Madisun's Arc - Reviews By Darth Marsden

[Darth Marsden]

Hey guys. This is a list of all the videos I've made for my review series, Madisun's Arc. They do get better as I go along, honest! I primarily upload these to Blip, since that lets you preload the videos and, if you use AdBlocker, there's no adverts, but most of the videos also have YouTube mirrors for those who can't use Blip.

Anyway, enough rambling. Here's the list!

-x-

Episode 1 - The Crow: City of Angels: The Game: The Review
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 2 - The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
YouTube - 3 Minute Preview
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 3 - The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines
YouTube - 3 Minute Preview
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 4 - The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice
YouTube - Part I and Part II
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 5 - Daikatana
Blip.tv - Full Video
Re-Edited Version - Recommended Version
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 6 - Free Jimmy
YouTube - 3½ Minute Preview, Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Uncut Video

Episode 7 - Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach
YouTube - 3 Minute Preview, Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Uncut Video

Episode 8 - Drake of the 99 Dragons
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 9 - Punisher: War Zone
YouTube - 3 Minute Preview, Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 10 - SiN: The Movie (and the game as well, I guess)
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Uncut Video

Episode 11- Universal Squadrons
YouTube - 3½ Minute Preview, Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 12 - The Avengers: United They Stand
YouTube - 2 Minute Preview, Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Uncut Video

Episode 13 - Kill Speed
YouTube - Removed due to Copyright Claims. Sorry.
Blip.tv - Full Video

Mini-Arc A Puzzling Adventure goes here
Mini-Arc Assembling the Avengers goes here

Episode 14 - Demons - Episode I
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video
Redux Version (Recommended)
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 15 - Hulk
YouTube - Removed due to Copyright Claims. Sorry.
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 16 - American McGee Presents Bad Day LA
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 17 - Top 8 Worst Movie Sequels (that I've seen)
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video
Honourable Mentions
YouTube - Full Video
Blip.tv - Full Video

Mini-Arc AWESOME Team, More Like goes here

Episode 18 - Paycheck
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Removed due to Copyright Claims. Sorry.

Episode 19 - The Crow
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Full Video

Episode 20 - The Crow: City of Angels
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Removed due to Copyright Claims. Sorry.

Mini-Arc Back to the City goes here

Episode 21 - The Crow: Stairway to Heaven
Blip.tv - Full Video

Episode 22 - The Crow: Salvation
Blip.tv - Full video
YouTube - Full Video

Episode 23 - The Crow: Wicked Prayer
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Full Video

Episode 24 - The Bond 25
Blip.tv - Complete List
YouTube - Part I (25 to 21), Part II (20 to 16), Part III (15 to 11), Part IV (10 to 006) and the Top 5.

The 3D Devolution
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Full Video

Episode 25 - Simon the Sorcerer 3D
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Edited Version (Rap Sheet montage has had its music removed, f**king YouTube)
Addendum - The MiniGames of Simon 3D
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - Full Video

Episode 26 - The Man With The Golden Gun
Blip.tv - Full Video
YouTube - WIP version of first 11 minutes

Mini-Arcs
A Puzzling Adventure - Blip.tv / YouTube
Assembling the Avengers - Blip.tv / YouTube
AWESOME Team, More Like - YouTube
Back to the City - Blip.tv / YouTube

[der_ketzer]

That demo is great.
And the Death-Sequence seems to be the best part of the game. No wonder they want to show it to you so often.

[Darth Marsden]

Audio from the Death Sequence is awful. I think I had my Mic turned on when I captured that footage. Hopefully it's not too bad.

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

Audio from the Death Sequence is awful. I think I had my Mic turned on when I captured that footage. Hopefully it's not too bad.

It was crackling a bit. I personally thought that might have been the game though.

[Darth Marsden]

Oh, then I guess I got away with it! Saved by a crappy game!

[der_ketzer]

Let me sumarize my opinion a bit.

The Good,
° You had a script
° The picture quality was very good, no HD but I prefer SD anyways. (loads faster, doesn't cause problems on (my) old(er) PC(s).
° Sound Quality was good for no visible microphone. May be improved a bit but I have heard a lot of worse sound in a first video. Also remember: Sound fuck ups are always worse than others. Most people will listen to you, not all of them will watch you during the video though.
° Once the video game part starts everything has a great flow.
° A "good" game to start on. Never heard of it, never saw another review for it
° Good choice of host for the video. Youtube has more viewers but Blip doesn't block videos for copyright normally. And they don't block music content in Germany like YT does.

The Bad
° minor bad point: The start was a bit too long. At least I felt that it might have been a little tighter.
° another minor thing: Maybe you should get some of those bottles out of the picture...
(also I am quite curious what the other stuff there is now)

and The Ugly
There was nothing that would fit here. That is a good thing!
The audio errors during the games cutscenes would fit here (as I said audio fuck ups are major fuck ups) but you got away with those. No one knows this game and judging by the rest of it they might have been in there anyways.

[Darth Marsden]

Thanks for your analysis! Really does help me with future reviews I have planned.

-I'd disagree about the script. I had a notes list. It's why there are so many pauses during the live-action segments - I know roughly what to talk about, but I'm basically making the actual lines up on the spot, hence the pauses. It's amateurish and I'm not doing it in future. Full scripts all the way!

- There's a few written reviews for the game, but they're rather obscure. I'm surprised no-one's really talked about it, it's easily one of the worst games I've ever played. The only consolation is that it's short - 5 or so hours, if you don't die.

- I went with Blip.tv because my YouTube account doesn't let me upload videos over 15 minutes long. Not saying it's bad, just thought I'd mention why I'd done it.

- The start does need tightening up, I agree. I pause a lot during the live-action sections, and I can't really edit those out without going overboard with cross-fades. I have too many of them as-is, I didn't want to make it worse. I pause because... well, you know.

- The can and bottle in front of the monitor are both Root Beer. Love that drink, but it's hard as hell to track down cheaply in the UK. Thought I'd show off my love for the stuff early on. The bottle on the right (which I didn't realise was visible!) is for a defunct energy drink called 'Red Rooster'. They stopped making it because it was rubbish.

So yeah, future reviews will have shorter intros, proper scripts and probably less live-action segments. Hopefully the next one won't take two weeks to put together!

Anyone else enjoy it? Anyone else actually bother to watch it? Anyone make it through to the end?

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

-I'd disagree about the script. I had a notes list. It's why there are so many pauses during the live-action segments - I know roughly what to talk about, but I'm basically making the actual lines up on the spot, hence the pauses. It's amateurish and I'm not doing it in future. Full scripts all the way!

Was fine the way it was. I have seen people that call themselves "reviewers" that just start talking and stop 10 minutes later. Those "reviews" are a mess.

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

- The start does need tightening up, I agree. I pause a lot during the live-action sections, and I can't really edit those out without going overboard with cross-fades. I have too many of them as-is, I didn't want to make it worse. I pause because... well, you know.

no real script.

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

So yeah, future reviews will have shorter intros, proper scripts and probably less live-action segments. Hopefully the next one won't take two weeks to put together!

Keep the ratio. Makes the whole thing more personal. Also: I know that the first video will take forever to complete. I spent about 10 hours on my first YT video. If I were to do something like that again it would barely take 30 minutes for the same quality.

Something to think about: How about a short Intro for your reviews? Not too long (30 seconds max, I always wonder about people that do Intros that are over a minute long...) but makes the start of the video a lot softer.

Also: Need to check one more thing because I am not sure about it. Rewatching.

[der_ketzer]

So I checked for the credits.

There werre credits but you only mentioned the film clips you used. The game must belong to someone. They will not be proud of it but someone must own it. Oh and the review is yours. You should mention yourself in the credits somehow.
Please also consider at least playing a bit of music (or an audio clip from the game, something funny you already used in the review or anything else) over the credits. Something that fits. Just don't give us the silent treatment. And if you use music there it has to go to the credits too.

I think I am done here. Keep me (us) informed about your next reviews. At least I cannot wait to see another one.

[Darth Marsden]

...I still think I need more of a script, especially with the live-action segments so there's less pauses in them. Might improvise the audio clips though - I can edit those quite easily.

I'll try to keep the live-action ratio roughly the same, but I may still cut back a little. Not by much though.

Did I not mention myself? Thought I introduced myself, but... I could have sworn my name was in the credits. Might have cut that though - not a lot of flexibility in Windows Movie Maker. Will definitely have an text screen intro next time though. I was going to have one here, but it completely screwed up all the audio clips, so I cut it.

I did show the developer logos, so I did give some credit. But yeah, I should have mentioned them in the actual credits. Rookie mistake. And I need to add audio over credits. Got it. I can actually think of a perfect example of something I could have used. Gah! Accursed hindsight!

My next review should (if I can get enough free time to watch it) has Noah Wyle in it. All the hints you get!

[JedExodus]

I liked this a lot, for a first go especially it was really really good. As such i'll present my list of to-do's because being a nerd on the internet it is my duty to nitpick.

- The intro was a bit too long def, there was a lot of time spent talking about the films as well whereas the game's the main focal point. Your first minute is crucial as well as that's when people are gonna decide to watch on or turn off.

- Crossfades are a bit of a no-no, when doing broadcast journalism we used what we called 'noddies' which are just reaction shots of the interviewer nodding to hide edits, in this case some screenshots or concept art on the subject would do the trick.

- There's a slight hissing noise over the audio, probably not noticeable through speakers but through headphones it's well prominent. Clipping it out shouldn't be too hard, there's software like Audacity that can get a profile of the ambient noise in a track and clip it out with ease, but it's no biggie.

That's really it, apart from that everything else was great and will only get better as you go on. Oh and maybe a spring clean of the desk. On a somewhat related note my local Tescos is selling A&W root beer at 81p a tin, check yours today!

Looking forward to more of these, there will be more right?

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

Looking forward to more of these, there will be more right?

Let's hope.

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

...I still think I need more of a script, especially with the live-action segments so there's less pauses in them.

It would be good to have more of a script but in the end it comes down to what you want to do. Try the script if you don't like it at least you know that you don't. If you do like it more then your videos will become a lot better.

[Darth Marsden]

Yes, there will be more. Been hard since family are staying over, but they're leaving today so I can focus on it this afternoon. Yay, I think.

If I have a script, there'll be less pauses and no cross-fades. So... script!

Thanks for the note about Audacity, I'll give it a go. And the next review will have a much shorter intro. So patience, young ones...

[Darth Marsden]

Hey, remember that review I did? Yeah, that one sucked. This one's way better.

...well, it will be when it's finished. This is just a three minute preview I made so you can see my new style. See, having a script can be useful. Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Hit me.

[der_ketzer]

- I like the effects of a script. Sound was strange (but you noticed) and didn't handle your raised voice towards the end too well.
- The red bottle behind you will be a running gag, woun't it?

- Another piece of obscure media I never heard of. Great.

[RetroVortex]

tut tut tut

Naughty Naughty!

Looks like someone's review style is influenced by a certain other reviewer who shall not be named.

I enjoyed what I saw though. Could be the start of something good.

Oh, and I've seen that Librarian film. I didn't think it was so bad; very cliche, a bit hammy in the acting, and a huge ripoff at points to a certain Lucas movie, (infact that might be 2 movies...), but the premise was interesting, and for a TV movie it was definately above par.

[der_ketzer]

Also: I have no idea why but you remind me of this:

[Darth Marsden]

Yay! Responses!

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

- I like the effects of a script. Sound was strange (but you noticed) and didn't handle your raised voice towards the end too well.

I have tried running it through a couple of filters, but nothing seemed to make much difference. Not an awful lot else I can do with it except lower the volume a bit more.

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

- The red bottle behind you will be a running gag, woun't it?

...I forgot to move it. I did change what was on the other side of me though...

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

- Another piece of obscure media I never heard of. Great.

It's not that obscure. I caught it on TV a couple of years back. Not hard to find if you look for it.

Originally Posted by RetroVortex

Looks like someone's review style is influenced by a certain other reviewer who shall not be named.

I enjoyed what I saw though. Could be the start of something good.

Oh, the Spoony One? Yeah, he's a big influence.

Originally Posted by RetroVortex

Oh, and I've seen that Librarian film. I didn't think it was so bad; very cliche, a bit hammy in the acting, and a huge ripoff at points to a certain Lucas movie, (infact that might be 2 movies...), but the premise was interesting, and for a TV movie it was definately above par.

It's not a terrible film, but the first half hour is incredibly rushed and there's some rather large plot holes. I'll get to them though. And yes, there's one particularly big rip-off from Temple of Doom. I do note that as well!

Thanks for the comments, guys. Much appreciated. Editing this thing is taking forever. I've been at this for 5 hours and I've got 10 minutes of gold, but there's still another 15 or so to go. Ugh. Who knew making decent video reviews would take so very long?

Now which one of you subscribed to me on YouTube? I'm flattered you think I'm subscriber-worthy, but I am gonna upload the full thing to Blip.TV, since it lets me have longer videos. Just so you know.

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

Thanks for the comments, guys. Now which one of you subscribed to me? You can has a cookie if you own up.

the name of the channel is ketzerlino. I wonder what this could mean.

[Darth Marsden]

Hmm. Fine, cookie.



Still uploading the full thing to Blip.TV though, FYI.