Some Terms You Should Know (Online Gaming) May 15, 2012

I saw someone writing this down into a notebook today. With his permission I thought I should share it with all of you.

Pretty useful information to know if you ask me.

noobz Movie Trailer March 1, 2012

Its so rare to find any movies, independant or mainstream, which depict gaming.  This is why my Movie of the Week series has reviewed so few movies.  Well, it looks like there’s a new gaming movie on the horizon, and the first official trailer for it has just been released.

noobz is coming Summer 2012.

A Con Follow Up January 19, 2012

Just after completing a post lamenting the loss of the UCON at UCONN I was informed that there was a new local convention that would be free and open to all ages.  Called the Quinni-Con, it is being hosted at the Quinnipiac University York Hill Campus.  It looks to have a focus on gaming and anime, and there will be a cosplay contest as well.

A full schedule of events has not yet been posted but I’m really excited about this development.  Quinni-Con will be hosted April 28th-29th, 2012.  You can pre-register at the convention’s official website.

Personal Tribute to the End of the Iraq War December 15, 2011

At the end of the month, the United States will leave Iraq, ending the Iraq War.  The war, which has gone on since 2003, has been a big part of so many young people’s lives, and it has changed so much about discussion over politics and the media.

With the end of the war officially declared, and an end date specified, I felt compelled to say something.  What I felt needed to be said was already written just a few years ago, in a video game.  This video is dedicated to everyone who has served.  I wish you all only the best and a safe journey home.

I was planning to have this video posted up on the 31st of the month, but with the recent news developments it looks like they’re stepping that up to have everyone home as quickly as possible, and I moved up its production.

Batman: Seeds of Arkham Released October 7, 2011

Famed independent filmmaking studio Bat in the Sun has done it again and released the sequel to last year’s hugely successful independent Batman fanfilms, Patient J, Batman Legends, and City of Scars with their new 8 minute short film, Seeds of Arkham, just two weeks prior to the release of the next major Batman video game, Batman: Arkham City.

Director Aaron Schoenke is clearly inspired by the same artistic vision that the Batman comic has promoted over the past seventy years of its production run, showing that the ground was fertile for further mediums like movies, shorts and video games.  The fact that the concept has been successful in all of these mediums is a testament to the genius of its creator Bob Kane, and the timelessness of the concept.  After watching the movie I thought the characters and enviroments appeared as ripped right from the video game, espessially Killer Croc.

If you’re like me, and you just can’t bear the thought of waiting another two weeks to play Batman: Arkham City, give this film a watch and hopefully it’ll help you out as it did for me!

You can check out all of Bat in the Sun’s previous films on their YouTube Channel.  You’re also welcome to check out Bat in the Sun’s official Kickstarter Page, and help them get started on their next high quality film!

The Trenches Launches August 13, 2011

Back in the early days of the internet, there actually wasn’t a whole lot to discuss on it.  Since the userbase at the time consisted of high end computer users, it turned out many of us shared common interests.  Usually that revolved around love for science fiction and video games.  In 1998, Scott Kurtz, an artist and writer, broke new ground and created the very first webcomic.  His concept, tell the story of a Gaming Magazine and the people in it.  And such, PvP was created, but also, so was a whole industry.

Not too long after that, two other guys, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik decided they wanted to create their own comic.  One being a writer and the other being the artist, they decided to make their own comic strip and release it online as well.  The difference being that this comic would be from the perspective of gamers themselves.  As outsiders, they were completely free of any restrictions.  They would cover any taboo of the day that the media wouldn’t touch, and for their risk their comic strip Penny-Arcade is still considered the most popular webcomic on the internet.

Well, the rest, as they say, is history.  Now the popularity of comic strips posted online rival the long established ones in print media.  New strips are posted daily from all over the world, being written and drawn by people of every culture and artistic background.

Now, it seems these three have banded together to create something entirely new.  A webcomic, this time focusing on the little guy of the gaming industry, the game tester.  So many comic strips will cover video gaming or gamers, but very few cover the actual development of games, and just what the kind of people who make them are like.  (Barry Smith, I eagerly await for you to resume your posting schedule your InkTank strips).  The Trenches, first announced last year, has finally started its run, with updates promised on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  But more than that, they do plan to post up actual stories from anonymous testers, giving a peek into just what the workings of game development is.  (I wonder if Michael “RomSteady” Russel is in the pipe?).

Its starting off pretty good, check it out!

Inktank.com is Back! June 22, 2011

I guess my reports of its demise were a bit premature. Barry Smith has brought inktank.com back up after several months of being offline while redesigning and rebuilidng it in his spare time.

For those of you who don’t know the history, Barry Smith was the creator of several popular webcomics including Sorry, We’re Open, which was a series about people working in a rare collectables store, Weak End Warriors, which was about the people who worked and played at a paintball range, and of course Angst Technology, which was about the characters who worked at a game development studio, and all the hyjinks they got into.

While the characters were strict parodies, they succeeded in filling in all the archtypes of what a game studio would employ in the early millenium, and it was a lot of fun to read. The series was originally hosted by GameSpy.com back when it was in its golden age, but once they stopped hosting it, it already had enough loyal readership that Barry’s own site, inktank.com, became my daily destination.

Barry had originally hung up the pen back in 2005 and shut down Angst Technology and his website completely to do a blog site. Then in 2008, he relaunched inktank.com and created a new series (called InkTank) which was about his life. As the months progressed, he brought the Angst Tech characters back into his new series, and I was overjoyed.

Currently no new strips for the site have been posted yet, he’s currently taking the time to bring back the extremely large archive of over 2000 strips he’s done over the past ten years, and then he plans to start posting new strips. He has said he’s at no loss of ideas.

Welcome back Barry, your strip defined my High School years and even now as I go through your archive, every strip brings back another fond memory.

gameXcess.net Has Arrived at E3 June 5, 2011

I’ll let this speak for itself. Unfortunately I can’t show you what’s inside (yet).