2009

2008 is almost over only a few hours left. 2008 was a rather good year, many good games where released like Metal Gear Solid 4 (one of my top 5 games of the year), Little Big Planet, Dead Space, Fallout 3, Mirrors Edge,Wipeout HD and many others.

It's also going good with the job, even if I did spend the second half of the year with Guitar Hero :). I was send for 4 weeks to California to work there at Neversoft. And the weather was amazing there still after several month I got tan. The only downside was the earthquake. Good thing it was a short one and nobody got hurt, but still a scary experience. With more tasks beside of testing 2009 should be a even better year.

In regards to games and movies there are already plenty on my list for next year. Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Heavy Rain, and a new Tim Burton movie called 9 will be in cinemas later in the year.



Happy New Year

Vienna calling

Finally after almost one year again for some holidays in Vienna. So that means one more flight after I went yesterday already to Liverpool and back for some business, the 30 minutes flight was a bit of a joke after my last flight that was around 9 or 10 hours long :) . At all that was a lot of flying around this year with the trip to L.A. and now Liverpool and Vienna. Guess I will try to relax a bit for the rest of year after my holidays, after all there are more then enough games coming out in October and November. That includes Little Big Planet or as I would like to call it Little Big Awesome. Too bad I could not play it so far and I still try to get one of those Beta Codes, but at least the game will come out soon.

In the mean time there is still WipEout HD, Brothers in Arms Hells Highway and Burnout Paradise so that should be enough until the LBP release. In regards to WipEout HD, this game is a real must have at least for all people who played at least one of the WipEout games and liked it. My personal favorit mode in the game is the Zone. It`s like a 3D playable Audio Visualization at least thats how the textures behave and besides of that it gets faster with every Zone and the prize is only 18 Euro. The only thing is that some reviews for the game are a bit strange, like that there are no new features, tracks or ships, but somehow for me that`s the most appealing part. I didn`t play a WipEout game since the PS1 times and I fellt like home once i went into a race. I never played a PSP WipEout so the tracks where new for me, but having the ships from the first PS1 game was really great and somehow it was like I had the game in my memory (besides of the new and better graphics). Besides of the graphics it was for me like a travel back in time.

So buy WipEout HD on the PSN and have fun with it until Little Big Planet comes out, after all you might get some ideas and make a WipEout racing game IN Little Big Planet, who knows there are many possibilitys. :D

On the road again

Good old holidays, nice to have them. After several months working quite a lot, including the one month in California (at Neversoft), it feels really good to have some days off. To make it short see the list below for the full official Track list of Guitar Hero World Tour.

311 - “Beautiful Disaster”
30 Seconds To Mars - “The Kill”
Airbourne - “Too Much Too Young”
The Allman Brothers Band - “Ramblin' Man”
Anouk - “Good God”
The Answer - “Never Too Late”
At The Drive-In - “One Armed Scissor”
Beastie Boys - “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
Beatsteaks - “Hail to the Freaks”
Billy Idol - “Rebel Yell”
Black Label Society - “Stillborn”
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - “Weapon of Choice”
blink-182 - “Dammit”
Blondie - “One Way or Another”
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band - “Hollywood Nights”
Bon Jovi - “Livin’ On A Prayer”
Bullet For My Valentine - “Scream Aim Fire”
Coldplay - “Shiver”
Creedence Clearwater Revival - “Up Around The Bend”
The Cult - “Love Removal Machine”
Dinosaur Jr. - “Feel The Pain”
The Doors - “Love Me Two Times”
Dream Theater - “Pull Me Under”
The Eagles - “Hotel California”
The Enemy - “Aggro”
Filter - “Hey Man, Nice Shot”
Fleetwood Mac - “Go Your Own Way”
Foo Fighters - “Everlong”
The Guess Who - “American Woman”
Hush Puppies - “You're Gonna Say Yeah!”
Interpol - “Obstacle 1”
Jane's Addiction - “Mountain Song”
Jimi Hendrix - “Purple Haze (Live)”
Jimi Hendrix - “The Wind Cries Mary”
Jimmy Eat World - “The Middle”
Joe Satriani - “Satch Boogie”
Kent - “Vinternoll2”
Korn - “Freak On A Leash”
Lacuna Coil - “Our Truth”
Lenny Kravitz - “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
Linkin Park - “What I've Done”
The Living End - “Prisoner of Society”
Los Lobos - “La Bamba”
Lost Prophets - “Rooftops (A Liberation Broadcast)”
Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Sweet Home Alabama (Live)”
Mars Volta - “L'Via L'Viaquez”
MC5’s Wayne Kramer - “Kick Out The Jams”
Metallica - “Trapped Under Ice”
Michael Jackson - “Beat It”
Modest Mouse - “Float On”
Motörhead - “Overkill”
Muse - “Assassin”
Negramaro - “Nuvole e Lenzuola”
Nirvana - “About a Girl (Unplugged)”
No Doubt - “Spiderwebs”
NOFX - “Soul Doubt”
Oasis - “Some Might Say”
Ozzy Osbourne - “Crazy Train”
Ozzy Osbourne - “Mr. Crowley”
Paramore - “Misery Business”
Pat Benatar - “Heartbreaker”
R.E.M. - “The One I Love”
Radio Futura - “Escuela De Calor”
Rise Against - “Re-Education Through Labor”
Sex Pistols - “Pretty Vacant”
Silversun Pickups - “Lazy Eye”
Smashing Pumpkins - “Today”
Steely Dan - “Do It Again”
Steve Miller Band - “The Joker”
Sting - “Demolition Man (Live)”
The Stone Roses - “Love Spreads”
Stuck In The Sound - “Toy Boy”
Sublime - “Santeria”
Survivor - “Eye of the Tiger”
System of a Down - “B.Y.O.B.”
Ted Nugent - “Stranglehold”
Ted Nugent’s Original Guitar Duel Recording
Tokio Hotel - “Monsoon”
Tool - “Parabola”
Tool - “Schism”
Tool - “Vicarious”
Trust - “Antisocial”
Van Halen - “Hot For Teacher”
Willie Nelson - “On The Road Again”
Wings - “Band on the Run”
Zakk Wylde’s Original Guitar Duel Recording

For all my workmates in California who did a amazing job even with the brutal hot weather.

Games Convention Unleashed

The Games Convention is starting today and actually I have planed to go there this year, but as sometimes with plans they don`t work out. So yeah, instead I will be in the office and work, but I guess I will check the news quite often to see whats going on there. I really hope they show a new Heavy Rain trailer (they should select Dublin as setting it`s raining almost every day here) or even better some gameplay footage. The worst thing will be, that I still couldn't`t get my hands on Little Big Planet and as it looks right now, I will have to wait until the launch day to play this really nice looking game. Also I was looking forward to meet people I didn`t see since ages. I was in LA when the E3 was there, but also at this time I was in the office working. They really should make those Events during weekends and not during the week to make it easier to go there :D

Well at least one good thing is that the Star Wars The Force Unleashed demo will be out tomorrow. I already finished the full game several times due to working reasons, but I guess I will still download the demo to play at least a part of the game relaxed without checking always if somewhere is a bug and just enjoy the game and unleashe the force. Plus I usualy play the finished version of the games at home once I get a retail version just to enjoy it at least once.

It`s not like that it wouldn`t be fun to work on them or they are bad games, but after all it`s work and you are stuck with one single game day after day for quite some time. It`s sometimes a bit tricky, on the one hand you would really like to work on the game, maybe even help to improve it besides of the text and say to friends the first time “I did that.”. On the other side if you work on a game series or franchise you really like, may it be Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, God of War, Silent Hill, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero or whatever other game, at the end you can be a little dissapointed. Especialy when it comes to franchise you loved and liked for years. As example. For me FF12 is not a bad game, but I could think about a lot of things that could have been better, like the story and character development. In that case I would think about the way parts of the story in FF8 where explained by going back in time and playing actually there (more or less in a dream sequenze), while in FF12 it`s only text and dialogue in the present. For me personaly after finishing the game at least 7-10 times that would have given the characters and the story at all more depth, if the game really shows the previous history of the characters. For me having something to do with games that are new or where I hardly know the previous games, like Kung Fu Panda, Kingdom Hearts 2 or Guitar Hero, is somehow different even if in both cases the developers are doing a great job.

Also I know people who are usualy like "You get paid for playing games, that`s the best job in the world". Actually it is, for me, while it might not be that way for a lot of other people even if they don`t know it. As technical tester you might start at 9 or 10 am and finish several hours after midnigth and that for several days. Weeks, months in a row, while testing day after day the same game. The industry needs new an fresh people and I don`t want to discourage someone, but it is all to often that I meet people who think that any job in that business would be a walk in the park and that includes people I meet at different workplaces so far.

And for new Level Designer or people who want to become one, I guess Little Big Planet should be a good start :)

And I`m not responsible for grammar issues, typos and so on. Responsible for this is my laptop with US keyboard and I`m only used to desktop keyboards, plus they are usualy in German and it`s late and dark :D

Long time no see

Pictures say more the 1 000 words. Well maybe not. Thats the lovely Santa Monica Pier in, well Santa Monica in Los Angeles. I had the pleasure to fly there and work around L.A. for 4 weeks on a project (including the possibility to feel an eartquacke for the first time and a quite strong one too). I was the most time in the office, but sometimes I could get outside and discover a bit of L.A. and stuff like that and I have to say the people in the area there are really nice and also the weather, absolutly no rain in the 4 weeks unlicke Dublin with rain evry 4 hours or something like that. :)

Even that I was quite busy the last month with several projects, I don`t expect that I will have time for holidays before the nice winter time to go back home to Vienna for a couple of days. :D

Nearly over

There was no real post since ages so here is a new one. According to Reuters Toshiba will pull the plug on HD-DVD very soon. Since January HD-DVD got one hard punch after another. First Warner Bros. decided to defect and this week Netflix and Wal-Mart switched to Blu-Ray only. If the Reuters news is correct a official statement should come soon from Toshiba, so maybe even already on Monday. So there should be only one more HD format war post here when Toshiba is saying that they give up. For the console market it is very likely that this will give the PS3 even more momentum as a Blu-Ray player that can be upgraded with new firmware updates and when the people finally can switch to High-Def without thinking if the format will win or not.

Reuters News Link --> Here

So long make peace not war

Long time no see

Well there was no entry for several days because I had to relocate so here is a new post. Around 10 years ago, Falco one of our greatest musician in the the near past died. So that post is somehow a tribute to the one and only Falco. Because I like to be creative I made also sort of tribute movie with Out of the Dark and videos from several Square Enix games. He was the first and so far only person to reach number 1 in the US charts with a German song and that as a person from Austria. Rock me Amadeus was his greatest hit, but he had some other and deeper tracks like Jeanny.

R.I.P. Falco

Reign of chaos in Liberty City unleashed on 29 of April 2008

Finally there is a final release date for GTA IV it will be out on the 29 of April 2008 worldwide. So in around 3 months we can run around once more in Liberty City and unleash hell upon the city, at least I will do that. I really like to just run around shoot, blow stuff up and get as many stars as possible to play with the Army. Rockstar said also why the game was delayed, according to the it was the fault of the PlayStation 3. That comment is a bit strange as I recall last year Rockstar was always complaining about the Xbox 360 and that the hardware is not good enough and that they are not allowed to use hard drive installation.

Well end good everything good, more or less. The only bad thing is that they say both versions are identical. I don't know, but the development for the game started as PS3 exclusive and then they switched also to make a Xbox 360 version, after they received a minor amount of money from Microsoft. And at the end because of that PS3 users have to play a version that can run on a Xbox 360? I'm sure the game will be cool and I will buy the special edition, but I would prefer a version that uses the PS3 hardware instead of being downsized so it can run also on the Xbox 360. That game could be so much better and nicer with even better textures and bigger area due to Blu-Ray discs instead of reducing it so it can fit on a DVD. At the end the PS3 hardware is superior compared to the Xbox 360. I know on the paper Xbox 360 GPU is better and so on, but after playing GT 5 Prologue it is quite clear that such a graphic could never be achieved on a Xbox 360. I have both systems, but I will stick for sure with the PS3 version even after they are only identical and playing to long on my 360 could cause some funny red lights. :)

So long and now I want the Soundtrack list

Happy Birthday Tifa

Hey Tifa at gaia, happy birthday and enjoy one more time my video. :)

Gordon on the radio

I like things that happen in America like the radio show Coast to Coast about paranormal things and other stuff. This time there was a person calling who is very well know, or let's say well know besides of the guy who is working for the radio show. The person who called was no one else then Dr. Gordon Freeman himself, more or less. He was complaining that some person is watching him and he and his friend call this strange person the G-Man plus that he works on a portal technology. As said the person who makes the shows has obviously never played any of the Half-Life games and believed evrything. :)

So long I'm making a note here: This was a triumph

Heroic sales for Guitar Hero

Well looks like Guitar Hero (All versions) could get 1 billion US $ in North America within 26 months and that seems to be a new record. Thats only for North America here in Europe there where also one or two copies of the game soled, so worldwide a bit more money then the 1 billion US $. Congratulation to all who have worked at some point on the game and who I know. I guess that will then be tomorrow the main news in the office. :)

Source here

So long keep on rocking

Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom demo out in Europe

Well the demo for Kingdom under Fire: Circle of Doom, or short Kuf: CoD, demo is out in Europe. Or as I called it during the work MS under Fire: Red Ring of Death (at that time the RRoD was always a good joke :D ). Some people maybe want to give it a try, but better don't play it in German. The last German version that I tested had some ugly issues like the weapon names if they have some extra enhancement the article is wrong and as far as I know there where no changes made after I finished working on it. I guess the release is so late after project end because they don't wanted to release for Christmas while all the big games are getting released.

It's not the best game, but also not that extremely bad at all. For people who want to give the full version a try, there is also a story for each character. The only problem is that the story is hidden, so you need to go the dream world and talk with the NPC there. Many dialogues are time triggered so you have to leave the dream world Hack`n Slay some enemies for at least 10 minutes and then go back to the dream world to get the next quest or dialogue. The story is only optional and if the developers didn't changed anything the player does not have any idea that there is a optional story. At least the Online Coop mode can be fun. Also funny I started on Kingdom under Fire almost exactly one year after Kingdom Hearts 2 and both start with Kingdom and both have in the English version John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) as voice actor, but I guess thats only funny for me. :)

So long and enjoy the demo and thanks to all the other people who worked on the game.

Game Dev: Fear the almighty crunch time

Well so far there where not really many game development posts, I guess something like zero. So I will change that now and make at least one. So for the moment I will focus on crunch time, please note this is a generell view and in no way connected to the company where I work (you know NDA if you don't know maybe thats something for another post).

So why did I choose crunch time for the post? That's easy many developers are talking about it in interviews that they had 4 month crunch time on game XYZ, but I'm not sure if people who don't work in the business work really know what that means and to make clear that it is not some 24 hours per day fun paradise working world. Of course the Job is also fun and being creative and working with a lot of nice great people together, but it is also hard work and nothing proves that more then crunch time. I take now as example for this 4 month crunch time (I likely never had 4 month crunch time maybe maximum 2 month).

So whats crunch time exactly? To put it short it is usually the lovely time before the Gold candidate, sometimes it can be also for a short time during the project if there is a important submission to publisher or console manufacturer near. To make sure they get a good alpha or beta build to show in what direction the game is going. Besides from that the crunch time is normally before the final build. Thats like the time where it is clear that the time is running out and still a lot needs to be done on the game to make it good, stable and/or pass the submission (if it is a console game). Of course you could change the release date, but the thing is even if the game will get a later release that there will be crunch time. Normally the developer would not only use the extra time to fix issue and also keep on improving the game or adding new features. As long as the version seems good an acceptable a few month before the gold version deadline the release date will not change and crunch time kicks in.

For a Developer direct crunch time means most of the staff will get a lot of overtime that can even mean working until midnight. I had the lucky experience to even be able to work until 5 a.m. a few times when I was in Vienna. Apart from the overtime during the week there is also weekend work that means weeks without a free day. At all basically the people are almost living in the office and are only at home to have a show and sleep. Bigger Developers have even shifts so some people are working day shift and others night shift because the amount of energy needed for crunch time is high. It's sometimes not only to work longer and instead also to work faster.

From a Publisher QA tester point of view it's a bit more “relaxing”. One of the reasons can be the build, as example the build is not stable. If the build does not work proper or even does not launch you can send the people home especially for localization testers. There are several QA teams in action one of them is the developer QA team, then there might be a technical QA team from the publisher and then they can have also a localization QA team. Besides of that there can be several smaller QA teams for special use depending on the Publisher size and structure. As localization QA tester you don't feel much of the crunch, mainly the weekend work. You avoid to have to much overtime during the week (maybe 2 or 3 hours more each day) especially if the developer is on another continent it takes a long time to get a new build. A lot of the overtime is then made on the weekend or let's say extended week. Even on Publisher or Outsourcing side you can get a lot of overtime, I'm used to work 4-6 weeks, if needed even more, without a free day (don't know how it works at activision I just started there).

What I can say from my experience is that crunch time is different from company to company and between Developer and Publisher. Small Developer studios are less organized and shorter notice of overtime or a bit more “chaotic” during the crunch time and sometimes to many bigger changes on the game before important deadlines. On the Publisher side crunch time is not that bad, at least as QA tester. In generell big companies have it a little bit easier due to there experience and more organized handling, as example making day and night shifts. Crunch time uses a lot of energy and you get fast tiered, but sometimes it makes people more motivated to get the project done and with a good team and good/nice people around you it is only half as bad. So the industry is not only easy work where you have always fun, or like as QA you can play the whole day a game and get paid for it. Of course you have fun, but more with the people around you and not with the game. You can end up working one year on the same game every day. Even with games that are not bad and shorter work time on it like FF12 (had only a few month to work on that), well they are not fun after finishing the game for the tenth time.

At all crunch time is no fun and if you see some developer say they had what ever amount of month crunch time, I hope you know now what that means for the people and what they have sacrificed during that time.

So long I`m going now to watch Lost in Translation

Mass Effect the game send from hell take 725

Here we go again with my lovely friend from yesterday who talked about Mass Effect and all the pornographic content the game would have. This time he tries to correct his article, well more or less. The Problem is just he does not really tries to set all the things, which are not true, right. Instead of that he is more and more trying to offend gamers and spreed his untrue comments. The only god thing for his at the moment that I didn't work on the game, although I tested it once for a view hours and found one bug. Also normally such persons should be ignored because the air that they need to live is hits on there websites and being in the news, just like all time favorit Jack Thompson. But there are some things where I have really to comment on it as example the first sentence is great:

The Gamer-Nerd universe exploded in anger over the tone and a couple of the specifics of my most recent column, "The 'Sex Box' Race for President."

Well one thing that this person (sorry forgot the name and not worth to remember so he=this person) really likes to do in the correction is the use of Game-Nerd. Usually thats not offensive as long as it comes from someone who has any clue about anything, well this person does not have any clue about anything. No gamers where not angry because of the tone or “couple” of the specifics, they where just angry because everything in the column was wrong and/or completely made up.

The corrections of the person:

1. "The most realistic sex acts..." - from the YouTube footage I saw, I still concur, to me these acts are the most realistic put in video games - that I have seen. In the lesbian version one woman's hand appears to stimulate the crotch of the other passing between the legs. Today many of the more perv-oriented gamer-nerds took delight in describing for me the detailed description of games they claim are MORE realistic... Ok fine, I'll take them at their word, but for me the statement stands...

Ok first of all better don`t try Fahrenheit or Hot Coffee mod for San Andreas otherwise his head will explode, or well maybe he should give the game a try. Sure a hand that is not visible could not do anything else, maybe she is scratching here own ass? Thats like assuming in a very cloudy night where the moon is without any indication where the moon could be. Here we go again the nice term gamer-nerd, a normal gamer would do it and would not offend people (last PlayStation 2 sale numbers 130 million or something like that and they are all “game-nerds”)

2. "One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images..." Evidently the only thing I got wrong on this was the breast size, though I would like someone to explain to me how the female characters end up having different sizes again on the YouTube footage I witnessed with my own eyes... But the rest of it was true. race, hair style, color - etc.

How evil is that you can change race, hair style, colour and so on, that game needs to be band and all copies put in a rocket and send to the sun. Reminds me my hair is already to long and I need a new hair cut and maybe some different colour this time. Especially for the race thing, thats a very important point of the game and the game showed how humans are usually responding to different cultures (in the game Aliens).

3. "...the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of." Again true (not that there are that many combinations of human sexuality to begin with.) But since the makers of Mass Effect decided to throw in a little alien booty both hetero and homo it seems to me that they covered the range. Would these gamer-nerds have preferred that the game included bestiality? Later in the column I make a reference to being able to perform sex acts, homo and hetero, with whomever... Ok - you can't have sex with every single character in the game... But between copulating with Aliens, girl on girl, guy on girl, and according to my gamer-nerd friends who I checked with - it does not take a great deal of manipulation to add a few extra "kinks" to the mix for those who know a little bit about such things.

Well I can think of quite a lot of different things between humans that are connected with sex, so I might send the person maybe a Karmasutra book so he can find out that there are more then one or two things you can do with your partner or one night stand or what ever the prefers if he even have ever meet a woman. Wow “my gamer-nerd friends” I wonder how long those people will be his “friends” in fact I guess I would punch him in the face and no the game can not be manipulated it is not a PC version.

4. They (the gamer-nerds) also took outrageous umbrage to the claims I made in the column that the game is marketed to teen-age boys. (Though many of those giving me feedback happened to be under the age of 17/18.) The common argument is that because the game is marked "M" that means that no kid under 17/18 (depending on your state) would be allowed access to it...

That part is a bit longer, but the short version is retailers are selling it to kids under the assigned age. To go fast through that, Game Developers are free to do what they want, when they want and how they want in there games. If the retailers are not checking for the right age it's there fault besides of that Xbox 360 and also PS3 has parental control systems implement. So to speak age rating is printed on the disc and parents can set up the console that it will only play games that are for kids up to 12 years or what ever they want. It is they duty of parents to check what there kids are doing and not the responsibility of game developers.

5. The major criticism the Gamer-Nerds had for me in their reaction was this challenge: "Unless you've spent the 20 hours of game time it takes to get to the explicit scenes, keep your fat mouth shut!" Many challenges stated that unless I played it myself then I had no business pointing out its objectionably content. Would they say the same of a strip club at the end of their block or hookers knocking at their door? (Well maybe sexually repressed gamer-nerds would...) Normal people would not. There is an innate instinct that tells us right from wrong, it's called a conscience. Did I play the game? No. Did I talk to some gamers who had and who knew the possibilities of the game. Yes! Does it make the lesbian, alien, hetero, homo sex that a player arrives at in the game a proper thing for teenagers to be tantalized by? Absolutely not!

What could I say to that? I heard someone in the tram talking today that GTA IV is coming out tomorrow for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Wii, DS, PSP and NES so that must be true right? I better go and post a news about the release. I wouldn't have also no problem with hookers (they can also be lesbian and two or more) knocking on my door as long as it is not 4 in the morning and they would wake me up, because I have to be fit for work so I can help destroying the human civilisation as we know it by working on games. Don't know about the US, but at least in Austria you learn at school about sex when you are something like 12 or 13.

He makes also some statement about Blue channels on Europe TV stations. I don't know what he means, but I'm proud to be from Europe so I'm at least not from the same nation as this person. Still the problem is we are both human and apparently still somehow connected even if I don't like that.

"The real point of the piece was however to say that in the election coming up the next President will preside over a society that does more to push the envelope than any that have come before it..."

"God didn't design it that way..."

At least one point where I can only say yes even because of a different meaning. I really hope the next US president is more open to games and not like some stupid and clueless person who likes to lie about Mass Effect. Also the thing with god, I don't believe in god, sure if he really exists he would punish such ignorant persons who think there way is the only and true way. On the other side if he exists he has e good sense for jokes. Why? Because he created this person who wrote the article so he must have a very good sense of humor because he created a good joke there. At the end games are a form of art one where creativity is needed, like with movies and music (remember Rock and Roll that it would be evil?) the circle of life is repeating it self. Gamers are easy to bash at the moment like other art forms before, but sooner or later people will realise the truth and I hope the first president who grow up with games will come soon.

So long and god bless the USA, they really need that.

The cake is a lie, but that Mass Effect "article" is a even bigger lie

To be precise that lie has biblical proportion and once more it is coming from some very, very, very, very stupid person. I really wonder if Bioware could sue such person who talk crap that is completely made up. One of the comments in the "article":

It's called "Mass Effect" and it allows its players - universally male no doubt - to engage in the most realistic sex acts ever conceived. One can custom design the shape, form, bodies, race, hair style, breast size of the images they wish to "engage" and then watch in crystal clear, LCD, 54 inch screen, HD clarity as the video game "persons" hump in every form, format, multiple, gender-oriented possibility they can think of.

First of all where can I get that awsome version of Mass Effect? Second if anything in the "article" is right (by the way it is 54 inch HD LCD screen and not LCD, 54 inch screen, HD and I want to see where kids get such a screen I even have only 22 inch screen) kids are coming from the stork and I'm Santa Claus, or for the German speaking people "Das Christkind", and Elvis is still alive hanging around in the Bat cave with Superman and Stalin. There is a lot more in his "article" about Mass Effect and how much porn would be in it. It is already so bad that you could really laugh a lot about it especially if you have played the game. Besides of all that stupid comments that where made since Mass Effect was released, first parents are responsible for what there kids are playing and second I'm sure they don't care about virtual Characters if they have internet. I really start to like Manhunt 2 more and more, not only because a bit of the game was made in Vienna, also because Manhunt 2 is something where the Developers did not care about what non gamers will say about it. I only wonder how long it will take until German politicians are starting also with that crap, because usually they are the first to start with such stupid comments.

Link to the article --> Here

Link to the only scene in the whole game (almost at the end of the game) that makes that game so pornographic --> Here

So long and buy Mass Effect for your kids

Mass Effect harmful for kids

A good day for posts today, the next one is about Mass Effect and that is harmful for kids. This statement comes from two people who are doing something in the US. Why is Mass Effect not good for kids (the game was rated M for Mature in the US and also here in Europe it got a high age rating)? Well because of the 15 seconds "sex" scene or let's say "a cutscene in which the characters copulate in full digital nudity". Wow seeing a naked ass from the side is now full digital nudity? There are just a few parts of the text where I want to make a comment.

"We never shy away from sexuality in the media.": As far as I know the US is not very open to that topic compared to other country's like Germany (where you could have naked girls in the game as long as you can not shoot anybody and there is no blood) or Austria (we are nice to games and there are almost no restrictions people could be naked and there can be blood and shooting stuff is always welcome).

"Allow homosexuality to be on par with heterosexuality and heterosexuality outside of its proper context of marriage": Welcome to the year 2008 we are not any longer in the year 1808. That's strange I don't know, but as far as I can remember Brokeback Mountain was received very well so that topic can be used in movies but by no way in games? In Mass Effect it's even only Man-Alien Woman or Woman-Alien Woman (technically the race don't have any gender). I don`t need to see Man-Man action, but people can do or be like they want so why characters can`t be homosexual in games? The second thing in that line is the lovely “outside of its proper context of marriage” and here again 1808 is long over. That's why I don't care much about religion because of things that where made up a few hundred years ago.

"when you expose children, whose brains and personalities are still developing, to degrading and harmful material, you've got to believe that's going to have an effect on the way that they view themselves, others, and the world.": First of all the game is rated M for Mature, second of all the “sex” scene is almost at the end I want to see a kid go that far in the game while having to make a lot of decisions and can choose between good and bad and can see the result of bad and good decisions.

"This is about [BioWare] making as much money as it can. It's putting elements in its games which they think will help them sell more games. They don't care about what they're doing to kids.": M Rated. Wow making money thats evil how can someone make money and even worse putting things in the game that gamers could like. Flower power, no power to the money and we need only air and love to life? It's a normal business sure they want to make money otherwise they lose there jobs and there so stupid things like food or rent that people have to pay, besides of that they are not doing that only for the money also because they care about games.

"People try to raise a straw-man argument and say that people from my perspective are saying that everyone who views something is going to go out and become a serial sex killer. Nobody's saying that,": Nobody is saying that? I at least once per week a Interview with some politician (mainly from Germany) where they say such stuff. What I know is that people from the perspective of this lady don't have any clue. Otherwise they would know that there is much more to Mass Effect than this 15 seconds "sex" scene. And really that's not a sex scene there is nothing to see and Bioware did it tastefully and there is a long prologue to that in the meaning of a romance. It's not like they characters are meeting and 5 minutes later the player has to watch a 40 minutes cutscene where you can see everything. There is a lot mor to the game and it's a shame that it is mainly in the media because of this "sex" scene. It shows good the impact that decisions can have, there are conversations where the player can try to convince a NPC to stop taking drugs even if the stuff is not illegal but it's not healthy for the NPC.

I really don`t like such useless comments from people who think they know about stuff. Not only because I work in the business, also because I play games since I was 5 or 6 years old and even games like Resident Evil when I was 14 or something like that and still I`m "normal". Games are not harmful for people (and parents need to know what there kids are doing), people are harmful for people.

Link to the complete article --> Here

So long and don't lissen to politicians who talk bad about games because they don't have any clue. I finish the post with a quote that fits to such people from a good movie, one of the best movies ever Groundhog Day: "Morons, your bus is leaving"

And another lawsuit this time against Sony and Nintendo

America is not only the country where you can buy guns easy, it should be also the country where the most lawsuits are filed. This time against Sony and Nintendo and there controllers or to be exact the way the controllers are connect to the Console. The lawsuit was filed by Copper Innovations Group because they have made a patent 1996 and they think the devices for the Wii and PS3 are infringed upon the patent.

According to them there patent does: “covers a method for connecting devices to a system and sorting their inputs by means of hardware identification numbers tied to each transmission."

Just to get that straight I could made a Patent for a method that allows devices to connect to another device by sending a hardware ID and as soon as someone comes up with an idea that is like that I can sue them? By they way Copper Innovations Group wants not only money for from Sony and Nintendo. No they want also that they are not allowed to sell the stuff and use there method any longer. Microsoft with the Xbox 360 is not mentioned in the lawsuit, that might be because they are not using Bluetooth. I'm just wondering because I don't thank Sony and Nintendo are the first to use that method like every other Bluetooth device should use that like Bluetooth Headsets for Mobil phones, Bluetooth devices for the PC like keyboard and so on. For me as user they work all the same way, the first time you need somehow to sync it with the system and then it works always.

Besides of that I'm not sure of most of the Patents are really precise in the way the thing is to work. For example a light bulb has a specific structure, but if the people would make a Patent for the normal light bulb I guess now the would only write: “We developed a method where you can send electricity through a metal wire and light is produced”. Without stating what kind of metal or how thin the wire has to be and so on and just wait until someone comes up with a concept that really works and uses a metal wire and electricity only to sue them. If they are all so intelligent and smart why do they make then only money by suing other company's and not by selling there stuff? I would guess because they did not really invent something that works and just make a patent for a theory otherwise you sell your stuff and don't wait that you might be able to sue another company in 12 years.

The story at Gamesindustry.biz --> Here

Sorry no link to Copper Innovations Group they are so innovative that they don't have a website.

So long and one more stupid lawsuit and I sue McDonalds because the food is not healthy and contains to much fat and they don't say that somewhere.

Metal Gear Solid 4 almost done

At least according to Ryan Payton who works for Kojima Productions.In his latest podcast he states that the game needs only a few tweaks and maybe some late features, but besides from that the game is ready for testing. So I will try to predict a date when the game could come out on the facts of usual testing duration and time between submission and release. I would predict a date that should be around 16.06.08 to 06.07.08. At all my prediction is only based on guessing. Like I guess that they would start beginning of February and have 3 Month of testing (at all the game should be quite linear so 3 Month could work unless it's not linear). I also expect that the most technical testing was already done during the development so there should be now only smaller technical issues and the localization. If they are really that sure that it will not delay the have to know that the game is technically more or less done. On top of the 3 Month I would put 1 1/2 – 2 Months between submission to Sony and Release. Unless the game will cause every PS3 to explode it's hard to fail the submission with such a game. :D

We should more until the end of February, because at the CES a Konami employee mentioned that a specific release date will be announced until end of February.

Link to the almost done MGS4 Story --> Here

So long, the patriots shall die and Snake shall live on forever in our hearths

Well Microsoft announced that British Telecom will be the first company for IPTV on the Xbox 360. The BBC got now some news about the Xbox 360 set up box and the IPTV from British Telecom at all. There are two interesting things according to the BBC. It will not be possible to record movies, shows or even commercial breaks. On the other side it will not feature live shows or events so as example they will feature “near-live FA premier League football matches “. The important thing here is the near, no exactly amount of time delay but still only near so there are like 362 other options that are really live? I don't like football, but I would never want to see a F1 race or American football game only “nearly-live”. It is not clear for the moment if it is a issue with the console or only with British Telecom, but MS is performing only well in the UK so that might not be very positiv for them.

Sony announced already last year at the GC in Germany some sort of IPTV so that the PS3 can be used as tv tuner and announced as partner Sky. Since then there where no news, but as far as I remember Sony mentioned that it would be possible to record while using the PS3 as tv tuner. The service should launch this year. I only hope that a software update or some extra hardware device would do the job because it looks like for the Xbox 360 BT IPTV service there is an extra console that is used as set up box and so far there are no details if that works also fine with normal Xbox 360 console versions.

In other other, and better news, there are new characters for the next Soulcalibur revealed. It's hard to believe but Soulcalibur IV will feature Star Wars characters. At least Darth Vader and Yoda will be in the game. It's not new that characters from other games like Heihachi are in the game, but now Star Wars characters that could be funny especially if you can use some Force things with Vader like he does in the movies. Looks like that's the first Soulcalibur that I will buy, because so far the screens didn't showed something special besides of big and half naked boobs. I can see them in real life so that was never a reason to buy the game, but Darth “the destroyer of all human mankind” Vader and Yoda “I speak funny” Yoda that's a reason. Maybe we get finally then with Soulcalibur V Cloud, Squall and Raiden (as shown in the MGS4 trailers not the gay MGS2 version of Raiden).

Link IPTV --> Here

So long

No kangaroos in Austria

I guess I only expect people from Austria to visit the site here, but for the rest of the world let me tell you a story (I'm not sure if anybody is looking on the site :D ). We have mountains, snow, lakes, wide and open fields and we have a crap soccer team and no kangaroos except maybe on the Menu in a restaurante. :)

On the other side there a lot of good things in Austria like the food, maybe even kangaroo is good who knows. Or from the music point of view Falco and Mozart and a lot of Beer and the almighty Red Bull. The best thing is that we are funny and I don't mean like Arnie the Governator funny when he tries to speak Englisch... or German. It's more like dark humor and being sarcastic. So at all more like British people (just more relaxed and easy going as can be seen at the soccer team the move in a very relaxed way from one end of the field to the other one). I guess that's why I loved London, besides of the minor detail of working on two nice games. As example if someone like me (from Vienna) speaks with someone from Germany it is easy that the German person would not get my sarcastic comments or being easy offended by some jokes. That happened actually several times, but at least 25% are getting the comments and jokes. A lot of the posts here are with a lot of sarcastic side notes and jokes, otherwise it would be to boring to read it because I write to much. To the dark humor, well I just say that after a funeral there are “Partys”. They are not really called Partys, but there is a lot of food, alcohol, live music and the people are somehow smiling and enjoying the time. Actually I don't know if they really having fun or not, but still could be a bit weird. At least that should be something that's more common on the countryside where I spend the first 16 years with my good friend Wilson... ehm NES.

So if you see someone from Austria don't be afraid it's normal that they seem a bit crazy and they don't bite, at least only sometimes if they are hungry and living to long on an Island where they have no real food. Feel free to visit me there will be very good food. *muhahaha*

So long

CES and other stuff

Let's start with some news from the CES. The PSP should be able soon to download movies that are stored on Blu-Ray movies. That means there should be a low resolution version of the movie that is in HD on the Disc. The plan is put the Blu-Ray in the PS3 und download it then somehow to a memory stick and watch it on the PSP. I'm not sure if this is really secure. Of course it is only a low resolution version of the movie, but saving it on a memory stick would make it easy to put it than on the internet unless a very high copy protection is in use and that would still cause some security problems. Well at all that could mean the end for UMD movies for people who have a PS3 and a PSP. I have both and never used the PSP to watch movies so I guess I would only play around once or twice with the feature and then forget about that it is there, but as long as the movie prize does not rise because of that it's ok for me.

In other PSP news, the device will get soon Skype. That feature sounds a lot better then movie download thing. Could come in very handy while siting at the airport and waiting for a flight. I don`t think that they could make windows messenger for the PSP, but some other text message tools would also be nice because a keyboard for the PSP is in development. Skype will only work with the Slim & Lite version of the PSP.

Now to Little Big Planet or call it Little Delay Planet? Well I really look forward to that game and to the user contend made by, of course, the users. At the moment it looks like the game will not be released before September 2008. I just hope GTA4 and MGS4 are released on time and Home before summer. At least there should be a lot of good games between now and Little Big Planet that will shorten the waiting time.

There are a lot rumours these days and not much real news. One of the rumours is that Paramount would maybe abandon HD-DVD because there would be some parts in the contract that would allow that. At least it sounds realistic because I'm sure they don't sign a contract for X years and X money without anything in the contract that they could get out of it without the risk of a lawsuit.

According to some people are unlocked Achievements again locked and points deducted from the Gamerscore due to the problems with Xbox LIVE. No comment from Microsoft so far, but that issue sounds a bit strange. More likely that this will only happen to people who visit friends and use there Gamertag on another Xbox 360 and the data is not uploaded to LIVE or not proper downloaded at there Xbox 360 at home then. At least I'm happy that I don't care about some points that I can not use for anything and play online only on the Playstation 3 or PC, both are free, run well and are part of the dark side.

That should be the last post for this week. Holiday finally over and back to work and hunting some Bugs. Besides of that I just got my Japanese GT5 Prologue version so I play that the most time during free time and it's more important then posting my precious cars. :)

By the way Bill Gates movie from his last working day at Microsoft was very entertaining.

So long

Bill Gates Keynote CES announcement

Well here we go with the rumour that there will be an announcement made by Bill Gates at the CES. But let's start first with the one or other fact from the Keynote.

Vista has sold over 100 million licenses. Wow that's a big number for a, well let's say not so good OS the only good think about Vista is DirectX10, but on new PCs and Laptops there is only Vista so there are the 100 million licenses. I make a rough guess that only 20% are really wanted to get Vista and the other 80% had to take it because it was on the PC.

Back to the rumoured announcement, well there was no announcement. At least no big announcement, only that Disney and MGM will have some stuff in the future in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace, but no information what exactly. Also that the British Telecom will be the first company to support IPTV. That was somehow disappointing, not only because there where a lot of rumours also because it was Bill Gates last keynote and there should have been some big news. Who knows maybe they planed the in-built HD-DVD drive version, but canceled it just a few hours before the show like the HD-DVD company's did with there press conference. We will never know and with that news so far it looks like Xbox 360 could have some troubles in 2008 to keep the pace with the PS3 sales. A few more movies as download will not help to fight against the very good 2008 software lineup for the PS3.

So long

Can we stop the war soon?

Well after Warner Bros. (including New Line Cinema) switched from HD-DVD and Blu-Ray support, they will stop HD-DVD production in a few month. From May onwards they support only Blu-Ray as HD format and of course DVD. Because of that the company's behind HD-DVD will not have the press conference on Sunday afternoon (US time) at the CES.

In fact I hope this format war is soon over so Blu-Ray can be the official winner. Yes I know technically HD-DVD is cheaper, but that's not reflected in the shops HD-DVD and Blu-Ray movies have mainly the same prize and only the HD-DVD players are cheaper besides that the format does not have any advantage. The sound and picture quality on both formats are the same and Blu-Ray discs have a lot more size and that's the point otherwise in 3 years there will be a new format. More important for the moment I don't want to see movie download win. Besides that I like my movies or games on a nice Disc I like to own them (downloadable movies and games are mostly not really owned by the customer at least not at the moment) and I like to have them on day one. MS likes really the idea of download movies and games (that's why they support HD-DVD only a bit to keep the war going), but I don't see the providers are up to that task at least not for the next 7-10 years. Most of the providers have a monthly limit on GB and I don't think that the bandwidth for that is at the moment available to the mainstream.

I have seen a lot of people refer to the clone wars, ehm VHS vs. Betamax war that Sony lost and therefore thinking that HD-DVD will win. Yes Sony lost that war and it was a long war, actually VHS and Betamax launched 1976 and Sony throw the towel in 1988. Somehow many of that people also say that Betamax was superior compared to VHS. As far as I know Betamax was more expensive and had shorter runtime then VHS, so it had only better picture quality. To compare that with HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, the consumer has to pay around the same prize for a disc (players are out of the question HD-DVD players are much cheaper, but on the other side not many support 1080p) and gets more storage space (or runtime) on the Blu-Ray. Also something about this Sony format or MS format. Sony is one of the company's behind Blu-Ray, but like it was already with the CD and DVD they are not the only company behind it. For the HD-DVD MS, even if I don't like to say that but Micheal Bay is wright about the thing with keeping the format war going. Also the Blu-Ray was rejected by the DVD Forum and number one in the DVD Forum is Toshiba after that Toshiba started to make another disc that's now known as HD-DVD.

There are now only 2 major company's supporting HD-DVD and that are Paramount and Universal all other big company's are supporting Blu-Ray. I really wish that this useless war is soon over especially because so far the only winner is the MS download service. Having finally one format would help the consumer a lot and the numbers are clear with 2:1 in the US and EU 3:1 for Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD. Toshiba should throw the towel and take it like a men to prevent that more and more people are buying the wrong device because at least one will lose. I guess HD-DVD could only win if the Xbox 360 would have a in-built HD-DVD drive since launch day, but MS is not supporting HD-DVD.

So long and finish the fight

I like holidays...

...not.

There is not much to do thanks to holidays and I can't wait to go back to work, but for the moment let's see what we had today as news. I guess the biggest news today was Warner Bros. joining fully Blu-Ray after they made movies for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Let's see what impact it will have on the format war.

For the next “news” I have to admit that I love the USA. There are 3 people from Texas who have filled a class action lawsuit against Microsoft because Xbox LIVE was down or at least not completely online. And thats why I like the USA, because they are making always funny lawsuits that no one can win (and because of Arnie the Governator). Those three should read the agreement that the did accept when creating the account, because there is the nice point that the service maybe does not work from time to time. Maybe from now on the american presidents does not start wars and instead start lawsuits, who knows. :)

In another news, well there none.

So long

Rumour time

I just discovered a rumour about a new Xbox 360 SKU version on gamesindustry.biz, it should be announced in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. The new SKU should come then with a in-built HD-DVD drive. There where a lot rumours about such a SKU last year and gamesindustry.biz is the most time reliable compared to other sites. On the other side SKU with in-built HD-DVD would be a bit late now that Blu-Ray sells a lot better then HD-DVD. Games could not benefit from an internal HD-DVD drive because that would make the other SKUs useless and Microsoft even does not like if games are using the HD because all costumers must have the same experience with the game no matter if they have a Premium or Elite with HD or a Core without HD.

That rumour alone would be a bit boring so let's see what other sites are telling about a new Xbox 360 SKU. One or two sites wrote that the new Xbox 360 SKU will not only have the in-built HD-DVD, it will also have in-built WiFi, biger HD, High Def sound, silent fan and other things. So if that would be true Microsoft is working on a "Xstation 360"?

I can believe the rumour the way it is posted at gamesindustry.biz, but for the specs that are posted on some other sites. Well it would not make sense to make a 360 SKU with all that features and the price should be higher then for a PS3. People who have enough money and want a console that can do a lot of things even if it is expensive have already a PS3 so this market can only be very tiny. Also it would make costumers a bit angry 2 weeks after Christmas. I guess I would sell my 360 if the rumour about the high speced SKU is true and never buy again a Xbox 360. :)


So long

Welcome to 2008

Well the new year has started and there is already an old friend from 2007 in the news. The rumor about a MGS4 Xbox360 version, but I should post something here and there are no other news. This time it is even not a rumor according to the site where the news was posted. I guess it is more likely to see a MGS4 version for the Wii then for the Xbox360 because MGS2 soled not good on the first Xbox and there are still not many Xbox360 consoles soled (something like 15-17 million units) and most of the owners are for sure former Xbox gamers. On the other side the Wii is selling good and Solid Snake had always a good connection to the Nintendo systems and it is also likely that Kojima will use the motion sensor of the Sixaxis more then other games and implement it well in the gameplay. If there would be then a 360 version they would need to remove this features while for Wii they could leave it in. But thats all only theory, so let`s wait for the next MGS4 rumors and for a lot of other rumors this year.

The news post can be found there ---> link