- So Thursday night was an IGDA NY social mixer, a chance for various folks in the New York City area that are in the business of making games (or those wishing to crack into the field) to get together and chat, drink, and of course, network. I told John about it, who’s trying to get more involved in game space himself, so he was there, but aside from him and Dave (Gilbert), it was mostly fresh faces, which was actually quite nice. To be honest, I’ve sorta shied away from such things in the past it was always the same faces over and over again, but now that things are finally starting to boom in the Big Apple, there’s more opportunities, which of course leads to more people. Though truth be told, I was pretty bummed out by the end since I had to wonder why I myself am not back to designing games full-time, but hey, I guess I other stuff. Though I did meet someone else who’s also a “pure” game designer, which is what I like to call people such as myself who only design and don’t program. There used to be a point when such a person, at least in this country was unheard of… and to be honest, it made being out of work as a game designer at least somewhat understandable. But not anymore.
Anyway, it was also nice to see the IGDA NY flourish with such an function due to the hard work of Dave, the current darling of the NYC indie game dev scene, whom I kinda help get involved with the IGDA, as well as informed him of a NYC indie game dev scene in the first place (I knew he out of everyone else in my class this past summer would appreciate the Games For Change field trip, and it really did make a huge impact on him). And Dave was quite appreciate that night, because he passed along many, many thanks for helping him become part of the loop, and a rather drunken “I love you!” sort of fashion, which was really nice, and pretty funny (I sorta glad to not be the official lush of the party every once in a while).
- The next day, Friday, was pretty frustrating. Among other things, almost all of the 39 or so emails I sent out that morning did not reach their destinations, so the whole rest of the day it was “hey, didn’t you get my email?” Plus I had a harder than normal time accessing my mail via the web, and since my contract with my current web space provider (1&1) is almost up, I must ask once again: can anyone please recommend a good provider? I also don’t seem to have no mail on either front: a particular film I’ve been waiting for forever has been lost in the mail again (it was supposed to be this week’s Cinema Pixeldiso selection), along with at least one other game, plus the douchebag mail carriers around where I live, aside from reading my magazines, decided to watch my latest Netflix selection before passing it back, and they totally fucked up the envelope, which means I’ll have to pay for postage or some shit. So along with a ton of various other annoyances throughout the week, in addition to the fact that I had been such a social butterfly the entire week, I was just sick and tired of people in general by the end of the day.
Though I meet up with Robin after work, to show him all the indie game shops at the Fulton Street Mall. Though one major reason for my trip was to pick up a used game that not only is pivotal for The Gamer’s Quarter piece I’m working on, but which had been there on one store’s shelf for basically forever, collecting dust, and wouldn’t you know, when I actually am ready to buy it, it’s fucking sold out! But the funny thing is the last time this happened, it was over Everblue 2, and it had magically re-appeared in another store! But I didn’t get it because since then I had rented it via GameFly and it’s been sitting on my television, unopened, for the past two months. Again, I’ve been super busy.
Afterwards, I went back to my place, with the plan to recharge my batteries and wait till MK arrived, then go to Robin’s together and join him and Liz for some drawing. So I finally popped open Everblue 2 and…. its nice! Nothing mind-blowing, and the interface is chunky. But the tone and atmosphere is quite nice, and there’s plenty of blue (skies and water) it did a great job of chilling me out. For those who don’t know, its basically a scuba diving simulator. All you do is swim around the ocean floor, looking for treasure or taking pictures of fish. That’s it. No bad guys or any of that stuff. Hence why its really not for everyone. Though unfortunately, all my memory cards were full, so I couldn’t save my progress. I think I’ll pick the game up (watch it not be there… and if someone gets it from reading this, all I can say is you suck dick, cock-knobber!). Anyway, instead of going out, I decided to just go to bed early, around 11, which is early for me for a Friday night.
- I had to work the next Saturday morning, which was lots of fun, especially the subways during the weekend are a whole different level of hell. Again, I need to stop thinking I could ever possible be on time to anything if I’m relying on the subway, especially on the weekend, and even if I leave the house super early. Afterwards I met up with MK at the Virgin Megastore and came pretty close to picking up Guitar Hero 2. I swear, I have yet to hear anyone not say that it simply trumps the first one in every single way possible. But I passed, at least for now.
Later on we went back to Brooklyn and stopped by Mike (O’Connor)‘s place. Joe (Salina) and his girlfriend swung by and we all just sat around and talked while enjoying some beer. MK had met Mike and Joe before, at my last birthday party, but they did have much chance to chance to chit-chat with so many other people and things going on, so I was wondering how the night might go, primarily if she would grow tired of us yucking it up, especially when it came to talking about the Insert Credit Forums. But that didn’t happen thankfully since everyone likes hearing about the wacky antics of basement dwelling Kojima fans that watch too much fucking anime, right? Among the many stories swapped were tales of my crazy ex-girlfriend, which I thought I had passed along, but hadn’t. The whole time Mike’s eyes were bugging out, with his hands covering his mouth. Meanwhile Joe laughed at first, but then stopped, and I thought I had offended the guy, but he said that he just didn’t have the energy to anymore. Mike’s wife Liz has stopped by that point, and when I apologized if I was at all offensive (my vivid details when describing the horrible anal sex episode, as well as goofing on a person who has to take five times the normal prescribed about of lithium… enough to kill a horse… could be considered tasteless, among other things to some), Mike responded with “Hey, she married me!“
After about five glasses of Yuengling, which according Mike is like five thousand beers to you white people, I was pretty drunk, and it was getting pretty late, so we all called it a night. But I was hungry, and since I thought it might be best to have something absorb the booze swishing around my stomach, I asked MK if we could go to the White Castle near me. And the drive in took forever, but at least someone, I’m assuming the person living in the apartment right next door, was watching a porno really, really loud, and that was fun.
- The next day was nice and chill, as every Sunday should be. MK & I went over to Rocketship, which we try to hit every Sunday if we’re in Brooklyn, but this one was kinda special since Raina and Abby were having a book signing geared specifically for kids, which meant plenty of cookies and ice cream. As expected, the regular comics crew was there; in response to a suggestion of mine that some of us do something this upcoming Saturday, Steve wondered if I was insane given that it also the eve of the Wii launch, and then I gave him shit about, not so much wanting to wait in line all night long for a system but being worried that it’ll be sold out, which I felt bad about since, hey, everyone has their own definition of fun I guess (once again, I just have strong issue with the fact that all this system launch hysteria, primarily the late night line waiting, is all so orchestrated). Then again, I’ll be there with the rest of the Nintendo-diehards… though in my case, I’m getting paid to do so!
MK & I then went home to chill out for a bit before heading to Willamsburg for a show. I played a bit of Chibi Robo, then MK, who totally fell in love with the game. And it was further proof that any girl out there who either doesn’t like video games or thing they are too hard needs to date a game designer to show them what’s up. Anyway, MK was right in saying that the main reason why I like the game so much is that it stars a cute little robot that likes to clean the house.
After about a few hours of GameCube, we drove to Willamsburg to see Seamonster, aka Todd Webb play. For some reason, he had neglected to give any of the other folks around here, like Dave and Raina a head’s up, so it was just MK & myself, along with a bunch of tragically hip hipsters. My fave was the girl who looked just like Maggie Gyllenhaal (at least, she was the only girl who didn’t have a haircut that made her look like a British schoolboy, circa the early 60s) that wore a single bell around her foot, so she annoyingly rang wherever she went. Some people and their thirst for attention. But fuck that noise, we were there just for Todd, and it was great seeing the guy, though quite interesting to see him in rock star mode (well, with a heavy dash of folks, along with his indie cartooning roots). But his songs were nice… mostly about boys with head filled with helium in love with dead girls. Plus he cracked several jokes about Colonel Sanders, due to a combination be having just been at his birthplace a few days prior and road dementia. He even said that his spirit might be why he and his friend Tim who was also playing that night woke up one morning in a motel with matching chicken bone tattoos (and $100 in cash in Tim’s pockets for some reason). But more than anything, the idea of Todd with tattoos was rather shocking, so I had to take a picture, and here it is…
… though now that I finally have a chance to really look at his arm, it looks more like stuff on a skin color shirt or bandage than his real arm. Which makes me wish I had seen the picture earlier, before telling everyone that he has tattoos, which got a “WTF?!?!?!” response from everyone I told.
- As for today, I’ve just been trying to catch up with all the news I missed over the weekend. The PS3 launched in Japan, and as expected, it wasn’t without incident. Though the last thing I expected was to hear that lines would be dominated by surly, and poor, Chinese immigrants.
Meanwhile in America, things just keep getting worse. GameStop recently announced that they will not be able to fill their pre-orders, which pretty much means that, yes, rioting in the streets with happen. Whereas everyone waiting in line all night long for a Wii will more than likely be docile Nintendo devotees holding hands and humming kumbaya (and the theme to Zelda), I’m fully expecting the PS3 night before to basically include people beating the ever-living shit out of each other, and I’d be lying if I also wasn’t planning to hit all the Gamestops in Manhattan Thursday night.
Though truth be told, one of the ugliest things to come from all of this, at least the thing that really pisses me off the most, is how ultra annoying and downright embarrassing various members of the press are acting during all this. And as one person put it best, you really can blame it on the blog-fication of journalism. It’s like, you get free stuff, you’re cool, we all get it. Granted, its one of the nicest perks, getting free systems and games, often before they come out, and sometimes its fun to brag, but being a dick about is obviously not cool. Hence why I want to apologize if I ever act in such a way, though if I do, its totally not intentional, seriously.
- Anyway, back to the challenge that everyone out there is going to have to face to get their hands on their PS3′s, even if its already paid in full… I hope at least this guy gets his PS3, since he already sold it on eBay for $9,100. Again, nine thousand and one hundred dollars. Jesus fucking gamer nerds…
And of course, its been YTMND-ed already, of course. Jesus fucking anime nerds….
Oh, and here’s another insane game related eBay auction, this time for a super rare Atari 2600 cartridge, for the game Atlantis 2 which the seller is asking for one million, seven hundred and fifty thousand. The seller explains what makes the game so rare, though it hardly justifies the asking price of almost two million. Just another fine example of fucking insane (and sad) most diehard game collectors are.
- Kinda related to eBay: Radiant Silvergun, one of the most sought after Sega Saturn games, which routinely fetches $200 for just a used copy alone… and I hate to say it, but its actually worth it… best damn shmup ever IMHO. Though one might not have to fork over that amount of dough after-all. According to The Magic Box, its been rumored that the PS3 might offer Saturn games for its own Virtual Console. And I can hang with that! It would mean that I’d be willing to pay $600 for a video game system since that means I’d be spending $400 for the ability to play other games.
- So it seems that me talking about Second Life so much as of late as prompted at least a few friends of mine to give that game a try. And I must confess, I’m kinda tempted to try it out myself, if only for the chance to run around and crash furry gathers (it does seem to offer folks plenty of options to fuck with folks). Anyway, here’s your latest video, this one dealing with Gremlins.
- Courtesy of the IC forums is perhaps the coolest Game Over sequences ever (right next to Sega Rally’s “GAME OVER YEAHHHH!!!” that is).
- Here’s a new DS game that turns the system into a guitar, literally; the touchpad emulates the strings that you strum with the stylus, exactly like a guitar pic. Though it apparently doesn’t have any songs included, so it may not play much like a game like, say, Guitar Hero. But you can at least plug it into an amp and “play” the thing. This vid does a good job illustrating what it does.
- Check out Soul Gainer, a new MMO I think, if only because its slogan is the best bit of Engrish all year.
- And here’s a nifty looking doujin shmup called Butterfly Samurai which I’m interested in, simply because it reminds me of Kolibri.
- I also found out via K Thor that Joanna Newsom’s new record, which is called Ys, is named as such so “gamers will know what it means”, at least according to her producer on a NPR interview. And yeah, Ys happens to be the name of an old Falcom RPG… I just never expected it, let alone her, to be related to video games. Interesting.
I?m still trying to figure out if that Gran Turismo from the Cardigans actually has anything to do with the game of the same name.
- Finally, and its not video game related, but its still totally worth checking out: if you haven’t checked out MK’s Comic Tools blog yet, now is the time. Today’s artist is Bryan Lee O’Malley, whom I’m really surprised more gamer nerds don’t know about. Hopefully my look at Scott Pilgrim for GameSetWatch (coming out… soon) will change all that. Though my fave entry thus far as to be Matthew Bernier, primarily due to his absolutely insane inking methodology.
Oh, and Katie has a new blog as well, which is all about the art scene in Syracuse. Check ‘em out.
