Task 10....Heroes

2006-12-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

I'v just started watching this programme called Heroes. No1s bloody heard of it but yeah OMG its effin MIGHTY MIGHTY!!! its only the second episode but like its further than Uk...UK's being gay and not airing till like march next year or something ridiculous.....anyways!! yeah this dudes called Peter petr...something...can fly and stuff and the way its sucked me into the series is amazing, i ddint even have to watch the first episode to be sucked in, the advert i saw online did that and iv been glued onto it like bad for ages now :D
Its not just about Peter though, there are LOADS of heroes and they all have different powers...kinda like a real life X-Men series typa thing. Anywhoo the dude from Scrubs plays Hiro a japanese guy who can stop time and bend time/space continuem. its so cool...!!! wow! anyways, blog task......well the thing is Heroes is the first series ever to have made me hooked on it, theres so much responsible for it though. Definatly the main three are the Script, Direction, and Acting. They have the perfect fitting actors to successfully present one of the most amazing scripts ever written1!! and the drection and the way its all done is pure genious!!
The characters have such emotion to them and the perfect balance of reality in their character. watching it just makes you feel what they feel and its unbeleivable how carefully scripted and acted this programme. iv never been hooked and i dont think ill be any more hooked on any other programme! I dont really know what else to say about this but its just the most perfect programme ever played! and err...yeah YOUR FACE if you argue otherwise!

That bloody PlayStation 3

2006-11-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

Well....as most of you may well now know, the PlayStation 3 has been released in Japan and America.
The situation as it goes is...Sony are having some problems. Any guesses as to what they are (think about what happened with the X-Box 360)...
Yes thats correct. They're having problems keeping with demand. Under supply...MAJOR DEMAND!!
So....whats happening now you ask?
well....Just Sony losing alot of money for pushing back dates and sweating like mad trying to meet the ''deadlines''.
To be more technical, originally Sony planned to release 100,000 units in Japan........DUH!!!!!!!
"America: With a "target" of only 400,000 units being on hand at retail in North America, the console will likely prove elusive to most. This week, GameStop announced that it had overbooked sales of the console, meaning--as was the case with the Xbox 360 last year--many people who had preordered the PS3 would have to wait!!!" Godddddddddddd-a!! how rude!
anyways....sleep time...

Weekly Tasks

2006-11-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Week 9

Sega Mega Drive II, Playstation, PC, Playstation 2, X-Box, X-Box360, PS£!!
all MIGHTY game consoles!
lets take a look at the aesthetics of them...

EXIBIT A!!!
The mighty mega drive 2 by the brilliant people at SEGA!
This funky peice of metal and plastic filled the hearts of young kiddies like myself (yes i still am a kid!) with many wasteful hours of fun!
I think that this is THE most EASIEST to use console ever build....with the simple 'Start' and 'Reset' buttons very beautifully places in red on the top front of the console. With the capacity of 2 controls (why this picture has a gazillion more conrtols next to it....i dont know!) consists of a simple 'D' pad which lets you go UP, DOWN, LEFT and yes you've guessed it... RIGHT!!!! conveniently having 3....yes THREE buttons aditional to the directional controls consisting of A, B and....yup its C! making this simple for a monkey on a tricycle juggling kettles filled with tomato ketchup to play!
Excellent.....now having said that i want to buy and train the monkey to do just that!

moving on....we have...

Playstation 1 (PSX)

and later.....the newer model 'PSone'

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Week 8

Story telling....Il make one up for you shall I?
ok here goes...
Once apon a time in a galaxy far, far away.... WHAT?? your telling me you've heard this one already?

FINE!

Anyhooo, story telling is a key thing in most games as it sets out the layout of the game and what the character will be doing throughout the game. Many games have set story's which you will play through and each chapter will be revealed to you. There are also some games which will have multiple endings and multiple routes in which your character will be guided through depending on how well you play.
THEN you get the rare games where you don't know what's going to happen as its different EVERY SINGLE (effin) TIME! so you can never be too good as the computer will always come back at you.

I think a story in a game is crucial as you want to know what happens next and people wait and play longer to see what happens. Multiple stories have been successfull too as it leaves the player wanting to play in a different way to see what result they get.

Im personally a huge fan of multiplayer so i just like the big arena's where there is something to look foreward too but when in solo i love the SWAT style games where you have a mission. You know your place in the game but you have certain task to go along.
Also games such as Max Payne (the first one was the best) keep me wanting to go back and keep me edging to finish it soon as it consumes me!
but its the way the story is set out and written that keeps the player on his/her toes.

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Week 7

An ART DIRECTOR is the highest of all rankings that you can get in the game art industry. Alot of words can be used to describe it but to dumb it down for y'all, the dude controls EVERYONE!
He's basically "The Man". He gets the best out of his team to create the best aesthetics and interactive standards of the games.
They work very closely with the project Art Manager to ensure that the goals set are acheivable with their budget.
They are parteners with the Creative Director
They directly communicate with the art teams consistantly giving them feedback on their work in progress.
Mentors less experienced artists on the team. (which i think is an EXCELLENT thing to do, shows they care about the noobies and they want them to succeed instead of leaving them trailing!)

Heres something i didnt know...
FACT: "5 or more years experience in the gaming industry with a minimum of 2 games making it to market, related experience in film or TV is a plus"

thats cool as you know the art director knows his stuff!!
So if he tells you something....you better bladdy well listen, eh?!!

Rick Nath?
ring any bells....well he's this dude that came to give us a lecture last week and all i have to say is AWESOME!! the guy is the dude you wanna be friends with....for sure!
He's been working in the industry for a decently long time and now is an Art Director for his own company. So yeah.....SUCK UP TO HIM. and as a dude, he's awesome, we got talking and showed me a few things here and there about what to do with my work. Showed me his portfolio and his work he's done and it looks amazing!
He's an inspirational guy, i heard he's coming back to lecture us again....can't wait!

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Week 6

'Gameplay' is a term used to describe how the player interacts with the game. It always involves two things, the player and the game. The things that will effect game play is concentration, effort, game pace and more...

In the process of making a game, the Game Design comes from the department where it involves putting together an 'Art Bible' (Art Style Guide). This is basically a specification where all the raw art data is consolidated and information of each character, layout etc is shown. This is nowadays produced in a large team of artists who put together their ideas and create this "bible". The reason for calling it a bible is because they have to refer to the 'bible' and follow what is going in the guide to proceed with the game.
Depending on the genre of the game, generally everything would be different. So for example a Recon style game would involve more realistic looking art than a fantasy where the images could be created out of the wildest dreams.

For me, personally I love the realism. Im a very tactical, first person shooter. I prefer to have the realism and everything to be according to a photo standard for the full effect. The graphics and the action should be smooth and intricately planned.

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Week 5

An issue that reviewers have will be the image that they have portrayed to the rest of the world. they are known as 'lazy', 'corrupt' and 'fundamentally stupid'

My personal view on the NGJ is that i think they are too bias into how they review games but also have this ridiculous power that can influence minds to either like, dislike or stupidly love a game based on what they thought of it. Fair enough, they mess about on the games for a while then give their opinion but what made this an official statement? Something where people turn to for advise?
I dont understand this. I know so many gamers and they all have their own preference. Each game contains such a character that they appeal to everyone in their own way. Its a bit tricky to explain but game reviewers can easily be replaced my the Marmite add line. The real gamers should be putting their views more foreward as they are unheard. The more people with their own opinions, the more accurate the average statement will be.

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Week 4

So....What did the Games Companies have to deal with in the recent years of gaming?
Why it was the price of course!
Many companies who want to make the best out of their games need to splash out millions to produce a successful computer game. Research shows that the companies have to make games to a certain standard for them to be of the high status. When asking a lot of people what the main things they like in the games, the general answer to it is 'graphics.' To produce high definition graphics, you need the equipment, the software, and of course the staff to work it!

Halo 2 was released in 2004 by Microsoft. With a cost of over $40 million US dollars, the game credited 190 people and took 3 years to complete!
The game did record sales in its first months and currently sold over 8 million copies at $50 a piece.

Back in the day, Pac-Man was the leading game and to this day it is the one game that cannot be beaten in the retro gaming leader board.
If we look at the current gaming situation, we can see that Halo 2 (mighty mighty game!!) is on the top of the charts. It is said that no game can do as well as Halo 2 did.

So I think its safe to conclude this and say YES Halo2 kicks major ass....

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PlayStation 3

WOW! Iv just spent the last hour or so going through all the details for the soon to be released PlayStation 3. The site is great, as always it gives us the best parts of the console and previews to some of its games.

Pearl, Silver and Black

Graphics- Immense! I know its not the best way to describe something now im on this course, but i was litterally jaw dropped when I saw what to expect. Running alot of the games in real-time and all in High Definition, the PS3 looks to be the new way foreward. I think Sony have layed down the laws on this one compared to all other consoles (XBox 360: eat your heart out!). From what i have seen, there are many similarities with the 360 (so i dont know who'se copied who on some things) but the PS3 have stuck to their traditional style Game Pad with added wireless technology.

Those Long handled silver game pads you may have seen I believe they have scrapped that concept and gone back to the classic PlayStation controller style.

Eugh!! How queer does this look!

That's better!! (look...wireless)

A built in hard drive (available in either 20GB or 60GB). The games will be put onto a Blu-Ray Disc format which is a (very) high storage CD. If we bought the discs as blanks then they would be available in 25GB or 50GB (at the moment). The CPU is a "Cell chip" for "unrivalled raw computing power". A Giga-bit Ethernet for high speed connection. Always-on connection to the Internet, a HDMI connection for optimum output on HDTV.

On top of these features, the 60GB HDD version also includes support for multiple external memory storage devices and Wireless connectivity.

Planned to be Released March 2007 in Europe for €599 (approx. £400)

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Week 3

You see, back in the day (like the 80's) some games popped out onto the market...Things like Pong (being one of the most classic games to this day) and other classics such as Pac Man, Space Invaders, Asteroid, Centipede. These were more on the flashy side of gaming. When I say popped out, I do really mean constructively designed by geniuses.
In those days there were a number of gaming producers appearing on the list! These included Electronic Arts (which is very successful to this day). Along side these honest publishing houses, there were some company's (including Fly-By-Night) which cheated the games developers.

Gaming computers appeared mainly during 1982. These consoles included the Commodore 64, Apple II, ZX Spectrum.
The most commonly used console was the ZX Spectrum and was only known in the UK. The USA had the Apple II, commodore 64 and Atari 800.
The Apple II had over 20,000 programs in the span of 15 years making it "the 8-bit computer with the most software overall."

Bulletin Boards were created on a dial-up system and sometimes used for online gaming.

Handheld LCD games were very popular and shone a new light on the gaming industry. Nintendo's Game & Watch production began in 1980.

In 1985, North america looked high at the release of Nintendo's 8-Bit console- the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Its success boomed with the bundle of the Super Mario Bros.
They stole and kept the market with the success of the NES untill the next generation of gaming in the early 1990's.

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My Gaming History
Personal Gaming Timeline

Chuckie Egg PC
Rampage Sega Mega Drive
Sonic the Hedgehog Sega Mega Drive
Toe Jam and Earl Sega Mega Drive
Fifa 99 Sega Mega Drive
Streets of Rage Sega Mega Drive
Golden Axe Sega Mega Drive
Descent PC
Z PC
Trash It PC
Virtual Cop 2 PC
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider PC
Time Crisis PlayStation
Tekken 3 PlayStation
Time Crisis Project Titan PlayStation
Die Hard Trilogy PlayStation
Die Hard Trilogy 2 PlayStation
Star Wars- Episode 1: The Phantom Menace PC
Toy Story 2 PC
SWAT 3 PC
Driver PlayStation
Medal Of Honour PlayStation
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 PlayStation
Independence Day PlayStation
Tony Hawks Skateboarding PlayStation
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 PlayStation
Tony Hawks Pro Skater 4 PlayStation
Fire Storm- ThunderHawk2 PlayStation
Mission Impossible PlayStation
Blade PlayStation
Driver 2 PlayStation
Crash Bandicoot 3- Warped PlayStation
Crash Bash PlayStation
007 Tomorrow Never Dies PlayStation
007 Racing PlayStation
Manhunt PlayStation 2
Medal Of Honour- Rising Sun PlayStation 2
Dance: UK PlayStation
Dancing Stage: EuroMix PlayStation
Dancing Stage: Fever PlayStation
Dancing Stage: Party Edition PlayStation
WipeOut 2097 PlayStation
Rainbow Six- Lone Wolf PlayStation
Delta Force- Land Warrior PC
Brothers In Arms- Road To Hill 30 PlayStation 2
Brothers In Arms- Earned In Blood PlayStation 2
Call Of Duty- Finest Hour PlayStation 2
Call Of Duty 2- Big Red One PlayStation 2
Driver 3 PlayStation 2
Delta Force- Black Hawk Down PlayStation 2
Star Wars- Battle Front 2 PlayStation 2
The Matrix- The Path Of Neo PlayStation 2
Tony Hawks- American Wasteland PlayStation 2
TrueCrime- New York City PlayStation 2
Gun PlayStation 2
Shadow The Hedgehog PlayStation 2
Halo 2 X Box
Halo PC
Star Wars- Pod Racer PC
Need For Speed: Most Wanted- Black Edition PC
Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne PC

There are many more games that I havn't listed due to memory reasons.
Once i remember these games I shall try to keep updating in the order that I think they were played in!

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Week 2

The First Of Many...

I found a few firsts while researching some early history of video games.

The First Graphical Computer Game:

A.S. Douglas was the first person to create a graphical computer game. His background was that he achieved his PhD degree in Human-Computer Interactions at the University of Cambridge in 1952. This is significant as his educational background tell us that he is well learned to design one of the versions of Tic-Tac-Toe.

The First Video Game:

In 1958, William Higinbotham invented a game called “Tennis For Two.”

4 years later, “Spacewar” was invented by Steve Russell- This was the first game intended for computer use.

In 1967, Ralph Baer wrote the first video game to be played on a television set. “Chase” was the name of this game. Originally his first ideas for ‘Chase’ came to him in 1951 while working for a Television Company.

The First Arcade Game:

Nolan Bushnell (together with Ted Dabney) created a game based on Steve Russell’s ‘SpaceWar’ called “Computer Space” in 1971.

The arcade game Pong was also created by Nolan Bushnell (with the help from Al Alcorn) a year later in 1972.

In that same year, Atari Computers was established by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. 4 years down the line and Atari re-released Pong as a home video game.

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I think I have a problem. To me blogs are a personal way of expressing my self. But here’s the dilemma: If anyone actually knows me then they’ll know that I say everything in a very casual way. This especially applies to writing/typing (having spent numerous years on end physically attached to the computer on a certain ‘msn’ application)
This has resulted me in typing things like ‘lol’ without thinking and putting smiley faces ‘:)’ or big smiles ‘=D’ in every space available.
Now here’s why I think it’s a problem. I understand these blogs should be of a good quality standard to gain the marks. Now what is a good quality piece of ‘blog’?
1) Is it a very high standard of grammar applied in a collision of protracted words? (Yes I used the thesaurus!)
2) Or is it a legible page of put together facts which are relevant to the questions asked?

I think I’m going to stick with option 2, mainly as I’m no good with this whole A* level English. I suck at essays and I love art and design as I can express my self through images more than words. I know I have to write on this course, so I will try my best at it. I’ve just always felt (and I think I will continue to feel) very uncomfortable with writing as I’ve always seen myself being let down with my English abilities.

Why am I telling you about all this?

Because it’s annoying to see everyone’s blogs full of perfect grammar and long words. It’s not me so I’m not going to show my personal side to you by throwing a ton of over characterised words!
When it comes to blogging, I am literally one of those people who stare’s at blank screens for ages thinking of something worthy to write.

So Mike, I don’t want you to think that I’m leaving all my blogs to the last minute, because the truth of the matter is that I actually start my blogs early in the week. Create it on word and check it through trying to get a good standard of work that can be passed by me first. I won’t submit it until I’m completely satisfied with it. And I use this process because it corrects a million of my ‘mispelt’ words and sorts out my grammar too.

What’s the point of this blog?

Absolutely NOTHING! I just felt like this and putting it out here instead of keeping it in makes me feel a bit more comfortable about the whole blogging situation. You will now all go away feeling bad about losing a whole 2 minutes reading this damn essay of crap. But I feel better now….soooooo…back to work ;)

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World Of (effin) Warcraft

Oh my god!!! WoW is EVERYWHERE....it has to be the biggest thing iv seen across people in years. Its the biggest conversation topic and its on everyone's msn screen name.Im going to sound very bias with this as iv not yet played this game but im sorry...it looks crap!Please, please, PLEASE somebody tell me why its so good! And dont give me ''cos everyone's playing it'' or ''cos its cool'' cos its the worst answer possible. Can any WoW fan give me a good answer? and don't ask me to play it. If you want me to do that then sell it to me somehow with a review.

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Im going to be honest with you...

Blogging...to me that means a load of writing. Something i'v never been good at or stayed awake long enough to finish. So when i heard we have to do alot of blogging i started becoming rather nervous about this situation.Iv gone through near enough EVERYONE'S blogs (jeeeeeeeez theres wayyyy to many!!) And to be honest, i have found them pretty interesting.

Week 1

(oooh i found I can change the font colour....haha little things =D )

Anyhoo....Iv chosen to write about a fellow first year Student John HICKS http://aaaooowwwww.blogspot.com/

I see Hicks as pretty much a psycho nut!

Just messing ;)Anyways, along side majority of the class, he has talked about games he likes. Thats great- we want to know this!- but the bit that caught my eye was Halo. Im admitidly a Halo worshiper! It just is one awesome game. So i find his interests very similar to mine.
His writing style is very casual and i like the informality of it. I prefer reading things like that.
Although Hicks has only written 1 blog- He's covered a part of his life background and then gone straight onto his interests. He talks mainly about games and reviews an excellent game.

I find blogging to be a personal way of showing others YOU on a screen. I think it is a great way to show others who you really are and what your thoughts and interests are of things in this world (and beyond).
I see myself using this space as a way to annoy people with my views. At the start i found it hard to think of what to write about as its not my style. But once getting into it im enjoying it alot more than i thought and i feel comfortable using this blogging system. I'd be blogging alot about my interests and general thoughts about things. I'm quite confident in writing to an invisible audience but i keep thinking that people may not understand exactly what i am trying to say without that personal expression. I tend to be very scarcastic and writing scarcasm is going to be hard for me without sounding offensive. (So you have been warned in advanced! Do not take things in the wrong way).

Well for me thats it for now.

Im starting to enjoy Blogging :)

Abs' New Blog Page

Task 10....Heroes

That bloody PlayStation 3

Weekly Tasks