Usually I see games being blamed for all kinds of societies ills...

I once had someone tell me "Video games are one step above pornography!." I really didn't know how to respond and I put my head down and kept on walking. I was in Oklahoma, a stranger in a strange land, just trying to make a living. Grand Theft Auto 3 was all the rage at the time and people were pissed off about video games. Looking back, video games should have been the least of our concerns.

Its nice to see articles portraying games in a more positive light. This one doesn't have a lot of depth but hey it doesn't make us out to be purveyors of filth. Video games can actually make you smarter...

Striking Green Building Proposed for Boston

Im really curious to see how this would look in the winter. It raises some interesting questions about who would be responsible for he maintenance of the green patches on the roof. Is it the residents? Would you feel shame if you had the only brown square because you over watered? Read about it here at Inhabitat

OpenBuildings

Here's a cool site that allows people to submit beauty shots of modern buildings from all over the world. I plan on checking it out the next time I am doing some futuristic stuff! Its called OpenBuildingsOpenBuildings and it has great photography to boot!

Endhiran - The Indian Terminator

So the other day when one of the guys sent around that movie clip - none of us new where it came from. After some Googling, we found out its from the 2nd highest grossing Indian movie of all time Endhiran. Its three hours long, features the beautiful actress (former Miss World) Aishwarya Rai and is totally nuts. Here is a link to the official movie site.

Really nice photography reference site

I stumbled upon this site www.1x.com looking for derelict ship photos for reference. They have a wide variety of subject matter. Case in point this wonderful picture of what I can only assume is the greatest morning beverage known to man - coffee!

Latest Work....COD Black Ops: First Strike

Here's the latest trailer for COD Black Ops! I have to hand it to Treyarch/ Activision - they know how to cut a great trailer! Watching your work set to "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones is surreal and really flattering. I never thought that video games would get to be so slickly presented or marketed. Im really proud of our work and all of the effort that we put into these maps. For the map pack, I was on the environment art side for the zombie map Ascension. Its set in an old Soviet launch facility based on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Zombies have taken over and everything has gone to hell!

When Bollywood meets the Matrix..

The results are pretty spectacular. I dont know much about this clip but a guy sent it around at work and I had to post it. The action scenes are pretty well done for a Bollywood film and there is a great absurd humor running through the entire clip. I need to find out more about who made it and what other work is out there!!

Half Life 2 fan movie

I always enjoyed the post apocalyptic Half Life universe where humanity is decimated by the mysterious Combine. This take on it is a live action fan film and its pretty decent once the exposition stops.

Amazing Crash Footage

Apparently this guy credits his quick reflexes to playing video games. Im glad he and his passenger werent hurt.

Duke Nukem is finally back

After many years and failed attempts it appears that we will again be playing Duke Nukem. He played an important role in video games as the first playable character that had personality and flair. When you played Duke it was like you were in your own raunchier scifi version of Lethal Weapon. Check it out here at Shacknews...Duke Nukem Forever Trailer and Screens Released

Urban Decay

I love pictures of old buildings. They have so much intricate detail that you often dont see replicated in the glass and steel skinned buildings of today. When I see a delightful old building sitting proudly restored my heart lifts a little - call me crazy but this has been the effect that buildings have had on me. Surprisingly then when I see an old decrepit building whose former glory is behind it I also am inspired. There is something about a weathered rotted out hulk of a building that speaks to me. I can remember back to when I encountered my first really grand ruins in the UK. The ones that I remember the most Fountains Abbey,Melrose Abbey and Rievaulx Abbey. As I got into photography in college, I found myself taking more pictures of buildings than people - much to the chagrin of women that I dated. Whenever I find a really cool photo essay on a ruin I naturally have to check it out. Today is one of those days...From the Blog The Kingston Lounge comes these amazing shots of a long abandoned institution on North Brother Island in the East River of NYC. Here is a shot of the former nurses quarters...

Monster Brains

I love the retro future art from the 20's through the 50's so naturally this blog called Monster Brains is really cool. Its got lots of scans of old german scifi magazine covers featuring scary monsters, streamlined spaceships and classic robots.

Locomotive Transformer

I love steam locomotives with their belching smoke and shiny metal. I also enjoy giant robots that can smash stuff. That is why the following animation is right up my alley because it combines both with dramatic effect. I just wish is was a little bit longer...

Featured in the Austin American Statesman, this pool is insane. A fish tank for humans, it overlooks the lake. The video game side of me wonders "Wow what would that look like if I hit the side of that thing with a plasma cannon. What if the house from the finally of Lethal Weapon 1 had that pool!!"

Crappy movies watched while consoling kids...

I have watched quite a few lousy movies while trying to get sick and or fussy kids to bed. Tonights gem was the live action Masters of the Universe starring Dolph Lundgren. I had forgotten that there even was a live action HeMan. I caught the last 20 minutes or so of this truly crappy movie and enjoyed every cheezy minute of it. Skeletors demise reminded me a lot of the Emperors plunge from Star Wars. Long shot of the falling bad guy screaming all the way down a bottomless shaft.

Young people love Austin...

Despite the high levels of Cedar pollen and the summer heat that cooks in the hundreds for weeks at a time - young people are moving to Austin in record numbers. The first time Austin showed up on my radar was after I watched Richard Linklater's awesome indie film Slacker. The locations for the film were definitely not southern California and I watched the credits to find out where it was filmed. I finally got to Austin in the late nineties on a cross country road trip. I stayed with friends and did a lot of the touristy things but what really made an impression on me was how interesting and friendly everyone was. I fell in love with the place and when I had the chance to live here in 2006 my wife and I jumped at the chance. The last 4+ years have been great. I hope the new influx of people will Austin continue to preserve this cities wonderful charm.

As a game designer I look at alot of rusty metal....

In games, we have a preoccupation with weathered surfaces. We cant help it - game lighting handles it really well. I suspect that smooth pristine and thus highly reflective surfaces require more complex calculations to light properly. I also suspect that a worn surface tells more of a story - it has character. So we have tons of rusted metal, cracked plaster, broken concrete and bubbling paint in games. Well here's a woman who takes old metal surfaces and makes them into items that are both beautiful and sculptural.

From Inhabitat

From the why I dont live in NYC anymore files...

I lived in Manhattan for the most of 2002. In my brief time there I saw things that you will see nowhere else (a 6'5" man in a dirty pink tutu being one of them). ...Enjoy the wacky antics what I used to call our "Urban Brother" the wharf rat...

Houses on Rails

This fantastic design proposal suggests building modular houses on old railway lines. The components then can be moved around from place to place along the tracks. This is another one of those interesting proposals that I would love to see incorporated into a game!

Here is the site!

One of best spoof Vids

I was never a fan of the Halo 3 adverts that this clip spoofs. I felt that Halo was taking itself way to seriously. Apparently so did People Can Fly and the result is hilarious...

Chernobyl 25 Years Later

From TotallyCoolPix

Interesting photo essay on the area around Chernobyl. Prypiat is the name of the town and the setting for the COD: Modern Warfare mission "Ghillies in the Mist." Not far from here is the location for the COD: Black Ops MP map that I designed called "Grid." In fact for a while we were considering having the Chernobyl reactor as a landmark in the off map area called the sky box.

Cool Ice Sealed Lake

Untouched for millions of years...what will they find?? Cthulhu??


from New Scientist

The Nottingham Caves Survey Homepage

Awesome effort to document the caves under Nottingham. Every video game needs a good cave reference!!


The Nottingham Caves Survey Homepage

Donkey Lady Blooper

Nothing like YouTube to keep your QA folks on your toes...This is one of my all time favorites :)

Video Game Art Exhibit coming to the Smithsonian!

Makes me want to schedule a visit to one of my favorite cities!

Cool Floating City Concept proposed for Haiti

This would make a great video game environment. It would need to be partially destroyed by zombie invasion however.

Nature is Cruel...

Amazing footage of Wasps vs Honeybees. This video came up during our lunchtime conversation.

Kijk Kubus, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Fantastic Cubist Houses...I really need to get to the Netherlands one of these days!

Kijk Kubus, Rotterdam, Netherlands

They have their own site too... I need to live in a house that warrants its own site ;)
Introkubuseng

Comic about Soviet America....published in the 40's

This guy should have been 3Dog in Fallout 3

Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games of recent memory, but listening to the voice of the radio personality 3Dog was a bit grating at times. They should have used this guy....