Thursday, September 27, 2007

UFO Hoax

While reading the latest issue of Creativity, I came across an interesting article about the person responsible for the creation of some "eerily authentic" video footage of UFOs hovering over the Caribbean. They were originally posted to YouTube last month and have generated millions of hits, but just in case you haven't seen them yet, here are the links to Haiti and Dominican Republic.

A few weeks after the first posting, The L.A. Times investigated and revealed that the videos were fake- but only attributed the creator as "Barzolff", who wished to remain anonymous. Creativity reports the real identity as David Nicolas, a 38-year old animation director from France. You can read his bio and see samples of his professional work here.

I'm definitely impressed with the work he did on these videos. They're so good some people refuse to believe they're fake. Reportedly these are 100% computer generated using Vue software on a MacBook Pro.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Fast Fast Fast!!!


Egad it's fast! It is nonstop action with great music and great graphics and great effects (sound and visual)!

I'm taking a break at the moment, mainly because I have a headache from all the fast paced action! Talk about being blown away from the onset! If you guys thought Halo 2 was awesome, I have no description for you concerning Halo 3!

H3 definitely makes you feel you are in the battle of your life! The only thing I can really say is to David and Rob: you have to get the 360 and H3!!! There are no if's and's or but's about it! This would be the ultimate co-op for the 4 of us!

I didn't wait in line last night like I thought I would as I was with friends at the Magic Castle having a very late dinner and magic show! As fun as it was, I kept looking at my iPhone for the time because I still wanted to make it in time before the store would close! I left around 12:30am and made it with minutes to spare, as the line was almost done and they were getting ready to call it a night!

One of the managers there told me that people waited from that afternoon in front of the store, and that I missed the frenzy leading up to midnight. Surprisinly enough, they went thru the line about as fast as the Apple stores did with the iPhone! I was the last person in line and was out of the store within minutes! But as I had been up since 4am because of work, I decided to wait till morning to play as I also took the day off just for H3!

I know, I know, how could I wait to play, but I was happy and content and knew I would have no problem waiting to play! I'm not that crazy! Well, not this time at least! I've been playing since 7am and am having a blast! My only real downer will be when I have to stop playing again for a WoW guild meeting we have scheduled for tonight online. :( But it's not that much of a downer, I mean, it is WoW after all!

Well, Back to H3! This has been a long enough break! Marcos! Don't wait to buy it, buy it now!!! We need to do co-op!

Krudd

Monday, September 24, 2007

Halo 3 Unleashed

I mentioned to Rob yesterday that it was rumored the upcoming (tonight actually) mega-hit Halo 3 might not ship with co-op over the internet (via Xbox Live). It turns out this was based on a really old Bungie post that mearly stated they were having technical issues at that time. Well it looks like they ironed out those bugs since it's been confirmed that an unprecedented 4-way co-op over the Live is indeed included with the shipping product.

The only thing sad about the new release is that nobody is selling the game at a loss leader price, unlike BioShock which I picked up at Fry's for $49. Hopefully this will change in a few weeks time when I'm expected to finally finish Bio. If not, then I'm still going to get it at the normal price as H3 was part of the reason I bought an Xbox 360 in the first place. Rob, Dave when will you join Krudd and I in finishing the fight?

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Heavenly Sword


Ok, so I ended up getting Heavenly Sword for the PS3 because it is a next gen game and I don't have many games on my PS3 (Resistance: Fall of Man and Virtua Fighter 5 are the only other 2 worth buying that I have). Resistance was really good, but I still think in a showdown, GOW on the 360 wins in the action shooter arena. Graphically and gameplay for both games were great, but GOW just had that extra oomph.

Now, as for Heavenly Sword, the closest comparison is God of War, which is only a PS2 game, so I don't really have anything to compare it to with the 360, mainly because I just don't know if there is anything similar on the 360 to it. I don't have God of War, but I have seen what it looks like and just wasn't into it though it looked neat. The reason I got Heavenly Sword was mainly because I wanted a next gen game on my PS3. It sure does look it! It is visually stunning! And I was surprised that I do like the storyline. The gameplay isn't too bad either, though sometimes the camera angles are a bit difficult.

It isn't exactly a button masher, as you do have to know combo moves, but they aren't all difficult until you come up against a boss, and then when you figuire out how to fight each boss, it gets a little easier. Unfortunately, the main boss I have not figuired out yet. I can barely do any damage to him even after the super power upgrade. And when I say super power, Nariko, the games main character, is really super powered! :)

You also get to play another minor character in some of the sequences, which actually is not bad and a good break from the normal button pushing of Nariko. You have to get used to that as well though, as at first I didn't know how to handle the movement of what I was supposed to be doing. After I sort of got used to it, not really, but for me it was close enough, it was fun to play the character named Kai, a strange and not all in the head arrown shooting cat like girl. At first I didn't like her as I thought she was annoying, but that changed as the game went on and having to play her part of the story. She's probably the best little surprise in the game for me.

All in all, I like this game more than I thought I would, and am more than pleased with it. The graphics are incredible and the storyline is entertaining, enough for me to have wanted to finish the game, which I haven't done because I can't get past the last boss who happened to get powers at the last minute that make him way to tough for someone who isn't that good at gaming! Hey, I like gaming, I'm just not that good at playing! Still, I'm glad I bought it!

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Cinematic Bioshock Ad

Last night while watching a re-run of SNL, I noticed a commercial for Bioshock. Since I watch little network television these days, I was wondering if it was common for gaming commercials to air on primetime- seems quite unusual for me.

Anyways, you can view the commercial on EyeballNYC's site here and read a small article on the development of it here. It seems like as time goes on, the visual difference between software rendered 3D cinematics and in-game, real-time play is diminishing.

Well, enjoy. I know that for Mark, there is no such thing as too much Mr. Bubbles and Little Sister media coverage! ;)