Esta semana se celebró la Gamescom 2010 en Colonia, y ha resultado ser mi primera experiencia en una feria del sector de los Videojuegos. Fue una visita relámpago, en plan “Blitzkrieg”. Tan solo permanecí en el recinto unas 5 horas y media, pero me dió tiempo a ver todo lo que tenía ganas de ver. Incluso atendí un par de presentaciones y conseguí algo de merchandising (La camiseta del Portal 2 me la llevo a la tumba…). En el siguiente vídeo veréis como fueron dichas 5 horas y media para mi: cómo las viví, cómo las disfruté y qué opiniones me crearon. ¡Disfrutadlo!

ENGLISH: For my non-spanish followers: the following video sums up my experience at Gamescom 2010. Unfortunately, it is in Spanish only, but if I get at least 10 requests, I will gladly subtitle it into English. Promised.

I, as thousands of travellers around Europe, have been affected by Iceland’s volcanic ash plume. Since EasyJet is going to refund me the money, and the flight was cancelled for my own safety, I cannot get mad about the whole situation. I’m just one of many people affected. Looking it from the bright side I have now plenty of time (basically the week I booked for holidays) to spend on myself, including my projects and such.

…

Fucking volcano… ¬¬’

According to Los Angeles Times, that’s what defines a Spaniard, and we’re back into the piracy! Good old times! But now, the British Crown is not the victim of our misdeeds, no. This time, Hollywood is.

Between 2006 and 2008, illegal movie downloads in Spain went from 132 million a year to 350 million, according to research firm Media-Control GfK, at the same time that the number of DVDs sold or rented fell by 30%. Some studios now see Spain as a lost market.

“People are downloading movies in such large quantities that Spain is on the brink of no longer being a viable home entertainment market for us,” said Michael Lynton, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

This is true. I cannot deny the fact that most of the Spaniards prefer to download stuff for free instead of paying for the same stuff in retail, or even digital. I do, actually. I’m as guilty as most of the people mentioned in the article. Apparently we don’t have any respect for culture, we’re destroying many industries by behaving in this way. Musicians are running out of money and discographic companies cannot give them the opportunity they need to break into the mass market. Movies are lowering their overall quality and videogame studios are disappearing every week.  Really? No, this is a lie.

The fact is that Spanish citizens found a more pleasant way to bring culture to their homes, but it happened to be a “non legal” plus “non profitable for some” way to do it. Let’s talk about musicians. The ones that are bitching the most about “ilegal downloads” are those whose career is about to end or, (pretty ironic indeed) the ones that are not happy enough with their profits. If you ask a singer or a band that is trying to get some recognition amongst the public, they will tell you that services like YouTube, GoEar or even Torrent sites are the best thing that happened to anyone who wants to become famous. So, Internet is not really damaging musicians career, actually, Internet is helping them to get some audience. Discographic companies are the ones that are fighting against the progress, just because there is no place for them in today’s market. Internet is doing their job. This is why they are pissed. This is why they lie.

Same shit happens with movies. Hollywood is pissed with the Spanish market because we don’t buy as many DVDs as they expect from us. Has Hollywood considered the possibility that many of the movies released lately are not really interesting for us, as a foreign audience? Do they take huge disappointments, like Transformers 2,  into account? Do they care about what we like? Why they fuck they try to sell us movies like “Zombie strippers” in Bluray format if that movie was a complete failure in theaters? Is this going to happen with Avatar? I tell you now: nope. Avatar is going to sell thousands of DVDs and Blurays all over the country. Because is a good movie! It’s enjoyable! It’s a fucking delight for your eyes and ears!

But now, let’s talk about the philosopher stone, the real deal, the reason why all this happens. In LA Times they don’t mention the most important fact that drives 90% of the Spanish population to consume culture in a non-legal way. Let’s take a look to a random product, for instance, a Bluray movie, the very same product in an US online retailer and then in a Spanish one. Let’s see the differences:

So, first question: where are those 15$ going to? Is not a cultural matter, God dammit! It’s a fucking rip-off, that’s what it is! This is the reason why many people (like me) prefers to buy stuff at Amazon instead of going to a local store and buy it retail. Going to the theater costs in Spain around 10€ nowadays (13$). With videogames is even worst: a game like God of War 3 costs around 70€ (94$) in retail while in the US it costs only 34$ (24€). And this is not new: some Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games were sold back in the 90s for around 12.000 – 16.000 Ptas (90€ – 120$) .

So, let’s put it straight: Hollywood is complaining that Spanish people don’t want to pay abusive prices for 80% of their crappy movies and they want even more strict regulations to be applied in our Internet, besides the fact that Spain has the most overpriced Internet connection in Europe (50€ – 70$ per month).

Looks to me that the people in between the customers and the music/film/video game makers are the ones who are responsible for this situation. Aren’t we paying enough money? Why they want us to pay even more? Spanish retailers increase the prices so much that people, unsurprisingly, prefer to stay at home and download whatever they wanted to buy, for free.

By the way… did I mention that our country is passing through a financial crisis right now? Yes, on top of what was already mentioned. Funny, isn’t?

I will keep buying in the UK or any other European country until the situation changes in Spain. For now, I don’t give a crap if Hollywood stops selling DVDs in Spain. That may even help to rise our cultural level a few points.

Well, after quite some time, I thought that all of you deserve an explanation about the current state of the mod and why the f*** is taking so much time. As a proof of my honesty, I recorded myself (Which I really hate) talking in English (which I think is embarrassing) to give you all the information you’ve been waiting for. If you have more questions, I will be pleased of answering you here.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about changing the style of this website. Back in 2006, I thought it was a cool idea to make it look like Steam, but that style is getting older and is not attractive anymore. Right after finding a new style that I liked pretty much (The one that the AVGN uses in www.cinemassacre.com), it happens that Steam is renewed and uses EXACTLY the style that I wanted to use in this website. Is that a sign? Yes, it is. So, expect some visual changes in the following weeks.

My job keeps consuming my time and my mental strength. I need to breathe. -_-

It took me 4 fucking years to create this must-have section in this website, and it is finally available! Most of the content works for old or outdated mods, but still, you can browse the content and download whatever you are interested in. Some of them include VMF maps or materials that you may find useful for your projects.  If you have any suggestion or comment about this new section, please, let me know.

You can find the new section in the left sidebar (or HERE if you feel lazy)

Thanks for your patience and enjoy with the new/old content!

Some of you may know that this map was already released, and it has been online for quite some time (Around 3 months) in L4DMaps, but after the new VPK packaging method was released, I didn’t update the map as the rest of the community did and my map was removed from the server. That has been specially annoying because some of the people who tried out my map gave me pretty useful feedback in its comments… feedback that was lost forever. However, I think that this updated version will run better than before. Next week it will be available for download again. Hope you like it!

You can also watch a VIDEO of this map.

Smart move, EPIC. Now it’s time to give the Unreal Community what they deserved for a decade. As seen in EPIC’s UDK Wesbite:

Epic Games, Inc. announces the launch of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides community access to the award-winning toolset like never before. This software release is available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, including game developers, students, hobbyists, researchers, creators of 3D visualizations and simulations, and digital filmmakers. Anyone can start working with the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 toolset by downloading UDK at www.udk.com, where detailed product features, technical documentation, commercial licensing terms, support resources and more are also available.

What does this mean? Means that you have free access to the most powerful tool in game development nowadays, with frequent updates and a strong community that can support you whenever you have a related question. This is one of the best things that has happened to the modding/developer community in the last years. The UDK comes with 3 game examples, and each of them provides enough material to start experimenting with your games or projects.

Download it from HERE.

Nicely done EPIC. Bravo!

I’m speechless. This is the kind of experience that you cannot define as “a game”. ICO is more than a game, it feels like an interactive fairy tale that cannot be despised by including it in the 3D adventure genre, because that is, from my point of view, like an insult to this masterpiece. ICO gets straight to the point: it’s a 3D platformer where you have to solve a countless number of environmental puzzles, most of them to help Yorda, the mysterious girl that you find right after starting the game, to get into areas that she cannot reach by herself (Like opening doors, bridges, blowing up walls or activating hoists). At first, I thought this was a cheap and unnecessary extra challenge, because I really hate games where you have to take care of more than your main character, but soon I realized that you need her more than she needs you.

She is the key to solving many of the puzzles, and soon you start to develop some feelings toward her. Yorda is the opposite of a sidekick: she doesn’t help you unless you tell her so, she feels bored and confused most of the time, and looks like she’s escaping with you just because she doesn’t have anything better to do. Also, she doesn’t speak your language (the subtitles are just a bunch of weird symbols) and you never get to know what she’s saying, thinking or feeling at any time. You just presume what’s going on by the way her voice sounds. Don’t you think this is amazing? Yorda is a character that doesn’t speak your language, help you and neither have a background story. It’s so mysterious that is probably one of the best developed characters in videogames that I’ve ever seen.

The action is set in a massive fortress, more like a huge Zelda dungeon. Once you reach the rooftop, you can spot some landmarks that you’re going to recognize for the rest of the adventure. This helps the perception of a single huge environment even more, where you can know at any time what is your position in the fortress with no need of a map (And this is a huge achievement for a game of this kind). The lack of music reinforces the feeling of solitude, with the exception of some stingers used to communicate something, like when the shadows appear, a puzzle is solved or a door is opened.

The game is short, about 4 hours long, but that doesn’t mean it should be longer. Actually, I believe this was the perfect timing for this adventure. More would be unnecessary and less would be disappointing. There is only one thing that I miss: once you finish the game, there are no unlockables, besides the 2 player mode, which is the very same adventure with the ability to control Yorda by a second player.

By the way, it has one of the most beautiful ending themes I’ve ever heard:

My veredict: 9/10

Last week I’ve been playing two games highly recommended by some of my colleagues. The first one is Shadow Complex, recently published for XBLA and available for 1200MS, and the second one is the well-known Assasin’s Creed. I must say that both of them were surprisingly good, even when I was expecting exactly the opposite thing.

I’m usually pretty cautious when a game gets highly popular among the gamers. If something is popular should be either a sign of good quality or fun experience… but then I remember Halo 3 and I’m right back into the cautious thingy. Fortunately, Shadow Complex was a nice surprise, an enjoyable and fun experience which has brought back a genre that was almost lost in the past: 2D Adventure games. It’s hard to hide the close relation that this game has with one of my favourite games of all times, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, because it’s basically the same game, with a modern setting and different mechanics. But hey! This is not bad at all! Shadow Complex is good enough to survive to that comparison. Apparently the plot is somehow related to a novel written by an homophobic dude that gave some bad reputation to the game before it was released, but just forget about that shit and focus on the game! It’s good. Damn good! Probably it would be better if you wait a couple of months until it drops the price, but if you cannot wait, I can asure you that this game is worth those 1200MS. Oh! Did I mention it was developed using Unreal Engine 3.0?

My veredict: 8/10

Yeah, I know… Assassin’s Creed is already old. I had the game since last year, but until last week I didn’t finished it, and I did it in one long sitting session. First I will talk about its flaws: it’s repetitive, it’s repetitive, it’s repetitive and it’s damn repetitive. YES, everybody knows that already. The gameplay is basically a sandbox game split in 6 challenges: climbing towers (In order to unlock more challenges),  sword fights, thievery, interrogatories, races and assassinations. You will have to repeat them like hundreds of times along the game, and I have to admit that I enjoyed playing them (Specially the sword fights), but of course, this is only my opinion. Many people felt tired and abandoned the game after a couple of hours, and I cannot blame them, because I did the same long ago. Everybody missed some variety in the missions, specially the main ones  had no difference with the secondary ones at all. In the other hand, the game is very well polished, looks solid and the ambience is just perfect. Also, the plot was deeper than I thought in the first place (which really caught me by surprise) and opened a lots of questions that hopefully will be answered in the second game that is about to be released. Let’s hope that many of the problems this game had will be fixed in the upcoming sequel (Specially about the variety!).

My veredict: 7/10