January 2012
1 post
The "Theory" Of Global Warming
Recently there was a story on NPR that stated (and I’m forgetting the statistic) that there was a dramatic decrease in the amount of people that believed global warming was real. It focused on this one teenage girl who thought it was an interesting theory, but like evolution, upon further scrutiny the argument wouldn’t hold up. That’s what I perceive to be the biggest gap...
December 2011
1 post
Further down the nerd hole
Why does “nerd hole” sound way dirtier than “rabbit hole”?
Either way, I’m building a model airplane. The ol’ Messerschmidt Bf 109 G-10. It’s a late-war version of the famous German ace maker. By this time in the war, it was generally outclassed by many Allied aircraft but it still had speed and a stable gun platform which was greatly needed to take...
October 2011
5 posts
A twine-seeking missile!!
Holy smokes. What a game, what a game…
So some of youze guyz may know that I’m a big fan of the ol’ NHL video games. It’s a recent and furious love affair for me. You see around about this time last year I picked up NHL 11 from EA Sports. I had played 07 some years back and noted how far the game has come since the 94 days, now with right-stick deeks and all kinds of...
Male feminism. Malefeminism?
That sounds almost like a villain in a Harry Potter book. Maybe I just miss Malfoy.
Ok. So, my dame gets magazines. Not cool magazines like WWII Dogfights, or Armchair General, or PC Gamer, the magazines that I get — no no, she gets Cosmopolitan and Glamour and Elle, etc. To no end she gets these magazines. So much so that I counted something like eight subscriptions at one time. In...
Things are spiraling out of control in Garageband....
Was about to lay some voice over stuff and I got...
Over Dover
Very honored that a bunch of people recently started following this blog, I’m assuming, as a result of the hipster post. I’m sure they’ll all unsubscribe once they realize what this blog is primarily about — my unabashed and intense love of video games. Fuck the haters, let’s talk about IL2: Cliffs Of Dover.
If you’re any kind if decent human being,...
September 2011
1 post
Boo, Hipster Hating.
I just recently did a show at the UCB here in LA where we all kind of bashed this somewhat recent cultural phenomena known as “hipsters”. Just to say it, I’m not putting blame on my fellow improvisers on this one — we saw some comedy available and attacked it, which is what we should do, but I can’t stop thinking about it since so, well, I’m writing on a blog...
June 2011
2 posts
Los Angeles Black
Well, disc 3 complete, credits rolling, the last case closed. It’s been a marathon. The girlfriend’s left town for the week and my goal has been to clean the streets of LA from wake ‘til slumber. Me? I’m the most determined gumshoe in town…except for the few hours yesterday when I thought it’d be a good idea to play LA Noire stoned and got nearly half my...
Operation Flashpoint: Kill Me Now
If you’ve read my earlier posts about Operation Flashpoint or ArmA, you’d know the story. Or, if you’re in the know, you know the story. The quick briefing: the original OF team split up, and the hard core sim guys started making the ArmA series, while the mainstream wanna-bes kept the Operation Flashpoint brand. Now I suppose it’s a little unfair that I’m giving...
February 2011
1 post
Parachute Party
This was a weird one this morning.
Most of the details are fuzzy, but the part that I remember was flying in an airplane going “to school”. School was some kind of post-secondary education. It’s focus was unclear, but it wasn’t a conventional college or university as it had a specific focus of some kind. Anyway, I’m in the plane and I casually say, “See you...
December 2010
4 posts
Double Dream Hands is now my life
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81227909/
Wait for it….wait for it…….
Kinect yourself before you wreck yourself
Or don’t.
Just got a Kinect. Gotta say, it’s not that awesome. It’s kind of fun, yes. Kinect Sports is cool, with the soccer and volleyball especially being the coolest. But Kinect, overall, suffers from the same thing Wii suffers from, and that’s recognition. In terms of where your limbs are, and the precision of exactly how your limbs are articulated. Now, this...
Where The Wild Things Were
After having a dream where three of my teeth fell out I found myself on the great American plains in Dances With Wolves times.
I’m there, on a horse, but I’m in modern day clothes. There are some other cowboys on horses, and we’re in the process of rounding up some wild stallions. We get them all sorted, we settle down, then suddenly to our left there’s some rustling in...
Meatload The Invader
If you haven’t had a dream where you’re skating down a hill covered in snow just in your shoes, go have it now — it’s amazing.
For some reason I’ve been dreaming a lot about Meatloaf the dog lately. But first, the setup. Naturally, in my dream I had this brand new 40 inch (it was specified in the dream) plasma flat screen TV. And of course, knowing me, I just...
November 2010
1 post
Dream #1 -- Nor'easter Sunday
In a recent development, I’ve decided to start chronicling my dreams. I used to do this as they are sometimes, as dreams oft are, fucking insane, and it even got to a point where a dear friend, Miss Leslie Gottlieb, compiled them all into a book for my birthday. Not forgotten, Leslie. Anyway, after much encouragement from Andree The Girlfriend, I’ve reinstated the rule that all...
June 2010
4 posts
A Shift is coming
There, on the horizon. Lo, the dark monolith stands as a looming harbinger of death and destruction. Heat waves distort the sun’s gaze which peeks over the height of its plateau. No lights emanate from its frame, as its only means of intimidation comes from its still and silent magnificent size. Its innards are being assembled as we speak, and by month’s end, I shall have its power...
I have many computer suitors
Well friends, I’ve been saying for a while now that it’s time for a new computer. My first generation MacBook Pro is all I have, and now that the battery is so gone I can only run it plugged in, the fans are so loud it makes hearing YouTube videos difficult, and I have to use it propped up on aluminum cupcake trays to keep it from overheating, it’s time I make the switch and...
Alan Wake
Has me legitimately scared.
Are YOU afraid of the dark? I’ve got GOOSEBUMPS. Mystery!
I finally went to E3!
And it wasn’t that awesome.
Yeah, I said it. Don’t get me wrong, you walk into those conference halls and they are filled to the brim with every bleep, bleep, explosion, gunfire, guitar sting imaginable. You see gadgets and gizmos and big screens and games and all that. You are literally overwhelmed at first, which is…a little overwhelming. But after that, things start to...
Damn you, ShumShums!
If you’re not playing Red Dead Redemption you’re a damn fool. Frankly, if you haven’t dusted off your six shooters and saddled up on the greatest western video game ever made, well then I ain’t got no more to say to you than to a one-eyed crow. And you can take them words to the local tailor and have ‘em made into part of a suit for all I care.
That was a game...
May 2010
3 posts
Ramblings Of A Madman Vol. 5 (with some Baaaaaad...
The galaxy is safe...for now.
Wow.
I am both impressed and disappointed with myself. I just used every spare moment of my time to play Mass Effect 2 to completion. Ok, first thing’s first: Bioware, you rule. You truly do. It’s so hard to make a game that is not only really fun to play but also so well written that you just have to play the whole thing because you desperately want to see what happens next. To...
April 2010
9 posts
Church of the Smiling Vagina
Off topic, yes, but I just saw this amazing comedian/activist/preacher of the good word last night at UCB. I guess I’m a little retarded because I haven’t heard of him but Jamie Kilstein is the man. If you’re a god-fearing right wing pro lifer who wants big business and no health care you might not dig his material, but if you’re into being considerate and thinking for...
360, full circle.
Ohhhh yyyeeeaaaahhh!
(Kool-Aid Man style)
I’m back in The United States of New York City. It’s Spring, people are out, they’ve shed their winter coats, they’re skippin’ and a boppin’ and the city is alive and well. Two years ago I never thought I’d say this, but I love NYC. I used to hate this town, but over time, not only has it won me over, but over...
Preach on, brother man
This was sent to me recently. Even though I don’t do cocaine, this article gives pretty accurate insight as to what it’s like to give in to video games, or perhaps anything that you could be utterly immersed in. It’s somewhat long, but quite well-written:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/21/tom-bissell-video-game-cocaine-addiction
I feel like there’s a way...
Righteous Fury
Ok. Get ready for a great pitch for a video game.
On set today I was doodling on the back of my script this happened…
It’s hard to tell because I’m not actually the greatest artist, but that’s Jesus Christ riding a motorcycle. So here’s the game.
With modern flair infused with the art-style and gameplay of classic side-scrolling beat-em-ups like Final Fight,...
Ramblings Of A Madman Vol. 4
I do apologize for...
Ramblings Of A Madman Vol. 3
It’s crazy how...
And now, we dance
Gotta admit, only two days in and I’m like, “what the fuck was I thinking?!?!”
I mean look, no one can deny that binge-gaming from wake ‘til slumber days on end is unhealthy. As my new friend and fellow gamer Jack Carpenter (who is also in this pilot I’m shooting) said, “But Thomas, doing anything all day everyday is unhealhty.” Even saving the world....
A brief spark
Well, this blog is going to change pretty drastically in a little bit.
A little while ago, when I watched the Oscars, I sat there thinking. I said to myself, “You know, Thomas, I bet not one of those Academy Award winners plays video games.” Then I reckoned that no successful person, save for people who make video games, play video games, or at the very least as much as I do. And I...
Ramblings Of A Madman Vol. 2
So recently I booked...
March 2010
4 posts
Ramblings Of A Madman Vol. 1
So, without a proper...
OnITSALIVE!
Where have I been? Why did I not know about this? Why has no one been talking more insanely about OnLive? I think maybe I heard about it last year at GDC 09 and thought it was just some lame monthly subscription thing for second rate crapware games that only noobs and mothers would buy. But now? Now I’ve done my research and now I’m officially excited, skeptical, and undeniably...
Damn you, Warband!
GRrrrroooorrrg!
I can’t handle this game! Mount and Blade: Warband is killing me. So, the beta is available to the people who bought the original game, and the beta consists of multiplayer-only, and I am completely fucking terrible. What happened?!?! I thought I was good at video games. I’ve never played a game where I’m so consistently owned every single time I come up...
For glory!!
I know, yes, I’ve been a little lackluster in terms of posting. Perhaps it’s circumstance, perhaps I’m one of the millions of “bloggers” who sets out to make this regularly updated blog and after the first few weeks the steam seeps out like a poop you thought was just a fart.
In my defense, it is pilot season. Things have been a little nutty.
But, when things get...
February 2010
3 posts
Ho. Ly. Shit.
Please tell me this guy is for real.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80910128/
Flashed!
Today, in terms of days, was pretty bunk. Good days and bad days in Hollywood. Ah well. You just have to get your mourning out of the way and press on. For tomorrow is indeed a new day.
Just before I totter off to bed here I felt it necessary to share with you all something I just found (you may know of it already) that I thought was just amazing. Can we take a second here to just give it up...
Grrdsssshhhfds!!!
Sorry for my lack of posting. I’ve been uprooted! Alack, alas, acorn.
I’m in the weirdest city known to man: LA. It’s certainly an odd duck. I’m out here for pilot season, slipping myself into the system of trying to strike gold on other people’s stitched-together ideas; a surreal and morale-testing experience to be sure. But enough of this! Video games!
...
January 2010
5 posts
Left 4 Dead Poo
Two days ago, after finishing Left 4 Dead, my girlfriend Andree sets down the controller and says, “Let’s get the second one.”
Yes! I did it!! I’ve converted her!
But to be fair, to both myself and the game, this was the point where she was clearly eager to play more — what got her into playing in the first place was another game: Resident Evil 5. Granted,...
It has to be said
Everyone and their mother has written something detailing the absurdity and frustration with gaming online and having to deal with borderline retarded children and their high-pitched, homophobic, racist, inane trash talking. I’ll make my little post here on the shorter side to spare my five readers the woes of reliving such online hell.
It’s always something, and maybe my memory is...
Boomer!
My dear sweet girlfriend and I have just completed the third chapter in the first Left 4 Dead game. We’re a little late to the party on that one but that’s the price you pay for wanting to play every game that comes out to completion and having other things to do in life. But she’s into zombies. She’s also into their deaths at the hands of her M16 Assault Rifle. And...
G.I. BRO!
It’s for real now. My latest obsession is a game called ArmA 2. Now, I have always been a fan of a game called Operation Flashpoint ever since it came out in 2001. In fact, it ranks among my top 5 favorite games of all time. For those not in the know, Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis was the first game to really immerse the player in a tactical shooter on a large scale. Whenever I...
First post
Although in the next couple months I will have limited time for this madness known as blogging, I’ve been thinking lately I might start one up. It might at some point contain personal rants or how Trisha was totes vibin’ Lorenzo at the 80s ninja party the other night off the Bedford L, but mostly it will contain my thoughts and opinions on video games. Reviews? Doubt it. I somehow...