-11 Steps For Making Quality Fanvideos-

• 10Oct 08

  I Ain't Dead Yet

  No I'M Not Dead..

  Not yet anyway. You can blame my long periods of absence on an annoyance I call writers block, the little bastard's been creeping up on me ever since I came back. Several circumstances have contributed to this hellion's strength in crippling my brain. One, my life is pretty normal, boring and uneventful right now which I don't mind whatsoever. It's a much better alternative compared to what my drama induced days were like just a few years prior. Another thing that could be helping the beast is a lack of motivation.

  The Gamespot environment has started to look increasingly unfamiliar to me. Comparatively, Giant bomb, the said alternative, has always felt foreign and still does. From the disappointing revamp of the Gamespot video section, to the absence of people who used to regularly post thought provoking blogs. I don't see the passion I used to see anymore although some of you continue to do your thing which I love. Ironically I'm also a victim of what I just described. Not as many video blogs are being shown, not as much originality exists anymore.

  The root cause of that can easily be directed towards the break up of the community and I can say with a naive sense of thinking that I didn't expect it to be this bad. If there's a huge enthusiasm going on about the dialog of the industry around here or at GB, that used to flourish before, them I'm obviously missing it.

  I'm hoping I'm dead wrong and that the lack of activity comes from the lack of triple A titles or the fact that I haven't even bothered to look around the community for other users, but I'll see.

  ---

  If you thought I was done with making Fanvideos you were wrong. Here's my latest creation. I don't expect this to get a lot of views because it doesn't pay tribute to any one particular game or genre. The statement I just loosely came up with, "Never underestimate the destructive power of progress" describes the video well.

  

  Here's the Vimeo Version, I'll upload a GS version later since I'm having problems. Click here

  Downloadable AVI version here

  Incase you were wondering, I know FFgothic asked this question. I mostly used Sony Vegas 7 for most of the editing, AE for the 3Dish intro title. My PC is laughably slow for the things I wanna do though so I'm looking to upgrade current system. An Athlon 2800, with 512mb of ram just doesn't cut it anymore. @_@.

  ---

  Upcoming blog *subject to change*: Silent Hill Homecoming impressions, along with my take on the series as a whole.

  • Posted Oct 10, 2008 4:57 pm GMT
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• 9Sep 08

  Whatcha Watching?

  90210: The Next Generation:

  

  You might be wondering why in god's green earth I offered up any of my time towards watching this modern version of a recreated 90210. Well it really came down to nostalgia; I was a huge fan of the original as a teenager despite the after school special sappiness that came with it. The show aired of course "after school" and covered many subjects that as a teen you came across for the most part. Not to mention the influence of my adolescent crush on Kelly that then moved onto Brenda, then back again.

  

  It was just that big in the 90's; you even had other favorites such as Fresh Prince quoting the infamous breakup between Brenda and Dylan just a short while after it happened like we witnessed it all:

  After they've been hyping this new show since before I left for Europe I found it impossible to ignore, so I at least thought I'd give it a chance. I'll just say that without a doubt it was by far one of the worst premiers I've ever seen, and advertising this premier as a replacement of the original certainly didn't help.

  The characters seemed like clones of just about every other teen drama that was shown during the past few years. (Guy enters school as an outsider, and tries to fit in while tackling jealous peers, girl tries to fit in with her abnormal personality in comparison to her elitist, prettier peers).

  The acting seemed so forced, and just ten minutes in one of the main characters was seen receiving oral pleasure in the comforts of his car on school grounds after being caught by his girlfriend, as if this was supposed to be entertaining or at all realistic. I mean I really..Really wish it was that easy in High School back in the day ~_~, I had no idea girls were that willing.

  If there's anything I've taken away from this show, it's that I've long since grown passed this level of Teen drama with all its cliché's and it isn't really worth talking about further.

  Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles

  

  I rode this show off pretty early on just because everything seemed so different from the movie. My reasons were entirely cosmetic, from the Terminator responsible to protecting John, to the choice of John and Sarah's actors. As it stands, one of my favorite North American made movies of all time remains Terminator 2.

  

  Like a dork I used to replay that T-1000 chase with his robotic way of running countless times (fans of the T-1000 theme should love my upcoming vid btw ). So naturally I judged this show according to the success of Terminator 1 and 2 (3 doesn't exist to me @_@), but in the end that was just plain unfair.

  I ended up watching all of season 1 while trying best to see it as an individual show separate from the movies and I can say that it certainly doesn't suck

  Lena Headey fits the role of a overly protective Sarah Connor but with a somewhat softer personality well, she always trying best not to push John too much into the role the role of a military general. Thomas Dekker also does a decent enough job at playing a teenage John Connor.

  

  I thought it was interesting that they chose a female to protect John as a teenager but Summer Glau seems to play a decent enough Terminator. She seems to have a robotic way of acting that fits the character. If you've ever seen Serenity you'd know. The show however is not without its flaws.

  #1. Skynet was not programmed to destroy the world like the intro implies just about every time, a mistake that should have been fixed. It became sentient and saw humans as a threat to its existence.

  #2. Cameron seems to express a certain sense of personality early on as she attempts to befriend John. But suddenly looses any sort of ability to blend in with her surroundings, pretty inconsistent.

  #3. (SPOILER) It should not have been possible for a Terminator without living tissue to travel through time as it's against the rules, the head should'nt have survived.

  Despite that it's a great show for Terminator fans since it focuses more on Sarah Connor's deepest thoughts regarding the whole situation and John's progression which should fit in nicely with the new movie coming out. It's just another series with the kind of production value that continues to show that television is starting to blur the differences between it and feature length films.

  • Posted Sep 9, 2008 2:16 pm GMT
  • Category: TV
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• 7Sep 08

  Teach Me How To Use That Playstation

  It's funny how the gaming gods work. Just yesterday I was complaining about the many issues I have with gaming as of late from the perspective of someone that has experienced just about everything, and yet today I found myself watching a first time gamer have the kind of fun I used to have when games felt fresh and new. Incase you're wondering who that person was, it was my Mom.

  It felt pretty random, her first words were "teach me how to use that Playstation" while pointing at the Xbox 360 of course. It was a Sunday morning; normally a period of boredom lurks during this time frame so I agreed. It would be interesting for sure, if not test my patience. I knew ahead of time that she expressed a certain interest in racing games so I launched up Forza. After all, racing games can be tailor made for first time gamers; the control scheme is a no brainer for the average person.

  I really had no idea how much of a chore it would be though just to instruct her how to navigate through a basic menu. As gamers these colored buttons are as fluid as speech, imprinted in our brains, but to see someone else struggle so much, it was painful to my eyes @_@. Well once we got through all that dreadfulness I watched as she attempted to race through an empty track (no time limit, no other race car drivers).

  I shouldn't even say race, more like cruise at 35mph. It seemed like every turn required a break from her, it was a horrible sight. But once she started to get the hang of pressing hard on the acceleration, the crashing began. The walls weren't safe as she knocked into one after the other with no regard for the car's well being. While this was all going on with me shouting out what she was doing wrong, I started to notice something through all my cringes.

  She was laughing and having fun while I spent a good amount of time tempted to just grab the controller and show her how to do it right. Playing the game correctly wasn't really important to her though, it was the interaction and the mere idea that she can cause a car to crash into a wall without any penalties; it was that element which offered up so much joy out of her. The same kind of thoughts I used to have when gaming remained youthful to me.

  I also allowed her to play some Lego Indiana Jones a short time after. Even more painful to watch, just walking across a bridge required a good 8 to 10 minutes of trial and error but once she finally finished the first level with my constant orders of where to go and what to do it was like she won something.

  It seemed like she had an all new respect for Videogames. Ironically through watching her I ended up playing through a couple of titles shortly after. In a way she reminded me of why I keep coming back and why I won't ever leave this hobby of mines.

  • Posted Sep 7, 2008 7:20 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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