Dan is a Canadian with a penchant for writing things, watching things, playing things and occasionally leaving the house. You can follow him on Twitter: http://bit.ly/WN6xMI
No matter how you choose to occupy your time in Skyrim‘s massive province, at one point or another you’ll inevitably find yourself in one of its many shops. The buy/sell menu eventually becomes a familiar thing even for the most battle-hardened Tamrielites, and while stopping in at your local store is a handy way to earn some coin and free up your inventory, it’s not the game’s most memorable feature.
Nonetheless, Grosjean Brothers Productions has made a 4-minute video celebrating the highs and lows of a Nord’s everyday shopping trip. It’s full of flashy effects and packed with references to the critically acclaimed game, right down to the infuriatingly repetitive dialogue from the shopkeep. Take a look:
Ah, makes me want to dive back in to my old save file. And I was finally free of its grasp, too.
Bioware recently released some info on the bonuses you’ll receive if you pre-order Mass Effect 3. It’s pretty mild in terms of content but I’m going to write this article as an opportunity to release some of the pent up anticipation I have for the game’s upcoming release in March.
So here we go. The ME3 pre-order offers several in-game items that you won’t be able to get anywhere else (At least until they’re inevitably sold as DLC later in the year). Almost anywhere you reserve your copy you’ll receive the M55 Argus Assault Rifle. You can see it in action in this clip below:
As usual however, there is additional bonus content available depending on where you put down your reservation; buying your copy from Game Stop will also net you the ‘N7 Warfare Gear’, which includes the N7 Valkyrie Rifle and Defender Armor. Here is a preview of what they can do:
Meanwhile, EA Origin users can pre-order their copy of the game and receive the AT-12 Raider Shotgun. No video of that, unfortunately. It does kind of feel like an unbalanced offer, with Game Stop customers getting an extra item for their purchase as well as not being tethered to EA’s less-than-stellar digital service, but I suppose it’s not a game-changing loss.
The fall of our economy has been hard on everyone, including Hollywood, California, that magical place where even the litter is diamond-encrusted. It’s hard to believe, but big-budget studios have taken a pretty noticeable hit in recent years, and revenue continues to fall each year. It always helps to look for the good in bad situations and that’s just what this story is all about.
It looks like Warner Bros. has hit the brakes on Jaume Collet-Serra‘s upcoming adaptation of Akira while they make one last negotiation to work out the on-going budgetary and casting issues that have been plaguing production from the start. The Hollywood Reporter says that a call has been made requesting that the entire crew and production crew drop everything they’re working on until further notice. As one insider put it, “everyone has been sent home.”
This would be great news for Akira fans like myself. I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m not a fan of the way the remake was going. Besides some questionable casting decisions and storyline changes, Akira just doesn’t seem like it’s doable in live-action; anime, as you probably know, can go to some pretty wild places from time to time and Akira‘s subject matter requires an extensively realized cyber-punk world. I imagine lowering the budget would make this challenge even more difficult.
Before I begin, I’d like to mention that in my previous post I had confused some of the facts regarding the two companies involved in the Avenger controller situation. Paul Christoforo, the anthropomorphic human waste at the core of this whole thing, was running a one-man PR company, Ocean Marketing (Remember, that’s two T’s on Twitter!), which was handling the marketing of the Avenger controller, a device created by a separate identity, N-Control. The two businesses were otherwise unrelated. Apologies to N-Control for lumping you in with Christoforo.
I think I can clear things up more effectively with a visual aid. Starting at 1:12 in this clip of John Carpenter’s The Thing, Palmer (David Clennon, the “man” on the end of the bench) will represent Paul Christoforo/Ocean Marketing. The innocent men struggling to get away from Palmer will symbolize N-Control, and Windows (Thomas G. Waites, the unfortunate man near the end) will represent the victimized customer, Dave. Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade will be played by Mac (Kurt Russell). Let’s watch:
Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s get to it. Things have been moving really quickly in the short time since Dave and Paul’s e-mail exchange went viral.
Kotaku contacted N-Control as well as the PR firm who were marketing the Avenger prior to Ocean Marketing, The Hand Media, to try to get their opinions on the story.
It’s no surprise that N-Control have decided to cease working with Ocean Marketing, opting instead to hand the job over to an internal marketing manager at their own company. The controller’s inventor and owner David Kotkin had this to say:
[quote]”We apologize for our poor representation from Ocean Marketing[…]We wanted to give Paul a chance. He was rough around the edges, but he had drive and enthusiasm. However his behavior was unprovoked, unnecessary, and unforgivable. We are no longer represented by Ocean Marketing.“[/quote]
However, Kotaku went on to quote The Hand Media inc.’s CEO Brandon Leidel, who was handling the Avenger controller job prior to Ocean Marketing’s involvement. He gave a less political statement regarding Christoforo’s work ethic:
[quote]
” …[he] said ‘I know this guy at Gamestop. I know this guy at Best Buy,” Leidel said. “They saw dollar signs and decided to start working with him. We decided to walk away from this because it was a nightmare dealing with their problems and this guy Paul.”
Leidel describes Christoforo as a “rogue marketing guy” someone who operated without any rules and never checked in with The Hand Media about what he was doing.
“He was representing the company in a way I wasn’t comfortable with,” Leidel said. “I brought this up a few times and said I cant have this guy representing the company and not have any control.”
[/quote]
The poor man tasked with cleaning up the Avenger’s public image is the above-mentioned new marketing manager for N-Control, Eli Schwartz, who pointed out that Christoforo’s display has done substantial damage to customers’ opinion of the Avenger:
[quote]”At this point I’m just trying to point out that, what was said was someone who we hired, what he said should not reflect on the product itself,” he said. “So far the Amazon rating on the Avenger has gone from 4 and 1/2 to 1 star in around 8 hours. None of the reviews are true, they all just appeared today out of pure hate trolling.”[/quote]
Kotaku went on to mention, as Dave did in one of his e-mails to Christoforo, that this public recoil is an unfortunate thing, seeing as the controller does still work well, and provides much more control for disabled gamers who would find a standard controller unwieldy.
This is getting too serious. Did you know there’s already a Youtube video parodying Ocean Marketing? Yup. There is.
And finally, here’s the resolution to this whole fiasco. As you know, gamers and internet users are two groups which bear a reputation for being very vocal and opinionated. So it’s only logical that immediately after the story hit all four corners of the web, a riotous response from the internet community resulted in a massive flooding of Christoforo’s Twitter account and e-mail address. Well, Sir Paul of Ocean Marketing felt a little overwhelmed by this and went back to Mike Krahulik for help. Yesterday Mike (Or Gabe, rather) posted this in an update on Penny Arcade:
[box_dark]
“At 7:12am this morning I got another mail from Paul. It was one line and simply said:
“You have the power Mike Please make it stop”
[/box_dark]
An hour later, a more complete apology:
[box_light]
‘Hey Mike,
I just wanted to apologize for the way our emails progressed I didn’t know how big your site was and I really didn’t believe you ran Pax , So for what’s its worth I am very sorry. Your post has obviously made my life very difficult and I have not slept yet dealing with all the spam and personal information intrusion as well as my family being smeared on the internet. If you can please accept my apology and anything you can do to help if not me my son and wife please do. I have apologized to Dave and apologized to you what else can I do please tell me so I can make things good. I obviously care or I would not be emailing you.’
[ Gabe again] I think there is a big difference between being sorry and being sorry you got caught. I have a real problem with bullies. I spent my childhood moving from school to school and I got made fun of everyplace I landed. I feel like Paul is a bully and maybe that’s why I have no sympathy here. Someday every bully meets and even bigger bully and maybe that’s me in this case. It’s the same thing that happened with Jack Thompson. It might not always make the most business sense and it is a policy that has caused us some legal problems, but I really don’t give a shit about that. When these assholes threaten me or Penny Arcade I just laugh. I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the f–king ground if I think I can catch them in the flames.
-Gabe out”
[/box_light]
Well said. I don’t want to leave this story on a sour note, so I want to point out that Mike and Jerry, the guys running Penny Arcade, have proven time and time again that there is nothing ‘isolating’ or ‘lonely’ about the business of video games, and have done great work to develop a sense of community among gamers. I want to congratulate them for that. Thanks Gabe, Tycho.
Some of you who are old enough will remember going to a friend’s house when you were a kid and sitting down to play N64 or the original Playstation. If so, there’s a good chance you were stuck with the ‘other’ controller. You know the one – it was bulkier, the triggers felt weird and for some reason it was pea-green. Third-party controllers have been around for as long as consoles and their bizarre designs have always tried to give players a more ergonomic or responsive interface, but more often than not they end up looking impossible to use for human hands. I introduce to you, for illustrative effect, the Avenger N-Control:
It looks like H.R. Giger threw up on his Xbox.
This piece of hardware, that appears to have gained sentience and a few too many tentacles, is supposed to make button-mashing faster and easier for our primitive arm-stumps; an appealing concept for thousands of hardcore gamers, if they can figure out where to put their fingers on the damn thing. I’m saying the third-party controller racket is a weird place to find arrogant businessmen, but that’s what one customer, Dave, got when he ordered his Avenger N-Control from Ocean Marketing and found his shipment inexplicably delayed. Receiving no personal notice or public updates from the company at all, Dave sent an e-mail asking about his purchase, and what followed was an ugly exchange that Dave was kind enough to link to Penny Arcade. Some highlights:
“From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 26, 2011 10:14 AM
Yes it can be used with xtend play if you remove the stand and no one is allowed to cancel and re order if we catch anyone doing it we will simply just cancel your order all together and you can buy it retail somewhere else.
Things happen in manufacturing if your unhappy you have 7 days from the day your item ships for a refund. You placed a pre order just like any software title the gets a date moved due to the tweaks and bugs not being worked out and GameStop or any other place holds your cash and im sure you don’t complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer . Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I’ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself. Have a good day Dan.”
After hearing all of the worrying issues that caused Guillermo del Toro to leave the director’s chair in pursuit of other projects, and the long period of relative silence from production, it’s a relief to find some footage of Peter Jackson’s upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit today, in the form of a gorgeous trailer courtesy Collider.
Kind of nostalgic, isn’t it? It’s really nice to see that budget problems and creative changes don’t appear to have affected Peter Jackson’s interpretation of Middle Earth at all, and it’s a little embarrassing to admit how happy I am to be back in Bag End, and to see some old faces once again.
In addition to the trailer above, Collider also included a beautiful poster, along with the movie’s official synopsis:
“The Hobbit” follows the journey of title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakensheild. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers.
Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever … Gollum.
Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum’s “precious” ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities … A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
The trailer is vague, but if you’ve read the book you’ll know that things look as dedicated and faithful to the source material as all of the Lord of the Rings films before it. Of course, they’ve kept Smaug and the other creatures out of sight for the time being, which is a maddening tease, particularly after reading the massive feature on del Toro that was written in the New Yorker back in February. The interview, in addition to delving into the filmmaker’s fascinating story and older work, eventually went on to describe in detail some of the amazing designs del Toro has come up with for his fantastical creatures, including The Hobbit‘s iconic dragon:
“Smaug’s body, as del Toro had imagined it, was unusually long and thin. The bones of its wings were articulated on the dorsal side, giving the creature a slithery softness across its belly. “It’s a little bit more like a snake,” he said.
Smaug’s front legs looked disproportionately small, like those of a T. Rex. This would allow the dragon to assume a different aspect in closeup; the camera could capture ‘hand’ gestures and facial expressions in one tight frame, avoiding the quivery distractions of wins and tail […] Smaug’s eyes, del Toro added, were “going to be sculpturally very hidden.” This would create a sense of drama when the thieving Bilbo stirs the beast from slumber.”
There’s a lot more about Smaug’s description and concept in the full article, and all of it sounds awesome (The article is a must-read). Obviously the dragon might not feature at all in the upcoming movie, as An Unexpected Journey is only the first half of the story, but it’s a safe bet that del Toro would pour that same dedication and creativity into all of Middle Earth’s inhabitants, and I desperately hope that Peter Jackson is incorporating as much of his designs as possible into the final film.
I’m really excited for The Hobbit films, if you can’t tell. The trilogy is arguably the largest cinematic event of our generation, but even on top of that, I always felt the Hobbit was the best of the novels. The potential for these final Tolkien adaptations is paralleled only by our expectations of them – it’s a lot to overcome, but Jackson has proved before he doesn’t shy away from huge undertakings. 2012 can’t come fast enough.
Grizzly Bomb 