First Custom Arcade Stick

Well I finally got around to modifying my arcade stick now that my plexi cover arrived yesterday. I took a Madcatz Marvel vs Capcom 2 Tournament Edition Arcade Fightstick and swapped out the art, switched the buttons around and changed the yellow balltop (not shown in the pictures) to an american arcade style bat top.

After seeing several tutorials on how to modify a joystick on YouTube from DarksydePhil ( Hori Stick Tutorial and Madcatz Standard Edition Stick Tutorial ) and what I read over at the SRK forums ( shoryuken.com ), I figured I could do one myself. So I decided to use an art template of X-23 I had made a few weeks back (that you may have seen in my last blog) to commemorate the release of Marvel vs Capcom 3. That and she's a fucking awesome character.

First thing I had to do was order a plexi-cover from Art's Hobbies (who custom makes these covers himself) since the art I use is printed on cardstock and not some fancy ass material thats resistant to anything and everything. And I also ordered a bat top for my joystick from Lizard Lick since I don't think I've used a balltop joystick since friggin PacMan.

Being that its my first time doing something like this, I ran into some small snags along the way. The cutting job I did is kinda shotty, but doesn't look TOO bad. At one point I accidently yanked too hard at one of the wires for a button and ripped it right out of connector. I thought I was royally fucked but I managed to ghetto rig it by clamping the connector back to the wire with a pair of vice grips. (Good to know I learned something growing up) And the button works just fine. And speaking of the buttons, they were a bitch to get out of the metal plate til I figured out exactly how to do it.

Other than that, no snags. :D
Cleaned the finger prints of the plexi cover, re-arranged some buttons, slapped it all back together and now I gots me a pretty nice lookin stick.

Phoenix Arcade stick templates

So I busted out two more templates upon a suggestion on the SRK forums.
Well,... technically its one design with a slight variant. But still.

Been awhile since I updated this thing, so I figured I'd get back to it.
Nothin much new to report, but i did bang out some fighting stick templates today.

With Marvel vs Capcom 3 coming out in about a week, I figured I'd customize the arcadestick my girlfriend got me while we were at PAX. So I got some new pieces on there way as we speak and I already made the art I'mma use. Just have to print it out now.

So here are the new templates.
The first one is the one I'mma use personally.

Halo 3: ODST Single Player Campaign Review (spoiler free)

The Beginning of the Campaign
The events in the game take place somewhere between Halo 2 and Halo 3. You start off as The Rookie, an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper), 6 hours after the deployment of your squad for your current mission. And now you wonder around this big city to piece together what happened to both the city and your squad during this alien invasion of Earth. As you find your way through this dark city, you'll find you're a part of 3 sperate stories (told seperate ways) that all eventually converge into one.

You have the Rookies story. Where his role is to piece together what happened in the city. And through this story leads to the other two. As you travel through the city, you use a new feature called VISR mode to see better at night and to better find items you'd normally miss. Unlike the other members, you really have to fend for weapons and ammo. Since his scenerio is more "open world", there's always a threat to either aviod or face straight on as enemies periodically check the landscape for rebels or survivors.

As you find clues to what happened to your squad members, these clues trigger a flashback sequence of the other characters just hours before. You play these scenerios like missions and each mission takes place closer and closer to the time you start as the Rookie. These flashbacks give better insight as to what happened in the area where you found the clue. And let the player see what the other characters are doing to survive. Or even if they survived.

The third story comes from find audio clips around the city. These audio clips are recordings of a character named Sadie and tells what was going on in the city during the invasion. There are 30 clips all together that give a deeper insight to a few aspects of the story.


The Gamplay
Most people have played Halo before, but for those that haven't, it takes a minute to get used to some of the more odd button placements. (at least in my opinion) Other than that, the game runs pretty smooth. You just have to keep in my mind that none of these characters are Spartans. So they're not as strong and don't have the same regenerative health that Master Chief has in Halo 3. So if you get badly hurt, you'll have to learn where the health packs are around the city and in the missions. On the bright side, there are a lot of check points to spawn from once you die. They're also slightly slower, don't jump as high, and don't handle weapon recoil as well as Master Chief. These aspects are there to help increase the threat in the game and force you to pick your battles. ...Unless you've played Halo before. haha.

Just about all the weapons from Halo 3 return. With the exception of the fan favorite Battle Rifle.
But with the loss of the BR, you get two new weapons. You start off with the silenced pistol that has a scope feature for head shots and a silenced scoped automatic rifle. Both are pretty decent weapons. I personally prefer the rifle once I got used to shooting in bursts so the recoil wouldn't make my aim jump all over the place. The pistol, though a killer headshot machine, jumps like CRAZY when fired. After about three consecutive shots, you're aiming at the sky. I have no idea why it shoots like that when stronger weapons don't.

All the vehicles still handle as they always did in Halo. Some people don't like it. I personally took to it pretty quick. Some vehicles handle slightly different than others, but all of them are pretty reliable.

I did find something odd in the multiplayer aspect though. If you play the campaign online, you can have up to 4 players. But if you play locally (offline), you can only have two players. Its understandable to a degree since the screen would have to be split four ways. But its very consistant.


Difficulty and Fun Factor
Like Halo 3, I really enjoyed the campaign for this game. I liked the combination of storytelling used and thought it was a smart way to keep people intrigued and want to know more about the Halo history. As for difficulty, its not really a difficult game once you know how to handle certain situations. I beat it on normal in a day. After that, I'm pretty confident Heroic and Legendary wouldn't be that difficult. But I plan on tackling Legendary with a friend because its more fun that way.

Although the game isn't that difficult and overall actually pretty short, I really did enjoy it. I liked having played as the other characters and facing a bunch of unique scenerios. I thought it was cool that in the flashback scenerios the other soldiers almost always have something to say. Wether it relates to the current story, past events, or just to give a slight nudge as to how to handle a situation. It really helped give the presence of a squad.

The achievements for the most part aren't the difficult to achieve either. So if you're into your gamerscore, this game definitely helps garner some easy points.

And did I mention that Bungie actually keeps track of your kills/deaths/and other statistics on there site? Just check http://www.bungie.net/ and put your gamertag in the search bar. See how well you rank up.


Overall?
Although I enjoyed the single player mode and the story it told, the fact is the campaign isn't long enough to warrant a $60 purchase. If you're picking up the game solely for the campaign, I'd recommend just rent it. The story didn't get too deep into the characters. Which is unfortunate because I liked the characters and the voice work brought to them by the actors from Firefly/Serenity. Hopefully, Bungie plans to add more missions via Downloadable Content.

Now, with the inclusion of Firefight and the Halo 3 mulitplayer disc with ALL the map packs, that certainly is worth $60. (but thats a review for another time. ...maybe) Oh and everyone that bought the game gets to be part of the Halo: Reach beta. Not sure what thats going to be like. But if its campaign is anything like prior Halo campaigns, it should be pretty good.

Overall: 4/5 stars

Bill Jersey @ PAX 2009 (part 1)

(note: this part is just the main experience. There will be a seperate blog to talk about the many MANY games that were there)

Well, this blog is a week late, but there's a lot to talk about. I'll try not to ramble too long, but expect a wall of text. After all, it was a weekend long event and there was a lot to see and do. Also keep in mind there will be a video(s) to follow soon. We got about 3 hours of footage to edit through.

So lets begin.
For those that don't know, PAX is pretty much a convention made for gamers held in Seattle. Both video games and tabletop. Ran by the guys over at Penny Arcade I'm not much for tabletop, so I'll stick to genre we all know and love best. :D Video games.

SITES TO SEE
This place was MASSIVE!! Even though we all had 3 days, it was impossible to see EVERYTHING! There were so many panels, contests, games to be played, and events to see. Made it real difficult to figure out how best to spend your time. So I stuck mostly to the game exhibit rooms to see whats on the horizon and to see what spectacles some of the booths were doing.
For example, the first thing you see when you enter the exhibit hall is the Ninja Turtles bus. :D That's already an awesome start. The Darksiders booth had a mechanical bull ride. Except the bull was a demon horse. :D:D The Pirates of the Burning See booth was part of the ship with a cannon on it. Where the lady pirates would shoot shirts out of the cannon into the crowd. The Tekken 6 booth had 6-8 people dressed up as there characters giving away free posters and other things. And the Aion booth was taking professional photos of people with black wings to possibly be used in future advertisements. Of course, you also got a free print of the picture taken right on the spot. And Left 4 Dead 2 was giving away exclusive shirts if you got lucky enough to play the game. Talk about a win/win.

And all weekend long, there was a freeplay Rockband 2 stage set up. If anyone wanted to go up there to be a rockstar, they could. That was a pretty cool touch. There were also two freeplay game rooms. One for PC and the other for console games. Anyone could go to the table, sign for a game they wanted to play, go over to one of the MANY set-ups, and play it. They even had old school nintendo and genesis set ups.

GAMING CELEBRITIES
I got to see and meet some high profile people from the gaming world. djWHEAT was commenting multiple contests all week long. (If you don't know who he is, he's been a pretty strong voice in the gamer community for awhile. And has recently helped bring the fighting game tournaments to the forefront.) Didn't get to meet him, but it was entertaining watching him work.

Also got to meet Ciji (Starslay3r) Thornton and Robert (Prod1gy_X) Paz. Both most commonly known for there appearance on the show WCG Ultimate Gamer. But they're also both incredibly fierce competitors in the gaming world. And they are also part of the well known gamer faction Empire Arcadia . They were both cool people. Pretty laid back and just enjoying the event. Got to see them both compete a little bit as well. Thats always cool. (unfortunetly, the Street Fighter IV tournament didn't allow arcade sticks. Yea, I'm stumped on that one too. lol) Amy (PMS Athena) was also there, but I didn't get the chance to meet her. Just seen her in passing.



Let see.... Got to talk with Ian Cofino. Director of the fighting game documentary I Got Next. He's a really cool dude. And the film is really cool to watch. If that film don't get you hyped, i don't know what will. If you haven't watched the first draft of the film yet, go to the site http://www.igotnextmovie.com/. Its free to download. I promise you will enjoy the film.

Gabe and Tycho of Penny Arcade are some cool, funny ass dudes. The Q&A panel was worth me standing on the question line the whole time. lol. (I literally got the last question on my line) You can tell they were having a blast even though they were probably all over the place the whole weekend making sure everything went fine.

THE CROWD
The crowd HAS to be mentioned. Normally it wouldn't matter, but I've NEVER been to an event where everyone was so damn polite. EVERYONE apologized if they bumped into you. People had no problem talking with you. Even when filming or taking picture, EVERYONE avoided getting in the shot so as not to ruin it. EVEN WHEN FILMING!! To me, thats unheard of. The people that showed up in costumes were all smiles every time someone wanted a picture with them. Even the Enforcers (staff and security) were all very polite, helpful, and generally just cool people. There was even a guy working at one of the booths that POLITELY told me to stop filming a game they didn't want filmed. I've never had such a positive experience at an event before.

PANELS AND EVENTS
I only went to a few of these, all the ones I attended (save for one) were worth taking a break from the games to check out.



The Guild was a really cool and funny panel. Actors Jeff Lewis (Vork), Sandep Parikh (Zaboo), and producer Kim Avery ran the panel. They showed the remaining 7 or 8 episodes of season 2 leading up to Season 3. Which was awesome for me, because they picked up from the last episode I got to see. The panel was full of laughs and the actors were quick and witty with the Q&A section of the panel. Overall completely enjoyable. If you haven't watched the Guild yet, the episodes are free to watch on there site, on YouTube, and even on your Xbox. Even if you're not a gamer, you'll laugh your ass off.

Went to a Sex in Videogames panel that was supposed to study and bring light to the trend as well as the inconsistency in censorship between between video games and other mediums of entertainment. What started off as an interesting panel quickly got off point and talked more about sex culture in Japan. What made that silly was that they felt the need to talk at great lenght about a culture that everyone in the room already knew much about. They didn't have time to get back on point and naturally people were pretty annoyed towards the end. One guy even rudely pointed that out right in the middle of the panel. While I didn't approve of the way he went about it, he had a good point. Oh well. That was really the only thing that came up short at the event. *shrug* Not nearly enough to ruin the experience at all. :D

I've already mentioned the Penny Arcade Q&A with Gabe and Tycho. And I'm sure there are vids on YouTube of it. I hope there are, because it was very entertaining. As I said, those dudes are damn funny.

Also already mentioned Ian Cofino and the I Got Next documentary. Too bad that panel was held as late as it was. Otherwise, it would have gotten the turnout it deserved. But even though it wasn't packed, it made it easier for everyone to just talk with Ian and ask questions. That and we got news that he's going to continue to make the film bigger with more events to be filmed. Including a secret event he couldn't talk about since it hasn't been confirmed yet. I'm curious to see what that even may be.

There were also band events on Friday and Saturday nights. Got to see Freezepop on Saturday. They're music isn't really my thing, but there were more than enough people to enjoy there music. I kinda wish I could've seen Metroid Metal. Heard good things about them.


I think this is where I'll stop.
I'll continue the rest in a new blog later to talk about the pins, swag, and of course the games. And whatever else I may have missed.


To be continued in part 2....

A Life Somewhat Left Distracted

As I'm still finding my place in what exactly I'd like to do, I've played around here and there with a few things. There are some projects I'm still working with that are video game related. Just haven't gotten around to finalizing anything. Been kinda distracted on that front.

I'm currently moving into a new bigger place here in Corvallis, OR. And I got a temporary well paying job. Kind of learning small bits about data entry. Which I'm sure will definitley come in handy in the future. Also going up to Washington next week for PAX (Penny Arcade Expo). REALLY looking forward to that.

Been watching a bunch of documentaries lately. A few of them have been about art in todays society. I recommend "POPaganda!" and "D.I.Y. or DIE: How to Survive as an Independant Artist".
Both were pretty informative and make me further miss the east coast. But more importantly, they've inspired ideas.

In the near future, I intend to start a small kinda web comic to coincide with this blog. So naturally, it'll be titled Outside Insight. Its gonna be a kinda geek related comic. Mostly focusing around gaming/gamers, but also revolving around other apsects of "geek culture". We'll see how that goes. Material is easy to come by. Just go by any forum really. :p

Anyways, thats whats goin on currently. No pics today. I don't got nothin ready just yet. Still fiddlin with ideas and concepts.

If/when i get those said ideas goin, maybe I'll get an actual site goin. Or maybe just find a way to pimp up this blog. Probably better and cheaper to do so. Time'll tell I guess.

LaughingHyena Stickz

Currently, I'm working with. LaughingHyena on creating some graphics for his custom arcade sticks. As well as other projects if they should arise. I'm also developing a flyer for a tournament him and a friend are putting together called "Who Got Next?". The tournament takes place on August 15 in Absecon, NJ btw.

Anyway, I'm also going to the Northwest Majors (8/22) as well as PAX in September. Hopefully I can further help promote the custome sticks.

Here's some examples of the work I've done for him so far:
(keep in mind none of these have been finalized)