E3 2011 info for those who don't know!

So E3 is over and where has it left us? Well, the major games and hardware were in attendance, Candace Bailey looks good playing Kinect games in a skirt (or a dress), and we all were treated to some of the industries best eye candy that we will hold onto until the next E3 comes along. We here at J1 believe that while we can deliver news to our fans, often its our opinions andour imaginations that you really care about most. So, lets take a look at the big stories, and little stories, of E3 and what we think of them with a little J1 flava on top.

First the biggies: Halo 4, Halo HD, the “real” launch titles for the 3DS, Street Fighter x Tekken, the Wii U, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Rage, Zelda: Skyward Sword, the Vita, Batman: Arkham City, Overstrike, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Uncharted 3, Skyhawk, Gears of War 3, Bioshock Infinite, Prey 2, Journey, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim...really too many to write out here. But as far as I'm concerned there are only a few that are really making me lean forward in my seat as the trailers play.

Of all of E3, the following are on my must buy list: Street Fighterx Tekken, the Vita, Batman: Arkham City, Bioshock 3, Mass Effect 3, Overstrike, Deus Ex Human Revolution, and perhaps Hawken.

I wouldn't be a fighting game fan if I didn't get Street Fighter x Tekken and it already looks awesome. Let's just hope 'Gief and King get to wrestle (go King!). The Tekken players will supposedly have moves that will allow safe passage through the waves of fireballs that will be thrown at them, and will excel at close ranged combat. There is some bit of that that makes me uncomfortable. Zangief, Abel, T. Hawk, and others already have fireball safe moves and they still struggle to close the distance with the best of the keep away artists (Guile, Dee Jay, Akuma, Gouken). The neat thing will be seeing how they balance out the complete lack of fireballs on the Tekken half with the serious juggling and mixup advantage that they should also have.

Arkham City and Deus Ex are need-to-buys because the games in their respective series before them were great and there would need a Devil May Cry 2 style meltdown to come out as anything less than stellar. Since I have seen enough of both to be assured that won't be happening, I'll definitely be getting them, probably at launch (see you at midnight, South Street store). I feel bad for the people that are going to have to judge for the Game of the Year category for the next two years, if these two titles are representative of the quality of work going into the AAA titles they will have their work cut out for them.

Overstrike and Hawken are two completely new games: one made by David and the other by Goliath. EA's Overstrike probably had a small army working on that trailer for at least half a year for ten hour days; Hawken is made by less than 10 people, some of which are interns. And Hawken showed up with actual gameplay! Nevertheless, we look forward to both entries, and lets pray that Overstrike plays at least something like its trailer.

Mass Effect 3. Bioshock Infinite. Two games that have game of the year written all over them. If I didn't get both of these, I might as well sell my PS3 and 360. These two games will be so awesome that they will no doubt take up more of my life than several of the other games on this list combined. You have to love how they moved Bioshock from the ocean to the clouds, and the apparent graphical bump they've given it. Lets hope for a little more enemy variation to make the game perfect. And I love how Mass Effect carries decisions we made years ago all the way through to the end. Can't wait to kick some reaver butt. Seriously, I can't stress it enough, these two are too innovative, too pretty, too amazing to pass up; if you get nothing else (besides Street Fighter x Tekken) get these two..

I've never been a big fan about Battlefield but the graphics on this game look amazing. You have to remember, the trailers you see on tv or even online are a lot like uncooked re-chewed food: the game isn't done and its been re-rendered through the camera/computer so the quality of the sound and the video will not be the same as when you plug it in and play. The fact that Battlefield made me drool (graphically speaking) from a demo means that they are doing well enough production-wise to polish their work to the sort of quality expected from a complete game. I seriously might buy the game just so I can watch my gun fly apart into a hundred little customizable pieces.

Also the COD: MW3 demo looked sick with the NYC backdrop, the sight customization, and the smart grenade launcher (which will hopefully be even better than MGS 4's). I love how the game alternates between making you feel like the grim reaper (the first game had that famous AC-130 section) and being a completely helpless punk (Black Ops' endless army of doom comes to mind). We can all look forward to calling down surgical strikes on whole buildings worth of baddies, helicopter crashes, tense sniper infiltration missions, and generally blowing crap up.

Halo HD and Halo 4 are interesting because they're both games made by Microsoft (not Bungie) specifically in the pursuit of wringing every last dollar from a super successful franchise. Sometimes that works out all right (Fallout: New Vegas) but more often than not the new studio makes a game of decent quality that looks similar, and sounds similar, but just doesn't feel the same. Especially when you consider that they are going to try to make three games! They are going to have a tough job: to make a game that is familiar to players of the original trilogy, and yet making something that's innovative enough that's its not just a retread. The fans will be looking at every atom of detail put into the game to make sure that it stays true to their extremely high game play and story expectations. Tough job. Can't wait to see how that's going to come out.

I want to come out and say that while I plan to buy Rage and play it to death, I am somewhat confuzzled at how they are going to start

announcing and planning a sequel when they haven't released the first game yet. Rage could sell two copies for all they know! It kinda feels dirty, like a company making a game and then coming out with paid DLC in less than a week later. Well, at least the game looks as good as advertised, I was worried that it was going to look like the offspring of Doom and Borderlands.

In my pocket on some days I could have a Geimei A330 (look it up), a personal media player of some type, an android smart phone, and occasionally I have a bag with my laptop/tablet in it. And I still want a Vita. Why? Cause I do. Because it finally has dual sticks. Because it has graphics on par with the PS3. Because its black and shiny. Because it it the complete spiritual opposite of the 3DS. That alone it good enough for me.

Now for the stuff that's not so cool. Though the Kinect and Move did have a solid showings this year, there really just isn't anything that has me desperate for them yet. Does anyone remember the Playstation Eye? Though the tech has come a long way, I just feel like if I'm going to get up and move around, I'm going to hit pads in the dojo for real, or throw a frisbee, or play peek-a-boo with a crackhead in a garbage can. I like how people are willing to sweat for their games now, but don't we really like games because they're completely unrealistic? I mean, doesn't Chuck Liddel holding pads for you as you kick for real seem like one of those gimmicky arcade games we used to play when we were kids? Or dancing in front of your television? When they come out with something I can play by myself or others that doesn't make me feel foolish I'll be all over it, till then, no thanks.

The puzzlement extends to the newly revealed Wii U; seriously, that's the best name that the marketing team could come up with? I don't get the controller, which looks like a tablet with buttons. I don't get how the “hardcore” games are going to play on a system so aggressively marketed to casual players. And I also ponder what kind of price this strange arrangement might cost. One of the things that helped the Wii was that it was so cheap, but how are they going to manage to make the Wii U cheap? The tablet controller itself should retail for at least the cost of what a Wii today would cost. I would actually find it interesting if they allow you to load games on the tablet thingie and take it along with you portable style. I'd probably try to root it and install Honeycomb, just an idea.

What do you guys think? Is there something that you saw at E3 that tickled your fancy? Disagree with me? Didn't get all of the E3 info you wanted and want to get filled in? Hit me up on the forum and let me know!

~ Chris A.

Jason Kanter interview... :)

We here at The Reset Button got ahold of our good friend Jason Kanter. When last we saw him (in person) I believe he had just finished up work that he did on BioShock 2. So for people who want to know more about what Jason did, or you want to know more about the industry read on...

As an audio engineer, what got you into the gaming industry?

I was working in the music/record industry as a producer and tracking/mixing engineer for a long time and in the late 90’s/early 2000’s I was seeing a significant decline in record budgets. Labels were seeing decreases in sales. They started dropping bands from their roster in droves and slashing recording budgets. This was combined with the fact that bands were becoming savvier as to what studios were capable of achieving technologically. Bands would come in knowing they had a drummer that couldn’t keep time or a singer with piss poor pitch and would expect the engineer to make them sound like god. And we would but the job became more about fixing shitty performances and less about capturing great music. It was simply not why I got into making records. Overall the horizon for record making looked pretty bleak.

Then in 2003 my brother in-law, Scott Carroll, started working for Maxis/EA as an animator on “The Sims 2”. They were in need of freelance audio editors and I’ve been an avid gamer since age 13 so I jumped at the opportunity. Although editing Simlish for 12 hours a day can be somewhat maddening, I was making good money and was able to combine my passion for audio with my love for games. After finishing “The Sims 2” I decided to make the switch to games full time and haven’t looked back since.

Besides gaming what other projects have you been involved with? Will you or have you been involved in film?

I still work on music projects from time to time and I’ve also provided sound for the occasional website or new-media project but when not working on games the majority of my time is spent working on film and television. I’ve done sound for a few projects on Comedy Central like “The Awkward Comedy Show” and this crazy animated series about a crack addicted robot called “Crackatron”. Currently I’m working on co-producing a TV show with a good friend of mine, Victor Varnado, and I have a number of film projects going on. But generally I love providing sound for anything visual.

Working on games as a sound designer I’ve learned how satisfying it can be to add sound to an otherwise silent scene. Sound designers have significant influence on the weight that even a single animation can have. Every animation is like a blank canvas and you have so much freedom in the sounds you use to paint that canvas.

A few years back I got to try my hand doing sound design and re-record mixing for film on a short film called Roboto Supremo and found it immensely satisfying. Although it’s the same basic concept as providing sound for games, the gratification I get from working on film is much more immediate since it’s a linear process and everything’s right there in front of you. Plus you generally don’t have to wait several years before the project is completed. When I get the film the visual is basically complete and when I add sound to a scene it’s done. Levels might change in the mixing process but otherwise I don’t have to worry about a sound file not firing due to bad coding or the sound being dropped because the audio engine has reached its limit.

We know that you were involved with the dialogue editing of BioShock 2. What was the hardest thing you had to deal with?

The hardest part about working on “BioShock 2” was the pace. I was the lead dialogue editor and had two editors working for me. The turnarounds were pretty fast and we were getting multiple sessions every day so it was easy to have the work suddenly pile up. Plus, in addition to editing I was responsible for QC’ing every single line before I submitted it back to 2K. It was a pretty massive undertaking. I had to pull a few all nighters and by the end of it I think we were all a little burnt out but I live to tell about it. Hehe.

I’m currently lead dialogue editing “XCOM” for 2K and I’m handling it a lot better. I’ve basically tripled the number of editors working for me so I’m able to focus on the QC and file management more and do less of the actual editing myself. Getting a new editor on board is always an investment of time since I’m a meticulous bastard in terms of the way each file is edited, but it’s well worth it once I get a new editor up to speed.

Now I know you did audio work for Sims 2, Rat Race and even Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery Game . Now what exactly did you for each one of them?

On “The Sims 2” I was working as a freelance editor whereas the other two I was the in house audio director so my involvement was completely different.

“The Sims 2” was a fairly simple job. I would be sent DVD’s filled with Pro Tools sessions and every single session was a different animation voiced by one actor. The actor would do six or seven takes for each animation and I had to select the best take (or edit the best combination), clean it and bounce off the edit with the appropriate filename. Now mind you this is Simlish we’re talking about, so the actor is for all intents and purposes speaking gibberish; it’s not as if I’m listening for script accuracy or pronunciation. But listening to Simlish for 8-12 hours a day, you do start to pick up a sense of what is and is not Simlish. As crazy as it sounds there were actors that were definitely better at doing it then others.

Basically I had to watch the animation and try to get what the character is saying emotionally. Then I’d listen to each of the takes and pick the one that best matched the emotion conveyed and how the character is gesticulating.

After completing “Sims 2” I took a job as Audio Director for a small developer in NYC, Super-Ego Games. They were developing an original IP called “Rat Race”. It was supposed to be a playable sitcom set in an office so needless to say it was very character driven and there was A LOT of dialogue. While “Barbie” was a different game in that it was a licensed IP aimed at kids, it was also comedically based and character driven so it too had a lot of VO. As audio director I was in charge of all aspects of audio for both titles but the majority of my time was spent casting, recording and directing the voice actors. I also handled the majority of the sound design and edited the music as well as mixed all the cutscenes. Like audio directors for most small companies I had to wear many hats so I did whatever I had the time and skills to handle and hired staff and freelancers for everything else.

At any these gigs, did you ever get to meet a celebrity (as in a movie star)?

We had big plans on “Rat Race” to hire celebrity talent to voice guest characters in certain episodes, which would have been very exciting, but sadly that never came to fruition.

Not sure if they’re the A-list “celebrities” you were looking for but I’ve worked with some known musicians like Anthrax and Bruce Hornsby during my record making career and in the last film I worked on, “Tell Your Friends”, I got to meet Jim Gaffigan, Janeane Garofalo and Colin Quinn. I was also snubbed by Henry Rollins once… that was pretty exciting.

Any future titles that you will be adding audio skills to?

Aside from the aforementioned game “XCOM” I’m currently audio directing on an undisclosed title set in space by a small company in NYC. I’m also about to start post on the film, “Tell Your Friends”; I’m scheduled to do post for a spooky horror indie feature later this month; and I’m co-producing a TV pilot with my friend Victor Varnado. I think that’s all I have scheduled right now.

Any words of wisdom for those who want to get into the audio world?

Get an internship at a busy studio ASAP; on the job is the best way to learn the trade. While getting formal training in audio never hurts and it’s good to learn some of the nuts and bolts science behind what you do, true knowledge comes through experience and when you’re done with school you’ll still need to get that experience somewhere. If you get your foot in the door at a busy post house you may start out making coffee but you’re more likely to be thrown in on a project earlier on and there is no better teacher than experience. Then you can take all the money you saved on audio school and spend it on some nice gear.

To learn more of about Jason Kanter go to www.jasonkanter.com

Bioshock 2 Review

Game: Bioshock 2
Genre: First-person Shooter
Developer(s): 2K Marin, 2K Australia
Publisher(s): 2K Games
Release Date: 2/9/2010
Rating: M
System: XBOX 360, Play station 3, PC

I hope you brought you swim suit because we’re going back for another dip in the pool with Bioshock 2. This is the sequel to 2007's Game of the Year Bioshock. It is a first-person shooter. You play as Subject Delta, a Big Daddy, the first one to be exact. You had your own little sister and life was good. She would gather ADAM and you would kill anyone who would try to hurt her. Then they took her from you and killed you. The game takes place 10 years after the events of Bioshock 1. When you awake the city's founder, Andrew Ryan, is dead and now it is run by Sofia Lamb and her Splicers. But where is your little sister? Is she ok? What have they done to her? You must find out.

This game plays like the first one. In this case, it's not a bad thing if you never played the prequel. If you played Bioshock, however, you will notice some small changes. You still get guns and Plasmids but now you can wield both of them at the same time. Finally. It made for some intense situations but it was more frustrating at times. There is a melee button instead of a melee weapon. This comes in handy during heated battles or ambushes. Also if you run out of ammo, you can just hit them with you weapon. Speaking of weapons, all of them can be upgraded. There are only 5 weapons in this game, compared to the 7 you got in the prequel. To compensate for the lack of weapons, you get 2 gadgets: a research camera and a hacking tool. The research camera is similar to the one on the first game, but instead of taking pictures it records the subject. While the camera is recording you can still attack. The data recorded is graded, so the more you mix up you attacks the better you grade. The hacking tool is like a dart gun for hacking. Gun turrets, vending machines, health stations, security bots and cameras can be hacked. You shoot the dart at whatever you want to hack, and then a meter comes up. The meter has a sliding arrow and 4 zones, green, red, white and blue. You have to hit the green zones to hack correctly. If you hit the red zones you set off the alarm, the white shocks you. The blue ones give you bonuses like a free item or extra damage. This is better than the tube system in the first game where you had to connect the tubes so the circuit flow could connect.

Plasmids are the games version of super powers. You can shoot fire, electricity, or freeze you foes. Those who played the first one will be happy to know that most of the originals have returned but are "New and Improved". For example, you can now charge them for more damage or for longer lasting effects. The Gene Tonics has also returned. These are passive skills that act automatically. Some make you stronger against attacks others may help you hack better. You can change your Plasmids and Gene Tonics freely at Gene Banks.

The AI is the same from the first game. The Splices have the same “fight or flight” personality. The Big Daddies act the same too. The game does "explain" why they are like this. After the abuse of ADAM Splices become like addicts searching for their next fix. Hmm…sounds familiar. The Big Daddies were subjected to various plasmids experiments and test, making them mindless protectors of their bonded Little Sisters. The developers did try to mix things up with 3 new enemies, Brute Splicers, The Rumbler Big Daddy and Big Sisters. Brute Splicers are like the Bouncer Big Daddy but can throw things and doesn't have a little sister. The Rumbler Big Daddy is just a Big Daddy that shoots grenades and turrets at you. The Big Sisters are only real new enemy. They are tough. They can flip around, charge and tackle you and even shoot fire.

Bioshock 2 now has multiplayer. This is a first for the franchise. Surprisingly it is good. Some games have multiplayer as an afterthought but it’s actually a part of the story here. The multiplayer takes place before Bioshock 1, so you get to play what happened to Rapture. You are part of the "Sinclair Solutions Program" (guinea pig) were you test out the Plasmids in combat situations. You are given an apartment where you can change you appearance, weapons, or view you stats. It has a Modern Warfare style of leveling up. Instead of points it uses ADAM. There 7 play modes: Survival of the Fittest, Civil War, Capture the Sister, Turf War, ADAM Grab, Team ADAM Grab and Last Splicer Standing. Survival of the Fittest is free-for-all with 6-10 people. Civil War is a team vs. (Atlas vs. Ryan). Capture the Sister is like capture the flag but it’s a Little Sister. Turf War is like king of the hill. ADAM Grab is where you hold the Little Sister for as long as possible. Team ADAM Grab same as ADAM Grab but with a team. Last Splicer Standing similar to Civil War but its four rounds with no respawns. The team with the most surviving members wins a round. Win the most rounds you win the game.

There aren’t that many bad things with the game that stand out. Besides the AI, the game is short. It's about 20 hours. If you know what you are doing, you could beat it in about 10. If you played the first one, some of the task will seem familiar. Some of the places feel like add-on to other areas in the first game. I'm not saying they look the same but some place could pass for smaller levels of the first game.

In a nutshell, Bioshock 2 is good game. Good story, improved controls, fun multiplayer. The AI is passable, short game play, and the feeling that it could have been a downloadable game are what hurt it.

Final Rating: 3/5