Velkairiwyth: Let's Play Link List

Welcome to my Let's Play Link List. I wanted to have a repository where I could keep track of all my Let's Play series' and versions. take a look below for links to Episode 1/playlists of each series I have on the go! :-)

Baldur's Gate (Enhanced Edition)

Bioshock Infinite

Minecraft Let's Play (Series 2 - starting at V 1.4.2)

Minecraft - Feed The Beast

Minecraft - Mini Me (kiddycraft Minecraft)

Skyrim: With Dawnguard - Mage playthrough

Xcom: Enemy Unknown

Xcom: Enemy Unknown Class Guide #1 - The Sniper

Welcome to the first of my Xcom: Enemy Unknown Tutorials! This tutorial will focus on the humble Sniper. Simultaneously one of the weakest and most powerful units in your Xcom arsenal.

My intention is to couple this with a YouTube video tutorial to show some of the points I am going to discuss here in a more cinematic and fun fashion. I will link it >Here< when it is completed.

First of all - lets discuss the available abilities! Unlike the original Xcom Defense/UFO Enemy Unknown  game that this is based on - the ranking system is not based on the soldier pool you have, it is experience based. This means that any soldier that survives long enough and does enough good work in the field can quickly earn promotion to the top rank. (Colonel)

Squaddie Abilities: Headshot
A pretty useful ability - it gives the agent an increased critical chance on the shot. Very useful against those armoured aliens that you need to take a chunk of health off of, or whom you would like to kill in one hit.It has a 2 turn cool down. Be careful when selecting when you will use this shot. Take note of the typical damage your rifle will do. If you think you will need more than this to take down the target, then go for it. It works well in conjunction with 'In the zone' and 'double tap' as for best effect the shots from those abilities will kill their chosen target so you can shoot at another straight after.

Corporal Abilities: SnapShot/Squadsight
Both abilities seem to be very good, but in actual fact - if you have a well balanced team, it is rare that Snap Shot will be more useful than Squad sight. Squad sight allows your snipers to sit in safety and pick off targets that your team mates uncover. This ability is particularly good when in overwatch when you expect your team mates to uncover aliens on the move as quite often, a reaction shot will kill an alien in the open before it can get hunkered down in cover. If you need to move your snipers - their pistols dont work with squad sight normally, but they do in Overwatch and depending on the pistol, your foundry upgrades, and wether or not your sniper has 'Gunslinger' (below) - the pistol can pack enough of a punch to kill weaker or weakened enemies, and the 'overwatch' area is seen as more of a dead zone from the AI (Notice how the enemy is less likely to advance when you have troops covering an area with their overwatch.... sometimes its useful to abuse this, even if you know you cant do anything if you were to trigger overwatch - its similar to suppression fire - the alien can waste their tmie doing nothing just to save from being wounded which can be a very important move if you have a weak or exposed trooper in their line of sight.)

There are of course advantages to Snapshot; your agent can move and fire their sniper rifle. This means they can relocate to get better shots at groups of hostiles giving In The Zone the potential to be a little more effective, but in order to do all this - you put your trooper on the front line. If you can see them, they can see you. Your sniper tends to be quite weak at point blank range which many aliens will be in, and they tend to have less health and weaker armour compared to other front line troops, e.g Assault. The best time to have Snapshot would probably be if your kill-team was quite weak and the support cannot be provided from other classes, e.g your sniper is your only surviving veteran, in which case getting in with the powerful gun and taking some names is a good thing. Of course, I still prefer to cower on the back lines and pick the enemy off one at a time.

Sergeant Abilities: Gunslinger/Damn Good Ground
This can be a bit of a tough choice. Gunslinger removes the weakness of close combat from your sniper. A good pistol with foundry upgrades means your pistols will be hitting about as hard as most of your other weapons. Damn good ground gives a little bit more of an edge to your sniping abilities. Especially with Archangel armour. The defensive side will rarely come into play unless your grappling up in the front lines, or your having a bout of last man standing with your sniper against remaining alien forces, in which event - your probably in more trouble than an ability will help with.

Lieutenant Abilities:Disabling Shot/Battle Scanner
Utilitarian abilities. Depending on what your other ability selections are, you may favour one over the other. Disabling shot diarms your opponent for a round - or until they reload. This is a very effective variant of suppressing fire, though it only affects one target it can be used to prevent a vulnerable soldier from taking a fatal hit from a nearbye enemy that is not likely to die this round. The Battle Scanner lets you throw a small object - akin to an electro-flare from days of yore, that will give you a display of the immediate area as if an agent were present. It does not trigger enemy 'spawns', and it can be thrown through doors. On many occasion, this can be very valuable. Both are pretty situational, but in the right situations can be a great utility. Choose wisely. Or do as I do - pack two snipers.

Captain Abilities: Executioner/Opportunist
I always lean towards Opportunist here. I use reaction fire a lot in the early turns or when I am expecting to trigger enemy 'spawns' so that I can get a couple of potential kills in before they break for cover. It becomes less valuable as you get the end-tier abilities of Double Tap or In The Zone but one shot in the open can be worth more than the others in some situations.

Major Abilities: Low Profile
Not really a choice - but if you have a sniper that needs to make use of cover, having any cover provide the full bonus is a nice advantage.

Colonel Abilities: In The Zone/Double Tap
Both of these abilities are AWESOME. I cannot emphasise just how good they are, and neither are a bad choice. Here is the breakdown. Double Tap allows you to take two shots. That's it, end of. If you run out of targets or ammo the second shot is wasted. In The Zone requires a specific set of circumstances to be met, firstly the target must not be in cover (yellow shield = Bingo. Get killing) And secondly the target must be killed with the shot in order to be able to move onto the next. Given the right circumstances it is possible to knock out 4 or 5 kills in a round with this ability. The chances of getting multiple kills are slim though, unless you strategise. I find that the ITZ sniper works best when paired with a Double Tap sniper. If the targets would take more than one shot to kill, two can feasibly be weakened into the ITZ snipers kill zone. Chances are by the time you get this ability your accuracy is going to be near or over 100%, especially if you throw in a scope and high ground/Archangel armour and Damn Good Ground from before. The front-line troops can also help the ITZ sniper out by using explosives to weaken opponents and deny them the cover that would block the shot.

Whichever you choose it is not a bad choice, but bear in mind that ITZ is much more strategic. If you are going to have a solo sniper - Double Tap is probably a better ability because 75% of the time you wont be able to get more than one shot from an ITZ sniper unless you set up the kill zone or get lucky - but that 25% of the time, your talking 3-5 easy kills if the targets are weak or softened. I think on average, I get more kills with my 'In The Zone' soldier, but this is purely due to the way I like to stack and domino the enemies with my snipers. In 27 missions, 68 kills compared to my more experienced 'Double Tap' sniper who has seen 49 missions for 109 kills.

Other important points:
Ghost Armour: Don't give this to your snipers - give it to fast-moving support units, and send them to scout ahead before the rest of your forces move. They can spot many groups of enemies without triggering their 'spawn' reaction (taking cover) meaning that your snipers can make short work of them before they become a threat. They also help your team prioritise targets, e.g that Sectopod just behind that squad of harmless Sectoids that MUST GO DOWN. (plasma pistols v chest-plasma cannon, plasma rifle AND a multi-missile launch pack? Gimmie a break :p )

In conclusion - Snipers are awesome support for your front line troops. The ability to shoot anything they see that they can draw a line of fire to, to Overwatch and shoot the enemy before they can dive for cover, or the ability to pick off weak or weakened enemies - or even fire enough damage into tougher ones so they go down is invaluable. They can be weak if poorly equipped or supported, but given the right abilities and thought they can be 'Angels of Death' - much like the achievement denotes. Snipers work great in teams with cross-over abilities to help them cover each other as well as maximise the kill potential from them. I have had missions where there have been close to 20 aliens, and the snipers have mowed the majority of them down in two turns with the rest of the team only getting as far as spotting them and taking cover. Rare, but a beautiful sight ^.^

Check out my 'Sniper Reel' Video >Here< To see my Let's Play sniper team in action.

-V

Xcom Enemy Unknown and the original :-)

It has been a quiet couple of weeks here at the LandOGeekery. My time has been spent either sorting some personal things at home, or creating let's plays on my YouTube channel.

I have finally pre-ordered XCOM which is released here in the UK on Friday. In anticipation for this I started an XCOM: UFO Defense / UFO: Enemy Unknown speed-play which I have been recording and putting on YouTube, with the intention of completing the game before release of the new game. FYI: I will start a let's play from the start of me nubbing it up in the new XCOM game, so come by and check it out :D

Other than this I have been playing Minecraft, and recording my Let's play & Let's build series, which can also be found on my channel - and playing on the MissMoonica minecraft server, which has a pretty awesome batch of folks playing there :-) Griefing is a problem, but in general the regulars are quite pleasant.

Oh, and lastly - Star Wars Roleplay... Have been having epic fun with friends playing this, I am thinking of posting some stories or session encounters here - but not sure how I would go about it considering we have clocked in excess of 50 hours so far playing.

More to come
-V

Quiet time :o

Apologies for the lack of posts at the moment, I am back to being self employed and rooting about for projects at home, and have just not been keeping up to date with interesting tech news, gaming etc.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandera came out yesterday, cant say I am remotely phased. WOW to me was a social game, and with no social community that I am attached to, and my wife being to busy to team up with me - I find myself uninterested. Besides, I have a load of games to play through yet, in addition to my let's plays. If I play at all, it will probably be to get my rogue up to 90 in order to PVP in Alterac Valley over christmas (As is tradition for me :p )

What else...

Borderlands 2 looks cool, I have been watching let's plays of that and could be interested. The only other game that is out just now is Torchlight 2, and I am not sure what to make of that one yet.

Anyway, more posts down the line - just in a rut at the moment. (And now I have food poisoning so sleeping for the next few days seems a good idea.)

-V

The hunger Games, book and movie

A few nights ago, I seen The Hunger Games for the first time. I had a vague idea of the plot but the movie had never really caught my attention when it was in the cinema. Since its release, I decided that the idea of the combat survival interesting. (The Yogscast's Survival Games videos on You Tube might have also gotten me interested... I think Battle Royal may be on my to do list :D)

**Warning, potential spoilers**
So I watched it... and I must be honest, I found it very intriguing, I have always been a fan of the idea of survival stuff - couple it with the Gladiatorial theme of fighting to the death and the intricacies of the Political and hierarchical aspects it was cleverly weaved together. If you were not thinking it could easily be seen as a pretty simple plot, but the acting, the script, the behaviours, all of it carried varying connotations as to other things that were going on, feelings (or non) etc. It reminded me a lot of V for Vendetta, Equilibrium and that sort of dystopian future where governmental rule is absolute, and cruel. I watched it Friday night whilst my wife was working as she was not interested in a futuristic gladiatoral movie... Well, after watching it I identified a number of themes that she will like. We both studied psychology to some degree, have an interest in history, (in my case, especially the Roman Empire and gladiators), and the general depth the movie felt like it had I thought she would like so we both watched it Saturday night, and she enjoyed it too.

After watching I felt that I wanted more... The film covered most of the book very well, and I think added some very good elements via commentators, and the control room and watching the political interactions, none of which is directly shown in the book, only hinted to (It is written entirely in first person. Im glad the movie was not like this lest it may lend itself to a Twilight feel, and I hated the commentary there.).

I decided to pick up the book on Sunday. having watched the film and knowing the plot and what happens, etc etc I did not need to study every word in the book in detail, but I did read it quite thoroughly and it took me about 6 hours to read. The book includes some extra detail on the country, its history, details behind different things such as wildlife, character (and other tributes) histories and it gave me the info surge I was looking for. Overall I must say it was a great read, I am not sure if I preferred the book or the movie, but I definitely think they compliment each other very well. A few plot details are different to make the movie more dramatic/cinematic, but the book has more gory details :D


To this end, I would recommend both of them. I feel they compliment each other well rather than one detracting from the other like many films... I am left with one dilemma now.. Read Catching Fire, the sequel, before the second movie comes out next year... or watch the movie first... I have had bad experience of reading novels right before the movies come out (Return of The King, I am looking at you!), but doing it the other way round - the movie left me with questions, and the book satiated that appetite nicely.

-V

Farmville 2: Mini review

So, Farmville 2 got released today.

Upon initial inspection, this game looks pretty good. The graphics are pretty and smooth and there is quite a lot of detail in the game. Having played it for a while, there is also a pretty good tutorial system that takes you through the basics: planting, watering, harvesting, selling, making feed, feeding animals, expanding, buying - you name it. Frequent goals and objectives will keep players occupied and learning the game mechanics, as well as it being needed to expand into some areas. As an added bonus, when you level up all your crops and animals become harvest able , and all your resources like water replenish.

There are various facilities added in Farmville 2 that give the game more scope, for example the kitchen. Here, instead of selling what you harvest, you can create items like apple pie, lemonade, and the sub components that make them. These can then be sold for a lot more money. An excellent addition for the crafting community.

The interface is a LOT less cluttered than in previous games. There is a friends bar, and then 3 buttons:  Tools that contains things like screen rotate options. Shop where you can buy resources and equipment, and inventory where you can view what items you have collected or farmed. This greatly simplifies the gameplay experience and I can see it hitting out at everyone who was a fan of Farmville, and possibly some of those that were not.

Another nice added bonus is that there is no irritating music (Well, there is a burst when you start but I would not say it;s that bad), just the chorus of birds... Sitting with headphones in its almost like sitting outside in the countryside relaxing :D Save the periodic pop and scrunch as resources replenish and crops grow.

From a free to play perspective, it is as it has always been; no need to spend money but it makes things smoother. sitting in game you spend a lot of time waiting for water to refill and crops to grow. If you are an infrequent gamer you wont have this wait time but chances are you will run out of resources like water when planting your field, so it is all a little bit more restricted than if you were willing to spend cash.

As always however, Zynga comes running at the in game purchase side of things with a flick-knife and a lecherous smile... the in game cash is about the same price, but they have added a significant amount of purchase options, most of which will seem quite appealing. If it works it works, but the price tag is a bit high for my liking. I have always been a believer that there should be a balance in these games, and set a price tag that I would be willing to pay for a game as a budget for in game spends. This is another blink and lose £20 jobs I think.

That's it for now, I may edit in more later as I play and learn! Thanks for reading. If you have not tried the game, I recommend at least taking a look - if nothing else, the Farm Expansion animation is So Cyoooot!

:D

-V

I Phone 5 revealed Sept 12th

Found this article...

Curious! That's very short notice, although in todays market, an earlier announcement is not likely to do much good, simply slow sales of the current devices...

I think the iPhone 5 is the first Apple product I have actually considered getting my hands on... almost purely because from what I have heard they are breaking the mould that their past iPhones have followed. If it has a break-resistant screen, I may very well consider taking the dive into the Apple world outside of work/uni!

Anyway, as the title suggests, and the link states - it is being officially revealed on Sept 12th, so expect an update closer to the time with a bit more critique on the device. I wonder when it will be released... in time for Christmas I would hazard a guess at.

-V

Making money from the web - in fun ways. Possible?

Disclaimer: I in no way claim to be an expert in the following matters, this is merely a thought/discussion piece going over my own experience and research ;-)

Having a job that involves me doing a lot of research into advertising and monetising products, I have taken quite an interest to it. I spend a lot of time online, and as a result I have take an interest in playing around with the potential ways to make money doing this. As far as I can see there are several aspects that need to be addressed in order to have a chance here. Subject, Spreading the word, monetising and retention.

I spend a lot of time making let's plays and maintaining Blogs. I do these primarily because I enjoy them, but the amount of time I spend on them can be quite vast. To this end I have been trying to figure out how I can get this to work in my favour so that I can see some monetary return, as much of them require regular scheduling and content to be produced and is not too far off being a job.

So, lets take the Blogs to start with. Without a good way to spread the word, you need to make sure that the content you are providing is of interest to potential user bases, and is well worded so that users can find it. This is still something I am working with and intend to post about later, but my understanding is that the title, tags and content will all be parsed with search engines and the more it can find to use to match search keywords, the more chance there is of your blog being randomly stumbled upon. Apart from this, share your blog where you can. Find groups on facebook, forums, twitter #tags - everywhere there is potential readers and hope you made a good post ^.^

Monetisation for blogs is a bit restricted - there is Google Ad Sense adverts that most bloggers (even me) have around their page, but the CTR (Click Through Rate) for these is atrocious, although the monetary returns is pretty good per click. An issue that can arise here is many users 'abuse' the system by clicking adverts repeatedly or tying in with their friends for a click exchange system. Analytics from Google is designed to identify these behaviours and your account will get blocked doing this, so if you put up ads, be careful, but also don't expect much return unless you have attained a large viewer base and number of views per day. I am not well versed in other methods, but I will update this with any other methods I come across.

Blog retention. Retention is basically the ability to hold onto your readers, and having them return. In order to do this you need to post quality content, and post it regularly. This could be daily, weekly, whatever you intend to do, but if you make a habit of posting at certain intervals, your users will know when to look for it. Good examples of blogs that do this are Wow Insider - there are multiple articles posted daily, from numerous guest posters. This means that if you have them on RSS feed, you always have something new to read and can return again and again to indulge.

Retention example (Warning, confusing maths ahead!) of a YouTube channel: If you produce some good videos and get on average a 5% conversion rate, with 200 views a day then you are getting 10 new subscribers a day. After 10 days, this is 100 subscribers, yes? Well, there is also subscriber drop off. Retention rates dictate how well they are kept around. If you have a weekly retention rate of 95% from that point, then after 1 week you would in theory have: 95 of your original subscribers, plus another 70 new subscribers, so 163 with dropoff of those subscribers over the time period. Give it another 10 weeks (70 days, easy maths) then you will have gained another 700 subscribers - and lost (5x7 = 35) 35 of those, giving a total after those 11 weeks plus ten days: 665 + 163 = 798 subscribers. Sadly this is not as reliable a calculation as it sounds. Only so many people will be interested in your product and the more you have subscribe, the smaller the pool of potential subscribers there are - but very good content makes for a larger potential subscriber pool. I hope that is all clear, cos it did not type like it did...

Moving onto YouTube... YouTube is similar to blogs in terms of getting the word out, generating money and retaining viewers. Some YouTubers are able to put a video up that gets a huge number of hits, often because it is cure or humerous. If the adverts shown on the video are monetised this can bring in quite a lot of money. In my experience the click through ratio is about 5%, with each view that counts giving a couple of pennies to the poster of the video. On videos with that many hits, that is a LOT of money (as in thousands of £/$'s) but I think that there are diminishing returns on a video. For example, my first minecraft lets play which currently has just over 4,500 views - was returning about 50p/day from ad revenue with about 200 viewers a day. Now I am lucky to see 5p/a day from it.

If you wish to get subscribers to your videos - you need to make them interesting, and post frequently! I currently have just over 100 subscribers so I am no expert here. I attribute this partly down to them not being great videos (It is me playing a game and yacking away, and Im not as charismatic as many of the successful let's players.), and that I have not tried to 'get the word out'. Many you tubers will send messages to other you tubers, or post video responses to popular videos in the hopes that someone will click on their video and view. There is no doubt that this works to an extent, but I feel awkward doing such things. (Maybe I should, since to maintain the Let's plays I will probably need to start increasing viewer numbers to increase the odds of ad-clicks. To my knowledge all Google ad's and YouTube video ad's are safe and screened (Especially true of YouTube ad's as the videos can only be put on YouTube by a select few ad providers that need to go through a rigorous registration and screening process with YouTube.) I personally, am more than happy to follow links or videos that interest me knowing that I am helping the content creator out whilst doing what the ad;s are designed to do - but one needs to be careful not to be abusing this feature or they may get the content creators ad-sense account banned!).

Ok, I am rambling... but to summarize, I think in order to be successful at getting people to see the content you have created and to make money from it you need to have a plan that gets the word out, methods for monetization and try to make your submissions high quality, and frequent so that you can retain viewers whilst attracting more.

One final tip: If you want to get big numbers then take advantage of surges of potential viewers. Create videos or blogs that are on the ball and up to date. 50 Shades of Grey suddenly become a huge topic of conversation? (be it good or bad) - then any content that addressees some aspect of it has a huge potential viewer base (fans and haters alike, depending on the content). A good example from my experience would be my let's play videos on Minecraft. For the first month I was producing low quality let's plays as I was not used to the video recording, or the commentary. After this month of practise, I had about 30 views on my video with the highest hit count... Minecraft version 1.3.1 was released, so the day it was released I started a lets play. I had 1000 hits in the space of 2 days. I got a surge of subscribers and many of them are frequent viewers even now, a month down the line. Their feedback is what inspires me to keep producing videos as naturally my own wanes a bit over time - but a little community is starting to form and it feels great :-)

I miss BRK! (BigRedKitty)

Anyone who has been around the Blogosphere for the last few years probably knows whom this person is. A former columnist for WOW insider, and an avid Hunter through World of Warcraft.

Where is he now? I have no idea. I have tried searching for updates but the interwebz comes up short, and his blogs: Brain Needed Space has been silent for months, and BigRedKitty site seems to have been taken down...

Dang, even just thinking of his Hunter Guide Movies makes me want to break out World of Warcraft and resubscribe... If anyone knows the whereabouts of this fella, drop us a comment I'm sure the community that he pulled together is still floating about in wonder ^.^

Anyway, I felt like putting a random post in today and this is what crossed my mind! Enjoy!

-V

Skyrim: Hearthfire DLC

Being released on the Xbox 360 next week, this piece of DLC for TES:V Skyrim is something a little different...

Land ownership, Home building, Adoptions, and protecting your property...

I am not sure about implementation, but it sounds like a fantastic way to draw in more players who like Sims type games, as well as Role players who would jump at the opportunity to build their own home and expand on the activities they can do.

Players can buy plots of land, upon which they can design and build a home. This at first glance sounds like a good idea. You can find a location you like, and make something to your own tastes. The reality of it however I suspect will be a little different... Having no experience with the Construction Kits for the likes of Morrowind, I am not the best to speak on the matter, but I imagine choosing size, shape, design, appearance, and all the other features that will be required is going to be more than a little tricky and time consuming. The alternative would be a 'plug and play' system, but then the player is not really designing their own  home... just picking the modular layout. I would like to get my hands on it to take a look in more detail, but unfortunately I have no Xbox 360. Checking out the video does make it appear to be a 'modular' type set up, and I even think furniture is automatically places ala house furnishings for in-city housing.

As an aside, I think this game would be excellent if they were to implement some Minecraftian features... let players gather the materials and build the house from the floors and walls up, placing sections as they wish. Also, being able to turn their game into a 'server' for friends and family to come join them on for some co-op or role play goodness could work very well. It need not exactly be balanced, just optional.

In addition to building your house, you can get NPC's on board. Bards, servants, adoptions, etc. This should all add up to make it feel much richer, and I think it will be very good to see in action :-) Fingers crossed there is a lot of detail to it, as it would be kinda poopy to build the home, move in your partner adopt some kids, fight to keep away the beasties only for there to be nothing to do when you are there. Player housing just now for me is a case of 'nip in, drop stuff in a chest, nip back out again' affair. Rather boring, its just storage.

If you plan to download this game next week, it would be great to learn more :-) I will be keeping an eye out for Let's plays and reviews!

-V

Networking!!!

Networking!!!

So I finally got around to tying my YouTube channel and this Blog along to a Twitter account. You can follow me @Velkairiwyth and you can become a Velkster by subscribing to my YouTube channel! Here I post my let's plays, and intend to post periodic V-Logs aswell. I am fast approaching 100 subscribers and have in excess fo 10k views from my first month of (properly) posting Let's play videos. I am thoroughly enjoying it and dont intend to stop any time soon :-)

-V

Dragon City - Another Velk Review

Dragon City is another freemium game that is available to play on Facebook. It came out in May, and at the time of writing has just under 11 Million players. That is more than World Of Warcraft!

At its core it is a city/pet management game, with a hint of Pokemon/Final Fantasy in its collectibles and combat system.
You build 'Habitats' to house dragons and generate Gold, and you make farms for food. There are a variety of other buildings that can be made that provide functionality and boosts that help you do more, including the Hatchery where you hatch eggs you buy or breed, and a Breeding mountain where you can breed the dragons.

My city

In order to get new dragons, you initially need to buy or be gifted elemental dragon eggs (earth, fire, wind, air, ice, etc.) which you can then cross breed with other dragons to create hybrid dragons which will have multiple abilities, and then further down the line, the rare hybrids, legendary or pure dragons. It is very Pokemon-esque and incites quite a 'gotta catch em all' mentality. A full list of the eggs and dragons can be found here: >Linky< - be warned - you may find youself returning time and time again to see what type of dragon you managed to breed, and to take your new pets for a spin in the arena to find out what works best for you and kick some dragon-rumps.

A Platiunum and Legendary dragon duel

There is a ranked battle system (PVP and PVE, but they are all against AI - the PVP system is against the dragons that other people have selected to be their fight-team) in the game where you take the dragons you have bred and trained into combat against other dragons groups. Each dragon has a number of abilities and they can affect other dragons to varying degrees, e.g using a water spell from a water dragon on a fire dragon would do a critical hit and likely kill it in one shot, whereas using a meteor attack from an earth dragon on a fire dragon might result in a 'weak' or 'innefecctive' hit that does little or no damage. The system has many intricacies, at least up until your touting an army of legendary dragons that need to be understood to have success in these arena battles.

PVP arena (You play against the teams, not actual players.)

I found this game to be quite addictive, and indeed at the time of writing I am around level 28 and my main battle trio is 3 different legendary dragons (Which admittedly feels cheap.) and I am trying to breed Pure dragons.

Naturally, as a freemium game there are elements to the game that introduce an in game currency, in this case, gems, but much akin to Tiny Tower - it is so easy to gather them through levelling and arena battles, that there is little need to spend unless you have the extra money to do so, or only have short play periods, as the majority of the gem spends are on time boosts (food, breeding, hatching, building and later on, island expansions, most of which take time, and if you want you can skip the wait at the cost of 1 gem per hour.) This game has actually proven to be one of the best facebook games for someone like myself who is too cheap to spend money on freemium games, as the balance of required currencty to available means that at most, I have to play a few days of arena matches to get a pile of gems for things I want to treat myself to. In any case, Facebook/google adverts are all screened and safe so if you are like me, just click on any adverts that interest you and give them some ad revenue ;-).

Verdict:

Graphics: 4/5 (tis good, but could be better)
Sound: 5/5 (The music is very relaxing and I would say is the best I have heard in a facebook game. 99% of the time I have the music off...)
Gameplay: 5/5 (Basic, but with an excellent element in addictive battles and breeding.)
Balance: 5/5 (You never need to spend a penny, nor a lot of time, but you don't feel ripped off if you do spend money, and you can actually sit in game for a long time playing around, replanning your city, etc etc.)

Overall: 5/5 - (about 95% to be more accurate)

If you have not played it, try it out!

-V

Apple v Samsung: $1 billion to Apple...

Warning:: Rant incoming!

Reading this article... seriously? They had the jury review over 700 patent questions, and assign dollar values to each of the patents in question, and they tallied it up to over $1 billion... in two days... I cant help but call a lil bit of BS on this one. Sounds a bit too fast to be legit.

Patent wars across varying companies have been on going for years, (Here is an interesting article, if dated.) and in most cases its more of a 'patent arms race' used as a defensive measure to prevent all the companies from suing the pants off of each other... I get the impression at some point down the line this is going to fall apart. My guess is that it will be found that its a bit of dodgy dealing, or it sparks a more aggressive approach to patent issue resolutions. Perhaps not a bad thing, but the biggest company with the most bucks is likely to be standing dominant on a heap of broken companies, not exactly good for the consumer.

Boom?

CSR Racing Review and thoughts.

My Tier 1 Ford Focus. 

CSR Racing is an iOS game that was released at the end of June. Since its inception, it has been a relatively big hit, and has also proven to be a huge cash cow for NaturalMotion Games.

I aim for this lengthly post to count as both a review and as a bit of a guide for new players of the game. I am by far an expert for the game, but by this point I have cleared the First Tier content, and am approximately half way through the second tier. All the waffle below is my opinon, but I will link in other sources where possible… Grab a cup of tea, sit back and relax… this is not going to be short…

So far, the game has proved to be very immersing, with excellent quality graphics and audio. It reminds me strongly of Need for Speed and Burnout, and is essentially a game where you customise and upgrade your car and take to the streets to compete in drag races which return coin which you reinvest in further upgrades or new vehicles to do better at the drag races. I find that you can take a great sense of pride and ownership of your vehicle… The game makes you want to pick a vehicle you like (in this case I picked a ford focus which is in the title image, as I drive the same car.) which you then customise the looks of (which also provides bonus $’s at the end of each race) and upgrade to make it the best drag racer it can be. Every vehicle also behaves differently, with different levels of traction, speed bands and gear ratios which mean you have to adapt to the car.

In each race you have the ‘start’ where you need to balance the rev limiter to get the perfect start without too much wheel spin or power loss, and then you control the timings of the Gear changes or NOs injections. It is a battle of timing and efficiency, and whilst it can be a bit samey, does not detract from the game play in the slightest.

At Tier 1 you can participate in the Regulation Races (Easy races which provide easy income, but only in small chunks), the Ladder system (progressively more difficult races with good rewards), Challenges (periodic challenges which can be tough, but give good rewards), Daily Races (drags where you are ‘loaned’ a vehicle and are given good rewards, that get progressively higher if you play daily. These are fairly easy races and a good way out of a cash bottleneck.) and the all important Crew Battles, where you take your car and compete against the local race circuit/gangs. Said gangs provide a lot of smack talk and generally succeed in making you want to crush their racers into the road, and it feels oh-so-good when you upgrade your vehicle enough and ace the race. When you defeat the gang leader, you can progress to the next tier. 

Each tier requires an equivalently Tiered car in order to race. This is where things can get tricky for the free player. You can try to win the Gang leaders car at the risk of the Gold Coins you win by defeating them, or you can go on the hunt for a new vehicle. I was sad at this point as I really liked the Ford Focus and had grown to love it, and was not going to be able to use it in Tier 2! Unfortunately I never re raced the gang leader for his car as I don’t like the new Mini, and did not want to risk the coin... so I continued to do the Ladder and Regulation races in Tier 1 until the assistant gal in the game turned up with a special deal for a half-price car, in this case a Chevrolet Camaro. 

My Tier 2 Camaro. (I know, not a great paint job but still!)

I thought that it looked decent, and had good stats but I was $2000 shy for it (I always seem to be a little short to take up one of these offers) so I forked out 15 of the 16 Gold Coins I had earned through races and leveling, and spent the $30,000 on upgrades, then took to tier 2. 

Tier 2 is somewhat similar but the cars you race against are better equipped, and Restriction Races are introduced. I have not really toyed about with these as my car is too light, and too fast to meet the restricted criteria…

Generally the player will play through races, earn cash, spend it on upgrade (and eventually vehicles) and win their way through each tier. I am not sure what happens when you reach the end of Tier 5 – but I get the feeling this is going to be a fairly long game, but so far after a week of play I am enjoying it! As there is a reasonable conversion rate of real money to gold coins players that are willing to spend real money on in-game purchases should not feel as ripped off as many other games. With a player base of around 2.5 Million at present, announcements of the huge revenue pulled from it can attest to how many players enjoy the game enough to valiate spending money. Plus, every spend is optional. For myself, the items I would be most willing to spend money on would be for a really nice car and some custom decals to make it look good. I am happy to wait for the delivery of more advanced parts and cars, but these can be sped up with gold coins too.

An aside on the Freemium system:

The Freemium system is a method of game delivery that allows players to get and play the game for free, and which usually includes purchasable in game content or advertising. Many people look upon the freemium system with distain, as many developers approach the freemium market with the mindset of milking players for as much money as possible. Whilst in many cases *cough Zynga cough* this is true, the costs of many in game items is prohibitive to all but the most avid and fat-pursed gamer. Many of these games have ‘choke points’ where the player is forced to spend their in-game credit to bypass, which in turn means spending money. Players can usually horde just enough of the in-game credit to get through these places, or are able to ‘beg it’ from their friends if they are determined not to pay anything, but it can be very slow. Some games are highly profitable without giving players the feeling that they are being ‘Nickel and dimed’ – a good example of a game that gets the balance right, or at least in favor of the customer being Tiny Tower (Android & iOS). 

In this game the user is given a range of sources of the in game currency ‘Bux’ and if they play regularly, are constantly being bombarded with it via tips from the occasional elevator passenger, or for helping locate ‘Bitizens’ within the tower. This may have dented the revenue stream for the company, but for a two man development team, a couple of million $ a year cannot be frowned upon, and best of all the game is perfectly playable for those that don’t want to spend the coin. In my opinion – freemium gaming is actually very good. If you would not have bought the game normally, you get to play it at no cost. In my case, if I would be willing to buy the game in a shop, then I would attribute a cash value to the game and use it as my limit for in game spends. The other upside is that with the software market the way it is today with piracy and the likes, it can prove a stable source of income for the developer meaning that they can continue to make good games. Without the freemium system I would not have played: DC Universe Online, Blacklight Retribution, CSR Racing, Lord Of The Rings online and more… all games I really enjoy(ed) playing.

In Conclusion:

The game is free. Try it! you wont be disappointed if you are in any way a fan of racing games, or car customisation games. It provides a quality experience, and is indeed a game that could have gone to market with a reasonable price tag. Try it, dont be afraid to spend a few bob for your own special ride, and enjoy! 

GFX: 9/10

Audio: 8/10

Addiction: 8.5/10

Value: 8/10

Fun: 9/10

Overall: 8.5/10

EA considering calling it a day and selling up?

I read that EA, a game company that has a large array of games under its collar, and companies it has accumulated (Bioware, Mythinc, etc.) including Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dragon Age, spore, Mas Effect, Crysis etc, and has a vast number of games in development, are considering selling off the company.

some articles on the matter:

• edge-online
• MCV
• Develop-online
• Wiki entry: Check the list of games created... it is expansive

It looks like they are only considering offers that are significantly higher than the companies value at present, but that does not mean someone will not jump...

I think with the decline of players in SW:TOR and the lack of success here and with Warhammer Online, a midst social games and mobile game releases, they are just not bringing in the bucks, and this is reflected by the share price drop... Not a good year for video games developers is it... :s

Command and Conquer *squee*

*geekgasm*

The original C&C was my first RTS - and when it came out, to say I got addicted was an understatement. I played the hell out of that game, and its sequels! Red Alert was actually one of the first online games that I played - deathmatch games, there was a league at some point with thousands of players on it, I managed to get into the top 30 at one point, an achievement I am still proud of :p

Ill be keeping tabs on this game... It looks fun :D

-V

Next generation consoles, Xbox 720, PS4, Wii-U

Having a bit of a geek out and looking into the next gen consoles.

Presently I have an old Xbox that I never use, a Wii that I rarely use and a PS3 that has needed the optical lense replaced in the Blu-Ray drive. That aside, I have an interest in the upcoming consoles... Will I get one? Unlikely... unless I happen upon some decent work and clear off some debts!

PS4
Rumoured for a Christmas 2013 release date, the PS4 looks like it is going to pack i some awesome improvements compared to the current console. Considering the problems with the PS3 launch (Taking so long to get to market they lost a lot of the game release reservations that the usually get, e.g Final Fantasy series, to other market sectors meaning there was not really anything worthwhile and unique on release. In addition, the loss of backwards compatibility really hindered things. PS4 is not even going to attempt backwards compatibility!) my fingers are crossed that this console is shipped ASAP and that it comes with some good games!

I have a few concerns about this console I must admit...

From what I read, the components already seem selected, and are not the best to date... yet they are not planning to release for nearly a year and a half?? This will surely mean the released console that will cost as much as a decent desktop pc will be outdated already... Loss of backwards compatibility is an ouchie, and it seems they are going the Steam route, so no second hand games.... Oh my.

Hype factor dropped for me, but we will keep tabs on things...

Xbox 720
Alrighty then, the 360 was the first next-gen console I tried of the current bunch, but I got it early and resold it on Ebay to people much more eager for a hefty profit (dont look at me like that! It was an auction cos I couldn't afford to keep it!) but my initial impressions were pretty positive. The next gen console, which looks to be called 'Inifinity' (Yeah, were just gonna call it 720 aren't we :p) is looking to improve in many areas compared to the PS3. firstly, it is bringing Blu-Ray to the forefront. The HD-DVD and BR wars were lost for the 360, so this move makes perfect sense.

The 720 also looks to be packed with AMD components. Normally there is a bit of a components war that goes on with consoles, but this time it looks like AMD is sweeping the field.

The 720 also seems ahead of the PS4 in that developers are already toying with prototype consoles for developing games. Again, said games look like they will be released steam-style.

A note from research; the consoles look like they have much lower price costs than I expectd... <£200 for the 720 and PS4... Hard to believe, but if it is, bring it!

Wii-U
Also known as the nintendo police siren... I currently have a Wii - and it is used almost exclusively for Wii Fit. We borrowed a few games off a friend but never play them. some of the social games can be a  giggle, but its usually just something that happens at family events.

First thing about the Wii-U - It beings HD to the field. I felt the lack of HD on the Wii was a killer, I would have played it so much more and bought games if I felt like it was even remotely competition for the PS3 for the luscious high defenition TV we were using for gaming on. Wii-U gets a mighty big tick for this change. The catch is, reports are that the graphics will only equal the PS3 or 360 but not the new consoles, but hopefully the price label will make the difference (Though at expectations of £400 - I wont be investing!).

A nice bonus, it has a screen on the controller, which could have many awesome functions.

Lacking Blu-Ray player... Oh dear... But it looks like games will use the traditional method, and that there is a vast number of games, as well as backwards compatability.

One thing the siren has going for it is that it will be early to market, hitting the shelves for this christmas.

Anyway, rant over - I just wanted to put a post that had info on all the consoles in the one place and have a think on what is coming. My verdict: I dont intend to invest in any. I think I will stick to PC gaming as it is much more up my alley :p

Here are some links to Tech Radar;s posts on the next-gen consoles.

Xbox 720
Wii-U
PS4

-V

More on the Zynga scenario

I have absolutely no doubt what so ever, that I am NOT the primary news providing that you, dear reader, ascribe to.

However. There has been more happenings in Zyngaville that I felt like discussing, since I have put up a post or two prior regading the matter.

The first thing I wish to say is... EA filing lawsuit for The Ville looking like a Sims Social clone. (Call me a muppet, but I thought both games were from the same provider and kinda WERE the same game - so this does not surprise me at all now I think about it.). This can ONLY bode ill for Zynga. With the fail of their move to get Draw Something and its numbers then going down the pan, their general issues with shares dropping and suspicious activities... This hits them hard, I believe it was their recovery game. I may be sceptical, but I must say I dont want to see a big games company with a lot of employees go down the drain, but its sounding more and more like it is circling it to me...

anyway, for a more detailed look, here is a link to an article that I was reading from GamesIndustry.Biz. as you can see, things are looking grim.

Next post shall be a cheerful one, promise :p

-V

Minecraft V 1.3.1 - my thoughts & let's play linky

So, Minecraft 1.3.1 came out at the beginning of the month. I have spent a fair amount of time playing it, I have also been doing a let's play of it. I must say I am thoroughly enjoying doing this let's play. I had been doing one for Hardcore minecraft before it, but the videos started bugging out and glitching and I lost a chunk of it so have paused it in favour of this for now. I have also been doing one for XCOM and periodic Portal and Blacklight Retribution videos, as well as a more recent series for Skyrim - with Dawnguard. All good fun :D

Now, I dont know what it is about Minecraft, but its hella addictive. When I first started playing it, it was creepy, jumpy but at the same time very simple (especially if you have the wiki page open! :p)

I learned to play whilst watching Tobuscus play that and Skyrim, and also watching the epic videos from The Yogscast. I think these helped to feed the addiction just a little... haha!

So, in 1.3.1 - a butt ton of new features have been implemented, from Enchanting enhancements (see what I did there?!) and Experience sources to new items and features such as gem trading (which as Gamechap and Bertie would have you believe - is not great yet...). So far my experiences have all been positive. The game runs just fine and dandy, and the only thing that seems to have changed is the amount of creepers. Dang creepers! dont just take my word for it tough, go check it out! :-) 

I have linked part 1 of my let's play below, I hope it amuses you!

-V

Mars Landing: Curiosity rover - Skycrane geek factor

Unfortunately I did not watch the rover landing, I was sorting my kids out before heading to work this morning... But for anyone following this, the geek factor is astounding :D

My University worked on some aspects of the mission package (If I remember correctly, it will be the communications equipment on board)

Below are a couple of links to news articles, but what I really want to talk about in this blog post is the Sky Crane and the landing.

Press Conference

'How' it lands

Long story short, the capsule blasts through the atmosphere, heat-shield down at a rediculously high speed. The atmosphere decelerates the landing capsule, and when it gets closer, it pops open a parachute, and drops the heat shield to lose weight. 

At this point it then descends, slowing as it does so until it gets to a nominal height for the Sky-Crane to take over, which fires rocket boosters to halt the descent and hover in place.

The Sky crane is literally a hovercraft, like something from Sci-Fi - it is a big platform that hovers some 10-20M off the ground, and lowers the Rover on a crane to the surface. Once the crane detatches - the Sky Crane platform fires its thrusters and literally blasts itself off into the distance a couple of hundred meters and is destroyed. Talk about fire and forget. The technology in this must have cost Millions, if not more - and the amount of testing done on it is extreme. 

The logistics involved mean that everything has to work first time, or the mission is lost. Lets not forget the rover itself weighs in at over a ton. 

The Navigation has to coordinate something entering the atmosphere at speeds higher than a sniper round, to land the capsule in a landing area, out of sight, that is some 10km square. Ideally in the middle of that area. Years can be spent just picking and choosing a landing location.

Anyway, i waffle - it all fascinates me and I done a study on the design and building of this rover, and studied the mission logistics.

I have included a video from YouTube that was referred to in that class - enjoy!!

Android V IOs - the battle to date.

Another news article inspired post Im afraid! A post at GamesIndustry provided some information relating to current IOs and Android numbers. (Go take a peek, Ill wait. I'm not reiterating the numbers :p )

The claims are nothing new - Android's figures seem to peaking whilst Apple's climbs at a relatively linear rate, this has been fairly consistent for the last few months. What is interesting is the upcoming Iphone release... I posted about it a week or two back, and I must say it looks tasty. It looks like they are foraying into the grounds of new screen sizes and phone designs. Im sure it will hold the usual Apple quality but with a bigger screen, and hopefully, a bumper so the screens stop smashing so easily. If these things are true, I could see myself converting - or at least giving apple a shot down the line.

I have only used Iphones in a work environment, testing games before release and playing around with them. They have worked well but i have not been that keen on the look and feel. I am not ashamed to say I have leaned more towards Android over the last few years, but I am getting a bit fed up with how quickly the phones go buggy.

Anyway, I ramble. New Iphone due out - potentially breaking the mould and if its making me think of converting, it will do for others too... I wonder how things will go from here... On the contrary. BusunessInsider has posted >this<... same phone... if thats the case, I think they may be correct in their claim...

Stay tuned! :-)

-V

Update: Creating custom google maps tutorial.

Post was getting a little dated, but still gets a lot of hits - so I updated it::

http://landogeekery.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/google-maps-playtime-creating-custom.html

Zynga. What is going on?? Some thoughts and info.

Yoinked from Penny Arcade (credit: Dabe Alan)

So, more controversy has arisen regarding the activities of Zynga and their share price crashes as of late.

computerandvideogames.com have posted an article relating to an Investigation that is under way due to suspicious activity with share sales before the crash.

Kotaku seems to be the source post about this and has some interesting info.

Zynga have had a long string of successes in quick-fix-gaming using the Facebook social website as a delivery platform for these games. The games include the likes of Words with Friends, FarmVille, The Sims Social, Bubble Safari, the recent 'The Ville' and more. Their games have always been pretty big hits with the facebook community and I have played many of them over the last 3 years. I would gripe however, that their freemium pay model is highly flawed. I wonder if this is in fact something to do with their problems. Sure numbers are declining, but they still see in excess of 50 Million users every day across their games... There are companies with much smaller numbers that are flourishing.

And now I shall go into a rant about the Freemium system that Zynga implements...

One observation to make - look at the recently released Dragon City. It is a game that you can play with no pressure of spending money - it is addictive, fun, and for my wife and I, keeps us coming back for more. We have been tempted to get some in game currency, and for the cost of it, and its uses - it would not feel like a waste of money. Zynga's games however... You can spend a buttload of money for in game cash, which in turn gives very little return and is also inconsistent.

One example that shows this inconsistency is the game: Bubble Safari. One cash costs 10-15p depending on how much you buy, and you can spend as much as £70.00 in a single transaction. (seriously, thats twice the price of a newly released game!) This cash is then spent on boosts and power ups. The player can also buy gold (at about 10p for 100G) Gold is easy to earn in game, and cash comes in in dribs and drabs, or can be pried through friend-share, but takes time. So what now. We start a game! You are offered a selection of powerups for gold coin (cash equivalent for 6 extra bubbles? £2!! - and those bubbles are unlikely to push you to clearing the board or having enough bubbles left to get your score into the 1* region if you are struggling...) Next, as you are playng you can buy 5 bubbles for 2 cash. k... so lets do that... oh wait, I dont have enough cash, I need to pay real money. £1.48. What?! Thats the same price as nearly 15 cash... So... you fail the level and get to buy 10 bubbles to continue. this costs 4 cash, or again, £1.48. Completely inconsistent. I understand that it is a good point to try to milk the user of money - especially if they can see the end is in sight - but at the point you can buy 5 bubbles, you can also click 'buy cash' and bypass the charge window and use 20p worth of cash. I cant help but wonder if there is even a designer or tester on board for this :/

Its these levels of extortion that personally have stopped me playing their games. I wish I had access to the analytics info for the company. There are people out there with the disposable income to pay for these boosts at these levels, and if they have fun and dont mind paying, then why not? The value of money is only what we apply to it.

Perhaps I get a bit hot under the collar as I work for a company that looks up to Zynga as a role model and I want to develop a better freemium system, that does not suck the fun for a game, or forces the designers to create the game around eventually forcing the player to pay to continue - it should be that the players with the expendible income can use that disposable cash to improve the quality of their game. The normal user can struggle a bit, and invest time to advance instead.

Just my 2c. I think this is a huge factor in their collapse. They will get back on their feet, Im sure of it. The games are still being played, the money is still coming in - they just need to sell off assets or cut their outgoings (Which unfortunately means MORE job losses)

Feel free to add your own in the comments :-)

-V

YouTube wanting to switch to real names in comments?

Article from CNN - I am very interested to see how this ill go down. The jist of it is, YouTube wants to tie in You Tube accounts with Google + accounts and have people that use/comment there to have their real names be displayed. This is believed to make people act less troll-like as they are not quite as anonymous.

Blizzard tried to do the same on the World of Warcraft forums to try to cut down on the level of trolling there. There was such a community out-roar they had to adress the issue and decided not to go ahead.

Blizzard's community however is pay to play... You Tubes community is free. Will YouTube get the the same lashback that Blizzard got? Im very interested to see.

Personally I am all for it, as I really am not fussed because it does not hinder me in any way. In fact, it took me a few days of using you tube to change my G+ details to an alias rather than using my full name as it seemed normal.

Feel free to post your comments or feedback, im curious :-)

-V

Blacklight Retribution: My review!

Blacklight Retribution has been out for about 3 weeks now, and I must say - I am impressed.

I have been doing the periodic Let's plays of  this game (Although the performance reduction in video recording makes for me doing poorly when recording... honest!) amidst my play sessions. I have sunk 10 hours into this game in the last couple of weeks playing around with it and I have thoroughly enjoyed every play session I have partaken in.

So, I shall now give my review - but before I do this I want to stress a point:
'Pay to win' is a bit of a fallacy. 90% of my games see me end in the top 3 on my team, half that time being in first place. I have not spent a penny. I have spent a lot of my time growing up playing first person shooters (counter-strike taking up many many years of my life :p) so I have fairly natural reflexes in this kind of game, and am quite a good shot - or am able to implement tactics / psychological methods to take out or outwit enemies. This basically means that I am able to hold my own against whatever the enemy brings to the front. My point is: Skill Matters more than equipment. I have seen people leading teams wielding nothing but a pistol. (and thoroughly kicking my butt)

Graphics: 5/5
The graphics in this game are pretty good. They are not the best out there, but they did not scrimp when making it. I would put them on par with Deus Ex Human Revolution. I would not notice if  they were any higher I don't think.

Sound: 4/5
There is nothing special about the sound. I have not encountered any bugs and there is no music, but it all works well.

Gameplay: 5/5
Team matches with different objectives (Take and hold/capture the flag and death match) work well to keep players working together.

Community: 5/5
I have not seen any trolling in this game. At all. I have seen a couple of questions being shot down, but I have always made sure that I provide the answer - and have seen others doing the same more often than not :-)

Ease of use: 3/5
The only area that I find this game is lacking, is its complexity. In counterstrike, you have a few menus at the start of the game to select what equipment you want. After a few games, you can usually purchase your items in a few button presses that you program into your head. CP is spent IN GAME - you need to expose your back and use a terminal to buy the equipment, and if your caught before it is used - someone else can run off with it. This is not a bad thing, in fact it makes it more dynamic. You cover your friends when they are getting  a hard suit, etc.
GP is earned by completing maps. The better your /your teams performance - the more you get to spend. These are used to buy temporary upgrades (usually 24 hours) - although these upgrades are quite cheap. They are typically weapons, weapon mods, armour, etc. this system is a bit compliated to get to grips with, and if you dont do it before joining a server, you have a minute between maps to identify what you want and buy it - I have made a few poor purchase choices thanks to this system, though now I understand it I really like it. Go figure, its a learning curve and the only complaint I have.
One thing to note: When you log in - you need to pick a server. I spent the first week of the game playing on the US servers with pings between 300 and 500 before I realised there were EU servers, and now im <100 ping.

Overall: Nearly perfect. A learning curve exists, and if you are new to online FPS games, you might be deterred by that and the need for some skill - but it only comes from playing so: Get your asses out there and murder some reds!

Additional: I have not yet tried to play along RL friends, I have always used the 'quick game' option to join games... I get the feeling it may be tricky or time consuming arranging a play session with a mate and then getting on the same server :( I will update when I find out more.

Iphone 5. The first I-anything that may have piqued my interest...

So, I have never really been into the range of Apple IPhones. Maybe it was because they were seen as the snobby choice, maybe its cos Im not keen on carrying the thick brick in my pocket - maybe its just cos everyone I know that has ever owned one has managed to smash the screen by dropping it.

Anyway. I caught a facebook post today about the IPhone 5 - so I went googling... It is looking Fine!


I like the style, I like the size (assuming they go with the larger screen and dont keep it the same for their previous reasons of not wanting to create an Iphone heirarchy although that exists anyway surely with memory sizes and versions.... anyway I digress!), and as long as it does its job I have never really cared about the manufacturer or the internal workings. Here are some links to check out what news I found :)

Techradar - release date, news and rumours.

T3 - more of the same

I guess the only thing concerning me now - is the price tag!

Apple V Samsung. Samsung did not sleep with their designers guv!

Interesting articles from Hexus.net and DailyMail. Apple was ruled to state on its website and in newspapers that Samsung did not copy the design of the IPad when making their tab. As a fun twist, the judge ruled that the tablets have a different feel and that the IPad is basically a superior device.

Interesting :D

Im not an apple fan by a long shot, but it will be interesting to see where this leads ^.^ Or how it affects both companies :o

Holy crap... 10 years since FireFly?!

Courtesy of IO9.com (aka, YOINK!)

http://io9.com/5926419/watch-the-entire-firefly-10-year-reunion-panel-and-try-not-to-cry

Watch it! Waaatch iiiiit!!!

and holy crap. 10 years...

Windows 8 and browser blocking ??

Stumbled across this article on C-Net. 

If it is true that Microsoft are attempting to block other browsers to work on this OS... Wow... What can I say. Firstly Internet Explorer is the worst browser I know of. No HTML5, it requires web-pages to have specific code written for many functions on the Styling Sheets and if I remember correctly, its a bit bulky (a memory hog) and runs Java programs much slower than the competition.

Whilst I am sure it would only be a matter of time before someone finds a proper way around this, (lookit! Chrome for Apple machines!) I think this would be a bad move from Microsoft. Ok, they would have a monopoly for a little while, but I think it would stop many people from getting Windows 8 for as long as they could hold out.

On the flip side - I have not research IE10 - perhaps they will release a version of Internet Explorer that meets the standards laid out by the rivals. Personally I prefer Chrome(41% of market), and then Firefox (34% of market) - and I design my websites to work with these browsers first as they hold the monopoly of the market. (16% for IE) >Linky to browser stats<

...

Time will tell, but for sure it has my attention! (Perhaps this is what they wanted :p )

-V

Ultramarine V's Tyranids, 6th Edition Battle - preamble.

Dawn.

The Ultramarine forces touch down on the planet Pablos I, an abandoned industrial mining world. Intel informs command of two artifacts that must not fall into enemy hands in the area... An old contruction crane that sits atop a deep vein mining shaft, and an unusual Tomb, likely of Xenos origin.

There has been rumours that some Tyranid spore pods were seen entering the atmosphere recently, so the marines stalk in on foot, opting to take in vehicles with support weaponry and speeders in the hopes of gunning down any aliens that they come across in short order. Two librarians and two units of sternguard bolster the core of the army as they advance towards the old construction crane - with an abundance of Hellfire rounds, they feel confident in their abilities, and the troops selected to come with them.

Just as day is about to break, the Librarians feel a change in the flow of the Warp... Strange shapes can be seen sillhoueted in the distance, near a strangly glowing skull and pillar tomb. Shrouded by the low light numerous building sized creatures hone into sight, heading directly towards the construction site the marines now hold.

++ CONTACT! ++

Librarian Endradus: 'Ultramarines, ADVANCE! No quarter, we kill every gribbly that moves! They do not take these objectives while we draw breath. FOR THE EMPEROR!'

... To be continued.

GTA V: Due in march, anticipation rising!

I hope I dont need a new GFX card... :( \o/

GTA V: Excitement rising! :-)

I went looking for games due to be released later on this year as I was curious as to what was coming up... and I happened across this little gem - GTA V. I think IV was released in 2008 (In fact, I know it was because I got a PS3 for its release, which was about the time my son was born, so Ha!) So, if it is released March 2013 as announced - that means 5 years development time!

Look at that screenie above. This is one of the two officially released in-game screen shots from RockStar. I dont think I have seen an in-game screen shot look so realistic... I am really keen to see this game hit the shelves! 

Enough waffling from me about how much I want this game. You know I want it. You know you want it! Gief! Below are some info pieces I managed to find that might keep yall happy for a bit :D. 8 months feels a long time...

Big features mentioned in news releases from RockStar are that the game world is going to be the biggest to date (San Andreas felt huge, but kinda empty outside the cities, it will be interesting to see what they come up with!). In addition to this, there will be a much greater aircraft aspect of the game. This is likely due to the game area being so big players will want to have quick ways to get around, and this is better than fast travel I think! :D

The other screenie :p

examiner.com - article I nabbed the screenies from

whatculture.com - speculating on some of the potential characters that players might meet in the game. I'm not so confident many if any of these will creep up, but it is an interesting article none the less :)

VR-zone - discussing the large game world, and including the game trailer. Watch.It.Now!

Enough for now though :-) hopefully more news articles will be released soon! And remember - there is no beta test. If you get an invite, its a phishing scam.

-V

P.S... FIRST PERSON VIEW OPTION!! :)