2006: Success (?), Failure, 30, Apathy. (k3nshi)

After a slow start and severely depleted funds, 2006 picked up towards the middle. It then rapidly plummeted down a pit.

Paid work with some "interesting" dynamics had a dramatic effect on my Quality of Life towards the latter part of the year. A massive increase in unnecessary stress saw my health suffer, and I piled on the pounds I worked so hard last year to lose. Meditation went out the window. Plans to run the Nike Run London 10K dissolved into nothing. Despite this, I made some new friends, relearned a few old skills and gained more confidence having survived a pretty harsh project.

I hit 30 in August. I went emo about it for a week. I'm probably still emo about it now. Thirty. A brighter part of that was I bought a mac mini as a media center and its working out just great. 2006 is the year I came to detest Windows. It really isn't good enough, and if Windows is the disease, I doubt Vista is the cure.

Family life in 2006: Better. Worse. Complicated.

Gaming was something that was largely not a part of my life in 2006, but that changed this week when I finally bought a 360 after much pressure (Hi Shimmy). Its looking increasingly likely I'll buy a PS3 at some point too. So much for only buying one console this generation.

I only tried a few new things this year, and failed to take on any of the big challenges I had considered at the end of 2005. At the end of this year, I can safely say I am very tired and somewhat apathetic. A trip to Dubai provided some necessary respite, but even that started badly as visa issues meant I was stuck in the airport for an entire day. Not fun.

I still feel tired and apathetic as 2006 trickles away. Here's hoping 2007 brings a lot of energy, focus and success.

Year End Awards 2006 (k3nshi)

The Kenshi Institute's Year End Awards 2006

• Man of the Year: James Bond


• Woman of the Year: Lara Croft


• Film of the Year: Mission Impossible 3


• Game of the Year: Tomb Raider: Legend (Xbox 360)


• Food of the Year: Biscuits


• Book of the Year: Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman


• Poison of the Year: Polonium


• Website of the Year: youtube.com


• Technology of the Year: Nintendo Wii


• Anti-Technology of the Year: Java


• Blog of the Year: Kotaku


• TV Channel of the Year: E! TV


• TV Show of the Year: Entourage


• Application of the Year: Entourage (Mac OS)


• Shape of the Year: Trapezium


• Place of the Year: The Lounge - Ritz Carlton Dubai


• Colour of the Year: Grey


• Year of the Year: 2005

Amateur Mugger FTL (k3nshi)

[16:37] amateur mugger FTL
[16:38] yeah I'm fine thanks
[16:38] so here we go
[16:38] I was walking to Harrow
[16:38] going the normal route I take
[16:38] which is up the main road and then into some side streets, which are normally empty
[16:38] as I go up the sidestreet I notice someone also going the same way as me
[16:39] which struck me as a bit unusual
[16:39] a bit further up the sidestreet the guy goes to me "Hey, whats the time?"
[16:39] which pretty much said to me there is a good chance this guy is going to try to mug me
[16:40] and sure enough the next thing he says is: "I Hope you have some money for me"
[16:40] to which I just say no
[16:40] and then its all "What? Show me your wallet!"
[16:40] and I just keep saying no
[16:40] then he puts his hand in his pocket as if he has something
[16:40] so I just walk the other direction back to the main road
[16:41] * Wickedkit (~Wickedkit@82-68-248-78.dsl.in-addr.zen.co.uk) has joined #edge

[16:41] * Playdoh gives channel operator status to Wickedkit
[16:41] this guy shouts out to me "Keep going about your business - you were going this way!"
[16:41] * Wickedkit gives channel operator status to RSimmy
[16:41] he followed me for a bit
[16:41] but I went into the nearest shop
[16:41] and called the cops
[16:41] THEN
[16:41] the cops arrived and I got to go on the prowl in an undercover cop car to look for the perp
[16:42] but we couldnt find him
[16:42] but that was quite fun

Ray Hound: Something for the Japanese Shooter Fans (k3nshi)

Ray-hound for Windows, another game by the Warning Forever guy. Screenshots certainly look pretty. No idea if this is OLD NEWS or not.

Killer Apps, Proxy Wars & Intergoons (k3nshi)

I think the most positive aspect that the next-gen is bringing/really focussing on is social gaming. The Wii adverts were a real breathe of fresh air, focussing on the players of the games and really showing a social experience. The last time I saw game adverts like that was for things like the old Atari systems waaaay back in the day. And by all accounts Nintendo really is managing to court non-gamers with their system.

Sony are making plenty of noises about user created content and creating an online experience. Phil 'Mr Popular' Harrison cant help mentioning things like Second Life and MySpace when talking about the online PS3 experience, so it appears as if Sony are going to take online seriously. Singstar online could be a killer app all by itself. Still, there is nothing to see there yet, which leaves us with...

Xbox LIVE. Which I think really is the 360s killer feature, especially if you dont like Halo. For me Halo 3 is enough - but Halo 3 isnt out yet, and so I wouldnt be thinking about getting a 360. Except of course a large group of hashedgers are all playing Gears of War online and working like some kind of unholy army in J Allard's Proxy War for Gaming. "Buy a 360!", "Have you got it yet?", "JOIN USSSS!". Just another day on #edge at the moment.

So despite the fact that currently I think the 360 is a massively underwhelming and overpriced purchase; the console most likely to be the spiritual successor of the Dreamcast, I have seriously been thinking about buying one. I've been in GAME numerous time teetering on the point of purchase for a console whose library of games is incredibly uninspiring. Why? Because as killer apps go, 'Gaming with your mates' is pretty much the psychopath app. First everyone is playing Gears of War, then everyone moves on to Test Drive Unlimited, then its the next thing and the killing spree continues.

So the 360. I might buy one... tomorrow.

It hasn't even started yet... (k3nshi)

Let's be clear: the next gen hasnt begun AT ALL. If I want to buy a next-gen console today, I have no choice: I can only readily buy a 360.

So for all the internet game forum know it alls who are proclaiming the PS3 dead in the water, all I can say is: the battle hasnt even started yet. Really it all kicks off in mid-2008, possibly late 2008, when all the consoles seriously start trying to court the casual gamer and every console has a few decent games.

Next gen hasn't even really started on the 360 yet either. Bar a few notable (recent) titles, so much of the library seems like old gen gameplay with tarted up visuals. Roll on the likes of Bioshock, Assasin's Creed and Halo 3. Note that (with the exception of inhouse title Halo 3), these titles have been mooted for the PS3 at one point in time or other. Face it: next gen games development is expensive. And publishers are going to want to ammortise those costs by hitting as many platforms as possible or by releasing on the most dominant platform. And that cant happen until all 3 consoles are out in the market in sufficient numbers and the massmarket has chosen its winners and losers.

I am Two (k3nshi)

Another year over (expect the tradional year end posts soon enough). But today... hashedge is two years old. Have a cake. Play a game. And think happy thoughts.

Its been a pretty quiet year for the blog. A lot of my time has been taken up with Other Things, which has meant I havent been following gaming very much at all this year. But it looks like I might be getting back into gaming a bit more, what with an exciting NEW GENERATION about to begin. So... expect more hashedge blog action REAL SOON...

Games of the Year 2006 (k3nshi)

Gamer	Game of the Year	Platform
corps	Oblivion	Xbox 360
Crhis	Gears of Wars	Xbox 360
debaser	New Super Mario	Nintendo DS
elbo	Shadow of the Colossus	PS2
franki	Lego Star Wars 2	Xbox 360
Kenshi	Tomb Raider: Legend	Xbox 360
Kit	Gears of War	Xbox 360
kon-el	Zelda: Twilight Princess	Nintendo Wii
Meh	Okami OMG ROLF	PS2
qazimod	Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble	Nintendo DS
Rayn	Zelda: Twilight Princess	Nintendo Wii
rhp	Wii Sports	Nintendo Wii
Shimmyhill	Gears of War	Xbox 360
Steev	Final Fantasy XII	PS2
Taev	Oblivion	PC
The-G	Gears of War	Xbox 360
vamecum	Oendan	Nintendo DS
Van	Pheonix Wright 2	Nintendo DS

Platform	Number of GOTY votes
Xbox 360	7
Nintendo DS	4
Nintendo Wii	3
PS2	3
PC	1

Any more, for any more? Let me know...

Dubai Living (k3nshi)

...brief post from Dubai, cos my laptop battery is going to die REAL SOON now.

- Days spent in airport due to visa issues: 1
- OMG its been raining. Only 1 sunny day so far. :-(
- Lamborgini's spotted: 2
- BMWs/Mercs/Audis/Lexus: innumerable

To be continued...

Cool Mario Desktops... (k3nshi)

[14:30]  http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_leitch/140504998/
[14:30]  nice desktop
[14:32]  and another: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_leitch/140388573/

Hurry up... (k3nshi)

clicky clicky

DEMOGRAPHIC (k3nshi)

Spotted on the tube today: A woman. Playing a (black) Nintendo DS. Didn't find out what game she was playing though. 

PS3: Flow (k3nshi)

Screenshot

Flow is the only game I am interested in on PS3 at the moment. It's like the X360 launch all over again (where I was only interested in Geometry Wars). A nice write up on flow is at the WSG.

Killer App Score card (k3nshi)

360
Halo 3
Gears of War (contendah)

Wii
Zelda (contendah)

PS3
?

Some Spore Dev's interviewed... (k3nshi)

...on Joystiq.

Interesting to see that Chris Hecker of Indy Game Jam fame got snapped up by Will Wright. So EA snagged a real thought leader (urgh) from the indy game scene.... is a resurgent EA Golden Age forthcoming? 

Capitalism Bad, Marketting Good (k3nshi)

This is some good coverage of the PS3 launch. I like the fact they have some video footage, and are exposing the kind of shambles the launch event was. However I think its pretty fucking sad that the writer laments how "real gamers" werent part of that stupid launch day event, and how that in some way ruined the launch.

Get a grip kids. Its the first day of selling a mass manufactured toy that will be obsolete within 5 years. Wishing that corporates get to have their special marketting PR fests is just sad and pathetic.

exCellent (k3nshi)

So the PS3 launched in Japan. 

Does anyone care?

I dont.

Back to Gaming (k3nshi)

So previously I rated God of War. Well I liked it so much I bought it again, and am playing through it right now. It's still damned good, but really... imagine if it had more of a DMC kind of control system.

Roll on God of War 2.

Appalling (k3nshi)

"Marvel Comics is continuing in its bid to steal the word "super-hero" from the public domain and put it in a lock-box to which it will control the key. Marvel and DC comics jointly filed a trademark on the word 'super-hero.' They use this mark to legally harass indie comic companies that make competing comic books"

Read more

iPod Shuffle - Not Washable (k3nshi)

...

R.I.P

Heads Up (k3nshi)

Warren Spector has been doing a 4 part series in The Escapist recently. I havent read any of it yet, so have no idea if its any good, but I thought you might like to know that.

Carry on.

Wired on the only interesting DS game (k3nshi)

"Indeed, for something that doesn't even seem like normal "game," it's weirdly addictive. The math questions had me so frazzled that I emotionally regressed to about age ten. Brain Age also includes a Stroop test, which flashes the names of colors on screen in mismatched ink -- for example, the word "blue" printed in red -- and challenges you to name the color of the ink. As any psychologist will tell you, you can keep a lid on things for the first dozen words, but then your brain turns to jelly."

Read the rest here.

Dofus Arena (k3nshi)

Dofus Arena - a pretty, online tactical game thing. It even has a client for OSX. AMAZING.

Thanks to hub2 for pointing this one out.

'Second Life' scores $11 million in funding (k3nshi)

Linden Lab, the publisher of the popular virtual world "Second Life," announced Tuesday an $11 million round of funding led by Globespan Capital Partners.

Read the rest here.

LucasArts (k3nshi)

"The tech convergence has George Lucas’s gaming and movie divisions working hand-in-glove. R&D honcho Steve Sullivan and project lead Chris Williams explain how it’s working"

Read the rest here.

Geometry Wars on OSX and PC (k3nshi)

Well not quite, but the next best thing is Grid Wars.

Some points to note:

• Its written in Blitz Max so there are builds for Windows and OSX
• My gamecube-usb adaptor works perfectly on my iMac
• My best reason for wanting an Xbox 360 just went bye-bye!
• Grid Wars is free

MS and the producers of Geometry Wars just lost HARD IN THE FACE.

Thanks to Pow for the heads up on this.

You got pwned (k3nshi)

Amazing... simply AMAZING

I dont see the code anymore... (k3nshi)

class AuthorAttribute : System.Attribute 
{
  public AuthorAttribute(string name)
  {
     this.name = name;
  }

  private string name;
  public string Name {
     get { return name; }
  }
}


Interview with the dude who did Ico.. (k3nshi)

Fumito Ueda talks to Wired.

Will Wright talks Spore (Video) (k3nshi)

Click click click...

There is no doughnut... (k3nshi)

Great. I just went to get a cup of tea and what is in the kitchen? A bag of French jam doughnuts.

I will resist.... 

ZOMG Gladwell has a blog!!111 (k3nshi)

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the Tipping Point and Blink has a blog.

XOMG

A useful widget... (k3nshi)

...for OSX Dashboard from Google.

The Blogger widget that lets you blog really easily. AMAZING.

Get it here.

Game Theory: Creativity Under Threat (k3nshi)

There is something very wrong in an industry where a designer who has produced exactly one game is seen as some sort of revolutionary hero figure. I am talking about Keita Takahashi who produced Katamari Damacy. His disproportionate share of acclaim is covered far better elsewhere. I don't want to talk about that, I want to talk about how to save creativity in gaming.

From the continual bitching of games developers (I've been reading the same shit for about 3 years now), the problem is they don't get the luxury of taking creative risks and this is due to the huge budgets required to make a game, and the subsequent high volume of sales a game must make just to recoup costs.

Nintendo is not the solution

Nintendo are doing some very smart and disruptive things at the moment (although arguably no more so than Sony's EyeToy, Singstar and Buzz products). But platform politics and general business practice mean that Nintendo, or any other platform vendor should not be seen as a long-term solution for the problem of the death of creativity in gaming. Once a business becomes dominant (as Nintendo have been in the past), they have no interest in disrupting the status quo. I'm sure Nintendo's board of Directors would love to take us back to the 1980 where they ruled the gaming world with an Iron Fist and every title published had to be vetted by them and manufactured by them and licensed by them. This is not a Win scenario for gamers or game designers, no matter how much of love you have for the company and/or some of its great products.

So what are some potential long term solutions, to ensure that creativity in games design does not whither and die at the whims and corporate strategies of platform companies. I'll talk about some ideas in the next article.

Game Theory: Platform Politics (k3nshi)

I'm going to just set out explicitly the fact that each console vendor has a strong interest in tilting the overall direction of gameplay (and what games are seen to be) to further their own cause (sales of their platform). A quick explanation of these biases could be:

Microsoft wants gaming to be about multiplayer, online stuff because they have LIVE and this is clearly the strongest differentiatior in their gaming portfolio. They also have the kind of resources and expertise to do this kind of thing really, really well.

Nintendo want gaming to be about different control mechanisms so they dont have to engage in a hardware battle and can churn out games more quickly and cheaply.

Sony just need to maintain the power and ubiquity of their Playstation brand. More of the same but butter, along with growing the market with things like SingStar, EyeToy and Buzz. They are the least interested party in disrupting the status quo because of course, they rule over the current state of play.

Game Theory: Intro (k3nshi)

I'm going to be doing a few posts about the games industry for the hell of it, which I am going to prefix with the title "Game Theory". There will be an element of building on previous material, so I'm adding the prefix to make it easy to identify the posts.

Meditation Redux (k3nshi)

So after a long drought I finally made time tonight to do some meditation. Not a particularly "good" session, probably because I had ingested some caffeine (in the form of a cup of chai) not too long before deciding to meditate. Still, the 30 minutes pretty much flew by and I am a bit more chilled.

I'll try and pursue the recommended daily meditations this week (2 sessions of 30 minutes per day). Looks like I will have to give up my nightly chai fix though...

Random Blog Entry (k3nshi)

Well I said I'd blog today, but I cant really think of what to blog about. Sure I could do what I was going to do and tell you about how I cant be bothered with games at the moment and how I cant even be bothered to buy the latest stuff, but I suppose I'd sound like Edge in the Truly Miserable Era. Instead I was going to post about how watching BSG makes me want to play Homeworld 2, but on my Mac, which is annoying as I have the PC version but not the stupidly expensive Mac version. And no I dont want to buy the same game twice. But thats pretty boring also (although I would have snuck in a mention of how much better looking the HOT BLONDE cylon is compared to Grace Park just to annoy Meh). I almost posted a gratuitous picture of the HOT BLONDE cylon in this blog post but then I realised I couldn't be bothered.

I had mini-pizzas (or 'baby pizzas' as I am told they are really called) for dinner. They're nice but really I wanted 1 more than I had. No my diet is not going well in 2006. Nor is my exercise regime. On the positive side my cough seems to have gone. I'll nuke it some more just to be sure though - it does a mean Lazarus impression.

After a period of neglect my Bonsai tree is looking better than it has for a while. Mr Miyagi would be proud. Actually I probably need to trim it and stuff. Afterwards I will catch flies with chopsticks, paint a fence and singlehandedly take out the hardest (and cheatingest) bastard in the All Valley Karate Championships. "Go Johnny! Finish him!!!". Yeah right - he'll walk straight into a cunning Crane Kick. This all reminds me that I want to watch Karate Kid again. And Ghostbusters also.

Other than that I am fine, thanks. How are you?

Trapped in Falken's Maze (k3nshi)

I finally got round to re-watching Wargames on DVD last night. Talk about a blast from the past. This film was a huge influence on me. I remember when I first saw it how amazed I was by some of the concepts depicted in the film: the internet, multiplayer online games, speech synthesis, artificial intelligence - and all of this available to a 17 year old kid (Matthew Broderick). Almost unthinkable stuff at the time!

Wargames wasn't the only influence of course, I grew up watching things like: Knight Rider, Automan, Airwolf and Tron. All of them impressed upon me the amazing possibilities that computer technology could enable.

Some of my favourite scenes in Wargames revolve around how the main character, David (Broderick) manages to hack into the military computer system he wants to play games on. The actual scene where you see David's many attempts to find a way into the system is the best depiction of hacking I've ever seen in a film, and a real credit to the director. Trying to depict a very cerebral, tedious and yet compulsive process in the cinematic form certainly isn't easy. Similar scenes in Swordfish and other films are a complete joke.

But before David can even begin to hack the military system, he needs to turn to some of his older, more experienced friends for help. David doesn't know where to start in the process of hacking the military system, but one of the nerds certainly does:

"The first game on the list - go right through's Falken's Maze!"

This leads David onto an obsessive path of discovery as tries to learn how to bend the system to his will. I guess I know how he feels.

It's coming.... (k3nshi)

"Then, at the flick of a switch, Minor turns the simulation over from his new Cell processor to a dual-processor Apple Power Mac G5, and the scenery freezes. The G5 almost audibly groans under the burden, though it's no slouch. In fact, it's currently the top of the line for PCs. But Cell is something different entirely. It's a bet on what consumers will do with data and how best to suit microprocessors to the task—and it's really, really fast."

An article for techies only. But the possibilities of sheer raw computation power > possibilities of a gimmicky control system.

Virtua Fighter 4EVAH (k3nshi)

Akira from VF5
Originally uploaded by Kenshi.

The VF series has the unfortunate and unwarranted reputation of being "hardcore" and impenetrable. The truth is: VF is an amazing game, not a lifestyle choice.

Its all pretty simple. You have your moves and throws, a basic blocking system (high block, low block), and various counters.

The reason VF differs from other fighters is the way all of this has been implemented. The simplest techniques often work best in VF. Forward + Punch is often all you need to take out some flashy bastard who wants to do some convoluted throw sequence on you.

This results in a game with far more strategic depth than any other beat em up. It's not about how many flash moves you know, it's about how you fight your fight. Can you pick the right strategy and tactics to take out your opponent? Can you adapt your style to beat opponents with varying techniques and styles of their own?

So if you are curious about a legendary game series but have been put off by the nerdcore, I suggest you look beyond that tragi-comedy scene.

VF is made up of simple constituent parts: 1 stick + 3 buttons. Lots of moves, none of which is the special move that lets you beat any opponent. The complexity arises from the depth of options that this system of control gives you.

Roll on VF5. Hopefully there will be some new, saner players along with the usual nerdcore fanatics.

2005 Review (Anonymous)

A tad late as we are now in 2006, but hey, it's been a strange couple of days...

2005 for me was a year of change. Started the year in France (good) stuck in a dead-end job (bad) that was dulling my brain and depressing me. April was the turning point. Found out my project was canned and that I would be returning to the UK. Even better I had the option of taking an excellent redundancy package.

So I did. And now I've started a company and things look good. Insane amount of work, no pay and less than perfect work conditions, but exciting. Exciting, scary, interesting and unknown.

Other stuff? Well May brought news of a new addition to the family. Only 2 months to go now. The last few days have been a bit worrying with Janet getting premature contractions, but everything seems to be settling down and Samuel should be with us in early March.

April also introduced the DS to the spanx gaming stable and it's the only thing I've really bought any games for since. Music wise? Nada Surf, M83, The New Pornographers, The Band, Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Ben Folds have featured heavily (yes, I know they're not all 2005 releases, but they've been my soundtrack). Films? I honestly can't think of one that's blown me away this year. Games? Mario Kart, Kirby, Animal Crossing and Wario Ware on the DS. Most others were disappointing (RE4) or just plain crap (Pro Evo 5)

So 2005, I salute you. The year I finally made a change. 2006 is going to be fucking ACE!