the brownhaze: the dsutbin of the internet

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since 18/9/2003

Monday, March 03, 2008

The Experiment 112

I recently started looking at a new and very original take on the adventure game. In the game you are on a boat somewhere in the tropics on which some sort of experiments have been taking place. The only interaction you have with the ship is via its security systems, i.e. cameras, door locks and other devices which are wired in to the control system you find yourself at. As far as you know there is only one other person on this boat, you can communicate with her by nodding and shaking the cameras that you control to answer yes and no to questions, or by turning on lights and other devices to draw her attention to specific areas.

The clever part about this game is that you play the roll of a person sitting in front of a computer who has no knowledge of what is going on, basically, you play yourself. This works quite cleverly to break down the fourth wall and provides a lot of atmosphere.

I do feel that I have somewhat of an unfair advantage with this game having spent quite a lot of time with security guards over the last few months. I know exactly how to play this game. I brought up the display from a number of different cameras then spent the next 3 hours moaning that I don’t get paid enough. Well, that’s how the professionals do it. It did get a bit boring after a while.

Gamespot page here

Labels: Review, soap box

Monday, March 19, 2007

You Tube, if it doesn’t scare the pants off TV producers…

.. it really should do.

Sure, you tube is great of short clips of people falling over or lighting their farts, but when used properly, it shows the potential for internet based video entertainment.

Well producers, funny, made-on-a-shoestring shows are appearing on you tube that should make large production companies ashamed of themselves. At the moment I am watching:

Hope is Emo: This is a series done in the stype of a an Emo girl called hope who keeps some sort of video diary. Its well acted and the script is very tight and clever. Plus it nails the “Emo” type i.e. they don’t really have any problems because the come from comfortable middle class homes, so they have to make up things to get upset about.

Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager: This is… for some reason, the younger brother of Darth Vader… who…. Works in a supermarket, as the day shift manager. An odd idea, but well put tougher. The episodes are short, but there are plenty of star wars based gags. The producers have obviously been to film school, because they have managed to cram in all the stuff that movies are supposed to have ( love interest, conflict, etc…). As I say, its all star wars based, so best if you know what that is about to get the jokes.

Mookie and Sam: This ones a big hit the Missus. The life and times of two Manhattan pooches. Basically, video of two cute little dogs, voice overed in the style of Look Who’s Talking. Well acted, quite funny and always cute. A must see for do lovers.

Ask Ninja: A kind of a stylised talking head of a Ninja who gives his opinion about stuff. I don’t really get this, but it’s the #1 show on You Tube.

Red Vs Blue: While I haven’t watched this is ages, it was the first online series that I got in to. And this was back in 2003, pre dating You Tube by quite a while. It’s a comedy filmed using the computer game Halo, voice overd and edited in to a very funy show that largely takes the piss out of computer games and the internet.

Labels: real world, Review, video

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

SoundBug

Gadget Review

SoundBug is a twist on the concept of a travel speaker. It looks a little like a silver computer mouse with a big sucker on it. Plug the headphone jack in to your MP3 and stick the suction cup to any flat surface, twist 90O to lock in to place and whatever you have attached it to becomes a speaker.

My experiments have shown the larger and thinner the surface the better the sound. For instance I got good results sticking it to my kitchen counter better still sticking it to the white board (dry wipe board, apologies to the PC brigade).

The sound bug plays both the left and right channel out of the same unit, but if you have two, you can connect them together and they will automatically sort themselves out as the left and right channels. That way you can turn your kitchen cupboard in to a set of stereo speakers.

The real question is, how does it perform? To be honest, not as well as I would have liked. I have a pair of fairly pikey travel speakers that me and the missus use in the kitchen, with the sound bug attached to the kitchen counter I swapped the MP3 player between the two. Both the sound quality and loudness was better from the travel speakers.

This is not to say that the sound bug is rubbish, far from it. It is still a very cool little device. And for its size (a fraction of the size of the travel speakers) it is loud and clear enough for most situations. I see it as an excellent speaker to take with you when staying in a hotel or similar situations. Its very easy to travel with, you could even have it in your coat pocket. Its found a home in our house stuck to the bedside table taking the place of a set of speakers we had there that where bulky and who’s cables constantly got in the way. I am quite tempted to get a second one at some point to stick to the other bed side table. I want to hear what the stereo effect is like.

SoundBug, £20 from the ever excellent firebox or a lot more from other places.

Oh, and if you are thinking of buying one, but don’t want to spend the money and want to be put off. This should do the trick.

Labels: my life, real world, Review

Monday, February 26, 2007

The Ship

Game Review

Baiscs: This is a “first person” death match type game for the PC based on the Source engine (the build engine that runs the excellent Half-Life 2) created by a team of modders called Outerlight.

The Premise: You are aboard a 1920’s passenger ship such as an ocean liner or steamboat river cruiser. There is one person on the boat that you have to kill, you are told the name of this person and are given a rough idea of their location on the boat. Your job is to find them and dispatch them with on of a vast array of weapons that can be found aboard ship such as a fire axe, various pistols rifles or flair guns, swords, knifes, arms shop window dummies or my personal fave, golf clubs.

If you attempt to do this in the view of the guards, or by the security cameras you are fined and sent straight to the brig for an amount of time depending to the seriousness of your crime. Of course, the twist to this situation, is that you are also the quarry of one of the other passengers. This means that everybody must be eyed suspiciously and kept at arms length. There are only two people on the boat your are allowed to kill, your quarry and the person hunting you.

Occasionally, you may see a passenger acting so suspiciously that you pre-emptively kill them and it turns out that you got the wrong man, this is just part of the game. If you kill the wrong people too often you will be barred from the server, this keeps most people honest.

When you pass passengers closely enough you get to see their names and their faces are remembered. If you then get this person assigned as your quarry, you will get a little picture of them, making the hit much easier. Unfortunately , if you die, you become a whole new person and lose these memories, starting again from scratch. If you are worried that your hunger may have spotted you, you can change your clothes, hats, and glasses, all very silly.

On top of your primary task of cold blooded murder, you have needs that must be attended to. For instance, you have to sleep, eat, pee, poo, wash etc. These can all be taken care of in the usual sort of locations (pee and poo in the toilet, sleep in beds or chairs) normally when you are attending to your needs you are vulnerable to attacks.

In Practise: While there are quite a few Ship servers, only one or two of them are busy at any given time. But that’s OK, you only need the one server for a good game.

The Ship costs $20 via Steam. It’s a refreshing twist on the well worn format of first person death match games and in my opinion, well worth a look.

Labels: my life, real world, Review

Children of Men

Move review

I watched Children of Men the other night. The premise of the movie is that, 18 years ago, for some unknown reason women stopped being able to produce babies. This has lead to pretty much the downfall of society because people cant see the point of doing much when the human race will stop existing within the centaury. I wont say any more about the plot, you can find out for yourself what goes on.

Suffice to say that it’s a surprisingly action packed and had me on the edge of my seat all the way through. They have managed to create characters and situations that you care about which keeps the whole thing pretty gripping.

Clive Owen is excellently cast as the stony faced, down trodden protagonist of the piece and the standard rules of Hollywood movies do not apply here.

Give it a watch, even if you think it looks a bit dry.

Here is a link to its page on rottentomatoes.com (not a lot of films get 91% )

Labels: my life, real world, Review