something came over me this morning when I was browsing the interweb: I really, really want a psp. I never wanted one until now, for some reason. I guess with me being on the road a lot more I think it'd be useful. here's the thing, I already have a nintendo dslite. and I'm pretty sure there are a lot more good games for nintendo dslite, especially if you have an R4 or other type of chip - which I actually don't. speaking of which, what's the new popular microsd chip for nintendo dslite? evidently the R4 chip isn't being manufactured anymore. maybe if I get a chip for my dslite so I can download a bunch of games I'll want the psp less. but then again, I mostly want the psp because its a media machine - I'd be able to watch movies on it, which you can't do on the dslite. or at least, not with out a chip. I wish nintendo was more media-machine friendly, I think they are just against the idea. even the wii doesn't play dvds without the homebrew thing. that's stupid.

I said it. despite all the flak that halo gets (likely because of its extreme popularity) I love it to death. in the first halo, I was devastated when I realized that I had inadvertently released the flood. I felt betrayed when I found out that guilty spark had manipulated me to destroy all of humanity and the covenant by leading me to believe that halo would solve the problem of the flood. but despite all of the ingenuity of halo, I think halo 3 is a masterpiece all its own. in terms of narrative, the game is well done but relatively traditional and conventional, and as such, it isn't necessarily what I admire. I admire its execution. even though halo 3 didn't really do anything other sci-fi mediums hadn't done before, what it did do was execute those elements to the point of perfection. the integration of a tremendously composed score, filmic construction of its cinematic sequences, and the character development (with cortana and master chief specifically) are all uniquely done, with great attention paid to every detail. and that is before the multiplayer.

thus, I am super excited for halo 3: odst even though I don't know much about it. I've seen the trailers, I've read the articles, but I'm still unclear if its supposed to be an entirely new game meant to replace halo 3 or if its supposed to just build upon what halo 3 has already established. for instance, I imagine the campaign in odst will be entirely new. but the multiplayer has similarities with halo 3's current state of play. half the mythic map pack came out a while ago in halo 3, but the other half is coming out with odst. the achievements for recon armor overlap. but....odst isn't supposed to have spartans, which are the basis of multiplayer in halo 3. so the question remains for me whether or not odst's multiplayer is going to replace the multiplayer of halo 3. I'm so confused.

I'm pretty sick and tired of E3 being open to media publications only, as I'm sure everyone else who isn't part of a media publication is. luckily, I happen to be working for a media publication called elysium productions (www.elysiumproductions.com) and I'm really, really trying to convince them to lobby for a videographer pass for me to go to E3. nevermind that elysium productions is a wedding video company. we're the biggest wedding video company in the LA/OC area, so I'm just telling them to leave out the "wedding" part of our production process and hope that E3 overlooks it and sends the company a pass.

but, I am a dreamer, and I know it, so it's likely that come june 2nd I will not be at E3. I just hope that eventually we have a large gaming expo that showcases games and technology of the future that's open to the public. and that doesn't cost $150 per ticket like blizzcon does. did you guys hear that the tickets for blizzcon sold out in like, ten seconds? and now people who actually got the initial tickets from the blizzcon website are re-selling them on ebay for literally $1000-1200 a pop. how crazy is that? I love blizzcon and blizzard games, but there's no way I'm dropping a grand to go to convention. unless it's a firefly convention, because that's the greatest tv show of all time.

so the majority of the criticism directed towards this blog is that I don't talk about gaming much. fair enough. I've been playing games for a long time. let's see, I'm 22 and I've been gaming since I was four. I love video games. I'm one of those film and media studies majors who wants to legitimize video gaming as an art form. I think I could write a pretty convincing argument why some games could be considered art. but that's for another time.

I own an xbox 360 and a wii, but my wii collects dust because I only own four games - brawl, galaxy, metroid, and zelda. and I've beaten all of them and my roomies and I don't play smash that much anymore. actually we play like once a month. all three of my room-mates own xbox 360s and we are HUGE halo fans. go ahead, criticize me all you want. I don't know why - maybe its my attachment to the first halo, which I'd definitely put in my top five games of all time. the second halo game isn't that great, but as a trilogy, I think they're my favorite games. I think halo 3 is so well done in every way. it's a pretty engaging story, the graphics are sweet, the action and story are awesome, and the score - don't even get me started. I'd pay to go to a halo concert where a symphony/orchestra performed the halo score...it's so good. but I'm not JUST a halo fanboy. I love single player games too. mass effect changed my life. I'm such a sci-fi geek. let's see, oh yeah, bioshock was awesome too. as a film guy I can really appreciate such incredible art design as far as the game's world goes. and I think that andrew ryan might be my favorite video game villain. I even contemplated getting "NO GODS OR KINGS ONLY MAN" tattooed somewhere on my body. but then I realized that was probably a bad idea.

I am currently playing through lost odyssey and fable 2 for single player games. lost odyssey is actually my first jrpg, but I think I like western rpgs better. jrpgs just feel to way too archaic for me, too linear, not enough actual choice. I want to be able to explore and shit. and I know you can a bit in jrpgs but not to the extent you can in like, oblivion or fallout 3 (both of which I loved). but I admire lost odyssey even though its not quite for me. the story is really, really good and even though I spend a lot of time reading I like it. it even made me miss my mom when I was reading one of the stories. and the graphics are sweet too. fable 2 is just way too short and easy. on the first day of playing it I owned like, half of albion. and the story isn't even THAT engaging. it's ok. glad I didn't buy it.

ok time for some halo.

what's up destructoid. the orlando/cleveland game just ended, and I'm stoked because orlando came through in overtime and put away cleveland to go up 3-1 in the series. as much as I wanna see a kobe/lebron finals showdown, I can't cheer against the magic since they're my favorite eastern conference team and they're the underdog. so, win win.

so I'm going to address some of the comments that I got on my last blog entry entitled "my blog sucks and I know it" because honestly, I had no idea I'd get as many comments as I did. I guess the first thing I should do is thank you all for taking the time to read it, that's pretty cool. but I posted it at like, 5am so if you were up that means you must be a loser. just kidding. I was up, obviously.

yeah, onto the comments. the steering wheel I'm holding in the photograph of me is called a fig rig. essentially its a motion stabilizer for cams. it functions by taking out a lot of the innate motion that your body produces when holding a cam, and makes your shots a lot more steady. it's really nice for documentary filming since you walk around a lot and do a lot of hand held cam work. but I usually tell people its a steering wheel when they ask me about it since telling them what I told you is too time consuming.

someone mentioned that I only capitalize the letter "I" when referring to myself. it's true, I'm sorry. I don't know why, it's a habit I developed. I only write like this on the internet, or on AIM/MSN or whatever, not in academic writing. but this isn't an academic blog (thank god) and so my capitalization shouldn't matter as long as my grammar is correct and/or readable. is it? shit.

I only said my blog sucked because of the hilarious pictures I decided to include. I spent so much time finding a banner that fit, and I had some massive pictures in there before I posted anything. and it turns out the screen I had of my mac dock was the only thing that made it so people didn't have to scroll a couple hundred lines before they found any text. I had a quiet lol about that to myself. but I don't really think my blog sucks, it was more a satirical comment.

someone mentioned my avatar. yeah, I'm a huge misfits fan. not some kid who thought the skull was cool when he saw it googling skulls or something and put it as his picture. I do, however, have a cooler picture that is an angry banana. it's a banana, and it has an angry face, and appears very mal-tempered. maybe I'll switch to that in the future.

I don't shoot porn. although, I wouldn't turn down the proposition if it ever came, because to be perfectly honest its a great way to get on-set experience. of course I'd go by a fake name. omg film nerd moment: did you know that spielberg, lucas, coppola, and scorcese worked in porn in the 70s before they hit it big in hollywood? under fake names of course. but that's how they learned.

clarification: I don't live in the philippines. I was just shooting a documentary there.

yes my computer is an absolute beast. and yes it cost a lot, because with macs you pay for the operating system and the proprietary software, like final cut studio. it kinda sucks, but its worth it if you're serious about filmmaking on an indie level.

and now: my gaming stuff. this post is already long so I'll keep it short. I've been gaming FOREVER. since I was a wee little kid. my first console was a nintendo. I played super mario a lot, the cartridge that had duck hunt on the back. I also had a sega (loved sonic) and a super nintendo. many hours were wasted trying to beat battletoads on super nintendo, and I never did. mega man x was my favorite super nintendo game. I owned an N64, and loved it immensely. skipped out on the next generation of consoles because I was infatuated with counter-strike. and now, I play xbox. oh yeah, and my wii collects dust. since the wii sucks and has no good games. yep, you guessed it, I'm a wii hater.

DONE. more info next time before this blog turns into a novel.

...so don't tell me about it. as soon as I find my usb transfer cable for my still cam, and my charger for that matter, I'll be able to take some better photos to accompany my super late night blog posts (it's 5:05am where I live). and yeah, I know my blog header is a photo of my custom designed mac dock. before you flame me for using a mac, know that I'm a filmmaker and absolutely need the workstation that is my mac pro (4000gb hdd space, double quad core 3.4 ghz intel hyperthreaded processers for a total of eight cores, and 16gb of ram) because HDV takes quite a powerful machine to store and edit. and final cut studio is proprietary software that you can't get on windows.

anyway, a little about the non-gaming me.



that's me. in the photo, I'm shooting a documentary on location in davao city, on the island of mindinao, philippines. like I said, I'm a filmmaker. I'm about to graduate with my BA in film and media studies, and I hope to go to graduate school to get my masters of fine arts (MFA) in film production. but currently, I'm working in the very lucrative field of wedding video (which is SUPER easy since all the work is done for you, and you kinda just point the cam and shoot) for a company called elysium productions (www.elysiumproductions.com) excuse the shameful plug. I'm just doing that until I can actually get myself onto some real sets and into the industry. I want to be a director or director of photography.

if you're interested in my work you can check out elysium productions blog (http://blog.elysiumproductions.com) which has a bunch of I've shot for the company I currently work for, but that shit's all wedding shit. my filmwork can be found at vimeo (http://vimeo.com/user513191) or youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/gotfinnegan) but I must warn you - most of my stuff is "student" work, at the moment. meaning its ultra low budget or non-existent budget. or technique demonstration. not to say I'm not proud of my work, but some of it is done with minimal preparation, time, and production quality. so don't judge me too hard.

anyway, even though this is my third blog post I want to officially welcome you (my readers, if I have any) and say hello.