OrtizGames

Hey, guys!

Don’t think I’ve forgotten you; I’ve just graduated and am now wrapping up a few chores before I can get down and dirty with SPORE, my gaming culture essay and some Beyond Good and Evil.

So as a brief prelude to anything I end up writing this week, here’s a few quick impressions on what we’ve seen at E3 so far:

1) The economy is down, so E3 is very unimpressive. They’re still hyping it up quite a great deal, but coming from the mouth of attendees, E3 is not great this year.

2) Impressions of individual companies’s “big announcements”
Nintendo’s Wii “Vitality Sensor”: The day I need a game to remind me my cholesterol is bad is the day I need to stop playing video games because they’re becoming my mother. The design looks like it may end up being cramp-city. Also, I swear I’ve seen this device before. Didn’t we see a leak preview image of this way way long ago? I’m getting some kind of déjà vu that tells me this should look familiar for some reason.
It’s argued that maybe it could help the game measure which is the best time to COMPLETELY THROW YOUR WORLD TOPSY TURVY like in a jump-spooks horror game, but considering we’re dealing with Wii graphics and Wii hardware here, how smart could the game possibly be for this? Let’s not forget, Super Mario Galaxy may have looked great, but the AI (was there any?) was pretty much limited to “Here Comes Mario, Beat Him Up”. Resident Evil 4 had that same idea down: “Here Comes Leon, Walk Sluggishly Forward And Attack Repeatedly”. Then again, somehow Capcom made it work with Monster Hunter Tri, too.
So, Nintendo, any examples on how this thing will work? What actual uses it has?
Enough speculating; let’s move on.

Sony’s WiiMote: It’s basically everything the original Nintendo WiiMote was supposed to be in its proof of concept video, only with dorky colored balls at the end of it which I suppose are part of the capture process. But of course, if it’s a visual mocap process, there will be horrible glitches involved as with any motion capture technology, which makes me wonder why we are still bothering with freaking motion sense technology. At least they had a technical demo. It made Nintendo’s and Microsoft’s presentations look laughable at best–then again, it’s just a tech demo–the actual product won’t be out until Spring 2010, which means there’s nothing coming this year. Except Heavy Rain. Of course. Which looks as amazing as ever.

Microsoft’s Wiimote “Project Natal”: This is basically an awesome futuristic idea that will never work because Microsoft can’t make it do half of the things in this proof of concept video with any accuracy. It is a wonderful idea, don’t get me wrong. If this actually ended up being what this video makes it out to be, I will personally send a letter of apology to Microsoft, purchase an Xbox 360 and shut up. But I’m quite sure this will not be what it will be like–it’s a proof of concept video, used for patent purposes more than anything, and the likelihood that it gets up and running before Microsoft gets set on releasing the Xbox 1080/720/3/THE OTHER ONE is extremely unlikely. This “Project Natal” doesn’t seem to have any working prototypes, and might as well be Duke Nukem Forever with the amount of working product we’ve seen.

In short, E3 this year is pretty much how I felt yesterday, standing in GameStop, scanning the shelves and realizing I really didn’t want to be there. We’re hitting a low point. The economy is bad. The games are bad. The future looks boring.

We need saviors.

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I realize I haven’t been posting a SPORE review like I said I would. I’ve been floundering under work and school. I really need a vacation.And this is my vacation. If only this weren’t a Wii game. Curse you, Capcom. Within a year, I may actually have a purchase a Wii solely for this game.

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1646312&w=425&h=350&fv=]

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Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Joystiq gave us their hands-on impression of a Heavy Rain demo/bonus level playthrough yesterday, and as I read it I kept having to stop myself from screaming again and again in pure excitement. Read it now.

Everything I remember from Indigo Prophecy/Farenheit that excited me about games as a storytelling/interactive medium is brought back and hyperextended by David Cage, founder of Quantic Dream and mastermind behind both Indigo Prophecy (known as Farenheit in Europe) and the new title Heavy Rain for the PS3 (also known as Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer).

Because most every hit on my website for the past few days seemed to have been somehow related to Heavy Rain (people continue to read my old Heavy Rain article despite the fact that I have written like, sixty others) I decided to continue reporting on every scrap of information I can get–simply because Heavy Rain really is pushing the boundary on games as a medium that should appeal to more than just kids and teenagers. David Cage has an interview up on Gamasutra in which he talks about a number of things, including his belief that games are really marketed far too much towards teenagers, a reflection of how the industry started: teenagers making games for other teenagers. Even a seriously gritty, mature work such as MadWorld seems to be a fest of all the things that a teenager would find cool, from badasses to blood to chainsaws. There’s also this video interview with David Cage to pore over in which he mentions much of the same thing.

And for now, that’s everything. I’ll continue keeping my eyes out for all information I can, including screens, videos and more, especially since I seem to be such a valuable resource according to search engines.

Thanks a lot for your reading, and I hope my providing concise information is of some use to you interested people!

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This just in: new screenshots from the highly anticipated (at least I’m highly anticipating) Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer. Pictures can be found here.

We see a girl, a motorbike, a man, and a knife. All of them look eerily real, and yet still have that uncanny-valley sense to them. Hopefully these beta images are just a shade under the final quality–or animating them will bring lifelike spark to these digital personas.

Source: N4G

PS: Yes, I am playing Soul Cal 4. More on that and some other things later.

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Quantic Dream released video to go with those screenshots it released of its new and improved, dermatologist-approved, motion capturing, Uncanny-Valley-bridging graphical engine for Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, its upcoming [PS3 Exclusive?] next-gen title.

My eyes almost popped out of my head as I watched hers dart around the room.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oK8ZSfHW-E]

I’m really excited about what Quantic’s going to do with this game. I’ve had people talk to me irritably about the PS3′s expense versus the quality of games that were coming out for it. Well, the wait is almost over, my skeptical friends. You know how Dark Cloud is such lousy graphical quality compared to Final Fantasy XII? Yeah. That’s kind of what like Heavy Rain will be in comparison to Resistance: Fall of Man.

This is on a whole other scope of visuals. This is universes away from what we’re used to. Resistance 2 may not even achieve this level of sheer visual near-photorealism.

In other news, new Ico 3 artwork has been released. There’s only one image, but that one image indicates that “Codename Ico 3″ is actually going to happen, which is exciting–especially after Shadow of the Colossus. There’s a lot of people who have mixed feelings about that game, so I’m glad Team ICO gets another chance to prove their worth.

Source: Thank you, PS3 Fanboy

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The full quality scans of the FFXIII screens have been released, and can be found here. Every time that game is mentioned, I feel myself squirm in desperation. I’m so excited about it–my hopes have risen to climactic peaks for it, and I’m so anxious to see the demo I could pop.

No news on when the battlesystem demo might be headed our way, but FFXII’s demo was a very good indicator to me of what I was to expect from the game–if FFXIII’s is miraculous, I can rest assured the game will be just as phenomenal.

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And indeed, there are more FFXIII screenshots available.

I have to say, this game has me the worst kind of excited. The kind of excited where you’re so excited you barely feel it any more and any more news is just adding to the load of anxiety you have because you want to be satisfied so badly. But as it is, it doesn’t come out till December. Until then, I’ll be suffering from my Final Fantasy blueballs and losing myself in Assassin’s Creed.

Here’s a recent hi-quality scan of a couple of pages of the mag–the rest can be found by following the link. It’s exciting!

Final Fantasy XIII Magazine Scan – Click for Full Size

PS

I beat Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Honestly, it was such an awesome, fun experience. I recommend it to everyone who’s bought a PS3–no matter what genre you like. That game is solid.

Now I need to get all the achievements.

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To expand on the post I just put up, here’s a second video displaying the amazing sync of Heavy Rain’s face capture technology.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.454661&w=425&h=350&fv=] from play.tm posted with vodpod

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!![Edit: This article is so old but people keep reading it. For more new news on Heavy Rain, please check my recent posts, such as this one.]!!

A while ago, it was plastered all over my Netvibes that co-founder of Quantic Dream, Guillaume de Fondaumière, announced that the uncanny valley which had so plagued the game “Heavy Rain” when it was in technical demo stages (still magnificent stages, but understandably somewhat awkward and at times unappealing) is now no more.

To recap for you readers who aren’t huge on clicking my alluding links, the Uncanny Valley is a phenomenon, predicted by the roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970, that occurs when a viewer becomes unsettled as they watch something attempt to be too human and fail. I’ve heard it being presented as a viewer interpreting something as being “too real,” but I’ve come to learn that this is a misnomer. Were game developers to make a game that looks absolutely and perfectly true to life, people would have no trouble enjoying it. The problem comes in when something is attempting to be real, and cannot attain the ultimate perfection. Humans will be thrown off by the tiniest hints–no blemishes, unnatural skin tone, perfect teeth… those things will hint to you that what you’re seeing isn’t real, and you will be not only discomforted but repulsed by it.

To illustrate, I present to you the original tech demo from way back in 2006.

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9133667929405103814]

It’s beautiful, but a bit unnerving, right? The lip animations and almost too-perfect teeth and tongue are what throw people off when they watch this. The motion capture technology and the well-rendered eyes is what really makes the visuals so impressive. When the actress in the video isn’t speaking, and is simply making faces, I become entranced by how lively she looks, how full of personality. When she speaks, and her mouth and lips move irregularly, I becomes rather turned off by the visuals.

Well, French company Quantic Dream, the fellows behind a beautiful and key game dubbed Fahrenheit also known as the more-popular-titled The Indigo Prophecy, which I loved. Understandably, I was dying to see what de Fondaumière was talking about when he said that they had done what was previously expected to be, if not impossible, highly unlikely until at least two or three years have passed, but no more demos or revelations came, and I spent December in relative misery while I waited for further news on this much-anticipated game. Of course, good things come to those who wait: with the new year, we’ve received new screens.

There’s not a lot to gawk at, to be honest. There’s two close-up screenshots of a woman’s nose and eyes, with a bit of hair visible and a wonderful focus effect to the camera. Mostly what impresses me is the sheer amount of detail and realistic imperfection in the skin. I’ve always found it hilarious that many women worry so about their skin and wearing makeup in order to hide imperfections, when often those imperfections make them all the more interesting and alluring. Then again, I love skin details because I’m into game design and textures. I may just be a freak of nature.

Still, as it stands, these screenshots are frighteningly beautiful and I’m ecstatic to see in-game shots or a trailer. If Quantic Dream has indeed bridged the Uncanny Valley, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer marks an entry into video games that had previously existed only in imagination: the perfect visual representation of life.

Virtual Reality to soon follow.

Also, this game has not yet been declared as to which consoles it will appear on. Most people seem to readily assume it’s a PS3 exclusive, as previously stated by Quantic when they released their tech demo. Later on, however, Quantic revealed they were considering releasing it for every console, including the Nintendo Wii. I’m not certain if that’s even possible, but let’s assume for now that Quantic has an idea of what they’re doing when it comes to consoles. My verdict: PS3 owners, I guarantee you this game. Xbox 360 owners, pray for ports. Wii owners, you’re getting a different game.

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And it’s not something wicked. Rather, it’s something really cool.

PS3 has a lot of things planned for this year, including a new XMB update that will finally give us the ability to play music, talk with friends and check downloads while in-game. The only thing we need to do is wait–the trouble with that is that most of us don’t want to. I want it all now.

Of course, I can’t afford it all. I still have Rock Band, UT3, NGS and Oblivion to buy, and then DMC4, GTA IV, Killzone 2 and Haze come out in the next few months. Couple that with the upcoming promise of MGS4 in June, LittleBigPlanet in September (not April as previously thought, sorry peeps) and both Final Fantasies in December… I am going to have one penniless year. But it’ll be well worth it.

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