The Code Games News Report 08.25.07
Posted by Shawn Struck on 08.25.2007
Installing BioShock Bio-SUCKS, 8 Times The Super Mario Craziness on YouTube, tips for starting out in a video game career, possibly the first authorized cover of a Squaresoft performance in the US, and more in this week's The Code.
Thank Games It's Friday, 411Maniacs and Struckoholics. 411 Mania Games is, of course, your go-to gaming source for the sharpest previews, the thought-provoking debates, the well-written columns, and the latest gaming news. Monday through Thursday, columns on the major news in review and the movers and shakers for your favorite video game platforms.
And today, take a walk with me through the week in video games-- a tour of a different sort. A walk with the weird, the obscure, the geeky, the freaky, the polemical and the profane.
Ya take the good, ya take the bad, ya take them both, and there you have ... The Code.
PC version of BioShock's bundled DRM Bio-Sucks
Func-Auton's David Heyworth writes about BioShock:
"... the PC version of the game is packaged with SecuROM copy protection, a piece of third party anti-copying software that phones home and prevents installation on more than 2 PCs.
The PC demo of BioShock causes AVG to go nuts at it for containing trojans. It wouldn't install or load on a winXP partition until AVG antivirus was completely uninstalled. *Presumably* this is due to SecuROM, which also demands that other perfectly legit processes stopped: Link. "
BoingBoing weighs in with "The response on the 2K forums has been a pretty uniform "Yarr!": Link." and adds:
Worse yet, game maker 2K is telling people to call Securom, and Securom is telling people to call 2K. Steam is affected as well. You can only install the game on 2 PC's, period. (Confirmed by steam employee.) So, if you use your steam account on 3 PC's, you'll only get to play on 2. You're required to right click the game in the steam menu and choose 'delete local content' before you can transfer the game to another PC. If you delete the game without following this procedure, you may end up in the same ordeal as retail buyers.
Details for the steam issue can be found here: Link.
Los Disneys: Mickey Mouse Meets Smith and Wesson
Los Disneys, the classic violent, funny video game about post-apocalyptic themepark battles, has just released its long-awaited version 2.0.
The year is 2015. Steeped in national debt, the United States reluctantly allows the Walt Disney Company to purchase the entire peninsula of Florida in the largest geographic acquisition since the Louisiana Purchase. Under its new president, formerly-ousted CEO Michael Eisner, the newly-sovereign state is renamed Los Disneys.
Your job is to infiltrate the Magic Kingdom, blasting your way through animatronic pirates, holographic ghosts, tourists, security guards and even Mickey himself in an attempt to seek and destroy the frozen head of Walt Disney. However, doing so inadvertently triggers Eisner's doomsday device... unless you can stop it.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters - new nerd movie
New in US theaters this week: "The King of Kong," a geekumentary about two Donkey Kong masters trying to set a world record, and the little-understood world in which competitive arcade game true fans try to avoid "being chumpatized." Here's IMDB, Here's a review at Cinematical, The NYT's Brad Stone raves about it here, here's a piece in the NY Sun.
GossipFilter: Supposedly, because studio lawyers believed the first half alone to be too close to "King Kong." , they made him add the dorky subtitle.
This Week's "All You Tube, All The Time":
Eight Videos of The Most Insane Super Mario World Hack Ever.
Under the direction of the designer (one "daigam," whose real Japanese name I don't know) Mario becomes sort of a cross between Buster Keaton and Mr. Magoo, blithely making razor-thin escapes through impossible deathtraps. The videos keep getting longer and more self-aware; even the very first ones have a topper gag like reuniting Mario with Yoshi after the exit... full of hilariously impressive bits such as that, where you can almost see daigam's wink at the viewer as Mario dodges bullets, hitches rides on enemies, and bounces around the levels like a pinball.
These videos are more than just technically impressive feats to wow videogame geeks. They're there to remind anyone, whether or not they've played a Mario game or even know what SNES stands for, of the joys of well-executed, impeccably timed physical comedy. The best part? Anyone who is familiar with Mario games knows from the introductory map screens that he's only on world 3--there's still as many as 5 worlds of this stuff to go, and I can't wait to see how inventive it can get before the end.
And each video just keeps getting better, and better. My favorite one is the one where it looks like Mario is practically SLEEPWAKING or stumbling his way through through a boss battle, propelled by the forces of the stage like a leaf in a roaring rapid.
Without further ado... Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Video 7
and last but not least, Video 8!
Top Ten Tips For Starting Out In The Video Game Industry... Plus Five
Jeff Ward, former Bethesda staffer wrote a Top Ten Tips for those looking to get a career in the video game industry out of high school and college. But after he wrote that, he says "...I actually thought of a whole bunch of others that I wish I had known just coming out of college and looking for a game job (or when I was looking after a year as a government contractor). I thought about putting these tips in, but they were really for a completely different audience (namely, me 3 years ago) and partially politically charged. So, I left them out, made the article advice more focused and generic, and decided when the article came out I'd post the other tips to my blog. They make better blog fodder anyway."
Here's some of the tips he shared, won from "... personal experience and a few years of misery in the game industry..."
Know your development style, and know the company's as well. Before you commit to working for a company, know how they work. If you're a stickler for process (like myself) make sure you know whether the company you're about to work for is as well, or if they're willing to adjust to become so. If you're more the "get things done" type, besides being doomed in the long run, you shouldn't go to work a place advertising that they're full agile, full XP. Granted, working there might do you some good.
Don't undersell yourself. Money isn't everything, but being underpaid really sucks, regardless of nebulous bonuses that are promised (Note: I was underpaid in the IT world way before I went into the game industry, so this really applies across the board). Know what other people are making in the industry in your area. Know what you'll need to live comfortably on, and know how skilled you are. You'll be thankful later.
Final Fantasy VI Track Arranged For High School Project:
One of The Key Moments of My Life...
...in digital format.
Okay, flash back about a decade ago. It's 1997, Final Fantasy 7 would soon make makes, and a 17-year old me was entering his senior year of high school, wherein he was taking Chorus as his Music elective, and thus had to start very early on his Senior Year project...
I had just discovered the world of import soundtracks, and paid about 40 bucks (factoring in 2 day shipping) to listen to the import soundtrack "Final Fantasy VI: Grand Finale". I ate that album up with a SPOON.
So I got it into my head that I should attempt an arrangement of "Aria Di Mezzo Caraterre" (the opera song) for my Senior Year project like the version on the CD (which had the opera song done all proper-like in Italian). Earlier that year, I had randomly GUESSED-- successfully!-- at the email address for Nobuo Uemtsu earlier in the year when I'd asked him some questions. In a timid aside in the PS, had asked him if it would be okay with him if I performed this arrangement for my project.
His reply? "I would be very happy from my music to be played in [the] States."
The whole process took me a year-- I worked with 3 other students and my chorus teacher to arrange it for a tenor (me), string quartet and piano.
When I performed it at the Spring recital, it netted me an A for the project and a nearly 30-second standing ovation, as well as the blessing from one of my musical heroes.
I thought I'd lost the only mp3 copy I had of this. But i found it, and wanna share it with y'all: http://media.putfile.com/Aria-Di-Mezzo-Caraterre-74
Sorry for the crappy sound quality; it was made by taking it from the only surviving sound recording-- my buddy's mom's VHS tape pf the performance.
Sadly, Square-Enix now charges a royalty fee to all those who wish to perform and/or arrange Final fantasy music for their field shows, concert band/orchestra, or any other performance venue. However, if you go to : www.mpa.org/copyright/pta.html you'll find the 'permission to arrange' form that Square-Enix will make you fill out along with a royalty fee check to arrange their music. This will allow you to legally do all the FF performances that year. You can send it directly to Square-Enix, but it may be wise to contact them first to see if the fee has increased.
Luckily, for those doing this for school, Square-Enix legal has said that those are still okay as long as there's "No public performance for profit. If money is charged for performances, they must go into a non-profit account (school fund or band fund OK)".
Pimping Is Easy When You Use The Code!
The Retrospective finishes off his look back on one of my favorite game series involving ninjas flipping out and killing people: the Tenchu series.
The Flashback's Steve McHugh takes a look at on Xbox (and PC) looks at KotOR 2, the fantastic sequel the Knight of The Old Republic, a game he covered extensively last week.
The Select and Start News Report has some news on how MMORPGS can be good for your social life. Really.
Bioshock is here. Xbox 360 owners are rejoicing. Mike Minotti is ranting about the state of the First person shooter. Full Circle: 360 News Report is delivering it all to you. Also, freelance video game scribe Jess Ragan Gameroom Blitz has a new Advance Theory segment up. This one deals with Ninja 5-0. No, it doesn't involve much surfing, but it's an awesome, obscure game, and this video gives it some well-deserved time in the limelight.
