Dante’s Inferno is a book and a game concept very close to my heart. Inserting Dante references subtly into game scripts is one of my calling cards, most obviously in the stage names and achievements for Devil May Cry 4.

My initial reaction to EA’s Inferno trailer was shock at how much I liked it… Until I saw the guy fighting and jamming crosses in heads.

I’ve been thinking about it more and more, and I think it is more like he is going through a conception of Dante’s Hell, loosely based of Dantean Cosmography. Evidence of this is coming from the trailer, which they briefly flash a map seemingly inspired by the existing carvings of Dante’s hell.

Also, the main site, seems focused on the Gates of Hell - with the Thinker from Rodin’s gate, and the eternal pain line on the sign-up screen being taken from the translation on the gate in Inferno itself.

I still have issues with the main character. It seems like a man fighting his way into hell, where it would be a more interesting plot for a man to fight his way out, especially with how boring the lower circles, devoted to betrayers, are. If you figure that Judas is essentially being eternally gnawed upon, and the rest of the circle is just men frozen solid in various contortions, it would be the most anti-climatic final stage of all time. The character design is also not the direction I would have taken, but oh well.

Anyways, I wish that team the best of luck, and a huge part of me wishes that I was on this one with them. I think there is still a wonderful Dante game to be made, incorporating many elements of the man and the book, as opposed to playing an original story set in his world.

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The strong yen and insane Christmas sales has been devastating my wallet, but some of these deals are too good to pass up.

For instance -

+

+

= 13,500 yen including express shipping to Japan.

So. Awesome.

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Well, I can now access my website after exchanging my AirPort Extreme base station for a new one.

If it didn’t work, I was going to sell it on ebay and take Gregg’s recommendation, but thankfully I am back for the attack. I may hate Apple service, but I love AirDisk, which is why the AirPort Extreme is perfect for me. Screw the TimeCapsule.

So, yeah, back on the attack… And speaking of on the attack, SEGA opened up the official MadWorld page today.

http://www.madworldgame.com/

Check it out when you get the chance.

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So my net connection problems are all the AirPort Extreme’s doing. Apparently, it randomly decided to disallow m from connecting to this very site. If you google “airport extreme blocking one site,” other people seem to be having this exceedingly rare issue.

So I take my ass down to the apple store hoping for an exchange on a six week old router, show them the discussion thread on the support forums, explain every single step I attempted in solving the issue, and explain how my time and email are too valuable to try and fix some rare Apple bug.

The staff girl talked with the genius upstairs, who had never heard of the issue and wanted to check it out.

Fine, I say. Oh, but they are booked for the rest of the day. Can you come back tomorrow.

What. The. Fuck.

I’ve already made on trip to your store for this rare issue. Now you want me to make another trip because your support queue is filled with people who can’t get the fucking iPods to work?

This is the biggest issue with Apple support. Giving everyone personal support is great, but if a customer says your product is broken, then don’t make them have to come back to prove it. Provide an exchange or facilitate sending it off to support. It literally doesn’t take a fucking genius to tell me what I already know. The thing is broken, fix it, give me a new one, or let me be. Lacking the ability to trust or handle customers other with anyone other than the three trained assholes dealing with iPods and people who don’t know how to use mail.app is not an acceptable excuse.

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Lunch with a pretty girl. Check.

Tasty Indian food. Check.

Looking forward to the last bite on the fork. Check.

The disappointment of losing that last bite off the fork. Palpable.

Being shown a picture of that precious moment. Priceless.

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When epic trance was at it’s peak, Ferry Corsten (aka System F) signed a contract with Avex, who was seriously cashing in on the trend with the CyberTrance series and ridiculously packed nights at a club in Tokyo called Velfarre, owned by the label.

One of Ferry’s obligations for this was an album titled Together, that was a bit too cheesy for even the early 2000s vocal trance scene. But within that CD, there were a few gems, the most under appreciated a track called Spaceman. I heard it again today on a genius playlist and I remembered how absolutely awesome an Epic track it is. The “Love is Gravity” lyric begs to be played at decibel levels that can cause permanent damage.

Of course, the end of the contract with was a track called Cyber F (it was too cheesy for the now retired System F moniker), and produced under Ferry’s alias Delaquente, which translates loosely to contractual obligation.

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I had great intentions for the day, as I wanted to get cranking on a screenplay idea that I have; however, a pizza induced bout of the -itis stopped that could in it’s tracks. Now, after a four hour nap and an ill-advised episode of NCIS, I am sitting in an Okonomiyaki place in Takatsuki checking out the mobile wordpress app.

Never tied this place before, so I am hoping that it is tasty, but regardless, getting up and out makes the day feel a little less wasted. And tonight I am going to get my Left 4 Dead on after Mai goes to bed.

Food is here, so off I go.

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-Still Planning To Buy-

Gears of War 2 (Purchased and Incoming)
Dead Space (Will borrow from a friend this week)
Left 4 Dead
LittleBigPlanet
Rock Band 2
Patapon 2
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

-Canceled Purchases-

Call of Duty: World at War
Quantum of Solace (2 Treyarch games!?)
Resistance 2
Fallout 3

-Uncommitted-

Guitar Hero World Tour

Finally, I’ve been thinking about buying a DSLR, and it is between the Lumix G1 and the Canon XSi. Going to decide in the next week or two.

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Sony is getting absolutely hammered on the Tokyo Stock Exchange today… It has lost 14% of its value, and that puts the market cap at something like 20 billion USD (at the hasn’t-been-see-in-13-years-thank-god-I’m-paid-in-yen-rate of 95 yen to the dollar).

20 Billion.

Apple, Nintendo, Microsoft all carry nearly all of that sum or more in cash reserves. If the downturn continues, is it not unreasonable to think that Sony could become a takeover target for a large multinational.

Could a GE or a Vivendi try to snipe off the entertainment business?

Could Apple take a shot at the pc/consumer electronics?

Could Nintendo or MS try to take a step towards the “one-console-future”?

I don’t think it is likely, but it is interesting to think out loud about.

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Gamasutra - ESA Confirms Details Of ‘Expanded’ June E3

I noticed some of the press complaining about the size, or how there should be public days like TGS.

I think returning to the old E3 is absolutely the right idea.

- Retailers will care again.
- Mainstream media will care again.
- Publishers will care again.

Sure, the press won’t like having to fight through crowds… But crowds are good. Crowds playing games are good for the team to get a wide cross section of reactions to their games. Pictures of crowds playing games are good for media coverage. Hordes of crowds lined up to play a game sends a big signal to buyers. Crowds are good.

I also think the idea that public days are the way to induce crowds is actually counter-productive. What you can show/include in a public demo versus what you can show/include in demos for a more restricted audience are fundamentally different. Full-on public crowds are also harder to manage.

Either way, I am happy to have the old E3 back for the attack.

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