Motorstorm: Duel Drive

It’s Motorstorm in a whole new way!  Two drivers, in a real vehicle, in one of the game’s Pacific Rift tracks.  Of course, Stranger Things Studios would like to thank Sony Entertainment, Motorstorm, and YouTube in advance for letting us use their gameplay footage in the video.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

I wanted to play around with using a green screen.  Green screen, more than anything else, opens up so many possibilities in filming.  You can add things in that don’t exist, create backdrops to fantastical worlds, transport stories into space, create starship battles, you name it!

Fallout 3: End Game

Welcome to the final installment of Fallout Week.

I didn’t originally plan to write this last post, but it occurred to me that telling how my unique Fallout 3 misadventure ended is probably an expected (and logical) conclusion to this blog series.

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

Fallout 3: Tenpenny Tower

Welcome back to Fallout Week, where I use Fallout 3 experiences to demonstrate my moral failings.

As if causing the nuclear destruction of the small civilization of Megaton wasn’t enough of a character flaw!  I attempted to turn over a new leaf, and begin a new, proper, pious life in the safe haven known as Tenpenny Tower.

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

Fallout 3: Megaton

Welcome back to Fallout Week, where I tell you stories of how I dealt with the events of the video game Fallout 3 as though I was there.

Today we visit Megaton!

*WARNING: SPOILERS*

Fallout Week

Fallout 3 is one of the most revered video games of this console generation.  It is a first-person shooter that takes place decades after World War III has turned the planet into a nuclear wasteland.  Many gamers love the vastness of world because if you’re not careful you can easily dump 70+ hours into the game aimlessly meandering the devastation.  Hell, that’s what I did.

This game showed me just how warped and scarred my moral core is.  Fallout 3 is one of those games that is not linear.  You have choices.  Your words and your actions all have ramifications.  Everything you do changes the outcome of the game.  Knowing this, I determined to play the game as though my character was actually me…

So, what would JonnyDStrong do? (WWJDSD?... Hmm, I like it.)

What I found out about myself was both amusing and disturbing…

Uncharted

I can say, hands down, that Uncharted is my favorite video game series of all time! 

And here’s why…

Already going into it, I had faith in Naughty Dog to delivery - at the very least - an enjoyable game.  Naughty Dog is a studio that has a committed themselves to one series per console generation.  For the PlayStation 1, they only made Crash Bandicoot games.  For the PlayStation 2, it was Jak and Daxter.

Monthly Scoop: March 2012

If I had to sum up how I’m feeling right about now, “exhausted” is the word I’d go with.  Physically, mentally, emotionally exhausted.  I’m not really complaining, but the last half of February went by in a drifting haze, where it was hard to wake up with the alarm clock even after eight hours of sleep; at the end of the day I couldn’t account for getting anything done; and instead of midnight, I was ready for bed before my timer-lights clicked off at ten.

Out of the Game

Let’s go back to 2003.  Warcraft 3 had just come out for the PC.  I chewed through that game in no time.  But then a funny thing happened.  In the middle of watching the introduction video to the expansion, it occurred to me that I had never started, much less beaten, the expansion for Warcraft 2, which I owned.  I thought to myself, “I should play that before I consider playing the expansion to Warcraft 3.  In fact, I probably shouldn’t even have played Warcraft 3 to begin with.”

Killer Teammate

I had the most confounding gamer experience of my life yesterday.

I was trying out the multiplayer for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.  There is a cooperative mode that can be played, wherein a team of three players try to complete a mini-mission.  Now, if you back out of a game, which ruins it for everyone, you lose $10,000 of in-game cash, and are put on stand-by for 90 seconds or more.  It is meant to promote the idea that when you start a game, you commit to it.  I actually like the idea.  You have to have very good reason to want to quit.

If you are shot down, a count-down timer starts.  If you are not revived by a teammate in time, you’re out for 60 seconds.  If everyone’s dead at the same time, the level restart at the last checkpoint.  Your team gets three tries before you lose.

Monthly Scoop: November 2011

It’s that time again boys ‘n’ girls!  Time to realize I did far too much talking, and not enough doing.  Time for the Monthly Scoop.

To begin, I apologize for the late post.  I promise I will make it up to you.  The truth of the matter is I have a large project I’m working on, and I was hoping to be able to write the blog for it last week.

Speaking of projects - what has JonnyDStrong been up to?


Extra-Life

As you may have read, the newly founded team, Fat Chance Heroes, had their first charity event.  It was called Extra-Life.  It is a 24-hour video game marathon to help raise money for children hospitals.  We had a good time, and recorded some of the event to prove we stayed up the full 24 hours.  I am currently editing the film, which is taking a lot longer than planned.  But as soon as I’m done I will post it on-line.

Extra Life

Two weeks from today, the Fat Chance Heroes will undertake their first mission as heroic good-doers.  They will endure 24 straight hours of video game playing on behalf of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.  All the money they raise will go to the Gillette’s Children’s Hospital in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Both Mystery Longshanks and Cold Man Fusion have been gung-ho about this event from day one.  Neither of them can decide which games they’re going to play for the duration of the event.  If anything, their biggest problem is that they only have 24 hours.

Blackout, on the other hand… not so much.  Don’t get me wrong.  She’s committed the event.  She’ll be there.  But she’s not the biggest video gamer, and she’s not quite sure if she’ll be able to stay awake for the whole thing.

Meanwhile, Mystery and CMF, are practically setting up a fallout shelter.  What supplies do we need?  Where do we set up the TVs?  Who’s on food rotation?  Who’s keeping who awake? How many people can be connected to the internet at a time? 

Oh yes, their training will be pushed to the max.

And it will be documented.  Never fear.  I intend to set up a camera, from which, once and hour, a photo will be taken of the war room so that people can see how the Fat Chance Heroes hold up.

Technically, Extra-Life takes place October 15^th into the 16^th.  However, due to schedule conflicts, the Fat Chance Heroes will be participating the following weekend instead:

October 22^nd at 8:00am, to October 23^rd at 8:00am.
The only challenge remaining is raise what money they possibly can for the Children’s Hospital.  So far, the heroes have raised
119 dollars

If you would like to support the heroes in the Extra Life charity event, visit their pledge page:

Fat Chance Heroes @ Extra Life

*Note: Extra-Life will only take donations until October 15th.




About Extra-Life
www.extra-life.org

Extra Life is an annual charity event that started in 2008 in honor a girl named Victoria Enmon, who died of lymphoblastic leukemia.  The Sarcastic Gamer Community donated video games and gifts to keep the girl’s spirits up.  In that same spirit, video gamers participate in the 24 hour Extra Life event to help raise money for children’s hospitals across the nation. 

Fat Chance Heroes:

Visit them at fatchanceheroes.blogspot.com

Find out about their Upcoming Events

Monthly Scoop: October 2011

So that’s it.  September’s over.  What an amazingly short, yet strangely productive month.  I’m finding it’s nice to have the JonnyD Weekly around so I can remember what I’ve been up to.  My memory only works for about 36 hours, tops.  I’m writing this Saturday night.  I can’t recall Thursday at all anymore.

I do know, however, that I am finally down to the backwash of my August bucket list.  Moby Dick is read, as is two-thirds of the everything my co-workers have loaned me.  I also beat Baldur’s Gate II, a PC game that I’ve been sitting on since 2001, and have been picking away at for over a year.

And let’s not forget the Gauntlet!  The question I keep getting is, “When’s the Gauntlet II?”  When, mind you, not, Will there be.  To answer that, lets say, January 2012.

In short, the slate is clear.  Its time to change gears - make a new list of goals to keep me busy until the end of the year.  If you’ve noticed, I’ve already started laying the ground work.

With the colder climate on its way, its time to return to my writing.  Temporaltorium has been patiently sitting on my desk for the better part of 2011, waiting for me to delve into round three of editing it.  I am not looking forward to it.  The trimming I need to do is like taking a Miata, and crunching it down to the size of a matchcar.

On the flip side, I’m long overdue to start writing something new.  I haven’t created new material since I finished the novel back in July 2010.  I have several novels floating around in my mind.  I’ve also thought about unloading dozens of short stories to send off to magazines.  That seems the more productive idea.

And then there’s the Fat Chance Heroes.  A co-worker of mine wanted to join a 5K run I had signed up for.  It logically followed that we come up with a team name.  Then we decided it was silly to make a good team name only to use it this one time. 

So, now the Fat Chance Heroes have their own page at

http://fatchanceheroes.blogspot.com

and are looking for events and/or charities to sign up for.

Along with a team name, we came up with alter-egos, like Mystery Longshanks, Cold Man Fusion, Blackout.  The characters have been so damn interesting that I could make up fantastical stories of their exploits.

I’m seriously considering it…

THE GAUNTLET 2011

12 Players.  7 rounds.  13 Games. 
9 hours of straight videogame play. 
We call it THE GAUNTLET.

On Saturday, September 24^th, I hosted my first ever video game tournament.  The idea had floated around in my mind for over two years.  I wanted a competition that showcased more than just one game.  I also wanted a tournament that where when you lost you were not permanently eliminated.   

So I came up with something I call “double-plus elimination.”  It gets complicated, but in a nutshell:  There is a Hardcore tier, and a Casual tier.  The Hardcore tier is aimed at hardcore gamers, with race games, first person shooters, etc.  Meanwhile, the Casual tier is for your idle gamers - Wii games, original Nintendo, Guitar Hero, you know - the fun stuff.  Every round is a different game.

On top of the two tiers, there is a Wild Card queue.  If you lose in the hardcore games, you go into the queue.  Every round wild cards fill spaces in the casual tier, and casual tier winners fill wild card slots in the hardcore tier.  It’s a continual cycle, and players get to keep coming back until the bitter end!

11 people showed, so a few bi-games were needed to make it all work.  Ultimately, it went very well.  Players in the hardcore tier got to play Burnout: Revenge; Call of Duty: Black Ops, both regular and zombie modes; Soul Calibur IV; Unreal III;  and Motor Storm: Pacific Rift.

Casual gamers played Mario Kart; Boom Blox; Mario 3; Guitar Hero; Wii Tennis; and Ice Hockey.

For the final round, the Hardcore and Casual tier champions went head-to-head in a series of Little Big Planet 2 challenges for the win.

Gauntlet I

Winners

1^st Place - Tim S.             2^nd Place - Mike D.

3^rd Place - Jason R.          4^th Place - Chris E.

M.V.P.
I feel that an additional award should be given out, something akin to an MVP award for the most impressive performance throughout the entire tournament.  Here's why:

Hardcore Tier.  Round 4.  Soul Calibur IV

Tim vs. Jason

Soul Calibur is your typical fighter game, similar to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.  Now, Tim owns Mortal Kombat, and he played it extensively.  He does nothing but boast about his skill in the game.  For that very reason, Mortal Kombat was not allowed in the tournament.  Even so, whoever was match up against him in a fighter game was pretty well screwed.  That person happened to be Jason.

Tim was randomly given Maxi as he character to play, to which Tim cheered because it was the character he was the best at.  Poor Jason… Jason ended up with Cassandra, who looked like the girly version of Link.

Here’s how every fight went.  Tim beats the  hell out of Jason for ten seconds straight.  Jason manages to get one hit in, and then Tim goes back to pummeling him into the ground.  The only reason Jason one the first round (which, by the way, was funny as well), was because after being knocked down on the edge of the board, Tim decided to finish him off with an impressive airborne spin-kick.  Only he missed, and flipped off the edge of the board instead.

Somehow, Jason stayed tied with Tim all the way to the final battle.  3-3.



Final Round 

It was like watching that epic fight in a movie, where the hero is horribly outmatched.  Yet, in his last possible moment, he has a moment of clarity, the world slows around him, he centers himself, and then launches into an amazing display of prowess that his opponent is not ready for.

That is exactly what happened.  Tim decimated Jason until his chick slumped to the ground with at best two hits left.  Tim had a good half a bar to go.  But out of nowhere, Jason launched into a series of attacks that Tim was not prepared for.  By the time he was able to block, Tim had as much life left as Jason did.  A volley of strikes and parries ensued, until Jason at last managed to deal the final blow.

The entire room erupted in shouts from the intensity of the match.  Tim was so charged up from the fight that he shot up, threw the controller into the couch, and paced outside for the better part of twenty minutes before he cooled off.  As for Jason, mellow beyond belief, he simply shrugged and said “What?  It’s just a game.”

And for that, I award Jason R. with the unnamed award for most impressive display of video-gaming prowess.  Maybe I’ll buy a PS2 controller and spray-paint it gold for him.

Monthly Scoop: September 2011

I have become acutely aware of the fact that even though I get up the same time every day for work, the sun now thinks it can sleep in longer than me.  It’s starting to mess with my psyche.  The little primal critter in me knows that it can mean only one thing:  its September.  Fall is only three weeks away.  No, its not time to start reigning in your nuts for the season, but its definitely time to start thinking about it. 


But first, there is another matter to attend to.  Remember my August bucket? (No? hmm… Click Here)

Now that we’re all up to speed, let’s continue.  Remember that bucket list of mine?  Yeah… that bucket’s nowhere near empty.  For one, there’s still a massive Sperm Whale in there.  I know.  I know.  I’ve been reading Moby Dick since what…March?  Yeah, that sounds right. 

Don’t judge me!  Have you ever read Moby Dick?  No?  I didn’t think so.  So shut up! 

How about you?  Yes, you have?  How long did it take you?... oh… well you can shut up, too I guess.

- Sigh -

Sorry to be so crass about the topic ;-)  I’m almost done with the book, though.  Less than 80 pages to go!

Moving on.  Don’t let the bucket fool you.  I’ve actually cleared out a good deal of it, such as:

I beat The Darkness.  Again, if you haven’t heard the story about how the PS3 game scared the crap out of me and how I could only play it during the day with someone home, you might want to read about it and get a good laugh at my expense. (Read the blog)

The war between myself at the 105” tree trunk in my backyard wages on.  The last skirmish ended with one side suffering a twisted wrist and three massive blisters; while the other side endured the dismemberment of seven of its roots, the largest being the size of my thigh.

Probably the best moment of August was Taylor Falls.  I love canoeing.  It has to be, especially in the early morning, one of the most serene things to be doing.  Two years ago, coworker of mine told me about a place in Taylor Falls where you can rent a canoe, and make your way miles down the docile waters of the St. Croix river.  They will pick you up and drive you back to your car.  How awesome is that?!  So last Saturday Tonya and I drove up there and got out on the water.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The weather was perfect.  If you’ve never done it, you should.  I want to go back so badly already.


There was something regarding a custom deck of cards that happen in August, but that is a story for later this month :-) 


The Buffalo Wild Wing’s “Blazing Hot Wing Challenge,” did not happen.  12 wings, 6 minutes, covered in their hottest sauce.  Tell him what they win Jonny!  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing.  Is the meal on the house like every other place offering a eating challenge?  No.  Do I get a souvenir?  Yes! you get a shirt;  but you have to buy it first…

No thanks.  I’ll pass. 

We had a good run last month, but with fall on its way, its time to get my nuts in a row.  For example, I have two movie ideas for Stranger Things Studios that I’m idly mulling around.  I may start in on them.  I may not. 

In all honesty, there are other aspects of my life that I feel I need to attend to.  For that reason, I may be backing off a bit from the JonnyD Weekly.  Never fear, there will still be weekly posts.  There just may not be the two or three a week that there has been. 

I have been putting a lot of thought into my writing lately.  I feel it’s time to get back into it.  I have a finished novel sitting on my desk, after all.  However, there is a lot to do before I feel I’d be in a position to get Temporaltorium out on the market again.

And then there’s the video game tournament… The Gauntlet is on its way!

Fear: Jericho

There are only two video games that I have ever given up on.  I quit playing a medieval strategy game called Excalibur because the programmers were obviously against players saving their games.  By the time you’re on level two, you’re pissed off because every failed attempt is 30-plus minutes of your life that you didn’t enjoy, you didn’t get paid for, and you’re never going to get back.

The other was Jericho - the other game from that infamous $5 clearance bin. 

I brought Jericho over to my friend Charlie’s apartment.  Charlie was extremely gung-ho to play the game.  That should have been an indicator right there for me, but it wasn’t.   Nor was his vampire and werewolf movies, Event Horizon, and the case for Bioshock sitting on his PS3.

The full title is actually Clive Baker’s Jericho.  Clive Baker - the writer best known for family film classics such as Candyman and Hellraiser.  Oh boy!

In  Jericho the haunted ruins of an ancient city mysteriously emerge out of a sandstorm in the Kalahari desert.  The EVP readings are insane.  For that reason, your military squad, Jericho, is sent in. 

Before the main menu loads, there are the ten second advertisements for the various programming and production companies involved.  I don’t remember which company it was, but I will never forget the video.  It had this crazed, pale-faced dude wrapped up in a straight jacket with his eyes and mouth sown shut.  He’s in a padded room, mumbling maniacally to himself as he rocks back and forth.  He looked like something out of a rated R version of A Nightmare Before Christmas. 

So we’re not even to the main menu and I’m already freaked out.  However, this is my first time enduring horror in front of Charlie; I was determined not to be a wimp about it.

The main menu is nothing more than a pulsating wall of stretched out flesh.  Off and on the faces of the damned push against it from underneath.  Joy.

Gameplay starts topside at the gates of the ruins.  I’m okay with this.  Its quasi-daylight, minus the fact the sandstorm is still going on; I have guns; and there are six other people with me. 

Naturally, I shift over to the shotgun.  A shotgun does a lot more damage when something jumps out at you.  And you don’t have to aim with a shotgun; you just have to be facing the right way. Perfect, because I’m won’t be looking at the screen once the creatures start jumping out.

We have a few encounters at first, but nothing I can’t handle.  Then, someone on the team says, “We should split up!”  No.  No we shouldn’t.  But of course they don’t give a damn what I think, and half the team breaks off.

Alright, fine.  I still have four guys, including me.

We get to the entrance to the underground compound.  Its locked, of course.  It can only be opened from the outside, go figure.  Two of us are going to have to stand watch outside.  I’ll stand watch. 

Nope.  They send me in with one other guy.  The stone door rumbles back into place, and we’re trapped inside.  Its pitch black.

Great, ten minutes in and I’ve gone from being outside with six men, to being trapped in the darkness of a crypt with only one other guy, and no choice but to go forward and feel my way into a heart attack.

At this point, Charlie asks, “Hey, do you mind if I kill the lights so we can get the full effect?!”

Without missing a beat I say, “Yeah, let’s do it!” and a part of me dies inside.

We switched off every so often over the course of the next 4-6 hours.  Honestly, the game wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.  However, it is extremely complicated.  You had to manage all seven of your guys to utilize their different abilities.  Without playing regularly, I’d have to restart just to relearn all the controls.  And let’s face it, I’m not playing the game by myself.

Out of everything in the game though, the thing that scared me the most was that crazy little dude in the straight jacket.  I did not have nightmares that night, but multiple times I woke up in the middle of the night fully expecting to see him rocking back and forth, back and forth, at the foot of my bed, mumbling away through his sown shut lips...  

Fear: Darkness

My wife bought me two PlayStation 3 games from a $5 clearance bin at Best Buy.  One of them was called Darkness.  By the screenshots on the back cover, it looked creepy.  Now, I can handle creepy…as long as that’s all it is.

You play Jackie Estacado, a lackey for  mafia crime-load Paulie (typical, stereotypical mafia name).  Anyways, a job goes horribly wrong, and the two dudes you’re with end up dead.  Well, this doesn’t go over well with Paulie.  So, for your 21st birthday, Paulie makes you a little present in the form of a bomb strapped to a dead guy’s chest inside a closet.  BOOM!  Your body is blow clean out the seventh-story window.

That’s when the Darkness starts to manifest inside you. The screen turns an eerie blackish-purple; captions appear at the bottom of the screen in a gigantic, twisted font; and a demonic voice starts saying things like, “you’re soul does not belong to you.”

Shortly thereafter the Darkness emerges in the form of two massive black serpents that rip out of your back and hover in your peripherals.  You can have them attack people, or slither out ahead of you to scout the area.  You can also have them eat people’s hearts, which makes them more powerful.  As they get stronger, the two heads start fighting over the hearts.  One will have it in their mouth, and the other will be yanking at the severed arteries.

Okay, creepy… but I could keep playing on the principle that the only disturbing thing about the game was me. 

Of course, the Darkness cannot aid you unless you’re in the shadows.  Now, when you get freaked out in most game, you just fall back to the well-lit areas where you’re safe.  That doesn’t work here.  If you want to feel safe, you enter a room and shoot out all the lights… Because that’ll give you a warm fuzzy feeling when you’re in a haunted orphanage.

Eventually, you realize that the Darkness is taking over your body.  To stop it you eat the barrel of your gun and pull the trigger.  But you don’t die.  You awaken in the trenches of WWII, where instead on Nazis, they’re fighting against zombie-cyborg-soldiers that don’t die unless you devour their hearts.

Messed up, but whatever.  I was fine until I reached the bomb shelter.  The backdoor is down a long cement sewer drain.  Just before you reach the mouth of the tunnel, the silhouette of a soldier suddenly appears in front of you and instantly vanishes, scaring the crap out of you!  I damn near crappie-flopped on the living-room floor.  What the hell was that?!  That is not okay!

Against my better judgment, I kept going.  The sewer empties into a battlefield that’s covered in a heavy, rust-colored fog.  All you see are shadowed forms moving on the edges of your vision.  And then BAM!  Lightning.  The screen goes white.  Thunder crackles.  You heart skips.  And when the flash clears you’re offset twenty yards.  Get back to where you were.  Keep going.

Bam! Silhouette! And then its gone again.  But I’m still firing at nothing and screaming in my living room like I’m actually out there…

Stop firing.  Breathe.  Keep going.  Bam!  Lightning!  Silhouette!  Lightning!  Lightning!  Silhouette!  And suddenly, I’m surrounded by zombie-cyborgs and they gun me down.

While the game reloads the Darkness spouts off in its demonic voice while faces of death flash across the screen…

…I don’t play that game at night anymore…