Slow week…

Bleh, feeling ill and out of it all week has delayed a few posts and made me all around non creative in the least.

For a few updates on things  in the industry, Mass Effect is still being ridiculed, but thankfully after the Fox Debacle, at least some people are stepping up about what they said.  Of course, EA asked Fox to set things straight but Fox, as of this posting still has only offered air time.  Assuming to make it as drawn out as possible.

I have a post about AI and Level design soon to be released, I’ve just been re-re-reading it due to my typing often being like my thoughts; cluttered and random.  Thankfully theres always method to the madness.

In addition, CARD GAME!  There will be a posting of a new card game I created for an assignment once I’ve refined the game and play tested a few times.

Also, I traded in some games I don’t play for Rock Band, and the drums are everything I’d hoped they’d be.  The guitar seems much easier than Guitar Hero 2 though.  I’m not going to touch vocals unless I have a good reason, and none come to mind.

Portal Turrets are Sentient Too…

General Update, I have an Assassin’s Creed review up in my Game Reviews section. Somewhat rough, but I haven’t written anything somewhat formal in awhile, so getting back into the fold of things. In addition, should be doing a review of the XBL game Omega V soon, as well as Mass Effect when time permits.

Primarily, the reason for this post was for this little gem.

The makers site can be found here.

The Inevitable…

Every college student is bound to get it; that sudden realization of the count down clock that once (rather recently) seemed so far away is now racing towards you, screaming in garbled rhetoric with angry eyes and a bag full of pain. What I’m referring to, of course is graduation day, and all the joy and fear that comes with it. I personally still have until next year, but the tapping of that inevitability is getting louder by the day. Hopefully this is for the better, rather than having it come in when I’m trying to take my portfolio class!

Thankfully, there are reassuring voices to be heard. Steve Yau had an article published on GameCareerGuide.com about how he broke into the industry; and not from a “well I had these things in my portfolio.” No, Steve tells it how it can end up if you don’t keep your head in the game all the time, and make sure you are ultimately the master of your own education. It was reassuring to know that even if things are looking grim, if you set yourself to it, you can easily right the path you may have strayed and continue on to what you always wanted.

The read can be found Here, along with a link to Steve’s personal blog if you have comments or good will to give to a fellow developer.

As for as myself, I’ve finished my personal outline on how I’d like to approach my demo reel, as right now my portfolio is almost solely abstract design work and still life drawings. Unfortunately, it is a daunting task for the next 6 months, as that was my set time to have it reasonably marked up in two separate game engines. I’ll certainly have my work cut out for me, and I think it’s time to buck down and stop “researching” games, and actually start working on the things I’d like to do for them.

Also, it turns out the Cloverfield monster was Carrot Top all along.

ESPN to MLG: I Guess Now Works

Link over at Kotaku.

Finally is going live over here on a more mainstream network than G4. ESPN has made a deal with MLG to basically cover every pro-circuit event, as well as having an additional bracket on their website supporting everything MLG. This is going to include player stats, team rosters, etc.

So, glory be the days when I’m sitting in Locos having a drink with friends and I get to see people as nerdy as me talking about how that decisive victory was all Paul’s plasma grenade and his mom’s master crafter pizza rolls to fuel their gamer needs.

Speaking of gamer fuel… Wut?

Anyway, so how is this deal with ESPN and MLG going to affect gaming in general? If things go well, for the positive. All depends on how the players act on camera and how ESPN handles it; I’d hope professionally. The more intertwined with the everyday routine, the better for games. Also for me, I need something to watch on TV from time to time.

And So it Begins…

Well, I’ll get things started with, of course, a delicious bit of absurdity towards the gaming community – and I’m not even talking about Jack Thompson! Surprised? So am I (wonder where he’s gone after that whole Bar Trial) but that’s as much face time as I’m letting that fellow get for now.

What the buzz is about right now is all about Kevin McCullough’s little spattle on Mass Effect. Here’s a bite of the cake;

“ And because of the digital chip age in which we live – “Mass Effect” can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.”

For the full of the garbled rhetoric, check out Here and the defense of his comments, (after many gamer jabs over the last days) Here.

 

I could understand if I had heard this being talked about over a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, and then someone saying, “Naw man, I’m just kidding. You can’t really sodomize people in that.”  I’d be alright with that; hell maybe I’d laugh loud enough they’d realize I was eavesdropping and an awkward silence would blossom.  That is not the case here; this is a published piece of political agenda that almost seemingly goes against a few fundamental things about writing on anything, namely doing research. At all. Any, really, would have helped here.

I can understand how having the sex scenes in Mass Effect could illicit a general grumble in the conservative crowd that is grumpy men in navy blue suits and their slicked white hair, but as far as sex scenes go, Mass Effect’s were almost more tasteful than most R movies I’ve seen.  There wasn’t any sort of glorious display of naughty bits for every 14 year old kid to go, “Oh sweet!” in the guest bedroom while his parents are cooking dinner.

The sex scenes got some reasonable press when the videos were tossed up on the web, but once the mumbles and, “Hah, sweet!” comments were quelled by the actual game coming out, there was no more.  Because they were tastefully done, and in some respects, only taught all these “impressionable youths” that you do have to talk to a woman an awful lot before she’ll sleep with you.  Unless you do a quest for an Asari escort. But that video isn’t as long.

I certainly lurk on many a forum, and when I saw this unfolding the first thing in my head that popped was, “troll”. Unfortunately, every moment we acknowledge this guy, I think we’re giving him exactly what he wanted: free publicity. How does the industry respond when the people he’s targeting are more likely to just believe him rather than drop a few keys and check that ole’ crazy contraption that binds the world together.

Up and Running

Giving this whole blogging thing a go; right now I’m just shaping up the site a little bit and getting a feel for what I think will work.  Anyone who has already bothered to hunt me down before I made this public, go ahead and drop suggestions if you don’t like something. (Don’t tell me to make a completely different setup though, if it’s just you’re personal preferance. )