I removed the wedding link because I'm working on a new site for it. Not to worry, the wedding is still on, like the break of dawn.
I plan on using scrapblog for our wedding site.
Wedding page undergoing renovations
Heroes: Some Kind of Awesomeful
Heroes is on tonight - Hiro time travels 5 years into the future. Awesome.
Of course, if you miss it, you can watch Heroes episodes online, too.
Projects in development (maybe)
Top 10 rumored-to-be-in-development games I want to play:
1. Knights of the Old Republic Online
2. World of Starcraft
3. Civilization for DS
4. Knights of the Old Republic III
5. Madden featuring online, persistent leagues with annual drafts and trading (holy grail: NCAA Football with same features - though that might be too much awesome, even for me)
6. Star Wars lightsaber game for the Wii
7. The next Zelda for Wii
8. Prince of Persia next gen (err, current gen)
9. Jade Empire II
10. The symphony conductor game for the Wii. Guitar Hero for old people.
Good bye Susie's couch, so long Katie's serving table
Salvation Army came by. We donated the 2nd couch in the living room. In the pic, its the dark blue one. (Fun Fact: the coat rack in the corner is now in my office at work.) I loved that couch, but it served its time, and was just a big cat hair collector. Also, donated the serving table that used to be in the dining room. Megen really liked it and we had tried it out in the office for a little while, in the end, just didn't match anything else other than the coffee table. (Fun Fact #2: the lamp in the corner died.)
We went through all the furniture I've ever owned, and Meg pointed out that I usually got it from someone else, that I rarely bought my own furniture from the store. Once we buy a new house, I see a lot of new furniture in my future:)
Blue Dragon DLC out in Japan
300 points for「シャッフルダンジョン」??!! That better be the best 「シャッフルダンジョン」ever for that much. The last time I had me some 「シャッフルダンジョン」it didn't cost that much!
The Openings to Fallout, for your viewing pleasure
You can find ANYTHING on youtube.
Opening to the first Fallout
Opening to Fallout 2
Opening to Fallout Tactics
My favorite Fallout video
I always wanted to form an Asian boy band. The teen mags -- instead of listing our height and sports played -- would list our GPAs and piano or violin played.
Fix for Shivering Isles - Monday
Per the official forums, the new Shivering Isles update is coming Monday, 4/30 - for all languages. It fixes the formID bug. A final PC patch will also be released.
While I wait for Mass Effect and Blue Dragon to come out...
I've been jones'ing to play RPGs lately. Oblivion/Shivering Isles is fun, but damnit, its my freakin' game so it doesn't have quite the fun factor - its like kissing your sister (not that I would know anything about that). I played some Lord of the Rings Online during the beta, felt the MMO addiction kick in, and immediately uninstalled it before I got sucked into the MMO pit of no-social-life-ness. (Never again, World of Warcraft. Never again)
I tried to play Gothic III but didn't find any fun alternating between horrendous hitching and bad framerates, and just straight outright crashing. I spent about an hour messing with settings and drivers before giving up, and firing up the Xbox 360. In the immortal words of Sergeant Roger Murtaugh, "I'm too old for this shit."
Enchanted Arms - sorry, but I couldn't get into it. I love Final Fantasy, but it wasn't quite the same. I should give it another try someday. Marvel Ultimate Alliance is crazy fun and would definitely help with my craving; I had rented it before, should've just bought it outright.
Thanks to backward compatibility, I've been replaying Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire on my Xbox 360. I didn't have my plasma TV when I played them the first time around, -- must say, it is quite a difference, especially Jade - which looks better than I remembered it. Jade Empire has a special place in my heart -- kung fu RPG is a rare animal, I'll take what I can get. I'll probably move on to KOTOR 2 next.
I've also been playing Puzzle Quest on DS every night. I wish somebody would port the original Baldur's Gate series to the DS, or the brilliant Dark Cloud series to PSP.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Anniversary
Five years ago today, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind went gold. Most of the core Morrowind team still works at the studio today. I found this old team diary about favorite Elder Scrolls moments poking around the Morrowind website, a good read.
The gorgeous pic I've posted here is called Morrowind Days by Snow Skadi.
Preorder Planet Earth on HD DVD
Seriously. You want this. Available for preorder from Amazon.
Planet Earth is a jaw dropping documentary series -- but in hi def -- Fugedaboutit!
Penny Arcade on Fallout forums
I'm a big fan of Penny Arcade, and enjoyed Tycho's post about the Fallout forums (and the creepy witch touching/hunting game). They did a great comic about Fallout and Bethesda a couple of years ago (damn, has it been that long?). Though, I do sympathize with our forum goers certainly -- I go into insane rants about Gilmore Girls all the time, as Megen can attest to.
The forums for the new Bethesda interpretation of Fallout are now open, and the sound is like a hundred thousand bats shrieking as they swirl around a jutting spire of obsidian. When I speak with fervor on topics that interest me, do I sound like them? It makes a strong case for a monastic existence.
Acting as their own publisher, Bethesda has the power to do what Denis Dyack has (perhaps correctly) suggested is the optimal scenario: withhold materials from a game until a developer can show it on their terms. In practice, it has been like shaking a soda bottle continuously for more than a year, so that when an opportunity to relieve the pressure was presented the result is volatile.
The history of Fallout as a franchise has all the trappings of a spiritual epic, replete with false messiahs and long persecution. Those who still hew to this strange religion are quick to call out Bethesda's many crimes, but they have no idea what Bethesda intends to do with Fallout. No-one does. The forums must have gone up for a reason, let us hope we will soon have genuine facts to discuss.
Fallout 3 website goes live - teaser poster
fallout.bethsoft.com is up. Just a teaster poster. That's it for now, just links to forums.
Unofficial Shivering Isles credits
Sorry, I actually wrote this up a while ago, just forgot to post it.
I did this for Knights of the Nine. Thought I'd do it again for Shivering Isles. The credits are much longer so the comments are a little less snarky (just a little bit).
Lead Producers
Jeffery Gardiner
Craig Lafferty
Craig (Claff!!!!!!) ran the project during pre-production and most of production. Jeff stepped in later as another project started to require more of Craig's time. You have Jeff to thank for downloadable content -- he was the producer to bla-- I mean, responsible for them.
Design Director
Bruce Nesmith
Bruce has a beard.
Lead Designer
Mark Nelson
I used to play all night poker sessions at Mark's house. Then he had a baby. Bye bye all night poker.
Lead Artist
Matthew Carofano
Matt and I sat next to each other on a plane on our way out to GDC this year. We talked about how expensive houses are in the DC area.
Lead Character Artist
Christiane Meister
She rides horses.
Lead Level Designer
Michael E. Ryan
He is dead to me.
Quality Assurance Lead
Kevin Kauffman
His job is tough. He can't just test something once. He's gotta test everything across mutiple platforms with multiple configurations. No such thing as a simple piece of downloadable content.
Associate Producers
Nathan X. McDyer
Timothy Lamb
These guys lead our Guitar Hero prowess on the team. Along with Mike Dulany, too. I suck, btw.
Programming
Guy Carver
Scott Franke
Ahn Hopgood
Christopher Hynes
Mat Krohn
Mike Lipari
Brian Robb
Jeff Ward
Most of our programming staff worked on Shivering Isles here and there. I have nothing funny to write.
Additional Programming
Joshua Andersen
Brendan Anthony
Erik Deitrick
David DiAngelo
Joel Dinolt
Michael Dulany
Chris Innanen
Steve Meister
Nathan Nordfelt
Jean Simonet
Jeff Sheiman
Orin Tresnjak
Dan Teitel
Craig Walton
Um...running out of things to write, so many names. Steve is the lead programmer on Fallout. Jean is French. Orin's last name is hard to say. Dave DiAngelo and Joel Dinolt are part of our awesome Hunt Valley office that totally kicked the PS3's ass by getting Oblivion to run on it.
Quest Design
Erik J. Caponi
Brian Chapin
Jon Paul Duvall
Kurt Kuhlmann
Alan Nanes
I hear they all secretly hate Bruce and are plotting to oust him.
Concept Art
Adam Adamowicz
Like me, Adam has a bionic leg. He's getting a pin taken out of his leg soon, I referred him to my ortho guy.
World Art
Hope Adams
Andy Barron
Noah Berry
Clara Cafasso
Tony Greco
Daniel T. Lee
Megan Sawyer
Ryan Sears
Grant Struthers
Ryan bought my TIVO from me when I upgraded to a Comcast HD DVR. Clara's last name is now Struthers. Speaking of which, Grant did the awesome butterfly effect at the start of Shivering Isles.
Additional World Art
Dane Olds
Is he still here?
Dungeon Art
Todd Broadwater
Robert Wisnewski
Robert commutes like 5 hours a day. (I think I made this joke already with the Knights credits).
Level Design
Jeff Browne
Joel Burgess
Frank Ward
Jeff is still living the dream (Will I ever get tired of that joke? No way!). Joel is the level design lead for Fallout.
Character and Creature Art
Jonah Lobe
Gary Noonan
Juan Sanchez
Jonah likes to post crappy faux Fallout concepts online. Juan smokes a corn cob pipe (not making that up).
Additional Character and Creature Art
Liquid Development
Vitaliy Naymushin
I was pleased the Hunger made an appearance in Shivering Isles. He's my favorite Elder Scrolls creature.
Interface Art
Natalia Smirnova
Did I mention her concept of the Monk class is based on me?Seriously. Me.
Sound Design & Voice Direction
Mark Lampert
We have our on recording studio in the office now. It rules.
Quality Assurance
Alex Agnew
Ben Barreras
Angela Browder
James Costantino
Nate Ellis
Philip Georgatos
Dan Geske
Chris Krietz
Mike Lattanzia
Jason Little
Mike McGinn
Aaron Mitschelen
Jenna Noland
John Pisano
Louis Riley
Dan Ross
Ryan Salvatore
Alex Souder
Chris Steidel
Alex Tran
Jesse Tucker
Larry Waldman
Matt Weil
Fred Zeleny
Our QA dept is huge. Hence why it takes me forever to get food if I go to the cafeteria at noon. Fred made the Fallout valentine.
Additional Quality Assurance
Nick Allen
Stephen Coupe
Mike Crane
Jon DeVriendt
Viacheslav Erofeev
John Henry
Ken Mackel III
Kelly Renshaw
Try saying Viacheslav Erofeev three times fast. I lost a crown that way.
Voices
Betsy Ames
Jeff Baker
Beri Biern
Johnathon Bryce
Ralph Cosham
Catherine Flye
Gayle Jessup
Wes Johnson
Elisabeth Noone
Michael Mack
Emil Pagliarulo
Craig Sechler
LOVE the voice of Haskill -- Jeff Baker did a fantastic job. It was great having him back from Morrowind. I felt bad we weren't able to get him a part in Oblivion.
Voice Recording
Absolute Pitch Studios, Bethesda, MD
Philia Studios, Oxfordshire, UK
We had to use Philia Studios to record Catherine Flye, the Imperial Female, as she was working in the UK at the time.
Production Director
Ashley Cheng
I did not spend a lot of time on the day to day production; I mostly just bugged the shit out of Jeff, Craig and all the leads. For what its worth, I was the one who uploaded the actual files to Xbox Live and handed over the PC gold masters to the Fedex guy.
Executive Producer
Todd Howard
His office is next to mine. I hear the Notre Dame fight song all day long. I fear for my life.
unbelievable.
News about the VA Tech shooter is everywhere this morning. Absolutely horrific. I'm dreading the made for tv movie about it that is sure to come...
Ancient Franchises I would Revive
In the wake of the news that Bethesda fully owns the Fallout IP, I'd like to list the top 5 old franchises that I personally would buy and remake:
5. Privateer. The closest to my dream Han Solo space RPG as it ever gets.
4. Ancient Art of War. The excellent Total War series is the current day successor to this old series. I just played it like mad way back in the day and I often created my own scenarios.
3. Civilization for Nintendo DS. This really isn't an old franchise, just wanted to put in a personal request to Sid Meier.
2. Karate Champ. This is would be like restoring a classic car back to its original condition. Doubtful any of the original Karate Champ arcade machines are functional anymore - just restore or remake one of them so I can play this classic arcade game. Definitely one that is near and dear to my heart.
1. Lexicross. Scifi game shows - just not enough of them. The kind of game anybody could get into, great for parties.
For Megen's Mom
This pic of Megen, Mei (Sonia's new baby) and myself is for Megen's mom. Just pretend Mei is half Asian (as opposed to 1/4th Asian).
Kitchenaid Pro
Meg likes to cook. I took this pic - its Meg using her christmas present that I gave her last year.
Adventure games on the Wii
Hey, somebody ported ScummVM to the Gamecube -- which means it could work on my Wii, too. Awesome. I need to try this out. Day of the Tentacle, Curse of Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and Full Throttle are some of my favorite games. ScummVM is an emulator that runs old adventures games on a variety of platforms and devices. It even works on my smartphone. I wonder if the Wii remote works -- unlikely since its just a port to the gamecube and not Wii specific.
Eat at McDyer's
We had Easter dinner at my uncle's restaurant, McDyer's Publick House. My uncle is notable for his appearance in an episode of The Restaurant (an episode where lots of my family is appears in one shot!) The rack of lamb and ham were excellent, so is the Bass ale on tap. If you're ever near Woodstock, VA and in search of good beer and good food, should definitely check it out. There's also a cool coffeeshop/wine shop/wierd country antique store across the street that's worth trying out, too.
Twitter update
So, this Twitter thing. Not quite sure what the point of it really is. I mean, it's fun but I can't help but say it feels like a fad to me. I've been twittering -- if that's what you call it -- for a few weeks. The only thing I really found useful about it was when majornelson's site went down but he used twitter to give us updates on Xbox Live's maintenance. I'll try to make it more "themed" -- perhaps focus on my reading and tv watching habits? Or something.
A post about Nothing
This is kinda old news -- Pete gave this interview about Fallout 3 and said, "Some people will like it, some people will hate it." Fine line between love and hate, certainly. Not just for our games -- visit any developer's boards -- they are just as noisy with hate as ours. Often times, when I read boards or blogs, I feel that people think they need to be critical to sound smart. I think its sometimes harder to write copiously about why you liked something than than it is to criticize. Then again, isn't that the point? To register your disgust on the Internet? I would hope that if you were enjoying a game, that you would keep playing it:)
Anyways, early interviews about projects that we're not talking about are fairly tortuous for everybody all around. Though can't be any worse than waiting for a sequel since 1998 (when Fallout 2 released) or reading useless weblog entries about nothing...
Bad case of the Fridays
Megen has the day off today. She had to work last night, greeting the Cleveland Cavaliers at their hotel - I barely heard her when she got in at 3 AM. She promised me lasagna tonight, sweet!
Um, other than that, not much else going on. The leg is mucho better. Steps are a bit touch and go, but I can walk regularly. I haven't tried running yet though. Need to remember to see my doctor in a few weeks for follow up. I only needed the cane for the first couple of days.
Hey, Katie's preggers! Not sure if I wrote about that. Check out the chart on her blog, only 158 days to go!
I was thinking of taking off early today. Today is one of those Fridays where you just can't wait to get the frack out of the office.
Guitar Hero invades Bethesda Game Studios
Yeah, so we're all playing Guitar Hero II on our Xbox 360s. I had a brief moment at the top of my friend's list leaderboard, but now that Tim Lamb, our resident guitar hero extraordinaire, owns Guitar Hero 360, my days are numbered. Gavin and I actually left the office early on Tuesday to pick up his and Todd's copy of Guitar Hero 360, since Todd had a meeting he couldn't get out of. The EB only had 4 extra copies. I had to go because we didn't think they would let Gav buy 2 copies.
I'm waiting on more songs via Xbox Live Marketplace. They are coming, believe it.
Damn you, Chris Hansen. Damn you and your finely skulpted hair!
Whether you are tracking down creepy old men with bags on condoms on the prowl for underaged girls, or really stupid people dumb enough to give money to strangers over the Internet, why -- oh why -- can I stop myself from watching your shows???? Damn you and your addictive "to catch a..." specials!!!
New Widget -- videos!
I added a section for videos specific to our projects -- bethesda game studios videos. Pretty fun widget. Basically, a keyword search on videos about elder scrolls, morrowind, oblivion, etc... I might try adding fallout, but I think fallout is generic enough that might get wacky mix.
How to Start Shivering Isles
We'd like to pause for this public service announcement:
How do I start Shivering Isles?
Wait 1 day. That's it. You'll get a journal telling you how to start Shivering Isles.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.
UPDATE (02/21/08):
Spoiler alert here. The journal you are waiting for is called A Door in Niben Bay. Check for this in your journal. If you do not have it, make sure you have properly installed Shivering Isles and are running patch 1.2 (or 1.2.1 on Xbox 360). I wrote a more complete Shivering Isles troubleshooting FAQ at the Bethesda Blog.
If I designed Rock Band, Harmonix's new game
Good strategery -- the same week at Guitar Hero 360 ships, Harmonix, the developer of Guitar Hero who is now owned by MTV, announces their next game is Rock Band -- in short, not just a guitar, but drum kit, microphone and bass...
If I were the executive producer of Rock Band, I would put a guitar, bass, set of drums, a microphone and a book of sheet music in a box and sell it. Zero development time required. We could ship next week if we wanted to.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
