Started playing
Posted 21:53 Sunday 7 Feb 2010Tagged As: Final Fantasy | Categories: Gaming | No Comments
When gloop was good.
Posted 00:57 Sunday 31 Jan 2010Tagged As: ribena | Categories: Personal | No Comments
When I was a kid back in the 60’s and 70’s – you know I wish I’d been born say 5 years earlier. I could have really got into being a punk or a goth, I could have been one of those that voted Maggie Thatcher into power and probably even more fun could have been had – I don’t think they had the technology to make yellow glass. Or that it was so expensive they could afford to make it into bottles for some over-sugared vile tasting “The worse it tastes the more good it’s doing” drink called Lucozade. So they wrapped it in that yellow crinkly static-creating cellophane. Why they thought making it look like some gross relative of a Roses chocolate would work I have no idea. I’d have been a punk. Siouxsie never did it for me though. Probably really nice. Must be 50+ by now too.
Ribena. Back when I was a kid what you would do is pour some ribena into a glass, fill it direct from the tap and drink it. Funnily enough I do the same today (only I buy the Light version, no sugar needed here thanks) (but I have tried this on the full-lard version) – I pour the ribena, fill it direct and drink it. But now when I look at the glass if it’s empty I see nothing and if it has some drink still in I see uniform purple. But back when berries were berries and chemicals weren’t in fields and companies had values….. I drink it and when I looked at the glass I would see a distinct purple line and coating inside the glass where the ribena had been poured in. If I didn’t finish it I would see it when I did. The ribena coated the glass, it stuck. Doesn’t happen now. I’m sure whoever creates the purple “run it past those berries real fast Rodney, we need them to last at least a week” concoction would come up with some crap about it being better for us but the simple fact is they watered it down. No two ways around it. Can’t even think of the faceless corporation that makes it now though. They don’t care about s, we don’t know them. I’ll buy Tesco’s own next. But – and this is the point – being a kid should have moments that you can grab hold of again when you have grown up. Little things which briefly remind you of sometime way back when. Ribena was one. When you finished drinking that glass of blackcurrant the very last part of the drink was super-blackcurranty. It was like blackcurrant jelly, it had a taste you could keep for ages. If you ever had ribena back then you know just what I mean. But you can’t get that now. The bottled concoction is uniform in every respect. Taste is less, experience is less. Shame because as silly as it sounds if it was just like it was then I could say to my kids that I did the same, I could get a drink of it for a memory as well as just a drink. But I can’t. The corporation stole my blackcurrants.
Uncharted Unwanted
Posted 15:27 Friday 29 Jan 2010Tagged As: uncharted 2 | Categories: Gaming | No Comments
Uncharted 2. Had no internet for the morning / early afternoon so I started this game. After quite some time I ejected the disc and it will be traded.
It scores 96 at Metacritic. Some quotes:
Playstation Official Magazine UK: Unless you’re born without thumbs, eyes or a sense of humour, it’s obvious that Uncharted 2 is a 10/10 game after two minutes of the first level.
Not sure how I’m typing this then…..
Eurogamer … whose minor flaws are washed away on a tide of rhythm and spectacle. They scored it 100
Eurogamer Spain Uncharted 2 does not reinvent the gaming language They scored it 100
GamePro The A.I. is a little suspect, the camera can be stubborn, and you will die your fair share of cheap deaths. They scored it 100
Gamer.nl No game is perfect. They scored it 100
and that’s without going to read reviews. How can a game be classed as not perfect but given a perfect score? Since when are flaws not a reason to reduce the score? So why didn’t I like it. The character control was bad. The guy could move in chunks, in 1/8 a circle. Lara Croft could do better back in the 90’s. Make the guy look like an ape. No visual clues where you can jump. I’m either using the gunsight to check what is where or looking like a trapped ape and trying to jump where I cannot. Or I am having to make what look like impossible jumps because that is all that is left.And that brings me to the camera. How stupendously bad that is – a camera should give complete freedom within the environment and forcing me to use gunsights to see where I want, presumably because the game makers know there is nothing there but I do not, there are no indicators it is a non-area. It’s a 3D game, I want a 3D camera. If I want to waste my time looking at places then let me. It’s my gameplay, not yours. If after playing the game for not long I am dissatisfied how can I have confidence in it’s use later when I have a time limit, am chased, have a puzzle. So the essential mechanics of how I move and how I can see where I am/could be moving was essential for me and they are flawed for me. They obviously work for everyone else in the review hype machine – Naughty Dog made Crash Bandicoot which I still have for the Playstation and Crash moves better than the guy in Uncharted 2. But it does mean that no longer can I trust Naughty Dog and that I’ll wait for a second-hand game to play if tempted. No point rewarding a company who has let me down this time.
Not talking
Posted 23:18 Sunday 24 Jan 2010Tagged As: quote | Categories: Words | 2 Comments
The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them – words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller, but for want of an understanding ear.
Stephen King
Nice to know I’m not the only one who can’t say how I feel to people both close and remote. Shame though too.
Short SOCOM clip
PostedTagged As: | Categories: Gaming, Video | No Comments
Caught just to check the quality. Like the video below used a flip HD, gorillapod, toolbox and this time the room lights were off. That probably explains the central glare. File taken from the machine was imported into iMovie then exported as Large. It was then uploaded to wordpress.com from where it is served.
Not sure how Visual Hub would perform so may create another file – the one below was edited because of menu loading time – and let both programs have at the same thing. Might use Burnout Paradise and Fallout 3 for that to check the speed blurriness of the former. But I don’t think this is that bad. Can’t see it working well at night.
Favela with a knife.
PostedTagged As: | Categories: Gaming, Video | No Comments
I usually do better on this map with a knife so it’s far from my best. First game too and it takes me at least one to get the reaction speed high enough. Filmed using a a Flip HD assisted by a large toolbox and Gorillapod to get the right height. It is remarkably abuse free too. Maybe if I was filmed more I’d swear less.
Been watching
Posted 18:59 Thursday 21 Jan 2010Tagged As: watchability | Categories: Film | 2 Comments
Been watching a few films.
21 which is apparently based in the book Bringing down the house. The film is terrible. Shallow in every respect. Avoid. The book is excellent though and is highly recommended.
Hackers. Angelina Jolie. Mildly diverting in parts and if you have a clue about computers you need to forget them. Dated. But it has Angelina in. Won’t be watched again.
Beyond Borders. Angelina Jolie. Watched this today and about 2/3 of the way in realised I did actually want to watch it. So I spent the last 1/3 trying to not watch it but watching it to be sure I did want to watch it. Good, liked it so far.
Twin Town. No. Really. Not funny. If they give it away, give it back.
Beowulf. Didn’t finish it. A weird real person / computer graphic hybrid it seemed. I couldn’t decide what it was and it seemed just weird. Ejected.
Eastern Promises. This was a re-watch and it’s okay. If you want to see Viggo Mortensen’s naked bum as he wrestles in a turkish bath then this dvd is for you.
City of God (subtitled) Very very good. Will be watched again (and it must be good because I can’t watch/work with subtitles involved)
Changeling. Angelina again. Excellent film. Will be watched again properly.
Gran Turino. I thought it was a little set up, too contrived in parts but it’s a very good film that will be seen again.
Body of Lies. DiCaprio. Really liked this one, it stuck together well and kept me to the end. Rewatchable.
And I bought Leon again. I bought the original UK release, borrowed the US Director’s Cut release because it had extra film that had been cut but playing that on a mac was difficult so I ripped it but had no extras. The UK DC release has all of it together which makes me happy.
To watch again before deciding: Sideways, About Schmidt,
In the current dvd queue:
The Hurt Locker, Fever Pitch, Taxi to the Dark Side, The Fog of War, Dolores Claiborne, Secrets & Lies.
Modern Warfare 2: game in progress
Posted 01:09 Monday 18 Jan 2010Tagged As: mw2 | Categories: Gaming | No Comments
“Find Game” is not good enough. It should give 2 options of “Find new game” or “Find existing game”. And why won’t it? Because almost no-one would join the latter.
If I get joined into an existing game the first thing I do is check the scores. If there is 1 death or less I will stay. Any more and I quit. Doesn’t matter which level, I’m out. Don’t the idiots at Infinity Ward realise that when you join an existing game you don’t know what is going on? Apart from the shooting and killing you are lost, at least I am. The fighting moves, you know where people will be and are less likely to be. On some maps you know for a fact where they will not be. This isn’t because of the little map, it’s because you know how the fighting has evolved, you know where deaths you have seen are and more importantly more of an idea where the gunfire came from. I am way more likely to get shot joining an existing game than I am a new start game. And I have lost count of the number of times I have spawn and either been blown up by a grenade or shot by air support before I’ve been able to even move. So dumping me into an existing game means instant exit.
Underpass. Camper’s bloody paradise. Hate the level, won’t play the level. I’ve done my time there, had some good games there but campers and their little heart monitors annoy me intensely. If Infinity Ward can stat my shots then can sure as hell have a “Chicken Camper!” at the end of each level. Drop into a corner for 3 reasons only: 1. Recovery, be there for no more than 10 seconds 2. Reload in the middle of a firefight 3. Care package detail. That’s it. If you sit behind claymores, in a corner and with a monitor you should have a 60s respawn delay. No less. Next time I see one and I’m mic’d up I’ll call them out. No doubt they’ll come after me but that’ll be fun.
How many times have you seen a winning kill where the bullets never hit? Heaps.
Stood over a sniper on Derail, aimed directly at his head, no headshot! Aimed directly at someone crouching in the corner (not a camper) and shot them in the head, no headshot! Shot blindly in the direction of others and got the headshot. In fact I’ve shot numerous on Rundown where I can only see the slightest bump across a good distance and not had a headshot. So wtf is going on there then?
Grenades and Thumper grenades passing straight through objects. Works every time shooting a Thumper into the aircraft cockpit on Terminal. Annoying. Also happens on the sandbags protecting the big machine gun in Skidrow. Even more annoying when there are 2 enemy there, I’m up for a double kill and they hear the noise but get no death. I die fast though.
But lag. I’ve played Burnout Paradise for over 550 hours and I remember no lag ever. They bought proper servers. Yet IW’s decision to host on individual machines brings cheating and lag lag lag. I don’t mind dying but when I’m knifed and the screen comes back to show the killer a long way off it sort of annoys me. Happened earlier on Quarry – I saw him, then I saw him a lot closer and then he shot me at no range at all. I had no chance.
Can’t be alone in hating Infinity Ward for the numerous flaws in this game an I could go on and on and on. Oh – matchmaking? Game earlier. 8 people. My side: 3 of us had prestiged once, the other guy was on his fourth prestige. Other side? No prestige. None. Can’t have been hidden prestiges as I’ve seen this happen many times. Guess which side wins? Guess which side probably hate IW for not having a clue? It’s not like there aren’t enough people around is it?
I think I’ll play Fallout 3.
The BBC. Biased. Again.
Posted 12:48 Sunday 17 Jan 2010Tagged As: | Categories: Chatter | No Comments
Scots ‘drink 46 bottles of vodka’ says the completely sensationalist BBC.
I think the average bottle of vodka (750ml) contains 30 units (25ml / shot). The government want us to drink no more than 21 units a week but this number is completely made up, has no basis, is as useful as pretending that badgers should be fed cream buns every 23 days. So the headline is junk, the figures the headline is based on is junk.
The Scottish government said the figure, which had remained static since 2005, was the equivalent of 537 pints or 130 bottles of wine per person.
That’s not even 2 pints a day. So why the big deal, why the front page news story? You could probably say the same for the England Wales and Northern Island.
But then the reason becomes clear:
The truth is that Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon are promoting a scheme that will increase the profits of the supermarkets, but won’t provide a single penny for more police officers or alcohol treatment.
The Labour Party are using this completely junk news story to have a go at the SNP and the BBC are promoting that. In the interests of fairness did they ask the SNP for a view? No, because if they had that would have been noted in the article.
The BBC. Entirely untrustworthy.
One term for some.
Posted 00:36 Thursday 14 Jan 2010Tagged As: censorship, stats | Categories: Google | No Comments
“If Google goes Baidu will be the only giant in China’s search engine market. A monopolised market can’t be healthy,” said Cao Junbo, chief analyst at iResearch. Guardian
Google’s market share outside of China: 85.3% http://marketshare.hitslink.com or 87% according to HitWise.
So who should really be concerned?
