Guy In Rubber Suit

That was all hand keyed. There's no way to motion capture a scorpion. That was a pretty funny trailer though.

I tested this game a bit and I had a pretty fun time with it. I honestly don't know how the final product turned out but I definitely enjoyed my stint on it and I was looking forward to it ever since I saw the first teaser for it.

Game Dude is an excellent place for used games. They have games of virtually every system including some hard to find games and the games are generally in very good condition with the box and manual with very little markings and the prices are reasonable. It's located in LA though so I don't know how far that would be for you. I've been there twice, the second time I got some decent Sega CD and Saturn games. Almost bought Shining Force III. www.gamedude.com

The art. Sorry should've clarified.

I'd be interested in doing something like this in the near future.

I picked up the game with box and manual for like 8 bucks a few years ago. I played for about 15 minutes and thought it was pretty cool. Interesting note, the back of the box displays some very early screen grabs which look nothing like the final product. Curious as to why they did that.

I really enjoyed Star Ocean 2 for the PS and I might pick it up for the PSP. I enjoyed the combat and item creation system even though it wasn't fully explained and I felt it was more trial and error than anything. I have Star Ocean First Departure which was received on Christmas however I'm not really enjoying it. I think it's mostly stemmed from me drifting away from the JRPG style. I might get into it later but right now it didn't do anything for me gameplay or storywise.

This was a pretty good Xmas for me this year. Gifts were a little light but they were good ones. My girlfriend says I should get more on Saturday so we'll see. Gave: DS Carry Case PSP Carry Case PSP Screen protector Rune Factory 2 Rhapsody DS Nintendogs Alicia Keys - As I Am LL Cool J - Exit 13 Shelly Duvalle's Faire Tale Theatre Pearl Necklace/Bracelet/Earring set Chris Isaak tickets Pot holders Desert drinking glasses Received: Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Star Ocean First Departure Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions A 50mm ammo box for storing whatever

That was an expansion slot used to plug in the Expansion Pak which boosted the N64's RAM to 8MB. I believe the original cartridge was just a dummy cart, though if it was removed the system would not play. I have a NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Sega CDX, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, GBA SP, DS Lite and Neo Geo Pocket Color Pro. Most of the systems are hooked up and I still play them occasionally. I like to play them instead of emulation because of a collector's sensibility and I enjoy relaxing on my bed in front of my TV to play them.

I've only done one cover and that was sketched out, scanned then colored in Photoshop. I'd love to do more album covers. I just want to boost my skills more first.

A Mario parody? That's never been done before. Oh Seth MacFarlane you uncreative genius you! The animation in Super Mario Bros. was a lot better than that tripe.

I saw Unexpect and it was fantastic. They put on a great show and they move quite a bit which is surprising considering how complicated their music is. My girlfriend fell in love with the band and they definitely blew me away with their energy and how accurate they were. Before that Vektor opened up, who're a great local thrash metal band. Seriously anyone into thrash should check them out. Next up: Belphegor, The Absence, Amon Amarth and Ensiferum in San Francisco!

Not that I know of. I know some bands do instrumental passages, but I don't know of any instrumental only black/death metal bands. I know some great black/death metal bands are Belphegor and Behemoth, particularly newer which is closer to death metal. Behold...the Arctopus is a fantastic instrumetal band. Very chaotic yet there's some melodic passages as well. Probably ear noise to some.

Bought. Finally. And here I thought that the OneUps broke up awhile ago.

I really don't have to be in any sort of mood. Though if I was listening to it a lot at first, I'd probably listen to something else because brutal death metal can often sound the same when listening to it all the time.

Depends on the breakdown. Some bands abuse it *cough* Unearth *cough* some are awesome like in some of Slayer's music. I thought this thread was about brutal death metal or has it changed to a general metal thread?

I'm going to contradict everything that beckett007 said. A degree does not matter. The portfolio matters and who you know helps too. From what I read and I know many industry professionals have traditional degrees if they have one. If they're in art, they generally have a fine arts degree. If they do programming they have a computer science degree. And if you look at the qualifications many companies are looking for, they generally want old school skills first and foremost. I would recommend against just learning a single program. You want to do game design, design some simple games on RPG Maker. Create a design document and see it through. Create pen and paper games. Learn Actionscript in Flash and create games there. Or Torque. Game designers are not expected to be masters of programming. Script knowledge and know how would be nice and there are a variety of game designer sub positions such as quest designer, level designer, etc etc. If you do choose to go with RPG Maker try to use some original assests or something that makes it unique. As far as generalization or specializing? Entirely up to the company. Larger ones prefer specialized skills while smaller ones love people who can wear many hats. I'm personally going to pursue learning texturing and rigging more to try to round out my knowledge. Hell I just need to work more on my art skills in general. I did go to UAT and I had a good time but I don't I came out of there with the absolutely necessary skills. They focused too much on specialized programs like Hammer or UnrealEd. Those are great to learn on for assignments, but it's better to learn the concepts as you can teach anyone how to use a program and many companies use in house tools. I also felt that they didn't teach 3D modeling well. I didn't know about mesh flow and such until I looked that up myself. I feel for 3D modeling you should learn the various techniques ie box modeling, strip modeling, etc and apply it to your program of choice and then learn another program. In the case of 3D modeling the tools are more standard with 3DS Max, Maya and XSI Softimage. However some companies use a combination or can and will use their own. Probably another important thing to do is to learn classical skills such as sculpting. One last thing about UAT before I end this little rant, it is a fairly good place to build up contacts. UAT hosts a yearly event called TechForum and a variety of industry professionals both from games and film and television show up there to discuss a variety of topics. Also UAT generally offers discounted trips to big events like GDC or Siggraph. Both of which are again great places to build contacts.

The band Atheist does a great job there. It's basically thrash/death metal with some jazz influences. On their last album, Elements, they event have a samba style song. Disillusion and Opeth are other bands with some death metal influence that incorporate various styles. Probably the masters of mixing genres is Waltari at least on their album Yeah! Yeah! Die! Die! A Death Metal Symphony In Deep C. They mix in orchestral with death metal and there's even some rapping going on. I liked it up until that point. As far as members changing in bands I sometimes notice the change. Like for Opeth, I noticed drummer Martin Lopez's departure on the album Watershed. Lopez is characterized for having a variety of fills and performing odd time signatures. Despite how long Opeth's songs typically are, he managed to keep things interesting with the drums. Other bands that I did not notice the change are Iced Earth and Death. Though that could be that the two bands have one constant member who is also the core songwriter. Having a singular vision would help in the cohesion of the band whereas if you have almost a democratic process for a band and it's revolving door members then the style can dramatically change. On the topic of Arch Enemy going from Johan Axelsson to Angela Gossow, I personally like her more. She has a more guttural approach that sounds more death metal. Axelsson's reminds more of a hardcore/barking approach. However I prefer the Amott brothers guitar work on albums previous of Wages of Sin. Rise of the Tyrant was a pretty fantastic in my eyes however.

I don't really listen to metal for the lyrical content. There are some bands whose views don't bother me and some that do (Arghoslent) and yet they are talented musicians. Brutal death metal ranges in lyrical content from anti-Christian/religion to ancient Egypt to horror, blood and guts and even socio-political topics as well. I believe some even have a science fiction slant as well.

Satan is full of awesome! Grindcore: Brutal Truth - Dead Smart Brutal Death Metal: Nile - Sacrifice Unto Sebek http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MH4P2WudnY Honestly, the distinction between grindcore and brutal death metal can definitely blur. That right there can bring about moments of splitting hairs.

Alot of them have enough distinctions to warrant a sub-genre. The difference between power metal and death? Huge one there. Thrash and black? Again huge. Heavy and power metal? Eh...not so much. Some of them are stupid. Viking metal? I've even seen nautical metal which just describes the lyrical content. Besides metal isn't the only genre guilty of splitting hairs. All musical genres do it.

Dethklok is nowhere near the brutality from the bands that I or others have mentioned. They're straight up melodic death metal in the vein of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity or Soilwork.

I really enjoy brutal death metal though the kind I listen to tends to include a vast amount of technicality as well. Some of my favorites are Origin, Abysmal Dawn, Nile, Decapitated, Vital Remains, Decrepit Birth, Odious Mortem, Gorgasm, Hate Eternal, Suffocation, Spawn of Possession, Anata and some others. There's a lot of bands out there that I'm not familiar with but I'd love to listen to them.

Could I take a bus or something there? Or a cab or whatever? We plan on not renting a car since the public transportation is supposed to be real good and finding a parking space is ridiculous and expensive. What's to do there? Oh yeah any good restaurant recommendations would be great as well. Any kind of food is fine. We're open to pretty much anything.

So I'm going to San Francisco with my girlfriend because Ensiferum, Belphegor, The Absence and Amon Amarth have all decided to skip out on Phoenix. She wanted to go to and San Fran seemed like the best bet since neither of us have been there. We're going to be there for a week, during the last few days of September and the first week of October. So besides the usual tourist trap sight seeing, is there anything underground I should look out for? We're gonna go to Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, and she wants to see a drag show. I'd like to avoid as much tourist traps as possible and get away from shopping and such. We'll more than likely visit some museums and such. What good shit is there to do that is not well known?