About four years ago, I worked as an administrative assistant for an indie video game publisher named Games Omniverse. Part of my job was to not only update all of the game design documents on the company’s internal wiki, but to write some articles for the company blog about games, specifically adventure games.
Writing those articles rekindled my love for adventure gaming, so when I was offered a review copy of Unavowed, the latest from Wadjet Eye Games, I jumped at the chance to not only review it, but to get an interview with its creator Dave Gilbert. All the show notes are under the jump.
0:01 – VidCast begins
1:13 – Introduction to Wadjet Eye Games and Dave Gilbert
REVIEW: Resonance discussion and review – Ah, I was mistaken. It was former GOA contributors Jonathan Cherlin and Jill Pullara who reviewed this game. You should still check it out, though, as it was programmed entirely by Wadjet Eye’s CTO, Janet Gilbert.
9:15 – Gameplay begins
The Blackwell series – This link goes to GOG.com, because DRM-free games are awesome.
REVIEW: Wot I Think: The Blackwell Epiphany – This review from Rock Paper Shotgun covers not just the last game in the Blackwell series, but also serves as a good review for the series as a whole. Spoiler-free.
Geekly Speaking About… is a video-cast (and former podcast) about pop culture and geek culture both old and new. Trisha Lynn is not a Bestower, but does believe in the cosmic power of the universe from time to time.
Ever since it was announced that Peter Capaldi would be playing the newest incarnation of the lead character in the long-running British series Doctor Who, I’ve been excited to see exactly what direction the show would be going. After all, like many folks, I was first introduced to Capaldi as an actor through his work as the impressive and imposing Malcolm Tucker from “The Thick of It.”
All jokes about a “foul-mouthed Scottish Doctor” aside, I thought it would be best to turn to the (Re)Generation Who Community Manager (and former Geeking Out About contributor) Kara Dennison to speak about what may be in store for us during Series 8 from Capaldi based on his other acting work:
Apologies for the echoing, but that’s Skype for you. Also, there are a few swear words here and there in the podcast; I blame Malcolm Tucker. And finally, I’m sorry this isn’t fancy like the other podcasts, but my other jobs left me with little time to prep this one.
It’s worth noting that (Re)Generation Who is really reaching high for its inaugural convention as their guests include Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (Seventh Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and a Skype Q & A with Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor). Check out their Guests page to see the entire list.
Here’s that article from The Mary Sue that I referenced.
If you don’t want to be spoiled for the events of the next Doctor Who series airing at 7:50 pm in the U.K. on BBC One and here in the U.S. on BBC America at 8:15 pm Eastern/7 pm Central, I don’t recommend following our Twitter stream, @geekingoutabout starting around 1 pm Central. But do check back later on in the day for our impressions of “Deep Breath.”
Even though it’s been a long time since I went to an anime convention, I remember how exciting and how much fun they are to attend. I also remember how much drama can surround an anime convention, especially when it comes to cosplayers and the people who like to take pictures of them. The topic of today’s podcast surrounds the dealer’s room at the recently concluded AnimeNEXT convention in Somerset, New Jersey, and one dealer in particular who decided that the next innovation in images on body pillows should be actual human cosplayers. Read along with us using the links below, and then listen to the podcast to untangle the legal issues involved.
Here’s the article which prompted it all, written by Linwood Knight. As a side note, one thing that I think Knight should have disclosed in this article is that he, too, used to be a staff member at AnimeNEXT. I also believe it was irresponsible of OH! Entertainment to use the AnimeNEXT logo to illustrate its article.
In short, this kind of incident could have been easily avoided by all 93 of the cosplayers if they’d just read the agreement carefully, questioned its provisions, and/or refused to sign. That’s why the “Contractual Obligations” episode of “Strip Search” has been the most important one, and the one that all creative fans need to watch.
Here’s hoping everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson.
Jill Pantozzi (center) aka The Nerdy Bird and her FemmeDoctor group from NYCC 2011. From l to r: 1st Doctor, 3rd Doctor, 9th Doctor, 4th Doctor, 7th Doctor, 2nd Doctor, 6th Doctor, and Idris aka The Doctors Wife (c) GeekingOutAbout
With the dog days of summer disappearing and the sound of little footsteps running away from school buses, fall is upon us—which means it’s time for another New York City Comic Con.
This year, the event will be held at the Javitz Center from October 11 to October 14 and there are less than 48 hours remaining for you to pre-register and be able to get your pass in the mail. But what if you’re unsure about whether or not you want to go? Luckily, I was able to rescue this podcast from the unknown to bring you a roundtable discussion about what myself, co-editor Jill Pullara, and writers Jonathan Cherlin and Lowell Greenblatt liked and disliked about last year’s event. Show notes, as usual, are after the jump.
As a tiny little note, you’re going to hear some loud knocking every now and then when people are speaking. That’s just us banging on the table for emphasis… right next to where I just happened to place my recorder.
Definitely not a new thing, resources for people who’d like to add more games and video games to their public and/or school libraries can check out the archives of the Games in Libraries podcast or read up on International Games Day @ Your Library, sponsored by the American Library Association, which will be on Saturday, November 3.
For your amusement (and with the formatting broken), here’s the last con report I ever did of San Diego Comic Con, from 10 years ago, back when I was writing for Sequential Tart.com. Also, belated apologies for attending the con with strep throat. I know better than to do that now. My favorite memory from the con was immortalized by Lea Hernandez in a “Near Life Experience” strip, of which I bought the original when she rediscovered it after her terrible house fire in 2006.
When I asked her to clarify her remarks about cosplayers, Jill wrote, “My annoyance at NYCC was that cosplayers take up so much space and, honestly, a lot were half assed and done by attention seekers (well the ones I saw. The ones who looked a bit sad until someone wanted to take a picture with them). They would take pictures in the middle of a crowded walkway, walk side by side slowly like tourists down 14th Street! I didn’t experience that at PAX East. I’m sure there was more cosplay than I’m remembering, and I often speak in hyperbole, but I didn’t experience anywhere near the amount of annoyance and frustration from simply trying to walk down an aisle as I did at NYCC.”
No, you’re not going crazy. At one point, we did have a podcast where Jonathan talked about the changes in the voice cast for the Silent Hill 2 high-definition remake which was released in March 2012; however, that podcast is still lounging around on my hard drive. One more thing to add to the list…
Eventually, Lowell was successful, and you can read his interview with both of the guys from Kirby Krackle here. No rock stars were harmed in the obtaining of this interview.
Karl Custer, aka Uncle Yo, has been doing the rounds of the anime con circut as a “comedian for geeks” since 2008. I personally love his stuff, but geeks who are casual about their anime love might not get some of his material. You know what I would love to see? Uncle Yo opening for the Nerdist himself, Chris Hardwick someday.
While the first part of my “Voices from New York Comic Con” series was posted not long after the show, I’ll be posting the first half hopefully not too long after this podcast goes up to whet your appetite for the 2012 show in October.
Originally debuting at the 2011 PAX Prime convention, here’s a look at the development and design of Siege of Gardmore Abbey with its author, Steve Townshend.
If you don’t know what Jill means by the adjective phrase “Chris Perkins-awesome,” you have to watch this collection of videos I’ve saved onto my YouTube account; thus, will you know the fullest extent of its meaning and become an adherent for life.
I was glad not to miss the Womanthology panel, as I was able to record nearly all of it for you. As for the anthology itself, it’s currently available from Amazon (somereviewshere) or you might want to brave your local comics shop and see if they’ll order it for you. (If they don’t, then they’re a terrible shop, and you should find one that will!)
And as for the Womanthology brand itself, IDW Publishing announced at WonderCon in March that it will be releasing a five-issue miniseries called “Womanthology: Space,” featuring creators such as Fiona Staples, Blair Butler, Jessica Hickman, Bonnie Burton, Ming Doyle, and Stacie Ponder.
Thanks to a confluence of events, I finally finished playing the original Mass Effect as both a male and female Commander Shepard in July… which means it’s podcast time! After a bit of juggling and some technical difficulties, I sat down to check in with co-editor Jill Pullara, and writers Jonathan Cherlin and Lowell Greenblatt on how their summer has been going, to do a review of an indie game called Resonance, and to answer a very important question which we asked previously: Does the gender of your Commander Shepard really have an influence on how you play the game? Show notes after the jump.
My modus operandi regarding gigantic geek blockbuster movies is to maybe see a trailer or two and then completely attempt to avoid any sneak peeks, exclusives, or interviews. This is a technique that has mostly served me well ever since I was pleasantly overjoyed by the awesome that was the 2000 X-Men movie. So, it came as a complete surprise to me that indeed, a lot of the scenes in both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 were improvised. As for Don Cheadle being uncomfortable with it, you couldn’t tell from the interview he gave to MTV News (third video down). Then again, he’s an actor; he could have just been polite for the cameras.
Just in case you missed it, Lowell’s review of The Amazing Spider-Man can be found here.
For those of you who might not remember, Sliding Doors was a movie which came out in 1998 starring Gwyneth Paltrow where a single event in her life (whether or not she catches a train in London) has two different effects on the rest of her life. Both of these universes are shown on the screen happening at the same time. In contrast, the Buffy episode in question is called “Normal Again.”
As for “Awake,” you can indeed catch all 13 episodes on Hulu. Originally broadcast on NBC, the star of the show is Jason Isaacs (aka Lucius Malfoy of the Harry Potter films and the voice of Admiral Zhao from “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”) Sadly, the show was doomed with declining ratings after a promising start, despite its being nominated for a “Best Writing in a Drama Series” for the pilot episode.
If you’re a parent, (especially a Dad) this game can be pretty difficult to play at times. In fact I’m curious if people who don’t have kids will end up getting as much out of it. I don’t know if it’s an 89.85%, or a 9.7 out of 10. What I do know is that after a late night playing it, I sneak into my son’s room and hug him before I go to bed.
Of course, your own mileage—especially your own relationship with your father and/or your kids—may vary.
As the rest of this segment referencing “The Commander Shepard Challenge” contains some spoilers for the entire Mass Effect video game series, I humbly leave this video as a reminder of common spoiler etiquette:
Note: This means that under these terms of etiquette, it’s okay to spoil the story behind the first two installments but not the third. However, since I’m still playing ME2, I humbly ask that you not spoil that one for me.
Shortly after we recorded this podcast, the idea of allowing a female character choice in modern first-person shooter games was discussed on The Escapist in a brilliant video called “Let’s End the FPS Sausage-fest” by Jim Sterling. I am so very, very glad that more people are continuing to have this discussion; here’s hoping we can come to a good and sane consensus.
Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency is the intrepid lady whose Kickstarter campaign to raise money to do a video series deconstructing tropes about women in the video game culture resulted in her being unfairly attacked by some of the same gamers she wished to reach with her series. I remember being very disgusted when I first read about this—and sad because I was too poor to contribute to her campaign—and just skimming through the comments on the news posts on other sites about the story makes me livid all over again.
Possibly a humble-brag, but in the Facebook comments to the Jimquisition video linked above, I did continue to have this discussion; I will also say that it’s not an easy conversation for me to have because of how strongly I feel about it. But I must forge on.
We try not to spoil any of the puzzles in Resonance, but just to warn you, there is definitely a spoiler for one or two things.
Resonance (Actually, a 4.5)
Created by Vince Twelve
Designed by Vince Twelve
Published by Wadjet Eye Games
Starring Edward Bauer, Sarah Elmaleh, Logan Cunningham and Daryl Lathon
Rating: Appropriate for teens and older
From l to r: Ray, Anna, Ed, and Detective Bennet must race against time to save the world... and you can help!
Official Blurb:When a brilliant particle physicist dies unexpectedly, the race is on to secure his terrible new technology before it falls into the wrong hands. The lives of four playable characters become entangled as they fight against the clock to find the dead scientist’s secret vault. The suspicions they harbor, the memories they guard, the connections they share—all will converge as these four ordinary people work together to prevent a potentially cataclysmic disaster.
Pros: Great storytelling and narrative, plot twists, characterization, musical score, level of challenge to player, art design Cons: Puzzles can be unintuitive, differences in opinion on voice acting
Jonathan: Resonance has wonderful art design, music, and mostly solid game design. The game design is spotty in some places, in the sense that either you’re right on the dot of what you’re supposed to be doing, or you have no clue at all. It would have helped if there was something in place that told you that you were close. My favorite parts of the game, the survival-horror geek I am, were playing through Anna’s dreams. Truly disturbing game design, imagery, and sound design. Absolute brilliance, especially considering this is a low-budget game. Overall Resonance does what the title suggests…it resonates with you.
Jill: Resonance is a fantastic throwback to the great adventure games of gaming’s past, with beautiful art deign and retro graphics that are executed so perfectly you’d think it was made in the early ‘90s—which, in this case, is a good thing! Of course, with that comes the aches and pains that every good adventure game: the puzzles can be hard to solve, and hard to find, the solution often being the one thing you didn’t try, or the one person you didn’t think to click on. Some may call it unintuitive, but I call it old school. But the hard (and admittedly sometimes oblique) puzzles are worth it for the narrative presented, with compelling characters you come to care about, and a twist that you may not see coming. The most interesting aspect of the game, for me, is being able to switch between four different player characters, each with their own distinct voice. It would be remiss of me to not mention the music and sound design—beyond just adequate, the sound design and music do exactly what they’re supposed to do: draw you in, understand tone, and heighten the emotion of a scene. I hadn’t been as terrified of my character dying since Clock Tower’s Scissor Man was chasing me through a mansion as I desperately looked for a place to hide. Any fan of old school adventure games will enjoy this game, though gamers unfamiliar with the genre will have some issues with the interface and puzzle-solving. While it’s no King’s Quest VI or Day of the Tentacle, Resonance certainly belongs alongside I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
Josh A. Cagan performs at w00tstock 1.2. Photo by Adam Savage.
There have been many great things to come out of the invention of Twitter, and one of those things is the fact that Joe and Jane Average Geek can have a closer relationship to the celebrities they admire. Of course, sometimes what happens as a result of those Twitter conversations occurs in a completely unpredictable way, and the result can be something rather spectacular.
Take screenwriter Josh A. Cagan (@joshacagan) for example. One minute, he’s noodling around on Twitter, the next he’s starting a friendship with Adam Savage from “Mythbusters,” after that comes an appearance at the inaugural w00tstock shows, and just recently, a script he sold last year was on the 2011 Hollywood Blacklist of the year’s “most liked” spec scripts.
But as Lowell Greenblatt and I found out during our interview with him, Cagan’s life and career has had its low points, too:
Am I ever going to start one of these podcasts without some audio difficulties? Skype is great for doing long-distance conference calls, but for some reason we had to stop and start so many times. The best part is that after every time we stopped the call, Skype sent us a “So how are we doing?” feedback form. Also, if you hear clicking, that’s me attempting to log some of these notes during the interview. I promise to use a quiet pen and paper (or my boyfriend’s iPad) next time.
Here’s the w00tstock performance by Josh Cagan which got me interested in stalking him following him on Twitter:
Homestar Runner was one of the best Internet things ever; I’m sad that it hasn’t been updated since December 2010.
Yes, Virginia, there was an unreleased Fantastic Four movie from 1994; I don’t encourage people to bootleg media, but it’s the only way you can see the whole thing.
Just like Coke and New Coke, some people like the post-MST3K stuff from Cinematic Titanic, others like Riff Trax. You can like both, too! As Tim Gunn says, “It’s all a matter of taste.”
Still going strong, FilmThreat.com is still the awesome resource that Cagan remembers, minus original founder Chris Gore who is now does the film beat at G4’s “Attack of the Show,” amongst other things.
“Undergrads” still maintains an official online presence with two clips from the show on it; I’m sure more stuff is on the fan sites that are linked as well.
The Calgary Expo just announced that Cagan, Pete Williams, and Andy Rheingold from the crew of “Undergrads” will be attending their show, which runs from April 27 to April 29 this year. Other recently announced guests include Wil Wheaton, Richard Hatch (both versions of “Battlestar Galactica”), and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy, from the Harry Potter movies). Get your tickets and/or your passports now!
Is now a bad time to confess that I’ve never read Charlotte’s Web?
I have to say that having worked with a celebrity’s management agency in my former profession as a luxury real estate broker’s executive assistant, I know from experience that they are the real deal and do a lot for the people they represent. Cagan’s lucky to have had the people at H2F Entertainment at his side for so many years.
You can buy The Duff for your Kindle or your bookshelf; author Kody Keplinger’s site is here.
According to Gawker.com, here are the “rules” behind the concept of director jail. As for Todd Graff, I’m not sure if he’ll be put behind bars for having directed Joyful Noise, a choir competition movie starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton. It made $11 million on a weekend where it went up against the Mark Walhberg vehicle Contraband, the re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D and the very awesome and still out in theaters Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol—but it has a 35% rotten rating from the critics. Sounds like Graff just can’t please everyone all at the same time.
I remember Adam de la Peña as being a very cool guy to know in high school, and I also remember for our school’s French club and Spanish club fundraiser, he and his classmates translated the witch scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail into Spanish and performed it. Unfortunately, it bombed, because the audiences was all about the broad physical comedy, not the subtle foreign language wordplay comedy. (My original French skit about a writer and the characters in her private detective noir novel went over a little better.)
Cagan’s fellow writers in “The Job Factory” are: Rob McKittrick (Waiting…), Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson (Four Christmases and Soul Surfer), and John Davis (The Dukes of Hazzard, the Eureka: Dormant Gene miniseries).
Cagan’s comment about Wil Wheaton is referring to an interview I did with him for Sequential Tart.com in 2004 which was so long that it had to be split into twoparts. A summer project I have is to convert those mini-tapes into something suitable for a podcast.
Our many thanks again to Josh Cagan for spending so much time with us. If you have suggestions for other people you’d like for us to interview who deserve a wider audience, please let us know in the comments below.
Late birthday cake is better than no birthday cake at all!
It’s the end of another calendar year, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity for me to start working on the podcasts again, starting with some episodes that slipped through the cracks. This was recorded towards the end of May and marked the anniversary of this site being up; hence, the name of the episode.
There’s not much more I can say about this, so let’s get to the show notes, hmm?
To start, I think this episode was recorded on Jill’s phone and I have to say the audio quality isn’t that bad. It’s not the best, but it’s not terrible, either.
Our birthday contest went very well, with Toronto, Canada writer D.C. McMillen winning the grand prize. You can read McMillen’s other works here, and do some stalking via Twitter as well.
Sadly, I haven’t gotten back onto the writing horse on any of the projects I have on the back burner; however, I am very proud of the flashback chapter I contributed to the “Dengler & Butts” fanfic which by itself raised $100 and as part of the entire story raised $1,000 for the Child’s Play Charity during the Desert Bus for Hope Internet telethon. (‘Netathon? Intelethon? We really need a better descriptor for what DBFH is.) Midnight in Paris really is that amazing; just re-read my review if you need some convincing. I’m not sure if Owen Wilson will be nominated for an Oscar on the basis of his acting work in it, but I’d give a statue to Kathy Bates for her supporting role as Gertrude Stein. The fruit-named movie that Jill was thinking about was Bananas.
If you’ve never seen The Room and would like to attend a screening, check out this list.
Now that John Rogers is back to updating his blog with posts about “Leverage,” I need to finally sit down and watch the season four episodes I missed.
According to this article from May 12, Stephanie Krikorian wrote in The Wall Street Journal that an executive producer revealed that many of the voters for American Idol are girls, but also their mothers, too. So I’m calling that a partial win for my argument.
It was the blind auditions like Beverly McClellan’s which made me love watching “The Voice” at first. (I lost interest right around the time that my boyfriend and I finally started moving in together.) The fact that both Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera wanted to work with her reaches out and touches that part of me which feels really strongly that truly talented people will always win out over what is superficially attractive. Call it the egalitarian socialist in me.
Because YouTube/Google is really lock-stepped with NBC’s copyright lawyers, here’s the Nico Nico version of the Voice battle between Vicci Martinez and Nikki Douglas. Best iTunes money I spent this summer. If the official site still had the video on it, I’d link there but…
For current events and historical archives purposes only, I am linking to the Wikipedia article on Harold Camping, a Christian radio broadcaster who believed that the world was going to end first on May 21 and later on October 21 in 2011. Because otherwise, I wouldn’t have remembered why I made that joke about the Rapture.
It’s almost as if The Guardian knew we’d be finally putting up this podcast this weekend. Check out Nick Cowen’s recent interview with developer Ken Levine about Bioshock Infinite, which will be released some time next year. As for the game’s official website, it’s a little buggy, but can be accessed here (after you verify you’re a legal adult, that is).
If you haven’t seen the footage of the new Lara Croft in the reboot of Tomb Raider, all you need to do is click here, courtesy of IGN’s YouTube channel. Normally, I’d link to the game’s official website, too, but for some reason it doesn’t want to play nicely with my version Firefox and I can’t even select my language. Also, this is the Topless Robot article I’m referencing, written by a former co-worker of mine, the wonderful Rob Bricken.
And that’s another episode in the can! Next up will hopefully be more interviews from the New York Comic Con as well as a special interview that we’re recording this week on Wednesday. If you have any feedback or questions about anything we talked about, please let us know in the comments.
Moody and atmospheric, and that's only a screenshot of "Girl with a Heart Of"
In the ongoing debate on whether or not video games can be art, one of the lynchpins is that art is supposed to have or reflect a statement about the world, pose questions about it, and elicit reactions to it. There are major releases like Heavy Rain which embody this type of marriage between video game, philosophy, and art, but that doesn’t mean that an indie developer can’t join in the fun as well.
Alexei Andreev of Bent Spoon Games is one such developer who over 11 months, starting last January conceptualized and released his very first game called Girl with a Heart Of. As noted in the press release, Andreev hopes that with his game, he can get people to think about what it means to be human and whether or not you can transcend it. It has a lofty goal, but we here at Geeking Out About wanted to see if he was able to achieve it. With review copies in hand, co-editor Jill Pullara and staff writer Jonathan Cherlin journeyed along with main character Raven to the city of Underfoot, and here’s what they had to say (with many spoilers) about the game:
First off, I apologize for the audio quality. But I don’t blame TalkShoe at all, because I forgot my own instructions to both Jill and Jonathan and had my cell phone on speaker. I guess I’m going to have to learn how to talk and type at the same time.
Throughout this podcast, we know that Alexei Andreev is the sole developer behind the game. He did clarify later by email that he hired artists Choo Kiau Ping and Alice Bessoni, whom he found through DeviantArt; Nick Pittsinger composed the music. Hence, the pronoun switching referring back and forth between a single creator and a development team.
Here’s the link to Andreev’s unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign. And one thing of the nice things he noted during his campaign was this: “Anyone that donated (or will donate) at least $5 to this project will get the game for free, even if there is not enough money pledged by the end of funding period.
If you’re like me and have never played Final Fantasy VII before, here’s a link to the in-game version of “Aerith’s Theme. “Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy” will resume touring next year; check the show calendar on the website here.
Just in case you forgot, Jill and I went through the demo for Hector Badge of Carnage: Episode 1 a while back and really enjoyed it; watch us play it here.
I’m glad that Jill and Jonathan were willing to revisit the concepts behind transhumanism; as Andreev says in the interview, he was inspired by LessWrong.com.
Once again, here’s our final take: Girl with a Heart Of
Created by Bent Spoon Games
Designed by Alexei Andreev
Art by Choo Kiau Ping and Alice Bessoni
Music by Nick Pittsinger
Rating: 13 and up
Pros: Great music, multiple endings and ways to control the narrative, decent replayability, great fighting mechanics, good world building and mythos, ideal for a mobile platform Cons: Not enough use of fighting mechanics, not enough substance
Jon:Girl with a Heart Ofhad incredible music, an appropriate art aesthetic, and good / innovative gameplay concepts. It had a good idea for a story that was, unfortunately, never brought to fruition. My other problems with it were that the music cut out after two minutes of entering any area. Also, that there was no dialect to the dialog, which made for a stale reading experience. However, I applaud the developer for creating a creative and innovative game with limited resources. But next time, either keep within a small scope or pool your resources for a bigger game.
Jill: This game clearly had a lot of heart put into it, with a world that is interesting to hear and read about, and an epic battle between light and dark always looming in the distance, and you, Raven, squarely in the middle of it all. Because your heart is special, you and you alone have the ability to stop this endless war between Light and Dark forever. Along your journey you’ll make friends out of enemies, enemies out of friends, learn magic, and have the power to influence the people around you.
This almost sounds like a Bioware game, but it’s not, it’s the indie game Girl with a Heat Of and it broke my heart.
Now there are some games that are just no good, and this is not one of them. Anyone who loves video games, and role playing games especially, will see all the good in this game, but they are also the ones this game will disappoint because this is simply a Chekov’s Gun situation.
And it’s a really big shame, because it’s these things that are being built up to, that I was really looking forward to, that never happen. At the end of the day, when I get the wall of text for the ending, I have that dropping feeling in my heart, the way my mother must have felt when I dropped out of college: You could be so much more.
I do urge you to give this game a chance, it has a lot going for it, and knowing that you may be disappointed in it may let you enjoy it more than I could, having to go into it blind. Try to enjoy it for everything it is, and not what it promises to be.
To purchase a copy of “Girl with a Heart Of” at $5.99 USD for your PC or Mac, you can click here. It’s also available at $2.99 USD for Android devices as well as the iFamily of devices.
Due to having gotten hired full-time by the place I’d been temping for all summer, I was only able to go to the New York Comic Con for two days instead of four this year. As a result, I had to carefully pick and choose which panels I attended, making sure that nothing overlapped too much and that I had ample time to get from one panel room to the next before the official start time.
The very first panel I attended on Saturday was for Womanthology, a highly successful Kickstarter-funded project whose aim is to bring more attention to writers and artists who want to create comics by pairing up new and unproven talent with other creators who have already been working in the industry. The unique part about this project is that all of the creators involved are female.
I’m pleased that I was able to get in to see this panel, and when you listen to the audio, you may understand why as well. Show notes after the jump:
Here’s a link to Global Giving, the charity to whom they’ll be donating all of the profits from the book, if they get that far.
In the interest of disclosure, there has been some criticism of the anthology from both men and women, pros and journalists (hereare a fewlinks; you can Google-search the rest and the official responses from the Womanthology editors on your own).
At this point, I’d like to apologize for the dodgy sound quality during the Q&A section of the panel because I’d moved away from my seat near the speakers and into the line for the audience microphone. I tried to fix as much in post as I could, but obviously it’s not the best. Next time, I’ll bring my audio cable so that I can plug my recorder directly into the sound board.
Here’s that Twitter roll-call once again: Laura Morley (@morleylaura), Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl), Mariah Huehner (@tiredfairy), Nicole Falk (@nicolefalk13), Suzannah Rowntree (@suzanimated), and Renae DeLiz (@renaedeliz). If you’d like to follow all of them at once, you can use this handy list that I created on the @geekingoutabout account: Womanthology-editors.
Personally speaking, as the submissions editor and contributor to a different kind of female-empowering comics anthology which will also be doing a Kickstarter campaign this December to help with publishing costs, I love the idea that people can come together so quickly to produce a quality product. I also have my reservations about some of the ideas and suggestions put forth in the panel, which I may discuss in a future Geekly Speaking About podcast.
Interestingly, a final note I have to add about why the idea behind Womanthology is so important comes from the result of a random search I did when I couldn’t remember what time the panel started and I found myself at Mindy Steffen’s website. Steffen is the creator of AER HEAD, an indie comic she created last year. She was also in the audience for the panel and was an attendee at last year’s NYCC as well; the difference between the two years for her was vast:
I noticed a significant difference in people’s general responses to me this year when I mentioned that I colored Marvel comics as Kyle Baker’s assistant. (I was careful not to look like I was blatantly name-dropping, and didn’t bring it up with everyone. It naturally came up in conversations). I had a published Deadpool Max comic to show as an example too. Last year, I toted my portfolio around to publishers and asked advice, and was told at worst that my style wasn’t what they were looking for, and at best to just submit samples online to the company’s general email, not to anyone specific. (I don’t like online art submissions, because like job submissions, I think they go into a black void and my time was wasted). But this year, people paid attention to me more! I got lots of positive feedback from the AER HEAD mini comics, and I may have gotten some possible leads to future projects – fingers crossed!
Now, I may just be a cynical so-and-so sometimes, but were the publishers and editors this year responding to her art and talent more on its own merits or the fact that she has worked with a known quantity and is therefore an approved member of the comics-making club? Will the same kind of recognition extend to all of the unknown talent in Womanthology? I most certainly hope so.
Comments? Feedback? Rebuttals? I look forward to hearing from you below.
Comics, gaming, anime... everything one could possibly "geek out about" was at the New York Comic Con
Once again, Geeking Out About was at the New York Comic Con, which was held at the Javits Center in New York City. Our review of the show will be uploaded later, but for now I’d like to present to you some highlights from how I spent my Saturday and Sunday. Complete information and links can be found below:
Kevin Bolk is the head guy behind Interrobang Studios, whom we’ve profiled before. If you’re interested in checking out the pages of Daddy Daughter Ninja Day: My First Ninja Training Manual, Bolk has generously uploaded some of the illustrations here.
Anime USA 2011 will be held this year from November 18 to 20; other guests at the con include voice actor Wendee Lee, the visual kei band BLOOD, and comedian Uncle Yo.
The two artists that Jane mentions in the “Art for Hope” book are Jacques Pena and Dave Guertin, and their pieces are pretty sweet. After the show, Jane said by email, “The anthology will be available December 2011 (pending Apple approvals). It will be available for a limited time only through the VIZ Manga apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, as well as through VIZManga.com” and “People can donate directly at Architecture for Humanity.”
Anne Cain’s work is more awesome in person than on the screen; you can find her DeviantArt gallery here where she has some digital photography as well. You can also see her sister Deb’s work here under the name Studio Mia, where she has sequential pages up. Hey, DC Comics, why haven’t you scouted these talented ladies yet?
The Starfire controversy has been widely covered by the comics press, but I think it was this blog post by author Michele Lee wherein she asked her 7-year old daughter’s opinion of the art and depiction which went the most viral. The official DC response (viaTwitter) was: “We’ve heard what’s being said about Starfire today and we appreciate the dialogue on this topic. We encourage people to pay attention to the ratings when picking out any books to read themselves or for their children.”
Laura Lee’s website is here, and her galleries are a joy to browse through. And while we’re at it, the trailer for Page by Paige is below:
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize profusely to the always-awesome Dean Haspiel, whom I interviewed last year at NYCC, but I fell into a hole after a relationship ended and I never uploaded the interview. In addition to his numerous graphic novels, you can also see Dean’s work in the “Super Ray” comic (PDF) from HBO’s “Bored to Death”; elements of the Ray character are loosely based on him.
I started reading comic books back in the mid to late 1990s, and the first stories I loved were the stories of the Chris Claremont-written Uncanny X-Men. When I saw him in Artist Alley, I had wanted to do a quick interview with Claremont, but I decided instead to get audio of him explaining his “Mekanix” miniseries featuring Kitty Pryde to some of her 9th grade female fans who wanted him to sign their comic books. Hearing this old comics vet sharing his work with female fans was just wonderful to me. The woman who laughs at the end came all the way from the Czech Republic to meet him!
The questions I had wanted to ask were about the preview piece Claremont had on his table, Wild Blood and how it felt going back into the prose world 20 years after having published First Flight and its sequels. I’ll also add that when I first read them, I totally loved the books and his Nicole Shea is the template upon which I’ve based my female Shepard.
Writer Jared Axelrod wasn’t at the table, but artist Steve Walker was, and I was glad to hear him talk about their graphic novel The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City which will be coming out in May 2012 from Tor.
By the by, if you’re interested in either recording a bumper for the show or advertising with us, please email us at geekingoutabout@gmail.com, and we’d love to work something out.
Stay tuned for “Voices from New York Comic Con” Part 2, which will go up as soon as I finish editing it, which features a very special interview which I got at the very last possible second while NYCC was ending on Sunday.
Does a Shepard by any other gender kick as much ass? We're about to find out...
If you’ve been listening to our “Geekly Speaking About…” podcasts, you’ve probably heard co-editor Jillian Pullara and me talking about Commander Shepard from the Mass Effectseries of games from Bioware. While she’s mostly played the PC game version and I rocked the Xbox 360 version, we both have a similar sensibility towards the main character in that we think she totally kicks ass. Lowell Greenblatt also loves playing Commander Shepard and thinks that he’s got a real compelling story to tell.
But the problem between us is that our Commander Shepards are different genders. And that got us to thinking: Could playing the character in the Bioware game as the opposite of your preferred gender change your perception of the game?
It’s also interesting to note that according to this newspost that Jerry Holkins has never played a male Shepard, saying: “I’ve made it pretty clear that I tend to play women in Bioware games – Shepherd (sic) is not now, nor has ever been, a man. I don’t know who the dude traipsing around in the commercials is; a jerk, most likely.”
I messed up: Sarah Michelle Gellar originated the role of Kendall Hart, who was Erica Kane’s daughter on the AMC soap “All My Children,” for which Gellar won a Daytime Emmy. And then she became Buffy.
Is your Commander Shepard female or male, and why? Would you be willing to play as the opposite gender for a while? Why or why not? We welcome all answers and feedback in the comments.
It’s time once again for another edition of “Geekly Speaking About,” which we recorded on September 14, 2011. Joining myself and co-editor Jill Pullara are two of our newest contributors, Lowell Greenblatt and Jonathan Cherlin. We really do hope to get these going on a more frequent basis, and your feedback is always helpful. Show notes are right after the jump:
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be coming out sometime in “holiday 2012”; meanwhile, players of Star Wars: Galaxies can enjoy their last hurrah when the servers shut down on December 15. If you’re more of a Trekker, the Star Trek MMO has you covered; yes, it’s out of beta now.
Incidentally, my main on WoW is a level 51 Forsaken hunter on Proudmoore, and I’m trying to find a good RP server as well. Suggestions can go into the comments.
More information about Patrick Rothfuss and his works can be found here; I believe I’m going to have to put these books on my Kindle list as well (because we’re running out of space for them in our bookshelves). The Hunger Games is being made into a movie, and the Dresden Files was made into a TV show which ran for only one season.
Speaking of “Game of Thrones” isn’t it awesome that Peter Dinklage won an Emmy for his performance? He is such an awesome actor; I’ve loved and had a crush on him ever since I saw The Station Agent.
Catherine—which looks really cool—features animation by Studio 4C, the same studio which is currently bringing to you the new “Thundercats” series.
Not embedding it, but here is the first of the Red Letter Media Star Wars reviews; enjoy the rest at the risk of your free time as it’s almost as long as the movie itself. And as for “The Clone Wars,” Jill later noted that two of her friends who are huge Star Wars fans have come to love it, “either through sheer will or by legitimate means.”
Jurassic Park 4 will happen, as reported by Deadline.com from the San Diego Comic Con. And if Steven Spielberg wants to have two to three years to make it, I think Universal should just let him have that extra time, don’t you?
Adam Ferrara attempts to jump a $1,000 used Cadillac over a ramp
Thanks to a recent bout of insomnia, I finally finished leveling out and editing the second of the two audio podcasts that Kara Dennison and I recorded while we reviewed the first three episodes of “Top Gear USA.”
The reason why I had to do a lot of editing work on this one is that while the audio tracks for Kara and myself were just fine, the one for our our special guest amateurautocrossracer Rob Lantz was considerably quieter, and so I had to splice out and amplify almost every part where he was speaking.
Originally recorded live on December 5, 2010, I hope you enjoy this blast from the “Geekly Speaking About…” past:
Luckily, “Top Gear USA” has been renewed for a second season, so there’s a chance we could do another podcast like this again to see how it has improved over the first episodes of its inaugural season. If you’d like to download the audio, you can do so by going to our page at TalkShoe. And despite all the audio problems, it really was fun doing this, and I hope to be able to do more live podcasts soon.
Behind the scenes, co-editor Jill Pullara and I have been recording podcasts while we work on something fun for our upcoming vidcast series, the first installment of which will be up in an hour. This particular one was recorded on May 7, 2011, and thanks to us finally getting some technical details worked out, it’s ready for public consumption. After the jump, I’ll give you the show notes:
If we went too fast for you, here’s the complete list of games on display and for play at the Smithsonian’s “The Art of Video Games” exhibit.
That trick that Jill was talking about with the Rhianna song? You can try it yourself:
If you’d like to download this show, you can go to the show’s home page at TalkShoe. I have to stitch the next podcast together, so expect that one to go up in maybe a week or so? Comments, questions, and kudos can be left here.
My ongoing technical difficulties have persisted, but now that I’ve finally got a clue and later edited out the parts with the poor audio, I’m happy to say that the analysis and live commentary on “Blind Drift,” the second episode of Top Gear USA is ready for your listening pleasure.
You can check it out below or in the right sidebar:
Please join us next week on Sunday, December 5 at 10:00 pm Eastern, when Kara Dennison and I (and perhaps a special guest) will be concluding our three-episode test and hope to answer the question: “Is this show actually any good?”
(Actually, a 4.5)
