Though we all sort of assume that E3 is about games (and, overwhelmingly, it is), it’s technically the Electronic Entertainment Expo, which means every once in a while we get the chance to see something that’s not exactly a game. In years past, these little discoveries would almost certainly have been relegated to the dank pit that was Kentia Hall (where games go to dieeeeee), but with E3 not quite fully returned to its former glory, Kentia Hall was turned into a parking lot and the lesser-known stuff was instead tucked away in the myriad meeting rooms surrounding the two main halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

In one such room were the good folks at Yoostar, who have managed to not only roll out an interesting concept — a little 2 megapixel webcam on a tripod that captures video of anyone sitting in front of it, then injects them into scenes from famous Hollywood movies — but has actually managed to garner a rather impressive amount of support from the movie studios themselves. MGM, Paramount, Universal, and Lionsgate have all signed on to contribute clips, and public domain clips like presidental addresses and even kids stuff like Sesame Street have all been licensed, making for 800 different snippets to insert oneself (or selves, as the case may be).

The $169.95 package includes the aforementioned camera (which has a built-in mic with echo cancelling to deaden any funky acoustics in bigger rooms and the ability to white balance or chroma key things to try to match the original lighting), a green screen and a remote, plus the usual PC/Mac software to get it all rolling. You simply pick a scene, set yourself up in the little bounding boxes provided, and do your damndest to match the original performance (or just spaz out like I did and completely ruin it) as the script is delivered for the typically 30 or less scene. The software then takes your performance, does a little bit of basic cleanup and then plays back the video with you now in it. Yoostar painstakingly scrubbed/cloned out the original characters and painted in a new background to then superimpose you over. In cases where foreground objects were needed, an additional layer is thrown on top of your performance to properly seat you in the right layer.

I gave it all a shot, swapping myself out for Veep Joe Biden during one of President Obama’s Congressional Addresses (the caps make it seem more official, y’see), and it worked fairly well. There was still some cleanup that needed to be done to match the lighting and green screened masking, but that’s where the rest of the Yoostar service comes in.

See, dumping yourself into scenes and hamming it up is all well and good, but if only people in your household can see it, there’s nowhere near the impact of, say, a YouTube submission. The clips can be uploaded to the Yoostar portal, where their could-based servers will do additional cleanup and then allow the community to rate and comment on the videos. You can easily blow a few hours just watching other people’s stuff for inspiration (or a little finger-pointing), and Yoostar supports uploading to other social networking sites for maximum exposure (though YouTube is out due to their rather strict copyright rules, even if the clips are studio-approved).

The idea, of course, is to allow people who shell out cash to get the whole setup then have as many tools as possible to interact with the community, and it’s all pulled off with a patented interface that feels like a suped-up version of Apple’s Cover Flow interface where thumbnails can be flipped between by scrolling across or up and down among the different layers. Hovering the mouse over a window — even ones that aren’t in the closest layer — will then play the clip so you can see that part without having to blow it up (though you certainly can). Interestingly, Yoostar is aiming at making sure it all works on laptops, which means that the typical crapfest integrated graphics chipset will indeed play things with few problems. More high-end hardware will only help smooth out and speed up the whole interface and process, but the laptop Yoostar was running wasn’t some kind of killer gaming rig.

A product like this will live or die based on two very important factors: ease of use and studio support. In all honesty, the interface seemed simple enough that even technophobes would be able to grasp it in just a few minutes (if not seconds), and it’s clear Yoostar is pushing studios hard to make more and more of their libraries available for scene insertion. The hundreds of clips that are there now will be bolstered by daily updates and packs that can be downloaded (for a nominal fee, of course). The asking price is rather steep for all the tech, but if they can get enough users to jump on board early on, the community may well make it all self-sustaining.

If the Yoostar folks are reading this, I have but one bit of advice: get the awesome Brandon Hardesty a unit and have him record a ton of stuff. You couldn’t ask for a better way to pimp your product. Seriously. Do it.

Oh, what a fitting title. After a particularly… interesting bender about a week ago, I decided it might be a good idea to swear off the hooch for a while, and it’s actually done wonders for productivity (I mean, have you seen TPS lately? We’re actually updating again!). Without my normal haze to cloud the daily routine of playing through all manner of crap games, though, it’s been something of a quest to actually keep my brain active. I’ve become a complete Jeopardy! junkie again (though not the PS3 game — we actually shelled out $15 here at the office and were so horribly disappointed that we wished there was a way to get PSN refunds; how can you have multiple-choice Jeopardy!? And without Trebek? Naaaah, bad mojo, that one), but then I’ve always been something of a game show die-hard to begin with.

Maybe that’s why I took so quickly to the Buzz! series in the first place. The PS2 games had just the right blend of smarmy host quips (it’s always important when the contestants get berated a little by a high-and-mighty emcee, after all) and great questions, plus a ton of different categories that usually ended up leveling the playing field a few times to keep those that would try to pull ahead by answering every question like their life depended on it (it’s called “The Sam Technique” around here for a reason, I suppose). Even when getting pies to the face constantly, though, the game was a blast, and we’d even turned it into a drinking game well before the PS3 version came out.

When it did, Sony was actually cool enough to send over beer and pizza (a seriously welcome gesture, as it was Round Table, and it literally disappeared from its little cardboard cage in about five minutes. Yes, we’re an office of Round Table lovers. The Heineken Light? I think there’s still three or four o’ those in the fridge, and we keep trying to pawn ‘em off on PR folks that stop by to no avail (what, no drinking at 11AM? Surely you jest!). In any event, Buzz! Quiz TV — that’s the PS3 one, mind you. Was a big hit here too, though that’s hardly surprising.

What did surprise, us, though, was how comparatively trimmed-down the whole experience was when it moved to the PS3. Yes, the graphics were quite nice and the game itself was classic Buzz!, but there were fewer modes and, it seemed, a few more repeats in the supplied questions, which had shrunk by a couple thousand. Granted, there was now the ability to create your own quizzes (some of which were pretty awesome, actually) and share them online, but clearly there was something else planned.

Turns out (surprise, surprise) that Sony had planned to release multiple themed question packs (about 500 Qs apiece), and have since rolled out Comedy, National Geographic: Safari, National Geographic: Undersea, Sci-Fi, Videogames and Horror Quiz Packs since the game hit back in September, which isn’t a bad run. For whatever reason (likely because we’ve all been insanely busy over the Holidays), I never really had the itch to jump in, but when Sony kicked over a code for things, I really couldn’t resist anymore.

The American Culture Quiz Pack is, surprisingly, pretty awesome. Any downloaded Quiz Packs just become an extra category, but they won’t always crop up, meaning you won’t burn through the 500 questions in week or something. American Culture pretty much covers the gamut of US geography, music technology, history, politics, people, places and so on, so there’s plenty of variety. I am starting to get a little burned out on how easy a lot of these questions are (and yeah, I understand, they have to make it accessible for anyone who drops coin for ‘em, but still). I also didn’t pick up on a whole lot of (if any; it’s been a while) new comments from Buzz himself, which the PS3 version desperately needs (especially if you’re playing solo, as it’s literally the same lines over and over and over and over…), but content-wise, things are exacty as billed.

Despite any little gripes I might have about things, running through the questions here both by myself and with some of the other staffers has definitely rekindled my interest in picking Buzz! up again, and we’ve already decided that we’d be stupid not to have some kind of contest (sadly, no drinking for me) with the Videogame Pack, so I’ll probably be grabbing that this week. If we make something fancy of it, I’ll be sure to update you guys with pics of the debauchery. Something tells me it’s going to end with Sunny making me shave my head or something. On second thought, maybe pics are a bad idea.

From the desk of Sam Bishop, Editor-in-chief

Hey Kids! Looking to Break in the Games Industry?

So you probably thought this was a post about MAKING games (just like everyone does when we tell them what we do). Nope, we’re looking for bright, energetic (insert other clichéd buzzwords normally found in hiring announcements) people to help continue the meteoric rise of our company which has been around for almost 12 years, yet you’ve probably never heard of. We’re kidding, of course. Self-deprecation is really just our way of weeding out those without a sense of humor and a willingness to poke a little fun at ourselves while striving to become THE home for readers interested in all things PlayStation – including (primarily) games, but also the wealth of entertainment options afforded by the PlayStation systems (read: games, movies, music, home theatre and so on). We’re not looking to bring down the established sites in the industry, but we DO think we can be something different, which is where you come in. Are you relentlessly committed to helping a small group of like-minded folks build a company that puts quality above quantity? Do you abhor the idea of letting sensationalistic headlines guide editorial? Do you like video games? Do you like WRITING about video games? Perfect, then you’ve passed Test 1: So You Want to be a Gaming “Journalist.”

We obviously favor humor above almost everything else, but an encyclopedic knowledge of at least the past 10 years of gaming is a major plus, and being able to string together sentences with sprinkles of nuance, pinches of humor and just a hint of work time masochism is important too. Above all, though, we’re looking for people who can actually WRITE WELL. The all-caps means we’re serious business, and all joking aside, if you haven’t a solid command of the English language, including spelling and grammar, you needn’t apply. As we’re a small-time site, we offer the mere pittance of trips to industry-sponsored events and free games as our form of payment, but the experience gleaned here is absolutely invaluable at getting a foothold in the industry. We’re not interested in folks looking to make a name and then jump ship, but we’re also an understanding bunch – and if you catch a break while working with us, we’re not going to stop you (and yes, it’s happened more than a few times in the past).

So, if you’re interested in learning the ins and outs of the industry from a group of folks that have decades (yes, that’s multiple) of experience between them, then you’re already off to a good start. We need someone that’s willing to work during daytime hours (more or less 9-5), have a lock on proper grammar, and a willingness to be put through the ringer for a few months until we’re comfortable enough to send you free games. Yes, you read that right, if you work here, you get free games. And trips. And really meaningless but still somehow awesome random stuff like backpacks and figurines. If that sounds like your bag, here’s what we need from you:

-A resume and writing samples (the latter is KEY, as we need to get a good idea of whether or not your writing style fits the tone of the site).
-A mock review of your favorite game or a game released in the past six months, at least 500 words.
-Your contact info across IM services that you use.
-A basic write-up of the last great game you played and why.

Simple stuff, sure, but if you can prove you know games, know how to write and don’t mind being just a wee bit sarcastic about stuff, then you may well find yourself joining us. English majors and Bay Area residents are preferred, but if you blow our socks off, concessions can be made. Thanks for reading all the way through this, and we can’t wait to meet you! …Unless you’re that scary dude that works in the game store a couple miles from here and you smell like beef cup-o-ramen. We like you, man, honestly, but… naw, we don’t think it’ll work out.

Is it wrong for fans to remake older games?

I thought about this after learning the outcome of the Chrono Resurrection project a few weeks ago. Despite being relatively four years late to that party, I’m admittedly a huge role-playing fan, and I sharpened my teeth on many Square Co. Ltd. classics on both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II US, Final Fantasy III US, and Chrono Trigger were staples of my early years, so imagine my excitement regarding a re-imagined Chrono Trigger using an updated 3D engine.

That was the essence of the Chrono Trigger Resurrection project. Back in 2004, a talented group of individuals got together and asked “What would Chrono Trigger look like if updated for the modern PC?” With a custom built 3D engine that “…runs on GameCube, Xbox, and PC…,” the Chrono Resurrection group set out to craft one of the finest looking examples of fan remakes ever conceived, taking ten key sequences from Chrono Trigger and updating them for the modern audience.

Chrono Trigger Resurrection was set in a fully 3D world, with lighting, shadows, fantastic camera work, and the same Chrono Trigger charm that fans of the series have come to expect. But with a project this huge, it’s only a matter of time before it began garnering attention from all over the globe. After all, Chrono Trigger was one of the greatest games for Super Nintendo and one of the most cherished RPG experiences the world over. The fact that a “dream team” of developers, artists, and sound composers crafted it is icing on the cake. How could something this massive be kept secret for long?

With that in mind, the Chrono Trigger Ressurection project was fully underway, but little did they know that the dark cloud of Square Enix Co., Ltd was hovering on the horizon. In September 2004, Square Enix Co., Ltd issued a “Cease and Desist” order and the project was shut down soon after. The team scattered to the proverbial winds but not without strewing their work across the ‘net, sharing everything they’d created, aside from playable code. In that way, all of the team’s hard work would live on as one of the greatest achievements in the name of fan remakes.

But was Square Enix Co., Ltd right in asking the team to cease the project? Was the Chrono Trigger Resurrection team wrong for wanting to recreate ten of the most memorable sequences that Chrono Trigger had to offer? Considering it was non-commercial, with only the Gamecube and Xbox ports being internally playable when all was said and done, was it necessary for Square Enix Co., Ltd to step in?

Forgetting the fact that Square Enix Co., Ltd repackages all of its older content and, besides Final Fantasy III and IV for the Nintendo DS, leaves virtually the original experience untouched, what would lead the company to call for the cancellation of Chrono Trigger Resurrection? Would it be that Square Enix Co., Ltd wants to redo Chrono Trigger as a 3D world all their own? That would be nice, but it’s unlikely.

There’s a fair amount of politics surrounding anything Chrono related. The primary developers associated with the project have either left Square Enix Co., Ltd. or work under their own companies in association with Square Enix. You could fill a landfill with the amount of paperwork it would take for a re-imaging to get underway. Even with tidbits dropping once every few years concerning a possible Chrono Trigger sequel (Chrono Cross is widely considered an extension of the universe and not a true sequel to Chrono Trigger), nothing has yet to materialize. The best fans could hope for is an update of the holy grail of all things Chrono.

But it goes beyond Square Enix Co., Ltd. As the industry pushes forward with better technology, it’s becoming more expensive to craft the AAA experiences core gamers require. If a company like Square Enix Co., Ltd wants to re-release a previous franchise, then it’s easier, and less expensive, to re-release it with all previous assets intact than to re-imagine these assets. If Square Enix Co., Ltd. wanted to re-imagine those assets, then they would turn to portable systems. A redone Chrono Trigger, or any other popular franchise that has yet to find life in the latest generation of consoles, would have to be on the PlayStation Portable or Nintendo DS.

That’s assuming that major corporations want to attempt a repackaging. More often than not, companies cancel intellectual properties that don’t succeed. We have only to look at Clover Studios, which was forced to shutdown, and Capcom for an example of that. Though Okami was finally released on the Wii, the idea of a sequel or a higher resolution re-imagining for the PlayStation 3 is virtually out of the question. And what if fans wanted to create a non-commercial remake of it for PC? Capcom would most likely issue a cease and desist order, even though it would be highly unlikely that the release of the non-commercial fan remake would hurt Capcom’s potential sales for a true, developer sponsored canon remake.

Where does that leave us then? It leaves us with IPs that fans create messageboards about, trade valiant tales of victory over, and write fan fiction about that have yet to get either sequels or developer remakes. When fans wish to continue the adventure with characters that they’ve grown to love, where else is there to go?

So are fans at fault for wanting to create remakes of groundbreaking game series? If major corporations won’t do it, and as the physical game machines and physical media of the respective games dwindle in number as time goes by, are we supposed to forget these experiences? Are cease and desist orders really warranted when all fans wish to do is play the games that brought them into the industry to begin with? We’ll never know, honestly, but that still doesn’t stop us from wondering what Crono would look like with a nice splash of normal mapping and the processing power of a quad-core CPU behind him.