Home of Richard Mitchell – XPO Game Festival Project Lead & Head of Tulsa Game Developers – Working to boost Tulsa, OK's tech & game dev industries. Former Reviews Editor at Joystiq (RIP). Member of the Oregon Trail Generation.
Microsoft has officially rolled out the digital red carpet leading to E3. The first story kicking off this coverage? An interview with Peter Moore of course! It’s pretty much what you’d expect. He highlights some of the things you can expect at E3 (Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Viva Pinata, etc.) and touts Xbox Live. What’s really great is that this year, Xbox 360 owners get to download E3 content from Marketplace. Very cool, Microsoft. Very sneaky. Anywho, read more about it here.
Gamasutra has posted a nice, if short, interview with Ralph Baer—contender for the title of “Father of Videogames“. It’s not a long piece—and surprisingly has a few typos—but it’s a good read. An interesting passage:
. . . Baer predicted that individual electronic devices that only had one use were “on the way out”, and instead there would be a single device that would attach to televisions to allow people to do a variety of things, such as view pay television, buy items, even play games. If anything, since the title of father of home video games might be hard to wrangle from a certain other party, perhaps a more fitting moniker might be the Nostradamus of gaming.
Nostradamus of gaming, huh? It’ll have to do I guess. The article briefly summarizes Baer’s achievements. He actually predicted quite a few of today’s gaming technologies. The article even mentions that Baer is currently working on a new kind of wireless dance pad for current systems. Considering his most well-known idea was stolen by Nolan Bushnell, he is understandably quiet about the technology involved.
Baer’s feelings on today’s games: Too complicated for him, but not for the kids.
Image credit: The Dot Eaters
In the first of SEGA’s promised daily press releases leading up to E3, Virtua Tennis for PS3 and Xbox 360 was announced today. Several screens have been posted as well. I’m a big fan of all things SEGA and Virtua Tennis, so this is great news. So far, all I can say is it’s real purdy. Check here for more screens.
I’ve been scanning Ye Olde Internet today—as is my wont—and I seem to be very much in the minority concerning Silent Hill. That is to say, I liked it. While I won’t forfeit my belief that it was a decent film, I will concede a few points. Tycho over at Penny Arcade has posted a firm lashing of the film. He primarily picks apart the poor script. I won’t attempt to recreate his sentiments though, look for yourself:
You might have seen people say that this was a good movie, or a faithful representation of the game, and I would urge you to disregard anything those people say in the future about movies or, indeed, any other subject. Silent Hill: The Movie evokes the games without accurately expressing them – to the extent that the movie succeeds at all, it is because director Christophe Gans has mastered the series’ visual lexicon. It was weighed down by a faulty script, a terrible kind of smudge across the sheet, but brilliantly directed. It is in this way that it most closely mirrors electronic gaming in a general sense, though (ironically) not Silent Hill, in that it is the sterling execution of a poor narrative.
He is right about the evocation of the games. I hadn’t really articulated the thought in my head, but he’s right. In short, if you really want the Silent Hill experience, I suggest you go play the games, particularly the first two. And I suppose you can disregard everything I say ever again, but I still enjoyed the movie. Frankly, I’m not sure its complexities can ever be accurately captured on film, or at least not in a way that would stand up to mass acceptance. I’d like to see it happen but I’m certainly not expecting it.
Then again, Tycho is a verbal guy. Language is his bread and butter. I’m a little more forgiving of bad scripts. To each his own, I guess.
PS. Here’s a review from a horror fan’s perspective, if that’s your angle.
I finally saw Silent Hill on Saturday. If you read this site much, you’ll know that I have been very excited about this movie. I’ve basically been waiting for this movie since I first played the game years ago on a borrowed Playstation. Since then, I’ve been a fan. Needless to say, my expectations for the film were unreasonably high. As such, I feared there was no way I would walk out of the theatre with any sense of satisfaction. So, did Silent Hill deliver? For the most part, yes.
Well, it seems I got a large influx of visitors over the weekend, thanks to a referral from Joystiq. Hopefully, some of you will be coming back. If so, then welcome. If not, well, fine. See if I care. Jerks.
In other news, I removed the banner ad from the top of the page. My friend, Thomas, told me that it blocks out the first post when using Firefox. And I was all happy about having valid code, too. I’m sure you were all dying to have one more add to not click on, but it had to go.
That’s all. Again, welcome to my new visitors from around the world. Enjoy the site.
C|net recently interviewed Shane Kim, the head of Microsoft Game Studios. In the interview, Kim stresses Microsoft’s desire to position 360 as a family friendly console that casual gamers will enjoy just as much as the hardcore. He also restates the concept that Viva Pinata is Microsoft’s most important game of 2006. It’s also apparent that Microsoft hopes to emulate Sony in the casual games market (think EyeToy and karaoke).
—via Gamasutra
All the hype was true. I didn’t really believe it. Nintendo said they would have Grandma’s and girlfriends gaming in no time. I scoffed—scoffed, I say—at the notion. Well, it seems my scoff was undeserved. My fiance is positively enamored of the game.
Every review I’ve seen makes it a point to say somthing along these lines:
Brain Age can’t really be called a “game”…blah…blah
My response to this is: yes, yes it can. It’s not a conventional game, but it is a game. Just like Math Blaster and Oregon Trail. So there.
I would also like to point out that I am a victim of the much maligned “blue” phenomenon. It doesn’t seem to affect Annie much though. What’s the deal? I was literally trained in elocution, damn it! Sigh… Anyway, Brain Age is very fun so far. Perhaps the best word to describe it: scrumtrilescent.
If there is anyone who would like to contribute the official spelling of scrumtrilescent, please do so. Will Ferrell, are you listening? Drop us a line at: sense[at]8bitninja.com
I started playing Tomb Raider: Legend last night. I had only played through the first level before I was side-tracked by Condemned. In fact, I’ve still only played through the first level. Legend has a very interesting feature called Croft Manor.
Just one more day and we can all submit our fragile psyches to the mind rending maelstrom that is Silent Hill. I am overly excited about this movie. Probably so much so that it will never satisfy my grisly cravings. As far as I am concerned, no survival horror game rivals Silent Hill in pure terror. There is great fear in Silent Hill, fear of the unknown, even fear of ourselves. The characters aren’t all good. They are not heroes. The monsters aren’t something our brains can easily process like, say, zombies. The environments are gritty, dirty, and steeped in sadness. So, yeah, there is basically no way this movie will live up to my expectations. I really hope that I’m wrong, though.