10/17/2006

DigitalLife 2006 Additional

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

So I got back home from SPX earlier today, around 6-ish, and ever since I’ve been busy responding to all the email that piled up over the past few days while on the road, making phone calls, playing some Donkey Kong ’94 for the Game Boy (that I had purchased from eBay just before leaving for the show and which just arrived earlier in the day; the game btw cost only a sweet $6!), as well as sifting through some of the comics I picked up at the show. And as much as I’d like to dive head first into a SPX Con report, since there’s a lot to talk about, and show (I took exactly 250 pictures the whole three days), I still have some unfinished DigitalLife business from Thursday to address. But instead of editing my previous post which was the original plan, I figured I’d just pass them along here (and for the millionth time, please excuse the blurry pics).

First off, here’s a pic of the CONSOLE Xbox 360 faceplate on display which myself (and others) are kinda miffed isn’t available yet…

… I forgot to mention that I also asked the MS reps on-hand where the blank faceplate, the one which people would get so they could spray-paint or whatever, to really personalize their systems, wasn’t available either, but I got no answer on that either. I think I’ll bug the head MS bug tomorrow, when I ask why I haven’t gotten my debug unit yet either.

Here’s a shot of the new Sam & Max game that’s available via Gametap…

And here’s one of the new Superman Returns game from EA. Once again, the game is rather crappy, which isn’t surprising of course, but this particular scene, which depicts a bunch of asteroids falling towards Metropolis that Supes must destroy before they reach impact, was admittedly very cool to witness. Too bad Superman just looks weird all-around (which you can maybe see in this pic)…

Another in-game shot, this one of a WWE game, of Kane, a fave wrestler of mine, which simply screams “Welcome to the world of high-def gaming!” to me…

As cited before, Square-Enix had just one game at their (rather spacious) booth: Final Fantasy XII. And I had totally forgotten how big this game is till word gotten out that I had the game among my circle, which brought upon quite a few “So how is it? Huh? Huh? Huh?” in my immediate social circle ever since; I guess its also nice to know that the current gen still has plenty of life and interest in it thus far. Anyway, aside from various demo stations, there was this really nice real life armor based upon one of the game’s judges on-display…

Anyway, like I indicated previously (and Jason would later vouch for, who went on Saturday), the show kinda sucked. Yeah, it was nice that there were more video games, but much of it was pretty boring, though most importantly, almost none of it was something mind-blowlingly special. There was no debuts, nor any surprises. And the rest of the show was actually worse; just stupid high-def television sets and iPod covers. Yay.

But there was one definite highlight, something which totally blew my mind. And I guess it’s hardly shocking that it’s a robot. Plus, it is quite seriously the future…

You’re looking at the 914 from White Box, a.k.a. the first real deal consumer robot. It costs $5,000 and is basically a PC in a robotic enclosure. The 914 can do everything a standard PC can do (it runs on Windows, and can do everything a Windows machine can, like surf the web and whatever running applications, except its also mobile. It responds to voice commands, plus it can be controlled via a Bluetooth enabled remote control, and even off-site via the web.

Its creator, Thomas Burick, the president and founder of White Box, built the robot with two principles in mind. First, he knows that everyone wants their own R2-D2, which is 100% correct. But he also wanted a robot that would be completely consumer friendly, one that would be easy, and most importantly cheap, to upkeep. Hence why the 914 is based on a regular old PC, meaning any replacement parts can be easily purchased at a Best Buy.

The potential of the robot seems pretty much limitless, and its already been acquired by various educational institutions as a learning tool, as well as law enforcement agencies as a security and safety device, plus rappers as major bling-bling. But the bottom line is that, its finally here: robots, at least ones that can actually do stuff. It?s not some dumbass Robosapien that looks all-futuristic but doesn’t do shit but just stand and shake and is some over-glorified kids toy. Granted, it can run or fly around or even grab things, but its a start. I can easily see something like this be the basis of, say, Skynet. And I for one welcome our future robot overlord with welcome hands. Or at least I would if I had the money. But if I did indeed have the money to spare, I would totally get a 914.

Another interesting fun fact is that the company is based on Pittsburg, and the robot is assembled both there and in Canada….

One more thing I forgot to mention last time, this from the night before DigitalLife: I went to the 8 BIT showing at MoMA this past Wednesday (I could go to the film’s premier last Saturday since I had to attend the Clam ‘N Jam in Jersey). It was nice to see the film on the big-screen and with a large audience, which seemed to mostly dig the movie. As I mentioned previously, I enjoyed it for the most part, though I guess I should also mention that what I saw that night was slightly different from the version I reviewed; the editing was a bit tighter, certain scenes had some polish, plus there was an extra interview. I also got to meet Justin Stawhand, the film’s producer (Marcin Ramocki, the director was also in attendance, whom I had met previously; he was the guy who had dropped off the movie for me to review weeks prior, as well as a copy of the movie’s poster). Justin was a totally cool dude; a tiny bit of me was sorta afraid he might be pissed at some of the negative comments in my review, but he totally saw where I was coming from. Anyway, the highlight of the evening was right after the screening, as I was chatting with Justin; Marcin came up to ask Justin about the after-party, then when he saw me, he went, “Hey, I finally remember where I recognized you! You’re in the last frame of the movie! The screaming guy!” Which was true; I’m in the movie since I was at pretty much all the NYC chiptunes that were filmed for the doc, and at pretty much any show I’m at, I scream like an idiot banshee. It’s pretty retarded I know, and rather embarrassing…

Yet that didn’t stop me this weekend, but I’ll have to save that for the next entry.

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10/12/2006

DigitalLife 2006 -OR- Wow… Sega Has Officially And Completely Ruined Sonic. Amazing.

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

Since I have some time to spare before I meet up with MK and hit the road to SPX, I may as well talk briefly about DigitalLife…

First off, this year’s show was like the previous years: rather lame. I was actually expecting it to be bigger, if not better, and it really felt as if this year’s DigitalLife was indeed smaller; there seemed to be less floor space dedicated to the show, but also the pro gaming area was much bigger. Basically, all you had were: video games, Blu-ray, HD DVD, PC hardware, Windows Vista, iPod cases, “exciting new ways to blog!” and assorted odds and ends, like hard drives and other storage mediums. There were some cell phone apps and games, but no actual phone manufacturers this time (which I was pretty disappointed by).

And also since I was there mostly during the press only portion of the show, plus I arrived late and missed the Sony presentation (which in the end freed me up to check out the Konami booth meaning that I didn’t have to make my schedule appointment later in the day), as well as the whole Sonic’s birthday party thing, I didn’t end up spending as much time there as I thought I was going to.

My first stop was at Sony’s booth, which was not only pushing the PlayStation 3 but Blu-ray as a whole (and very, VERY hard). There was only PS3s systems on-hand; one was running Resistance: Fall of Man, which is that “what if aliens showed up right after World War 1 and changed the course of human history” FPS, and EA’s basketball game. At one point, this dumb-fuck reporter from CBS News tried to be all funny by acting all “Oh man, I gotta have me one of these!” and literally grabbed the PS3 that was on display and running one of the game and tried taking off with it. And since it was all wired into the display, it could have been a huge mess, but the Sony PR folks stopped him in time, and you could tell that they were super pissed, but had to play it cool and smile for the cameras (if they had gotten pissed and told the guy to fuck off, they totally would have been in the right).

Meanwhile, on the Blu-ray side of things, they had various large screen running assorted Blu-ray movies. One was House of Flying Daggers, and I seriously couldn’t believe how fucking shitty it looked. The image quality was horrendous, with nothing but artifacting all over the place and ghosting. It was like watching a DVD from one of those el-cheapo mini DVD players, and from an angle. I asked the Sony guy who was manning the station literally five times if it was indeed a Blu-ray movie running off Blu-ray hardware and it was all optimally set-up. Right next to it was another screen showing assorted movie trailers, which looked better, so maybe the set-up was poor and the guy was just talking out of his ass (actually, that was a major problem all over the place; most people did not have their shit configured properly) or the Blu-ray version of House of Flying Daggers, is encoded super poorly.

Next was Microsoft’s Xbox 360′s set-up. Nothing really special… they were mostly just pushing Live Arcade games, with Doom and Mortal Kombat 3 on display (the none Ultimate flavor… lame). They had a display of all the different faceplates for the system and asked why in the hell the ultra sexy orange “CONSOLE” faceplate isn’t in stores yet, and no one had an answer.

Konami was next. Tried out Elebits, which stars all these little creatures that are hidden in the environment, so you use the Wii-mote to rummage around the pick them out. At first, I kept spinning around in a circle, so the Konami guy had to reset my system, but it happened again. It was then discovered that I was moving the controller around too much, but once I steadied my hand, I was able to play the game. Its a neat game, but the controls are WAY too sensitive. Afterwards was the Castlevania DS game, Portrait of Ruin, which as expected was totally hawt. Then I tried to play the new Metal Gear PSP game, but the analogue nub had been broken off the PSP (I pointed this out to the Konami rep near-by and he both knew and was totally irritated… I didn’t have to tell him that they don’t exactly sell spare ones in Gamestops or anything). So, it was a real bear to control, hence why I didn’t spend much time on it, though I did check out the interface, and holy shit is it sexy (I’m taking Killer 7 level of awesome interface here).

Then it was Sega’s set-up; Sonic for the PS3 was present, but for whatever reason, the folks at Sega would not let me or any members of the press play it. Instead, a Sonic Team member was on-hand to play it for the cameras. Lame. They also had the new Sonic PSP game, and what can I say other than I was wrong and ShaperMC was right: the game is a goddamn trainwreck. The controls flat out suck; they are imprecise and totally confusing. For those who don’t know, its basically a foot-race between Sonic and some other character, but it looks and sorta plays like a traditional Sonic game, but in 2.5D. Along the way there are enemies, but your mostly supposed to be “fighting” the other racer; imagine Mario Kart, but as a side-scroller, but with all the cheapness. And I was getting totally cockblocked by Knuckles, one Sega PR rep just kept going “Ha! He totally got you!” which was so annoying to say the least. He also insisted that I play several more times so I could get used to things then play head to head against him, which was my cue to sneak away (which was also when I lost all interest in getting a slice of Sonic’s birthday cake).

But if all that wasn’t bad enough, Sega totally went for the three hit Sonic ruination combo with the mind-bogglingly shitty Sonic 1 port for the Game Boy Advance. Slated for release next month as part of Sonic’s 15th year anniversary celebration, the original Genesis game has been re-programmed for the GBA (I was expecting a simple port to the system via some Genesis emulator, and the image squashed down, like all the NES releases) but the animation is totally weird, and best off all is the slow-down. Slow-down in a Sonic game, the first one, which was the slowest one no less. Good job Sega of completely fucking up Sonic!

Sierra (formerly Vivendi Universal Games) was on-hand, along with the new Spyro the Dragon title, which once again, and I know people are going to think I’m nuts for saying this, is oh my God amazing. Trust me, if you like old-school platforming, then you HAVE to check it out. And Sierra rep on-hand was very happy to see someone actually play the game and really appreciate it.

You had EA of course. Got to see the new Superman Returns game, which everyone has been eagerly awaiting for, though mostly to tear apart. I watched some guy play it for a few minutes and he noted that he was pissed that he couldn’t kill the denizens of Metropolis with Supe’s heat vision. The game looked pretty boring and really bad in some parts (the Man of Steel himself looks like crap) but there was this one part where all these meteors are falling and you have to stop them, and that did look exciting. I also liked how Superman has no life meter, so his vitality is dependent on the condition of the city, which is one of the more interesting work-arounds to his invincibility in a video game yet. So yeah, it?s not as bad as Superman 64, but its still sorta crappy. Though I did get to play the new Need for Speed Carbon, and it was exactly what you might expect: very pretty but also shallow and boring. I was told that that the GameCube version will be particularity impressive, as to make up for the crappy Most Wanted from last year.

Also tried out the Fast and Furious arcade game, which someone had set-up. I had seen that game for a long whiles and totally ignored it, but when once I discovered that Eugene Jarvis was the man behind it, I knew that I simply had to try it out. And it?s not bad! Totally feels like Crusin USA. Though its rather interesting in the nighttime NYC course, the World Trade Center memorial lights are in the game.

Square-Enix had a large space, and it was completely dedicated to just one game: Final Fantasy XII. And I guess that’s all they needed.

Stopped by the Gametap booth for a bit, and played some 32X games, mostly Virtua Racing and Virtua Fighter. I was pretty blown away by the immense selection of games available (if I had a PC, I’d probably be all over it). Also got to check out the new Sam & Maxx game (again, if I only had a PC), as well as talk with some guy from Cyan about the Myst MMO.

Namco had a booth, but they only had mobile games on display. The cell phone version of Time Crisis is surprisingly not that bad! Basically the screen is divvied up into nine sections, each corresponding to a number on the keypad, so if a bad guy is in the middle right part of the screen, you hit the number 6 to shoot him. Meanwhile, Ridge Racer for the cell phone was pretty crappy.

There was a HD DVD set-up, which included the HD DVD unit for the 360. When I asked about the gaming capabilities of the system, the rep basically said that it was probably going to be just a movie player, since HD DVD is so amazing “game creators probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.” Yeah.

I have a few other bits and pieces to pass along, including the definite highlight, which was a totally amazing robot that I have to get my hands, on, as well as pictures from the show, but that’s pretty much it for video games, plus I should probably be heading out right about now (Pat’s copy of Monster Squad just finished burning). I’ll edit this post with the pics, once I get back from selling comics/accepting my Nerdlinger/getting drunk/singing “Rocket Man” (per Katie’s request)/possibly getting racked in the nuts by either a soccer ball.

EDIT: You can find the pics here.

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10/11/2006

Sonic and Sushi (and Disembodied Cat Heads With Legs Attatched)

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

So last night I went to pick up my DigitalLife press credentials at the pre-event bash the organizers had set up. There some drinks, some food (which were f’n phenomenal… I seriously have never had better California rolls ever), and to my surprise, Sega with both a PS3 and a Wii! It was my first time seeing a PS3 in person, and yeah, that thing is huge. I could also tell it was the 60 gig model since it doesn’t have the silver strip near the front, where the drive door is. The 20 gig model is all black, and it?s sorta like how the Xbox 360 core system is all matte white, while the disc tray is silver on the premium version. Which basically means the “lesser powered” system once again is the more esthetically pleasing, at least in my mind. Though it wasn’t running and simply was on display last night, so let’s move on…

But the Wii was operational, and running the new Sonic game, which I got to finally test drive. Overall, it’s what I expected… the controls were sorta funky and a bit to hard to deal with, but I’m giving every Wii game a bit of leeway, at least for the time being so both myself and the developers can get used to the interface. The game looked nice… not as visually stunning as the PS3/Xbox 360 versions, but its nothing shabby either. Most importantly, its just Sonic running towards the screen full blast, collecting rings and bouncing around, and it felt like the very best part of Sonic Adventure 2, without none of the platforming nonsense, which is the most important thing. Though I found attacking enemies, and even just jumping, rather difficult, both to actually perform and time, but again, maybe I just need to get used to it (though I really hope its not as complicated as it sorta feels it might be… perhaps complicated is the wrong word, but every Sonic game needs to be drop dead simply in its control scheme, and therefore very obvious, which to me it wasn’t).

BTW, I haven’t really had a chance to check around, but there’s got to be a few photos floating around of me since I was the first to give it a spin and plenty of cameras were flashing (hopefully a few pics will included me getting harassed by the guy the Sonic suit as I played). Later on, I was chatting with a guy from Mobygames and a DL life photographer came up to take a pic of us together, and we both comment how we really should have shaved before showing up to the event.

Anyway, yeah, DigitalLife is tomorrow. Aside from Sega, Konami will be on-hand, so I’ll get a chance to try out their new Wii title Elebits, which is starting to generate some buzz; I believe many were turned off by the graphics at first, but I guess it’s either improved on that end or more people know about the game and are therefore more interested. Sierra will also be there with the new Spyro game (trust me on this one folks, as crazy as it sounds, what I played a few months back was TOTALLY AMAZING), and… that’s pretty much it for video game companies at the show. I’m sure Microsoft will have a presence since they are giving one of the keynotes again, maybe Sony? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m sorta looking forward to the show, despite how lame its been in years past. Well, things did slightly improve last year, and maybe that’ll continue, though I have a feeling that video games will continue to be on the back-burner (as evidenced by SNK deciding to sit it out). Which is sorta funny since now with E3 being dead, this might be a good opportunity to take a stab at becoming the “next E3″ for reals this time. Instead, its now pretty much a full on technology event, and the timing couldn’t be worse since Wired’s NextFest just took place, which was more or less the same thing. Oh well…

Another thing I’m looking forward to is the end of the mountain of emails, and even phone-calls, from hungry and desperate PR reps wanting folks to check out their wares. And it wouldn’t be such a big deal if it wasn’t the fact that 95% are just iPod cases or “exciting” new methods to blog. Though as of last night, I’ve finally gotten wind of robots and some exercise bike/keyboard and mouse combo, so knows…

I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to really pass along any impressions of the show till next week; right after my trip to DigitalLife I’m rushing home to get my clothes and books, then heading off to Jersey, and getting ready for SPX, which is the very next day. And I gotta admit, I’m actually starting to feel rather optimistic about it. Yeah, the new location might totally suck (and Liz made me realize that food might be an issue: the previous location had a great burrito place, as well as the totally awesome, and very surly, Tasty Diner, just around the corner), most of my friends will not be there, and my gang’s table is going to be smack in the middle of super hero dorks (which at a small press/indie comics shows is can spell disaster). But we all know this, hence why everyone in my circle is determined to have fun no matter what (hence the power trio of the Nerdlingers/Katie-okie/Sunday soccer-mania). Plus, at the very least, the new badge designs look pretty awesome.

Though now that I’m actually warming up to it, I’m starting to feel guilty and stupid for not having anything new at the show. But there’s always APE!

EDIT: Oh, and want to hear my “harrowing tale of a strange midnight visitor”? I’m in the Weekly World News. Again. And I swear to God, it really happened.

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