Finally an update!

I've been pretty busy lately with various projects, work, and I went on my honey moon! Yeah, thats right, I got married. And I'm damn proud of it!

Anyway, so I completely redid the way character animation works, and even wrote a brand new character creator tool.

I wanted to make it easier for the artists, and we wanted smoother animations, so basically I just found a way for the artists to do everything in Flash animations, and export them to sprite sheets for the game. The sprite sheets will later be loaded and used by our characters instead of using a bone animation system like before.

Basically, I embedded some XNA into a windows form, and made it simpler for my artists to test out their character animations and see how they look in the game.

This is also the place for scripting and adding particles to the character's animations.

Added a screen shot of the character editor working with the Knight running animation.

Check it out!




Yeah, I also have a sweet Halo: Reach assassination background I grabbed from bungie.net. Pretty sweet eh?

Added Damage Display

Added damage display when you land attacks and removed the other rocket launcher knight.

Game Engine Update (Post processing effects, life bars, oh my)

Updated rendering so models are rendered according to Y value in order.

Updated so that the camera has special effects when shooting rockets

Updated lifebars ontop of ally and enemy units.

Fixed some bugs with hit boxes.

New Map Test

Testing out a new map. Needs some tuning but anyway, the graphics are loading ok.

Redid the way all the animations work today.
I was using 2D bone animations, but now I have decided to use flash animations exported to sprite sheets to do all the work.

Update to Game Engine

Added a map scripting engine to the game engine so I can spawn enemies based on events in the game. Updated AI just a little bit.

Game Engine Weak AI Update

Added a really simple AI.
Knight on the left is AI shooting other AI.
Also added some blood particle effects

Game Engine Update (Killable Enemies)

Added some functionality so I can finally do damage and kill off enemies.

New Game Engine Test

Back on subject with games, here is a new test for the game engine.

- Particles are finished
- Particle scripting
- Adding particles to character attacks with scripting in the character editor
- Particle collision with characters
- Particle collision with map

About Radiation Levels..

Just want to do some calculations to make things clear on radiation levels.
I am an American, so I will base my average radiation levels on that of an American citizen.

I will list my sources in links at the end.

Unit conversion:
(Radiation exposure) 1 mrem is equal to 10 micro-Sievert (which is what the news keeps using)

The news is also using per hour as their measurements, so micro-sievert / hour. I'll be changing things to per day.

First, take a look at the average radiation level received by an American every year.
Based on a calculation I found on the internet, the average person receives around 340 mrems per year which is 3400 micro-Sievert per year.

Convert to per day and we have about 9.3 uSv (micro-sievert) per day average.

Basically right now they are saying in Tokyo we are absorbing .8 uSv per hour.
Convert this to per day and we have about 19.2 uSv.

Average XRay (Depending on what part of the body you take it) is around 10uSv.

So everyday we are basically absorbing the amount of 2 (Chest) XRays.

Please look at the date to check the radiation amounts, of course this will change everyday.

Average Radiation Calculation:
http://www.new.ans.org/pi/resources/dosechart/

Info about units of Sievert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sievert

Conversion from mrem to Sieverts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%B6ntgen_equivalent_man

More about radiation exposure:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1994/safe-0105.html

Xray radiation exposure:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray

Tokyo radiation exposure:
http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110315-268185.html

Comparison of rad levels
http://www.taishitsu.or.jp/radiation/index.html

Off Topic but Pisses me off

Ok, this is way off topic and I'm sure a lot of people are going to get angry about it but I have to express how I feel about all these fucking people waiting in line panicking to buy food and gasoline during the Japan tsunami tragedy.

First of all, why are you buying all the fucking food?

We are only shutting down CERTAIN parts of Tokyo and not all of it.
Not only is it only PART of Tokyo, but its only three hours!!
Just read a book or play with your cell phone, its not that hard to find something to do for three hours.

This gives no damn reason to go buy all the water and food.

Secondly,
If we buy all the food, we don't have any food to send to all the refugees we NEED to be saving in Sendai and northern Japan.
Why do you only think about yourselves? It makes me fucking sick.

Third:
For all of you buying gasoline.
You are only making the problem worse!!
Without gasoline the trucks needed to deliver food to the super markets and convenience stores can't make deliveries, which only makes everything a lot worse.

Now, why you say I get so upset about this?
Because when interviewed "Why are you buying so much rice?" "Why are you buying gasoline?"

The average person answered:
"Well everybody around me is, so I thought why not."

What the fuck kind of answer is this?
It matches the brain function of an average chicken.

Think for yourself! Do you really need to be buying all this?
Only 3 hours a day power outage, do you really need 50 lbs of rice?
Do you really need to fill up your car even though you aren't going anywhere?

It makes no sense. Think for once about what you are doing instead of just following the rest of the community like fucking zombies.

Anyway, done with my rant.

Just learn to think for yourself, and think about what is better for the community around you. Stop being so fucking selfish.

Thanks.

Japan Tsunami

UnoNO and I are in Tokyo, but we are ok.
Most of the damage is in northern Japan.
When I came home everything in my apartment was turned over and broken, but other than that I'm ok.

Aftershocks are still continuing, but a damaging one hasn't come yet.

Here is a video of the tsunami

Added Smoke Trail to Rocket

Used the particle engine to add a smoke trail to the rocket.
Also added a few scripts so he can do jump attacks and semi-auto fire.

Particle Engine and Rocket Test

Added particles and ability to script particles into keyframes.

Future of Gaming, perhaps?

Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games in charge of big games like Gears of War, Unreal, and helped out with other games like Bulletstorm, and Infinity Blade.

A lot of people on forums or youtube think this guy is a huge jackass, and tend to criticize him for being a douche.

But my opinion, this guy is way ahead of the game, and a damn genius.

Although I'm not a big Gears of War fan myself (sorry CliffyB) I really respect him as a game developer. He really loves what he does, who he speaks to, and thinks about the future more than most developers.

One of the biggest things in my opinion that he talked about during his speech was the change in the way people's minds work from 10-20 years ago and now, and how that will apply to video games.

Personally I have really been thinking about how to mesh together AAA titles with social games in a non-annoying way for a while now.

I really think having a system that will allow you to interact with your AAA title while on the go, is a genius idea.

An example of a first step in the right direction may be B-Spec mode in Gran Turismo 5.
You can actually run races from a web browser anywhere you go to earn EXP and cash for your drivers. This is a great feature, however the lack of appeal and marketing to the feature is really its biggest downfall.

Also the fact that you have to leave your PS3 on as a server, rather than just syncing data when you turn your PS3 on seems like a bad idea...

Nevertheless, it definitely was a good step in the right direction to hook gamers on your title. Making it available at home and on the go, is in my opinion the future of gaming.

Perhaps add side missions as an app on the iOS appstore. Example, play an FF game at home and then have a way to level up your summons (or GFs like FF8) by playing some mini games on your iphone in a battleHeart style.

Some one in the industry, please look at this and take it into consideration (if you are the man like CliffyB I'm sure you are already thinking about it).

Or you could just hire me as a designer ;)


CliffyB's lecture:

Smoke animation for rocket launcher

Added some smoke animation for the firing of the rocket launcher.

Added scripting and attack animation

Big breakthrough today on the game engine!!
Added scripting to the engine so we can script attacks and add some better effects.

To test it out I made a shoot animation for the Knight, and when he shoots the recoil of the rocket launcher makes him slide backwards a bit. Check it out.

Walking Knight Test

Here is a test of a newly colored walking knight.

Character Idle Animation Game Engine Test

Here is just a test of the character with animation being loaded into a custom made map... No running or jumping animations yet (sorry)

Crysis 2 Demo PS3

The Crysis 2 demo has been announced for PS3.
Looks like the multiplayer has some really new and cool elements.

Gonna have to check it out.

Killzone Live Action Fan made Movie

Found a pretty cool live action Killzone movie made by some amateurs.

These guys also made Cardbord ops, and some other pretty great movies.

Check it out:

Character test

Here is just a screen shot of two characters with shadows.

The penguin is jumping to show we have animations working.

The knight was drawn by UnoNO, and I just half-assed colored it.

A new Minecraft : Fortress Craft

Looks like because of the stunning popularity of minecraft, some one has decided to make a newer, prettier version of a similar idea.

Although actually Minecraft itself wasn't an original idea, people are really giving this game a lot of shit for being a Minecraft clone..

Oh well, minecraft isn't on xbox and Fortresscraft is.

Here is the website for the game:

http://www.fortresscraft.com/

Minecraft coming to iOS

Markus Persson, founder of Mojang, the Swedish developer behind indie phenomenon Minecraft, has exclusively revealed to Gamasutra that an official iOS version of the hit open-world game is currently in the works for iPhone and iPad.

The port is being developed by Aron Neiminen, a new recruit to the Mojang team, and will be released later this year.

Persson said that the iOS edition will not receive every update that the original browser and download version gets, but rather will be granted those features that "make sense" for the touch-screen platform.

The game has received numerous unofficial Minecraft releases on iPhone and iPad, but this is the first official iOS release from the Mojang team.

I haven't been able to play Minecraft yet because I was afraid of wasting my life on it on the PC.

Now that it is coming to my phone, I have an excuse to play it during my transit to work.

Sounds good to me!

source Gamasutra

First Game Test

Here is a test of the map editor and a simple version of the game engine.

The penguin is animated for walking and jumping.

Collision with the stage boundary polygons is also working.

I drew the penguins and the stage in photoshop, my wife did the initial idea of a penguin.

Short Killzone 3 Review

Guerilla Games' KILLZONE 3: The God of Games

That's right, I got my hands on a copy of Killzone 3 a few weeks before the release date.

And man, what a game!

I have been a fan of the series since the release of Killzone 2 on the PS3, and I was really excited for the next addition in the series.

But little did I know how underestimated my excitement for this game really was.

I can't really show any screen shots, well, because I'm not really supposed to be talking about the game yet.

Let me break it down into a few categories and do a short review!

What everybody cares about, right? : Graphics!

Killzone 3 is DEFINITELY not lacking in this department. Killzone 3 by far has the best graphics I've seen yet on the PS3. From the first 30 seconds into the game, I always already overwhelmed by how amazing the lighting and reflections were done, and the extreme detail on the character models really blew my mind. This game is just way to pretty to put down.

The only thing I will mention, the lip sync with the voice acting is a bit off, but maybe that's just because I'm so spoiled by the quality of Naughty Dog's Uncharted series right? ;)

The environments in the game are spectacular, you go from inside a Helghan ship, to the jungle, to a snowy Helghan base, and even more! So amazing how much content variety they threw in the game.

Sound:

Guerilla really put a lot of effort into the sound effects of the game. Along with the graphics presentation, you really feel immersed in the Helghan planet it takes place on.

However again, same with the previous games the voice acting is a bit hard to believe, but I just try to ignore it.

Play Control:

The play control this time around is pretty great compared to KZ2. No custom control schemes though :(

I switched my scheme to alternative and didn't really feel any discomfort. They also took out the inertial movement of the cursor they had in KZ2, which makes for tighter control.

One point I'd like to hit on, that I loved with KZ2, is the proper use of motion control!

Finally a game company understands WHEN to put motion control and when not to.

Turning valves by holding L1 and R1 while rotating the controller really adds to the experience in a good way. Not like the bullshit that Zelda pulls on the Wii. Can't stand it.

A new addition that I really love, is the renewed cover system. They added a slide into the control scheme, so when you are sprinting towards a wall, you can hit the duck button to slide into a cover position. Really works great.

Story:

Wait, Killzone had a story?

The story isn't so bad at all, definitely saw some influences from Call of Duty games though.

Play for yourself to find this one out :)

Badass-ness:

Extremely badass! Have you SEEN the brutal melee system?

You can sneak up behind people, slit their throats, gouge out their eyes, and stick a knife in their face.

This game took it over the top (not chainsaw ripping Gears of War level yet though) and made some crazy brutal melee animations.

And let me add, its not like the dumbass animations Halo: Reach made for assassinations (sorry Halo I still love you, I promise)

Overall Rating:

It's over 9000!

But seriously, I'd give it a 9/10 (or a 9000/10000 just so I can use the Vegeta quote)

This game is so great, I actually loved the game so much I am playing through it again and again.

Maybe I'll even try to grab the platinum trophy! (for the first time ever)

Advice:

Go buy/reserve Killzone! This game is just to great to miss.

If you wanna check it out, check the PSN for an open beta.

Here's a video for now:

Game Engine

So I decided to start making a game.
Started on the map editor in XNA, sucks so far but here's what I got.

Basically it lets you do parallax scrolling with 4 layers, has an editor for tile based and polygon based collision maps. Also supports multiple layers.

Loads textures and you can save and open files.

Yippee.

Call of Duty Parody: Duty Calls

A really great parody of shitty Call of Duty games. Made by Epic Games.

NGP Video Motion Controls

Motion control video for AR. Something had a a nice part of

NGP: Next Generation Portable (Sony PSP2)

Announced today Jan 27 at 3PM Japan time, the next generation portable!

Features a 5 inch OLED touch screen with a touch pad also on the back of the device to provide new input capability! Two joysticks, accelerometer, gyroscope and digital compass. Also includes GPS with a new social networking software called "Near" that will show the popularity of games by region, and near where you are.

They also revealed upcoming titles:

Uncharted, Call of Duty, Hot Shots Golf, Little Deviants

The hardware will go on sale this holiday season!!

Also, various third party companies came to announce they are porting and developing games on the NGP, and the environment is much similar to the PS3.

Uncharted and MGS4 are shown below:

SCE Announcement Live Feed

Playstation Announcement

Here is the live stream for the playstation conference:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kotaku-japan%E5%AE%9F%E6%B3%81

Borderlands: Damn Amazing

I know I'm probably late to the party but, I recently stumbled upon a jewel of the game: Borderlands. Published by 2K games, it may be one of the most developer-heart filled games I've seen in a long time. Basically the people who made the game just thought about what awesome things they could put into an FPS, and conjured up what is Borderlands.

4-player online co-op, 2 player split screen co-op, post-apocalypse world, Fall Out 3 style game play, over millions of weapons generated procedurally so the game is different every time, the AI is also created procedurally, not to mention the choice of 4 really great character styles, each with a World of Warcraft skill tree upgrade system.

Wait, did I mention it also has vehicles??

They basically took every great game and compiled it into one game full of awesome.

Check out a trailer for the game, and then go buy it:

Check out the IGN video about how Borderlands is for real gamers:

Minecraft : new type of sandbox game

This game evoke player's creativity and it makes the game fun in itself.
It's attracting me continually but it consume vast of time...be careful.

BTW I joined this blog recently and will try to keep posting so plz enjoy posts and leave comments.


Edit: Here is a video of an 8-bit CPU built in minecraft

DC Universe Online

Geeze this game looks awesome..
GameSpot made a huge 1 hour video of gameplay for hero and villain, check it out:

A New Halo Game..

Didn't get enough Halo after beating Reach, and you have a love for Nintendo games?

Well, neither did Eric Ruth, the creator of a new Halo series: 8-bit Halo.

The game is available for download from this link.

It's a simple executable that doesn't need an install. Check the readme for any problems.

Here is a video I yanked from youtube:

I played the game myself and its pretty great, basically like playing Megaman but with Halo weapons and enemies.

Brink: A Mirror's Edge FPS!

Pretty exciting new online FPS called Brink.

It basically combined a Mirror's Edge control system with an FPS, which is basically a dream come true in my opinion.

The game is published by Bethesda, and comes out Spring 2011!

FFXIII-2 Trailer

Here is a link to the FFXIII-2 Trailer

Link to video

Can't embed but link to FFXIII Versus Trailer

Here is a link, can't embed it but it still works:

Versus Trailer

About 7 minute trailer for versus, showing combat and cinema.

Square Enix Press Conference

Square Enix just finished up a press conference announcing what upcoming games are related to the Final Fantasy series.

In order as they were announced:

• FINAL FANTASY XIII-2 (Planned for 2011, PS3 and XBOX360)
• FINAL FANTASY Type-Zero (Release date not confirmed, PSP)
• FINAL FANTASY XIII- Versus (No confirmed release, PS3 ONLY)

Here's a picture of FFXIII-2 Logo:

Here's a picture FFXIII Type Zero:

FFXIII wasn't such a bad game, but it will be interesting to see how they open it up to a sequel.

Little Big Planet 2 :America Release 1/18

Ever wanted to make your own platforming game?

LBP2 Beta Platformer

How about your own RPG?

LBP2 Beta RPG

How about your own operating system?

LBP2 Beta Windows XP

How about another Ace Combat game?
LBP2 Beta Dog Fight Game

Well now you can! Check out what people are doing so far with the beta version Little Big Planet 2!

This game is by far one of the most innovative games of the generation, in fact its so robust and innovative, Sony might just be putting themselves out of business.

You can create, share, and play online with up to 4 people, so get ready to make your video game dreams come true when Little Big Planet 2 releases January 18th in America!

I reserved my copy today (shipping to Japan definitely sucks...), but right now Amazon has a deal if you pre-order the game you can get a $20 gift card, so go pre-order NOW!

?uest here.

A new challenger appears!

Hi, everyone. I go by the handle of ?uest, and, yes, love playing the ol' vidya games. I have at some point owned all of the next-gen consoles and consider myself well-versed in most genres of gaming. Platforming, FPS, and Role-playing games are really my bread and butter, and who doesn't enjoy a good rhythm game from time to time? You can find me most nights locked away from civilization, hopping on Goombas, blasting the faces off the Helghast, or exploring the dungeons of Hyrule.

Recently purchased a PS3, hoping to cash in on the exclusive titles I had yet to play, but kept hearing so much about. After owning it for about 2 months, 5 of the 7 games I currently own are exclusive to the console, and I have to say, the hype surrounding these titles is well-deserved. Killzone 2 has one of the best on-line multiplayer communities I have ever experienced, with smooth controls, killer graphics and a rank system on par with anything I have personally played. If only I could get that damn turret badge! God of War III, of course, is...well, godly. Having played the first two to completion several times, I would say this game was the driving point to shell out all that hard-earned cash on the console. And it was totally worth it. The epic story is only the beginning. Kratos will have you addicted to destruction, in the best possible way, crushing everything in your path until you finally face Zeus himself. Along the way you face Hercules, Hades the lord of the underworld, Poseidon the sea god, and Hermes, an annoyingly smug peon who obviously enjoys espresso enemas(How else could he move so fast?). Santa Monica Studio seriously knocked this entire series out of the park, they claim this is the final chapter, but something tells me we havent seen the last of Kratos. If they are truly finished exploring the Greek mythology of GOW, it'll be interesting to see how they top the series with their next outing.

Uncharted 2: Among Theives is, hands down, the most cinematic game in history (thus far). Imagine you could become a younger, more charasmatic Indiana Jones on the hunt for a lost historical treasure and you'll have a hint at what Nathan Drake offers. One of the most memorable protagonists in recent history, Drakes one-liners will have you in stitches. The gameplay is brilliant, combining platforming with third-person shooting, and enough action to keep you coming back. Drake's first game is definitely on my radar now, as well as the next one coming out later this year.

My recent gaming adventures have only further cemented my love for the artform (yes, it is an artform, Mr. Ebert. I invite you to play Shadow of the Colossus if you have any doubts.), and the recent (about 2 yrs) discovery of online multiplayer is one of the greatest leaps forward for my personal gaming interest. As long as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft keep crankin out their magic fun boxes, I will continue to reap the benefits of immersion in virtual reality. Stay tuned, folks. We're just getting started.

First Post

Just a first post on the blog to introduce what its going to be about, and who I am.

Basically we are going to be writing a blog about latest gaming information, game reviews, technical
thoughts/reviews, as well as an educated guess on what type of people the game may be fit for.
Because the writers and co-writers of the blog are from different backgrounds, we also provide different outlooks on games, which might provide some insight on questions such as:

"Why the hell doesn't Little Big Planet sell in Japan?!"
"Why do Americans play nothing but FPS?"
"What's up with Japanese RPGs anyway?"
"Is this a good game to play together with my girlfriend?"
"Which is better, Gran Turismo or Forza?"

All of which I'm sure have been asked at some point in time.

To introduce myself, I am (Rockman10) a software engineer that works for Sony Computer Entertainment here in Tokyo, Japan. I originally grew up in a small town in America, and started working for SCE a little over a year ago. I have all the current generation systems, including handhelds, and I also enjoy playing virtually any kind of game. I speak both Japanese and English so if you are curious about games that arrive in Japan before America, feel free!

I can borrow virtually any game (Japanese/American/European) from my office, so if you have any request on a game you would like to be reviewed, just post or send an email to threeguysemail@gmail.com and I'll try to get around to reviewing it.

The current games I am playing will be listed below the posts section in the Now Playing list.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the posts to come, I'll try to get around to posting a review.