ATTN: INFINITY WARD: ADD FLYING ROBO-SNIPER

This is just too cool not to blog about. This article is not specifically about video games but it’s still worth sharing. I want to keep this blog about video games, but if something bad ass comes along, I’ll probably want to talk about it. So it looks like the U.S. Army is actually testing a real life flying robot sniper. Best part, just like I’ve blogged about in the past, the UAV robot sniper is controlled by an Xbox 360 controller. I only have one question when I read this article on Wired: Where can I get one, and when will I see this in a video game? OK, I lied, that’s two questions but I’m sure they are the same questions that are floating around your head as well.

The official name of this beast is the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System, or ARSS for short. It comes with a semi-automatic gun mounted on a self-stabilizing turret with a built in camera that can zoom in and out. The new weapon can fire “7 to 10 precisely aimed .338-caliber rounds per second.” OMG, right? OMG indeed. (So glad this weapon is on our side.)

Since this weapon is already a reality, I think this new advanced weapon should definitely see some light of day in the upcoming Modern Warfare 2 military shooter. What say you? I’m thinking, instead of calling in an airstrike, artillery strike, helicopter or a bunch of annoying barking dogs after you get so many kills, why not keep the surprise attack a surprise and bring this bad boy out to play. Can you imagine? I think it could work. You might not get as many kills as you would when you carpet bomb the hell out of your enemies but it can still be very effective depending on how you use it. Maybe they can use it in the campaign, but either way, the name should probably be changed, don’t you think? I can’t imagine during the game, getting my 7th straight kill and announcing to my team, “Don’t worry guys.. I’m calling in the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System!” That’s just too much of a mouth full. What about Skyper? Y’know, it’s a sniper in the sky so.. uuhh yea. I don’t know, I’m sure I could come up with a whole list of creative and stupid names.

What are some cool names you would call it, and would you want to see this new Army weapon featured in the upcoming Modern Warfare 2?

Tell me what you think about this and the article on Wired in the comments.

Read more on Wired blog…
Read more on Foxnews…

ZBRUSH 4: THE FUTURE BEGINS AUGUST 2009

Are you ready for yet another ZBrush revolution? Man, just when I thought I was catching up to the last revolution we saw from ZBrush 2 to ZBrush 3.1, the guys at Pixologic have obviously been busy developing a new version that I predict will blow my mind once again. As soon as I saw this announcement over at ZBrush Central, I immediately thought that in order to get ZBrush 4, I would have to fork over another $500 or so. Then I remembered Pixologic is an awesome company and just like with the last upgrade, users who already own the previous version can upgrade to the new version for free. YES! Thanks Pixologic, as a student and as a game artist trying to get my foot through the door in the game industry, it helps to get some things for free along the way.

Read the announcement over at ZBrush Central…

2009 GAME ART PORTFOLIO: FROM CONCEPT TO COMPLETION: PROGRESS REPORT #1

Hello all game artists! Today I have decided to start showing my progress on creating my new portfolio for 2009. I really should have had this finished by now. Many distractions, including writing this blog, have factored into the delay in finally completing an actual decent, well thought-out update to my portfolio. I figured one way to motivate me a bit more would be to post my progress on The Gamer Report (to show you I also try to practice what I preach) and show updates along the way for you to see what it is that I do. Or at least, what I want to do for a living.

Trying to get a job in the game industry as a game artist is very competitive so updating your portfolio, as much as possible, is really the only way to stay above other artists. The more you work on it, the better it gets and the better your chances of getting hired over someone who is still shopping their student demo reel. Once again, I’m taking my own advice, especially after I found out some crazy news on Friday April 17. Read on…

I recently found out that I may be a Canadian citizen (applying for proof of certificate as I type this) which means, all the Canadian studios that turned me down because I didn’t qualify for a work visa in 2007 and 2008, I can now re-apply to these studios if I do end up getting proof of citizenship through a new law that was passed. Canada is where I want to be right now anyway so this is major news in my life. Trust me, I’ll be announcing to the world that I am a Canadian citizen if my application is approved. I’ll keep you informed, but it’s pretty interesting being one of the “Lost Canadians”.

So without further ado, here are a few screenshots of what I am working on in order to start applying to game studios again. It’s basically a simple street corner scene I started a while ago. The main focus is going to be the building on the corner which is a small pub/bar called Cyle’s. In honor of my nephew I lost last year in a car accident. Let’s just say he loved to cook, loved his beer, and well… my fiance and I have always wanted to open up a restaurant/bar/lounge someday and it just made sense when I started modeling this. We couldn’t think of anything better to call a neighborhood hangout other than Cyle’s. It’s my special tribute to him because well… this is what I do.
As of now, the scene is only about 20,000 Polys and I haven’t decided if I am going to add more. I seem to get burnt out sometimes with scenes like this because sometimes my ideas are too big, I end up not completing what I started. I have taken some things out of the scene to reduce my workload but I’m not kidding myself, this is going to take a lot of work to finish. As you can see, most of my UV’s (I know.. yuck!) are done. I have to rearrange some objects on the UV space and match up other objects to make sure the resolution is similar in size still but for the most part, the grueling UV work is complete. Just a few adjustments left and I can start exporting to other programs.

I really want to move onto texturing already because I know that’s one of my weaknesses and I need practice. But I think I’ve decided to take a majority of the scene into ZBrush first to generate some professional looking normal maps. Especially the street and sidewalk with all the cracks and rubble I want to add. I’ve watched a few ZBrush tutorials recently so I am hoping my ZBrush skills will shine with this new scene. I won’t get into too much detail with this first post but I will definitely be updating this and try to explain what it is I have done to get it to look the way it does.

By the way, I am primarily using Maya 2009, ZBrush 3.1 and Photoshop CS4 in order to complete this project. I had plans to add this scene into the Unreal Engine but we’ll see what happens. I haven’t done that before so this is all a new experiment for me. Glad to take you along for the ride. I hope to learn some new things and share with you what I’ve learned. I have a feeling I’m going to be doing a lot of problem solving once I get deeper into the shader creation, lighting and maximizing my color, normal, spec and diffuse maps.

Until then, happy modeling.

LITTLE BIG REVENGE: GEARS OF COLOSSUS

Ahhhh… *yawn*.. It’s a lazy Sunday for me today, what about you guys? I found another impressive LittleBigPlanet fan created video. There’s really no shortage of these vids on YouTube but this one definitely stands out there for the quality of the visual effects. Take a quick gander. I’ll be working on new posts for next week so I hope you will enjoy them and I hope you enjoy this unique fan production of Little Big Revenge. Good work guys!

SMILE: PAC-MAN IS REAL… AND HE’S FRENCH

I have written a lot of informative blog posts on this site, and I have a lot more to come really but for today… today I just feel like laughing. I hope you do too because let’s face it, who doesn’t enjoy a good laugh? Who especially doesn’t enjoy a good laugh when a Frenchman is involved? Y’know, just to touch on the French real quick because they have a really bad rep here in the U.S., I met a lot of French guys up in Canada (Duh, of course there would be French up there) and to tell you the truth, they are some of the funniest people I’ve ever met. Don’t believe me? All you have to do is watch this video of a chaotic real life Pac-Man scenario from the crazy Frenchman who brought us, “Real Life Mario Kart“, Remi Gaillard. I don’t know what the hell he says at the end but it might have something to do with the pain he endured earlier on the golf course. Keeping this post short and simple, I hope you enjoy your day today and have an awesome weekend!

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COGS: BEST PUZZLE GAME EVER?

I think there comes a time in certain gamers lives where more of them same, is just not acceptable anymore. More of the same First Person Shooters, more of the same Role Playing Games, and more of the same multi-million dollar titles being marketed and shoved down our throats as if we gamers don’t have a choice. Well we do! Which is why I will now be going out of my way to find and help promote unique video games from independent developers. Indie game development is how the game industry started and I feel like indie games is what will keep this industry alive and thriving when it comes to innovation. Indie games like COGS, from developers Lazy 8 Studios.

I didn’t even have to search at all for this game, COGS. Honestly, it just fell in my lap. (lap meaning: someone sent me an email giving me a heads up about it) It just happened, and I’m glad it did. I saw this trailer for COGS and as soon as I saw the trailer, I knew I had to try this new 3D puzzle game out. In fact, the trailer intrigued me so much, it finally got me to download STEAM in order to download the demo and eventually purchase the full retail version. COGS is what got me to download STEAM and start playing a PC game. Yes, an experienced console only gamer did not decide to download to STEAM to have access to big PC titles like Left 4 Dead, Warhammer or Team Fortress 2. I’m not even a PC gamer! I decided to download STEAM in order to get access to games like COGS. I think once you see the trailer, you too will want to give this game a quick spin. (Literally, you can spin some of the puzzles in 3D. Quite intuitive for the everyday game artist/modeler/designer)

In COGS, the object of the game is to slide tiles around in order to build a machine. Maybe move some pipes around to provide steam to inflate a balloon or slide tiles around with gears (cogs) on top in order to move wheels on a vehicle. There are 50 levels to this game but I have not finished all of them yet because some levels, admittedly, have got me stuck. Some are difficult, some are a bit easier. Some puzzles I’ll beat in a few short minutes, others can take closer to 15-20 minutes. Either way, it’s good quality fun and it makes you think. COGS is quite different from the mindless violent and blood soaked games I am so used to playing. Not that I’m going to stop killing Zombies on my 360 or anything, but COGS is just the right change of pace I am looking for right now. It may be for you as well. With the help of a beautifully artistic steampunk style(anyone notice how popular steampunk is becoming in games lately?) to the outstanding music that compliments the gameplay and the completion of a machine, COGS is most definitely worthy of a purchase. The last game I said that about was Peggle, and COGS is definitely up there in that level of greatness and I hope to see this game ported to as many other platforms as possible.

One of the coolest parts about this game, and I hope they will pursue this feature more in depth, is the option to create your own puzzles. I don’t know if they have this set up for any Joe Shmoe to come in and make more puzzles (they specifically say there is no visual editor), but if you know what you’re doing, you can probably figure out how to make your own. (If I find some extra time, I just may accept this challenge to make one of my own and blog about the process. We’ll see.)

From some of the comments I’ve read on the YouTube page of this trailer, I can see comments mentioning Bioshock when it comes to comparing what this game is like. Not the game Bioshock itself, but the extremely annoying hacking feature in Bioshock that drove me absolutely insane. I couldn’t stand that part of the game and is one of the features that convinced me the game wasn’t even worth finishing. Say what you want Bioshock fans, that feature could have easily been left out and the game would have been praised just the same. After saying that, COGS is so much deeper than what gamers remember from Bioshock. Lazy 8 Studios takes that idea, implements it better and runs with it. Personally, I think they are running in the right direction. When you consider the fact that Lazy 8 Studios consists of only 2 guys (Rob Jadnow and Brendon Mauro) and COGS took 5 years to complete, you realize how impressive this game really is.

So from the trailer above and from what I’ve wrote about this game so far, what do you think about COGS? Is it for you? If you end up downloading the game or trying the demo out on STEAM (It’s free!), please leave me some comments and tell me what you think.

Lazy 8 Studios, job well done and good luck to you in the future!

GAMECUES.COM: ENTIRE AUDIO PRODUCTION

I‘m not currently developing a video game right now but if I was, it would be extremely beneficial to know about a site called GameCues.com. No this isn’t a review of the site per say, I’m really just trying to tell you about this awesome site that I found through Twitter. GameCues is a sound library for the video game industry and they charge absolutely nothing to use the sounds. From Scores, Sound Effects, Soundtracks, and Commercial Music… for free, all at your fingertips. It’s almost hard to believe.

The best part about this site for me is, you can play the sounds on the GameCues Player and listen to what the sound is before you download it. This thing is no joke! I’m really impressed with this site, from the design, to the player they developed, to the quality of the sounds they have in their library. I especially enjoyed listening to the military sound effects: an Apache Helicopter hovering, an SR-71 Blackbird fly over, and the Apollo Rocket taking off into space. If your PC is hooked up to a surround sound system, go check out their sound effects and listen to one of the helicopters hovering. It’s ridiculous!

Founder and CEO, Todd Resnick, and his team have been in the business for over 10 years, some working on many big hit movies such as Something about Mary and Office Space. Todd even spent a few years sound engineering in the music industry for artists like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jermaine Dupre. What I’m trying to say here is, there is a lot of experience behind this project and I can see it being a huge success now that they are entering the game industry. I wish them luck and remember GameCues.com when you need some quality sounds for your video game. It is the kind of people like Todd Resnick and the types of businesses like GameCues that make the game industry such an awesome industry to be a part of.

FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4: GOT PHYSICS?

Mmm.. Physics. Check out this video from Joystiq detailing the new and improved physics that are featured in the highly anticipated Fight Night Round 4. I personally didn’t think Fight Night could get any better but producer Brian Hayes has proven me wrong. Dead wrong, because this looks really good. I didn’t really notice how the animation in Fight Night Round 3 was so robotic until Mr. Hayes pointed it out. When compared to Fight Night Round 4, it’s quite obvious that they have improved the overall look and feel of the game. I really hope we get a demo of this soon on Xbox Live and PSN. Sorry Punch Out!, the big boys are coming. This might be the fist ever EA game purchase for me. We’ll see if I eat my words.

See some more videos and screenshots over at Joystiq.com…

EYE ON ISOTX

I admit it, I’m not a PC gamer. In fact, the very first PC game I ever played was EPIC’s Unreal Tournament III. And that was only in this past December. I wanted to get the Unreal Engine 3 so I could use it for my 3D Environment portfolio. As most of you might know, Unreal Tournament III comes with the Unreal Game Engine along with 20+ hours of tutorials on how to use it. So that’s the main reason why I bought the game engine but I figured I should actually check out the game and see what PC games are all about. I’ve been a console gamer my whole life. For PC Game fans out there, should I have started PC Gaming with a different game?

My first impression with my first PC game? Not impressed at all. I don’t get the whole concept of using the mouse and keyboard instead of a controller, or joystick. I just don’t see how it’s fun for PC gamers. I’m working on the computer all the time, a lot of the time surfing the internet learning about new things. The last thing I want to do when game time comes is sit in the exact same spot I’ve been sitting in all day and and use the mouse and keyboard to play a video game. My hands feel like they’re getting carpel tunnel already so logging a few more hours on the PC to get my game fix is not the ideal gaming experience for me. I need to be in a different environment, new surroundings to get focused on the game I’m about to play.

Then I tried playing a different PC game. A game called Iron Grip: Warlord by indie developers ISOTX. (ISOTX became well known around the community for their amazing Half Life 2 Mods.) Now, I don’t know what it is about this game, it’s really nothing special from what I have seen before. Maybe it was the simplicity of starting this demo and immediately being able to understand what to do, where to go and who to kill. I really don’t know what it is about a PC or a console game that gets me interested enough to keep on playing. For me, either the game feels right, or it doesn’t. It’s black and white with me. I can honestly say that I enjoyed this game demo… obviously or I wouldn’t be writing about it.

Iron Grip: Warlord is interesting because they have intertwined two genres of video games. My absolute favorite, FPS, and the oh so typically boring (to me) RTS. How did they do it? Well PC GAMER explained it best(PDF File) so check out this quick read on how they smashed these two genres together to make what I expected to be a typical game, not so typical. What’s crazy about this game for me is, technically it’s a WWII shooter but they give it a steampunk/alternate reality twist which helps make it a very playable and enjoyable game for me. Check out what I’m talking about in the Iron Grip: Warlord Trailer below.

I don’t know what to make of this game yet as a noob PC Gamer but consider me impressed with what I have seen and played so far. It might not look as polished as some next gen games you might see on your console, but that’s not to say this game isn’t fun. It’s a blast and I hope to get more game time in on some real multipler matches instead of just playing the demo. But if you’ve been visiting my site and you’ve read some of my other posts, mainly my demo impressions, you know how important demos are for me when considering whether to purchase a full retail version or not. For the demo by ISOTX and Iron Grip: Warlord, I think they’re heading in the right direction. In fact, you may see this on STEAM in the very near future. I think this developer is going to do big things in the game industry. They think big from what I’ve seen so far and I hope they keep improving upon those big ideas. So for now, I’ll be keeping my eye on them, you should as well. Good luck to ISOTX!

Read what other people are saying about ISOTX and Iron Grip…
Also be sure to check out their other games including “Mideast Crisis”…

One last thing I have to mention is the ISOTX blog called “Write the game”. “A blog for game developers and gamers featuring news, advice, tutorials and discussions about game development and design.” What more do you need to know?

BIOSHOCK 2: DROWNING IN NEXT GEN GOODNESS

I remember playing Bioshock when it first came out and wasn’t really impressed with it as much as my friends were. I actually got pretty bored with it and never really cared to finish the whole game. I think I got half way through. That’s not to say that I don’t like the idea/story behind the game or that I don’t want to play the sequel. Checking out this new gameplay footage from GameTrailers.com, it looks pretty much the same as the first Bioshock. But there is a specific part that blew me away, I think you’ll be able to tell which part I’m talking about when you see it.

I think for me, with the first Bioshock, there were just too many options to have to deal with. All the weapons, all the injections, hacking etc. It was just too convoluted, I never knew what I was supposed to be doing. Call me simple-minded I guess, but whatever happened to fun games where you just have to use a couple of buttons? Y’know, you remember, either A or B? Now it’s a combination of 8 different buttons, triggers, stick clicks and D-pad pressing. It drives me crazy sometimes, but I think I will give Bioshock another chance when this sequel comes out. What about you? Are you going to buy this or just give it a quick rental?