I spent a bit of time trying out the Macro on my camera today as its not something I really used that much. Now I love it, check out the shots below. There is also a very quick and short video I made in 15 mins or so just to have a bit of fun with editing and filming.
I sort of forgot to post about this, but beta 1 for DM-Fort has been up for a few days, check it out here. The link is to filefront which as you might know is shutting down on the 30th. I will updates all the links before then. RIP Filefront. I have made a good few changes since this beta was posted and I might post a new version early next week some time if all goes well. But let me know what you think.
So this On Live thing at GDC has made quite the impact and I don’t think anyone can really argue its not the future. Its really more of a question of will On Live be able to do it. The only thing really holding them back at this point in Broadband speeds, most developed country’s now have Internet accesswhere ever you go but speed and download caps are a massive issue for people around the world. When you think about it this service is going to have to send your inputs to the server process that and then compress and send the video back to do. That a lot of work and with slower connections you are not going to be able to play in HD and you will notice lag.
On the good side, you never have to worry about upgrading your PC or buying an expensive console again. Games should come down in price as it cuts places like GAME or Gamestop out of the picture. Development teams are also going to be able to make games that look much nicer and have a lot more detail. This is going to be a wonderful thing for the games industry once it arrives.
I think the most likely future we will see is Microsoft and Sony having a service just like this under there current Xbox and Playstation brands. The company developing On Live might even end up being acquired by the likes of Microsoft. There are ownership issues to worry about on the consumer side, but once things like that are sorted out this is going to be a very bright future for the games industry indeed.
Halo The Flood is the only Halo book I have yet to finish, all the others such as fall of reach I have been though several times and I have a few on audio book too. So I think I will get into that again tonight and try and get though it. I always though it might not be great but it adds a lot to the back story of Halo CE. Issue 200 of EDGE has been great, I have a subscription so I was able to get the Little Big Planet cover designed by the developers them selves. I really love EDGE and its the only mag I am reading at the moment.
I have the first 12 Issues of The Walking Dead ordered in the form of the hardback version. A lot of people I respect the opinions of have said its great and I need something new to read. I don’t want to get into comics in a massive way as it would cost far too much so I am going to stick with one series at a time. The last issue of the current Halo comic series is due to arrive soon so I am looking forward to that.
I picked up L4D on 360 last week so I could play with my friends there and it has been a lot of fun. Expert mode is hard as hell but with four people its some of the best co-op fun you can have. Speaking of CO-OP Area 5’s (former 1UP Show guys) show also called CO-OP has been getting really good and its great they are now on Revision 3. Have been playing a little bit of Halo Wars and Killzone multiplayer. Not sure how long term Killzone will be for me but its a great game, Halo Wars on the other hand I will be playing for a long time to come yet. But I have really spent a lot of time working on levels in Unreal.
So in college I have Shadower my short film, a 10 minute Documentry on Ken Levin which has to be part of a research assignment along with loads of other stuff. That more or less means I have a lot to do over the next few months so that’s going to eat into a good bit of personal time. But I am on top of it so far. Had to spend a wile working out how much of my Student finance is left which was fun. But it looks like I am set and should be fine for the rest of the year. I have also been thinking about when I finish my HND another year from now. Sort of exciting now knowing where I will be.
Well yesterday we filmed the final scene’s for Shadower so that’s all the production finished! That means between next Monday and some time in May I will be in post production. I should be able to grab visual updates a lot more now to update the site with and in general I am really looking forward to the editing process. I am first to finish filming in the class so I should be able to grab a nice editing Rig.
The stuff we shot yesterday was in HD as it was on the green screen and using some light’s so we though the HD might bring it up better. The entire thing was originally going to be filmed in 1080 but something I did early on for the first tape made it a risk I did not want to take. But I though I would just update you guys and let you know how its all going.
So I am building up an army of sparrow hawks ready to head out and begin the assault with my other ally, then out of no where arrives several grizzly tanks driven by Spartans and squads and Marines and anti-air units to back them up.
I call back my hawks, but they are two late and most are destroyed, so I lose the base and as its death match my population cap drops again. The three hawks that survived along with a lone spartan are called back to my only base now left, and I quickly build as many units as I can to try and mount some sort of defence. The other guy on my team has so far been OK but his army could be bigger, but none the less his ODST’s and tanks arrive to help with the defence.
Boom the grizzly’s advance even greater in number, followed by his ally with several air units including two or three vultures. We hold them off for a wile and a ciro bomb from me even helps to turn the battle a bit but sure enough he calls in more ODST’s and his foward base has turned out more tanks. The other guys also back with more air units and I am sure you can see where this is going, but that’s what Halo Wars is about for me really fun experiences like that. I have plenty of single player story’s I could share too but instead of writing a review and scoring the game I though I would share the fun of Halo Wars with you and yes the Lore is good.
I happened to type Alan Moore into You Tube and found the interview below. I think its very inspiring in general and does not just apply to people wanting to get into comic book art and writing but anything they really want to do be that the games industry or what ever. Anyway I think its a really good watch for anyone and though I would share it with you all.
Hope everyone has a good weekend, I am planning to get loads done to DM-Fort (map in development) and finish of Killzone 2. Filming on Shadower has more or less finished we just have some sceens to do on the green screen and that’s it. I am really enjoying Killzone 2 I was wrong about that game when it was first shown its a really great game. Going to be playing some Halo Wars as well, really love both games. Think I am off this Tuesday for fucking ST Patrick’s day, fucking waste of time if you ask me for a holiday that people have long since forgotten the real purpose off.
Anyway have a good weekend and I will talk you all soon.
Halo Wars, Burnout and Killzone 2. That’s what I have been playing this weekend so far. I just picked up Killzone today and am liking it a lot so far in both single and multiplayer. Its not really a lot new, but it plays very nice and the graphics are stunning for the most part. I have come across several pauses as it loads but for the most part its a stunning looking and smooth game. I am sure I will have a review to post when I have played a lot more. Now lets talk so Halo Wars. So I finished the singleplayer at the start of this week but its a bit early to talk about story, so that’s for another post. I am already playing it again but multiplayer has really got me in bad. I often find it hard to play multiplayer RTS but Halo Wars is a lot of fun and I can often win too, which is nice.
I have already worked out a lot of my own little strategies and ways to catch the other team of guard which is a lot of fun. UT3 got its massive patch this week and I have tired a bit of that so far. Not tired all the new maps but over all the patch its self made the game a lot better and gave the editor a new logo! But I do think its going to be very good for the game. Finally me and two friends went to see Watchmen last night. Its the first film I have went to see in a long time and I loved it. The acting was spot on and I am going to have to check out the comic soon too. Need to make a post about it so I can post more details but its well worth watching and I will be getting it on DVD.
I have my new calendar for this month printed, this time with a nice screenshot from Alan wake as the main image. Hope its out by this time next year. February is always a shot month but with the likes of Halo Wars at the end of it I am glad it went in quick. I have not done a massive amount of work in 3D Max over the last few weeks and have mostly been working in Unreal on level design but I am going to have to work out something so that I don’t forget about Max totally. That said I did finish a simple pallet up which looked ok.
I have been running around this morning gathering together the props I will need for Tuesday when we start filming SHADOWER. Got more or less everything together now even found the old gas mask that I will need. Really looking forward to get going on that one. Going back to 3D modeling I am thinking about starting a small diary type thing that I have to update every day with what I have done 3d wise. Should help to give me the drive to get going at that more as well as level design.
