GHZ got through Act 1
Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 5:57 pm
So somebody in the forum mentioned that, in addition to Samba de Amigo, Shun Nakamura was also the director of Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Nakamura, as a reminder, is currently directing the upcoming 360/PS3 Sonic game.
Now.
Now. Let's don't all start panicking just yet. Everybody take a deep breath. Iiiinhale... eeeexhale. Good. Okay. Let's put the pieces together.
Stanley Kubrick didn't whip out Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange right off the bat. He had to shake out no less than half a dozen highly mediocre films before finding his artistic voice. Bill Watterson was fired from his first cartooning job. Even our own Shigeru Miyamoto, before Donkey Kong, had to cut his teeth on the highly derivative and largely forgotten Radar Scope. SO. It is, therefore, entirely possible that Giant Egg - which is not <i>totally</i> devoid of merit - represents an early misfire from a latent talent, and that Nakamura is now due to hit his stride. A highly improbable scenario, perhaps, but it's not like we Sonic fans can be picky about which straws we grasp at. E3 looms, and though that is an event I grow more indifferent to with each passing year, it is likely to clarify our immediate fate. The execution is always less painful than the anticipation of it, so...
I think at this point I'm expected to make some sort of comment about <a href="http://www.sega.com/e3/2006/announcemen ... 03a">Sonic Rivals</a>, which is going to be difficult to do because that's like asking for an editorial on a plate of dirt. It is so astoundingly vapid a subject that there is nothing to say about it beyond the affirmation of its physical existence. My first reaction was "who the hell are Backbone Entertainment"? So I googled up their website and it turns out that they are not really much of anybody. Apparently it's a small Canadian studio whose credits mostly consist of mobile ports of old Midway games. Their only original titles are Death Jr. for the PSP and a couple of N-Gage games (<i>N-Gage</i>, yet). Infact, I shall dub them Brokebackbone Entertainment because this whole development is gay.
Anyway, moving on to more domestic affairs: if you're reading this, you have already been made aware of the GHZ's new URL. The site has, infact, been moved off of EmuZone entirely, courtesy of resident manservant Segaholic. This means that the site and forum are now integrated, and we've got alot more control over scripts and layout management. This new freedom is lost on the likes of me, who can't tell his PHP's from his HTML's, but fortunately it seems like Segaholic knows what the hell he's doing, so he's now the official technical administrator (in addition to his old duties as manbitch). Most of the changes should be immediately apparent: we've got a new URL and finally our own domain (for good this time). The relentless pop-ups that have dogged the site for the past couple of years are history, and they will remain such. Front page updates are now handled via a proper blog script which all forum mods have access to, so it is possible that the old crew (Pep, Silv, Popcorn, etc) will update now and again unless they prove to be as lazy about it as I am. Additionally, happy children may now comment on front page updates (no forum registration required, though that may change). The weekly poll, which may actually now become weekly, is accessible from the sidebar directly to the left, though forum registration is required to discourage multiple votes. Holic tells me there's something called RSS feeds on the front page and newsboards, but that terminology is foreign to me so I have no idea what he means. I'll assume that if it's relevant to you, it doesn't require an explanation. Finally, there is a rumor going around that the site now stays crunchy even in milk, though there is as yet no documented evidence to support this.
Now.
Now. Let's don't all start panicking just yet. Everybody take a deep breath. Iiiinhale... eeeexhale. Good. Okay. Let's put the pieces together.
Stanley Kubrick didn't whip out Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange right off the bat. He had to shake out no less than half a dozen highly mediocre films before finding his artistic voice. Bill Watterson was fired from his first cartooning job. Even our own Shigeru Miyamoto, before Donkey Kong, had to cut his teeth on the highly derivative and largely forgotten Radar Scope. SO. It is, therefore, entirely possible that Giant Egg - which is not <i>totally</i> devoid of merit - represents an early misfire from a latent talent, and that Nakamura is now due to hit his stride. A highly improbable scenario, perhaps, but it's not like we Sonic fans can be picky about which straws we grasp at. E3 looms, and though that is an event I grow more indifferent to with each passing year, it is likely to clarify our immediate fate. The execution is always less painful than the anticipation of it, so...
I think at this point I'm expected to make some sort of comment about <a href="http://www.sega.com/e3/2006/announcemen ... 03a">Sonic Rivals</a>, which is going to be difficult to do because that's like asking for an editorial on a plate of dirt. It is so astoundingly vapid a subject that there is nothing to say about it beyond the affirmation of its physical existence. My first reaction was "who the hell are Backbone Entertainment"? So I googled up their website and it turns out that they are not really much of anybody. Apparently it's a small Canadian studio whose credits mostly consist of mobile ports of old Midway games. Their only original titles are Death Jr. for the PSP and a couple of N-Gage games (<i>N-Gage</i>, yet). Infact, I shall dub them Brokebackbone Entertainment because this whole development is gay.
Anyway, moving on to more domestic affairs: if you're reading this, you have already been made aware of the GHZ's new URL. The site has, infact, been moved off of EmuZone entirely, courtesy of resident manservant Segaholic. This means that the site and forum are now integrated, and we've got alot more control over scripts and layout management. This new freedom is lost on the likes of me, who can't tell his PHP's from his HTML's, but fortunately it seems like Segaholic knows what the hell he's doing, so he's now the official technical administrator (in addition to his old duties as manbitch). Most of the changes should be immediately apparent: we've got a new URL and finally our own domain (for good this time). The relentless pop-ups that have dogged the site for the past couple of years are history, and they will remain such. Front page updates are now handled via a proper blog script which all forum mods have access to, so it is possible that the old crew (Pep, Silv, Popcorn, etc) will update now and again unless they prove to be as lazy about it as I am. Additionally, happy children may now comment on front page updates (no forum registration required, though that may change). The weekly poll, which may actually now become weekly, is accessible from the sidebar directly to the left, though forum registration is required to discourage multiple votes. Holic tells me there's something called RSS feeds on the front page and newsboards, but that terminology is foreign to me so I have no idea what he means. I'll assume that if it's relevant to you, it doesn't require an explanation. Finally, there is a rumor going around that the site now stays crunchy even in milk, though there is as yet no documented evidence to support this.