chris
Latest
WoW Moviewatch: Walking Dead Parody
Chris created this video as a parody of Walking Dead, sticking mostly to shots that resemble the style of the show. It's an interesting attempt at homage, and I applaud the effort. The animation and visuals work fairly well, but the video is over pretty quickly. It needed much more narrative meat to effective satirize or even translate Walking Dead into WoW. While it might have been short since it was a first effort, I think the technical skills put on display are capable of a larger story. Besides, who doesn't love the occasional zombie? Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
Japan's Resident Evil 6 premium edition designed for Oswell E. Spencer
We're used to premium editions costing a bit extra, but Resident Evil 6's bundle for Japan costs a whopping $1,300. This premium edition contains Resident Evil 6, Leon's leather jacket (seriously) and four different phone cases – one designed for Leon, one for Chris, one for newly revealed Luke and another random case.It makes sense the bundle would include four phone cases, as you're going to need at least three friends to help you buy this $1,300 bundle. We guess you could share Leon's leather jacket too, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants style. It comes in sizes S, M, L and XL.Only 5,000 of these premium edition bundles will be made available for ¥100,000 ($1,300) each. Pre-orders are open now, and conclude on June 11.
Global Chat: October 30-November 5, 2011
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! Global Chat this week touches on some of our most reliable hot topics: free-to-play and game design. Business models, as well as how games are created and whom they're created for, are always good for discussion, so follow along after the jump to see what a few of our readers had to say.
Chris Ware releases iPad-only comic via McSweeney's app
Chris Ware is an amazing cartoonist out of Chicago, and he's done a lot of work with McSweeney's, the literary journal run by novelist Dave Eggers and his company. Now, Ware has released an iPad-only comic, released inside the McSweeney's app, and co-developed with Spaces of Play, the studio behind the recent iOS game Spirits. The comic is called Touch Sensitive, and it's apparently 14 pages of art and animations by Ware, featuring his great style and pace. The piece itself is a 99 cent purchase inside the McSweeney's app, which is a free download available now. There's a lot of other content in there, too, including a month long subscription to their service called The Small Chair, featuring stories, essays, interview, and other works from the McSweeney's stable. If you haven't checked the app out yet, you should definitely pick it up. And the Ware comic is a great first purchase in there, too -- it's completely exclusive to the iPad, so this is your only chance to read it.
Growing Up Geek: Christopher Trout
Who wants cake? This guy does. Or so says 29 years of photographic evidence. Baked goods loom large in my pictorial history, as does the use and abuse of Dep Gel and even, dare I say it, an affinity for socks and sandals. As much as technology's played a part in my existence, however, my photo album is all but devoid of references to my geekier undertakings. Believe me, there were nights spent playing D&D -- although my relationship with RPGs was short lived -- and days lost in the wormholes of the web, but, truth be told, I've never really considered myself a geek.
Win some real-life loot from screenshot contests
We've got not one but two different screeshot contests that have shown up on the tip line lately. First off, our friend Mep, who runs WoW Screenshots, has gotten his contest all up and running, and you can go over and upload a screenshot or vote for the winners over there right now. His contest runs through September 20th, and the prize is a mousepad with your winning screenshot printed right on it. Pretty groovy custom prize -- we can't wait to see what kinds of screenshots rise to the top.And Chris also emailed us about a new site he's started up called Epic Screens. It's another screenshot database (a little competition is a good thing, right?), and he's hosting his own best screenshot contest, with two copies of vanilla WoW on the line (perfect, he says, for Recruit-a-friend). He doesn't have a final date (or any other official rules posted), so we're guessing you just head on over there and submit some shots, and if you win, he'll let you know. Sounds like fun -- let the screenshot competitions begin!
Resident Evil 5 to offer online co-op, delayed to March 2009
When Resident Evil 5 drops, you won't be alone against the legions of zombies -- a second player will be able to join in the gory fun as well. The online co-op mode is confirmed at E3, with another player taking control of Sheva, Chris' female companion.Unfortunately, you'll have to wait a while -- Microsoft says that it won't be available until a worldwide simultaneous release on Friday the 13th, March 2009. "Please hang on just a bit longer," they say, "we'll have it to you shortly."Update: Press conference walkthrough video embedded after the cut.
CHRIS project aims to put a robot in the kitchen
We're not certain what's up with the sudden rash of news about EU- and EC-funded robotics research, but we're not going to turn down robotic kitchen assistance either, so say hello to the Cooperative Human Robot Interaction System (CHRIS) project, which aims to build a service robot capable of working safely with humans. According to the researchers, the plan is to "to develop the rules we need to introduce this level of sophistication into service robots who are working closely with people," and to that end they've already built several prototypes and started testing specific scenarios, like how a bot should react to accidentally splashing a human worker with hot soup, or how to read facial expressions and tones of voice. That's fine by us -- we're pretty certain an army of deathbots can't do too much damage with soup -- but let's make sure we leave the chopping to the people, k?[Via Primidi]
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25: Angry ranting edition
You know, you know what? We've had it up to here with some of the things we have to deal with everyday, and dammit, we think it's time we let people know. This crap has to stop.Where to start? Let's talk about the freaking CPUs they stick us with here at the Fanboy offices. Intel Core 2 Duo's: pathetic. We mean, what the hell? It's like two normal Intel processors duct-taped together. Look, we need insane processing power to make these blog posts funny and interesting, you know? These conditions are unworkable. And let's not even mention roller coasters. Mechanical and electrical engineers just aren't taking these things seriously enough; they need to start using the medium for proper artistic expression. We need to tell a story full of meaning and character depth during these rides, or people are going to feel unfulfilled and pissed off, like us. And we're really pissed right now.Finally, to Maxis, developers of the best-selling PC game of all-time and the future title Spore, expected to perhaps exceed that mark set by the exemplary Sims some years back: make a game that doesn't suck ass, okay?Ugh, these numbers? Where is the emotion? Where is the meaning? Life is so meaningless ....- DS Lite: 111,814 24,314 (17.86%) - PSP: 66,156 34,054 (33.96%)- Wii: 57,972 20,534 (26.16%) - PS3: 44,000 24,685 (127.80%) - PS2: 15,364 310 (2.06%) - Xbox 360: 3,379 804 (19.22%) - Game Boy Micro: 805 102 (11.25%) - GBA SP: 738 297 (28.70%) - Gamecube: 303 20 (6.19%) - DS Phat: 112 20 (15.15%) - GBA: 25 34 (57.63%)[Source: Media Create]
He feels bad and stuff: A public apology from the Wii ranter
So remember that raving lunatic who badmouthed the Wii in a GDC free-for-all bash-fest a few days ago? Well, after a phone call from EA threatening to fire his ass he feels really bad, and recently came forward with a public apology. Chris Hecker, programmer for Maxis, says:"When I'm on stage, I'm me -- I'm not representing EA or Maxis. I do not think the Wii is a piece of shit."Know this, Hecker. We do not forgive you. In fact, we feel a satiric mood coming on right about now ... stay tuned.[Thanks, Markus!]
Umbrella Chronicles aptly named [update 1]
See, when the Resident Evil for the Wii was announced as the Umbrella Chronicles, we thought, great! An overarching story about everyone's favorite zombie-producing conglomerate. And we're getting that (in a sense), but it turns out that we've been fooled ... here, "umbrella" means "that which covers all" and chronicles seems to stand for "a little rehash of a lot of story."That's right, folks -- the so-exciting ReWii may not be that exciting after all. Instead of an all new game or a straight up remake, Umbrella Chronicles will feature four chapters that recover old ground from games 1-4, and some Wiimote functionality has been tossed in like a drizzle of chocolate atop a subpar sundae.While it will no doubt be interesting to see the long and winding story of Umbrella told in this fashion, it still feels like a copout. Capcom is throwing us a bone so that we remain dedicated to their series. Where's our game? Where's our chance to blast all new zombie heads? If we get it, it won't be soon. For now, we'll cling to the old idea that good things come to those who wait. But if they make us wait too long, we may be storming Capcom ala the torchbearing villagers in RE4. [Via Joystiq][Update: The teaser trailer has hit the net and is after the break.]
