Carlos Unbound

Viral Play S02 – Mess Hall 2

Carlos Macias — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 20:57:50 +0000

In a bit of a call back to Episode 6 of Mess Hall, we follow up with Eddie Rodriguez as he reminisces about his moment of seclusion (aka “moving out”) in a segment we dubbed “Solo Living Tips.”

Listen in to hear about how to get free cable, electricity and other amenities if you ever find yourself in similar financial straits. Carlos, Louie, and Jrock also talk a bit about Coachella, hands-on with Nintendo’s upcoming 3DS, the evolution of music/genre mashing, open-world games with consequences (i.e. Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3), the upcoming LA Noire, and Latin America encouraging the globalization of game development.

All in this week’s episode of Mess Hall. Sit back, relax and listen in as we use any excuse — my little brother’s birthday — to party.

Click through to download Viral Play S02 – Mess Hall 2

Or, you can listen and/or download the show directly to your iOS device of choice by going to our official iTunes link here.

Mess Hall archive:

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 6
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 5
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 4
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 3
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 2
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 1

Viral Play, Episode 9 – VCR Monster Edition

Carlos Macias — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:58:42 +0000

On our second show back from a quick hiatus (yes, as in a new Mess Hall’s been out on iTunes for a minute now) we do it up big and bring in the full cast of VCR Monster. Jordan Kennedy and Andrew Serrato help us ring in the new year with talk of resolutions, defining their sound, feedback hate, Jordan’s custom-made guitar/MIDI hybrid “DG20,” secret first shows, and Moms as an EP cover.

But, of course, we couldn’t let a Jordan interview go without getting him to open up about his stylin’ hairdo and how that plays into his overall philosophy on VCR Monster personality versus the in-the-band vibe as a member of Media.

Oh, and stay tuned after the interview to hear rapping sensation J. Andrews freestyle over an iPhone synthesized, freshly-made beat by VCR Monster. Sit back, relax, and listen in on our latest historical document…

Click through to download Viral Play, Episode 9.

To listen and download on iTunes search “Viral Play” or you can subscribe to the feed directly here.

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 6

Carlos Macias — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:59:47 +0000

School season, child rearing, headbutting, missed interviews. All a part of what’s been happening with Viral Play lately.

No worries, though. The show must go on, and it will. Only maybe not as timely as before — because we’ve always been timely, ‘members?

Anyway, to tide you guys over until a proper Viral Play we bring you a special episode of “Mess Hall.” Carlos and the gang hid from the rain at “Jimmy and Eddie’s Apartment” (patent pending) to talk about the moving-away-from-home experience, the Conan/Leno situation, NBC hate, goals of the upcoming “Talk Show,” Jimmy’s new nickname, and end it with talk of athletes’ extracurricular activities (think: Tiger Woods).

Even Hitler comes up! Truly a mess hall episode not to be missed.

Click through to download the show here.

Mess Hall archive:

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 5
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 4
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 3
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 2
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 1

Naughty Bear Should Be Conker’s Other Bad Day

Carlos Macias — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 12:14:16 +0000

Naughty Bear was announced late last year from 505 Games and while it, from what’s known of the game so far, looks like it will just turn out to be on the “edgy” side of E-rated I hope it’s more than that.

I’m talking about Rare gun-toting, foul-mouthed squirrels more than that here.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day, for those of you who don’t remember, was Nintendo 64′s swan song. A perfect excuse for Rare to break out of its assumed shell and unleash a game completely against their mantra including sex, Q-berts, and spoofs.

No other developer at the time had the audacity to blow the doors off the hinges and make the nastiest title they could think of. Extremely unlikely for one renowned for oogly-eyed bears and banana-collecting.

AM2 — makers of WET — have the opportunity to make the spiritual successor to Rare’s Conker’s Bad Fur with Naughty Bear. Especially since Rare decided to scrap the proper sequel in favor of their Xbox remake, CBFD: Live & Reloaded.

Unfortunately, from what I’ve gleaned of early previews, here’s a few of the things Naughty Bear is in danger of becoming and what I think it should be:

Premise

What It Will Be…

An “action/arcade” game set on an island consisting of thirty or so levels where you build up enough points to level up and ruin a birthday party you weren’t invited to. Seriously.

What It Should Be…

Start off with a young naughty bear and demonstrate how his anger manifests towards his peers as he’s never invited to parties, BBQs, siestas, etc. He grows up and the game delves into the seedy underbelly of the island. Gangs, drug rings, prostitution. The works. Gets a scar or two, makes a list of those who’ve wronged him, and takes action backed by years of mafioso experience.

Gameplay

What It Will Be…

Stealth action lite. You’ll be able to scare or murder enemies on the island by setting traps while you hide in the bushes. Rack up points depending on how you exact your revenge on the other bears.

What It Should Be…

Keep the stealth in but also add the ability to run missions as you wish. Grab a chainsaw and take it to your opponents Scarface-style or set up a perimeter around your targets locations and wait until they step out of their hut to create a grand explosion. “Context sensitive” buttons was the buzzword farce in the original Conker’s Bad Fur Day, this time around “quick time events” would take their place.

Characters

What It Will Be…

Plain and vanilla teddy bears of whose only differing qualities will be their size or shirt color. Bosses will be big and bulky with an endless stream of one-hit-kill minions.

What It Should Be…

Filled to the brim with colorful characters whether they fit inside the construct of the world or not. Give us opera-singing Poo monster, the sequel. Give us an imitation of Heath Ledger’s Joker. Give us offensive stereotypical characters. Give us anything but a sea of naked bear clones running amok.

Humor

What It Will Be…

Voiceless stuffed animals bumping into each other and naughty bear spilling their textile innards all over the place. Oh, the inherent humor!

What It Should Be…

Parodies movies post-CBFD including Doogie Houser sniffing cocaine off someone’s ass in “White Castle” or the Bride vs. Crazy 88s scene in “Kill Bill.” Voicework would also be necessary to bring the game’s original characters to life. Rare capped out the N64′s audio capacity…let’s see AM2 push voiceovers in a similar fashion.

AM2 is certainly looking to make Naughty Bear less controversial than what Rare did with their lovable squirrel (take Nintendo Power’s complete disregard for it as proof of how graphic it was) but hopefully they push the envelope. Even if just a bit. Who knows, if it succeeds we might see Rare take a chance on another hangover tale. Their bosses at Redmond are down with adult content, all they need to see are dollar signs and the green light would go up immediately.

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 5

Carlos Macias — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:22:56 +0000

After some extensive, extensive editing here’s Mess Hall’s new year episode. Don’t worry, even after cuts most of the foolishness still remained for you to frown upon. All our friends came out including last week’s guest, Jeramy Lowe, Ariel and Adrian Otero, Carlos Macias, Louie Recinos, “Jrock,” Elias Valenzuela, and plenty more.

Mainly, we tried talking about Adrian’s recent trip to England but the conversation quickly scattered into “disorganized chaos” covering Bioshock-esque underwater tunnels, Jamaican lager, a couple of local stories, missing gloves, the definition of a rotation, and Eddie’s Capitalism minute.

Click through to download the show here.

Mess Hall archive:

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 4
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 3
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 2
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 1

Assassin’s Creed 2 – A Paragraph Review

Carlos Macias — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:30:51 +0000

“Ezio! I meant for you to keep running not to start climbing the walls! Why would I want you to take a dive from ten stories up onto solid concrete below? Keep climbing!” Don’t be surprised if early on in your play time with AC2 you hear yourself yelling out to your covert assassin to control a bit better. The mechanics never entirely meliorate but you get used to them enough to enjoy directing Ezio a la free running and parkour-esque scaling through beautiful Renaissance-era Italy. Add varied objectives, engaging combat, side missions that you’ll actually want to take on, and you have the ingredients to spruce up AC2 for even those who soured on the original. Further control streamlining will be a task left for the third act.

Rating: B

Miner Dig Deep – A Paragraph Review

Carlos Macias — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:49:35 +0000

Following in the footsteps of EGM and, most recently, Mitch Dyer’s “One Paragraph” reviews I bring you…well, basically the same thing. Short, one-paragraph reviews on games that are not necessarily recent, but games I’d still like to take a critical eye to. In reality, it’s just a way to trick myself into writing and updating this blog more often. Let me know what you think!

Xbox’s Indie section is, much like the iPhone’s App Store, filled mostly with pure and utter crap. Miner Dig Deep is one of the gems that serves as a counter to that statement. Simple, yet elegantly designed, MDD gives you a mine and a few tools to make it to the center of the world — presumably. Each incremental upgrade nets you a satisfying return on your investment (wait until you go past your initial pickax) and it keeps it up for 6-8 hours. Whether you treat it as a sweet background game when catching up on podcasts or an exemplary model for the 80 MS-point Indie game, MDD successfully pulls you in to digging its lucrative quarry and loving every minute of it.

Rating: A

Viral Play, Episode 8 – Jeramy Lowe Edition

Carlos Macias — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:07:30 +0000

Oh, noooo! Just when we get the podcast up and running on the iTunes, we stumble on network/bandwidth/nonsense issues. Unfortunately, for now, we’ll have to go back to just streaming and downloading through the ever-reliable DivShare. Thanks for those of you who’ve already subscribed and we’re looking for ways to keep you updated.

This week on the show Carlos and Louie welcome *ahem* Senior Airman, Communications, Cable, and Antenna Maintenance Journeyman Jeramy Lowe. He tells us about his misadventures while on leave, comparisons between Air Force life and the media’s depiction of it, and we finish it up with his motivation to enlist. Sit back, relax, and listen in on our latest historical document…

Click through to download Viral Play, Episode 8

Viral Play archive:

Viral Play, Episode 7 (Chuo)
Viral Play, Episode 6 (Circus Runaways)
Viral Play, Episode 5 (Tumbleweeds)
Viral Play, Episode 4 (Jimmy Moreno)
Viral Play, Episode 3 (Media)
Viral Play, Episode 2 (The Gentlephones)
Viral Play, Episode 1 (Beautiful Moonlight)
Viral Play, Episode 0 (Jaime Munoz)

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 4

Carlos Macias — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:56:53 +0000

If you guys have been paying attention, you know we usually update Viral Play on Fridays. There was a delay of game this week because we worked on getting the podcast on iTunes to make it as easy as possible for listeners to download. Well…it took a bit longer than expected but now the feed is up!

Mess Hall, Ep. 4 covers Ariel and Sapo’s Vegas trip, bar-hopping, PlayStation blog’s VGA viewing party, Modern Warfare 2 exploits, Louie plays Bioshock for the first time, and we find out what Sapo’s definition of a “foreigner” is.

You can subscribe to the podcast on our brand, spankin’ new iTunes feed or just stream/download like the good old days. Thanks for listening!

Mess Hall archive:

Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 3
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 2
Viral Play – Mess Hall Ep. 1

Viral Play, Episode 7 — Chuo Edition

Carlos Macias — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 06:02:58 +0000

After a couple of weeks’ hiatus, Sound Engineer Jesus “Chuo” Nieto guests on Viral Play for the first episode of “season two.” Carlos and Louie talk to Chuo about fireplaces to fend off California cold, Showtime’s “Californication,” Twitter social networking, band projects, and his humble Windows Sound Recorder beginnings. Sit back, relax, and listen in on our latest historical document…

Click through to download Viral Play, Episode 7

Viral Play Archive:

Viral Play, Episode 6 (Circus Runaways)
Viral Play, Episode 5 (Tumbleweeds)
Viral Play, Episode 4 (Jimmy Moreno)
Viral Play, Episode 3 (Media)
Viral Play, Episode 2 (The Gentlephones)
Viral Play, Episode 1 (Beautiful Moonlight)
Viral Play, Episode 0 (Jaime Munoz)