inFAMOUS 2 and Uncharted 3 MP Beta

Hello all! (7 of my followers) I appreciate the time you take out of your day to see what it is that I have to say.

Anyway, It's been a while. I took a break from blogging because of finals. Now that its after finals and i'm on summer break I just took a break from everything and pretty much hung out at home and with friends.

Well let's get on to what this blog post is all about. A few days before my last day of finals I participated in a twitter contest and long story short I won a copy of inFAMOUS 2! The game arrived the night of my last final. So I celebrated by playing a new game. 

Right off the bat what I noticed was the significant upgrade in graphics from part 1 to part 2. The game looks stunning. Also one thing I discovered early into the game was the variance in powers. For example, in the first game you only got one version of the electricity bolt but with upgraded strength. In the second you get a variety of electricity bolts. Like the old school one thats an adequate strength and speed, another thats a slower but stronger bolt, and another that shot a stream of bolts like a machine gun letting you pretty much spray and pray at enemies as well as a few more. Not to mention all of the other powers (R2, X, Square, Triangle, and the ionic abilities) that have different variations that can be easily swapped without slowing down the pace of the game. Powers can be accessed by a quick in quick out menu triggered by the left button on the D Pad.

I won't go too much into the story mainly because I have a tendency to give away too much as I talk about it. The main plot of the game though is Cole going to New Marais to get new powers that will help him defeat The Beast. Powers include upgrades as well as fire or ice depending on if Cole has good karma or bad karma or triggers a good or bad karma moment.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack for the game. I saw that it was being sold on the Playstation Store so I bought it through my PS3 and I listen to it regularly to add a bit of epicness to my everyday life. Kudos go out to 

Jim Dooley

JD Mayer

Galactic

Brain and 

The Black Heart Procession

all who contributed to the soundtrack for this game.

Oh almost forgot. The game has a custom level designer. I messed with it a bit but found myself struggling a bit in creating a level. I worked my way through creating a mission like making text pop up on the screen. People say things to Cole, adding waypoints for Cole, having friendlies follow him, and enemies attack him, but I could not for my life find out how to make the level end. One of the downfalls to this level creator is that there is no tutorial in game or even in the sleeve that comes with the game. The only thing I found in the sleeve that referenced the UGC missions was this "Green exclamation marks on Cole's map show UGC Mission start locations" 

So yes a bit lacking on that part but all in all this is a fantastic game which left me feeling satisfied. I would have gladly paid retail price for it and in fact I was actually planning on doing so. I still have only beat the game on Hero and I hear that there is a different ending if you finish the game with the bad karma decision so i'll get to that as soon as I can.

One added bonus to getting this game was an early access beta code to The Uncharted 3 Multiplayer Beta. The beta launched this past week and had a bit of a bumpy start. Some people could download the beta but once they launched it they could not get online to actually play it. I was one of those people. But I just laid back and kept up with the twitter updates from Naughty Dog and Christophe Balestra to see the all clear call.

After playing the game for a short while I fell in love with the level Air Strip, the customization of characters and classes, as well as Uncharted TV that can be viewed in between matches and matchmaking. Of course the beta still has its faults and thats why its still in the closed beta stage. The players are supposed to call out issues and let the developers know so they can fix it before the game's launch.

I hope to mess about in this game a lot more and look forward to its release on November 1, 2011. Thanks for reading this brick wall of text and I hope to update this blog more frequently. Thanks again! ^_^

3D Character Rigging-Why I've Been Busy

3D Character Rigging

In case ya'll didn't know I go to school at the Art Institute of California Hollywood. My major is Game Art and Design. I'm pretty much taking classes to land a job in the game industry and help to create video games. A lot of things go into making a game. Creating the story, characters, levels, assets, etc. A lot of things from many art fields are dragged in writing, cinematography, fashion design, interior design, and the list goes on and on. 

But one of the fields of game design for which i've been busy mainly is 3D Character Rigging. Essentially drawing a skeleton for the character you've designed giving you the ability to move and animate the character's mesh.

I took a couple of screenshots showing some of it. Hopefully it gives some people an insight into what these things are.

Here We Go

So this is the character that was provided in class (since its not a character design class, we're mainly focused on rigging) Anyway the gray clay like thing is the mesh we're going to animate, the character. The blue chain of lines are the bones we've drawn in there. the shapes around the character are the curves we've set in place to drive the bones since we don't want to animate bones directly we put these curves in place.

Here is the chain of bones selected so you can get a better view of it

Since we haven't skinned this to the mesh yet when we animate the bones they move individually from the character.

Here we are moving the spine around a bit without the mesh skinned

So now we skin it (assuming we're done rigging the entire character) Select the mesh and the entire skeleton then click on the skin drop down menu and select smooth bind.

Here's the smooth bind opened. We change a few settings and hit apply.

Notice the bones changed colors

Now with the character binded we can do stuff like this!

And this!

And doing walk cycles...!?

Well this isnt the only class I have but its one of the harder ones. Wait character riggers get paid more?! Sign me up Mister Jackson!

Moms Tamales Tamale Challenge

Very Recently I took on the restaurant Moms Tamales eating challenge. The owner of the restaurant who is a good friend of mine is trying to get an eating challenge started. I asked him if I could take on it for him to see how it tested out.

The rules: eat a dozen tamales (of your choice) a half pound of rice, a half pound of beans, and a 32 oz drink of your choice. All within an hour.

How I did: At the start of the challenge I came out full throttle. Eating  6 Tamales and the rice and beans all in about 25 minutes. Right when the clock hit around the 27 minute mark I hit the dreaded WALL. I began to slow down my stomach was feeling extremely full and I felt really tired.

Once the clock hit around 45 minutes I managed to eat 3 more tamales, leaving only 3 and about half of the drink on the table. I began to work my way through 10th tamale, but immediately I was grossed out. I kept chewing and it took me 3 minutes to take just 2 bites from the tamale. I knew I had lost major time and began questioning myself on whether I would finish the challenge or not. I took a 2 minute break leaving me only 10 minutes to eat 3 tamales.

I sat back down and took a bite, my mouth felt gross. After eating so many tamales the inside of my mouth began to line with grease and oil it was hard to swallow without feeling the urge to throw up. I knew it was over. I had just about 6 minutes left but I threw in the towel.

This challenge is not for the weary or small of appetite. The tamales at this place are ridiculously delicious. So much so that they have been featured on the show Diners Drive Ins And Dives with host Guy Fiery. Here's the youtube video of their segment on the show.

Dove Chocolate is Depressing

My mom and I went to the store and bought some chocolate. She pulled out some coupons and had one for Dove Chocolate. Sure whatever, chocolate is chocolate regardless of whichever one you get.
So
Most people eat chocolate because its a comfort food. So Dove had a fantastic idea to add an inspirational quote inside each wrapper that encases every chocolate. Not a bad idea right? Except it kind of is.

Now its a very well known fact that women LOVE CHOCOLATE. And hey i love it too. So its no mystery why most of these "Inspirational Quotes" say what they say. It really let me see how much loving women aren't getting.

My mom and I worked our way through a handful of squares. About 10-15 or so. I gotta tell ya, the number one hit we got on these wrappers was "You are exactly where you are supposed to be"

The list includes the following as well:

You worked hard promise yourself a reward
You are allowed to do nothing
Be free. Be happy. Be you.
You have a great laugh!
Chocolate loves unconditionally
Enjoy the childhood joys of winter
Catch snowflakes on your tongue
Be playful with your love
Don't be afraid to love fully

These wrappers were a new insight into women. What I pretty much got from these wrappers were that women need a bit of lovin', but its kinda unfair that a chocolate wrapper has to give it to them. I guess what I take away from these is that women (just like anybody) appreciate a random compliment or positive comment. These wrappers didn't serve as much of an inspiration to me, they were mainly just funny as heck.

Signed

Luis C Mendez

Gillette Pro Glide

To stray a bit from the whole Sony topic I've decided to talk about razors. Yes, I know it's pretty lame, BUT theres a pretty darn good reason for it.

So recently I was faced with the white strip of doom signaling me to get a new blade for my razor. My sister told me she was headed to CVS and asked if I wanted to go (she bribed me with chocolate but nonetheless I went) I said yes. There's been commercials on TV about this crazy ass razor that is the smoothest shave you have ever had WITH NO TUG! So I said what the hell i'll try this revolution in facial care. Not convinced I was going to be impressed I tore open the box to use the razor once we got home.

I'm kind of embarrassed about the fact that as I finished the first stroke I literally said "HOLY SHIT!!!" out loud with a smile on my face, because of how smooth the shave was. I then began to be joyful as I shaved the rest of my face (lookin like a creep if anybody walked in... and they did) my sister walked in and was like "What happened? Is the razor good?" So I explained to her the story about how fucking awesome this razor is. Yup thats about it.

Oh and major fail on this whole trip to CVS, my sister never got me that promised chocolate *sad face*

Signed

Luis C Mendez

PSN Hack Could Cost Sony Billions

Its been about a week since the initial hack of the Playstation Network. Since then its been shut down in an attempt to stop the collection of data from the 77 million plus users. Information including Names, Addresses, Emails, Passwords, and quite possibly credit card information.

Once Playstation Network users learned of this information either directly from sony through the playstation blog or through the news (I for one saw it on nbc news) users became understandably angry. Rothken Lawfirm based in California has actually filed a lawsuit agains them which could cost sony a large amount of money. Not to mention the fact that the network being down and all of the investigation going toward it could already cost them billions. Yeah thats right BILLIONS. Ponemon Institute says that when any network is breached it on average costs $318 per customer. Doing a bit of math and taking some variables into consideration Ponemon stated that it could look like a 24 billion dollar price tag.

Things aren't looking good for Sony. Just as they were gaining some stride with their exclusive releases, great games and projects on the way including NGP, Experia Play, Socom 4, Infamous 2, and more they have a major setback that could result in layoffs.

I know i've been posting strictly about this whole scandal but thats because this is very important to me, being a Game Art and Design student working for Sony would have been a dream come true. Now its looking like it might be harder to get a job within the next year (my expected grad day is in June of next year)

Sources: GameInformer.com and NBC News

Signed

Luis C Mendez

Playstation Network Update 4/26/11

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-netwtork-and-qriocity/

The previous link is to the Playstation Blog for their most recent update on the status of their investigation of the PSN.

Sony suspects that information such as passwords, emails, addresses, and quite possibly credit card information was obtained. For PSN users it is suggested that you report a fraud to your credit bureau and change your sign in password (or passwords if you use it for more than one thing)

The link provdes all necessary information.
Signed
Luis C Mendez