Being into games as much as we all are, I think most of you will understand what a sad, sad situation it is when one is torn between two games that look completely and utterly awesome.  Especially when the purchase of aforementioned games means that one will have to choose not only between the games themselves, but the systems they run on (at least, for a time anyway).

Enter the Nintendo Wii, and the MS X-Box 360.  The Wii looks to be a small box of fun, even if it’s not a small box of technological wonder.  The little white box promises to revolutionize the control of future gaming, has the star power (a la Mario, Link, Samus, etc.) to back it up, and not hurt the wallet all that much.  The 360, on the other hand, is a powerhouse, designed to push polygons to bounds they have not yet known.  It’s gaming library is not very large yet, but it’s got some great titles out, and more son the way.  Ah, decisions, decisions.

The games that act as the opposite ends of my virtual gaming torture rack are The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Gears of War.  Both games that I am sure I’ll enjoy, and both that fill me with that nice, fuzzy gamer feeling when I check out their trailers and screenshots.  Being a highly anticipated election night, I find it suitable to present both sides of my argument, and if you, the reader, would like to, you may add your vote (and hopefully a little persuasive reasoning along with it) in the comments section of this blog.

I’m excited about the Wii because of a few things.  First and foremost, it looks like fun.  Working my way through a reportedly 50-70+ hour game of Zelda and using my motions as Link’s cues to slash his sword sounds awesome, and every report I’ve read on the subject have been nothing but gushing praise and admiration for the scope and quality of this game, and others.  There are quite a few other titles that look like they’ll be great, and the option of playing virtual console games and old Game Cube games (you can find used ones for dirt cheap at game stores) would be cool as well.  On top of all that, you’ve got a price that clocks in much lower than any of the competition, and you’ve got a pretty good deal looking at you.

There are only two things that concern me about he Wii – that the controller could still become a gimmicky thing, and that the power of the system just won’t be able to keep up in developers’ eyes.  I mostly don’t think the controller will become a gimmick, since Nintendo has been very dedicated to creating quality stylus experiences on the DS (a similar matter), and frankly, I don’t think they would have designed an entire system around a concept like the Wiimote without thinking it all the way through.  Third party developer support is what most worries me, but Nintendo is heading out of the gate strong, so that is still very much in the hands of how consumers react to the product.  Hopefully the lack of horsepower under the hood will not deter many as they enjoy themselves with the new control setup.

The 360 looks great to me for a much different reason than the Wii – I’ve played it!  The system has CPU power to spare, and the games I’ve played for it look incredible, and are not a hollow, graphics-only experience. I really enjoyed the internal interface, and had a good time goofing around with X-Box Live, downloading and playing game trailers, demos, etc.  The wireless controller with rumble is completely awesome, and everything is very easy to use and fun to play around with.  Being able to interface the system with an existing computer network and exchange media between PC and 360is also a plus.  Microsoft has really learned from their past mistakes, and it’s easy to say that I like what I see.

That said, there are things that concern me about the X-Box 360 as well.  The system has been out for a full year now, and there still doesn’t seem to be all that many games out for it.  I almost want to say that it seems that developers are waiting around for the other two consoles before they really start firing on all cylinders, but there is no truth to this, so far as I know.  Perhaps it’s just that with bigger storage, and more processing power, games are taking longer to create for the “next-gen” systems?  Regardless of the time it takes to develop a game, there is one thing I am sure that is increasing with the inclusion of higher definition content, and that is the price of games.  Price is an issue for me with the 360 in general.  $400 for the console (if I bother getting one, I’m getting a good one), $60 for games, and a small subscription fee for X-Box Live.  That, versus the $250 for the Wii console, $50 for games, and no subscription fee, looks pretty weak.  Hard to say though, because the production value is definitely there in the 360.

So why am I really writing this now?  Why did I write up a huge blog that many of you out there will probably just skim through? Because I am largely considering getting a 360 tomorrow, with the release of Gears of War.  I’ve got the day off, I’ve got an extra bit of money coming to me this month, and I’m dying for some entertainment.  Should I get a 360?  Should I hold out for a Wii?  Should I just screw the whole thing and stick to my regiment of Counter-Strike: Source and various other games?  You decide, ’06.

By the way, to everyone who read every last bit of this mess, I appreciate that, and any input you might leave for me!  Thanks!

I got back from my trip to the beautiful (and boring) state of Montana earlier this week, and I am oh-so glad to be back.  Even though there wasn’t a terrible lot of stuff to do there, and almost everything interesting closed at 6PM, I did have a good time, and got a chance to walk around and look at the University of Montana campus.

I’m still young enough to fit in to the college crowd, so other than the fact that I was walking around with no backpack on, I think I blended in pretty well.  After picking up a much needed iPod charger, and a couple other things from the bookstore there, I headed straight back to my hotel…  and I felt like my face was going to freeze off!  I am from the mountains of California, so I know what cold feels like, but it is cold as hell up there in Montana!  I don’t think the temperature went above 30F for my entire trip.  Needless to say, I am now back in California, it’s rainy here, and I feel like it’s T-shirt weather compared to the freezing temperatures of the north.  Good times.

As for game-related news, I have been working on Aces High Over Verlor Island at a greater pace, and I am adding a lot of new stuff and getting rid of old problems.  I recently found a bug in the game that had existed for about 5 versions which crashed the game whenever a player created or joined a game, exited, and then created or joined a game again…  that was annoying, but I finally got it fixed, and have added power ups, and sweet menu, Reflect functionality, and a lot of other little changes and fixes.  Frame-skip has been added and is fully functional for people with lesser machines, as well as an option to draw only land.  This project is coming together, but it is still a ways off from being completed.  I’ll have more updates on this soon.

Anyway, it’s good to be back, and getting stuff done again.  Expect some more game goodness soon (probably some new screenshots or something).  Thanks for reading!

I was originally going to write about all the crazy shenanigans I get away with at work, but I decided against it - besides, some of you out there are probably working your way through your first or second real jobs, and for me to talk about the TV watching, dart board, music, and games that occasionally happen at my work just wouldn't be right... Hehe.

So instead, I'm going to give a small progress report on Aces High Over Verlor Island, and tell you about my upcoming "vacation."

AHOVI is going quite well, I just finished getting almost all of the Reflect Account stuff in last week. It is now possible to create a server that is listed on the Reflect system, see the server list inside the game, connect to the game of your choice, etc. I am very happy to have finished this part of the game, and I can't wait to get the next demo / release out, but I want to wait until I've had time to iron out a few of the smaller problems, and to add more stuff. It will be worth the wait though - I am really liking the menu system, and even though it's been a pain to add both mouse and keyboard functionality into it, I am sure you guys will enjoy it.

I'll probably be working more on AHOVI later this week, but I won't have time at the beginning... instead, I'll be working through Monday and then heading to the airport directly after. My girlfriend works in an industry that requires her to do some traveling every now and then, and this time, I get to go with her on one of her trips. It's nothing really fantastically cool, but we'll get to travel to the northwest (US) for a few days, so it'll hopefully be a lot of great scenery, and a fair amount of extra time to do whatever, in between her work stuff. I'm looking forward to it - it'll be my first actual vacation (that wasn't a holiday vacation like Thanksgiving or Christmas) that I've had since I started working at my job a little over a year ago. Hopefully the weather won't be too bad!

Anyway, thanks for reading. This'll probably be my last blog until I am back... try not to miss me too much. Wink

To anyone who visits 64 Digits, you'll probably recognize some of this - I wrote this up yesterday and posted it there.  I liked it though, and I included a lot of different things I've been up to, so I think it'll be worthy of my first blog over here at EO. I'll probably continue the trend of syndicating my blogs across all the different sites I belong to (including a blog at Reflect Games) into the future, so get on your reading shoes!

After a busy couple of weeks, things are slowing down a little again and I am getting back in the saddle. Time to get some stuff done!

I’m currently working on the menu for Aces High Over Verlor Island, and now that I have a fresh look at it, it’s coming out well. A few updates to the Reflect system since the last game (Linked) will make it easier to play games that use the system by using only one config for each game… meaning that once you log into a game using the new system, all other games that use it will also know your login info, without you having to type it in again. It’s easy to clean up too, for people who use shared / public computers. I am really looking forward to getting this game online using Reflect though, because it will (as always) make it much easier for people to find others to play with.

I actually finished the main menu and the configuration menu last night!  All that's left before the game becomes playable using server lists is the addition of the actual server list screen, which shouldn't be too big of a deal.  I'm excited about getting the game out, but I want to make sure everything is working great and is nice and polished first.  I have an image uploaded of the main menu, which you can check out here:


I would say most of the hard stuff is out of the way for this game, though I do still have quite a few things left to do before it’s finished. This includes:
· Finishing up the menu system (which I’m currently working on)
· Adding power-ups
· Cleaning up some of the net code and adding UDP to the mix
· Possibly adding targets to bomb
· Single player mode and tutorial

I’m also going to be adding in some code that will make firing your gun take away from your skill points. One of my main gripes with the current gameplay, as I am sure many of you who have played the game with others will agree with, is that when you are in a dogfight with someone all they have to do is mirror your moves and you will never be able to escape. Adjusting the game so that it takes away skill points from you to fire will add strategy to the game, as anyone who follows someone non-stop and fires at them will run out of skill faster than the person being chased – putting themselves in a very vulnerable situation if they play carelessly. In any case, I am sure that this addition, plus the aforementioned power-ups, will make the game play that much more fun and dynamic.

Enough of that though, I have been up to a lot of other stuff, so I figure I will share some of that as well… it’s been fun!

Yesterday (Saturday) I got to go see part of the Cal vs. Washington college football game. It was pretty fun, the stadium was packed, and the crowd was excited! Unfortunately, I left the game before some of the real action happened, but I am glad that Cal pulled through and came up with a win. For the part of the game that I watched though, they sure didn’t deserve it.

I also picked up a new DS game the other day – Clubhouse Games – and it’s been keeping me busy. Often, I am skeptical of the huge collections of games that get released on one cartridge. It seems that often developers try to substitute quality for quantity in those schemes, and I usually avoid them like the plague. This time though, I was talking with one of my co-workers, who mentioned that he thought the game looked cools I got online to check out some reviews. They all seemed to be good, and I had some extra money for the week, so I figured I’d splurge… and I was not disappointed. It really is a good game, and even better, almost all of the games are playable on WiFi!  The DS really was meant for games like this, where you can use the stylus to move around cards, etc. The icing on the cake is that it’s the kind of game that you can just pick it up for a few minutes, losing none of the fun of playing for longer amounts of time, so it’s a great game for when you’re on the toilet!

Another thing that’s been on my mind lately is that friend of mine from college is also trying to commission some paintings from me for his condo. Since he’s my friend, I’m not asking for all that much, but I think it may be a good kick start to some more real-world art for me, as well as a possible foot-in-the-door for more artwork, for when people come by his place and check them out. More on that as I delve into it though.

On top of all that, I have put together two examples (released both on the GMC and at 64 Digits) for budding 3D GM game developers: an example / tutorial for loading models into GM (using Mosaic Light by Percsich.HU) and UV mapping them, as well as a 3D a day / night cycle example. I might release a few more soon, but I don’t want to wear myself too thin. I’ve also been challenged to make a better day / night cycle example, so if I have the time for more examples, that’s probably what I’ll be working on. We’ll see though!

Anyway, I’ve written quite a bit here, and I am currently at work, so I should probably be going…  I'll be back with more updates soon though!  Thanks for reading!