Thoughts on GTA:V Launch

I posted a few months back >here< I posted some comments on the delay of GTA:V. I made some guesses (some might say attempted predictions) as to the outcome of the delay on GTA:V on the sales numbers.

Well, the figures are in, and the figures are huge. According to The Huffington Post, the game mae over a billion dollars in sales in the first few days, the highest sales figures to date, blowing even World of Warcraft and Call of Duty: Black Op's out of the water.

GTA has always been a popular series with the gaming masses, but I am curious as to just how much having the game delayed and letting the hype build made. The local 'GAME' store here had a midnight launch for the game, and by gawd... people cued for a good hundred meters around the high street. The ultimate irony is there was a Tesco express across the road where some people just walked in after midnight and picked it up immediately. No two hours of queuing for them. Mind you, its the experience I recon people do that for. The pure nerding geekgasm of it all :p

I also noticed claims when browsing from an analyst claiming that the games sales were very front loaded, and that we can expect a sharper than normal decline in the sales figures post release. Whilst this is technically bound to be true, the more of the buying population that have it, the less there are available to purchase it, they forget one thing: New console sales in 2 months time. I don't know about you, but I held off buying in favour of buying it once for the next gen of consoles that will be launched. I done the same thing with GTA IV myself, but my consoles blu ray drive has stopped working.

Anyway, just my little waffle :-)
-V

Long time no post.

So yeah, Aside from yesterdays little review of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, it has been quite some time since I have posted. Long story short: Uni and work and life have gotten in the way. I have not even got to play any more recent games. I am HOPING that when the next gen of consoles come out, that I will be getting my hands on GTA:V and The Last Of Us, and whilst I am at it, I will likely be doing let's plays of them if I can set up the system. Also - Avengers 2, Thor 2 - you know the shibbang. They will be getting the crap watched out of them :-) Follow follow follow if you wish to keep informed :)

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D mini review.

Welcome to my little splurge/revied of AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D... and a slightly drunken review at that.

So, Agents of SHIELD (yes, I'm gonna skip the dots...) had it's first airing here in the UK tonight. I figured it has been a while since I had a nice geek out, and felt the urge to post. Warning, thar be spoilers herein.

I am usually skeptical when it comes to new T.V Series, etc, that others are raving on, so I made sure to get in here early to make sure I could form my own opinions before being spammed with others through social media platforms.

And what do I think I hear you ask as your disembodied inner self asks as you read?

I thought it was great, and has good potential. I had a small geekgasm as the cast started rolling in (Missed the credits). It is like a sexy blend of all my favourite sci-fi genres and some fantastic movies. For example, I am watching and BAM. Ron Glass. Aka Sheperd Book from Firefly. Not seen him in anything since - hell I thought at one point that he was dead :s. Next up: Ming Na. Now known as Ming Na Wenn. She was in Stargate Universe and Battlestar Galactica. Next up was Aunt Robyn from how I met your mother (Cobie Smulders). Of course, the biggest star of all that cannot be overlooked: Joss Whedon, along with his sense of humour. A little less punchy than in The Avengers admittedly, but there is a lot of writing.

As can be expected, it is a TV series as opposed to a movie, so there is a much smaller budger, but I have to say, aside from some of the camera work and special effects, there is not a lot of evidence. Much of the cast from The Avengers is present, aside from the big screen names and the big heroes, but I suspect as the series progresses they will find cameos for the original actors. (I will be disappointed if they use different actors.)

My final comment to make is the plot. Just the right level of cheesiness in the names and themes used, but some fantastic tie ins to the other movies, including The Avengers (Naturally) and Iron Man 3. Fingers crossed it holds up! The first episode in these things is always a little rushed and less detailed than the rest of the series, so we shall see!

Keep an eye out for the cross genre slip... "With great power comes great... stuff!"

Go watch, enjoy, I can't wait for the next episode.

Thanks for reading
-V

Star Trek: Into Darkness (Mini review)

I went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness last Thursday, and I must say I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Before you read on, I will likely provide spoilers, although I will try to avoid discussing certain things that happen. You were warned :p

Well, what to say. This movie tries to bring a more 'bridge-family' feel to the new genre of Star Trek, and I think it does it very well. With big challenges, some twists and some awesome acting and effects it brings a very different flavour than the first Star Trek movie.

I felt 'John Harrison' played by Benedict Cumberbatch was particularly epic. I thought it was going to be a bit wishy washy this one, and I have never been so glad to stand corrected. The plot is somewhat akin to Star Trek II with many crossovers, and a but tonne of references to the previous movies, but with many many changes which all but add to the levels of epicosity...

I had a fair idea of the plot before going to see the movie, but a mate of mine did not and lets just say the movie has a few elements of surprise - Harrison being one he was not expecting.

I am not too sure what I can say for this one without providing spoilers but Epic trailer, Epic movie, Epic score and Epic action :) If you have not seen it yet, get out and go see!!

-V

Olympus Has Fallen: Honest Velk Review

Olympus has Fallen... Honest review. (Trying to avoid spoilers) -- scroll to view or hide post if it didn't work :p

I did not think this was a bad film actually, the IMDB rating of 7/10 is probably apt. A pretty wishy washy introductory half hour with a pretty poorly put together story line designed to to get to the meaty goodness that is actually a pretty decent action flick, if designed a little too much to get y'all purty payte-ree-aw-tic, for the last hour and a half. Gerard Butler does Die Hard is pretty much the best description I can give it :p

Stoo recommends: Turn up half an hour late, let a flashback tell you the entirety of the intro story and enjoy some pretty Brutal action :D

The Elder Scrolls Online - How Factions and PVP will work

Hey folks,

I stumbled upon this merry little >article< over on the Elder Scrolls Online page. Interesting. Very interesting.

I have been thinking for a while - well, when I say me I mean we, and by we I mean my wife and I... I digress. We have been thinking for a while about how TESO will work with regards to factions. My thoughts lay in the friction between the Aldmeri Dominion and The Empire, since there is a running theme across TES games.

I am 1/3 to a half right... I decided to chase this up.

Conveniently, since I last looked around for such information - there is a wiki page for it >here<. As you can see, Tamriel has been split into 3 factions, with Cyrodil behaving as a neutral party. The Dagerfall Covenant that will comprise of Breton's Orc's and Redguard, the Ebonheart Pact that will consist of the Argonians, Dunmer and Nords and the Aldmeri Domiion that will consist of the rest of the elves and some kittycats. (Altme, Bosmer and Khajit.)

If there is a particular race you wish to play, it appears you need to go pick a faction. I predict a bias weighted towards the Ebonheart Pact considering the success of Skyrim, but I digress.

The Imperials are not playable, although I suspect that will be something for an expansion to focus on (cunning!) but they are likely to act as quest givers and peace keepers for the most part.

Anyway, read the article linked to the TESO page - I wont go over all the points here, but I will say this: Siege engines, Castle Sieges and Stealth... Oh my!

Courtesy of Pixelvault.Tk

Reminds me of an old Elder Scrolls Joke I came up with... Mer-Kin... Elf folk... Merkins (Not safe for work)... Pubic wigs... Hahahahaha.

April Fools day once more!

So, it is the day the net becomes more unreliable than normal! Happy April Fools day folks. I hope you all had a good easter!

It has been an age since I last updated. I have finally got my latest assignments for this Masters course submitted and have a little bit of free time! Yeeey! Lets plays shall be recommencing tomorrow, and who knows what else. For now though, I have been browsing the net for good Aprils fools posts on various sites.

So far Blizzard has been disappointingly quiet, they are usually one of the better sources :o However, there has been a fantastic George Takei one about him being in the new Star Wars movie... I wish ^.^

Adding to the list... Google Nose... Haha ^.^
-V

GTA V (5) delayed.

I have not posted a lot lately, but this is one that I felt I would chime in on... delayed until September about a month or two from its expected launch date...

What impact can we expect this to have to sales I ask myself... well, first of all it has certainly gained some free publicity... it gives more time for people to get interested, place pre-orders, etc. etc. but I think there will be many fans raging about this move. Still, it is a large game, and often errors or delays will occur, and since they need to make sure the game goes out working, it can take a long time to refine the details.

Put it this way, I would rather they took an extra 6 months and done a Bethesda / Blizzard and produced one fine quality game, than rush it out the door anyway to satisfy the handful of customers who will huff off and refuse to buy it because of the 'broken promise' that is a predicted but un-fixed release date...

Anyway, I leave you with this. So totally agreeing with this too... Put up a few days ago by the awesome Ctrl+Alt+Del :D (Hopefully they dont mind me re-sharing! Check them out - one of the best web comics about IMO :p ) Oh, also -  I started a new lets play to tide myself over... view it >Here<

The Elder Scrolls Online

Soon this game goes to beta... I am not sure what to expect but I am looking forward to the game immensely. If I get into the beta I fully plan to share my experiences (within the conditions of the NDA) here :-)

Interestingly though, the world sounds like it is going to be MASSIVE. As in bigger than WOW massive, including its expansions...

More to come as I dig into what is out there :D

P.S enjoy some in game footage :)

Pay to play, pay to play more. Free to play gone mad...

Had this video linked to me from a friend. I couldn't agree more... I love the Free to play system, especially after working in a games company developing them about the time when the likes of Blacklight Retribution came out, and more recently: Planetside 2.

As for games that use the traditional gaming model, and then charge for additional in game content that sucks. (I'm looking at you Bethesda - Horse Armour?) But as mentioned here... games that you pay for then are pretty much pushed into spending more to get the proper gaming experience... to hell with that. I say just don't pay at all. They are essentially building a game that is broken or incomplete, and then making you pay to fill the holes... OCTAE*... ones that may be worth it, but they wont be core to the gaming experience, just cheap tag on's... but I don't see any.

*Of Course There Are Exceptions.

Data Science - The Msc Begins.

Greetings all!

I am feeling rather geeky today. As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I have just started an Msc in Data Science. Whilst I wont discuss course content in detail here (that may be somewhat disagreeable to those that put in the effort to assemble the curriculum) I will likely put up a few posts on what it entails, and what I am doing with it.

For now, know this: It is the 2nd day of the course, and it is a lot of work... a lot of work with a lot of new faces... and it is a buttload of fun!

For now, here is an interesting article that gives a little overview on Data Science.

http://uk.emc.com/collateral/about/news/emc-data-science-study-wp.pdf

Laters
-V

What I'm up to

It has been a decidedly quiet couple of months on the Blog front, for that I apologise. I have been spending the majority of my time trying to keep sane, holiday period, family and making let's plays. From Monday I return to uni to start my Masters in Data Science. Im not entirely sure how I feel about this yet, family calls it me just wanting to be an eternal student, but I rather fancy the career prospects at the end of it! :-)

That is all for now, just a little update. I will likely post more once my brain is in action on various topics I will be covering as a method of revision, so prepare to be geeked upon.

-V