A Little Homage to the Wilhelm Scream and to Skyrim

I got a few chuckles from the latest meme surrounding Skyrim dialog.  I thought I would add something to the interwebs.

Culture Clash - Alaskan State Patrol vs. Taiwanese Tourists

So I am watching National Geographic Channel the other day in Taiwan, and I had a major LOL moment. I was watching the show about Alaska's State Troopers, and they had a story about chasing down a car that wouldn't pull over. The troopers had their lights on and were trying to get the car to stop. The car wasn't trying to run away, it just wouldn't stop.

When the car finally did stop, the cops all had their guns drawn and yelled at the occupants to get out of the car. Upon exit they were instructed to put their hands on their heads, etc. - standard stuff. But their first clue should have been they didn't speak much English. It was a family of Taiwanese in Alaska on vacation.

For anyone who lives in Taiwan, you can understand exactly what happened. In Taiwan, for some inexplicable reason, the cops drive around town with their lights on. They just drive around at normal speed, but they rarely turn their lights off. While I have yet to get a logical answer as to why they do this, it is assumed they do this to deter the criminal element. Um, like if the lights aren't a warning and the bad guys would just stop what they are doing until the cops pass by :-p

Anyway, these poor Taiwanese tourists didn't understand that in the US, when you see the lights you'd better pull over. They are used to the Taiwan way, which is just to pay no attention (unless the siren comes on). So it's easily understood why they didn't bother pulling over.

Suffice to say that was the chuckle for the day...

Silent Hill 8 E3 2010 Trailer

While a little late getting to my blog, I wanted to share with you some footage from our upcoming game Silent Hill 8 published by Konami.  While a work in progress it's easy to see how well things are coming along.  Great job guys!

What Eric's Playing

Anyone who has checked out my blog has probably noticed a list of game on the right side of the site.  This is my "What Eric's Playing" list.  I started to compile the list sometime after I started this blog, so obviously it's not my entire history of games played, but it at least gives you a snapshot of what I have been playing for the last couple of years.

I believe anyone in the industry should be playing games.  I've heard a number of times how people "don't have time to play", or "nothing interests me", or worse yet "I play games all day at work, when I come home I don't want to play anymore".  While it's easy to understand that life happens and things can get in the way of a good gaming session, I will never understand someone who is a responsible party in the industry can't find time to enjoy games for game's sake.

This is tantamount to someone in the fashion industry not wearing fashionable clothes, or someone who makes movies for a living and doesn't watch movies.  I am not suggesting that plumbers plumb on their days off, or a truck driver who wants to drive just for fun.  We are in a creative industry, one that is market driven, and what we do has to be relevant to people you may not fully understand or relate to.  We must play games to understand them.  We have to play games to know what may be fun.  Of course it's better if you can actually enjoy yourself while you are playing, but at the very least I believe it's important to examine games systematically so you can understand what may make them work or fail in the marketplace.

Playing games, especially English language games, isn't as easy as one may think while living in Asia.  Some locations aren't too bad - I found it easy to find the latest games in the Philippines and Singapore.  It's great that the new releases come out roughly the same time as they do in the US, and the prices are competitive, if not a little cheaper in some instances.  Living in Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, or China is problematic though.  The games are localized for the market, and that doesn't include English.  Thank goodness for Amazon.

I offer my games list here as a way of not only seeing what I am playing, but also what interests me personally.  You can see my family game inclinations from some of the games on my list, but you can see the more hard core games for after-hours play.  Yes, there are a few work games in there, and a few that I selected because I thought they were important enough to examine from a market perspective.  But I will continue to love my personal game time as I love the industry and it's extremely exciting to be developing entertainment like this.

Here's a New Aragorn's Quest Video - More Gameplay :-)

Congrats to the entire team at Headstrong and Kuju Manila for their efforts in putting together this increadible game!

Happy Moon/Mid-Autumn Festival!

To everyone in Taiwan, China, or of Chinese ancestry, Happy Moon/Mid-Autumn Festival!

If you are unfamiliar with this holiday, a little primer is HERE.

Enjoy :-)

Some More Aragorn's Quest Video Goodness

Here are some behind-the-scenes videos on the voice over work for Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest.  John-Rhys Davies and Sean Astin lend there voices to the game as viewed in this interview.  Enjoy :-)

Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest (NDS/PS2/PS/Wii) - Launch Trailer

Here is yet another game we helped to develop.  It'll be out Sept 19th!  Enjoy :-)

Burn Zombie Burn (PC/Steam) - Launch Trailer

Here's another game our studio helped to develop.  Enjoy :-)

Top Gun (PSN) - Launch Trailer

Here's the launch trailer for a game our studio helped to develop.  Enjoy :-)