For a scene in Dark Knight, they detonated (did you know there is such a word as undetonated??) the old Brach's building here in Chicago. If you're really spoiler sensitive, abandon this post now as you'll see what building it would be in the movie ... but you're missing some pretty cool footage.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
For Sunday: Gotham City Explosion
Drinking and Development
On TIGSource:
“I was too drunk to get aware of all of it,” Morris admits of that night at the IGF. “I guess I slept on a park bench that night.”
...
In the Q&A that followed, Morris was asked how Introversion landed its deal with Steam, to which he glibly replied, “We got drunk with [Valve COO Scott Lynch]. It was simple as that.”
I might have career in this field yet.
Two Interesting Indie Titles: Emily Enough and Machinarium
On TIGSource:
Logan Worsley), Emily Enough is the story of an 11 year old girl, who like
other girls her age occasionally has moments of unpleasantness between ...
Emily Enough sounds like that kind of bizarre, psychotic design that only indie titles can probably get away with. If a normal publisher handled this, there's be an article about it the Boston Globe claiming the end of western civilization.
TIGSource also has a bit on Machinarium from the guys who did Samorost, which I believe a few of you were found of playing.
Friday, August 31, 2007
"Shoot Em Up" Porn Marketing
On Gaming Today:
[image: shootemupgame1-1.bmp]
�Shoot �Em Up� is the upcoming action movie starring Clive Owen, Paul
Giamatti, and Monica Bellucci. Apparently the people marketing it decided to
create a simple flash game to promote the film: one that rewards the ...
Seems to be a new trend.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
PlayStation Phone On The Way
On Newlaunches.com:
aforementioned are the lineup of Sony Ericsson phones. And if we go by what
the PS gaming boss Peter Ahnegard says, then we could be holding a
PlayStation-branded gaming phone ...
Not sure what they will actually entail, but sadly my guess is that it will be just like other game phones, interesting form factor with no new umph software or title-wise. This one will just have the PlayStation logo on it. Original article has some fancy schematics to show.
Chicago Cans City Wi-Fi
On Slashdot:
for municipal wi-fi in Chicago has fallen apart. The story cites contract
disputes and the falling price of residential broadband as reasons for the
talks collapsing. 'Chicago ...
*frown*
Xbox Live "Friendz" On Your Mac
On Mac Freeware and Free mac Software for OSX:
without having to turn on your Xbox. Friendz allows you to see what friends
are online, notifications when you get new messages or friends come online,
the ability to send ...
Real Wife ... Meet Virtual Wife?
Via the always sexy, always excellent Sexy Videogameland, we find this WSJ article:
The woman he's legally wed to is not amused. "It's really devastating," says Sue Hoogestraat, 58, an export agent for a shipping company, who has been married to Mr. Hoogestraat for seven months. "You try to talk to someone or bring them a drink, and they'll be having sex with a cartoon."
Mr. Hoogestraat plays down his online relationship, assuring his wife that it's only a game.
Dude is definately pushing it. Even pre-nuptials I had to watch how much attention Grand Theft Auto would get ... much less making the beast with two backs with someone on the other side of the net. From the article is sounds like they're within the inner suburbs of Splitsville and it doesn't take a big brained alien to figure out why.
Surely not every couple can game together - but if it's enough of a hobby that it consumes a significant number of hours out of the week ... surely it has be a conversation point. Hiding virtual matrimony? Bad sign. Really bad.
10 Goofiest Weapons
On IGN Complete:
This week we're counting down the goofiest weapons in gaming. Sometimes we're given tools of destruction that make us exclaim, "what the crap?!" But just because it's goofy doesn't mean it's not awesome. Many of these attacks took a lot more creativity and imagination to come up with than your usual run-of-the-mill machine gun. Of course, some are a little too goofy for their own good (we're looking at you, Wood Man).
UT3 Demo For PC, Not PS3
On Gaming Today:
the PS3. He cited the fact that it is much easier to produce a demo on the PC than on Sony's ...
Not terribly surprising and I'd much rather have a PC demo in order to see just how slow the CheapBox++ will be with it.
Update: Demo's available, happy fraggin.
More On Sony's Home
On Next Generation:
Sounds like it's mostly there in it's E3 form - but the very , very important features like invites and buddylists aren't put together yet.
Time for less talk, more show, Sony.
Nokia's N-Gage - Round ... Three?
On Engadget:
Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming
Remember the sidetalkin' N-Gage? Yeah... well, this isn't it. This is
Nokia's new N-81 gaming device built upon their revamped N-Gage gaming
platform. The S60 device packs HSDPA (sorry, no US band support) for on-line ...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
NPR On China's Gaming Anti-Addiction Software
That's the scenario in China, where anti-addiction software is supposed to protect gamers under the age of 18. But it hasn't been an unqualified success.
Seems ineffective to try and control a cultural concern with software. Especially when the target audience is probably insanely computer savvy. I'm pretty sympathetic here - I'm not really under the impression that anyone, kids or otherwise, spending the majority of their waking hours playing games as terribly beneficial.
Course, it is also interesting that if we were to take the American arguments about what video games are capable of - name encouraging murder - China would be awash in violent crime by now. Last I checked, not so much. Still not sure little Xiao should be spending as much time on SuperDancer as I take for my job - and I swear that isn't just envy speaking.
All Work And No BioShock For Valve
On Next Generation:
(http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=170914) to Valve head
Gabe Newell who said, "We had to ban BioShock from our offices. Nobody gets
to play it until Orange Box is done - that's our reward to ourselves as a
company; ...
Monday, August 27, 2007
Halo ActionClix Review
On BoardGameGeek Recent Additions (review):
I went to Gencon with no interest in playing Halo Actionclix. While I am a
worlds level Mechwarrior player and like collectible games, I have never
played the Halo video game and have no attachment to the license. But after ...
If Doom The Boardgame isn't enough real life conversion for you - this sounds like a good alternative.
Pretty Nifty "Context Aware" Image Editing
On TechCrunch:
particularly as the video goes on. The related paper, written by Dr. Ariel
Shamir and Dr. Shai Avidan is available here. Crunch Network: CrunchGear
drool over the sexiest new ...
If the retargeting stuff doesn't interest, wait till you see how they can erase your ex from old photos.
Vista's Stranglehold on DirectX 10
On Gaming Today:
According to stats on Steam, only half of the users have a DirectX 10 compatible graphics card. Developers are definitely paying attention to factors like this when developing their games, because only a fraction of the games out there actually utilize DX10 in noticeable ways. In fact, the two different versions of Half-Life 2 Orange Box, one DX10 compatible and one not, are for all intents and purposes the same.
If anything, this insistence on DX10 being Vista only will siphon off PC game development to the consoles. Microsoft is saying they want a push for PC gaming, but decisions like this one are simply not beneficial.
Crysis Nanosuit Trailer
On Gaming Today:
GameTrailers have scored an exclusive new trailer for Crysis. As far as game
trailers go, this new video is pimp. Believe it or not, most of what we see
in this trailer, sans the typical logo ...
TV Watch Review
We've actually managed to keep ontop of a number of shows during all our nuptials and such. Here's a bit of what we're making to sure to watch:
Damages
The guy who runs The Futon Critic called it a "Grisham novel for television". Damages is dark, gritty and gripping. I can't imagine how they'll sustain the show past the first season with what is already unraveling by the fifth episode - but I don't really care. It's good and lucky for you - FX is running a marathon on Labor Day if you want to catch up.
The 4400
The show has twisted its premise around an axis a little bit, but only in good ways. Now instead of focusing on lives severed from their past the focus is on how the future is bearing down on the premise. 4400 makes good use of some of its more original aspects - a superhero drug and the looming unknown of which actions will provide best for the world at large. The plot is just getting convulated enough, though, that new viewers will need a bit of a primer to jump in.
Burn Notice
I was a fan of The Invisible Man for its soft action wit and clever fun. Burn Notice reminds me of that show if it took itself a little more seriously and added a pretty compelling spy noir angle to the deck. If Damages is a Grisham novel for your tube ... Burn Notice is something of a beach read.
Doctor Who
Does it need saying? I suppose it does as I've found the good Doctor a harder sell on people who weren't fans of the classic episodes. Season Three has proven to be one of the best so far, though. A great test of strength of any franchise is how well it handles manipulating its main character. The last two Doctor Who's have been surprisingly, well, Doctor-less, and they've been some of the best the show ever delivered.
Has anyone seen Flash Gordon yet? Doesn't seem to interest us in the slightest.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Microsoft, Sony: No E For All
On Joystiq:
Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360
GameIndustry.biz has apparently confirmed that Microsoft will not be
attending the E for All expo in LA at the end of October. Microsoft joins
Sony now in ignoring the event ...
Haze Hands-On
On Gaming Today:
with Ubisoft's upcoming FPS, Haze. For this demonstration, me and some
fellow journalists got a chance to try out the four-player co-op mode and
see just how it differs from ...
I don't know if the Cheapbox++ will be able to handle the next level of FPS (probably not). Although I do hope to have some ability to code for UT3 on it at least.
Haze has my attention if not for any the reason than I'm pretty big TimeSplitters fan - so I'll definately be playing it on some platform.
Girls and Gaming Panel At PAX
On Acid for Blood:
introduce themselves, how they got into games, and how they got into the
industry. The moderator was Trixie from Xbox.com. Apparently her reputation
precedes her and she doesn�t ...
Brin apparently wanted to ask what the male demographic can do to help. I generally avoid online multiplayer for the most part these days in part because I have little patience anymore for the griefers and trolls - and that's not even adding on the extra fun of sexual (and racial, as the panel notes) troubles.
Has anyone found a better solution than a decent moderator?