I imagine that a number of you are familiar with this one if I mentioned it to or played it for you during my original kick on it a few years back, but after a conversation with Danny this evening, where he apparently saw a poster for a theatrical (as in, in a theatre) version of Star Wars and I was reminded of this Star Wars 'A New Hope' concept album. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with a lot of the music - it really wasn't all to my taste, but one or two of the tracks were golden. And fortunately, the tracks I enjoyed the most also have videos to them.

The following is a CG rendered concept video for the song that portrays the mind of an emotionally beleaguered Luke Skywalker after being told that he needs to stay on the sand ocean of Tattooine to tend the moisture farms with his uncle Owen for another season before he could be allowed to go to the academy.

Enormous geeks like myself should enjoy this.

Creativity.



This blog is quickly becoming a smorgasboard of regular SPC obsessions. Mostly Beatboxing by the looks of it as well. Either way, enjoy.

Once again I have become completely enamored with another game. This happens unnecessarily often, but when a company like Grin throws down the gauntlet of retro gameplay, old-skool game remake and groovy breakbeat remixes of old NES chiptunes, it's more than a little difficult for me to not immediately fall in love with it. As a matter of fact, when I'm not frustratedly tearing out what little hair I have left trying to get through the Albatross without getting my bionic ass kicked, on the train to and from work, I've got the soundtrack fed straight into my ears in perpetuum.

I had a conversation not too, too long ago while I was still working in the gaming industry with my close buddy and manager, Ryan, about what retro games need remakes, or need to be brought into the next generation. Bionic Commando didn't come up, but even though it didn't originally pop into mind, I sure as hell am glad that it popped into someone's. The best thing is, those crazy folks at Grin didn't just settle for one or the other, they went ahead and did both! I'm not sure if I'm going to go out of my way to play the next-gen version of Bionic Commando, but Rearmed has skyrocketed into my current top-3 easily, and stands to remain there for a while until I beat it at least once or twice.



Spencer wants YOU to swing to victory against a reanimated Hitler!

I've played a lot of games in my time.

I'm honestly not sure what the first game that I ever played was. I'm fairly certain it was a text-based adventure, aptly named 'Adventure', on my Dad's old TI 99/A. Great machine for its time, and I think part of the reason that I've always been enamored with computer and console gaming. I understand years later that my Dad did use the 'Terminal Emulator' program more often than not because it was helpful with his work, as a programmer, but to me, it was always all about the video games. Adventure, Tunnels of Doom, Pole Position... Good times and great games.

Now, I've always been a gamer, but it's honestly truly stunning just what a game can do. When you grow up with the technology, a few colored sprites could amaze you when it was the big thing. And I'm also certain that in a few years' time I won't be as impressed with the tech that I'm dealing with today, but even so, what the hell is going on with texture mapping these days?

I must be having trouble keeping up with the times or something like that, but I'm astounded by the visual quality on my games these days. I've been playing Bioshock and Mass Effect a lot recently. Bioshock is pretty, obviously, but I'm not really that much of an FPS player, and though it's visually stunning, it's also really high paced, so I don't actually get much time to really savor the visual aspect of my games. That's what makes me really enjoy the visual quality of Mass Effect.


Look at me - I'm hideous! Exactly as I was hoping when I created him, based off of an old character I used to play in the days of tabletop gaming, Spider Watkins. I have no choice but to be called 'Shepard' in the game, but that doesn't deter me. After I completely customized the face, made him old, wrinkly, have a horrible complexion and just look like a dick in general, I really looked closely at that head. That's some morbid acne scarring! Not to mention the scraggly chin-fuzz, receding hairline and just general ugliness.

That doesn't even really compare with the quality of visual while the game is moving. I'd never thought of the concept of 'film grain' on a game before, but I've noticed that it really, truly does ad a certain special 'something' to the way the game plays. Add motion blur, generous particle effects and the kitchen sink, and it's a hell of an experience. Of course, the advancements in graphical quality have their drawbacks as well.

I'm not going to bitch about how people are spending too much time on visual quality and not nearly enough on gameplay and actual quality of story - they've been doing that ever since that steaming pile that is Final Fantasy 8 came out, and honestly I think that Mass Effect doesn't really suffer that problem - at least where I am now, despite a noted lack of prospective replay-value, the plot's pretty groovy the first time around. What I want to complain about today is resources.

I have a pretty decent GPU in my computer. For a laptop, though It's no longer top-of-the-line, my NVidia Geforce M/Go 7800 does the job. As you can see above, Mass Effect still runs nice 'n smoothly at top graphical settings, and even though my CPU doesn't agree with it, I can also run Bioshock (as mentioned before). But god damn that thing lets off a lot of heat. I have my room set perpetually to 24°C while I play half of the current-gen games because my video card doubles as a space heater. It's so hot playing some of these intense games, actually, that I think it's gone so far as to damage itself.

It could also have been because of the smorgasboard of trojans and adware I found on my computer recently (a theory which I'm testing out and finding pleasing results - I'd prefer to have had a badly bugged computer than a broken and expensive video card with an expired warranty), but apparently the XPS computers have a bad rep of having poor cooling. It at least doesn't appear to be irreparably damaged, and a couple of little screwdrivers, a clean desk and a big can of compressed air seems to have helped as well.

But I digress.

I probably haven't even seen the games out there that make this look like crap, and I'm also sure they exist. I haven't really spent enough time playing Crysis (Which is on display at my local computer goods shop), but it looks nice 'n pretty as well. I don't really have much of a point with this journal entry, actually. Just to prove, maybe, that I think games look awesome recently, and that I'm pretty excited about what's to come.

Though I fear what it's going to do to my video card.

I don't really usually have much to talk about, but my life often revolves around music, as most who know me probably realize. When I'm home and not watching TV or playing a game, I've always got background music to keep me going. I have various phases that I go through, but almost always return to my love of lyricless music. I've had this argument with a lot of people, but to put things very simply, I am a fan of music that doesn't have to rely on vocals. I find vocal music inferior to its instrumental brethren.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate vocal music - I sing along with a lot of songs, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was by far my favorite piece of entertainment I've seen in a very long time, but still I find that when it comes to music - actual music that you listen to as a soundtrack to life - the pure instrumental music is what really catches my ear. Any music that can evoke a feeling - elicit a response simply by being there, and not having to shove itself in your face is a wonderful thing. When there are no lyrics telling me how I should interpret a song, I feel much freer to enjoy it as I will.

While living in Koshigaya Family Town and staying with a few roommates who taught at Nova as I did (back in the day), my roomie Steve came across one of the musicians who has very easily made it very close to the top of my list. Andy McKee.

I don't really know much about Andy - I've never really been much of one to research the background of my favorite musicians. I know where they come from usually - Ferry Corsten and C-Mon & Kypski are both Dutch (like my boss, Jort), but that's about the extent of it. Andy McKee is a guitarist. And a damned good one. That's all I think I need to know about him. The first way I ever found Andy McKee was when Steve was on one of his retro musical kicks. I don't remember why he was on a push for Toto, but at some point, he came across Andy McKee's rendition of 'Africa'. He was blown away and by gum, so was I.

Listen to the skill that flows out of those fingers. And how one man with one guitar can rebuild an entire song. What impresses me particularly is Andy's fretting ability. I don't know why, but I've always been a fan of hammer-ons and pull-offs. When someone can do them well, I'm usually happy to listen to them. I even spent hours practicing them myself, though I am nowhere near, nor do I ever expect I will be ever near the level of skill this man has to use his hands to create a concert.

Now, I was essentially convinced with Africa, but needed to see more. I got my hands on any album I could find, and eventually came across his duet album with Don Ross, "The Thing that Came From Somewhere". I find myself putting the first track, "Spirit of the West" on repeat and listening it for an entire lunch hour while I eat my turkey breast sandwich at Subway. It puts me at ease, while giving me the energy needed to jump into an afternoon of sourcing, e-mailing and fully-suited client meetings.

Just wanted to share. And if someone else becomes a fan, I'm happy.

This is my journal.

I make no promises to update it at all regularly - even as of the day after tomorrow, I will be taking a short trip to Korea, wherein I don't really even intend to touch the internet. I may not even bother to bring my computer, though I probably will, if only for the fact that it's got a DVD player, my girlfriend likes My Name is Earl and I feel kind of naked without it.

I was involved in something big today. Due to confidentiality of work, I don't really care to speak in very much detail about it, but today we helped a very important man fill a very important position in one of my client companies. It may be within the top three largest placements ever made within my company, and Erik (the candidate's consultant) and I are the company golden boys for the day.

Aaron, a coworker whom I respect very much, is a very successful Client Services rep. He knows his companies, knows where to spend his energy and consistently makes between four and five successful placements monthly. Even so, he's cynical and feels no joy in the high pay that this garners. I wonder, when I start to make four and five, perhaps even more placements in my company monthly, if I will start to lose the energy and good feeling that I get in being part of finding another human being a job that they will (hopefully) be very strong and successful in...

I'm not sure that will happen, really - Aaron and I are somewhat different animals. There are no silver linings for him, by the looks of things - he is a born Eeyore, but even so, he's good at what he does and I respect his prowess.

To allow the pessimist to shine for a moment, this sudden burst of good fortune (four placements in the span of a week) has also brought a lot of attention to me. I have made only one placement successfully in any given month so far, and this month, if things go well, I may even see five, or dare I say it - six. If I can't maintain this momentum, this attention could also be unfortunate for me just the same.

Regardless, though, today I am a star. Even if stardom is fleeting.