Before asking Ciji to join our band we actually talked to her for a bit about WCG Ultimate Gamer, and what she was doing at E3.
We actually use some of those headphones to test with at work. I will say they are quite impressive. Thanks for talking to, and performing with us Ciji!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
A moment with Brutal Legend
Brutal Legend. Jack Black, Heavy Metal Rock Gods, viloence, and racing. What more can I ask for?
While visiting the Sony booth I was able to get a quick hands on, and met Levi of Double Fine studios who was nice enough to tell me about the game. Take it away Levi:
From what I played of this game, it's amazing. Very smooth gameplay, well written, and some great humor. This is one I am defintaly going to be watching out for!
While visiting the Sony booth I was able to get a quick hands on, and met Levi of Double Fine studios who was nice enough to tell me about the game. Take it away Levi:
From what I played of this game, it's amazing. Very smooth gameplay, well written, and some great humor. This is one I am defintaly going to be watching out for!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
E3 2009 Demo: Karaoke Revolution
I love singing games. I still bust out my PS2 and my copies of SingStar whenever I have a party. So when I found out that there were karaoke games on the 360 I couldn't pass up the chance to own them. That was that started my love/hate relationship with the Karaoke Revolution series of games.
While I LOVE that I can get achievements and the games provide a bit of a challenge, I HATED the horrible customization. I LOVE how massive the song selection and DLC is, but I HATE the fact that all the songs were covers and not the master tracks.
Don't get me started when they added the whole American Idol brand on top of it.
Will the next version of Karaoke Revolution fix all the problems we've had? Would KR and I be able to rebuild our relationship? Let's find out.
The 1st thing I noticed was that Karaoke Revolution had finally dropped the American Idol name. No more Simon, Randy, and Paula. Doing so gave them a lot more money in the budget and it shows. The character creation has gone from selecting pre-made heads, to full on face and body morphing. That's not all, players can now create thier own venues complete with lights, pyro, and music videos on LCD screens. Oh, did I mention that they no longer use cover songs? All the songs and videos are master tracks.
Well Karaoke Revolution, looks like we might have a bright future after all. Watch the video for a walk through, including details on the multiplayer features.
Look for Karaoke Revolution out this November.
While I LOVE that I can get achievements and the games provide a bit of a challenge, I HATED the horrible customization. I LOVE how massive the song selection and DLC is, but I HATE the fact that all the songs were covers and not the master tracks.
Don't get me started when they added the whole American Idol brand on top of it.
Will the next version of Karaoke Revolution fix all the problems we've had? Would KR and I be able to rebuild our relationship? Let's find out.
The 1st thing I noticed was that Karaoke Revolution had finally dropped the American Idol name. No more Simon, Randy, and Paula. Doing so gave them a lot more money in the budget and it shows. The character creation has gone from selecting pre-made heads, to full on face and body morphing. That's not all, players can now create thier own venues complete with lights, pyro, and music videos on LCD screens. Oh, did I mention that they no longer use cover songs? All the songs and videos are master tracks.
Well Karaoke Revolution, looks like we might have a bright future after all. Watch the video for a walk through, including details on the multiplayer features.
Look for Karaoke Revolution out this November.
E3 2009 Hands On: Split Second
Burnout Who? I'm sorry EA and Criterion. I'm a total Burnout Fanboy... but Split Second from Disney Interactive Studios and Black Rock Studio are going to give you a run for your money.
The basic premise is that you're stunt driver and you've rigged all kinds of stunts to knock the other drivers off their path. These can be as small as causing a rooftop satellite to come crashing down, to as large as having a WHOLE EFFING PLANE crash down causing you to change direction.
That's right. A WHOLE PLANE. If I was in a race and I saw an entire 747 coming towards me. I'd quit. I'd pull over and be like "You guys are dicks. I'm outta here."
Visually this game looks great. One the 1st things we all noticed was that the HUD is on the back of the car. I mean when you're playing a racing game and you don't have the 1st person view turned on, where are you looking? The back of the car. Disney and Black Rock have been nice enough to put all the information you need at the spot you're going to be looking at most of the time. There seemed to be no slowdown in frame rate when the explosions and crashes were going on.
The controls were pretty straight forward and intuitive. Having played the hell out of Burnout I picked this game up and was drifting and smashing into other cars in no time. You fill up your "powerplay" meter by doing such things as drifting, causing other cars to crash, and things like near misses. Once you've got enough of the meter filled up you can trigger the events mentioned.
I had an absolute blast playing this game feel strongly that this new competitor into the action racing genre will hold strong. Look for it sometime early next year.
Check out the video below for some gameplay footage:
The basic premise is that you're stunt driver and you've rigged all kinds of stunts to knock the other drivers off their path. These can be as small as causing a rooftop satellite to come crashing down, to as large as having a WHOLE EFFING PLANE crash down causing you to change direction.
That's right. A WHOLE PLANE. If I was in a race and I saw an entire 747 coming towards me. I'd quit. I'd pull over and be like "You guys are dicks. I'm outta here."
Visually this game looks great. One the 1st things we all noticed was that the HUD is on the back of the car. I mean when you're playing a racing game and you don't have the 1st person view turned on, where are you looking? The back of the car. Disney and Black Rock have been nice enough to put all the information you need at the spot you're going to be looking at most of the time. There seemed to be no slowdown in frame rate when the explosions and crashes were going on.
The controls were pretty straight forward and intuitive. Having played the hell out of Burnout I picked this game up and was drifting and smashing into other cars in no time. You fill up your "powerplay" meter by doing such things as drifting, causing other cars to crash, and things like near misses. Once you've got enough of the meter filled up you can trigger the events mentioned.
I had an absolute blast playing this game feel strongly that this new competitor into the action racing genre will hold strong. Look for it sometime early next year.
Check out the video below for some gameplay footage:
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
I just want to stop and give a quick shout out to Ray Estrada. He has been up late nights (and even today) since I've been back trying to get the videos into a small enough, but good looking enough, format for me to edit. We're really close now. I promise you right here and now, that if I have some of the video tonight... you WILL see my Hand's On: Split Second review up before morning.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
We've hit a snag.
Well, multiple snags.
- Videos - I had someone capture all the footage on his Mac and put it on his external hard drive. Now my PC won't recognize his drive and I can't get the videos. We're troubleshooting now. Theresa has all the videos on her laptop, but no way to get them to me. So Theresa can edit all kinds of craziness, but I'm still without videos for now which I find very frustrating.
- Pepsi Rock Band Challenge - We got the USB stick from the Pepsi guys, and we review it today. The video cuts off about 1/2 way through the song. Good thing Sara recorded it from the crowd. We're going to need some crazy editing.
Friday, June 5, 2009
E3 at Night: Parties!
The people of E3 are no strangers to clubs and bars after the convention doors close; last Tuesday night Warner Brothers, Ubisoft and Bethesda hosted three parties to kick off the beginning of the show.
Though the following clip has been stripped of any embarrassing footage, the mash-up highlights drunken friends, bowling, meeting sWooZie (of WCG Ultimate Gamer fame), & fancy developers.
Mike and I were in attendance and found several familiar faces. Ladies and gentlemen, here are a few members of Team Short Bus (My CoD4 Team)!
Though the following clip has been stripped of any embarrassing footage, the mash-up highlights drunken friends, bowling, meeting sWooZie (of WCG Ultimate Gamer fame), & fancy developers.
Interviews: Jamal & Dante
I'm starting to have time to upload videos from E3! You would not believe how long it took for the video to import to my laptop. It was a long time.
On Tuesday, Mike and I were entering the convention center and stopped to talk with professional video gamers, Jamal and Dante, of the WCG Ultimate Gamer show.
http://www.hulu.com/search?query=WCG+Ultimate+Gamer
Here's the video evidence of my first attempts to interview someone and some pretty cool dudes:
On Tuesday, Mike and I were entering the convention center and stopped to talk with professional video gamers, Jamal and Dante, of the WCG Ultimate Gamer show.
http://www.hulu.com/search?query=WCG+Ultimate+Gamer
Here's the video evidence of my first attempts to interview someone and some pretty cool dudes:
Game-A-Maniacs Hands On - Saw: The Game
"I want to play a game."
Ah those famous words spoken from a creepy little doll named Billy riding a tricycle. How can you reject such an offer?
Walking around the show floor I stopped by the Konami booth to see what they had to offer. One of the 1st things that immediately caught my eye was the rather large sign for Saw: The Game. Being a fan and having seen all 5 movies, I had to play it.
I finally stepped up to booth, turned the sound up and started to play. The game starts you off as most of the movies do: as a victim sitting in a chair, waking up to some horrible trap at the same time a television turns on to vaguely tell you why you're there.
Unlike most of the movies however, you can survive this 1st trap. This time around the 1st trap is actually placed on a main character: Detective Tapp (Danny Glover's character from the 1st movie). Apparently Jigsaw decided it was time to let Tapp have his own game. While Danny Glover is not voicing the character, Tobin Bell did do the voice over work for Jigsaw. So we at least get some awesome Jigsaw vocals.
While I was playing I looked around for someone to walk me through the demo and tell me a few things about the game. I came up empty handed. I even pretended to be stuck somewhere to see if someone would come by. No such luck.
I overheard that the game takes places between Saw 1 and Saw 2 and focuses on Detective Tapp's obsession with Jigsaw. The 1st puzzle was the bear trap puzzle and you had to rotate one of the thumb sticks, then press the appropriate button to unlock one side. You then repeated the action to unlock the second side, then finally moved the thumbstick up and down quickly to remove the trap just as it's about to spring. It definitely has the sound and look of the movies pretty damn nailed. I could feel myself starting to get freaked out as the time was winding down and the music was escalating.
In addition to the quick time events, and some combat, the game offers puzzle elements as well. I had to close bathroom stall doors that revealed partially painted numbers on them, with the other parts painted on the mirror. Then I had to line up my vision correctly to get the number to a combination lock to unlock a door to move on.
Visually the game looks like a Saw movie. Very dark hallways, eerie bathrooms and so on. There are moments when you need to investigate things and for some reason the game flashes images on the screen in what I only assume is an attempt to scare you. I just sort wondered what was going on. There are a lot of nods to the movies including seeing the aftermath of the barb wire trap. There wasn't a ton of blood that I saw, and considering that this was based on very bloody movies, I was pretty let down.
There was a moment in the game where you have to shove your arm into a toilet bowl filled with used surgical needles. When you do the game zooms in on the side of the bowl with an x-ray like effect so you can move your arm around. Cringe-worthy in theory, but seeing it as a x-ray made me feel less creeped out.
The controls were a little stiff at first, but I got used to it. Again there was no one around to answer my questions so I don't know what stage of the game I was playing (alpha, beta, etc), when it's going to be released, or any other info of that kind. I even waited another 10 minutes after my demo ended to see if I could get someone on camera to talk about it.
I guess everyone is too scared of what will happen to them if they talk about the game.
Ah those famous words spoken from a creepy little doll named Billy riding a tricycle. How can you reject such an offer?
Walking around the show floor I stopped by the Konami booth to see what they had to offer. One of the 1st things that immediately caught my eye was the rather large sign for Saw: The Game. Being a fan and having seen all 5 movies, I had to play it.
I finally stepped up to booth, turned the sound up and started to play. The game starts you off as most of the movies do: as a victim sitting in a chair, waking up to some horrible trap at the same time a television turns on to vaguely tell you why you're there.
Unlike most of the movies however, you can survive this 1st trap. This time around the 1st trap is actually placed on a main character: Detective Tapp (Danny Glover's character from the 1st movie). Apparently Jigsaw decided it was time to let Tapp have his own game. While Danny Glover is not voicing the character, Tobin Bell did do the voice over work for Jigsaw. So we at least get some awesome Jigsaw vocals.
While I was playing I looked around for someone to walk me through the demo and tell me a few things about the game. I came up empty handed. I even pretended to be stuck somewhere to see if someone would come by. No such luck.
I overheard that the game takes places between Saw 1 and Saw 2 and focuses on Detective Tapp's obsession with Jigsaw. The 1st puzzle was the bear trap puzzle and you had to rotate one of the thumb sticks, then press the appropriate button to unlock one side. You then repeated the action to unlock the second side, then finally moved the thumbstick up and down quickly to remove the trap just as it's about to spring. It definitely has the sound and look of the movies pretty damn nailed. I could feel myself starting to get freaked out as the time was winding down and the music was escalating.
In addition to the quick time events, and some combat, the game offers puzzle elements as well. I had to close bathroom stall doors that revealed partially painted numbers on them, with the other parts painted on the mirror. Then I had to line up my vision correctly to get the number to a combination lock to unlock a door to move on.
Visually the game looks like a Saw movie. Very dark hallways, eerie bathrooms and so on. There are moments when you need to investigate things and for some reason the game flashes images on the screen in what I only assume is an attempt to scare you. I just sort wondered what was going on. There are a lot of nods to the movies including seeing the aftermath of the barb wire trap. There wasn't a ton of blood that I saw, and considering that this was based on very bloody movies, I was pretty let down.
There was a moment in the game where you have to shove your arm into a toilet bowl filled with used surgical needles. When you do the game zooms in on the side of the bowl with an x-ray like effect so you can move your arm around. Cringe-worthy in theory, but seeing it as a x-ray made me feel less creeped out.
The controls were a little stiff at first, but I got used to it. Again there was no one around to answer my questions so I don't know what stage of the game I was playing (alpha, beta, etc), when it's going to be released, or any other info of that kind. I even waited another 10 minutes after my demo ended to see if I could get someone on camera to talk about it.
I guess everyone is too scared of what will happen to them if they talk about the game.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
It's Gotta Be Fatal1ty
Guess who I met up with two days ago? Johnathan "fatal1ty" Wendel. The professional gamer himself! I'm not sure what to tell you if you've never heard of him. He has won over $500k in cash and prizes from gaming competitions; he's been featured in Time, The New York Times, Forbes, BBC World Service and 60 Minutes.
Mike and I got to meet up with him in between an intense schedule they have him on to ask him a few casual questions.
Here's the video:
Mike and I got to meet up with him in between an intense schedule they have him on to ask him a few casual questions.
Here's the video:
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
A quick visit to Nintendo
On Day 1 we stopped by the Nintendo booth to see some of the new games coming out. Theresa found one:
We had much better luck on Day 2. Including a guided walkthrough of the new Zelda DS, and a great interview about the new Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade! Be sure to come back to see those videos.
We had much better luck on Day 2. Including a guided walkthrough of the new Zelda DS, and a great interview about the new Wii game Muramasa: The Demon Blade! Be sure to come back to see those videos.
Updating VS. Working
The downside to working E3, is when we're not recording interviews, gameplay footage, and other amazing things, we're giving demos and showing people how to play our games.
Not being allowed into certain "Media Only" places also makes things hard because we have to wait until we've come back to the hotel to upload the footage before we can do anything with it. This, of course, has to wait until AFTER we've worked our shift out on the show floor resulting a long periods of time with no updates. Below is just a taste of what we do when we're running around.
**UPDATE** Video should be working now.
Not being allowed into certain "Media Only" places also makes things hard because we have to wait until we've come back to the hotel to upload the footage before we can do anything with it. This, of course, has to wait until AFTER we've worked our shift out on the show floor resulting a long periods of time with no updates. Below is just a taste of what we do when we're running around.
**UPDATE** Video should be working now.
Game-A-Maniacs Takes the Stage!
While walking through E3 we found the Pepsi Rock Band 2 Challenge. Theresa and I signed up and moments later we were talking with competitive Rock Band player Ciji from http://starslay3r.net/ and WCG Ultimate Gamer. We interviewed her, and asked her to join our band!
So look out E3! At 11:30am the Game-A-Maniacs take the stage!
Too much video to process tonight!
The coworkers & cameras have returned.
It's almost 4 a.m. and Mike and I have a date with the Pepsi Rock Band Challenge tomorrow morning. We'll be transferring the film too my laptop while we sleep, so there will be video for you tomorrow.
Now I sleep.
Stay tuned!
It's almost 4 a.m. and Mike and I have a date with the Pepsi Rock Band Challenge tomorrow morning. We'll be transferring the film too my laptop while we sleep, so there will be video for you tomorrow.
Now I sleep.
Stay tuned!
The Beatles: Rock Band
Mike and I took a trip over to The Beatles: Rock Band area to see what they had in store.
After waiting in line, we were given a demo of three great songs from the Beatles by the developers, and then we played the game... twice.
My absolute favorite part of the game was the vocals: featuring a three part harmony! Have you ever tried to sing and play guitar or the drums at the same time? I've always wanted to, and it was much harder to do than I thought.
It's late, it's early.
Getting back to the hotel with my coworkers missing is a new experience. I'm usually one of the last ones back to the hotel to get to sleep. Our peoples know how to party! Thank you, Warner Brothers, Ubisoft, & Bethesda!
The first day of E3 was eventful.
There's news of Mike Robles and I competing in a Pepsi Rock Band Challenge with pro Guitar Hero / Rock Band players at 11:30 a.m. near the entrance of the convention center.
Mike has the camera that we used to record interviews and good times at E3 (Tuesday). Since I have no idea where he is (where anyone is) quite yet as his phone has died, I will upload what I have and hope you are appeased. More videos will come when I find out if Mike is still alive or is snuggling up with hobos on the streets of LA, post after-party, giving up on finding a taxi to get back to the hotel.
The first day of E3 was eventful.
There's news of Mike Robles and I competing in a Pepsi Rock Band Challenge with pro Guitar Hero / Rock Band players at 11:30 a.m. near the entrance of the convention center.
Mike has the camera that we used to record interviews and good times at E3 (Tuesday). Since I have no idea where he is (where anyone is) quite yet as his phone has died, I will upload what I have and hope you are appeased. More videos will come when I find out if Mike is still alive or is snuggling up with hobos on the streets of LA, post after-party, giving up on finding a taxi to get back to the hotel.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Runnin' Wild at WB
My mind is exploding with information due to all of the pre-E3 announcements. Mike Robles and I will be inquiring further into these news stories on the show floor this week. I'm particularly excited about finding someone from Infinity Ward to chat about Modern Warfare 2.
Today was filled with everything Warner Brothers. E3 prep meetings in Burbank today discussed the titles that we'll be showcasing at the WB Games booth tomorrow. WB promises a great line-up for their first E3 this year. There will be more to come on the games shown and the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment party tomorrow!
As Mike mentioned earlier, we DID get to wander around the lots while on a tour of Warner Bros. Studios. Here are a few photos (Un-photographed highlights included the Museum with Batman's costume, nearly everything from Harry Potter, Rorschach, costumes from 300, and Bruce Lee's pants):
We all got sorted by the Sorting Hat. Results:
- Gryffindor: Jessica, Theresa & John
- Hufflepuff: Lauren, Mike & Witt
- Slytherin: Sara & Logan
Scott took over my laptop and typed an entry that never made it. I give to you Scott's impersonation of my typing:
"Yo hizzizies, tiz settin at the skizzizzies.
Funnies and monies wit bunnies.
Fin"
Oh! Ladies, are you going to Blizzcon 2009? I've found you a ...date: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/tix/1200319108.html
*Thanks go to Kat Hunter for the find of BlizzCon prostitution.
Friday, May 29, 2009
All Set & Ready To Go!
All right everyone! We are set to storm into E3 ready to go! We were given a Canon HV20 Hi-Def camera and mic. set to take with us.
Theresa and I will be bringing you videos, interviews, and all we can from E3 2009. Keep checking back starting on Monday June 1st for updates from Los Angeles, and E3 2009!
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