Game Candy

Looking for a website that reviews some of the Xbox 360 Community Games?

Look no further:

XNA Roundup

So sorry it’s been so long since my last update! I’ve been transitioning to another city and job. I’ll be doing some writing and some show stuff over at MEVIO.

Under the TECH tab i’ll be producing scripts and writing/blogs about games, websites, and tech. I am working on a ‘whats cool on the web’ little 3 minute thing as well. AND hopefully at some point later on i’ll be able to get a full video games roundtable show up (fingers crossed).

If you haven’t checked it out yet and you are into new indie music check out www.allofusarefamous.com - it’s the music site I manage as well. And if you want to climb into my head a bit (enter at your own risk) head over to www.otherspace.biz. havent updated it in awhile but will be soon. if you want to get the full feel of the site you could listen to some of the songs listed (they are what im listening to while I write the pieces). Lastly, I have a tech/games/life universe and everything podcast with my buddy LX over at www.bringtherobot.com. This weeks episode is late (recording today - up next week).
Ok enough shameless promotion.

DS Game Review of Away: Shuffle Dungeon coming soon.

Journey with me - your tireless soldier of nerdom into … Wondercon 2009

10:42 am

ok, after waiting in a weird 3-lane line for awhile they let in the cattle.

I got a taste of the exhibtion hall. There was actually quite a lot to see. Espicially if you are into super deformed cute characters on clothing, stickers, and totebags…which I AM.

Played some Resident Evil 5 with the old school control scheme. Yikes. The camera moves so much that very soon I was dizzy and out of ammo, staring at the ground, bloodied, and dead. The graphics were nice and vibrant, and the combo idea with a partner was interesting. But the controls …. ugh. The huge bellied bad guy with the axe seemed a bit timid. I would have thought he’d charge me first chance he got, but instead he seemed to mill about and swing at the air occasionally. Was he even aware of me? Maybe it was the mask.

He eventually DID notice me enough to lay me out with a couple hits from that big axe. My handgun does nothing!

I picked up some Gamma Go stickers (they mentioned a shop here in san fran opening soon), and was very excited to have a sticker that had a cat smoking a pipe and holding a liqour bottle.

Later am

Sitting in a mostly empty room waiting for Otaku USA Live panel. I just heard it was about upcoming anime, manga and video games. After this off to a movie sneak peek thing for ‘astro boy’ and ‘knowing’ - hmmm.

I have a sneaking suspicion i’m going to spend way too much money on lunch today. I know I should force myself to fast foot it over to Del Taco or something to save some cash … but laziness and scheduling will probably have me eating sub-average turkey sandwich for $7.95.

Ok make with the anime talk.

After the panel am

It was basically a pitch for the magazine Otaku USA Live - which in turn helped me learn that there was a magazine called Otaku USA Live. They mentioned they review anime, manga, video games, the social culture of japanese life. Oh, and boy love. There was definitely a lot of talk about boy love.
–

11:32 am
Sitting in massive hall (Espalande) to see a bit of the Watchmen panel. Noted on the way in that the little food kiosks were serving bottles of domestic beer. hmmm. noting that. might need one later

I’m so far back in this massive room im not sure what i’ll get from it. Maybe i’ll hear a funny story about the making of the film, or see a new trailer (well partially with heads everywhere). I was actually looking to get into this room early for some movie trailers and this was just happening .. so we’ll see whats what.

Damn it I want those tacos.

ALOT of people are in costume here today. Also, overheard that the center maxed out its people capacity long ago.

Later (in the dark) am

OK I am VERY glad I stumbled into this panel. Zack is being funny. Well he is funny. He’s not trying to be.

They showed a very long intro to the movie (and an additional scene) and it BLEW ME AWAY. Holy shit. Seriously. The panel got me fully pumped to see the movie. I was sorta emotional. Emotional over a trailer from like 500 fee away with head partially blocking most of the screen. Really? Yeah … really.

The actors came out (along with the writer of the graphic novel) and it was quite a good solid, informative, and funny panel. Zack told some great little stories and explained how a lot of extra footage was shot that won’t make the final cut (but that will be added to director cut for limited release, as well as a couple different dvd packages).

One of the cuts involves a seperate side movie they shot (thats in the graphic novel) called —-. He mentioned that they are going to release an ultimate dvd of the Watchmen movie at some point in the fall thats over 3 hours 30mins?!

ok going to watch the trailer for KNOWING… I think I saw part of it before. ah, nicoloas cage. redeem yourself please.

A movie about the future..and a code. and mysterious men in the shadows. and lists of dates.
and tradegy. lots and lots of tradegy. Damn it why cant movies about the future and secret codes not involve mass death.

ok watching …

ok that last secne.. skeptical as i was .. really got me. Big time crash of a plane..out of nowhere.. it was pretty intense.

ok now nicholas cage is taking matters into his own hands. determined to help stop disasters. he doesn’t seem to be doing anything other than looking worried a lot. Very worried.

Hmmm still split on if this is a gimmick movie or not. It’s pretty damn intense. During scenes of desturction and helplessness I really wish Nicholas Cage had some powers. Must be a bit of Watchmen NEED bleeeding over..

trailer over: ok, so thats a lot of death. and yeah I dont know if I could deal with that many cgi created deaths for a whole movie, but it was damn impressive in a sheer magnitude way. And again it appeared as if Nicholas Cage couldn’t do much of anything to help. Just stand there and look worried and anxious. I liked him much better when he was a gun toting ex-con in Raising Arizona.

Next is the Astro Boy cg movie. What?  Did they just say Nicholas Cage was in this movie too?
voice actor.. Trailer over: Verdict = meh

ok, now the filmmaking team who brought us the resident evil has a trailer for us.

Pandorum teaser.. hmm looks like dead space the movie. ok they are brining out the actors for this movie. Time to get tacos.

3:29 pm

ok taking a rest in a panel room - awaiting some discussion about old sci movies.

Just caught the tail end of a new japanese power ranger lookin movie that was showing to a packed stuffy room. The people population has fully reached the insanity level.

It’s official … 1 in 5 people are dressed up as ’something’.

Nothing really happening in this panel. Most of the speakers (who had something prepared) are missing.

Back to the show floor for a bit.

Later in a panel room am

Snuck into the end of the indie film discussion. Wish I would’ve seen the whole thing.

Wanted a comic but couldn’t decide on any. There are too many that I am overwhelmed and cannot decide.

—

I took a break awhile ago and went to a nearby convenience store for a Toblerone and Pepsi. Sat near some grass and away from the madness. Brought me some energy and some peace.

ok, im exhausted and sitting in a dimly lit side room with anime playing (subtitled so I dont have to pay that close attention).

While the exhibit hall was much smaller than say the likes of E3 it was still pretty daunting. So many indie artists had their wares available on the cheap so it was tough not to keep your wallet open and keeping buying little known books.

I saw a lot of out of work actors at signing booths and Mark Hammil and Adam West were there.

I saw felicia day and decided against telling her how awesome she was.

Waiting for the video games panel pm

Hiding in a dimly lit room with random anime playing.

5:30 pm

Sitting in a video games panel (last panel for me of the day). The first panelist (Keith Nemitz) said he worked on night trap and 3DO games .. oh snap.’Dangerous High School Girls in Trobule’ is his newest project. The second guy (Eric Lindstrom) worked on Tomb Raider Underwold and TR Legend. Third guy (Randy Angle) worked on genisis and the snes (star trek game). He now works at Pronto Games which worked on Eye The Beholder. His blog is www.hoppsbusch.com.

Randy seems fun. He said he mentioned he fixed pong machines at chuck e cheeses. Rad. The panel is going over some of the basics about the industry. All of it so far seems like roads already traveled,

Randy mentions some game engines to check out and to work with them in order to get your best head start in the business of making games. I ask my question about if they know of any website that brings together idea people, artists, and developers. The basic answer is to find a game engine I want to work with and go through the forums for that engine.

New casual-type MMO’s are mentioned and Randy says that there is a barbie MMO that only has chat basically and costs $60 dollars to start using it (price of Barbie branded electronic) - AND it gets 60,000 new users a day. Ridiculous.

Ok, I’m done. Headed over to a bar to watch friends Agent Ribbons play a show.

Going to have beer. Or Three.

Bye

I think I found my new favorite ‘weird thing I must have’.

The idea of open source linux based handheld game system that you can create games for as well as use as a media player brings tears to my eyes.

Buy here:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-d1-49-en-70-2z59.html

Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X_Wiz

* It comes with so many goodies. Gosh darn it I need one now.

So Earthbound (for the SNES) was one of my favorite games of all time.

I’d put it in my top 3.

If you don’t know what Earthbound is all about let’s just say its a very unique (yet grounded in old school final fantasy-type battles) RPG set in a modern day America-esque setting. Well, america seen through the eyes of a japanese developer.

There are malls and subrurbs, as well as rural areas and caves. Your weapons are baseball bats and frying pans and you can ride a bicycle around town. You get home cooked meals from your mom and get advice (and money!) from your dad via telephone calls whilst out on the road. Instead of health potions you buy (or find .. look in those trash cans!) hamburgers and other foodstuffs to make you well again. There’s a weird ’system’ on how you use condiments onr your food as well that increases the effectiveness of them. You even can use an ATM to save and withdraw money from.

The real gotcha of the game is that these semi-ordinary surroundings get twisted up quite a bit with plot twists, unusual characters, and mind-bending themes.

So i’ve been dying to play the sequel that came out in Japan for quite some time. And now it’s finally here. The fans of Earthbound are a crazy (in a good way) bunch. They have devoted ALOT of time producting color booklets and instructional guides to the translation of the ENTIRE game for english speaking fans.

Below are some links to the fan sites. Show your love and buy some of their stuff, donate, or just plain say thanks. I know i’m a gonna.

Last note. If you want to know how much i’m excited to play this game consider this: I am about 70% done with Fallout 3 and totally in love with the game..and i’m putting the game on pause to play Mother 3. Nuff said.

You can get the translation HERE

Links:
http://starmen.net/

http://mother3.fobby.net/

http://www.earthboundhq.com/

INFO
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EarthBound_(series)