Friday, October 30, 2009
Universal Studios
Well i went to universal studio's last weekend with a bunch of my friends. I'm not really much of a roller coaster guy so when all my friends went on the rides i decided to check out the arcade (go figure right?) They had all sorts of games including guitar hero. which i don't really get why someone would play guitar hero at an arcade when im sure at least one of their friends has it at home. I was really excited when i saw an old school ms.pacman/galaga machine. I started playing it and before i knew it a whole hour and a half had gone by. Since i had so much time on my hands i kept playing until i got the high score in ms. pacman. I figure since universal studio's is a place where people from around the world go that it's pretty sweet that i got the high score (yea im a geek) I took a picture on my phone as proof. For those of you that don't know. My score is on the left and the high score is on the right. Since they are the same that means that i have the high score.
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Holiday Season
It's getting about that time where everyone starts playing Christmas caroles and starts buying all their loved ones presents. Because of all the big business of the holidays many game companies wait until Novemberish to release their biggest titles.
Knowing that all the parents and gamers will go out searching to get their loved ones a present only to see a popular titles in the window. The same goes for this year with all the big titles coming out. Probably the biggest seller of the holiday season will be Modern Warfare 2 which is the sequel to one of the best shooters ever made. Many people think it is going to dominate the market.
Another big title coming out in November is Assassin's Creed 2. The first one sold a lot of copies and a lot of people complained about some of the game play. They really ramped it up this time promising a lot more diversity and i think that it will be a great game. Though I'm sure that MW2 will beat it out by a long shot because of it's predecessors incredible success
Knowing that all the parents and gamers will go out searching to get their loved ones a present only to see a popular titles in the window. The same goes for this year with all the big titles coming out. Probably the biggest seller of the holiday season will be Modern Warfare 2 which is the sequel to one of the best shooters ever made. Many people think it is going to dominate the market.
Another big title coming out in November is Assassin's Creed 2. The first one sold a lot of copies and a lot of people complained about some of the game play. They really ramped it up this time promising a lot more diversity and i think that it will be a great game. Though I'm sure that MW2 will beat it out by a long shot because of it's predecessors incredible success
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Viral Videos Part 2
Youtube comedian Nathan Barnett created the character Keith Apicary, A video game fan who makes videos talking about his favorite video game systems. Keith is a stereotypical "nerd" and his lisp and awkwardness make his videos hilarious. His first videos are at the bottom and they go up in chronological order.
http://screwattack.com/TalkingClassics
http://screwattack.com/TalkingClassics
Friday, September 18, 2009
Viral Videos Part 1
People review games all the time. It's the best way to know that your getting your money's worth before you pick up a game. Go to any game site and chances are there will be reviews all over the place.
Reviewing games is something that The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) does in his videos. the only catch is that he reviews terrible games from the past. His cursing and yelling totally makes these videos.
WARNING: there is a lot of bad language in these videos. I find it hillarious. But i understand that people might not like it. You've been warned
http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/?page_id=1184
these are his earliest videos, they are laid out by years, so to find his later videos you need to click on the year on the top of the page.
Reviewing games is something that The Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) does in his videos. the only catch is that he reviews terrible games from the past. His cursing and yelling totally makes these videos.
WARNING: there is a lot of bad language in these videos. I find it hillarious. But i understand that people might not like it. You've been warned
http://www.cinemassacre.com/new/?page_id=1184
these are his earliest videos, they are laid out by years, so to find his later videos you need to click on the year on the top of the page.
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Music
Something thats often overlooked in video games, music can really make or break a game. It's something that you might not notice while playing but you find yourself humming the songs after your done playing.
Ever since the 80's when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) became a popular household item, Developers have hired composers to work on music in games to add to the mood and overall feel of a game. Some could say that those composers back in those days were real music masterminds considering the limited sounds they had to work with. (Bleeps and Bloops)
However dispite the limitations of the time some real great music was made that people still know to this day. Many people know the music from the old mario games
Another game that is very well known for the music is another NES game, Mega Man 2. If you ask anyone who is a fan of the game to hum the last level music they'll be able to
With the popularity of music in games come the really hardcore fans for video game music. There are remixes of these songs all over youtube and a lot of videos of people playing the songs on the piano or guitar.
Then there are people you take their love for the music to a whole different level. It might be hard to believe but there are actually bands who's sole purpose is to cover these songs. Some bands like to take the songs and stay fairly faithful to them while giving a rock feel. The Minibosses are a band of four guys. Two guitarists, one bassist and a drummer who wrote this 10 minute song covering some of the most popular songs from megaman 2
If you skip to 6:58 you can hear their cover of the song in the above video
Other bands use the music as a inspiration and don't neccassarily follow the music exactly. Powerglove takes music from video games and use them in their metal style music.
This video is their song "Mario Minor" which inspired by the mario games
Probably one of the most impressive use of video game music is a touring concert called "Video Games Live" where an entire orchestra travels the world every year playing renditions of peoples favorite music from games.
All of the videos on youtube are really crappy quality so i don't really have one to show but basically they play the music while a screen above them shows clips from the game. I've never been to one but i hear that it's a really cool experience
Ever since the 80's when the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) became a popular household item, Developers have hired composers to work on music in games to add to the mood and overall feel of a game. Some could say that those composers back in those days were real music masterminds considering the limited sounds they had to work with. (Bleeps and Bloops)
However dispite the limitations of the time some real great music was made that people still know to this day. Many people know the music from the old mario games
Another game that is very well known for the music is another NES game, Mega Man 2. If you ask anyone who is a fan of the game to hum the last level music they'll be able to
With the popularity of music in games come the really hardcore fans for video game music. There are remixes of these songs all over youtube and a lot of videos of people playing the songs on the piano or guitar.
Then there are people you take their love for the music to a whole different level. It might be hard to believe but there are actually bands who's sole purpose is to cover these songs. Some bands like to take the songs and stay fairly faithful to them while giving a rock feel. The Minibosses are a band of four guys. Two guitarists, one bassist and a drummer who wrote this 10 minute song covering some of the most popular songs from megaman 2
If you skip to 6:58 you can hear their cover of the song in the above video
Other bands use the music as a inspiration and don't neccassarily follow the music exactly. Powerglove takes music from video games and use them in their metal style music.
This video is their song "Mario Minor" which inspired by the mario games
Probably one of the most impressive use of video game music is a touring concert called "Video Games Live" where an entire orchestra travels the world every year playing renditions of peoples favorite music from games.
All of the videos on youtube are really crappy quality so i don't really have one to show but basically they play the music while a screen above them shows clips from the game. I've never been to one but i hear that it's a really cool experience
Monday, August 31, 2009
The community, the culture, and more
When people hear the word gamer it usually is followed by a bunch of other words in their head. Nerd, Geek, No Friends are probably some that come to mind. That isn't really the case and people really don't realize how video games are being used to bring people together and create a community and even to some extent their own culture. I myself have been playing video games since before i can remember. My family had a original Nintendo in the house and i would play it all the time. I loved the fact that i could do all these cool things that i couldn't do in really life. Ever since I've loved playing games and i often got made fun of from my friends because i had almost every system that came out. But that was my thing, a hobby like collecting bottle caps or building airplanes. Everyone has something they love to do and it's stupid that some people find things to do that label them outcasts. I play games and i don't think of myself as a nerd or a loser. I like to hang out with friends and go to parties as much as the next person.
Even in the beginning games were social. Multiplayer games were a great way to spend time with friends and other people who loved games too. But with the birth of the Internet gaming took a huge leap into becoming a culture. Online games started bringing people from all over the world together to play games. Working as a team or against people from all over the world is an amazing thing if you think about it and there's really no other way to do it as easily as playing games online. Inevitably this also made gaming appear to be less social because one could sit in a room alone playing a game and even thought they were playing with other people it still appeared on the outside that they were playing alone. Although there are people who fit the stereotype of a gamer, those people are few and far between the gamers who are just like everyone else.
The Internet also made the way for websites dedicated to games and bringing gamers together. Sites like http://gametrailers.com/ and http://kotaku.com/ provide the latest game news, review new games, and even have a forum where people can discuss classic games, modern games, game development, or anything at all. While these sites show that gaming has become a community there are other sites that show gaming as a culture.
Sites like http://screwattack.com/ make videos that interest gamers. The reason i like this site is because the crew that manages the site also make daily videos that a usually related to games. There have been a few videos where they've just done random stuff like a salsa eating contest (didn't work out to well). Because the people that run the site also make the videos, the people that frequent the site know them by their first names and it's almost like you know them in person. They also are very close with the people that are members of their site. Every Sunday they put up a video submitted by a member and they even held a convention this July were members could go and play games and enjoy other events.
In later blogs I'll talk about the culture of gaming in more detail such as music and viral videos. but just remember that just because someone plays video games doesn't mean that their not cool people that like everyone else.
Even in the beginning games were social. Multiplayer games were a great way to spend time with friends and other people who loved games too. But with the birth of the Internet gaming took a huge leap into becoming a culture. Online games started bringing people from all over the world together to play games. Working as a team or against people from all over the world is an amazing thing if you think about it and there's really no other way to do it as easily as playing games online. Inevitably this also made gaming appear to be less social because one could sit in a room alone playing a game and even thought they were playing with other people it still appeared on the outside that they were playing alone. Although there are people who fit the stereotype of a gamer, those people are few and far between the gamers who are just like everyone else.
The Internet also made the way for websites dedicated to games and bringing gamers together. Sites like http://gametrailers.com/ and http://kotaku.com/ provide the latest game news, review new games, and even have a forum where people can discuss classic games, modern games, game development, or anything at all. While these sites show that gaming has become a community there are other sites that show gaming as a culture.
Sites like http://screwattack.com/ make videos that interest gamers. The reason i like this site is because the crew that manages the site also make daily videos that a usually related to games. There have been a few videos where they've just done random stuff like a salsa eating contest (didn't work out to well). Because the people that run the site also make the videos, the people that frequent the site know them by their first names and it's almost like you know them in person. They also are very close with the people that are members of their site. Every Sunday they put up a video submitted by a member and they even held a convention this July were members could go and play games and enjoy other events.
In later blogs I'll talk about the culture of gaming in more detail such as music and viral videos. but just remember that just because someone plays video games doesn't mean that their not cool people that like everyone else.
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