psn portable id
Monday, October 26, 2009
Neato. I like how the portable ID has evolved over the years. The addition of trophies have made it more meaningful for sure... Now what do I do with it? (i.e., It's too wide to fit in the bar to the right.)
Labels: id, network, playstation, ps3, psn
videogame review: prince of persia
Monday, August 17, 2009
Bryan gave me a copy of Prince of Persia (PS3) for my birthday and I finally got a chance to play it last night. It's a lot of fun! </review>
Labels: gaming, prince of persia, ps3
littlebigplanet beta has come and gone
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
This began as a reply to this post, but it got a little long-winded.
Yes, the beta went quietly into this good night. I was at work when it happened (yes, the LBP beta ending is worthy of a "where were you when..." footnote in history). The next day, when I tried to launch LBP, I simply got a message stating that the content had expired. Simple and rather unceremonious, but that's how betas go, I guess.
I was one of the proponents of wiping the slate clean for the official release; clearing out all the uploaded levels and local user-generated content, but after Mm's announcement that they'd keep beta content, I really pushed hard on an RPG-like level I was building, but never got to publish it. I hope to publish it within a day or two of the retail release. I think it has a design aesthetic and narrative that could get traction with a lot of players.
For now, I find myself with graph paper and colored pencils trying to come up with creative mechanisms and puzzles to build when the game officially comes out.
I've been spending much of that time finding ways to represent logic gates, counters, memory and possibly a Turing-complete programming language... a very simple Turing-complete programming language. :) And the fact that I've used the term "Turing-complete" three times now should be a clue as to which language I will probably implement. :)
Looking forward to seeing all my LBP beta friends and plenty of new folks online on the 21st. That's only six days away!
Labels: beta, littlebigplanet, mediamolecule, programming, ps3
so, this new contest... it vibrates?
Thursday, September 04, 2008
I kicked off my participation in LittleBigChallenge 002, as usual, with something terribly contrived. Just to get the mental juices flowing, naturally. The real submission is yet to come... and will likely manifest itself in some hardcore nerdish way.
And it just figures that as soon as I upload this to flickr, I find another GTA-themed submission. I should be flogged for not looking through the other entries first.
Labels: contest, flickr, gaming, grandtheftauto, gta, littlebigchallenge, littlebigplanet, mediamolecule, ps3
did i win?
Monday, September 01, 2008
Okay, how do I start this? I know I've poked fun at my obsession with Little Big Planet. I've pre-ordered the game, submitted four entries (yes, only two good ones) to Media Molecule's LittleBigChallenge 001, and I've even been featured on the Media Molecule blog (which has been really hard not to let go to my head). So why am I still agonizing over this contest?
I think it's over. At least, Media Molecule has posted some of their favorites and started a new contest: LittleBigChallenge 002. My 8-bit entry made the top of the list, which is awesome for sure. I think I won... Maybe. Maybe I'm just thrown off by the word "Challenge" in the title of the "contest." Is it really a contest? Is it over? Did I win?
Or am I just being overly competitive? (Rhetorical. I know the answer is yes.) I suppose I always knew the contest was more for fun than anything else... and it has been fun, really. So I'll just stop whining like a baby now and thank Media Molecule for the entertaining diversion (and 4,500+ views on flickr).
:: cleansing breath ::
Okay, time to act like a grown-up again. I need to go wrap Karen's birthday presents now.
Labels: contest, flickr, littlebigchallenge, littlebigplanet, mediamolecule, ps3
a third submission
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Yeah. I think I need to stop obsessing over Little Big Planet. I can't sleep, I can't stop checking my e-mail and I'm jonesing for comments on flickr like a crack addict. I wonder how it's going to be when the game actually ships! I should go ahead and request that month off.
Anyway, I present to you submission number three:
While I was pretty happy with the previous compositions, they still had that synthesized Photoshop smell to them. You know the one. It smells vaguely of filters... (This is what happens when a developer pretends he knows how to design) So I left Photoshop completely out of the equation and instead used a nifty old Apple II paint program called Blazing Paddles and took a photograph of the screen connected to my Apple //c.
This one is "me" for sure.
Labels: apple ii, contest, flickr, gaming, littlebigchallenge, littlebigplanet, mediamolecule, ps3
littlebigchallenge 001
Monday, August 11, 2008
Everyone's favorite PS3-game-that-isn't-out-yet, Little Big Planet is having a logo design (technically, more of a "logo remixing") contest. It sounded like fun, so here are my two entries:
From the site:
In a few days / weeks, stay tuned and we'll share our (and your) favorite LBP logos to share with the rest of the LBP fanbase.
So, feel free to star all of my (Thelbane's) comments on the website and tell me how much you love them in the comments on flickr (entry 1, entry 2). Media Molecule doesn't mention any sort of prize other than rockstar-like fame, but I'm hoping for a public beta invitation or something if I make the cut.
If you don't know anything about LBP, definitely check out some of these videos.
Update: One of the nice posters has created a page that aggregates all the contest submissions.
Labels: contest, gaming, littlebigchallenge, littlebigplanet, mediamolecule, ps3
elite: pretty much the best game ever
Friday, January 12, 2007
The classic game Elite has been enjoying a bit of a renaissance in my home lately. I’ve been giving the PS3 a break since (quickly) beating (the average) first person shooter, Resistance: Fall of Man, to enjoy some good retro-gaming (plus, I’m not about to fork over sixty bucks on another game that’s just ‘meh’… get on the stick with those true next gen titles, Sony).
Anyway, I’m fortunate enough to have a full copy of Elite for the 8-bit Apple //c — box, docs, and all. Having only superficially explored this game as a teenager, I never really appreciated the size of its virtual universe or the depth of its gameplay. It is truly Grand Theft Auto: Space in shear size and open-endedness.
Elite spans 8 galaxies, has 250 planets per galaxy (that’s 2000 planets!), and fits on one side of a 5.25-inch disk. That just blows my mind. Plus, the gameplay is astonishingly well-balanced. I’ve found myself consistently challenged and have graduated from one goal or strategy to the next in a very organic way.
At any point in the game, I may pursue the path of a trader, smuggler, bounty hunter, or pirate, or some combination thereof, and must deal with the challenges that each path presents. While these aren’t new roles in the space-faring genre, Elite implements them with incredible fluidity, particularly for an 8-bit game. You’ll find yourself shifting gears based on a number of factors like ship capability, storage capacity, money, and desire to achieve the ultimate space pilot status of ‘elite,’ naturally.
So, basically, this old game still holds its own and I highly recommend you dust off an old copy and give it another go for old time’s sake… back when games made up for hardware limitations by actually being fun and unique.
Labels: apple ii, elite, gaming, ps3, resistance