Custom MGS shoes

While Icrontic was at E3 this past June, I was taking photos for the Shoes of E3 article. As I was photographing a particular pair of pink polka-dot heels, the girl’s boyfriend mentioned that he had custom-painted a pair of Castle Crashers-themed heels. His name is Jacob Patterson, and I recently had a chance to interview him about video game-themed shoes.

Jacob is an art history student at UCLA. I asked him how an art history major gets into nitty-gritty design work. He let me in on a dark little secret: Since it was so competitive, he felt that there was no way to get into UCLA design school. “I chose art history because nobody wants to do it,” he chuckled.

But why choose shoes as his canvas instead of traditional medium?

Jacob answers, “In high school everyone was obsessed with shoes, so I started looking into Hypebeast and Customsnkr.” He found a lot of things he wanted to try out, but could never find any explanation of how the shoes were done, or detailed step-by-step instructions.

Another obstacle was the expense of the medium. Shoes can be $100 a pair, after all. It’s not exactly easy for a high school kid, on high school income, to get into something like this. After some false starts, however, he made a video documenting the process. “I put it on YouTube,” he explains, “and got featured for ‘Best Christmas present ever’.”

That’s when the floodgates opened. (more…)

Lynx couldn't wipe that goofy grin off his face

Primesuspect told me before we got out to E3 that we had an interview with Valve Software set for Wednesday.  As a huge fan of Valve, I was naturally excited.  What that sneaky little editor-in-chief failed to tell me was exactly whom the interview was with.

On June 3rd, we got to interview Valve’s VP of Marketing, Doug Lombardi.

We had much to talk about, as the Icrontic community is deeply involved with Valve games.  The first topic was focused on Valve’s most recent announcement, Left 4 Dead 2. We had some hands-on time with the game prior to our interview.  While fun and definitely a worthy addition to my game library, we couldn’t help but wonder why this was being called a sequel.

(more…)

The Pandemic elevators. They're world famous.

In the middle of the chaos of E3, Brian and I were invited out to Pandemic studios on the West side of LA. It was a nice break from the frantic action of the Expo to relax and enjoy a one hour commute in standstill freeway traffic amongst honking motorists. Living the dream.

At Pandemic I tried my hardest to not act like a child in a candy store… and failed. It was my first time ever setting  foot in an actual game studio, so I couldn’t help it. The Pandemic gas mask logo was plastered everywhere, there were shelves of unique merch and promo material for Star Wars Battlefront, Mercenaries, and their other titles, and they had massive TVs and developer consoles all over. I just giggled to myself and wore a huge goofy grin. If my life was played on Games for Windows Live, I would have seen the message ‘Achievement unlocked!’ and it would have been worth 1,000g.

We got to sit down with the majority of the key leadership on The Saboteur in a casual round table discussion format. With us was Trey Watkins, the director of The Saboteur, art director Christopher Hunt, and lead programmer Fidde Persson. We were able to ask them anything about the game (though they couldn’t answer all of our questions due to PR restrictions), and it was immediately apparent to me that this is a team that is very passionate about their project.  They’re excited about what they have achieved so far, and can’t wait to let the public see more of the game. (more…)

It was the biggest surprise of E3 for me.

Disney is Publishing this?

The Disney Interactive booth was not one that I eagerly made tracks to.  Sure, I’m a huge Disney fan, but I can’t say I can muster much excitement for a DS game focused on the hilarious antics of the Jonas Brothers.  I didn’t even set foot in their booth until the final day of E3, and that was to talk to PR, not play games.  Upon my exit, however, I stumbled upon an absolute gem.

What I saw as I looked upon a throng of gamers with controllers in hand was a racing game.  It was obvious to me rather quickly that it was an arcade racer, with the cars wildly powersliding through tight corners laid out on the inside of an airport terminal.  The visuals were compelling and very sharp.  Light birthed from the setting sun was reflecting off the pavement, objects were blurring past the car as it screamed forward, and the fireball coming from the crashing plane was beau–HOLY CRAP THE PLANE IS CRASHING IN FRONT OF ME I’M GOING TO HIT IT.

(more…)

We talk about our first day of E3, and the Ubisoft press conference.

I got to see an early demo of Playlogic’s Fairytale Fights at E3, and what they had to show me so far was impressive. The basic premise is that the protagonist is a washed-up fairytale character (the only two they showed were Riding Hood and Snow White, but they promised two more playable characters by release, and potentially more through DLC) who must become a hero in fairytale land in order to regain her reputation.

The world is made of books and paper

This game is full of bright colors and dark humor. The world itself is made of books, and the old fairytales that we all know from childhood have been twisted and confused. One of the first missions involves hacking one’s way through a community of lumberjacks to take back what they stole from the friendly town. Every lumberjack must die to accomplish this mission, and they will die in very gruesome ways.
(more…)

There is a lot going on at E3, and there is no way anyone could hear about all of it. Between the announcements of a new L4D, three new Mario games, Metroid: Other M, and Final Fantasy XIV, it’s easy to miss the features from the smaller publishers. I made it a point to visit these publishers and developers and I’d like to tell you about a couple of those games.

Divinity II

Divinity II

The first is Divinity II from dtp entertainment AG. You may remember my review of Divine Divinity was less than stellar, perhaps even mocking. This sequel, however, looks amazing.

The isometric birds-eye view of Divine Divinity has been changed to the now-standard over-the-shoulder view. The control scheme seems to have been revamped, and the graphics are on par with its modern counterparts. Lastly, the character can’t turn into a cat, unfortunately, but this has been replaced with the ability to turn into a dragon, which has become this game’s major gimmick.

The player will need to switch between dragon and human modes depending on the environment, enemies or the problem to be solved. As before, the game features a branching storyline with numerous decisions that can be morally grey. What I saw was pre-beta, so I wasn’t able to learn everything about it, but I’m certainly looking forward to getting my hands on the finished product.

(more…)

Later this month, Bethesda will release Point Lookout, a new DLC expansion for Fallout 3. Players can take a ferry to a new area of the wasteland, a decimated swamp filled with decrepit buildings and long abandoned people. Point Lookout’s wasteland area will be about 1/6th that of the original Capital wasteland, and will include 20-30 new locations. A dark, swampy motif replaces the dry sandy waste which we are all used to, and everything will seem darker, and more foreboding.

Point Lookout is populated by three new human enemy types, including the backwater hick version of the typical raiders. Familiar monsters will get a make-over to fit them into the new setting, such as the swamp ghouls, a grey and goopy version of the feral ghouls we know and love.

The quests in the expansion are intended for characters at levels 15-20, and will feature lots of scripted events, which are designed to give the adventures a survival-horror feel. Expect lots of crumbling floors, flickering lights, odd noises in the distance, and enemies that sneak up behind you.

Look for Point Lookout to hit the digital shelves on June 23.

Today at E3, we got to play an entire campaign in Left 4 Dead 2, the sequel to Valve’s recent new hit Left 4 Dead.

“A sequel?” you ask. “A mere six months after Left 4 Dead? What happened to Valve time?” you may wonder. And you wouldn’t be remiss. These were very popular questions in the Valve press lounge.

We asked Valve’s Doug Lombardi about the exceptionally short development time and why they even considered a sequel to a game that essentially just came out.

As it turns out, many of Valve’s developers were so into Left 4 Dead that when the whiteboards went up, the L4D2 board filled up with so many ideas that the internal enthusiasm for the project was evident; this game had to get made… now.

The short development time is partly thanks to procedural nature of the AI Director system. It allowed Valve to essentially focus on content rather than tech, and–let’s be fair–there’s not much story to worry about. The benefits of this particular system, unique to this game, all point to one thing–very short development time.

There were a few engine tweaks, such as the physics. The ragdoll and physics systems had to be tweaked to accomodate new melee weapons, such as a hatchet and a frying pan. The damage system had to be enhanced to compensate for hitting zombies with hatchets, for example.

I asked if any of the development refinements made in Left 4 Dead 2 would make their way into any other Valve games, and perhaps even contribute to streamlining the development times. Of course, we made copious mention of Valve Time, and Mr. Lombardi made no promises.

(more…)

We’re entirely serious business. We swear.

He didn't look up their skirts. Good boy.

Not a Power Glove

Not being a fan of the NES Power Glove, I really wasn’t too excited when I saw the Peregrine booth here at E3. At first glance I didn’t think much of it, but after listening to them explain the product, I was pretty impressed. The Peregrine Glove is a gaming glove with proprietary TouchPoint technology. Each finger on the glove has programmable touch points that allows you to program them to any game or any windows program. The glove also offers you over 30 programmable touch points as well as customizable faceplates. The glove is form-fitting, washable, and offers fast response times. Peregrine functions with standard keyboard drivers on all operating systems. Gamers can plug the glove in and start playing immediately, or use the software for further customization.

The Peregrine is scheduled for release in fall 2009. Pricing has not been announced. When we can get our hands in one, we’ll publish a full review.

Rob and CB play The Beatles with a couple of random pubs

Rock Band is a tradition at ICHQ, starting with a legendary midnight run during IC Oktoberfest, and carrying on through every event since. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for us to have an interest in MTV Games’ new title The Beatles: Rock Band. We scheduled a spot in the first showfloor demonstration of the game at noon on the opening day of E3.

Due to a timing overlap of the show opening at the same time as our appointment, we hoofed it across the convention center at opening to the MTV Games booth, to discover a stage replica of the Beatles’ Abbey Road Studio. This was our first sign that the development team spent a lot of effort in capturing the history of the band to incorporate into The Beatles: Rock Band.

An eager crowd awaits our demo of The Beatles: Rock Band.

(more…)