The Pixelated Goblin

Let My Games Go!

2010-04-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

Often I surf blog-style news sites, and these sites rely on people posting and commenting on articles as if they have some say in the matters addressed in the article. The truth is, unless it's a small site that doesn't generate a lot of traffic, they don't. A site like Kotaku cares for little but click-revenue. Developers and publishers care even less about what these people think. That is another matter entirely.

It is not uncommon to run into someone badmouthing a game and the legions of fans ganging-up on him in the game's defence. What is uncommon is someone who has become disenchanted with a series because it's sequels were bad or gameplay became stale. See - Devil May Cry 4.

I write, as is common for me, in response to the fear someone had of the future of the God of War (I shudder every time I hear the word) -franchise-.

It's a completely valid opinion, especially in light of the fact that publishers just won't let a product die. This was supposed to be the "end" of a "trilogy". I quote these words in the same manner that Sony quoted them in press releases. So it should come as no surprise that "trilogy" referred only to then end of the narrative arc as it pertained to Kratos' quest to kill Zeus, and not the end of the series. This becomes a problem in games with strong, defined narrative. Publishers don't have the guts, and as far as I'm concerned, the decency, to end a game properly. God of War 3 for example, is full of ret-con and tacked-on cliffhangers just for the sake of luring people into the next game in the series. You know what would be great? Make your games so good that people want to play the next one without the need of a cliffhanger. Final Fantasy does that with every incarnation of the game. It rides it's name and it's name alone. Each game is unique (relatively speaking) and barely, if ever, references a previous game in the series. It's also a problem for the developers. Sure, it's great for a dev to make a bunch of great games, but it's not so great to make the same game over and over again. It would be nice to see Bungie or Infinity Ward make something else but an FPS, but look at that, they're both making another game in a franchise that has been done to death. Another tell-tale sign that the series needs to end is that the combat in God of War, is virtually unchanged in each game. Sure, there are some timing tweaks and a few new moves are added. But by the time you start playing on "Very Hard", combat boils down to what is most efficient. That being square, square, triangle, and spamming grab moves (especially in God of War 3). Bottom line. Yeah, we all love God of War (well, some of us don't), but that's not a reason to keep making them over and over again with the same character. You need to change it up a bit. Take the Megaman games for instance. Boring old franchise until, whoops, look at that, Megaman : Zero. You make Zero the main character, change the combat up 100% and put a bunch of shout-outs to the old games and the series and you've got another winner.

New-ish Project

2010-01-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be working on a sort of new-ish personal project based on Norse mythology. The goal is to create a cohesive, unified, functional world, as opposed to the mess that it typically appears to be.

Switching-Out

2010-01-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Long-time-no-post:

It's been about forever since I've posted, but this time I'm keeping it brief.

I've traded-in my PS3 in favour of a 360. Some would consider this a downgrade, and certainly the 360 has it's flaws, but to put it bluntly, online play on the PS3 is garbage (except for Killzone 2, that actually works really well). Never once had I met a single person worth talking to for more than a minute. For the most part, the vocal crowd on PS3 spew the same trash that those on the 360 do.

The only difference is in the quality of the online experience, and the 360 trumps the PS3, no contest.

On that note, I mute everybody on every online game I play. Trust me, nobody is worth talking to online in almost any game.

New Games

2009-11-21T21:37:00.000-08:00

November has proven itself as a month for gaming. Apparently, publishers don't want to wait for December to roll around, so they're getting their stuff out the door now.

Modern Warfare 2 sets it sights on pummelling any sort of competition it might have had in the FPS genre and apparently does so by selling multiple millions in it's first day, but I won't be playing that because war themed FPSs are for chumps. I want a new Time Splitters dammit.

This month I will satiate my gaming urges with Dragon Age: Origins, Assassin's Creed 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and the God of War Collection. If not for God of War, all of these games deserve your money, because they're all awesome.

I will say a bit on each:

Dragon Age: Origins isn't nearly as long as reviewers and other members of the gaming press are claiming. It is not an 80-90 hour game, it's a 30-40 and sometimes a 50 hour game. It only becomes an 80-90 hour game if you're an achievement/trophy whore.

Assassin's Creed 2 is everything that was loveable about the the first and more, with most of the structural wrinkles ironed-out.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is as classic and -ugh- "hardcore" a game as they come. Precise platforming is the name of the game, and if you think you can just breeze through just because it's a Mario game, you're quite wrong.

The God of War Collection is God of War 1 and 2 in 720p.

Bonus:

God of War 3 Demo Overview:

I had concerns about the art direction of God of War 3 (hereafter referred to as GoW3) when I saw the first trailer about a year or so ago. Mostly because the trailer was poorly cut, and the textures were murky...well basically it looked like they gave the trailer duties to the 'C' team. Not long after, the full length version of the same trailer is released, and with it comes better textures, better cinematography and Kratos going apeshit like well all want him to.

But there's a problem.

There's a disturbing amount of black everywhere. Everything is shaded in black. Every artist, even those not worth their salt, learns that you never use pure black...ever. There's a good reason for this, it's because it often leads to scenes and characters looking -muddy- and it obscures details from the viewer. There are exceptions of course, like if you want to purposely hide details from the viewer, sure, like say, you peer into a cave, it's pitch black, but suddenly a monster jumps out at you. But in this case, the GoW3 trailer, it was everywhere. I chalked it up to the fact that it was a dark, stormy weather-like scene.

The demo is this and more.

It's easy to understand why they've done this, it gives the game a very striking look. All that black I'm complaining about is offset by extremely bright direct lighting that pretty much outlines everything. But what, may I ask, happened to the fantastic palette from God of War 2, which had fantastic lighting and brilliant colour? Maybe it's just the area in the demo, but I've got a feeling it's like this for the whole game.

None of this, of course, effects the awesome gameplay, which is still 100% intact. It still looks like it's going to be a badass finale to what is arguably one of the most satisfying action adventure games, it's just going to look kinda ugly.

New Art 29/10/09

2009-10-29T17:59:00.001-07:00

A goblin delves deep into his research.

A VERY Kratos-like stock barbarian wields some axe-chucks.

New Art 10/25/09

2009-10-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

It's not a secret that I'm a gigantic fantasy nerd. So it doesn't really come as a secret that I like dragons and all that jazz. What is surprising is that I've never actually finished a drawing of a dragon, ever, or at least to the very best of my knowledge.

Pretty happy with this one. Not much I'd change. Maybe not make it as dark. I dunno.

Basch

2009-10-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Apparently Captain Basch here was supposed to be the main character for Final Fantasy XII.

You can hear the story and read more awesome stuff here ->

http://www.gamespite.net/

This is possibly the best colour I've ever done. Which is surprising because I usually just use the polygon lasso in order to achieve a more...I dunno, comic book-like effect. But I used the brush tool the whole way through this one. Turned-out pretty good considering I haven't "painted" in years.

2009-10-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Bunch a new stuff on my deviant art page. Couple of fanart pieces and a few originals.

http://strange-ape.deviantart.com/

Dear Adobe, Your Activation Process Fucking Sucks

2009-10-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Adobe,

I recently purchased the Student Edition of CS4 Design Premium and could not be more disappointed in the necessary steps in order to activate my product. The process of going to a 3rd party website and submitting information for an approvals process before receiving a product licence key is nothing but arduous at best.

I realize that as a business, you must take steps to protect your interests, as all other companies do, but the steps you've taken to protect your software are, quite frankly, unacceptable.

They are unacceptable because not only are you over-protective of your student edition, but the process requires the aid of a real person at the aforementioned 3rd party, which causes nothing but delays in activation. This is why modern industry has seen fit to do away with almost all human interaction between corporation and consumer, because it's slow and is prone to human-error.

Your over-protectiveness of the student edition can lead to only two conclusions. That either you actually take a loss on each sale in order to make it available to students who do in fact need this product, and the price of the full retail version compensates for the incurred loss. Or, that the price of the student version is closer to the real cost of the product and the full retail version is grossly overpriced.

Your treatment of your customers can only be described as criminal, because that is in fact, how you are treating them. Processes like this only imply that you assume that everyone, especially students, are going to pirate your program. The folly in this logic is that if a student is going to pirate your program, they will NOT in fact be pirating the Student Edition, they will be pirating a version which lacks this extra defensive measure. So not only have you been wasting the time of honest consumers, but you've wasted both your own time and resources in implementing this extra step.

The point is, that someone who wants to buy your product will buy it, and someone who won't, won't. There is practically no defence against this, especially since, as an industry standard, your products are practically necessary in order to function as a visually creative individual. The fact that pirated copies of programs, your own included, exist on the internet, sometimes even before their release date, serves only to illustrate this point even further.

It is a shame to see you take this path in your software protection methods, especially when other industries have attempted slightly more extreme methods only to be met with a resounding cry of foul play.

This is not good business. It's safe, profitable business, but anything but good business.

New Computer

2009-09-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

Nearly a month since my last post....

So my new computer is in, and despite my knowing better I bought a Mac. This cost me about $4500 so it's about $1500 more than my last computer which was a $3k PC laptop. My laptop lasted me about three years, so I figure if this computer lasts me 5 or more it was worth it. If not, then Apple can blow me because it means that I could spend less money on a PC and it would last just about as long, if you go by the calculation of $1k=1 Year of use. Not really happy about the loss of mobility either, but the MacBooks weren't nearly as tricked-out as I was looking for.

Basic Specs:

MacPro

-2x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB

-2x 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

-12GB RAM

I figure this aught to do me for a while, and at the very least, until Diablo 3 comes out.

2009-09-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

A while back, I illustrated a children's book for an author from Kingston. I've been informed that it's been nominated for several Governor General Awards, most notably for both the writing and the illustrations.

That's kinda cool.

2009-09-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

The next time I go to a convention, I'm bringing lots and lots of drugs, and I advise that others do the same. Life is too damn short for this "cold" stuff.

Immortal Empire

2009-09-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

So I did some work for this game called Immortal Empire which you can find here:
http://tacticstudios.com/empire/screenshots.php

It's a pretty bad-ass mix of Final Fantasy Tactics and Fallout (1-2). As of right now, it's still pre-beta, but with any luck, it'll be in beta for the holiday season. I will certainly try to keep anyone who actually reads this informed on the matter.

Blech.....

2009-09-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

Art can now be found here:
http://strange-ape.deviantart.com/

Didn't think I'd ever go back.

I love you, even though you're ugly.

2009-05-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

Dead Space is realy great. It's basically Resident Evil in space, only the story isn't nearly as rediculous.

...

2009-05-05T17:26:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember the Lufia games on SNES? Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals was this awesome yet flawed prequel to the first game. Everything about it is very polished with exception to the plot. Holes everywhere. The music is by far the crowning achievement here, but the dungeon crawling works well and is a nice mix of killing baddies and solving puzzles. Highly recomended if you can find a copy.

Brain-Nut

2009-04-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

I was having a conversation with a friend who also happens to be an illustrator, and the conversation was based primarily on the bizarre things that we draw as illustrators either in private or even the wierd stuff we choose to expose the world to, and why we choose to do so.

What it basically comes down to is what I'm going to call busting a brain-nut.

A creative individual will, undoubtedly, create something odd at one point or another, something outside of their comfort zone. It allows the creator to experiment and expand upon what he does, but what follows more often than not is a small feeling of euphoria not unlike the one followed post climax, which is why I call this busting a brain-nut.

As illustrators, my friend an I have concluded that there are times where we're not being all that creative. It's as if we've powered-down our brains to run on as little as possible so that we don't burn out.

When you're young and have a talent, it's fun to flaunt it about like a toy that keeps getting better and better, but as soon as that play time becomes the same as work time, you find that you don't want to play anymore. So in order to avoid burning-out, we turn off and just draw whatever comes to mind. It is an act, not unlike masturbation, it which the ultimate goal is nothing but a good feeling.

Seemed like an interesting thought at the time.

It's Been Forever

2009-03-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

Almost two months since I last posted anything here, even longer since I put any art up here. This isn't much, but at least it's something.

"The Shadow knows"....I never realy knew if that was supposed to be a pun about how big his nose is or not.

Some Starfox fanart. I'm realy waiting for a tricked-out Starfox game for the Wii. I had Starfox Adventures and still have Starfox Assault for the Gamecube, but based on the lacklustre sales of both games, I would not be surprised if Nintendo forgoes Starfox this generation.

Fire Emblem : Shadow Dragon

2009-01-18T22:58:00.000-08:00

I'm a big Fire Emblem fan, and I'm one of the ones who will restart each chapter over and over again until I finish the game without loosing a single member of my army. That said, Fire Emblem : Shadow Dragon not only has an immature title, but it's made for the immature (inexperienced) gamer as well.

Now, I'm not going to harp on the game too hard, but it's not very good. It's not even as good as the Gamecube and Wii versions, which are not very good to begin with. I'm not going to make accusations of stale gameplay, because a Fire Emblem game is and always will be a Fire Emblem game. They'll always play the same, what changes (generally) are the characters, what they can do and what classes they can acheive.

You get too many characters in this game. By the 6th stage on Normal difficulty, I had ammassed an army that could easily dwarf any from the past games, something like 20+ units and none of them matter, the only one who gives a damn about what's going on, and on that note, the only one you give a damn about in turn, is Marth. Again, I generaly don't have a problem with this as I expect that some of the issues with the FIRST game of the entire series where not going to be worked out. The problem with this game is that in order to access extra missions, you have to go out of your way to kill off members of your army. This completely defeats the purpose of (if even remotely so) identifying with members of your army and trying to keep them all alive. Within the first three stages I was FORCED to sacrifice a member of my army in order to procede, and that left a bad taste in my mouth.

So the gameplay is mediocre at best. Nothing stellar, but nothing realy "broken" either save for the rediculous ammount of characters.

My biggest gripe is with the presentation. Gone are the colourful and vibrant sprites from the last three GBA games, and in are pre-rendered 3D models. This games opts to add a little 3D flare into it's graphical repotoire. The problem is the characters are so separated from the backround that they appear to be floating on top of everything.

I knew this was going to be a problem when I first saw screenshots of game last year, because I had already been burned by the Gamecube game. The problem with 3D models replacing 2D sprites is that it makes it incredibly difficult to animate the characters in interesting ways.

For example:

This is awesome...

...and this not so much.

Basically, cartoons can be squashed, stretched and moved in ways that are only possible with cartoons. 3D models are considerably more difficult to animate convincingly, and based on the Gamecube, Wii, and now, DS versions of this franchise, Intelligent systems hasn't quite got them figured-out yet.

The game is solid in what it does, and that is, sticking to what makes a bare bones Fire Emblem game. The problem is it tries to reinvent in uninteresting and ultimately unwanted ways.

True HD ?

2009-01-08T21:41:00.000-08:00

I'm a gamer at heart, so often I'll find myself deep within the bowels of a gaming blog or forum like NeoGAF, and I'll find that some representative from either Sony of Microsoft went ahead and shot their mouths off and let loose a colossal bit of flamebait for forum trolls, and more often than not, somewhere in the argument(if you can call a flamewar "argument") someone will talk about what they call "True HD"(by that they mean 1080p video) and how the Xbox LIVE service does not offer it.

Let's make one thing abundantly clear. 1080p is NOT the end-all be all of picture resolution, and it hasn't ever been and will never be. 1080p is just the resolution some marketing schmuck decided would be an acceptable jump up from the standard of 480i(standard TV output). What people need to realize is that anyone with almost any video-editing software, can create video at a HIGHER resolution than this. 1080p HD video is 1920x1080 pixels, and if I decide I want to render my video at 2040x1300 pixels, I will, and in doing so, I've just created video that, by definition, makes all current HDTVs obsolete since they cannot output at my desired resolution.

I am 100% serious when I say fuck HD. It's marketing bullshit and it's seriously bad for people to buy into it.

Ad-hoc Party = Best Tasting Weak-Sauce?

2009-01-02T00:53:00.000-08:00

Old news, but felt like venting...

Ad-hoc party is the single best thing to happen to the PSP, bar-none. Being able to play all you local multiplayer games online breathes new life into this system which I have come to love despite the severe lack of quality games this year.

Now I love me some Monster Hunter, and I'm sure that I'll love trading in my copy of Freedom 2 for Freedom Unite...but fuck me running if needing a PS3 for Ad-hoc Party isn't the most irritating bullshit ever. And you know that that's the only way you'll ever get to use it, because of the strugling (I use that term loosely as it is not entirely accurate) PS3 sales over the last two years (or perhaps more accurately, three holiday seasons) Ad-hoc Party will remain exclusive to the console in order to entice PSP users into buying a PS3.

Here's an idea, since the program already exists, make a PC/Mac version of it and sell it for...I dunno, 20-30 dollars. Pure profit on Sony's end, and the consumer doesn't feel like he just got bent over for a 400 dollar system when what he wanted in the first place was a function that the PSP should have in the first place, since the thing already has built-in wifi.

If I can connect to Capcom's central server to download extra quests for Monster Hunter, why the hell can't I play the rest of the game online, especially when there's a new version comming out?

I suppose I could hold out some hope of either company throwing a bone to the consumer, and considering Megaman 9 and Bionic Commando Rearmed, I'd say Capcom is in the best position to realy boost the PSP sales through the roof by adding a "true online" component to a game like Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. But I figure Sony would tell them to take the online component out if they put one in, that just seems to be the way Sony is managing the low PS3 sales. Adding more stuff to the system and only to the system, so that any benefit of having any of their other products is lost without a PS3. I guess that's what David Reeves means by "value added" as their strategy for the PS3.

I think a smart consumer would tell Sony to take a hike, and hopefully people don't buy into marketing strategies like this. That way, the corporation will make decitions based on what the consumer wants instead of the corporation telling the consumer what it wants.

That's probably why the PS3 isn't doing as well as Sony had hoped it would. Sony seems to be trying to tell people what they want, but what they end up doing is simmilar to flopping around on the ground like a dying fish, that is to say, they don't know what to do. They keep trying to target all sorts of different people with things like Home, Ad-hoc Party, Blu-ray, all of which are products aimed at completely different kinds of people, and with the exception of Blu-ray, unfinished or unnecessary. So they keep trying to target different markets with half-finished products and promisses of the future because they are unsure of what the consumer wants. It's definately easier to "test the waters" with half-finished a.k.a. BETA (thus, half-funded) software.

I sincerely hope that Sony's "ten year lifespan" for the PS3 isn't just a PR joke, because with the way they seem to be going about their PS3 downloadable software, it just might take them that long to finish anything.

No Price Cuts

2008-12-19T22:16:00.000-08:00

So Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Revees has eledgedly claimed that there will be no price cut to the PS3. It would seem there plan is to make it so that the value of the console stays reletively the same throughout it's lifetime, that is to say, it'll always be $400-$500 but they'll add stuff over time to make it worth the cost (better parts, bigger hard drive, etc.), or at least that's what I've gathered from what I've read. That's great and all, but $400 is still a lot to throw down on a single purchase regardless of weither or not it's actually worth the cost. People, especially now, are going to become more and more reserved with their disposible income, which most people don't have that much to begin with. Not to mention, when the PS3 first came out, $500-$600 was a deal for a Blu-Ray player, but now that you can get one for $200 (and I'm sure they'll only get cheaper) it makes the $400-$500 price point a little tougher to swallow.

The Xbox360 seems to be enjoying good sales because of the choices it's giving people as far as the SKUs are concerned. The other thing that's nice about the 360, is that it's not forcing you into buying into a new disk format (which could be eclipsed by a new format in a mere few years).

Here's how you've realy got to look at it. If you don't own an HD TV or HD capable monitor, you don't want a PS3. You obviously haven't bought into the HD hype, and that's realy all the PS3 is...a.k.a. if you don't have an HD set and you buy a PS3, you just wasted $200 because that Blu-Ray player is worthless unless you plan on spending another $400-$500 on an HD set.

And even after all that, would you realy want to support Blu-Ray? Sure people who have already decided to support it have made it the standard HD format after having beat-out HD-DVD, but in doing so, they've enabled Sony to control the medium that their media (movies, games, etc.) is distributed on, and that my cheery friends is what we call a conflict of interest. In the past, distribution formats were developed by third parties who would then make a reader with which to view the embeded information, and first parties were subject to the formats developed by others. So Sony took a huge gamble (which obviously payed-off) with Blu-Ray, but I can't help but think that if it wasn't an integral part of the PS3, Blu-Ray would not have come out on top as HD format-of-choice.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=0GhSsV55ZZ4&feature=related
^This vid's a little old but it illustrates my point more clearly.

Anyway, way off topic at this point.

Back to SCEE prez.

I was realy hoping to be able to pick up a PS3 at some point late next year, after a price drop or two. I was hoping I would only have to spend like $250 or something in that ballpark, max of $300. But since Sony seems so insistant that I spend $400 when a similar experience can be found elsewhere for less (ie. Xbox360 - $200), I have little reason to spend an extra $200 on tech that I'm not even going to (or very rarely) use.

Apparently, Sony Computer Entertainment lost like 2 billion two years ago, and a billion more last year, so, I can see where they're comming from. They're 3 billion in the hole, and they need to make that back up. But right out telling people who were hoping for a price drop to fuck off is a little harsh I think(not literaly, of course).

Just wow......

2008-12-16T23:58:00.000-08:00

There's a fucking MASSIVE thread called "Bring Back Backwards Compatibility!" on the official Playstation forums that is (of the time of this writing) 364 pages long and still going strong. Clearly, the discussion regarding backwards compatibility isn't as dim a memory as some would claim.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=3123522&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

The discussion sometimes goes into startling depth regarding the technical aspects regarding all three of the Playstation models (PSX/PSOne, PS2, PS3) as well as speculating on the shady business of it all.

I'll say again that as long as the PS2 is still churning-out a solid profit for Sony, there'll be no reason to add backwards compatibility to the PS3. Unless of course their plan is to sell more PS3s.

God of War 3

2008-12-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

So I've just beared witness to the Spike Video Game Awards trailer for God of War 3, and the trailer that should have excited me has left me completely unimpressed. Not only was the clip (oh yeah, it was like...30 seconds) poorly caked together, that is to say, a couple of short burst of random action squashed into a short trailer, but it was...well dissapointing from a technical standpoint. This game is comming from a Sony studio, who have been working on this game for the better part of 1.75 years. So not only are they familiar with the hardware and the I.P., but this game had already garnered hype so extreme that mere mention of it would cause a Pavlovian response.

If this is the final product, that's fine. The game itself, I'm sure, will follow with the other two of the series and play great, but I'm definitely not impressed. From what had been said, I was thinking we'd see a Metal Gear Solid 4 crusher or something similar to Heavy Rain.

Oh well, my bad for looking forward to anything I suppose.

Confirmed

2008-12-08T23:11:00.000-08:00

Confirmed: PS2 Downloads

So Sony is in fact looking at PS2 games as downloadable titles on the PS3.
http://www.qj.net/Sony-sees-PlayStation-success-in-2009/pg/49/aid/127160
^ it's mentioned in the 6th paragraph.

So whether or not this idea pans-out will be based on the 3rd party support. Sony's first party titles alone probably won't be a reason to keep this afloat, so developers like Square-Enix and Ubisoft would have to get behind it. This seemed fine with the PS1 downloads because they were small, and I think you could play them on the PSP which is realy neat, but most if not all PS2 games are going to be at least 2-3 gigs each, that's a lot of bandwith and a lot of HDD space.

About the article I linked to:

I'm all for companies being in good humour regarding either financial woes (ie. Midway) or poor sales in general (ie. Sony Computer Entertainment as a whole), but come on Sony, you said in 2007 that you were going to see better sales in 2008, and now you're saying the same thing again about 2009. In theory, the snowball concept (that is, as you roll it it gets bigger) is great to show stockholders and all that, but if you're not seeing the sales you wanted over two years, maybe you need to re-think some of your marketing decisions.

Let's face it, the biggest problem holding the PS3 back from being a completely bad-ass console is it's game library. 2008's exclusive list is a god-damn joke, Metal Gear 4, LittleBigPlanet, Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, and Resistance 2 (I begrudgingly list this game because FPS's are hardly anything to write home about) are the only games that even come close to being "must haves". So that's it huh, 4 realy great games in all of one year? Gotta be able to to better than that, there isn't even that much exclusive stuff on the PSN store worth mentioning except for maybe flOw (less a game and more like spending 10 bucks on a exercise in futility) and Echochrome (which, admitedly, is very cool). Now that isn't to say that there isn't a fine list of games on the PS3, there are, but for the most part, you can recieve a similar play experience on the 360. Not to mention the current economic state of the States and thus more or less worldwide.

I've never been a fan of Sony's marketing strategies, and maybe that's why I rail on them a lot, but so far I think the only good things they've done regarding the PS3 are:
1. The PSN store, which I would like a lot more if only I used a credit card (ie. I don't have one because they suck, maybe I'll talk about that some other time). So without a credit card, I can't buy anything on the store because in Canada, we don't have the PSN redeem code card things, whatever they're called (they're the equivalent to buying a Microsoft Points Card).
2. The first PS3 SKUs had backwards compatibility, which I talked about in a previous post, but then they got rid of it.

Get your shit together Sony, a couple of great games a year will not sell a console like hotcakes without a serious price drop in the middle somewhere.

The Sony Problem

2008-12-03T10:01:00.000-08:00

At risk of sounding like a crybaby-bitch, I'm going to sound off on what seems to be Sony's unrelenting stream of PR bullshit.

I've been fence-sitting on the concept of getting a PS3 for myself, mostly because I don't like the concept of sitting out an entire generation of gaming and although I do think that the 360 has a better line-up of titles, mostly do to the exclusive titles and some realy awesome LIVE-Arcade games like Castle Crashers, I realy don't like to have to pay for online play regardless of whether or not the service is indeed better, free is free and escalating cost sucks.

So here I am, on my fence thinking to myself...wow look at all those games that kick ass over there with the 360 and wow look at all the promises of greatness over there with the PS3. So at this point...for me at least...it comes down to cost. Some might argue that the 360 Arcade Unit at $199 is arguably better than the 80gig PS3 at $399. Well, let's take a look at what it would take to even these units on par with one another, that is to say, make the 360 as functional as the PS3. You'd need...

-an Xbox 360 arcade ($199)
-an Xbox 360 HDD (hard disk drive) (I'm thinking at least the 60gig) (estimating about $50)
-a permanent subcription to Xbox LIVE (we'll say $60 for the first year)
-the Xbox 360 wireless adapter ($99)

Now that, all in totals to roughly $410 which evens it out considerably, but now we come to the crux of my rant and that is the backwards compatibility. Backwards compatibility, has and always will be a factor when I buy a new system for two reasons.

1. I like to think that all the games I bought over the last few years still retain some value. Now, if all I played were sports games, then I'd only have a couple of games on my shelf because I'd be trading-in my old ones for the latest ones (ie...Fifa 06-07-08-09...ect, ect) every year. But I play all manner of games, and so I'd like to be able to play all the games I spent good money on, especially if there happens to be a game series with a story arc that spans across multiple systems (God of War/God of War 2 - PS2, God of War 3 - PS3). I feel that if I want to play through the entire story, I should be able to.

2. I don't like the thought of having to keep an older version of the same system on my shelf while making room for the new one. If anything, I should be able to trade-in my old system and put that towards my new one (trade in a Gamecube and get $50 towards a Wii).

The common argument in regards towards his backwards compatibility issue is that if you want to play PS2 games, go buy a PS2. A new PS2 costs about $120, so now with "backwards compatibility" (ie...the PS2), the PS3 costs about $520 VS. the 360 at $410, so let's add two years of Xbox LIVE to even it up.

PS3 $520 - 360 $530.

Now, this would be all well and good if there wasn't one glaring problem here. The PS3, at one point, had backwards compatibility. First in the form of hardware where it was basically 100% bacwards compatible, then the hardware was removed in favour of software emulation (presumably to cut costs) which wasn't perfect, but it worked for a lot if not most games. Then they removed it entirely.

And my question is "why?"

Now at this point, anyone could speculate as to why there's no backwards compatibility, anywhere from nobody realy cares about backwards compatibility to Sony couldn't afford to pay a guy $8 an hour to add in a couple lines of pre-exsiting code. But here's my take...

Sony is currently making zero-to-less-than-zero on each PS3 sold, that is to say, they're incurring losses on each unit. The PS2 still sells well, so Sony removes the backwards compatibility from the PS3 in order to sell more PS2s in order to cover their losses. Makes sense, it sucks, but it makes sense. Then, not to be outdone in the strange PR moves, Sony recently released the Playstation Visa with a $150 PS3 rebate incentive. This is a credit card, and like all credit cards, the company hopes that the user will spend more than they can afford. Again, this makes sense...I'm not sure why anyone would get these cards as I can almost guarantee that you'll find a better interest rate at your local bank, but that's up to the consumer, and if credit cards are proof of anything, it's that the major portion of credit card users spend more than they can, that is to say, credit cards wouldn't exist if there wasn't a profit to be made. Also, I'm not 100% sure where I heard this, but it could be true that Sony plans on selling PS2 games through the Playstation Network Store, so that's another reason to kill backwards compatibility.

So with this, you'd be expected to think that the removal of backwards compatibility was done to cut losses and the Playstation cards and PS2 downloads are an extention of that. Sony's statement on the matter was that nobody realy cares about backwards compatibility. Hmmm...wait that sounds familiar. That sounds exactly like what Sony said about the Dualshock rumble functionality, and didn't they double back on that? You bet they did, and I think they're going to do the same with backwards compatibility. Why? Two reasons.

1. They've still got the software for software emulation. No company gets rid of any software they've created, especially not within two years.

2. Singstar ABBA (PS3).

And what about Singstar ABBA, and why the PS3 version? Well Singstar ABBA will (with a small game update) allow you to play your PS2 Singstar disks so that you can play all of your Singstar games on PS3. Now that sounds an awful lot like backwards compatibility to me. Same thing sorta happened with the Metal Gear Special Edition bundle(as far as I recall), it had software emulation.

Now eledgedly, Sony has removed any and all parts that could make the PS3 backwards compatible, but this Singstar backwards compatibility and these PS2 downloads reak of foul play. I forsee that when God of War 3 comes out, should there be no backwards compatibility at that time, I see a similar patch on the way, as do I see similar patches for any Sony first-party title like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus.

People need to see the loss of backwards compatibility for what it is, a marketing scam. Sony isn't the only company guilty of this, and they certainly won't be the last, but when your two fiercest competitors are consistently outselling you, maybe you should take a small leap of faith and listen to the thousands of tiny voices screaming at you. Gamers everywhere blew a colective sign of relief when the Dualshock 3 came out. People are still debating this issue on forums everywhere, clearly people care about backwards compatibility.

So I find myself here, on the fence all over again, do I get a 360 with three years of Xbox LIVE or do I hold out for God of War 3 in some hope that I'll get the backwards compatibility I definitely want?

P.S.

Also on a tiny note. I hear a lot of people calling the 360 a shooter console because of Halo, Bioshock, Gears and such. But considering 5 of the very best "AAA" games on the PS3 (Resistance 1 and 2, Bioshock, Socom and the upcomming Killzone 2) are all shooters, maybe those people should lay-off a little.

P.P.S.

Another tiny note. People call the PS3 a deal due the the Blu-Ray capabilities, but just to point it out, Blu-Ray video is pointless without a Hi-Def screen, so if you add that cost into the previous tally it's like: PS3 + Hi-Def Screen = $1000 (I'm sure you can get HD screens for less than $500, I'm just saying a nice one that outputs at 1080p) / 360 + 8 years of Xbox LIVE = $1010.

Capcom

2008-09-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

So a while back I worked for Capcom Interactive Canada, which is a part of Capcom's Mobile division and I did a bunch of work for them. So clearly, the following images are the property of Capcom.

First rough animation for the title sequence of Dope World.

Second rough animation for the title sequence of Dope World.

These two are closer to the finished product I think. I'm not sure, I wasn't there at the very end of the development cycle.

These are some sprite sheets from Dead Rising and one from Street Fighter II.

This isn't all the work I did for them while I was there and you can find the links to these games on the right side of the the page.

Art Dump 06

2008-09-17T15:56:00.001-07:00

Idea for a trade show booth about steam power. Drawn by hand.

Vampire. Drawn by hand.

Self portrait of me playing Wii. Drawn by hand.

Dual-axe wielding warrior. Drawn by hand.

Adventurer springs a trap. Drawn by hand.

Art Dump 05

2008-09-17T15:51:00.001-07:00

Exploded view of my paintball gun, accurate to roughly 1/32 of an inch. Done in Illustrator.

My rebus from my thesis. Done in Illustrator.

Quick steambot drawing. Done in Photoshop.

Explanation on steam-powered mechanics. Combination of Photoshop and Illustrator.

Steamtank. Drawn by hand.

Art Dump 04

2008-09-17T15:45:00.001-07:00

A mechanical dog-thing. Drawn by hand, inked in Photoshop.

Concept for a hydro-electric generator. Combination of Photoshop and Illustrator.

It's the Joker. Drawn by hand.

My gradbook piece. Drawn by hand, coloured in Photoshop.

Mario and Luigi in a typical Mario Kart scenario. Drawn by hand.

Art Dump 03

2008-06-08T23:37:00.000-07:00

A dwarf. Drawn by hand.

Weird eye thing from my thesis. Thought it was interesting. Done in Photoshop.

Outdoor environment from my thesis. Done in Photoshop.

Lighting experiment. Drawn by hand with graphite.

Life drawing. Drawn by hand, coloured in Photoshop.

Art Dump 02

2008-06-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

Athletic logo for Bayridge Secondary School.

A few characters. Drawn by hand.

An interior of some cult-church-thing....I dunno. Drawn by hand.

Before and after shots of a comic cover from my thesis. Done in Photoshop.

Before and after shots of the first page of the above comic. Drawn by hand, tone done in Photoshop.

Art Dump 01

2008-06-08T19:36:00.000-07:00

Little rough mock-up of a city scape. Done in Strata 3D.

Quick painting of an adventurer walking through a cave. Done in Photoshop.

Architectural rendering. Drawn by hand, coloured in Photoshop.

How-to-Play WiiSports Boxing. Done in Illustrator.

A branch off of a plant outside my appartment. Drawn by hand.