Donburi Boy

True Crime

jamesnadiger — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 20:02:03 +0000

“True Crime” or whatever it’s going to be called by Square-Enix, comes in at #89 in Games Radar’s list of 100 Most Anticipated Games of 2012.

No release date. No clue if anything I did for them made it into the final game, but still nice to see that someone out there remembers that it exists.

New Pretty in Geek trailer

jamesnadiger — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:23:16 +0000

Meet Anna, a character in Elize Morgan’s “Pretty in Geek,” a web series I did some punch up writing for.

More on Pretty in Geek (like/follow/subscribe/etc):

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Today’s recommendations:

Film: Battle Royale, directed by Kinji Fukasaku, written by Kenta Fukasaku, based on the novel by Koushun Takami
TV: Venture Bros. Season 1, created by Doc Hammer & James Urbniak
Graphic Novel: Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., written by Warren Ellis & illustrated by Stuart Immonen, published by Marvel Comics
Book: The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon & Edward Burns
Game: Chrono Trigger developed & published by Square-Enix. (Available on Nintendo DS, Nintendo Virtual Console, Playstation Network, and iOS.)
Music: A Touch of Someone Else’s Class by The Black Diamond Heavies

Batman: Arkham City

jamesnadiger — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 01:59:51 +0000

I was a big fan of Arkham Asylum. It drew a lot of inspiration and game mechanics from Legend of Zelda and Metroid, it featured 90s cartoon voice talent Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill returning as the voices of Batman & The Joker, it was as if the people at Rocksteady games knew exactly how to craft a game suited to my interests.

And that’s how it felt to me: Crafted. Not just “let’s put Batman stuff over some other game’s template”, as a lot of other superhero games tend to be God of War ripoffs (Green Lantern & X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

I didn’t know how they would top it, but they did it by upping the scale of everything in the first game, which is both good and bad.

The good:

It is a very detailed city, with lots of little nooks and crannies to explore. This game takes place in a big chunk of city, which is roughly the size of a SNES-era Hyrule. While you’re mostly going from rooftop-to-rooftop, there are a handful of buildings that are “dungeons” and every area gets more accessible as you collect gadgets.
The combat challenges are WAY easier in Arkham City than they were in Arkham Asylum. I am still trying to get 3-medals on some of the AA challenges, but in AC I am knocking them out like crazy. Conversely, the predator challenges seem to be a bit trickier in the new game, or it could just be that I’m a terrible Batman.
The fighting is smoother and the moves are more awesome.
The voice acting is still good. I’ll be a little bit sad if this is truly Mark Hamill’s last showing as the Joker because he really kicked up to a higher level.

I like the different takes on the characters. Making the Penguin a savage little Cockney man was an interesting choice. I love that his monocle was a broken bottle that got jabbed into his face.
I like the way the weaved the Catwoman story in and out of the main story. I hope that opens the door for more characters to be included in the inevitable sequels, since Nightwing and Robin are playable in the DLC challenges. I also like how each character handles a little differently, just enough to notice, but not enough so that you feel like you have to re-learn how to play the game.
The Riddler stuff was way better in this game. In fact, most, if not all of the side missions were well thought out. A fun distraction and didn’t take you out of the main game for too long. The Zsasz phone booth missions were also really intense.

The bad:

In the first game, Batman was drawn into Arkham Asylum because the Joker engineered a prison break, and Batman had to run all over the place to take out the bad guys and save some of the staff. That made sense. In this game, the mayor of Gotham City sectioned off a chunk of Gotham City to serve as an open air prison camp, which includes all kinds of crazy landmarks and public institutions, including a museum, but no one thought to empty the museum of exhibitions first? The whole premise of the game is kind of crazy and stupid, even for a comic-based video game, but once you choose to ignore that, it’s pretty fun.
Batman’s a real asshole in this game. He’s supposed to be a kind of stoic loner, but every time someone tries to help him or challenge him, or interact with him in any way, his answer is invariably, “Fuck you, I’m Batman.”

But it’s not just Batman who has a shitty attitude, everyone in the game hates women. I get that it’s in a prison, so it’s not exactly populated with saints but all the bad guys in the game talk about what a bitch Catwoman is, but they’d still fuck her if they got a chance. It’s a little unnerving, I don’t know that it’s super necessary, and it made this game feel a bit awkward in tone, like it was trapped between being a cartoon show and the Christopher Nolan movies.
They released an Arkham City soundtrack, which was full of some okay songs, I guess, but they were nowhere to be found in the game. There was no “Gotham FM”, they didn’t even play over the end credits, and if you listen to the songs, they are TAILOR MADE for end credits, as they aren’t good enough to be their own singles, but they all kind of capture the mood of the game. And yet, the one song that I loved, The Heavy’s “Short Change Hero” which they used in a trailer, wasn’t on the soundtrack. I don’t get it.
I hate the Augmented Reality training missions to teach you how to glide with the cape. Again, that could just be because I’m a shitty Batman.

Two-Face is such a great villain and they didn’t use him enough, and when they did, it wasn’t very well.

This game felt really short. I know there’s a harder New Game Plus mode, and I know I’m still playing free-roam mode after the end of the game, but the main story felt so short. Arkham Asylum felt short, too. I guess it’s a testament to how good the pacing and excitement were, since I am left wanting more. But for $60, I don’t know.
This isn’t really directed at Arkham City, but this game and Uncharted 3 are the first games I’ve ever bought on Day 1, where I had to go through the hassle of getting pre-order bonuses and getting DLC as it comes out, rather than waiting for a Game of the Year or Greatest Hits edition. I’m not sure if it’s worth the hassle.
As of yet, there are no plans to release alternate costumes based on Grant Morrison’s time traveling Return of Bruce Wayne arc. I won’t be 100% happy with a Batman game until you can crack skulls as Caveman Batman, Pirate Batman, or Cowboy Batman.

I totally recommend the game, but while I have decided that this is a game I’m going to go balls-out for and buy the DLC as it comes out, I might recommend that you wait for a Game of the Year version so that it includes some extra stuff.

Technical difficulties

jamesnadiger — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 14:05:35 +0000

My laptop is still gibbled. I built a new desktop to replace it, which was an intense experience for me, as I’ve never attempted anything like that before. It worked beautifully for a week but now won’t start. So I am pretty goddamn frustrated. I have about two months worth of scribbles piling up in my notebooks, waiting to be turned into scripts.

So I am just trying to claw my way back up to the productivity I had in the summer.

Writing is being done. Projects are moving forward.

jamesnadiger — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 01:12:15 +0000

I read all the new #1 issues from the DC Comics relaunch and I reviewed, somewhat hastily, on my Tumblr/stream of consciousness blog. I thought I’d post this quick index in case you wanted to compare your impressions of the New 52 to mine.

Keeping (absolutely on board!):

On the bubble (I am keeping it, but could drop it at any moment):

Might check out a collection (Not good enough to get, but there is something there, maybe):

Dropped (yuck):

So, after the first month, I am actively getting 25/52 of DC’s offerings, which is more DC than I’ve ever collected at any one time. That number could shrink rapidly if the bubble books start to suck. But it could also increase if any of the books in the “wait for the trade” suddenly pick up.

How about you guys? Did you read them all? What did you like? How does your list compare to mine?

Project Update

jamesnadiger — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 21:29:24 +0000

Project U has been re-written, and we’ve had a meeting with a potential director and executive producer. So things are rolling along on that. We’ll do another round of rewrites over the fall, and if all goes well, we’ll look to shoot that next summer.

I am writing episodes for a new webseries called The Gate, a sketch comedy series focused on St. Peter as he deals with hordes of weirdoes trying to get into (or out of ) Heaven.

There’s a very basic website up, which I’m sure will get filled in with more details as more details become filled in.
Or, if you’re in the Toronto area and would like to hang out with me and other webseries types, we’re having a fundraiser comedy night. You find out the details here. If you can’t make it, there’s a handy Paypal button if you’d like to donate a few bucks to help us get things like, you know, cameras and, uh, actors and stuff.
Yes, I know it’s on a Wednesday night and there’s work and school and stuff.

I was writing a Castle spec that got nuked in the great laptop crash of August, but I’ve started to assemble notes again. The fourth season premiered a few days ago, and it actually is a bit of a relief because I was writing for a new character without having seen her in action.

Parts for my new desktop are in the mail and I hope to be up and running again at full power by the end of the month. August was full of distractions and I feel like I’ve lost a lot of steam on the writing front. But now that fall is here, it’s time to charge ahead, once again.

Tablet test

jamesnadiger — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:54:31 +0000

My laptop died a few weeks ago. I was pretty well backed up, but I lost some drafts and notes so it’s delayed all my writing quite a bit. I am replacing the laptop with a new desktop and a tablet. I got the tablet this evening, a sexy little Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1. This post is me testing the WordPress app, so nothing to see here except me bragging about my new toy.

True Crime is dead. Long live True Crime.

jamesnadiger — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:16:43 +0000

I just found this nice bit of good news over at Gamasutra. It seems that Square Enix has picked up the rights to True Crime: Hong Kong from Activision, who cancelled the game earlier this year.

What’s interesting is that while they picked up the rights to the game, they did not get rights to the True Crime IP. Which, honestly, I think is better, because this True Crime had very little in common with its PS2 predecessors.

I don’t know how many friends I have left at United Front Games back in Vancouver, but I hope that this is good news for them because I know that they were working really hard on it.

Now, to keep my fingers crossed that they kept something of mine, so I can maybe get a writing credit!

Here’s a peek:

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Today’s Recommendations:

Film: Chocolate, directed by Prachya Pinkaew & written by Chookiat Sakveerakul
TV: Luther Season 1, created by Neil Cross and starring Idris Elba
Graphic Novel: The Punisher MAX: From First to Last, written by Garth Ennis & illustrated by Richard Corben, Lewis Larosa, and John Severin
Book: Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Game: Super Mario Galaxy developed & published by Nintendo
Music: Jazz by Queen

Here, PiG

jamesnadiger — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:55:22 +0000

Here’s the first teaser for Pretty in Geek, the estrogen-empowered webseries about geek girl gaming. I did a bit of writing for it. Oddly, they’re leading the teasers with Jason, the show’s only dude. Though he is the catalyst for a lot of silliness.

I’m looking forward to seeing the show, as despite hanging out with creator/star/Twitter hashtag abuser Elize Morgan on a regular basis, I wasn’t there for the shoot, nor have I seen any footage so far.

More on Pretty in Geek (like/follow/subscribe/etc):

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Today’s recommendations:

Film: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, directed by Ang Lee & written by Wang Hui-Ling and Tsai Kuo-Jung
TV: Breaking Bad Season 1, created by Vince Gilligan & starring Bryan Cranston
Graphic Novel: We3, written by Grant Morrison & illustrated by Frank Quitely
Book: The Lies of Locke Lamora, written by Scott Lynch
Game: Red Dead Redemption by Rockstar Games
Music: Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

The Room

jamesnadiger — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:34:15 +0000

Here’s an interview with Tights and Fights creator Scott Albert over at SciFinal.com.

And from it, here’s a pic of the punch up session, with a mix of writers from the video side and transmedia side.

Good looking group of funny people right there.