brain farts

2010-04-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

2010-04-12T09:06:00.000-07:00

2010-04-12T09:05:00.000-07:00

2010-04-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Just wirking on some portfolio peiceses, never really bothered gettin one sorted yet but as we're nearing the ned i figured it might be a good idea get one goin, just puttin some of my work from so far in it, hoping to beef it out abit by end of year.

Final Major progress

2010-02-24T17:31:00.000-08:00

this is how my final major project is coming along so far,
managed to get the majority of the buildings half done, and got some foliage in ther, its starting too come along nicely now,
now for some vehicles.

subway

2009-04-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

made a start on the subway project, not too far in yet, and sadly way over my texture size budget, think it may be because I've made a rather large area, also wasted quite a bit on the carriage, which i plan on sorting out.

not planning on doing much more to this at the minute, as i think the is a big unreal 3 update coming out soon, which if it does what it says will make using the engine easier, lighting easier, and better looking i might add.

sumer projects

2009-04-12T14:23:00.001-07:00

as for the Summer projects i plan to do the rain forest, and the subway projects, in different engines.

mainly because the cry2 engine will make a rain forest look absolutely amazing but at the same time the engines advanced lighting and shaders might not show of my work that well, as the engine can make anything look nice to be honest.

and the subway in the unreal3 engine, as unreal 3 is slightly easier when making indoor areas.

hopefully proving that i can use both engines which is always a plus.

also hoping to make the characters needed with each project intractable and animated in the scene, as in a man sitting by a fire in the crash site, or a hobo sleeping in the abandoned subway.

not sure how much work is involved in that, but I'm hoping the summer will be enough time to get all that done.

summer

2009-04-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well that's another years work successfully over now, quite happy with how this year has gone, feel I've learnt a damn lot this year.

not just in terms of 3d but my 2d work also. adding colour to my life drawing i feel I've learnt allot and came along way.

my drawings still aren't perfect but I'm happy with how its going.

also in terms of 3d i feel I've came along way since last year. although even looking at this years projects I'm not happy with them and feel i could do them allot better now, which i intend to do over the summer, only to hate them after I've done gain and want to do them again but that's just the way to learn i suppose, to redo work and iron out mistakes.

planning on doing allot of work over the Summer, so hopefully i will be ninja at 3d modelling and drawing next year ready to take on the 3'rd year projects.

on to the list of Summer projects now, some of which look awesome.

especially the subway and rain forest crash topics, in which i have an idea which i will go into next blog.

2008-12-23T10:28:00.000-08:00

final

2008-07-12T17:00:00.001-07:00

finished my ff7 model, looks pretty good now i think, actual model is alot more detailed than the picture, had to scale image down alot to get it to fit on blogger,

around 3500 polys in the end, aout 5000 tris

im really happy with the amount of detail ive put in with the amount of polys ive used.

alot of spare faces are being used under the helmet as ive modelled the whole head, so the helmet is removable and thers a head and face behind it.

next top model

2008-07-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Decided to make one of the 1st class soldiers from squares final fantasy7 this time, as thyve recently released a new ff7 game, crisis core, thers plenty of imagery to work with, bin working on it about a day so far, i have a model of a ody without the head that i just pull and push into shape now when i want to madel a character.

this is what i have so far

its getting there i think, its got quite a high amount of unneccisary detail though mind, but i have a low poly version made alrady anyway so i can just normal map this onto the low poly once ive stuck it through mudbox and played with it abit.

i decided to quickly rigg and test it before i started mapping it, just to make sure the model itself worked ok, and it moved quite smoothly when i tried it out, so all is well so far.

level creation

2008-06-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

So, here it is.... my first serious attempt at the cryengine, rather than make a full level im just trying to make it realistic at the minute, which i think i have acheived so far, im usiong alot of built in models, as it'd take me years to make the amount needed in the cryengine, i must say they make using it quite complicated, as in forgetting to include a save button when u import your own models, had it since before christmas and iv'e only just got the swing of it really.

apart from all that iv'e started importing some of my own models into the engine, its also made me think about building collision meshed when i make my models, and how to texture my models so that the lighting looks ok ingame.

i also have made the ai in game for the birds in the sky, and fish in the sea, i also have a few turtles bummin around on the beach, and a shark out at sea to eat you if ya get too near.

modelling

2008-06-25T10:56:00.000-07:00

thort id move away from the modelling of people for a bit and model something fun, so i went for a god old mech, modelling was really easy as its all kind of square shaped, and flat sides, only had a bit of trouble with the head, riggin was awesome too, just had to attach the body parts to the skeleton with rigin envelopes, and as i didnt need any deformation the rig looked awesome, worked perfect, i used the same 4 lights in my scene as i always do, its not quite finished yet mind, textures are still abit land and need abit more detail.

modelling

2008-06-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Now that i think iv'e cracked my body rigging, i thought id move onto the face, the model was pretty easy to make mid you, now that i spline model them i can wack them out in about an hour, not including the high poly though, i kept it as simple as i could and added detail with the maps and bump map.

i also made sure i modelled in a cavity for the mouth, and 2 planes for the teeth, as id be rigging him to open and close his mouth, i also used a few extra polys making him so he could close his eyes, but it was only about 5 or 6 extra.

after making my base model and texturing it, i made alot of copies and changed each one to mave a different part of his face, its sounds tedious but it only took about an hour, and added a morpher modifier, and used the little slidy things to move his face and thn rendered.
i used the same 4 lights for the render as with my full basket ball player.

modelling

2008-06-25T10:50:00.001-07:00

First character iv'e made since lotte that has turned out any good, iv'e moved away from the box modelling technique for the face becuase my proportions were just looking terrible, so i tried spline modelling them, as in the eyes, lips, and nose seperatly, and extruding edges to join them together and make the rest of the head, apart from the nose, and lips, i tried to keep it as low poly as i could, as i made a bump map for the details.

i made my high poly version in mudbox, which after trying z brush feels just like using paint, ill get some renders of my high poly model on here too soon.

i'm finding the rigging of my characters alot easier now i have leart how to use the physique modifier rather than skin, my basket ball player can move all his limbs, head and such without any real problems with bits i dont want moving, i did spend a fair bit of time editing the envolopes and vertex weights to get it perfect tho, and im happy with the results.

below is render of him, i have used 1 skylight, and 3 directional lights, one for my main light, one to lighten up the shadows a little bit, and one to give a highlight.
i like how this lighting setup works with the bump and specular maps, so i think ill use it with most of my final renders from now on.

modelling

2008-06-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Been doing few bits keep me busy, made this bin for a level im making in unreal, and another in the cryengine at the minute, trying to decide which one i like better, so-far i find unreal better for indoor levels, and cryengine better for outdoors and such,
think iv'e cracked the modelling though, just gotta get better now, quite happy with how im progressing.

Week 24;-

2008-04-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

I have quite liked the way the course has progressed this year, as at the start I had no idea about using 3ds max, or any other 3d software for that matter, I think we were taught very well as the majority of us picked up the basics very fast.
One of the main problems I thought there was with the course is that we weren’t really taught how to digital paint, and I for one have never don e it before so I really struggled with this part of the course.
From reading the blog I like the idea of more physical 3d work next year, such as sculpture.
But also I wouldn’t mind being taught a little bit about the digital sculpting software that’s around such as mudbox or zbrush, as I think we will need these in our future, to be making the best 3d work that we can.
All in all I have really enjoyed my first year and how it has been run, I’m still not fond of the presenting work to the class thing but I think that’s something I’m going to have to get used to and get better at for the future.

week 23

2008-04-18T17:58:00.000-07:00

THERE IS NO WEEK 23, YOU CLEFT

Week Twenty-two GDC

2008-04-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

“Brainstorming in Public: 52 Game Ideas in 52 WeeksSpeaker: Patrick Curry (Senior Game Designer, Midway Games) Session DescriptionTired of the industry paying lip service to new intellectual properties, game designer Patrick Curry (STUBBS THE ZOMBIE, STRANGLEHOLD) started posting original game concepts to his website. Throwing caution into the wind, Patrick publicly brainstormed 52 game ideas, one a week for all of 2006, honing his design skills, inspiring others, and getting some unexpected attention from the game press. In this lecture, Patrick continues this reckless endeavour, giving a full post-mortem on his personal-project, encouraging others to brainstorm in public, and giving tips and tricks to those bold (and crazy) enough to follow suit.”

That is a quote from the GDC, about the 53 game ideas in 52 weeks, I think this is an awesome idea, because out of his 52 there’s bound to be some good ones, rather than just spend ages and make a crappy story to a game, I think this is a better idea.
At least then if someone thinks its crap theirs not months of work wasted, only a few days.
Personally I think brainstorming is a good idea this is an example of why it is a good idea, the more ideas they are laid out the more the chance of the good ideas being stated.

Week 21 Where do you want to go, and how do you get there?

2008-04-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

Where do you want to go, and how do you get there? I’m still not sure exactly where I’ll be in 3 years time when I finish this course, as it’s not a certainty that ill get a job in a certain company, it’s not even certain that will end up in the games industry(although I imagine I will, and seriously hope so), but I plan on having the skills necessary to have the sort of job I want to get, I understand that this whole process in a 2 way process, and we won’t get anywhere if we don’t put a little back into it ourselves.
Looking at what we have to do from now on, and to get into industry, I think I’ve already learned the basics, I just need to keep getting better at it now until I’m at a sufficient level, and I think that's what the second and third year our for, as I don’t think ill lean anything new now, just get allot better at what I’m starting to know already.
I’ve even noticed sometimes, when I’m not even consciously thinking about, like when I’m in bed or something, in my head something will just click and I understand something in max that I didn’t understand fully before, and I think, I’m making quite good progress with my 3d modelling and drawing.
So in 3 years time, I hop to see myself working in the industry, and that where imp going to aim towards.

week 20 CREATIVITY

2008-04-18T17:35:00.000-07:00

Creativity, mike has told us numerous times over this course about creativity and that school bashes the creativity out of us, and university is in some way teaching us how to be creative again and over the course of my 1st year in game art I’m beginning to realise just how right he was.
It’s actually quite hard to get out of the routine and rules set down by the schooling I received when I was younger, it’s like learning to talk again or something along them lines, I remember in gcse in my art classes we were supposed to in a way be doing our own stuff, but it still had to fit in with what the teachers wanted, and on this course now our projects seem to be completely free, to do what we want.
As well as the arts and such, I think games is one of the areas that can benefit most from creativity, and can show it best, as in games, pretty much anything is possible, there’s that many games out there I’m sure anything you could ever want to do, and cant, there’s a game u can do it in.
In modern times, with how schooling in a person’s earlier years is handled, is seems that they are having their creativity beaten out of them, by school and teachers and such emphasizing that maths English and science are the most important subjects in school.
And also any child with the slightest behavioural problem is labelled dyslexic now days, I was talking to my mum the other day who has recently been to a typing course of some sort, it’s not typing, but it’s something to do with excel and computers, and she has never really been able to spell, and neither ha vi for that matter, but after talking to her teacher she found out that she’d be classed as slightly dyslexic just for being able to spell some words that well.

Week Nineteen; Life Changing or Career Building?

2008-04-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

I think the reason different companies want either experienced game artists/programmers or wanting individuals with a good art background depends on situation.
Some companies might be more pushed to meet their deadlines, in which case they might not have time to train up staff with the skill level they need for their games to work as they want it to.
Whereas companies that can afford and have time to take people on and train them up might end up with the sort of modeller/programmer that they want rather than possibly a generic modeller, and they can have exactly what they want in their staff.
Personally I’d much rather work in an environment where people are still being taught, given drawing lessons and such, rather than just left to do what they have to do.

week 18 sound in games

2008-04-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

Sound in games, I think that sound plays a very important role in games; it can completely set or in some cases ruin the mood and playability of the game,
Sound is used in games to create tension, emphasise a character, let you know if you are doing something right or wrong, and hundreds of other things.
Sound is used in basically every game, and can make or ruin them, I think this is because a good soundtrack, even just making the guns on a game sound more realistic, helps add allot more feeling and playability into a game, there has been some games where I’ve just though it sounded awful and it annoyed me so I’ve not enjoyed the game as much as I could have.

I think the biggest sonic moments for me in gaming is either the final fantasy 7 soundtrack, final fantasy 9, the metal gear solid one in general, or the new devil may cry 4 one.
I think the soundtrack can give an amazing feeling and experience to a game that might even lack in playability and story, some of my favourite games, are only my favourite’s party because they have such a great soundtrack with them.

week 17- gaming engines

2008-03-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

this was supposed to be the blog i do tomorro, but i really liked the look of it so im doing it now.

game engines, most of us first years now know that in the second year we are going to have to use the unreal editor game engine. when i first heard this, and someone even said we have to teach it to ourseles, i nearly poo'ed myself.

but over the last few weeks, ive noticed that when i bought the games unreal tournament 3, and crysis, they came with fre copies of hte games engine, these being the sandbox2 editor, and the unrealed 3.

i found them quite difficult to start with, as my models wer all invisible, i could walk through then, or they bwer just grey, but if solved that now and learnt how fun they are.

as far as additive and subtractive engines go, i no additive is where you add geometry to and open abys, and subtractive you get a large block of what i can only describe as matter, and u subtract and scupt your levels within it.

the sandbox2 engine is an additive only program, and unrealed has both options for use, i prefer addtive at the minute, unless im doing inside places, like my bedroom.

as for as game developers go i think the best way is developing ther own game engine, (or using the cry2engine/sandbox2 as it can do anything, its magic). as what ive seen of the unreal engine so far is seem to be set towards pretty much one sort of shooter game, unreal, and gears of war, which i think could get abit dull.

week 16 - gaming culture

2008-03-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

i'd like to say im not really party of an intense gaming culture, but only after reading this blog post have a realised how much i take part in gaming culture, well, used before this course started any way.

but after lookin back id be playing my ps3 like everynight online against people, even having a handful of freinds, that i only know through these games and the internet.

gaming culture seems to be everywhere nowadays, films, tv, most games nowaday feature and online system, where u may be playing againt people, or your score may just be put into a leader board.

i play call of duty 4 on the ps3 and iv'e noticed people even form clans and strong freindships just from playing together on these games, as well as that some people seem to generally hate some people on these games too.

people seem to depend alot on online games nowadays, and i will admit they make the whole gaming espeirience alot more fun, as well as expanding gaing culture, as i used to hate online gaming, and now i love it.

week 15 games industry

2008-03-08T13:02:00.000-08:00

up until just recently i never knew much about the games industry, but just lately i have been watching and leaning abit about whats going on, i don't know why, but i have been browsing around looking at requirements of jobs in industry.

i have mainly been doing this because i want to have an understanding of where i need to be when i finish this course, iv'e found it quite interesting looking at what they want in industry and how the coursed seems to be iming us atraight towards what they want.

as far as i know the industry is quite well at the minute, but thers also alot of game art courses around at the minute, so with this amount of graduates that will be around at the same time as me i know that if i want the jobs i have to work hard and in a way make myself better than them.

also iv'e noticed ther is the whole serious gaming thing thats around know which i find quite interesting, which i beleive is an opportunity in iteslf as it offers a few more jobs in this expanding industry.

week 11 - gameplay

2008-03-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

gameplay, i think this is abit of a hard one to define, as gameplay pretty much differs for everyone, weather you like sports games, shooters, or role playing games, you all like slightly different things right?

and as far as gameplay goes, i think it is the amount of fun someone can have playin the game, or how much they can emerse them selves in the game.

and some games have this, and some don't, for example im a fan of rpg's, and shooters, some of them i love, but then others i can completely hate, and there might not be much reason for this, some games just seem to work and others don't.

i think good gameplay is acheived, by lots of hard work, and abit of chance i think, because i think that its not the game as a whole tat gives a good gameplay expeirience, but all of the small factors melding together.

if the game is well thought out i think it will more than likely have a good amount of gameplay, but some games you just get the feeling they have been kind of half arsed and didnt bother because they knew it would be good.

week 10 - storytelling and character

2008-03-01T12:42:00.000-08:00

in the recent years games seem to have been lcking in the storytelling and character department, this is mainly due to the advance to next generation hardware, offereing highly increases graphics and gaming.

so much so that all games seemed to have been competing for the best graphics and such.

but pretty soon the graphics and game engines are going to be so good that all that is leftt is the story, characers, and how cool the game is.

don't get me wrrnog, i love the newer games with the graphics, but iv'e also noticed a handfull of games now that handle and even look exactly the same, so if i was to choose between these games, i'd want to pick the one with the best story line.

there is some games coming out in the near future that i look forward to, mainly because of the characters and storylines, as in metal gear solid 4, the final fantasy 13 games, and gta 4, but these are already known game series, their seems to be no new games coming out with that interesting stories and characters, which in some games, is the single most important thing

week 9 - gaming technology

2008-02-29T11:08:00.000-08:00

gaming technology, well im guessing this means things such as ease of use and comfort of using the console and such, so ill get started.

my favorite has always been the playstation. i like the others but thats my favorite, easy to use, nice small comfortable controller, and not the mention the ps3 is nice and shiny.

but in the past ive tried a few consoles, iv'e like them but theyv'e never been that great.

i remember the sega megadrive was my first one, it was fun, as u'd stick the game in and press the on button, and it'd work, no loading screens like today, but then ther was that damn controller, that i couldnt even fit my hands around, some times even resorting the using it in the same fasion as a keyboard.

iv'e had quite a few goes on the x-box, in honesty, is exactly the same as the playstation nearly, apart from that uncomfortable huuuuge controller that i cant even reach half the buttons on.

gaming technology has came along way and nowadays games really are more lifelike.
but aswell as that more and more ways are being developped to interact with the game, such ass the nintendo's wii remote, and the playstation 3's sixaxis controller.

Week 8 - story telling in games

2008-02-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

i think that story teling in games is a bit of a weird subject, as how i see it there are predominantly 2 types of gamer.
some like the games for the story, and some like it for the gameplay, such as online gaming against freinds and such.
as for online gaming, i don't think there is much need for a story line, as most of the enjoyment comes in playing with your freinds and against other people, so the gaming expeirience is most often differenet in certain aspects everytime you play different people.

but as for single player, and non online games, i dont think story is all that matters,
for example some games that i play i might really enjoy the story line, but if the gameplay isnt very good, i could just watch all the cinematics or cut scenes from the game, or the game even might aswell be a film.

but on the other hand, i think games can be quite boring without story lines, as sometimes the main reason i will play a game untill 4 o clock in the morning is cuz the story line is so interesting, that i cant wait to see what happns, or if there is a major plot twist of some sort.

mostly what im trying to say is that what i think is that setting aside online games, games need a good mix of gameplay and storyline, but if it has decent, fun replayable gameplay, then the story can just get better and better, making the game better and better.

week seven!! art directors

2007-12-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

this weeks blog task, as ita about the job title art directors is to get us up to date on what they do, well before reading the links given i would have just said they direct art, and in this case, direct the game art along the course of its production.

but now after reading what its really about i realise how much wourk thay actually have too do, as even if its not direct responsibility, they are responsible for every single little model and texture that goes into the games.

thay must know exactly how the character is supposed to look, and must be able to visualise the levels with all the plants, trees, and vegitation, even if its not their yet.

the art directors in a sense are responsible for how the game will turn out, and are fully in charge to make sure it turns out perfect how they want it.

acording to what iv'e read the term art director is'nt used majourly in video games, and is more PPrent in japanese games.

some famous directors would be hideo kojima, who directed the metal hear series,
Shigeru Miyamoto, who is credited as the creator of mario and donkey kong,
tetsuya nomura, director of some of the more recent final fantasies and kingdom hearts.

art directors are at the top end of the artists working on a game, which im sure is where most of us on the game art course wish to end up, although they aren't directly at the top, they still hold an immense amount of responsibility.

they could even be branded as the most visual and artistic in the game production process, which is probably why they are ther doing that job, because it is their job to over look the game as its being made, as in, if a scene isn't dark and gloomy enought, they'll tell people below them how to make it dark and gloomy enough, so they are constantly making decisions about whats best for that gamme.

week six, gameplay

2007-11-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

Gameplay, simply put it can be decribed as your expeirience of the game, but it seams that over the years from the days of sonic the hedgehog, and even older games such as pac man, and asteroids, to todays standards of gears of war, and call of duty, the gameplay has, and hasn't changed that much at all.

what im trying to say is that if you take away the fancy graphics and inovative controll systems and such, resistance fall of man for the ps3 can be seen as just a hyperextended version of pacman, by this i mean your chasing something around trying to kill it, and collecting items along the way, as in cherries for pacman, and healt and guns in fall of man.

but while i can say that alot has changed in the way the games are played, as i remember in pacman, you could memerise a route that if you followed it perfectly you'd dodge the path that the ghosts took everysingle time and eat them all, while now in next generation games, a certain level of ai is involved, and rather than just pressing up down left or right thers alot more control and interaction with the game, you can get more imersed into the game becouse you have what seems to be full control (even though you dont) in a lavish almost photo realistic looking environment.
and while the principles of it might be the same as pacman, you won't get a kid pretending to be a pacman going around eating pacdots, and biting things, but you will get them pretending to shoot gung, and kill aliens, and play army and such, which to a certain extent gives these kids what they want, guns, not pacdots.

also it takes alot more to make games now days, design wise, i personally, and a child of 7, could model a pacman level in 2 seconds flat, noway days, its a one man job to make something so simple, but on new next generation games, more than one man might be needed to make one building, or character for a game, ther is now alot more man hours goin into games than ther ever has been.

so in a sense, the main aspects of gaming are practically the same as some of the first games, but at the same time the level of detail, interaction, and quility of gamepley are far higher nowadays.

although just recently, which i think might be because it takes so much time and hard work to make these games, is that games seem quite short, i just got call of duty 4, and the single player campaign can be completed in under a day.
while older games i played such as final fantasy 7, or the metal gear series there was weeks worth of gaming in there. so even though games nowdays can have gameplay far exceeding older games theres a lot of time a hard work involved in making it this good.

week five; games journalism

2007-11-25T10:40:00.000-08:00

this weeks blogging task has us reviewing some game reviews and journalism, and write back about it, after reading most of the links provided i found that some writing about games can be really in depth and longwinded, but interesting non-the less.
one thing we've been asked too look at is NGJ, which is new games journalism, which started in 2004 by journalist Kieron Gillen, and is a form of new journalism, implied into video game journalism. this type of review includes personal anecdotes, referenced to other media and creative analysis to explore games, rather than the older style which iv'e seen alot of where a reviewer lists the so called pro's and cons of a game, and then gives them a score? like 5 out of 5, or 95%? but what i don't get is that if a game scores 100% which some do, they should be the perfect game if this system works, but i know of games that have been given 100% that i hate, but shouldn't a so called perfect game appeal to just about everyone?.

how i see it the numbers don't mean anything, its how the reviewer puts it across to the gamer that the game is worth buying, and i think with the added personal level of ngj people are more than likely to buy games that they like, rather than just buying a game with a good number, and hate it.

also from this reading i have found out that game reviewers are actually under alot of preassure to get these reviews out on time, whereas i thought it was just people sitting playing games all day in there underwear and then write a little bit, it turns out they are really pushed, because new games, such as rpgs and such, have literally hundreds of hours of gameplay that could add to a review, and the reviewers don't have that time.

a case of this arose in 2006 where a reviewer majorly underplayed a game, the game was the ps3 title enchanted arms, i have this game and i know that 3 hours into the game i was nower into it, and this is apparently as far as the reviewer got into it, before publishing his review.

i think i where to be the game reviewer (and if i had enough time to get a decent play in) id try the ngj aproach to writing, because so far i have found these reviews far more helpful in buying games than other reviews.

one reviewer who i beleive is ngj, is ben Yahtzee, who doues the zero puntuation reviews on the escapist magazine website.

although sometimes i disagree with whats said, every point made is true, and all the bad, and good points are made, in a way that isnt listing them but connecting with the reader through jokes and humour.

week four, the 2000's

2007-10-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

the 2000's, well actually i'm starting at 1998, whisch is when the 6th generation of gaming started.
this generation included consoles such as the ps2, xbox, and gamecube, and as far as things go now, nintendo sony and microsoft are pretty much the only console makes around now, no real new ones have been brought into the market.
the ps2 seamingly won this console war, yet the xbox wasn't far behind.
while the gamecube didn't turn out as well as the other two.
one of the reasons the ps2 dominated in this console war was not only had it established a strong foot hold with the psx, but it secured licencing for some major titles such as the final fantasy series, metal gear, kingdom hearts, and more.
this era also marked the move from cd and cartridge to dvd.
which in turn meant bigger games and longer games.
though i have noticed since i used to have my megadrive, and now my ps3, the megadrive never had any loading screens that i can remember, my ps3 does :S.

finally the 7th generation, which is now, the 3 consoles running in this day and age are the nintendo wii, ps3, and xbox 360.
and they're all very different consoles, (well exept the xbox which i think is kinda plain)
as in the ps3 now uses blu-ray disk technology, which can hold immense amounts of data, giving us high definition gaming, it also has the six axis contoller, for motion control in games,
also we have the wii, which instead of graphics and such went another way about the games wheras its completely interactive, as you move the controller, you move items such as a bat, or bowling ball on screen, and the xbox 360, i dont have much to say, its a fancy ps3, but just recently an xbox 360 eleite has been released with a hd dvd drive, bringing the graphics and gameplay closer to that of the ps3, oone thig the xbox does have in its favour is a good catalogue of games, whereas the ps3 is still waiting for games such as final fantasy 13 and mgs4 to be realeased.

week 3, game history, 80's and 90's

2007-10-31T04:55:00.000-07:00

in gaming the 80's and 90's consisted of the 3'rd fourth and fifth generations of computer games.

the 80's

this era was also kind of the start of online games, which back then wer more text based than anything, as they started on discussion forums and such.
around this time in the 80's during the third generations was when some major games made they're first debut's, which includes zelda, and also metal gear, which marked the start of the stealth based genre.

one of the biggest events in gaminf in this era, was the game crash of 1983, whish from what i can see is because games such as pac man, and e.t, where more cartridges than actual games consoles where made.
so what do they do then, go to mexico.
between 10 and 20 semi trailer truck loads, of e.t the extra terestrial cartridges where buried in a dump in new mexico,
they were all crushed, buried and a layer of concrete pured over the top, there reason for this being "There are dead animals down there. We wouldn't want any children to get hurt digging in the dump".

why they would make more games than consoles in beyond me but at a later date they're excuses for this was something like "We wanted people to have a second copy for their ski house"

the 90's

during the 90's we had the 4th and 5th generations of gaming.
the fourth generation, which was the one i was introduced to with my first ever console being my megadrive, was the one where alot of the most influencial games of today were made, these include, sonic the hedgehog, phantasy star, final fantasy, street fighter, and dragon quest.
newer versions of all these games are around today on the newest generation of console gaming.
this generation was also the start of the major handheld gaming system, the gameboy, whish still has newer variations of it around to this day.

in the fifth generation we had the sega saturn, and in this time sony joined the market of consoles with the playstaion and opened up the market to 3d gaming.
i'd played so-called 3d games in the past such as sonic 3d, but these were just isometric.

after this time sony was made famous by games such as metal gear solid, whish is still seen as one of the greatest games of all time. also in this time we had the n64 from nintendo, but playstation came out more succesful.

between the 80's and 90's i only owned 2 of these consoles being the megadrive and the playstaion, where i found myself kind of changing from loving the fast paced side scolling sonic games to the 3d, imense games such as metal gear solid, final fantasy 7, and other 3d titles.

and that brings us to the end to the 90's.

to be continued...........

2007-10-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

GAME ARTIST BITCH

week two, (wheres week one?)

2007-10-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

OK, week two, game history, right.

"Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe. After a disastrous collapse of the industry in 1983 and a subsequent rebirth two years later, the video game industry has experienced sustained growth for over two decades to become a $10 billion industry rivaling the motion picture industry as the most profitable entertainment industry in the world"

Ok, enough quoting from wikipedia and on with my blog,
from what i read in my studies the first electronic computer games were made way back before anyone was even thinking of making me, in 1948 i believe? anyway games back then weren't quite like they are now days, shoot em up games that are so life like you can probably even sweat, no, they wernt on Cd's you can buy from the shop, and put in your ps3,
they were made from things like vacuum columns and cathode ray tubes and oscilloscopes, an example of this being a game made out of 8 vacuum tubes, to simulate a missile firing at a target, with Lil nob things to curve and speed up and stuff along them lines, you know like in that cool ass game where you fire the torpedo down towards bouts on the horizon?
id insert a video of it, but i don't actually know how to so ill have to get back to you on that.
anyway so-far that's what i can tell was the start of electronic gaming.

although games did go on like forever before computer gmaes, like board games n shit, people managed back then, i dont think i could go too long without my ps3 now tho.

i know when i was little it was the age of the sega megadrive, and n-64 and such, but before that there was various other gaming consoles, such as the atari, famicon, comasore-64, all of which I'm actually trying to play now though emulators, not the same i know but hey,
but i think something that has been there all along is the arcade machines, pinballs machines, all the old fun ones, as far as i know allot of them are still the same as the old ones too, like when i go on holiday, which is pretty much the only time i get to play them, aside from the newer racing shooters and simulator games and such you have the old fun ones, such as metal slug, puzzle bobble,
basically what I'm trying to say is even though games have advanced along way since the vacuum tubes and oscilloscopes they old games are still just as fun as the newer ones.

we are currently in the seventh generation of games i believe? or its somewhere around there
the first generation would be games such as the very first tennis simulator, later known as pong, allot of games ran on university mainframe computers at this stage. although in 1975 a home version of pong was released, which was a big stage for gaming, this generation lasted from 1972 till 1977

from 1976 till 1984 was the second generation, this was when cpu's where being built into consoles for home gaming, some of the first consoles were Atari5200, colecovision, Sega sg-1000
all of which i have never heard of until now.

the third generation is when only a few consoles wer around, this is still apparent today with only 3 main systems, back then there was the famicon, sega master system and the Atari, this is also the era where mario came into play, other famous titles of the era that are still going today are metal gear, final fantasy, mega-man bomber man, phantasy star, and more, this generation lasted from 1983 until 1992

the fourth generation, the one i was brought up in, the age of the Sega mega drive, super Nintendo, and the game boy, i remember being a kid, playing 2d side scrollers of sonic the hedge hog and Mario, all of which would drive parents crazy with little jingles that helped make the games famous. the mega drive would have been the first one i ever got, i still have it and i still play it now, i have a ps3 now, but theres still something i love about the old sonic and Mario games, as most games nowadays seem to be about gore, and violence, which is kind of sad in a sense, yet i still play them, but on the other hand i still get allot of joy out of playing Lil kid games that make me feel happy and warm inside.

well now, I've just read that this blog is only supposed to be 1950s, till 1970s, yet i started before 1950 and finished just after 1970, o well.
until next time when i carry on with his hideously boring and tedious blog, but I'm not changing it cuz i think its interesting and i think my fellow gamers will too, yet they wont really read it because they have all probably wrote the same stuff, though their supposed to read it, anyway until next time................

TO BE CONTINUED!

hello

2007-10-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

well now, my first blog
what to put, well, my name, is Dan.
and after hearing about this blogging thing on my course i thought hmm, what a great idea, this is going to make it easy, not having to write essays, and a Lil thing to write online each week, holy shit was i wrong.

upon opening it for the first time i was faced with the question of a name for my blog spot, where so-far all of the good, respectful sounding names have been taken, which didn't help.
so after about I'd say 20 minutes of trying a name, clicking check, and waiting god Noe's how long for my so called 8 meg connection to tell me it was OK i settled for cosmic-poop i believe it is, thinking "it'll be taken" but now I'm stuck with it, and to be honest i like it, even tho it may sound a little immature.

directly after that traumatic episode i set about writing my first blog, totally unprepared, i sat their looked at it, got writers block, and thought fuck this.
its taken me about 2 weeks to try and face writing this blog so here it is, hope your happy.
hopefully soon ill have something fun to talk about, like Ive played a cool game of some sort, and ill post an amazing review.

anyway thats it from me for now, im sure ill have all sorts of kick ass things to tell you all soon, bye!!!!!