Sunday 5 December 2010

2000+ history

Computer gaming history 2000+
This was the start of many new things for gaming. Like the 6th generation of computer consoles and the 7th generation. Also increases in casual gaming and hardcore. The increase of online gaming with the good and the bad.
Firstly I want to talk about the 6th generation of console gaming this involved Sony’s PS2, the GameCube and the Xbox by Microsoft.  The GameCube was considered to be the ‘kid’s console’ due to its lack of adult games which the consumer market was demanding at the time.  Sony’s PS2 having come out a year before the GameCube seemed to be having the most success, as the Xbox was sold at a loss. They decided to work on game sales to bring them forward. This worked well with the release of Bungies ‘Halo’ game.  But suffered in many cases as it didn’t have enough developers to make enough games.
Also an increase of casual gaming that has started on social sites like Facebook  and Myspace with games like Mafia Wars And Farmville. Basically games where you can hop on play a little bit do some stuff like plant some carrots then hope off and come back later. Considering how popular social sites have gotten with millions of people on them everyday it’s no wonder games like these are becoming so popular. Even I use to play games like that. I played Mafia wars on Myspace before i converted to Facebook. I’m more of a hardcore gamer though and don’t like too much text based games any more.
More casual gaming has come to mobiles with games like Snake and Tetris. Also the release of android phones and the iphone has made the casual gaming market go up a lot which is a good thing I think. Everyone’s becoming a gamer of some sort.
The 7th generation of consoles has also come out. Which are the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 these are all advanced versions of the GameCube the ps2 and Xbox 360. The Wii was the first of the of the movement of motion gaming with the Wii remote and nunchuck.   The PS3 and Xbox 360 went for the more High def (HD) gaming which has made games look stunning and more realistic to look at. But this is many cases has cause lack of gameplay.  Following the Wii in 2010 Xbox 360 and PS3 have both introduced their own version on motion gaming with the release of PS Move and Xbox Kinect.
The increase of online gaming has increased a lot with more broad available to everyone it has made more games like MMORPG genre games like World Of Warcraft. Where hours and hours of gameplay is there for players to get hooked on. This is great!
BUT!!
The increase of online gaming has caused a lot of problems for developers as fewer games are being bought and the same game has been played over and over again and the neither developers nor publishers are getting any more money from it. This is bad, because games cost so much to make these days. That if something isn’t done alot of game company is going to be made bust.

Tuesday 2 November 2010

Video game histoy 80's to 90's

In the 1980’s this is where we see alot more genre coming in to games like:
Adventure games
Beat ’em up
Fighting games
Maze games
Platform games
Racing games
RPG’s
A lot of games have developed since the start of video games even the start of the Mario series started in the 80’s. I think the 80’s was a really good 10 years for gaming because it broke out in to the world big time and was the start of very famous retro games, such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Metal gear. I have to say the metal gear series is one of my favourite game series. Hideo Kojima is awesome at making games. I love how in depth you get drawn in to his games.
A lot of console gaming though got over took by computer gaming because it offered the same gaming ability and had a simple design that allowed games to be played as easy as consoles. Computers also like the Commodore 64 it allowed users to have the same pervious controllers ports from the Atari 2600. Which kind of reminds me of the ps1 and the ps2 how they kept the same ports which was cool.
Also in 1985 the 16-bit era came around with the Atari ST and the Commodore Amiga
Online gaming also started in the 80’s with games like Doom, which came out in 1993. I think online gaming is one of the biggest steps for gaming as it made games that normally only get played in living rooms but yet played against people all over the word whilst just sitting in the living room. I’m sure it wasn’t as good as it is these days with huge mmorpgs, and shooters like Battlefield Bad Company.  Though online gaming in the 80’s and 90’s does make me wonder was it as bad as it is now? I mean like playing games and getting random lag? Getting kicked out games for no reason? And getting rubber band? Rubber band is probably my most hated online gaming problem ever. It happens on Runescape, Guildwars and Battlefield bad company 2. For some reason you walk forward and you get pulled back. It’s really irritating because you’re not getting kicked out but you’re like half way between. I just wonder if they had those problems back then.
Also Handheld LCD gaming came about. Which brought about the Gameboy by Nintendo a year after the company before crashed. I think the Gameboy has to be one of the most successful gaming units, because they have been so many versions of it. You see how it grew throughout the years from just some standard square brick thing to colour to flip to extra buttons to touch screen. The list goes I love how it’s always reinvented itself to fit the next idea of gaming. And plus I love the idea of being able to game whilst out and about. And how it’s survived to modern day with mobile phones and PSP etc.

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Video game history 50's to 70's

58 years since the first game was made by a guy called A.S Douglas in 1952. He made the first ever video game. A version of tic-tac-toe named ‘OXO’. I found this video on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkiwn7u8i8s&feature=related ) which is a version of what it looked like but isn’t. It’s from an emulator on windows vista not from machine that it was originally on. From watching the video I thought the game looked really boring it looks like some math game. But reading up on it made me think,” Hey wait a minute this is kind of like the first real intelligence from a computer.” You play against a computer. And I kind of see why people would enjoy it, because it was a sense of whose better, me or the machine? I like this idea it kind of reminds me of the video Chris showed us. It’s kind of like the beginning of a war between whose better man, or machine that has forever been going in games that need to be played against a computer. Even in games like Assassins Creed (Yes I know, I love Assassins Creed ^_^) I love in Assassins Creed where you have to time your attacks to defeat your enemies I love how you face the computer in a dual to see whose better, ending in a dramatic death. I guess this is the same with this game apart from the dramatic ending, but instead an inside feeling of “Yes! Come on!”  
The second game was a multiplayer game called ‘Tennis For Two’ in 1958. It was programmed on a EDSAC Vaccuum-tube computer (I have no idea what that is) by a man named William Higinbotham, but anyways it’s basically a light of a tennis court with a green dot as the ball and you have to use these knobs to turn to go up and down and then press a button to hit the ball/ light back. It actually looks really fun just because from the video I’ve seen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6mu5B-YZU8&feature=related). From what I can tell basically you can’t see where your hitting the ball from I don’t understand how you know where you are in the game to hit the ball back. In a way, seems like a hardcore way to play tennis. I really do like how the first two games in history that I’ve found are so completely different from each other. All games these days seem to be so alike it’s insane, so many types of shooters, RPG’s etc. I guess before in those years they didn’t have genres for games.
In 1970’s the first ever arcade game was created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney later to be founders of Atari computers. It was called computer space. Which was based on the game called Spacewar! To me games like this really don’t interest me. I find games like Space Invaders and games like that really boring yet playing an fps game doesn’t, which in a sense is where all shooting games come from.  Thought to be honest my interest in shooting games has only started since the ps3. Before I was interested in games like:
Chaos legion
Tomb raider
Grand Theft Auto
BMX XXX (loved the ragdoll bails)
Though no matter what, games are designed for fun. It doesn’t really matter who created the first game or who thought we can use computers for fun. Seeing as there are so many arguments about who started it. Then, to me it doesn’t matter. As long as games exist, people like us are here, to create them and to have dreams.

Tuesday 12 October 2010

About me!

Hey, Well I’m Russell (Russ for short) or other wise known as russ_XD (on PS3).
I’m from a town called Corby which is near Northampton.
I basically choose this course for obvious reasons. I got asked when I was in sixth for what I wanted to be. My honest answer was I don’t know I just really enjoy playing games really but I doubt I can get a job for that. I also got asked “well what subjects do you like?” And I said “I love doing art, it feels freer because it’s your own personal style you’re making when you do it.” And eventually being a game artist got brought up.  It sounded so cool. So basically I looked in to it I loved the concept art for uncharted and I loved the work of Kekai Kotaki from Guildwars. Also at the time I loved playing Burnout Paradise and they each week made a podcast called crash TV and on their one of the leading game artist that works for criterion games talked about what it takes to be a game artist and from there on I was hooked I knew what I wanted to be! This was the only course near me as well so I thought great I’ll go for it. I didn’t even know it was the best course for it in the country so I guess I’m pretty lucky there.
My ambitions for this year is to improve my art to as best as I can. And continue to improve all through my life.  This course isn’t about being the best in the class and being put down by others because their work is amazing. I think we should be inspired by it. And by the end of the day/ course we have to be as good as the people other work in the industry and that’s what I want to aim for to be as good as them! In the future I want to have my work shown on the art section of games like in uncharted, and MAG and games like that. 
My other interests that trying not to include games are: music, (I love Linkin Park and bands like that), I watch some Animes (like darker than black, Full metal alchemist). Love watching films. And I also do some videos about games. Like: Dancing VIP’s in SOCOM, odd little montages and races on BFBC2. I’ll leave a link to one of my videos

I’m not really sure where I want to go in the industry after this course I hope to find this out during the course and what I’m best at. But anyways I looked up on Google and saw this which I thought looks cool. http://www.gamesrecruit.co.uk/JobDetail.aspx?id=13948  it’s an Environment artist. The only problem with it is that I need 2 years of experience working under ps3 or other groups.  But it just sounds cool. Like it says “Role for an experienced environment artist on a high production values game for PS3. To work with lead environment artist in a focused and talented team of no more than 8 artists. Will maintain ownership of large level sections, from pre-production, through outsourcing to final internal polish” I like the idea of working in a small group. I would also like to be a concept artist but, I think I’m going to become more of a 3D modeller because it seems more like a nature skill to me.

I believe I could get this job though if I was to work hard throughout the course and into any job that first hands its self to me in the industry for the first two years.


I'f the bottum part comes out in caps I dunno why mike it isn't like that when I wrote it its just posting it like that. Please don't kill me if it is!