Tuesday 26 January 2010

SUPER.. again.

OK, been hard at work writing this diary and it's fun! it started at 26th January and I've just currently got to 10th february.

Heres the first sign of jack Grove's impending future:

30th January Saturday

Today was great!

Me and Lyle went to the city centre and spent all our pocket money on comics.

We also went to KFC and ran into Joe from school. I think he was ignoring us but oh well.

On the bus back there was a man in front of us with white eyes like Storm outta X-Men and he kept looking back at me and sniffing.

He kept doing it until I said “Please stop it.” And he went crazy!

He started screaming all sorts of rubbish, I heard him say

“YOU, YOU! YOU’RE THE ONE!” and “NOT NORMAL, CAN’T SEE YOU, STRANGE, AURA!”

Such a weird man. Lyle burst out laughing which made him go even crazier and he screamed at Lyle:

“HE’LL KILL YOU… HE’LL BE THE END OF US ALL!”

Yep. I’m the next Galactus. Freak.

Tonight it was Mum’s turn to go out so Dad got me and Kirk food from the chip shop. I need to start eating more healthier food.

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AND:

10th February Wednesday

Got the school photo today and surprisingly I wasn’t pulling a face! In fact I wasn’t in the photo at all!

I’m actually stumped as to why I’m not in the photo, there’s just a blank seat where I should be.

It’s no secret that I didn’t want to have my photo took so naturally everyone thinks that I snuck out just before the photo was taken.

LIES!

It musta been the flash or something. I’m glad it didn’t catch me right anyway. It would have only been more ammo for Joe to rip me apart with.

Gave the photo my mum and she just passed it back to me after glancing at it saying “you look very nice.”

Clearly she doesn’t care.

Kirk wouldn’t let me watch the latest episode of Heroes cause Glee was on (he likes the music) I didn’t fight him over the remote… He bites.

Parents were just arguing as per usual in the kitchen so I went upstairs to wallow in self pity.

Fun.

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I quite like it ^_^ Excited to get to the discovering of the powers. But it won't happen for a while yet...

The class photo instance is the first time he turns invisible.

Let me know what you think!

SUPER

Basically after reading The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4's I wanted to write a book similar to that.

I concocted the idea of SUPER.

A boy is set the simple task of writing a diary for a week for homework. He keeps up the diary after he finds himself enjoying the task. There are instances when he feels strong emotions that he has strange situations such as turning invisible and even flying.

He's a super hero!

So the diary will follow Jack Groves as he accustoms to his powers and gains new ones. It also focuses on the emotional effects getting powers could have on a kid of 14. He'll think he's going crazy, has a life threatening disease and so on.

Theres also the fact that we doesn't know whether to tell anyone about this and also as he is only young, should he actually be a super hero?

Now I wanted the diary to be realistic so he clearly won't be donning the old tights but it would be interesting to see where he goes from there with the powers.

I haven't planned a lot of the story however I have certain side stories already written down and all the characters sorted. I'm taking each diary entry as it comes and not jump straight to the good parts where he gets the powers.

I want it to be Adrian Mole mixed with Heroes!

I might post a few of the fun diary entries in a blog soon for your reading pleasure.

What do you guys think of it all?

Thursday 21 January 2010

Devil May Quince.

OK so after today's lesson with Kelly and looking at different design aspects of Devil May Cry 4 I decided I wanted to get the game.

I've never played a hack "n" slash before so it was a totally new thing for me. Managed to get the game at Game funnily enough for a very measly £5.

I've been playing it for about 2 hours now and I can honestly say I'm fairly addicted.

Devil May Cry or Devil May Quince as I like to call it due to the number of times I quinced during the specially awesome parts, is one on the best games I've played in a while. I've really took to the hack "n" slash genre and I'm looking forward to trying other games from the genre... (Any suggestions?)

Yeah I just thought I'd let you know that I like it!

And for Kelly...

Evidence that I like the game:

It's fun and fast paced.

The combat system is innovative allowing spectacular moves to be pulled off without much difficulty and confusion.

I like the lovely lady in the game that looks like Lady Gaga and can do the splits.

I enjoyed beating the s**t outta the fat toad thing.

The bosses are creative and genuinely fun to fight due to the different tactics needed to beat them.

The overall design is very good.

Happy?

I'd like to thank Kelly for demonstrating an awesome game and introducing me to a new genre!

G'bai.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Dead Space Biatch.

Right, I played some Dead Space for the task that we was set on Monday.
851818-dead_space_cover_large.jpg
I've already completed it before but I ran through the first few levels to jog my memory and also as an excuse to play it again!

WHO:
EA. Simples.

When:
14th October 2008, to coincide with the Halloween holiday.

Where:
The game takes place in the future (I presume it's the future as the technology is more advanced than it is now). and the game itself is set on a mining ship named the USG Ishimura.
A mining ship (in terms of Dead Space) is a huge long space craft that acts as an apparatus to crack planets, as in literally crack them. The ship is equipped with a huge drill and the drill does the work.
The protagonist, who you play as, has to travel around the mining ship in different areas, all with their own distinct look and feel in order to accomplish objectives.

787190-usg_ishimura_super.jpg


What:
So the story goes... ***SPOILERS***

It's set in the future where humanity is colonising different planets and such. A team of simple engineers is sent out to aid the USG Ishimura after it sends out a distress signal. The team soon find out everyone on the ship is dead and that the place is swarming with huge grotesque monster/zombies called necromorphs. The team get seperated during an attack and it leaves the player who controls the main protagonist Isaac Clarke to get the ship back up and running or find a way out of it.

Not all is at it seems as it turns out the necromorphs are not aliens as was originally conceived but humans and the people of the mining ship turned into beasts by an alien statue called "The Marker".

(SPOILERS NOW)

Turns out you weren't sent here on an innocent repair task but the women "Kendra" who is on your team and acts as a guide actually works for the government who wants the marker for their own nefarious plans. The marker also sends Isaac insane (it has that power) and makes him think he sees his dead wife throughout the game.

HOW:
After looking at the developer's diaries and such there seems to have been a huge amount of pre-production going on before the game went into production (obviously). They had many artists working on the overall look and feel of the ship, necromorphs and the cast. They also researched alot into a new engine that would enable the players to "strategically dismember" enemies in the game. Finally alot of pre-production time was devoted to the soundtrack of the game, making sure it fitted perfectly with the overall atmosphere and really had an effect on the player.

SO... I love this game. I think it's a great single player experience that fully immerses the player into the environment and the character's situations. I feel that every part of the design complements each other perfectly as the music ratchets up the intensity considerably and the design of the environment is great as it can force players down lonely and suspense filled corridors or into huge rooms with lots of necromorphs. It really affects the gameplay and gives the best of both worlds; action and suspense.

dead-space-extraction-wii.jpg


Pros:
-Hugely suspenseful and utterly terrifying.
-Great design when it comes to environment and character models.
-Competent voice acting.
-Fun dismemberment engine.
-Good, immersive storyline.
-Fantastic soundtrack.
-Great UI design (The HUD is all built into Isaac's armour... clever)

Cons:
-Can pretty much complete the game using one weapon.
-Bosses although look good are far too easy.
-Long loading times between levels (aren't we past that now?)
-Not much replay value.
-Fiddly zero gravity controls.

OKAI.

So I've done a review as well as a 4 W's and 1 H or whatever so yeah theres value statements in there. But then again reviews are purely opinion and that's the purpose of them.

It has achieved critical success with an 89 score on Metacritic (very good site).

There is also a second Dead Space in production now...

500x_deadspace2_01.jpg

Sunday 3 January 2010

An Important announcement about the future of my time at confetti.

You have most definitely lost all that is...

THE GAME.


:)


Saturday 2 January 2010

The nightmare on Meadow Close.

I'm here today to tell you a tale. A tale of tragedy, dispair, deception and heartbreak.

There was once a young boy, perfectly happy in life with plenty of friends, a steady income of money and a loving family. However.. this boy's life was to be turned upside down one fateful evening.

The wind whistled and the rain lashed against the windows as he drew the curtains in his bedroom to shut out the stormy night. The glow of the TV and the almighty SHOOOM of his trusty Xbox 360 gave the boy comfort knowing that no matter how bad things got outside he would always have Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2 and World At War to keep him company with hours of entertainment.

The night went on and the boy battled his way through waves and waves of zombies, the final safepoint in view and that wonderful Achievement of accomplishing the Swamp mission shining like a beacon of hope. At this point a surge of the undead hurtled over the fences and through the boggy undergrowth over whelming the boy and his hillbilly companions. His healthbar was wavering dangerously low with no chance of healing himself. The outlook was bleak.

ALAS!

A pipebomb. This handy item lay forgotten in the inventory, an unused icon. He withdrew it from his pocket and threw the explosive, leaving a bright red trail of light behind it. A trail of hope. The bomb landed at the perfect distance attracting the hordes of attacking flesh eating zombies.

The boy stood there calling his friends to follow him to the safe room, the bomb had a matter of seconds before it went off freeing the area so they could finally reach the end of the level.

Without warning the television let out a twisted piercing scream of agony and the display of soon to be redead zombies, contorted into a deathly pixelated mess.

Time stood still.

The boy sat there, breathing heavily, his hand went limp dropping the controller to the floor.

It was over.

He restarted the console with baited breath and tried a new game; World At War, within ten minutes of igniting the Nazi scum with petrol bombs the Xbox 360 crumpled with the same pixelated garble and shrill beeps and boops from the TV.

The last time he tried was with The Ballad of Gay Tony. The same happened again in the middle of a car chase at four wanted stars.

This signalled the death of his beloved.

The death of his Xbox 360.

Yeah so that was my day.

I have one thing to say to that;

FML.