Wednesday 30 November 2011

Vehicle project

For my vehicle project I decided to design a high-end nightclub boat that would take its passengers up and down some of the most beautiful rivers in the world




I first started out by doing some quick sketches and photo shop design ideas using the silhouette method. Then came the process of designing ideas, joining those ideas and finally refinement.

After I chose my final idea I went into, and design ideas for the paint scheme and material choices.

Storyboarding helped my ideas developed and helped me identify some of the flaws within my design. One of the main issues was that I was going to have a glass back to the boat. This is not a good idea because you would be able to see all the cables and joining sections, which would then make it ugly and pointless.
I want to come back to this project to tighten and improve the design and to think more about how it would work and how it would be built.

Leicester city painting

This week I've been during scenes of buildings around Leicester.

I have drawn 12 prep sketches and have found a building I really like due to the lighting when I was there and the large panes of glass that surround the restaurant. Also the building from a certain angle reminded me of Edward Hopper's painting called nighthawks. So I decided to do a digital painting for my final.


The Nighthawks painting has influenced a lot of people, Ridley Scott has said “I was constantly waving a reproduction of this painting under the noses of the production team to illustrate the look and the mood I was after”. When he was directing the film Blade Runner. Also the painting was recreated in the style of The Simpsons for one of their episodes called Homer versus the 18th Amendment.


Here is the final outcome of my painting. the left-hand side of the image resembles the Nighthawks and is very empty, this forces the viewer’s eyes onto the focal point of the image. The focal point being the restaurant, I would like to add some characters into the scene as it would give the painting some life.

Task 15 - Visual composition

Visual composition is, at its most basic the arrangement of elements within an image according to established art principles. Understanding these principles and being able to use them correctly is a key element in developing your professional skill level. For this blog post about visual composition I am reviewing it as a result of a very helpful industry took/workshop.

Visual composition is a key principle that needs to be correct and present in every image that we create. In the past I would just point and click with my camera not thinking about how the image would look if I took the photo from another angle or position. Also when I used to draw seems I didn't think about the points of interest or even vanishing points.

Since being a university I have learned to think more about my sketches since learning the principles and the skills of drawing. The principles of organisation; as an artist I need to decide where my centre/focus points should be in my image. I have to decide where the eyes look around the image. I do this by placing objects in certain places: I can change the feel of an image with a simple change of the viewpoint.

Here is a list of some of the principles of organisation:

·         negative space

·         colour

·         cropping of an image

·         shape and proportion

·         positioning/orientation/balance

·         the contrast

·         lighting

·         perspective

·         lines

·         geometry

·         Harmony

·         Rhythm

The negative and positive space should balance each other out. Negative space is commonly seen as a black background like in this image.

The colour theory is very important in visual composition because if you get the colour wrong it can throw and overpower the overall image off.

The rules of thirds is where you divide the image into three sections wide and three sections in height using these guidelines you can create a pleasing image by moving the horizon line to one of the gridlines also meeting key aspects into the bottom left that creating spiral effect.

Being human we have a certain curiosity with other people. So in this photo everybody's eyes would go straight to the people. Faces and particularly the eyes will pull the viewer’s gaze in more.
Sharp areas will draw the viewer's eyes in over the out of focus areas. This is these same with diagonal lines as they are more of fierce than the horizontal lines. The diagonal line can be strong or weak, with a stronger line the image would be more dramatic and dynamic also the diagonal line takes the views I straight to a specific point of view. This is quite forceful and as I've said dynamic. Using a C or S line can take the viewers are you around an image deselected areas.

In mathematics and the arts, to quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci used the golden ratio in his paintings but there have not been any recorded evidence. When looking at the Mona Lisa it is being suggested that the proportions use the golden ratio.

Friday 11 November 2011

Task 14 Planing and Concepting

I’m re-visiting some of my early blogs due to a very helpful industry talk/workshop.

During this blog I’m going to be talking about planning and concepting in this blog post and how I go from initial ideas to final products. I didn’t get taught that many techniques or methods to get to a final piece, until I came to university. I would sketch out lots of ideas really small and quick so I can combine and further my ideas till I would come up with a really solid design.

I used to take life drawing classes out of school and I used to draw blind and also draw whilst not looking at the paper this helps you with hand to eye co-ordination and also can then further the speed of you jotting your ideas onto paper.

Since being at university I have learnt a number of different methods. This past week I have learnt a number of small tricks as well, due to a great workshop from a lead concept artist and a senior concept artist. Most of the techniques I have seen or used before but forgotten how helpful they are. One of these methods is called the silhouette method here is what it looks like.
    

I have used this method because it is very quick and you can jot your ideas down straight away. Also you can then use a layer mask to add detail to the specififc ideas that you will then choose to futher concept.

Here are five enhanced versions of my very simple designs for my reef characters project. As you can see it is very rough but its not supposed to be a polished piece yet at this point as im still working on the outfits and I might have a change of heart and decide to blend to outfits.


I would then complete a final design and put my final idea into storyboards so I could show how my idea would look in certain environments. Before going into photoshop I would do really quick tumbnail sketches that would literally be only for my eyes just to understand some quick compositions and where certain main objects should be in the scene. After this I will do a larger thumbnail and using markers and biros to produce some tonal values and some simply lighting. Then I would choose to do some quick black and white scenes as you can set your tones and values really quickly and have an overall working image. Also a good tip I have picked up is only to use stock brushes and mainly the round brush for doing quick photoshop paints.

I find if you do not plan or go through cerntain thought proceses and methods you will not reach a consise and well thought out final product. So I tend to set myself a certain amount of time for each process so I can spend my time the most afficiantly.

For some quick environment work we got taught to use 3dsmax to create a 3d alley way, we then took certain renders i.e. z depth and group mask to help with our digital painting in photoshop. We used a mixture of textures and handpainting to create a dark mysterious alley. The talk/ workshop was very helpful and im glad we had it and its thanks to our course that we have been given all these opportunities to meet industry workers and gain valuable knowledge.

Task 13 Personal reveiw 2

Last year I didn’t have a plan for my work, I managed to complete all my work on time but I felt with a schedule I could have produced more work or refined my final pieces more. So this year my aim is to have a schedule or plan so that I can a lot my time wisely and produce work of my highest standard. I am going to make a diary of my week so I can see where I am loosing hours where I could be making use of them, I will then make my schedule based on the diary.

I am planning to learn how to use Z brush properly as I have only just got it and need to wrap my head around the new programme. I would like to become proficient at Z brush because I have seen a lot of very nice models when other students have used the software and I think it will enhance my models.

Another ambition of mine is too work more in the set holidays we have. I know I lacked the insight of how it could have helped me and over the holidays I wasn’t working every day. Whereas now I’m setting myself an aim to do work over the holidays.

This week I have used my time well and managed to produce 5 acrylic paints that I’m really proud of I sat and painted for over 5 hours it was great to do as I am and have been a very fidgety person. I find it hard to focus on certain things (like writing my blogs) and I get distracted very easily so I am trying to find ways around these issues. One way is listening to music this sounds weird but I find I focus more with music noise in the background my dad is this way to but my mum is the opposite she has to work in complete silence. I will tend to listen to music of this nature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnAWn8dHvAc&feature=BFa&list=FLydWEz-paO64ujojyHqxNUg&lf=mh_lolz . Another way is that I’m having help from the 1:1 support at dmu, hopefully they can help me concentrate and help me think of new strategies when I’m writing my blogs.

 Purposeful learning is learning from experience, whether that is the experience of a meeting, a project, a disaster, a success, or any other internal or external event.

Academic foundations helps the student get ready for the next phase of learning and also progresses’ what they have learnt from the first phase.

Autonomous learning helps the student develop their self-consciousness, vision, practicality and freedom of discussion.

The first year was all about learning the basics of 3ds max, Photoshop and traditional skills now as we progress into the second year we will put the skills into practice and find out new process and techniques to complete the briefs we get given. We will also have to learn to work within a group as we will have a group project towards the end of the year.

Monday 2 May 2011

General chat 3 # Ashridge blue bell forest

At the start of my Easter holidays I went to Ashridge blue bell forest which is near where I live. As you can tell from the image we had amazing weather that day, I took my sketch pad and my camera and enjoyed sitting in the sun sketching away. When I got back home I decided to do a digital paint of the forest, I really liked the composition of one of my sketches so I used some of the photos for reference and started to paint. I really enjoyed painting this scene because I really enjoyed that day because of the weather. 

I decided to revisit the paint after a few crits from people on my course and from my own thoughts. As you can see I decided to add some darker tones and strengthened the trees as their opacity was low. Really pleased with the final outcome and it might even be put on my wall.

General chat 2 # Hayling Island

I went to Hayling Island (near Portsmouth) yesterday (19/04/2011), it started out to be a very nice day and then towards the evening some clouds started to form in the sky. I was down there visiting family but I decided to take my camera, laptop and graphics tablet just in case I had some free time to wonder around, which I did. I went along to the beach front and had a walk around and went to the beach huts as they are quite iconic of the English coastline. I decided to draw a quick sketch to get the correct positions of the huts and sea level and then when I got back indoors I decided to do a paint over. There were some people flying some kites on the beach so I also took photos of them and decided to paint them in to add some fun to the piece.


Then later in the evening as we were leaving the island we pulled over at the docks I did a quick sketch and when I got back home painted the rest of this piece. There was a bridge supposed to be in this paint but I thought it would detract from the piece and I also didn’t draw about 5 other boats as I thought the scene would get over crowded. I really like this piece due to its realism and the way the water came out as I found it hard to get the right colours and highlights but I think I’ve done well here.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Task 12: Personal review of the first year

This first year at university has been great and I am glad I made the right choice to study here at De Montfort University because my course is brilliant and it was just like I was expecting and even better. I really like the ways the course has helped me progress with my traditional art skills and in turn helped develop my Photoshop skills. We visited Bradgate Park twice once at the start of the year and just before we left, we had to complete finals for each visit. Here are my finals first one is a water colour completed on the first visit and the second image is a digital paint from sketches and photo references.

As you can see I have improved on my composition and in my colour theory. I have also given the digital paint a lot of atmosphere which the water colour doesn’t have. A suggestion that could be helpful for students in all years could be a couple of hour’s session of critiques and feedback once a week as sometimes I found myself wondering if I was doing enough work as I found time management hard. In my second year I want to keep up the same work rate and even produce more work, personally I would want to see a tutorial or maybe a quick talk on bounce lights as I have not got the hang of getting them correct in my images.
Having come to this course without any previous experience with using any 3D modelling programmes I think I picked up 3dsmax quite well. When there was complaining about 3dsmax from others, I was enjoying and learning about the programme. It is very rewarding when you get to see your final product in 3d on the computer and I really enjoyed the Gladiator model as we got to rig it and we got to see our character move around an environment. I did think for a couple of the tasks we were given too much time was given. I then started to ease off of my work flow and not keeping to my schedule due to the long production time, but this only happened twice. Going in to the second year i would like to see more of our last project which was the gun project, as we got to come up with an original idea and develop it so it included all 3 sub sections (visual design, game production and critical studies). Here is and image of my Gladiator.
The size of the groups for our critical game studies is just right as it is not overcrowded and we can all have a say in the discussions going on. At the start of the year our group wasn’t talking or discussing that much and I think is due to people not knowing each other enough, a suggestion to get around this is could have been a casual presentation/talk at the start of the year which was about the individual i.e. what games we play, what inspires us. Another suggestion is we could have organised to all meet up in one of the rooms for a general chat or even a trip to a pub for pint. I found the talks to be helpful as I have learned more about the industry and what a job in industry entails.



Task 11: Elements of game design, part four: environment

As you can tell from the title this week’s blog task is to talk about the environments in games. To start getting a working environment you need an idea now this idea needs to be well thought out and the best ideas are based on real life. You will need good visual reference i.e. photographs or videos and good sketches so you can visualize the overall level normally you would draw a lot of different designs from all angles.
Thrashball.jpeg

You would then draw a floor plan for each level on the map depending if you game has multiple levels. Floor plans can help you decide where players will go through the level or how the map will be played. The floor plans can then be taken into engine and a white box can be created, this white box will allow you to scale and build your level in 3d so you can run around the map so you can see if it works. A white box should be a very simple overall design so you can iron out any problems that may occur when you play the map.
After this you should add terrain and a sky if your map is open and also add basic lighting so you can see the overall atmosphere of the map. The next step is to create basic textures and apply them to your white box so it gets rid of the flag texture, so it is then easier to take away parts of the map that will be static meshes. Adding objects is next and will always want to start working from big to small and you want don’t want to focus on a small part of the map the whole map needs love. You would then go into the texturing phases and then finally you would tweak the lights and start making them a bit more complex.
I’m saving my money for a game called brink it looks to be a really good game and his heavily stylised it is getting compared to team fortress 2. I believe as long as you don’t go wild on stylisation, you keep everything consistent and always reference things from real life the player should not loose belief in the game world. Brinks environments are really well made and look amazing they have got the atmosphere just right and looks just like their early concept art. An area called container city looks just like the slums in Brazil and India lots of corrugated metal all rusted and decaying there are areas with neon signs quite like blade runner but the lights could have been influenced from other cities i.e. Japan. Brink has a key feature in its game called the smart system "Smart Movement Across Random Terrain" this allows players to run, jump and strafe across the environment to get a better view point on other players and the maps. This means all the environment has specific collision boxes and each object has been placed in the environment with thought and precision.

Task 10 Elements of game design, part three: Character

Hey people this week I’m going to be talking about characters and what they can bring to certain types of media.

When I read books (which isn’t often) I like to visualise the character in my own way so a book with important descriptions of character in it is perfect for me. Normally when I read books I can emphasis with the characters more than in films. I’m currently reading a book by Andy McNab called Zero Hour, I really like Andy McNab books due to the realism, language used, important character descriptions and history behind the main character. In Zero Hour as you find out about the character. (Spoiler alert) as I continued to read I found out that the main character has a terminal illness, this made me empathise with the character more due to the raw human emotion that surrounds terminal illnesses.
A film that I really liked and found it easy to empathy with the characteristics was inception to be a really good film due to the script and actors. I started to believe that the dreams and its intruders could actually happen due to the great acting and also that our dreams are private and the script bends that theory completely. Also Leonardo de Caprio plays the main character because he has lost his wife which is very traumatic experience.
The Directors/Writers use our human emotions to empathise with the characters, also putting the characters in certain situations will provoke different responses.
When Directors/Writers choose to create a character they need 6 key points and here they are.
1.       Speech: The content and manner of speech can help evoke personality such as shy, aggressive and anxious.
2.       Motivation: The character ought to have good reasons for their actions.
3.       Concreteness: Everything has to be realistic your character, giving your character specific beliefs is one way another is to create more information about your character for instance, specific brands from certain supermarkets this could show his social background and income.
4.       Change: A character should react to their responses either by changing or avoiding the change. The character needs to grow and develop throughout the story by adapting to situations.
5.       Behaviour: A good way to show a characters behaviour is to put the character under stress which can reveal certain traits. The behaviour of the character needs to be regular with what we already know of the character.
6.       Symbolic association: The mind associates meaning to an image/event thus making it symbolic. So if I was to choose the colour red as the colour of my characters jacket it could show that he is angry.
I’ve recently watched the whole series of The Walking Dead and it is a fantastic TV show, but it was first a comic book and I’m looking to buy them to. The Show is directed by Frank Darabont who is also known for directing The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption. The camera angles used help me feel as if I could be in the show its self. The character Rick Grimes is played by Andrew Lincoln who is an English actor and plays a quintessential American cop his acting is amazing in the show. The main story line is Rick is a cop he wakes up one day from a coma to find the earth is overrun by walkers (zombies) and he doesn’t know what has happened to his family so he tries to find them.
So overall I believe that a character needs a history and we need to know a bit about it to fully understand a character. Using traumatic or stressfully events can show a character in another light and can also help us empathise with the character.

Sunday 27 March 2011

General Chat

This week I am going to chat about the course that I am studying which is Games Art at De Montfort University. In the past week we have been studying some of the master artists of our choice.

I chose to study Egon Schiele I found out about his work from a book called “the art book” the book contains lots of influential artists and was published in 1994.  I really liked his portraits due to the realistic look to the figures but on closer inspection you notice how he distorts the human form and proportions. I also love the colours he uses for the skin tones these colours to me seem quite dirty and on purpose. We had to recreate the masters piece of work in any media we liked it had to resemble the original trying to emulate the brush strokes, here is my final outcome.
We also had to complete a painting on the study of another master, I chose Frans Hals. I really liked the quick, precise brush strokes and the very similar colour tones. I decided to use traditional media for this piece as I haven’t painted on a canvas before. I am really pleased with the final outcome, if I was to change anything I would use a similar pallet to the original.

Task 9: Elements of game design, part two: art direction for games

This week’s task is to write about art direction this involves what is an art director and what’s the difference between media with art direction.
An Art director in the media of games is in charge of the art team and what the team produces. The art director makes crucial decisions like which way should the art style go, what visual elements should be used, what the team should be working on and a lot more. As an Art director you need to lead your team into creating concepts and then forming them in the media. The art director will be in charge of lots of smaller groups normally managed by lead artists he/she would arrange frequent meeting with all groups to see if they are heading in the right direction he/she is looking for. The Art director will look out for anything that does not merge with the art direction he/she is looking for, and you would have to change it to his specifications. Art directors are responsible to the Game designer and the publisher.
I believe that the Art director has a very creative role in making a game. As the Art director gives critical analysis and feedback on the way the assets look, to the overall art direction. This analysis should be given back to the creator responsible and should not be negative unless the object in discussion is completely wrong haha. When I say the feedback should not be negative I mean that you shouldn’t be rude and impolite, you still need to give crits telling them if something is wrong. The Art director needs to be positive otherwise the studio will be a horrible place to work as the staff will not put any effort into the assets.
The Art director in films is a very important job you would work under the production designer and you would be in charge of the whole art department and collaborating with the Set director. If you were an Art director in this field you would have more of a managerial role. You would have to work with other departments such as Locations Department and Special FX.
In advertising the Art director is not the head honcho but is a part of a coalition with another role called a Copywriter. They collaborate with each other creating the initial concepts, the Copywriter is in charge of the textual content and the Art director is in charge of the visual design. The overall outcome should be a joint effort.
As of now I’m not sure if I would want to be an Art director as it seems to be more of a managerial role in the games industry but down the line in my carrier this might be more suited to me? Who knows haha? If I wanted to become an Art director I would need to have impressive skills and experience in video games and I would have preferably been working in the games industry for a while. Although there are some circumstances in which people have got the job even if they haven’t studied or worked their way through the game industry they have studied courses such as fine art and photography.

Sunday 20 March 2011

Controller layouts and custom mapping

Hey guys, this week I saw a video from PAX the video showed a disabled man asking developers why a lot of their games was not catering to him and other fellow disabled gamers. The reason why the gentleman could not play certain games on consoles was due to the button layouts they provided he could not press specific buttons at certain times. His aim was to get the console developers more aware of people in his situation or similar situations.
PC developers have a reputation for allowing their players the freedom to customise their setup and even the game its self through mods. Games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft allow their players to customise their own control schemes, for instance there is a mouse from razor that has 17 programmable buttons that means if you mapped all the controls on to the mouse you wouldn’t have to touch the keyboard for certain games.

Games like Call of Duty and Halo have been giving their players control pre-sets for a while this has been helpful for players, especially those that play other games with similar pre-sets. A new game from Bethesda/Splash Damage is called Brink, Brink will have custom mapping for consoles. This is great news but why is Brink the first game to do this? As it seems stupid to alienate a potential consumer.
Here are my thoughts on why game developers might not want to allow custom mapping for consoles. Consoles have game controllers with a specific amount of buttons and the amount is normally quite small, therefore the developers could be thinking that they are giving to many options to the player who then could get confused. Other developers believe the layout they have given the character is the best layout to play the game.
Overall I believe all games on consoles should allow custom mapping but I believe we should still keep the specific pre-sets, they should be packaged together.

Task 8: Elements of game design, part one: from Pong to next-gen…

In this week’s Blog post I am going to talk about Game design and some of the choices made in the process. 
Gameplay is the interactive aspects that a player is allowed to execute in a game. These aspects could be obstacles tasks or others, you need good instinctive controls that help the gameplay. A good plot/story and if the player can relate to at least one character in your game you are on the winning path. I see good gameplay as, the player fully immersed, felling emotions like empathy hatred, with a well thought out control system and new/unique more complex challenges to keep me playing and entertained. As a player I like rewards and being punished for the decisions I make during a game, unlocking weapons/upgrades keeps me playing a game due to the changes.
Here are some of the most recognizable and talented game designers, I have chosen these designers due to me loving there work. Hideo Kojima was best known for the series Metal Gear Solid, Hideo in 2008 was given the award show's first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for a game designer at the MTV game awards and was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 GDC. Clifford Bleszinski helped create one of my favourite Xbox 360 title Gears of War. Here are the obvious Sid Meier and Will Wright both talented guys between them making games like Civilization and The Sims.
Game design takes can take occur in a number of places, you will need a quick over view of your game this is thought up by your lead designers or an employee this will then be shown to the publishers and may follow the constraints set by them. The programmers and artists then go away produce design documentation so that they can set them self-goals to achieve and so they know what they have to complete within the specific time schedule.
If you are a third-party developer you will usually work with game publishers to develop a multiplatform title. The publisher and the developer both have a say in the design and content of the game. The publisher's normally has the final say over the developer's due to the fact that the publisher is paying the developer to create the title.
I am a first person shooter fan and yes I like call of duty but I also play lots of different genres and styles of games. I am waiting for Guild Wars 2 to come out so I can play my first massively multiplayer game as I’m interested to find out how MMO’s keep the players immersed in the game. As I find FPS get me involved a lot more and I also feel empathy with characters in the game, a 3rd person game doesn’t normally have the same effect with me. So I would say that different genres of games have different design principles.
When I play a game I look for a good story that keeps me interested hours through the game and the story must make me empathies with the characters. I hope that there is no on the rail sections as it breaks the level of immersion for me.

Sunday 16 January 2011

Next time you buy a game...

In our culture we are told to think about where our clothes come from and not to buy certain brands due to the exploitations of child labour. Now I know this isn’t on the same level but should we care about how our games are made? Should we support publishers and developers if they are undermining their staff or us as a consumer?

The back and forth fight between Activision Blizzard and the duo that used to own Infinity Ward Jason West and Vince Zampella is still continuing. Jason and Vince were told to leave due to “breaches of contract and insubordination.” Activision filed their huge lawsuit due to the Jason and Vince’s lawsuit against Activision, which argued against their sacking and they wanted $36 million in royalty payments. As they didn’t receive their full amount for making the game plus they didn’t get any bonuses for creating the most successful entertainment release which has grossed over one billion dollars as of January 18th 2010.

Jason and Vince left Infinity Ward and created Respawn Entertainment which is currently working on a game (fps shooter) for EA to publish. In December Activision bought EA into the law suit claiming that Jason and Vince had signed a deal with EA when they were under an exclusive deal signed in a contract. Also the claim was that EA were using go-betweens to persuade Jason and Vince to create their game. The lawsuit all in total reaches $400 million against EA and the executives.

Jeff Brown EA spokesman said in a statement. "A PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection." "Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work." Jason and Vince are saying that bringing in EA to the lawsuit, Activision are trying to setback the actual court date. Jason and Vince say “any delay of the trial in this lawsuit would increase the financial and non-financial burdens and would continue to distract us from running our business and earning a living.”
So should we continue supporting companies that are taking advantage of its staff? Just a thought.

Thursday 6 January 2011

Task 6: Writing about Games, Previews, reviews, commentary and lies

Hey guys this blog post will see me analyzing key links about game reviews and previews. To get your game in the media you need to build up hype and a certain buzz around your game. I have read both blog entries by Kieron Gillen, I have learnt the media coverage can be bias and corrupt but also be completely impartial depending on where you look for your reviews. For example when you are search online for good review of a game that you may buy is a hard and very lengthy task as there are thousands of review sites. When you find one good review that tells it like it is you want more just to make sure the game is getting properly reviewed.
I have figured out from the websites that the publishers and game companies pay the wages of the journalists. The game websites also pay the journalists with some of the money they get from advertising which occurs on the website. Sites like IGN and Gametrailers are heavily influenced and write a good review for the publishers in return they get exclusive interviews, gameplay and moneys. Whereas independent review sites say what they want to say and are completely impartial also they do not advertise games on their websites. For reviews of games I will go to smaller known websites or buy a magazine where as if I want the latest news I will go to well known websites. I also look for review sites that do not have a ranking for their games mainly because you cannot have specific numbers for graphics and presentation. Also the game engines, consoles and software are always being updated so I do not see that a ranking system is very fair.
I’m a big fan of magazines due their professionalism their review styles and their big pictures! In magazines like GAMESTM you can find humor and experiences, Here is a sentence from a quick over view of a game called Endless Ocean 2 “If the first one was endless, why a sequel?” Also having a magazine involves you a lot more than reading a review or watching a 2 minute review on the internet. I love hard copies of things (except music) including games I really dislike the idea of cloud gaming but I know I will have to come around to it eventuallyL.
I like the NGJ and the style of writing due to the fact that it is more about experiences and not about this game has good graphics and this game has alright sound. NGJ style would be like “when I switched the game camera to inside the off the car I noticed how realistic the graphics were. The steering wheel and dashboard looked crisp and well textured.”
My own writing style at the moment would be objectively as I find writing altogether hard, I focus on getting the information down on the paper that I think is the most important to the reader and then triple check my work to make sure it is all correct and sounds right. I would like my writing style to be more subjectively as I want my blog to be more personal and more about my experiences.