kabooms

(NOTE: this is a straight-ahead shout-out, NOT an advertisement - no one has "asked" me to reccomend this site, no compensation has changed hands, etc.)

Most people on the indie/amateur movie circuit probably already know about Detonation Films, but in case you're in that group and you don't know them you really need to: Basically a whole site of professional-grade stock footage for explosions, fire, debris, bullet-hits, flares, etc. shot against key-ready greenscreen, bluescreen or oldschool black; most of sold for VERY reasonable prices and a TON of good stuff that's straight-up FREE for download.

Pretty much all the fire/explosion FX you've seen in the recent "OverThinker" videos came from their freebie stock, as it happens, so I figured I owed them a shout-out: Keep an eye on this site, it's a GREAT resource.

Episode 49: "Retro A-Go-Go"

UPDATE: As of 9/13/11 this video is now at THIS LINK

Is the Retro-Gaming craze helping or hurting us?



The Quest of The OverThinker comes to a close. Stay tuned for Episode 50 for the conclusion of the AntiThinker Saga!

The End Is Near...

MONDAY MARCH 28 2011

THE ENEMY RETURNS

THE TRUE FACE IS REVEALED

THE QUEST ENDS...

...THE WAR BEGINS

3 quick things

...about the "Eastern vs. Western Game Stories" thing, which apparently everyone finds vastly more fascinating than the rest of the episode...


1.) Good Story is not the same thing as Good Writing. It's entirely plausible that Western game-writers write better screenplays - I wouldn't know, because I can neither read speak Japanese fluently nor read Kanji, and it's unfair to critique writing based on (usually poor) translation. So, yes, I'll take "every gonzo thing we can think of regardless of genre of aesthetic plus maybe somebody is a giant walrus just because" (Japan) over "Tom Clancy but shot like Black Hawk Down - unless it's period, in which case shot like Private Ryan, unless it's medieval in which case copypaste LOTR, unless it's scifi in which case Star Wars" (West.)

2.) With rare exception, I will take "characters who emote too much" over "characters who do not emote at all, or only emote flippantly." Also, I am neither an insecure 13 year-old nor a bitter 90 year-old - thusly, male characters who display quasi "feminine" traits, grow out and/or color their hair are not innately infuriating to me.

3.) Just a thought: If HUNDREDS of people rushing in to "disprove" the opinion in question keep citing as evidence, independently of one another, the SAME five or six titles - two or three of which are from the same company running on a VERY similar story engine... that MIGHT kinda be making the point for me. Just sayin.

PAX East 2011 Wrapup

Short version: It was a BLAST! Long version, after the jump...



BEST PART:
Finally meeting my editor Susan Arendt, the Loading Ready Run crew, Shamus and all the other Escapist peeps in person, plus doing the movie-night panel that went KICKASS.

WORST PART:
Ah, cons - where $5 for a slice of pizza somehow sounds briefly reasonable...

3DS:
For the first half-second of picking it up, my heart-sank: "Oh no... the 3D doesn't work." But once your eyes find "dead center" magic-eye style a half-second later... damn, that's a nifty effect - it really does look like the screen is a "portal" reaching much deeper into the background than possible in your hand, which is freaky as hell at first - and I'll bet it'll be even more impressive when not under harsh convention lightning (i.e. when the screen is the brightest thing in your field of vision.) I'm still not 100% sure if the effect has a practical application outside of looking cool, and I can see myself switching the 3D off for longer sessions, but it works and even absent 3D the graphics/controls are - as expected - terrific.

"FIREFALL"
Hadn't been following development on this, but evidently an online/co-op 3rd-person shooter that looks like "Gears of War" with a stylized, cartoon/comic inspired design aesthetic. They were putting on quite a show.

"MORTAL KOMBAT" REBOOT:
It's "Mortal Kombat 2" gone 2.5D in High-Definition and with tag-team play... and there isn't a DAMN THING wrong with that! They had it set up in oldschool arcade-style cabinets complete with "fighter stick" controls; played a match against a friendly stranger and suddenly it was the tolerable part of the 90s again - sooo satisfying to hear "Finish Him!" again. This thing will be HUGE.

TGO Special Message re: Japanese Earthquake

(UPDATED TO FIX FACTUAL ERROR.) Please consider making a donation to the charity or relief-organization of your choice to aid in the ongoing tragedy in Japan.

PAX schedule stuff PLUS "big" announcement

Okay folks, things have been and will be "sparse-ish" in the daytime 'round here for the weekend, as I'll be at PAX East for most of it. I'll probably turn up at the con itself around 4pm or so tommorow (got some business first) and be around for most of the evening after that... Saturday and Sunday? We'll see what happens, but I'm planning to be at as much as possible.

So... since I can't really blog from the con; I've gone and done the unthinkable... and signed up for Twitter. Yes, I'll be tweeting from PAX - follow me @the_moviebob. Let me know in the comments if that hyperlink works or not - Twitter's urls are weird, and I don't know if it "takes" like that. If it doesn't, just look up "the_moviebob" on Twitter itself - the other ones just called "moviebob" AREN'T me.