June 29, 2004 at 9:49 am · Posted by karl
Part of me still wants to care about video games.
It’s been a long time since I felt truly immersed in a game, so much so that I felt compelled to finish it (I think Grim Fandango from LucasArts was the last thing that really grabbed me, and that was in ‘98).
I went through an all-too-brief period of orgasmic excitement a few years ago when massively-multiplayer online offerings such as EverQuest were announced, because the potential for a new paradigm of gaming, of a virtual existence, really, was so intoxicating. I guess it still is, but as we’ve seen, every technological step forward seems to devolve into a new, boring way to smash skeletons or club bears to death. In fairness, the relatively recent game Second Life is doing a lot of things right in their implementation of the online virtual world, even if it’s got a lot of bugs to work out.
I stumbled across this article yesterday, which is an essay by Harvey Smith, a game developer whose credits include Deus Ex, among other notable titles. It’s called The Future of Game Design, and in it, he addresses some interesting problems with today’s games and how they can be overcome to deliver richer simulations and allow for greater experimentation and expression on the part of the player, resulting in much less linear gameplay.
It’s an interesting read, and not overly technical, so if you’re at all passionate (or used to be) about the future of gaming or vitual reality, check it out.
June 27, 2004 at 10:26 am · Posted by karl
There’s been a flurry of activity lately at ComingUpForAir, Matthew Forsythe’s always-enjoyable weblog, in the form of almost daily illustration posts. Evidently, something in the Korean air is stirring within him a Cambrian Explosion of artistic evolution (though the use of the word ‘artistic’ will undoubtedy launch the two of us into a thoughtful re-examination of the term the next time he’s home).
Anyway, I felt compelled to post a couple of Matt’s pics here, since they can’t currently be found anywhere on his site. The first is an illustration he did for my birthday, appropriately titled boobies:
…and some of you may recognize this one as the former header of Matt’s weblog. It’s my favourite thing he’s done, to date, and I didn’t even know it was his until yesterday. Anna Karenina:
Go and see more of Matt’s stuff at ComingUpForAir and bug him to update his gallery…
June 18, 2004 at 2:04 am · Posted by kalman
New art is here, Huzzah! Well, new to you anyway, I’m still sitting on a massive mountain of work I can’t post due to NDA’s, some of it over 6 months old, but here’s what I was able to post:
Cover art to Vampi Vicious Circle #3 produced for the fine people at Anarchy Studios, in the comics section. This is a big thing for me as it is my first piece of comic cover art (weeell… excluding that Caliber thing we don’t talk about…) and definitely my first outing as a cover artist, a longtime aspiration of mine.
Five new pieces in the D&D section. First up are a couple’a old chestnuts I dug up, one by special fan request! (This means you Valmontte) The other three are from the just released Eberron book from Wizards of the Coast. Eberron, for the uninitiated is the phat new campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons.
And finally, a postcard illustration I did to promote a film currently in development called RED at the Cannes film festival (completely unrelated to the Warren Ellis comic, you nerds…) that’s in Miscellany.
Enjoy!
June 17, 2004 at 4:29 pm · Posted by kalman
After 13 years, we have a brand new single from my favorite rock band ever: The Pixies.
Like many true Pixies fans, I absolutely hated them the first time I heard them, back when I was a wee lad of 15. This initial reaction, and the resultant exultant turnaround, seems to be a common experience among their truest Pixies appreciators.
I was lucky enough to catch their last ever tour (as headliners) before they broke up, but this was a mixed blessing, as it was in support of the highly suspect ‘Trompe le Monde’. And then it was all over.
Sure, a few good Frank Black and Breeders albums followed, with some truly great, inspired moments in them to be sure. But it wasn’t quite the same. And then the Breeders devolved into the Amps, and Frank hooked up with those nasty, nasty Catholics. And then, it was all really over.
Or so we all thought.
Fast forward to summer of 2003, rumours buzzing that the Pixies have been informaly jamming together, then, a tour announced, huzzah! After some drama, they even added a Toronto date, and after some more drama, I scored me some tix, oh yes.
And this was enough, really. More than I’d ever dreamed, truly. But now we have a brand spanking new song?! Would the magic be back after all this time? The fantastic recording of their Minneapolis concert certainly suggests so. Or would ‘Bam thwok’ simply be a sad, grasping, coulda woulda shoulda?
So I made with the clicky and… it’s good. After a few more listens… it’s great! The opening initially had me doubting, but damn, it butters my toast. It’s like Trompe le Monde, the Amps, the Catholics never happened, and they’re just picking up from the last good bit, and sweeping on forward, because in light of everything else, it’s probably just the beginning.
It’s suddenly evident why none of the spin-off acts were quite the same, obvious in the driving stacatto drumline, and that wonderful surf-fusion guitar wail; exultant and melancholic at the same time. The Pixies is a magical sum, but a sum of all four parts, and everyone does their bit here, Frank-Francis-Charlie, Kim, Joey, and David. You need them all to get Pixies, no matter who’s stepping up to the mic.
And on ‘Bam Thwok’ it’s Kim, for the first time since ‘Gigantic’. Apparently, if the catty music press is to be believed, who should get to sing was the key schism that split the band. Looks sorted now, doesn’t it?
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