FF in TC part 4.

Here is part 4 of the video series by Frost Fox Films.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbGlSF20gMU

Gaming again!

I just got Street Fighter 4 on the 12th - it's a very fun game and highly anticipated. I decided to make a video review for it since it doesn't come out in the US until the 17th. So far it's been about 24 hours and I have over 2,000 views. To give you a comparison, my Da Keng Monkey video has gotten 62 views in the last 2 weeks. Taiwan Dreamin' episode 1 has 435 views and it's been up for 3 months.

My number of fans or 'subscirbers' has gone up as well. Before I started doing video game related videos I had about 20, now I have 72.

Here are the honors for my SF4 video:

#3 - Most Discussed (Today) - Taiwan

#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#52 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Taiwan

#1 - Most Discussed (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#5 - Most Discussed (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#94 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - Canada

#68 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - United Kingdom

#69 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - New Zealand

#68 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming

#41 - Most Viewed (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#3 - Top Favorited (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#11 - Top Favorited (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#76 - Top Favorited (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#22 - Top Rated (Today) - Taiwan

#85 - Top Rated (Today) - Gaming

#1 - Top Rated (Today) - Gaming - Taiwan

#1 - Top Rated (This Week) - Gaming - Taiwan

#4 - Top Rated (This Month) - Gaming - Taiwan

#44 - Top Rated (All Time) - Gaming - Taiwan

So as you can see I am very excited about this. What this means is that I have more traffic coming through my page and more people will see my videos as a whole. When I publish my next Taiwan related video many people who are not necesarily interested in Taiwan will get notice of it and possibly check it out. Very good news for me, and for my Taiwan Dreamin' project!

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVSCHbPLOI




Also, there was a big gaming convention in Taipei recently, I didn't go but it seems pretty cool. Here's a page with photos from the event, lots of pretty girls there for advertising purposes, haha!

http://www.mobile01.com/newsdetail.php?id=6995

Okay - I am still editing Taiwan Dreamin' ep 2, so I should be finished after not TOO long!

HIGH DEF!

The world is now in HIGH DEFINITION! It's the next generation in entertainment. Now to tell the truth, I am fine with our current TVs and DVDs, but HD is replacing it whether you like it or not, and truthfully it does look pretty awesome.

There is an idea in the US that in Asia you can buy electronics and media and such things much cheaper. Well I haven't seen that in Taiwan. Right now I am considering going HD with my gear. I just checked those prices and they are pretty heavy, looks even worse when you see the price in NT.


SOOOO PS3, it plays Blueray DVD, the only way to go for HD movies now that HDDVD has gone out of business. At the store up the road the PS3 bundle costs about NT$17,800. That includes any two games, an HD Cable for connecting with an HD TV, and a new Dualshock 3 controller. Its a decent deal - comes out to about US$580. I think this is affordable enough. It seems I will be able to save about US$300 - 500 a month with my current spending and work hours and all that, just guessing.

HD TV = NT$34,500 for a big one, that's about US$1,125. It's about the same as in USA... I think its a decent price for what you are getting. Maybe I can get the PS3 first, check my spending for the next month, and if I decide I can afford it, maybe get the TV.

Whenever I leave Taiwan I'd have to re-sell it or something I guess which will suck. Really, moving back to the states sounds like a super pain in the ass. Leaving USA was easy because I could just give things to relatives and so forth, but going back - I think I need to sell everything.

Nostalgia

I guess I already knew it, but recently I really noticed how crazy I am for nostalgia! Recently it was announced that Street Fighter 4 is coming out this year in arcades. Let me tell you why this means a lot to me. When I was a little kid I used to go over to my friend Michael's house. I remember many times he would play the NES or SNES and I would just sit there watching and drawing. One of the games I loved to watch was Street Fighter 2.


I would draw all the characters and when I went home I would imagine stories about them and their super special skills they used to fight. Over the years there have been many remakes, and a few proper SF games, but this is only the 4th numbered sequel. I spent almost a whole day looking at the artwork from the games. I love to see how different artists render the same characters. I have one of the games that feature the characters from SF2 (Capcom VS SNK 2) It came out around 2000 when I was still in high school. I was never a great SF player but I can beat a newbie pretty easily at least. I can't wait for SF4, and I think the new 3D artwork really follows the series roots. I really have to say that Street Fighter 2 was one of the things that got me interested in art in the first place. It drove me to imagine, pay attention to anatomy, action poses, and just to sketch over and over.


Another game I just re-discovered is Twisted Metal 2. It's a really original game I think. Basically you drive a car that comes complete with missiles and guns. It's like a destruction derby, you are going around the world to different locations trashing the competators. The plot tells us that the world is in Chaos. A man with god like abilities is in control of the world. His name is Calypso and he has promised that whoever wins this destruction derby will receive one wish, whatever they desire. There are many characters to chose from with many different goals.


Many of the ending movies show Calypso granting their wishes, and in a Twilight Zone like twist, the wishes aren't granted quite the way they expected. As for the game play, its really accessible for beginners but there is also a lot of room to grow and improve your skill, similar to Street Fighter. If you learn the timing and all the special moves you can really learn to play well and a beginner has no chance to beat you.


My friends who weren't really into the rock and roll, crazy post apocalyptic future thing, or driving games in general, still got into it. Even my dad and I played the co-op mode many times, it was really fun that I could share that game with so many friends. They made a handful of crappy sequels and rip-offs, but Twisted Metal 2 was best. I popped it in yesterday and found that even though the graphics suck now and the speed is a little slower, with some strange glitches, its still really fun and challenging. They just made a sequel for the PSP and are porting it to PS2, for a bargain price of $20 US I think I might have to pick it up. The graphics are not really that great compared to other PS2 games, but compared to the PS1 original is MUCH better, and being able to see further into the distance is pretty important.

Anyway - I really love to remember the times playing these games, and the sense of imagination I put into them. As a kid, these games were really special to me, maybe like books were for past generations. You may think 'oh its sad kids today don't read' but i think these games gave me some other useful skills, drawing, plot analysis, a sense for motion design, interface design, many things are there to study if you are interested in it as I am.

I might as well mention this as well, there is a guy who does video reviews of old and classic video games, but only the bad ones, its really fun to hear him rip into games I've played, but also ones that I didn't because I can relate to spending money on a game and finding out that it sucks. He is the 'angry videogame nerd' and you can see his videos on Screwattack.com and Gametrailers.com.
Really great stuff. So - maybe those of you who read this can let me know what things do you get nostalgic for?

Crime in Videogames

Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming out soon. Everyone is in a big huff. It still has killing, sex, and now even drunk driving (although in the past games there were missions with driving while on speed.) I think that games are a form of expression, a form of art, and they should not be limited in any way that other forms of media aren't.

I think Rockstar (the game developer behind GTA4) can put whatever they want in the game but they need to stress 2 things. This game is Rated M, that is the equivalent of a movie being rated R. If a kid gets a hold of it, it's the parent's responsibility to know and control the situation how they see fit. Some people say "well how can they control what games they play?"
Well, the store isn't allowed to sell the game to kids under 17, and if they play it at a friends house, the parent will probably hear about it, kids aren't that good at keeping secrets. Its the same as sniffing glue or doing drugs, parents have to pay attention!

The second issue is that GTA is a criminal simulator. This game is all about giving you a glimpse into things we should NEVER do. We should never commit a massacre with a AK-47, drive drunk, or steal airplanes from a US aircraft carrier! We all know its bad, but that's why we think its funny to play it in a game! GAMES ARE NOT ONLY FOR KIDS! How many times do we need to tell the public! In GTA4 we can pretend about doing these wild things, the same as we played cops and robbers as children. There are many many games that let you play as a good guy, but here we can be the bad guy and it's a nice change of pace. The only people who are influenced by these things are psychos who are bound to be influenced by anything. Before it was games, it was Rock N' Roll music, and before that, Books! BOOKS! I mean, now we act like books are some special form of media, there are tons of books about sex and violence and whatever.

To take it even further, you know what book probably caused the most people in the world to be killed - well I'm going to guess the Bible.

So lay off the video games, its just for fun. If you want to have a crusade against them then just remember the REAL crusades, and try to think if you want to ban the bible, the koran, and every other holy book as well!

DVD Collection - Packing for Taiwan.

I have hundreds of DVDs to take to Taiwan. My suggestion to anyone traveling with 25 or more DVDs is to buy a case. Keep the boxes at a friend or relatives house, or if you are not really a collector, just throw them away. With about 100 DVDs I filled a small case, about 1ft x 8in x 8in, and the boxes filled a large black trash bag, the boxes are heavy too. With 2 disc movies you can stick them together in one sleeve as well. With 100 movies, many of them are 2 disc sets so that makes the collection even bigger.

Another thing you can do is use DVD-Spools to keep DVDs, this is also an economical way to save space and also re-use DVD-Spools.

Kevin, and Sylvia playing Wii, Jennie as pectator.

I have many videogames as well, most fit into these kinds of cases too, however the mini-dvd Gamecube games are giving me a bit of trouble, I will have to see if I can buy a mini-dvd case. I also have a small collection of books, comic books, and graphic novels. I plan to box these up and have them shipped overseas if I can't fit them in my luggage.

Jennie and I playing Wii, Kevin as spectator.

Other than those things I don't have that much stuff to take. Just my entertainment items, computer stuff, some clothes, I don't have any large items or furniture to worry about. I think packing should be pretty easy. I know I can easily pack everything I need.