I GO FOR MINE, I GOT TA SHINE!

Wow- what a great fucking concert! I have NEVER wanted to see the same concert more than once but dude, if Kanye West was coming back, I would SO see him again. The opening acts- for me- were just ok. I would have been VERY happy with just Lupe Fiasco and then Kanye. But whatever.

But the main show?!? SOOOOOO fucking good! I was always a big Kanye fan but now? HUGE fucking Kanye fan.

So what else?

Oh three things:

#1- GREAT to be back! Missed ya'll! :)

#2- See the upper right of the right side of the blog? If you have not noticed, I'm on twitter now, so you can follow my EVERY MOVE! It's kind of addictive...I was updating from the Kanye concert all night!

#3- I did an interview with The Escapist web magazine last month about a game we were working on called HEARTLAND. Never came out and this article goes into aspects of why. Check it out!

Ok guys- will prob. do a video post later today, so check back if you are so inclined!

Also, will be doing our first official live blogcast with Brady- the brand new editor-in-chief of PLAY magazine- end of this week. So watch for that too!

Talk soon!

David

Ok, I really promise...this is the LAST video I upload...

...tomorrow is a NEW post and no more of this stuff from the web that I think is amusing...but given that Forgetting Sarah Marshall just hit, I thought this would be appropriate :)

You may have already seen this...

...but if not, you really should.

I don't like posting videos to my blog that are not our own but I think this is really, really worth it.

Nice to be back. Will do a new post tomorrow.

David

I know I am on hiatus...

...but I ran across this and HAD to share:




With the exception of the confederate flag (which makes me kind of ill), this is ALMOST enough to make me join the army...just so I could drive and ride in this thing! Amazing!!! Man, when I strike it rich, I'm so getting me a General Lee!!!...with an American Flag replacing the confederate flag, naturally :)

Ok, back to work- see you guys in a few weeks!

David

10 Minute Break!!! Everybody out of the pool!

...err, everybody out of the blog, I mean...and a 1-3 week break is more like it :)

I think hiatus' for blogs suck. They are the quickest way to watch your readership plummet. And right now, with daily hits being at an all time high, I hate to duck out for a few weeks. But turns out, I gotsta.

Major time right now in the life of our design and while the blog takes little of my time- especially when I do video posts- I just don't want any distractions while I pound out a few key documents for the team. Also in the next 1-3 weeks I got:

a- my birthday
b- my mother-in-law's birthday (and a big surprise party....and she don't read this blog and no one she knows does either so we're safe! Don't tell her, dammit!)
c- Taking our kid for a surprise visit to Disneyland. I remember when Scott did this for his kids about 8 years ago and I always thought, 'Man, that sounds so cool! Making them think they are going to school and at the last second, you hit the freeway and head to Disneyland! When I have kids, I'm doing that!'....well now we have two kids and one is old enough for Disneyland so we's going! Hell, truth is, the trip is probably more for me than her but hell, she'll dig it too :)
d- Going up to Sony to pitch Allan and Shu on the current state of the game
e- GTA 4 hits and I'm gonna need a few days to digest what I am sure is going to be a bar raising- fuck it- bar SHATTERING experience.
f- I imagine I will head out to Utah for 1-3 days to work on the game and pitch the documents once I am done writing...

So with all that PLUS these key design days I got ahead of me, I really need my focus and energy.

I will be back in the next 7-21 days, no doubt. This is not a long haitus, just a few weeks. I'll miss the blog, I'll miss you guys. Hope to see you all very soon!

Thanks for all the support and thanks for reading- talk soon!

David

MARVEL MOVIE MADNESS + LIVE BLOG TEST TODAY!

+++++++++++++++

LIVE BLOG TEST NEWS:

NOTE: Me and Brady Fletcher will be testing out our live blogging 'show' today at 5:10 Pacific time. We are only going to go online for about 10-15 minutes just to test it out in prep for an actual show we are going to start doing. If you want to say hey and help us test out the service, scroll down to the bottom of this blog. If you can't see us talking, hit the button that says POPOUT and you should get a window that shows us chatting. Stop on by, interact with us, and help us get a sense of what the actual show should be about! Thanks ya'll!

David

++++++++++++++++++

Ok...on with the post :)

+++++++++++++++

Something amazing is happening at the movies and I’ve gotten so used to it that the magnitude of this event almost passed me by.

Check it out: We are in the middle (maybe towards the end) of a Marvel Comics movie explosion!

Now to younger folks who may not know what the name Cannon Films means, who may have never seen what ‘The Boy Who Could Fly’ looks like dressed up as the Human Torch, who didn’t nightly curse the names of Golan-Globus before they went to bed, this is probably a ‘what’s the big deal’ moment.

To those youngies, they just take for granted that this summer Iron Man is gonna be tearing it up on one screen, while down the hall the Incredible Hulk is kicking ass and tossing around army tanks. To these kids, it’s no big deal that last year they got to see what Ghost Rider looked like on the big screen, they got to watch the FF battle the Silver Surfer AND they got a third installment of Spidey with not only Black Suit Spidey but Venom, Sandman, and Goblin II tossed in for good measure! And the fact that they’ve already gotten to watch Daredevil battle Kingpin and Blade battle vampires? No big deal.

But to me- a Marvel Comics geek- it’s a HUGE deal. And it took some amazing shots from the new IRON MAN flick to wake me up and get me to realize that this is really happening!!! (I would have posted those new shots but it seems Paramount has gone around to the various sites that were hosting them and requested they be taken down…but rest assured, they rocked!!)

I just never thought I’d actually see the day when so many of my childhood heroes got the big screen, big budget treatment. But now I walk into any multiplex, and I’m likely to be greeted by a standee of one of the Amazingly Masterful, Monumentally Magical, Mega Marvel mainstays! (That’s for you, Stan!!)

And soon, from what I hear, there may be an Avengers flick, a Thor Flick, and a Nick Fury movie?!?! I mean, come on!!! They should get Angelina Joile to do a Silver Sable movie, too! But that’s just me being greedy!

Do I have a point with this post?

A few points actually:

a- I’m just fucking crazy excited with every new IRON MAN still I see. And Favreau has never made a bad movie. This could be the biggest hit of the summer…bigger than Indy or Batman!
b- I’m just sharing the love cause as a kid growing up loving comics, I never thought I’d see this day. Which brings me to…
c- …ONE DAY- maybe soon- Hollywood is going to really get behind games in a big way and make some damn good movies out of these properties. It may take a few more years for games to really get mainstream…it may take another generation so the majority of the studio execs are the ones who grew up playing CALL OF DUTY, DEVIL MAY CRY, and METAL GEAR SOLID. But it will happen. It will be HARDER than making movies from comics because comics already have good-to-great stories and iconic characters. While the scripts certainly don’t write themselves, a lot of the ground work has been laid…Games on the other hand tend to be based off movies anyway and have shit-to-average stories that would not cut it at a pitch meeting for a low budget, straight to video flick. But the themes and characters and worlds of these games ARE worth crowing about and CAN be translated to film in a big way. At least I think so. Hey, maybe the God of War flick will be the first GREAT game movie!!!

So yeah, I’m excited.

Ok guys…I gotta get to work. But in celebration of Marvel movies kicking ass, this morning I picked up one of those Iron Man Slurpee cups at 7-11! I even got the $1.50 straw with shellhead on the top!




I felt like a bit of a dork buying a Slurpee, let alone a Slurpee in an Iron Man cup, let alone a Slurpee in an Iron Man cup with the official Iron Man straw, but what the hell.
Summer movie season is almost here, ya’ll! Sweet!

Later ya’ll!

David

YO ADRIAN! I DID IT!!!

Another reason I miss Los Angeles...

...massive movie billboards that take up entire sides of buildings!!!

My brother- who still lives in LA- sent me this yesterday. think he said this one was on the corner of Highland and...shit, I forget. But man, look at it! It's so big! Even tho I really do not like the final Indy poster (it's just boring and Karen Allan looks like she's posing for a portrait at the Sears photo studio), it's still great to see Indy back and larger than life!

Only in LA!...well, and in NYC and other big cities...but certainly not in the burbs of San Diego :)

But yeah, I used to love to drive down Sunset and see all the giant ads for the new flicks coming out. Heck, I remember for God of War we were toying with the idea of spending most of our marketing dollars on a massive animating Kratos billboard that would have loomed over Sunset Blvd! That would have been so cool! But doing so would have blown our marketing budget for the title, so I think Sony marketing chose wisely! :)

Ok guys- gotta get to work. Talk a bit later!

David

My new office...

Sitting at a Starbucks in Carlsbad, Ca while my wife takes a pole dancing class down the street. She's been pole dancing for fitness for like, 8 months now, and she's just nuts about it. And my God, it has transformed her body like you would not believe. I've taken a spin or two on the pole we got at our house and let me tell you, that shit is HARD! Now granted, I'm not in contention for World's Strongest Man, but hell, after just one spin on that pole, I was sore for two days. But anyway, she's there, so I'm here, working :)

We're back in LA for a wedding we went to last nite. One of the lead artists on the GOD OF WAR series got married. The wedding itself was personal and sweet and clearly full of love. Plus we had a blast seeing lots of the God of War/Sony Santa Monica team. It was tons of fun.

Then me and my wife went to the best Mexican restaurant in the world for brunch this morning...check it:



Mmmm....Panchos! If you are ever in Manhattan Beach, you gotta give Panchos a try. It is so good! And the chips alone are worth the trip!

God, it's been good being back in LA. Gotta get our asses back up here soon...I miss this town!

Maybe we'll swing by GATE OF INDIA on the way home so we can have Indian food when we're back in San Diego tonite! Yumm! Gate of India!!! :)

Man, I'm sitting here with the Sunday LA TIMES next to me, just begging to be read (LOVE the Sunday LA TIMES)....yeah, I gotta alot of work to do...already behind on the design...but damn, it's Sunday...what to do...Ok...I'll work for a good hour, then chill and read the paper as my reward! That'll do it!

Chat later ya'll!

David

LOVE IT!!!

Reader Da Dark Knight just sent me this pic he did of me, Kratos, and Sweet Tooth having a cook out! I freaking love it!!!



The orbs from the grill rock and check it out: Kratos is wearing a USC jacket! Fantastic!

Dark Knight, thanks! You made my day!

David

ps. gonna show the shirt I am wearing in this pic to Scott. Would LOVE to get Eat Sleep Play shirts like this for the fall! This design is perfect. If we get one made, I'll send you one Dark Knight!

Hey World...Check ME Out!

The amazing GAMETAP service has picked my games for its Playlist of the Week!

It's basically a game version of the itunes celeb playlist, where I post little blurbs about my top 10 GAMETAP games...

Check it out and you will not only learn about the world's best video pinball game and what inspired the level design in God of War, but you can also discover what a smooth playa I was back in junior high!

Click me!

Thanks to Gametap and Gametap's Doug Perry for the very cool opportunity! Appreciate it, guys!

Later!

David

VIDEO BLOG: Design Conundrum + BAFTA award! + wedding haircut blues :)

Lying Down on the Job...

...the last few days have consisted of compiling tons of new ideas about the game we're doing, writing tons of notes, chatting with Scott out in Utah about design direction. Today and tomorrow are all about putting all those elements together, killing some, reviving others, and putting it all in a document.

So for a change of pace and scenery, I spread all my notes on the floor and stuck itunes on shuffle (Duran Duran into John Williams into Nelly into 2pac into Gwen Stafani into Samantha James into Ray J into James Horner into Queen into Mary J into Hugh Grant channeling the 80's ((from Music and Lyrics!)) into etc,etc.etc......Shuffle rocks!)....and then I plopped my ass down and got to work.

Check it out: my workspace for today:


Something was/is so fun about working on the floor...feels like being a little kid, you know? The creative energy is just different down there. I love it!

Anyway, going to lunch. Just wanted to share! Take it easy, ya'll!

David

ps. oh, and don't let anyone tell you the whole 'rule of 10' is bullshit in game design (or whatever it's called). You know, the idea that you need to design your game so that there is something that excites/engages the player in the first 10 seconds, then the first 10 minutes, then the first hour,etc...that's a real important set of goals to design around and we're trying real hard to do it...check it out:


With a game like GOD OF WAR, you only need to worry about exciting the player moment to moment because it's a roller coaster ride. With what we are doing now, you let the player loose in your world and hope you've packed enough cool stuff in for them to make their own fun...so it's a much tougher challenge.

I erased my 'answers' cause I ain't giving anything away but thought I'd share a glimpse at my white board anyway to show one aspect of how we try to design our stuff.

Oh, and yes, that is my kid's art around my work...my drawing skillz do indeed suck but I CAN- at times- draw a bit better than a 4 year old! :) Ok well, the car up there, that's mine. But the smiley faces, those are my kid's, dammit! :)

pps. yes those are strategy guides on the floor with me. They help me go back to games that inspire me and see if I've missed any of the depth or core ideas that are not always apparent on a play thru. They are both instructional and inspirational and intimidating (when you realize how much STUFF goes into a AAA game these days!!!)

How Lucky I Am...

I sit here on a beautiful sunny day, the breeze floating in thru my open window, along with the sound of birds and the rustling of the willow branches just outside.

Music plays over a computer that allows me to do the work I love, and connects me to family, friends, and colleagues all over the world.

I have my health. My family has their health. As do our friends.

I am surrounded by the books, toys, games, and photographs that have made up 30 something years of my life. And while I know they are just things, it is still nice to have them around me.

And downstairs, I hear my two daughters laughing and yelling and playing pretend. They are happy and content and safe and loved.

I am blessed to have such joy in my life.

Ok, I should probably keep my mouth shut...

...but...I can't in this case.

I check my blog log every day, just to see where folks are coming from before they hit my blog. I'm always interested to track down the obscure and no-so-obscure links that lead someone here. It's often times fascinating.

Well on this morning's perusal of the blog log, I find this. Click me!

It's a web address for a game design/game art class at the the Illinois Instititue of Art. Looks like they are/were studying game design docs (not sure when the link went up). And it looks like they've linked to the CALLING ALL CARS doc/post I put up last year as one example of a game design document. No issues there. I'm somewhat flattered.

However, I do take issue with a doc I co-wrote being included in the assignment when the assignment tosses out such gems, regarding design documents as:

"In case the in-class lecture on game design documents didn't convince you of their importance, you can read this Adams article entitled "Why Design Documents Matter."

Look, Earnest Adams may be a great designer, I don't know. Have not played any of his games (I've played some of the Madden football games he's provided video for however and those were great). But as many of you know- and as readers who read the post attached to the linked-to-design-document know, I don't think design docs are worth much anymore. You need 5-15 pages to get the concept across. And then little emails for the rest of the project sent to the folks who need and want to know the rest. None of the GOD OF WAR games had a game design doc and we did just fine.

Here's another quote I love:

"...you do not have time to produce a 67 page document, but here's what a GDD looked like in 1996. Sorry, they just keep getting bigger."

Says who? Who says that design docs just keep getting bigger? I think it's a terrible thing to tell future game makers that EVERY GAME game HAS to have a mammoth 250 page bible/phone book in order to kick start production. Do some? Sure? Do most? Not sure. Do All? Hell no.

And it's a downright lie to suggest that game docs keep getting bigger and it's just the way the biz is and that is how things are going...in my experience they do NOT just keep getting bigger. They keep getting smaller.

My experience says that: no one reads one of those meaty fuckers, it takes TONS of valuable development time to write it, and it's a waste of several good trees. And game making is iterative. If you spend 4-12 weeks writing a doc, and THEN start production, within a week, a good 5-25% of your doc is useless because a programmer or artist or designer or janitor in the building had a, 'hey, what if we put this over here and make button X do this instead' moment and POOF! All that work you did is rendered useless.

But look, I am not suggesting the work, the design process is any different. You still should think shit thru on paper/white boards and with blocks/toys as much as you can...but that's for you, the designer, so you KNOW what your game is and so you can answer questions about it and so the team can build some faith in you that you are not making it all up as you go. And that design work occurs throughout the whole development process. If you sit and try to design it ALL up front you will miss out on the magic of production, the magic of iteration.

To me a design document is a roadmap at a very high level. It gives you the main highways and routes and even shows some of the individual side streets and interesting rest stops along the way. But it's not a Thomas Guide. And if it IS, I sure as hell don't want to take that road trip cause there's a good chance it'll end up taking me to someplace boring and dull and someplace I've already been 50 times before.

Later ya'll!

David

ps.again, hated to say something but damn, if you are gonna include a link to a doc I wrote and that link includes MY THOUGHTS ON GAME DESIGN DOCS that clearly contradict the person linking to me, at least acknowledge the difference of opinion on your page that links to me! Do not toss me into your philosophy and make me guilty by linksociation (hahah! See what I did?!? I made a new word! Man, I rock!)....

pps. I'm sure you will find many designers and teams who LOVE design docs. I know some of the GOD OF WAR team would have loved a design doc. No worries there. But link to them! :)

ppps. Not really upset, more annoyed/amused. I think it's great there are actual classes out there teaching game design! Yeah for us, our medium, and our industry.

Can you help me out!?! ROCK BAND related...

++++UPDATE++++++++

Ok, so thanks to you kind commenters on this blog, I got me a code that unlocks everything. Thank you so much!

While it's clear that ROCK BAND is a groundbreaking, amazing game- and one that seems already destined to become a classic in my house- to me, turning it into a GAME first and a social TOY second, was a design mistake. BUT what the hell do I know? Either way, thanks Harmonix for the very fun game...and thanks for making sure an Unlock All code was included :)

++++++++++++++++++++

Hey! If someone out there would not mind:

just got home with Rock Band. Sat down with the wife to play and first thing I did was download a song we both dig (Brass in Pocket) from the ROCK BAND store. So far so good.

Problem is, I can't find that song I just purchased in the game and I can't find any of the cool songs I want to play that are listed on the box as available with the shipped disc.

Now I think I know the answer to this, but I hope I am so wrong cause if I am not, the thing is going back to the store.

Can I access these other songs- including the ones I paid for after I bought the game- without earning the right to play them?

Please don't tell me that after giving EA/MTV/HARMONIX 190 bucks- and then an additional 2 bucks- on what clearly seems to be advertised as a casual/family/party game (i.e. fun and easy and no work involved), that the only way I get all these songs - songs that are advertised on the box-is to EARN them?!?!

Ok, I am prob. just being paranoid and negative...this can't be the way it is, right??!?....right?!?!? Please don't make me work thru a bunch of songs I could care less about to get to some songs I love!!! I understand this design philosophy when all the content you are tossing at the player is new and part of the brand new, unique game experience...but in a game where more than half the appeal is content that you already know and love from your 'real life', forcing me to endure stuff I already know I don't care for just to get to the stuff I know I do love is annoying and cruel. Especially when I rushed home with the box all ready to play some songs that the back of the box TOLD ME I was gonna get to play (with no indication that I would need to bust ass for a week before I got to play what I consider the 'good' tunes).


Help! Thanks!

David

Gamespot's BEHIND THE GAME

If you are so inclined, check out Gamespot's latest edition of BEHIND THE GAME. This week's subject: l'll ol me :)

You can find it here!

Later ya'll...lotsa design work going on today, brain too full (of hopefully cool ideas!) to write a post! Later!

David

Hey! Guess who is still sick!

Still. Sick. But feeling better. I took Nyquil at 4am to help me sleep and now I am groggy as shit. Trying to focus on the work I have in front of me today but it prob. ain't gonna happen for another hour or so, till this stuff wears off.

Someone - in the comments section a few posts back-commented that it seemed I was always sick. I have two things to say to that:

a- I have two little muppets running around this house and they bring home all kinds of shit from playdates and pre-school. I always heard this was the case with kids but my God, it really is amazing how often we get sick in this house these days. I am sick with colds about 3 times a year now vs. the MAYBE 1 time a year I used to get sick before I had tykes. Ah well, wouldn't trade it. But it sucks! This is probably the longest lasting cold I've ever had.

b-I used to go to Steve Gerber's blog. He's was the comic book writer who created Howard the Duck as well as the kick ass Thundarr the Barbarian Saturday morning cartoon from the 80's. Well in his posts, he was ALWAYS going on and on about how sick he was with this illness and that. And I kept thinking: dude, you are always so fucking sick. Get outside, get some exercise, get a new positive outlook on life (seemed he suffered from depression too, from what I could gather from his posts). Now telling a person to do these things and them doing them are totally different things, I know. But man, I hate that people would come to this blog and think 'oh Jaffe's this sick guy'....isn't that stupid that I would think that? Who knows man, the inner workings of my mind :) Oh and so, sadly, Steve Gerber died a few months back. So- clearly- the man was very, very sick and now I feel like a total idiot for even thinking it was something he could just solve by picking himself up and going for a walk in the sunshine. What a dolt I can be at times...

Ok, gonna try to focus thru the haze. Later ya'll!

David

ps. Took my oldest daughter to Legoland this past Saturday for the opening of their new area: Adventureland! It also coincided with INDIANA JONES DAY! Man, Indy is everywhere! I love it! Check the pix:


Indy made of Legos!


Lots of folks dressed up as Indy and the cast. Not just regular folks, but 'pro' Indy cosplayers from something called INDYFANS. Check out the Marion! She looks pretty accurate! Now all she needs is a frying pan!


The new baddie from Indy 4. Amazing what fans can do with pretty much 2-3 images on the net. Costume wise, she looks just like the Cate Blanchette character!


Lots of Indy Jones' roaming the park! There were even little kids- like 5 years old- wearing Last Crusade t-shirts! I love that younger gens get to know who Indy is. Hell, after watching the newest tv trailer 5 times yesterday, both my kids (2 and 4) are singing the theme song as they roam the house :) I so proud!


The Indyfans have a myspace page where they are promoting a doc they are making on Indy Jones fandom. This is a poster they were giving away. Here's a link to the site: INDYFANS!


The new area of Legoland: Adventureland! The big new ride is this sort of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride meets a light gun shooting gallery. Love the concept (never rode Buzz Lightyear) but the execution is ultra lacking. I mean, Legoland is a B level theme park when you compare it to, say, Disneyworld. So I was not expecting all that much. But even so, considering most of the rides at Legoland are still pretty good, this new ride ranks as a total disappointment. But I love the theme, so I still had fun!


Here's us in our IN CAR/JEEP POV, about to go into the tomb!


Here's a crappy phone pic of the interior of the ride. Lots of the interactive shooting gallery parts did not auto reset so you never really knew what you could shoot. The lighting of the ride was terrible so there was no drama. And the cars went too fast for you to really get to focus on shooting anything. But again, it was cool.

Ok, gotta run! Later ya'll!

David

Today Is The Last Day I Am Using Words...

...ok, maybe not. But my point is: wanted to post but don't have tons of energy to do so. I feel fine but me and my wife both have a tenacious cough that won't seem to go away. The incessant coughing and old man style wheezing keeps me up at night (it is 2:30 am now, and I've been up since 1:30am). So lack of sleep over the last 3-4 days is catching up to me. So I wanna blog, but it's gonna be real short handy. Here goes with the quick hits:

* Zach & Wiki rocks much. Love the structure, love the puzzles, love the design. Love how the whole puzzle is right in front of you and- for the most part- how the puzzle environments are these little self contained chunks. On God of War, there was this whole 'oooh, a 'guess what the designer is thinking' puzzle=a bad puzzle!' but this game makes it clear- to me- that sometimes those sorts of puzzles are the best kind! Sort of the puzzle equiv. of a quick time event, where you get to experience a more narrative, one-off scenario, versus being a slave to a handful of key mechanics the game uses over and over. This game kind of reminds me- core play wise- of the classic 16 bitter OUT OF THIS WORLD/ANOTHER WORLD.

* I love my job. I simply love doing my job. It is so much fun and so exciting. I am so lucky I get to do it with the team I get to do it with. What a blast.

* I am reading A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle and it really is changing my life. One of the most amazing books I have ever read.

* Me and my wife went to see Eckhart Tolle speak in San Diego last week. Great content but not the world's most engaging speaker. In some ways this was the point. But still...reading his book is better than seeing him speak, for me.

* Taking the A NEW EARTH online class with Oprah and Eckhart. It rocks. I guess you could say that right now, we are Tolle junkies in my house. His book is one of the three key philosophical books that have really shaped my life over the last few years. The whole list is:

-When Things Fall Apart: Pema Chodron's Buddha/Shambala teachings aimed at a Western audience
- Any LAW OF ATTRACTION BOOK- Abraham/Hicks, The Secret, Think and Grow Rich,etc.
-A New Earth-the Eckhart Tolle book

* I get more and more excited for Indy Jones 4 as the days wear on. Even if what I am starting to suspect is true- that Lucas has had more influence on any movie, let alone a Spielberg movie, than he should- I am still excited. Even if the film is one of the worst Spielberg movies ever made, I don't care. It's Indy, it's summer. I'm so jazzed.

* Tier A Summer Flicks=Iron Man, Indy, Hulk, Speed Racer, Batman, Get Smart
Tier B Summer Flicks (anticipation wise)= WallE, Sex and the City, The Happening, Hancock, Wanted, Hellboy II, The Mumm* y 3

Even if only 1/3 rock, it's gonna be a hell of a summer movie season.


* I had typed a paragraph on game reviews being broken and then erased it. Does the gaming net need ANYMORE blogs/articles/debate on:

-game reviews/state of game journalism?
-games as art debate?
-violence in video games debate/ESRB ratings debate?

I think not. Game mags and web sites should not publish any story dealing with these issues for the next 18 months and see what happens. Will it force the mags/sites to come up with more interesting features? Will it force us to come to the conclusion that games are consumer products and beyond core reviews, there's not much to cover? Who knows...but man, I just can't read another story on those tired old subjects.

* My new movie star girlfriend is the Asian woman from Battlestar Galactica. I don't watch the show (I know I should, but there are only so many hours in a day...I have yet to see an episode of LOST, for crying out loud! Hell, I still have 3 discs to get thru on my first season of THE OC box set and I've had that for 2 years!)....but anyway, oh man, Grace Park- her name- is amazing.

* Kate Beckinsale recently said...well hell, if you know Kate like I know Kate, you KNOW what she said. God bless her!

* I miss the old E3.

* I have a BAFTA! For GOW OF WAR 2 story! I did the least amount of work on the story, compared to my fellow winners Cory and Marianne but hell, I'll take it! How amazing is it to have a damn BAFTA?!? That's pretty sweet and probably as close as I will ever get to an Oscar. How neat!

* Should I go to PAX? Should I go to GenCon? Never been to either.

* Should I go hear Wil Wheaton read from his newest book when he is in San Diego this month? I just re-read the amazing DANCING BAREFOOT in one setting the other night, and I think I will. But what if he's like (cause he's a gamer): 'Jaffe? Screw you man, I hate your games! I ain't signing shit for you!' I'm not really worried about him doing that, but what if he did? That'd be kind of cool, but sad.

Ok, need to go to sleep. Coughing has died down, maybe I will make it this time, thru the rest of the nite.

Goodnite ya'll!

David

ps. tired, sleepy so ain't no typo or spell checking going down here....usually I do a little of that but hell, not tonite....later!

2 SCOOPS OF INDY!

++++++++++++++UPDATE++++++++++++++

Just got back from Gamestop where I picked up a bunch of games for research and to stay current (The Club, Zach and Wiki, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2,Tomb Raider Anniversary PSP,and a few others).

Anyway, saw this and had to take a pic. This is the greatest/stupidest/most original videogame title in history! I LOVE IT!!!!



No interest in buying the game as the screenshots and play description looked pretty generic. But man, you gotta give it up for the title!

Later!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey!

Was crazy craving Apple Jacks this morning so I hit the local Ralph's before work.

And who did I see, staring at me from the numerous boxes of sugary sweet goodness?

Was it Snap, or Pop, or Krackle? Nope!

The Sugar Smacks Bear? Hell no!

Was it those two creepy granola chicks on the box of Kakashi's GOOD FRIENDS cereal (what the hell is up with that name?!?)....But nope, wasn't them either.

Dude, it was the fucking MAN WITH THE HAT!

Yep! It was my good buddy, Indiana Jones, staring me down from the most recent boxes of Raisin Brand Crunch cereal! (which my 4 year old calls Raisin Brown for some reason and since I'm her dad, I think it's oooh so cute!)

Check it out:







Man, when I was younger, I used to love seeing the big summer movie promos on fast food restaurant cups, cereal boxes, microwave popcorn, bags of chips,etc.

It not only signaled the start of summer movie season, but I loved how things I loved- in this case, big blockbuster movies- were oozing into pop culture and just people's lives in general! It was so exciting and I was always so jazzed that one day, stuff I worked on would be on similar products.

It wasn't till I grew up and worked in games- and games started doing this sort of promotion as well- that I realized that getting your product on a can of Coke had less to do with the world really being jazzed and thrilled about your work and everything to do with year long negotiations between PR and marketing divisions and money switching hands and deals that while creative in their own way, had nothing to with celebrating the actual creative product. Man, what a naive kid I was! Back in the day, I just assumed it was like Coke was going: Man, we love Indy so much, we wanna help celebrate this amazing movie and stick him on ALL of our shit!

Hell, do you guys remember when Pepsi put Captain Blasto on cans? Blasto had alot of potential and some areas I thought were actually pretty good...it just never came together, you know? But so yeah, if they were putting what amounted to a B level video game (and less than that for alot of reviewers) on a shit ton of cans then you KNOW it's all about the money. (sorry Jay...now if they only would have pushed Kri that hard, things woulda been a lot different with that amazing game)...

But all that said, I still get giddy and jazzed when I start seeing this kind of stuff. I recall obsessing over the back of the cereal box as a kid, looking at the characters from the new Star Wars flicks, or the bad guy from Willow,etc. Good times.

Sad thing is, I didn't want Raisin Brand Crunch today and that was the only box with Indy's face.

So I ended up eating my Apple Jacks and reading the cool new website GIANTBOMB instead.

My how times have changed!

Ok, gotta run. Ya'll have a great weekend and if you celebrate such things, have a Happy Easter as well. We're not any religion but we celebrate all the holidays so I think we're gonna do Easter Egg hunts or something with the kids. Should be fun!

Ok, later ya'll!

David

ps. you guys KNOW I'll be there DAY 1 for Indy but shit, they named the Shia character MUTT?!? I mean...MUTT!?!? How dumb. But hell, maybe it'll make sense in context....?!?