Pez’s Eyes

“Turn your darn messengers off when you do your work” – My mom

After whatever you were up to, you come back home, and try to relax for a moment. So you find yourself a way in for the ‘momentary paradise’ by playing your favorite video games, chatting with friends, or even surfing Facebook – things that keep you psyched. No doubt they keep you all energetic, but they also stimulate some magical hormones in your parents that makes them to have a rush of desire to whoop you with their shoes and keep you back on task. In the end, having a huge shoe mark on you face, you get to ‘things that you are supposed to be doing’, having no concentration at all but thinking about ‘the momentary paradise’ you are in need of.

Tweet tweet. If you are desperately in need of a break, or some socializing, and you are put under the ‘ultimate authority’, follow this gorgeous sound, and it will lead you through the wardrobe into the “Narnia”, or the “paradise” that you desire.

Twitter - a compact combination of pure brilliance that had started a whole new generation of ‘messenger’ - had set its first step towards the world’s audience, and is advancing incredibly fast. It first started off as a web communication base, whereas major messengers such as MSN and Skype had separate application that runs in various operating systems. It is evidently closer to being a ‘notice board’ than a ‘messenger’. People logged in, posted whatever they wanted to say, then coming back for any responses, or even catching up with some interesting things within the community. It needed to be quick and face-to-face conversation to be a messenger, in order to be considered a ‘messenger’.

Basically, Twitter is a free, and somewhat restricted community for everyone who is willing to open themselves up to the world. Each accounts are given a page just like facebook, and gets to decorate the page, while elaborating and introducing yourself. You ‘follow’ or add people in different networks to create your own, so that the communication efficiency is totally up to the individuals.

Other than being such an efficient community connector, Twitter serves the individuals well enough on the hands of being a ‘messenger’. The users get to have 140 characters each to speak, and responses are loaded in the scales of minutes. If one greedy person decides to bomb the communication link, the user gets banned from having the rights to speak at all.

The system of Twitter not only gives huge amount of freedom for the individuals who wish to speak, but also provides an environment where everyone’s voice is heard.

“They’re Koreans. They can’t even wait for their fish to be cooked” – Click the Movie

Hard to be proud of this thing, but it is very true characteristic that reflects many of Koreans, and how they deal with their situation. So, when I – a stereotypical Korean teenager – came to know about Twitter, I thought it was just a fresh idea, but not much of a ‘boom’.

But, just like how you get used to the sauna temperature, the more I got closer to Twitter, the more I used it, and the more I liked it.

As a Korean computer maniac, and a game reviewer wannabe, I think Twitter’s worth more than a messenger, but a great game, for the following  twittastic reasons.

First of all, because of its convenience brought to you by having the characteristics of a ‘notice board’, using Twitter makes you into a more efficient being in the 21st century. Basically, you get to wield the power to work for your boss, and talk to your friends, or even the world at the same time: now that’s what the 21st century is all about.

On the other hand, MSN and Skype may be more colorful, fast and all, but every time you receive a message, they start hopping, or blinking like mad, doing whatever it takes for you to take a look at the darn message. This will not only distract you from whatever you are doing at a major scale, but also will worsen the situation for both your ‘work’ or ‘jobs, and your social relationships. Why choose to lose 2 cookies for 1 colorful cookie?

Secondly, Twitter is wide open, and will be open for the future at any time. Take a look at MSN, where you add certain contacts, and speak to people you wish to with whatever topic you have to share. The conversation continues, until it hits a wall, and you just stop talking, proceeding to the next person or even logging off, so on and so forth. Some of the avid MSN supporters – not that I’m an anti MSN person – might argue that such sequence of events is what exactly messengers are born for. Well, Twitter was not born from the same, old moulds that MSN was born from, and will never form into one.

Unlike how closed, and private MSN was, limiting the opinions to only 2 people or several more at a time, Twitter is more of a linked phone, where everyone, despite their gender and age, hears your voice, and respond. This not only helps many people around the world build bonds between each other, but also enables the conversation of hundreds of people to proceed from topic to another from giving hands to people, to sharing a funny story. If I was given a choice between a linear room with 1:1 chatting chamber, and a round table with many people sitting on the edges, I’d go for the round table.

I was even a frog in the well before I met Twitter, and became familiar with it. I thought messenger had to be just like it always is.

Now, if you think you are among those frogs in a big, deep well, why don’t you give yourself a chance to spring out of the well for once, and have a seat reserved in the ‘round table’? Give your ‘blue-man’, and ‘the big S’ a break. The only thing you need is your favorite browser, and confidence.

I’ll be looking forward to seeing you there!

Photo Credits to shashchatter, Señor Maniac, juque, Stacina @ Flickr

Whether it was something like hunting birds, or even board games at home, I’m sure anyone - the teenagers or elders - have come across some form of games in their lives. Nowadays, with all the technology developing at such a fast pace, we are now at the age of ‘consoles’ which refers to a mechanical device that’s designed to play games. Just like how James, the angry video game nerd always insists, game consoles have become a major part of our entertainment.

Strikingly similar to the last episode of the Star Wars Saga, the shift of power in the world of game consoles had been extreme over the past 10 years. If you were a person who is in college right now, I bet you are just startled to see these new Playstations and Xbox in kids’ hands nowadays, because you grew up with something like Atari.

Atari wasn’t bad at all, but it is just time that made it ‘old’. Consoles came out, and faded away behind time, and here is the grand history of the consoles.

<The ‘Golden Age’ of Video Games>

Atari 2600.

Introduced in the late 1970’s, Atari was an absolute ‘revolution’. This hardware was one of the first of the 8bit video game consoles. Many gaming industries devoted their money to make their games popular for this hardware, just because Atari 2600’s popularity was just rocketing through the sky.

Another reason why Atari is called the ‘legend’ is because of the harsh competition on software market. The harsh competition implanted enthusiasm to the game developers, thus giving birth to one of the finest creations. A couple of examples of the finest classics are ‘pac-man’, and ‘the space invaders’. I bet you know what I’m talking about.

You might be unaware of this hardware because of all those shiny consoles like Xbox and Playstation that are out nowadays.But you have to bear in mind that if these two generations of consoles’ popularity was compared, Atari will easily overwhelm the new generation consoles. This explains that even the most stubborn, hardworking adults will have the memory of the time when they were boys in front of the Atari. Technology can never beat memories.

Gameboy

The first impression I get from seeing this console is ‘good memories’. I’m only 15 right now, but I have a memory of this game console from Nintendo, and I have to admit that it was great. When it was released first, Gameboy was easily compared to other Atari and Sega consoles, and sadly, it was true that this particular console lacked in graphics, speed, and controls. But guess what? It was portable. It was cheap. Its software’s variety didn’t seem to end. It’s commercials grabbed children’s attention and never let go.

The first magic of Nintendo was casted here, and Gameboy is now known as one of the “most-sold” console of all time.

<32 bit console takes over>

The “Almighty” Playstation
When Sony declared its entrance to the grand competition of the growing game console market, no one seemed to believe in Sony’s intentions. Nintendo and Sega was dominating in such a dramatic way, it seemed as if Sony was trying to break a gigantic rock with an egg.

Well, Sony turned out to be the guru in time. Utilizing their full 3D technology, the graphics were enough to get the avid gamers’ attentions.

Also, the other teeming investors hopped into business with the Playstation, and Playstation managed to have the most software (or games) a console have ever had. Such variety had to be appealing to anyone who was looking for a nice game console.

Yet again, peoples’ suspicion didn’t fade, and even developed into something nasty. Simply, the attention died after such a dramatic shake of the new upcoming generation. People thought that this particular console is and will be a classic. No one expected anything from Sony anymore, without knowing (of course) that this console was only a pathway to the real bomb: the Playstation 2

The Sega Saturn

Sega’s Saturn was out before the Playstation did, so one of its motifs were ‘targeting the 3D gamers’. It had numerous games such as ‘the legend of the dragon’. However, since Playstation came out without any warning, Sega’s Saturn had received a smack in the head.

Saturn was in shock , but the creators of Sega had saved their beloved console with their brains. They quickly abandoned 3D systems, and immediately headed to the developments of the 2D processors. Because of this immediate reaction, there was no console whatsoever to compete Saturn in 2D games.

Also, the idea of “home-arcade system” was a great shift as well. People who wanted to play their favorite classics from arcades had their dream come true by this console. Because of this, despite the relatively high price of Saturn, many gamers sacrificed their money for this goody.

<64 bits. The whacky period of gaming history>

Nintendo 64
In 1994, Playstation was ruling the entire group of gamers. The 3D appeal was simply too good, and created level of fans in the population of the world. Nintendo’s “super Nintendo” and “gameboy” fell behind literally like a wet paper-boat in the sewers.

2 years later, when gamers were no longer interested in new consoles, Nintendo threw out their newest game console to compete Sony called the Nintendo 64.

It was quite an unusual creation, because none of the consoles at that time, even nowadays, don’t have a console adapted to 64 bit graphics environment. It was just “off” for the use of games.

64 bit could generate 3D graphics smoothly, but it couldn’t blend the special effects into the 3D graphics generation. Because of such handicaps, Nintendo full utilized the use of their mascot, Mario, which was a complete, flat, 2D character from birth. Super Mario 64 was a grand hit, and caught massive crowd’s attention by saying that Mario has “sprang to life”, indicating that it had 3D characteristics.

Sadly, off things couldn’t become normal. PS’s 3D engine still had more potential, and managed to keep the growth of Nintendo 64 down. Nintendo was always the “number 2” in the gaming world.

<The Halt>
All of a sudden, the console wars came to a halt, not really developing at all from the point of Nintendo 64’s failure. Sega had tried to create a 128 bit console, which later one turned out to be a complete pile of junk.

While the game industries were thinking their brains off, the people were waiting their behinds off, searching for something new.

Such thirst had burst and brought a whole new generation of game consoles (and of course, and the war of consoles continued) later on, creating marvelous gadgets just like PS2, and the Xbox.

Compared to the multi-billion polygon generating consoles like Xbox, the “bit” consoles look like mere lump of plastics.

But don’t you think that the old ones are more friendly to you than the ones you have now?

I won’t emphasize, or deceive anyone with my opinions on this topic. Just bear in mind that those old history existed in the gaming world, and that the history made it possible for us to look forward, and see how the gaming industries revolutionize themselves.

Photo Credits to Ian D, acbo, afrokid, farnea, sameli, Almighty_fotografie, muttoo, stefan, Trojan-Dan, corbomight, and Rakka, all from Flickr.

Most of the people believe that life does not exist outside of the planet we are living in.

No life outside of the Earth? Nonsense! It’s already here.

Proudly presented by Blizzard Entertainment, one of the most popular entertainment corporations in the world, Starcraft was released in April, 1998.

Before anything more, what is Starcraft? What KIND OF game is it?

Starcraft belongs to the genre of RTS, which stands for Real Time Strategy. Literally, it is a game where you organize, and initiate strategies of your race and lead to victory. However, as ‘real time’ part is self explanatory, your enemy develops at the same pace as you develop, meaning that you might have to change your strategies constantly in order to combat the strategies your opponent has.

Is it one of those ‘classic’ RTS games that’s based on WW I or WWII?

Well, it is an RTS, and it does include vast amount of army and war content (if it doesn’t it’ll be more like a tycoon game. Yuk). However, the reason why this game was so ground-shaking was because it was based completely outside of the Earth and for the most part, the human history.

The story tells me that human race needs other inhabitable planets that humans can live in, due to the worsened condition of the blue planet that continued for centuries. Then, they encounter a race, Protoss, the prevailing aliens of the particular galaxy the humans were exploring in. Of course, since humans were just completely new aliens for them, Protoss concluded that they are trespassing, and are threats to their race. A war starts between the races, and it gets bigger and bigger day by day. Meanwhile, a new race, the Zerg, is created by the scientists from Protoss. Unfortunately, they’re power was beyond their expectation, and set loose out of their reach. Thanks to the Protoss race, now it is a war between three races: the Terran, humans from the Earth; the Protoss, the ancient keepers of the galaxy; the Zerg, the monsters born from science.

The day this game was out on public, it blew such number of people’s minds that this game spread through the U.S at an incredible speed, and even to Asia. Now, it is THE most popular game in South Korea. People from all sorts age group plays this game - even a job called ‘professional gamers’ or ‘pro-gamers’ emerged as a popular job in Korea.

A decade passed after this game was released. Considering the fact that the game market is developing at a ridiculously fast rate, a decade makes any kind of game just ‘too old to play’ and forgotten. Starcraft on the other hand, managed to survive that stereotypical behaviors of gamers and got popular everyday.

Now, let’s enter the Matrix once more to see what this game’s made of.

Interface

Interface is the first thing that the gamers put into their consideration. The reason for this matter is because interface is the first thing the player sees and sees every single time they play the game. It can attract more users like ants on a candy, or it might as well get buried to the bottom of the Earth as if it never existed. Harsh stuff, but it’s part of the competition.

As for Starcraft, I’d like to say that it is by far the most successful interface that RTS games ever developed. Some anti-fans (those mean people on Youtube who leaves mean comments) criticized that it was too dull, but it was soon proved that it is set as the idol for RTS interface, and frequently used by other RTS game developers.

It is incredibly compact, but it contains everything you need to play the game; it’s never too many nor too little.

First, you have a map on the bottom left corner, which can track the units’ location, movement and action. With this map, you can constantly monitor different locations to react for any emergencies, or the opponents’ unexpected strategies.

Secondly, the middle bar shows you the specific details of the buildings and units you click on, and an image of them.

Thirdly, the right hand corner is where there are 9 little squares for any ‘actions’ you can perform. Normally, half of them are empty, and even if it is full, most of the movements can be performed with your mouse and keyboards.

Balance between the race

One of the scenarios that happens to the ‘stinky’ or ‘sucky’ RTS games is this: people play the game for the first time, and enjoys it pretty much; then they challenge their friends with their own favorite races, and yet they like the game; eventually, the players reach out to the online network to challenge more people around the world, and realizes that everyone uses the same race, just because they are superior; soon the player gets bored of the race and tries other races out, and finds out they are way too weak, and quit the game.

Starcraft is far away from that matter. However, this matter is hard to describe for me, and hard to understand for you, unless you actually play it – so first things first, here are the races of Starcraft.

Terran

Terran are the humans from a planet called the Earth (duh). Since Starcraft’s saga starts at the year 2229, humans had all the technology we can possibly imagine, and also all the worries such as pollution, population boom became the reality. The population reached 260000000000 people, about 4.5 times bigger than the current population (in 2008). The planet had no room, and the level of pollution has reached its max.

So, with all the fancy technologies humans had, they had reached their hands out for inhabitable planets outside their solar systems, and the grand war between the galaxy starts.

In the game, Terran is loved by many players in the world, because they stand neutral to any abilities. The units are relatively cheap, and they’re at a medium strength – possibly stronger compared to the price. Also, their pace of development is maneuverable by the user, so Terran users have the biggest range in their level of playing. The gap between the good Terran player and a starter with Terran is huge that the game ends so quickly.

If you want to experience what ‘the stable’ is like, try out with Terran. It will definitely be a great guide for you to approach Starcraft.

Protoss

Protoss is one of the noblest races in the entire universe, and they have amazing and unknown technologies that are completely new to humans. They are proud and cautious and doesn’t like any conflicts; which is why they wanted to extinguish the flame of the Terrans as soon as they appeared in their visions.

Unfortunately, due to the characteristic settings of this race, the game-play is a little bit tougher than Terran, the race I introduced before.

They are first of all, expensive. Generally, the buildings and the units you control in the game are the most expensive out of all 3 races in Starcraft.

It’s surely not expensive without a reason though. They have the double-layered defense system called the cybernetics shield; units are never harmed unless the shield wears out. Also, the damages the units can give is very high compared to the other same-level units from other 2 races.

Most of all, due to their high expenses in buildings, the development rate is the slowest out of the 3 races. Don’t worry though, because Blizzard entertainment has balanced this game out so well, that Protoss’ basic units can have equal amount of effects with the high-tech units from other races.

Zerg

Zerg is the unfortunately-born race, and was created by the accident in a Protoss laboratory. Protoss might have thought that these little ‘bugs’ are harmless, but now they became the fastest evolving race of all.

As a benefit, Zerg units are the cheapest out of the other races. Often there are 2 units created at once at a very small price; and because of this, Zerg’s strategies are usually initiated with hundreds of units. It can be a split attack from different directions, or just simply outnumbering them.

Just the opposite of the Protoss, Zerg are the cheapest AND the weakest at the same time. It wouldn’t be fair to have hundreds of units with outstanding power would it?

Also, in addition to the cheap price, its pace of development is unbelievable. When other races are mining in preparation for the spurt, Zerg can already be producing warriors that are ready to strike.

If you want quick and fast style of game play, Zerg is the right race for you.

By having 3 races with interesting backgrounds sorted into 2 extremes and 1 medium, the balance is ultimate, and had no conflicts or frustrations whatsoever.

Psyched already? Or just still pending?

Unlike RPG, RTS allows you to play one round and leave. Meaning that even if you are busy, you can just play one round as a way of ‘chilling’

So come one and take a chance to ‘chill’ with this awesome game from Blizzard entertainment.

Feel the ‘legend’ that was carried on for 10 years straight yourself.

Sound – OOOO
A little repetitive, but the scale of the music is incredible. Great song to listen to.

Graphics – OOOOO
Not 5 points as in fancy, but its compatibility. It’s not too fancy nor stinky. It can be played in basically any graphic cards in computers nowadays, and it’s never insufficient to simulate the required details.

Gameplay – OOOOO
Blizzard’s magic and RTS has met its peak. Unlimited possibilities of strategies, balance as firm as ever, fascinating storyline.

Variety – OOOOO
Single play with CPU is available, the story mission mode, with special goals are available, multiplayer games via internet connection is available, and even map creating is available. What do you need more.

OVER ALL OOOOO a must have game.

Image credits to fiveinchpixie, EilSel, Mil, Vrogy, Pablo Noel @ Flickr

Which Pill Would You Like To Take?

To be or not to be - in this case, to buy or not to buy. If you were thinking over this problem, and are reading this post right now, you are doing the right thing.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice city, developed by Rockstar Games, is the forth and the best episode of the whole series Grand Theft Auto. First, it had a tremendous success appealing to the avid gamers on PS2 and Xbox, by launching the console version. Then, they had added some more magic to their pot, which ended up as ‘THE BOMB’, the PC version of the game.

You might wonder why I emphasize the fact that the PC version is better than the console version, and I completely understand. I own a few games that came out in both Playstation2 and PC, and they were exactly, or almost the same. It was just the hardware difference. But Grand Theft Auto, not only the developers had modified the controls and commands for the game, they had added more ‘fun elements’, meaning that players have access to more entertainment. Such as vehicles, which is the most common thing you encounter in this game (since this game’s called the Grand Theft ‘AUTO’).

As I am a person who had played both the PC and the console version, I’d like to point this one example out, just to make it clear for you.
Now, now that you have the ‘pill’s ready for you, let’s look at the ‘prescriptions’ shall we?

Pros

- AMAZING variety of action. You can do whatever you want to do. Drive a car, fight with people, buy clothes, change cars. EVERYTHING!

- 3 in 1. Just with one game, you can enjoy 3 genres of game. Driving, 3rd person shooting (TPS), and RPG. It never gets you bored.

- Improvements in the variety of the vehicles. All 3 land, water and sky is available for you to explore, and for the most part, assault.

- Storyline became as firm as ever. It’s long, and thrilling; it makes you feel like you’re watching a full 007 movie (only that you’re on the gangster side). If you’re bored bumping into things, there’s always the story mode, or mission to catch up on.

- Soundtracks. GTA Vice City has managed to get over 2000 licenses on music, so that you can listen to your favorite tunes while you drive a car. Some people even say that this game’s price is nothing even if it was for the soundtracks.

Cons

- Nice attempt to add some realistic aspects to the game, but this time it hit its back. Since it’s a free-flow game, saving data is vital - if you clear the entire game and quit without saving, it will leave nothing, meaning that you will have to start all over again. Now, is saving easy? The answer is no. I guess the game makers thought ‘it will be fun to put the checkpoints at places where you sleep right? Just like the reality.” No guys. I hope you can save the progress in the ‘esc’ or ‘menu’ next time.

- Cops get on your tail way too easily. One time, I was going to the clothes shop, to get a new look, and then I just accidentally crashed into this young dude on a bike. I automatically got a police star, and a whole bunch of cops started to chase me. Then I get busted (since the cops are usually faster than you), which lands me in front of the police station, a.k.a the other side of town. It really drove me nuts.

There. Just like any other games, GTA Vice City has both pros and cons. It’s just that I consider it a phenomenal and extraordinary game. It’s way too addicting, and it deserves its fame as a GTA series game. Now that you have the pill and the prescriptions in front of you, go ahead and take the pill you want.

TWO (OR THREE IF I HAD) THUMBS UP. BURNING HOT

Photographies’ credits to Gene Hunt, pinkangelbabe, and niznoz on Flickr.

Have you ever wanted to throw something that was next to you and smash it to pieces, because you just had a bad day? Or even go pound on someone who has done bad things to you? I know you had occasions like that, because it’s a natural thing, and even I feel so when things screw up really badly.

Unfortunately, as life always is full of obstacles, you can’t do such things to unleash your stress, because there are these pacmans of justice - the police officers. You go pound someone in the streets, and you’ll get yourself a free ticket to the jail. How nice.

Don’t panic though, because our savior is here - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City!

For those of you who don’t know, and somehow curious about the matter, here is a full explanation AND a review for this magic.

GTA:Vice City is a second-life-style game where you take control of Tommy Vercetti, a typical gangster who wants money. You can go shop, drive, shoot, and destroy stuff. For your own pleasure!

Now, let’s have some visuals, shall we?

Here is my first game review on “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City”. Please enjoy, and feedbacks are more than welcome.

Youtube - Pez’s First Review on GTA:Vice City

The World Of Game Reviews

Technology, especially in IT and computer science develops so fast, many branches have rooted out from that category. Among those “baby categories”, computer/video games are the fastest growing market in the world. Simply because people like that kind of entertainment. Unfortunately though, it’s not a free cookie. People needs to spend money on the entertainment they desire, and they don’t want any regrets.

So who do they rely and trust to prevent themselves? The professional game reviewers. I am planning to do the same job, so that my information can be a help to those who need it. Before I take any further steps, here are some “gods” or “gurus” of the game review world.

Dave Chappelle, is a well known sketch artist, who makes incredibly funny skits that is broadcasted on TV. I have to say that he is an absolute genius, because he has no problem making fun of anything. In other words, he can just bump into something controversial and transform it into a comedy sensation. I agree that he’s not a game reviewer. However, I didn’t want to give up my stance that his skit was the best review I’ve ever seen, and that it deserves to be mentioned.

Dave Chappelle’s skit on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Dave Chappelle did a magnificent job on doing a skit on how he thinks about that game, without any spoken words (except for some of the every-day quotes that keeps the skit flowing). It was funny as heck, but still it gave out basically all the important factors in the game in 1 minutes, mocking it at the same time.

Now, let’s cut it apart and see what it is about.

1. Chappelle imitating the awkward movement in the game when he was bumping into the tree - This didn’t really have anything to do with the reviewing element, but laughable factors in the middle are essential. Video is a media where people sit and watch. If they’re not captivated, it’s a failure for sure. Make it funny and entertaining is what I/you can learn from this 2 second action

2. Chappelle stopping the car by standing in front of the car and forcing the driver our of his car- The climax of the video. As you can see from the game’s title, Grand Theft Auto, a major part of the game is to basically steal the cars in the game. Now you can see where the controversy sparked. Keep it concise, factual, and neutral the biggie here.

3. Chappelle getting shot, and shooting the person, ending up as a murder. Also part of the game. You can choose weapons anytime, and kill people freely. Though it is in the virtual world, its popularity fortifies the amount of impacts it has on the players. Another controversy was started at this part, because the consumers of this game is mostly made of kids/students, the age when they can get influenced A LOT. What I learned from this is- point out the truth. The consumers deserve to know the dark side.

4. Finally, looking at the video generally, the format sent chills through my spines. It perfectly imitated the format of the game itself, and just by keeping it that way tells the audience that it is a review of that particular game. Simple things can have even bigger impacts than the big fancy devices. Keep looking. That’s what I learned here, and what I want to do the most.

The AVGN Series -

I wanted to mention the Angry Video Game Nerd. He’s a great reviewer, and he had shook the world in a week, with just one video. Now he has his own website, and channel at Youtube. But I don’t think it is quite suitable for me to post one of the videos up here. The reason being him cursing literally every second.

Still, the fact that he is my #1 idol would not change (not the cursing skills). He has absolutely no flaws at reviewing games, and he reveals everything from inside to outside. The pros, the cons, and from different perspectives.

He keeps his videos in amazingly entertaining format, so even if you are not interested in video games, it can still be a funny video.

Now that I had a looked at some of the greatest game reviews of this time, it is time for me to start my engine and head for my own review. Since it is the beginning for me, I will be reviewing the game Dave Chappelle did: “GTA: Vice City”.

As always, advices and idea offers are more than welcome to me. I want to learn, and I want to make a good product that can both satisfy myself, and help people at the same time.

Photo credit to hunterseakerhk, rafe baron, dave asch

It has already been a few weeks since I started this class. It was totally new to me, and I was worried about the path I wanted to choose. Now, I’m here writing a post where I’m at a point where the project is beginning. Since it’s a project that I navigate myself, I’m really looking forward to the result, and I’m ready to take full responsibility of it.

So the first product that I want to achieve was influenced and supported by the network that has reached all around the world (although I don’t really have a full communication with many people). Just a tweet, saying that I’m looking for some suggestions on games that I can make fun of, whynot88, a person from twitter sent me a link to an online-game website that had many funny elements in it.

I was excited, so I followed the link. As whynot88 had mentioned, it looked funny, but it wasn’t exactly the game I was looking for; it seemed to broad to make fun of to me. (a student)

However, that one depressing result had an influence that I never expected. Fortunately, I did not stop there, and thought about what I could do (A plan B). So after some time of researching, I found about “the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN)”. It was funny as heck, and it had really good reviewing factor in it too. But the language in it was too explicit for me to set it as my role model.

That was a frustration TWO IN A ROW. I thought I needed some rest, or ‘chilling’ (which wasn’t exactly a part of my plan). So I went to Youtube, and typed in “Dave Chappelle” who is my favorite comedian. I love his shows. I was surfing through the list of his skits and BOOM I found the treasure. “GTA - Chappelle’s show”. GTA is an abbreviation for a game called Grand Theft Auto, and due to its inappropriate contents, it was target to many criticisms. Just like I was thinking, it was exactly what I wanted to have a look at. So strangely, my little ‘chilling time’ put a comma to my whole navigation of my project.

This is my final thought on how my first product will be looking like.

1. It would be a review, a game review. A written media, maybe with a podcast of my voice, to keep the topic on track.

2. The review will look just like the professional ones, unbiased based on facts.

3. Once I do that, the second product will be a video, just like what Dave Chappelle did.

I never knew I would actually be writing this kind of post, because I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, helpless when I was given an opportunity to carry on my own project of my interest (personally I think this is what school does to us). But, since I am now onto this stage where it’s all set for me to act on, I will not let myself down. Also, I think chilling time is good too, since you never know where the opportunities are around you

(This is the “GTA - Dave Chappelle” I was talking about)

So now that I have looked at how “pros” do it, it seems like it is now my turn to get something done. Here are the lists of the games I’d like to review for sure (although I have to say there might be changes as my whole project proceeds)

1. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City [the game Chappelle reviewed, using a mime form]

2. Starcraft

3. Metal Slug X

4. K.O.F 97

The list will be pretty firm through the whole project, since confusion might occur if I make any drastic changes. However, those are the ‘video’ reviews I’m planning to do. Writing materials are completely a different matter; meaning that it might pop up anywhere in between the videos, adding additional hands to the audiences understanding.

So stay tuned for my first product coming up- analysis on what makes the pros so popular and known to the world.

Photo Credits to Macwagen & hunterseakerhk

Hello everyone! This is Pez speaking.

First, I’d like to welcome all of you who are reading my post right now.

In this post, I will be generally talking about what exactly my project is going to be like, and what is going to be on this blog. By the way, Pez is my nickname, which will basically give you an idea of what ‘pez’ is on my blog domain.

How am I going to talk about it? Well, since I have lots to explain, I made a little podcast, which I hope will help your understanding of my blog and the project.

Any kind of advices or comments are welcome. Enjoy

<Pez’s Podcast>

Hello, this is Pez from Seoul, Korea.

Hello, I am one of the students in cburell’s networked learning projects. Well, first of all, this is the blog I will be posting all my products on. I don’t know if you would like my ideas or not, but I would be glad if you have a look at them and leave a little comment or so. My twitter account name is pchoi9323, and my skype user name is lifesucksbutkl (I know it’s weird, but please understand :P). Since I am very new to this blogging and creating things, I am in need of help and advices. If you see anything to comment on, please do. I would appreciate it very much.

My goal for it as a whole is to create and post one product every wee, that are interesting =)