Look, I like video games. But I'm not a gamer. I only play a select few games. Not for story, but usually to just run around, drive around, blow stuff up, and look neat while doing it (primarily GTA 5, I want Just Cause 3 but my brother won't buy it. Yes I'm behind on the games and #basic.) But there is one game that I am more than giddy for, and I might even buy my own system specifically for a game that is coming up. That game is Spider-Man PS4.
If you asked me before seeing some of the more recent footage, I would and would have always said that the best Spider-man game was Spider-Man 2. Not only was it a rarity for a video game tie-in to a film to be good (or even playable), but this Spider-Man game offered something revolutionary for the franchise that was never decently done again. The game allowed the player to free roam around New York City as Spider-Man and, not only could you touch the streets of New York and pass pedestrians and run in front of cars etc. Also, unlike previous games under the title, the webs attached to buildings! Which was amazing. (hehe)
Now, there is a Spider-Man game in the works that many are placing the responsibility onto to top Spider-Man 2. That is no small task to follow, but what the public has seen so far, they may not land too far off. The #1 concern for fans is webslinging mechanics. Not only do the webs attach to buildings (which sounds simple but some recent Spider-Man games have failed to even do THAT) but the game allows a combination of buttons that help you gain momentum and travel through the city using things in the environment. You can even make a full 90 degree turn! Which is different for Spider-Man games.
The new Spidey game is meant to have a series of alternate costumes that have special abilities and, in an attempt to allow the players to be the Spider-Man they want to be, players will be allowed to mix and match the costumes and the abilities so if they like the look of one costume but the powers of another, they can have both.
Also the combat system is more advanced than ever, for Spidey has new gadgets to give him even more of an edge against the bad guys, almost echoing the Arkham games in regards to variety of move sets. Players can use the environment around them to use to their advantage as well, much like Spider-Man would.
Not much else has been revealed about the game, but the graphics look stunning, and the abilities the player has and how they can get around New York City is a true game changer. (ha)
It is the time of year again in which I choose some of my favorite blogs in class (I've done this in multiple classes in my college career hence the "again," if you didn't get it.) It's always tough choosing which blogs to write about because everyone in the class has something great about their blogs, these are just a few I thought stood out in a way or attracted me with either their subject matter or their style as a whole.
Suzanne Lanoue
I don't think I'm alone in thinking Suzanne puts us all to shame when it comes to amount of content within the blogs. She writes long and informational blogs and often gets them done far earlier than I do ahead of time. She also provides a great number of links. Her blog on binge watching has a section that is seemingly more links than white words, which is impressive and great attention to detail.
She writes well rounded blogs that don't only focus on the assignment or her opinions on a specific topic, they are usually well rounded and also have a word count far greater than it takes to get an A in the class which an inspiration in and of itself.
Forest Pierce
One thing I share with Forest Pierce is a love for film. He, like myself, tend to steer our projects/blogs more towards the film and entertainment angle. While we might differ some when it comes to preferred genres or periods, it's still nice to have someone in class that speaks English (well, film English.)
And there are some of his blogs about some things I had a vague familiarity with and learned more about through his blog. For example, I watched Ultraman quite a bit as a kid and he wrote a whole blog detailing the importance of Ultraman in Japan (even as much to call him their equivalent to our Mickey Mouse.)
Anna Kirksey
I'm always jealous of Anna's blogs, something about them seem more professional than mine. Anytime an assignment sounds a little vague, hers is one of the blogs I frequent to try and get an idea what the blog (or other work in these classes) is supposed to be all about. Also her topics are more diverse in that they aren't as much about pop culture, entertainment, or technology as the rest of the blogs (I tend to tie my assignments (even if very loosely) to pop culture in some way.) Her blogs tend to do all of the things we're told to do but does each of them in a very solid manner.
I might work on a blog and slack off in links and give lots of pictures or have one pictures but a boatload of links, but Anna puts her blogs together with plenty of links, video links (with pictures) and also writes more directly and to the point than I do at the very least. She also separates some links for the end that work as a sort of works cited which seems more grown up to me than just linking words in the blog alone. (If nobody clicks on them they won't know that you referenced them.)
Houston Taylor
Houston's blogs are usually a treat to look at. They are aesthetically pleasing as well as informative. Not totally in this class, but in other classes we have had similar ideas about topics. In that way, I agree with some of his opinions about certain things like his blog about the trend of rebooting long cancelled tv shows for the sake of nostalgia.
I also like how he sets up his blog, separating bursts of texts with video links or a graphic to help enhance what he is talking about. One thing I tend to look at when looking at blogs are how the links are arranged and what a video link does for the blog as a whole. I don't totally have appealing images and sometimes my links are "joke links" so in a way I prefer how Houston does his blog because it seems more mature and knowledgeable (also in another blog class he embedded tweets and I still don't know how to do that.)
Every year, humans as a species create new technologies and improve them over time as other technologies become available. A great example is how print moved to radio, then radio to television, then television to internet. There are many other technologies along the way and in between every technological innovations, but in a general sense we create them to satisfy a certain need.
When it comes to video technologies, we are in an interesting time. In the age of streaming and gaming, how we entertain ourselves is itching to get more and more interactive. While seeing where the buck stops is just about impossible at this time, we have a decently clear path to where things are going within the next 10 to 20 years. These are some general predictions about some of the changes we could see in video entertainment:
Streaming
As of right now, Netflix is the leading streaming service. Everyone and their grandmother bums off someone's Netflix. If you had asked me a year ago if anything could knock it off it's pedestal, preventing it from being the primary streaming service of the future, I would say you're crazy. But now, there are multiple factors to consider. For one, Netflix is losing a lot of it's contracts with television studios (many of which are opting to create their own streaming service.) Because of this, Netflix has been making it their mission to churn out as much original content as possible so that, when they eventually lose a lot of the contracts that brought users to their platform, they can maybe keep them around with their Netflix Originals such as Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, House of Cards, etc. Secondly, Disney, the soon to be monopoly of all monopolies, is looking to knock them off their pedestal. In December 2017, Disney bought the film and television division of 20th Century Fox. Disney had, prior to the deal, 30% of Hulu stock. When they bought 20th Century Fox, they had acquired their 30% of Hulu as well. Disney now owns 60% of Hulu with the remaining chunk of belonging to Comcast. Disney aims to make their own streaming service which will now include, I assume, Fox television and Disney television being streamable. Along with that Disney had a multitude of Netflix original programs such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Punisher, and more that they could move from Netflix to their own service. While Netflix is said to be bringing 700 original titles into 2018, perhaps to combat this coming apocalypse, their film division is sub par, making films that are middling in critical reception while also expensive to make. Bright was their first Netflix Original "blockbuster" that did good for a film just released on a streaming platform, but not as good as it would need to be to make it financially viable (granted it has been greenlit for a sequel, nobody knows how truly deep the pockets of Netflix are.)
Gaming
I'm not much of a gamer, but two things seem to be the focus of gaming companies. The first is virtual reality. While this concept did exist in the good ol' days, it couldn't be close to as realized as it is trying to be now, and will be in the future. VR is a a good way to immerse users in a different world, making it's best use (so far and in my opinion) by tying into something like film and tv (see It and Rick and Morty), allowing users to join their favorite worlds. The only setbacks with it is that you can't move as much unless you had an empty room to walk around in. There are currently VR parks being made to make environments meant to be walked around with the VR headsets.
The other thing that gamers seem to be hyped about is cross platform gaming. There is a game, currently, that is all the rage known as Fortnite. Recently, the developers of the game have made it to where mobile players of the game can play with console players and vice versa. There had been talk in the past of cross platforming Xbox and PS4, but, as of right now, it hasn't come to fruition. However, PS4 does cross-platform with Fortnite's mobile and Mac players, and so does Xbox. PS4 and Xbox just don't cross-platform with each other. While this seems to be a feud that won't end for a while, it is pretty much inevitable for them to cross-platform. It just makes sense.
Augmented Reality
Something that has been mostly, not ignored, but maybe has less emphasis on is Augmented Reality (I'm going to continue to capitalize that.) Augmented Reality is like Virtual Reality, except the idea is adding a layer to what is already in front of you. It is made to enhance your world and, ideally, would involve as little technology as possible to attach to. Google Glass had a decent idea with glasses that put things in front of you in a small square in glasses. Nintendo has played with Augmented Reality in the past and are toying with similar themes with their new Nintendo Labo "tech." So far, no real breakthroughs have come from this technology except with Pokemon Go. It allowed users to walk around and catch Pokemon in their neighborhood. It did have complications like the Augmented Reality wasn't totally well developed (animated characters would float over things etc) also multiple accidents have happened like users walking off cliffs looking for Pokemon. (Or finding abandoned dead bodies, but that's another issue.) My ideal Augmented Reality device would be along the lines of Google Glass, but allowing users to interact with what is in front of them either with their hands or with voice commands (or maybe way down the line with their thoughts.)
An Amalgamation of All These Things
This is all assuming we will still be watching movies and tv shows or playing video games like we have in the past. Some may argue that what is next is some sort of entertainment device that could utilize all of these things. There are two videos online that I especially enjoy that take the concept of a tv show or a scene and allows users to choose their own adventure in a sense. You're essentially playing a tv show. One is That Moment When, a tv show produced by Cracked and making the rounds on a site called Eko that sets up a scene and a player gets to choose what happens in the scene by clicking one of the buttons on the screen that makes the main character do something and you watch how the scene plays out. It is much like the Telltale games that are so popular that made choice based gaming the hot ticket of it's time. The other is a short film called Possibilia
by The Daniels (directors of one of my fave films Swiss Army Man). An inter-dimensional love story about a couple breaking up and the possibilities that come with that conversation. There have also been discussions about how hard it would be to tie a narrative to VR, but, by attempting to fuse all of these platforms, something pretty neat can be made that will change entertainment forever.
I don't think I'm alone in thinking Suzanne puts us all to shame when it comes to amount of content within the blogs. She writes long and informational blogs and often gets them done far earlier than I do ahead of time. She also provides a great number of links. Her blog on binge watching has a section that is seemingly more links than white words, which is impressive and great attention to detail. 
She writes well rounded blogs that don't only focus on the assignment or her opinions on a specific topic, they are usually well rounded and also have a word count far greater than it takes to get an A in the class which an inspiration in and of itself. 
I'm always jealous of Anna's blogs, something about them seem more professional than mine. Anytime an assignment sounds a little vague, hers is one of the blogs I frequent to try and get an idea what the blog (or other work in these classes) is supposed to be all about. Also her topics are more diverse in that they aren't as much about pop culture, entertainment, or technology as the rest of the blogs (I tend to tie my assignments (even if very loosely) to pop culture in some way.) Her blogs tend to do all of the things we're told to do but does each of them in a very solid manner. 
I might work on a blog and slack off in links and give lots of pictures or have one pictures but a boatload of links, but Anna puts her blogs together with plenty of links, video links (with pictures) and also writes more directly and to the point than I do at the very least. She also separates some links for the end that work as a sort of works cited which seems more grown up to me than just linking words in the blog alone. (If nobody clicks on them they won't know that you referenced them.)
I also like how he sets up his blog, separating bursts of texts with video links or a graphic to help enhance what he is talking about. One thing I tend to look at when looking at blogs are how the links are arranged and what a video link does for the blog as a whole. I don't totally have appealing images and sometimes my links are "joke links" so in a way I prefer how Houston does his blog because it seems more mature and knowledgeable (also in another blog class he embedded tweets and I still don't know how to do that.)
