If you look to the post below, you’ll notice that my last update was quite a long time ago. An embarrassingly long time ago. For some reason, I’m never motivated to update this thing. Thing is, I want to share with people, I want to keep a blog.

I’ve set up a Tumblr (on the bandwagon) and hopefully things will pick up with my updates. I find Tumblr’s short and to-the-point update model appealing.

Anyway, be sure to go and check it out. It’s situated in a pleasant little corner called tumblr.omgchris.com.

Here’s to much more frequent updating!

The idea for this one came to me yesterday and I got to work right away. I’ve always loved vintage advertisements and travel posters and I’ve always loved the juxtaposition of technology and pre-60′s America (probably stemming from Tex Avery’s old “House of Tomorrow” skits). I really love this piece and it’s definitely going in my portfolio!

Without further adieu. Potato:

We both think it turned out hilarious and we had a blast making it and editing it. We made the whole thing from start to finish in just a couple of hours. In addition, we also came up with some more ideas so expect some more quick shorts from us in the future!

So in comes 2011.  Just like every single year, it’s hard to believe that it’s already time to start another one.  It seems like only a couple of years ago that I graduated high school yet it was nearly 7 years ago.

2010 had a lot of great things to make it definitely one of the most memorable years ever. I established myself pretty well as a freelance Graphic Designer as well as landing my first full-time job where “Graphic Designer” is my title.

I moved into another apartment (yeah, again), and Tiffany officially moved in with me and D.  Tiffany became part of a local bellydance troupe as well as getting a job bellydancing at a local Moroccan Restaurant.  Biggest of all, she graduated from SCAD. I did a lot of traveling as well and got to see some things that I never thought I would or always wanted to.

I won’t go into all the highlights like I usually do but just know that this year is going to be a big one. I’m immensely excited to see what happens.

Tiffany first sent me the link from Gizmodo so that’s where I’m going to link. Read the news here.

Basically, NASA discovered a new bacteria that is comprised, at it’s core level, of arsenic instead of phosphorus like every other living thing on Earth. This is pretty exciting news. But for me, this is not really a new way of thinking.

I’ve always said that with an infinite number of stars out there, each potentially housing a multitude of planets, its pretty naive to think that Earth houses the only life in the Universe. It is also naive (but very much part of the human condition) to think that if there ever was life out there, it would based off of the same building blocks that we are. Whenever I hear some news released by NASA claiming that they found water ice on the Moon or Mars or traces of it on a distant planet, I think “That’s cool… but it really doesn’t tell us anything”.

Why, in a universe where everything is infinite, do we have to limit our way of thinking to our own discovered system of support life or our own table of elements? Just a couple hundred light years away, there could be a highly sophisticated species of life that has the appearance of a cloudy gas trapped in a bubble and “breathes” multi-colored waves of a type that we’ve never seen before– no, not a new kind of light wave or a new type of radio wave but a wave that is something we have no idea about.

With all the brilliant minds at NASA did no one ever think that things could very easily exist outside of the realms of our own personal possibility? I understand that it’s all we know so it’s what we need to look for. Finding a planet that has water on it is a huge advancement in our history of mapping out the solar system and universe. What I’m saying is, do we really need to be that surprised that new life was found that isn’t composed from the same stuff as everything else?

One of the most exciting things about space exploration and study is that, when you really boil it down, we don’t know anything. We know NOTHING about what’s out there and that’s what makes discoveries like this one so exciting… so why act like we know everything whenever a new discovery is made?

SCIENCE!

*note* this blog is written purely out of love for space exploration and scientific speculation. I absolutely adore NASA and everything they’ve contributed to Humanity’s ever-expanding knowledge of the Universe

Come Monday and it was time to pick up the mystery package. What could it be?

It came in a pretty decent sized box.  Still no idea what it could be or no memory of expecting any package.

Upon removing the contents, I was greeted with an iconic item block from the Super Mario series.

Surprise! Inside was a really neat figurine of all the classic Mario characters. This will be a perfect ornament to sit atop the old television on my “Old Games Station”.

Let me start off by saying that I’m no game reviewer. I don’t usually have the patience or skill to formulate my thoughts into a well-crafted article that flows like a review should. I am, however, a gamer of at least 20 years and a HUGE Metroid fan. I’ll admit that with my most beloved franchises, sometimes I’ll pass judgement on a new take before I get a full idea of what it’s about. I did this with Other M and remained hugely skeptical from the moment I saw it. After some time, however, I gave it the benefit of the doubt and let myself relax a little bit and read more about it. Over time, I actually became pretty excited about it and was pretty ramped to dive into this next chapter in the Metroid timeline. Ultimately the game fell incredibly short of my expectations and I actually deem it to be one of the worst titles in the series.  Here’s why. (note: there are spoilers listed below so if you plan on playing the game and want to be surprised by it’s incredibly lame story, you’ve been warned)

Samus Aran was a pretty big shock to the gaming industry upon her arrival. For the first time, a video game starred a female character who wasn’t in need of being saved because she could do it herself. Other M takes the concept of our strong Heroine who can manage herself just fine and flushes it right down the toilet… in the cutscenes. During the actual gameplay segments, Samus is as ruthless as ever: Running hard, shooting hundreds of enemies without blinking an eye and, this time, even using her physical strength to submiss enemies to the ground before blowing their FACES off.

In total contrast, the game’s narrative portrays Samus as a whining, scared, submissive character that goes against every single thing her foundation was built upon. Yes, I understand that she’s been a silent protagonist for most of her history so we have no actual proof of what she was thinking about under that helmet but actions most definitely speak louder than words in this case.

Other M reduces Samus to a familiar female role that has been seen many times in the past; Big-breasted and helpless without her male counterparts to save her ass at every turn. Many people would say that the games title, “Other M” stands for “Other Metroid”. Because this game takes place right after Super Metroid, we know that all the Metroids have been officially eradicated from the universe. Thus, another metroid game, another M. Either that or Other M stands for “Other Mother” as in Mother Brain. This makes sense in a way and I agree with these interpretations of the title but I’m inclined to think that the real “Other Mother” is Samus herself.

The game begins with a recreation of the final scene in Super Metroid where the Metroid hatchling she found at the end of Metroid II sacrifices itself to save her from certain death by Mother Brain.  In Other M, this act causes Samus to spiral into a deep and melancholy state where she loses all track of time and has constant flashbacks of the hatchling’s sacrifice, whom she now so lovingly refers to as “The baby”. This is the same hatchling that Samus had no problem turning over to the Galactic Federation moments after they first came into contact with each other. My problem with this is that they’ve put a heavy emphasis on Samus’ maternal instincts (you know, something that ALL women have no control over) and made it a driving force for her character.

There’s also a heavy amount of inconsistencies with not only the way she behaves under your control and during the game’s cutscenes, but also in her actions from past games. During gameplay, Samus is fearless. That’s one of the many reasons why we’ve grown to love her as a female role. That’s why they made the decision to make her a female in the first place way back in the very first title.

“Look guys, she’s a woman and you had no idea until you beat the game. She acts just like all the other gruff and heroic male characters from every other video game on the planet”.

In Other M’s cutscenes, she is fearful and constantly worried over some things that she wouldn’t break a sweat over in previous titles. She is always losing her cool and remains in a panicked state for most of the game.

Here’s my favorite example: In the game, you fight Ridley. I expected it because you fight him in every single Metroid title. It’s a rule or something. When Samus sees Ridley for the first time in Other M, she literally freezes in fear at the sight of him. The cutscene actually shows her standing next to him, trembling and unable to move then, after a camera angle change, shows her as a TODDLER. Like she’s so overcome by Ridley’s massive size and power that she feels as helpless as a baby in his presence. Now, I totally understand a reaction of fright or worry because Ridley is a powerful foe. I even understand one of slight bewilderment and fear because he should, by all means, be dead as he was on Zebes when it blew up. This metaphor is entirely inexcusable. To show Samus feeling so helpless in the face of an enemy that she’s stomped at least 5 times in the past. It’s not until she is saved by one of her male comrades that she snaps the hell out of it and regains her composure.

Which brings me to my next point. Stereotypical male authority of females. So often throughout the game a man has to step in and get Samus out of a jam.

You know how in all the Metroid titles, Samus has to start the game without any of her upgrades from the previous titles? It’s a classic staple of the series. They used to not even bother explaining it but, as time went on, they at least found some sort of half-believable excuse. In Metroid Prime, she starts the game with awesome equipment but a shockwave sends her crashing into a wall and shorts out a bunch of chips on her power suit – in Metroid Fusion, she gets overtaken by a virus and her suit has to be surgically removed. Do you know how they explain it in Other M? She has her upgrades on her over the course of the entire game but she won’t use them unless she’s given strict authorization from her commanding officer… even in a deadly situation where the upgrade could save her life.

Let me paint the picture for you: Samus comes to part of the ship that is filled with scorching lava. Any seasoned Metroid veteran knows that her Varia suit will protect her from this extreme heat but she still powers through the areas while sustaining damage. If you don’t control her fast enough she WILL die in these areas. It’s not until right before you fight a boss in this area that you get authorization to turn on your Varia suit functionality to protect yourself from the deadly heat. She doesn’t do anything, unless the MAN tells her to. Yes, this is the same Samus who dropped out of the Galactic Federation and became a self-employed bounty hunter because she doesn’t give a crap about listening to authority… just saying.

The last area I’m going to touch on is the actual gameplay. It can basically be summed up in 3 categories: control, flow, difficulty.

Control – The movement in the 3D space really isn’t all that bad but Team Ninja’s decision to force players to use a 4 directional D-pad instead of the omni-directional analog stick was a poor one. You’re constantly making zig-zags when trying to go straight which poses a problem considering you have to maintain a straight course to engage the speed booster. I know why Team Ninja did this, too. I also hate them for it. They did it so that you can shoot missles by pointing the wii-mote at the sreen, giving you a “wouldn’t that be cool” first-person perspective through Samus’ visor. No, Team Ninja, it’s not cool. It’s not cool because now I can’t MOVE while I shoot missles. Here’s a fantastic solution: Give me control over Samus with the Nunchuck. This way, I can use the thumbstick to move. If we really must go into first person perspective, that’s fine too. Trigger it by pushing the C button on the nunchuck and now point at the sreen… now we can MOVE in first person view a-la Metroid Prime 3. Two problems solved with one decision.

Also, I’ll just say that, as seen with the Ninja Gaiden games, Team Ninja knows NOTHING about platforming and Other M is no different.

Flow – This is a really simple one to break down. Metroid titles are usually labyrinthine. I’ve played Super metroid more times than I can count and I still get slightly lost on my playthroughs. Other M holds your hand all the way through, giving you a nice little marker on your map telling you exactly where to go. The puzzles are obvious, and the story is amazingly predictable. Enough said.

Difficulty – This one isn’t as big of a deal if it didn’t conflict so much with Samus’ actions during the cutscenes. The game was super easy. Most of the time I died, it was because of some bad platforming mechanics. The game has a built-in invincible dodge that only requires you to tap in any direction right before an enemy touches you. This mechanic is cheap and way too easy to exploit. If you find yourself in a fight, all you have to do is constantly tap the direction that you want to move. Samus will still get there because of the digital control and she’ll dodge every single attack because the game registers it as a dodge. Remember the fight with Ridley that Samus trembled in fear at like a literal infant? I didn’t even lose a full energy tank. So terrifying. (I always die when I fight Ridley in Super Metroid). The game lets you restock your missle supply whenever you want and, when you get low on health, you can recharge that too. There’s also a save room that fully replenishes your health and weapons every 20 feet.

Basically, this game was one of the biggest letdowns ever.  What makes matters worse, is all of the original minds behind the Metroid series love the crap out of this game which pretty much solidifies my fear that I’ll never get a new Metroid experience that lives up to the games that made me fall in love with the series.  I tried really hard to like this game and not cast my often un-justified judgement that I usually reserve for when someone rapes one of my childhood favorites. Now I feel kind of like an idiot for letting my guard down.

• Coraline
• Adventureland
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Watchmen
• Away We Go
• Black Dynamite
• Up
• Inglorious Basterds
• District 9
• Moon
• Zombieland
• Where The Wild Things Are
• World’s Greatest Dad
• Is Anybody There?
• Ponyo

And here’s a list of movies that I’ve heard were awesome that I haven’t had the chance to see yet (but still want to)

• (500) Days of Summer
• Paper Heart
• Gran Torino
• The Road
• This Is It
• The Informant
• I Love You Man
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Sky Chasers
(man, looks like I need to get caught up!)

And here’s a couple movies that I heard were good but didn’t have much interest in seeing when they were all the rage
• Star Trek
• Avatar
• Up In The Air
• The Hurt Locker

And remember, these are only ones that I can remember…I’m sure there are more that I’m forgetting. Pretty awesome to think about.

I’d like to do grouping in the pictures to talk about a few things specifically but there’s just too many pictures for me to deal with and I’m lazy. So here’s a whole bunch of pictures all right here in one place. You can use the right and left arrows underneath the set of images to bring up more.

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We decided that we were going to go to PAX a long time ago. I think our tickets (both plane and event) were purchased back in February and the hotel was booked as well. It was our usual Left 4 Dead crew: JP, Tiffany, D, and myself. We had a pretty good mix of panels and the show floor peppered into our trip but the latter being where we spent most of our time.

I’m going to rattle off my list of the best things I saw while I was there and why they are awesome so here goes:

Donkey Kong Country Returns

I’m really excited and impressed with what Retro Studios has done with this IP. I’m a very nostalgic gamer and, self-admittedly, a big naysayer when it comes to companies revamping my beloved franchises. My worries were laid to rest, however and I can definitely say that this game is going to be a blast. Retro did a fantastic job at capturing the feel and fun of the original DKC series but throwing enough new stuff in there to make it feel both awesomely old school and new at the same time. The jumping mechanics work a little differently so it’ll take just a short while to get used to but overall it has a great feeling control. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong’s abilities are now quite varied instead of just the difference in strength and speed. This time around, Donkey has all the muscle and oompf that you’d expect and Diddy uses that to his advantage. There are new tag team moves such as Diddy riding on Donkey Kong’s back while blasting peanut pistols or grabbing onto DK and using his jetpack to give the heavier Kong a leg-up. I love Donkey Kong Country and I’m totally stoked to play this new entry into the series.

Kirby’s Epic Yarn

I know everyone is excited for a new actual entry into Kirby’s adventures for a console system (no, I don’t count air-ride…at all). The DS games are all great and fans have been waiting for a great Kirby game to play on the big screen. I’ve seen plenty of gameplay videos of Epic Yarn and I knew the visuals were neat but seeing it while playing it really brings it alive. There were plenty of moments in the demo where I saw things that either made me laugh or smile simply because of it’s presentation or cleverness. It was made by the same team that made Wario Land: Shake It! so I know it’s going to be a blast. My only fear about this game is that it might be too easy but there are lots of hidden things in each stage to keep things challenging.

NBA Jam

Oh my god, I can’t say enough good things about this game. I don’t like or even remotely care about basketball but I’ve always loved the NBA Jam series. There’s something about ridiculous dunking that just gets me every time. This is another series I would normally be wary about a revamp or reboot (they’ve already tried…and it wasn’t pretty, but it looks like EA Vancouver has done their homework. Absolutely EVERYTHING about this game reminds me of why I loved the originals so much to begin with. It’s the only game on the show floor that I played more than once, if that says anything!

Little Big Planet 2

How could I say anything but great things about LBP2? It’s just like the first game, with even better control, more customization, a more robust editor, all the levels (user-made included) from the first game, and all the charm and style of the first. I played a level that was basically set up to be a race between 4 players. It was a tower climbing game where the objective was basically to get to the top first. It made use of a grappling hook, a teleporter, electrified walls, and a narrow tunnel where the walls were made up of spring-pads. Yeah, this game is going to be awesome.

Patapon 3

I’ll admit it, I never finished the first Patapon (but I wanted to really bad) so therefore, I never got to play the second one either but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to play the crap out of Patapon 3. The game is the same as it ever was in terms of gameplay but the presentation has been ramped up by a metric crap-load. The music, which is the core of the game, sound so much richer and has multiple levels of rhythms and melodies (as showcased here . One of the greatest things about Patapon 3 is that, despite their increasing fan base and production value, this entry is still priced at $20! whooo!

Duke Nukem Forever

Yeah, you read that correctly Duke Nukem Forever.
There were plenty of rumors that Gearbox was the new developer and also plenty of rumors that there would be some huge inducement at PAX but when a game like this is involved rumors are just that. So imagine our surprise when we first get onto the show floor and are greeted, right up front, by a HUGE Duke Nukem Forever booth that is closed off and already had a line forming. We knew we had to see what this was all about. Unfortunately, I went to the Nintendo booth first so by the time we all regrouped, the line way way too long to consider standing in so we made our plan for the next day: Get in line early enough for the show floor so that we’d be right up front when the doors opened and would have a better shot at being near the front of the line at the Duke Nukem Forever booth. Turns out everyone else had that idea too. Despite being in the first group of people let into the expo hall, by the time we reached the Gearbox booth, the Duke Nukem line already stretched way around the booth itself and was bleeding into the Rock Band 3 booth. We decided that we had to see if we could always bet on Duke like we’ve been told. 2.5 hours later and we made our way into the booth. We were greeted by Randy Pitchford to tell us a little bit of history about how DNF came to be in the state it’s in now. After a lot of excited talk from him plus a new trailer, he let us all into another room where we could play the demo. The main thing I can say about the demo is that this game is going to be quintessentially Duke. It’s classic with the one-liners by Jon St. John, the humor and even the action is all just as we remember it from Duke 3D. Should we be worried that this game is too old school to be fun? No. Not if you like Duke Nukem for what it is and appreciate the fact that this game has evolved into more than just the next Duke Nukem game, but an homage and a service to all of the fans who waited it out and dreamed of the day when Duke would, once again, be pissed at more alien bastards for shooting up his ride.

Swarm

This is a new game by Hothead game studios and it looks like way too much fun. They didn’t have it playable but a rep from Hothead was there giving a walkthrough demo every hour of the current build. Think of it like a combination of Lemmings and Overlord but with it’s own distinct flavor. This game really rides on it’s humor and, from what I saw, it does a really good job. It’s pretty amusing just how hopeless those little swarmites are.

Ok, now to switch gears, I want to talk about a couple of things that didn’t impress me much. Of the things I tried, I can only think of 2 off the top of my head so here they are:

Infamous 2

I enjoyed the first one (despite my constant whining that the game carried on for way too long AND the really dumb ending) so I was pretty excited to play the next one in the series. Unfortunately, this one felt pretty different from the first one unless I’m just remembering differently. This time, Cole is equipped with a blunt weapon that produces an electric current for shocking and beating his enemies all at once. Gone is regular hand-to-hand combat unless it just wasn’t included in the demo. This weapon feels really awkward to me and the animations they used make it looks like Cole is swinging it wildly without a clue as to what he’s actually doing. In the combat, every strike has slow-down effect right before the point of impact to try and make each hit feel more visceral. I don’t enjoy the effect at all and I find it to actually be pretty disruptive to the gameplay. This even happens when you shoot a foe with a generic lightning blast. In addition to the combat issues I had with the demo, some of the presentation elements are a little wonky. At one point in her run through it, Tiffany said she saw parts of Cole’s body being stretched out as other parts moved. The engine looked really choppy and it hung /froze fairly often. I noticed on every single screen while I was waiting that the demo froze for a significant amount of time during a cutscene. Perhaps this is just one of the engines that don’t hold up too well to the gaming industry standards or perhaps they’re revamping it and they’re still working out the kinks. Either way, the game isn’t due until 2011 so hopefully Sucker Punch will be able to address some of these issues before it’s launch.

Kinect

I already had very low hopes for this device but since the line for it was (laughably) short, I figured I’d give it a fair chance. The software that I demoed was the cleverly titled “Deca Sports Freedom”. I’m wondering if maybe the software wasn’t the best showcase of the device but it was absolutely atrocious. D and I played fencing together and even navigating through the menu controller-free was a giant hassle. We were standing a good 3-4 feet apart and it kept confusing his left hand with my right, our cursors kept flickering in and out, and the movement lag made it quite the task to select any options. I also really hate having to hover over a button for 5 seconds to select it. It’s cumbersome and annoying.
When we finally got into the game itself, things didn’t get much better. I kept trying to do a sideways slice to D’s torso but by avatar would only keep attacking vertically which was pretty good indication that the Kinect wasn’t recognizing my instructions.
I’m not about to blame it on all the commotion that was happening on the show floor either as they had a nice, walled off section for the demo to prevent any background activity from confusing the device. The whole experience was eye-rolling and a total joke. The idea is cool but the technology just isn’t there yet, I think. I also think that Maybe the programmers for Deca Sports freedom aren’t the best out there so maybe I’ll be proven wrong with a better piece of software.

All in all, PAX was tremendous fun. It’s great to be surrounded by like-minded people, all enjoying the things that they do the most. You get to meet and talk with a few industry professionals too as it’s usually the developers manning the booths. Seattle is awesome, and PAX is awesome. I’m going to do everything I can to go again next year!

So, here’s a quick clip showcasing a short night shot with the f/1.8 50mm attached to it. In this video, D explains one of the many ways for society to cater to his many needs. We wanted Fuddrucker’s but Fuddrucker’s was closing soon and we didn’t want to be jerks… what’s that all about?

Click here to view the embedded video.

This video is 720p, even though I’m only displaying it on my blog at half resolution. So be patient for loading and fullscreen if you want :p