Sunday 29 December 2013

Piano Black Consoles

Usually a bad idea. Of course the aesthetic is what I mean.

The outside of a console seems like kinda of an unimportant detail but once you have it for a while it starts to clearly express the issue with the glossy finish.

What I mean is with the PSP, PS3, and PS4 they all originally had the same issues. A piano black finish (or partial finish) which looks nice but is made of some pretty cheap stuff compared to a grand piano. Leaving finger prints and scratches much easier than a matte finish like the PS2.

During the Christmas season I wanted to get myself something nice aside form all the socks I got from my dear Mama.

I've been on the hunt!

Specifically for a PSP. Everyone can tell me how much I should get a 3DS but I've never been interested in first party Nintendo games and I'm also a cheap student with a frugal attitude. I've held off on a PSP for this long and only a year ago did I start to get into the DS.


Consoles over time get cheaper and at the same time games do too. The best part is with this fact they also get more expansive game collections. This allows for a much easier time when shopping for games (regarding wallet and time spent).

In all it makes sense to get a console with a matte finish (which are usually also textured) and have a longer shelf life in the appearance you expect of them.

 This is similar to the one I got but it's not limited edition and doesn't have
the stylish vinyl. Image source: Kotaku  

 
Aside from that there is also the metal finish. Often a mixture of metals with aluminium (since pure aluminium is way to difficult to get and use). I was lucky enough to get the PSP like this which allows for no finger prints and just a bit of extra protection on a hand-held console as opposed to cheap plastic. The reflection of light on this machine will probably block out any scratches that end up appearing.

Happy hunting.


Thursday 12 December 2013

First 3 Fallout Games Totally Free!

There is no catch. Send them to who you like.

Save 30 dollars! 

All 3 of the wonderfully classic RPGs in a post apocalyptic word have come to your door. And they are gift wrapped!

GOG is having their crazy super great winter sale and I'm going to be buying Papers Please for 33% off and well check out the Fallout Games for free.

Anyway....

Stop wasting time. The games are free. Go to GOG now.

YouTube Copyright Claims Almost Everyone

Some of you might be aware but YouTube has been struck with a lot of issues regarding copyright this week.

Personally there is a hope here at Critical Correspondence to spread to different media outlets by including audio and video in all the content being produced. Being a Google user and attaining to Blogger it was a hope that perhaps YouTube would be a great place to branch off and strengthen the website.

Currently it seems that the things people are being flagged for include cut-scenes, trailers, and music.

This was not the initial plan for the website to really include any of that. If I were to attempt to do a high quality video review listening to a bit of the music or watching a bit of a cut-scene to make a statement on the matter seems a bit harder now with these restrictions.

Assuming that one can show a bit of someones work to review it is within fair use law though it seems YouTube isn't abiding by that.

TotalBiscuit made a video on that subject and how things are very much now in a condition where a lot of people who were with networks are being abandoned by their network due to new organization YouTube has implemented.



Later on after tweeting about recording this video there was also a great discussion on Rev3Games with him and ItmeJP and others about the current state YouTube is in and perspectives from many angles.



This is also odd since it seems to be totally the fault of YouTube. A lot of publishers have clear statements about the whole matter on their website saying they are okay with monetized content with some exceptions (no pay wall for instance). Many have come out to say they will support those who are being targeted but this including Blizzard have come out saying you should challenge these claims since they are not desired by Blizzard or these other companies. 

For the most part that gives a publisher a bad name and a anti-consumer sort of feel. Though this is not the case for every company. Many of these claims are being made falsely which is even more annoying. People who work tirelessly on their content are being content ID matches by companies that have nothing to do with a game being shown or discussed. 

Though this is not to say all the game publishers are against this. Nintendo has made it clear earlier this year that they don't want anyone making money off of their games. By going after their consumers and taking down "let's plays."

People wonder why the WiiU is doing so bad in comparison to the other consoles. A big factor would be the terrible marketing. A lot of gamers use the internet for their news now and with all Nintendo content being removed from channels people trust on YouTube, people just stop finding relevant content. 


Great people who work very hard on their content like The Completionist and Angry Joe are being targeted and they have claimed how frustrated they are with a lot of their work not being usable at the moment. The Completionist even tweeted about having to probably no longer use any music from in games any longer. It really tore at the content by finding matches with the music in the videos.

Angry Joe on the other hand was frustrated when being charged as guilty until proven innocent. YouTube has given the publishers a means to ruin their content creators work and lives without ever there being an issue of actually making a fraudulent claim.



Though things don't end there. Since these are just the people who are more well known when it comes to YouTube. Even in that case a lot of these people don't have the luxury to just stop working and take a break. They have to keep working and posting to keep their audiences pleased and present if they want any money. 

Smaller channels like Edler-Geek.com which posts lots of high quality content can't even afford to spend much time on their channel yet they put so much time into each video. YouTube already doesn't pay very much and yet this is occurring. Anyone who is trying to rise up and make a better place to find content is having a real hard time while YouTube constantly sides against their own employees. Their partners. 

YouTube used to have a lot of great features like recommending channels based on the channel you were on. Having a recommendation for other channels on the same Subscriber level. Now PewDiePie is being recommended on every channel. Even though he is the most popular YouTuber, he is still in need of more advertisement it seems.

That and more is explained here:







Website URL Change

I know I know. I've been lazy, not updating. The truth is it's finals time at university and I'm in the middle of it all. 

I have been slowly working on a few posts. I'll have them ready during Christmas time when I'm free once again.

The main point of this post is to inform you I want to change the unnecessarily obfuscated URL I chose. 

I'll be changing the URL to 

CriticalCorrespondence.blogspot.com

Please update your bookmarks and I will have new content up shortly. 

P.S. I am working on more types of work to expand past the text posts and start working with audio and video. I'm learning some editing after exams are over. My first project will be a podcast with some of my close friends who are quite funny and quite informed on videogames. Other video reviews and other ideas I can create will be coming in the future. 

Things will get better the more time I have to learn how to make them so.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Graphics For Your Spare Change

Now that we are in the Black Friday Weekend and heading to Cyber Monday we have several graphics cards at a really low price.

I would buy two of these if I had a up to date rig. For me, I'll be waiting another year.

The very well received Radeon HD 7850 is being sold for $139.99. After rebate it's only $109.99


This machine has 2GB of GDDR5 inner cache, 1.0Ghz, a beastly fan, crossfire support (so feel free to buy mulitple), 2 DVI ports, 1 HDMI, and 2 Mini-Display ports which are no laughing matter (these things can give you a resolution of 2560×1600).NOW that's not all of course. GeForce has some deals if you like yourself some drivers.


Now this is the GeForce GT 640 sorts of impressive. First, it is selling for $89.99 currently. This machine as you can see has a total of 4 display ports on it: 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, and an ol'VGA if you still have a use for it. It actually comes with 2GB of DDR3 (not GDDR5 like the last one) inner cache, 1.05Ghz and of course a massive fan. 

UPDATE:

If you have very little money to spend on a new graphics card and your rig is as old as mine the GeForce GT 610 can be a decent improvement.
It's only $50 and has dropped as low as $45 recently. With 2GB of DDR3 memory, 810MHz clock speed, with 2 DVI ports, with a nice little Mini-HDMI port. 

Both of these machines use PC-Express x16 encase you're still reading. it would be hard to not get all up on in this but I'm still running a discontinued Motherboard which is a bit of a bummer.

I'll start a savings account to use for next years Christmas part list. I'll be able to play pretty games with the rest of you soon enough.