Some Hyrule for your home.
Court Your Pixel Paramour With Video Game Valentine’s Day Cards
My friend Kati aka PaperRockScisorz has been flexing her bitchin’ geekcraft muscles and came up some adorably clever Valentine’s Day cards for download on Etsy. For $3, she’ll send you the files for these adorable cards, which you can then print out for your pixel paramour. $3! Lemme tell ya folks, that is a cheap price for the security of knowing you have a second option should you forget to hit the Hallmark next Monday. In fact, just skip it, and buy these while you still get credit for being thoughtful.
[Etsy]
Greetings From E3!
(Note: As I’ve spent the past week on two bananas a day and 4 hours of sleep a night, this blog entry has been edited and re-edited for clarity.)
What’s up Gamer Grrlz fans? Ready to experience E3 through the beady little hazel eyes of Badfish? Of course you are.
My flight was super early on Sunday morning, the ungodly sort of hour that makes you question your very existence. Still, I had a feeling I’d probably see some other tech industry types making their way down to E3 on the plane, maybe someone worth talking to, even. Would you believe I was right? Almost immediately I spotted a blue spikey haired individual- two, in fact. One, a writer for IGN, and the second, the PERLER BEAD SPRITE SONIC THE HEDGEHOG necklace he was wearing! Yes, the dude was wearing a Perler bead sprite Sonic around his neck. While trying to work up the courage to talk to him, I noticed another guy that looked…well….all tech-y and junk, so I asked if he was headed to E3. Turns out he was senior editor for IGN, Ryan Geddes. Small world, that Bellevue/Redmond/Seattle area, innit?
Finding my fellow writers at the airport, Rhody Tobin, (my editor) Christian Ponte, and Jason Leavey, was fairly easy and by nightfall all of us, save Pete, were checked into our hotel. Christian acts like it’s a dump, but it actually has a lot of charm.
Not a lot went on Sunday night; the Kotaku party was too packed to attend and I needed a nap. I tried to stand in line for the Playstation Blog event on Sunday, but it was full of plebians who had spent the day tailgating the front doors; there was absolutely no way I was getting in. Oh well. I had media-only events to attend.
Yesterday was probably the best showing of E3, period—the Nintendo press conference. I know a lot of people will piss and moan about that assessment, but frankly, no other company was able to present such an exciting and varied line up. I can’t even begin to list all the 3DS games that we found out about. And they opened up with the trailer and official name for the Legend of Zelda Wii game (now known as Skyward Swords) for fuck’s sake. We found out some amazing new information on the 3DS, including one detail that made the entire room gasp. The 3DS will have two cameras on the back for, get this, 3D picture taking! My fellow writer Pete already tried it out and says you can even adjust the depth perception of the 3D. Oh yeah, did I mention you can adjust the level of 3D in general? Satoru Iwata had already mentioned that the 3DS would have an off switch for it’s third dimension, but didn’t say that it would actually be adjustable. Very good move on their part, as well as making sure that the 3DS wouldn’t require those dorky glasses.
I sat down yesterday for a private demo with High Voltage games for an upcoming game called The Grinder. While I myself didn’t play, I watched as my fellow writer Rhody went head to head with art director Matt Corso and another writer. While the game is still in it’s early stages and doesn’t have a publisher yet, I was fond of the character design I saw on the posters and onscreen. I can’t show you what I saw (not yet, anyway, I have to DL materials from the press site and the hotel wireless blows) but it was very gritty and raw. The game features a cast of four characters, Hector, AJ, Miko, and Doc Sheriff and has a very “Left 4 Dead” feel, something I’m told they were going for. While watching the four player co-op, I was reminded very much of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance in terms of their onscreen position, somewhat of a 2.5D isometric view. I commented on this much to the delight of Corso, who said that was what they were going for. Score, Badfish.
The Konami booth tour was practically a waste, I might as well have wandered around there on my own. The senior public relations manager Brandon Cox was well informed and accommodating, but between the noise from Def Jam Rapstar and Glee Karaoke Revolution and DanceMasters, I couldn’t hear a thing. It was nice to see Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, as briefly as I did, though. I also took a gander at the new Dance Dance Revolution, which now incorporates the Wii remote and nunchuk into the routines. Pete and I have big plans for drawing a crowd during DanceMasters.
After that was Warner Bros., where I watched a Mortal Kombat screening (awesome) and F.3.A.R. (crazy awesome) in private screenings, as well as played a Super Scribblenauts demo. Stupidly enough, I didn’t get the Mortal Kombat T-shirts they were giving away ‘cause I didn’t realize that the reason a piece of clothing was draped across my seat was so I would take it with me. Dumb. I did get a F.E.A.R. 3 water bottle though:
Today I had a private screening of Portal 2 at the Valve meeting room with my co-writer Pete, and got an awesome T, as well as some iPhone skins:
Valve took the time at E3 to announce that Portal 2 will be coming to PS3, so you Sony fans won’t have to miss out.
I also met with Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends (absorbed as much as I could but honestly, if you don’t play the game you would’t have gotten much out of the information, either), and….
wait for it
Bethesda! That’s right folks, I finally got my hands on Fallout: New Vegas! I got in a good half hour or so and I must say, it was heavenly. The Bethesda booth could only be toured by appointment, and it showed. They definitely had the plushest waiting area and refreshments I’d seen yet. I also got the nicest bit of swag so far from them, a well made sweatshirt that I probably won’t stop wearing until they cut it off me:
I took in a screening of Rage, the new intellectual property from Doom makers iD which, if I’m honest, borrows heavily from brother-in-publishing Fallout 3. Didn’t matter, I only had eyes for Fallout: New Vegas anyway.
I also got a chance to play the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Swords demo today (click here to read my first impressions from the trailer, as well as some information on the new weapons and controls) and had a pleasant chat with the lovely lady showing me the game. She told me I was the best at the game she’d seen so far. Duh. They had a shirt too:
Tonight we were supposed to go to a party, but meh, we all need time to rest and write. Tomorrow I’m on swag duty and I have a ton of pictures to take and games to sample. Stay tuned!
