads from Japan circa 1969. Super HAWT.

- And from more recent times, a J-pop vid whose first comment pretty much says it all: “What was that? Commie Care Bears and Clowns?”

- Sticking with girls: a flight attendant doing a little striptease. Sorry, but I have a thing for girls in uniform.

- Also from Japaon, this one’s from Dick (who’s officially become my MySpace “best buddy”): a nice little clip that just goes to show how amazing, and under-appreciated, the music is from old Japanese rubber monster flicks.

- Another one from Dick: I’m assuming that it was pretty popular this past Xmas, but I guess I missed it, plus its still funny today. Full Metal Jacket + one of those old Rankin-Bass stop motion holiday specials. Rudolph? I forget.

- Yet another from Dick (like I said, we’re MySpace buddies), this one stars the Beatles as killer robots from Japan.

- Robin passed this one along: an old Super8 film created by a bunch of 12 year olds called Shark, which was obviously inspired by Jaws, and which was a big hit at the time. And I’m sorry, once again: anything on Super8, and film in general, blows the fuck away all that DV-shit of today, period.

- I also caught a pretty neat-o cartoon produced for Nickelodeon by Pendleton Ward on Google Video the other day, but Robin sent me a link to the YouTube version, and here it is (because we all know that YouTube is so much cooler than Google Video).

- Here’s something from John: a Tranformers the Movie meets Lord of the Rings.

- And finally, almost three minutes of a midget laughing non-stop (and in black & white). Its from Even Dwarfs Starte Smalld, an early Werner Herzog classic.

6 comments

01/16/2007

Just Another Weekend Filled With Comics, Game Boy Advance, SNL, Mexican Wrestlers, Queen Elizabeth, and Steve Jobs

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

This past weekend consisted of…

- A RocketShip party on Friday night. I actually forget what it was for… arrived late anyway, so I missed most of the action. Myself and MK (who was also late due to crappy traffic) ended up just chatting with Jenny and… a guy from the House of Twelve stable, nice dude, I think its Ayo? Sorry, but I’m kinda bad with names.

- Checked out a brand new burrito place. It passed the test!

- Also checked out a brand new Thai place. It too will be a new regular stop in Park Slope.

- Played a lot of Polarium Advance, which is my new fave game of the moment. That and a few other games I’ve playing for work means that I haven’t had the chance to touch Zelda in over a week, but I do intend on getting back into things once things settle down for a bit. As for the GBA iteration of Polarium, I truly love the ability to play with just one hand, which means, when on toilet, I can still play and also wipe my ass at the same time!

- Was hit with the realization that I fucked up when messing around with my Netflix que, and the movie I was supposed to get and review for this Thursday is not coming, at least until I return 24 Hour Party People or Season 1 of the Ali Gi Show, neither of which hasn’t arrived yet. Sorry Simon! I’ll figure something out, I guess…

- Watched Idiocracy, the new Mike Judge film with MK and Robin. Its about an average Joe who get put in suspended animation, and when he wakes up in the not too distant future, everyone on the face of earth has become so stupid that he’s the smartest guy alive, by default. Aside from being really funny, it was also kinda chilling, since the events portrayed could almost happen (or already is… everyone getting dumber by the day, that is).

- Also watched a whole lot of SNL. First was this past Saturday night’s episode, which was pretty decent. It had its moments, but despite having improved quite a bit since last year, Weekend Update is still too goddamn long. Seriously, cut that shit in half. Immediately afterwards I popped in the Richard Prior episode from the Complete First Season set, which arrived earlier in the week. The contrast between the episode from year one and year thirty two was pretty interesting. I definitely miss the good old days when things were far more lo-fi and (which started to fade away around the 84-85 season, far as I can tell), and the first season is the show at its most raw, when it was most definitely a variety show. Seeing the Muppets were cool, as was the Albert Brooks film (I tend to enjoy the shorts that is currently produced, so long as it doesn’t try to cash in on internet humor, and I still have no fucking idea why everyone went ga-ga for that Lord of the Rings parody from last year, which was worth two or three chuckles at most, but the need to call them “Digital Shorts” just reeks of, I dunno, pretension). As for the humor, does it still stand up? Well… one must keep in mind how things were back then, both on television and society in general.

- Unfortunately, I was hoping for a three-fer SNL-wise that evening, but I guess NBC no longer airs classic SNLs at 3am anymore. So instead, I just channel surfed for a bit, which I hadn’t done in quite a while (since I don’t have cable anymore, but Robin does!), and aside from stopping at Cartoon Network to point and laugh at the shitty animu (including one show that looked to be another Inuyasha/Full Metal Alchemist-wannabe/migraine inducer), we mostly watched Mexican wrestling on Galavision.

- Though the thing that MK & I ended up watching the most was PBS. Throughout the entire weekend we ended up catching bits and pieces of assorted programming that was on either King Henry the VII or Queen Elizabeth. I’m kinda ashamed to admit that I don’t know much about British history, and its pretty compelling stuff! See, public television works after-all.

- Met and spoke with a television screenwriter about a possible collaboration. So… I guess I might be getting involved with television! That’s all I’m gonna say about it right now. I’ll pass along more info when it becomes available.

- Saw a mom trying to pull a tooth from her fat son’s mouth (or maybe pop a zit that was inside his check) on a subway train. And he was complaining the whole time.

- Finally saw Steve Job’s presentation for the iPhone. And I must say, I am seriously impressed, and I consider myself the hard the impress-type, at least when it comes to Apple related goods. Been a user for over ten years now, and while I’m a big fan of the hardware and software, as well as the governing philosophy behind both, I’m just as annoyed by the company, though more so by its douchebag fan base. But yeah, the iPhone is mighty impressive. Enough to almost eliminate my want and desire for a MacBook, provided it does email as well it appears to (those who were already interested, and even though are on the fence, should really check out the keynote to see the phone in action). As much as I’d love a sexy little laptop, I still don’t like the idea of lugging around a delicate (and expensive) machine that might get banged up, especially when all I really need is internet and email. And having Google Maps on the road would just be too awesome. And considering all that it does, even the $600 price tag doesn’t seem all that bad! Not too thrilled with the battery life though… But, like all Apple products, I’m definitely gonna have to wait for version 3. Also, something that Mike passed along, which besides being an oldie, but a goodie, but also quite topical.

… I also discovered that Jason just got two iRobot Roombas, one for mopping, the other for vacuuming, though that was earlier this morning.

Anyway, its gonna be another jam-packed week. I’m actually teaching tonight, as well as tomorrow. That means no movie night (btw, last week was Hard Day’s Night, one of my fave b&w films ever, and dear God does it ever look beautiful in HD), nor gameNight either (though Dave Mauro is going in my place, since I know the guy loves board games). I also forgot to mention all the movies that I got from K Thor last week; as he was handing over the keys, he also pointed out a pile of VHS tapes and DVDs, source material for his Evil Video series which he was planning on chucking, and offered me the chance to take whatever. So now I have…

- Ice Cream Man (horror flick starring Clint Howard as an evil ice cream peddler)
- Inseminoid (horror flick about an evil penis that I’ve heard is just plain amazing)
- Hell House (documentary about crazy Christian-themed horror houses)
- Dead or Alive Final (the Takeshi Miike classic)
- Crazy White Boys (don’t know what that ones about… just white guys actin all crazy, I guess)
- Blind Date Uncensored (I got it mostly for MK)
- Island of Perversion (I also have no idea what it is, it didn’t even come in a box, but with a title like that, its got to be good!)

3 comments