'

Actually more like the longest year and 9 months so far.
Whats happened you say? Quite possibly being over worked, that's what happened. Who knows really? I also said playing too much video games to scare the little boys.

This is what happened!



To both of my arms of course. I'm just lucky I guess. It started off with just pain in my right arm, as though I slept on it funny the night before. Except it continued to feel uncomfortable for a week, then one day after riding home....BAM!!!! I was unable to rotate my wrists! Or wiggle my sausage fingers.
Then another week went by and BAM! my other arm gave out!

The initial doctors said that I had tenosynovitis and epicondylitis. They said along the lines of that I would be healing within a something like 6 weeks... yeah well more than 6 weeks later and nothing changed!

Pretty much my year has been filled with trial and error of medications and therapies. Frustrating to say the least. For years I didn't watch too much TV but since there is nothing I can do with my hands I was STUCK watching the tube. But at least I had Netflix. Since I never really watched movies either I had tons of time to catch up. For a while I watched nothing but old movies from "The Day The Earth Stood Still" era. Then I got into B horror movies.

Slowly my hands started to get better and I was able to do puzzles. I did lots of jigsaw puzzles while watching Netflix. But what I really miss is video games. I still don't really play. I'm afraid. And I still don't get on the computer as much. I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'm going to break my hands again before I find a job. But I just try to convince myself that I just need to suck it up and keep trying!

Oh yeah, job! I got laid off while on disability last year. Sucks. I probably would have cried about it but I was already home for 4 months by the time they let me go. I was already used to being home with nothing to do. So here I am looking for a job. Anyone?

Our game G.I. JOE has been released!

Funny though, it seems I don't play the games I've been involved with until after its release. Ok, well Silent Hill Homecoming I still haven't played cause I'm scared lol.

I am pretty glad to hear that our first review that I read was pretty awesome! 8.0 by Play Magazine. Oh, well here is a place that lists companies that have reviewed our game. Considering its a movie tie in game, the reviews really aren't that bad. And honestly, does it really matter the scores? Not really, because people love G.I. JOE and will buy it anyway lol!

Tomorrow is our launch party And we're going to go see G.I. JOE the movie.






Front Mission Evolved was also announced this year at E3. I helped with the pitch, rigged a leg and helped with some other character randomness. I am pretty excited to play this game though. From the few things that I've seen from it (cause like I said, I don't play our games until afterwards), looks pretty fun!

Labels: Front Mission Evolved, G.I. JOE The Rise of Cobra, G.I. JOE The Video Game, XKCD

I was a bit worried about how a RTS would play on a console, but I have to say this game isn't too bad considering.

Worried...cause when you think of comparing a keyboard to a console controller, obviously lacking in buttons. I do find myself wishing I could create groups since my army tends to be split up. Or the ability lock certain characters.

"You! Don't move until I go through an attribute to unlock you. So even if I "ALL UNITS" you don't move!!!!"

Making my way through Legendary campaign at the moment not too bad. Though legendary on multiplayer vs computer, holy krappo! My butt hurts thinking about it. Ow.

BTW, was there a way to get Forge into a warthog when he is on foot? I haven't figured that out yet. Was it in the beginning tutorial? I don't remember. And I only breezed through the book once. I rarely read them things! I wonder if I would be a more efficient gamer if I actually read the game books?

Criminy! The cinematics are awesome.

But playing RTS makes me want to bust out Blizzard games. Starcraft in particular, I don't think I ever played campaign all the way through. Or the first two Warcrafts now that I think about it. I vaguely remember WC2....

I slightly digress...

FOR THE HORDE!

Labels: Halo Wars, RTS

Effing hilaroius. Love it. Everyone mentioned that I should check out any of the Lego games (StarWars, Batman, Indiana Jones...) I picked up this game at Fry's since it was on sale.

There is so much replay value in this game. Ridiculous amounts of things you find yourself unlocking. Though I'm glad I don't have to run around desperately trying to find orbs.

Though I was never really a fan of sharing a camera while playing two players. Camera never pointed in the direction you wanted and you always relied on your partner to keep the camera moving. Unfortunately this is the style camera we have for one of the games I am currently working on. Which I would say what it is, but it won't be announced until next week sometime I believe.

I'll probaby make a new post after the announcement.

So, after playing through the story mode it told me that I only finished some 40 something % of the game! WHAAAT?! Must....unlock...more...extras!

I think I am going to go out and find the other Lego games.

And just because this is awesome.

Labels: Fry's, Lego, StarWars

Well I went to the West Coast Wigout a few weeks ago and it was great! A lot more people than last time. And yet again Game Music 4 All picked a hilariously awesome line of artists. Though we were disappointed Zealous1 couldn't make it this time around. The Megas were awesome of course. Thats me and Sanrda trying to be groupies.



I also wanted to talk about Zombies today. Why? Because they are brain-munching goodness. I dunno I've always been interested in zombies. I am definitely scared of them, though not terrified. At least, not yet.

They are just interesting creatures. I LOVED the remake of Dawn of the Dead but admittedly I have not seen the original or any of the other movies of that series. I also love 28 Days Later, though they aren't exactly zombies all the way, at least...not in the beginning. They are just bezerkers really. But I'll still classify that as a zombie movie. I recently saw 28 Weeks Later and I have to say the more I think about it the more I hate it. They just tried to force way too many situations to make the story work. Ugh, I don't even want to go into it.

I was turned onto The Walking Dead in college. Though I still only have the first 3 or 4 books I want to read more. Plus I love the art style.

Which leads me to wanting Left 4 Dead. Seriously, I have only heard good things about this. I hope Santa brings it to me for Christmas. Not that it would be a big deal if he didn't because either way I think I'll get the game. What I'm torn between is getting PC or 360.




I was reading a friend's blogger about deleting old posts. I advised her against it because you never know when you need a good laugh. She mentioned that there were things that she wanted to forget. What I told her is that years from now you'll want to look back and see what kind of state of mind you were in. Were you crazy? In love? In hate? Either way you'll see all the fun and not so fun things that will give you a laugh.

So it made me think about my old online journals. I have some old posts that I do not want to get rid of. I'm trying to figure out the best way to consolidate them to one blogger...this one honestly. What is the bets way to do that? Copy paste each one? :( Anyone have any suggestions before I start doing something ridiculously tedious?

Another part of my plan is all the photo links I have...save them to one online photo album. I noticed while going through the old posts many pictures are missing. Either I took the whole album down or other people removed the photos I was linking to. I think what I'll do is go and find ALL (ugh...) those pictures I linked to and add them to my gmail photo album so then at least they will be associated with this journal.

I think this project will take me about a year or so to do.

Labels: 28 Days Later, Dawn of the Dead, Game Music 4 All, Left 4 Dead, West Coast Wig Out, Xanga, Zombies

SO the past few days I've been playing Gears of War 2. So far I like it. So far as in I've played Hardcore which did not appear so hard (with co-op) but I am playing it now on Insane which feels the way Hardcore should have been.

The levels feel so big its great. Actually what I REALLY like about it is that you have the ability to hit your enemies at different angles which makes co-op more enjoyable. Which makes me feel this is the way Army of Two should have felt like.

Though there are some nasty bugs (like any game) that can be a pain in the arse.
-Like when me and my partner were trying to carry a large bomb thing in between us. After we were lifted on a platform to walk into the building we were unable to move for like 5 minutes. Actually we walked in circles at the same exact spot. I'm not entirely sure how we did it but we managed to wiggle our way out of whatever we were stuck on. (I wanted to show a picture of Marvin, from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, walking around in circles but I couldn't find one.)
-While fighting the giant fish; sometimes one of the characters (seemed to be Fenix) would get stuck floating in the air.
-Oh god one of the big ones for me was while riding on the Reavers. There were times were I do not believe I was actually shooting anything, and if I was it definately was not showing me. When you turn to the back of the Reaver your character should switch to the gun behind him. Well Dom must be afraid of heights because as soon as he turns around to get on that back gun he would IMMEDIATELY turn around and face forward. If I started shooting in this direction I saw no bullets. If I tried to face forward you could see his body play the animation of him moving from the back gun to the front gun but still no bullets coming out of my gun. Soooo, I don't think I actually did anything in that level.
-I don't like getting pinned by cars either. At one point I was up in a garage while my partner was down on the street. I was looking over the edge to help him out when suddenly an animation played of the garage falling down onto the street. Well a car slid and pinned me to the rail so I couldn't move. Lame. Also! on the same level I was trying to pick up ammo but accidentally picked up a gun. So my SNIPER RIFLE flew off the second story and onto the floor below where I could not retrieve it. My arms aren't that long.

Okay back to some good stuff. Moving from one section of the map to another felt pretty seamless. A lot of the time I would walk backwards and say, "Hey when did this get cut off?!" And all the rubble fit nicely into the level.

Oh though there is one thing about the story I wasn't entirely happy about. I mean, not a big deal, but they really shouldn't have shown the worm so early. They didn't need to make it that obvious.

The first Gears felt kinda short, but this one is definitely an improvement. Visuals of course are good. Though I do randomly see a texture seam, or NO texture at all. It was a void car. I personally like the water and rain.

There was one level now that I think about it where you are driving the tank in a dark cave. It seemed pretty pointless. I mean I was excited seeing the tank at first hoping I could drive it but that level seemed meaningless. There was nothing. We drove through it and shot three Corpsers. Woo?
*EDIT: Okay so I get they have to drive down...down underground....but still doesn't make it less boring.

And the boy here is whining that its late and I have to go to bed. G'night.

Labels: games, Gears of War 2

The last concert I attended, "Level up! Level 2!" was pretty fun. A bit stuffy, but the music definitely made up for it. I'd probably feel more awkward realizing I was in a room full of gamer geeks, but then its almost like being at work.

Though whats going to roxor about this concert is that it will be an all day event pretty much. Noon to 1 in tha morning. If you look at the list of performers it looks like its going to be a day of awesome.

And for the whole 3 people that I believe reads my blogger, any of you guys want to go? $10.

Labels: Music 4 All, West Coast Wig Out

For a split second I thought, "Wouldn't this make a great tattoo?!"

Went to the Master Classes at Siggraph this year. I went this past Monday where Pixar came and talked about Storyboarding/Story-telling and animation. It was pretty long. The first 2 or 3 hours were a bit boring because I didn't have a paper or pencil to write with. Then later we found out that if we PASSED the door we entered in there was a table with writing utensils and paper. So I managed to take some notes and doodle a few drawings.

Later we went to the AutoDesk after party at The Shrine. There we sat for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours watching them present their new versions of their products.
Which was great n' all but ga-damn, we just wanted to get to the booze already. I guess it was just slightly frustrating that we were sitting there so long, waiting to either release our bladders or waiting to fill them up, but the last presenter (which for some reason I can't remember who it was exactly) said, "now you'll get to see our short 30 MINUTE video..." wtf. I mean they showed us some good stuff that they did (the Disney Russian Alien short was pretty awesome) but man...we were already pretty antsy.

Actually what was funny was that after we all did get out of the theater and into the hall to get to the bar, i decided to wait a few minutes before using the restroom. I mean, if the hall full of people who had been sitting on their ass for 4+ hours had any indication i could ONLY imagine what the bathroom was going to look like. Which by the way was pretty empty. I forgot the whole event was some 80%+ male.

There were some pretty neat things that they showed us. Particularly that it looks like the movie industry really wants to get back into 3D-glasses movies. I mean, they redid a section from Kung-Fu Panda (actually a bunch of movies) in 3D and it looked AMAZING! I would have LOVED to see the whole movie in 3D. They showed us how to set it all up in Maya 2009 and in Combustion....almost a click of a button seriously.

Even though the classes were pretty neat (learning that there will be a Toy Story 3) and the after party was bitchin' I really wish I could have gone to the actual expo...I need swag!

Man, trying to lock multiple rings is crazy hard.

Also, I noticed there is some serious frame rate drops while playing. I'll be kicking Galdes' butt and suddenly its like everything is in slow-mo! Usually with the boss characters or with 4 other enemies the frame rate drops. Sad.

Or what I definitely love is when my character randomly falls through the world. Good thing falling through the floor doesn't cause too much damage.

On another DS related subject, I got my mom one for her birthday! I think I might have created a monster. :D She has a huge list of all the DS games she wants now. And she loves PictoChat. I was considering getting the family a Wii, but I'm wondering if I should just buy some DS games instead?

I was looking at one of my friend's facebook pages and had noticed someone left a comment on his wall about an interesting site. So I decided to take a look and now I have something fun and quick to do in between exports!

TypeRacer