CES 2011 – Surface 2

vidHero2 Comments
Surface Logo 2.0
EL DOSurface logo

This post is suppost to keep track of interesting news that’s shooting out left and right from CES this week. (Like Xolotl’s dying sperm shots in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light). (the tragedy here, is that I don’t know ANYONE who cares about this CES tech shit half as much as I do)

Microsoft Surface version 2
(aka Samsung’s SUR40 tv) sounds awesome. AWESOME! I’m stunned this isn’t bigger news. … I guess people see it as a giant iPad that costs more than twice most high end tvs? (or they will soon? if they ever even hear about it?) butttttt. What’s really exciting is the “pixelsense” tech, which claims to be a bunch of camera sensors mixed in with the pixels, turning the whole display into a camera. Apple patented this years ago. but, microsoft made it. HMM! (actually, no one has laid out the tech exactly. who knows how many sensors there are).

I’ll rant more about below, after listing off some interesting tech announcements Continue reading “CES 2011 – Surface 2” →

gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)

vidHeroLeave a comment

it's like christmas all over me!

This post was originally ranted out at the Escapist forums, in response to Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw’s post/article about Splatterhouse and potential gore gaming mechanics:

I think what’s interesting about gore gaming is – the concept of sadism.

If video games are this magical invention that frees you to “do anything you can think of,” then why are you perpetrating all this gore?
Make the game focus on this. If you ignore this aspect of the experience (by making the game about a stylish world travelling treasure hunter, for example) then you’re robbing the gore of it’s punch. You’re making a different genre of game that happens to have some gore in it. which strikes me as lame/irresponsible. Continue reading “gore gaming (thoughts on the genre)” →

Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?

vidHeroLeave a comment

(this was posted initially as a response to gamasutra’s best iOS games of 2010)
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Game Dev Story (GDS), but disagree heartily.

Isn’t it more like some sort of simple limited tamagotchi than a real game? (is there a better term? “micro simulation with minimal input allowed”?) Continue reading “Game Dev Story : emperor’s new clothes? crippled tamagotchi?” →

Tron Legacy – not for snobby idioticritics

vidHero3 Comments

(Update: my comment, below, led to me being banned from io9.com sooo. fuck.)

Just wrote my angry retort to all the haters of the world. Focusing on Charlie Jane Anders at io9, who I actually dig as a contributor.
looks like my account there may not post my retort (they’ve disabled facebook logins, and looks like my direct login was disabled/deleted?).

anywho. In response to this rather lame review, here are some more ranting thoughts on the movie: Continue reading “Tron Legacy – not for snobby idioticritics” →

Rock Band 3 changes everything with Pro mode.

vidHeroLeave a comment

I bought the keytar RockBand3 bundle. I bought the cymbals to upgrade my beatle’s Ringo drum kit. I have three mics (but only one mic stand). I have the old original rockband guitar (plus the original red PS2 guitar hero[GH] guitar, white xbox GH2 guitar, wireless black gibson GH guitar). I’ve purchased almost every Harmonix game (but stopped buying GH titles after the Aerosmith tie in).

Last night I received my madcatz “Mustang pro guitar” and played with it for a couple hours. BLEW MY FUCKING MIND. I couldn’t be more excited about the music game genre right now.
So here are my ranting comments, in response to a Gamasutra article about why music games are over. SIGH) Continue reading “Rock Band 3 changes everything with Pro mode.” →

Kinect Gears of War idea

vidHeroLeave a comment

my dream for a Kinect Gears game (since I can’t make it) (as commented on wired’s Game|Life)

You are the president (of what remains of the human race basically).

A) You give speeches to the troops, with a first person pespective from a podium (minor kareoke mechanic decides if you are reading the teleprompter). Choose different speech pathes (a or b, color coded to indicate angry or heartstrings text) by gesturing to left or right.
Kinect tries to detect if you’re “spicing it up” with swear words or certain gestures. Like Dance Central: for delivering speeches. Continue reading “Kinect Gears of War idea” →

Kinect : Gears of War (idea)

vidHeroLeave a comment

…I’ve been obsessing on Kinect all day. Wondering at how to make a serious game with it.

Keep thinking there could be an cool game that mixes two things:
1) the super-photo sleuthing from Blade Runner (“quadrant 3, enhance. go back. turn 10 degrees. enhance.”)
2) giving speeches (reading text aloud. maybe deviating from script if crowd is getting restless. emphatic gesturing.) Continue reading “Kinect : Gears of War (idea)” →

I hate halo

vidHeroLeave a comment

Joystick’s bullshit Friday “talk amongst yourselves” post asks : What is the most overrated video game.

this immediately broughtto mind: the entirety of the Halo series.

My friends have pressured me into getting each goddamned halo, and each time I : have no fun. (well, the cast of Firefly pressured me into getting HaloODST). Peer pressure must be a part of it. And I’m still quietly convinced the main reason this game sells is thanks to stoners, and Microsoft itself buying a few million copies to artificially boost sales. Continue reading “I hate halo” →