I beseech you, lend me your ears!
I call upon you to help make a stand in the history book. For years we have called the day immediately following the 25th of December "Boxing Day". I have no reason why it is such, but I say change it! Call it what it really is. I proclaim that this day the 26th of December, be forever more called Capitalist Day.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Gaming coming soon...?
Yes, it is coming. For all you faithful viewers and readers out there (yes all three of you) game reviews are coming your way by the sultry voice of Harry. Harry is becoming a professional reviewer and everyone who reads our lovely blogs on the Crickets will be the first ones to read his material. So farewell long absences of nothingness, stuff is on the way.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Crickets Storyboard Thing
Harry, Bryan and a bit of Chris mix together to create a bit of a story in the jolly ol' sunshine.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Hath not a DS i's?
Let's all jump into a time machine and go back a month or two before the DSi came out. Let's pretend that you are a person who has a DS -- which probably isn't a stretch because according to current statictics, more housholds have a DS than ones that have people living in them -- and you heard about the DSi that (has yet to) come out, and you are wondering, should I upgrade?
Well, let's get the "nonsense I already know" aside; The biggest differences between the DS (lite) and the DSi is that the DSi comes with more bells and whistles, the most notable of which are two webcam-esque cameras, an SD card slot, a "play with your music" program, and a built-in web browser. Oh, they also dropped the GBA slot, if that's worth mentioning, though I doubt too many tears will be shed and eulogys written about that. Let's perform surgury on first things first, eh?
The two cameras on the DSi are VGA 0.3 megapixel digital cameras, which is the equivalent specs of a cell phone camera. However, after much fiddling, I found the DSi pictures were actually quite a bit nicer than any pic my cell phone could take. Granted, you can't zoom in or out on the DSi camera until after you take the picture, but I've yet to see a cell phone camera that has zoom ability at all, so props to the DSi cam on that cookie. The various "lenses" that the program has are also quite neat, and being a person with a warped mind, I found silly fun uses for every single one. And as an added bonus, I can save them to an SD and put these pics in places they never should go (like the internet).
Harry, here,would also like to point out that while many would moan and grown about not being able to play their favorite GBA games the DSi does one step better. With a variety of new accessories you can not only play any GBA game you feel but also the good old classic color and original GB gmaes. Plus i know for myself through personal experiences that the glossy texture of the DS tended to get dirty exponentially fast, quickly absorbing finger grease, dirt and boogers or whatever you touched the DS with. DSi solves this predicament by simply giving the handheld a nice matt finish. So say good bye to dirty DS's and say hello the new, shiny DSi.
Well, let's get the "nonsense I already know" aside; The biggest differences between the DS (lite) and the DSi is that the DSi comes with more bells and whistles, the most notable of which are two webcam-esque cameras, an SD card slot, a "play with your music" program, and a built-in web browser. Oh, they also dropped the GBA slot, if that's worth mentioning, though I doubt too many tears will be shed and eulogys written about that. Let's perform surgury on first things first, eh?
The two cameras on the DSi are VGA 0.3 megapixel digital cameras, which is the equivalent specs of a cell phone camera. However, after much fiddling, I found the DSi pictures were actually quite a bit nicer than any pic my cell phone could take. Granted, you can't zoom in or out on the DSi camera until after you take the picture, but I've yet to see a cell phone camera that has zoom ability at all, so props to the DSi cam on that cookie. The various "lenses" that the program has are also quite neat, and being a person with a warped mind, I found silly fun uses for every single one. And as an added bonus, I can save them to an SD and put these pics in places they never should go (like the internet).
Harry, here,would also like to point out that while many would moan and grown about not being able to play their favorite GBA games the DSi does one step better. With a variety of new accessories you can not only play any GBA game you feel but also the good old classic color and original GB gmaes. Plus i know for myself through personal experiences that the glossy texture of the DS tended to get dirty exponentially fast, quickly absorbing finger grease, dirt and boogers or whatever you touched the DS with. DSi solves this predicament by simply giving the handheld a nice matt finish. So say good bye to dirty DS's and say hello the new, shiny DSi.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Alas, poor Sequels...
God is it ever a bad time to be a gamer. Sure, today we have graphics that barely fall short of eyeball-vision, and our controllers have gone from square boxes with buttons to slim gadgets that contour to your hand have have buttons placed right at your finger tips. But whose presidential campaign do I have to give a million dollars to to get an original game?
Today it seems that every new release is the bastard child of either something good and failure, or failure and even worse failure. And to ice the fail cake (and coincidentally much like a birthday cake), they continually add numbers to the end of each game. At least the non-creative ones do. As for the creative ones, to show that their new game is "oh so much better" than the original, they give it a title so long that any 1800s Duke would envy it. Game developers have finally sunken to the level of hollywood, where all you need to make some money off a movie/game is include an attractive female side-character and make it a sequel to something people once loved.
I feel many game developers could benefit from the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It seems they've abandoned fixing the broken games completely in an effort to "fix" all the good games. When a game reviewer says, "this game sucked, this is what you could do better...", developers take that, go to the bathroom, wipe themselves with it, and think nothing more of it. But the moment someone says, "This game was great!", the immediately take that game, stuff it full of nuts and bolts made of failure and pus, put a numerical value next to the title and re-release it. Given the odds, anyone who found the original game entertaining will buy this one as well, ensuring money is made. Sure it destroys any love the gamer had for the game, but getting by these days is getting harder and harder, and broken hopes and dreams put food on your table.
According to biology, if you truly had to, you could eat your own excrement. By doing so, you would only absorb 40% of the original nutrition that was once in that food. You can continue eating your own excrement, but each time you would only absorb 40% of what was left over. In the same way, I feel each remake has only 40% of the value its previous one held. Therefore, I deduce it should only be fair that any game that is a sequel should be 40% cheaper than the original. Of course, I realise that not all sequels suck (Thief II, the Legend of Zelda series, Resident Evil, etc.), but I make my bread and butter from generalizations, so you'll have to eat my 40% nutritional pieces of work, and enjoy it.
I don't ask for much, besides having my own castle in my own country on my own planet that is owned by myself, but one thing I would like to see is game creators taking a few risks once in a while. What could you lose by creating a game that appeals to less than 50% of the game consumers? The answer to that is; a few dollars. And that is why you'll never see it.
Today it seems that every new release is the bastard child of either something good and failure, or failure and even worse failure. And to ice the fail cake (and coincidentally much like a birthday cake), they continually add numbers to the end of each game. At least the non-creative ones do. As for the creative ones, to show that their new game is "oh so much better" than the original, they give it a title so long that any 1800s Duke would envy it. Game developers have finally sunken to the level of hollywood, where all you need to make some money off a movie/game is include an attractive female side-character and make it a sequel to something people once loved.
I feel many game developers could benefit from the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it". It seems they've abandoned fixing the broken games completely in an effort to "fix" all the good games. When a game reviewer says, "this game sucked, this is what you could do better...", developers take that, go to the bathroom, wipe themselves with it, and think nothing more of it. But the moment someone says, "This game was great!", the immediately take that game, stuff it full of nuts and bolts made of failure and pus, put a numerical value next to the title and re-release it. Given the odds, anyone who found the original game entertaining will buy this one as well, ensuring money is made. Sure it destroys any love the gamer had for the game, but getting by these days is getting harder and harder, and broken hopes and dreams put food on your table.
According to biology, if you truly had to, you could eat your own excrement. By doing so, you would only absorb 40% of the original nutrition that was once in that food. You can continue eating your own excrement, but each time you would only absorb 40% of what was left over. In the same way, I feel each remake has only 40% of the value its previous one held. Therefore, I deduce it should only be fair that any game that is a sequel should be 40% cheaper than the original. Of course, I realise that not all sequels suck (Thief II, the Legend of Zelda series, Resident Evil, etc.), but I make my bread and butter from generalizations, so you'll have to eat my 40% nutritional pieces of work, and enjoy it.
I don't ask for much, besides having my own castle in my own country on my own planet that is owned by myself, but one thing I would like to see is game creators taking a few risks once in a while. What could you lose by creating a game that appeals to less than 50% of the game consumers? The answer to that is; a few dollars. And that is why you'll never see it.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Older Generation
Seriously, the audacity of some elders. They think that just because they are more advanced in years than some of us young people we must obey every whim they could possibly have. Now do not get the wrong thing from what I am saying. Old people are not evil, at least not all, but the ones I am talking (and you know who they are) really give the older community a bad name, the old guy who yells at you to get the h-ll off his lawn, or the old lady that always seems to have her nose in everything. Truly though, I am nearly, well, I am eighteen as of March 22, and they elderly people I associate with still treat me just as they had two years ago. Now you can understand my frustation at this. If they want me to be a mature responsible adult then why the heck are they still treating me like an immature adolecent???
This question has baffled me and likely will until I am myself an elder, but what can we do about it?
This question has baffled me and likely will until I am myself an elder, but what can we do about it?
Monday, March 16, 2009
To Wii or Not To Wii
For the longest time, I have been planning to write an article on how upset I am with Nintendo. They seem to be coming down with what can be called the Sony Syndrome; once they reach the top they start to get full of themselves and stop listening to the core crowd. Yes, I’ve been waiting to write an article that thrashes Nintendo for their ignorance to us, but then I realized something. If I was them, I’d be doing the same bloody thing.
Think about it for a moment. On one hand, you have millions upon millions of little kids, stay at home mums and old people all of whom are buying Wiis and Wii games like they’re heroin, when none of the games have much depth, only shiny neat features that most non-gamers wouldn’t expect from a game. Then you have the core crowd, or more aptly named, the “fans”. Fans gave rise to “fanboys”, and for a good reason. Fans are one of the most difficult things to please since they started making those talking baby dolls that refuse to shut up even upon decapitation. Fans demand the best, and whine profusely when they don’t get it. I would know, I’m guilty of it. Nintendo has put two and two together and come up with enough money to buy Belgium. Why suffer pleasing thousands of gremlins, when you can please millions of magpies willing to trade cold cash for anything shiny?
During the N64 and the Gamecube eras, Nintendo had always been the underdog, the "Little Console that Could". They kept this title by being forced to revolutionize the way we play games, by creating in-depth games so immersive that afterwards when you stub your toe you catch yourself looking for your health bar, and by pleasing the fans. Back then though, this was relatively easy to do, since we were used to 2D games and pixels being the size of our mothers face, but times do change and so do expectations. Since Nintendo has been the only company to ever take the term “nex-gen” literally, they took gaming to the next plausible level – which is the level short of sending us to the video game dimension where every man can destroy a planet by coughing and every girl has breasts the size of planets. Games have gotten about as deep as they’ll ever get, graphical technology has gotten to the point that if anyone still complains about it then they deserve to go blind, and we’ve created every possible genre of games conceivable. Where Sony and Microsoft improved menial things like graphics and some new software features – ie. being able to trash talk people over Halo while not being old enough to tie your shoes – Nintendo took a radical approach and decided to change the only thing that’s left to change and still crazy enough to make people tip their hats using only their eyebrows; The controller.
Now no more are we allowed to sit motionless, the only signs of life being the minute movements of our fingers as we press buttons and move joysticks a quarter of an inch. Oh, and they also called it the same thing I call the yellow stuff that fills my toilet after I finish a drinking match. But, all that aside, Nintendo still did their job; they created something radically new and rather awesome, and you cannot hate them for that. What you can hate them for is only releasing one good game with the Wii launch (and that game being a gamecube game as well), or hate them for not creating any games lately that would make someone between the ages of “first crush” and “married” willingly trade a days worth of food for.
But where I stand now, I choose to not hate them at all. I’ll just stand and hope that in the shiny streams of “wii” that the Wii is releasing, there will come a few gems worthy of spending money on that would otherwise go to an Xbox game.
Think about it for a moment. On one hand, you have millions upon millions of little kids, stay at home mums and old people all of whom are buying Wiis and Wii games like they’re heroin, when none of the games have much depth, only shiny neat features that most non-gamers wouldn’t expect from a game. Then you have the core crowd, or more aptly named, the “fans”. Fans gave rise to “fanboys”, and for a good reason. Fans are one of the most difficult things to please since they started making those talking baby dolls that refuse to shut up even upon decapitation. Fans demand the best, and whine profusely when they don’t get it. I would know, I’m guilty of it. Nintendo has put two and two together and come up with enough money to buy Belgium. Why suffer pleasing thousands of gremlins, when you can please millions of magpies willing to trade cold cash for anything shiny?
During the N64 and the Gamecube eras, Nintendo had always been the underdog, the "Little Console that Could". They kept this title by being forced to revolutionize the way we play games, by creating in-depth games so immersive that afterwards when you stub your toe you catch yourself looking for your health bar, and by pleasing the fans. Back then though, this was relatively easy to do, since we were used to 2D games and pixels being the size of our mothers face, but times do change and so do expectations. Since Nintendo has been the only company to ever take the term “nex-gen” literally, they took gaming to the next plausible level – which is the level short of sending us to the video game dimension where every man can destroy a planet by coughing and every girl has breasts the size of planets. Games have gotten about as deep as they’ll ever get, graphical technology has gotten to the point that if anyone still complains about it then they deserve to go blind, and we’ve created every possible genre of games conceivable. Where Sony and Microsoft improved menial things like graphics and some new software features – ie. being able to trash talk people over Halo while not being old enough to tie your shoes – Nintendo took a radical approach and decided to change the only thing that’s left to change and still crazy enough to make people tip their hats using only their eyebrows; The controller.
Now no more are we allowed to sit motionless, the only signs of life being the minute movements of our fingers as we press buttons and move joysticks a quarter of an inch. Oh, and they also called it the same thing I call the yellow stuff that fills my toilet after I finish a drinking match. But, all that aside, Nintendo still did their job; they created something radically new and rather awesome, and you cannot hate them for that. What you can hate them for is only releasing one good game with the Wii launch (and that game being a gamecube game as well), or hate them for not creating any games lately that would make someone between the ages of “first crush” and “married” willingly trade a days worth of food for.
But where I stand now, I choose to not hate them at all. I’ll just stand and hope that in the shiny streams of “wii” that the Wii is releasing, there will come a few gems worthy of spending money on that would otherwise go to an Xbox game.
A Day in the Life of a Cricket: Part 1
Many of you non-existent fans may wonder what exactly being a Cricket is like. Well, I am here to tell you, IT IS AWESOME! To clarify for those of you who don’t know, Crickets are insects, not animals. That said, they are defined by their long antennae, and the beautiful and melodious sound they produce. Now, being a Cricket myself, I don’t write this to boast, for I’m sure if you were one you’d sing the same tune.
Crickets’ daily routine consists of school, food, and a side of video games. All four Crickets attend Koinonia Christian School, down town London just south of Weybridge. Contrary to most beliefs, London is rarely foggy. Harry usually runs to school, while Brian, Tom, and Chris take the easy way out and hop on an omnibus. All Crickets are no doubt geniuses , and excel in school. All glory aside, most of us struggle at life as much as the other man, but we do our best and that’s what counts. Right???...Wrong, try telling that to your boss when you’re a corporate executive, and you just misplaced a half a billion dollars. But for now it works, and I’ll take my chances.
Now, as far as the Crickets singing career, it has been long coming, and we hope to have some tunes available in the weeks to come. Expect the unexpected, hope for the random, and wish for survival. And now I leave you with an old Gibsonian saying; Never drink saop.
Crickets’ daily routine consists of school, food, and a side of video games. All four Crickets attend Koinonia Christian School, down town London just south of Weybridge. Contrary to most beliefs, London is rarely foggy. Harry usually runs to school, while Brian, Tom, and Chris take the easy way out and hop on an omnibus. All Crickets are no doubt geniuses , and excel in school. All glory aside, most of us struggle at life as much as the other man, but we do our best and that’s what counts. Right???...Wrong, try telling that to your boss when you’re a corporate executive, and you just misplaced a half a billion dollars. But for now it works, and I’ll take my chances.
Now, as far as the Crickets singing career, it has been long coming, and we hope to have some tunes available in the weeks to come. Expect the unexpected, hope for the random, and wish for survival. And now I leave you with an old Gibsonian saying; Never drink saop.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Site Created!
This will be the home site of all Cricket projects, so look here to find the news on our work before it's even out!
More to follow...
More to follow...
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