Sup y'all. Multitude is doing a bunch of cool new stuff lately and I thought I'd take a second to post all of this stuff in one place so you folks who read this can check it out. I'm lookin at you, New York Skaters.
Click on the image to view the enlarged versions:
Best Trick the day after Halloween. Got a bunch great sponsers and Multitude will be there giving away stickers and stuff like that
Online Contest. Submit your pictures and short lines to try and get some Multitude Gear! You know what they say, without footage, it's fiction.
Multitude is also hosting a best trick contest and Team Demo at the Lower East Side Park On Saturday, November 7th. Sign up for the contest or watch the demo. Either way, come down and have a good time with Team Multitude!
Come and check it out and enjoy NYC Skateboarding, y'all.
Hey Folks. Been a little bit since I've updated. A couple of new things have come up. I've recently started interning with a clothing apparel company straight outta NYC called Multitude. They have sick designs and are keeping their ear to the ground in the Skate and hip hop community to release their own fresh material. I see nothing but good things for the dudes behind this and I hope to bring what I can to it. Check out what they got goin' on and spread the word to your friends!
In other news, I went and made myself a DeviantArt account to post my Digital art, images and what little photography I do. Here's just a preview of some of things I post. (everything shrunk to make fit here)
I've mentioned Killola before in previous blogs. For those unaware, They are a kickass 4 piece Rock band outta California. They're super DIY and self release all of their music. If you know me personally, you know how much love I have for these people. They make great music and are mega awesome to their fans. They recently put out a brand new aquatic-themed video for the song "Cracks in the Armor"
Killola also has their 2nd album "I Am the Messer" up for free download. More info on the band can be found on their myspace : http://myspace.com/killola or their official website Killola.com
Hello everyone. As you know, I'm a very avid skater. I like to keep up with what's going on in the culture and the scene. A couple of months ago, Steve Berra told the story of Nick Mullins on his wildly popular skate website, The Berrics . Nick is a promising young skater who fell ill and had to have an operation for a Staph infection which was spreading to his heart and lungs. At this point, the doctor's had given him a 1% chance at survival, but pulled through the infection. After this operation, Nick began recovery and began to lose his eyesight. It is suspected that during his hospital time the infection made its way to his eyes. According to Berra in his latest video update on Nick's condition, he's had one operation of the four now needed. During all of this, Nick's hospital bills have been building up and becoming increasingly higher. In response, Steve Berra and the Berrics are having T-shirts printed to help support Nick in his struggles. 100% of the money will go toward's Nick's medical bills. The Shirts look great and it's for the best cause I've heard of in a long time, so why don't you all check it out? The shirts can be found at the Berrics website in their online store, The Canteen . If you're looking for more information on Nick, it could be found on http://www.youtube.com/user/cky2k04. There are videos which update his condition and even Feature Nick himself speaking about what's been going on.
P.S. I wrote a review for the Brutal Legend demo and my stupid mac crashed or something, now it's gone. I might write another,I might not. whatever.
I could always go for the obvious "Wet" joke, but I've heard it a lot already. I'll pass.
Wet (Wetwork) : A euphemism alluding to hands literally wet with blood.
Wet is an interesting piece. The Demo has a very Tarantino/70's exploitation charm, about half a ton of old school film grain and crazy saturated colors to help set the tone. The graphics themselves aren't the greatest, but the game is sort of cartoon-y, so it works.
You play as Rubi, some badass chick with an unknown [likely generic] backstory trying to retrieve a case from a man named Simmons, who just ripped someone off in a cliche crimeworld deal. The demo has you chase after Simmons to take the case for yourself.
It plays like a common hack & slash/action shooter. You run around, shoot/stab/acrofuck all the bad guys with style. After a tiny tutorial in which they teach you to to shoot while doing different actions, you're thrown into the game with a slew of enemies. One of the scenarios include enemies coming out of three doors in a huge courtyard. You are to kill the enemies and make your way to the gate mechanisms over each door to destroy them. What's the fun in that? Stab, slash, slide and shoot to your heart's content, then close the gates.
A scene came up which I didn't expect to see involves a cutscene shows a guy charging Rubi and her shooting him in the face with her face becomes drenched in his blood. With an insane look in her eye, a mad rush of red engulfs the screen and you're right back on the attack. Now you're tearing through enemies with sub machine guns and faster sword attacks. puddles and streaks of white represent their blood amongst the red backdrop and no less than a shit ton of enemies come run at you in this corridor.
The next section has you running about trying to reach Simmon's once more, which leads into a huge car chase scene. You will shoot enemies from their cars as a QTE sequence takes you from car roof to car roof as Rubi gets closer to her target.
the demo also continues the trend of East meets West themes in pop culture. The environments are really very Asian inspired while still having a Western feel throughout. The music stands out as well, blasting all kinds of Rock music over the action scenes.
Overall I thought the demo was pretty fun. It's a very Kill Bill meets Stranglehold meets Shoot 'em up experience. The shooting could use some work, the crosshairs were a bit small for the screen and I kind of have a problem with games where crosshairs are just a marker for a general direction of where your bullets are flying. That aside, the game is about style. The demo doesnt demonstrate any groundbreaking aspects in any sense, it merely takes a tried and true genre and gives it a fresh, new and pretty coat of paint
Mini Ninjas is a flowery, fun for everyone type game which follows the story of young Ninja Hiro as he tries to save his ninja clan friends from some generic evil. I didn't really pay attention to all that.
the aesthetic of the game is such that they make the dirty, violent job of being a ninja cute by over inflating everyone's heads and making them about 2 feet tall. The colors are vibrant and lush. Also, instead of copious amounts of blood which spills from dying enemies, they instead morph into cute little animals.
the game features simple hack'n'slash combat mixed with pick up items and magic ninja spells . There's one power in which hiro can possess animals, which stands out because I thought it was cool. everything else is your standard ninja equipment : Shurikens, smoke bombs, etc. it also seems that as hiro saves his friends, the player gains the ability to play as them on the fly and use their abilities. the two included in the demo are Futo, a Hulking Hammer wielding brute and Suzume, generic Kunoichi.
Overall I couldn't really get into it. It's cute, it has ninjas, but I just didn't very much enjoy it. I didn't see any incredible amount of depth within the porduct
Batman Arkham Asylum
When i first heard about Arkham Asylum, I thought "oh, another batman game. that can be cool". Little did I know that it would be the best Batman game I've played to date. the game has a great, dark aesthetic which fits the world of Gotham City extremely well.
The demo starts with Batman Hauling the joker into Arhkam and the chaos starts from there. The demo throws you immediately into hand to hand combat with generic inmates 1,2 and 3 to get you acquainted with the beating the utter shit out of people. the feel of combat is great. When you hit someone, the impact is massive, great attention to detail.
Afterwards you are introduced to other aspects of the game such as detective mode and stealth gameplay. Detective Mode (reminiscent of detective tools in Condemned) allow batman to assess the environment and the things you can do in said environment. Stealth is the essence of Batman's power and integrates well with the combat. All of these aspects blend well and improve the experience as you work your way through various enemies and situations.
The demo is painfully short, about 25 minutes average. It keeps you begging for more. One thing I find cool is that 2 voice actors from Batman the Animated Series Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill return to their roles as Batman and The Joker respectively. Overall it looks like a fantastic experience and i can't wait to get ahold of it.
Lost Planet 2
Truth be told, I didn't like the first Lost Planet. It was rigid, stiff and incredibly difficult with little to no reward. The co-op demo for the sequel isn't much different. The scenario is that you can team up with 3 friends and wreak havoc on a giant monster (from the inside and out). the map contains a slew of weapons, VS robots and those spawn nodes from the first. Basic gameplay remains the same and they give you everything you need to try and take the monster down.
It didn't change my perspective on the series personally, but i did find a lot more fun in playing with a friend, which can be a selling point for any group of gamers.
Personally, I'll pass.
I would talk about section 8 as well, but I absolutely disliked that game. It was like an incoherent, lame version of Tribes, Halo, F.E.A.R. 2, MoH Airborne and Call of Duty. In a phrase, it's blown.
Heyo. I plan on writing entries about 2-3 more Japanese Movies, but that will come later. For now, I just wanted to post some art I've done over the years
All of it was drawn by hand, then scanned and put into photoshop for coloring.
Also, I'm trying out a new "Listening to" format. what do ya think?
Jack Skellington
Invader Zim's Gir
This is a year's old picture of Goku. I drew this like, 7 years ago, give or take, and decided to work with recently
This is Bumblebee from the latest TF show, Transformers Animated
Currently Listening To: The Clash Overpowered by Funk Album : Combat Rock
2LDK?
I've been watching movies almost every week with my gaming community. We call it #Frag Dolls Movie Night! About a year or two ago, I was on a huge Violent Japanese movie trip where I wanted to watch everything Japanese/Asian exploitation cinema could throw my way. I stumbled upon tons of the stuff and always wanted more. I recently dipped back into my [small] collection of violent foreign movies and rediscovered a gem. I purchased a 3 DVD box set named the Danger After Dark collection, in which 2LDK was apart of. 2LDK (2-Bedroom, Living Room, Dining Room and Kitchen), is the product of an idea from Producer Shinya Kawai for Directors Ryuhei Kitamura and Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The idea tuned into the Duel Project, a competition in which the guidelines were:
Make a feature length film with two principal actors battling it out
Film in one main location
Complete filming within a week's time.
Kitamura's end product was Aragami, which I have yet to see. Tsutsumi's piece is one laced with violence, a twinge of that feeling you get while watching The Odd Couple and wraps it in black comedy.
The films starts as Nozomi and Lana, two actresses trying to make it big, arrive home and the tensions start to rise. They are both auditioning for the lead role of a film named "Yakuza Wives", so right away there is a point of contention for the two struggling actresses. You see the false sincerity resonating from both women in their interactions (the voiceovers of their inner thoughts don't hurt,either).
The relationship Tsutsumi creates in his characters is very reminiscent of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple. You have Nozomi, a small town, quiet, reserved, neat freak whose nitpicky complaints would drive just about anyone crazy. She even goes as far as to label what to belongs to whom in the fridge. Lana is the complete opposite. She's loud, slightly airheaded, messy and seems to have no inhibitions when it comes to furthering her career. She's also shown to be bit of a gold digger, wearing expensive clothing and jewelery.
The groundwork is all laid out and the conflict is made more interesting by the fact that they're both also competing for the attention of the same guy. Their argument becomes a little less trivial and a lot more dangerous as each girl reaches her boiling point. This is where the movie starts to get twisted, but in the best way possible. The ladies soon come to blows in a brutal, estrogen powered deathmatch. They do things to each other that nobody could possibly survive. The violence itself becomes a vehicle because the brutality borderlines the absurd.
This is a decent movie for any fan of ridiculous violence coupled with dark comedy. It's a very well done considering the conditions under which it was made and is overall enjoyable. Even if you end up not liking it, it only takes about 70 minutes of your life so you really don't have much to complain about.
Currently Listening To: The Sounds No One Sleeps When I'm Awake Album : Crossing the Rubicon
Social Networking in this 2.0 heavy world runs rampant like yellow fever. Twitter, as most of you know by now, is the latest to reach mega popularity around the world. It's been about a year since I caught the hype bug. Since then, I've clocked over 500 posts. It's been kind of hard for me to come up with things to post, so I just haven't. I thought this was a good idea so this is what I'm rolling with. These are just a small number of tweets I've made in the past year which I think Stand out. *Note* They aren't really in chronological order as the dates will indicate
I voted. Will you stop raping my front page with all your "Cause" shit? I did my part. Cobra Commander '08 bitches 5:55 PM Nov 4th, 2008 from web
I’m seeing Max Payne tonight, lets see if its any good 7:59 PM Oct 17th, 2008 from txt - It wasn't
At a movie with a bunch of ghetto as fuck people. I swear someone is getting shot tonight10:55 PM Oct 17th, 2008 from txt
Billy Mays might just be of some use for once.6:57 PM Jul 7th, 2008 from txt - Bought some Mighty Putty that day to epoxy some things. Totally didn't work and just stunk my room up
I never thought I'd have this thought so soon, but... fuckin teenagers man... God. does that mean I'm old now? 4:57 AM Jun 28th, 2008 from web
Today’s the day! KILLOLA!! Gotta get the show on the road1:12 PM Sep 20th, 2008 from web - Saw a lot of good mates that day and Met Killola.
Deaf and a bit drunk after that. Amazing show!!12:15 AM Sep 21st, 2008 from web
“I dont wipe my ass because I don't want dudes butt raping me"8:46 PM Nov 24th, 2008 from web
So I watched a movie/tv show episode thingy, and it had a raw dog as fuck on-screen abortion. 4:32 AM Dec 18th, 2008 from web Takeshi Miike's episode on Masters of Horror Imprint For all you pro-choicers out there. Hell, enjoy it too, pro-lifers.
Is it bad that I'm hyped to wear my captain america new era tomorrow? Lulz1:19 PM Feb 5th from txt - Goin to New York Comic Con
OMG comic con. So much fun! This is great. There was a guy playing the accordion and doing mario tunes5:13 PM Feb 6th from txt
Video of Renegade Accordion playin tunes in front of the Jacob Javitz center
I just got my first whiff of the comic con funk. Bleh. Nerds are allergic to showers4:08 PM Feb 7th from txt
Mini confession : When I'm on my board I sometimes hear The power of love by Huey Lewis and the News in my heard. BTTF ftw2:02 AM Mar 4th from web
Stuck in a backyard with my friends cause of a locked door. FML... 10:05 PM May 16th from txt
Ok, So California's Prop 8, Florida's Amendment 2 and the like, What the fuck 2:25 PM Nov 5th, 2008 from web
Pure and utter ridiculousness, I can admit. Also, it's hedonism at its best and very worst. I'll continue to take it at face value and learn not to care that I'm a tool for using Twitter. Besides, all the cool kids are doing it ;)
How's it going fools? Hope people who actually read this blog are well. This previous Saturday Night, a couple of friends and I went to go see Julia Nunes aka the youtube ukulele girl. She's a lot of fun and talented.
Now, onto the game stuff. As the title says, some people enjoy making or watching machinima (animated filmmaking within a real-time virtual 3D environment - mostly using video games technology, for any the rest of y'all). I have been talking about messing around with the idea of a skate skateboard video ever since the first came out. Thanks to EA's new and improved skate.reel, it was very easy to gather all the footage I uploaded (other than the fact that FLV files dont like to work with anything). The best part was putting it all together and the entire editing prcoess. I love getting technical that way. Here is the final product of my little venture. Enjoy!
Currently listening to Rage Against the Machine Microphone Fiend Album : Renagades
Ninja Blade
Oh Ninja Blade, how you've pained me since I started your demo up on my xbox. There is no redeeming value in this game for me. My first thought was: "Ooh From Software, they made some OK Tenchu games, maybe this will be pretty good. I was sadly disappointed. The demo starts out in 2015 Neo-Tokyo with a chopper full of Ryu Hayabusa clones. When your character hops out, he is thrusted into a lame Quick Time Event (the first of many) and takes out what looks like a bunch of giant eagles. Once you hit the ground, you're thrusted into a broken down building full of generic monster baddies. You start out with 4 different weapons. One being a shuriken like weapon, which you throw with terrible accuracy. The Crosshairs are slow and the weapon itself is almost useless to the point where you don't even want to use it.
The Demo is full of ideas that have already been seen and done to create an overall mediocre experience. There is a lackluster and long boss battle with a spider which starts in yet another QTE sequence, which by this point outnumbers the amount I've seen in any game in such a small amount of time. The controls are horribly average, the characters are generic and it feels like nothing more than sluggish Ninja Gaiden Clone. This one hits American Shores April 7th.
Guitar Hero : Metallica
This Demo gives you the chance to try your plastic instrument skills on 4 different songs.
No Excuses - Alice in Chains
Stone Cold Crazy - Queen
Seek and Destroy - Metallica
Sad But True - Metallica
Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of Metallica, but the demo contained two of their better songs. The demo also features the insultingly easy Beginner difficulty. As if easy weren't enough? I do understand it's probably for 5 year olds, but what Neo-yuppie scumbag wants their kid listening to Metallica in the first place.
The graphics look great and the band members look spot on, as they did in Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I'm not really sure what else I can say about a Guitar Hero demo. Anywhich way you slice it, it's Guitar Hero. It hits street March 29
The Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena
It amazes me to see how a mediocre character from a bad movie franchise can go as far as to make a good looking set of games. I like that the game is very stealth based and they definitely let you know that by throwing at you in a ship with a huge crew. When Riddick kills, you can see the fresh blood on his hands, which is nice attention to detail. Also, the kill animations themselves are impressive.
There is a neat section in the demo who you take over a bike-esque control node to guide drones equipped with arm blasters through heavily populated corridors to pick off some baddies before they reach you. I don't really buy the allure behind Riddick as a character so I found things relating to the story to be a bit silly. Vin Diesel's voice acting doesn't make that fact any better. I guess you're better off sticking to what you know. He does his thing well, it just doesn't do anything for me. Assault on Dark Athena is set to release April 7.
And with this concludes my first ever Demo Rundown. I hope to do this more, But I guess that is dependant on the way Xbox Live releases demos. Perhaps I oughta look into OXM as well. Thoughts?
Currently Listening to: Sex Pistols Holidays in the Sun Album: Never Mind the Bollocks
March 2009 has been a big month for demos on Xbox Live. Games from all different kinds of genres have been released this month and i'm gonna take a look at them.
WWE : Legends of Wrestlemania
As the name implies, Legends of Wrestlemania features wrestlers who have been in infamous matches for Wrestlemania, the industry's biggest event of the year. Wrestling fans will appreciate the "Re-live the moment" match between Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. The Demo Also features a match which mirrors the Wrestlemania 3 bout between Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan. The demo itself features arcade style gameplay, which seemed dumbed down more than anything. Personally, I'm not a big wrestling fan, but I found a lot of fun in Smackdown vs Raw '06 and '07. Ever since I've wanted nothing to do with wrestling games and this demo really didn't change that for me.
On-screen buttons take up most of the display for QTE like button press sequences and really take you out of the game. Also, god forbid you leave the ring. The camera switches to a behind the audience angle which is awful and extremely distracting. Previous titles were intuitive and were bursting with variety. This, however, stank of rotten fish and sweaty old men. Legends of Wrestlemania hits the Streets March 24th.
Wheelman
Okay, So I'll only be reviewing one Vin Diesel related game this blog, I went the easy route and decided it would be Wheelman. The demo looks impressive. The game is fun enough. Driving is pretty straight forward, combat functions such as ramming have to added to help take cops and other enemies out easier. while shooting, its very reminiscent of the 10 dollar Starsky and Hutch game that came out on the PS2. The special moves are neat such as concentrated shots and the "cyclone" (handbrake 180 turn to shoot enemies behind you) don't seem like they'll be repeated to death in the real game. the Air Jacking feature shown in the demo's side mission is also a neat, albeit impossible trick.
The game is very Hollywood, as seen in random explosions and the numerous slo-mo's throughout. While the fluff is fun for awhile, I dont think it'll make for a toally substantial game. Midway really knows how to pay homage to their classic titles. Many of the license plates feature names of class games "MRTL KMBT" (Mortal Kombat) "RMP 8GE" (Rampage) "DF3 NDR" (Defender) and "ROBO TRN" (Robotron). Wheelman comes out March 24th
Wanted : Weapons of Fate
I heard news of this movie based game a while ago, then absolutely nothing between then and the release of the demo. I wasn't a fan, so I didn't expect anything from this game. The first thing you'll notice is their attempt at quirky (and slightly referential) difficulty names : "Pussy ", "Assassin" and "The Killer". The demo itself was painfully mediocre. The settings was an airplane, so it was extremely claustrophobic. It gives me the feeling a lot of the game will be this way.
The shooting is not at all accurate, you just sort of shoot in the general direction of your crosshairs. The cover system is very sticky, making it not very functional. The specials aren't very helpful. One is an extremely slow motion dash for the next cover spot, leaving you enough time to take out one, maybe two enemies. The other is bullet curving, which is just a tacked on gimmick. It takes forever to aim a proper shot, and useless if the enemy doesn't die in one hit because you'll he to wait for him to poke out of cover to finish him off. I also feel the need to point out that the Tutorial is far more interesting than the demo level... That's just awfully sad.
I'll be posting part 2 before the end of march which will feature: Guitar Hero: Metallica, Ninja Blade and The Chronicles of Riddick : Assault on Dark Athena. Look out for that!
Currently Listening To:
Currently Listening to:
