61 Frames Per Second : mtv

Sailing the Internet Seas, Historical Preservation, and The Great Rumble Roses vs. Silent Hill vs. Metroid Dance Party Throwdown

John Constantine — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:30:00 GMT

Beware! Sail too far to the east, brave soul, and you will come upon that most dangerous of seas. The sky changes to a sickly fresh bruise color, all angry purple and yellow, and the waves will toss madness and froth against the bow. Even the sturdiest ship, the steadiest mind, will be shaken by the foul humors waiting for them beyond the horizon. Ye have been warned. Beware! Beware the internet!

I got lost in an internet vortex this afternoon. It all started innocently enough. Smooth sailing, reading Multiplayer’s interview with Steve Papoustis about Dead Space: Extraction. This led to Matt Hawkins’ Fort 90, and that’s when things started to veer off course. For anyone unfamiliar, Matt’s one of NYC’s great games journalists, but he’s also a madly prolific renaissance man. Fort 90 is a dangerous place, dense with images and text. It’s an easy place to lose your bearings, and that’s what happened to me. Matt linked to the Garry’s Mod work of one MrWhiteFolks. MrWhiteFolks made some spectacular high resolution images of No More Heroes character models stripped of their cel-shading. Very cool stuff. He also made this:

Oh there’s more. Much more.

The internet vortex is perilous, but when you’re hounding for anything and everything related to the videogame landscape, it reveals riches just like MrWhiteFolks’, erm, folk art. That’s what you call this right? That’s what you call it when Heather from Silent Hill 3 dance battles Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 in front of the assembled casts of Halo, Metroid, Rumble Roses, Dead or Alive, Gears of War, and Resident Evil 4?

I would like to close with pointing everyone to Edge’s recent feature on preserving videogames’ cultural history. It’s so easy to lose yourself bouncing between one article, one review, one preview, one speedrun, one ROM hack, one actual game to the next that it’s hard enough to process it all when you’re experiencing it in the moment. How do we even begin to preserve things like MrWhiteFolks’ creations? Do we preserve them? Are they important parts of gaming’s history?

Bet you’re all as lost as I am now.

Related links:

10 Years Ago This Week: Silent Hill
Resident Evil Arguments that Need to Die
Metroid Prime Trilogy Retrospective

Music Game Shark Jumpin’: Activision Possibly Too Legit to Quit, Working with MC Hammer

John Constantine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

There’s been some talk around the gaming campfire about the possible decline of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band-styled music game. The reasons are pretty much what you’d expect: severe market saturation thanks to Guitar Hero having three very successful years across multiple consoles and games, consumer confusion over available product (what do you mean I can’t use this guitar with Rock Band on Wii?), and just could ol’ fashion fad passing. Of course, November’s NPD report showed that people aren’t quite sick of music games. They just aren’t buying them all on one system any longer. Whether or not music games are still profitable is besides the point though! What really matters is whether or not they’re still entertaining, still fresh, and whether or not there are still opportunities to add-on to the house built by Harmonix. What more can they do? Build a mic as versatile as the one included with Microsoft’s Lips? Create a procedural song generator so any song in existence can be used with the games? Stagnation is the enemy here for sure. Here’s a thought: how about trying to make a decent hip-hop game? It’s been attempted, but never successfully. Maybe that’s the next band game evolution!

But not like this, Activision. Not like this.

It’s only a rumor right now, but if the man himself is telling the truth through his Twitter, it sounds like MC Hammer is working on a project with Activision. The man who popularized Skids for one hazy summer back in 1991 said (Twitted?), “"I got one day to recover, then it's LA to Activision to get a glance of a top secrete project." And then later, "Activision was fantastic ... action!" Secrete action with Activision, eh Hammer? I am horrified.

Look, Guitar Hero the 80s was stupid enough, Activision. Don’t let Hammer back into out lives. He explicitly said we could not touch this and after almost twenty years, I’m inclined to take his advice.

If it does happen, I say Harmonix turns around and makes a Wu-Tang Rock Band. Have an unlockable mode that’s a sequel to Shaolin Style!

Hmmm. Proper.

(Link: The Escapist via Joystiq)

Related links:

Everyone Will be Able to Rock
"Games are about Wanking", Says Limey DJ
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero
Rock Band: My Anti-Music
GWI: Gaming While Intoxicated

I’d Like to Thank the Imaginary Academy: Where Are the Videogame Awards That Matter?

John Constantine — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:00:00 GMT

MTV is a wily beast on the international stage. While we associate the one-time purveyor of actual music videos here in the States more with the decade long reign of TRL and reality shows starring wildly libidinous mannequins, Viacom’s behemoth plays host to a much wider and weirder slate of content across the globe. MTV Germany actually holds a special place in my heart. It introduced me to the Army of Lovers way back in 1997 during my international flight from the law. (I’d elaborate further, but this is a videogame blog. Let’s just say that I’ve atoned for my crimes and am no longer a target of Interpol. Sometimes you just have to cut a deal, you know?) I mean, just look at this video:

That’s the sort of thing that sticks with you.

MTV Germany held the MTV Game Awards last Friday. Yes, Game Awards. Jade Raymond, the most visually appealing computer programmer in history best known for producing Assassin’s Creed, gave a lifetime achievement award to Hideo Kojima for his work on the Metal Gear series. The presentation is pretty subdued, though it bears all the marks of award show tradition (presenters drone on a bit too long, awkwardly standing before a cheering pit of paid-for enthusiasm,) right alongside the garish production traditional to MTV’s other aging awards shows. There was even a token throwaway category: The Do-Believe-the-Hype Award for best unreleased game. FFXIII got the award. Right.

I’m not a defender or fan of the Motion Picture Academy Awards. It’s rare that they acknowledge that business’ best artistic endeavors and more often than not do little more than put more money into the pockets of film studios that already have plenty of cash money as it is. But the founding of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences some eighty years back was a monumentally positive event in the history of that medium. I’m starting to wonder why the International Game Developer’s Association, for all of its good work, hasn’t stepped up to fill a similar role for games. The Spike Videogame Awards is not the sort of event that adds an air of respect to the medium. It merely further entrenches the pre-existing image of games as largely the domain of big-gun-big-tit-big-dick machismo. The MTV Game Awards isn’t the right stuff either. I don’t think videogames need an Oscars, but I do think a high profile, IGDA-organized awards ceremony might do wonders for helping videogames through their ongoing, often painful, public adolescence.

Then again, maybe I’m crazy. Thoughts?

(Links: NeoGAF and FFXIII.net)

Related links:

A Letter to the Industry: How to Destroy the Female Gender Barricade
When Video Games Make Us Sniffle
Metal Gear Solid: Hideo Kojima’s Inability to Show Instead of Tell
Kojima's In Another World

I’ve Got a Driver, And That’s A Start: Now That Harmonix Has The Beatles, What Should a Fab Four Game Even Be?

John Constantine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

I said it way back in June, and I’m happy to say it again today: FINALLY! Today’s co-hosted conference call from MTV and Apple Corps announcing that Harmonix will be developing a game devoted solely to Geroge, John, Paul, and Ringo is, not to be too cutesy or anything, music to my ears. There are really only two pieces of concrete news. First, Giles Martin, son of fifth-Beatle/production-pioneer George Martin and producer of the best Beatles mix tape ever made, Love, will be on music production for the still unnamed game. Shame George himself wasn’t confirmed (or Paul and Ringo for that matter), but Giles has already proven his mettle. The second, and more interesting for videogame-land, is that the game will not bear the Rock Band name, leaving the game to become its own unique artifact covering the group’s entire career. But this begs the question: what will The Beatles game be?

If The Beatles: The Game turns out to be just a four-piece band simulator with all the usual Harmonix trimmings, that would be absolutely swell. I can see it now, every era of the band accompanied by stylized graphic representations: black and white for pre-65, awash in psychedelics until ’69, and ending with the stark, humanist imagery that colored the band’s last couple of years. But part of me wonders if this would be a missed opportunity. The Beatles have a very rich multimedia history: A Hard Day’s Night is still a marvelously entertaining movie that plays off the boys’ natural charisma, Help (weird as it is) remains a winner, and Magical Mystery Tour has stayed, well, interesting. While I’ve only indulged in the soundtrack, Cirque du Soleil’s production of Love has a sterling reputation. And, hell, Yellow Submarine is beloved and the band had almost nothing to do with it. Videogames offer a new opportunity to explore the band’s music and cultural impact but I have no idea how to realize it. A Rocky Raccoon Platformer? Nah, too commercial. Sergeant Pepper’s RPG? Too Japanese. Eleanor Rigby Sims! Ugh, that’s appalling.

Nah, never mind. Just Beatles Rock Band for me thanks. Just make sure to include “You Won’t See Me” in the Rubber Soul portion, Harmonix.

(Link: UGO)

Related links:

The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away
Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin’, a Little Dancin’
Everyone Will be Able to Rock
Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Why Dontcha Cry About It, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
The Economist Weighs in On Music Games

Everyone Will be Able to Rock

John Constantine — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

At the end of June, my concerns for the future of videogames' burgeoning rock star genre were growing by the hour. Activision was waving their new drum kit in EA’s face while Konami tried to get people to like their music games outside of Japan. The big problem? None of those companies appeared to give a damn that they were flooding a market and audience already drowning under a torrent of plastic instruments. Not to mention that none of those instruments were guaranteed to be compatible with games that didn’t come packaged with alongside them. Yeah, Guitar Hero 3 and its electronic axe might be one of the ten best selling games in the history of games but that doesn’t mean the genre bubble can’t burst. Today, another faceless company has helped to allay my fears.

And, would you believe it, it’s Sony doing the allaying.

The once haughty Japanese giant stated on their Playstation blog that they have reached an agreement with Activision, EA/MTV, and Konami to allow every single publisher’s rock & roll instruments will work with every publisher’s games on the Playstation 3. Bought Rock Revolution but want to get in on Rock Band 2’s killer track list? Go for it. Feel like using that gorgeous new Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit with Konami’s new opus? Fine, have fun. Not only that, but SCEA also said that, though it isn’t happening just yet, they’re working on a fix for the original Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 as well.

This is the first step on the road to peripheral-based music games finally coming into their own. Guitar Hero made them an institution but this agreement will help cement the instrument set as an expandable platform that doesn’t necessitate annual hardware revisions. What else needs to happen to guarantee this glorious, melodious future? Microsoft and Nintendo need to step up to the plate and make the same arrangements on their respective consoles. It’s likely Microsoft has already got this in the bag, but Nintendo? They enjoy screwing over their customers a little too much, methinks. All that would remain after that would be a centralized music store that supported every game and hosted a library akin to iTunes that offered procedurally generated tracks based on the engines developed by Harmonix, Neversoft, and whomever else gets in on the action.

The future, she is bright this day.

(Link: via Joystiq)

Related links:

Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Why Dontcha Cry About it, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
Warner Music Wants More Royalties