Dino Crisis

Welcome back, folks. This week marked the release of Dino Crisis Revival, the latest Ordinary Decent Gamer video. Special thanks to Calum for the dinosaur voice over (check out his SoundCloud) and to Sarah for many funny ideas, and a critical eye. I’ve got a certain fondness for Dino Crisis, having watched it being played by my brothers on the Playstation, and later playing it on the PC myself. It didn’t quite live up to the power of nostalgia, but that doesn’t mean it was bad. It was an enjoyable experience, hampered somewhat by frustrating puzzles and backtracking. I’m always impressed by the work the developers put into animating the dinosaurs, and the AI. The character models took a hit as a result, but the big lizards are hard to fault. And genuinely terrifying at that. Enough talk, just go watch the video, and let me know what you think. I’m always open to suggestions and ideas. Or an inspirational muse…

Pathology Update

I spent a few days at the Winter PathSoc conference hosted at the Royal Society of Medicine, as I was presenting a poster. The theme was precision pathology with talks on a variety of novel research and diagnostic techniques, all with the ultimate aim of personalised medicine. One of my favourite talks was focused on medical education, specifically anatomy teaching. After experimenting with injection moulded plastic models, and plastination (Gunther von Hagens style) Professor Paul McMenamin, from Monash University in Melbourne, decided to take a different approach. Using CT scans of prosected specimens (and in some cases laser surface scans and MRI), his group created anatomically accurate 3D-printed specimens to teach students. Having handled the real thing, and Prof McMenamin’s models, I was thoroughly impressed.

His research group is experimenting virtual reality in teaching, too, allowing a student to walk inside a human skull and see the blood vessels. Amazing stuff, though how much of it is jumping on the VR bandwagon, I don’t know. What I do know, is that £5000 will buy you the “Buster” model pictured.

New Kit

My access to video equipment in Cardiff is relatively limited, so I’ve had to be resourceful. The current setup is my Panasonic GX7, with a 14-42mm lens, a 20mm f1.7 lens, and for sound I’m using a Rode Videomic and a Tascam DR-60 audio recorder. I’m still using my Samson Go Mic for voiceover, which copes relatively well. Video editing is with Adobe Premiere Pro CC, and audio with Adobe Audition CC. The newest acquisition is an Mcoplus 12mm f2.8 wide angle lens, which I am yet to use for filming, but will post more about once I give it a whirl.