Sims 3
By bard noir | June 9, 2009
I’m wondering what sales of the Sims 3 are really going to look like. Sure it’s more visually appealing than the Sims 2 and from what I can tell the character development and game interaction is more involved but who’s really going to buy it? Most of the people I know who bought the Sims 2 weren’t actually playing the game but using it for filming. Conceptually there isn’t a whole that that seems to have changed from the Sims 2. Fights are still “cartoonish”, most of the intimacy has the a majority of maturity removed, and we’re going to be back to square one as far as modding the Sims 3 goes. While it won’t take long for cheats and hacked object to show up it will still be a while before was have pictures that allow us to force the characters to interact in desginated ways.
When I first played the Sims (original) I played the game, but the Sims 2 was leaps and bounds ahead of the Original Sims so I bought it to play and accidently felling to Machinima wich only boosted sales for the game. But again, I don’t really know anyone who “plays” the game at this point. Even my own need to purchase expansions were not for the game itself but for the varous locations and objects I wanted to use for filming. Those that are doing movies have already expressed they don’t want to convert over as no one would want to rebuild everything for a series they are in the middle of.
Personally I think Lionhead should get off it’s laurels and make a “the Movies 2″ but with better technology. Or sell the whole concept to EA Games. Can you imagine characters that look like 3rd Gen Sims in a game like “The Movies”? Not only would these movies be better looking (one of the things that killed the game in the first place) but they wouldn’t be as static (fixed camera angle and limited interactions is another thing that killed the game). Lionhead has always been one of those companies that had good ideas they could never execute. When I first bought my copy of “The Movies” it was always locking up and crashing my system. I spent months going back and forth with Tech Support only to get “We cannot determine what would be causing this issue” and then they basically told me to stop bothering them. I don’t think I’ve bought another product from them again… so I guess a sequal to “The Movies” would have to produced by another company before I’d buy it anyway.
Topics: Bard's Abyss, Machinima | 1 Comment »
R.I.P. the Radio Show
By bard noir | May 29, 2009
So I’ve been getting some real encouragement to do the comic. I will probably start testing some graphics, but in the mean time I may put together a kind of “Radio Edition” of Episode 5 and 6. It was a two part Episode (pre-planned) due to the heavy use of musical numbers.
Yep, Episode 5 and 6 were “Musical Episodes”. The Actors had pre-recorded their songs but the script was still being polished. Since I have the finished script and the voice clips I may just do this. Besides, who doesn’t want to hear Erica the Singing Slayer? Or Jezebel doing a Billy Idol Cover… seriously.
I the mean time just check out Episode 4 and try and imagine Dorian serenading Rachel.
Topics: Machinima | 1 Comment »
R.I.P. Comic?
By bard noir | May 22, 2009
So, I’m sitting here watching a “Heroes” Webisode and I rather liked what I was seeing. It was interesting to see other stories taking place within the same world as the main characters. I’ve even been thinking about “Buffy”, which was a great show and revived through the use of Comic Books. I still need to read “Season 8″.
With R.I.P. at it’s end I found myself going through old scripts, looking at what I had been working on and where the series was going to go and part of me doesn’t feel I’m ready to stop telling that story. So I’ve started kicking around the idea of a Comic style version. I just haven’t decided if I want to do full page Comic Book style or more like WebComic with 3 - 4 panels updated regularly.
When I got into Machinima it was never about directing, or doing music vidoes. It was always about writing and convaying a story. My first Machinima ever was just a trailer for a RPG Series, My second was “I” which told the story of a guy who tries to change who he is to get the girl. After that was “Broke” which was the same story from two points of veiw and then who could forget “Vampires”, which was all about the sterotypes we see in the media.
I’ve always been out to tell a story, and that’s where R.I.P came into play. But my stories aren’t done, so in a way it’s almost an injustice to leave this one as it is now. For those that were following the plot I have to say there was so much more planned. Dorian’s legacy, Erica’s ability as a Slayer, Jezebel’s power and role in the story. It’s all written… now it just needs to be seen.
Topics: Bard's Abyss | 3 Comments »
YouTube Release and Removal
By bard noir | April 23, 2009
While uploading the 4th and Final Episode of “R.I.P.” I found that YouTube wanted to remove my popular movie “Vampires”. I’m not going to raise too much fuss about it because the movie is still viewable on my website at BardsTavern.com just clikc on the “Movies” link.
It just means it’s not there for all the people who liked it on YouTube.
Ironically enough, “Perfect Pain” is named after a song that you can hear featured in the latest Episode. The band, Anubis, is local to Houston. I’d seen them live and have thier CD. I approached the lead singer, Chris, about using Anubis’ music for a project and Chris first checked out my work. His favorite video… “Vampires”. He said it was the video that made him want me to use thier music.
It’s kind of poetic that the band who’s featured in the latest YouTube release favored the latest video I removed from YouTube.
Topics: Machinima | No Comments »
April 24th. Official launch of R.I.P. Ep4 “Perfect Pain”
By bard noir | April 22, 2009
After years of working on this project, we have reached an ending point in the series. While it’s not where I wanted it to end, it’s a good stopping point none the less. Due to production problems I’m having to make this Friday’s Episode the final one of the Series. But that’s not to say I didn’t have 8 more Episodes on Paper – or PDF as the case may be.
What makes Episode 4 such a perfect endgame is the collaboration with Crystal Witchery who brought her own unique style of Machinima to this Episode. It was quite a big moment for me, giving my script over to another director and wondering what the finished product was going to look like. And using her SFX and all but one music choice I added the voices and we had quite the stylistic end result.
At www.Youtube.com/BardNoir one might be able to catch a sneak peak of the post-midnight release, but fear not. I still plan to have a showing here on Facebook as well as making the high resolution video available for download here at the Tavern.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the series as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
And once again, thanks for watching.
Topics: Machinima | No Comments »