Rockstar Games has just released a trailer for Grand Theft Auto V, and it’s taking place. . . in San Andreas.

Specifically Los Santos.

Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto V on Wikia

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on Wikia

I can’t wait.

Video Games | No Comments »

Bone, one of my favorite comics of all time, is currently being adapted as a serialized video game (and a cool looking one at that).

Click here to see!

And in even cooler news – Three new Bone novels, a trilogy titled Bone: Quest for the Spark, have been scheduled for release in 2011, detailing the adventures of new group of Bones in the valley.

BONE: Quest for the Spark is a slightly different kind of thing. It is not a comic; it’s a novel. A series of three novels written by Tom Sniegoski that follow a new generation of Bone characters into the Valley.

I was a bit unsure about this project when Tom first suggested it, but when I read the first book I laughed so hard, I agreed to do it. Scholastic was so blown away by it, that they decided to make it available in hardcover and wanted the illustrations, of which I think I’m going to do about twenty, full bleed and in color.

Link

Tall Tales, a graphic novel collecting both out of print and new materials, will be out in August.

The graphic novel will feature new Smiley Bone and Bartleby stuff by Jeff Smith!

Links

Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume

Bone Prequel: Rose

Bone Handbook

Boneville – The Official Bone Homepage

Bone Cover Gallery

Bone Fan Animation

Tall Tales

Comics, Literature, Video Games | No Comments »

The world of Second Life is one that is constantly being created by those who live inside it, where everything from the buildings and robots, to the texture of an avatar’s skin, to the way an avatar moves, is something designed by another player.

It is a world which has no story, yet at the same time it is a thousand stories all at once.

And there are dance clubs everywhere.

I love the bizarre cultures that have developed here. Furries and faeries, sex maniacs and sci-fi fans, Lindens and hackers. . .

It’s a different game for everyone who plays it.

Second Life is such an expansive and constantly changing world, so filled with sci-fi madness, that it has grown its own branch of journalism just to document what happens inside. Below are some of the more interesting pieces of Second Life writing I’ve come across since beginning the game.

New World Notes

A Crisis of Faith

Abstract Avatars

Evolving Nemo – Artifical Intelligence and Cyber-Fish

Made in Japan

Ants and A.I.

Second Life an Al Qaeda

Wandering Sentient A.I. Bot Hal

How Many Species of Artificial Life are there in Second Life

His Current Brain is Scaled Down for Testing Purposes

April – The Bot Who Learns as You Speak to Her

Fairy Bots

A Rustic Place Called Mocha

What Artificial Cat Prowls Second Life So Elusively?

A Map of Second Life and a Map of San Francisco

The U.S. Army’s Virtual Island for Amputee Veterans in Second Life

An Unvarnished Tour of Religion in Second Life

Botgirl – The Avatar Who Woke Up in Second Life

The Soul of Second Life

How Intelligent Have Second Life A.I.s Become?

Philip Rosedale Attempting to Create Sentient Artificial Intelligence that Thinks and Dreams in Second Life

Final Fantasy VII

Warren Ellis – Second Life Sketches

A Rain of Cubes

The Girl with Error-Message Eyes

Helicopters Hang in the Air

Digital Shorelines

Penthouse to Pavement

A Night on the Grid

The Art of War

Please Stop Doing That to the Cat

Let’s Put the Future Behind Us

The Lay of the Land

The Island of Lost Souls

Drive My Car

The Alphaville Herald

Private Eyes for Hire in Second Life

Alliance Navy Base Becomes Furry Death Camp

Is the Founder of The Second Life Liberation Army Part of A Corporate Spy Firm?

Interview with BallerMoMo

Estonia Annexed by Soviet Woodbury

Casino Owner Unimpressed with Crackdown

Ginko Financial’s End-Game

Has One Song Returned to Re-Start the Second Jessie War?

A History of The Second Jessie War

Others

Yoko Ono and Virtual Peace

Virtualism – A Movement for A New World

A Search for Second Life Culture or Omphaloskepsis

Ramadan in Second Life

The Disneyland Sim

Burning Life

A Tour of the Virtual Reproductive System

The Top Four Pandoras from Avatar in Second Life

To The Moon

Parapsychology Research Center to Open in Second Life

A fair amount of books, both fiction and non-fiction, have been published on Second Life. Here is a list of some of the best.

Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators

Una Tragicomica Second Life – Cellule staminali dell’anima (Italian Edition)

ANIMA: a novel about Second Life

Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human

Second Life: The Official Guide

Virtual Worlds, Real Libraries: Librarians and Educators in Second Life and Other Multi-User Virtual Environments

I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life

Creating Your World: The Official Guide to Advanced Content Creation for Second Life

Scripting Your World: The Official Guide to Second Life Scripting

The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World

The Second Life Herald: The Virtual Tabloid that Witnessed the Dawn of the Metaverse

There is lot of excellent machinima being produced in Second Life as well.

For those just starting out in this world, I recommend gothic Transylvania, the steampunk cities of Caledon and New Babbage, the mysterious oracle beneath the temple in Svarga, or Insilico, the coolest cyberpunk city in Second Life since the fall of Nexus Prime.

The Electric Children island is coming soon. . .

Supernatural, Video Games | No Comments »

The first official trailer for Final Fantasy XIV has just gone online. Like Final Fantasy XI, FFXIV will be an online RPG, with thousands of people playing in-world at the same time.

It takes place in a land called Eorzea, in the world of Haiderin.

“Embraced by mighty Gods. . .”

“Beyond the page of eternity. . .”

I can’t wait to play. The release is scheduled for 2010.

FFXIV Official Homepage
Final Fantasy 14
XIV World
Eorzeapedia
Final Fantasy XIV History
Square Enix

And because Final Fantasy XIII is also on the way. . .

Video Games | 1 Comment »

An interesting article philosophizing on the evolution of the relationships between humans and their avatars.

Merging with Your Avatar

With each generation of avatar, they will become more life-like, growing in realism, pressing the limits of autonomy as we become more and more reliant on them for experiencing the world. The avatar will become an extension of ourselves. The pain that we feel is the same pain that they feel, and vice versa. Like symbiotic twins separated only by a dimension or two, we are destined to become one with our avatars.

(Via Futurismic)

As we merge with our nonlocal selves, the question then becomes how best to accelerate this process, and how best to use it for magic?

Is this phenomenon an example of what Terrence McKenna described as the externalization of the soul?

Supernatural, Video Games | No Comments »

The new game from the creative team behind Ico and Shadow of the Colossus has finally been announced. It’s called The Last Guardian.

The game will revolve around the developing friendship between a boy and a giant feathered creature, called a “sea eagle” or “erne” in the Japanese title.

. . .

Ueda claims within the physics engine, the effect of wind is modeled separately for each of the creature’s feathers.

I cannot wait to play this!

The Last Guardian is continuing on from the last two games. . .

Ico: Melody in the Mist (Soundtrack)

Shadow of the Colossus: Roar of the Earth (Soundtrack)

Ico

Shadow of the Colossus

Ico Fan Fiction

Shadow of the Colussus Fan Fiction

. . .The Farthest Land

I first learned of the existence of The Last Guardian from this article on the new Team Ico Pack for Little Big Planet. If you’re a Little Big Planet fan you definitely need to download the Team Ico Pack.

Preview pics from The Last Guardian can be seen here.

The release date has not yet been announced.

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Rival Schools, the comic book based on the classic cult fighting game from Capcom, is now available for free on the Udon Comics website.

Check it out.

Comics, Video Games | 2 Comments »

(Image by The Guitar Fighter)

Art, Video Games | No Comments »

I found this message in my email yesterday:

Hello!

My name is Elliot Jamison and I am writing to you on behalf of the Stop XenoVaradox movement.

To make a long story short, we are collecting film footage in an attempt to create a documentary/timeline of XenoVaradox and its founder, Augustus Templeton. (Basically, we are amature historians/activists.) Because so much of his life and his company have been shrouded in secrecy, we’ve had a hard time coming up with anything. But, we are willing to do what it takes to get the truth out…even if that means asking other people for help!

Is it possible that in all of the footage you have shot over the years, there may be some fragment that contains a reference to or clue regarding Templeton or XenoVaradox? We have made contact with someone who had a VHS copy of a show from Czech TV, but that’s pretty obscure…Anyway, any assistance you could provide (even if it’s just someone else to talk to) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-EJ

Whether or not I have any footage of Mr. Templeton is of course something I will have to keep secret for now, but I have to admit I was unfamiliar with XenoVaradox.

A Google search provided some interesting clues. [[Note: See the comments section below for updates on link status.]]

From the XenoVaradox website:

XenoVaradox: Aspiring to be the most innovative tactical and cybernetic systems supplier through world-class people and technology.

XenoVaradox is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, homeland security, and other paramilitary markets throughout the world. With a significant history of innovation, XenoVaradox provides electronics, mission systems integration, and other capabilities in the areas of command, control, communications and intelligence systems, as well as specialized mission support services.

So it seems that Templeton is doing quite well for himself these days.

A wide variety of career offers from XenoVaradox were recently posted at various employment sites across the net, with such interesting available positions as data transmission and interception, content generation, administrative assistant, tactical hermeneutics, and mercenary.

The application form at their website had some very interesting questions.

11. Would you rather have proof that the Devil exists or not, and why?

12. Would you rather have proof that G-d exists or not, and why?

13. Would you rather be able to bring people back from the dead or be able to kill people, and why?

After reading all this, and hearing about some of their stranger activities, it’s not too hard to see why certain activists would want to fight against them.

From the Stop XenoVaradox site:

XenoVaradox has become much more than just a comic-book store in rural America. In the past 10 years, XenoVaradox has grown into one of the most powerful and secretive organizations in the world — number 1 among the Fortune 500, if you ask me — and is America’s largest security threat. (Remember the Bill of Rights, people?)

With more than 4.1 million employees and over $21 billion in profits, XenoVaradox is a humongous company with even greater responsibilities. First and foremost, XenoVaradox has a responsibility to all Americans to set the standard for customers, workers and communities, and to help build a better America. Don’t you agree?

The truth is that XenoVaradox has let America down, forcing good paying American jobs overseas, and cutting throats with total disregard for the values that have made this nation great. XenoVaradox has needlessly exploited illiterate children, faces the largest treason lawsuit in history, and has coaxed workers to work in unsafe environments, and — incredibly — broken human trafficking laws.

America’s largest defense (*ahem* WAR!) contractor must reflect America’s values. But, XenoVaradox will never change on its own. Augustus Templeton, XenoVaradox’s CEO, mistakenly thinks he only answers to a few wealthy shareholders who own XenoVaradox stock. Templeton is wrong. XenoVaradox and Augustus Templeton must answer to the American people.

The Stop XenoVaradox movement has already knocked out several of XenoVaradox’s sites, so they certainly are dedicated.

These are a few places where you can find them online.

Stop XenoVaradox
Boycott XenoVaradox
Boycott XenoVaradox on Facebook

As for Augustus Templeton, a few minutes of footage from the Czech TV special mentioned by EJ is available online in three (of four or more) parts.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

I have no idea where the rest of that footage is, but what’s even more illuminating about Templeton’s life is this bit of audio that was recently discovered, a record of Templeton’s Glasstown experience.

The Glasstown Translation

Good old Glasstown.

Cheers to whoever the researcher is that found that.

I came across another XenoVaradox site that looked like it was down. If you investigate it carefully, you can find a secret message.

Video Games | 7 Comments »

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the addictive hit video game for the Nintendo DS, has just been turned into an all-female opera in Japan. The musical is being put on by the historic Takarazuka Revue, which has been performing since 1914. The show’s first run has just completed, with a sequel, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 2, coming in August.

Musical Home Page
Video Game Home Page
Phoenix Wright on Nintendo DS
Phoenix Wright – The Manga
Phoenix Wright – The Audio Drama

Video Games | 1 Comment »