This fan made version of Scott Pilgrim Vs The World crams almost all of the plot elements of the movie into a short 60 second piece.
Pretty impressive stuff.
Scott Pilgrim vs 60 Seconds
– Posted on January 25, 2011Posted in: Movies
Latest Content
0
Console Controller vs. Mouse and Keyboard Aiming In Game Design
– Posted on January 25, 2011Posted in: Video Games
Great piece by John Comes from Uber Entertainment breaking down why a mouse and keyboard feels so much better than a console controller for playing first-person shooters:
It all comes down to how each input mechanism affects your ability to turn. On a console, the angle in which a player can turn is a function of both time and displacement of the thumb stick. No matter how far players want to turn, they have to pay a time cost. Even at the highest controller sensitivity, there is a time cost to be paid. On a PC the angle of turn is a direct mapping of how far you move the mouse. The time cost is variable and the better players get that time cost to approach zero.
0
Littlebigplanet In Papercraft [Video]
– Posted on January 24, 2011Posted in: Video Games
Just in time for last week’s release of Littlebigplanet 2. Very cool video of a handmade Littlebigplanet level in the real world.
YouTube – Un niveau de Little big planet en papier papercraft.
0
What You Need To Know About The Nintendo 3DS
– Posted on January 22, 2011Posted in: Cutting Through The Potty, Features, Reviews, Video Games
This piece was originally posted on Lalawag here
Yesterday, Nintendo announced that their latest handheld console, the 3DS, will be available on March 27th for $249.99. We’ve got the quick and dirty rundown of what you need to know about the system and also our take on whether you need to buy one.
0
Brochella 2011
– Posted on January 19, 2011Posted in: Music
I love how Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is randomly on this list.
Fuck that band.
Fountains of Wayne deserve better, though. They’re actually good.
0
Coachella Lineup 2011
– Posted on January 18, 2011Posted in: Music
It’s up.
When the hell did the Kings of Leon become festival headline material?
Lots of good bands that are not headlining. Unfortunately, the DJ list looks a bit barren this year.
Also, no Daft Punk is always a huge disappointment.
0
Buy Portal 2 PS3, get PC/Mac version free & Steam support
– Posted on January 18, 2011Posted in: Video Games
Well shit. This is a pretty cool bonus for people who own multiple platforms. Why shouldn’t I be able to play a game on my PC, Macbook, or PS3 after I’ve purchased it once? It’s kind of like an early version of UltraViolet for games.
If I’m reading this right, you’ll be able to start a game on one device and be able to pick up wherever you go because the game saves are stored in the cloud. How awesome is that?
Obviously, the Playstation 3 version becomes the one to buy for everyone. Kudos to Valve for making it easy and convenient for the consumer. I hope more publishers utilize this option for their multiplatform games. It’ll certainly give me a reason to choose the PS3 version of a game for once.
On top of that, anyone who buys Portal 2 for the PlayStation 3 will be able to unlock a Steam Play copy of Portal 2 for the PC and Mac for free by linking their PSN and Steam accounts. Portal 2 project lead Josh Weier explains that Valve has designed the cross-platform experience to be hassle-free: “PS3 gamers will be able to simply drop the Blu-ray disc in the PS3, link to their Steam account from inside the game, and all their Steam friends (on PC and Mac) will be visible and accessible for chat and game invites.”
Read: Buy Portal 2 PS3, get PC/Mac version free & Steam support- Destructoid.
0
Jenova Chen Explains Journey: Social Relevance and Artistic Inspirations
– Posted on January 17, 2011Posted in: Video Games
Playstation Blog has an interesting interview with Jenova Chen, creative director at thatgamecompany and creator of flOw and Flower.
On multiplayer games being social:
If you really wanted to stimulate a social activity, you need to re-think it from the ground up. What is the skill they’re supposed to acquire? Accuracy? Or is it the ability to convince others? If the skill is social, it’ll be very relevant and useful. People still play poker. Why? Because the skill of deception is useful for real life. Look at online games. How many skills are based on social elements? Most games are based on grinding, accuracy, physical dexterity. They are not social games. They’re just old games with online features.
Yeah. I like fighting games too.They’re fun. But as I get older, what’s the point in pulling off another infinite combo? What does that do for your life? It’s not useful. People still play chess because strategic thinking is useful. Brain training games, fitness games…these have relevance. People don’t have much time to waste, so they want relevance. Whether it’s emotional relevance, like experiencing joy or sadness, or intellectual relevance, or social relevance.
Journey looks like it’s going to be an beautiful original title and an interesting social experiment to see if Jenova’s notion of social relevance actually takes hold with players.
Read: Jenova Chen Explains Journey: Social Relevance and Artistic Inspirations – PlayStation Blog.
0
The Psychology of Shooters
– Posted on January 15, 2011Posted in: Video Games
Very interesting article from Jamie Madigan on why shooter games are so popular.
I’ve found that I generally don’t give a rats ass about the gore content in a shooting game. Sure, it can be entertaining sometimes, but I’m more interested in outmaneuvering and outaiming my opponents. That, and the cathartic release of just blowing things up.
It’s why I’d rather play something like Quake or Monday Night Combat, which have little to no gore, to satisfy my shooting game craving than, say, Grand Theft Auto. Ironically, GTA to me has become more about storytelling and character development than the “violence.”
But how important is the “violent” part of “violent shooters?” To help answer this question, Przybylski, Rigby, and Richard Ryan (professor of psychology at the University of Rochester), concocted a series of experiments designed to disentangle the violence of a game from its ability to satisfy our desires for competence and autonomy. In one study, they modded Half-Life 2 so that some participants played a violent and bloody game replete with firearms and death. Other people played a non-violent version of the game with the same mechanics and map, but framed as a game of tag where opponents were gently teleported to a penalty box when highlighted with an in-game tool.
The results were both versions equally satisfied those basic psychological needs, which predicted how satisfied people were with the game and how much they wanted to play more of it. The researchers concluded that it’s not the violence per se, but the degree to which the games met players’ desires for competence and autonomy.
Read: The Psychology of Shooters, Feature Story from GamePro.
0
Mark Millar’s Concern With Digital Comics
– Posted on January 14, 2011Posted in: Comics
Some interesting points about selling digital comics:
1/ Apple take 30% right off the bat.
2/ In the case of Wanted, Comixology then splits 50/50 with the publisher.
3/ Then the publisher pays the agent and creative team out of the remaining cash depending on their deal.
Even if you don’t go through Apple, Comixology’s percentage looks to be pretty high as well. I’m not sure what printing and distribution costs are on paper comics, but I’d be surprised if they were as high as Apple and Comixology’s.
Mark Millar:
In hard numbers, the digital comic is normally half the price of the paper comic, but you have just as many percentages to pay out as a creative team to an electronic distributor and publisher. So effectively the creative team is getting half as much money. For creators, this isn’t great and for comic stores this is awful. I don’t mind paying thirty percent to a local store where my friends work and the guys care about the product. But do I want this money going to Apple?
Millar makes some great points about the finances situation, but let’s keep in mind that right now most of the comics sold digitally were released months and years ago. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most of the current digital comics sales are gravy on top for everyone involved. Put another way, the paper comics have already had their sales run with or without the existence of digital comics.
The real issue comes with how to deal with day and date book releases. There’s still a sizable audience of potential comics readers that have no interest or ability to buy paper comics. How are these people going to be served without being cast aside?
As someone who likes owning the paper books, I still feel a hybrid paper/digital solution is what I would like the best. I want to own the best books for my personal library, while also enjoying the convenience of digital delivery for when I don’t have time to get out to the store.
However, shelling out the same cover price as a paper comic for a digital one just doesn’t sit well with me. Like in the music industry, consumers want all-you-can-eat subscriptions. There’s books that I would want to try out, but with comics being $3.99 or more these days, it’s too hard to justify buying many of them on a whim. We need to have a compromise between the readers, retailers, and creators that leaves everyone happy.
Read: MY BIG CONCERN WITH COMIC DOWNLOADS – Millarworld.tv Forums.