This...

Cody and Matt Discuss KOTOR

Me and Matt talk about:

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Star Wars The Old Republic

Be sure to stay for the start and end of the video for our fan-dub of classic KOTOR moments.

Special thanks to Matt for joining me in this, editing this all together and recording his own game footage.  You can see his YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/yarealpoof

If you are interested in Star Wars in any way then I highly recommend his channel.

Stretch Reviews - Assassin's Creed

FINALLY!  After what feels like half a year (not that far off) I give you some actual CONTENT!

I've been fiddling around with some stuff on iMovie and I only NOW have figured out how to put a games cover fully on screen (thanks Seth).  So that's why the cover only has the title because no matter how user friendly iMovie is, it does have some flaws to it.  Please let me know what you prefer; holding the game up in my hand, or having it placed into the editing?  I decided to do that here to make it look more professional and to show games that I don't have.

So let me know what you think here.  I wanted to make my videos very consistent from the very start......yeah...that didn't happen.

Anyway, my next review is written and sorry for not giving you much recently.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 thoughts

Teeny tiny spoilers.

Let me know what you think of filming in my usual filming room.  I may always film vlogs in there, but maybe not.  YOU DECIDE!

Skyrim Thoughts

Spoilers...obviously.

I missed a few things like how 'speech' and 'lock-picking' skills are useless.  I'm still playing Skyrim so let that show that I am really starting to love this game.  I can't stress enough how large and full this game is.  Virtually every cave, tower, ruin etc. has, on some level, a story to tell.  Also keep in mind that I've only been using bows and destruction magic, so as far as combat goes, that's all I know of.

Heroes 6?

Where's my review!?

Anyone who can say what my desktop picture is will win a PRIZE!.....maybe......If I can think of something.

Batman: Arkham City thoughts

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!


I may never play it again.

Reviewers Roundtable Podcast - #3

http://www.youtube.com/user/RoundtableReviews

Roundtable Reviews - Limbo

This style of video is SO much easier for me since I don't have to get screenshots and I can review virtually anything with a front cover.  I may stick with it.

'Splosion Man Review

This game is sick in every sense of the word.  When I began playing the supposed lively and energetic game 'Splosion Man I was expecting a fast paced thrill ride.  What I got was a poorly designed, lack luster annoyance that made me frustrated and even disgusted.

Who, why, what?

The 'Splosion Man character has apparently escaped from his containment centre and is running amuck in a science…place.  Now I’m not asking for a huge back-story but I would like some context.  The game begins with him bursting out of his room and everyone responds in surprise, so how was he even able to do that now?  As I ‘sploded’ my way through huge and relatively complex levels I was constantly curious as to why this place is even set out like this.  You’d think it would simply be a futuristic science facility but instead they have these gargantuan rooms with randomly placed platforms, pits, lasers, missiles and other objects that launch Splosion Man to ridiculously precise locations.  The items and devices you interact with jarringly change from trying to kill you to helping you move around.  At first I thought it was a testing room for Splosion Man himself, but that can’t be right because many situations require you to slam, burn, pulverize, electrocute and crush the scientists blocking your way.  The scientists are either stupid or suicidal.

Killing people is fun.......

There’s a major issue I have with 'Splosion Man.  It attempts to have this goofy and lighthearted aura about it but the things you do are unbelievably mean spirited.  I was thinking it would be a very clean platforming experience that would be fun for the whole family, but this may be one of the most violent games I have ever played.  You read correctly; “'SPLOSION MAN IS ONE OF THE MOST VIOLENT GAMES I HAVE EVER PLAYED.”  Your character is a fast moving, fast talking maniac who murders dozens of scientists with glee and enthusiastic lunacy.  The puzzles you advance through

include situations where you cause living, breathing people to die in horribly violent ways.  I was particularly unnerved by the final boss where you’re essentially torturing a scared, helpless creature.  It doesn’t matter how crazy or humorous you make the playable character, that won’t make me forget the time that I used a scientist as a human shield to block lasers that sliced off pieces of his body allowing me to get to the next meaningless puzzle.  Also when scientists die their bodies vanish and are replaced with several pieces of meat, which makes the game even more disturbing.  It’s like suffocating someone by submerging their face into a cake.  It’s goofy, but the person is still dying. 

...boom

The puzzles themselves start off fairly well, giving you approachable situations with a challenging yet fun learning curve.  However, as each stage gets more complex they only get more infuriating.  For one thing; some of the rooms, especially boss battles, are so huge that you can barely see your character scampering around the bottom of the screen like an insect.  There are moments in the puzzles where the camera pulls out too far and your glowing character doesn’t stand out enough.  It halts the flow of the game when you have to stop for a few seconds just to make sure where you are which, in most cases, causes you to either fall off the edge of a platform or get crushed by a piece of the puzzle that automatically activates when you enter the area.  Splosion Man is trying to be a quick and hyperactive game but because many of the puzzles invite you to die so often and you have to get your bearings in every part you’re in, you’ll be constantly stopping and starting just to prepare yourself for a particular jump you have to make.  Unlike Limbo, the checkpoints in 'Splosion Man are too far apart so if you die in or before a particularly hard spot you’ll have to furiously trudge or effortlessly move your way through puzzles leading up to it.  This was especially infuriating during one moment where I had to deflect spinning spiky balls back at the robot that shot them.  Every time I shot one back I fell to a lower platform where I had to carefully navigate my way back so I could deflect another ball.  One false move and I would fall, die and have to restart the whole thing all over again.  Rarely is Splosion Man genuinely fun.  Most of the time it’s either frustrating or boring.

Getting higher and higher is very fun and should
have been done more often.

The controls are simple but for a game called Splosion Man it really lacks any ferocity or might.  The only way you can move, aside from frantically running left and right, is to explode onto the sides of walls and nearby objects that launch yourself around the area.  It’s fairly fun jumping up to a green canister that will propel you an arbitrary distance ranging from 10 metres to 500 metres, but because the direction and velocity of your launch is determined by the game it quickly becomes a boring display in which you push a button to see yourself uncontrollably go somewhere else.  They use these propelling objects to great effect, placing them in strategic locations allowing you to shoot yourself across large open areas and up narrow pits.  Although, it’s a shame that they had to constantly resort to using these items to help your character move around.  You’re playing as a frenzied lunatic of pure destruction yet your explosion ability is so bland and unexciting that you’ll always want a propelling item right next to you to get you around faster.  Sometimes, out of boredom, I made myself ‘splode’ over and over but all the character does is just burst up about 5 feet in the air with as force and might as a firework you see from a very far distance.  You should have been this immense power that destroyed and terrorized everything around him but instead you’re just using the scientists’ stupidly convenient equipment to get around which makes your character seem pretty worthless.

It burns it's hands, eats them and then you blow it up from the
inside as it cries out in pain.....FAMILY FUN!

The puzzles, especially near the end, are controller crushingly frustrating.  As I mentioned before, earlier puzzles are simple enough to work with the explosion mechanic but later stages become so massive and complex that dying once may force you to never play the game ever again.  I came close to doing that.  When you’re not simply shot to your next area of a puzzle, each platform requires such a precise and well timed explosion jump that there are moments when you would think you have to go somewhere else to complete some other random objective before returning.  The camera also pulls out and pans too slowly as you move so you’ll constantly have to either pause or attempt to get yourself back to the starting point before you get crushed or shot.  I downright despised the boss battles.  Almost all of them move and attack in crude, repetitive and sometimes unpredictable ways and because you always respond with an explosion or by jumping out of the way, the challenges are consistently boring and/or impossibly difficult.

Dying was the best way of getting through quickly.

The explosions serve as your life source which is an interesting concept but not used to its full potential.  You can only explode three times before having to recharge by getting to a flat surface, not sure how that makes sense.  If you finish a third explosion, lasers, missiles and stupid robots can kill you instantly.  Because most of these obstacles appear and attack faster than you can react to them you can either keep on the ground or get thrown around, so like everything else, it’s either boring or annoying.  Sometimes even dodging attacks doesn’t do anything because spikes, acid and other unexplained stuff are almost always located around the turrets and robots’ areas so when you get hit, it doesn’t matter if you survive because you’ll just fall into these contraptions and die instantly.  This wouldn’t be that much of a problem if the explosions you did made you go higher or if you could move swifter and less ‘floaty’.  There were moments when I pushed the ‘right trigger’ which caused 'Splosion Man to explode and die.  If I died enough I was given the opportunity to skip to the next stage.  After a while I always skipped.

'Splosion Man may be the game that pisses me off the most.  I have rarely been so frustrated at a game since level 3-3 in Lost Planet 2.  Any fun that I ever had with 'Splosion Man was utterly destroyed and replaced with repetitive and annoying gameplay.  With a poorly handled and unexplained premise, badly designed and overly complex puzzles, a lackluster character and horribly violent events, Splosion Man is something I will gladly leave in the dust.

The Eternal Epilogue - 2 -

BLEEPS, dreams, sex with chickens....and other stuff.

The Eternal Epilogue - 1 -

Burping, milking yourself, 3D fireworks...and other stuff.

We have decided the name 'The Eternal Epilogue'.  It's pretentious and awesome.

Feel free to ask me and Alex some questions and we'll be happy to answer them on a later podcast installation.

Let us know what you think.

Recorded: 05/10/2011

Limbo Review

I’ve been very disappointed with recent videogames using an excess of music, cut-scenes and an unnecessary focus on making a good story and not a good game. Rarely do I ever play or even hear about a game that doesn’t heavily indulge in these mostly superfluous ideas. But then Limbo came along and gave me a breath of air, if that air was ice cold and it was raining.


One of the most atmospheric moments in any game I've
ever played.  Seriously.

You awaken as a small boy who delicately stands and walks his way through an amazingly diverse set of situations. It’s very clear from the first millisecond that Limbo intends to create an experience of loneliness, isolation, oppression and even brutality, using the most simplistic art style and music you could ever think of. This minimalist effort works perfectly for placing you right into the setting. There’s no score or even much ambient music to separate you from the raw and visceral environment. Although you don’t necessarily feel like you’re the young boy himself, you still feel connected to him from an observer’s standpoint which heightens the feeling of isolation even more. A lack of dialogue and cinematics is an obvious yet incredibly effective choice that instantly conveys the emotion and atmosphere that each area of the world is dripping with. As you singlehandedly push a boat into murky water, jump across giant electrified sign letters, flip a switch that turns the world upside down and even simply walk somewhere in pitch blackness, you always feel small in a large and dangerous world.


This is pretty silly.



Limbo is focused solely on a physical experience. The only two obstacles in your way are dying and getting stuck in puzzles and the latter doesn’t become a problem at all until the last several areas when the atmosphere unfortunately dies down and Limbo becomes a mildly interesting plat-former. It’s still workable, but just not as eerie. The gameplay doesn’t repeat itself too often, and the new situations are almost instantly understandable because of the position of objects, subtle lighting and even gestures. There was a moment when I walked up to a large mosquito-like creature which quickly flew away from me and located itself around a broken, raised ladder. As it returned back to its original location I noticed that if I got closer to the animal it would raise its head as if listening to the sounds around it. I then understood that I had to approach it slowly and silently, allowing me to grab onto it and be flown up to the ladder. I then broke its leg off and it quivered away in pain. What did you expect?



Who designs a factory like this?!



Although it’s a beautifully atmospheric and effective videogame, Limbo is definitely not perfect. I became excruciatingly annoyed at later puzzles involving gravity switches, one of which took me about 30 minutes to do before using a walkthrough and finding out that I needed to get one measly box all the way off to the side of the area where I would never have looked. It also greatly suffers as the levels advance from a serene and moody forest into a bulky, huge and rather cartoonish factory. The sense of dread and isolation worked perfectly in the forest because you had come across vastly different scenarios. In the factory it’s just a series of lifeless block puzzles, buttons, gears and switches that attempt and obnoxiously fail at feeling oppressive and powerful. The fact they even included such a boring location in this game is disappointing and the transition from the forest to the factory area is too jarring to feel like you’re making any progress.



I couldn't find a picture of the ending so here's the boy
about to get crushed by a big rock...



Speaking of jarring; the ending. Now Limbo as a whole has virtually no context as to why you are actually doing anything. You wake up, go places and interact with things in the hopes of achieving other things. From an introductory stand point this works well as you are freshly interacting with the harsh environments but Limbo tries to shove this sappy and needlessly fragile ending involving a girl that keeps showing up around your trek. Granted, seeing the girl’s appearances in the distance, as in five meters away from you, was eye opening and beautiful every time but then we’re given this pathetically anti-climactic ending where the boy just slowly walks up to her and nothing happens. All we needed was one last step. I’m not asking for a huge finale but just one last action; a hug, a wave or anything. I actually was hoping the boy would kill her. That would have been a shockingly awesome twist because of how we thought of the boy up to this point. Demoralized and broken yet still retaining hope.



...why?



The boy himself interacts with the environments perfectly. Almost every jump you do feels like it’s just barely short enough to reach but never shorter than that. Even though the young character gives off the sense of weakness, mainly due to the fact that he wears shorts, the journey as a whole and the trials you overcome give him a surprising quality of strength, virtue, courage and even cold-heartedness, like when he’s running away from a giant spider creature that appears to have slaughtered an entire village of children. The music and tone of the game at that point seems to be making you more afraid of getting killed by the spider and less shocked by the fact that it just killed a bunch of people. Many of the puzzles suffer from being obnoxiously convenient for you to progress. Objects are placed so strategically that they diminish the idea of a harsh and broken environment. There’s even a situation when you get stuck to the floor and the spider, instead of simply stabbing you like every single other encounter you’ve had with it, wraps you up with web allowing you to wriggle out and escape seconds afterwards. It's still an effectively unnerving scene, but it's so inconsistent that you can tell that the developers just wanted to do something scary. It worked. Although the controls can get pretty finicky and cause more deaths than you intended, the checkpoints are placed perfectly so that you never get annoyed from dying and you can quickly learn how to deal with the obstacles you face.

Limbo is a downright fantastic videogame that accomplished everything it set out to achieve. It’s beautiful in practically every way. Apart from small nit-picky flaws like the disappointing locations in later areas, the rushed and useless ending and some vague, confusing puzzles, Limbo may as well be a perfect game. With excellent sound and visuals combined with very raw and visceral gameplay it is one of the most atmospheric experiences I’ve ever had.

Reviewers Roundtable - Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

(IMPROVISED)

This thing

Made by Allison Jeffreys.

Roundtable Reviews - Podcast #1

Reviewers Roundtable - THX 1138

It's like Star Wars...but crap...

Stretch Reviews - Dead Space

It's finally here.  Excluding Heroes of Might and Magic I and II, this is the first game I got specifically to review.

I was planning of having a shot where I get pulled out of the room with a rope...I forgot to do that.

The Evil Dead and The Fly

The Evil Dead Thoughts

The Fly Thoughts 

DEAD SPACE IS COMING SOON!

Dermer and Cody Play Portal........ehhhh

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

This was the first thing I filmed with my camera that wasn't just a test.  You can notice that some of the things I said here ended up in my anti-good review of Portal.

Maybe in the distant future we may have a go at Portal 2.............................probably not.

Captain America: The First Avenger thoughts

We ramble and yell...

Reviewers Roundtable - Inglourious Basterds

Well, it looks like we've got all our rotten eggs in one BARSKIT

Dark Messiah - Bloopers and Deleted Scenes

The 'stuff ups' and 'keep outs'.

Stretch Reviews - Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Here it is.  The last Might and Magic game I'll ever review....probably.

This was one of the first games I ever planned on reviewing.  I'm positive that there are games that are ten times worse, but this is just a horrible game.  Playing through it and taking notes took a lot out of me.

...I haven't even finished playing Dead Space yet...I'll explain why later...stay tuned.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon thoughts

Special guest: 'Dermer'

I have my Angry Joe jacket...

Yes, I stole the "Shia LeBitch" thing from The Amazing Atheist...

Allison - Drawing For Stretch

Written by - Allison Jeffreys

Drawing has always been a part of my life ever since I could remember. But in the recent years I found myself drawing less and less. The reason for this is because I kept having the feeling that what I was drawing was worthless. No real idea or meaning.  No Purpose. What I put down on paper didn't really mean anything to me. 

So when I was I asked to draw for the Stretch Reviews I was a little reluctant. I was nervous that this feeling would just stick with me and I wouldn't be able to keep up with what was needed from me. But I decided to go ahead, and just try my best. 

This was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Teaming up with Stretch ha brought me out of my creative slump. I have the urge to draw again. Not only to draw, but I've been inspired to create more. Sew, animate, design, write, act...  

I know what I'm making is going on to something more, and knowing what I'm drawing is actually connected to something, is really important to me. And even though my arts attention is based mostly on whatever attention Stretch gets, I'm happy that my art is helping him portray the kind of videos he has set out to make.

It's a truly blissful feeling. Thank you Stretch. 

Allison's Deviantart page

I'm doing what I love, but do I love what I'm doing?

I was reading some stuff that Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw wrote about his life with Zero Punctuation and I saw this:


"I guess the disadvantage of playing games as your job is that that's exactly what it starts to feel like, a job."


After reading that I raised my eyebrows and started nodding.  I couldn't agree more, and that idea is something that haunted my thoughts when I considered doing Stretch Reviews. 

Playing a video game for fun is enjoyable because you're seeing everything at face value and you're simply taking what's it's trying to give you.  But when you begin reviewing them and analysing them critically, the curtain comes down.  It's like seeing your school teacher at the shops.  Once the mask comes off and you see the mechanics of the machine, all of the magic goes away and you soon realise that you're dealing with another product, just like everything else ever made.

There was a time, around when I began editing my Heroes of Might and Magic II video, when this feeling felt its strongest.  This has happened before and I eventually got over it by forcing myself to childishly forget about it, but it still lingers in my mind.  I guess it's just one of the detriments of being a determinist and an Atheist.

The fact that I'm doing this on the internet doesn't help.  Although I am using the internet to show the things I make I honestly do despise most of what the internet is; obnoxious, annoying, random for the sake of random, easily made, un-creative 'noise'.  I try to distance myself from that as much as I possibly can.  Although I do rely heavily on noise, colour and visual effects I always intend to make it a remark on whatever I'm reviewing and not just a random joke.

Lastly, alongside 'Seeing the mechanics of the machine' and 'Trying not to be CRAP', one realisation remains; I'm discussing video games made by other people.  My own attention depends on the attention the product itself gets and on a crude level, I'm talking about creative things that I haven't made.  I'm barely contributing to anything, if at all.  When I take that into consideration I can't help but feel rather meaningless.

That's all I've got to say for now.  I've got to keep my momentum up to stop myself from making Vlogs about movies constantly so I'm going to film my next review this week.  I use a rope...

The first picture I took after my Titan Quest review

Is my foot in the door now?

Am I on Blistered Thumbs yet?!

RAMBLY UPDATES

Tell me everything you think!

Reviewers Roundtable - The Powerpuff Girls Movie

If the above video does not work then go to the YouTube version here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRt2s8gXkV4

X-Men: First Class thoughts

...excellent thumbnail...

My Thoughts on Video Game Cinematics

I love video games. Or more accurately; I love games. Recently the ‘video’ part of that erroneous title has poisoned the medium and it’s only getting worse. Not to say that I think games are now a horrible abomination that’s going to fry your brains and eat your children like my mother always reminds me. I simply feel like the video game market is heading in a very un-satisfactory and detrimental direction. I speak of video game cinematics; the increasingly common part of a game where you place the controller on your lap, carpet, desk etc. and watch as the interaction ceases and you are no longer ‘playing’ anything.

Cinematics overall attempt to achieve one or all of the following three things:

• Forge characters and story elements.

This is usually coupled with atmosphere yet that can easily attach itself to any situation of any video game, interactive or not. Cinematics here simply stop you from getting distracted by flailing your sword or jumping on the spot as you wait for the powerful wizard to tell you where you need to go. An example of this done mildly well are the deceptively interesting dream sequences in Might and Magic: Dark Messiah.  Those moments compliment the story, they don't replace it. An example of this not done very well at all is Mass Effect 2 where you are basically playing to reach cinematics which flood about 80% of the entire movie…I mean game.

 

Cinematics done right.  Too bad the rest of the game is trash.

A game doesn’t need to have a cinematic to have stories and characters explained to us. They don’t even need us to move around. Games like Bioshock and Portal 2 did extremely well with this by having barriers like windows, elevators and fences that forced you to look at a certain thing and have that the focus. It does exactly what this kind of cinematic tries to do but because it doesn’t take control of everything you always feel engaged. When a big daddy is slamming a deformed lunatic up against a window and shoving a drill into his chest you’re not going to have any desire to look away, even on multiple playthroughs. Not that you would play it again because I think Bioshock SUCKS!

You can't walk away but you're still PLAYING...technically.

• Gives you a better camera angle.

One of my least favourite things about video games today.

The best examples I’ve seen of this are contained within the games Lost Planet and Lost Planet 2. In the first game you are piloting a large mech suit through a corridor until you arrive in a large underground city. Before you take another step it harshly cuts to a cinematic of a gargantuan green beetle smashing through the buildings, roaring at you and eventually cutting back to you positioned nicely to blow the crap out of it. This cinematic lasts about 10 seconds. The issue here is that those 10 seconds were incredibly pointless. The only minor useful thing that it shows you is your characters lifeless, plastic face as he sees the beast before him. Did we really need to stop everything and watch it roar at us? Did it really require a cinematic to snatch the controller away from you?



This = bad

Lost Planet 2 is also guilty of this but easily its biggest crime appears as you are hurtling towards a planet in a mech suit. (The Lost Planet series really love their mech suits) You pilot your suit/comet towards the ice covered planet below accompanied by a brilliant score only for it to fade to black and show you a video of you smashing into the ground on the planet. My reaction; WHAT?! That cinematic brutally murdered what may have been one of the greatest moments of video game history. Forget games like Just Cause or X-Men Origins: Wolverine where you just jump from a couple hundred metres. We could have embodied the spirit of an asteroid as we spiraled towards a planet from space, watch as we enter the atmosphere, break apart and eventually smash into the ground with almighty force. 

Worst/Best moment in the game...arguably.

The main problem here is that it's simply taking away the 'game' part of a Video Game.  I don't think I've ever seen a cinematic that couldn't become, and be improved by becoming, interactive and a part of the game itself.  When you are 'doing' and not 'watching' the immersion improves and the engagement in what you're doing becomes greater.  You feel like a more major part of the experience.  But recently it's rather rare to find any interactive part of a game that isn't just combat.  Something as simple as; pushing a rock, whistling for a horse, cutting a hole in a window, applying bandages to a wound, crawling under something or even running away from danger can immerse you into a story (If the game does have a story) more effectively than a video.

These kinds of cinematics are what’s wrong with games and it’s feeding the ‘Video Games = Movies’ monster. It instantly takes away realism, mood, and enjoyment and constantly reminds you that you are playing a game that can bully the controller away from you and take you where it wants to go only for you to respond with “Yes Sir Mr. Game. I sure do like your graphics. Can I play you soon?” Both of those examples didn’t need to be cinematics and it comes off as being lazy. I hate it.



Queen, Baiztencale, Undeep, Vital Fortress, Debouse and The Gordiant (above)
are NOT introduced with a cinematic and they're the best fights.

• Disguises a loading screen.

This one is rather obvious and can easily be attached to the previous ‘types’ of cinematics mentioned above. These often happen before boss battles that take place on very complex platforms and arenas. It’s rather foolish of me to think that games should never have loading screens but they should be interesting and useful, not just a pointless time wasting cinematic that hurts the game more than it should.

Loading screens were done flawlessly in Mass Effect 2 which almost singlehandedly feels like a part of the game itself and not just a ‘texture loading sequence’. Mass Effect 1 had elevators that substituted loading, and we all know how much we loved them.

 

Loading screens done FLAWLESSY!




Statement: I am pointless

I’m definitely not saying that games should never have cinematics. They are still extremely useful when used correctly, but not when they suffocate the gaming industry that nowadays is putting story ahead of actual game play. Thanks for that Bioware! HK-47 better be important in The Old Republic! But I digress.

The obvious over indulgence of videos in trailers recently really makes me cringe. The very second after I saw the trailer for Batman: Arkhum City I said “Man, I can’t wait to play that movie that will never happen in the GAME!” It’s similar to how movies now use clips and dialogue from the film itself to tell you what’s going on. Whatever happened to the good old days of; “A story of a boy, a girl and a universe. It’s a big sprawling space saga of rebellion and romance.”? Now, video game trailers are more interested in putting you in the right mood that you’ll forget about once you start playing and you get a completely different mood thrown at you. The right one. The game’s one.

My expression exactly...

Long story short; games should stay games. When it cuts to a cinematic it is rarely worth it and could have been a dozen times better if you were still in control of the game but were unable to look away or get distracted. Have events occur during the game. Don’t split the experience up into ‘Interactive Parts’ and ‘Non-Interactive Parts’.

Stretch Reviews - Heroes of Might and Magic V

All done.  The 'default' thumbnail for this video is perfect.

I tried to make this as short as possible (it could have easily been twice as long) but I just had so much to say.

Out of the entire Heroes series of videos I still think the Heroes III review is the best, followed by this one.  I think the writing could of flowed a bit better.  I keep saying things like 'before', 'instead' and 'because'.

You may notice that in some of the shots I look slightly different and the lighting has changed.  This was actually filmed over 3 days.  The first 2 days was what was scripted but while I was editing I had other ideas which I then filmed.  This has happened before but it's the first time I've actually bothered to film something.

Note to self:  'loud' parts don't work well.

It's broken...

That sucks....

Sneak peak at upcoming video.

Reviewers Roundtable - Tremors 2: Aftershocks

My 2nd entry into the "Reviewers Roundtable".  The topic of "Giant Worm Monsters" was my choice for the month of May.

I had some trouble editing this video.  I had recorded all my dialogue but the next day it all vanished, so I had to record it all again...annoying.  This video also reminds me that I need a better microphone.

Stretch Reviews - Heroes of Might and Magic IV

4 down, 1 to go.

Honestly, I do think that my Heroes III review is better.  I just talk to much about nothing in this and it starts off with a pretty slow pace.  Still...ENJOY OR ELSE!

Also, the music I played cut out sometimes so I could only snag a few seconds of it while I conduct.

I still need to film my Heroes V review...

Conducting: Heroes of Might and Magic III

When I recorded the conducting scenes for my Heroes III review I played the music on my computer, very loudly, and then ran to this room and started "conducting" from where it was at when I got in place and continued until the end.

As you can probably tell from this, Video Game Music is something I have a big interest in and maybe if stuff like this is entertaining to some people, I may do more...maybe.

And yes, I know that's not how people conduct.

Stretch Reviews - Heroes of Might and Magic III

3 down, 2 to go.

Now this one I have proud of.  I'm really starting to use effects and typography is becoming a big part of the whole series now.  If the Bioshock review was the first step, this video is the second.

Stretch Reviews - Heroes of Might and Magic II

2 down, 3 to go.

There's a moment in this review that I'm really disappointed with.  Try and guess which part...

Heroes 3 is coming up next.  Brace yourself for that...

Portal 2 thoughts

My Portal review:

http://www.blip.tv/file/4745914
 
Things I forgot to mention:
 

• I love Wheetley's laugh.
• Suprisingly they didn't have rooms that dwarf the ones in the previous game.
• Some of the puzzles are painfully difficult to figure out.  There was 1 particular puzzle where there was a ledge and some blue gel.  I began by trying to build momentum with the gel by getting some of the floor and the ceiling and continously bouncing myself up and down before shooting a portal and firing myself up, over the ledge.  I tried and failed at this for what felt like 30 minutes.  I then noticed a buttom on the wall.  I bounced up, pushed the button and a lift rose up to the ledge.............yeah.
• The writing is wonderous.

Stretch Reviews - Heroes of Might and Magic

1 down 4 to go.

I'm sure some people may find this video slightly dull, but don't worry, they get better and better.  Just wait until Heroes 3 comes around.

Heroes of Might and Magic Introduction

THE VIDEOS WILL BE POSTED HERE DAYS BEFORE THEY ARE ON YOUTUBE.

Check this page regularly for quicker updates.

I was hoping to have the Paul Romero Q and A video in between or after this series was done...that didn't happen.  It was too good to wait.

Reviewers Roundtable - Red Planet

"Reviewers Roundtable" is a small collection of INCREDIBLY TALENTED internet reviewers, including me, who review media related to a certain topic.  The month of April was Mars, and here's my entry.

See the channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/RoundtableReviews

Paul Romero Q and A

Several months ago I began making a series of videos on YouTube where I would talk about the upcoming Might and Magic: Heroes 6 game as information was slowly leaked to the public.  I eventually made a video in which I discussed my love of the Heroes of Might and Magic music and what I was hoping for in the upcoming title.  Paul Romero, the composer of the music, found the video and we got to talking.  After a while he sent me a video where he was being interviewed by someone.  I wrote back and said that I myself have many questions that I would love to ask him.  Suprisingly, he suggested that I make a video, send it to him and he would send questions back.  I was stunned by his acceptance to such a concept.

I can never thank Paul Romero enough for this.  It was an incredibly surreal experience and one of the greatest moments of my life.  When I heard him say my name I gasped and covered my mouth, no exagiration.

Very special thanks to Glenn Kramer who filmed and sent me the video.  I couldn't have done this without him.

The music at the end was sent to me by Paul himself.  I asked if I could use it in the video and he said that would be great.  He's a great guy.

Pokemon Black thoughts

LONGEST RANT EVER!

I was hoping that Might and Magic: Heroes 6 would be released by this point so I thought that video would happen before this one.  I don't like calling these kinds of videos "reviews" so I just call them "thoughts".

Things I forgot to talk about:

• I like how pokemon close their eyes when they are asleep.
• The weather effects are great and really should be enhanced and improved later on.
• I think in the next "expansion" after this, they should go to Hoenn, that would be incredibly nostalgiac.
• The Team Plasma theme is awesome.
• 
  I used "repels" as soon as possible, even when I was in a place where I knew there were new pokemon around.
• I pretty much have ZERO desire to train my pokemon after the story because I can just send more powerful ones over from Diamond.
• 1 piece of advice; lose the "blatancy" improve the "mystery". Tornadus was 5 times more interesting than Reshiram.
• I think in future games they should have a program where, if you meet a pokemon you've seen before a short animation for battle shows up, I run away a lot...it gets annoying.
• I want another Poison gym or Elite 4 member that isn't Koga. As well as a poison legendary type Pokémon. Maybe a giant man made gas cloud.....I'm on to something here.....make a Generation VI, put that in there!
• Have more high level pokemon battles that aren't the League.
• The first part focuses heavily on the grass vs water vs fire combination. It doesn't need to. What person who has this game doesn't know those combinations OFF BY HEART?

Stretch Reviews - Bioshock

Here is where things really started to pick up.  I asked my title card artist if she could draw a simplistic picture of me in a position I would have during the actual video.  It turned out great.

This was the first video I edited using my Mac and it really shows.  My editing is a lot more fast paced and flowing and it's how I edited from now on.

I was now using music for an intro and credits.  I was hesitant to use music due to copyright.

Stretch Reviews - Mass Effect

There wasn't really that much "inspiration" for this video, it just seemed like an obvious choice.

This was the last video that I edited before I got a Mac.  Before this point I had been hastily and ineffectively jumping back and forth from Windows Movie Maker, Pinnacle Studio and Imovie on my brothers laptop.  I'm really suprise the process of editing these videos didn't "break" me.  I really am.

Because the "ha ha ha I AM A ROBOT!" line was suprisingly well received I childishly use it in the review straight afterwards.  I actually was planning on doing a negative review of Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic for April Fools Day but that video was going to have another "ha ha ha I AM A ROBOT" line in it, so I held off.  I've still got it all written down...maybe next year.

Stretch Reviews - Portal

I knew that I was going to get to this review as one of my first videos.

Some may say that I'm "digging for flaws" and that is somewhat true, although everything I said is 100% how I actually felt about Portal.  After all the praise it got I wanted to have a different perspective instead of worshipping Portal as the best thing ever made by anyone in the history of the universe.

It was at this point that I realised that the title cards were not only taking too long (due to their complexity and detail) but they didn't really suit the overall "tone" of the videos.

ha ha ha I AM A ROBOT!

Stretch Reviews - Red Dead Redemption

I knew that I had to make this video.  I hate this game, and I knew it would get me some attention.

This video really does show why 99% of all video producers talk about bad things.  It is 20 times more entertaining to watch someone complain relentlessly about something than to watch them calmly compliment something.  Although I didn't want to become just another "reviewer of bad stuff" that floods the internet so I've tried to be fairly balanced and not just go for the bad stuff.

The horse gallop noise is just me clapping my hands.  I searched high and low for some good horse gallop noises but I couldn't find one that fitted well.

This is probably the most recently released game I will ever get to.  I focus on games that are at least 1 year old.

Stretch Reviews - Titan Quest

My first ever review...clearly.

The title card was drawn before I even filmed the review, hence the completely different clothes.

You can see the "bumps" on the wall behind me where the doors would hit.  I realised them too late so for the next review I turned the camera around.

I was also planning on having no introduction or music over the credits to make it seem more..."raw".  I changed that very quickly.  It just wasn't exciting enough.