IAM Blog Engine

This is me digging a little deeper into Pierre Schaeffer’s Etude Aux Chemins de Fer. I am having all sorts of trouble trying to upload a Jpeg of a chart I made so I will try just to type my way through it and see what happens. First I will discuss how I think this piece is moving and evolving. A phrase I used in my last analysis was “organically-mechanic,” and I would like to clarify that a little bit more.

The chart I drew was basically a line graph, and what I used it for was visualizing the stress and release in this piece of music. What I ended up with was a complex wave that shows how the piece behaves. The “organic” part of my description is fairly apparent because there is, more or less, a repetition of stress and release, or a constant breathing. The way that Schaeffer builds and releases this is through a series of recurring motifs and changes in amplitude. He uses the constant rhythms of the train to build up to a train whistle then settles back down to another train rhythm. This adds both a vertical and horizontal space that the music breaths inside of.

The “mechanical” aspect of the piece comes mainly from the timbre of the sounds used, but also the unpredictability of what the song is going to do next. All of the sounds came from trains, so there is a lot of high end “ringy-ness,” but also there is a massive amount of weight and power that is associated with the train itself. The unpredictability arises during the transitions( the areas of train whistles and other noises) between the sections of train rhythms. So there is a very strange combination between the organic and the mechanical elements of this song, and I feel like it was done purposefully. I am trying to decipher what this piece is about, or even what it means to me, and I am having a fairly hard time. I have a lot of ideas:

• Bring awareness to the fact that there is music all around us
• Show people the stunning complexity that music concrete has to offer
• Use large lumbering steal beasts to create a piece that is full of life

But  I am not comfortable enough with any of these ideas to commit to one or the other, but I also  am entertaining the notion that he wanted to accomplish all of these things.  I think this is an important piece for many reason both technically and practically speaking. It would be hard to recreate a piece like this using a computer, much less tape, and it is something that many people could listen to and enjoy without being an audiophile. So maybe he wanted to show the thousands of people that ride a train everyday that they are participating in the grand symphony of life, and also challenge himself and other sound artists to make a masterpiece using only one subject. I do not know enough about Schaeffer to even speculate on why he created what he did, but if it were me, it would have been to capture a common object and show that it has an extraordinary array of audio characteristics that one might not think about on a day to day basis.

We talked about this concept in class a bit a few weeks back. I think there is no getting around advertisements in games nowadays. It shows that we have little control of big companies; they can pretty much do what they please. You know why? Simply because they have the big bucks. And money talks. This article discusses paid ad’s coming to the 360 dashboard. We as gamers have to get used to this because it’s not leaving anytime soon.

The link.

I plan on finishing Blood Money this week sometime. I will be finishing the game on rookie mode (which is the easiest). After I do this, I will attempt the normal mode and possibly after that, the EXPERT mode. Although I probably won’t get past the first mission on expert mode.

I finally know what a Metroid looks like. It’s a jellyfish kind of thing that sucks the life-force out of its victims. If you are indeed caught by one of these creatures, you have to morph into a ball and plant a bomb. Also, make sure to fully utilize your new arsenal of the super missile and wave beam in order to make any progress in the game.

I also located the thermal visor which is necessary to spot certain enemies like the Space Pirates who can become invisible to the naked eye. They are stronger than previous enemies and so I find myself using my missiles more often (usually two hits take them out).

While not even half-way through the game, Metroid Prime is continually proving itself a worthy and challenging game, especially on a system like the GameCube.

Nothing much has change the same attack raids taking over my farms and building for a short period of time before my army destroys them. But at the same time I am building up my defends against any on coming under attack so that my army can attack a country without worrying about retreating back to base to defend it. The money is coming in smoothly and technology is slowly being discovered. I am also trying to keep my people happy so that they would not rebel against me again. With it a little bit of time I will be ok.

On Ign.com, I watched a 5-minute video featuring some of the new stealth techniques in the upcoming Splinter Cell title. Click here to watch it.

At first, the video didn’t show much of anything that caught my attention as being revolutionary as many of the creators were saying. However, about half-way through, they finally started mentioning specific elements never before seen in a game.

The first one was what they call “PEV” or “prepare, execute, and vanish.” Now, anyone familiar with Splinter Cell knows stealth is of utmost importance, but the new title adds some arcade game play. While hidden, Stan (the gamer’s character) can pick up to two people or items to attack in order, similar to a role-playing game. Upon pressing the Y-button, Stan executes those commands in the order dictated. This adds a whole new strategy to the game that I am anxious to play with.

The second elements discussed was called “silhouette.” If Stan is spotted by an enemy but he manages to hide, a ghost-like image will appear to show where the enemy thinks you are. Using this visual cue, the player can flank them as they focus on your false position.

These are just some of the new features in the new Splinter Cell and I’m looking forward to discovering the others.

Today I was playing Max Payne on xbox and I stumbled across a television in one of the rooms.  It was a pretty cool addition to the game because it was very believable.  As I entered into the room where it was located it’s sound was easy to hear.  At first I found myself wondering what the sound was coming from, like in real life when you walk into a room that has a T.V. on.  The way the images were illustrated in the game made sense and looked spot on.  It was a cool experience to see the T.V.’s screen change, zoom in and out, and show different people.  I found my self drawn to the virtual T.V. just like a real one.  It captured my attention.  I wanted to watch it and find out more about the plot.  Well for a short moment at least, lasting about 20 second. ( which in video game terms is a really long time )

I then proceeded to… (because i had a pistol in my hand) … take dead center aim and deliver one round directly through the virtual screen.

What do you know !?!?  It shattered  into thousands of pieces.  

“Why did i do that?” I asked myself in disbelief.  It just seemed fun at the time I guess.

Lion Head Studio the creator for Fable 2 that sold 2.6 million units for that game. People are geek for the new fable game that was missing spelled with an extra “I”.  Reports were all over it telling people at a wedding announcement where the game designer that work for Lion Gate Studio labels him the designer for Fable 3.  At the British Academy of Film And Television Arts awards ceremony. Jonathan Ross a personality for BBC was seen a Twitter feed to bring a trailer of fable 3. After these events the founder of Lion head studio Peter Molyneux said that they are working on several ideas for a Fable 3,4 and 5. But we see that the press is approaching the game designers like rock star trying to get the ideas of the game. So they can geek up the fans that love playing the game.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/blogs/rumor-control/909119209/26940026/fable-iii-teased-by-new-york-times-style-section.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;1

Ignoring the rules and plot has become a dilemma in the game play.  Vice City allows for the player to be able to just have fun and kill things and do ramp tricks and be chase by the police but now… it seems that free game play is boring and that I might have to start following the plot.  The dilemma rises in, Tommy Vercetti is a stupid character.  From day one we have not seen eye to eye.  The first day we met he lost a big deal with a drug group, he lost the money and the drugs.  Then he told his boss that he would get the money back and kill all those responsible as if this was a simple task.  The next thing, he can earn money during the game but that money doesn’t seem to be connected back with paying his boss.  So far he has 3 extra house other than his apartment and yet doesn’t act concern about his mob boss that could arrive any minute.  Lastly, not once does he call his mother or keep in touch with his family.  How can you respect a man who doesn’t call him mother, the one who brought him into this world.

Rockstar programed Tommy Vercetti to be an ‘A Typical’ italian bad @$$ but the more we interact the more it isn’t believable.  Sure he’s started job riots to help another company take over and sure he looks good in a suit but I am just looking for more.

Article: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/01/face-melting-deal-ghwt-guitar-and-mic-for-50-today-only/

Second Article: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/29/guitar-hero-world-tour-sale-rock-out-in-a-financially-responsib/

Joystiq.com is one of the most direct game blogs out there.  The length of the blogs are almost ‘tweet’ size.  Though they are small the are very sarcastic and dramatic.  It seems that Guitar Hero World Tour has a new deal for a mic and a guitar (which separately cost $20 and $60) in a packaged duo it is only $50.  This is a deal, but Joystiq and blog responders aren’t impressed since yesterday there was an offer for the full game set for $89.98 which is a savings of $100 as opposed to $30.  Joystiq named the new mic and guitar deal a ‘Face-melting deal” and joked saying… if you only had a time machine to go back and get the even better deal.  Personally, the band games are really fun and should lower their prices.  Their components are just plastic and button to pick up plastic, almost as if they were a elongated controller.  You shouldn’t have to pay so much money for an elongated controller.  Joystiq is right on target.  Rock on.