In just under 7 hours, the Kojima ‘NEXT’ site will hopefully and finally shed some light as to what the hell is going on. By this, for the people who aren’t as sad as some of us are, i mean the Kojima Productions teaser site for what most people think is the new Metal Gear game. Since it’s beginning a week or so ago ( prolly more than that i think, considering some of the timers have been 120 hours and more) there has been an image of a field with some trees with a timer in the middle of the it all. At first it was raining a little bit, then more, then thunderstorms, and now sun. And while all of this was going on, random numbers/letters/kanji (whatever you want to make of it) flashed up behind the timer, along with a image of a man with a beret and an eye patch (notice how i didn’t say Snake or Big Boss). As if this wasn’t all a mess, the Kojima logo in the bottom right morphs to a face, and if you click it your taken to another teaser site with a mask in low light that changes depending on the time.
Now i don’t know about most people, but i love the Metal Gear series. It was the first game i ever imported on the PS1 (in which i then got the US version, and finally the EU one when it came out) and whenever any information about a new game/spin off/etc comes out, i get far too excited. I prefer not to say what my thoughts are on all the teaser stuff that comes out though. For me, i like finding out any information but there’s a limit. If it means spoiling any part of the game i don’t check it out. I still own a copy of a PS2 magazine that has a sealed exclusive look at MGS2 and details about the new characters/levels/etc that has never been touched ( i also had to buy the official magazine twice as i lent the demo disc with MGS2 on it to a friend and the next day decided i needed to play the level again that badly). So all of this teaser stuff is fun look at and mess around, but i try and not to take it all too seriously.
For now at least, the timer is still continuing to count down, and as far as i would like to speculate, there might be one last timer as images shown in Famitsu show another figure (who looks like some sort of cyborg ninja, go figure) as one of the images. To be honest though, after staying up till stupid hours in the morning to watch the countdown stop and restart again, that image might have already appeared and i just haven’t noticed it. Either way it shouldn’t be long till we finally get some answers, and i can start the long agonizing process of waiting for it to be released. It’s bad enough to have FFXIII being delayed and taking forever, but with what this is all about and the Team Trico leaked footage doing the rounds on the internet, it’s getting bad again.
Well it’s been 2 weeks or so since my last post, which is thanks to a few things;
1. Laziness
Not really much to say about this one. That’s about it.
2. 3Ds Max
For the last couple of weeks i have gotten back into 3D work. It’s something i’ve always enjoyed doing but now with the ability to model while at different places i’ve fallen back into learning and reading up on stuff. This has pretty much taken up most of my free time as i lose myself in it all without a concept of time while doing so (does that sentence make sense?). This has however led me to finally figure out a few things and improve on the basics that i had already learnt a few years back when i first started. While i am in no way the best ( cuz quite frankly, i’m obviously not), i am now happy with the level i am at and am looking forward to continuing my progression. here are a few things i have made over the last couple of weeks.
A random early ‘Wipeout’ style render, nice paint job.
Same ship, different paint. Reflections are fun.
Quick Realflow test, didn’t work very well so i had to take screen shots.
Ben 10 Alien Force Omnitrix, almost final render.
A quick 3D model of King Kittan, quite happy but needs work.
As with all of these, i quickly get bored and move onto another project, whether it is animation or just a mesh. I’ll post more and some updates at a later point.
3. Playstation 3
This is pretty much obvious if you know me. To be fair i haven’t bought any games for a while now. Technically that’s not true, i bought Outrun Online from the ps store, but i haven’t gone into a shop and bought any games. Technically that’s not true either, as i went into Blockbusters and picked up Fight Night Round 3 for £20. I haven’t bought a hard copy of a new game in a while is what i should really say. In between Fight Night, COD4 (i thought i would get bored of that quicker), Guitar Hero III+World Tour (same thing as COD4), the UFC demo (which is awesome, very very awesome) and Megaman 9 (really owe it to the game to complete it), i’ve been watching a lot more videos on screwattack.com and re-wacthing all the angry video game nerd videos. Quality.
To be honest that’s the main things that have kept (i must point out here that i stopped writing this on 18/05/09 and am continuing from memory as to what i was writing about) me busy.
In all honesty, i didn’t really like the look of the new omnitrix. For me what made the original ‘cool’ was the fact is was huge, chunky and looked alien. The first time i saw the promotional images for the new series, i wasn’t exactly amazed. After watching it more times, i’ve grown to like it. That’s not to say it brilliant, but i think the uniqueness of the original series was going to be hard to follow. That and i really can’t stand the whole Gwen and Kevin thing, he was the main rival other than Vilgax and now he doesn’t seem as tough or nuts. When i first modelled the original omnitrix, i was just learning to use 3ds Max, and it was the first thing i made by myself. To be honest with it, i’m very proud of it. It might not of been made the best way, but for me it does the job fine. After thinking about it for a while, i decided to try and model the new omnitrix. I was going to try and model it just through pictures, but after finding a ultimate omnitrix on eBay for just over £10, i figured it would be easier (that and i modelled the first one with the viewer omnitrix which helped greatly).
Last time i did this i posted my final version on a Ben 10 fan forum to see what comments i could get to make changes and better the model. This also led to the photo appearing on YouTube a year or so later with some muppet in the comment section claiming it was his photo. So to make sure this time there is no confusion as to who made this (because there isn’t another 3D version of either on the internet still 
) i took images as i’ve gone along and made it. Obviously i do not own the rights to Ben 10 nor the omnitrix as they were created by Man of Action and Cartoon Network, this is merely made as a fan of the show with a bit too much free time at work.
While i’m still not 100% finished with the model (i still need to add the detail on the body, dial and strap) i feel that it has come out well so far. I changed the inside dial to a transparent layer to allow for a light to shine out, but other than that i just need to add some bump maps to the whole thing. I have also done some test animation to see how everything works, which again needs a little attention. this was also before i changed the dial and added the strap. I just wanted to try out a few things.
The next thing to do is finally get my blue/green screen up to start mucking around a bit. Oh and to finish another model.
Filed under: Video games | Tags: gaming, OMG, one more guy, time wasters, TW, Video games
ONE MORE GUY presents Time Wasters.
Filed under: Video games | Tags: i have never played, IHNP, OMG, one more guy, video game reviews
ONE MORE GUY presents I Have Never Played. The first video of playing games for the first time. The games range from all systems and consist of games i have never played or even heard of. This first video is more of a beta video to try out the format. Don’t be expecting anything brilliant.
www.thomfarquhar.wordpress.com
The internet is filled with many people and their opinions. I like to read/watch/listen to those opinions, and i never post my feelings as i see enough pointless posts about why ‘that’ persons views are wrong or how something is wrong with what is said. For some reason i’ve decided to open myself to the masses and start making and releasing videos on many of the subjects i rant on about on this blog. While the first few videos will be filled with highly original ideas like ‘Top 5 Games’ and the like, i will also be posting videos that are made of my own ideas and creations. The above image is mainly just a quick scramble to make a image for the sake of making an image to do with the topic (what?), but you get the idea. Unlike most other videos i see on youtube and the like, they will actually have some sort of format and quality to them, rather than ripping off images, videos and other media from sources off the internet. I can’t stand watching a top 10 video that looks the same as all the other blue background white text videos on the net with some anime music playing along.
Anyway, that will be up in the next few days, with the first video either being some sort of ‘top’ list of games in a certain subject or some other game/anime/photographic related thing.
On a completely different subject (though not that different) here are some photos or the room where all the magic happens aka my bedroom. I must point out now before anything else. Yes, it’s a very messy place. Yes, there are a lot of toys, figures and other rubbish. Yes, the last photo is my HD projector connected to my pc to watch/play stuff on. And yes, i know i’m far too old to still be buying any of these things (i’m 23 in case you are wondering). Say what you will if you think it’s sad or weird, but i’m happy with it all.
Look forward to the next post, hopefully containing the first video of many.
P.S. i managed to get a pyrus naga bakugan and a dual ability aquos/ventus wavern. choice.
Filed under: 1
This week i decided to go Toys ‘R’ Us for the afternoon as a treat for me and my girlfriend. With it being a rainy day with some horrible driving conditions (one half of the carriage way was flooded and slowly flooding the other side) it seemed like a good idea. And with a few spare quid i was sold on the idea.
After not having the chance to go shopping in one for a few years, i was looking forward to seeing what toys were given lots of space and what was new. I’ve taken a few photos to record the ocasion, although there won’t be a photo of the 10ft Hannah Montana huge singing wall display with High School Musical 3 slapped all around it. Honestly, it was hardly noticeable and in no way annoying in the slightest.
I bought myself some new Bakugan, in which i think i have an addiction to. I got a Pyrus Fortress with 680g, while someone else got a Pearl Pyrus Dragonid at 610g. Not bad i say. Next time we’ll go prepared a little better so we can maximise our buying time in there.
Filed under: Anime, Video games | Tags: detective conan, flock, fma, full metal alchemist, mushishi
This will be quick otherwise i could write quite a considerable chunk of text here. Firstly i would like to apologise about Flock. I wanted to play all of the demo for a large amount of time to allow for a better un-educated view of the game. Instead i played the first 2 levels and decided not to waste my time anymore. In the first level you simply fly to one end of the level and the fly back while herding the sheep up. Amazing. On the second level i was told now i have a tractor beam to lift up things. Using the tractor beam i moved gates out of the way and used others for bridges between points to gather more sheep. After one sheep fell off on his own accord, i thought i would try and pick up a sheep with the beam. Doesn’t work. Sorry but i thought i was an alien ship with awesome technology, but obviously aliens don’t know how to herd or pick up sheep, just everything else ( not everything as only certain fences, etc can be moved). I know the idea of the game is to herd the sheep properly but i just found it boring. the game looks and sounds nice, but it plays slowly. Just my opinion, but it it really doesn’t seem to be worth £12.
Onto better things. I re-acquired Mushishi, in which i completely forgot about how good the intro song is, so i’m on a mission to find the OST of the anime. I was going to buy the dvd of the live action movie, which i’ve heard many good things about, but i’m leaving it for the minute. Next i watched the second live action Detective Conan J-Drama. The cast for each character is well thought out, though i wish they would of used Conan more than Shinichi.
And lastly i watched the first episode of the new Full Metal Alchemist. I was hoping this didn’t turn out the same way as Dragonball KAI, which i thought was going to be sweet. Instead i was treated to a very nice looking intro and outro, while the actual episode was just the original Dragonball/Z material. Needless to say not impressed. Thankfully it didn’t. The whole episode was quality from start to finish, with the animation on the transmutations looking awfully nice. One thing which i’ll leave for now is i don’t understand what is going on, mainly as i found it last night and haven’t heard anything about it before then. I haven’t read up on it still so i’m still up in the air as to what i was watching. But as far as i remember, Hughes was dead, so were some of the homunculus, and King Bradley wasn’t really King Bradley, but to be honest i haven’t watched the whole thing for about 3 or so years.
It doesn’t matter as it was good to watch familiar faces again. For the next post, i feel another game needs to be talked about.
(Please excuse the bad Photoshop work. It’s 8.44am. Not the best time of day for me to care about images so much. Plus i had to take a photo with my laptop pointing towards the wall off my projector, much harder than it looks. Next time i’ll try harder)
Each Thursday the PSN store gets updated around the world and at random points in the day i log into my various accounts to see what content has been put up. Starting with my Hong Kong account, i go to my Japanese one, then when i finish work the UK and then if i’m still up in the morning around 2am or so check the US store. Majority of the time, the HK store is just made up of stuff from all the other stores, it just has descriptions for any Japanese game in English (though obviously the game is still in Japanese, unless it’s a Chinese/English/Korean version). The other stores usually fill up with new content.
Normally the problem i have with this is that when content finally appears on the UK store (Street Fighter II HD Remix anyone?) it’s either months after a US or Japanese release, or that it costs more to buy it then the other stores. The last one isn’t so much of a problem as i can buy from any store, it just irritates me to see that some games (which i’m getting to in a second, promise) are priced more over here then the States.
Now if the store was updated with more demos of games this wouldn’t lead me to my ‘rant’ in a moment. I still can’t see why there is only ever one (if we’re lucky) or so demos a week put up, sometimes not even any. But instead it gets filled up with PSP content, which by now i’m not convinced anyone pays for PSP games anymore, and haven’t for a year or so. The PS1 game selection is shocking (just look at some of the games in the store, they really do not need to be there at all), but much like the demo situation it’s not as easy as to put up e.g. MGS or FFVII just because the fans want them, or demos for games where they haven’t even developed it enough. I understand it’s a case of rights, timing and other such factors, as well as it being a free service in which developers have to pay for data allowances. Just couldn’t help to try a little harder is all i’m saying.
But onto my main point. Flock. What the hell. £12? Really? I’m going to say it right now before i forget to. I haven’t played it or the trial. Yes it’s slightly bias, but £12 very much changes my opinion very quickly on a game. I work like most people to afford things, and £12 isn’t a problem for me to spend on a game. But for that £12 i would expect something more than Flock. With the release of Rag-Doll Kung-Fu (had it, played it, deleted off Steam, wondering what place it has on PSN) and Worms (unlike Sonic which i’ll buy regardless of how many copies of the same game i have, i ain’t paying for a game i have on my mobile), 2 games i thought would be near the £10 mark, i was honestly expecting Flock to be about the same price. The other 2 games are priced at £7.99. Why are they so cheap compared to Flock? I’m assuming that Flock is just a hyped up version of Sheep on the PS1 (which is on the PSN store funnily enough) but with space ships and other little features. And where is Trashbox while i’m at it?
(To not be so much of a fool i’m now waiting for the trial to download so i can at least give an valid opinion rather than a misinformed numpty reading and looking at stuff off the internet to base his argument)
While i wait for that to download (my lovely Sky connection is not infact lovely, but quite the opposite, but that’s what you get for living in the middle of no where) i must quickly just say about Ben 10 Alien Force. I know it’s a random thing to bring up, but it’s rubbish. I own a lot of Ben 10 stuff, too much for a man my age. Why? Because the cartoon is sweet. Not the case with Alien Force. Gwen likes Kevin? New watch design? Grandpa Max has lost some weight? No. Just no. I didn’t spend hours measuring and sculpting a 3D version of the omnitrix to see it turn in a regular watch design. It should look like a fancy alien brick you wear on your arm.
Well i’ll come back to Flock and write up about how the trial plays, but i can’t say i’m looking forward to it. I know i should play it with a fair and honest opinion, but if it is any good then it will be a nice surprise. As a bonus here’s a space type image i’m working on. Enjoy.
Could be anything though couldn’t it.
I didn’t want to put in the title “BEST GAMES EVER” or “ALL TIME GREATEST GAMES” as this is my opinion, and people my disagree with it. This is merely games that over the years i have played and still enjoy today. Games that i play to make me laugh, to show off on, to get stressed out, to chillax ( yep i said chillax). Just a list of games that i feel are good to play.
I’m not entirely sure what to start off with though. At this point i’m staring round my room looking at piles of games and places where more games are kept trying to think of a game to start this all off with. Looking around i see posters for some of my favourite games, but i’d rather leave them for later posts. And then it came to me….
Just thinking about this game wants me to get out my Spectrum (plastic keyboard over my rubber keyboard version) and rewind the tape to play it. I own 2 versions of the game, one with a silver border in a silver cassette case and one with a black border and a black cassette case. It’s the same as some of my other games like Pole Position ( one silver and one yellow), and one is worth more than the other i think i read somewhere or saw ( collectors magazine or something), but it doesn’t really matter. It’s the first game i remember playing. My Dad brought home the computer and my older brother set it up. I have no idea what year this would of been as the game out before i was born, but Jetpac came out in ’83 and i was born in ’85 i think it was when i was 3 or something. This and all games on the Spectrum are probably the reason i like bright colours so much. I think i had another game called Screwball or something that was just bright colours and shooting things.
The controls are simple as you can imagine. You can move left and right, and using your jetpac/k (i know the game is called Jetpac but i don’t know whether in the game they would use that spelling) you can move around the game screen. You have to collect first pieces of your ship, the middle then the cone by moving to them and dropping them on the base. Once the ship is built you have to get some fuel and other ‘space ship’ style items for a bigger score. While all of this is going on there are enemy’s flying all over the place that kill you with one hit. Luckily you have a cool colour changing laser that can shoot over the edge of the screen and pop out the other side.
I have 2 ways to play this game. I either play to get a high score and play cautiously and slowly, or, as i do 99% of the time, try and play it as fast as possible and be reckless. In both cases i still seem to do as well as if i played cautiously/reckless. There’s not much more to the game really, without getting it all set up again ( which i’ll do at some point anyways) and playing for a few hours or so. I think off memory the enemy’s change on later levels, and the levels change there layout.
It’s the first game i show people when i have the Spectrum out and running as i feel it’s a good base game as too what some of the early games for the Spectrum are like. Sure there are other games like Horace Goes Skiing and the quality Manic Miner (which i should write about sometime), but for being the first game i can ever remember playing it deserves a place in my happy gaming memories.
Next time something a little more recent i think. I have a few ideas but we’ll have to see.
