07/15/2005

I Really Hope The Storm Trooper Playing The Banjo Will Really Be There

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- So I recently got word from my editor/agent regarding the anime & manga encyclopedia project that I had been working towards is now effectively dead. We were unable to find any interested publishers that would provide a budget sufficient enough to make the project financially viable.

Needless I’m disappointed, but hey that’s how things go in the publishing world, and at least it gave me a valid reason to watch a ton of anime, and introduced me to quite a bit of good stuff I might have otherwise not seen or read.

When most people heard I was working on an anime related book, and even before that, and even today, they ask why I just don’t write one about video games. Well…. I’ve certainly thought about it, but the thing is, everyone and their sister is writing a book about video games. Perhaps the fact that there’s just so many shitty books out there on the subject should be a motivational device or sorts. But at this point, I would feel uncomfortable writing an entire book about something which, despite my experience with on a multiple number of fronts, is still do not enough about, at least in regard to the points that I want to get across. I’m still a student of the game and am always trying to learn new things, and feel that almost everyone should feel the same for the most part… hence why I have to laugh whenever some psyche major or a person that just reviews games tries to do something grandiose like creating a definitive tome.

That’s not to say that you have to be a game maker to be able to talk about video games, or that folks who approach them purely as a player has nothing good to say, far from it, its just that thus far none has really said much. And when you get down to it, would you rather read a book about movies/acting/writing/music from a director/actor/writer/musician or a second party? That’s just my preference, take or leave it.

I guess the real heart of the matter is that game writing is so knew that its hard for many to identify the bullshit (and you have to believe that many know this and are taking advantage of this simple fact).

Plus, back to doing my own thing, I’m not certain what I would want to write about. Though definitely sometime down the road I would like to do a definitive history of Sega as has been suggested by Jason. I’m confident that some folks would be interested in that.

- Once again, many of my friend this very moment are enjoying a plethora of comics, toys, and movie related crap at the San Diego Comic Con, which I’m disappointed that I can’t attend, plus I perpetually have a chip on my should that I haven’t once attended E3. But hey, at least I have America’s VideoGame Expo!

The “vgXpo” is actually the next step of sorts of the Philly Classic, a retro gaming convention which I attended last year. That ended up being quite a bit fun, so I’m actually looking forward to this. This year’s event takes place in November.

Plus I just found out about another game convention in these parts, the East Coast Gaming Expo which also happens in Pennsylvania this September.

As for the Big Apple, Digital Life is happening again this October. Considering how colossal a failure the GameOn NY component was, I really hope the organizers do something different.

I have to check when I’m legally allowed to do so, so when the time comes, I can talk about my brief stint as a consultant for the “GameOn killer” last winter.

- So The Behemoth, the folks behind Alien Hominid have a new game coming out. According to 1UP, its a funny take on Metal Slug and Double Dragon, plus the Guradian Heroes feel is fairly evident. It just premiered on the floors of the Comic Con and looks promising thus far.

- When commenting on yesterday’s entry, Job brought up Otocky, a game released long ago for the Famicom Disk system and who’s creator, Toshio Iwai, is also behind Electroplankton. When I first heard of Otocky, which was described as “the first real musical shooter”, hence Job’s equating it to Rez, I was immediately interested, but was unable to dig up any info since no one I brought it up with knew what the hell I was talking about, plus I could never figure out the proper spelling.

But now that I finally have it, I’ve been able to get some info, and it truly is the first musical shooter. So thanks Job! And to answer your question, I have a buddy in Japan right now who’s agreed to hunt for some games for me. I guess I’ll have him add it to the list! :)

- Also on the GAF today, someone translated bits of a new interview with Aounuma and Miyamoto from a Swedish interview regarding Twilight Princess. They even spoke about past Zelda games, which lead to this interesting bit…

Aounuma: “When a project grows continuously, you have to split it to pieces. I was the director for Wind Waker, but I let different people be responsible for different parts of the production. I had control how things we’re going for them, but at the end of the production we fought against the clock and there were parts that I was forced to approve even though it didn’t feel complete. I apologize that we didn’t fix the triforce hunt at the end of the game. It was slow and dull.”

He got that right. Wind Waker is the only Zelda game which I never bothered to finish (Minish Cap doesn’t count since I just started that one recently and have “given up” on it). Got I hated that sailing, it was so long and drawn out, plus the whole task of digging stuff out of the water was needlessly frustrating. Speaking off…

Aounuma: “I have absorbed the criticism we got from Wind Waker that the sea was too big and the number of dungeons and caves were too few says Miyamoto. The new game will have more dungeons. Many more.”

Yes! The two dungeons in Wind Waker were beyond brilliant, which made the choice of cutting the third one all the more heartbreaking (it also didn’t help that it was so obvious that one was missing).

- I might have mentioned this before, but at this point I sorta avoid posting Katamari related links since I think I’ve done that to death, but here’s another actually interesting Flicker, this one about how to make a Katamari cake. And everyone knows, I love cake!

- And I know this is really old news, but check out Gizmodo’s blurb about folks getting a retail PSP game to work from a memory stick. It’s completely spot on about mainstream magazine’s write-ups regarding technology. Remember Newsweek’s “OMGBBQ the PSP is the new iPod” cover story.

Speaking of which, not a week goes by when at least one person asks me when a new good game, or just a game period, is coming out for the PSP. I’m sorry but all the “it takes time for the good stuff to come out” excuses are seriously worn thing, especially when you remember that the system had almost nothing to prove and all the exposure in the world; I can understand folks being hesitant about producing games for a brand new system that employs a totally different means of control, like the DS, but not for a scaled down, yet supposedly exact copy of the most popular and financially successful home console on the world, which also supposed to make the whole process of making game easier.

And has everyone seen the new shots for the PSP Madden? So sad. If I was a football fan, I’d be more pissed than ever with EA.

- Hey check out this Chinese commercial for Worlds of Warcraft and Coke.

- I know the whole world has already seen this by now, but here it is again: the keyboard with the OLEN keys. And I guess I’m brining it up because I’ve heard at least one person mention that something similar might pop up for the still very mysterious Revolution controller, which also employs a touch-screen like the DS and a gyroscope according most speculation. And considering that these days how most game consoles have 52 buttons, and how most games seem to use every one of them, having them uniquely labeled for each game would be really nice.

- As for the rest of the world wide web, last night I came across some guy from Alaska who’s selling a mech on eBay that he built, as well as a major spoiler from Harry Potter 6 last night (eh, I’m sure at least one of my diehard Potter friends would have spilled it by accident).

When I explained to a person who’s foolishly optimistic about the upcoming live Transformers flick by pointing out that Soundwave is a friggn’ helicopter, I was shown a pic of Soundwave as a jet from a recent line of the toys in Japan. Not bad I guess… but still not as good as a boombox.

Plus I came across easily the most sickest, disturbing, and insane thing I have ever seen. It’s basically people eating real human babies. I ain’t directing linking it, but you can check out my post about it on YayHooray (gotta admit, that Homer Simpson joke is pretty fucking funny).

- And finally, tomorrow is the Siren Music Fest, which I look forward to every year, and I swear to God, if it fucking rains tomorrow (as everyone has been saying), I am going to be beyond pissed off.

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07/14/2005

Christopher Walken Likes To Build Robots. He Also Likes Tab Soda.

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- It’s past 1 in the morning and people are (still) firing off left over 4th of July fireworks. Plus there’s tons of fireflies buzzing about in the backyard. Its times like these when I actually like living in Brooklyn (now, if they could only get folks were who were total abject retards to work at the Dunkin Donuts narby, then the neighborhood would be perfect).

- Got home really late; after work I met up with Rob and had Indian for dinner. Then went back to my fold neighborhood in Jersey City to check out his G4 iMac (dear God do I ever love that fucking model) to possibly get it back to 100%; after upgrading to 10.3.9, there’s no sound coming out of the system or the external speakers, but you can hear audio if you have headphones plugged in. It was figured that an installation of Tiger might fix the problem (many people have had a wide variety of problems after the final Panther update, and conspiracy theorists feel it was all done on purpose… can’t say I believe in them, but I can certainly see that line of reasoning).

The upgrade didn’t work, and I almost wish I didn’t do the upgrade since the 256 MB of ram which worked swell in Panther seem to chug along in Tiger, but Rob insisted on the installation, and at least he’s already pretty fond of widgets. In-between all the maintenance work Rob and I chatted, and eventually Michele arrived home from work to join in. And it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one finds Firefly the most boring and overly hyped piece of generic sci-fi in recent memory (and we’re all pretty big Buffy fans), and that the upcoming movie looks just the same if not worse.

For all my hard work and effort I was rewarded with a copy of professional wrestling Ric Flair’s autobiography which I found myself completely entranced by, So much so that I totally screwed up when I arrived in Manhattan via the PATH and took the uptown R train by accident. I did catch the mistake not too long after, but the Brooklyn bound train I then got on ended its run at Canal Street, so I had to wait over half an hour in the insanely humid train-station for the next train. I’ve said it a million times, but I’ll say it a million more: the NY subway system is pure fucking shit.

- While I’m at it (since I’ll probably be to busy to do an update during the day tomorrow), I may as well pass along this wonderful site which features this marvelous piece of Star Trek fan art…

Plus Christopher Walken building robots is pretty damn cool as well…

- One quick bit of gaming news: there is now an Action Replay code to open up the Hot Coffee segment of GTA San Andreas, which proves that Rockstar was 100% full of shit with their whole “it was the work of hackers!” excuse.

And now Hilary Clinton is getting in the picture by going the capital this Thursday afternoon to call upon the Federal Trade Commission to get involved. Just great.

Finally, and I’m certain everyone has seen this by now, but for those who haven’t, check out this Spanish super fan of the game God of War.

Okay, time for bed!

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07/13/2005

Optimus Prime Is Seriously Gonna Be There?!

by Matthew Edward Hawkins

- Last night I caught Rubber Johnny on the big screen at Lincoln Center, along with Police Beat, which were both presented by Film Comment.

To be totally honest, I knew virtually nothing about Police Beat going in; I only really wanted to see Rubber Johnny, and even though I’m always up for discovering some unknown piece of cinematic brilliance, the combination of not knowing a single thing about the movie, as well as it being a long day at work, made me a bit unenthusiastic and almost too tired towards it all (which actually points to a big problem I’m coming to grips with: I’m no longer the social butterfly that I used to be due to always being tired, and that’s cuz I’m getting old…). But I very happy I went because it ended up being easily one of the best movies I’ve seen all year.

The independent film which hails from my home-turf of Seattle and takes place there as well, follows a West African police officer, Z, who’s girlfriend all of a sudden jets out of town to go camping with her roommate. Over the course of the follow days, Z tries his best to get ahold of her but with very little success, and we see him slowly going through a slew of anxious, jealous emotions as he wonders what wrong with her, what’s wrong with him, and the such, all while still performing his duty as the officer of the law. As the days pass, the crimes and the people that are involved becoming increasingly bizarre, but Z becomes increasingly oblivious as well, as well as more and more isolated with the world that he’s chosen as his home.

Police Beat starts out fairly straight, but as things becomes weirder, things get dreamier as well. It’s a slow and steady build, with stranger and more oddball characters at every turn, hence why whole thing definitely has a real David Lynch vibe (especially when you think fo Twin Peaks) but without all the bleakness. And on a personal level, its just nice to see the Seattle that I know of, which again, is filled with its own brand of freaks, and which there is a ton of (I should know; I grew up a mile away from an insane asylum). In addition to the great story (all the incidents are based on real police reports) and the excellent pacing, there was the superb camera work, editing, and music.

The movie was produced via an arts foundation in the Pacific Northwest, and is currently without a distributor, hence why I was so lucky to catch. Hopefully it’ll be able to make the festival circuit and eventually find a DVD release of some sort.

Immediately afterwards was a screening of Rubber Johnny, and all I can say is that I don’t think I blinked once during the entire six minutes of the short film. It was nice to see it large and fucking loud; the folks next to me had to put their fingers in their ears.

- Earlier in the evening was a meeting with my collaborator on my newest game, along with a person whom I feel will do a fine job providing the art end of things. She did a fine job on Bull Run, so Spready Bear is now even more capable hands.

- Also, real quick like, chaz over at insert credit today passed along a link to an (unfortunately Japanese only) comic starring a sexy demon girl and demure angel girl who end up at the house of some hardcore classic game junkie that still swears by the Mega Drive and the PC Engine SuperGrafx. Once again, I really wish I could read Japanese cuz it looks awesome. The sad truth is… and as a cartoonist perhaps its bad to criticize so openly but… the vast majority of comics based on gaming here in the US are really, REALLY bad.

- Here’s another demo of a game that I wish I could play; its a golf game but with totally crazy wire-frame, flat polygonal graphics. I mean, have you ever seen a golf game look like this?

I also love how the game is called Golf? Plus the site is super spiffy.

- And here’s a blog from a supposedly hard core gaming granny. I think I’ll use this opportunity to re-post a favorite pic of mine:

- Time for Transformers talk: some new details about the upcoming movie has been floating about, such as how it’s now going to be a movies about “a boy and his car”, and how there will only be about ten Transformers in the entire film, and that Cybertron, and even all the origin stuff supposedly, won’t even be mentioned until the sequel. When I first hear that Shockwave was not going to be a huge purple gun but a car, I became pissed. But then I did a search and saw that a recent toy did the same thing, and have to admit that it doesn’t look too bad, though its still disappointing. And sorry, Soundwave not being a boombox is still bullshit. Hell, make him a fucking CD walkman or mp3 player, and not a fucking helicopter!!!

Anyway, its expected that the first real bits of info will finally be revealed this upcoming weekend at the Comic Con. And now I finally have a reason to be pissed for not being there; there’s going to be a full scale Optimus Prime on the show floor!

EDIT: Oh… it’s only the truck mode. Oh well.

Then there’s the report from an anonymous tipster working at a packaging company that this person saw mock packages for new items that feature the Star Wars logo on the top and the Transformers logo at the bottom. Hmmm… an transformable Millennium Falcon would be just too hot.

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