Game Review Presentation, TT Superbikes

Great, looks like I'm the only one to have actually put together some form of presentation for this week and now we're asked to do a blog! Ahhh well, I suppose I have some notes to work from now, so here goes.

The game I have chosen to review is TT Superbikes for the Playstation 2. I've chosen to review this game for a few reason's, it is by the means the greatest game ever made, many gamers probably wouldn't even give it a second glance, but I don't play this game because I am a 'hard-core' gamer, I play it firstly for my love of racing games and my whole passion for racing, Motorsport and motorcycle racing in general, including my love for the Isle of Man TT and for a handful of other personal reasons which I will try to include along with an un-biased review of a game from a gamers perspective, hopefully mixing the tow will make for a decent review.

So, firstly, I feel I should explain a little about the Isle of Man TT. The Isle of Man TT is a motorcycle race held on the Isle of Man once a year. It is possibly the most prestigious motorcycle race in the world, but definitely the most dangerous, toughest and exhilarating race in the world. The race takes place over 37 ¾ miles of public roads, over 200 corners must be negotiated up to six times and 5 races take place over a week. Riders can reach speeds of up to 200mph between trees, hedges and brick walls with the opportunity for disaster around every corner. Experts say that it can take up to 3 years to learn the track, to date 237 riders have lost their lives to the TT course, on average that's 5 deaths for every mile of the course. The racing is also unbelievably fast, the fastest lap time to date was set by John McGuiness, his average speed over the 37 ¾ miles was an astonishing 131.57mph! I have only been across to the Isle of Man once to witness the racing but I can say for a fact that it is the most surreal thing you can experience in your life, the noise, the speed and the sensation you just feel that something special is happening and I highly recommend anyone to travel one year to watch, I'm sure you'll get hooked, all I can say is that if it doesn't excite you then you're not alive!

Here are some videos to give you a better picture of what the TT is about and the speed's they reach;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE7H6f9PVwk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWfwuKPyxEk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe7F6cOkQJU

I regularly go to watch club Motorcycle racing at Mallory park and last year went to watch the world championship (MotoGP) at Silverstone, as awesome as it was I was still sat a hundred yards away, behind 70 feet of gravel traps and an 8 foot fence. The Isle of Man TT is one of a kind, just from those videos you can see how close spectators can get to bikes racing past at 160mph+, in our generation of corporate control and health and safety nuts, this shouldn't be allowed to happen, but thankfully the event is untouched, and each year the event holders strive to make it 'as safe as possible'. But as all of the riders would tell you, they race the TT for the dangers, the thrills and the excitement of being on the very edge, it's in your blood and you cant get it out! To many riders the TT is not about beating others, its about beating the track, riders with no hope of winning have come to break personal bests and challenge the course, riders are always chasing faster and faster lap times, as I have already mentioned, it's like nothing else I've ever experienced, incredibly fast, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck! It really is like the real world version of Wipeout, or Death Race and it's legal!

So with these 'relationships' to the ideas of films and other video games you would imagine that the Isle of Man TT would lend itself well to a game, but ultimately it may only appeal to those who truly appreciate the particular event and circuit, or those who take their racing seriously enough to be extremely patient during the rather steep learning curve, fortunately I'd land myself n both of those categories.  The biggest, actually second biggest positive, I'll come to the biggest, of the game is, although I own a £425 Playstation 3 console I find myself constantly drawn to this 'last generation' Playstation 2 title, it allows me to do something that not only no other current generation title allows me, but to do something I only dream of doing in reality. It does what a game, in my opinion, should do, it allows me to involve myself in something I feel very passionate about in my life away from gaming and says 'here you can have a go too', but in the safety of my arm chair. The game obviously allows you to complete full laps of the TT course, which is all I want to do, I can stick in Call of Duty or Skyrim any day of the week and thrust myself into what feels like a never ending campaign but I would much rather do a lap of the TT any time. Obviously the course is very long so progression through the game involves a series of challenges which take place over segments of the course.

Particularly for a Playstation 2 game Jester Interactive have created an extremely realistic depiction of one of the world's most famous circuits and according to Jester the game features "every vital bump, wall, tree and house" en route. 



Other attributes to note are that the game features impressively realistic bike physics and rider animations, as well as believable audio, the game also offers 80 motorcycles as well as side-cars from different classes to chose from and delivers a superb sensation of speed.

So, I'm sure you're wondering what the biggest positive is? Well take a look at the following pictures;

The pictures are of Colin Rides motorcycle workshop, a small shop and workshop in Widnes close to where my parents live. I used to visit the shop regularly with my Dad on his bike, which really was more of a youth club for friends and possibly geriatric delinquents than a motorcycle shop! Sadly, Colin passed away a few years ago, and I hadn't visited the shop for quite a while with commitments to my education, but on visits I often chatted to an old chap named Stan. Stan was in his seventies, and like my Dad, many others who have surrounded me in my life and now myself he had a wonderful passion for Motorbikes. I told Stan about this game, how awesome it was, that you were able to race the full TT course on a video game, bear in mind I was in my teens, I imagine he thought what was coming out of my mouth was utter bollocks. Yet, the next time I was at Colin Rides with my Dad, tucking in to some chips, pie and gravy I'd imagine, guess who'd gone out and bought himself a Playstation 2 just so that he could play this game? Stan, you legend! I remember sitting and chatting to Stan about our lap times and how many 'clean' laps we've completed, how I struggle through the Glen Helen section and how he loves the sensation of flying down Bray Hill, something he's always dreamt of but never been able to do in the real world. It's only now that I come to realise how fucking awesome all of that is! If a video game can bring a Seventy year old man to spend his hard earned cash on a home console to play just one game and bring him and a teenager together with a common interest and passion then that video game has succeeded and surpassed many others in my eyes!

As I have previously mentioned the game may only appeal to serious race fans, it is very difficult to race a clean lap, with the extremely narrow road ways and the high speeds it takes many hours of patience to get right. It probably only shows how tough the real event is, I'm a huge racing game fan and its the only game Ive come to play where I cannot complete lap time's quicker than the real racers, John McGuinness, Guy Martin, Cameron Donald, Conor Cummins, Ian Hutchinson, and to those who have sadly lost their lives to the course, Dave Jefferies and Joey Dunlop, they are the bravest men in the world. The game has a difficult time in the gaming world, but if I was the only person playing it, which I know I'm not, I would owe a lot to Jester Interactive for making the game and giving me many hours of enjoyment, maybe I can repay them one day by working alongside those guys to make games that I love.

To finish on a positive not, I would like to say how impressively true to life the game is, accurate land markings, bus stops, an impressively wide range of foliage, flashbulb-popping photographers, roadside picnic tables and outdoor restaurants, licenses sign-age, adjoining avenues, pavements and curbing (most of which will play havoc on your bike's balance), and an assortment of buildings that may be unique in the genre because the majority of them are unique. The visual effects are sadly quite limited probably due to the hardware limitations of the Playstation 2 so I can only hope and pray for a PS3 release.

Finally I'd like to point everyone in the direction of a wonderful, life affirming film documentary which was released last year about 2010's Isle of Mann TT and the whole event in general, I'd pursue anyone with a pulse to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldZiR9eQ_0

Christmas break so far. Help I'm tired!

The Christmas break started off very productively, I was up super early on my first free day out of uni to visit Newark Air Museum and had a great day out on my own. Stupidly I bought an air-fix kit whilst there and spent the rest of the week building and painting that, still didn't finish it completely! Awesome fun though. At the end of that week I attended the student rep meeting to discuss the results of the student survey, I've got to hand it to Mr Pickton though, he did an awesome job of the survey and worked very hard, what can I say, he makes us look good.

The following week before Christmas I decided to take a rest and re-generate myself for the Christmas weekend, I did some extra work at Halfords where I work and part time and then it was Christmas! I had an awesome weekend, my parents came down from Warrington to spend the weekend and we were able to spend the whole of Christmas day at home with Sophia, and the following day, Monday 26th we all went to Mallory Park for the day to watch some bike racing at the Plum Pudding race meet. I honestly didn't think I'd be there with Sophia until next year, I've been to Mallory loads this year with my dad but havn't been allowed to take Sophia so I was well happy.

So, this week I was hoping to get some work done, obviously I visit Soph on Mondays and Wednesday's so havn't had those days full but I was asked to do a favour and cover somebody at Halfords so that was another day gone, Saturday I'm working till 1pm and Soph will be at the flat from 2pm and I agreed to help out by working all day at Halfords too so that's this week gone as well.

That leaves me with next week to get stuck into work and finish the vehicle design project and a presentation for critical studies. Mike was obviously right by telling us not to depend on the Christmas break to get stuff done as it will not happen but it really does go by quickly. I'm fine with getting stuck into work next week, the big problem is I'm tired. All the time! No matter what, im tired. Everything else thats going on in life is taking its toll it seems, I'm stressed, not eating properly and it seems everything i do day to day is none stop chaos and I'm only just keeping up. I'm hoping to see a doctor next week because of this, sometimes i feel motivated and ready to do work and my body is just too fatigued and other times i feel great physically but my head will just not function and I'm worried that my work wont be of a good quality if i cant clear my mind and that will effect my grades.

Hopefully a doctor can help but i dont know what to do, my life is my life and nothing can be changed. I've dropped my hours at work on a Thursday night but that only increases my worries over money. There's so much else going on, i feel i can cope caring for Sophia but the 'powers that be' seem to be making it as difficult as possible, i probably shouldn't divulge too much on that but it sucks and is stressing me out most of all.

But by far one of the thing that is stressing me out the most is driving in Leicester! I travel to Melton Mowbry 4 times a week to visit Sophia and it seems that every set of traffic lights are on red, even at one in the morning when there's nobody else on the fucking road, and there are a lot of traffic lights! and everyone else on the road are selfish wankers who have no time for everyone else! honest to god ive seen less violent drivers in the British touring cars at Brands Hatch!

Ahhhhhhhh rant over, possibly a little relief! I Should probably go and have a sleep and clear my head!

If you got this far, thanks for listening and putting up with me!

Newark Air Museum, Tuesday 13th December

To get the visual design Christmas project kick started, the vehicle design project, I decided to visit Newark Air Museum with first fee day out of uni to gather some research and also for something cool to do in my spare time.


The place is really awesome and they've got a lot more there than I was expecting, in total they have almost seventy air craft on display as well as a number of aircraft artefacts and aero engines.

They have some really impressive aircraft on display including a Vulcan, Saab Viggen, a Mikoyan-Gurevich Mig-23ML 'Flogger' capable of flying at over twice the speed of sound! and of course our very own Royal Navy sea Harrier! 


After the visit I've got lots of ideas floating around in my head for vehicle design and function and will 'hopefully' start work soon.

Vulcan

Sea Harrier

Aero Engine

Unfortunately work didn't begin straight away because I bought an air-fix kit of a Euro-fighter Typhoon, naturally! Well done.

There's nothing wrong with Fifa!

I do love a controversial blog title! Now, for starters, I don't play Fifa, EA piss me off a little if I'm truly honest but that's another rant for another time. I used to play Fifa though, used to love it and buy it every year, even though very little changed each year. I think it's a fantastic game to play, especially with friends, well, friends who like football. It's probably one of the few games with a multi-player were you can sit as a group of friends and have a good time, not sit on your own and play against complete wankers online, who you can hear being complete wankers over your headset. SO, Fifa is a game that can bring people together and play in a group, without being too serious and just have a good laugh, how awesome, that's what game's are supposed to do. Now, as I mentioned, I don't play Fifa, hardly have time to play any games any more, but, when I get a chance, I do like to play games like Gran Turismo, Dirt, MotoGP, World Superbikes and TT Superbikes. This blog isn't about Fifa, but those list of games that I enjoy playing have a lot in common with Fifa. My argument here is that there are many forms of art, but it can be boiled down to two sides, creating art from the imagination, things that don't exist and are non-real, and art from life, art that is created from what exists, now that's quite a generalisation but bare with me. For the first part of the DMU Game Art course, for a big chunk of it actually, we do the latter, drawing and creating game assets from life, trying to translate what we see in front of us onto a page. In the world of art some artists enjoy to explore their creativity by producing whatever they want, and can I point out that quite frequently, or at least in my opinion, abstract art is pointless and quite frankly shit. But, there are also artists who endeavour and pride themselves on creating a drawing or painting on a real life subject as realistically and accurately as possible. Some artists spring to mind. John Constable and his landscape paintings in particular. Marie Rosalie Bonheur, another landscape painter, and, oh, who's that other fella? oh yeah! Leonardo da Vinci! How much more accurate can you get than the Vitruvian man? and if you are following me, this is my argument. Realism in the visual arts refers to the general attempt to depict subjects as they are considered to exist, without embellishment or interpretation. Realism often refers more specifically to the artistic movement, beginning in France in the 1850's but also has had influences on literature and the social-political environment, and now, VIDEO GAMES! i.e, Fifa, Gran Turismo, etc.

Does anyone understand my argument yet? Well, Fifa, and the other games I enjoy playing (Gran Turismo, MotoGP) are video games realist subjects. The companies who produce these games still employ artists you know! These games are the 'depiction of subjects as they exist' in the real world, artists who work on these games, and I can speak on behalf of Gran Turismo here no problem, endeavour to re-create real world objects with unbelievable accuracy for us all to enjoy in the comfort of our arm chairs!


Okay, so counter argument. "Fifa is for chavs and football hooligans", probably agree, and "fat kids sit playing Fifa when they should get off their arses and go kick a ball at the park". Also has some truth, but! but when I play MotoGP, I cant go and jump on Valentino Rossi's bike and fly around Donnington Parl, and like-wise, whoever's playing Fifa, chavs, whatever, cant, in the real world play alongside Steven Gerrard for Liverpool Football Club, or for Manchester United at Old Trafford. At the end of the day the game does what any game does, it gives the player the opportunity to experience something they could not in their real lives.


Im trying my best to be as open minded as possible here, and trying to have a view from both sides. Im not defending any games, or trying to promote any for that fact, but, as I mentioned I do enjoy to play racing games, that's 'my' genre, and other games based on real life event's, just like Fifa, and I know way too many people, people on the game art course too mind, not mentioning any names! who like drawing robots, muscle-y-gun-men, monsters, goblins and playing games like Darksiders, Marvel vs Capcom, Gears Of War, Halo and dare I say, Zelda. Im not having a go at theses games, I'd probably enjoy playing them, for about five seconds, they're just not for me, pixies with pointy ears, Jesus. 


Okay, so you enjoy Zelda, fair enough, just don't completely right off realist games, like Fifa! The beauty of art is that everyone has their own opinions on what can and cant be beautiful. I can imagine people would argue that there is nothing beautiful about football, cant be anything, players, stadiums, but, I've visited Barcelona's football stadium, the Nou Camp, and to me that was beautiful, a man made structure that can seat 100,000 people! and to re-create that as accurately as possible within a video game environment so that you can experience the buzz of the crowd, the atmosphere from that perspective is just awesome! 

To sump up, I'm not defending Fifa, just to make that perfectly clear, I don't own the game and don't play it, like any game it has its merits and it has flaws, although just to mention, Fifa 12 accordingly sold 3.2 million units in its first week of sale, (jobs for me and you). If you like drawing and/ or playing fantasy, non-real that's absolutely fine, just don't right off games based on real subjects because of some negative opinions that can surround hem, because they can be equally as awesome, honest.

Barcelona at the Nou Camp in a Fifa game (lovely grass!)



http://www.ea-anz-press.com/release.asp?i=1578

Game Production, Architectural Project Finished

So my house is finished. Overall I'm very happy with how the project has gone. It's way better than my previous house project for a start!

I initially had concerns with my texture budget, thinking I may have given myself too much to texture with only 8mb available but its actually come out quite well. Its surprising just how much you can fit onto a 1024pxl texture sheet whilst still maintaining quality. Also surprising how you can get get away with using smaller texture sheets (256pxl and 128 pxl) for tile-able textures, although one problem I found was with my actual reference images for the tile-able's. By using a digital SLR it meant that my reference photographs were of a very high quality, one photograph was over 7mb! and when I tried to scale them down to 256pxl or 128pxl, even 512pxl, there was a dramatic loss in quality. In the end my tile-able textures came out okay but its definitely something I can look at more in-depth in the future.

A quick look at the feedback I have received so far. My normal maps, for the windows of the house in particular  were very 'blobby/ lumpy', I went back into Crazybump with the height map and reduced the large detail sliders to resolve this. One other point from feedback was regarding how I had presented my work, I was actually quite happy with my renders, I stayed up till 2.a.m. a few nights ago teaching myself how to use the daylight system in 3DS Max and using Mental Ray to render. But I have taken note on my presentation techniques and will look into that more in the very near future. Somebody also pointed out that I had missed a supporting beam from my reference photographs in my mesh, which was easily rectified.

Game Production, Architectural Project W.I.P.

Hopefully this will be just a quick one before my head hits the desk. Just wanted to have a quick look at my house before I clean everything up, give it a few final tweaks and get some final renders before Monday.

Basically all of the diffuse textures are on there, apart from the lawn, which wont take very long at all. At the moment I've used 4.79MB of my available texture budget. I am going to add a specular or normal map on there, which will take 3MB of space each, so that's the remainder of my budget, so its a toss-up between the two. Obviously I'd like to have both but right now if I'd have to choose one, I think I'd rather apply the specular to give the windows of the house and conservatory a nice shine.

Overall im really pleased with how the project has gone, I'm extremely happy with my mesh although I feel I may have been a little bold with the size of my mesh in relation to the texture budget, I can make it though. Other little things I think I could of done differently would be to have a tillable texture for the bushes around the driveway instead of including them on my larger texture sheet and could of probably had the garden wall on the texture sheet instead of tiling that, so basically switch them around.

At the moment my diffuse texture's are possibly a little too bright so I'm going to have a play around with that tomorrow make the building a little more realistic and dirty it up a little bit.

Ive made a few renders here anyway so I can assess the diffuse textures, I definitely need to have a look at how the garden wall is tiling. When ive finished I'm hoping to have a play around with the renderer and get some nice render's posted when finished.

The Test!

Okay, so just got back from uni and today we've had a visual design test. Apparently a few of the feedback assessments didn't go so well and people have been very worried about the feedback they have received, should they be? Possibly, probably, I mean, people seem upset that they have been asked to do 'more', "that's the only feedback I got", boo hoo, at the end of the day its feedback, the tutors probably have many reasons why 'more work' is the feedback they are giving, to be honest doing 'more work' should just be an obvious given, we are on this course because we all have artistic skills, and if its not obvious that any skill will be improved by doing more of that thing then, I really don't know, you can't be helped!

Chris told us that we were going to have a one hour test, of drawing and rendering from a still life, and everybody seemed to shit themselves! I think today is one of the first day's I've gotten into class on a Wednesday and not been the first one in there, there was already like 10 people in there drawing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, that's awesome, but why were people worried? Jesus, we were drawing from a still life! that should be easy, laid back and fun, we're drawing shit everyday, and people start panicking because we have a 'test'. All we were asked to do is to do something we do, hopefully, every single day. Oh my!

Nuff said.