But today, Journey has a new meaning.

Its the title of the new game in development by ThatGameCompany.  We have always been a fan of their work so its nice to see that they continue to innovate and expand their game experiences.  floW and Flower were great games that expanded upon some of Jenova Chen’s original ideas to get away from the standard and do something new.

Journey adds (to my knowledge) a multiplayer aspect to the beautiful and simple games that are the signature of ThatGameCompany.  Jenova describes the game as literally a Journey in which color, symbols, and beauty are the key focuses.  He was inspired by a lunch he had with astronaut Charles F. Bolden, Jr. in which Bolden talked about the “awe towards the unknown.”

The images so far look great, and it sounds like the game mechanics are only two buttons, which compared to some of the games I’ve been playing (Dragon Age: Origins), will be a nice relief for my mind and fingers.

Anyway, we wish ThatGameCompany the best of luck in the continued development of Journey and maybe we’ll get a shot to do something similar to what we have done for them in the past.

http://www.theduogroup.com/blog/spencer/touch-a-touch-a-touch-me/

Anyway, I wrote that post a year ago (and a subsequent earlier theory post on our forums…wait, our forums are gone, who decided that?!), and recently at E3, Microsoft announced that they had renamed project Natel into Kinect.  Maybe it wasn’t announced recently, but I just found out about it.

You stole my name Microsoft, and I want my royalties.  I expect a check in November.  Since its not exactly like my name, I will be willing to bargain with you and take .000005% of all Kinect sales.  I’ll let you do the math, but I think that is fair.

Anyway, Kinetic Gaming is blowing up.  Years behind the Wii, but with some novel updates building upon Wii’s approach.  It will all be interesting.  Here are my predictions:

1) Massive glitches in the Kinect System.

2) Cheaply made and breakable PS3 wands.

3) Air guitar will take one step closer to being the reality it is in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

4) The Kinect will sell more then PS3’s wand.

5) Nintendo will go 3D first.

We had a dream, that one day our forums would catch on and be a meeting place for rich and poor, strong and weak, nerdy and not so nerdy.  And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, we still have a dream and we will carry on.  We have some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn’t matter to us now, because we’ve been to the mountaintop.   Our forums call not for changes alone, but are asking for action, and action now!

Therefore, it is with my head held high that I announce to you that we will be shutting down TheDuoGroup’s forums.  We appreciate everyone who participated in the meeting place we called home for over a year.  We had good laughs, good ideas, and made some good friends, yet today the posts are slow, the content is minimal, and the bots have taken over.  Our main webpage is more suitable to the tweets, chirps, and comments associated with today’s ever changing social media commentary.  We ask that should you feel the urge to comment, to do so in this safe abode and wave goodbye to the age of our forums.

In conclusion, to quote one more national hero I say this to all of you.  I know you’re out there.  I can feel you now.  I know that you’re afraid…you’re afraid of us.  You’re afraid of change.  I don’t know the future.  I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end.  I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin.  I’m going to stop typing, and then I’m going to show people what you don’t want them to see.  I’m going to show you a world that you don’t want to see.  I’m going to show you a world without our forums.  A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries.  A world where anything is possible.  Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

*Also quoted:

• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• John Fitzgerald Kennedy
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• President Barack Obama
• Richard Milhouse Nixon
• Lyndon Baines Johnson
• Rev. John Henry Hopkins
• Malcolm X
• Neo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo

I REALLY like the song at the end of it.  I did my research (which was very easy compared to finding music in other trailers) and its called Running Up That Hill by Placebo.  Only thing I don’t like is how they leave you hanging at the end and then do the fast action montage in 2 seconds.

Don’t believe me?  Here is a link to the hulu video of it:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/30563/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-toucha-toucha-touch-me

This is way before Susan Sarandon was a MILF that got some mother lovin.

Ok, well now that I’ve explained myself, let me get to my point…which is the debut of the 360’s new motion sensing technology.  This was probably the biggest point of the convention, aside from some of the killer debuts of games.

So project Natal was shown, and if you didn’t see it, you can check out there debute “trailer” here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWyO5nOelzY

Bad transitioning in my opinion, but all in all looks like the next step in gaming is about to happen.  Now, everyone is just waiting on when we won’t have any more crime because psychic crack babies are telling us who kills who in the future.

Anyway, I did some research on the word Natal, because I thought that was a weird name.  It turns out it has a double meaning.  The word Natal typically is used as a adjective in reference to birth. BUT, using my conspiracy theorist tactics, I found out that Natal also means Christmas in Portugese.  Now, I don’t know if that means anything, but maybe its an insight on when this thing is gonna drop.

Probably just means birth.

Both the PS3 and the 360 debut their new “kinetic gaming” systems.  In my opinion, the PS3’s looked much more realistic, where as the 360’s was much more conceptual.  We’ll see how this counsol war continues in the next 6-12 months.

I have no clue where or what the Devil’s Playground is, but from my guess, its some sort of night club type burlesque dive in LA.  If you didn’t know what Burlesque was already, but its the “classy” version of stripping.  No nudity, just nipple tassles (hehehe I said nipple) or stickies.

Anyway, recently, the dancers at Devil’s Playground did a themed show focusing on some of the most iconic Video Game icons….well being in a burlesque show.   Characters included…

Princess Peach

Blood Rayne

Chub Li (I made a pun with her name…cuz she is kinda chubby)

Link and Zelda (I can’t show Zelda b/c she was kinda NSFW, and Graham told me I have to keep this PG-13)

…And finally, my favorite, Metroid.  This pictured doesn’t do it justice, because she also had an arm gun that shot out a big spot light. (Damn you Graham and your silly rules).

 Anyway, I think this is all pretty cool.  I mean I’ve never been to a burlesque show, but good for these girls for stepping up and bringing the sexy back (JT reference, WOO WOO) to video games.  So, Congrats to the Burlesque Dancers of the Devil’s Playground for being this months Duo Groupie(s) for the Month of June.