I hereby announce that

as of 16 August 2011

no other comics will be published.

I recently realized that everything has to come to an end sooner or later and it’s foolish to think that your works will go on forever if you’re not Walt Disney. That’s why I decided to stop now that I am completely aware of my choice instead of being forced to stop or unable to continue some day in the future. After all, 4 years are a good accomplishment for a single-handled project. I still have a lot of drafts for comics I wanted to draw sooner or later but I don’t regret choosing other plots instead of them.

This domain will cease to exist in February 2012 but until then I will still publish some news now and then, when there’s something nifty stuff on the internet. Commenting will still be possible but from today, registration not allowed. On the same date the Steam group will also be dismissed so you may want to befriend users in the group to avoid losing them. Before the time comes, I’ll give you the URL of my next-to-come online portfolio, where many unpublished works will be available for viewing as well as the whole comic archive.

Concerning the time I previously spent drawing comics it will be reinvested in drawing concept art, working out and learning 3D modeling.

Like me, almost everyone of you predicted the inevitable price drop of the Nintendo 3DS, what we didn’t expect was the actual timing. On August 12 all 3DS on the market will be retailed at a $170, €170 and ￥15000. PSV will be launched in Japan at the end of 2011 and worldwide in early 2012 but I think Nintendo wants to build a faster userbase with this sudden price drop. To be honest, I’m relieved that Sony forced Nintendo to take this step that will probably accelerate the 3DS life cycle. If you remember, the DS had a similar development in its first months of life, selling badly, few games and mostly unknown to the masses. Look at it now. I admit that the 3DS is now tempting me but I’ll wait for at least a game I’m interested in: Mario Kart 7 or Super Mario 3D land, whichever comes first. Unless I find a retailer that plays dirty and lowers the price earlier, allowing me to benefit from the 20 free games reserved for early adopters.

Regarding the last comic, I have uploaded the high-res version of the pseudo-Picasso painting. You can try to look at it in 3D crossing your eyes but I warn you: it won’t work. It isn’t supposed to! I just wanted to apply cubist theories to 3D vision and I think it’s pretty convincing. Click it to view it full-size.

Now that I had some more time to think I am back to express some more concerns about the current state of the videogame industry.

The first thing I have to say to everyone working outside of it is “calm down”. I’ve seen too many bashing reviews, and light-hearted comments lately and I think it’s time to position myself in neutral ground to show both good and bad sides of a few topics.

PSVita

I like to call it DS 2.0 more for the two touch screens than Sony’s never-ending habit of copying what has already been successfully done by others. Graphics-wise it’s amazing that such a small device can hold that much computing power but the few demonstrations on stage didn’t show anything relevant that hasn’t been done with a DS so far. While touch screens will easily provide a faster control scheme for games like Little Big Planet it’s also true that they will be exposed to dust, scratches and finger grease more than ever. The DS had screen protectors and later version of the system didn’t need them any more because the stylus wasn’t able to scratch the screen any more but placing a layer of (deforming) plastic on the PSV’s screen or any type of dirt carried by your finger kind of misses the point of having awesome graphics. Unfortunately, Sony never provided a proper way to protect the screen without buying a case .

Regarding the touch screen on the back I’m eager to see how developers can interface the player with it, because honestly you can’t see where you’re putting your fingers. I was amused at Sony’s demo of a new Modnation Racers title where you could raise mountain in the track editor by pressing “behind” the PSV or excavate lakes by pressing on the front touch screen but that could have also been done with the front screen only and a raise/lower button. The back screen is kind of unintuitive and unnecessary compared to what the front screen can do alone (it’s not unnecessary per se) and removing it could help Sony to balance better on that $250 price tag.

Oh, you know that I’m italian but… I like the name. It has a good sound.

Wii U

Still on names, I understand that “Wii U : Wii = 3DS : DS” in terms of market and I can’t argue with that. Dolphin, Revolution and Café were just project names but before the announcement I heard the name Beem and I kind of liked it more than Wii U.

To the people that felt deluded watching the conference or attending it, and those who sold their Nintendo shares directly afterwards, I want to ask “what were you expecting?”. Were you expecting a system that runs Crysis Warhead at 300 fps for less than $100, a controller that cures cancer or allows teleportation through the Xen and beyond? Let’s be honest for a moment, if Nintendo revealed a “classic” console with a Gamecube-like controller only with more power maybe you would have felt important for a moment, knowing that Nintendo made a console just for you “gamer” (I would like to avoid this word but it helps you to understand what I mean), ignoring completely the other 80-90% of other Nintendo customers who would feel clumsy and inexperienced once again. Those people are also the “U” in Wii U. What Nintendo is trying to do with the new controller is to convince people that they can have on the big screen those good experiences they had with their DS, be them alone or with friends.

Despite the negative criticism and cold reception of the new controller I saw a lot of fan depictions of possible uses for the controller, from x-ray screen in Trauma Center to micro RTS management in Pikmin, all of which were very intriguing. If fans can figure out gameplay twists like those in half a day I can’t wait to see what developers with their hands on the development kits can do. Easy development and new possibilities are what made the Wii and DS so successful and I don’t see any reason the Wii U can’t be successful too, except the price tag maybe.

My last concern is the shape of the controller itself. While at first it seemed huge I’ve noticed that’s smaller than I thought and it’s lighter than an iPad. I’ve already tried the same type of thumb slide stick in the 3DS an it’s not uncomfortable as it seems. Now I just need to hold it to feel how it rests in my hands. Remember though, both the DS and Wii have been redesigned before and after their launch.

Duke Nukem Forever

Two words: fun shooter. There’s not much else that we should expect from a game inspired to the standards of the early ’90s.

DNF doesn’t have a deep story or new game mechanics but it sure knows how to entertain with any sort of distraction. It really looks that the developers put more time into the jokes and fun stuff you can do than the rest of the game which it’s not a bad thing on its own when you’re laughing.  Basically it’s making fun of every shooter out there and quoting video games here and there. Which other game allows you to microwave a rat, jump on hamburgers and throw turds around?If you don’t find fun running into your enemy’s ankle with an RC car i don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Portal 2

Totally worth playing, both single-player and multi-player mode can be completed in about two weeks without rushing but you know Valve, they always put free DLC and development kits in the mix. Portal 2 further explores the definitions of “in and out”, “forward and reverse” and, above all, “not so fast”. Don’t think that just because there are less white walls the puzzles will be easier to solve.

The Co-op campaign is well built, giving the players tools to see through each other’s eyes or point out elements in the maps, but remember, the best tool is still your microphone.

Brink

After playing for a while you really feel like shooting isn’t worth the trouble, at least not shooting randomly at people. While most players found this game boring after a while I think Splash Damage did a good job putting emphasis on helping the team and building better teamwork than most of the shooters out there, TF2 included. The parkour isn’t as relevant as it is in Mirror’s Edge but it really changes how you approach maps, especially the widest ones.

Another year, another E3. Instead of making a boring list of what happened and what you should look into I’ll just post the IGN E3 video page. You’ll find all the conferences and interviews to the developers in a handy day-by-day list.

Now, on to some impressions:

Konami

Not a proper conference but it’s still nice from them to have a large update on their projects. Kojima needs to make an off-the-wall game as soon as possible. Up to now, he’s been masking his comedian self behind the serious look of metal gear.

Microsoft

Kinect is the word. Lacking a new hardware reveal Microsoft presented a handful of games with Kinect support. I especially liked Mass Effect 3, where you can use voice commands to speed up the action and direct your teammates. Too bad this feature won’t be available for the PC version. After seeing the rest of the games under development I’m starting to think that Kinect should be art installation hardware only. The ways it has been hacked are a lot more interesting.

EA

Nothing special but a handful of gameplay videos of their franchises. Classy and functional. What I didn’t like was the football trio with fake sweat and Sims Social. That last one gave me the shivers as I wondered how low our society is falling.

Ubisoft

I loved Mr Caffeine as much as I hated Kevin Butler last year. That’s a good way to host a show, with the right amount of humor and familiarity with the crowd. Ubisoft’s conference has been really entertaining with retro-styled cutscenes before they presented a game and relating the people in the audience of these events to what they have always been: fans of the medium.

Sony

Their conference has been very humble compared to the previous years,  especially due to the PSN outage, but it still had the kick. Lots of games both for traditional controller and Move and the reveal of the PSVita with some developers demonstrating the capabilities of the new hardware. A very good conference indeed but it could have been better without montage videos of random games and their brand logos. Those just wasted time.

(Mind someone explain me why I can’t stop laughing when I see Yoshinori Ono? Is it his wardrobe?)

Nintendo

Of course they didn’t wait to celebrate Zelda’s 25 years with tons of bonuses and announcements for 3DS, Wii and your real life. That’s a given, I think. As expected we got a step-by-step presentation of all the 3DS games that are to come in the next year and were only rumored or shown in stills last year. Lastly, the reveal of the Wii U, was a little underwhelming with a short video showing new gameplay mechanics, a tech demo and clips of triple-A titles unfortunately captured from their 360, PS3 and PC counterparts. That’s comprehensible though, as the WiiU is still at least one year from launch and can still show what it’s capable of.

I’ll discuss of the PSVita and WiiU reveal later as they deserve their own article, together with some other impressions about upcoming games and recently played.

Apparently Valve is pushing really hard the marketing for Portal 2, publishing special e-comics and even ovveriding the songs I want to play. If you’re looking at the score, well, I suck at pointman, ok? I play mono for a reason. While you wait for the official release of the game you might consider buying the new Humble Indie Bundle, dedicated to Frozenbyte, developers of the gorgeous Trine and his sequel.

If you’re not into indie you should hang from a lightpole check out what the future holds for us, or at least for those who are willing to make the jump to a dx11 video card.

I remain confident that Epic will make a great work for the optimisation, like they’ve always done, making those polygons run on my 4-years-old desktop pc.

For now, I know for sure that I’ll run Brink almost flawlessly, after I put some money on my pre-paid card for the pre-order. You can find the system requirements on the official Bethesta blog.