I was having a hunt for a likely PS3 title and found out the news that Epileptic Gaming had shut up shop when looking for a GTA IV review. Looking back it always seemed funny that DJWheat would do coverage for CGS while still in withh GGL, but I didn't think it would come to this. It does add even more credibility to the CGS that they can drag in talent like Marcus. I've been impressed at the stage production of CGS and it's the biggest threat to WCG of all the worldwide competition formulas.
Marcus also has a B'day close to mine ...
Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
GameLog 40
FM08 (15h) - Gateshead, season 2, 1st BSN - Knocked out of the FA Trophy and Setanta Shield in 3 days. Pity, I was hoping for my first silverware this season. Powering on to the end of the season now with 5 points clear. Should be a shoe-in now that I'm out of all the cup distractions. Sold off Giles Coke for 60,000 to give me some bargaining money, but all my potential imports have vanished. Hope I don't rue the sale later on ...
Guitar Hero III (3h) - Cameron wants 'Guitar' time every now and then. He'll either back me up on his ukelele or jump on the drums. Sandy gave it a go too and went pretty well for a first-timer. Took a while to get it into lefty mode as the controller was registered as number 2, but Guitar Hero had it as Player 1. I gave it a go left-handed too when Sandy took a break and it was much easier with the screen flipped to the left.
Bit pissed that they have you playing in hell though. Wonder if it can be skipped...
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Demo (3h) - With the PS3 connected I finally created a PSN account and downloaded a heap of demos to see what else this thing is capable of. Dynasty warriors translated well to the Gundam world, but I still suffered handcramp from doing the same thing over and over and ov ..
Race Driver GRID PS3 demo (3h) - Incredibly difficult to get into, even with all the driving aids turned on. Once oyu're there its really rewarding though. Spent aaaages trying to get the drifting map right and the effort made the other types of games easier as they need less control. Really good map of San Fransisco too. Was good enough to remind me of my trip over there. Going from this to Formula One CE made me like GRID even more. Disappointing when I found out it wasn't released yet ...
Bladestorm PS3 Demo (2h) - Same type of game as Dynasty warriors, but with more emphasis on the units around you. I seemed to only use one button though. Looks a potential pickup due to the character advancement though.
Other PS3 Demos (4h) - Pulled down a whole heap of other demos. Virtua Tennis III, Tiger woods Golf, Everybody's golf, Rubadub, Sudoku, Formula One Championship Edition
GTA 4 (1h) - Procrastination mode made me pull this out when Sandy gave me some 'free time' to work on the teaching assignment due next week.
FuryBand (1h) - VRBones LXI - Moved from Dwarf Fortress to FuryBand for downtime at work.
Guitar Hero III (3h) - Cameron wants 'Guitar' time every now and then. He'll either back me up on his ukelele or jump on the drums. Sandy gave it a go too and went pretty well for a first-timer. Took a while to get it into lefty mode as the controller was registered as number 2, but Guitar Hero had it as Player 1. I gave it a go left-handed too when Sandy took a break and it was much easier with the screen flipped to the left.
Bit pissed that they have you playing in hell though. Wonder if it can be skipped...
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam Demo (3h) - With the PS3 connected I finally created a PSN account and downloaded a heap of demos to see what else this thing is capable of. Dynasty warriors translated well to the Gundam world, but I still suffered handcramp from doing the same thing over and over and ov ..
Race Driver GRID PS3 demo (3h) - Incredibly difficult to get into, even with all the driving aids turned on. Once oyu're there its really rewarding though. Spent aaaages trying to get the drifting map right and the effort made the other types of games easier as they need less control. Really good map of San Fransisco too. Was good enough to remind me of my trip over there. Going from this to Formula One CE made me like GRID even more. Disappointing when I found out it wasn't released yet ...
Bladestorm PS3 Demo (2h) - Same type of game as Dynasty warriors, but with more emphasis on the units around you. I seemed to only use one button though. Looks a potential pickup due to the character advancement though.
Other PS3 Demos (4h) - Pulled down a whole heap of other demos. Virtua Tennis III, Tiger woods Golf, Everybody's golf, Rubadub, Sudoku, Formula One Championship Edition
GTA 4 (1h) - Procrastination mode made me pull this out when Sandy gave me some 'free time' to work on the teaching assignment due next week.
FuryBand (1h) - VRBones LXI - Moved from Dwarf Fortress to FuryBand for downtime at work.
Monday, May 12, 2008
GameLog 39
FM08 (16h) - Gateshead, season 2, 4th BSN - Back into Football Manager after a month or 2 hiatus after the sour taste of Gatehead's last season. The team is looking really solid now and a few more additions over the break has hardly anyone in the starting 11 ranked below Blue Square Premier ability. We're 11 games in with a 7-2-2 record to hold down 4th on the ladder. Could be a quick season.
For my birthday Sandy made a soccer cake with little dots as players in their right starting positions (albeit a 442 placement I'd been tinkering with rather than my usual 4312 tactic). The field was pretty much spot on for a copy of the game. Tasted nice too.
Figured out that the current save game has just passed 12 days. 288 hours over 3 seasons. I'm guessing others that get 20 seasons in are playing a little faster than me ...
Guitar Hero III (6h) - Andrew came up for my Birthday this weekend and after trashing consoles on Friday night, Andrew sheepishly offered a console on Saturday. Well I guess it's easy to criticize them without actually owning one, but it was just the catalyst needed to make me jump into the car as we headed off to EB to make a decision on which one to buy.
I'd rationalized it down to a PS3 pretty much purely for the Blu-ray and Gran Turismo in the future, but for now Guitar hero III and GTA4 would have to do. Even though both are available on PC, they are stalwarts of the console fanbase and should give as much chance as any for my attention.
Guitar hero III turned into a great game for a social context. Rocking out over a 4 hour session doing a song each with Andrew was a great way to play / review / learn / encourage. Definitely a game to pull out for the next LAN. I figured out that standing up helped me get into the rhythm a bit more, but it does tire you out more. 1-2 hrs of rocking out is enough when you're doing it solid.
Sins of a solar Empire (6h) - Had a LAN on the Monday with the Graham's to christen Levi's new PC. Eventually settled on Sins as a viable alternative to the other games we usually play. It was way better as a LAN game than a solo game. Very different mechanics are involved when you can collaborate together in a room instead of breaking the AI.
GTA 4 (3h) - Another one for the PS3. The violence and language means it will be only playable late at night with headphones. Sandy was unimpressed I picked it up after hearing how bad it was on GoodGame. Starting credits were straight out of a movie, and seemed appropriate as Andrew and I had jst discussed the emergence of video games as the largest grossing entertainment title ever through Halo3.
Felt a little disjointed between passive movie and active gameplay. Not sure why. I slotted back into the GTA mode pretty quickly, but I think you're supposed to progress the storyline further before jacking cars.
FuryBand (3h) - VRBones LX - persisting with the Favoured Maia Jedi build to get into the ironman version of FuryBand. I've been able to get up to level 20, but barely any depth, maybe 8 levels down. 60th variant is living well and has built up a nice rat army to swamp the enemy.
Overlord (1h) - Pulled it out for multiplayer variant to Fable for the LAN, but the multiplayer was shite. Barely lasted 2 minutes beofre dropping.
For my birthday Sandy made a soccer cake with little dots as players in their right starting positions (albeit a 442 placement I'd been tinkering with rather than my usual 4312 tactic). The field was pretty much spot on for a copy of the game. Tasted nice too.
Figured out that the current save game has just passed 12 days. 288 hours over 3 seasons. I'm guessing others that get 20 seasons in are playing a little faster than me ...
Guitar Hero III (6h) - Andrew came up for my Birthday this weekend and after trashing consoles on Friday night, Andrew sheepishly offered a console on Saturday. Well I guess it's easy to criticize them without actually owning one, but it was just the catalyst needed to make me jump into the car as we headed off to EB to make a decision on which one to buy.
I'd rationalized it down to a PS3 pretty much purely for the Blu-ray and Gran Turismo in the future, but for now Guitar hero III and GTA4 would have to do. Even though both are available on PC, they are stalwarts of the console fanbase and should give as much chance as any for my attention.
Guitar hero III turned into a great game for a social context. Rocking out over a 4 hour session doing a song each with Andrew was a great way to play / review / learn / encourage. Definitely a game to pull out for the next LAN. I figured out that standing up helped me get into the rhythm a bit more, but it does tire you out more. 1-2 hrs of rocking out is enough when you're doing it solid.
Sins of a solar Empire (6h) - Had a LAN on the Monday with the Graham's to christen Levi's new PC. Eventually settled on Sins as a viable alternative to the other games we usually play. It was way better as a LAN game than a solo game. Very different mechanics are involved when you can collaborate together in a room instead of breaking the AI.
GTA 4 (3h) - Another one for the PS3. The violence and language means it will be only playable late at night with headphones. Sandy was unimpressed I picked it up after hearing how bad it was on GoodGame. Starting credits were straight out of a movie, and seemed appropriate as Andrew and I had jst discussed the emergence of video games as the largest grossing entertainment title ever through Halo3.
Felt a little disjointed between passive movie and active gameplay. Not sure why. I slotted back into the GTA mode pretty quickly, but I think you're supposed to progress the storyline further before jacking cars.
FuryBand (3h) - VRBones LX - persisting with the Favoured Maia Jedi build to get into the ironman version of FuryBand. I've been able to get up to level 20, but barely any depth, maybe 8 levels down. 60th variant is living well and has built up a nice rat army to swamp the enemy.
Overlord (1h) - Pulled it out for multiplayer variant to Fable for the LAN, but the multiplayer was shite. Barely lasted 2 minutes beofre dropping.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
GameLog 38
FuryBand (15h) - I'm back in the roguelike mood. Furyband has a gold release, but playing through the ironman mode as jedi there still looks liek there's some work to be done.
Installed a dev environment at work so I might look into the coding of one to see if there's any simple way of embedding meaning through Temporal ROAM.
Trackmania Nations Forever(12h) - Afternoons and some sessions stretching on through the night as the desire for 'one more track' kicks in.
Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword (2h) - Buggy loading of the mod took its toll.
Installed a dev environment at work so I might look into the coding of one to see if there's any simple way of embedding meaning through Temporal ROAM.
Trackmania Nations Forever(12h) - Afternoons and some sessions stretching on through the night as the desire for 'one more track' kicks in.
Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword (2h) - Buggy loading of the mod took its toll.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Virtualization
Sometimes it gets a little complex at work ...
Virtualization is great. It does stress the systems more than non-virtualized environments, but it does give you far more options than normal on how to solve a problem. Today I was caught in one of those self-aware moments and marvelled at what I was actually doing. On top of the obligatory 10 IE windows that always seem to open up, I'm currently installing Visual Studio onto a new virtual machine so that the dev environment will be portable between reinstalls. That was taking a while so I had also started downloading the latest patch for the backup application, as well as backing up the old local VMs to a USB caddy HDD. The big thing today though will be the Library Catalogue server move.
After trying to get a proxy in place so that the library catalogue could be visible from outside the school, we've eventually caved in to giving it it's own external interface. Instead of opening up the virtual host for the library catalogue, we're going to try to move the virtual machine from one virtual host to another that already has an external interface card already in place. This will also free up a virtual host for other emergency work later if needed. To get started on the move I've also opened up another IE window with the 4 VH servers on different tabs (opening directories-at-once in IE is awesome). from here I can check out the status of each virtual machine and shut down LC01 for the move. I've also set up 2 remote desktops to the 2 virtual hosts to move the VM file to its new location.
My machine is still ticking along nicely. I wonder what else i can throw at it ...
Gamelog 37
Civilization 4: Beyond the Sword (18h) - Downloaded an upgrade for Road to War mod and restarted my scenario. The inflation eventually crippled me in the previous scenario and it was just not fun anymore straining to even support a tiny army.
ANZAC Day was on friday and it was particulary apt to play the Aussies in the Pacific theatre of WWII over the holiday weekend. There was an excellent doco on the Gallipoli Sub that coincided well with my 12 subs used to keep tabs on the Japan / China war
Trackmania Nations Forever(10h) - Found out that TMNF was released the night before the finals of CCG, so i grabbed a copy of it to use as a demo for next CCG season. I also took my box in to set up and demonstratoe how the game should really be played. Essentially the same game with more variety of tracks and dirt too. Much cleaner interface to emphasize the competition too.
There is a steam version, but I've stuck to the standalone version as i needed it to burn to CDs as prezzies for the CCG kids, as well as poo-poooing steam and it's klunkiness. Nearly downloaded it again thru steam when I found out how hard it is trying to add friends that I know are playing thru steam :/.
Dwarf fortress (2h) - Lunchtime fun at work.
TrackMania Nations (1h) - Finals of Competitive Computer Games for Summer 08. Gratz to Matthew Leacy for taking out a VERY tight finals.
ANZAC Day was on friday and it was particulary apt to play the Aussies in the Pacific theatre of WWII over the holiday weekend. There was an excellent doco on the Gallipoli Sub that coincided well with my 12 subs used to keep tabs on the Japan / China war
Trackmania Nations Forever(10h) - Found out that TMNF was released the night before the finals of CCG, so i grabbed a copy of it to use as a demo for next CCG season. I also took my box in to set up and demonstratoe how the game should really be played. Essentially the same game with more variety of tracks and dirt too. Much cleaner interface to emphasize the competition too.
There is a steam version, but I've stuck to the standalone version as i needed it to burn to CDs as prezzies for the CCG kids, as well as poo-poooing steam and it's klunkiness. Nearly downloaded it again thru steam when I found out how hard it is trying to add friends that I know are playing thru steam :/.
Dwarf fortress (2h) - Lunchtime fun at work.
TrackMania Nations (1h) - Finals of Competitive Computer Games for Summer 08. Gratz to Matthew Leacy for taking out a VERY tight finals.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Zenith for Coaches
St Luke's coaches for sport picked up a set of Azuma Zenith shoes as thanks for the summer season. Although not as useful in Competitive Computer Gaming as other sports, they are a comfy shoe that should do well in touch footy.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
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