Heavy Rain - Game Review *SPOILERS*

"...if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D"

So I finally got round to playing Heavy Rain! After playing Beyond Two Souls last year (which I LOVED) I had to give Heavy Rain a try too!

 
Image Source: http://static.tumblr.com/73xd9qg/xX3lpulq3/heavyrain.png

What a great game! The story completely sucked me in! I started playing after tea time and basically didn't put the controller down until I'd finished.

It's a narrative-driven game based mainly around Ethan Mars (see below) and the relationship he has with his son, Shaun. All of the characters have their own storyline and gameplay which occasionally interweave. Your actions and choices determine the fate of each character.

 
Ethan - Image source: http://www.gamesknit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/heavy-rain-1260106446.jpg

 
Ethan with his son Shaun - Image 3: http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/165034-heavy-rain-proves-ebert-was-right/bb-noscale.jpg

It is pretty cool how much your decisions can affect the storyline - you'll only notice this by partaking in a little plot googling after completing your game.

I loved all of the characters; loved the mood of the game; loved how the game looked, and most of all I loved the way tons of the gameplay is just controlling the character to do every-day mundane things. I love games like that - I don't know what it is, maybe it's something to do with feeling sucked into someone else's life and really living through them in another world? This is why I loved putting make-up on Madison and brushing Ethan's teeth. ^^

 
Ethan brushing his teeth! ^^ - Image 4: http://firsthour.net/screenshots/heavy-rain/heavy-rain-ethan-brush-teeth.jpg

So to summarise, what a great game! If you're into narrative heavy games with a little bit of mystery and thrilling action sequences this is the game for you! Also, if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D

xLouisax


P.S. Now I want to draw the characters so bad @@

P.P.S Also if you want to watch an awesome video about Heavy Rain watch this :)

Travelling to Japan!

Out of all of the countries I've travelled this year, Japan was the place that stood out the most to me! I visited mostly Tokyo and Kyoto, but also shortly visited Nara and Osaka :)...

... and IT WAS EVERYTHING I'd DREAMED IT TO BE! Everybody there was so nice to me and so respectful and cute! And EVERYTHING was cute: the houses were cute, the trees were cute, the cars are cute, the people are cute, their uniforms were cute... One of my favourite things was that you could be walking down the street (almost anywhere) and in the split second that you recognise that you're thirsty there's a drinks machine no more than a few metres away from you!

And the toilets... oh my... that was a real treat, while backpacking to leave a country with some of the worst toilets in the world, to go to the place with the BEST toilets in the world! :D

Japan is such a nice place to visit in terms of aesthetics - so many beautiful and interesting Shrines and houses and Gardens everywhere! I loved every minute of my time there, and can't wait to visit again someday (and get me more of that delicious noodle soup!!)




My only regret is that I don't follow Anime very much! I was having kittens over all the video game merchandise I found in Akihabara, Tokyo! Imagine if I'd also been finding posters and figurines of my favourite Anime characters! Maybe I'll have to get into Anime properly before I visit again!

Travel time!

So I've been a little busy over the past several months going on an adventure around the world! I just got to a point in my life where I was happy with how well I've done with my career. I'd graduated and got a good few years of experience working as an Illustrator and Designer and worked incredibly hard for every day of my life up until this point, so I thought it was definitely a good time to go off and have a gap year which I never had the chance to do before!

And its been great!!

I've ended up in Australia where I'm staying with a friend I met on the road and working part time in a local cafe to help save up for my next portion of backpacking around Oz!

I couldn't possibly share everything I've done while travelling this year because I'd need an entirely separate blog for that, but here's a few photos to give you guys a glimpse of my adventures! This whole experience has been incredibly inspiring and rejuvenating and I'm looking forward to coming back to London to work! 

Thailand


 Vietnam and Laos


Cambodia and Japan! <3 nbsp="" p="">
Peace out,

xLouisax

Best job in the world! :D

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY! :D

This is as far as my Easter greetings will be going! These are some cute decorations we made for the game that me and my colleagues have been slaving over. It's called 'Me to You My Place', it's free to play on Facebook so give it a try! It really is a great game!

Me to You My Place, click here to play!

A lot of crazy things have been going down lately. I'm working at Sharkius full-time now, mostly as an Illustrator and Animator but I'm also doing a little Design work and I'm greatly enjoying it. I really love and respect everybody I work with; they're so passionate about what they doing, and work so hard! Plus we're all really silly, and get to play with a giant exercise ball everyday - we call it Giant ball or 'Whooaah' ball. :)

Also, we met someone quite exciting the other day...I'm not going to pretend that I possess a giant plethora of knowledge into politics, but it was still exciting to meet Chancellor George Osborn! He came over and talked to us and everything! He was asking about our company and about social games. Me met him because he opened the Techhub Google Campus in London, which is set to be like the biggest hub for start-up companies and entrepreneurs involved with Tech in London.

Another thing that's going down; due to unforeseen circumstances, me and my housemate Michelle (check out her blog and shop!) are leaving our current abode in Surrey and moving house to central London! :D Exciting times my friends, exciting times!!

All the best,

Louisa

Beauties

I bought this set of 25 Beauties a short while ago, and they live on my desk so that I can shuffle them about and look at them all he time. I love them dearly and I'm a little bit obsessed with them so I thought I ought to share some with you!

They're a card set featuring famous women through history (I love this kind of stuff!) so not only is it educational and inspiring (there are little blurbs about them on the back), but also they are gorgously illustrated.

Here are a few of my favourites <3

New years resolutions and Interning

Happy new year!!

This time of year is always great for reflecting on all the things you have or haven't achieved since last new year, which can be either very depressing or very encouraging. I definately didn't achieve the yearly 'lose a few pounds' order, but I'm glad to say that I did achieve all the less menial goals I set for myself - to get a good grade for my degree and get myself an internship. Well, I got a great mark for my degree and now I'm on my second internship!

Right now I'm interning at Sharkius Games which is really cool and right at the heart of the so called Silicon roundabout in London. I'm having an awesome time making artwork, mostly for their Facebook game Me to You: My Place (you can play it here also!) Better still, everybody is super cool and very talented and I've been learning a lot from the whole experience.

Here's everybody doing the Fonz!



Eyyyyy!

By this time next year I think I'd like to have a job that I'm happy with and generally have much improved palette of art skills. But that's only 365 days away so let's just see how it goes!

xLouisax

[EDIT]

Recently we had 30 seconds of fame in this TV report!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16387725

Gilbert & Sullivan characters = Period Costume!

I recently went to a car boot sale selling an almost complete set of Player's Cigarette cards, featuring Gilbert & Sullivan characters!

Coming from a very musical family, I've grown up to seeing my parents performing in the majority of the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, which is actually how they both first met. Although I didn't really understand or appreciate the shows as a child, now that I am older I have grown to appreciate them for their light-hearted and ageless comedy, as well as the beautiful range of costume eras they offer to period costume geeks like me!

My favourite shows are probably The Pirates of Penzance, Gondoliers and The Mikado, the latter perhaps being one of the most famous. Here is a few of my collection of the exquisitely drawn characters.

And aren't there here two very significant characters for me! Below is the sweet Rose Maybud from Ruddigore, whom I was named after! (Louisa Rose Brooks)

And here is the character Robin Oakapple, the first role my Dad ever played on stage, and one he has played again countless times since. He actually looks a little like this drawing too, wooOOOOOoooo!

These cards have been added to my ever growing collection of objects related period costume, and remain upright on my desk for at least a full working year! :)

Hope your all good,

xLouisax

Graduating & Interning!

Earlier this month I finally graduated! You may now refer to me as Louisa Rose Brooks BA, with a first honours degree! It was a beautiful ceremony and we all looked awesome in our robes! I'm so proud of myself and all of my classmates who did so well, I wish the best of luck to everybody!

Me with one of my favourite tutors Mike Nicholson and my best friend Michelle Siddall.

I've also spend the last month interning at a company called Naked Penguin Boy doing my absolute dream project. I can't say much about it (that would give it away now wouldn't it! :p) but I'm pretty much being a mini-games artist, concept artist, level & puzzle designer and I'm even doing a little animation! It's made me realise that this is what I want to do for my career and I'm really looking forward to my future. Best of all I've been challenging myself everyday, and have faced some of my biggest (drawing) fears, such as rock faces and foliage!! AAAAAH! :D

I've been enjoying myself tremendously at Naked Penguin Boy; it's a wonderful place to work in one of the nicest areas in London, and I will be sad to say goodbye to everyone there! :(

Also they've just recently released a new game for the Blackberry Playbook. It's called Dunky Dough Ball and it's a pretty cool and addictive little game so If you have a Playbook check it out!

xLouisax

Glastonbury Festival 2011 - Robyn

Moments after the finishing my final degree show, me and my chums took off to spend a long weekend at the world famous, Glastonbury Festival!

None of us had been to Glastonbury before, and after spending a very wet weekend at Reading festival last year, I felt confident that I'd be able to handle any weather Glastonbury could dish out - but oh how wrong could I be?

The weather was TERRIBLE, it took 8 hours to get into the campsite in the pissing rain, and to make things worse the last two days were SCORCHING hot.

Aside from the heat and rain however, the festival was actually pretty good, cos there's SO much to do, besides listen to music. Avalon was a hippy area resembling much of the towns in the Fable games; Shangri-la and the other after hours areas lived up to their reputation as being FREAKIN WIERD; not to mention the large array of the shops boasting collections of friendship bracelets for you and your friends to get excited over.

Robyn


Image Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/glastonbury/2011/artists/robyn/

The artists I particularly enjoyed were Tinie Tempah, Beardyman, Chemical Brothers, Hurts & Robyn. Robyn was probably one of the most memorable because I hadn't realised how much I liked her before I saw her live, and also, she freaked out on stage and threw her microphone over because her earphones weren't working. It was quite exciting. Nonetheless, she still sang spot on when her ears weren't working, it was a great energetic performance and nobody was in the slightest bit bothered about the technological problems. Good on you Robyn <3

xLouisax

Cycling Pick Me Up!

I went to the Pick Me Up exhibition the other day, during a wonderful day-visit to London! It was all pretty good work but there was one illustrator who really caught my imagination, Takeru Toyokura. He featured a set of wonderful images, lovingly cut out in felt and paper to make amazingly detailed and surreal imagery.







I love, love love! Look at the buildings! They look so real!

To see more of his beautiful work, check this out:

<3

I also liked Kate Moross's Alphabet of Games Titles, hehe.

The day was rounded off with an amazing bicycle ride around Hyde Park. If you've never used a Barclays bike around London, get one and have a cycle around, it's awesome! Not too expensive either.







xLouisax

Gray Matter - Game Review

My housemates haven't seen a lot of me the last couple of days...

Why?

Because I was sucked head-over-heels into the hyper awesome world that is Gray Matter! I hadn't heard a peep about this game until right before I bought it online, but it had really great reviews and that's usually enough to persuade me. I played it for two days straight to complete it, and now it's overrr, nooo!



It follows the story of Samantha Everett, an adventurous young lady on a quest to join the notorious magician's group, the Daedalus club. On her way to London she happens upon a spooky old house and ends up working there as assistant to mysterious neurobiologist, David Styles. As the story progresses, you slowly unravel the truth about these characters, as well as the mysterious events taking place across Oxford.



The game is BEAUTIFUL! Everything is meticulously created in detail. All of the rooms have their own style. Better still, most of the game involves you snooping around and being nosy. The story is riveting and there are also plenty of scary moments (this is a breakthrough for me, I never play scary games!)

Gray matter uses the old school platform of 'point and click' but still has something very unique and intriguing about it. The clip-scenes are composed of beautiful watercolour paintings. Check out the trailer to see what I mean about the watercolour :)



This game was written by Jane Jensen and made by dtp entertainment AG, I would SO work for them but they're in Germany :(

xLouisax

Scott Awesome Vs the World!

Watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World the other day was an epic moment in my life! It is filmed to read like a comic book, but also borrows classic video game conventions. Definately boosted to my top 10 faves!







Comic x Games = Heaven

Watch it! Watch it now, it's so awesome!!

Booya!

xLouisax

Disney repetition Fail!

I recently came across a video on youtube which made me feel a bit sick! This video compilation demonstrates to what extent Disney recycled animation from various films.



I must admit, I remember a few years back watching Robin Hood for the first time and noticing instantly that they'd reused animation from Snow White. It stuck out like a sore thumb and frankly, looked terrible.

I don't care if they didn't have the funding to animate new stuff! They shouldn't have done it >.<

Perhaps it has touched a nerve with me because of my current Dress-up-Game project. I am being super careful not to have repetition in my outfits, because I am fully aware that lazy repetition IS obvious and WILL be noticed by critics.

xLouisax

The Geffrye Museum - London

The Geffrye Museum in London, features 'Middle class' English rooms throughout history. It's not just pretty to look at, it describes how these rooms were used and ties many other interesting aspects of history into it, such as insights into the transformation of fashion, trend and culture.

I had a great time here and it was also very useful to get some photos for reference, that will hopefully help me to draw everything in the right perspective for my dress-up game.







I apologise for the fuzzy photographs.
A good craftsman should never blame his tools. However, I am not a man, and I am also not good, so therefore I can blame my camera completely. :)

Costume boundaries in Culture
To make my dress-up game something original, my tutors are especially keen on me getting my fingernails into the culture of period costume, and perhaps showing different classes and trades in my game. I have some really good books to help me with this, which describe alot about how certain trends changed from decade to decade.

One of these books is called The British Isles: Cultures and Costumes: Symbols of their Period, by Charlotte Greige which features chapters about the difference upper class and lower class costume.

Apparently, much like the way we wear uniform today, during the Medieval times it was obligatory to wear certain clothes in certain ways, depending of the trade you worked in. You couldn't just walk about in whatever you wanted, unless you were very wealthy. This rule continued for quite a while because the wealthy wanted to keep the class system in place.


From left, an 18th Century Milkmaid, a Fireman, a Newspaper vendor, and a night Watchman.

Very interesting!

xLouisax

Female Role Models - The Princess and the Frog

I watched 'The Princess and the Frog' for the first time the other day and was delighted to find it a refreshing and uplifting film. Going back to traditional 2D animation brought back these amazing nostalgic feelings I last had as a child, watching the Disney 'classics'.

Based in 1920's New Orleans, The Princess and the Frog features an array of colourful Jazz songs, written by the walking ball of talent that is Randy Newman.

The main character is a young African-American woman called Tiana, the first and long overdue Black Disney Princess. Tiana is an extremely determined and hard-working young woman - an amazing role model for just about every living person. The film is based around her accomplishing her dream - and what a big dream - to open her own restaurant!

In order to save the money for this dream she works two full-time jobs and double shifts. Her complete focus and determination pays off for she finally saves enough money to buy her restaurant. At the last minute, however, she is cut short by somebody outbidding her - yet another set-back for her to overcome.

After this point the story really takes off as she meets a penniless Prince, disguised as a Frog and she accidentally turns into a Frog herself. Tiana and the Prince are sent on a wild adventure looking for a way to turn themselves human again.



On reading reviews for The Princess and the Frog, I was disappointed by the bad feedback this film has been bombarded with. It has been highly criticised for sensitive and incorrect stereotyping, which confuses me because these critics have clearly missed the point of the film, and indeed the message I feel Disney was trying to deliver.

Disney have portrayed Tiana as a strong young woman, who has set a goal for herself and stops at nothing to achieve it, sacrificing many things along the way, (without losing sight of the important things of course). What a great message to give to young children; that dreams do come true if you focus and work hard.

Watch this clip it's incredible!!

Its also refreshing that the love story isn't the main theme of the film, and that she doesn't wait for a 'Prince' to come along before starting her life, as other Disney Princesses have.

I liked The Princess and the Frog and highly respect Disney for pulling this out of the bag, for trying something a little different, and for sending positive and sensible messages to young girls.

Damn you critics!!

xLouisax

EAG expo show

My friend Clare and I were invited to the EAG expo show by BandaiNamco for participating in the Shaun the Sheep brief. It's basically a huge room full of free arcade games - yes Clare, FREE arcade games. :D





Putting me into an enormous room of sparkly colourful lights and free gaming made me feel a little like a kid in a sweet shop. The Sega section was probably the best; their amusements were covered in colourful lighting and adorned with their most popular signature characters. The Sonic the Hedgehog games usually always feature some kind of casino level, and this was like walking into the Sonic Heroes Casino Park! Look at these awesome slot machines!! Anybody wanna buy me the Amy Rose one??





The Sonic air hockey tables were beautiful, especially the four player table!!







Out of everything however, I think there was a definite favourite... Namco's DEADSTORM PIRATES!





This is probably the best arcade game in the world. It's the standard satisfactory shoot-em-up game, sprinkled with good piratey characters and stories. It's a 2Player game and each player has a cannon gun to blast enemies with. Both players also occasionally share the responsibility of helmsman, as at times you are required to steer the boat and dodge enemies. Due to free gameplay during the expo show, me and my friend were pretty much experts by the end of it (77% people, high five!) and we even went back for seconds.

Good day overall! And look, there was loads of Hello Kitty stuff there too! (Sorry, I just can't help myself can I?)



You can see more photos here if you like :)

All the best,

xLouisax xx