I've failed

Alas, I have failed to keep my promise of posting 5 times in one week. I only posted 3 times last week, but it's a start I guess, not like anyone is listening anyway.

Well, I haven't got anything interesting to say so I think I'll just ramble on for a few paragraphs.

I think I'm really starting to get a hang of painting and drawing digitally. Here's a sample of some work I'm doing for my design coursework;


http://i47.tinypic.com/jszk1s.jpg (Bigger version)

Yeah, it's early days and it looks a bit "meh" but I'm proud of it. Although it doesn't really show it in the images linked it's very crisp and almost diagram like illustrations, which is what I'm aiming for since I need to be clear and concise in showcasing my design. I need to do about 3 or 4 different designs as well modelling them all in 3D Studio Max. Very time consuming but extremely rewarding in my opinion.

On games, I've been having a lot of fun all thanks to the Steam sale. I've finished both Mirror's Edge and Indigo Prophecy, which isn't saying much since they both have relatively short campaigns. I'd talk more about them and maybe review them whenever I get around to splitting up this site into various sections. I'm currently playing, and having a blast with Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's visually stunning with it's dark, gritty atmosphere that really sets the mood for Arkham Island. More on that when I set up the aforementioned sections.

Well, that's it for now.

Why I love Steam

I can't think of anything else to write about, and if I do I'd probably spend too much time writing about it.

Anyway, it's Christmas and that's a good thing for PC gamers all around the world because Steam are having a huge sale. I know I may sound like some sort of advertisement but their deals are just incredible. I got the following games all for a grand total of ~£35;

-Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (for nostalgic purposes and also because this game is amazing)
-Mirror's Edge
-Indigo Prophecy
-Rome: Total War
-Batman: Arkham Asylum

Now I have a plethora of games to keep me busy until early next year.

Pretty boring post I know, I'll try be a bit more creative next time. And also fix some issues with this site (Odd placement of the "followers" tab etc.).

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Edit: Again, toying around with the template I have now fixed it. I guess those computing classes in New Zealand payed off in some way...

My thoughts on "Where The Wild Things Are"

Or rather lack of thoughts, since I haven't give this movie much thought after I left the cinema.

It was such an emotionally complex movie that I can't even begin to describe how I feel about it. Mostly because I lack writing prose and confidence but I'll give it a shot.

The movie is about a young boy called Max, he has an overactive imagination and is somewhat of a loner.After an incident with his mother, he runs away to an isolated island where he stumbles upon these giant animals that can talk. It then turns into an emotional drama with happy or funny spots littered in between the serious scenes.

That's my personal overview of the movie, I hope it suffices.

As for how I felt about the movie as a whole, I enjoyed it. I thought it was time well spent, although the movie doesn't really seem like it was meant for kids. It had some deep messages that are extremely subtle and really require you to think about it, even after you've left the building. It was also quite a depressing film, some scenes really felt quite morbid and bleak.

On a side note, the way the animals look are fantastic, I heard it's a mix of puppetry and CG elements. However they did it, they did it well.  

If I had to give this film an arbitrary rating, I'd give it a 7.8/10

I hope I didn't waffle on for too long, it's hard organizing one's thoughts into coherent sentences. It is for me at least.

Oh, how cold it is.

Well, this past week has been freezing. And fish swim in the water! Yeah, we're halfway through the cold December months and I'm surprised at how quick it's gone by. Much quicker than the months that have passed...

Bah, moving on. I finally managed to upload a video to youtube. Not quite the achievement, but compressing a video from 1.5GB's to 129MB's was. Of course, I used Sony Vegas to do it for me and I was pleased with the results;




That was a video of me dicking around in GTA IV using the Simple Native Trainer with some guys I met online. We had about four or five of these derby's and I must admit, it was great fun. This is one of the many reasons I enjoy PC gaming over console gaming. The modding community just adds so much more longevity to a game's life. I'll probably go into that topic in more depth on a later post.


On a side note, I will most likely be posting some reviews of games up here soon. Maybe even do a redesign of the template, if I feel courageous enough.


1/5


EDIT: Excellent, the site seems to have cropped a bit of the video I posted. Ah well, I'll see if I can fix that later.


EDIT 2: Yes! First try and I've fixed it! *Personal high-five*

First

Well, I might as well get started.

This is where I will, hopefully, post all my stuff. And by stuff I mean ideas, work, drawings, opinions, etc.
I thought I'd get the ball rolling by posting this just to get a feel for the whole blogging business.

So, what can I say when no one is listening?

Well, I finally got mods for GTA IV working. After staying up until 3 AM last night I can finally enjoy some great gameplay. I probably should put up a video, but my fraps records out of sync and I just can't be arsed messing around with the GTA video editor right now. Maybe next time.

That's all for now, I'll make it an obligation to at least post 5 times a week.