Life of Brian

Beatles . . . Rock Band . . . TODAY

Today is 09-09-09 and for those who understand the workings of the universe, that is the BIG DAY as today is the day that BEATLES ROCK BAND is released.  Lorraine's been as excited as a human can be about a video game on this one.  I used to think I was an uberbeatles fan but my loving wife is about as obsessive of things beatlemania as one can get.  I suspect our daughter has one of the most comprehensive Beatles educations a fifteen year old can get and would not be shocked if she were the only teen in Taiwan with the level of knowledge and exposure she has grown up with.

The New York Times asks if the Beatles can revive the gaming industry with this one - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090800567.html - and we care less about that rather important question than on getting the ol' grubbies on the game itself.

We don't actually have Rock Band, we have Guitar Hero World Tour for the family rockfest but . . . assuming that the Beatles version of the game actually goes on sale here, we may just get the platform to play the game (although, we're assuming that our Guitar Hero equipment should work fine for the X-Box version, we'll have to see if it actually ships here).

In any case, we're vicariously going to enjoy other people's enjoyment of the game as we stew in our primordial green slime of envy.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com/workshops/wakingbliss.html

(If you are reading this blog post via a stream, go to http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/ to access the full post with any videos or photos included.)

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Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] 
Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard 
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan

Play this Game or DIE

The new Tron is coming out soon, relatively soon and if you know about the original film's story, then you know that basically the main character is forced to play a game or die . . . the new film coming out soon Gamer has a character who must play a game or die . . . in fact, it seems there's a a LOT of films out there where someone has to play a game or die . . . well, it seems like that because it is true . . . so, the kind folks at io9 give us an illustrated list of thirty-two characters who have to play a game or die at http://io9.com/5349126/32-heroes-who-must-play-a-deadly-game--or-die/gallery . . . it's worth the looksee.

All the best,
Brian

(If you are reading this blog post via a stream, go to http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/ to access the full post with any videos or photos included.)

 HYPNOSIS VIDEO COURSES
http://www.briandavidphillips.com/products/shop.html
    Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE! 
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] 
Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard 
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan

ARHrrr . . . augmented reality shooter

A research group at Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab and the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD-Atlanta) has created a really interesting game for mobile phones based upon augmented reality.

(/p>

I've embedded it here but be sure to watch the video in HD mode as it's much better. Some folks will want to see it in full HD mode at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNu4CluFOcw as well.

I'ts a very interesting take on augmented reality and works very well.

All the best,
Brian

(If you are reading this blog post via a stream, go to http://briandavidphillips.typepad.com/brian/ to access the full post with any videos or photos included.)

 HYPNOSIS VIDEO COURSES
http://www.briandavidphillips.com/products/shop.html
    Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE! 
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com] 
Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard 
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan

Sam and Max and the Hypnosis Conspiracy

Videogame sleuths Sam and Max are set to hit the Wii in a couple weeks (Oct. 7 release date in North America) and this time around they are going to be hunting down clues related to a HYPNOSIS CONSPIRACY . . .

The Sam & Max series is structured like a TV series, with self-contained episodes that tie into a larger overarching storyline as the season progresses. The Wii version collects the first six-episode "season" of Sam & Max games on one retail disc. In Season One, straight-laced canine detective Sam and his psychotic "rabbity-thing" sidekick Max are on the hunt for the mastermind behind a baffling hypnosis conspiracy. Players get to interrogate suspects (with amusing results), uncover clues, solve puzzles, and ultimately piece together the underlying mystery that links the episodes.

I'm not sure when we will get to see the game on this side of the planet.

All the best,
Brian

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Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com]
Hypnotist, Hypnotherapist, Intuitionist, Trance Wizard
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

RIP Gary . . . we thank you

Gary Gygax, the father of roleplaying games, has passed away . . . see Gary Gygax and Father of D&D for more. Gygax inspired multiple generations of gamers, myself included, and will be missed . . . his impact upon game culture had been huge, massive, and pervasive. Gaming will certainly move on without him but it would most definately not be what it is today or will be without his initial influence.

Thank you, Gary.

All the best,
Brian

Riding Brain Waves in Gaming

I am pretty sure I want one of these . . . Riding Brain Waves At a Game Expo.

Rock Band in Taiwan?

After the charity hypnosis show in Nantou we performed last weekend and the great music at PostSecret Takes Taiwan, we spent the evening and much of Sunday with friends in Taichung. My friend Brian had just bought an X-Box 360 along with a copy of the bundle for Guitar Hero II.

Well, my daughter Kaye really liked the game . . . as a gifted musician she basically kicked everyone's butt twice and a half.

I did some searching a looking at versions online as we will likely buy her the game bundle when we get back from our US tour in February . . . and found lots of stuff on Rock Band by the folks at Harmonix which looks even more appropriate for her and her music social gaming needs . . . wow, that looks like tons of fun too.

Rock Band on Carson Daly

Rock Band Preview

Rock Band Trailer / Interview

Rock Band Gameplay

I haven't played drums in years . . . I mean real drums and not the sort of drum games we've seen so far in video games so the Rock Band set looks very interesting to me.

Anyone know when/if this game will be hitting Asia? Really, I mean "when is it coming to Taiwan?" I do NOT want to get the US region version as we want to be able to play it on our un-modded Taiwan machine and go online so we can download the new packs and the like . . . but we don't want to have to wait a million years to get it.

Of course, what I would really LOVE to see is a game with a keyboard peripheral so Kaye can really kick some serious butt (see http://www.kayephillips.com for her original piano compositions - yes, she is age thirteen). Personally, I'd like to see a music game that uses a horizontal scheme for note displays so that they are on a bar and are in proper music notation as they scroll past . . . a nice way for players to also learn proper music score reading instead of the now typical vertical system in place (you can still use the color keys in a horizontal display system).

The folks organizing Spring Scream really need to set up a Rock Band rock off in addition to the air guitar contest they had last year too. Speaking of Spring Scream, anyone know when they will be setting up for band/performer applications?

If anyone has a clue as to when Rock Band will hit Taiwan, drop a line.

All the best,
Brian

Game Time!

Why?. . . Japanese Komodo Dragon Game

Lorraine and I were just talking about a news story of a little kid being killed by a komodo dragon on a reserve because he took a crap near a tree and that pissed the territorial dragon off. Here we have what looks to be a fun game for no one actually in the room. Ah well, some of the Japanese extreme games look like a lot of fun . . . this one's just plain weird . . . but . . . fascinating. Why, why, oh, why?

College Saga

Exactly the way I remember college . . . well, maybe not quite exactly. Link snarfed from Aaron.

Wildest Dreams . . .. . . coming soon

Check out one of the "trailers" for the upcoming performance of Wildest Dreams, the senior graduation play for my students in the English Department at National Chengchi University to be performed Dec. 14 and Dec. 15 at the university (be there!) . . . the play is about a group of friends who play role playing games (RPGs) to the point of the games becoming their escape from reality . . .

The students have gone all out and created a film that will be used in conjunction with the on-stage drama . . . the characters on stage will "play" the table top game with their fantasy personae manifested within the film. I am the faculty advisor of the play for which I am quite qualified (my doctoral dissertation is in interactive drama (live RPGs), I have advanced degrees in theatre, I deal with reality levels in my hypnosis work, and I played more RPGs than a human really should play).

See the official blog for the play here and the fullsize versions of the trailers here (download links for the mov files are below the embedded player).  Venue information is on the blog.

Koolness.

All the best,
Brian

Gears of War Tattoo . . .

Do these guys know or even care what these hot game girls are tattooing on their arms?

Fear of Girls . . .. . . RPGing with one's PLP . . .

I have lived this life and know folks who live it still.  This piece is called Fear of Girls. There is an interview with the film's creator here.

This year, the seniors in the English Department are taking a look at Alan Ayckbourn's play Wildest Dreams as a possible candidate for their senior graduation production.  The play deals with just such material.  The seniors have asked me to serve as faculty advisor for their production.

Here is a short clip from the downloadable version of the film which has extras.

You can purchase the extended version through the folks at YngTurk Films if you would like the full version.

Funocity.

All the best,
Brian

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Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

gender-bending popular in video games

Yep . . . gender-bending popular in video games . . .

By day, Freeman Williams manages a small dental practice in suburban Houston. But on any given night, he's prowling crime-ridden streets and battling ne'er-do-wells in the video game "City of Heroes" as his virtual alter-ego: a female superhero named Robotrixie. "I get in character voice-wise as much as my male voice will allow," explains Williams, 48, who talks with other players through the game's voice chat feature. "This has become my catharsis, my escape from the work world." While the idea of gender-bending is hardly new, the vast online worlds in video games such as "City of Heroes" and "World of Warcraft" have become the latest ways for people to forget about their real life and transform into someone — or even something — else.

Well . . . when we get a new PS2 or X-Box game, there is a tendancy to choose the female characters around here . . . althogh, for Kaye, it makes sense she needs female characters to identify with and so many games don't have good female characters, most are pretty much all-male or only have one or two girls to choose out of a selection that has many males. However, deal ol' dad will sometimes choose the girl characters 'cuz they're hotter looking. No online roleplay though. When I've played online, I've always gone male . . . male priest types who usually worship Eris. Duh. I'd say that the online RPGs have this phenomenon but it's not as annoying as say the online chat rooms or messengers systems with tons of "hot babes" randomly approaching folks to talk sex . . . then, you know it's a guy. Way back when I ran the experiemental hypnosis group for women, a good fifteen percent or so of the members turned out to be guys pretending to be girls looking for folks to hypnotize them into becoming women . . . a fetish, not transgended.

Pound Ice Walls

Evidently, I suck at smashing through walls of ice with my bare fists . . . good thing I don't live somwhere where this sort of skill might actually be needed . . . fun game . . . Pound Ice . . . originally, I had it embedded to play here but figured I'd send folks over to the site instead to cut the ambient noise down. I did finally beat the game. Cute.

Sony Delays PlayStation 3 Console Launch

No big shocker here as a lot of folks were expecting this to happen given the delay in actual launch date announcements and shuffles on queries but now it's official . . . Sony Delays PlayStation 3 Console Launch . . . right now they're shooting for a simultaneous world launch in November but still have a mess of issues to iron out. Evidently the blu-ray issues are kickin' them in the head at the moment. If they miss November, they miss the Christmas rush and that's a LOT of revenue and disappointed customers. In the meantime, many folks have stopped buying as many games as they wait for the next generation consoles so the drop in income continues.

Speaking of next generation, we finally saw actual X-Box 360 consoles playing at stores . . . looked real pretty but the particular pieces on the demo sets were not significantly superior to X-Box (and one store had the system playing on a crappy monitor that made it look much worse). Not many games being sold with the set either, at least not enough to make it worth the purchase right now in this market.

We will be getting one . . . it's a given . . . but not at this moment. Hopefully, the "bilingual" editions for this market will be out of Singapore as the examples of locally Taiwan-produced "bilingual" games for the Taiwan market suck . . . Halo 2's idea of bilingual meant all of the dialog is in Chinese and some of the subtitles in English . . . which means the "instructional commands" within the game are in Chinese . . . they need to learn to have dual stream audio choices so those wishing to play in Chinese get full Chinese words and dialog and those wishing to play in English also get full English. This should not be too difficult to code.

games with no games no crowd

Scott Miller of 3D Realms has some future console points. It's interesting that they don't have a 360 development machine even though they're in the forefront of developing for the X-Box 360. Go figure. Miller's point that Nintendo's machine is likely to be a distant third is pretty much a given but his belief that X-Box 360 and PS3 are going to be neck and neck is very interesting as one would expect Sony to continue to dominate. However, X-Box has got the lead and they've eveidently done a kickass job with live.

On another note, Miller was asked about the new attire policies for E3 which pretty much kill the half-naked booth babe thing.

Miller also is quite happy about the ESA's decision to enforce its exhibitor policy. He feels it will finally give proper attention to what matters most: the games. "E3 decides to focus on games! It's about time," wrote Miller. "If we're going to be taken seriously as a maturing industry, it only makes sense to drop the soft porn geek fantasies and make games the thing. Two thoughts: One, getting around E3 has been a nightmare if you ever needed to pass a booth with scantily clad booth dancing dolls drawing a feverish crowd of camera flashing boys. Two, and I love this one the most... Games with no game will finally have no crowd."

Personally, I like the scantily clad booth dancing dolls . . . although he's a real good point that a lot of exhibitors who don't actually have anything to exhibit seem to draw crowds for fluff rather than content. Bells and whistels do not quality make.

Game Room in Your Garage

I was looking around the webpages by Alan Lewis as he has some wonderful 3D stereophotography projects (I still use his incredible Alan Lewis Freeviewer's Assistant and think it is an awful shame that he doesn't manufacture them anymore as it is the best device of its type) . . . anyway . . . found something that almost makes me wish we had a garage . . . game room in your garage . . . as we don't have a garage, our game room is pretty much the X-Box hooked up to an LCD home theatre projection system in the living room and the PS-2 on a plasma television in the bedroom . . . works fine and is sweet gamin' . . . the Lewis alternative looks like a home arcade though and he's got some nice suggestions for other projects (albeit, my five thumbs on either hand make such projects unlikely for me).

girls of gaming . . .

Hmmmm. I actually own most of these games.

Chess is Cool . . . . . . Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk

Alexandra Kosteniuk is quite the chess celebrity mostly because she is an internationally ranked chess grandmaster but also of late she's been getting more press because she happens to both be a grandmaster chess player and is quite beautiful.

Recently, her Chess Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk Official Site has been getting more traffic than in the past because some of the babeblogs have stumbled across her but she is a whole lot more than just a pretty face. Chess aficianados know her from a whole slew of grandmaster titles and she is the current Vice Champion of the World (World Championships in Moscow) and is only the tenth woman in the history of organized chess to receive the Grandmaster (Men) title (FIDE Congress in Calvia (2004)).

On her site, you will find a number of games and logic problems as well as links to her Chess is Cool podcasts. The galleries are quite interesting. In addition to her competition chess playing, she does a lot of outreach work for kids and the like all over the planet.

The image with this post is of her wearing pretty much my favorite outfit from her competition matches. Check out her galleries for action shots . . . by action shots in chess one means folks sitting or standing at tables staring at one another across a board. She does quite a number of simul games (simultaneous chess matches of a grandmaster against a slew of opponents) and has worn this particular outfit (with and without the highly hypnotic skirt) at straight tournament competitions and simuls.

Way back when dinosaurs walked the Earth and I was a kid in high school, I was the champion of the chess club . . . of course, now, I just suck . . . I mean suck a lot . . . I can manage to beat my eleven year-old daughter but just barely and only because she doesn't know the rules as well and lacks the experience.

Stick Dude Killing Arena

This thing is nifty.  It's an animation but well done . . . Stick Dude Killing Areana . . . looks like a Deathmatch game to me, I'm pretty sure I have played this level in Halo, Timesplitters, Doom, Wolfenstein, and pretty much any future FPS I am likely to play.  Very very nicely done.

World of Warcraft with Leeroy

Gee . . . I think I may just be an incarnation of Leeroy . . . World of Warcraft with Leeroy . . . back in the days of table top, I never could stand all the sittiing around planning and thinkin' . . . just kick the damned door down and run in swingin' . . . sheesh. That is so real and so funny!

You wanna play a game?

I don't know about you good folks . . . but when I was a young boy back when dinosaurs walked the Earth, we had a game that the big kids would trick the little kids into playing . . . "let's see who can slap the other person the lightest, you go first" and the little kid would slowly mime hitting but so slowly and so very gently just barely tap oh so slightly the older kid who would then swing as fast and as hard as kidpossible and whale a nasty hard slap right on the little kid's face then laugh and shout "you win!" as the little kid's knees buckle and the little kid screams in agony, shame, and just plain ol' humiliated pissedoffedness. Well . . . it looks like Japanese women have discovered a slap happy variation of the same game . . . except this time around they don't bother to see who can slap lightest but escalate into slapping harder and harder until someone starts crying. This video doesn't show how high it can escalate but there are versions out there somewhere whose links I have lost where some real bawling comes out . . . yep, a sensible past time for adult women. I just wish they'd go back to the Ugly George style antics or the girl kissing girl challenges from a few months back. I'm not so much into the hate and violence and am more of a love kind of a guy when it comes down to it. Oh, you wanna play a game?

If WWII was a Real Time Strategy Game

Exactly . . . if WW2 was a RTS . . . a little bit of humor but the language fits.

Talking Smack in Halo

Educational video . . . Talking Smack in Halo . . . funny.

Timesplitters Future Perfect . . . rocks

Okay . . . a couple days ago, we finally got Time Splitters: Future Perfect for X-Box . . . after I've been waiting for the thing to come out for what seems like ages and ages . . . I loved the first two games on PS and PS2 but this one just plain rocks, rocks in a big way.

The game is coming out on PS2 but I opted for the Xbox version (even though the PS2 would be cheaper for me) because it has X-Box Live Enabled and PS2 doesn't support online play here in Taiwan.  It is worth it to get this savory goodness earlier and to have the ability to play online . . . online kicks butt.

This game rocks in online. Heck, it rocks offline.

The graphics are strong and with one hundred and fifty playable characters . . . yes, that's 150 . . . it is well beyond the limited character sets available for Halo 2 (even if you can change color combinations, they're still the same two character fits). The characters are wonderful . . . the kids had been playing a lot of Halo 2 recently (that and Kung Fu Chaos), but now that they can be monkeys and talking ducks and bears and demon possessed little girls and nurses and ginger bread men and robots and well a whole lot of things . . . also hot babes and handsome brutes . . . okay, the last two are of little interest to the kids but there are a LOT of really hot babe characters in this game so I'm a happy camper.

The game is rated for older players because of the violence (watching someone take three darts into the chest and then inflate to the point their body explodes may be violent but it's also surprisingly funny watching them get fatter as their little monkey body runs around picking up grenades) but that won't stop many parents enjoying the game with their kids - appropriate age and guidance.  BTW, the monkey characters and other little characters are really cute but they are also damned hard to shoot.

The story mode is engaging, while I found the older games to not have as interesting a story. The graphics are stronger . . . and cleaner . . . as one would expect with a current title.

The offline play is strong . . . story mode and arcade multiplayer. There are also weird challenge modes that are fun. The online play kicks butt . . . nice. I enjoy it more than Halo 2 . . . of course, for me, online play is the only thing really engaging about Halo 2 as the so-called bilingual edition sold here has English subtitles with Chinese voices that are often unsubtitled so you miss a lot of the mission statements and objectives in that mode (although my daughter loves story mode for Halo 2). So, when I compare the two games, it's not a fair comparison . . . but as a LOT of folks who have a proper copy of Halo 2 are also giving Timesplitters: Future Perfect the thumbs up, I can't be completely wrong. Please don't get the misimpression that I don't think much of Halo 2 . . . it is an awesome game . . . really awesome. However, I am certain I'll be playing a LOT more of Timesplitters from here on out (albeit, I will probably still get in some Crimson Skies too as it's an oldie but goldie . . . really wish someone would do a new flying game for dogfighting with planes, balloons, spaceships, and catapult launches, and dragons, lots of variety of dragons . . . something transdimensional with customizeable rides . . . actually, my old Time Trippers stories would do the trick for a background . . . some folks reading this, particularly my buddies from way back when dinosaurs walked the planet and we were hanging out in dorm rooms, will know who Sonya Soyuz, Kaptain Krimesquasher, the Enchantress, and Krimemaster are). Coincidentally, we bought the sequel to Blinx the Time Sweeper for Kaye when we picked up Timesplitters . . . don't bother.

A very very nice thing about this version of the Timesplitters game is the mapmaker is stronger and easier to use AND you can share your homemade maps with others online and we're not just talking about deathmatch levels to kill your friends, you can create story mode games, fully functional games . . . so the game has every possibility of creating and sustaining a real community. Personally, I'll be creating the Brothel of Badass Babes and a Xanadu Temple level as soon as I get the hang of the whole thing and tweak it all up nice.

You can buy the game here (be suire to note the reviews). If you are on X-Box Live and play this game and aren't too good in terms of skill levels (I may love the game but I still suck), my gamertag is meiguolangren.

PlayStation 3

Looks too good . . . PlayStation 3 . . . really, the next generation of consoles are going to kick some butt . . . unfortunately, many of us already have our PS2 and X-Box systems . . . however, we'll probably get the new ones as well. Got to keep up with the cyberjones and all that.

Kick Ass Kung-Fu

This looks like fun . . . Kick Ass Kung-Fu . . . a videogame and martial arts workout? Won't be seeing my butt playing it anytime soon but I am certain my daughter (she of the Taekwondo and Aikido classes) would go a bit more than crazy.

Notepad Invaders

This is nicely done . . . Notepad Invaders . . . a nice version of space invaders done a la notebook paper.

The Which D & D Class am I Test

Been taking a LOT of these things lately . . . OKCupid! The Which D & D Class am I Test . . .

Sorceror You scored 22 Holy, 28 Tactful, 50 Natural, and 65 Arcane!

If you ever take the time to explore your potential you will have one of the greatest magical reservoirs at your fingertips. You interact with the world using your keen intuition, though often you find yourself to be unable to adapt to situations that you haven't handled before. You can be reckless, and I would translate this into real world advice with the caution not to play with fire... ever. Of course, given that you're in a world where monsters are coming for ya, go for it... just not near me. Oh, and I don't care how good you are at it, don't ever summon anything... you'll probably muck it up and end up unleasing a daemon or something... and no, you probably can't take one.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 1% on Godliness
	You scored higher than 1% on Tact
	You scored higher than 1% on Harmony
	You scored higher than 99% on Arcane

Link: The Which D & D Class am I Test written by effataigus on Ok Cupid

Slut . . . uh . . . almost not . . .

Not quite the score I expected . . .

Not even the score I was hoping for either. :-)

Zombie Survival Scenario Test . . .

Okay, I suck . . .

You made it. Barely. Congratulations! You scored 85%!

Whether it was the fact that you could run faster, or were just plain lucky, you made it out alive. Even you aren't sure why. But you're sure as hell not going back, or risking your ass for anyone else from now on.

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 75% on survivalpoints

Link: The Zombie Scenario Survivor Test written by ci8db4uok on Ok Cupid

. . . I may suck . . . but, I'm alive and non-un-dead . . . and that's always a good thing!

Shirt City . . .

The way games are meant to be . . . Shirt City . . . you shoot a bunch of girls with a water gun to get their shirts wet . . . yes, stupid, annoying, but captivating.

SeXBox . . . build your own XBox Sex Toy

You may think it's a strange idea and you are probably right but . . . someone want to make one of these and send it our way for . . . er . . . uh . . . academic research . . . yeah, that's the ticket . . . SeXBox: Using force feedback signals for sex toys . . . seriously, anyone want to send one this way? Curious minds and all that.

Survival of the Fittest . . . playstation style

This is FUNNY . . . porn stars stalk and attack a herd of golfers. Now that's clever.

Axe Feather . . . enjoy

Enjoy . . . AXE FEATHER.

PSP . . . drool drool drool

Pardon my drool . . . Sony’s PSP is next level in handheld 3D gaming . . . I know I don't really NEED one of these puppies but I'm awfully sure I'm going to NEEEEEEED one as soon as they hit the street in these parts. Game console, MP3 player, movie player, and a bunch of other things . . . heck even built in networking and translation support. Game Boy is going to have to do some serious humpin' to keep up.

Rumble Roses . . .

Picked up the PS2 game Rumble Roses . . . a bit of a guy title with hot babes wrestling one another . . . good stuff . . . take a look at the cosplayers at the UK premiere . . . Rumble Roses Premiere . . . even more good stuff.

Halo 2 . . . great but sucks

As some of you know, I've been waiting and drooling for the release of Halo 2 for the X-Box here for ages and ages.

Well, finally, it's out . . . and, finally . . . I got a copy. Lorraine picked up a copy of the local edition and an X-Box Live kit. As soon as she got it home, the ol' package was ripped open and I thew the beasties into the machine.

Lo and behold, it looks like a pretty damned good game.

Unfortunately, the "bilingual" edition sold in Taiwan is a bit less than bilingual. It's supposed to be both a Chinese and English game all on one disk so your system will automatically detect the proper mode.

Well, the subtitles for the game are in English as are all the menus. Unfortunately, some dumbass in programming decided to save space and only have one audio track available . . . Chinese. So, even though it's supposed to have the English stuff so folks like me can play it . . . those of us in the Asian market who don't actually speak or read Chinese . . . but, the soundtrack is all in Chinese with NO English!

This would be fine if the audio were all atmosphere or if there were subtitles available for all the dialog. Unfortunately, that's not the case. So, when the computer voice in the background is telling folks to watch out or go to this place and get the bomb, I don't have a clue. I don't know what the mission is.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

Multi-player is okay as there's no mission-sensitive data to be had, just run out and kill everyone. However, I can't play the single-player campaign mode. It's pretty much just a coffee coaster if that's what you're really looking forward to.

I have been looking forward to this game big time . . . oh, woe is me and sadness and all that stuff.

Lorraine called the local X-Box support line for the game and the service folks didn't even realize they had done this. It took forever for Lorraine to get through to them what the actual problem was. She ended up scolding the person about doing future bilingual editions and doing them right.

No, I can't just get the US version of the game as my machine was bought here in Taiwan where I live. So, it's tough shit for me.

Grrrrrr, again.

Hopefully, this is NOT a sign of things to come. I have been doing really well with the bilingual games released for X Box in the past . . . or, maybe I have just had good luck. Of course, in the past, all the bilingual games released here have been out of Singapore where evidently bilingual actually means bilingual instead of monolingual pretend. Things don't bode well as the Taiwan folks are gearing up to release many more games this way, cutting off the Singapore supply.

This is a hugely anticipated game too.

I love the game . . . I love running around blowing shit up . . . but, if this is an indicator of the future, I may not be buying too many games in the future (I pay full price, no modbox for our X-Box).

Grrrrrr!

Bitter Tears at Sad Mary's

Bitter Tears at Sad Mary's is a wonderful interactive drama freeform live action role playing game by Scott Beattie and Tonia Walden that plays with the nature of reality. It is predominately an experiment in deconstructive interactive drama with a twist. It is a small piece with merely a dozen players but it is complex and so not really appropriate for most groups. the piece is a live action or freeform adatpation of the Over the Edge tabletop RPG by Atlas Games (there is also an On the Edge trading card game so I like to think of interactive drama adaptations as being Off the Edge). BTW, while the mechanics of these games are pretty straightforward and uncomplicated, the actual setting is very complex and is very engaging to the thinking gamer - the kind who read critical theory and philosophy and art reviews and the like. An academic troupe would find it most appropriate. The Life of Brian entries on Interactive Drama include links to other resources . . . including my own troupe and scenario archives (my doctoral dissertation is on interactive drama scenarios).

Game Show Stripping

Okay . . . works for me . . . Game Show Stripping.

Battleship

Battleship . . . the old game with a nice interface. Fun, nostalgia, interesting.

The Guy Game

Finally, a video game just for guys . . . The Guy Game . . . while the game is obviously full of babes, I do see one problem with it . . . trivial pursuit? Guys don't really want to play general trivia games when sitting at their X-Box or PS2. We want to blow things up or manipulate hot babes in action sequences. Sure Gilrs Gone Wild footage may be interesting . . . okay, very interesting . . . but it does not lead to compelling gameplay. A lot of folks bought the beach volleyball game when X-Box first came out but soon retired it from active play as there's really only oh so much you can do watching girls bounce on the beach, not enough action or challenge (buying new bathing suits is not really a thrilling guy thing despite the preadolescents trolling for thongs). If you want a real game geared at guys, then put the babes in action, swords, guns, missions, that sort of stuff, don't just ask trivia questions or play tic-tac-toe to remove bits of clothing. We want game play, not just bounce play. That said, I am still looking forward to snarfing the game if it actually becomes available here.

Rock, Scissors, Paper . . . serious competition

Some people take competition a bit too serously . . . Rock, Paper, Scissors Fight.

Bird Woman

If you want to . . . you can pretend that Joel Williamsen's Bird Woman isn't incredibly kool . . . but, then you'd still just be pretending. These motion tests for the character are just plain awesome. See here, here, and here. Wow, wow, and wow!

Strip Or Die

This is a very strange game. Strip Or Die . . . I didn't die but I'm not sure I won either . . . the die part pretty much kills the fun at the end. Here's a tip, putting six bullets into the gun is not a good idea.

Lovechess

Lovechess is an interactive computer game that is basically a chess game. Like any other PC chess game, one plays chess against the computer.

However, instead of watching the pieces kill each other as in most games of this type (the wonderful old Battlechess comes to mind), the pieces here have sex with one another. Yes, it's a bit of a sophomoric idea but it appeals to enough folks . . . twisted folks like me . . . that the game has taken off.

The board is ostensibly based upon a concept of Greek and Trojan gods battling one another and having sex with everyone.

The game has two modes, beginner and advanced for style of play. You play against the computer's AI. I am a bit surprised that they haven't put online play capabilities into the game with a textchat or voice chat mode as that seems to be the future for most games of this type.

Battle of Serenity

Check out the Battle of Serenity flashgame at FireflyFans.Net. I can't hit anything, but it is fun trying.

Console Gaming Catch-Up

According to the New York Times, the X-Box has started catching up with the PS2 as more game developers begin creating games solely for that platform. The article almost makes me want to go out and get myself an X-Box (I've been pretty much pure PS2 for awhile, even gave up PC gaming for the console). According to the article, Microsoft is starting to beat Sony on ease of development, console power, and software development tools. There are some awfully kool games being developed for the platform.

I really don't think Sony has anything to worry about in the near future - despite projections that the X-Box will actually surpass unit sales for the PS2 for this coming month (not overall where Sony will be king for a very very very long time to go, but this month - the first time in forty-five months someone has sold more than Sony).

Of course, this is a gooooood thing for gamers as the competition is going to fuel price breaks and new developments in software and hardware.

Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons?

The BBC news magazine has a nice enough article on the thirtieth anniversary of D&D . . . Whatever happened to Dungeons and Dragons? Unlike most popular press looks at the roleplaying game industry, this one is actually pretty fair-handed.

I started playing back in 1978 with a bunch of buddies from high school. I was hooked right away and still play . . . albeit not nearly as regularly or as obsessively as my college years - of course, living in a country with less access to players puts a crimp in that, not to mention job and family. When I met Lorraine, I introduced her to the game and we used to play regularly with a group of folks in our home. Now, my daughter, at ten years of age, continues in her dear ol' dad's footsteps and plays when she gets the chance (we have both English and Chinese editions of the rulebooks).

Of course, one thing that happened to D&D - and all RPGs descended from it - is that they've gone live or online. See Dungeons and Dreamers for one look at the online evolution from tabletop. Personally, I always hated computer RPGs as I missed the reality of tabletop, the intensity of the experience as well as the communal nature of the event, but computer gaming is becoming so much more sophisticated that the downsides are quickly fading away. When virtual reality 3D systems (real 3D not fake 3D that they call 3D nowadays which is really more of a 2 1/2 kind of thing), then we'll really be able to do some very very interesting things. See my earlier posts on gaming for more on that.