Art - New Logo

For the Anime Rename File Utility, I decided it would be nice to make a little piece of art for the about window. Nothing too fancy. But, I wanted something related to the use of the application. I decided to learn a little more about Photoshop as a result and got a little more familiar with the pen tool.

Here is my attempt at a logo:



I think it turned out decent. Much better job than I have done in the past. I think I am getting a bit better at using the tool. I don't know if I like the text so much but perhaps this is just a first draft. Later revisions may be popping up. I may also decide to go with this art style in the future for a game idea that I am starting to brew in my brain. We shall see :)

Download - PC : Anime File Rename Utility

Hello All, It has been a while. GE has been keeping me busy in Grand Rapids this last month and I have been working some major overtime on my current project at work. Thus leaves me little time to work on my side projects (as usual). To top it off I bought an IPhone and that has been a bit distracting in its own right (reviews to come).

Anyways, I did take this weekend to write some software to rename files for TV shows (specifically Anime series). Now of course I can not condone piracy, it is illegal and it is wrong. However, there are many Anime series that have become available on the web via sites such as Anime Take (pronounced "Ta-ke") which follow DMCA policies very closely. I have noticed that many of these are done by release groups that tend to "tag" their files in a very ugly manor. As a result, I have decided to take it upon myself to write a file rename utility that will parse all of the garbage out of the names of files and order them by numbers.

This may be useful for other reasons as well. Picture files perhaps. It is not limited to only Anime, but it was my source of inspiration. The software does not in any way shape or form allow illegal downloading of shows, so please do not ask me where to get illegal Anime. This software is provided free "as is" and if you have any suggestions for improving the software, let me know and I will consider updating it for that purpose.

You can download the installer for Windows PC here.



The software is very simple, once it is installed by running the setup installer. Open the application and click "Browse". Navigate to your folder with the series in it and press ok. This will populate the path field and display all of the files in the folder. The application attempts to use the first file name to deduce what the expected series name is. If this is not what you would like to name it, change the name in the "Series Name" field before doing a rename. The "Numbers in Name" field is used so that series that have numbers in their name like "Super 7 Ninja Magic Yea!" (name totally made up btw :), you can put a 1 in that box and the application will know to skip over the first numeral character in the file name before trying to deduce what episode it is. You can use the "Rebuild Name" button to have the application "guess" the series name after a change to the number field.

You can use the preview button before doing an actual rename to see what the paths for the files will be changed to. These replace the entries in the file list box on the left. Finally, "Rename" actually performs the rename of the files.

Drop me a line if you are having problems with anything.
Later!

Scribd - Excellent resource for programming texts

I am probably way behind on the times on this one but for those like me who don't always read all the tech blogs every day since I have a real job. One that keeps me busy, unlike some other tech jobs held by people I know. Here is a web site that I just found the other day that is like the YouTube of the written world. Scribd.com lets users upload documents in a variety of formats from PDF to DOC. The best part is that I have been able to find full length tech books on topics ranging from iPhone development to software testing practices, and I was only searching for a little while. Now I don't know the legalities of all the texts that are up, but one thing is for sure, I'm going to take advantage of it while I can.

Why No Subtitiling In Games???

It has occurred to me that there is a missing area of game development that has yet to truly be tapped. Subtitling, yes I know what your thinking. "What do you mean, there is almost always dialog text in cut scenes and anytime a character is running through their dialog." This is not what I am referring to, true this is where subtitling would go, and the text wouldn't change, however, what I want to change is the language of the characters.

I am a big fan of anime, and the biggest pet peeve of mine is not being able to watch the anime in its natural language. Sorry American voice actors, you suck. The Japanese have been doing it for much longer, get paid better for it, and are overall better at it. Why do game developers think that American audiences do not want the choice of what language to play a game in?

I realize that originally it was a space concern, game media just didn't have enough space to store multiple audio tracks. However, in this new age of high capacity media such as Blue Ray, there is really no reason to not include multiple audio tracks. They do the different language tracks for the different regional encoding anyways, thus it requires no additional voice acting to create.

In this new age marketplace, people want choices, and I personally would rather choose the bad ass sounding Japanese guy voicing my hero's dialog than some pansy who does voice overs for Saturday morning cartoons.

Game Review - Time Hollow : NDS : Konami

So, its been a while since I reviewed a DS game, probably since it's been a while since I bought a DS game and played it. However, I did pick up this game, and was pleasantly surprised. The reason I got it was because it looked like an anime for one. The other reason was that it reminded me of the old Kings Quest style of point and click adventure games that I used to play as a kid, the kind like "Sam and Max" and that breed.

Good: I felt the game play was well executed, it didn't try to pretend like there was more to it than there really was. Although game play wasn't "Fast pace" or "Exciting" it was never the less, enjoyable. It was like reading an interactive novel. The dialog was not over the top, and for a DS game, the cut scenes were much better than I expected.

Bad: The game was not hard... it was very very simple. Basically all you have to do is visit every area that you can every time you can and click on every object that has changed. The game does kind of feel like an I spy book. When things in the past change they change the present state of objects and people. Thus, talk to everyone and click on everything and you will win...

Also, never once did I "die" or run out of hollow time. It wasn't challenging enough when it came to knowing where to draw the time holes. Each scene was easily investigated.

Reception: Like I said, overall I enjoyed playing the game, if you play it, stay for the credits (I wont spoil it for you, but there is something after them). I give this game, for its genre a 89%

Game Review - Assassins Creed : PS3 : Ubisoft Montreal

In anticipation of the 2nd Assassin's Creed to be released, and due to the favorable reviews the original title received. I decided to pick up Assassin's Creed and give it a run through.

Now this game, I must say, was quite interesting. It was not exactly as I expected it to be. First off, when the game started, I was confused by the "futuristic" feel of the title. I was pleasantly surprised by the premise of the story. I was not expecting the layout of the plot being in two different timelines.

Good: Plot was excellent, I enjoyed the commentary when talking with the heads of each guild in each city. The dialog was fresh and it really felt like I was part of some secret organization. The game play was enjoyable (at least at first, more on this in a minute). Climbing buildings felt really fluid for the most part and it was fun to run away from guys.

Combat was alright, it felt a little unresponsive at times but the counter system was implemented very effectively.

Graphically, the game is beautiful, the blooming effects were not over done as they are in some games (Oblivion for example). Character animations were executed flawlessly.

Bad: The game felt repetitive after the first major mission. Everything was given away as far as game play was concerned right from the get go. The remainder of the game was just slightly harder missions of the same type, and the additional weapons you get are not all that exciting. The only thing saving this game was that the mission types were actually enjoyable to do more than once, however it mostly killed my replay value of the game.

I did notice at some points a speed up of the animation and game engine, which could be disorienting at times. I also ran into a few instances when climbing large buildings for the lookout missions that I had a hard time moving my character onto the final platform sticking out from the side of the building.

Also, finding all those darn flags is impossible... impossible...

Reception: I am looking forward to the second game (Damn those cliff hanger endings). I am hoping that it is not going to be more of the same missions again, they will need variety if they want to capture this audience. Overall, I give the original an 82% <--- totally arbitrary rating :)

Game Review - Lost Planet, Extreme Conditions : PS3 : Capcom

So I realize that this game is old, it has been around for a while. I am doing a review of it because I just recently picked it up used and played it for the first time.

Good:
The game play was enjoyable, a little choppy at times, but all around solid. The T-ENG meter that continually ticks down was a nice change of pace for the third person shooter genre, I felt like it kept me moving towards my goal, and much better than a standard timer.

Mechs are always fun to drive, these were no exception. There was especially one type of Mech (or VS as they are called in game) that was much faster and more agile than the others.

Bad:
Voice acting... It was terrible. Also the story was not that great, it felt like extra characters were added at an as needed basis, and it just felt like it was quickly put together without much thought.

Graphics... It was said in previous reviews by the major magazines that this game showed "Impressive" graphics for the new systems. Granted I played this one on the PS3, which was said to have lower graphics on this title than the XBox360 (not sure why, maybe it was just the mipmapping that was messed up cross system). Anyways, I felt like the environments were too simple as far as texturing was concerned, and highly repetitive.

Final Boss Mech control... The last mech you pilot, it is suppose to be super advanced. However the controls felt clunky and the camera view kept rotating when I didn't expect it. I thought this could have been better executed

Overall Reception:
I thought the game was decent for the 7 bucks I payed for it. I don't think I would have liked to pay 50-60 dollars for it when it was first released, but perhaps that is my perception after playing Resident Evil 5, which shares similar game mechanics. Overall I give this game a 75 out of 100.