FORT90

Not too much going on game-wise…

- Hey, remember yesterday’s story about the PS3 being one percent as powerful as the human brain? Okay, so now the same guy is saying that the PS5 will be equally powerful.

- Meanwhile, CBS has an E3 wrap-up which, despite the slightly overly alarmist tone in sections, is easily one of the best mainstream pieces on video games in long whiles. My favorite part:

The video game industry believes that it is being taken more seriously, but it is not. The money that gaming makes is garnering recognition, but the crucial lesson developers and publishers need to learn is that money does not equal maturity.

If the game industry wants to sit at the adult table, it needs to act like a grown-up and not a speed-freak teenager. Obsessions with sex and violence do not exemplify time-told experience. At the same time, pandering to such obsessions shows nothing but a childish plea for attention.

Now, granted, being obsessed with sex and violence is not exactly unique to video games, but the point is still valid.

- While I generally hate long winded “this is the way game outta be!” rants, even though I sometimes comes close to doing the same, this one here brings up a few interesting points and is actually worth reading. Plus, I really like the idea of a Matlock game.

Which reminds me, I still have to find my old game design proposal for the Charles in Charge RPG back from my Ubi Soft days for Job to prove that I’m not full of it.

- Check this out: a brand new NES! Sorta:

The Generation NEX plays NES & NeoFami (Famicom) games, supports wireless controls (presumably for their own line of wireless NES controllers), and even supports rumble; I’m assuming this features has to be written in for individual title).

I’ve always been interested in getting a NeoFami, so I’m interested, but $60 is rather steep considering the average NeoFami goes for about $30. Also, when I first saw this thing, I thought it was another NES-styled Revolution Photoshops that’s been floating around the net.

- Some (maybe) final E3 stuff: I guess I was wrong about there not being any noteworthy obscure games. Metronome is an adventure game with a heavy emphasis on sound creation and recording. Seems promosing (I do dig the art style). Also, Alien Hominid is apparently coming to the GBA (at least), which is great news. But what would even be better is if they add diagonally shooting this time around…

Oh, and here’s the entire Spore presentation is now online. Also available and worth checking out is a presentation from Masaya Matsuura, whom most people don’t know about, but was a key figure behind PaRappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon.

And speaking of, I’m (finally) putting the final touches on my interview with Rodney Greenblat for Gamasutra, so that should be live sometime next week, hopefully.

- And one last IC related item: thanks to them, I was just made aware of Gamer Br, a Brazilian documentary on its gaming scene. Other than the fact that it was heavy into the Sega Master System well after it was dead elsewhere in the world, I know next to nothing about the Brazilian gaming scene, plus I’m a sucker for documentaries in general, so I’m downloading it right, and so should you.

- As for other real world stuff, I came across a shitload of YTMND’s relating to easily the worst thing ever to come out of the new Star Wars trilogy, with my personal fave being this one, followed by this one. Oh, and this one is sorta neat.

Hey, its been a slow day at work, okay?

Plus, here’s a really awesome pic of folks dressed up for Episode 3 courtesy of a nice guy who does comics that I met at last year’s SPX:

- So that story about the lion mutilating the 42 midgets in Cambodia keeps popping up all over the place. In fact, I’m still getting emails about it from friends and acquaintances about every other day. Like that other fake BBC report about the mosquitos that turn folks into zombies, its never gonna die.

Last week, Joe, whom I passed along the link to a short while back (since he loves anything related to little people), told me that Howard Stern was talking about the story under the assumption that it was real, and I thought about the notion of calling him in and setting the record straight.

Though I can’t blame anyone for being fooled since it does look totally legit. Its getting harder and harder to tell what’s fake or not. For example, Jay sent this a while ago and I still can’t figure out if this sex offender is real or not. Either or, good God! And even though I sorta think it’s fake, for some reason, I really don’t want it to be.

Again, slow day at work.

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So E3 is finally over with. I know I said that I would discuss the show in greater detail once it was finished, but really, what’s the point? What can I say that hasn’t been said?

The whole thing was a colossal and abysmal bore fest. Even though I knew it was going to be a transitional show, and therefore didn’t expect either Sony or Nintendo to have anything playable, it was still rather clear that no one was truly prepared for the event. Microsoft perhaps being the best example of this; they went in looking like total winners to some, on a loud and noticeable (and rather obnoxious) hype train, and went out looking like damaged goods to a certain degree. For example, as each post-E3 day passes, more and more evidence appears showing that MS really had no plans to support backwards compatibility whatsoever, and were probably totally shocked to see it become such a hot topic (hence why their initiative is so noticeably messy and awkward). J Allard’s comparison of the current and next generation of gaming hardware to VCRs and DVD players, in which he claims that no one watches VHS anymore when they have DVDs, is total bullshit and further evidence that MS is going into next-gen war far too overconfidently. Its one thing for a company to spew whatever PR propaganda about such and such system and how its gonna rock the world, but to actually believe it, with no real games to back it up, is a sign of real trouble. Again, it could be argued that the Xbox360 isn’t about the games but delivering content in a dynamic fashion, something which folks have been trying back since the days of the 3D0 and have failed, mostly due to it being ahead of its time, maybe it finally is time, but I’d rather go with someone who knows a thing or two about content, and Microsoft is not on that list.

But enough MS ranting and raving; as for the rest of the show, here’s a basic rundown, from top to bottom:

– Xbox 360 premieres, underwhelms people; the Perfect Dark Zero debacle becomes a poster child for them.
– PS3 premieres, people go ga-ga over the graphics, the console and controller design makes everyone cringe, wacky Photoshops commence.
– Nintendo’s press conference bores everyone to tears, with too much DS for some, not enough Revolution for most, plus a new Zelda trailer.
– Everyone fights over PS3 trailers about them being pre-rendered or not, the concession being that its all in game graphics but just heavily scripted
– A super tiny GBA is revealed.
– Some rather neat DS games are shown.
– Hardly any PSP games are present
– In fact, there’s no real breakout games, at least any surprises
– Microsoft has a hard time keeping the facts regarding backwards compatibility straight as crazy rumor and speculation runs rampant. Damage controls is so bad for MS that J Allard gets upstaged from the spastic guy from on of G4′s video game review shows.
- Someone on a message board claiming Nintendo will reveal a shocker on Thursday (a.k.a. “Thursdayton”), and for some reason, tons of people believe this to be for real and gets them all excited. Not surprisingly, nothing happens. A fanmade vid featuring a fictitious console, the NintendoON, is somehow used as ammo. Then folks start thinking that the person, who call himself Aries at first, which later becomes Dark-something, might actually be Reggie trying to stir shit up.

… And that was the point where I just gave up on following the show and opted to wait it out till after the weekend. This year’s event was riddled with so much out of control speculation and flat out lies that after spending over an hour tracking the whole Aries story, I realized how much time was being wasting, turned off my Mac and started to watch the rest of my season 2 Futurama box set. Then after about five minutes, I realized that turning off my computer killed some torrents, so I had to do a restart.

So the question must be asked: why was E3 such a bomb this year? Not cuz “OMG, the industry is doomed!!!” or some other nonsense. The first answer is because there was no real surprises, and you can blame that on everyone spilling the beans before the show technically began (once again, nice job MS). But the main one is its not about hardware, its all about the games, stupid, and again, there was nothing really new on that end. No big shockers, no massive title that blew everyone away, hell, not even a completely out of the blue niche title that demands attention. Katamari 2 was present, and it managed to make everyone who play it fall in love, which is awesome, but thats hardly a shocker. And once again, I’m glad Odama is still coming. Though sadly, it seems Shadow of the Colossus had some major technical issues. At least Okami is shaping up very nicely. As for most people’s game of the show? Granted, I also think the Zelda looks killer, I still sorta miss the Wind Waker look and caliber of movement. Plus, the official word is Mario 128 is a Revolution title; hardly a surprise, but still disappointing. Will it be mario 256 then? is the Revolution a 256 bit machine? I don’t know.

A few other E3 related tid-bits:

- Its really weird how the DS ended up having such a really good showing, since most people consider it dead in the water. I too had lost all faith in Nintendo’s “third pillar” thanks to the PSP, but its months later and there’s still only three games worth owning (once again, Lumines, Ridge Racers, and Wipeout Fusion) and it looks to stay that way for the next few months if the E3 is any indication. Meanwhile, there’s more than just Nintendogs to look forward to, and my desire to get the machine has been rekindled, thanks in large part with Mario & Luigi 2 and the new Sonic game. Speaking off…

- Actually, E3 was a really weird show, with Sega creating such strong buzz due to their tech demos. Unfortunately, there are no good sources to see the video, but I have seen a “good as its gonna get” version of the presentation, and it looked totally hot. Basically, it starts with footage from a mech game which is coming out for 360 that looked pretty nice. Then you see two Virtua Fighters, and they’re easily the nicest looking and moving fighter game characters I personally have ever seen. Next was what looked to be a next-gen version of the classic Afterburner which looked totally insane. You just have to see it. And the whole thing ended with Sonic running and jumping and the such, which again looked super sharp, though it has to be said that he’s looked equally awesome in recent 3D Sonic titles, but playing them hasn’t been nearly as fun. Hence why the new DS game seems to promising; its 2D for starters.

- Something which got plenty of folks interested, including one of the guys in PixelJump, was the possibility of Nintendo reaching out to indie developers. Well, it seems that it really did sound too good to be true.

- So you want to know how small the Game Boy Micro really is? Well here’s a handy chart. Sorry, but that’s too small for me.

- One real surprise was word that Kojima was returning to the position of director for Metal Gear Solid 4. Yeah, I know he said the same thing before part 3, but then he had something to prove (to “make up” for MGS2). But with easily one of the best games this generation under his belt, I figured he was serious about moving on. Maybe we’ll still see a Zone of the Enders 3.

- Otherwise, the show was indeed a real downer, and I’m sorta glad I didn’t go. Hell, even the swag wasn’t that hot from what I’ve seen. I mean, I could give a rat’s ass about those 360 faceplates (even though others feel differently). Though if Carmen my editor at Nick Mag got me anything, I ain’t exactly turning any of it down either! Hopefully either she, or Job or George managed to nab for me one of those super keen Katamari mouspads.

- Besides the whole Xbox 360 BC debacle, its funny to see that people are also still bitching about the Spider Man font being used for the PS3 (can’t say I blame them). Now I really wish that fake logo was the real thing. Also, that crappy new controller? It had a sign right next to it on the display floor stating that its a work in progress. Hey, if Sony is smart, they’ll listen and get that thing changed back to the Dual Shock that everyone knows, which was damn near perfect, so why the change?

- And one last thing, and I sign of things to come, is a quote from a recent article on Yahoo news from the UK, about the PS3:

“As an example of the advances being made, Pearson noted that Sony’s new PlayStation 3 computer games console is 35 times as powerful as the model it replaced, and in terms of processing is “one percent as powerful as a human brain”.

And with that is the opening salvo for ridiculous assumptions of next-gen hardware. Anyone remember the B.S. about the PS2 being able to render all the special effects for Episode 1 or being classified as a super computer and therefore it being “too dangerous” to get in the hands of the Chinese or Saddam Hussein? Well, I guess it officially begins…
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Meanwhile, in the real world:

- I finally got a new TV; a while back I realized that the reason why I wasn’t playing too many games wasn’t due to there not being enough time (I’m super busy, but dammit, I can make the time to play games), but my TV being blurry, which is okay for general television and movie viewing, but a real headache if you’re trying to read hi-res text. So I treated myself to a 27 inch flat screen Toshiba. Its super huge and rather nice.

- After a particularly long and stressful week for both of us, MK & I spent the weekend holed in my place in Brooklyn to avoid the idiot populace at large. Plus we did plenty of BBQ-ing (even when it ran Saturday night!) and MK finally up to speed on Trailer Park Boys. Plus she finally got to play Pikmin 2 which I got specifically for her.

- In addition to the new TV, I did plenty of other shopping, mostly DVDs. Seasons 3 and 4 of Futurama are on their way, as well as season 4 of the Simpsons, and the 2nd SCTV collection thanks to eBay. I picked up season 5 of the Simpsons at Target for the cheap, plus some bunny ears so I can finally watch local TV (and it doesn’t make my new TV look nearly as ghetto as I though it would). I was gonna put a stop on the DVD buying, but when I was at J&L earlier today since I had some time on my hands (I went to City Hall to get out of jury duty, and chatting it up with the clerk about games really did a lot for me to help speed the process), and noticed that the whole collection of Mr Show, including seasons 1+2, 3, and 4 were mislabeled for just the price of season 4, and the sales clerk didn’t notice. Sweet! So with the money I saved, I may as well buy more DVDs!

- Plus, with a decent TV at last, I finally played some of the Xbox games that I’ve had for almost years now. For the past few nights its been nothing but OutRun 2.

- Still feeling sorta shitty. Had to cancel my scheduled meeting with Nelson tonight to talk about our game. We’ll get the chance to chat after our Gamoids (IGDA NY) meeting tomorrow night. Speaking off, I finally got my IGDA membership card in the mail yesterday (was wondering what the hold up). Plus my TATE shirt finally arrived. Fuckin’ A! Too bad, I don’t actually have it; I have to have all my packages delivered to Jason’s place of work since since stuff seems to go “missing” in the SVA mailroom…

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