sound design

Sometimes sound design makes something amazing not as amazing as it can be...

Virtual Barber Shop... use headphones, close eyes

Give it a try!

Other then the bad voice acting it is quite enjoyable.

3D Desktop Prototype

After seeing this prototype in action it feels natural, like it was always meant to be like this... I can not wait. For more info head over to: www.bumptop.com

APB (All Points Bulletin)

I had some time to listen to a few of the GDC 08 presentation. I tell you I am quite impressed with APB and the (high quality) no bullshit approach of David Jones. The 1^st 20minutes of the presentation; the visual demonstration of the character customization do not make much impact as audio only, but after that when David gets into explaining the overall concept it becomes quite interesting. I can only hope that Realtime Worlds is up to the task of keeping a game world like this fresh and exciting. I envision the tie-in with last.fm will take game audio into a new direction, quite excited about that. Well if Crackdown was the 1^st step then we are in for a wild APB ride. Most of the presentation is out on youtube, I suggest having a look.

Too many blog softwares, not enough time!

Blog softwares…

Well my time is just too valuable to keep track and updating blog software every few months or when we update our servers. So as you see I have decided to give blogger a try, hopefully it be as painless is they say it is… I already feel the lack of features but at the end of the day a blog is only as good as the post upon it.

Forza 2 GUI (Grand Unthoughtful Idiosity)

I remember the original forza, how much I liked playing it and I also remember what drove me up the wall about it: the unintuitive user interface, there is not much point in getting stuck into it now, because we have a somewhat better but still unintuitive menu system in forza2. Just to get it out of the way forza2 is without doubts the one of best driving simulator I have played, extra so with the superbly tunable wheel controller.
But still the confusion of the menu system is so frustrating that it makes the question what the UI designer at turn10 is smoking or not smoking? Again no direct access to my cars (the garage) why? there are at least 16 buttons on the xbox 360 controller ... this like the dark ages of GUI. Race limitation (horsepower, speed, manufactures,..) are clear on the race/event page …stay with me… but changing or upgrading a car is four back clicks and two left nudges, then it is unclear what needs to be changed (upgraded/downgraded) to be able to race in the particular event. We do have this nice (home) button but that will not take me to my cars, why, why… I could literally write pages about how unthoughtful the UI in forza2 is. And at the end of all that I will still have to recommend forza2, it is a fantastic race simulator with no equal.