January 29, 2009
Game Development, Gaming
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So, as you may or may not know I worked on a little something called Nazi Zombies. Seems like those nasty Nazi Zombies are getting more traction than I thought. A few links people have sent me the past few days have brought a smile to my face.
The first Nazi Zombie reference, by someone over at The Minus World is the Call of Duty Activity Book For Kids which does some much appreciated Call of Duty satire. Included are plenty of Nazi Zombie jokes, such as an exercise in creating the next version of Nazi Zombies!
Then today, everyone on my instant messenger list sent me a link to this little gem, where some Nazi Zombie fan in Austin, Texas hacked a road sign to warn of an impending Nazi Zombie attack. Okay, so while I don’t condone vandalism, I thought the story was pretty awesome. There are less dangerous (and more legal) ways to show your appreciation for Nazi Zombies, but it was all in good fun and no one was hurt. But next time, bake a giant Nazi Zombie themed cake and give it to a homeless shelter or something if you want to get on the news! I’m waiting for the impending “blame video games” story to follow…
Anyway, I love seeing stories like this, keep ’em coming!
January 26, 2009
Games for Fun, Gaming
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Yes, that’s right. The first Halo. I recently finished played though it again (on normal, which was difficult enough) since I had never done a proper play through back in the day. I played sections of it at friends houses, played some multiplayer here and there, but I never played it from beginning to end. Shhh, don’t tell anyone – I never owned an original Xbox.
So how does Halo hold up over all these years? It’s interesting. Some parts of the game hold up really well, while others make you wonder why it got above a 90%. I guess combat has evolved over the past few years.
What stands out the most is how solid the game is in general. Even today, there aren’t many shooters that have such varied and interesting weapons. There’s enough different types of enemies and vehicles to keep game play interesting and the story and presentation are very well done. Another suprising thing is that you don’t come across many bugs or unpolished features.
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January 26, 2009
Gaming
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Video Games Live was awesome. If you haven’t heard of VGL, a live choir and orchestra plays live music from tons of video games, old and new. Up behind the orchestra is a huge screen where videos and images are projected throughout the performance.
A little history. VGL started in LA with the first performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 2005, played to a crowd of 11,000. However, the guys running the show had some problems and were canceled. The second show was to go on and was to be played in Seattle. The Seattle show in 2005 rocked and proved VGL could be successful at smaller venues. VGL bounced back and every year since they’ve put on more and more shows. The guys running VGL have a special place in their heart for Seattle and it shows.
VGL took place in the Paramount theater, which was packed. We ended up getting really good seats near the front were totally worth it at about $65 a pop. The show started out with a costume judging contest (the WoW guy should have won, not the half baked Final Fantasy costume, but whatever) then went into a little musical game history. The orchestra played Pong, which transitioned into Asteroids, which transitioned into Space Invaders, and so on. As the games being showed on the screen behind the orchestra progressed, the music changed along with it. Eventually it got up in the 8-bit era and beyond It was really inspiring to see how far games have come after all this time.
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