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November 14, 2009THE GAMER REPORT HITS THE PAUSE BUTTON
October 23, 2009
The Gamer Report will not be updated for a few weeks, possibly months, as a shift in my life will be taking place. After a full year of updating this site, I’m packing my bags and moving up North. (No, not back to Canada, but close) Positioning myself in a more centralized population of game industry giants. And I’ll be bringing some bigger, and better plans for The Gamer Report along with me.
During the actual move, I will not be able to update the top headlines of the day or provide new game related articles. No computer, no internet access and no time to do what I love to do. But rest assured, The Gamer Report will be re-launching as soon as I can get settled into my new inspirational environment.
Don’t be surprised if The Gamer Report reinvents itself and comes back with a new name, new logo, new site design and covering a variety of topics of some of the best things in life. Not just games.
Please continue to follow me on Twitter and my RSS feed. I appreciate your patience and I look forward to providing you with a better and more entertaining blog experience.
Thank you for visiting and I look forward to hitting unpause.
Cheers! -Branden
‘METRO 2033’ NOVEL TURNS INTO FPS
October 22, 2009Ever heard of Metro 2033? No? Me neither. Maybe that’s because we don’t live in Russia. Either that or we just don’t get around to reading books. If we did, I’m sure we would have at least heard of this novel by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. Dmitry, huh? Why is everyone in Russia named Dmitry anyway? Dmitry in Russia must be like our John or Steve in the states. I’m getting off the subject here but check out his picture. This guy just looks like he can tell a story, and obviously, he most definitely can. Looks like he could kick a lot of ass at the same time.
Metro 2033 tells the story of a young boy two decades after a nuclear holocaust where the only survivors live underground, in Moscow’s metro train stations. Hence, Metro 2033. Makes total sense now right? The book itself is very popular in Russia and has become even more popular online. THQ and the team at 4A-Games are developing this First Person Shooter based off of the novel, due to be released in early 2010. Not only is this a novel, and a future video game but there are talks for a movie as well. We may be be seeing the early stages of a full on blockbuster franchise here. I look forward to seeing more as the trailer has my full attention. Although gamers have seen the ‘atomic annihilation’ many times before in games, it will be refreshing to see it from a different perspective.
PAUL DEBEVEC DISCUSSES TECH BEHIND ‘DIGITAL EMILY’
October 21, 2009Remember that Digital Emily video I posted last year? The one by Image Metrics? Well we finally get an explanation of the technology behind the making of this video. Paul Debevec, who created the techniques behind this technology, takes us behind the scenes to watch the real life Emily, turn into Digital Emily. Which is hard to distinguish if you’re not looking closely. Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t tell which one is real and which one is digital. Just watch.
Paul Debevec leads the Graphics Laboratory at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies and is a master of HDRI technology.
HDTV VIOLENCE MUCH WORSE THAN I THOUGHT
October 21, 2009
After my plea for the end of senseless violence against innocent HDTV’s yesterday, I thought people would heed my words. At least, the people who own the extremely volatile Nintendo Wii console. Little did I know how weak and powerless my voice was on the internet filled with a billion other blogs. I thought maybe, just maybe I could help spread the word in defense of our preciously expensive HDTV’s. But it’s no use my friends. SONY has gone and done the unthinkable. They make a mockery of my post from yesterday and have rubbed their distaste for HDTV’s all over my face. Slo-mo destruction of this magnitude is like a slap on your cheek, in the freezing cold, after a couple bottles of cheap, headache-inducing wine.
LG’s, Bravia’s, Samsung’s, Vizio’s… they’re all targets now. First it was the Wii, now it’s the PS3 taking aim. What a shame. Not cool SONY, not cool at all.
If Microsoft gets on board with this HDTV hate, I may have to switch to PC only gaming.
HDTV’S HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR Wii VIOLENCE
October 20, 2009
How many times are these random acts of violence going to happen before all of our HDTV’s start a worldwide protest? I’m sensing a television tea party in our near future. They are going to dump boxes of Wii-Motes and Nintendo Wii accessories into the ocean in order to send a message. In order to end this senseless violence. Once again, a random dude (this time Live on the Home Shopping Network) who thinks he knows all about the Wii, and how to play it safely, fails at a simple human function.
Good job bud. You’ve just added yourself to the HDTV Militia hit list. Watch your back, punk.
I don’t know what it is about some of these people. I thought it was only older adults who just ‘didn’t get it’ but there are plenty of YouTube clips of kids destroying their expensive TV’s as well. Like most men, myself definitely included, they probably didn’t read the owners manual first. But how hard is this guys? C’mon, take a practice swing first or something, or at the very least, use someone else’s TV so you don’t destroy your own. Think people, think.
The strap is there for obvious reasons. Use it. Nintendo tried to help you out by adding rubber grips to the Wii-motes so the controllers wouldn’t slip out anymore. And did that help? Maybe, but did the innocent murders continue to occur by casual and hardcore Wii gamers alike? I don’t know the answer quite honestly, as I am not aware of how many HDTV deaths occurred without the camera conveniently rolling for a possible YouTube upload.
After the initial release of the Wii and the subsequent deaths of many innocent HDTV’s, all seemed quiet for a while. But then Nintendo had to go and add attachments on the Wii-Motes for various Wii Sports games and this is what your TV gets. This is what your crystal clear display gets for your wicked arm twitching ways. The epidemic continues my friends.
Wait, what’s that I hear? It’s a soft, distant chant of our HDTV’s marching down the street, demanding a stop to this injustice. The chant is getting louder. I fear for the next cringe inducing YouTube video of yet another innocent HDTV murder. Someone please put a stop to this madness before it’s too late. I don’t know what the HDTV’s will do if this continues.
I’m seeking shelter, I suggest you do the same.
*Paid for by the ‘Stop HDTV Violence’ campaign*
WHAT THE HELL IS HALO WAYPOINT ANYWAY?
October 20, 2009Did you understand what Halo Waypoint was when it was first announced? I sure didn’t. Even after following 343 Industries Halo Waypoint group on FaceBook, I still didn’t get it. It looks like there were many of us that didn’t really understand what in the world Waypoint was all about so they made a video for all us confused souls out there. Sometimes, we just need some visuals.
The Halo Universe is still going strong and there are plans to keep it going strong… for a long time. Which makes sense. Who really thought Halo 3 would be the last time we see Master Chief? Or Halo in general? That would be the dumbest business decision in the history of dumb business decisions. Halo is this generations Star Wars if you think about it. The amount of hype behind the name (Hello? ODST is not even that good and it still breaks records due to its name), the amount of people that line up for Halo related events, the amount of fans that dress up in character. This is a huge franchise and it will surely continue for as long as fans are interested,and as long as we are willing to fork over our money. Halo Waypoint looks to keep the franchise going on Xbox Live for fans of Halo 3, Halo3: ODST, Halo Wars, Halo: Legends and most likely Halo: Reach. And of course, whatever Halo comes after that.
NORTH CAROLINA AND THE RISING TRIANGLE
October 19, 2009
Where is the central gaming hub of America? What cities and states would you name? The ‘gaming mecca’ if you will. Would you say San Francisco? Seattle? Los Angeles? New York? Maybe even Dallas? With the new tax incentives coming out of Louisiana for game developers, you may even say a city in that state. But one state in particular, involving 3 different cities all coming together to produce a central ‘triangle’ of technological and gaming innovation, is rising fast. Dare I say, at Epic speed.
North Carolina, along with the three cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill have formed that so called Triangle, and is now one of the fastest growing areas for game development. And that’s not just in the U.S., that’s in the entire world. Say what?
Courtesy of The Escapist:
“The Triangle has one of the largest concentrations of game development companies in the U.S., with more than 30 studios and over 1,000 game industry workers in a metropolitan area of around one million,” says Alexander Macris, CEO and Publisher of The Escapist and President of the Triangle Game Initiative (TGI), the region’s rapidly growing cadre of videogaming power elite.
“Gamers will recognize the vast majority of local North Carolina companies … that support TGI,” says John Farnsworth, Studio Director of Atomic Games (and a Director of TGI). “EA, Epic, Red Storm Entertainment, Emergent, Vicious Cycle, Insomniac, Atomic Games, Virtual Heroes, Lockheed Martin, Nvidia, IBM, American Research Institute and Applied Research Associates, [and] there are many more companies starting up.”
Who knew, eh? This is news to me. All of the facts in the Escapist article are very interesting to read and sound exciting for the future of game development. Including the cost of living, which is very low compared to Seattle, L.A. and San Francisco. It’s got to be very tempting for companies to set up shop out there. East Coast is coming up! Now if we could only lower the cost of living on the West Coast…
CRYENGINE 3 RELEASED: NEW TRAILER WILL MAKE YOU DROOL
October 16, 2009OK Crytek. Enough with the next gen game engine tease already. Where is Crysis 2 and when will Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get to see all your hard work in action? *tick-tock-tick-tock*
Hopefully it won’t be too much longer now as the CryEngine 3 has been released to developers as of yesterday October 15, 2009. Crysis 2 has no set date yet, but it should be out sometime in 2010. Along with a whole other mix of games. I’m curious to see if the new Crysis 2 game will have the same effect on game delays as Modern Warfare 2 had on holiday 2009 titles. Will another military FPS scare away the competition in 2010? With the awesome potential on full display in this video, I wouldn’t be surprised. Not one bit.
Until then, cheers to Crytek for their historic accomplishment. Now get back to work! Console owners want to see this engine in action already.
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. Wii: YEAH, IT’S BACK
October 16, 2009I have a Wii. Do I play it that much? Besides Wii Sports, no not really. But will I after this game comes out? Uhhh.. yes. The answer would be yes. Hello? This is what Nintendo is all about. If it’s not Mario and Luigi, I probably won’t care for it too much. Mario and Nintendo go hand and hand, like butter and toast… like Oreos and milk… like steamed rice and soy sauce… like Cheez-its and tuna. Oh c’mon, don’t knock it until you try it.
What I am trying to get at is this; this is the game Nintendo Wii owners have been waiting for. With all the third party games that have crashed and burned, and all the hype behind other Nintendo classics that just didn’t come to life the way it should have on the Wii.. I think this game is it. The Mario Bros. started this Nintendo craze and it should elevate the Wii console to the next level. I’m excited for this one, and I have yet to say that about a Wii title.
Plus, this is 4 player co-op. How on earth can this game fail?
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