New Worst Games Ever Skit

I'm in the process of editing a new "Worst Games Ever" episode. The footage is already completed it's just a matter of adding the title, adding an animation here and there and just putting it together.

It's going to be about "Action 52" for the SNES and Genesis...man oh man, what a pile of Hedden that game is.

What is "Hedden" you ask? Well, the term "Hedden" is generally used to describe something that's so incredibly large, that it can't be expressed in words...for example, you can't just say the Universe is "big" or "huge" because those words don't do it justice. I often use the word "Dynamo" to describe something that's really big but if you had to go beyond "Dynamo" then you'd say "Hedden". So I guess you could say the Universe is Hedden...but then again, Hedden is beyond comprehension...see, I can't even describe what Hedden really means, it's so HUGE!

Hedden can also be used to describe something you're disgusted with. For example, rather than call somebody a "smelly prick" you'd could just call them "a Hedden". It's a universal term, really.

Yeah that was completely off topic and pointless, wasn't it?

Anyway, the video will be done soon, I swear...otherwise, feel free to call me Hedden.

For no reason, here is a picture of me testing my webcam on MSN:

Another World & Out of this World Video

It's about time I released a new video, eh?

Again, I can't apologize enough for these long delays. But once you get married, have a kid and work full time, you'll soon miss having free time but hey, it's worth it. I just hope my fans are still around to enjoy these videos...

This new skit is somewhat of a dedication to the "Another World" (also known as "Out of this World" in the US) video game series that was released for multiple video game systems back in the 90's. This game was first released for older computer systems but when I first played it, it was on the SNES.

I played this game to death, even though it was a very short game, the difficulty made it seem that much longer. For me, the graphics were something brand new and I had never seen anything like it. For kids nowadays, I'm sure they see this game graphics to be a blobby mess but back in the early 90's it was pretty amazing.

So if you haven't tried this game, even though it is a relic now, you should find it and give it a go. They recently re-released this game for Windows XP, check it out:

http://www.anotherworld.fr/anotherworld_uk/page_reedition.htm


Again, this video I have released is a dedication to this game and all of the fond memories I have playing it as a kid. It starts off to be a video about the different ways you can die in the game but then spawns off to be something completely different and random, focusing primarily on the main character "Lester Knight Chaykin".



This video is the first part of who knows how many...I didn't want to upload it until I had it completely finished but seeing how it takes me 6 million years to release a single video, I might as well upload what I got now so my fans don't completely hate me.

Please leave some comments if you read this blog and don't feel that you're bugging me if you message me on Youtube asking me to hurry the heck up, it helps motivate and give me a reason to create more videos.

You can see the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rey8oYk1alE

Danny Zzzz

So just recently (August 15th), the wife and I go out on a date to Niagara Falls where we end up seeing a Hypnotist/Mentalist/Illusionist/Magician/Entertainer. That's right, he's all in one and he was well worth it to. His name is Danny Z and he's probably the most lively person you'll ever meet, no kidding.

I didn't know what to expect when going to his show, I mean, I've never been to a Hypnotist before. I used to think that Hypnotists were phony and simply paid people in the audience to act for them...but I soon realized I was dead wrong.

He started off his show rushing out onto the stage in a Frenzy, that's another thing that got me. When you look at his photos on his website and his ads, you'd think he was a very serious guy but he's quite the opposite. Don't take that wrong, he's very serious about what he does but he's very energetic and powerful about it. Because of his attitude, you really want to join in and participate.

Anyway, he started off his show doing some funky little tricks, ones that I still can't explain. He did everything from card tricks to illusions to what he calls "Hoaky Magic". This all led up to the main event which was the Hypnotizing.

He pulled about 14 volunteers up onto the stage to just sit and face the audience. He then would have you close your eyes while he attempted to put you in this trance (which I won't explain in detail) but it was interesting. At first, I didn't really try to do what he said to do...I wasn't sure if I was supposed to since I didn't volunteer. But eventually I joined in from the audience and started following the instructions (regarding the trance). While I was doing it, I had no idea it was working, I felt totally conscious...but when he made a specific sound, it ended up knocking me right out cold.

He even said from the start, he won't ask personal questions or do anything that would involve your personal life...but he did say he'd embarrass you lol. So everytime he knocked me out, he'd give instructions on what you'd do when you woke up. The first time he did this to me, I remember his words on what he asked me to do but it was only AFTER the show was done and I was out of the trance that I remember all of this...at the time, I remember him saying nothing until I woke up...does that make sense? Even though I woke up, I wasn't out of the trance until the end of the show.

Anyway, like I was saying, the first time he knocked me out, he apparently convinced me that when I woke up, I'd find my current seat the most uncomfortable seat that ever existed. In fact, I'd hate the seat so much that I'd jump up yelling "Danny Z, these seats are horrible!". So what did I do? Exactly that. I remember being pretty upset too and I didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed after I yelled out either. That's when he pulled me on stage to a more "comfortable" seat, joining the rest of the Hypnotized volunteers.

From there we all did a series of silly things like pretend we were James Bond (secret agents), think we were the sexiest people in the room, move in slow motion, and even play with our butts. During this entire session, I not once felt ridiculous or embarrassed. I remember walking off stage and the first thing I wondered was why my wife had moved from the back row to the front row of seats...not at all wondered why I was walking off stage or what I just did.

I remember it all clearly now that I've watched the video and even now I don't feel stupid. When I first started telling people what I did, I felt almost offended when they laughed at me. Not because they laughed at the fact that I made an ass of myself but I felt as if they were insulting a profession of mine...I was taking it rather seriously at first for some reason. Anyway, I can laugh at it now, not sure why I was uptight earlier. Maybe the effects were still wearing off?

To get a better idea of what happened, have a look at this Youtube video I put together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH-hOXThSQ8

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. I know a lot of people cannot be hypnotized, I'm surprised that I could. It's too bad too, it was a lot of fun in a weird way.

Be sure to check out Danny Z's website and go see him if he happens to be in your area or if you're in the Niagara Region. We had a great time, for sure.

www.dannyzzzz.com

Long time no Post...

Wow, sorry guys, I haven't posted anything in a long time.

My in-laws came down from India to visit us for the last month and a half or so, so that kept me quite busy amongst other things. I'll try and get back on top of things soon.

I'm still working on videos but now I'm doing several at once (not that ONE video was time consuming enough)...the Out of this World project has been put on hold while I work on a Title Segment for my buddy Sarkis and is video game reviews. The segment isn't overly complicated but I just don't have the time to do anything anymore...not even play games.

I'll eventually get around to doing something...

I've been playing some Left 4 Dead lately, it is or was the new craz for my group of friends. Yes, I know the game is old now but we just started getting into it and already it's getting repetitive lol. I still really enjoy the game but a lot of my other friends are done with it.

Maybe I'll take some in game footage for those of you that are not aware of the game...or just Youtube it, there is all sorts of footage and spin-off's of this game.

Some of my favorite vids are:

What happens when Francis gets his Pills
Left 4 Speed
Left 4 LOL

Tools I use for Editing - Part 4

Cool Edit Pro 2.0 - Audio Editing Software


This application is no longer called "Cool Edit Pro" due to the fact that Adobe had bought them out. It's now called "Adobe Audition":

http://www.adobe.com/special/products/audition/syntrillium.html

But rather than move on to the new version, I stick with the old only because it works and I see no reason to move on (yet).

I perform all my audio editing with this application (except for minor changes like volume increases/decreases). But you probably won't notice anything exceptional in any of my videos that makes you wonder "How did he do that?!". I'm not really any audio pro by any means but this application does everything I need it to do.



One example would be in one of my old "Jeff's Work" videos you'll find on my Youtube page. There were a couple segments where I was talking with client's over the phone and whenever the client was talking, I made it sound like you were hearing them through a phone. For the longest time I couldn't find an application that could convert the audio clip to make it sound like that but this app can. Again, it's a simple conversion/feature but it can do all sorts of things like that.


I also use it to convert .wav files into .mp3's and vice-versa. Sometimes Premiere will have a difficult time with some formats so this tool can also convert strange foreign file types (like .vox) to something that makes sense (like an .mp3 or .wav, etc.).

There isn't much else to say about this program, it's pretty simplistic (for what I use it for). I'm sure you can do a lot of mixing and music creation with it too but I never explored that.

This software goes for about $349 now...not cheap. But go here for a list of free software:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_audio_software

Also, check out Youtube for some cool examples of what this software can do:

Cool Edit Pro 2 Clear Vocals *Part 1*
Cool Edit Pro 2.0 Tutorial: How to Use CEP2 as a MIXER
Cool Edit Pro dubbing tutorial
"Cool It Man - part I" - on Cool Edit Pro 2.0

Resident Evil - Original Playstation Version

I remember when I first played this game for the Playstation back in 1996. I was amazed by the graphics and "live action" videos. The music was eerie, the gameplay style was different for me back then and I've never really played a horror game before, it was great. But whenever somebody mentions this game, I can't help but think of the terrible acting first...



In the original PS1 version of the game, they introduced "live action video" using real actors which was something new for video games at the time. It all appeared to have been filmed in some foreign country or I can only assume this due to the fact that all the voices appear to be dubbed over. Regardless of the voice dubbing, this is the worst acting I've ever seen and that's what makes it so great. Also, the fact that they use fake Styrofoam looking dogs to attack somebody makes it supreme. To show you exactly what I mean, have a look at the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5sQn5Cviw

Now after watching that, did you not laugh your ass off? If you didn't, that's fine but you still must have found the acting absolutely horrendous. I mean, look at the expression "Joesph" gives when he finds a severed hand (below).


Okay, maybe I can buy the expression but what about the noise he makes? Shouldn't it be more of a constant yell like "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"? It wasn't just the live action video acting that was bad either, the in-game voice acting was just as bad. Have a look at this small video below as an example:



Anyway, acting aside, the game was great for it's time. It was one of the first 3rd person shooter games I've ever played and it scared the heck out of me too...or should I say "startled" the heck out of me. The enemies/monsters themselves didn't freak me out so much by their appearence but either how they were introduced or suddenly appeared out of no where sometimes that got me.


I guess after looking at the "Cerberus" above, you'd wonder how an image like that wouldn't freak me out. Well, we're talking about the PS1 version of this game. At the time, the PS1 graphics were excellent but in today's standards, it doesn't look so great anymore. This game has been remade for the Nintendo Gamecube (next gen console of the time) where the game received a complete overhaul and the enemies looked more like that Cerberus above. But if you compare that to the PS1 version of the Cerberus, you get a polygonal mess. If you really want to know what I mean, watch some gameplay of the PS1 version below:

Resident evil (PS1) walkthrough - Cerberus

Now have a look at the Gamecube version below:

Resident Evil Remake Trailer 1 (GameCube)

The story wasn't so bad either if you could look past the bad acting. The mansion they were in was completely unbelievable to me...why would they complete such a stupid puzzled mansion? For example, there is a scene were you have to play the piano to open up a secret passage in the wall. In the secret room you find, there is a gold shield imbedded in some sort of statue. When you remove the shield, the door closes behind you and there is no escape until you put the shield back in. In order to keep the gold shield (used to unlock another secret) you must find an indentical wooden shield and replace it with the gold shield...blah blah anyway, my point is, why would anyone construct such a stupid mansion lol. I know it's a game and it's not supposed to come off realistic but still.



This game gives a pretty good explanation as to how Zombies came into existance. Well, every movie or game usually has their own explanation but I like this one the most. A pharmaceutical company called "Umbrella" tried to create a drug that could perfect a human being but instead tranforms them into a retarded zombie. That's the ultra short version of the story, check out Wikipedia for a full one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(video_game).




I can't tell you how many times I played this game over until I got to the point where I got the infinite ammo rocket launcher...at least I think it had infinite ammo. If you enjoy 3rd person shooter horror and don't mind retro games then give this one a try. It may be hard to find for the PS1 nowadays but hey try looking online...they got everything there ;)

Tools I use for Editing - Part 3

Next I'll briefly talk about Fraps.



Fraps is a utility designed to capture video of whatever application you're running at the time. People, like myself, tend to use this application to obtain gameplay footage from PC games or emulators. But it can also be used to record video from Windows Media Player (say you need a scene from a movie, etc.).

Unfortunately, this utility doesn't work with every application or game. I don't know what triggers this utility to work because some emulators or games that I play don't want to work with Fraps. If you press the "record" button, nothing happens...it's weird. But for a backup, I end up using Camtasia for video capture.

Fraps also isn't free but it's not super costly either ($37). Actually, there is a free version but you can only record 60 seconds tops. You should have a decent computer to run this utility as well. I used to run this on a P4, 2.4GHZ with 1GB of RAM and it barely worked. Sure, I could obtain low quality video but that was it. You're better off having something with multiple processors, a decent amount of harddrive space and at least 2GB of RAM...maybe I'm over exaggerating but that doesn't hurt.



In most of my videos where there is gameplay footage, I used Fraps to obtain it. Strange thing is, now that I have a new computer, I find that I must have Fraps set to 60fps in order for the video capture not to chop out. On my old computer I absolutely had to set it at 29.97fps, otherwise if I set it to anything higher, it would chop out...again, it's weird.

Premiere also can have difficulties with the Fraps video codec but in that case, I'll use Virtualdub to convert it to raw video first then import it to Premiere.



Fraps is easy and straight forward to use if you can get it to work properly. You may have to play around with the fps settings until you find one that your system can handle. All you really have to do is press F9 (my default) to start recording and press F9 again to stop. It's that easy. It can also capture screen shots.

So if you like to record yourself playing games for any which reason, give Fraps a try. I see people use it mostly for speed runs.