Thursday, March 5, 2009

Hazards in our work area..

- Computers:
Screens:
Eye sight loss from long hours of use - 8/10
CPU: Could fall easily - 5/10
CTS: Repetition can cause CTS - 10/10
CPU Overheating: If CPU is left on over the weekend it could be a potential fire hazard - 6/10

-Loose objects:
Poles: Useless objects like the poles in the corner can easily be knocked over. - 6/10
TV Tray: TV Tray has wheels and sharp edges and is in the way. 7/10

-Emergency:
Exit: No emergency exits in case of fire if the main door is burning. 9/10
Exit plan: No visible emergency exit plan in the room. 9/10
Fire extinguisher: No fire extinguisher in the room at all. 10/10

-Tripping on objects:
Wires: CPU and LAN wires are in position in some parts of the room to be tripped over like near the closet CPU to the door. [Wires face person near it] 6/10
Bags: Peoples bags all over the floor can cause people to trip over and hit objects such as tables or fall on another student hurting them. 8/10

-Chairs:
Sitting right: If you don't sit right for long hours it will destroy your body in the long run. 7/10
Wheels: Chairs have wheels which make them dangerous when people race around on them. 7/10
Standing on Chairs: You can not stand on these chairs cause they have wheels, so trying to get something from a high place is a no no. 8/10

-Windows:
Natural Light: No natural light (Not enough), we need our Vitamin D from Sunlight. 4/10
Open windows: No open windows/Fresh air is needed for effective work. 5/10

-Horseplay:
Males: With the amount of males in this class room horseplay is bound to happen and they can hit things like tables, chairs, CPU's, TV tray, poles, white board wall which is movable. 9/10

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Game Analysis: Resistance 2 [PS3]

Today we are looking at Insomniac’s First Person Shooter sequel to Resistance:Fall of Man they called creatively called Resistance 2.



R2 was released in Australia during late November 2008. Many have been waiting for the sequel especially the Resistance fanboys who got hooked on the original R:FoM which was one of the first titles released on the brand new Playstation 3.

Introduction for new players to the Resistance Series:
Alright for those of you who have never played the Resistance series let me give you some quick background info on Nathan Hale and the Chimera.

Basically the main character Nathan Hale is sent to Britain in 1951 to retrieve a super weapon to use against the Chimera which was actually another form of Chimera called "Angels" which one of them was captured. It was trying to get into Hales head so hale killed it.

Now Chimera are a race who basically want to infect all the humans with the Chimera virus which converts humans into Chimera.
All Hales soldiers were wiped out by the virus, but he seemed to have survived the infection which gave him increased strength and stamina while changing the color of his eyes to gold like the chimera species eye color.

When Hale finally got to the tower network in R:FoM, he set up a nuclear reaction that killed all the "Angels" which starting killing off the other chimera.
Hale was believed to be killed in the explosion, but to the gamers delight there was a final cut scene showing Hale still alive walking through a snowy forest.
Hale is then taken at this point by Black-ops which are characters in the R:FoM multiplayer.
Hale thinks about killing himself and the Black-ops with a single grenade but decides against and this is where R2 picks up.

Single Player :
R2 has a pretty good story that again follows the hero from R:FoM Nathan Hale. It picks up almost right after R:FoM, so Hale doesn’t get a chance to rest.
Returning to R2 is the Chimera the enemies who are trying to destroy all the humans. They infect the humans so they too become chimera and it just spreads like wild fire.
Nathan Hale is also infected but doesn’t turn thanks to inhibitors in his body. He needs to keep taking them through out the game to keep himself Human. But battling the Chimera makes it very hard to focus on that while trying to save the world which makes the story even better.
Single player features around 13 weapons to use through out the game. They range from your standard shotgun, sniper and magnum, to the Chimera’s Bulleyes which locks on target and the bullets follow the tagged enemy even around a corner. There are more but I’ll let you play the game and have fun with them yourself.
The graphics seem to go with an Autumn theme. The colors are a dull orange, brownish theme, though I guess it goes well with 1950's America.
When playing on standard definition the graphics look rough and its hard to see the fine details of the game unless you got it hooked up to a HD tv with HDMI input. Nothing to really turn you off playing it on a standard TV, its just after playing it on HD theres no way you'll go back to Standard definition.
Also the fire effects look kind of crappy, I’ve noticed effects like Water and fire make and break the look of a game.
I think so far the only real fire in game that has impressed me is by Far Cry 2.

The bosses in the game are Huge! and look very impressive, but the downside is they are pretty easy to beat, even on Superhuman difficulty which you unlock after beating the game on Hard.
Even the final boss is too easy for my liking, but I'll let you see for yourself.

Multiplayer:
Being a competitive gamer myself the competitive side of things is important to me. One thing that appealed to a lot of people is you can have 30v30 online games with little to no lag. Me personally it I was excited about it at first, but having played 30v30 or even 15v15 games I must say it looked better on paper.
The problem with massive number games like that is your own teammates get in your way and either block your shots or block your way to escape from a grenade that just dropped at your feet.
All the weapons from single player are in the Multiplayer, but some have been modified which is no surprise since the weapons would have been very unbalanced.
For example, the Wraith which is a chain gun can no longer be used while the shield is up.
You need to put the shield down before firing it.
And the sniper doesn't have its awesome slo-mo effect like it did in Single player mode.

The maps are pretty well designed and are fun to play on, they range from a forest setting, city setting, subway just to name a few.
I would prefer if they did release more 5v5 (Smaller) type maps though, which is very possible with the next DLC (Download content) Package.
You can play your standard TDM (Team Death Match), Capture and Skirmish which is a similar thing to King of the hill in the halo series with some twists like assassinate a player, while the other team protects them.
The Graphics are some what the same in Multi as it is in SP, they haven't been really dumbed down for online play, as long as the game runs fine online with little to no lag I’m happy.

Co-op:
Now this part really makes the game stand out for more casual gamers, the thing is after single player theres not much more to do for casual gamers who don't like to go online and get smashed over and over.
So Insomniac gave the people Co-op. And its a very big Co-op.
It does not follow the story of the single player but it is its own story where you can have up to 8 friends in your party and work as a team in 3 classes to take out all the chimera and retrive the intel.
The classes include Medic, Soldier and Special-opps, and the more you play the more you can upgrade those classes and do even more damage.
Now you need at least one class a game to do well, the reason being the Soldier deals a lot of damage up front thanks to his shield, but his shield and ammo does not last forever, so its up to the Spec-opps to give the soldier and Medic ammo.

The medic needs the ammo cause it refuels his weapon which heals other players which is needed in Co-op cause you don't regain health like you do in Multi and SP.
And if you are killed you respawn in 30sec, but you can be revived by one of your teammates, but if all your team is down the game is over and you fail the mission.

And theres plenty of missions for hours and hours of co-op play.

Controls:
The controls are awesome the main reason for that is they allow you to map your own buttons any way you like which should be in every game.
What I mean by this is some people prefer to use other buttons the developers picked for them.
For example some people prefer to scope with L2 instead of the standard L1, a lot of games don't allow this or have preset control types, R2 lets you customize each and every button the way you like it for yourself.

Sound:
Not much to say about sound, I like the voice acting in single player and the sounds of the weapons are your standard effects, nothing too flash or stands out.

Overall:
R2 is a great Arcade style FPS which had a solid online net code that allowed players from around the world to vs each other unlike in other games like Halo and CoD which Australians were smashed thanks to the distance and other countries superior internet connections. I have been playing this game pretty much on a daily basis and loved playing with friends against the world. Not sure how long I’ll be playing this come Killzone2 (Feb 26th) but we’ll wait and see.

Thanks for reading, and seeya when I seeya.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Gaming Industry in Australia

Just been going over a few Australian game Developer sites and just wanted to post a thought on it all.

First off, lets look at..

-Torus Games-
Site - www.torusgames.com

Right off the bat you'll notice they have a very clean looking site thats pretty easy to use.
Looking over their games list I can say I have heard off them and seen them on shelves, but I can't say I have played them.

Not that they are bad games, they just don't grab my intention and have we wait in the cold night for a midnight release of the game.
They seem to have a theme going cause they have a lot of Racing games released.

They are located in Melbourne, Australia which is a good thing for me since I'm from there, who knows might end up working for them someday.

There is no real forum which is in my opinion needed so their customers have a place to either praise of complain about something in the game.
Sure they could send an email or right a letter, but because of the simplicity of a forum people would rather that.

Looking at the main page you'll notice there is a few job openings, seems they are doing well for themselves with a few games selling into the 1million mark worldwide.

I hear we will be visiting them in a few weeks which be really cool, hopefully get to ask them a few questions and check out their studio, never been to a gaming studio before.

Now moving on...

-Pandemic Studios -
Site - http://www.pandemicstudios.com/corp/

As soon as you go onto this site you can see someone sent a good deal of time fine tuning the main page, it looks pro as, I really like it, when people something like this it gives the company a good image.

Now I can say I have played one of the games this compay has developed.
Destroy all humans on the Xbox.
I remember when I first got this game it was heaps of fun.
Messing with the locals, taking over their bodies, reading their minds to hear some funny shit they say.
I haven't played the Sequel, might give it a go someday to see where they went with the series.

No job offers from Pandemic though, seems its a full house there, which is no surprise cause their line up of games is a pretty good looking one.

They have 2 projects in the works one is called Project X and no idea what it is.
The second is Saboteur which looks like its set in WWII.
Looks a little like a Stealth game, reminds me a little of Assassins Creed actually.

Just did a little google search on it, turns out it is set in WWII, but France, not Germany.
Its about one mans battle to get revenge on the Nazi thugs who killed his friends not concerned about WWII happening all around him, seems interesting might give it a go when its released.

Now you will also see Pandemic also has a Forum for its gamers, and its doing pretty well with over half a million posts arleady posted.

I can't stress how much developers should be reading forums about their games, sure some things people say are real harsh, but those people are assholes, if you look past them you'll see some great suggestions and comments.

Alright moving on..

-BigAnt Studios -
Site- www.bigant.com

Looks like BA has a new site happening, good on them, it looks real nice and clean.
And seems they too are doing well for themselves, a lot of Australian gaming companies are moving to Queensland, which you can't blame them since the gaming industry is massive up there.

But with eGames getting bigger every year I think Melbourne will take over as the place to be for game developers.

I haven't played any of the games they've made, but they have an AFL game in the making for the next gen and I'm sure my brother will get it for sure, so I'll check that out when he does.

Most of the jobs they offer though are ones where you need a lot of EXperienCe for, so no chance of getting them right out of school, but something to work for.

Again... No Forum, whats wrong with the Australian game developers?..
Heck even Nintendo Australia has no forum, Playstation AU and Xbox360 AU both have very active forums.

Though they have an awesome loctation in the heart of the Melbourne CBD, wouldn't mind checking out some day.

Moving on...

-Tantalus Games-
Site- www.tantalus.com.au

One of the nicer looking Oz game developer sites, tabs on the side are a little small though, they might want to look into that.

Located in South Melbourne, they have developed games such as Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, MX v ATV, and a racing game for the movie Cars by Pixar.

Those are some big selling names right there, but again never played any of them, not my thing.

There is no Posistions open at this point in time, but they do have a helpful FAQ.
Might be interested in a Testers job there just to see what its like to work in a place like that.

They too will be EXpanding to Queensland, but like I said, Melbourne will be the heart of gaming in Australia.

And again no Forums to discuss Tantalus related topics on.
Well I think thats it for now, we'll see where the industry goes from here.
Seeya when I seeya.

Face behind the blog.


Me shooting an Helgast member from the Killzone series at eGames'08

You are probably wondering whats with the pic...
Well I like to make a connection between me and the readers of my blog.

Sure I could hide behind a mask like Master Chief, but I like to know who I'm reading about, and I'm sure theres many more out there, so thats it, enjoy.

Seeya when I seeya.

How I got here..

To be Totally honest I started a course at TAFE to get some web coding skills, then I was introduced to this course based on gaming called Interactive media, and being the massive gaming fan I am it was hard to resist.

After this course I would really like to get inot the gaming industry. Being part of a Team that creates something the likes of the Halo3 series (FPS made by Bungie) and bringing all kinds of people around the world together for hours of online gaming, T-bagging and Trash talking would be amzing.

I have been a gamer all my life along with my 2 brothers.
We've got our room set up into a gaming Heaven consisting of 4 Xbox360's, 2 PS3's, a Nintendo Wii and many classic consoles we still play till this day.

I don't really have a favourite genre of games, but I do mainly play FPS, Fighters and Racing games.

Gaming has moved away some what from Single player and there is a whole lot more Multiplayer out there these days.
One day I would like to create a Multiplayer game that will be remembered long after I'm gone.

So the pashion for gaming is there. I also enjoying drawing concepts when I have time to do so.

Creating an awesome character who people will use as an avatar, sig etc on forums like they do with the likes of DragonBallZ characters, SF, Halo, and many other gaming icons.
Would be a great feeling.

We have also created a website ( www.gamerhold.com ) for our competitive gaming team (TEC) where we all hang out, catch up, talk strats, stuff like that.

I'm also interested in making short movies (Sketches) and uploading them to Youtube, some are hits, some are misses, but always fun making them.
Heres my TEC Entertainment Page - http://www.youtube.com/user/tecEnt
And here is my TEC gaming Page - http://www.youtube.com/TECxGamingChannel

So thats a little about why I'm here.
We'll see what the future hold.

Seeya when I seeya.

Introduction

Sup everyone, my name is EXC355UM, I'm a pro gamer studying Interactive Media in school at the moment, and part of the course I need to have a blog, so here I am.

I'm 26 years old, I'm from Melbourne Australia and I love my gaming.
We have a room set up in my home just for gaming, consisting of around 10 consoles and 6 screens.

At the moment I'm heavily into PS3 Games, like Resistance 2, CoD5, CoD4 and coming soon Killzone2 and Street Fighter 4.

Well thats basically me in nutshell, more to follow.
Seeya when I seeya.