Ok, ready? Ready? READY? GTA V is the single greatest game ever created, and here's why.
The entire thing is brilliantly designed. I'm not going to go through every single wonderful thing about the game, because that would take hours, and hundreds of pages. Bottom line is, it's ridiculously fun... If you've played GTA IV, GTA V is like that, but bigger, prettier, more immersive, more intuitive, more insane, more expansive, more diverse... I could go on. Basically, they took the world simulation and blew it out of the water, turning the world into a massive clot of different biomes and weather systems (all dynamic), populated by numerous AI people going about numerous activities, with different attitudes, situations, and possibilities of response to the player, and driven over by numerous planes, helis, trucks, cars, ATVs, bikes, boats, and submarines. Vehicles take finely detailed dynamic damage that can affect aesthetics as well as handling and physical ability (banging a wheel will deform that wheel on its axle based on the angle and velocity of impact, and then this wheel will operate differently based on this change, which means jamming in some situations, slower RPM sometimes, changed turning radii, etc.)
People are just as fun to mess with as before, what with the Euphoria dynamic muscle/balance/self-preservation ragdoll simulation engine running to the max. Plus, when airborn, you can hit a button (B on the Xbox) to enter flop mode. Effective for sending your character through windows and windshields, into people and vehicular cockpits, off ledges, onto distant, normally unjumpable locations, etc. It's absolutely terrific. Shooting mechanics have been tuned for greater intuition and fluidity, and hand-to-hand combat has been massively expanded (dodging, low/high attacks, etc.). Driving's still a bit arcade-y, but nonetheless very fun, especially with the new hood cam.
The game has a massive set of primary and side missions, along with little events you can tie into if you want (impromptu getaway driver for two robbers, per say, or maybe vigilante and returner of stolen wallets). Heists can go any number of ways, just based off what the player designs for in the plans. I could go on. I really could. For ever.
Multiplayer is absolutely insane fun, plain and simple. A stupid number of diverse, interesting game-modes, from traditional deathmatches to heists to Jets-vs-Bikes (look it up, it's wonderful).
Now, complaining.
1. Multiplayer is buggy. Expected, given it just launched and the servers are handling millions of players. They're actually solving it quite quickly, which is awesome.
2. Lag. Can sometimes get below 20 FPS, but that's because I'm running on a goddamn pathetic excuse for a gaming platform christened the Xbox 360. Doesn't take away from gameplay.
3. ... I forgot.
Well, there you go. It's the greatest game ever made, and you should play it. I'm serious. This isn't one of those games you play for two months and then begin to forget about. This is Just Cause 2 level. Hell, above that. This is legitimately probably the greatest game I have ever played, on a big-budget scale.
I might post another review of this when I've had more time to complain and build grudges against the game, but...
Friday, October 11, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
Monday: Auguste and Louis Lumiere's Cinematographe (and other stuff)
K, guys. Sorry, didn't know this was due at 1 until it was too late (my mistake), but if it means anything I was busy recoding an entire game to work in a newer engine, and pulled it off too. Excuses, excuses... Well, there's mine.
So, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, they're, like, bros, ya know? 'N their dad was making dough by makin' photography stuff, you know, for development and stuff, 'cuz it was really expensive and time-consuming and stuff back then. So then, they see Edison, and his, like, Kinetoscope, which was like a little peephole TV, ya know, but, like, more like a projector-flipbook thing, right? And Edison was making some real stacks sellin' em, ya know, but the Lumieres were like, but, it's, like, so lame, cuz it's so big and heavy and inconvenient, and you can only, like, watch it one person at a time, which really blows for, like, family occasions and stuff, or, like, anything with more than just you, ya know? So they built their own little movie machine, right, called the cinematographe, and had it all finished n' stuff by early 1895, and it was, like, a camera, printer, and projector all totally fused into one mega-movie machine, right? Because, at the time, right, such a thing was, like, crazy to most people, and they were all like, "WHOAH BROS! HELLA CRAY-CRAY!" But they were, like, smart, because they went and kept it all on the down-low until they had, like, a patent for it, so no one could steal it. But they weren't done inventing, right? So they, like, had made a lot of really cool, revolutionary stuff, and would make more. Like, in 1907, they showcased Autochrome coloring, which, like, used transparent colored grains to filter color, so it was, like, a colored transparency.
William Friese-Greene was another inventor of the same era and field as the above-noted Lumiere brothers. He ran multitudes of experiments and experimental designs, seeking progress in the photographic field... but without much success. He had made a relatively high-framerate camera before the Lumieres perfected their cinematographe, using a rotator pulling film in front of an exposure port via little pegs, but it only managed a measly 5 frames per second, making it rather ineffective and thus unpopular, whilst the Lumieres employed machinery somewhat similar to that within a sewing machine to alternate frames, creating a much faster framespeed. He did, however, develop methods of stereoscopic imaging (early 3D) and coloring (Biocolour) which would ultimately bring fame and outshine the Lumieres in these particular fields. He's disputed as "the father of cinematography," though this debate has proven precarious and heated.
Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/118046/Cinematographe#ref260592
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457919/history-of-photography/252871/Colour-photography#ref416536
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220320/William-Friese-Greene
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/508948/
So, Auguste and Louis Lumiere, they're, like, bros, ya know? 'N their dad was making dough by makin' photography stuff, you know, for development and stuff, 'cuz it was really expensive and time-consuming and stuff back then. So then, they see Edison, and his, like, Kinetoscope, which was like a little peephole TV, ya know, but, like, more like a projector-flipbook thing, right? And Edison was making some real stacks sellin' em, ya know, but the Lumieres were like, but, it's, like, so lame, cuz it's so big and heavy and inconvenient, and you can only, like, watch it one person at a time, which really blows for, like, family occasions and stuff, or, like, anything with more than just you, ya know? So they built their own little movie machine, right, called the cinematographe, and had it all finished n' stuff by early 1895, and it was, like, a camera, printer, and projector all totally fused into one mega-movie machine, right? Because, at the time, right, such a thing was, like, crazy to most people, and they were all like, "WHOAH BROS! HELLA CRAY-CRAY!" But they were, like, smart, because they went and kept it all on the down-low until they had, like, a patent for it, so no one could steal it. But they weren't done inventing, right? So they, like, had made a lot of really cool, revolutionary stuff, and would make more. Like, in 1907, they showcased Autochrome coloring, which, like, used transparent colored grains to filter color, so it was, like, a colored transparency.
William Friese-Greene was another inventor of the same era and field as the above-noted Lumiere brothers. He ran multitudes of experiments and experimental designs, seeking progress in the photographic field... but without much success. He had made a relatively high-framerate camera before the Lumieres perfected their cinematographe, using a rotator pulling film in front of an exposure port via little pegs, but it only managed a measly 5 frames per second, making it rather ineffective and thus unpopular, whilst the Lumieres employed machinery somewhat similar to that within a sewing machine to alternate frames, creating a much faster framespeed. He did, however, develop methods of stereoscopic imaging (early 3D) and coloring (Biocolour) which would ultimately bring fame and outshine the Lumieres in these particular fields. He's disputed as "the father of cinematography," though this debate has proven precarious and heated.
Sources:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/118046/Cinematographe#ref260592
http://www.earlycinema.com/pioneers/lumiere_bio.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/457919/history-of-photography/252871/Colour-photography#ref416536
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/220320/William-Friese-Greene
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/508948/
Friday, October 4, 2013
Film Review #6: PARKOUR!demo.blend (my old game thing)
Yes, I'm reviewing my own crap. It's just about as alien to me as a new film, just because of how long ago I created it, so you know what? I think it's fine.
Anyway. The PARKOUR!demo.blend file is a Blender v.2.49b file, made way back in the day. It's an experimental parkour simulator in which one runs about, jumps on and off walls, slides along floors, throws knives, and punches or drop-kicks things. It's entirely physics-based, with no pre-set responses to any circumstance other than standing upright on a surface given the opportunity. To play, one uses WASD to lean, SPACE to jump, SHIFT to run, and E to teleport to a surface.
All in all, it's extraordinarily clunky, difficult, inconvenient, and horribly scripted... By which I mean haphazardly, inefficiently, and buggily. It's a monstrosity of game design, really. And you wanna know what the worst part is? I was obscenely proud of it, to the degree of outright bragging and insult to the reader in the "Notes" section. Along with that, I threatened anyone who dared to use any of the code, meshes, or anything else without my permission (weird, given most of the scripts weren't mine, those that were were obscenely primitive and terribly written, and the meshes were just cubes).
Thing is, it's not all that bad a game. It's ridiculously fun, in a terrible, imbecilic, suicidal way. Bugs, lag, and just general negligence in the composition make it absolutely horrid in an assemblage critique, but just running around is fun, and it works.
It has no value as an actual finished game-- the only way to restart is to exit and re-engage, there are no real goals in any of the levels, there's no menu of any sort, etc. Just a physics experiment, really.
Anyway, I'm trying to redo and revamp the entire thing in the new version of Blender (incompatible code, etc), to hopefully make it somewhat decent. I'm not gonna give you a link to it because A) it'll probably offend you on so many levels, and B) nobody who knows what they're doing has 2.49 anymore anyway. I'm not even sure you can still get it. Well, you probably can at the Blender site, but hey.
Now, some demo videos... You might be able to find a download somewhere there. I apologize, they're horrible. The whole having-been-about-14-or-something-and-way-too-proud really shows. Anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkz4OtbFGI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogtjwt8CaJg
Anyway. The PARKOUR!demo.blend file is a Blender v.2.49b file, made way back in the day. It's an experimental parkour simulator in which one runs about, jumps on and off walls, slides along floors, throws knives, and punches or drop-kicks things. It's entirely physics-based, with no pre-set responses to any circumstance other than standing upright on a surface given the opportunity. To play, one uses WASD to lean, SPACE to jump, SHIFT to run, and E to teleport to a surface.
All in all, it's extraordinarily clunky, difficult, inconvenient, and horribly scripted... By which I mean haphazardly, inefficiently, and buggily. It's a monstrosity of game design, really. And you wanna know what the worst part is? I was obscenely proud of it, to the degree of outright bragging and insult to the reader in the "Notes" section. Along with that, I threatened anyone who dared to use any of the code, meshes, or anything else without my permission (weird, given most of the scripts weren't mine, those that were were obscenely primitive and terribly written, and the meshes were just cubes).
Thing is, it's not all that bad a game. It's ridiculously fun, in a terrible, imbecilic, suicidal way. Bugs, lag, and just general negligence in the composition make it absolutely horrid in an assemblage critique, but just running around is fun, and it works.
It has no value as an actual finished game-- the only way to restart is to exit and re-engage, there are no real goals in any of the levels, there's no menu of any sort, etc. Just a physics experiment, really.
Anyway, I'm trying to redo and revamp the entire thing in the new version of Blender (incompatible code, etc), to hopefully make it somewhat decent. I'm not gonna give you a link to it because A) it'll probably offend you on so many levels, and B) nobody who knows what they're doing has 2.49 anymore anyway. I'm not even sure you can still get it. Well, you probably can at the Blender site, but hey.
Now, some demo videos... You might be able to find a download somewhere there. I apologize, they're horrible. The whole having-been-about-14-or-something-and-way-too-proud really shows. Anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkz4OtbFGI4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogtjwt8CaJg
Story notes
As requested.
-
Protagonist- main character- has to want SOMETHING
Antagonist- "villain"/opposition
*There must be a barrier between Protagonist and SOMETHING.
~Complexity~
-Character's needs do not equal wants
-Protagonist changes the most
-EMPATHY-
Now, ACTS in a PLOTLINE.
Act 1: Status Quo state of circumstance
*Thus, when change occurs, audience recognizes it
-Inciting Incident: the thing that happens to character or the thing that character does that forces them out of the status quo.
Act 2: Majority of story ("why we came")
Journey of character (figuratively or literally) towards the goal/breaking point
Act 3: Resolution
"Brings the dark night back to day (most of time)"
-
Protagonist- main character- has to want SOMETHING
Antagonist- "villain"/opposition
*There must be a barrier between Protagonist and SOMETHING.
~Complexity~
-Character's needs do not equal wants
-Protagonist changes the most
-EMPATHY-
Now, ACTS in a PLOTLINE.
Act 1: Status Quo state of circumstance
*Thus, when change occurs, audience recognizes it
-Inciting Incident: the thing that happens to character or the thing that character does that forces them out of the status quo.
Act 2: Majority of story ("why we came")
Journey of character (figuratively or literally) towards the goal/breaking point
Act 3: Resolution
"Brings the dark night back to day (most of time)"
Friday, September 27, 2013
Film Review #5: Mud (feature film)
Yes, an actual film. Crazy, I know.
So, basically, Mud is about an Arkansas kid named Ellis who goes with his friend Neckbone (good old Arkansas) to a little island in some big river where there's a boat in a tree. They figure out a guy called "Mud" lives in the tree, and they basically run errands for him and help him build up the boat to floating status while he hides from some extraordinarily pissed people with shotguns and talks about how his girlfriend Juniper is gonna come and join him in the boat. Really, that's the gist of it; in itself that doesn't sound all that bad. However, it goes a bit deeper; lots of less-than-subtle metaphors, philosophy, and relationship psychology, plus a gunfight and some snakes. I don't make it out to sound terrific, but honestly, it's simply a good movie. Clean cinematography and lighting, respectable acting, great soundtrack (except for the occasional dissonant country song, but hey, that's just me), awesome settings. Really long, but it's fine. Not the greatest film ever made, but hey, 98% on Rotten Tomatoes ain't lyin'.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv30J05U2nI
So, basically, Mud is about an Arkansas kid named Ellis who goes with his friend Neckbone (good old Arkansas) to a little island in some big river where there's a boat in a tree. They figure out a guy called "Mud" lives in the tree, and they basically run errands for him and help him build up the boat to floating status while he hides from some extraordinarily pissed people with shotguns and talks about how his girlfriend Juniper is gonna come and join him in the boat. Really, that's the gist of it; in itself that doesn't sound all that bad. However, it goes a bit deeper; lots of less-than-subtle metaphors, philosophy, and relationship psychology, plus a gunfight and some snakes. I don't make it out to sound terrific, but honestly, it's simply a good movie. Clean cinematography and lighting, respectable acting, great soundtrack (except for the occasional dissonant country song, but hey, that's just me), awesome settings. Really long, but it's fine. Not the greatest film ever made, but hey, 98% on Rotten Tomatoes ain't lyin'.
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv30J05U2nI
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
.JPG)
Friday, September 20, 2013
Film Review #4: SUPER HOT (game)
I know, it's not a film. Tough luck, deal with it. I'm more a game dev than a film maker. Anyway, SUPER HOT.
This is the single greatest sci-fi time-bending Matrix-esque game of all time. Quite a few games have been made by massive studios with massive budgets, and they all turn out clunky, over-complicated, repetitive, and altogether lousy and at least remotely unplayable. This indie game pulls off time-bending FPSing better than anything before with one simple mechanic: time moves when you do. In other words, the speed of time increases from a certain low point depending on the angular and linear velocity of the player. When standing perfectly still, everything moves incredibly slowly. Bullets drift like dust motes through the air while the rest of the scene is ostensibly frozen. As a bullet passes by one might turn to look at it-- and time would suddenly move just a tad faster. The bullet drifts somewhat more swiftly, and everything around begins to move nearly imperceptibly. Should one begin to strafe, time will move about 75% normal speed. At the fastest forward motion of the player, time moves at 100% speed. Firing a gun slightly drags on the speed of time due to the recoil moving your hand. All around, it's incredible. Just running around, jumping, clicking, and hitting R to throw guns. That's it. No weird key combos for special moves. Just the basics... Which work brilliantly.
Now, technical reviews. The graphics are stylized, but they look really nice. Easily readable, unique, dynamic, not overbearing. Movement is primitive, but it works fine, given how one spends most of one's time in slow-motion. The lack of an ADS (Aiming-Down-the-Sights) action is noticeable, but really doesn't matter (a crosshair makes it more or less obsolete, or, perhaps, something that would clog up the game or maybe make it too easy). The number of levels is really low (4, 5? Something like that), but hey, it was made in 7 days (I'll get to that in a moment). Model detail/quality is fine except perhaps the glock (has some somewhat visibly repetitive textures, but I'm nitpicking, it's totes fine). There's not really a HUD (which means no ammo indicator), but really, I think it makes it better. Not knowing the ammo in your mag makes it just that much more fun.
Now, about the 7-day thing: This was made for the 7DFPS (7-Day-First-Person-Shooter) Challenge (http://7dfps.com/). Competitors have 7 days to build some sort of game, generally FPS, though I've seen others. That's right. Made by (as far as I can tell) one person in 7 days, with the wonderful Unity 3D. Amazing. Kick-ass. It's still being developed for more content, but you can:
Play it here (on any platform. It's online)- http://superhotgame.com/
And keep up on updates here- https://twitter.com/SUPERHOTTHEGAME
Play it, now. NOW. It runs incredibly fast (even on mah mac), and is definitely worth the playthrough, and the possible hundreds more to follow.
This is the single greatest sci-fi time-bending Matrix-esque game of all time. Quite a few games have been made by massive studios with massive budgets, and they all turn out clunky, over-complicated, repetitive, and altogether lousy and at least remotely unplayable. This indie game pulls off time-bending FPSing better than anything before with one simple mechanic: time moves when you do. In other words, the speed of time increases from a certain low point depending on the angular and linear velocity of the player. When standing perfectly still, everything moves incredibly slowly. Bullets drift like dust motes through the air while the rest of the scene is ostensibly frozen. As a bullet passes by one might turn to look at it-- and time would suddenly move just a tad faster. The bullet drifts somewhat more swiftly, and everything around begins to move nearly imperceptibly. Should one begin to strafe, time will move about 75% normal speed. At the fastest forward motion of the player, time moves at 100% speed. Firing a gun slightly drags on the speed of time due to the recoil moving your hand. All around, it's incredible. Just running around, jumping, clicking, and hitting R to throw guns. That's it. No weird key combos for special moves. Just the basics... Which work brilliantly.
Now, technical reviews. The graphics are stylized, but they look really nice. Easily readable, unique, dynamic, not overbearing. Movement is primitive, but it works fine, given how one spends most of one's time in slow-motion. The lack of an ADS (Aiming-Down-the-Sights) action is noticeable, but really doesn't matter (a crosshair makes it more or less obsolete, or, perhaps, something that would clog up the game or maybe make it too easy). The number of levels is really low (4, 5? Something like that), but hey, it was made in 7 days (I'll get to that in a moment). Model detail/quality is fine except perhaps the glock (has some somewhat visibly repetitive textures, but I'm nitpicking, it's totes fine). There's not really a HUD (which means no ammo indicator), but really, I think it makes it better. Not knowing the ammo in your mag makes it just that much more fun.
Now, about the 7-day thing: This was made for the 7DFPS (7-Day-First-Person-Shooter) Challenge (http://7dfps.com/). Competitors have 7 days to build some sort of game, generally FPS, though I've seen others. That's right. Made by (as far as I can tell) one person in 7 days, with the wonderful Unity 3D. Amazing. Kick-ass. It's still being developed for more content, but you can:
Play it here (on any platform. It's online)- http://superhotgame.com/
And keep up on updates here- https://twitter.com/SUPERHOTTHEGAME
Play it, now. NOW. It runs incredibly fast (even on mah mac), and is definitely worth the playthrough, and the possible hundreds more to follow.
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