Friday, 29 July 2011
Thursday, 14 July 2011
Reviewers Roundtable - Inglourious Basterds
Well, it looks like we've got all our rotten eggs in one BARSKIT
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
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.
Wednesday, 6 July 2011
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...
Sunday, 3 July 2011
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.
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.
"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 |
Friday, 1 July 2011
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