Recently, I has a chance to speak with Joel DeYoung, the Hothead Games’ COO and producer for the Penny Arcade Adventures Series. Here’s what he had to say about working with Gabe and Tycho, learning how to make an adventure game and what’s next for Hothead (and Penny Arcade).
Yesterday, I was playing Castle Crashers when my early copy of the new Xbox dashboard - oh, I’m sorry - the New Xbox Experience - began downloading (thanks, Major Nelson). And I’ve gotta say, it’s really nice. There are a lot of changes - and I mean a lot of changes. As in, the whole thing is completely different. Anyway, I made my avatar, as you’ll do too tomorrow. It’s the first thing you see after the update is installed. When the update goes live to the public, your Xbox will notify you and begin downloading the actual downloader that installs the dash. After everything is done, you’ll see a neat little video and begin making your avatar. Here’s mine:
Cute little bugger, aint he? He looks just like his Pa. There’s some nifty music that goes along with the avatar creation process. To be completely honest, the whole thing feels very Mii - like. Seriously, you’ll think that some of the eyes are taken directly from the Wii. The avatars themselves do a pretty good job of distinguishing themselves as unique, though. The whole look is very Rare-ish. The music is very Wii sounding as well - and don’t worry, it only plays during avatar creation. The dash itself is silent as before. If you want to get a slightly more in-depth analysis, Joystiq has some great videos up.
Wow. Uh… yikes.
This is pathetic. Apparently, some kid (or so I assume) went and put up a fake (but detailed) comparison spreadsheet that compares the Playstation 3 to the nonexistant Playstation 4. Actually, that’s not the part - the pathetic part is that N4G.com posted this as news. C’mon guys, seriously? I mean, seriously seriously? I thought we were past this stuff! Well, apparently not. A little bit of info about the brand new PS4:
The PS4 brings along with it next generation gaming with enhanced feedback and sensors for better gaming experiences. It is easier to illustrate these new experiences by giving examples from six game types: an astronaut game; a skydiving game; a regular first person shooter game; a swimming game, and a fighting game, and a dancing game. A game having all elements of the above, would be even better. The motion detection on your four limbs in 3D (two hands, two feet, and your head) allows the game to detect your location, rotation, and force/velocity of movement. In the astronaut scenario, suppose you are in a game where you are inside a space module about to do a spacewalk outside. As soon as you step outside, where you move your arms and feet will coorespond to your avatar on screen.
Wow, that sounds just like a real press release! Oh wait, it totally doesn’t. So hats off to you, kid. You fooled N4G.com. I’ll be able to congratulate you in person after I finish sending off my headline breaking lead about the Nintendo Wii60 Revolution.
This sums up my feelings exactly. I was going to post about the Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts demo, but I ended up not doing that because I didn’t feel like depressing myself any further. Okay, that’s not fair - it wasn’t bad, per se - it just wasn’t Banjo Kazooie. Or it didn’t feel like it, at least. It felt more like a vehicle building sim, which it was. The platforming elements are almost 100% gone, with the only running you’ll be doing consists of going from one vehicle to the next. But don’t take my word for it, go check out the demo.
This post may seem a bit misplaced, but it’s worth putting up no less. If you’d like to jump into a few games of Gears of War 2 tonight, Gamertag Radio game night is going on tonight. Here are the details, straight from the ant’s mouth:
Join the Official GTR Gaming Night this Saturday, 11/15/08 @ 7PM EST for your chance to win a copy of MLB Stickball from the Xbox Live Arcade. All you have to do is play for the entire GTR Gaming Night and you will be entered in the random drawing. All registered members are eligible. Good Luck!
I’ll be there, justifying my purchase of the game with some horde mode. Just kidding, I got it from GameFly, but I really can’t think of anything else to sum this post up.
Theft has been around as long as goods have been sold and purchased – that is to say, forever. And ever. I’m talking about a specific type of theft: piracy. The “P” word – rather, the other “P” word (I’ll try and keep this safe for work). Piracy has been around just as long as theft has, because it is theft. The words are synonymous.
Of course, I’m speaking about software piracy – an irreputable act of digital devilry. And you know what? We all do it. Me included. Heck, especially me! I saw this guy once on the street, and you know what I did? I pushed him down and stole his music files. SecuROM that!
Obviously I’m kidding, but bear with me, for I have a point. Examples like this don’t apply at all. Digital “crimes” and actual crimes you can be arrested for are completely different, much in the same way that a sponge is different from a whistle. You can’t compare the act of hiding a physical package in your jacket and running like your legs are unaware of felonies to running a keygen (a program that “hacks” a serial number input and figures out a matching code) and typing in a serial number to unlock a product you bought in the first place. That’s more like stealing a receipt, and the last time I checked, those things were free. Besides, you can’t be jailed for it like you definitely can for stealing. The SIAA Anti – Piracy Act has a list of some of the (not so) dire consequences:
Piracy users:
Oh no! Negative publicity and public embarrassment! How can anybody live with those consequences!
Admittedly, there are two sides to every argument and some people do steal worse things than letters. Some services, such as the popular file sharing application Limewire, provide the means as well as the vehicle that many people use to download music. Without even paying a dollar! Surely this is an outrage – or at least, it would be if it was actually possible to do. The cluttered layout, randomness of content and complete lack of any sort of organization system hardly allows even the most diabolical hacker to download “40 Year Old Virgin” or the latest “Linkin Park” album.
I’ll cut this short because it’s running a little long, but I hope I’ve gotten my point across. Yes, the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted content is illegal, but you probably won’t get caught. In fact, it’s almost impossible to get caught at all, unless you are the one person a year the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) or the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) chooses to prosecute as a “scapegoat” to scare off other possible pirates. If you aren’t that person, and you aren’t, then don’t worry about it.
It’s still illegal, though.
Welcome to the… er… new new Blank Pixels.com. Yeah, we’ve been having lots of problems lately as you and apparently hundreds of other people have noticed (thank you, Wordpress). But now we’re back 100%! Good god, it took a long time a-comin’. Seriously though, this was a terribly long downtime and it’s mostly my fault. There were tons of bugs in the last site’s layout, and I was posting primarily from my blog. Well, I’ve come up with a nice and tidy solution by merging Blank Pixels with my blog, so I’ll be spending much more time here! Also, the layout is much simpler and cleaner.
If you notice any bugs / glitches, let me know.
So, Gears finally arrived today. I guess the only real downside to Gamefly is that games take about an extra week after launch date to arrive. Oh well. I’m continuing my escapades in Fable 2 land, but those have been brushed aside temporarily in favor of Gears of War 2’s beefy campaign mode. Now, unlike most people, I missed out on the first Gears. Luckily for me, the games don’t have much going on plotwise, so no catching up was necessary. The gameplay is solid, and it’s a game I can really sink my claws into. Go pick it up if you enjoy either:
A) the 3rd person gameplay mechanics found in games like Resident Evil 4, Lost Planet or Dead Space or
B) super awesome firefights.
There was this one part early in the story where I was controlling what was essentially a “nuke shooter” (that doesn’t sound quite right) in the middle of a rather large skirmish with Locust alien enemies everywhere, damning me and my fellow Gears - also shooting at us. Pretty exciting, right? So go check it out, provided you can get past the terrible dialog.
Speaking of Fable, I now have a wife and children. The situation was the result of a quest that had me delivering a break up letter to a woman I’d never met. Did I mention that the break up letter was from a ghost? Because that’s kind of important. Anyway, I chose the goody - goody option and married her instead of breaking her heart with the letter. I’m just so nice.
Things heated up the other day (still in Fable) when I was hangin’ with my wife and kid (whose name I won’t mention within this blog post) when all of the sudden, my other wife walked in. I assure you that the scene that came afterwards included lots of screaming. I was in enough trouble when all of the sudden, my husband walked in. You can probably guess that things didn’t get any better - worse, actually. It’s strange, I married the town crier (no gay jokes here, so siree) yet I don’t get discounts on titles. What’s up with that?
I finally saw Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Good god. It was awful.
This man has some great points and should be commended for them.
Sonic’s been quite the topic of discussion as of late, with everybody from the Retronauts to Destructiod to me offering their criticisms and insights into what is, quite possibly, a dying series. Jim Sterling of Destructiod has a particularly well organized article on what Sega must do if they ever want any hope of reviving the character. Things like…
Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Megadrive was not about speed — period. Yes, speed was a large element of the gameplay, but it was never the sole focus as modern games would have you believe — in fact, it was barely crucial to the gameplay at all.The original Sonic games succeeded because of clever level design and a smart use of physics, not simply because Sonic went really fast. Speed was the pudding, not the main course — every now and then you’d get a series of loops and paths that allowed you to buzz through a level with wanton abandon — but there always came a series of well-timed jumps or springs to navigate before and after. The fast parts were treats, ones you earned through some solid platforming action.