Cut-Scenes

found at grand text auto, two articles: one pro, one anti cut-scene.

1. Oughtta Stay Out of Pictures By Clive Thompson at Slate

I like one of the captions, under a still of a GTA cut scene:

.. but first, a message from our plotline"

2. In defense of Cut Scenes By Rune Klevjer

I like how in this one the author chooses the scientific paper style, complete with abstract, etc.

Personally, I'm not much for cut scenes, and games that try to tell a story through them. Anyone agree with Klevjer's argument?

Sort of obvious points, but regardless it'll be interesting to see where all this stuff goes in the next few years.

Katamari Damacy 2 screens

first screenshots of Katamari Damacy 2 are here

link from waxy

ms3d

Argh. My favorite all time game: metal slug, which for those of you who don't know is the best side-scroller ever (yes, ever), with beautiful sprite-based animation and cartoony-contra style graphics, is coming to the PS2 as a 3D game. Some bullshit company picked up the license from SNK, looks like, and now they are doing stupid things with it. Here is a link some screenshots from gamespot...

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/metalslug/screenindex.html

I must say, that these screens don't look nearly as bad as I anticipated, as at least they keep the general look/feel of the 2d game, esp. the metal slug itself, as well as the troopers, and marco (who I call joe america). But something still feels wrong. The world feels empty, whereas the 2d felt packed with life! I'm getting so excited I must go play ms3 right now (after this post).

Anyway, have a look. and I will fight you if you have anything bad to say about metal slug - unless it is about how lame the 3D version is going to be.

Katamari Damacy 2

looks like a sequel is in the works, tbr in fiscal year 2005 in japan.

link via waxy

double life

another playstation ad (sorry... ad obsessed lately)

For years I've lived a double life. In the day I do my job I ride the bus Roll up my sleeves with the hoi-polloi But at night I live a life of exhilaration Of missed heartbeats and adrenalin And if the truth be known a life of dubious virtue I won't deny it I've been engage in violence Even indulge in it I've maimed and killed adversaries And not merely in self defense I've exhibited disregard for life Limb And property And savored every moment You may not think it to look at me But I have commanded armies And conquered worlds And though in achieving these things I've set morality aside I have no regrets For though I've led a double life At least I can say I've lived.

all about virtual lives. Something rings true to me with this ad, and I think that the playstation is the wrong platform to make the double life thing real -- even second life or everquest don't count. I want my other life to live on my phone.

link via joeytomatoes

eye toy ad

here's a link to an ad for the EyeToy over in the European theater.

The ad follows a bus driving through a city at night, the camera catching gimpses through the windows of people doing strange things in their dwellings, like playing air guitar, dancing, etc. It goes through a sequence of these, then reveals that these people have all been playing various games with the EyeToy.

So, the ad is pretty clever, but for me it brings to light one of the most compelling aspects of the idea of this virtual space, be it persistent, mobile, location-based, console-based, etc., where your physical movement or action determines an outcome in the virtual space. I just love the idea of people doing strange things in the real world, things that they would never do if they weren't doing this auxillary thing in the virtual space.

damn you perry for making me get Ween's 'the mollusk...' So infectious.

great game

wow, what a simple and great game!

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/12many.html

Game B-Sides

I'm linking to an interesting article I found over at Waxy about the game industry including "B-sides" in major game releases.

I think this sounds like a really excellent idea -- easily integrated into the existing market structure -- and a great way to get exposure for potentially more interesting, unique (read: student, experimental, etc.) games.

B-Sides have worked really well in the music industry towards exposing this type of material, I think. Sure, some B-Sides really do just sound like tunes that didn't make the cut, but often times you'll hear really great stuff, stuff that the artist clearly was experimenting on, or something different, etc. -- but stuff that maybe the record company was less than enthusiastic about including on the record.

Sad as it may seem, things are getting so big, so dependent on huge marketing budgets, and non-creatives have a huge role in what gets distributed, we need to start thinking of novel ways to get experimental, innovative stuff out there.

Name that sound

Awesome audio trivia game on PBS.com: play an audio sound from a retro game and choose which game it came from.

link via we-make-money-not-art

music + games

Just read that the new Splinter Cell game will feature music by Amon Tobin, a noted and respected DJ / sound guy whose stuff I always thought would be quite perfect for video games b/c of their subtly fractured nature. anyway, it got me thinking about how this is probably something that seems will become ubiquitous in the near future of games. As was discussed last night with dan winters, getting named talent is a huge part of publishing these days, and getting composers that come from the DJ / electronic world, the film world (Where is John Williams, Hans Zimmer...), and even, esp. for sports games, etc., your rockers and rappers, will be I think a big trend that has already started, but will probably only get larger.

Link to Tobin's website

I'm blogging this

simple, nicely conceived flash game:

http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/pixelfield_e.html

ball rolling game soon to be in english

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3133550

finally beat the japanese version of this game, and now namco is releasing it for ps2 in the US. I will have to buy it simply to figure out what the hell the king is saying all the time.

The Quest for The Rest

pics from the quest for the rest

Katamari Damashii

Tracy described this game at GDC's Experimental Game Workshop. It sounded great, and I'm contemplating ordering from play-asia.

of note is the fact that this game is no. 1 on play-asia right now, despite the fact that apparently it sold horribly in japan...

This amusing Japanese game features a ball rolling around an environment that absorbs every object it encounters in its path. Each object sticks to the surface of the ball as if with glue, and as each new object is added, the rolling dynamic of the ball changes to reflects the ball's new shape.

At first, the ball absorbs small objects: lollipops, horseshoes, trash cans, small animals... but as the ball gets larger, the scale increases, allowing a player to absorb fence poles, light posts, road signs, and palm trees. As the ball heads out into the larger world, it can absorb pedestrians, cars, skyscrapers, and eventually, the very countries and continents themselves.

super mario clouds

super mario bros. --> just rendering the clouds.

nice piece of assembly hack-art.

Link via Architect

konstruktsiia

so finally I post the midterm game I've been working on just in time to do a post-mordem on it. stay tuned for that...meanwhile, feel free to play the game here