For those that don’t know Mr. Resetti, I present you his 20 min monolog that happens when you reset animal crossing without saving first:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze5MPltFz34

Danny

I played SC2 back at PAX 09 after waiting about 2 hours in line. Was it worth the wait you ask? Yes, but why did they make the play limit only 20 mins?

Lately my coworkers have been addicted to Starcraft broodwars. Our office spans a full city block, so we have an east vs. west match every friday using WINE. The team I am on (west side) won most of the early matches, but the east found some new godly players who really could give us a run for our money. In the being our boss had not idea how to play starcraft, but after several weeks of yelling and coaching he’s quite the pro now.

One of my coworkers got the beta key recently and says the new game is amazing. However, no matter how amazing SC2 will be, SCBW will still have a special place in my heart.

Danny

ps. the lava comes from this beta video.

Alex and I have been talking about making a game for a while. The game I had in mind was an epic fantasy, where the hero learns life lessons and solves puzzles that makes the player feel like they kicked ass. Too bad we have way too many other things on our plates.

Also see you all at PAX EAST.

Danny

Rant re: Crappy Sequels and Clones

The problem with bad sequels and clones are that they only copy the gimmick part. That’s the easy part to remember and crystallize. With MMORPGSs, it’s a minimap in the top right, a bar full of skills, and the standard lineup of classes (tank, DPS, healer, mage, etc.). For JRPGs, it’s usually stuff like a mute hero with a funny haircut, numbers falling out when you hit enemies, and items that restore HP. With the movie Jaws, it’s a giant shark oh my god get in the chopper

The thing that’s missing is an assemblage of great scenario design, music, characters, art, “gameplay”, context, history, set pieces, etc. For a good sequel, you have to copy that too (hard), or else make up your own (even harder). All too often, that part of fudged by adding additional features; it’s the traditional Mega Man effect, adding feature after feature each release, ultimately diluting the experience. It’s like stapling a Twinkie to a steak.

So that’s the difference between old Sonic and new Sonic. That’s the difference between Jaws and Jaws 4: The Revenge. That’s the difference between the Beatles and the Jonas Brothers. That’s the difference between a thunderstorm and licking a 9-volt battery.

– Alex

I’m feeling kind of bummed out because my kick-boxing gym closed down. Not only did I lose a months membership, but I also lost a great place with great people to workout with.

We take for granted how hard it is to start a successful business. We end up ragging on the big businesses, yet we forget that they all started out as a small business just trying to get by. Sure they may have grown to a bloated monster, but wouldn’t you be sad if McDonalds closed down forever? Think of all the jobs that McDonalds maintains.

Danny

Re: MikuMikuDance

Vocaloid is a Japanese voice synthesizer used for lyrics in songs and whatnot. Apparently some guy made a dynamic 3D renderer for the mascots (Hatsune Miku, et al.). Now you too can re-create famous Michael Jackson dance moves without busting a real-life hip. You can find other MikuMikuDance videos imported onto YouTube; this is my favourite so far.

I downloaded it and played around with it for a little bit; I got a thirty second clip of her moving her leg, and then blinking. That was time well spent.=p

If you want to try it yourself, here’s the download link: http://www.geocities.jp/higuchuu4/index_e.htm

– Alex

TV Tropes: Chainmail Bikini

For those who don’t know about TV Tropes, you might want to block off a few hours of your time before you visit the site. At least for me, it has occupied way too much of my time.

– Alex

Book of Eli

I think the site is finally stable again, sorry for all the downtime. I had to jump though hoops with 1and1.com to get things working.

I went to watch “The Book of Eli” over the weekend. The action and the twist at the end made the movie amazing. Denzel Washington did a great job being a real bad ass. He was Wesley Snipes, original “Blade”, bad ass. The movie got my friends and I thinking about how to survive in a post apocalyptic world? Where would be the best place to survive the nukes? Where would you go to survive? What would you take with you?

Danny

I’ve only played one “erotic game”; it was a shmup (like Raiden or Space Invaders) where there was a giant girl in the background where you progressively shot off pieces of her clothing until she was in her underwear (while dodging enemies and whatnot). I played it because it was a hilarious concept, but that quickly devolved into a “what the Hell am I doing?” sort of feeling.

Story of my life.

Anyways, Danny suggested this comic thread a while back (“Making an overly scientific porno game”), which is funny in and of itself.

– Alex ^.^()

Alex and I were discussing about what makes a good RPG. Seems that now a days it is all about stats, and that RPGs have essentially become strategy games. This isn’t entirely true because you have games like Dark Messiah where your stats mean jack, and it’s all about kicking!

I think we need more games with kicking. Oh Duke, when will you return?

Danny

Always Bet On Duke

Yeah, Duke 3D was great. The best part was that the melee weapon was kick, and there was a kick button for “quick kick” which kicked with his other foot; you could do a Russian dance across the level with both feet up in the air, kicking for justice.

Anyways, I got my opinion that console RPGs nowadays are just glorified strategy games from this site: http://www.actionbutton.net/ –  mostly pretentious reviews of video games which found kinda/sorta insightful.

- Alex ^.^()

Sex sells. You can see it on the covers of crappy video games. Hot computer generated women, ready to play with you all night long. Makes sense. The majority of video gamers are male. But the question is would you pay for nude patches? Would you pay for adult content in games? Also, why is nudity still such a taboo?

Danny

That’s Right.

It exists.

– Alex ^.^()

Apparently in their attempts to censor the Witcher game of adult content, they accidentally took out all the blood and gore. So there’s a patch to put the blood and gore back into the game…

Danny