Podcasts – 11/25/09

Podcasts have become my primary source of commentated news in the past few months. Podcasters, even journalists, often speak their mind more freely on the show than they do on their website or publication, allowing the listeners to really appreciate what they really think as opposed to what they think will make their bosses happy.

Podcasts, like The Engadget Show and Xbox 360 Fancast, are how I really learn about the world around me that I’m interested in. They give me the same news that I can find on their respective sites, but packaged with discussion which is more helpful for keeping the information in my head as opposed to something I read once and forget.

Not to mention, they serve as edutainment. I haven’t laughed as hard as I did when the Xbox 360 Fancast discussed dropbears in a long time. It was actually a little dangerous because I was driving at the time.

Borderlands – 11/25/09

Borderlands is one of the most beautiful games I have played in a long, long time. It’s not too technical impressive, but it has a cohesive art style that I appreciate. As opposed to going for photorealism, Gearbox decided to make the game a high-detail variation on Cel-shading. As opposed to looking like a Saturday-morning cartoon, it looks like an interactive and moving version of a graphic novel.

Other games have taken this style of visuals. One such game is Crackdown, an open-world game in a dystopian future-city. The style has advantages of allowing the game to do more because the graphics are not that stressful for the hardware but end up still looking beautiful. That blend of practicality and beautiful is something I want to reach in my designs.

I Love I Love Bees – 11/25/09

Ilovebees.com was a site that hosted an alternate reality game for Halo 2. Hidden in a trailer for Halo 2, the link for ilovebees.com brought users to a seemingly normal bee site. However, moments after visiting it, evidence of something deeper appeared. The site layout and images began to appear corrupted and then the countdown appeared. Counting down to a day in August, players scrambled to find out the mystery of the haunted apiary. What they found was a brilliantly told story that got people to talk and think about the story in the Halo games.

In the story, Melissa, a ship AI has part of her sent back in time to 2004 while another part goes into a geek’s computer. The story concluded with the combination of both pieces in 2552 and a heartfelt thank you to all of the players. Players would actually talk to Melissa by going to GPS coordinates discovered on the site. After the game concluded, an archive was posted on the front page to let players or interested people listen to all of the audio logs.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Multiplayer: Colon: Subtitle – 11/25/09

I’ve already discussed the single player of ModWar2, and wanted to touch on the multiplayer. The whole idea of the multiplayer is based on the idea of progression. The game is designed to reward you for playing it as much as possible. Get a kill? Get experience points. Get a long distance kill? Get an award for the distance and even more experience points than for just an average kill. Get a bunch of experience points? Level up. Level up? Unlock a new weapon, perk, or other reward.

Infinity Ward has crafted a complex system of carrots on strings to pull the player from level 1 to level 75, and then back around again, if the player chooses to go into “prestige mode.” The problem with the system of unlocks is that it never changes once you’ve gone through once, so the excitement of unlocking some new gadget or weapon that you never had before is gone or faded. What happens then is that the player is forced to enjoy the game on its own merits as opposed to the joy derived from unlocks. From my experience, it doesn’t hold up against shooters that don’t have as complex a system of unlocking.

Entertaining Webcomics, one Cent at a Time – 11/25/09

Penny Arcade is a comic series by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik. Its main focus is video games and other things that would fit under the umbrella of “geek culture.” Unlike many “old media” comics, Penny Arcade tries to have as little comic-to-comic continuity as possible. The actions of the characters in the comics are considered to be “canon” but rarely will there be two comics back to back that are related.

It’s an interesting choice because it allows the comic to keep its topical nature that brought its fans to the site. However, it limits the subject matter severely. Of course, the alternative to this is Ctrl+Alt+Del, a webcomic that focuses on video games as well. However, comic creator Tim Buckley transitioned into being about the characters, going so far as having one of the characters have a miscarriage.

Penny Arcade works as well as it does because it leaves a lot of information about the characters up to the imagination of the viewers, and the few comics that are not about games or gaming news will often shed insight on the lives and personalities of Gabe and Tycho.

Muppets, Queen, HD. What More do you Want? – 11/25/09

One of the first 1080p Youtube videos has appeared today, a Muppets cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. I can’t think of a better way to show off your new HD technology than that.

It is a perfectly targeted video. Using an older song like Bohemian Rhapsody and starring the Muppets, this video is a perpetual nostalgia-generating machine. The video quality itself is great, and everyone loves Queen. The Muppets were meticulously picked to match the particular section of the song, whether it be lyrical content (Ms. Piggy singing that nothing really matters but changing it so say “but me” as opposed to “to me”) or just pitch (Beaker being Beaker).

It’s not a mind-blowing experience. It’s the Muppets singing Queen, but it’s such a fun trip down memory lane where anyone who cares even a little bit about either the Muppets or Queen has to watch this, especially if they can run the 1080p version.

Also, the idea of the Muppets being tech savvy enough to do video conferencing is funny on its own right, especially to me who remembers them sort of existing in a world outside of normal time and technology.

You are Not Your Blu-Ray – 11/25/09

When I saw this newspost, I knew I had to share it. The Blu-Ray release of Fight Club features an Easter Egg in true Fight Club style.

Before the menu appears, a scene from the Drew Barrymore movie Never Been Kissed shows. At about the time that the viewer would start worrying about having a defective disc, the screen shakes and transitions to the Fight Club menu.

This really clicked for me. The idea of extending the experience or story of the media outside of the traditional realm is something I’ve enjoyed, especially with alternate reality games. Getting more of a story or the flavor of the ideas the story outside of the traditional medium is a great concept.

A way they could have improved this would have been to add a scene from a movie that was coming out on Blu-Ray at the same time, like Star Trek. It would create a more definite feeling of anxiety about having a broken movie because a person would likely think that there was some sort of issue at the manufacturing plant.