What’s our purpose?

With the increasing influence of publishers on gamer-oriented sites, it is easy to lose track of the true quality of a game, as it may become buried under a clever layer of advertising that bolsters the game’s appearance. While aesthetically pleasing, this has no correlation between the relatively minor features on display and the actual experience of the game itself. This is why the Lens of Truth exists: to deliver gamers, both casual and hardcore, quality reviews, previews, and content that exposes a game’s quality for what it is, free of any external influences. This is made possible by a dedicated team of fellow gamers and developers who want to know just as bad as everyone else the answer to our most basic question: “Is this game worth my $60?”

How do we capture?

We are constantly getting asked how we capture and stream our videos. So we whipped up a few nifty flow charts. As you can see, this is what we mean by source. Everything goes from the consoles to the capture box…there are no cameras involved.

lot_capture_flowchart_hdmi.jpg lot_justintv_flowchart.jpg

We have also had plenty of “it doesn’t look like that on my TV” comments, and we agree – it doesn’t. Having dealt with color correction and accuracy at previous studios we can tell you that it is no easy task. Each display will almost always produce an image differently. Color, contrast, brightness, sharpness all come into play. Not to mention the actual capabilities of the display (contrast ratio, black levels, etc.). Just understand that it may look better/worse depending on your home setup and settings. Here is an image to better display what is happening:

color_accuracy_between_devices

And rest assured, we know what we are doing in terms of system settings. Here are the details:

PlayStation 3 has RGB Full Range set to “Full” and Super White “On”.
Xbox 360 has Reference Level set to “Expanded” and HDMI Color Space set to “RGB”.

To ensure color accuracy from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 output, using the above settings, to our capture card we have captured segments from the AVS HD 709 – Blu-ray, HD DVD, & MP4 Calibration suite. As you will see, each system matches each other at the source level.

ps3_color_0 xbox_color_0
ps3_color_1 xbox_color_1
ps3_color_2 xbox_color_2
ps3_color_3 xbox_color_3

What’s the Analyzer and how it works?

If you’re wounder what’s the heck is the Analyzer and how it works? Simply scroll over the image below on areas that are of interest to you.

Aaron
Aaron also known as “Double Perfect Aaron” is addicted to playing video games. He religiously plays around 8 hours of games daily, only leaving his room to reheat his coffee. Its still remains undetermined how and when bathroom breaks occur. Aaron is responsible for the majority of News and Retro content.

Professional Experience: Aaron manages the largest arcade and vending distributor in the North East. After graduating Connecticut school of electronics Aaron continued his career modifying and converting arcade machines and mother boards. His tools of choice are a power meter and semiconductor tester.

Favorite Games: Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Street Fighter (Any), Batman: Arkham Asylum, Fallout 3

Currently Playing:Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, TES V: Skyrim

Shawn
Shawn is commonly referred to as Jaime, only cause he looks exactly like Jaime. Shawn enjoys getting drunk and shooting his rifle at standing water, preferably small lakes that pose no threat. Shawn is mostly responsible for the backend of the website and capturing our Head2Heads.

Professional Experience: Shawn is a programmer that has been in the industry about 7 years. After graduating Full Sail with a degree in Game Design and Development Shawn immediately started his career programming games for Merit Entertainment. Shawn is currently working on classified simulations for the military using CryEngine 3 SDK. His programming weapons of choice are C, C++, Lua, Vim, CEGUI and MFC.

Favorite Games: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye 007, Gears of War, Metal Gear (series)

Currently Playing: Gears of War 3

Jaime
Jaime is commonly referred to as Jaime, but he’s usually late so chances are you’re talking to Shawn. Jaime enjoys NOT going to the zoo and NOT showing up for pretty much anything remotely important. Jaime is mainly responsible for our Head2Head comparisons: kick ass rollovers, sliders and capturing.

Professional Experience: 3D artist who has worked on many military simulations. His day job consists of developing simulations using CryEngine 3 SDK.

Favorite Games:Street Fighter (series), Left4Dead, Batman Arkham Asylum

Currently Playing: Batman: Arkham City, Gears of War 3

Jason
Jason is the epitome of a “hardcore” gamer by completely tattooing his entire body with his favorite video game characters. He is unbeatable in X-Men vs Street Fighter by exploiting a very difficult 2 button infinite combo. Jason is mainly responsible for the majority of our Review and Retro content.

Professional Experience: Jason manages the largest arcade and vending distributor in the North East. After 4 years as an electrician Jason took his electrical knowledge and now modifies and installs the latest and greatest arcade equipment the industry has to offer. His tools for creation are a soldering iron and his tool box.

Favorite Games:Final Fantasy 7, Ninja Gaiden Black, Street Fighter II

Currently Playing: Gears of War 3, TES V: Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City

Jason R

Jason has been playing games since as long as he can remember and was the first person in his family to finish The Legend of Zelda for the NES at the young age of 6 years old. He commonly refers to himself as “the prodigy” seeing as how he seems to naturally adapt to just about any game he fires up (or so his ego leads him to believe). Always ready to tell people his opinion, Jason takes his game journalism very seriously and always aims to give the most accurate and helpful info as possible. If his writing helps even just one person, he knows he did the job right. Jason is mainly responsible for reviews and since March 2011, is also the main writer of our Head2Head Analysis articles.

Professional Experience: Jason is an electrician for the IBEW. While his job outside of his passion may be irrelevant to anything gaming, Jason always finds time to research the latest games and the tech behind them through fascination alone. When he isn’t spending time with his family or working to put food on the table, gaming pretty much takes over every second of free time he can get whether it be reviewing, researching, or finding himself lost in the Elder Scrolls.

Favorite Games: Chrono series, Elder Scrolls series, Uncharted series, Infamous series, and the Fable series.

Currently Playing: Skyrim, Batman: AC, and White Knight Chronicles 2.

D.R. Maddock

Dave writes under the pen name D.R. Maddock when working on short stories and his upcoming young adult fiction series. He enjoys keeping up with trends in gaming and television, and learning completely useless facts to bring up if he’s ever stuck in a life or death trivia match (He played Banjo Kazooie at an impressionable age). Dave has been writing the inFocus reviews since July of 2012.

Professional Experience: Dave got his Master’s in Communications with a focus on video game studies from FSU in 2012. He’s worked at a video game store for almost a decade, and has been critiquing games even longer. His weapon of choice is a wireless keyboard and an open forum

Favorite Games: Harvest Moon, Radiata Stories, Dead Rising, Legend of Zelda, Rift

Currently Playing: Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (and never ever putting it down).

Need to contact us?

Contact us at shawn@lensoftruth.com or fill out the annoying form below.

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