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528 Posts
Hi guys,
for quite a long time i had an idea to create an independend video game review site. During the last couple of weeks my idea transformed into me taking action, i created video reviews for two rather new games.
Sadly, i am not quite satisfied with my performance of the voice over.
You can view my work either through my site or directly via youtube.
Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii
http://blip.tv/file/4432392
James Bond 007: Bloodstone, for 360, also available for PS3 and PC
http://blip.tv/file/4438717
At the moment i use a Shure SM58 Wireless or Sennheiser Ew112P G3 Wireless to record my Voice over. However i am also thinking about getting a Rode K2 or Classic 2 with a nice Preamp.
My goal is to produce reviews as good as the leader in the industry IGN as well as improving my english skills, as you surely have already guessed english isnt my native language and i am not living in an english speaking country either. Now you might ask, why dont you use your native one?
Well there are several reasons, the biggest one being that i do not like the way it sounds. Followed by the fact that english is spoken world wide and every important article is written in english. Last but not least, viewer potential is exponentially bigger, combined with living expenses in my country being substantially smaller, i believe this to be valid strategy.
I would be very happy if you could provide me some feedback, regarding any topic you like - i will try to steadily improve upon it.
Although i have a lot of ambition, my vocal performance might never be up to par compared to an american and for this reason i am reaching out to you guys.
If you are interested in working with me by providing voice overs, let me know, revenue - if any is made, would of course be fairly distributed.
Due to the nature of this being a technically rather expensive venture i would like to see this project having at least some success.
My plan at the moment is to release roughly every 2-3 days a new review, after i have reached a nice amount of solid reviews i will start an advertising campaign. My intention is to slowly increase my advertising campaign month by month and gain total world domination by beginning of 2012.
Being the reasonable human individual that i am i am fully aware that the likelihood to succeed is slim at best. However since i am an avid believer in the american dream i am certain that if i give it my best shot i will have no regrets.
Update, 2. December 2010
Showcased how to control Wirecast (software video switcher) with an iPad.
http://blip.tv/file/4452314
Update, 3. December 2010
Got featured on the Telestream Wirecast blog
http://blogs.telestream.net/wirecast/2010/12/02/quest-for-the-ultimate-wirecast-controller/#more-1789
Update
Project on hold, need to gather more information.
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Canada5565 Posts
I watched both reviews, I especially liked the Donkey Kong one. I've always been a Donkey Kong fan 
I guess the first thing is, I really like how in-depth and comprehensive your reviews are. I much prefer this style with a lot of in-game footage and talking about encompassing themes and little niches to, say, IGN's super fast video reviews where they look at things like graphics and give it a score based on each section. Your approach seems more holistic and focused on the synthesis of all game elements, which makes sense to me. I also like the pacing of the review, meaning the pauses and transitions between talking points. The intro could be more slick but for now it's pretty cool.
Also, I would suggest avoiding getting someone to do voice overs by progressively improving your english.
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Only watched the first few minutes of the DK review (to avoid spoilers).
I think you could make your voice clearer. I really dont know how to explain this right, but looks like you are talking with a lot of saliva in your mouth.
The text is great until the point I stopped for being afraid of getting spoiled, just make your voice more clear.
Lastly, I would like to say that DK RETURNS IS FUCKING AWESOME!!11!
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Hey I like your voice, it is calm and has a professional tone to it. I love how you show so much of the actual gameplay, a big plus for viewers. But it would be nice if the gameplay would sometimes match what you are saying at that time. For example, I wanted to see the white donkeys you were talking about but I didn't see them when you talked about them. So it kinda feels like you have gameplay running and you are just reading from a piece of paper.
You have GREAT knowledge of the game however, which is very informative to the new player.
Also it kinda bugged me that there were periods of silence after every sentence or so. So the review time was lengthened due to this.
btw where you from and great job
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I'm sorry, but you're approaching this all wrong.
What you're doing now is reading from a script - and native speaker or not, you can really tell. You should go back to the drawing board on format, jolt down bullet points about the games, points you feel strongly about like "Bond - racing scenes Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 tot. 50 seconds", then you speak freely on the topic with the help of examples and possibly clever formulations that you have in front of you, for the assigned amount of time.
Also - i don't know what a "Rode K2 or Classic 2 with a nice Preamp" even is, but i can tell you what it sounds like to me - a player who just picked up starcraft and is now buying a new processor, graphics card and $100 mouse and keyboard before his progress is nowhere close to being hindered by hardware factors.
Starting an own site is a good ambition to have - but not even the Angry Video Game Nerd had one last i checked - he started with YouTube, got picked up by a company (Screw Attack) and you should try the same formula. Just put out quality content - keep it on YouTube and promote it on community sites like this one to generate some first hits which (provided the content is good) will result in a buzz and subscribers.
Tell you what though - i really like your ambition! You're not set out to create the ultimate video game, to make an MMORPG out of whatever or something equally lofty. You have a clear journalistic ambition and you're not afraid to put in hard work. I can see you turning this hobby venture into a success in the long term if you stick with it.
Lastly - your picks of games. For these first videos aimed at creating a hype (and exploring whether you have potential of achieving that) you want to go for titles you really have something to say about, titles you feel passionate about or that contain some feature that you love or hate. We already have GameTrailers.com. You're an independent voice [so far], use it! If you for instance think there are reasons why Black Ops for PC was a suboptimal release and Kotick may have had something to do with it - say so! Say so with panache!
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Korea (South)1897 Posts
I think they are very professional well done, the pace for me is a quite slow though, but I think you are generally on the right track, good luck!
edit, the james bond one was at a much better pace for me. well done.
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528 Posts
First of all, thank you guys for providing me valuable input, might sound corny but it made me really happy inside to get some feedback.
@Xxio
I agree, the intro and outro is in need of some slight improvement. 
I am not sure how fast my vocal skills will improve without living some time abroad, i dont really know any english folks living around here. It might be a good idea to bring someone in for the sole purpose of being more versatile? Although i am not sure if not having played the game would be a problem.
@fabiano
Thats exactly my problem, however i felt weird telling you guys about saliva hindering my vocal performance during the review. It might be because i am having a bit of a cold at the moment, or just because i am to close to the mic. I have some relatives in the music recording business so i will inquire about this.
@zak
I totally agree, i even thought about editing those pieces but then i had already subbed it and i decided against it because it didnt seem economical at this point. But i will definitely put it on my list to do it right for my next review, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. The pauses are because there was so much amazing footage i got which i wanted to show and did run out of text - i didnt want to fill it with useless stuff so i decided to keep the footage in and space out the commentary. I am from austria.
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As sad as it is, the heavy accent will probably turn away a lot of people. Have you considered bringing in a different person to read the script?
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On November 29 2010 11:41 icydergosu wrote:
@Xxio
I am not sure how fast my vocal skills will improve without living some time abroad, i dont really know any english folks living around here.
Ventrilo. Ventrilo, Ventrilo, Ventrilo (or Mumble)! :D It's the most awesome thing ever for improving your language - you listen, you speak, you overcome your embarrassment and you're all doing something together in a way you normally won't with non-nationals as long as you're gaming! Play a team based game with Americans and it'll start rubbing off sooner than you think - you can start out by listening to streams primarily in the beginning.
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Hey man that was pretty good. I watched the James bond one due to not wanting any spoilers from donkey kong. It was at a good pace and i was not bored throughout the whole thing. The accent didn't really effect me but that could be due to me living in a very multicultural area, i however can see other people not getting into it as much. Like the poster above me said, go play a multi player game with Americans and use vent. great idea form improving English (not that i noticed any real problem).
Hope you do well in the future. It was better than half of the commentators on youtube easily .
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528 Posts
@Thrill
I am not sure if i can talk about it freely in a fashion you might enjoy. It is hard enough as it is. However that being said, i havent tried it doing it this way yet, i will give it a try and maybe upload two versions of the next review so people can decide which style they like better. Ventrilo seems like a good idea, i might have to see if i can find a server to infiltrate. :-)
Well i spend a lot of time on these reviews and want them to be presented in a solid quality. But i think you are right, getting better equipment this early might be a bit of overkill - however i believe there is a store in town which got some nice equipment in store, maybe i can convey them to let me record a review there so you guys could see if there would be a large enough improvement to justify the investment.
I dont believe in putting all your eggs in one basket and think having a website is a key element, however i see a disadvantage as well, if i dont outsource it, it takes away from my time to work on content. Well i dont try to be the angry video game nerd and generally believe that depending to become a youtube partner or being picked up by a company is not good business thinking.
After all, i dont need to be super successful, just some revenue would be nice and i tend to like, whenever possible, to take things into my own hands rather than praying for someone else to pave the way.
Regarding game selection, i believe a good editor should be able to produce a rudolph the red nosed reindeer review as well as a super popular one. That being said there should of course be times to show real passion for specific titles and genres, however reviewing brand new titles should i believe yield more public interest in general.
@Zerokaiser
Yes bringing someone in seems like a good choice to me as well, however i will have to see if motivated individuals want to get in touch with me or not. :-) Paying for vocal talents without any revenue at all doesnt seem like a smart thing to do at this point. Because i am kind of a tech geek i dont really view investements in tech stuff wasted money, after all at least i gain some knowledge from using it and a good mic will pretty much last forever.
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Pretty good, although I would work on improving your english a bit. I like your style of review, and I hope to see more.
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@icygosu
okay maybe it is not the most grammatically correct, flashiest, CGI laden falapalooza, IGN level, gaming review out there, but you bring a different style to the review and it has great merits. Yeah work on your english but ffs you have subtitles so I don't know why people are complaining. The people this review matters to most are the people who are interested in buying the said game and or want more information on it. Which you do superbly by showing a shitload of gameplay and with your detailed firsthand experience with the game. They don't care about a minute long intro fest or music choice playing in the background (unless it is terribad ;D). Keep it up I am subscribed.
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Canada5565 Posts
On November 29 2010 11:41 icydergosu wrote:@XxioI agree, the intro and outro is in need of some slight improvement. I am not sure how fast my vocal skills will improve without living some time abroad, i dont really know any english folks living around here. It might be a good idea to bring someone in for the sole purpose of being more versatile? Although i am not sure if not having played the game would be a problem.
Hm well you and a native english speaker could do it together, add a dialogue element to the review. Of course you would both need to play the same games, which might be problematic.
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EPT
