The light outside the very fron of Lewis University. Photo provided by Joe Petersen

It is the middle of December, and Lewis University students are not just preparing to for finals, they are also preparing for the holidays. As they study for their finals they are also working holiday hours at retail stores or shopping for Christmas gifts. Giving and receiving gifts is not the true meaning of Christmas, there are more things to it says Lewis University faculty and students.

As Dan and I continued interviewing people on the meaning of Christmas, we saw a pattern of what they all say, “it is about the birth of Jesus Christ.” Apparently some students acknowledge that gift giving was a nice incentive for Christmas. We realized that are primary audience for this video were Christians at Lewis University. Of course it was aimed towards Lewis University since we were filming at the campus itself and asking what the students and faculty the meaning of Christmas. When asked people what Christmas meant to them, 90 percent of the people said it was about Jesus.

The birth of Jesus in a Mager outside of Lewis University. Photo by Joe Petersen

There were some downsides to working on this project. The first down side was that we asked over 50 people to give a 30 to 45 second interview of their meaning of Christmas, and more than half of them said no. Dan and I respected their decision and went on to find more students to interview. Luckily, there were some people that were kind enough to let us interview them at Charlie’s Place and the Courtyard Cafe. The second downside was that after getting footage of Brother Phil, we wanted to get footage of Father Dan’s response to the meaning of Christmas. Unfortunately for us, we could never find him or he did not have the time to give us that interview, so we talked with other people in Ministy. There were only two people that were kind enough to let us interview them, unfortunately they did not make the final cut in post production because that did not speak loud enough or the footage was too short.

Post production was long and tedious. It took a while to edit all of the footage into a nice montage and cut out the unnecessary parts. The Christmas songs “Silenet Night,” “Hark the Harold Angels,” “Come Ye Old Faithful” and “Joy to the World” were used for the video. These songs were not fun to look for online. There were many artists renditions of these that sounded amazing, but they could not be used since they were mainstream artists renditions, so we had to look in public domain websites to use them. Other than that, I believe everything else went smoothly.

This was an interesting experience because I have learned not everybody wants to be videotaped and that using “iMovie” is easy to use. Hopefully somewhere down the road, people will take time aside and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

Charlie Brown Christams photo provided by http://watchfl.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/charlie-brown-tree.jpg

People interpret Christmas in many ways. Rather it would be the birth of Jesus, spreading the holiday cheer or the famous giving and receiving of presents. Normally, Christmas is celebrated because of the birth of Jesus, hence the name “Christ” in Christmas. Today many companies have changed the meaning of what Christmas really is through commercialization.

Through this commercialization, it is giving the people the wrong meaning of Christmas. For the final project that Dan and I are working on, we are going to see what Christmas means to individuals we interview. Some of these individuals will be part of the Lewis faculty and staff while others will be random Lewis students. The target audience of this is going to be everybody from Lewis, and whomever celebrates Christmas.

Hopefully while interviewing people for this assignment, I am hoping to get different responses from everybody we interview. The video would be too boring if everyone gives the same meaning. I want people to see that there are other reasons to celebrate this holiday other than gifts. With these interviews, we are hoping to incorporate everything we have learned from Multimedia Journalism with different video editing techniques, adding sound (specifically Christmas music since our topic deals with Christmas), telling a story and keeping our audiences’ attention.

Lewis University Ministry building. Photo provided by http://www.catholicexplorer.net/explore4325/bm~pix/dsc06961~s600x600.jpg

So far, Dan and I had made some progress on working with this project. We have at least seven minutes of footage taped with an interview with Brother Phil in Ministry, a random student giving her meaning of Christmas, and Dan randomly explaining some decorations in the Courtyard at Lewis University. Tomorrow, we will shoot more footage with getting an interview with Father Dan from Ministry, more random students giving their meaning and hopefully get some night time shots of Christmas lights around the campus.

We have made some decent progress in the last couple of days. Our plan is to have at least 30 to 45 minutes worth of footage taped so that we can have a lot of footage to choose from.  We will probably use GarageBand some time soon in order to record some voiceovers for the still images. Hopefully by Thursday we will have made a lot of progress in this video.

"Trine" the video game. Photo provided by http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jp-Y_pSujQA/SpkJt6nrqrI/AAAAAAAAdo4/nBIXh9xIYkw/s320/TRINE+pc+video+game+box.jpg

Even though there isn’t an “I” in team, there is one in the video game called “Trine.” This game was released back in October for the Playstation Network at a cost of $19.99. One thing is for sure, this game is worth the time and money. This is a side scrolling platform game mixed in with action elements. In a way, this game reminds me of “Crash Bandicoot” for the original Playstation, but that is just the way the game is set up.

This game is interesting because you do not just control one or two characters. You control three characters with different capabilities and skills. The first character you start off with is a thief. The thief is a good character to use if the play wants to shoot arrows at far away characters, or grapple one are from the next. The next character that is introduced is a wizard. The wizard is probably the most frustrating character to use since the player would have to use the right analog stick on the Playstation 3 controller. With the wizard, the player can use his magic to get certain items likes boxes from one are to another area, or drag down pulleys so that everyone can jump onto the platform the characters get to the next environment. The wizard can also make his own platforms and crates if there isn’t one in the environment. The final character the player controls is the warrior. There isn’t much about this character except the player can use him to fight off evil characters that try to attack him.

The way that all three characters are controlled is by swapping each one in and out each time. There are certain areas of each level where you can only use one character. Since this game also has puzzle challenges, the player will have to try to figure out what character is the best to use for that area, even if all three characters have to be used one way or another.

I give this game a 8.5 out of 10 for it’s creativity and uniqueness of having all three characters work as a team. Only downfall is that the puzzles get really challenging and redundant. For a platformer,the graphics are phenomenal, and well done for a game that can be only downloaded in order to play on a console (this game can be purchased as a hard copy only for the PC).  Other than that, the game is fun, and worth the investment.

"Little Big Planet" for the Playstation3. Photo by: http://pplibraryreviews.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/little-big-planet-cover.jpg

“Little Big Planet” for the Playstation 3 has taken the media by the storm. Some gamers might think of it as a “Super Mario Brothers” look alike, but in reality it is not. There might be some aspects that might be the same, but all platform games basically play alike. In “Little Big Planet,” you do not save a princess, you basically go along each level collecting certain items in order to dress up Sackboy, or build levels.

“Little Big Planet,” is an online multiplayer platform game where you can interact with other players. This interaction includes teaming up together to beat a level, or by just designing your very own level where other gamers can play it. The interesting concept is that players can rate another player’s level. It is not really necessary, but constructive criticism is not a bad thing if the level is a horrible mess to play. Also, players can play this game offline and collect all of the items without any help.

All the Sackboys dressed up in different outfits. Photo provided by http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/261/938583_20070919_screen001.jpg

The interesting component of this game is the main protagonist, Sackboy. He is a funny creature that you can control, dress up and have him do crazy things. With a Dual Shock 3 controller, you can make him dance, slap another player if they exist or make him have weird faces. This game is nothing like “Super Mario Brothers,” and should not be compared to that series.

Players can download additional costumes, designs, levels, and other fun things. Even though this downloadable content has a cost of $2.99 and up, it is still worth buying the items. For example, there are downloadable levels and costumes dedicated to “Metal Gear Solid 4” pack. If you purchase this downloadable content, you will not regret it. You will be able to play these levels with a paintball gun. Since this is a kid friendly game, there is no actual weapons usage. Playing the “Metal Gear Solid” levels, you can go crazy and shoot everything, which is fun, but it tends to get a little messy.

You, the gamer, can actually avoid buying the downloadable content for this game. In the beginning of September, Media Molecule rereleased “Little Big Planet” with the “Little Big Planet: Game of the Year Edition,” which already has all of the downloadable content preloaded into the game. I would give this game 9.5 out of 10 for its creativity, interesting character and being a fun game in general. Honestly, this is worth $56.99. This would make a great Christmas gift for anybody in your family, or a nice Christmas gift to yourself.

PC vs Xbox 360 Photo provided by http://nixiepixel.com/blog/media/blogs/a/console_vs_pc.jpg

In 2005, Microsoft released the Xbox-360 followed by the Playstation 3 in 2006. When these systems were first released, all they were meant for was single player and multiplayer online games. At this time, the PC’s became even more powerful because end users could watch YouTube videos, visit social networking websites like Facebook, stream movies online to watch and play videogames. Well, PC’s are beginning to have drawback to playing games since they have specific requirements that need to be met. In order to play a game that was recently released, for example “Left 4 Dead 2,” the gamer would have to have a minimum of: Windows XP operating system, 1GB of RAM, 7.5 GB of free hard drive space, a 3.0 Pentium 4 processor and an Nvidia graphics card 6600 or higher. That is a lot of stuff a PC gamer would have to worry about if their PC is not up to par with the minimum requirements. This game is also for Xbox-360, and all the console owner would have to worry about is having the system itself to play it (and the red ring of death).

Xbox 360 able to stream Netflix movies Photo provided http://origin.arstechnica.com/news.media/ars_microsoftpresser6.JPG

Now, videogame consoles have as much power as a PC does. People can play online with their consoles to watch YouTube videos, talk with their friends on Facebook or stream movies by using Netflix (which has been released this past year for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360). There are USB ports that gamers can easily hook up their mouse and keyboard to a Playstation 3 or Xbox-360. There are even hard drives for these systems (in the earlier days videogame systems had to use these things called memory cards). These videogame consoles even guarantee us a 5-10 year life span, unlike the PC. PC’s typically become obsolete pretty fast, especially the parts that people by for it. A PC gamer would have to replace certain parts within two years if they want their gaming rig to continue to play videogames. Granted there are games that are made exclusively for the gaming consoles and PC’s, but there are plenty of other games that gamers can play. The downfall to a videogame console is if it breaks down, the gamer would have to send their system to the manufacturer to get their system fixed which takes weeks.

Pretty soon, if videogame consoles keep going at this pace, they can easily dominate and replace PC’s, because someday there would be a Microsoft Word or Power Point released for these systems. Then again, programmers will need PC’s to design videogames for the future!

"Harvest Moon" for the Super Nintendo. Photo provided by; http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2008/02/11/harvestmoonsnes.jpg

Well, in 1997, there was a videogame released for the Super Nintendo called “Harvest Moon.” This game was a farming simulation game in which you had to interact with neighbors in the game, plant crops, harvest them, and take care of your perfect animals. It was basically the lazy way of learning how to actually farm. Surprisingly, it is an entertaining game. This was an underrated game since it was one of the last games to be made for the Super Nintendo. In general, the whole game series is underrated because it does not have proper advertising like “Halo” or “Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.” The only disadvantage that the “Harvest Moon” series has is that game is unrealistic compared to real farming.  The days go by way too fast and the crops grow fast. It is inaccurate to real farming. In other words, it does not follow real time. Then again, many gamers do not spend a good chunk of money to play a game where you have to wait for months to just watch a carrot grow.

"Farmville" Photo provided by http://www.allfacebook.com/images/farmville-farm.gif

Now fast forward 12 years. Say a teenager logs onto Facebook to check their friend’s status, maybe write on their wall, then decides to go play “Farmville.” “Farmville” is an application that is very popular on Facebook. It is a farming simulation game that 64 million users log on to and play. In this game, all the user does is plant crops and send their friends items. Also, the user’s friends can be his or her neighbor. They can go on their farm and gain more coins for simply visiting it. The only disadvantage to this game is that the crops are based in real time, and if the user forgets to check their crops within 2 to 4 hours (or a couple of days), their crops would be already dead the next time they log in. Then you can build stuff on your farm (houses, fencing and a barn), but honestly, all of that is used for decoration and it is never used again. It is very mind boggling on how this game is popular.

Honestly gamers, I prefer “Harvest Moon” any day over “Farmville.” If you own a Nintendo Wii, you can download the original Harvest Moon and play it, instead of wasting your time with “Farmville.” Granted, the graphics are better on “Farmville,” but the gameplay on Harvest Moon is much better since there is more to do in the game. Also, a newer version of “Harvest Moon” can be downloaded from the Playstation Network on to a Playstation Portable. It is understandable that “Farmville” is a time filler at work or school, but if you are at home, bored out of your mind, you should try out “Harvest Moon” and not waste life away on Facebook.

"Jak and Dexter: The Lost Frontier" Photo by http://i38.tinypic.com/ejbr7d.jpg

Previously, the Playstation Network released “Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier,” on to the store front for the Playstation Portable. It was an easy and free accessible demo to download, which consumed 183 MB. It looked like a fun demo to play, but instead it was frustrating beyond belief.

When the demo first starts up, there is an entrance video trying to tell what the game is about. If you are a new comer to the “Jak and Dexter” series, you will have no clue what is going on. You would most likely ask yourself what is eco. In short, it is what gives Jak his powers, also, the world in the game lives off of this eco, and now there is a short supply of it.  As the story progresses, pirates attacks Jak and his friends for eco, but failed since they did not possess the eco. A mishap then happens which forces Jak and his friends to land on an island that is close to the edge of the world. After landing on the island, the player finally gets to play the game.

This part of the game is not as frustrating. The player controls Jak and his friend Dexter to look for eco on the island. The controls are simple. The player uses the analogue stick to have Jak and Daxter walk around the island, and if a bad guy appears, the player can easily hit the square button on the controller to take them out. There are some parts that the player will have to jump from ledge to ledge, but that is easy to control. In this part of the game, the main annoyance is the camera angles. It is hard to control the camera angles to see where you are going, which could cause the player to die.

The most frusterating part of the demo...FLYING! Photo by: http://images.g4tv.com/ImageDb3/159461_S/Jak-and-Daxter-The-Lost-Frontier-Hands-On-Preview.gif

The flying portion of this game brings a new meaning to frustration. The controls here are opposite of what the player wants to do. If the player wants to go left, they would have to use the right analogue stick. If they want to go right, then the player would have to use the left side of the analogue stick. Again, the camera angles will basically jeopardize the player many times. Also, the plane is very slow to maneuver. I believe High Impact Games could of have done a better job with this part of the game, or maybe just remove it since it is unnecessary.

The only positive thing to say about this game is that the graphics are great. It seems like the Playstation Portable is being pushed to the limit with the graphics more and more each time. Anyways, if you want a fun platform game to play, try the “Ratchet and Clank” series; at least those games are fun to play unlike this one. “Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier” is a lost cause to play.

The dark side of Disney has finally been released through "Epic Mickey" Photo provided by http://purenintendo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/epic_mickey_wallpaper.jpg

This past month, “Game Informer” gave an exclusive review on Disney’s “Epic Mickey.” This game is specifically made for the Nintendo Wii, and the ironic thing to this game is it is dark and twisted. Usually when a casual gamer think of Disney or Nintendo Wii they would think it will be something “cute for the whole family to enjoy.” This is not the case.

Story so far

The story to this game is pretty unique. Mickey Mouse is being a mischievous creature one day and came across a “model” in which he accidentally spills paint and paint thinner onto the model. After this incident, the Phantom Blot turns this hidden model into a freakish reality.  Mickey gets dragged into this reality later, and it is up to him to fix all the damage that he has caused. Also, Mickey has to earn the trust from his long lost brother, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, since Mickey has gotten all of the fame and glory from all of these years, while Oswald was sidelined. This causes Oswald to work with Phantom Blot, in order to get rid of Mickey Mouse.

Gameplay

The gameplay sounds very interesting at this point. With the Wii remote, the player can go from place to place in this reality and use it as a paint brush. This means the player can create buildings and items for Mickey to use. This would be the hero side of Mickey Mouse. The mischievous side of Mickey is that you can destroy the world with paint thinner. The player can get rid of certain paths or areas which will change the gameplay flow. This game basically has the same concept as “Little Big Planet” with create, share, and play it. Although, with “Epic Mickey,” the player does not share their ideas with the world since this is tend to be a single player game with no online play.

Joe’s thoughts

This game has great potential. For one, I am looking forward to a dark and twisted Disney game to play. The last game that showed Mickey Mouse having a somewhat dark side was “Kingdom Hearts.” This game proves that everyone can have a dark mischievous side to them, and it is shown through Disney’s most beloved character.  Finally the day has come where you can make Mickey Mouse look like a bad guy. From the pictures I have seen it looks like this game can terrify children, so I do not think this game would be rated E for everybody, maybe at least earning an E +10 (everybody ages ten and up) rating. Another interesting thing is that you can basically create your own game with Mickey Mouse. You would not have to be an artist in order to create a world. This game sounds like an excellent virtual simulation for creating art. It would be hard to say “no” to pick up this game in 2010.

"Mafia Wars" home page. Photo provided by www.facebook.com

You are probably asking yourself, “What is a fun game that is free to play?” Well the answer is simple. If you are one of the millions who own a social network like Myspace or Facebook, there are plenty of games (or applications) to choose from. One of the more fun ones that these users tend to play is “Mafia Wars” which is created by Zynga.

“Mafia Wars” is an interactive point and click game. Its concept is very simple, but can also be addicting. It is in the top ten ranked at number three on “Mashable: the social media guide.” All the player does is simple jobs to gain money. In order to do these simple jobs, players need certain items to accomplish this. Normally the very first job in the game is to start the player “raking in some dough” in order to buy specific items/weapons they would need. These weapons are then calculated into your mafia’s total offense and defense. This game is just not a point and click game, because it has some role playing game aspects. As the player levels up, they can either build up their offense, defense, health, energy, influence or stamina. Normally it is required to build up energy in order to level up faster in the game. Each job does require certain amount of energy, other than that it is an enjoyable game.

Jobs page with the stage boss at the top. Photo provided by www.facebook.com

The player can fight other people, but that player’s mob (friends that plays “Mafia Wars”) is usually involved while fighting other mobs. This is like flipping a coin when battling random people. It takes certain amount of offense to “whack” or “ice” other players. After the fight is normally finished, the winning player will gain experience points for defeating their enemies and loot a certain amount of money. Other people in your mob are normally affected too. Usually that player will gain a small cut of the money, or they would loot an item from the fight.

Another fun aspect is that the player can take up rackets. In order to run these rackets, the player will need enough stamina to run a racket. Usually, this is an easy way to gain money, but it will take some time since these are normally timed. If the player does not collect their money after the time expires, their racket will get busted, and the player will not be able to with draw any money. The player must make sure they are online to claim the money.

This is a fun game to play when you are bored on Facebook, or have nothing else to do. I will rate this game an 8 out of 10. Only annoying aspect of this game is that the internet browser tends to lock up, in which you would either have to restart the computer, or try to exit out of the browser. Many facebook users have complained about this, and there is no way around this since there could be a bug in the game’s code. Other than that, it is an enjoyable and cheap game to waste time on.

Undead Knights Photo by http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/06/undeadknight.jpg

Story

The demo of this game seemed fun at first, but it got very redundant. It is hard to pick up what the game is actually about. All the player does is run around and build their zombie army. It would have been nice of Tecmo to have included a story in this game to entertain the average gamer.

Gameplay

This is nothing but a button smasher. All the player needs to do is press X repeatedly to either take out the guards, or press O to have knights become zombies. That does not take real strategy at all. Chris Roper from “IGN” pointed out some frustrating facts in his review of the game which I agree with him. It is very hard not to take out your own zombie army. When the player tries to gain more members in their army, the player will pick up a zombie and accidently throw them across the area. Another annoying aspect of this game is that the knights respawn (come back to life) way too fast. They come out of nowhere and start attacking you. Finally, the most annoying aspect of the game is the target system. When a player wants their zombie army to attack something, the player would have to use the directional pad to target something that they want their zombie to attack. Also, the zombie army will all attack at once, the player will not be able to divide the zombie army.

Joe’s Rating

Since there is no story to this game, the game play gets redundant quickly and the target system is horrible, I will give this game a 4.5 out of 10. The only assuring thing in this game is the heavy metal soundtrack. Other than that, this game is not worth $39.99 or the given time to even play it. This game could have done so much better for its unique concept.