Saturday, July 07, 2012
EoP - Cinematics
Well this weeks video is about the cinemas and cutscenes in videogames. It doesn't so much ask questions, or explore alternatives as it does just look over what's already there. For some reason I have a feeling this episode will resonate with people because it doesn't require you to think outside of the box.
I welcome questions and opinions as always.
----Strife Out----
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Legal Landmark
Ever since the beginning of digital content and DLC the EULA (end user license agreement) that comes with the software has forbidden the resale of of it. This has largely been due to how companies have wanted to prevent piracy, but also because they don't want to lose sales. Thus most EULAs have stuck to the idea that you aren't buying software, you're just buying a license to infinity use the software. Meaning you have no right to resell it.
Well that idea has been struck down by the EU court, and at least in the European Union it's now legal to resell digitally downloaded software. This may not affect anything in my neck of the woods, but seeing as how this is a step forward for gamers, I'm interested to see if it will change anything over here. After all world events unavoidably influence things stateside.
Read the article here
----Strife Out----
Saturday, June 30, 2012
EoP - Difficult Games
Well I've decided to move the release schedule. From now on I'll be uploading new videos on Saturday instead of Monday. Granted I may go back on this later if I see a significant drop in views, but I doubt that will happen.
Anyway this episode of Elements of Play is about games that are not easy. I felt the script here was stretched a bit thin, and I sure I'll hear loads about what games I SHOULD have brought up. Regardless I hope that most of you enjoy what I'm trying to get across in this video.
----CP Out----
Friday, June 29, 2012
Arkham City
I'm still trying to catch up on last year's game releases, thus I've only just finished Arkham City. It’s a great game, and I can't stress how fun it is to play, but It feels watered down compared to Arkham asylum.
The overarching issue that I have with Arkham city is how it has too many brief appearances. Multiple enemies get only a tiny bit of screen time, and several are barely mentioned. One or two faces are around long enough to feel fleshed out, but that isn’t the case across the board. For me this made the villain experience less potent.
I don't really want to rant on, but suffice it to say there were too many villains fighting for screen time. In the end I didn’t' feel any one of them was a serious threat, and was left wishing for the more focused experience and quality of the original Arkham asylum.
I suppose it come with the territory though, the perils of trying to follow up a fantastic game.
----Strife Out---- P.S. If you guys want me to go into more detail I could make a video about the game. Let me know what you think in the comments.
The overarching issue that I have with Arkham city is how it has too many brief appearances. Multiple enemies get only a tiny bit of screen time, and several are barely mentioned. One or two faces are around long enough to feel fleshed out, but that isn’t the case across the board. For me this made the villain experience less potent.
I don't really want to rant on, but suffice it to say there were too many villains fighting for screen time. In the end I didn’t' feel any one of them was a serious threat, and was left wishing for the more focused experience and quality of the original Arkham asylum.
I suppose it come with the territory though, the perils of trying to follow up a fantastic game.
----Strife Out---- P.S. If you guys want me to go into more detail I could make a video about the game. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Basically, kind-of a big deal
Valve (creators of half-life, team fortress, and left 4 dead) have been turning out interesting shorts for not only promotional purposes, but also for fun, for a long time now. Their most recognised work though are the "meet the team" videos for their free multiplayer game Team Fortress 2. Up until this week TF2 only had videos introducing eight of it's nine classes. Now though the final class "The Pyro" has his own video, which describes, in a hilariously violent way, why he loves fire so much.
I laughed my ass off while watching this.
More importantly though the Pyro video débuts how Valve as been making it's animated video, with the source film maker. The Source Film Maker is a literal realtime 3D movie maker built around Valve's Source engine. They've apparently been working on this piece of software for some eight years, and I must say it looks good. People have been making movies with valve resources for some time now, but they've largely lacked proper animations because of how much work it is to animate bipeds. I'm very interested to see how this will potentially change the machinima landscape. What are your opinions on the Source Film Maker?
----Strife Out---- P.S. Hopefully people will figure out how to move characters and worlds like Skyrim into this move maker and make some truly epic videos!
More importantly though the Pyro video débuts how Valve as been making it's animated video, with the source film maker. The Source Film Maker is a literal realtime 3D movie maker built around Valve's Source engine. They've apparently been working on this piece of software for some eight years, and I must say it looks good. People have been making movies with valve resources for some time now, but they've largely lacked proper animations because of how much work it is to animate bipeds. I'm very interested to see how this will potentially change the machinima landscape. What are your opinions on the Source Film Maker?
----Strife Out---- P.S. Hopefully people will figure out how to move characters and worlds like Skyrim into this move maker and make some truly epic videos!
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Dusk Maiden
This post may serve as a reminder, or maybe news to some of you, but I enjoy watching anime. This past week I finished watching the show Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, and I figured why not say a few words about it.
The show is about the ghost of a girl who haunts the local school, and no one can see her. This ghost is unable to remember her past and how she died, so she can't find peace but for the same reason she isn't vengeful either. One day a freshman wanders into the old school building and surprisingly can see her. Not long after meeting they decide to try and find out the girls past, and they start a club which also attracts two other members. That's the brief synopsis, and while the show had potential I found it to be lacking. I watched the entire thing mainly because it was the only series I was following this past season, so I was patient with it's initial lack of story development. Something did have going for it though was beautiful artwork. The gaudy background images of the old school building where the characters held club meetings was impressive in my onion, which really helped to improve the show's quality. The overall story was ok, but as I said, it took some time to get going. A few episodes were unexpected and there were some decent twists; However, the ending was disappointing. The writers for some reason chose to shy away from a decisive conclusion, and ended up creating a last minute happy ending. I don’t' have a problem with "Happily Ever After", but when it's suddenly conjured out of thin air I always have complaints. Start to finish Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was an ok show, and certainly not the worst anime I've ever watched. However, I won't be fondly looking back at it, assuming I even remember it.
----Strife Out----
The show is about the ghost of a girl who haunts the local school, and no one can see her. This ghost is unable to remember her past and how she died, so she can't find peace but for the same reason she isn't vengeful either. One day a freshman wanders into the old school building and surprisingly can see her. Not long after meeting they decide to try and find out the girls past, and they start a club which also attracts two other members. That's the brief synopsis, and while the show had potential I found it to be lacking. I watched the entire thing mainly because it was the only series I was following this past season, so I was patient with it's initial lack of story development. Something did have going for it though was beautiful artwork. The gaudy background images of the old school building where the characters held club meetings was impressive in my onion, which really helped to improve the show's quality. The overall story was ok, but as I said, it took some time to get going. A few episodes were unexpected and there were some decent twists; However, the ending was disappointing. The writers for some reason chose to shy away from a decisive conclusion, and ended up creating a last minute happy ending. I don’t' have a problem with "Happily Ever After", but when it's suddenly conjured out of thin air I always have complaints. Start to finish Dusk Maiden of Amnesia was an ok show, and certainly not the worst anime I've ever watched. However, I won't be fondly looking back at it, assuming I even remember it.
----Strife Out----
Monday, June 25, 2012
EoP - Retro Appeal
Well here's the next episode of Elements of Play. This time around I cover the subject of retro style games made in the modern day. I think it a fairly interesting subject, but tell me what you think.
Also I'll try to post more stuff on the blog this week.
----Strife Out----
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