Pan's Labyrinth

I just got the chance to watch Pan's Labirynth and I was impressed by several features of this film. For those who havent seen it, it is based in the 1940s and tells the story of a little girl who moves to the countryside with her mother who is due to be married to the Captain of an army of Franco's. The little girl is highly imaginative and from the start it is clear she loves fantasy stories. On the journey there she discovers a "fairy". This film is bizzare in the sence that half of it is ultra realistic and the otherhalf appears to be the fantasy of the little girl and it is not ever really clear whether it is or not.

The characters impressed me also. The little girl meets a "fawn" which is very different to the classic depiction. He creaks and groans like a tree would in the wind and seems very organic as if he is made of the elements.

Week 9- An introduction to game technology

The hardware for games and the interface which we use to interact with them is rapidly changing. In the early days of the Atari and simple arcade games, a single dial or joystick could do everything needed in order to complete a set of actions. As games have become more and more complex, we have had to learn to use increasing amounts of buttons and dials. Not only this but the appearance of consoles has also had a considerable evolution.

Taking a look at early console controllers such as the ones for the Atari and the NES there are very few things needed in order for them to complete their purpose. A couple of buttons on a very square chunk of plastic. During the age of the Playstation and the N64, analogue sticks allowed for joystick-like control and ergonomics were starting to be considered with the playstation adopting "handles" and the N64 taking a three pronged approach to its controller to seperate the different types of interface. Since then many new ways of playing have been explored such as tilt technology along with things like Eye Toy.

In the current generation of consoles, there seem to be 2 different paths that controllers are taking. The Nintendo Wii is at one end of the spectrum. focusing on simplistic control and movement based technology. On the other hand, is the Xbox 360, which is continuing the "traditional" control system of analogue sticks, triggers and buttons. The PS3 seems to hang in the middle in a kind of personality crisis, not sure whether it wants to conform to the seemingly crazy new ideas of motion sensitivity or play it safe.

There are advantages to both motion sensitivity and traditional controls. It feels frustrating to play a game on the Wii that doesn't utilise many movement sensitive controls as you expect an alternative experience and its equally as frustrating when it's done badly. I believe that traditional controls work very well but are becoming a bit stale and that very little can be done to change them for the better. It seems that improvement has been mainly focused on power and graphical capabilities and that now the control systems have to catch up in order to complete this experience.

Consoles themselves are looking more and more stylised. Nintendo is trying to make it's consoles more a part of a technology filled home like a DVD player or surround sound system while PS3 and 360 are trying to look like powerful stylish additions to a home.

Week 8- Storytelling in Games

Games are essentially another media in which we can express ourselves or become immersed in a world. There are many ways that we have told storys in the past such as passing them through familys orally or through the written word, or film. Fundamentally, game storylines are generally structured much like a film or book: characters are introduced and their personality introduced to you and then an interesting situation arises that you can then feel like you are a part of or a spectator of.

I beleive that storyline helps to rescue a game once you become uninterested in its mechanics. It acts as a way of motivating you, or even inspiring you to carry on playing. In a sence, it makes the game have purpose therefore giving you an ambition to fulfil and secrets to be unlocked.

However, I don't beleive that the storyline has to be spoon fed in order for the player to become immersed in the story. Half-Life 2 is a game which I have played a couple of times, and although I am not 100% sure what is going on all the time and the political reasoning for the battle between the alien forces and the rebels, I am drawn in to the game by the fantastic use of character.

One of the writers for Half-Life 2 said in an interview that he wished to create characters that people care about. To quote an interview with Gamasutra in relation to characters "We want to convey their sense of humor, their fears and vulnerabilities, and create a sense that they have an interior life and an existence that continues when they’re offscreen."
My personal opinion is that it is the curiosity that a player experiences through storyline which magnifies the experience. As human beings, we are curious to hear new things, or have the answers to questions: what storys in games do, is ask us questions and then give us the means in which to find the answer, if we are good enough!
Ultimately I think that games can be enjoyable without storyline but that it drastically shortens the experience when a game is lacking any narrative direction. For example, having bought Brain Training for the Nintendo DS, how many of us are still playing that today? Or willing to go back to it for it's gameplay? Although a great idea and a useful tool, as a game it fails when it becomes boring and stale due to lack of direction and goals beyond having a "brain age" of 21... whatever that means! As a fan of story telling, (a human) I think that storytelling in games is just as important as storytelling in films or indeed any other media.

Crystal Character

Finished off a concept painting of my crystal character and I am really pleased with the result! The most difficult part was getting the lighting right on both the character and the cave but it seems to have worked out in the end.
I might go back and do some tweaking at some point.

The painting is used to illustrate what I wanted the character to be like aesthetically and how it would live. He is designed to be made of both rock and crystal and I imagine him being rock on the outside and crystal on the inside. If he were to be damaged more crystal would be exposed. I also like the idea that the crystal could grow and morph and maybe the sediment/rock covering him would just build up over time based on his surroundings.

A bit of what I enjoy!

Recently really loving just finding random things on the internet. Came across these guys a long time ago, but they still make me laugh hysterically. They are a folk parody band called "Flight of the Conchords" and.. quite simply they're silly.. enjoy! You'll find I might blog many of these random things, simply so that everyone can see what I like! This song is called "The Humans Are Dead" and it points towards a future of destruction due to robots.. sounds scarily familiar to what we've been talking about in class...well this is the funny version!

Week 7- Art Directors

Art Directors are the people responsible for all the decisions to do with the visual style of a game or other medium. In an article on Gamasutra, the Art Director Phillip Bossant describes a day in his life. Starting as early as 6:00 AM, not getting home until 8:30 PM and continuing work at home seems common and he even comments that some nights he may stay at work. His day consists of many tasks but mainly he seems to arrange how the people are working together: meetings to guide and check up on different sections of the teams happen throughout the day.

Art Directors work towards creating the feel and look of a game. They make sure that a consistant style is present within the game and that each Artist understands and practices this. It seems that being an Art Director means that you have to rely on a lot of people and that there is a considerable amount of trust involved. Phillip Bossant comments "We try to play to each individual's strength" when refering to his team. Other skills required seem to be patience, determination and a passion for what is trying to be achieved.
When creating a game, a "pipeline" is planned to utilise all the time available and the Art director manages this and makes sure that everyone is on schedule. In an interview with the BBC News, the team that worked on Ghost Rider explained their roles. The Art Director explained that he headed up preproduction and developing a lot of concept sketches. He was responsible for working on the visual style. He worked alongside the Lead Designer who took responsibility for the visual style further down the line when production had started. The Lead Designer and Art Director are both answerable to the Game Director.

Photoshop Painting

Today I've been really trying to develop my photoshop skills. I decided to draw a environment for a character I based around crystals. To do this I wanted to digitally paint a cave and then add crystal features to it. I took a reference picture from the internet and attempted to use that to develop my own picture of a cave. I am really proud of the result as I have really been struggling with photoshop.

I also have been trying to develop both my "Organic" and "Reef" creatures. My reef creature is based around a mantis shrimp and I have just been trying to develop it's shape. My organic crystal character is designed to be made of rock but when he is damaged crystal muscle groups are exposed underneath. They are neither of them finished.. but I am trying to develop skills at the same time as design them.

3D modelling

Since I have been learning 3D modelling I have felt like it has been a constant battle between me and 3D S Max. However I am starting to enjoy it! Between the swearing and screaming "WHY IS THAT THERE?!!!" there is some kind of strange satisfaction from making an object that looks vaguely realistic! The more I learn the more excited I am about using these techniques effectively. The class were shown the basics of "Bump Mapping" last monday and it instantly got me excited. Now all I need to do is actually learn to use this tool effectively.... this could take a while!

On monday, we were set the challenge of creating a weapon in about 4 and a half hours. I was really proud to have go to the stage of being pretty much ready to texture despite the fact that there were sooooo many people that were better than me by far!). I have also started making a house for one of my projects.

Simple Games = Innovative Ideas?

After being in a terrible mood one night I managed to persuade my flat mate that I would feel much better after a go on his PS3! After an hour or so of playing random demos and replaying Skate several times, I discovered "Flow". I had read about this game but never really thought of playing it as it looked "too simplistic". After playing it for a short while I was addicted!

The basic idea of the game is that you are a small creature that eats others smaller than yourself avoiding getting eaten by the bigger creatures. The more you eat, the larger you become, gaining more fins and a longer tail. It is controlled by the six axis which means there is very little need to press any buttons.

The reason this game stood out to me so much was that it was a game without any explanation besides a start up screen which said something along the lines of "go with the flow". I then discovered how it worked as I went along and it felt like I was exploring instead of simply completing tasks. The satisfaction of being able to defeat creatures that you had previously been hunted by is immense. I found myself saying things like "now... the hunter.. becomes the hunted!!!!". Cheesy, but fun none the less!

My personal opinion is that this game is a brilliant example of simplicity being able to deliver an experience that a larger, more complicated game, would not be able to produce. Games like pacman and tetris are other examples of this. These games need no explanation, yet they have gained classic status.

Week 6- Game Design

Why do we play games? Is it for the experience? Or for the visual and audio stimulation? When creating games, designers always face these questions. Shigeru Miyamoto is the game designer behind many famous and influencial games such as Mario and the Zelda franchise. In an interview with CNN he said this about how he designed games:

"My staff and I are motivated not by trying to out-sell whatever happens to be in the market, but rather trying to develop something that is totally unique. I think it's important that we enjoy that process. To create a new standard, you have to be up for that challenge and really enjoy it. This is the way we work and have done so many times."

This way of thinking is not the standard for the industry. Many games are created with the sole purpose of gaining profit and often games are created that well purely based on licencing for a film or television show. These titles often neglect good gameplay. Games are no longer created by one man's dream but a combination of hundreds of members of staff. There will often be an art direction that is achieved by many people instead of one man and the core gameplay will be decided by many. Often gameplay is actually the last thing considered once the art direction and rules of the game are decided, this can lead to games feeling unfinished.

So what do I mean by gameplay? Gameplay is the way in which the player interacts with the game. It is what happens in a game due to the player interfacing through a controller. For example, driving a car in a game is the "gameplay" the rest of it is all for decoration: The graphics and the sound effects are all to make the gameplay more visually and audibly stimulating.

When a game is designed there are different catagories of the design process that need to be considered.

1) The rules of the game: What will the player be allowed to do? Will there be gravity? How strong will the player be? How does the player move? etc.

2) What is the hardware capable of?

And finally

3) How can this be presented?

There are a series of arguements involving game design to do with "Ludology" and "Narratology". Ludologists argue that the most important thing to incorporate into a game are the gameplay structures and that all elements of interactivity are primarily more important than other features such as graphics and storyline. Narratologists argue that storyline and presentation are more important.

Different genres may require different strategies of design. For example a point and click adventure game would probably be designed in a very mathematical fashion, deciding what elements to put in where and when to promt the next section of storyline. Conversely a platforming action game like Super Mario Galaxy has been designed with the core gameplay and mechanics put into place first and the storyline designed around it. This can lead to a less fulfilling narrative structure but fulfilling gameplay.

I beleive that a well designed game incorporates both the theories of Narratology and Ludology almost equally, maybe focusing slightly more on Ludology and the element of play. I think that Ludology is more important personally because I want to be able to sit and relax, play, explore and experience something different from another form of media, such as a film. An example of well implemented balance between the two is in Resident Evil 4: whenever a cutscene happens the player still has to fulfil a series of onscreen promts such as "R + B" in order to survive. Although a simple mechanic it was well designed and made you feel more a part of the game and the story surrounding it. I believe all games should feature similar ideas.

Week 5- The Gaming Press and New Games Journalism

My experience of magazines for games has been mixed. On the one hand you get an idea of the setup of games and what to expect when/if you buy them. On the other hand the magazine often tells you what to think of them before you buy them anyway.

When I used to look at a magazine I, like many other people, often turned straight to the review score to see what the writer thought of the game in a detailed, decimal form. What does this number mean? I often used to buy Nintendo Official Magazine until I realised that the boasted fact that it is 100% official could mean that the reviews are slightly biased.

Now that I am slightly older, taller, wiser (big-headed) and understand the way the world works a bit better (I now look on everything with an distinctively adult sense of gloom), I start to think that review scores are not what counts. I now look to what the writer has to say about the actual gameplay, what his experiences of it were and how he felt along the way.

New Games Journalism (NGJ) does exactly this and recalls games and events surrounding the gameplay in a story like fashion. It focuses not just on the game world, but also on the person playing and their reaction to the game world. I think that this style of writing for games can show alot more to the reader but that it could prove dull after a while. I think that it has a distinct amount of charm because it is unusual.

I beleive that traditional writing for games will continue successfully. It fulfills a purpose and as gamers we are already following what everybody else is doing to see what all the fuss is about: if one more person tells us to play a game because it is "98% perfect" the fact that it is written down means that foolishly we fall for it as objective fact.

Week 4 - the history of computer games: 2000s and into the future

The current decade of gaming has seen many changes and exciting new developments. The Playstation 2 was released in 2000 and became one of the best selling consoles of all time continuing success with games like, Metal Gear Solid 2 and the Grand Theft Auto series aswell as many other multiformat games. Following shortly afterwards, the Nintendo Gamecube appeared in 2001 and the Gameboy Advance followed the success of the Gameboy Colour.

It was in 2001 that Microsoft entered the console making industry. Much of the media expected a flop from the expensive console (over £200 compared with the Gamecube's £130) but it became popular, entering the market with Halo and a host of third party titles.

During the last decade, Sega stopped making consoles and became a third party developer for most major console systems.

The handheld market became alot more diverse in the last few years. Sony entered the handheld market with the PSP and Nokia with the Ngage. In 2004, Nintendo released the Nintendo DS handheld console. This was one of the first mainstream consoles to feature a touchscreen and was aimed at people who didnt usually play games. This started a new strategy of marketing for games.

When the latest generation of home consoles were released (Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii), the arguement of graphics versus gameplay really erupted. Nintendo made the daring decision to change very little graphically and focus primarily on how the player interacted with the game. Aiming to continue the success of the Nintendo DS and it's popularity, they created the Wii (pronounced "We"). This console is based on having a motion sensitive controller and being suitable for everyone to play. Other consoles went primarily for power, boasting almost photorealistic graphics and powerful processors, aimed at the current gaming market. The Nintendo Wii has proven to be incredibly popular, renewing Nintendo's diminishing reputation.

Surprisingly the PS3 has lost popularity due to it's expensive price and slow production of games even though it also features a "six axis motion control". Xbox 360 has also been selling very well recently as Halo 3 has been released, an event that has been more popular than most film premiers.

My Personal Gaming History

These last 7 years have been full of great games. After having an N64 for a few years, the Nintendo Gamecube came out. I was so excited about it coming out that I still remember the date that it came out, May 3rd. I had played alot on the Gameboy Advance through many of the main Nintendo games, Yoshi's Island, Pokemon and some Mario games and I really looked forward to the Gamecube and being able to play updated versions of my favourite series.

The games that have stood out for me include: Resident Evil 4, F-Zero GX, Zelda Windwaker, Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee and Soul Calibur 2.

Resident Evil 4 has become one of my favourite games ever which surprised me as I had never been a fan of the series before. I loved the atmosphere and the whole game had a certain feeling of parranoia and a really cinematic storyline that was presented in an interactive way which really pulled me in to the story. Having to press buttons in cutscenes really kept me on the edge of my seat and made me feel like I never had a rest which added to the realism.

Metroid Prime was one of the few games that I have ever really felt like I was the character: it had some really immersive methods. If there was a bright flash, you would see Samus' face in the visor and if it rained you would see it bouncing and trickling down it. The soundtrack was very distinctive aswell and helped to convey feelings of tranquility or urgency.

Soul Calibur 2 was one of the most fun games to play against a friend. Especially being so fond of martial arts. My best friend and I would get so competitive playing it that I actually remember him punching a hole into his door after a particularly close match (his parents did not find out until a few years later, of course!). The things I liked about this game was the control system that allowed the player to block at almost any time: if timed correctly the opponent would be thrown to one side. It seemed like the most fair fighting game and it made sence when you were pressing buttons instead of the character doing something unexpected all the time.

I now own a Nintendo Wii and a DS and I also enjoy playing PC games like Half Life and F.E.A.R. I personally think that the Xbox 360 is the best console for multiplayer with games like Halo available and how easy it is to network and I have had many, many gaming nights with friends playing Gears of War and the Halo series over LAN.

Although I have played alot of Nintendo over the years, I do not just enjoy those games. I would buy one console, while a friend of mine would buy another. Some of my favourite games have been on other consoles. I really enjoy playing Fight Night Round 3 and Skate aswell as many other 360 games.

I beleive that I enjoy games the most when I am with a friend. I love to go to see my friend Sam and just play Xbox and chat and laugh together. I believe games are better than films simply because of the potential for socialising. Playing games at the same time as somebody else also allows you to have something in common and gives you the chance to invite them over and play together. I want to create games that inspire people enough that they will get talking and enjoy them together.

Week 3- The history of computergames: 1980s-90s

The 80's was a decade of growth for computer games. Home consoles started to become available such as the Commodore 64 and the ZX spectrum. At the beginning of the decade, the first truely 3D games were created using sprite based technology, the first of which being Battlezone (1980).

One of the most iconic games of this era was Pac-Man (1979) which went on to become the first game character to gain mainstream popularity as a character. I do not remember the first time I played this, but it is so widely recognised that I doubt there are many people out there in western society who do not instantly know how to play.

During this period, many genres of games were created that still remain today and still influence the way that games are created. Also network gaming became possible and precursors to multiplayer games like quake started to appear (Mazewar, Spasim).

In around 1985, the console market was revived after a considerable crash. This was achieved when the Nintendo Entertainment System (or Famicom) was released along with the classic platformer "Super Mario Bros". This is one of the earliest games that I have played and it is obviously one of the most famous games ever created. I think that the great thing about Mario is that the formula has not really changed since it started, it has just been improved upon and he is still popular today. The simple idea of trying to reach a goal whilst overcoming difficult obstacles is such a challenging idea it drives me to complete the levels and try something harder on the next.

In 1986 "The Legend of Zelda" was relased for the NES. This began my favourite series of games. This game was revolutionary for its sence of adventure and discovery, the player could explore the world in any order he wished gaining weaponry as he went. After playing this game as a port on the GBA, i can see a whole range of things that are wrong with it, but it was the starting point for a great storyline and formula that continues to excite me more than any other series to this day.

The NES was the first console to use a "gamepad" in replacement of a joystick or keyboard. The "D-pad" then became standard amongst consoles. I think that Nintendo are always coming up with innovative ideas for gaming like this and are constantly pushing the boundaries of how we play.

In 1989 the Gameboy was released. Created by the same people who made the "game and watch" systems, the Gameboy came with the classic puzzle game Tetris. The Gameboy continued to dominate the handheld games market with its succesors until only recently.

In the 90's arcade games became fewer and the home console market started to take over. Consoles around at the begining of the 90's included the Sega Megadrive (1989) which sparked competition from Nintendo's new console The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991. This to many was the start of the "console wars".

1994-95 saw the rise of the Sony Playstation and the Sega Saturn. The Playstation dominated the market throughout the 90's. In 1996, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 and alongside it, Mario 64 and Goldeneye: two games which would majorly influence both the platforming and first-person shooter genres in the future. The 90's saw such great games as Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy VII and Zelda Ocarina of Time which are all considered some of the best games of all time.

1999 saw the beginning of the end for Sega consoles when the Dreamcast was released. Although the console hosted some great games, Sega realised that they were no longer able to competitively stay within the console market. However, they did continue to make games and are now making games across all platforms.

My Personal Experience of Games in the 90's

When I was about 4 (in 1993) I remember playing Sonic the Hedgehog at a friends house and this was my first real experience of computer games. Following this I remember constantly begging my parents to get me a computer for Christmas even though I knew we could not afford one. Up until I was about 12 (2001) my main experience of games was playing them with friends at their houses. My most treasured memories of games at this time were playing Zelda- A Link to the Past, Street Fighter, and Sonic the Hedgehog. It was always great to be able to go out and play until we were exausted and then come in and relax in front of games.

When I was 12 I got my first home console. For my birthday I received a Nintendo 64 with Goldeneye and found great pleasure in beating my sister's boyfriend at the multiplayer whenever he was round: my sister was not so impressed. I then discovered Zelda: OOT and that's when my passion for games started. This fantastic world was there for me to discover and I genuinely felt like the "hero of time". I then found myself saving up lunch money everyday to buy the sequel, Zelda: Majora's Mask, and it did not dissapoint one bit.

I found a love of multiplayer when Super Smash Bros first came out on the N64. I would often have 3 other friends over to play this as well as F Zero X, another one of my favourite multiplayer games. Games also offered a way for me to spend time with my sister: we would often come home after school and have a game of F Zero together. We would realy enjoy just laughing and joking together.

I also owned a Game Boy Pocket, although I can not remember when I bought it. I spent most of my time playing the Mario games on it as well as Pokemon (as most children my age were). Mostly, my experience of games has been a social one. I do not enjoy playing a game unless I have someone to show it to or go through it with. I would often run across the road to see my best friend and share what I had discovered but if he did not like the game, I often found that the lack of competition soon made it a lot less interesting.

Week 2- The history of computer games: 1950s-70s

Computer-games have a very surprising history. Getting their roots from missile computers and the technology surrounding radars, the first games were very different to the ones that we are playing today.

Argueably, the first interactive elecronic game was a missile simulator created by Thomas T Goldsmith Jr and Estle Ray Mann in 1947. The game operated on a cathode ray tube and was inspired by radar displays from World War 2. It used analogue circuitry to control and position a dot on the screen.

Following this, in 1952, a game was created by a man called A.S Douglas and was written for the EDSAC computer. This game was a game of naughts and crosses called OXO that did not become very popular due to the EDSAC computer only being available at Cambridge. This was probably the first game to be played against the computer.

Then, in 1958 "Tennis for Two" was created. It played on an oscilloscope and was a game based around tennis or pingpong. Again, based on analogue computing, it was created by a physicist, William Higinbotham. Higinbotham created this game as a form of entertainment for visitors to his Brookhaven National Laboratory, in which he worked. Following this in 1962 "Spacewar" was created.

Having played none of these games, I find it hard to comment on any of them. However I have played games that I am sure will have developed based on these first few. Pong, the most famous early game was realeased in 1972. I remember one of my best friends getting out his old Atari when I was about 11 and the ridiculous amount of fuss getting the machine to work: blowing into the machine to fix it for a good 5 minutes seemed to work! There was something special about turning a dial to control the paddle. It was a lot more physical than, for instance, pressing a button. Although a very simple game, it offered alot of competitive atmosphere when playing with a friend, something alot of modern games lack.

Throughout the 70's the common gaming community were university students who were using expensive computer equipment to make their own games. Games such as "Star Trek" were then later published for a wider audience. Home computers became available and these games that were created by students began to become available.

Following a minor crash in the industry, cartridges became a common way for games to be published, allowing for gamers to collect a library of games. The Atari 2600 was a cartridge based console that was published in 1977.

Hello Halo!!

Fiiiiinally got a chance to play Halo 3 today for the first time properly. To be honest... not sure what to think. What is all the hype about? Sure, it's great! Yea, it's pretty!! But "the perfect game"? Umm.. no. I think theres a bit too much hype obiting it's giant ego for everyone to notice the problems with it.

I played through the first chapter of the campain and then went on to play A LOT of multiplayer (what I was looking forward to the most!).

For someone like me, who was looking for an expansion on the fantastic Halo 2 multiplayer, it ticks all the boxes. New maps, weapons and vehicles! However nothing really innovative or new is offered. I expect that I will have many hours with friends having a laugh just like with Halo 2: but that is the problem. It is just another Halo and besides the outstanding multiplayer there is very little to see that is exciting or inspirational.

As for the multiplayer: many changes have occured to the weapons that already existed in previous editions, obviously for "balancing" issues. For example, the rocket launcher no longer has a "lock on" feature and this is instead assigned to some kind of anti-aircraft gun. One word... WHY!!! There is a great deal of satisfation gained from swerving a rocket into a warthog full of your friends whilst they excitedly head back to their base with your team's flag. Now, all you can do is plod along; carrying what appears to be an entire tank on your arm hoping to come across a stray. Although this can be fun, it's just not the same! Also the brute shot does not bounce around corners anymore! But don't get me started on that!

As harsh as I am being, I do love the new multiplayer. All these changes surprisingly seem to work when applied with all thats new to offer, including some of my favourites: radar jammers, gravity hammers, improved invisibility and the oppertunity to drive an entire base! Very cool.

I hate to admit it. It's going to take some getting used to... but I like it. Alot. If it were a new, fresh game, then I would adore it. I think I may just be clinging on to the nostalgia of many gaming nights on Halo 2, eating pizza way too quickly so we could all start the next game. Looks like Halo 3 is just going to mean more pizza, and a bit of learning.

Truely AWESOME!!!

Had an amazing day at home today for the first time in a month and was shown this guy Andy Mckee on the internet. I absolutely love everything about this guys music, exactly what I hope to acheive and love to see and listen to!! This tune sums up the happiness of seeing my best friends again for the first time in a month perfectly.

Week 1- the world of blogging

After now starting my blog I've been trying to get a bit of insight into how other people do it and what they enjoy writing about (or indeed what people enjoy reading about). Whilst randomly searching "blog" on google hoping to find a glimpse of insight, I came across Stephen Fry's blog and thought to myself "he's clever... he must know something i should know!!".

I then started reading one of his entries titled "I Give Up". It immediately occured to me that this man really loves to ramble; scrolling down the page I found a good 15 minutes of reading! Instantly his style is obvious; intelligent, witty and with a dose of silliness. His extremely well developed vocabulary is part of the fun of reading his blog; seeing words such as "admixture" and "hedonistic degradation". However, whilst reading this I started to wonder how many people read this and why?

His blog doesn't seem say anything new about the world or indeed anything original: the purpose of the majority of the text seems to be just so that others can have an insight to a celebrity's life. In spite of this, it is actually very well written. Fry uses quotes from popular culture to illustrate his point with phrases from Macbeth to Basil Faulty.

I think when writing my blog I wish to do something similar but with a different subject material and alot less content. I want to be able to express what I am interested in and show a little of who I am, as much for me, as for my audience. Almost like a kind of "self discovery". I do want to do it in a quicker "snappier" fashion than Fry therefore making it alot more of a pleasure to read. At the moment I am not confident or fluent in writing a blog, but with time I hope to be able to have something that people like myself can enjoy.

Myself!

Welcome to my blog!! Im very new to "expressing myself". So basically i thought id start putting little things that I love onto this page.

Im a bit of a gamer... surprise surprise!! I have always loved games and got over excited when talking about them. I am a major Nintendo Fan-Boy and to be honest i'm proud! Nothing ever beats a good Zelda game or a blast on Metroid for 3 hours in a row.

For a long time i've been a massive fan of martial arts and martial arts films. Growing up myself and my friend from across the road would always try to learn to fight in new and over-the-top ways often kicking each other to a pulp (it was all good fun until one of us broke our ribs!!!). We both joined a Thai Boxing club when we were about 16 and I've loved it ever since and have become interested in any form of self defence available and I'm always looking to learn new things. Love it!

Finally, one of my great passions is playing acoustic guitar. Personally I've never found a better wat to relax. Recently I have been trying to think of the perfect music for a game and have become interested in what music works in different situations and what hasn't really been done before.


I may be writing a lot more about these topics in the future!

The Games I'm Currently Playing

Recently, I have developed an interest in older, "retro", games: Since owning a Nintendo Wii, I have started to become facinated in what made them good back when they were released and what makes them still playable today. Games such as Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 on the megadrive and Kirby's Adventure on the NES are new discoveries for me as I started my gaming career in the latter days of the N64.

It had never really occured to me until now, but the transition from Sonic 1 to Sonic 2 is quite a jump. Although graphically the character does not change much between games, the environments gain layers and a sence of depth. Also the audio improves dramatically; the music becomes much more complicated (and addictive) whilst still maintaining the classic ring-collection and jump sounds.
Furthermore, the second game manages to introduce mechanics that the first game did not offer: In the first game you would need to take an extra run up to get up a steep slope, the second game had this new idea of having sonic spin on the ground to gain speed. This made the whole game pacing alot better and made you feel the speed that Sonic has become known for. I have found that small tweaks like this often make games alot more fun to play as you do not end up with moments of frustration and shouting "WHY!!!" so often.

Kirby's Adventure has been a real surprise to me. Although it was made for the NES, the animation of Kirby is full of character! He bounds around and trips if he falls a great distance (which is not so much annoying.. as just cute!!). I had never played it until a friend recommended it, but "the little pink ball of goo" is actually great fun to play as!! I think the idea of being able to suck up your enemies and absorb their powers is genius!! I think the reason it is so satisfying is that you become as powerful as the monsters you have just beaten. Magic!