Per Greg Beeman's blog. He's a director/producer for Heroes.
Vacation
Traveling for the next couple of weeks, visiting Greece. Spending July 4th holiday overseas. We're driving up to Philly tomorrow to have dinner with Adela before our flight leaves. I'm procrastinating on packing, blogging. Just noticed Megen is packing. Hmm. I should probably start, too.
Check out this picture of Adela I found when I google'd her name. Nice.
I'm offline until next Thursday when we're in Athens, staying at a hotel with wifi.
Summer reading list, Greece edition
I have a HUGE backlog of books on my bed stand (ok, actually, they are piled on the floor). My goal is to catch up by the end of the year.
Here is what I'm taking with me on vacation:
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
This is the book I'm most looking forward to reading. This is the book the Lincoln film is based on, the film that Spielberg is directing after Indy 4.
Monster Island and Monster Nation
Zombies = Awesome.
The March: A Novel
E.L. Doctorow's novel about Sherman's march. I'm a big fan of Civil War books.
The Plot Against America
Phillip Roth's alternate history novel. Heard lots of good things about it.
Too bad Harry Potter 7 isn't coming out until July 21st. Would've been good beach read.
Getting an IPhone, I am waiting
I'm waiting. No seriously, I am. Yes, I am. Damn you, Consumerist. They posted an article on how to get out of your current cellphone contract so you can buy an IPhone. I didn't know I could resell my cell contract. Hmmm.
Currently Playing - June update
Catan, Xbox 360
Carryover from last month. I'll be playing this game for a while. I'm obsessed with getting my ranked online record back above .500 -- I just ripped off 3 wins in a row the past few days so my record is 10-11. Since every game ends with only one winner and three losers, its difficult to keep a winning record. Absolutely brilliant game.
Puzzle Quest, Nintendo DS
I'm slowing down a bit on this, but still playing. Its something that I can pick up and play for a few spare minutes here and there. Its coming to Xbox Live, but I think I'll stick to my ultra portable DS.
Guitar Hero 2, Xbox 360
Not so much a game as it is a lifestyle. I've hit my limit skillwise, but its fun playing My Chemical Romance's Dead to unwind after a long day at work.
Call of Juarez, Xbox 360
I wish more games were westerns. This one is interesting in that you play two different characters, one in pursuit of the other. I only played the first few chapters, the gameplay is very slooow to ramp up. Way too many frustrating jumping obstacles - a couple times is enough to teach me the mechanic, I get it, don't make me doing all over the place. I know this game has lots of cool weapons and horses and interesting game mechanics, unfortunately, you don't see much of them during the first hours of the game. The preacher character has a bible you can whip out in your inventory - not quite sure what it does but I thought that was cool. The stealth -- and not much of the game so far - is not that great, but the theme and ambiance is interesting enough that I plan on playing more. Visually, it is a nice looking game overall, too.
Forza 2, Xbox 360
Forza fever has infected everybody at work. I should ask Gavin if I can post a pic of his Fallout 3 car. It is an impressive game. I suck at it horribly. I don't know how to play realistic racing games anymore and not sure if I want to bother relearning. Burnout has ruined me. I just want to hold down the gas and use my parking break around the turns -- great for Burnout, not so great for Forza. Insanely bad in fact. So I suck. But if you like racing games, this is a can't-miss.
NCAA Football 2007, Xbox 360
I have only one game left to play and then will retire my coach for this edition of NCAA Football. The 2008 edition comes out next month. I'll have a separate post to summarize my coaching career with the Maryland Terrapins and the Indiana Hoosiers. In short, I was shooting to get Indiana to the National Championship during my last year before I retire - just missed it - we came in ranked #3 in the nation at the end. Ah well. Having played NCAA Football for 114 days over the past year, I sure got my money's worth:)
During my vacation next week, I'm taking with me:
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All, Nintendo DS
I am right at the end of the first one, stuck. I'll have to check gamefaq to finish it, then I can start the next one. LOVE these games. Just love 'em. If Lucasarts is listening, please bring back the Monkey Island series and look at the other DS adventure games as a model.
Mario Party, Nintendo Wii
Taking the Wii to Greece with us, will try out this party game. Heard good things.
TI99 Star Trek game
I totally played the crap out of this Star Trek game. I was trying to find video of the mountain climbing game for the TI99, Alpiner - it used the voice synthesizer and I remember the climber screaming Oh NO!!! whenever you fell.
Midnight at Eric Wagner's house
I remember being a gamer as far back as 5th grade when I had a Texas Instruments TI99 computer. I collected games for it like mad, got the voice synthesizer, had 2 joysticks. I had several programming books and I recall typing in sample game code space invader style game -- for some reason, I retyped that sample game a couple times because I don't think I had any way to save the program -- good ol' basic.
My best friend, Eric Wagner, had a Commodore 64. I would sleep over at his house where we would alternate between playing Intellivision (long live Utopia) and his Commodore (Archon was our game of choice). His dad would come down with bowls of ice cream for us before he headed off the bed, and we would stay up all night. Eventually, we would get bored of the games and start making our own. He would start typing on the Commodore, and I would pace around the room and dictate to him.
I don't remember what games we came up with, we never actually finished one and they were definitely not what you would call "good." But those nights are some of the best times of my life -- it was like from the second I came over, we were just waiting for the middle of the night to come so we could start making games. Starting a new game was easily the best part - we would get bored with them pretty fast, so we often started over fresh. Now that I do it for a living, you'd think that's all I get to do -- but since our games take 4 years to make, starting fresh doesn't happen as often as it did back then.
Here, let Bill Cosby break it down for you.
PS
Imagine if I had become an FBI agent or police detective instead? I'd be writing about how Eric and I would pretend we were the Hardy Boys, running around the neighborhood, solving crimes.
Ribs
Beautiful day today. Megen went to hair dressers this morning, I read all day. For dinner, we're doing the braised spare ribs again. I got this recipe from Wegmans, you can find it on their website, too. The meat is so tender it falls off the bone.
Here is the recipe - couldn't believe how easy it was.
Braised Barbecue Pork Spareribs
1 rack Wegmans Center Cut Pork Spareribs (about 2 1/2-lbs), halved
1 Tbsp Wegmans Barbecue Seasoning
1 bottle (19 oz) Wegmans Memphis-Style BBQ Sauce
1 bottle (12 oz) lager-style beer
You'll need: Braising pan, aluminum foil
Preheat grill on HIGH 10 min.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Clean grill with wire brush. Using soft cloth, coat grill grate lightly with vegetable oil. [I just use a non stick spray - a weber brand that doesn't flare on a grill]
2. Season both sides of ribs with barbecue seasoning. [I do this the day before and let it sit overnight in fridge] Sear on grill 3-4 min per side; do not cook through. Transfer ribs to braising pan.
3. Whisk BBQ sauce and beer together in bowl until well-blended; pour over ribs in pan. Cover pan tightly with foil; place in oven. [I use Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Yum.]
4. Bake 2 1/2-3 hours. Carefully remove foil; bake 10 additional min.
Sarah's Surprise Birthday Pics
A few weeks ago, we surprised Sarah for her birthday. I just figured out you can embed my google picture albums, so thought I'd post the pics. Check out the preggers on Katie!
Need more cow bell
The story on Rock Band in latest GI mentions the singers get to use their microphone as percussion and they might get "cow bell phrases". Oh man, I hope Blue Oyster Cult is in the game.
BTW, this is one of the greatest Will Farrell skits.
My Wallet Weeps
Per Dubious Quality, some interesting stats about console sales.
May NPD Numbers:
Wii: 338,000
PS2: 188,000
360: 154,000
PS3: 81,000
Here are year-to-date totals for next-gen:
Wii: 1,728,000
360: 994,000
PS3: 664,000
However, when my family gets together, we do like to play games and that is when the Wii shines. It is fantastic for get togethers and parties - everyone loves it, whether you are a hardcore gamer or not.
Yet the Wii has fewer titles, and I imagine the wider audience that enjoys playing the Wii would only buy a few titles a year -- as opposed to the gamers who buy 1-2 titles a month. I'm curious if the larger market who purchase fewer titles a year is large enough to overtake the smaller gamer market who purchase many more titles. I'd imagine the gamer market still carries the industry right now, and probably will for a while.
Speaking of which, to quote Gavin, "My wallet weeps." So many must play games coming out this year -- Halo 3, GTA 4, Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, Half Life 2 Orange, and for me, NCAA Football. I feel sorry for any games that have to ship this year during Q4.
Blogs love Zelda
At least the Blogging Zelda blog loves Zelda. As a big Zelda fan, reading this blog is like a Civil War buff reading Shelby Foote. Um. Sort of.
Father's Day in West Virginia
Megen and I drove out to Morgantown, WV (its a half way point between DC and Erie, PA) yesterday to meet her parents for a father's day lunch. I emailed Sonia for suggestions on where to eat, she wrote, "Eww, gross it all sucks." And suggested the West Virginia Brewing Company, the only place that her parents would eat at. It wasn't bad, I enjoyed it.
Comments
Sigh. See, the thing is, I really don't care what people post or comment. I love the transparency that this weblog offers. But I'm turning on comment moderation (thanks to Brios' note), though I hope to turn it off soon. To be honest, it was really only one post that crossed the line for me, the rest were okay.
However, I set it so anyone can post again. Just give it a day and it should appear. My family doesn't have quite the tolerance that I do, but they understand how much work is involved with my life so unless its really offensive and obscene, I'll approve it all.
PS Happy Father's Day, everybody! Alright!
Xbox trip
My trip was fast. I flew in Thursday morning, drove straight to Xbox HQ, ate lunch, met with some of our friends at Xbox, dropped off some presents for them, picked up some schwag, checked in to work, saw pics Gavin's awesome Fallout 3 car from Forza 2, downloaded them to add them to my talk, did my talk, drove into downtown Seattle, checked into the hotel, went to dinner, had some drinks afterwards, back to hotel, slept for 5 hours, checked out, drove to airport, and flew back to DC by 4 PM on Friday.
Had some great sushi at a Wasabi Bistro - I added it to Ash's Good Eats.
Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
Anybody get their copy of Game Informer in the mail yet? I think I'm more excited about the Rock Band article than the Fallout 3 stuff.
Update 6/17/07:
I disabled comments - please take it out on our forums and not me, thanks:) -- per my comment that we aren't talking - in short, my weblog is not the place for the latest and greatest on Fallout 3. As for when more details will be coming out about the game, I don't know, sorry. I can say that when more details come out, don't worry about "missing" it, as Fallout news tends to spread quickly:) (I haven't even gotten my copy of the Game Informer in the mail yet!)
Update II:
I turned comments back on as they all weren't obscene. I deleted the obscene ones, and I've turned on registered users to post comments, sorry, no more anon posts. I'd prefer not to turn on moderation, so we'll try it without it for now.
Update III:
I turned moderation on, though I'm not happy about it. I don't mind trolls, but not happy when they link to really obscene material or make very obscene remarks. And by obscene, I mean, REALLY obscene. My threshhold is pretty high, in general -- but damn, there are some very sick people out on the intrawebs.
Anyhoo, you can probably tell who the offender is by reading the comments. I've deleted the obscene links and comments.
Microsoft
I'm leaving tomorrow morning to do a brown bag post mortem at Microsoft. I was asked to write a bio for myself, a very weird exercise.
Here is what I wrote:Ashley Cheng was the Producer on The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, and its expansions, Tribunal and Bloodmoon, and the Lead Producer on The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He is now the Production Director at Bethesda Game Studios, currently working on Fallout 3. Previously, Ashley has work
The reply I got after sending it to Microsoft:
Is this shit true?By the way, I picked up Age of Empires for DS (only $15 at EB!) to play on the plane. Looking forward to it.
Sony
Sony has a Playstation blog now, as a counterpart to Xbox's MajorNelson. I wish Nintendo would start one. Mostly in regards to the DS, as that is what I'm playing more than my Wii.
It's the team, stupid
It gets lost in the noise and doesn't get said enough. For the record, I'd like to thank everyone here at Bethesda Game Studios. Thanks for the hard work you guys have put into everything so far, and for the hard work you are about to put in going forward. Thanks for making us look so damn good.
Making games is not easy. Every game we've made here stands on the blood, sweat and tears of the last one, mostly starting with Morrowind. The core team is still here - as we've grown slowly, the team overall has built a personality, a knowledgebase, of how to work together. I can't express how excited and happy I am to be working with everyone here.
It is easy to get stuck in the daily minutiae of the noise, the hyper-sensitive drama that lives out there on the series of tubes. But time makes all that moot. What matters is how we relate and work with each other, and that we continue to strive to make great and fun games.
Fallout 3 cover story: 7 days left
According to Game Informer, the next issue -- the one with Fallout 3 on the cover and inside its pages -- comes out next week on June 18th. I like Andy McNamara and his magazine, always great seeing him at trade shows. Game Informer knows that we we read gaming magazines for the screenshots so they make sure they are HUGE. HUGE, I tell ya!
During a quick meeting in my office today, Istvan expressed great satisfaction at how Game Informer used the cover image - we all agreed it came out looking awesome. I can't wait for a big poster of the cover so I can frame it for my office.
Now you are playing with power!
I've decided that as much as I loved all the consoles I've owned, I'm still just a Nintendo fanboy at heart.
Herb Watch 2007
Herbs. Hells yeah. Parsley, oregano and, of course, basil. Just planted them this weekend. Eagerly awaiting germination. Or whatever its called.
Why I'm not playing Forza 2 like everybody else I know
Burnout has ruined me for all other racing games. I can't play Gran Turismo or Forza anymore because I refuse to use the brake when I play a racing game. Well, that's not true - I will use the parking brake to get around corners and turns.
I've seen some pretty awesome car designs, tho. If someone were to make a vault boy car, I may be persuaded to re-train myself to play realistic racing games.
If you are a Street Fighter fan like I am
I couldn't stop laughing for a good 10 minutes after watching this. I still lose it just thinking about this. I am a bad person.
Xbox 360: Truly Next Gen
I found a great definition of next gen gaming on the back page of Official Xbox Magazine's back page editorial. It is like he was reading my mind. This is the best description of what it means to be the owner of an Xbox 360 and why it rocks so hard as a gaming console. Tim Schafer, one of my favorite designers, wrote the editorial and he describes my relationship with my 360 perfectly. He hosted the last GDC Choice Awards and did a fantastic job, he was a great choice, so to speak.
Anyhoo, quoting Tim:
I think the greatest achievement of the Xbox [360] is not its performance or any of the fancy graphics features, but in how I interact with the machine. The relationship you have with your Xbox is the most next-gen thing about it.
How I play it is this: I flop down on the couch...I turn on the 360. I look to see if any of my friends are online and I look at what they are playing. Then I see what new Xbox Live Arcade games or demos or videos are available to download. And then - and only then - do I start to figure out what I'm going to play...
...I'm turning on the machine before I know what I'm going to play. Instead of thinking, "I'm going to play Gears of War," I'm thinking, "I'm going to play some Xbox."
Today's lesson
I learned today that coffee and poop do not mix, and that when you wash your coffee cup in the restroom, you should not use the toilet.
I guess you just had to be there.
Poll results: director!
OK, enough of the poll about who would best direct a Fallout flick. It was slowing my page down anyway. Winner - Alfonso Cuaron with 36% of the vote. Peter Jackson followed with 27%. Steve Spielberg in third with 16%. Fun.
Dragons are cool
Junkyard Dog emailed this around the office yesterday. This is easily the most impressive mod I've ever seen for any of our games, Oblivion or Morrowind (though the chess mod for Morrowind comes close). I did a spit take half way through when he gets on top of the dragon and soars into the air. Frak riding a horse indeed...
Props to Saiden Storm and his/her Akatosh Mount mod.
Game Informer cover story
If the teaser isn't enough, this cover story should help. And by cover story, I mean, the subhead about Rock Band (Awesome!)
Fallout 3 teaser trailer
Because I like embed. If you had your druthers however, watch it at the official site in full QT glory.
Per Pete's interview at Voodoo Extreme:
1) Yes, that's in-engine (in-engine means it's done with game assets in our rendering engine, but isn't done real-time. If it was done in real-time, that'd be gameplay footage. This isn't something, for example, that was sent to some house [e.g. Blue Studios] so they could build assets and render it out, and create something for us to release [e.g. Dawn of War 40K intro cinematic]).
2) Yes, that's The Ink Spots singing "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire"
3) Yes, that's Ron Perlman [voiceover man extraordinaire of Fallout 1 and 2].
Fallout 3 teaser is live
The teaser is live, its big. HD baby. Nothing but the best for our fans. I think there is a link for mirrors. I'll try and post a version here with viddler or something like that. Try to avoid any youtube version - need to watch it in all its unpixel'd glory.
Our tubes have exploded temporarily
I've gotten some emails this morning so thought I'd post this. The bethsoft domain is experiencing unusually high traffic today, so to speak:)
Please be patient and keep checking the official site for the teaser trailer.
Check this out while you are waiting. Hilarious. (Thanks to Steve Meister for the linky).
UPDATE: Just heard our web servers are back up.
While waiting for the teaser....
While eating lunch today, I thought a Fallout movie would be cool.
If I were in charge of Hollywood, I would make a film set in the Fallout universe, and Alfonso Cuaron -- who directed the sublime Children of Men -- would make it. I made a poll -- that is to say, I googled the word poll -- and used the first widget to catch my eye. I voted for Cuaron.
Anyone who votes for Chris Columbus -- I will look up which tube you used to find my site, crawl in and find you, and personally give you a are you frakin' kidding me look.
Nathan X McDyer reads
This pic of Nathan (and Brandy) is for Aunt Judy -- LOOK! Nate's reading a book!!!
Only 01 days left
So the teaser is coming tomorrow. No idea what time. I'll be checking the official site along with everybody else. Not to worry, the teaser should have no problems making its way through the series of tubes.
Off to Raleigh
We're headed to Raleigh this weekend for Mei's baptism. I'm looking forward to the ground turkey sliders. Ahh, Raleigh -- the land of affordable housing, Gears of War, and Bojangles fried chicken and biscuits.
Can you believe Sonia and I were ever that little? She might be Martie's age in this picture... (Even NiNi looks young in this pic! She is missed very much, she'll be at my wedding in spirit!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
