Just this moment finished "Bioshock Infinite." Yes, it's as good as you've heard. Play. Play now.
At this point I've only got one immediate "clever" observation, but in the interest of not spoiling ANYTHING even vaguely or by accident I'll put it after the jump:
"Oh, you've got just ONE big-idea theoretical-scifi concept built into your narrative to justify the video-gamey parts of your video-game? That's really cute." - Bioshock Infinite, talking to the Assassin's Creed series.
Jumat, 29 Maret 2013
Rabu, 27 Maret 2013
Little Video Game Books
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Got a very nice little article on one of the biggest sites in video-game news: KOTAKU
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I recently have been really into the artwork of the classic Little Golden Books. There's something very charming about their simplicity, and yet they are some of the books that I remember most from my early childhood.
As the sun sets on this current generation of video games, I've been thinking about some of the classic games that people will still (hopefully) point to years from now and hold them up as games that made a difference, and possibly, for some child out there, Portal or Skyrim will be a memory from their early childhood.
I love video games, and I love children's books. I was inspired to combine the two into the artwork you see below:
To purchase a print click HERE
I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them! If Ken Levine, Gabe Newell, and Todd Howard are interested in making these a reality... feel free to contact me :)
Got a very nice little article on one of the biggest sites in video-game news: KOTAKU
*******************************************************************************
I recently have been really into the artwork of the classic Little Golden Books. There's something very charming about their simplicity, and yet they are some of the books that I remember most from my early childhood.
As the sun sets on this current generation of video games, I've been thinking about some of the classic games that people will still (hopefully) point to years from now and hold them up as games that made a difference, and possibly, for some child out there, Portal or Skyrim will be a memory from their early childhood.
I love video games, and I love children's books. I was inspired to combine the two into the artwork you see below:
"Our hero, our hero, claims a warriors heart, but the body of a child."
Sorry, this print is no longer available
"The Cake may be a lie, but the friendship between a little girl and her robot friend is true love."
To purchase a print click HERE
"Somewhere, beyond the sea, there lived a little girl and her big friend Mr. Bubbles."
To purchase a print click HERE
You can order all 3 prints together! Click HERE
I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them! If Ken Levine, Gabe Newell, and Todd Howard are interested in making these a reality... feel free to contact me :)
MGS5 Trailer
Hey, remember that "Phantom Pain" thing that everyone immediately knew was "Metal Gear Solid 5" but they wouldn't come out and say was "Metal Gear Solid 5?"
Well, it's "Metal Gear Solid 5."
Well, it's "Metal Gear Solid 5."
Selasa, 26 Maret 2013
The Book
If you were at Escapist Movie Night at PAXEast this past weekend (or you caught an earlier reveal during the Desert Bus charity event) you already know about this, but for everyone else it would seem the cat is out of the bag...
So! I'm writing a book. Or, rather, I've written a book and - barring any unforseen disaster - it will be coming out soon. It's a book about video games, and is being developed with (and will be sold exclusively online through) fangamer. If I had to describe it as anything it would be a book of game criticism; though not of a kind I've found anywhere else.
Further details (all of which are, it goes without saying, wholly subject to change) after the jump...
At this time the book itself doesn't have a title I can officially announce or cover-art, but the main text of the thing has been written. My "big idea" was to take the longform "scene-by-scene" (or shot-by-shot) analysis often applied to book-length criticism of movies or plays to gaming by, essentially, novelizing a "Let's Play."
The approach: I would play all the way through a classic game - every level, every enemy, every item, the whole experience - and analyze everything about it as I went: The mechanics, the layouts, the art-design of the sprites, the aesthetics of the backgrounds, the music, the known history of the production, cultural references and context, etc. In addition, since it's my position that the effect our moods outside of gaming effect the interactivity of the medium and vice-versa, the "narrative" of playing the game would be intercut with the "narrative" of what was going on in my life during the play-through.
I chose "Super Mario Bros. 3" to be the subject, mainly because it's my favorite game but also because it's the best possible candidate: A classic game, part of the most famous series in the entire medium, lengthy, linear and enduringly popular enough that a sizable portion of a prospective readership would be familiar with it. It ultimately took on a greater significance, though, as the initial play-through itself wound up coinciding with my preparations for moving out of the home I'd grown up in - in other words, playing this game in the house I'd first fallen in love with it for the last time.
So... yeah, this is "labor of love" stuff. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't proud of the idea that - to my knowledge, at least - this kind of in-depth analysis hasn't been done at this scale for a single game. For good measure, it also includes a history of the franchise and my own personal history with it.
At this time, all I can say about release dates is that we're angling to have it available within the next few months (my goal is to have some copies ready to sell in-person at SGC - fingers crossed) but I'll be updating here as more information re: dates, cost, title, etc is made ready for public reveal. I'm nervous but excited about the whole process... I just hope enough of you folks A.) give it a shot and B.) like what you find.
Stay tuned for more details.
So! I'm writing a book. Or, rather, I've written a book and - barring any unforseen disaster - it will be coming out soon. It's a book about video games, and is being developed with (and will be sold exclusively online through) fangamer. If I had to describe it as anything it would be a book of game criticism; though not of a kind I've found anywhere else.
Further details (all of which are, it goes without saying, wholly subject to change) after the jump...
At this time the book itself doesn't have a title I can officially announce or cover-art, but the main text of the thing has been written. My "big idea" was to take the longform "scene-by-scene" (or shot-by-shot) analysis often applied to book-length criticism of movies or plays to gaming by, essentially, novelizing a "Let's Play."
The approach: I would play all the way through a classic game - every level, every enemy, every item, the whole experience - and analyze everything about it as I went: The mechanics, the layouts, the art-design of the sprites, the aesthetics of the backgrounds, the music, the known history of the production, cultural references and context, etc. In addition, since it's my position that the effect our moods outside of gaming effect the interactivity of the medium and vice-versa, the "narrative" of playing the game would be intercut with the "narrative" of what was going on in my life during the play-through.
I chose "Super Mario Bros. 3" to be the subject, mainly because it's my favorite game but also because it's the best possible candidate: A classic game, part of the most famous series in the entire medium, lengthy, linear and enduringly popular enough that a sizable portion of a prospective readership would be familiar with it. It ultimately took on a greater significance, though, as the initial play-through itself wound up coinciding with my preparations for moving out of the home I'd grown up in - in other words, playing this game in the house I'd first fallen in love with it for the last time.
So... yeah, this is "labor of love" stuff. But I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't proud of the idea that - to my knowledge, at least - this kind of in-depth analysis hasn't been done at this scale for a single game. For good measure, it also includes a history of the franchise and my own personal history with it.
At this time, all I can say about release dates is that we're angling to have it available within the next few months (my goal is to have some copies ready to sell in-person at SGC - fingers crossed) but I'll be updating here as more information re: dates, cost, title, etc is made ready for public reveal. I'm nervous but excited about the whole process... I just hope enough of you folks A.) give it a shot and B.) like what you find.
Stay tuned for more details.
Jumat, 22 Maret 2013
Off To PAXEast
I'm officially en-route to the weekend at PAXEast folks, so if you're there feel free to say hi and if not follow my Twitter @the_moviebob in case I say or see something interesting while there. If you're at the show, check me out at the Escapist Movie Night panel on Saturday 3/23 at 9:00pm in the Merman Theater.
Kamis, 21 Maret 2013
SUPPLEMENTAL: "I'm Sorry (But EA Should Be Sorrier)"
So, then.
In the making of this series, March has basically been a gigantic non-starter. A blizzard scuttled at least two weeks of shooting, then another storm and subsequent ceaseless wind/rain pushed it further - serves me right, I guess. So, since I obviously won't be getting any work done on this front with PAXEast going on this weekend; I sat down and flipped on the camera early this morning (like 3:00am or so) to do a quickie "hey, sorry, here's what's up" vlog that wound up being a little rambling (unscripted) and eventually turned into a minor rant about EA, SimCity and the state of the industry. Decided to give it a semi-edit and upload, but don't worry - this sort of "tired-looking man talking to camera" motif won't become the norm around here.
In the making of this series, March has basically been a gigantic non-starter. A blizzard scuttled at least two weeks of shooting, then another storm and subsequent ceaseless wind/rain pushed it further - serves me right, I guess. So, since I obviously won't be getting any work done on this front with PAXEast going on this weekend; I sat down and flipped on the camera early this morning (like 3:00am or so) to do a quickie "hey, sorry, here's what's up" vlog that wound up being a little rambling (unscripted) and eventually turned into a minor rant about EA, SimCity and the state of the industry. Decided to give it a semi-edit and upload, but don't worry - this sort of "tired-looking man talking to camera" motif won't become the norm around here.
Minggu, 17 Maret 2013
D&D Arcade Games Coming to XBLA/PSN
Well, whaddaya know? Capcom decided to do something decent for retro-gaming; broken clocks and all that: Their two classic (and somewhat rare) "Dungeons & Dragons" beat-em-ups - "Tower of Doom" and Shadow over Mystara" are coming to XBLA/PSN. Supposedly, this will be "officially unveiled" at PAXEast. It's being called a port, which I hopefully assume means it will be the original games with the original graphics - not another "HD remake" disaster like "Turtles In Time Re-Shelled".
Good show, Capcom... sure would be nice to have a WiiU* port with off-TV play, though. Just sayin.
*Yes, peanut gallery, that would be your cue to remind me that I am biased Nintendo fanboy and that it would be stupid to put these on WiiU because nobody cares about the WiiU which is a good thing because now the combined forces of nostalgia, filthy casuals and Japan can stop ruining gaming. Don't let me down, kids.
Good show, Capcom... sure would be nice to have a WiiU* port with off-TV play, though. Just sayin.
*Yes, peanut gallery, that would be your cue to remind me that I am biased Nintendo fanboy and that it would be stupid to put these on WiiU because nobody cares about the WiiU which is a good thing because now the combined forces of nostalgia, filthy casuals and Japan can stop ruining gaming. Don't let me down, kids.
Selasa, 12 Maret 2013
OVERBYTES on Tropes vs. Women
Now available for viewing by all, an overall appraisal on the first episode of "Tropes vs. Women in Video Games" and it's attendant controversies.
P.S. People who continue to insist on harping about production costs are directed to THIS post.
P.S. People who continue to insist on harping about production costs are directed to THIS post.
Kamis, 07 Maret 2013
Tropes vs. Women launches first episode (UPDATED!)
Oh hey, remember that kickstarted webseries that people freaked out about because a woman was talking out of turn about man things, then decided it was actually a "scam" that would never actually come out when that didn't convince people that she was the antichrist?
Well, it came out. Here's a link. I'll chime back in later with what I actually thought of it.
UPDATE II: The newest episode of "OverBytes" is a thorough "review" of the show. All audiences can watch it right now.
UPDATE I: At the suggestion of user "Nixou," I'm re-posting (with corrections) my response to one of the more consistent issues people seem to have re: the cost of producing a show like this (aka "how does THIS cost $150,000??) as follows:
Here's the thing: I (and I'm speaking strictly of my self-produced/funded stuff like TGO and American Bob here, not the Escapist gigs) and others working on the YouTube/Blip series side of this medium are generally A.) Making this stuff FOR the amateur/indie circuit and B.) using primarily materials we already have or can be "donated" either by ourselves or aquaintances. In my specific case, I'm not outputting OR shooting in HD, the shows themselves are not of "broadcast caliber" and I don't pay professional wages to the people who help out. If I did, the INCREDIBLY low-ball $6,000 pricetag she originally set (don't forget: the donations were so HUGE because people kept donating as a "screw you" to her detractors) would MAYBE cover 2 - 3 average-scale TGO episodes, tops.
I've noticed that people in general have a skewed view of what independent video/film production actually costs because a lot of guys on the indie/fanfilm scene (no, I won't be naming names) like to brag about how low their production budget is - the problem being that A LOT of the time these are guys who have "day jobs" in the professional film/video business and thus access to equipment and facilities that they would otherwise be paying substantial sums to rent or lease; or they don't include what they would normally charge a client for their services in their own productions, OR they have friends in similar circumstances who are "donating" their time/services and not listing what that would cost on a real job. For example: If "Game OverThinker" had the EXACT same schedule and final-quality but I was paying real industry-standard fees and wages for locations, facilities and crew; $10,000 would be a low-ball estimate for every episode.
Having watched the video itself: She's shooting and outputting in HD/broadcast-quality (this has clearly been designed for classroom/seminar presentation moreso than the web video) and most the MASSIVE amount of game footage looks to have been captured from either original sources (I'm assuming MAME or download-service copies for the retro stuff) - which requires both expensive equipment and the expense of the systems and games themselves. Also, I don't know if she does her own graphics and animation, but her transitions all look like original work; and even if she did do them herself the "going rate" for that kind of work can get pretty damn high especially if you plan to buy or license it in perpuity.
ALSO: I don't know what else she does for a regular living, but I DO know the relative man-hours of putting a project like this together and they are substantial - thusly, if the ONLY thing all the Kickstarter money did was pay her bills and living-expenses (via supplmental income) while she cut down on her regular paying work so that she could free up the time to actually play/record the games, write the script and make the video I'm frankly perplexed that she ever somehow thought a paltry sum like $6,000 was going to cover it. She's currently operating out of San Fransisco, one of the most expensive places to live - even modestly - in the United States; so when you factor all that in... trust me, the expenses for this kind of production are much more substantial than most would imagine.
Well, it came out. Here's a link. I'll chime back in later with what I actually thought of it.
UPDATE II: The newest episode of "OverBytes" is a thorough "review" of the show. All audiences can watch it right now.
UPDATE I: At the suggestion of user "Nixou," I'm re-posting (with corrections) my response to one of the more consistent issues people seem to have re: the cost of producing a show like this (aka "how does THIS cost $150,000??) as follows:
Here's the thing: I (and I'm speaking strictly of my self-produced/funded stuff like TGO and American Bob here, not the Escapist gigs) and others working on the YouTube/Blip series side of this medium are generally A.) Making this stuff FOR the amateur/indie circuit and B.) using primarily materials we already have or can be "donated" either by ourselves or aquaintances. In my specific case, I'm not outputting OR shooting in HD, the shows themselves are not of "broadcast caliber" and I don't pay professional wages to the people who help out. If I did, the INCREDIBLY low-ball $6,000 pricetag she originally set (don't forget: the donations were so HUGE because people kept donating as a "screw you" to her detractors) would MAYBE cover 2 - 3 average-scale TGO episodes, tops.
I've noticed that people in general have a skewed view of what independent video/film production actually costs because a lot of guys on the indie/fanfilm scene (no, I won't be naming names) like to brag about how low their production budget is - the problem being that A LOT of the time these are guys who have "day jobs" in the professional film/video business and thus access to equipment and facilities that they would otherwise be paying substantial sums to rent or lease; or they don't include what they would normally charge a client for their services in their own productions, OR they have friends in similar circumstances who are "donating" their time/services and not listing what that would cost on a real job. For example: If "Game OverThinker" had the EXACT same schedule and final-quality but I was paying real industry-standard fees and wages for locations, facilities and crew; $10,000 would be a low-ball estimate for every episode.
Having watched the video itself: She's shooting and outputting in HD/broadcast-quality (this has clearly been designed for classroom/seminar presentation moreso than the web video) and most the MASSIVE amount of game footage looks to have been captured from either original sources (I'm assuming MAME or download-service copies for the retro stuff) - which requires both expensive equipment and the expense of the systems and games themselves. Also, I don't know if she does her own graphics and animation, but her transitions all look like original work; and even if she did do them herself the "going rate" for that kind of work can get pretty damn high especially if you plan to buy or license it in perpuity.
ALSO: I don't know what else she does for a regular living, but I DO know the relative man-hours of putting a project like this together and they are substantial - thusly, if the ONLY thing all the Kickstarter money did was pay her bills and living-expenses (via supplmental income) while she cut down on her regular paying work so that she could free up the time to actually play/record the games, write the script and make the video I'm frankly perplexed that she ever somehow thought a paltry sum like $6,000 was going to cover it. She's currently operating out of San Fransisco, one of the most expensive places to live - even modestly - in the United States; so when you factor all that in... trust me, the expenses for this kind of production are much more substantial than most would imagine.
Senin, 04 Maret 2013
Sterling on Cage
Not that I ever thought I'd have performed the definitive "takedown" of David Cage; but if I or anyone else HAD harbored any pretense toward doing so we must now concede that Jim Sterling has now definitively taken the crown on that one:
Jumat, 01 Maret 2013
Mutatis Mutandis at Teefury
Howdy y'all! I have a new shirt design coming to Teefury on Tuesday March 5th! If you're unfamiliar with Teefury, you should know that it is AWESOME! Each day, they sell one t-shirt created by a super awesome artist. Most of their shirts (if not all these days) are inspired by a wide variety of pop-culture.
Teefury is the best! I've been working with them for a few years now, and the community they foster over there continues to impress. If you haven't already, swing on by for a visit, buy a shirt, and check back Tuesday, March 5th and you can get your hands on my new X-Men themed design seen below.
If you follow my blog, then you surely know that I love comic-books. In a perfect world, the x-men would be real, and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters would exist. If they gave out awards for the Student of the Month at that school, I thought they would look a little something like what you see above.
365 days a year, 24 hours per day, only $10! Visit http://www.teefury.com today and start your new obsession.
Teefury is the best! I've been working with them for a few years now, and the community they foster over there continues to impress. If you haven't already, swing on by for a visit, buy a shirt, and check back Tuesday, March 5th and you can get your hands on my new X-Men themed design seen below.
365 days a year, 24 hours per day, only $10! Visit http://www.teefury.com today and start your new obsession.
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