People often ask me via e-mail which console they should purchase, and it's not that difficult to create a basic framework from which to determine this. There are various breakdowns by genre, places where the consoles overlap, but if anywhere in my exhaustive interview you refer to a PC heritage or a desire to play games online, that's like the page in the Choose Your Own Adventure book where you turn right to the end. You need an Xbox.
I said something along these lines when Live first hit last November, and as is always the case when I make definitive statements which accurately reflect reality but do not take care to massage people's individual biases, I must contend with some self-appointed "balance" arbitrator who claims that whatever I said is not true and that all consoles are equal in some fundamental way. While it can be said that there are things to recommend each machine, these devices are absolutely not equivalents, and it is pure fiction to maintain that they are. Try to play a game from Square Enix on the Xbox or get your Nintendo games anywhere but the Cube. These aren't bizarre accidents of fate that will, like an eclipse, pass to reveal some orderly distribution of these things. They are manifestations of tactical moves on the part of each of these companies. Online was the only thing that Microsoft could accomplish to a greater degree than any of their competitors, and they have spent more money than you or I will ever see in our lifetimes insuring that their solution for networked play is the jewel of this console generation. If you don't believe me, just go send a friend a voice message when you add him to your list on the Playstation 2. Oh, that's right - no universal list, no voice messages, no built-in panel for the management of contacts. I forgot. How about sending him a request to play a game while he is playing any other game on the service, let them pop the disc out, put in the other one and automatically join your shit on the Cube? Oh right! Online play on the cube, save for one or two titles, doesn't exist. There's no service framework, and no service framework will ever materialize for the system. The Xbox has its own things to answer for when it comes to the support of Japanese developers, who hold the keys to the console kingdom. But where online is concerned, you literally cannot fuck with these.
We busted the machine's balls initially, and rightfully so - the size of controllers notwithstanding, their launch was not really something to be proud of. That's not to say that there was not value to be found, but it was less like a bag of Skittles in terms of uniform flavor and more like the single packet of heroin in a drug courier's stool. They wanted to give the impression that they were big boys too, and could sit at the big person's table. This year, they earned that spot. Just like the Nintendo booth, it's going to take a couple days to get all the way through it so bear with me. Some of the games I'm most excited about, like Full Spectrum Warrior, Full Spectrum Warrior, and Full Spectrum Motherfucking Warrior will be out before I finish our trip through their booth. Thief 3 already hit, and has thus far seen reviews that would garner the highest Warner Brothers royalty calculation. I'll be catching up on some mail today, but I'll be putting up stuff throughout the afternoon, just like Wednesday's inexplicable info deluge.
(CW)TB out.
he focused it to sharpness
How big will they be?
The prints will probably be in the neighborhood of 16x24.
How many will you make?
Right now I'm thinking 500 to 1000
How much are these fuckers going to cost?
I'm not exactly sure yet but I'd guess between $50 and $75
Will you make more when they run out?
No. Let me break down exactly what a limited edition print is. I'm an idiot for not explaining this in my last post.
Limited-edition prints are very high quality reproductions of original paintings or drawings, produced in strictly limited quantities by specialty printing firms under contract to a fine arts publisher. The edition is printed, with input and final approval by the artist, on high quality acid-free archival paper. Each individual print is hand-signed and numbered by the artist. The publisher of a limited-edition supplies a Certificate of Authenticity with each print, certifying the number of prints in the edition and confirming that the plates and negatives used in printing the edition have been destroyed and no more prints will ever be produced, thus making the edition limited. An edition of 500 prints would be considered relatively small; an edition of 1,500, large. When all prints in a limited edition are sold, continuing demand usually causes the print value to appreciate - often substantially.
Essentially what we'd be making here are highly collectible (perhaps eventually valuable) pieces of Penny Arcade art. These are certainly not going to be for everyone. I promise that we'll keep making posters with all the characters you want. But for some people, owning a limited edition print could be a real treat. I know I personally have a couple from artists whose work I appreciate.
When can I get one?
I plan on having two prints available for unveiling by the San Diego comic con in July. After the con they should be available via the online store.
If I don't get one I'll come to your fucking house and kill you while you sleep.
This isn't really a question, but it popped up enough that I felt like I should comment on it. Judging by the incredible response I got it seems to me like a line of Penny Arcade limited edition prints is in order. I promise that we will have multiple designs with various characters and assuming they continue to be popular, I'd like to see us release a few new ones each year. I think they would make really nice collectibles.
The console room is going to be hot, with more than thirty 32" televisions and just as many consoles. We'll have tons of free games running both days as well as some great organized tournaments. One of the tournaments we've just added is actually for Rainbow Six:Black Arrow which I know a lot of you are looking forward to.
We've also added some new special guests:
Andre Vrignaud - Microsoft
Panels: Online Gaming
Andre Vrignaud works at Microsoft as the Director of Platform Strategy for Xbox Live where he thinks deep, fluffy thoughts about the future of online gaming for a living. Previous to Microsoft he worked at Intel on their PC gaming strategy, and previous to that he worked at the Total Entertainment Network (TEN) where he learned the hard way that building an online gaming network from scratch is *really* hard and expensive (hence the full circle to Microsoft today).
Shekhar Dhupelia - Studio Gigante
Panels: Online Gaming, Pitch Your Game Idea!
Shekhar Dhupelia's first foray into the games industry took the form of two years working with the SCE-RT group of Sony (SCEA) in San Diego, developing the online software and server infrastructure that power SOCOM: US Navy Seals, Frequency, Twisted Metal Black Online, NFL Gameday, and many other Playstation2 titles to this day. He followed this with a brief stint working on Microsoft's NBA Inside Drive 2004 XBox Live implementation. Most recently with Midway Games, he just finished up NBA Ballers for both PS2 and Xbox. Shekhar has previously written for the Game Programming Gems series, and has spoken at the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) on online game design. Shekhar is now developing the Xbox Live features for an unannounced Xbox Live title.
Oh, and the mother fucking Red Vs. Blue guys!
I also wanted to remind everyone that if you want to be eligble for the Omegathon you need to pre-register. Check out the rules for more details.
We're talking with a lot of different companies about getting some of the E3 demos you might have read about available for play at PAX. I should be able to announce some of those titles pretty soon. It's safe to say that you'll be able to play some awesome new shit at PAX.
Pre-registering really helps us out a lot. Already based on the response we've gone ahead and expanded the tabletop room and secured some extra space for the LAN section. If you're planning on attending PAX we'd really appreciate it if you sign up now. You get a little discount on admission and it really helps us on the planning side of things.
(CW)TB
Child's Play 2004 will be even bigger than last year's effort without a doubt. Last year you asked us if there was anyway you could donate to your local Children's Hospital and that's something we're focusing on for our 2004 Child's Play. We're going to try and get Amazon to actually create a special wish list for us this year that will help streamline the process of donating toys to the Hospital of your choice. Ideally we would like to see a simple drop down list so you can quickly select one of the 20 Children's Hospitals in North America and have your toy shipped off with just a few clicks. First we need to contact each of the Hospitals and make sure they have the ability to deal with the influx of toys. I'm not exaggerating when I say just dealing with the tidal wave of toys is a job in and of itself. Just take a look at the pictures from last year and you can see that it took about twenty volunteers and a semi truck just to get the toys to the Hospital. Then they had to store them in the pool room because it was the only space in the hospital big enough. So we'll be contacting each of the 20 Hospitals soon and explaining what Child's Play is and then get them on board for this year. Once that's done the hard part will be to talk Amazon into constructing a special Child's Play wish list for us that has all the extra features we'll need this year.
Our plan is to kick off Child's Play 2004 at PAX on August 28th. The Seattle Children's Hospital will have a space where you can read about how your donations were used last year and check out some pictures. We'll also be opening up the online wish list at that point so you can start donating for Christmas 2004. If you'd like to bring a new un-opened toy or videogame to PAX with you that would also be much appreciated.
I'll snap some pictures during the telethon on June 12th and post them when we get back. If you haven't looked at the Child's Play site in a while it's worth checking out again. We were all a part of something really special last year and you should all be proud of yourselves. We talked to the Seattle Children's Hospital a few weeks ago and a lot of kids are continuing to benefit every day from the donations you guys made last year. I'm excited to see just what we can do for all the Children's' Hospitals in 2004.
I said that Microsoft had a very solid booth this year, solid not only because it contained a sturdy roster of cross-platform, exclusive, and online titles but also because it was itself a sort of fortress. If one of the other booths has been able to rally the adjacent exhibits, somehow leading them in an assault on the Microsoft Complex, my money would probably be on MS - aside from an easily defensible ramp and one other entrance, emerald light and high white barricades surround it. The plasma screen televisions fitted into the facing wall could even be used to broadcast dark messages, weaponized imagery that might sap the fighting spirit of their assailants.
We were invited to the Bungie Fan Fest, though there are certainly people whose enthusiasm for Bungie has been more pure or of longer duration, but we appreciated it very much. The Red Vs Blue guys were also there, for reasons which are probably obvious, and they made a custom movie expressly for the event which was well received. The Fan Fest itself took place in the Microsoft booth after the hall had closed. I'd never really been in the hall while the show was dormant, they have an assortment of gruff men who take a grim view of that kind of thing, but with the lights low portions of castles and evil creatures frozen in their moment of triumph could be seen. The attendees essentially had the run of the booth, and in the absence of crushing crowds you could actually get some gaming underway. I know I've said it before, but I can't stress it enough - usually, playing games at E3 is like trying to read a book while a poltergeist destroys your apartment. Comprehension suffers.
I know that people would probably like to know about Halo 2 multiplayer, but even having played several rounds there are things I don't know - information they're reserving for release. So, things I do know: if the host drops, another player is automatically chosen to be the host and the game continues. The needler, always my weapon of choice, has been nudged up in terms of damage - to see an enemy rocked by cascades of exploding shards from dual needlers is pretty spectacular. Of course, that's just one manifestation of dual wielding - feel free to use a needler and a submachine gun, two subs, whatever - just be aware that you can't throw grenades in that state. How would you, really. You can customize your model to a greater degree, including decals. By training the Covenant energy sword on an opponent for a few seconds, you can kill with one strike - first you have to get it, though, and as you can imagine it's something of a hot commodity. If an asshole is firing on you and yours from a mounted heavy machinegun, you can pulverize his ledge with a rocket destroying him and his fancy gun. Like Battle Armor He-Man, vehicles can now take progressive damage - and eventually, even explode. The ghost, which now has a special super boost fasty mode, will actually shudder before exploding in a manner which says "Get The Fuck Away." Speaking of vehicles, you can absolutely kick somebody out of one and take it. It probably goes without saying that you can play as the Covenant, now. If you'd like to see these things in action, buy all means - avail yourselves of the videos over at TeamXbox.
Those are all facts, and it's important to have them, but speaking qualitatively this is the actual Halo and the Halo you have now doesn't even belong on the same continuum.
They have made it clear that they will be using online play in ways that other Live titles don't, ways that will better emulate the camaraderie of Clan play. We know that features have recently been added to Live to accommodate some of this: teams can be formed that exist between multiple game sessions, tournament and ladder functionality exists in-game, and even player-made logos or decals can be created and applied to models if the developer chooses to expose that feature. Every time I have brought these things up, in fact, any time I suggest anything at all, I hear, "No, it's better than that. Better. No, better."
It didn't sound like some vague concept, vast, undefined and therefore able to contain the set of all things. It sounded like they already knew and weren't telling anybody.
(CW)TB
(CW)TB
