Broken Saints Blog-a-Plenty

Posted By Brooke Burgess

I was downtown grabbing a coffee on a patio, when this fella stopped by and asked for some change. I apologized for my dearth of hard currency, and instead offered him a smoke. He seemed down so I asked how his day was progressing, fiscally speaking.

“Lousy. It’s a Tuesday.“

I wondered aloud how that was an issue.

“Tuesday to Thursday are shit out here. People just keep to them- selves and don’t even look you in the eye. The weekends are usually worse, ’cause they’re all drunk or high and blowing off steam from the work they hated all week. They just pass that hate onto you.”

I was intrigued, and followed simple deduction with a query concerning Mondays and Fridays being his ‘money’ days, and if so, why…?

“Fridays, the week’s done. They’re either goin’ to work and feelin’ a little flush and fortunate – maybe even smug about their station in life and what they got at home – or they’re skippin’ off and takin’ a day to themselves, and givin’ me the wink and a coin in some sorta weird ‘I’m not workin’ today either’ thing. But Mondays is the best, ’cause they came from church the day before and are washed in guilt. They be tryin’ to earn favour with whatever God they think is tallyin’ their shit. They’re makin’ up for somethin’…and it makes the pain of startin’ their week weigh a little less, I suppose. Guilt’s a heavy thing, brother.“

He butted out his cig’, smiled with toothless vanity, and shuffled off towards the piercing and porn block of Granville – his dusty black trenchcoat flapping in the passing draft of electric buses and wayward limos of underage drinkers fresh from the burbs. And when the waitress came by to settle my order, I asked if I could change a ten for some coin. You see, I couldn’t help but be selfish in the end. I couldn’t help but think of the people behind this man’s theory. I couldn’t help but wonder what it’s like only feeling guilty two days a week…

Posted By Brooke Burgess

NOTE***: The following post is SPECULATION and EXTRAPOLATION based upon available information and industry connections. Please do not take what’s written below as FACT or GOSPEL…otherwise, you do so at your own reputational risk 😉

Well, after reading through yesterday’s posts and seeing that a couple of you were already pretty damn warm, I figured it was time to put an end to ‘dancing the cooch’ and just give up the goods. As you’ve read in the last couple of posts, I’ve yapped with journalists and developers who are pretty confident regarding some of the Revolution’s features. I had been hearing about these bits and bobs for months, but as a diehard Nintendo fan there was nothing to really spark my passion – especially considering the Cube’s lacklustre software showing several YEARS into its life cycle. But, for the sake of the lazy multitudes, here’s a quick feature recap:

GYROSCOPIC CONTROL: Several sources have suggested that the new control scheme will SUPPORT positional shifts a la Kirby’s Tilt ‘n’ Tumble. This means that not EVERY game will require you to pull a Pisa, but that Nintendo is championing the integration of this feature into at least one of their launch games. Talking with several developers, we agreed that this could work well for navigation games and maybe some sports experiences…but it’s nothing they’d be eager to program for.

TOUCHSCREEN INTEGRATION: I’ve heard from more than one reputable source that either a DS style touchscreen or an actual proprietary PDA device with be part of the new controller. As you discussed yesterday in COMMENTS, this makes sense with Nintendo’s technology partners, the creation of the DS, and Nintendo’s push towards ‘tactile’ experiences. Not a hard thing to program for and most likely a smart move, as Microsoft and PS3 will almost assuredly support some sort of integrated screen/handheld configuration.

WIRELESS: I popped up some clues yesterday regarding what I’ve heard about their wireless plans, and can most assuredly state that the unit will ship with wireless controllers like X-Box 2. But as IGN and others have pointed out, Nintendo’s pushing hard with their wireless technology and partnerships, and my sources support that it will go well beyond mere controller connection and into the realm of some serious data transfer: touchscreen/pda and machine, player-to-player, Rev to DS, Rev to PC, and Rev to Rev (both in-home and with locally based wireless ‘tribes’).

Okay. No major revelations there, but I bet its got you thinking about future game design and interactive potential, yes? Yes…but for me, the first twinge of excitement regarding this machine didn’t come until the final pieces of the long-rumoured DISPLAY puzzle fell into place:

– the IGN boys posted this regarding a patent for Nintendo’s upcoming display technology, which I linked to a few days ago. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to glean that this conceptually portrays a form of 3D image projection.

– at a major film conference called ShoWest just last month, a panel featuring George Lucus, Robert Zemekis, James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, and a satellite feed from Peter Jackson has studio reps, journalists, and theatre owners seriously jazzed about their plans to integrate cheap digital stereoscopic 3D (like recent IMAX features or the oldschool Captain EO experience at Epcot) into ALL major chains by 2007. Lucas even showed several minutes of the original STAR WARS with remapped visuals that popped off the screen and hovered in front of audience members. When an agent friend of mine was chatting with Rodriguez (there to pump Sin City and discuss his experiences with Spy Kids 3D), he mentioned how they were aware of a game machine beating them to the mainstream 3D market.

– the next day, I contacted another strangely influential industry pal/pundit and shared my thesis purely for fun’s sake (and perhaps some extremely lame bragging rights). The final shiny block of tetrisy knowledge slid into place when he excitedly shared the following – that the Big N had shown a real-time 3D add-on for Gamecube behind closed doors…AT LAST YEAR’S E3. It has since gone MIA. This is the sound of four rows dropping.

More details and potential software discussion to follow…for now, I’m eager to hear YOUR thoughts. How will stereoscopic 3D gaming usher in the ‘Revolution’ that Nintendo has been trumpeting? Will it end up nothing more than a Virtual Boy style gimmick, or will custom 3D glasses become the big fashion accessory of 2007 and beyond? With graphics chip codenames like Hollywoood and Broadway, does this signal Nintendo’s plans to make more cinematic games that mimic the upcoming 3D theatrical experience? If (and, from what I’m hearing, this will be a VERY big IF) Nintendo shows their hand at this year’s E3 by giving everyone at their annual press conference a pair of 3D glasses to wear, will players care?

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Ok…calm down and breathe. In the immortal words of the Holy Guide, DON’T PANIC. I don’t think the boys at EAD have whipped up the successor to one of the most feeble hardware releases of all time. Seriously. Instead, I just wanted to ease into the whole ‘Revolution Revelation’ this weekend with a couple of related posts that focus on what we can pretty much chisel in stone regarding Nintendo’s behaviours, their tech experiments, and how a cool idea in the lab can often go bad under consumer scrutinty.

Case in point? The infamous Virtual Boy. At the time, it was a cutting-edge, 32-bit (equivalent), self-contained, extremely immersive, ergonomically controlled, 3D gaming experience with stereo sound. Sounds WICKED on paper, right? But for anyone who spent more than an hour with their face buried in that sweaty black vulva of a display – with the key component being the reduction of one’s sense of sight to a tiny sliver of wavelength on the crimson end of the visible light spectrum – well, let’s just say that it wasn’t a surprise when the project’s designer Gumpei Yokoi was swept from the Big N’s Kyoto HQ in relative disgrace (God rest his Gameboy-makin’ soul).

And it doesn’t take the freakin’ Batman to divine that Nintendo’s been playing around with some interesting technologies for years now. Some of these are rumoured to be essential components of the Revolution experience. And, if and when all of them come together, it could indeed be a complete paradigm shift in the way we play games – from both a display AND an interface perspective. But are we going to be READY for it? Is it what we’ll actually WANT to play come Xmas 2006? Plain and simple question, gang…is it a good idea on paper that’s destined to fail in the living room?

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Eassssy tigers, we’re not an official studio project…at least, not yet 😉 But our provincial version of the Emmy’s – dubbed the LEO AWARDS by local production and performance chiefs – is holding a film festival next weekend, and guess who’s snagged some screentime! Yes indeedy, Saints…all five parts of CHAPTER 20 (considered to be the ‘spiritual climax’ of the series, and the trippiest of the bunch) will be showcased on Saturday, April 30th (5:30PM) at the lovely Pacific Cinematheque in downtown Vancouver.

Double-bill tix are available for 12 bones, but we’ve bought a block to give away to crew, cast, and any diehard saints that can make it to our shores! All you gotta do is drop DVD ‘project manager extraordinaire’ Kim Violato a line (kim @ brokensaints.com), and she’ll get you signed up in a jiffy for a date with us in a darkened theatre. And, if you promise to share the popcorn and nibs, we’ll make sure the 5.1 is cranked to heavenly decibel levels.

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Last post before we get into the weekend ‘tendo vittles, folks…promise. But I wanted to pop up another fan contribution from old pally and fan forum lurker ‘Solace’. I’m not sure if this was done in oil or acrylic – or what the canvas is for that matter – but she swore that her acoustic inspiration for the brushstrokes was Tobias’ sweet, sweet soundtrack goodness!

As we trumpeted a week or so ago, we WELCOME photographic and artistic contributions of all shapes and sizes to our wee corner of the cyber ‘hood. Got a nice handful of shots and snaps currently in the queue, but most of it’s from the usual suspects – so get off your keisters and put your pencils, crayons, and lenses to work! Do we have to remind you? SWAG is up for grabs, baby 😀

Posted By Brooke Burgess

JoshSpazJosh from the Forums has intimated that when he gets BS on the brain he tends to go a little crazy. My questions are as follows:

1) Is this your home bedroom or a dorm room?

2) If the answer to 1 is ‘DORM’, then do you have a roommate???

3) If the answer to 2 is ‘YES’, does that person have a history of mental illness that makes such messages a potential trigger for psychotic outbreaks?

4) Where did you get all the nifty blue tape? I know a girl that would totally dig using that…ahem 😉

Posted By Brooke Burgess

When we first started doing concepts for Broken Saints back in the summer of 2000, the core crew was pretty much a rookie triumvirate. Sure, I had a LITTLE more industry experience, but then I trumped the lads by 10+ solar cycles. (yes, yes…I LOOK young – but that’s just all the virgin blood drinking. For everything else, there’s Mastercard). And of the three of us, BS artist Andrew West was easily the most ‘raw’…hell, I smelled his fear and confusion when that rectangular hunk of plastic hit his desk. I damn near expected him to use it as an armrest. But after 4 years of commitment to his craft and nearly 5000 pencilled, inked, and painted sequences? The man spins gold. Scope the acrylic-on-wood self-portrait to the right. Hit PAUSE anywhere during the first 11 Chapters of the revamped DVD set. Hell, just zoom in and out on this ’til your wrist hurts. The boy’s got serious chops.

So, what does this have to do with the price of microchips in Taiwan? Well, Drew and I have been friends for nearly 10 years now. He used to grace my old videogame shop in North Van and we’d have the classic Sega vs Nintendo debate until I threatened him with physical violence – I was a musclehead, he was 14, and this somehow seemed fair at the time. But nostalgia aside, our bond formed over a mutual love for compelling videogame experiences, and Nintendo almost always emerged victorious in our books. They ruled 8-bit like Mario owned Peach’s ass. They dominated 16-bit like Guile scored effortless 6-hit redizzy combos. And even in the face of stiff competition in the 32/64-bit era, nobody – and I mean NO-DAMN-BODY – could work this type of magic. Or this. Or this. We were such diehard loyalists that there were N-shaped chunks in our stools. That’s right…our love was sickeningly true.

So when I shared my intriguing finds surrounding their next platform, I knew his initial reaction would be a pretty good barometer for hardcores everywhere. Andrew is NOT an easy man to impress, and he’s definitely not one to waste words or spraypaint shit and call it shinola. This is a guy who’ll offer endless wellsprings of support…but if you fuck up? He’ll let you know. Sure, he’ll FORGIVE you for your fall from grace, but that pedestal will never reach quite as high as it once did…even in the face of compensatory brilliance.

So I told him my big ‘secret’ – the one I’d pieced together from press releases and patents – the one cobbled from closed-door party speak and movie effects guru blatherings – the divine genesis that would hopefully resurrect the House that Miyamoto built, and march it boldy towards textured polygonal zeniths yet undiscovered. And you know what he said?

“SOUNDS cool…but what about the games?”

Truer words have never been spoken, kidlets. The looming spill of gleaned technology beans may thrill you, or just reposition thousands of eyebrows in the upwards-arched formation. Just keep that essential question in your hearts before swinging the pendulum either way this weekend, gang. As the cyber prophets and flame carriers for Nintendo’s great legacy, we should all remember what this is REALLY about.

Let the games – and the speculation – begin!

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Threw in a quick linkie to this last night, but finally found a suitable image for the Canadian New Media Awards. This is an annual competition that we’ve entered ever since launching BS back in 2001…but to no avail. With its limited range of VERY specific categories – along with some fierce competition here in Canuckleland – I didn’t have much hope when I entered yet again this past January. Turns out we were due for a nice surprise, with the Broken Saints 4-Disc DVD garnering Top 3 finalist nods in TWO categories: Excellence in Cross-Platform and Best Producer of the Year. Bammmm!!!! We’re joining the big ‘beavers’ (it’s a Canadian thing) like the CBC, TVOntario, Bell Canada, Blast Radius, Ron Burnett, and even Don Mattrick. Whoa. Guess modern media really is like the mob – just when you think you’re out…they pull you back in 😀

Posted By Brooke Burgess

BLACK HOLE SUN, WON’T YOU

COME…AND WASH AWAY THE RAIN?

BLACK HOLE SUN – PLEASE COME.

It was between these lyrics and these ones – the Soundgarden just haiku’ed better. Oh, and this shot was snapped on one of these – having it in my hand was like self-worship without the sticky mess and subsequent shame. Talk about having one’s cake….

Speaking tangentally of tech, more Revolution news – as promised and requested – by week’s end. Oh, and we just got word of some pretty major Canuck new media nods here. Stay tuned, baboons…lots of shrieking in the jungle this week 😉

Posted By Brooke Burgess

Actually, I swung his. And yes, I know how that sounds – gawd, I love it when you kids hit the gutter with me…it’s like swan diving into septic tanks. 😛

But this shot was snapped at the end of my brief sojourn to Toronto last week, where the BS answer to Trent Reznor (left) took me out for beers at the city’s infamous Bovine Sex Club. It’s a rock/goth thing. Seriously! Man…this just isn’t sounding any better, is it?

Along for the ride was guitar guru Josh (just listen to the fights in Chapter 3 and 19 – his shizz tends to stand out), and I got them to promise to make more music. Someday. Soon. If they’d stop spending so much energy looking cool and disenfranchised, it might actually HAPPEN. Combine this likelihood with the whole German Pope thing, and we’re well on our way to Weirdsville – Population: Us 😉