Tarquin and Vernon – Teaser Trailer

OK, so the Tarquin and Vernon Teaser Trailer has gone live now; here’s the link if you’d like to watch it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXXDAo5QC_0&feature=channel_page

They’ll be another trailer up and online next week.  Until tomorrow people.

Tarquin and Vernon

Paul and Bruce have been renamed Tarquin and Vernon, because everybody uses names like ‘Paul’ and ‘Bruce’.  I am currently working on the script for episode one, but a teaser trailer will be up tomorrow or Friday.  Then, I’ll start work on episode one.

Upcoming Projects

I now have several upcoming YouTube projects that I shall be filming over the next few months.  Tomorrow, I should have up a trailer for ‘Paul and Bruce’, and also a little side video that I’m making for a bit of fun.

YouTube and other things

I’ve also decided that I’m going to actually do something worthwhile with my YouTube account, and actually make some decent videos.  Something I can be proud of and say, yeah I made that, unlike my shitty attempt at a vlog.

I will also start storyboarding Incredibles 2.  I really am going to have no time for college work.

!ATTENTION!

Okay people, time for a bit of a rant.  Well, I say rant, it’s more of a number of things I need to get off my chest.  So, I’ll begin:

Topic One:  The Nollab
I have neglected this for too long and for a long time.  I am so sorry people that I haven’t updated it for about seven years (OK, maybe a slight exaggeration, but let’s go on).  I will be writing the next chapter some point soon, but I promise you it will be done by the end of this week.  You will then find out what is next for Jason and how Penny is going to react towards hime.

Topic Two: Christopher Johnstone
With regards to literature, this man is my other half in a strictly non-homosexual way.  Although it may seem like I don’t, I really do want to meet up, but for a number of reasons that I won’t mention on here (I’m making them sound a lot worse than they are) we still haven’t managed to.  But rest assured, come the summer when I can hopefully drive, I will be knocking on your door.  Check this guy out on his blog at http://tophatron.wordpress.com where you’ll find all you need to know about him and even gain the ability to stalk him.  I also need him to help me with this page.  Please Chris, give me access to all the little things that I can put in the side bar like my Twitter, access to your blog etc.  Oh, I wish I was as good at stuff like this as he is.  So, I am trying to make it down to Brum-land and I will be continuing our story.

Topic Three:  Personal Story Writing

I have many stories on the go at the moment, and later on today, I shall post an extract from one I need to get back into.  My mind is buzzing with many ideas, but for my English A Level Coursework, I need to write a short story, something I’m not very good at because I need to have a long prologue that plays hosts to indespensable background information and I need my characters to develop slowly and I need… you get the picture.  But today, I plan to come up with a plot and for it to be written.  In fact, in an ideal world, I’d like to get my English coursework done and out of the way so I don’t have it hanging over me like some dead bird.  Also, throughout the process of writing this entry, I have gained the ability to touch type, making things a lot easier.

Well, that about wraps up my little rant.  There will be more frequent posts nowadays so stay tuned.  Now, I just need to find a way to plug this…

Chit Chat

I’ve decided that I shall update my blog on a more regular basis; it doesn’t seem right to neglect it like I have the Nollab!

I will be writing my next chapter very soon, so look out for that.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars – First Impressions

I always thought that, if anyone were to try and fit a game like GTA on a DS cart, they would muck it up tragically.  However, being the genius’ that they are, Rockstar have managed to fit the mammoth that is Grand Theft Auto onto the tiny, inch by inch Nintendo DS game cartridges.

Liberty City is instantly recognisable; if you’ve played GTAIV, you’ll know your way around.  Chinatown Wars looks like the illegitimate love child of GTAII and GTAIV.  The top down view suits the DS perfectly, whilst the modern environment goes well with the current spectrum of Grand Theft Auto games.  The game plays like Grand Theft Auto… as it should.  I’m sick and tired of lazy developers who will make a new ‘game’ in a series for it only to turn out as a half arsed attempt to make money.

So far, I’ve only played through a few of the missions, and I can make one comments; it is incredibly easy to make money.  Sure, if you get busted or wasted you lose all your guns and money, but all you have to do is find the nearest pedestrian, kill for money, find drug dealer, buy drugs, go to other dealer, sell for profit.  Do this multiple times and you have enough money to buy several apartments, a car, a prostitute and change left over for BLT.

This doesn’t make the game bad, but sometimes, I don’t feel that I’m being challenged.   

More information to come when I post a full review; stay tuned!

Bitch!

I’m pretty sure the unwritten laws of being a ‘best’ friend or a ‘good’ friend means that you don’t bitch about the people who you can trust and rely on.  So why do people do it?  Ney, why does someone feel the need to do it excessively?  I’ll openly admit that I bitch about people and have said stuff about my friends, but I don’t do it to the point that everything I say will somehow involve some sort of hatred towards someone.  I don’t understand people who do this and what really gets up my grill is when someone bitches about you for something you do or wear, but then does it themselves.  Rant over.  Maybe.

Killzone 2 – First Impressions

The first thing that hits you when you start playing this game is the graphics.  They are truly incredible and I think I’m not going too far when I say their the best on the PS3, possibly even on all the consoles.  The gameplay, whilst not doing anything new and imaginitive, is spot on a sticks truly to the tried and tested method that has inhabited many modern FPS’.  The controls are hard to get used to if you have been used to the presets in games like Call of Duty, but these are easily changed to suit your needs; I don’t know, however, whether the preset controls in Killzone 2 are easy for a player who has never played.  the campaign so far feels really solid and frantic; this may sound silly, but at times you almost feel like you’re in there with Rico and the like and action is tightly packed.  Online suffers from a few lag issues but apart from that, it is incredibly addictive and the way the missions that you do with your squad/teamates are set out is really really good fun.

My impressions of the game so far; I have yet to complete the campaign but I will post a full review up once I do.

The Orange Box – Portal

So I start my first ever review positively, something that I wasn’t sure I was going to do what with the sea of mediocracy that seems to swamp the games industry nowadays. I’m also starting with a game that has been out for just over a year. Portal is a genius, if not short, puzzle game made by developers Valve, critically acclaimed for the excellent ‘Half Life’ series. Released on October 9th 2007 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 and on December 11th for PlayStation 3, it came bundled as a product called The Orange Box with also contained the games Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2 and Team Fortress 2. The game puts you in control of Chell, a guinea pig used to test the ‘ASHPD’ or ‘portal gun’.

Using a unique physics engine, the game has you get through various levels by using the gun to create two portals that can be actively used to transport from A to B. These portals can also used to unlock doors and, if you immature and are amused very easily like me, create looping wormholes that are incredibly hard to get out of.

I can honestly say that I can’t find flaw with this game; it seems weird to say something like that seeing as though I have a rather critical eye. The only possible negative aspect is that the game is very short, play time only being about two to three hours long but this seems irrelevant as its less about the quantity and more about the quality. The puzzles are frustrating yet compelling and the game itself isn’t bad looking; I was however playing this on the PS3 so I don’t know how much better it would look on, say, a high powered PC.

Reviewers can sometimes get stupidly knocked for not having some sort of rating system to round of their reviews and whilst I don’t class myself as a professional reviewer, I will avoid upsetting my readers and rate my games accordingly:

* – Poor
** – Adequate
*** – Good
**** – Very Good
***** – Outstanding

As you can probably predict from what you’ve read so far, I’m going to award Portal ***** due to it’s brilliant level design and intruiging puzzles.