Late Breaking

Super Bowl ads are another check mark on the list of things that America does in excess that just piss off anyone living in a different country. I mean am I right? Advertisers throw millions of dollars out the window to get one 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl. No wonder our economy might go into a recession. Any who, Super Bowl ads usually tend to be funny for the sake of being funny or controversial for the sake of being controversial.

This year’s theme from my viewing experience was the wild and crazy animals. Some funny ones to note were the Bridgestone Tire commercials. Basically the commercials demonstrated the maneuverability of a car using their tires while avoiding a boat load of animals with a crazy screaming expression thinking they are about to become road kill.

Another animal commercial was the FedEx commercial where an entrepreneurial employee solves the company shipping problems by using pidgins. The employee’s boss asks him how they will ship large products and then giant pidgins the size of Mac trucks come on screen. These giant pidgins hauling crates start dropping the crates midair on people in the street causing havoc.

The last worthy commercial to note on the animal theme was a SoBe commercial. One of the most random damn things I have ever seen occurred in this commercial. I super model holding their new drink product walks onto a stage followed by a CGI lizard. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” starts to play and a bunch of CGI lizards start dancing in unison. Hilarity ensues.

In the end, I found all the animal commercials to be funny. But let’s be fair, it is kind of a cop out. Animals doing not so uh.. “animal” things are always hilarious. The rest of the commercials like always, are just like any other and I forget about them and just focus on the programming I tune in for.

Photoshop Assignment Two

Here is my final image for this assignment:

Photoshop Assignment One

Here are some examples from Photoshop exercise one.

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Introduction - MCOM 63

My name is Scott and you already know me from last semester's journalism 61 class. What I want to get out of this class (MCOM 63) would be to learn all the basic skills of web page design, podcasting, RSS, and others. I also want to fine tune my Adobe skills. I am already familiar with using Adobe programs because in high school I took these classes called desktop publishing for two years.

I am a journalism major and an aspiring video games journalist. Most of the big video game editorial companies are online so online would be the media I am most interested in. By not confining myself to one skill over learning multiple skills, I will be a better candidate for a job when it comes down to a company hiring me over someone else.

Magazine Project Broadcast Video

Refelctive Writing X.C.

From the choices presented to me for the magazine project, I chose to do a review because it best suited my interests. I want to do something on the editorial side of the video game industry and writing reviews is one of them. All the knowledge and experience from this assignment and class will be a definite plus.

What worked was my previous experience of writing reviews for games. My review style was a little altered for this class because I tried so hard to stay away from writing for the "hardcore" and keeping it as short as possible. My chose of reviewing a handheld game worked over reviewing a console game because I don't have to be at home to play. I got a lot of my play time in while riding the light rail to school, sitting in a car ride, or playing in class if my teacher was boring me (no not you Professor!).

What didn't work was the time constraints I had to review a game over reviewing a movie or a concert which is a one time, two hour event. This project was done during crunch time of the semester for every class so finding time to play a game enough to review it was difficult.

Motivating myself to play a game for school was easy. Not many times do I get the chance to do what a love for an assignment.

The hard part of this project was basically the same as what didn't work, It was very hard to get enough playtime in to a game to be able to review it. But it can be done.

All in all, this was an awesome project. Do it again for your students next semester. They will love it!

Magazine Project: Review Broadcast Script

Magazine Project: Review
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
60 seconds

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A GREAT USE OF THE TECHNOLOGY ON THE NINTENDO D-S OR A GREAT GAME FOR IT IN GENERAL, THEN LOOK NO FURTHER THAN THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: PHANTOM HOURGLASS. PHANTOM HOURGLASS IS THE FIRST DIRECT SEQUEL TO A PREVIOUS ZELDA GAME. THE ART STYLE OF THE GAME IS TAKEN RIGHT FROM ITS PREDECESSOR, THE WIND WAKER.

WHILE MOST GAMES ON THE NINTENDO D-S USE THE TOUCH SCREEN IN GIMMICKY FASHIONS WHILE RELYING HEAVILY ON THE BUTTONS, PHANTOM HOURGLASS USES PURELY TOUCH SCREEN CONTROLS. YOU CONTROL LINK SIMPLY BY DRAGGING THE STYLUS ACROSS THE TOUCH SCREEN IN ANY DIRECTION. USING THE SWORD IS SIMPLY EXECUTED BY SWIPING OR TAPING ON AN ENEMY.

PUZZLES IN THE VARIOUS DUNGEONS IMPLEMENT THE USE OF ALL THE D-S FUNCTIONALITY PERFECTLY. WITH THE INCLUSION OF MAPS TO DRAW ON CHANGES THE ENTIRE DYNAMIC OF PUZZLE SOLVING. NOW YOU CAN MARK THE SPOT OF TREASURES OR SECRETS TO PROCEEDING IN A DUNGEON RIGHT ON THE MAP.

THE CARTOON GRAPHICS LOOK BEAUTIFUL AND THE SOUNDTRACK IS THE BEST IN ANY D-S GAME TODAY.

WITH ITS SIMPLE CONTROLS AND FUN GAMEPLAY, PHANTOM HOURGLASS WILL MAKE A GREAT ADDITION TO ANYONE’S D-S LIBRARY.

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