As some of you may know who follow me on Twitter, I had a major disaster today. For those that don't know my screen on my MacBook Pro went up the wall. Upon closer inspection, it looks like the LCD panel behind the screen glass has a crack in it causing the liquid crystals to malfunction and the display to be all messed up.
I got the MacBook Pro just over 4 years ago and it has been my pride and joy and more importantly, my workhorse ever since. Even after all the time of owning it, I never encountered any serious errors, no slow down of the machine at all and it handled all my requirements with little or no fuss. It cost me close to £2,000.00 when I got which also included some software that I got with it. As you can imagine I am somewhat devastated at the moment.
I have an appointment at the Apple Center tomorrow where the last rites will no doubt be administered. From what I have read online, the replacement of the screens is very expensive and is not a million miles from an entry level MacBook Pro. However, it remains to be seen as to whether this applies to my model as it has an LCD display as opposed to the newer LED ones and the article I got the information from was not clear.
How did it happen? It was an accident that is all. It wasn't strictly my fault and I am not going into the whys and wherefores because it is not relevant nor is it fair to other party concerned. It was an accident. That is what makes it all the more galling. I keep replaying it over in my head and wished I had done something different, but that is life isn't it? Fortunately I still have my iMac which is just over a year old so I can still blog and access the web and so on. The main draw back is that until I get my MBP repaired or replaced there won't be anymore video game reviews being posted once I have done the next two that I have already recorded the raw footage for.
You see, I record the footage on my MBP and fire it across onto my iMac for editing and the recording of the review. This is simply because my games consoles are located in an entirely different room in the house and so using my iMac is out of the question and I am not going to start unplugging my consoles and dragging them to where my iMac is. I am hoping that this will prove to be a moot point and that I can get this sorted out one way or another.
Depending on what happens tomorrow I may have to see if I can make an insurance claim, however if they will pay for the repair I want it done by Apple and not some third party I am not familiar with. I don't want an inferior display being used and I certainly don't like the idea of some back street repair shop having my lap top for some untold amount of time. It is not snobby, I just want a proper job doing and I want to be able to get my hands on the store responsible for repairing it. I don't really want it to be written off either. I know it means I can get a brand new MacBook Pro which will be more powerful and do better things and so on, but sad as it seems I really like my MBP! I want it fixed. I prefer the older keyboard that it has over the new ones, I even prefer it's design with the all silver screen as opposed to the new ones which have a black border around. It is my pride and joy and I would like it to be fixed thank you very much!
So where does the bad karma or rubbish luck come in. Well, yesterday I was laughing with my niece about how my other niece and my sister are pretty rubbish when it comes to technology. The irony comes in when I stated that I had my MBP for over 4 years and never once had a problem. Less than 24 hours later I am ready to drown my sorrows whilst looking at my ruined MBP screen. I know people will say it is a coincidence but it is interesting to note how many times this sort of thing happens in your life. Whether it is getting your comeuppance like me or other more minor things, so many events like this happen that I refuse to believe that it is purely down to chance. Can it be bad luck? Well no not really because it does not always work against you, sometimes it works for you as well.
I cannot pretend to speak with any intelligence on the subject because I have done no research into it whatsoever but it is just a personal thought on the matter. Like ripples in the water, I believe that our actions can have a knock on effect in someway. Whether events like what happened to me today are put into place as a reminder that I am not the 'big I am' when it comes to maintaining and running computers and that I am equally as fallible when it comes to fates fickle hand or not I think there are too many occasions in ones life to simply disregard the possibility of some higher influence controlling certain aspects of each of our lives. And no, I am not referring to God. In truth I have no idea what I am referring to but I can only say that like when you do something in the physical world it has a knock on effect, so I think it applies in the psychological one as well. I am digging a hole here so I think I will quite whilst I am losing!
Monday, 28 February 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011
A COUPLE OF REALLY GOOD GAMES
I have been enjoying the joys of Killzone 3 and Bulletstorm this weekend. I have to say that the developers of these two titles have really done a great job.
Bulletstorm is so outrageous it's brilliant. The tag line 'Kill with Skill' is appropriate as the game afford you many opportunities to use the environment to dispose of the assorted lunatics that infest each level. Of course you can use the conventional means of using a gun, but the real rewards come from 'leashing' them through the air, firing off a few shots before kicking them into some lethal scenery or over a cliff. Pure over the top action and great fun.
Killzone 3 is more of a straight forward FPS but again it's great fun, especially online. I had a really good gaming session online on Friday night. Very enjoyable and had some good laughs as well. If only more online games were like this.
The patch for Test Drive 2 Unlimited has supposedly been completed and is now with Microsoft for their authorization. So it's now the waiting game until someone at Microsoft decides to allow us the pleasure of being able to play the game as intended. Quite why it takes so long I don't know. What is clear is that their checking methods don't appear to ensure that the patch works as many patches have gone through before today that have broken other elements in the game they are supposed to be fixing. It sounds more like a load of unnecessary red tape. Oh well, the joys of gaming.
Bulletstorm is so outrageous it's brilliant. The tag line 'Kill with Skill' is appropriate as the game afford you many opportunities to use the environment to dispose of the assorted lunatics that infest each level. Of course you can use the conventional means of using a gun, but the real rewards come from 'leashing' them through the air, firing off a few shots before kicking them into some lethal scenery or over a cliff. Pure over the top action and great fun.
Killzone 3 is more of a straight forward FPS but again it's great fun, especially online. I had a really good gaming session online on Friday night. Very enjoyable and had some good laughs as well. If only more online games were like this.
The patch for Test Drive 2 Unlimited has supposedly been completed and is now with Microsoft for their authorization. So it's now the waiting game until someone at Microsoft decides to allow us the pleasure of being able to play the game as intended. Quite why it takes so long I don't know. What is clear is that their checking methods don't appear to ensure that the patch works as many patches have gone through before today that have broken other elements in the game they are supposed to be fixing. It sounds more like a load of unnecessary red tape. Oh well, the joys of gaming.
Friday, 25 February 2011
A SURREAL MOMENT
I went to watch True Grit at the cinema last night. It's a fantastic film and well worth watching. On the way back I decided to go to the midnight launch of Killzone 3 for the PS3 at the Trafford Center - one of the largest shopping malls in the UK. I figured it would save me having to go out on Friday morning to get it and I also wanted to get Bulletstorm and pre-order the Nintendo 3DS whilst I was there.
I got there at about 11.30pm and decided to wait in the car a while. At about 11.45pm I decided to go in. I was tired and didn't want to be stood in a massive queue as what happened when I went to the Gran Turismo 5 launch a few months ago.
As I approach Game I noticed that there was no one stood outside. That was not to be unexpected as their usual policy is to allow people into the store to pick up the copy of the game they want and then queue until midnight when they can officially scan the game through the tills.
When I got there and looked inside the store, there was no one but the staff there. Literally I was the only consumer in the whole of the Trafford Centre. I say this because Game was the only store that was open and the other outlet downstairs had their shutter down and no one was stood outside.
Rather than keep me waiting, the good folks there dealt with my order and sorted out my 3DS pre-order as well. It was so surreal being the only consumer in such a huge shopping mall! I got a sense what it must feel like to be one of those celebrities that get to access shops outside of opening hours in order to do their shopping hassle free.
As much as I whine about how other people annoy me, there was something quite eerie and discomforting about being the sole focus of attention from three sales assistants in an empty shop. Walking out of the dimly lit shopping center alone you cannot help but start to feel a bit self conscious about it. I suppose it has to do with the fact that places like that are usually so busy and to be in there when there are no other people wandering about feels naturally wrong if that makes any sense.
As I got back to the car another person pulled up and asked me if Game was open. I held my bag up and said yes. I don't know how many people went to the midnight launch after me, but the experience of having an entire shopping mall to myself for those 15 or 20 minutes is one that will stay with me for a while.
I got there at about 11.30pm and decided to wait in the car a while. At about 11.45pm I decided to go in. I was tired and didn't want to be stood in a massive queue as what happened when I went to the Gran Turismo 5 launch a few months ago.
As I approach Game I noticed that there was no one stood outside. That was not to be unexpected as their usual policy is to allow people into the store to pick up the copy of the game they want and then queue until midnight when they can officially scan the game through the tills.
When I got there and looked inside the store, there was no one but the staff there. Literally I was the only consumer in the whole of the Trafford Centre. I say this because Game was the only store that was open and the other outlet downstairs had their shutter down and no one was stood outside.
Rather than keep me waiting, the good folks there dealt with my order and sorted out my 3DS pre-order as well. It was so surreal being the only consumer in such a huge shopping mall! I got a sense what it must feel like to be one of those celebrities that get to access shops outside of opening hours in order to do their shopping hassle free.
As much as I whine about how other people annoy me, there was something quite eerie and discomforting about being the sole focus of attention from three sales assistants in an empty shop. Walking out of the dimly lit shopping center alone you cannot help but start to feel a bit self conscious about it. I suppose it has to do with the fact that places like that are usually so busy and to be in there when there are no other people wandering about feels naturally wrong if that makes any sense.
As I got back to the car another person pulled up and asked me if Game was open. I held my bag up and said yes. I don't know how many people went to the midnight launch after me, but the experience of having an entire shopping mall to myself for those 15 or 20 minutes is one that will stay with me for a while.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
CRAP CGI & RUBBISH CAMERA WORK
If there is one thing guaranteed to ruin a film is crap CGI mixed in with awful 'shaky cam' whenever there is any action on screen.
It seems that the lower the films budget the worse it gets, although with regards to 'shaky cam' it also affects some big budget releases as well. I just don't get it. Why ruin an action scene with camera work that renders it impossible to tell what is going on? It is not dynamic or exciting, it is just totally rubbish, annoying and a cheap way of getting away without having to choreograph the scene properly.
In low budget films it is often to try and cover up the fact that the CGI is so bad that it would not stand up to any scrutiny that a well composed shot would bring. Consequently the viewer is treated to the camera being violent flung around the shot like the camera man is having some sort of seizure.
Given the fact that CGI is generally regarded as being quite expensive (any doubts then check out the special features on the Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace DVD where George Lucas discusses the budget with ILM) why do low budget films use it? For many years prior to the proliferation of CGI monster movies and action movies got by perfectly well without the need of a computer. Look at some low budget horror films in the 1970's and 1980's. They used practical effects and creativity and over all the effect was far more convincing than some horrible, poorly textured and rendered CGI abominations that we see frequently on the likes of the SyFy channel.
A case in point. I watched a movie recently called Mega Piranha. Now I know I should not be expecting anything Earth shattering, and I wasn't, but the CGI was so bad that it was laughable. If the idea was to create some sort of horror film then the only thing horrific was the special effects. Not only was the CGI poorly textured (it looked like a cut scene from a PSOne game) but the animation and design was so bad it made me wonder if the 'artists' we intentionally trying to make as bad a job as possible.
CGI has had many benefits for the film industry and I am by no means a hater. Movies like Jurassic Park and Avatar show exactly what can be done when you have top artists and a budget to match but when you are going low budget forget it.
You know, there is nothing wrong with good old fashioned make up and creature design. Go and watch the work of Rob Bottin in The Thing. Go and watch Rick Baker's amazing Werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf In London. Not one computer was used to create those effects yet they provided some of the most horrifying and lasting imagery in cinema.
It seems that the lower the films budget the worse it gets, although with regards to 'shaky cam' it also affects some big budget releases as well. I just don't get it. Why ruin an action scene with camera work that renders it impossible to tell what is going on? It is not dynamic or exciting, it is just totally rubbish, annoying and a cheap way of getting away without having to choreograph the scene properly.
In low budget films it is often to try and cover up the fact that the CGI is so bad that it would not stand up to any scrutiny that a well composed shot would bring. Consequently the viewer is treated to the camera being violent flung around the shot like the camera man is having some sort of seizure.
Given the fact that CGI is generally regarded as being quite expensive (any doubts then check out the special features on the Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace DVD where George Lucas discusses the budget with ILM) why do low budget films use it? For many years prior to the proliferation of CGI monster movies and action movies got by perfectly well without the need of a computer. Look at some low budget horror films in the 1970's and 1980's. They used practical effects and creativity and over all the effect was far more convincing than some horrible, poorly textured and rendered CGI abominations that we see frequently on the likes of the SyFy channel.
A case in point. I watched a movie recently called Mega Piranha. Now I know I should not be expecting anything Earth shattering, and I wasn't, but the CGI was so bad that it was laughable. If the idea was to create some sort of horror film then the only thing horrific was the special effects. Not only was the CGI poorly textured (it looked like a cut scene from a PSOne game) but the animation and design was so bad it made me wonder if the 'artists' we intentionally trying to make as bad a job as possible.
CGI has had many benefits for the film industry and I am by no means a hater. Movies like Jurassic Park and Avatar show exactly what can be done when you have top artists and a budget to match but when you are going low budget forget it.
You know, there is nothing wrong with good old fashioned make up and creature design. Go and watch the work of Rob Bottin in The Thing. Go and watch Rick Baker's amazing Werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf In London. Not one computer was used to create those effects yet they provided some of the most horrifying and lasting imagery in cinema.
Wednesday, 23 February 2011
BRIEF UPDATE
I don't really have much to talk about today so I will just provide a brief update on what I hope to be doing over the next few days.
Tomorrow I am going to see True Grit at the cinema. I do like Westerns and the original starring John Wayne was a cracking film so I am really looking forward to the remake.
Friday sees the release of a couple of games that I am really looking forward to playing. Bulletstorm and Killzone 3. I was also going to buy the RPG Two Worlds 2 but this has been put back one week and I understand that this is now an Amazon exclusive so I have ordered it from there. I know the original was not to everyone's taste but the more hard core RPG crowed seemed to like it. I thought it was a great alternative to Oblivion.
I really like RPG games. I love creating a character then starting out on an adventure learning skills and ranking up abilities and so and completing quests. RPG's offer much more detailed worlds that most other game genres and I love losing myself in alternate universes.
My copy of Blood Stone 007 arrived today. I had to own Bizarre Creations last game, although I am fully aware that in order to that I had to pay money that will ultimately end up in Activision's back pocket. There is not much I can do about that and I am not going to go down the path of boycotting all Activision products just because they closed down a beloved game studio. I never understand people who make these so called moral stances. At the end of the day, the likely hood is that you will end up buying a game released by Activision. You may as well say that you are going to boycott the gaming industry as a whole because by no means are Activision the only publisher shutting down development studios.
So that's it. Just a brief update for now.
Tomorrow I am going to see True Grit at the cinema. I do like Westerns and the original starring John Wayne was a cracking film so I am really looking forward to the remake.
Friday sees the release of a couple of games that I am really looking forward to playing. Bulletstorm and Killzone 3. I was also going to buy the RPG Two Worlds 2 but this has been put back one week and I understand that this is now an Amazon exclusive so I have ordered it from there. I know the original was not to everyone's taste but the more hard core RPG crowed seemed to like it. I thought it was a great alternative to Oblivion.
I really like RPG games. I love creating a character then starting out on an adventure learning skills and ranking up abilities and so and completing quests. RPG's offer much more detailed worlds that most other game genres and I love losing myself in alternate universes.
My copy of Blood Stone 007 arrived today. I had to own Bizarre Creations last game, although I am fully aware that in order to that I had to pay money that will ultimately end up in Activision's back pocket. There is not much I can do about that and I am not going to go down the path of boycotting all Activision products just because they closed down a beloved game studio. I never understand people who make these so called moral stances. At the end of the day, the likely hood is that you will end up buying a game released by Activision. You may as well say that you are going to boycott the gaming industry as a whole because by no means are Activision the only publisher shutting down development studios.
So that's it. Just a brief update for now.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
THE WAITING GAME
"* Improve login process to allow a higher volume of successful connections
* Increase online stability across all multiplayer functionality
* Improve performance and stability of Friends List and Friend Invites
* Address issues related to file corruption
* Enable Club and MyTDULife functionality
* Enable Co-Op races
* Enable weather while offline
* Address an issue where players can get a Lancia which has no car data (the patch should prevent this from occurring in the future, and restore players who are currently affected by the issue)"
A rather unconventional way to start a blog I know but I wanted to begin this rant by listing the possible fixes that the up and coming patch for Test Drive Unlimited 2 should get whenever the powers that be can be bothered to release it for the X Box 360. It is worth noting that in no way is the above list a comprehensive collection of the known issues with Test Drive Unlimited 2.
I have highlighted the top few for a reason as I think that these more than any other should have been tested and fixed prior to the games release. Why? Because the core of TDU2 is it's online functionality. However this appears to be where TDU2 has the most issues - there are others I hasten to add which are not attributable to it's online shortcomings but I will come to them in good time.
I cannot remember a game launching with so many core issues still outstanding upon it's release. What's more, here we are nearly two weeks after and still key components are not working. Clearly my initial thought that the problems might be server based were way short of the mark. What is very apparent is that TDU2 was released into the market place incomplete. In plainer language, the developers have not finished programming the game yet.
Now I went on at length to rail against this attitude in my previous blog 'Please Stand By' which I composed on the day the game was released, but when I typed that I had little idea of the magnitude of the problems with the game or that nearly two weeks later I would still be sat with what is essentially a broken game that I paid £39.99 for.
It's just not good enough. How is it that game developers and publishers are being allowed to get away with this?
Well, if looking at the TDU2 forums is anything to go by, they get away with it because sadly there seems to be a sizable number of gamers out there who seem content to put up with this treatment and seem to act as though playing games is some sort of privilege as opposed to a right considering they have paid for it.
Here in the UK we have a law which clearly states that any sold product must be fit for purpose when purchased. In the case of Test Drive Unlimited 2 this is clearly not the case. The back of box clearly indicates that Co-Op online gaming is a feature yet as you can see from the list provided by Eden Games at the top of this page, it is not working. In fact there appears to be a large chunk of this game that is not functioning either correctly or not at all. Why is it OK to sell this then? And more's to the point, why are people seemingly happy to put up with it?
If the online issues were not enough, I have had instances where my car has literally fallen through the road, had AI cars materialize out of nowhere and drops in frame rates which at this point in the 360's life should not be occurring.
I know I have ranted about this before, but it really gets under my skin and again it shows an apathy that most people have when it comes to getting shafted by companies when you have paid a considerable amount of money for their products. I am not sitting in any kind of judgment here because I have been guilty of the same. Just sitting down and thinking about makes me wonder why gamers seem to have this infinite amount of patience when it comes to waiting for things to get sorted out.
I also wanted to make a special mention to EA as well. Nearly all their major releases have problems online. Battlefield, FIFA and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (whose much heralded Autolog which formed the main body of it's online functionality was still on the blink the last time I played it). These are to name but a few. Even games like the Call of Duty franchise have had major issues with cheats and hackers online. This is something I would have been more understanding with playing on the PC which is an open system, but certainly not the supposed closed system of the X Box 360. Every so often Microsoft may swing the ban hammer on the cheats, but the damage is already done and the enjoyment has been lost.
With a greater focus being made on the online element of games these days, often at the expense of a comprehensive single player campaign, it is alarming that so many titles are released with this element broken.
I am not moaning for the sake of it, but I really wish that more people would start giving these developers and publishers a hard time and make them aware that gamers are not going to put up with this crap anymore. There is nothing unreasonable about expecting a game to do what it says on the box when we buy it. It is totally unreasonable for the developers and publishers to expect us the paying public to play the waiting game whilst they fix issues that should have been fixed prior to the games release.
Monday, 21 February 2011
DON'T GIVE ME A BREAK
Adverts, commercials, messages from sponsors. Call them what you like they all add up to the same thing as far as I am concerned: A unwanted intrusion on my viewing of a television program.
I appreciate why they exist and how necessary they are for many broadcasters to be able to broadcast, but it does not mean that they are welcome or liked. Many try to be clever, some entertaining, but the bottom line is this. No one in their right mind sits down to watch the television just to watch the commercials.
This was really bought into focus when I was watching the Super Bowl. It seemed that every two or three minutes there was a commercial break. It got to the point whereby I actually became convinced that the NFL has deliberately organized it's sport to tailor the television advertising revenue. If that is the case, then how sad is that?
Sport is one thing, when I am watching a film or television program then that is something else altogether.
I don't watch an awful lot of television. I find most of the shows on there mindless drivel that is agenda driven, catering for the brain dead or stuff that I simply have no interest in whatsoever. Occasionally a program might appear that I want to watch or a film and this where the adverts always seem to raise their ugly heads. Just as you start to get into the film, along comes a three minute ad break. Break is an appropriate word. It breaks your concentration and enjoyment of the movie. When I watch a film I like to be drawn into the world that the writer and the director are trying to depict. I find that very hard to do when, with little warning, some annoying idiot pops up on the television trying to sell me car insurance.
There are some channels which don't break up the broadcast of films etc with commercials but these are either found on Sky or other subscription services or the BBC. It seems that most of the time, the programs I want to watch just so happen to be on those channels that like to maximize their advertising revenue.
As I have already said, I understand that television channels need to generate income from advertisers but I would rather there be a larger gap between programs for more adverts to be broadcast then and allow the programs to be shown without interruption.
Perhaps this is a vain hope but at least with the advent of digital recorders it is now possible to record programs then fast forward through the breaks. A small mercy, I suppose.
I appreciate why they exist and how necessary they are for many broadcasters to be able to broadcast, but it does not mean that they are welcome or liked. Many try to be clever, some entertaining, but the bottom line is this. No one in their right mind sits down to watch the television just to watch the commercials.
This was really bought into focus when I was watching the Super Bowl. It seemed that every two or three minutes there was a commercial break. It got to the point whereby I actually became convinced that the NFL has deliberately organized it's sport to tailor the television advertising revenue. If that is the case, then how sad is that?
Sport is one thing, when I am watching a film or television program then that is something else altogether.
I don't watch an awful lot of television. I find most of the shows on there mindless drivel that is agenda driven, catering for the brain dead or stuff that I simply have no interest in whatsoever. Occasionally a program might appear that I want to watch or a film and this where the adverts always seem to raise their ugly heads. Just as you start to get into the film, along comes a three minute ad break. Break is an appropriate word. It breaks your concentration and enjoyment of the movie. When I watch a film I like to be drawn into the world that the writer and the director are trying to depict. I find that very hard to do when, with little warning, some annoying idiot pops up on the television trying to sell me car insurance.
There are some channels which don't break up the broadcast of films etc with commercials but these are either found on Sky or other subscription services or the BBC. It seems that most of the time, the programs I want to watch just so happen to be on those channels that like to maximize their advertising revenue.
As I have already said, I understand that television channels need to generate income from advertisers but I would rather there be a larger gap between programs for more adverts to be broadcast then and allow the programs to be shown without interruption.
Perhaps this is a vain hope but at least with the advent of digital recorders it is now possible to record programs then fast forward through the breaks. A small mercy, I suppose.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
WASTEFUL
Do any of you buy the points cards for the Wii, X Box 360 and PS3? How about the World of Warcraft play time cards?
If so you will know exactly what I mean when I say that they are so wasteful. In each case (not sure about the WoW cards as it's been a while since I bought one but was the case about a year ago) you end up buying the card encased in a DVD sized case. Why? Is there some economic reason for this? Am I right in thinking that it's both environmentally and economically advantageous to produce these over a small card holder like most high street store gift cards come in?
At least with the PS3 ones you can use the case a spare PS3 games case should any of your game cases get cracked. Microsoft have gone to the length of specifically producing a case that only fits the card. In fairness they have recently revised this again to be a smaller slimmed down version, but it is still over the top.
Can we please just have points cards without the over the top wasteful packaging?
I don't expect cheaper points cards, but I would like to think that I was throwing out a lot less rubbish than I need to. Producing less rubbish starts with the suppliers of goods and I think it is high time this over the top packaging was kicked into touch for more practical options.
If so you will know exactly what I mean when I say that they are so wasteful. In each case (not sure about the WoW cards as it's been a while since I bought one but was the case about a year ago) you end up buying the card encased in a DVD sized case. Why? Is there some economic reason for this? Am I right in thinking that it's both environmentally and economically advantageous to produce these over a small card holder like most high street store gift cards come in?
At least with the PS3 ones you can use the case a spare PS3 games case should any of your game cases get cracked. Microsoft have gone to the length of specifically producing a case that only fits the card. In fairness they have recently revised this again to be a smaller slimmed down version, but it is still over the top.
Can we please just have points cards without the over the top wasteful packaging?
I don't expect cheaper points cards, but I would like to think that I was throwing out a lot less rubbish than I need to. Producing less rubbish starts with the suppliers of goods and I think it is high time this over the top packaging was kicked into touch for more practical options.
Friday, 18 February 2011
FARE THEE WELL BIZARRE IT WAS A RIDE
So, as most of you probably know, Bizarre Creations shut up shop today as part of Activision cutting their development teams.
So we wave goodbye and farewell to one of the most talented studios to produce games for the past sixteen or so years. What is interesting is that Bizarre were doing very well under the umbrella of Microsoft but when they decided to part company after Project Gotham Racing 4 to try something new they probably had no idea that a few short years later they would be closing down for good. When they were hoovered up by Activision they probably envisaged more stability being under the so called protection of one of the largest games publishers on the planet.
Yet as of today they are no more as Activison decided not to fund them anymore. It is probably fair to say that their last two games, Blur and Bloodstone could have sold more, but then again, Activision should have done more to market these titles. Blur was a great racing game which was enjoyable to play offline and online yet compared to the same predictable cash cow releases like Call of Duty it received very little exposure.
In many ways Bizarre were very unlucky when it came to James Bond: Bloodstone. This was supposed to be tied into a new Bond movie release but the film got delayed leaving the project high and dry. This was compounded by the fact that the game was also released in the same period as the Goldeneye reboot on the Wii and it became overshadowed. Having yet to play the game myself, I cannot comment as to whether it is any good or not, but I doubt it was a significantly worse game than other Activision releases this past year. What isn't in doubt is that it would have sold a darn sight more if the Bond movie had come out.
In my opinion, Activision have acted far too swiftly in letting the axe fall on Bizarre. Again the money men who know absolutely nothing about video games call the shots and another studio bites the dust. I hope that the staff find new homes so that their creativity can continue but it won't be the same.
With impunity Activision have swept away an excellent studio that has provided some truly excellent games down the years. The next time you buy Call of Generic Seen It All Before Shooter 37 and are bored of it, just spare a thought for Bizarre Creations and what they brought to the gaming table since 1994.
So we wave goodbye and farewell to one of the most talented studios to produce games for the past sixteen or so years. What is interesting is that Bizarre were doing very well under the umbrella of Microsoft but when they decided to part company after Project Gotham Racing 4 to try something new they probably had no idea that a few short years later they would be closing down for good. When they were hoovered up by Activision they probably envisaged more stability being under the so called protection of one of the largest games publishers on the planet.
Yet as of today they are no more as Activison decided not to fund them anymore. It is probably fair to say that their last two games, Blur and Bloodstone could have sold more, but then again, Activision should have done more to market these titles. Blur was a great racing game which was enjoyable to play offline and online yet compared to the same predictable cash cow releases like Call of Duty it received very little exposure.
In many ways Bizarre were very unlucky when it came to James Bond: Bloodstone. This was supposed to be tied into a new Bond movie release but the film got delayed leaving the project high and dry. This was compounded by the fact that the game was also released in the same period as the Goldeneye reboot on the Wii and it became overshadowed. Having yet to play the game myself, I cannot comment as to whether it is any good or not, but I doubt it was a significantly worse game than other Activision releases this past year. What isn't in doubt is that it would have sold a darn sight more if the Bond movie had come out.
In my opinion, Activision have acted far too swiftly in letting the axe fall on Bizarre. Again the money men who know absolutely nothing about video games call the shots and another studio bites the dust. I hope that the staff find new homes so that their creativity can continue but it won't be the same.
With impunity Activision have swept away an excellent studio that has provided some truly excellent games down the years. The next time you buy Call of Generic Seen It All Before Shooter 37 and are bored of it, just spare a thought for Bizarre Creations and what they brought to the gaming table since 1994.
Thursday, 17 February 2011
MY NEW VIDEO REVIEW
I thought I would add my own video reviews I do on You Tube here so that have everything in one place.
This review is the first one I have tried using an ad-hoc method of reviewing instead of the scripted efforts I have been using for some time. I started out on an ad-hoc basis but quickly switched to a script to try and cut down on the 'erms' and 'ums.' I don't think it made much difference.
It also sounds like my voice has not completely recovered from the throat infection I had as well.
This review is the first one I have tried using an ad-hoc method of reviewing instead of the scripted efforts I have been using for some time. I started out on an ad-hoc basis but quickly switched to a script to try and cut down on the 'erms' and 'ums.' I don't think it made much difference.
It also sounds like my voice has not completely recovered from the throat infection I had as well.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
BOOK REVIEW - THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
In keeping with trying to keep things fresh on here, I decided that I would do my first book review. For the first one I wanted to review one of my favorite stories of all time - H G Wells The War of the Worlds.
The book was written at the end of the 19th Century and the story is set in this period of history. The story begins with the unnamed character who Wells writes in the first person and is a journalist by occupation witnessing the strange eruption of gas on the surface of the planet Mars. At the time little attention is paid to the events until some time later a cylinder lands on Horsell Common in southern England.
It becomes apparent that this is an alien transportation craft and shortly after the cylinder opens the Martians attack the large crowd that had gathered along the edge of the Common. Using what Wells describes as a 'Heat-Ray' many are left dead. The story develops with the Martians leaving the Common using gigantic tripod war machines that sweep the company of soldiers sent to put down the crisis out of existence. The journalist tries to get back to his wife in Leatherhead after he had taken her there for safety but gets cut off by the Martian advance. For about two weeks he wanders the ruined landscape meeting an Artillery Man who survived the massacre at Horsell Common and a Curate who has been driven insane by the events that have gone on. The book is a tense tale of survival and horror and the mind numbing effects of a hostile and technologically advanced force invading and occupying the country.
Wells writes the book in the first person narrative for the most part. The only time he deviates from this format is to tell the account of his brothers fight for survival in London. By using this method of story telling the book comes across as a more factual account. Wells does not go into any great detail about events that happen outside of his or his brothers own personal experience and this really does add weight to the story telling. It is easy for the reader to become immersed in the horrifying events as they unfold and Wells vivid descriptions of the violence and horror the Martians unleash on the population is terrifying.
Wells does not spare the rod when detailing the effects of the Heat Ray or the Black Smoke that the Martians use as a means of chemical warfare in order to clear vast areas of population. He also describes the Martians ghoulish eating habits which come across more horrifying than their advanced technological assets they have at disposed of people.
When you consider the time that this book was written, it contains many intelligent observations and a good deal of scientific dialogue. It is easy to forgive some of the inaccurate science when dealing with the matters of space and Mars, after all when the book was written man was still struggling with the concepts of flying and knowledge of the planets of the solar system was in it's infancy. However the idea of the Heat Ray can clearly be related to the modern day laser or microwave technology and the Black Smoke would see it's real world counterpart deployed on the battlefield in World War 1 with chemical weapons being used on a large scale.
Again, by using scientific descriptions of the Martian technology and biology, he expertly draws the reader in, but the real impact of the book is more of a social commentary as opposed to a mere work of science fiction.
Wells' main point and one that he hammers home on many occasions is that the Martian invasion is no more horrific than the invasion of the Europeans in other countries and the annihilation of many primitive races and cultures at the hands of the more technologically advanced races. He also draws a parallel to the Dodo when he says that the arrival of European settlers were probably dismissed by the Dodo as a threat to their whole existence as the apathy of the people was to the Martians when the first arrived.
He frequently questions the readers feeling of horror and outrage against the Martians which he juxtaposes against scenes when the Martians are committing acts of genocide. It grounds the reader making an almost credible defence of the Martian indifference to the atrocities they are carrying out. It is quite unique to read a story where the narrator who has seen so much mind bending trauma can be rational enough to argue convincingly that humans have no right to feel indignant about the whole thing.
What is also interesting is that this book was written at the height of the British Empire. Victorian Britain at that time was the super power in the world. The prospect of this Empire being threatened and swept out of existence would have been abhorrent to the population and reading a book such as this must have filled them with fear and dread. It is clear that Wells draws comparisons between the Martians and the British Empire and it serves as a commentary on the way with which seemingly more advanced races view other less advanced with disdain and a lack of compassion.
I could go and cover more themes, but I don't want to give away much more of the book for those who have never read it before.
I love this book because of it's depth. It is not a long book in particular yet manages to pack an awful lot into it's pages. It has stood the test of time as the themes of the book are still relevant today. The Steven Spielberg movie version in 2005 showed that it could still be applied to a modern day culture and so it still does provide a tense and scary read. This story provided the blue print for the alien invasion genre yet tellingly, in my opinion, very few match the original story. I think it is the factual way it is written and presented that elevates it above it's counterparts. It's well worth reading if you have not done so already.
The book was written at the end of the 19th Century and the story is set in this period of history. The story begins with the unnamed character who Wells writes in the first person and is a journalist by occupation witnessing the strange eruption of gas on the surface of the planet Mars. At the time little attention is paid to the events until some time later a cylinder lands on Horsell Common in southern England.
It becomes apparent that this is an alien transportation craft and shortly after the cylinder opens the Martians attack the large crowd that had gathered along the edge of the Common. Using what Wells describes as a 'Heat-Ray' many are left dead. The story develops with the Martians leaving the Common using gigantic tripod war machines that sweep the company of soldiers sent to put down the crisis out of existence. The journalist tries to get back to his wife in Leatherhead after he had taken her there for safety but gets cut off by the Martian advance. For about two weeks he wanders the ruined landscape meeting an Artillery Man who survived the massacre at Horsell Common and a Curate who has been driven insane by the events that have gone on. The book is a tense tale of survival and horror and the mind numbing effects of a hostile and technologically advanced force invading and occupying the country.
Wells writes the book in the first person narrative for the most part. The only time he deviates from this format is to tell the account of his brothers fight for survival in London. By using this method of story telling the book comes across as a more factual account. Wells does not go into any great detail about events that happen outside of his or his brothers own personal experience and this really does add weight to the story telling. It is easy for the reader to become immersed in the horrifying events as they unfold and Wells vivid descriptions of the violence and horror the Martians unleash on the population is terrifying.
Wells does not spare the rod when detailing the effects of the Heat Ray or the Black Smoke that the Martians use as a means of chemical warfare in order to clear vast areas of population. He also describes the Martians ghoulish eating habits which come across more horrifying than their advanced technological assets they have at disposed of people.
When you consider the time that this book was written, it contains many intelligent observations and a good deal of scientific dialogue. It is easy to forgive some of the inaccurate science when dealing with the matters of space and Mars, after all when the book was written man was still struggling with the concepts of flying and knowledge of the planets of the solar system was in it's infancy. However the idea of the Heat Ray can clearly be related to the modern day laser or microwave technology and the Black Smoke would see it's real world counterpart deployed on the battlefield in World War 1 with chemical weapons being used on a large scale.
Again, by using scientific descriptions of the Martian technology and biology, he expertly draws the reader in, but the real impact of the book is more of a social commentary as opposed to a mere work of science fiction.
Wells' main point and one that he hammers home on many occasions is that the Martian invasion is no more horrific than the invasion of the Europeans in other countries and the annihilation of many primitive races and cultures at the hands of the more technologically advanced races. He also draws a parallel to the Dodo when he says that the arrival of European settlers were probably dismissed by the Dodo as a threat to their whole existence as the apathy of the people was to the Martians when the first arrived.
He frequently questions the readers feeling of horror and outrage against the Martians which he juxtaposes against scenes when the Martians are committing acts of genocide. It grounds the reader making an almost credible defence of the Martian indifference to the atrocities they are carrying out. It is quite unique to read a story where the narrator who has seen so much mind bending trauma can be rational enough to argue convincingly that humans have no right to feel indignant about the whole thing.
What is also interesting is that this book was written at the height of the British Empire. Victorian Britain at that time was the super power in the world. The prospect of this Empire being threatened and swept out of existence would have been abhorrent to the population and reading a book such as this must have filled them with fear and dread. It is clear that Wells draws comparisons between the Martians and the British Empire and it serves as a commentary on the way with which seemingly more advanced races view other less advanced with disdain and a lack of compassion.
I could go and cover more themes, but I don't want to give away much more of the book for those who have never read it before.
I love this book because of it's depth. It is not a long book in particular yet manages to pack an awful lot into it's pages. It has stood the test of time as the themes of the book are still relevant today. The Steven Spielberg movie version in 2005 showed that it could still be applied to a modern day culture and so it still does provide a tense and scary read. This story provided the blue print for the alien invasion genre yet tellingly, in my opinion, very few match the original story. I think it is the factual way it is written and presented that elevates it above it's counterparts. It's well worth reading if you have not done so already.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
TDU 2 RANDOM ONLINE GAMER WIBBLE
Having spent quite a few hours on Test Dive Unlimited 2 in the past few days (now that Atari have seemingly sorted out their servers) it has become apparent that a number of fellow users of this game lack the etiquette for MMO's.
This afternoon in particular I seemingly had more than my fair share of idiots deliberately knocking me off the road or even more annoying those that keep harassing you to race them online. What makes this even more irritating is that they tend to be those kitted out in a Bugatti or Ferrari whilst I am going off road in my Land Rover. Tempting me with large stakes if I win the race is not going to suddenly make me stupid. Fools are easily parted from their money and I would like to think that I have some sense as not to think that, on asphalt, a Land Rover is a match for a thorough bred sports car.
One refusal should be enough, but they persistently kept firing the same request over. Should I try and escape their clutches they follow me still firing the same message! Whilst my Land Rover can hold it's own on the dirt, I as a driver cannot and it is only a matter of time before my bottle goes I make the school boy error of finding myself on tarmac or more likely ending up driving into a tree, a rock face or rolling over multiple times! Arggh, go away! My eventual tactic was to 'teleport' myself to the other side of the map. Thankfully they don't appear to have the technology to track me and I am able to make good my escape whilst they scour the map like some crazed Mad Max road gang member looking for someone else to leap on.
Say what you like about the World of Warcraft crowd, in my time of playing it I found that a certain etiquette existed between players roaming about in the world. Often a passer by would boost my stats with a handy spell of if they could see that I was getting my arse kicked (a frequent occurrence) they offer a helping hand. If someone suggested a duel and I declined, I was tended to be left alone to continue my aimless wanderings, not stalked for the next hour whilst I try and make good my escape! I would like to say that the stalking/battering thing was an issue with the console community, but I have not had these issues with DC Universe Online on the PS3. I wonder if cars bring out the worst in people?
I know the nature of these games is to play with one another online, but sometimes, it's just nice to cruise around the island with your window down listening to some large tunes on the radio. Finding myself upside down in a ditch with the car spinning round is not the ideal way I would choose to spend an evening!
This afternoon in particular I seemingly had more than my fair share of idiots deliberately knocking me off the road or even more annoying those that keep harassing you to race them online. What makes this even more irritating is that they tend to be those kitted out in a Bugatti or Ferrari whilst I am going off road in my Land Rover. Tempting me with large stakes if I win the race is not going to suddenly make me stupid. Fools are easily parted from their money and I would like to think that I have some sense as not to think that, on asphalt, a Land Rover is a match for a thorough bred sports car.
One refusal should be enough, but they persistently kept firing the same request over. Should I try and escape their clutches they follow me still firing the same message! Whilst my Land Rover can hold it's own on the dirt, I as a driver cannot and it is only a matter of time before my bottle goes I make the school boy error of finding myself on tarmac or more likely ending up driving into a tree, a rock face or rolling over multiple times! Arggh, go away! My eventual tactic was to 'teleport' myself to the other side of the map. Thankfully they don't appear to have the technology to track me and I am able to make good my escape whilst they scour the map like some crazed Mad Max road gang member looking for someone else to leap on.
Say what you like about the World of Warcraft crowd, in my time of playing it I found that a certain etiquette existed between players roaming about in the world. Often a passer by would boost my stats with a handy spell of if they could see that I was getting my arse kicked (a frequent occurrence) they offer a helping hand. If someone suggested a duel and I declined, I was tended to be left alone to continue my aimless wanderings, not stalked for the next hour whilst I try and make good my escape! I would like to say that the stalking/battering thing was an issue with the console community, but I have not had these issues with DC Universe Online on the PS3. I wonder if cars bring out the worst in people?
I know the nature of these games is to play with one another online, but sometimes, it's just nice to cruise around the island with your window down listening to some large tunes on the radio. Finding myself upside down in a ditch with the car spinning round is not the ideal way I would choose to spend an evening!
Monday, 14 February 2011
RIGHT TO COMPLAIN
The one thing that really angers me is when a game is released that does not work properly, you go onto the official forums where people are posted their justified displeasure only to be met by people who respond by telling them to stop complaining.
It angers me because if you spend your money on something you have a right to expect it to work as described from day one. Video games are not cheap to buy and the least you should expect from a developer and publisher is that the game is fit for purpose on day one. Now I am not stupid enough to realise that there will always be bugs that slip through the QA process, but recently the level of bugs has been totally unacceptable. In many cases we are seeing game breaking bugs that render the software almost unplayable, whether it is the game crashing all the time or save files becoming corrupted. These type of errors are not acceptable.
You see the thing that these people who post in defence of the developers on these forums assume is that everyone has their consoles connected online. This is simply not the case. It may surprise some people to know that there is still a very large portion of the gaming community that don't have their consoles connected for online play. If they purchase one of these games with these problems, just how are they supposed to get the fix? There is no obvious solution I can think of, so they are effectively stuck with a broken game. That is hardly fair or acceptable is it?
Now game fixes are nothing new. As a one time PC gamer I always expected a patch to come out after a game was released to address issues but this tended to be more to do with the developers having to cater for many different configurations of PC's in the market. There are no such excuses for consoles games, yet this problem has not only crossed formats but is getting worse.
One of the reasons I think this has become the case is that now game release schedules are controlled by the accountants of the publishing companies. Releases are being shoe horned into financial periods to boost the value of the company and to ensure that sales revenue is maximised. There is nothing wrong with this on one level, but when it means that games are being put into the market place when they are clearly not ready for release then it is wrong and something needs to be done about it. The current attitude of shoveling the game out and saying you will fix the issues post release should not be acceptable.
The defenders of these publishers and developers don't seem to see this. The moment you start telling people to stop moaning about something that is broken is the moment you accept the theory that it is OK to sell unfinished games.
If you purchased a film and it stopped halfway through and you were advised that a fix was in the works, you are more likely to return it for something else or a refund, the same if you bought an album only to find half the songs missing. Therefore why do people think that it OK for games to be released in this fashion.
Without people willing to draw a line and say enough is enough, things don't improve they just get worse. As long as game developers and publishers get away with this then they will continue to do so. It is left to the people who complain and who take the game back for a refund to fight against it and they should be encouraged and more people should join then, rather than be shouted down on the official forums by those who are looking to do nothing other to score points with the developers.
It angers me because if you spend your money on something you have a right to expect it to work as described from day one. Video games are not cheap to buy and the least you should expect from a developer and publisher is that the game is fit for purpose on day one. Now I am not stupid enough to realise that there will always be bugs that slip through the QA process, but recently the level of bugs has been totally unacceptable. In many cases we are seeing game breaking bugs that render the software almost unplayable, whether it is the game crashing all the time or save files becoming corrupted. These type of errors are not acceptable.
You see the thing that these people who post in defence of the developers on these forums assume is that everyone has their consoles connected online. This is simply not the case. It may surprise some people to know that there is still a very large portion of the gaming community that don't have their consoles connected for online play. If they purchase one of these games with these problems, just how are they supposed to get the fix? There is no obvious solution I can think of, so they are effectively stuck with a broken game. That is hardly fair or acceptable is it?
Now game fixes are nothing new. As a one time PC gamer I always expected a patch to come out after a game was released to address issues but this tended to be more to do with the developers having to cater for many different configurations of PC's in the market. There are no such excuses for consoles games, yet this problem has not only crossed formats but is getting worse.
One of the reasons I think this has become the case is that now game release schedules are controlled by the accountants of the publishing companies. Releases are being shoe horned into financial periods to boost the value of the company and to ensure that sales revenue is maximised. There is nothing wrong with this on one level, but when it means that games are being put into the market place when they are clearly not ready for release then it is wrong and something needs to be done about it. The current attitude of shoveling the game out and saying you will fix the issues post release should not be acceptable.
The defenders of these publishers and developers don't seem to see this. The moment you start telling people to stop moaning about something that is broken is the moment you accept the theory that it is OK to sell unfinished games.
If you purchased a film and it stopped halfway through and you were advised that a fix was in the works, you are more likely to return it for something else or a refund, the same if you bought an album only to find half the songs missing. Therefore why do people think that it OK for games to be released in this fashion.
Without people willing to draw a line and say enough is enough, things don't improve they just get worse. As long as game developers and publishers get away with this then they will continue to do so. It is left to the people who complain and who take the game back for a refund to fight against it and they should be encouraged and more people should join then, rather than be shouted down on the official forums by those who are looking to do nothing other to score points with the developers.
Sunday, 13 February 2011
A QUICK UPDATE
I was going to post another full blog today, but I have decided that I don't want to get chained to having to do a daily blog. I am great believer in only saying something when you have something worth saying and to be honest I have not had much in the way of inspiration to create a proper article today.
Instead I thought I would just do a quick update. I am planning on getting my next video review out next week. I have recorded the raw gaming footage for my next two videos so it is just a case of editing the one I have chosen to do next then recording the voice over. I am going to try and do something different with regards to the review.
When I first started the idea was to ad-lib a review and just talk about the game without a script or anything like that. All I did was get the notes together for the year the game was released and what formats it was released on - factual information if you will. However this soon grew into me actually typing up a whole review script and I ended up just reading into the microphone. I think that I lost something along the way and ended up doing something that I didn't set out to do, so I am going to go back to that original idea and see what happens.
I am great believer that you have to be happy with your own work and so I want to try this to see if it works. If it doesn't then I will have to rethink the method I use.
Before I wrap up this entry I am going to post a link to a website that I frequent. It belongs to David McMurdo who posts many thought provoking ideas on there. He also does some cracking games reviews as well as some interesting observations about every day life. It is well work checking out at: David McMurdo Website
Please take the time to check it out.
If any of you want to check out my You Tube channel for previous game reviews it can be found at: A1dy74 You Tube Channel
Instead I thought I would just do a quick update. I am planning on getting my next video review out next week. I have recorded the raw gaming footage for my next two videos so it is just a case of editing the one I have chosen to do next then recording the voice over. I am going to try and do something different with regards to the review.
When I first started the idea was to ad-lib a review and just talk about the game without a script or anything like that. All I did was get the notes together for the year the game was released and what formats it was released on - factual information if you will. However this soon grew into me actually typing up a whole review script and I ended up just reading into the microphone. I think that I lost something along the way and ended up doing something that I didn't set out to do, so I am going to go back to that original idea and see what happens.
I am great believer that you have to be happy with your own work and so I want to try this to see if it works. If it doesn't then I will have to rethink the method I use.
Before I wrap up this entry I am going to post a link to a website that I frequent. It belongs to David McMurdo who posts many thought provoking ideas on there. He also does some cracking games reviews as well as some interesting observations about every day life. It is well work checking out at: David McMurdo Website
Please take the time to check it out.
If any of you want to check out my You Tube channel for previous game reviews it can be found at: A1dy74 You Tube Channel
Saturday, 12 February 2011
TAKE A LOOK AROUND
I was originally going to write another blog as a sort of follow up to the one I did yesterday about the issues surrounding the release of Test Drive Unlimited 2. I was going to go further expressing my concern and disappointment with the gaming industry, but to be honest I don't want this blog to be purely a platform about attacking game publishers and developers. There are many other things worth writing about and besides, I am positive that there will be another game release in the near future that will give me ample opportunity to have another rant about the subject.
Instead I decided to write about how people are so easily blinded and distracted by the goings on in society. By distracted I mean the type of distraction put there by those in power to divert peoples attention away from the real issues that are having a profound effect on our every day lives.
I have always ended up getting embroiled in political debate despite my attempts to stay away from it. I will be the first to admit that I am far from being an expert in politics put I do have my eyes open as to what is going on.
At the moment our current government is implementing the systematic destruction of public services in order to save money. Conveniently they blame the previous government for the current mess the country is in and hide behind the excuse of the deficit being much higher than they expected, hence why the cuts have been so severe. I was under the impression the state of the countries finances was actually available freely to those who had an interest. Did the election campaign not include televised debates where all political parties went into detail about how the deficit would be tackled? I may be being naive here, but how can the opposing parties at the election possibly have a plan to cut a deficit if they are unaware of the size of the problem? Either way, these political parties lied to the electorate and once again, in this apathetic nation of ours, they have been allowed to get away with it.
It is somewhat ironic that this is the case, considering accountability was a watch word used by all the parties during the election campaign. Of course they knew that the average UK resident is too idle or too indifferent to do something about it so it is easy for them to pay lip service whilst carrying on as business as usual.
I don't know why people are so apathetic to the issues that are having a real impact on the lives of everyone in this country. It seems to me that so long as people's lives aren't too duly disrupted then they are happy to keep the bucket of sand at hand and their heads firmly planted in it. If anyone dares to enter their world and point out the glaring plans that are being put into place that will make sure the the average person remains a slave to the system they dismiss you as some sort of 'conspiracy theory nut case.' It is not as though they don't believe you. Even the most blinkered person can see that the mass reduction in public sector services will effect everyone in the country one way or another. It is just that they don't want the responsibility of having to face the truth and then the burden of doing nothing about it. So long as they have some semblance of denial in their own minds they can go on watching their mind rotting shows on the television without having to consider future.
Television has played a huge role in both educating and enslaving people. Like the internet the initial concept of the television was great - to beam programs into everyone's living room providing entertainment of one form or another. Quickly it is seized upon as a device for controlling the masses. After all, if you are at home watching the mindless drivel served up on 85-90% of the air time on the television, then you are not educating yourself to what is going on in the world and you are certainly not plotting any sort of revolution!
At the moment, the internet is a haven for free thinking people, but it is common knowledge that key governments want to control the content that goes on the web. It has started through corporations filing copyright infringement claims on channels like You Tube resulting in peoples accounts being closed with little or no explanation. I am not talking about the people that post whole movies on there but small snippets that easily comply to the fair usage policy that is supposed to protect them. We see that other countries are censoring the internet so that the civilians of that country can only access approved web content. Just because we associate that with far off oppressed countries does not mean that the wheels of such ideology are not turning here in the West. Again buckets of sand can be found at all good hardware stores for those who cannot conceive of such ideas. After all, the governments of the West keep telling us how democracy and freedom are the very tenants our society is founded on and the government never lies now does it?
If you think that I have been reading too much Orwell then fine but please think about this. We live in a society where we face the most intense surveillance on our streets in history. Our telephone calls and emails can be snooped on without our knowledge. Our personal information is passed onto to independent private companies without our permission. Does this sound like a free and democratic society to you?
In addition to this, there is the 'thought police' who make examples of any celebrity that has the misfortune to speak out of the politically correct terms. Like circling vultures they swoop down to tear at the carcass of those foolish enough to go against the grain. With ever so fake disgust and outrage they make examples of individuals as though they have been appointed guardians of the nations morality. Ironic since those who make the most noise are guilty of a lack of morals themselves. I look squarely at the news papers of this land of ours.
I could go on, but there is little point. Instead I will wrap up this blog with the following:
They say if you drop a frog in boiling water it will immediately leap out. If you place a frog in cool water and slowly heat it up it will happily sit there and allow itself to boil to death. These gradual changes around us is the water being heated up. The question is, do you want to allow yourself to be boiled to death, or do you want to leap out, take a look around and do something about it?
Instead I decided to write about how people are so easily blinded and distracted by the goings on in society. By distracted I mean the type of distraction put there by those in power to divert peoples attention away from the real issues that are having a profound effect on our every day lives.
I have always ended up getting embroiled in political debate despite my attempts to stay away from it. I will be the first to admit that I am far from being an expert in politics put I do have my eyes open as to what is going on.
At the moment our current government is implementing the systematic destruction of public services in order to save money. Conveniently they blame the previous government for the current mess the country is in and hide behind the excuse of the deficit being much higher than they expected, hence why the cuts have been so severe. I was under the impression the state of the countries finances was actually available freely to those who had an interest. Did the election campaign not include televised debates where all political parties went into detail about how the deficit would be tackled? I may be being naive here, but how can the opposing parties at the election possibly have a plan to cut a deficit if they are unaware of the size of the problem? Either way, these political parties lied to the electorate and once again, in this apathetic nation of ours, they have been allowed to get away with it.
It is somewhat ironic that this is the case, considering accountability was a watch word used by all the parties during the election campaign. Of course they knew that the average UK resident is too idle or too indifferent to do something about it so it is easy for them to pay lip service whilst carrying on as business as usual.
I don't know why people are so apathetic to the issues that are having a real impact on the lives of everyone in this country. It seems to me that so long as people's lives aren't too duly disrupted then they are happy to keep the bucket of sand at hand and their heads firmly planted in it. If anyone dares to enter their world and point out the glaring plans that are being put into place that will make sure the the average person remains a slave to the system they dismiss you as some sort of 'conspiracy theory nut case.' It is not as though they don't believe you. Even the most blinkered person can see that the mass reduction in public sector services will effect everyone in the country one way or another. It is just that they don't want the responsibility of having to face the truth and then the burden of doing nothing about it. So long as they have some semblance of denial in their own minds they can go on watching their mind rotting shows on the television without having to consider future.
Television has played a huge role in both educating and enslaving people. Like the internet the initial concept of the television was great - to beam programs into everyone's living room providing entertainment of one form or another. Quickly it is seized upon as a device for controlling the masses. After all, if you are at home watching the mindless drivel served up on 85-90% of the air time on the television, then you are not educating yourself to what is going on in the world and you are certainly not plotting any sort of revolution!
At the moment, the internet is a haven for free thinking people, but it is common knowledge that key governments want to control the content that goes on the web. It has started through corporations filing copyright infringement claims on channels like You Tube resulting in peoples accounts being closed with little or no explanation. I am not talking about the people that post whole movies on there but small snippets that easily comply to the fair usage policy that is supposed to protect them. We see that other countries are censoring the internet so that the civilians of that country can only access approved web content. Just because we associate that with far off oppressed countries does not mean that the wheels of such ideology are not turning here in the West. Again buckets of sand can be found at all good hardware stores for those who cannot conceive of such ideas. After all, the governments of the West keep telling us how democracy and freedom are the very tenants our society is founded on and the government never lies now does it?
If you think that I have been reading too much Orwell then fine but please think about this. We live in a society where we face the most intense surveillance on our streets in history. Our telephone calls and emails can be snooped on without our knowledge. Our personal information is passed onto to independent private companies without our permission. Does this sound like a free and democratic society to you?
In addition to this, there is the 'thought police' who make examples of any celebrity that has the misfortune to speak out of the politically correct terms. Like circling vultures they swoop down to tear at the carcass of those foolish enough to go against the grain. With ever so fake disgust and outrage they make examples of individuals as though they have been appointed guardians of the nations morality. Ironic since those who make the most noise are guilty of a lack of morals themselves. I look squarely at the news papers of this land of ours.
I could go on, but there is little point. Instead I will wrap up this blog with the following:
They say if you drop a frog in boiling water it will immediately leap out. If you place a frog in cool water and slowly heat it up it will happily sit there and allow itself to boil to death. These gradual changes around us is the water being heated up. The question is, do you want to allow yourself to be boiled to death, or do you want to leap out, take a look around and do something about it?
Friday, 11 February 2011
PLEASE STAND BY...
I got back from buying Test Drive Unlimited 2 today and enjoyed a few hours playing it. I took a break then went back to it and the game crashed. It did not even get into the game or even any sort of menu. A quick dig on the internet with the help of X Box Support on Twitter revealed the problem to be associated with Atari's servers.
Now Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2) is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) which relies on a stable and constant server access in order for it to work. Without such you cannot log into the game and play it, even in single player mode such is the nature of games of this type. As you can imagine the servers or game code not being robust enough to allow this is somewhat problematic.
I would like to say that I cannot believe that this has happened to a game - especially over the launch weekend when peoples first impressions of the game will count. However this is a sad reflection on the gaming industry these days. I am hardly surprised that TDU2 has been released in what is clearly an unfinished state. Whether this is down to the game code or the Atari servers makes no difference. There has clearly not been enough testing done on this title and as a result there are a number of frustrated people wanting to play the game only to find it being denied them.
Again gamers are the ones who are getting shafted here. When you pay £39.99 for a game you should feel entitled to be able to play that game whenever you want, not limited to resources such as server access which is beyond your control. Obviously this is an MMO and therefore server access is critical and some downtime has to be expected, but from all accounts this issue has been present since the game launched earlier in the week. The servers are not down due to routine maintenance which happens from time to time, but don't appear to be able to carry the burden of demand.
Atari have stated that they are looking at the problem. What are they doing exactly? If it is an overburden on the servers then the only answer is to boost the servers for TDU2. If it is the games code then how come this got to the release stage without the problem being addressed. It smacks of a hash job being done by Atari with the game being pushed out of the door with the attitude being 'we will fix the problems later, let's get the money in first.'
This sadly echo's the problems with Test Drive Unlimited which was beset by online issues from day one and still had some issues the last time I played it some two or so years after release. Are we to expect the same issues again? What have the developers been doing for the development cycle of this game? Surely it makes sense with a sequel to first of all address the main issues affecting the previous release?
It is sad to say that I cannot think of a AAA release in the past six months that has not had issues with it when launched. It seems that gamers are now being used as testers for these games which is completely wrong as we don't get paid for it but are expected to fork out our hard earned money for software that is essentially broken. At best we get the game patched at a later date, at worst we are expected for fork out for the next annual update in order to get the fixes that should have been provided free of charge for the game already owned. It is bang out of order and it's high time these software developers and publishers were brought to task over it.
If these game publishers and developers want me to be a tester for their games then at least pay me for the inconvenience. That or start to treat the testing of their games more seriously and address these problems before games are released.
Now Test Drive Unlimited 2 (TDU2) is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) which relies on a stable and constant server access in order for it to work. Without such you cannot log into the game and play it, even in single player mode such is the nature of games of this type. As you can imagine the servers or game code not being robust enough to allow this is somewhat problematic.
I would like to say that I cannot believe that this has happened to a game - especially over the launch weekend when peoples first impressions of the game will count. However this is a sad reflection on the gaming industry these days. I am hardly surprised that TDU2 has been released in what is clearly an unfinished state. Whether this is down to the game code or the Atari servers makes no difference. There has clearly not been enough testing done on this title and as a result there are a number of frustrated people wanting to play the game only to find it being denied them.
Again gamers are the ones who are getting shafted here. When you pay £39.99 for a game you should feel entitled to be able to play that game whenever you want, not limited to resources such as server access which is beyond your control. Obviously this is an MMO and therefore server access is critical and some downtime has to be expected, but from all accounts this issue has been present since the game launched earlier in the week. The servers are not down due to routine maintenance which happens from time to time, but don't appear to be able to carry the burden of demand.
Atari have stated that they are looking at the problem. What are they doing exactly? If it is an overburden on the servers then the only answer is to boost the servers for TDU2. If it is the games code then how come this got to the release stage without the problem being addressed. It smacks of a hash job being done by Atari with the game being pushed out of the door with the attitude being 'we will fix the problems later, let's get the money in first.'
This sadly echo's the problems with Test Drive Unlimited which was beset by online issues from day one and still had some issues the last time I played it some two or so years after release. Are we to expect the same issues again? What have the developers been doing for the development cycle of this game? Surely it makes sense with a sequel to first of all address the main issues affecting the previous release?
It is sad to say that I cannot think of a AAA release in the past six months that has not had issues with it when launched. It seems that gamers are now being used as testers for these games which is completely wrong as we don't get paid for it but are expected to fork out our hard earned money for software that is essentially broken. At best we get the game patched at a later date, at worst we are expected for fork out for the next annual update in order to get the fixes that should have been provided free of charge for the game already owned. It is bang out of order and it's high time these software developers and publishers were brought to task over it.
If these game publishers and developers want me to be a tester for their games then at least pay me for the inconvenience. That or start to treat the testing of their games more seriously and address these problems before games are released.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
WE NEED THESE FRIENDLY MATCHES
Watching the Denmark Vs England match last night, one of the commentators made a comment about many people thinking that scheduling friendly fixtures like this are a waste of time and an inconvenience to the players clubs that pay their wages.
You could be inclined to agree but herein lies a problem. If we do away with international friendlies during the course of a season, when do we get to bring together a group of players and get them out there playing together as a team? You can work on the training ground all you like, but it is only under match conditions that the players become familiar with one another and form the team spirit necessary to get the team through the real matches when the time comes.
In the last World Cup many bemoaned the poor performance of the English players. How do you improve on that? Practice. How do you practice? By playing matches. Even the clubs that do much of the moaning about their players being called up to play these friendlies spend much of their pre-season going on tour around the world playing friendly fixtures to integrate new players, build match fitness and also promote their brand in far flung reaches of the planet. It seems somewhat hypocritical of these clubs to moan about their players being asked to do the same for their respective countries.
If the clubs don't want these fixtures to occur during the season, then when do they want them played? The summer during the close season? Not practical as most of the players are away on holiday and clubs pre-season tours start earlier and earlier each year. Aside from that there are no real dates that don't incur on the season.
The bottom line is that these 'meaningless' friendlies are necessary and like it or not the clubs have to accept this. They may pay the players wages, but international football is important to players and clubs do benefit from having international players playing on the big tournament stages.
You could be inclined to agree but herein lies a problem. If we do away with international friendlies during the course of a season, when do we get to bring together a group of players and get them out there playing together as a team? You can work on the training ground all you like, but it is only under match conditions that the players become familiar with one another and form the team spirit necessary to get the team through the real matches when the time comes.
In the last World Cup many bemoaned the poor performance of the English players. How do you improve on that? Practice. How do you practice? By playing matches. Even the clubs that do much of the moaning about their players being called up to play these friendlies spend much of their pre-season going on tour around the world playing friendly fixtures to integrate new players, build match fitness and also promote their brand in far flung reaches of the planet. It seems somewhat hypocritical of these clubs to moan about their players being asked to do the same for their respective countries.
If the clubs don't want these fixtures to occur during the season, then when do they want them played? The summer during the close season? Not practical as most of the players are away on holiday and clubs pre-season tours start earlier and earlier each year. Aside from that there are no real dates that don't incur on the season.
The bottom line is that these 'meaningless' friendlies are necessary and like it or not the clubs have to accept this. They may pay the players wages, but international football is important to players and clubs do benefit from having international players playing on the big tournament stages.
Tuesday, 8 February 2011
NEXT REVIEW ON HOLD. WHAT I AM READING ETC.
I had originally planned to spend today creating my next video review on You Tube. For those of you who have not seen this channel it is under the name A1dy74. Anyway, I was not able to do this thanks to the fact that I have still not recovered from a throat infection I came down with three weeks ago. The throat pain and swelling have gone, but I have been left with a heavy case of catarrh which I cannot seem to shift at the moment. Not only is it affecting my voice but it has also gone into my ear making hearing a bit difficult at the moment which is driving me mad.
There is really no point in doing a video review at the moment because no matter what I do the voice will not comply and I have no desire to waste my time doing something that I know will not sound right. Speaking of video reviews, I really enjoy doing them. I know there are many people who have issues with You Tube - I do as well, but what it is good is that You Tube and sites like it give the average person a platform to try and be creative and be able to put that creation out there for others to see. The same can be said for these blog sites. It is one of the good things that the Internet has afforded people and long may it continue.
I am currently reading two books at the moment. Under the Dome by Stephen King and Decision Points by George W Bush. Now before you say anything, am not a Bush supporter or anything like that, but I do like to read these type of books. Obviously you are not getting the unblemished truth, anyone thinking that would have to be mad, but I am interested in what Bush thinks and what he claims his motives were. You also get an insight into part of his personal life as well as what he was thinking with regards to the war of terror - again it is more what he wants people to believe as opposed to the whole truth. I seriously doubt that the whole story would be allowed to be printed anyway as I am sure there would some national security issue that would prevent it.
Under the Dome is a cracking read. I really do love Stephen King's writing style and story telling. At times it is almost as though he writes in the book in the dialect of the books setting which really helps the reader get into the mind of the characters. He also the master of building tension, not just through any supernatural events but more critically the way the characters interact with one another. It is easy to dismiss King as a horror writer but frankly this is well wide of the mark. He has written a whole range of books covering many different genres and that way of thinking does him a huge disservice. In Under the Dome King wastes no time in establishing the event of the Dome cutting off a small town in America from the outside world and this works brilliantly to start the tension building. You just know that the town will start to tear itself apart and already the main culprits have been identified. However you just know there will be some sort of curve ball thrown into the mix at some point.
Under the Dome is the first novel I have purchased as a digital download for my iPad. I am enjoying the contrast between reading a physical book with Decision Points and a digital book. I must say it is easier reading the digital book and it's great knowing you can store many books in a single place saving space but I am from the old world as well and actually owning the physical book just feel right somehow. It is probably just me but owning a book requires a degree of looking after if you want it to remain in good condition. I don't know, I guess some habits die hard.
Back on the gaming front I have just got stuck into Fable 3 today. I got it for Christmas but I wanted to try and finish up some other games that I had first before I started it. So far I really like it. I have always enjoyed the Fable world and game play and this builds well on what the series has established so far. I am looking forward to losing some more hours in the land of Albion.
I have also spent a good few hours on DC Universe Online on the PS3. I think it is safe to say that this game proves that MMO's are viable on consoles, though I would not be holding my breath if you are one of those who think that World of Warcraft will be coming anytime soon. Although DC Universe Online does have depth to it, it certainly isn't on the level of World of Warcraft and the all important control interface is also extremely important. There is no way I could envision playing a World of Warcraft with a joypad. Things get frantic enough using the keyboard and mouse.
Finally I have been re-watching the X Files on DVD. I have just started with season 1 and despite the passage of time I still love the show. I would go as far to say that it is the best television series that I have ever seen. I love the characters, the stories - everything!
Anyway I am off for more Mulder and Scully action. Catch you all later.
There is really no point in doing a video review at the moment because no matter what I do the voice will not comply and I have no desire to waste my time doing something that I know will not sound right. Speaking of video reviews, I really enjoy doing them. I know there are many people who have issues with You Tube - I do as well, but what it is good is that You Tube and sites like it give the average person a platform to try and be creative and be able to put that creation out there for others to see. The same can be said for these blog sites. It is one of the good things that the Internet has afforded people and long may it continue.
I am currently reading two books at the moment. Under the Dome by Stephen King and Decision Points by George W Bush. Now before you say anything, am not a Bush supporter or anything like that, but I do like to read these type of books. Obviously you are not getting the unblemished truth, anyone thinking that would have to be mad, but I am interested in what Bush thinks and what he claims his motives were. You also get an insight into part of his personal life as well as what he was thinking with regards to the war of terror - again it is more what he wants people to believe as opposed to the whole truth. I seriously doubt that the whole story would be allowed to be printed anyway as I am sure there would some national security issue that would prevent it.
Under the Dome is a cracking read. I really do love Stephen King's writing style and story telling. At times it is almost as though he writes in the book in the dialect of the books setting which really helps the reader get into the mind of the characters. He also the master of building tension, not just through any supernatural events but more critically the way the characters interact with one another. It is easy to dismiss King as a horror writer but frankly this is well wide of the mark. He has written a whole range of books covering many different genres and that way of thinking does him a huge disservice. In Under the Dome King wastes no time in establishing the event of the Dome cutting off a small town in America from the outside world and this works brilliantly to start the tension building. You just know that the town will start to tear itself apart and already the main culprits have been identified. However you just know there will be some sort of curve ball thrown into the mix at some point.
Under the Dome is the first novel I have purchased as a digital download for my iPad. I am enjoying the contrast between reading a physical book with Decision Points and a digital book. I must say it is easier reading the digital book and it's great knowing you can store many books in a single place saving space but I am from the old world as well and actually owning the physical book just feel right somehow. It is probably just me but owning a book requires a degree of looking after if you want it to remain in good condition. I don't know, I guess some habits die hard.
Back on the gaming front I have just got stuck into Fable 3 today. I got it for Christmas but I wanted to try and finish up some other games that I had first before I started it. So far I really like it. I have always enjoyed the Fable world and game play and this builds well on what the series has established so far. I am looking forward to losing some more hours in the land of Albion.
I have also spent a good few hours on DC Universe Online on the PS3. I think it is safe to say that this game proves that MMO's are viable on consoles, though I would not be holding my breath if you are one of those who think that World of Warcraft will be coming anytime soon. Although DC Universe Online does have depth to it, it certainly isn't on the level of World of Warcraft and the all important control interface is also extremely important. There is no way I could envision playing a World of Warcraft with a joypad. Things get frantic enough using the keyboard and mouse.
Finally I have been re-watching the X Files on DVD. I have just started with season 1 and despite the passage of time I still love the show. I would go as far to say that it is the best television series that I have ever seen. I love the characters, the stories - everything!
Anyway I am off for more Mulder and Scully action. Catch you all later.
Monday, 7 February 2011
BRICKS AND MORTAR STORES NEED TO GET REAL
I have lost count of the time that I have gone into a high street game store only to be confronted by prices that are simply a mockery.
In an age where you can save a small fortune buying games online, I am always amazed by the prices charged for some games. I don't want to name names here, but many so called specialist game stores have a pricing policy that beggars belief. There does not seem to be any cohesion with the prices at all. I have come across old games that are being charged at £44.99 and brand new titles at £39.99. How does that work? Surely the idea is that the price of games should come down the older they are not actually go up in price?
Of course you can occasionally pick up a bargain but they tend to be few and far between. In another store that uses a catalogue ordering system I have witnessed prices of games in excess of the RRP and again this seems to apply to older games that should be being sold on the cheap. I cannot believe for a single moment that there would be people who would be happy to pay £49.99 for Prototype on the PS3 or £47.99 for Modern Warfare 2. The same store is selling Fall Out New Vegas for £34.99. Where is the sense?
I get fed up of reading articles or listening to owners of these high street stores moan about how poor their sales are. Already we are seeing many stores closing outlets as the economic situation bites, but the sheer fact that their pricing policy is not competitive by any stretch of the imagination is why they are struggling.
As usual it is the staff on the front line that pay the price when these stores close. People end up being made redundant not through any fault of their own, but by the stupid and mindless way the big bosses of the companies choose to run them.
I still want to support these stores. I do prefer to buy the bulk of my games in a bricks and mortar outlets than online. I do occasionally like to get out the front door and browse around to see what there is, you know just in case there are any bargains. However times are coming where I simply will not be able to justify doing this unless something is done to address the issue of prices.
Internet shopping is here to stay. The owners of these high street stores know this. After all, they have online shopping divisions as well. It is time they wised up and gave their outlets and their staff a chance. They should give the consumer a choice as well, after what have they lose if they are already having to downsize their operations?
In an age where you can save a small fortune buying games online, I am always amazed by the prices charged for some games. I don't want to name names here, but many so called specialist game stores have a pricing policy that beggars belief. There does not seem to be any cohesion with the prices at all. I have come across old games that are being charged at £44.99 and brand new titles at £39.99. How does that work? Surely the idea is that the price of games should come down the older they are not actually go up in price?
Of course you can occasionally pick up a bargain but they tend to be few and far between. In another store that uses a catalogue ordering system I have witnessed prices of games in excess of the RRP and again this seems to apply to older games that should be being sold on the cheap. I cannot believe for a single moment that there would be people who would be happy to pay £49.99 for Prototype on the PS3 or £47.99 for Modern Warfare 2. The same store is selling Fall Out New Vegas for £34.99. Where is the sense?
I get fed up of reading articles or listening to owners of these high street stores moan about how poor their sales are. Already we are seeing many stores closing outlets as the economic situation bites, but the sheer fact that their pricing policy is not competitive by any stretch of the imagination is why they are struggling.
As usual it is the staff on the front line that pay the price when these stores close. People end up being made redundant not through any fault of their own, but by the stupid and mindless way the big bosses of the companies choose to run them.
I still want to support these stores. I do prefer to buy the bulk of my games in a bricks and mortar outlets than online. I do occasionally like to get out the front door and browse around to see what there is, you know just in case there are any bargains. However times are coming where I simply will not be able to justify doing this unless something is done to address the issue of prices.
Internet shopping is here to stay. The owners of these high street stores know this. After all, they have online shopping divisions as well. It is time they wised up and gave their outlets and their staff a chance. They should give the consumer a choice as well, after what have they lose if they are already having to downsize their operations?
Saturday, 5 February 2011
PRESS PLAY ON TAPE
I was sat there yesterday waiting for GT5 to load in the Widow Maker Championship series yet again (see previous blog for full explanation). I was sat getting impatient about the time it was taking to load back to the start of the race. During one of the many loading sessions (yep you guessed right, I have still not conquered it yet) my mind drifted back to what it used to be like back in the mid to late eighties when I played games primarily on my Commodore C64.
The C64 was a fantastic computer. It was a pure 8-bit marvel. Remember when the abilities of computers and consoles were measured in 'bits'? No? Well read on and count your blessings!
It's achilles heel was that shared by the majority of other 8-bit home computers around at that time and that was the media that the games chiefly distributed on in the UK. The cassette tape.
Now for those unfamiliar with the cassette tape - I know there are some of you out there that don't know what one is - it was essentially as small compact cassette with two holes in it with a long reel of magnetic tape that was pulled over a 'tape head' in the cassette deck buy a spooler that spun on one side of the tape deck unit. This was done at a constant speed so that the data could be streamed off the cassette and processed by the computer. Still with me? No? Well tough, go on Wikipedia and check it out.
This was all fine in theory but in practice the cassette tape was a nightmare. Tapes would wear out due to the fact that the basis of their operation was based on friction. They would naturally de-magnetise over time. Constant play and rewinding could cause the tape to stretch making data unreadable. The worst though was the constant threat of the tape getting snagged inside of the tape player and being chewed up rendering the whole thing unreadable and broke. Believe me, this happened on a regular basis and not just with computer software but with music as well. That's right, even music was supplied on cassettes back then!
If you got past all of this, there was the whole fiasco with regards to loading games. Depending on the game you could easily be sat there for 10 minutes waiting for a game to load. Now remember we are talking about 8 bit games here. Games would take that long that you were often treated to loading music designed to stop you going insane waiting and help pass the time. If you were lucky the game would load and off you went. If you were unlucky, the tape would either run right to the end and stop or just as the main game screen was about to appear you would be booted back to the main screen of the computer. It wasn't referred to as a desktop back then, because it didn't resemble a desktop. It was a basic information screen you could type instructions into.
Many games had multi-coloured bars that used to scroll up and down the screen whilst the game loaded. This tended to represent the data being loaded into the computer from the tape deck. It was also one of the first places you could see if something was going wrong. If the scrolling bars stopped before the game loaded it was usually a sign of trouble, though that was not always the case. It appeared to be the reserve of the developer to decide as to whether there was significance in these technicolour nightmares.
So, as you can see, it was quite the adventure loading games back in the 1980's. Incredibly it got worse. How? One phrase. Multi-load.
Multi-load was the answer to the problem of the lack of power with the 8-bit computers. It worked by loading in the main body of the data for the game then as it was loading a message would pop up and ask you to stop the tape and reset the tape deck counter to '0'. After you did this, you pressed play again and pressed any key. The first level would then be loaded in. If you died on that level, you would have to rewind the tape back to '0' and do the whole procedure all over again. As it was, by the time I closed the chapter on my life with my Commodore C64 it was fair to say that most of that time was spent waiting for games to load.
Multi-load also came in different flavours as well. Some just told you to reset the tape counter without stopping the tape. Some asked you to stop the tape and turn it over, some even came on more than one tape. It was quite an experience.
There was disc drives available, but here in the UK game supplied on disc for the C64 were hard to find. Not only that but the loading times were still long. The only thing you really saved was having to mess about with tape counters and multi load was far less of a hassle. It wasn't until I got the Amiga that I finally was able to put aside what I referred to as 'C2N Fever'. C2N was the designation Commodore gave to it's tape deck units it supplied with it's computers. It also was known as the 1530 and 1531. I commonly called it The Bastard.
So the next time you are huffing and puffing over how many seconds a game takes to load these days, just spare a thought to us old time pioneers that used to go through hell just to get a game to load.
The C64 was a fantastic computer. It was a pure 8-bit marvel. Remember when the abilities of computers and consoles were measured in 'bits'? No? Well read on and count your blessings!
It's achilles heel was that shared by the majority of other 8-bit home computers around at that time and that was the media that the games chiefly distributed on in the UK. The cassette tape.
Now for those unfamiliar with the cassette tape - I know there are some of you out there that don't know what one is - it was essentially as small compact cassette with two holes in it with a long reel of magnetic tape that was pulled over a 'tape head' in the cassette deck buy a spooler that spun on one side of the tape deck unit. This was done at a constant speed so that the data could be streamed off the cassette and processed by the computer. Still with me? No? Well tough, go on Wikipedia and check it out.
This was all fine in theory but in practice the cassette tape was a nightmare. Tapes would wear out due to the fact that the basis of their operation was based on friction. They would naturally de-magnetise over time. Constant play and rewinding could cause the tape to stretch making data unreadable. The worst though was the constant threat of the tape getting snagged inside of the tape player and being chewed up rendering the whole thing unreadable and broke. Believe me, this happened on a regular basis and not just with computer software but with music as well. That's right, even music was supplied on cassettes back then!
If you got past all of this, there was the whole fiasco with regards to loading games. Depending on the game you could easily be sat there for 10 minutes waiting for a game to load. Now remember we are talking about 8 bit games here. Games would take that long that you were often treated to loading music designed to stop you going insane waiting and help pass the time. If you were lucky the game would load and off you went. If you were unlucky, the tape would either run right to the end and stop or just as the main game screen was about to appear you would be booted back to the main screen of the computer. It wasn't referred to as a desktop back then, because it didn't resemble a desktop. It was a basic information screen you could type instructions into.
Many games had multi-coloured bars that used to scroll up and down the screen whilst the game loaded. This tended to represent the data being loaded into the computer from the tape deck. It was also one of the first places you could see if something was going wrong. If the scrolling bars stopped before the game loaded it was usually a sign of trouble, though that was not always the case. It appeared to be the reserve of the developer to decide as to whether there was significance in these technicolour nightmares.
So, as you can see, it was quite the adventure loading games back in the 1980's. Incredibly it got worse. How? One phrase. Multi-load.
Multi-load was the answer to the problem of the lack of power with the 8-bit computers. It worked by loading in the main body of the data for the game then as it was loading a message would pop up and ask you to stop the tape and reset the tape deck counter to '0'. After you did this, you pressed play again and pressed any key. The first level would then be loaded in. If you died on that level, you would have to rewind the tape back to '0' and do the whole procedure all over again. As it was, by the time I closed the chapter on my life with my Commodore C64 it was fair to say that most of that time was spent waiting for games to load.
Multi-load also came in different flavours as well. Some just told you to reset the tape counter without stopping the tape. Some asked you to stop the tape and turn it over, some even came on more than one tape. It was quite an experience.
There was disc drives available, but here in the UK game supplied on disc for the C64 were hard to find. Not only that but the loading times were still long. The only thing you really saved was having to mess about with tape counters and multi load was far less of a hassle. It wasn't until I got the Amiga that I finally was able to put aside what I referred to as 'C2N Fever'. C2N was the designation Commodore gave to it's tape deck units it supplied with it's computers. It also was known as the 1530 and 1531. I commonly called it The Bastard.
So the next time you are huffing and puffing over how many seconds a game takes to load these days, just spare a thought to us old time pioneers that used to go through hell just to get a game to load.
Friday, 4 February 2011
GT5 - IT'S THE POLAR BEAR OF CONSOLE RACERS!
Polar Bears are cute. Fluffy white bundles of joy that are rewarding to see and observe. That is until some cute innocent seal wanders by and before you can say 'Oh look there's a seal' the once cute and cuddly Polar Bear has killed the seal, sucked out it's insides and is rolling about in the gore turning it's pristine white fur into a crimson mask of death.
This is exactly what playing GT5 is like. Everything starts out cute and cuddly. Nice cars, gentle handling and an almost nurturing feel to the game. Then, just as you are starting to feel at ease, out come the claws. It beats you soundly about the head, face and neck, pulls your head off and leaves you in a crumpled heap in the corner of the race track. What's more, it actually seems to take a perverse pleasure in doing so.
The true nature of GT5 is reserved until later on in the game. There is one series of races where I found this unique behavior especially frequent and that is the Formula GT Championship in the Extreme racing section. Such misery this has wrought me I have now renamed this the Widow Maker World Championship.
I kicked off my first attempt at this yesterday afternoon. Having finally amassed the money necessary to purchase the Formula GT car and also enduring the patient wait for it to become available in the 'Used Car Dealership' I quickly acquired one, gave the car a damn good clean, changed the oil, did all the necessary renovation on it, slapped on some nice soft tyers and skipped off with a spring in my step to the race track.
Noting that all the cars were the same, I merely shrugged and presumed that my superior skill and judgment not to mention a small helping of aggressive driving would be more than enough to suffice to win the series.
This was roughly 2.30pm yesterday afternoon.
24 hours later and it is a small miracle that the GT5 disc and box are still in one piece. You see, the game went from cute and cuddly to all fearsome and toothy! I just cannot shake them off, the pressure over 20 laps is too much. I lose concentration once and the car spins and they all blast past me! I can't do it captain! I don't have the power!
The game box sits next to the PS3, mocking me with it's presence. I WILL win every race in this game even if it means playing it until GT6 comes out!
You see this is the power of GT5. Now I know it is not to everyone's liking and there are those that were expecting the second coming when it was released but the basis of this seemed to stem purely in the protracted development time. Whether the end product is a fair reflection on the time spent making it is for another blog, but there is no doubt that this game has some sort of hold over me. Despite the urges to take the game and fling it out of the window, I still feel compelled to come back to it and try again.
The lifespan of most other racers is tempered by the fact that they quickly become boring due to the fact that once mastered they offer very little in the way of a challenge and the races become a mere trudge to the finish line. In GT5 there is always the nasty Polar Bear that is waiting to leap out from behind the seeming innocent exterior and this type of gaming I find more compelling and addictive than any other.
Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson likened the new Ferrari GTO as the 'Kato' of motor vehicles due to the unpredictable nature of it when all the fancy computer assists are turned off. Kato and the Polar Bear are more than apt to describe GT5 on the PS3.
This is exactly what playing GT5 is like. Everything starts out cute and cuddly. Nice cars, gentle handling and an almost nurturing feel to the game. Then, just as you are starting to feel at ease, out come the claws. It beats you soundly about the head, face and neck, pulls your head off and leaves you in a crumpled heap in the corner of the race track. What's more, it actually seems to take a perverse pleasure in doing so.
The true nature of GT5 is reserved until later on in the game. There is one series of races where I found this unique behavior especially frequent and that is the Formula GT Championship in the Extreme racing section. Such misery this has wrought me I have now renamed this the Widow Maker World Championship.
I kicked off my first attempt at this yesterday afternoon. Having finally amassed the money necessary to purchase the Formula GT car and also enduring the patient wait for it to become available in the 'Used Car Dealership' I quickly acquired one, gave the car a damn good clean, changed the oil, did all the necessary renovation on it, slapped on some nice soft tyers and skipped off with a spring in my step to the race track.
Noting that all the cars were the same, I merely shrugged and presumed that my superior skill and judgment not to mention a small helping of aggressive driving would be more than enough to suffice to win the series.
This was roughly 2.30pm yesterday afternoon.
24 hours later and it is a small miracle that the GT5 disc and box are still in one piece. You see, the game went from cute and cuddly to all fearsome and toothy! I just cannot shake them off, the pressure over 20 laps is too much. I lose concentration once and the car spins and they all blast past me! I can't do it captain! I don't have the power!
The game box sits next to the PS3, mocking me with it's presence. I WILL win every race in this game even if it means playing it until GT6 comes out!
You see this is the power of GT5. Now I know it is not to everyone's liking and there are those that were expecting the second coming when it was released but the basis of this seemed to stem purely in the protracted development time. Whether the end product is a fair reflection on the time spent making it is for another blog, but there is no doubt that this game has some sort of hold over me. Despite the urges to take the game and fling it out of the window, I still feel compelled to come back to it and try again.
The lifespan of most other racers is tempered by the fact that they quickly become boring due to the fact that once mastered they offer very little in the way of a challenge and the races become a mere trudge to the finish line. In GT5 there is always the nasty Polar Bear that is waiting to leap out from behind the seeming innocent exterior and this type of gaming I find more compelling and addictive than any other.
Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson likened the new Ferrari GTO as the 'Kato' of motor vehicles due to the unpredictable nature of it when all the fancy computer assists are turned off. Kato and the Polar Bear are more than apt to describe GT5 on the PS3.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
INTRODUCTION TO THE MADNESS!
For some time I have wanted to create a place on the internet where I can post my thoughts about things that I am interested in. This in conjunction with my You Tube channel will hopefully provide a little corner of this world wide web for me to post my vague incoherent ramblings about stuff like video games, football (soccer to any American viewers), films and pretty much anything that may drive me to want to post some sort of comment.
For the most part I will probably ramble on about video games. I did consider incorporating some video game description in the blog title, but having given it a bit of thought, I decided that I didn't want to tie myself down to creating a blog that was created with only one topic in mind. Nothing is worse than going to the trouble of creating something only to later think that you wish you had left the door open for more possibilities that may arise along the way.
I hope any of you visiting here will not be too bored to death by my comments and hope that you may glean some small morsel of enjoyment out of what I put here, though I cannot make any guarantees!
Aidy
For the most part I will probably ramble on about video games. I did consider incorporating some video game description in the blog title, but having given it a bit of thought, I decided that I didn't want to tie myself down to creating a blog that was created with only one topic in mind. Nothing is worse than going to the trouble of creating something only to later think that you wish you had left the door open for more possibilities that may arise along the way.
I hope any of you visiting here will not be too bored to death by my comments and hope that you may glean some small morsel of enjoyment out of what I put here, though I cannot make any guarantees!
Aidy
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