Rispon Avenue

Almost all places have been taken for the roles in HBO’s A Game of Thrones!

We had quite a few cast members already, but now that the show has the green light and HBO has committed to filming the entire season, more characters needed to be cast. I thought many of the actors were very well suited, but some stood out as not being suited at all, though I hope to be surprised when I actually get to see the show!

Now that the show is actually going ahead, quite a few more roles have had to be filled, and some characters were being recast to find a better fit. George has put up an entire list of the cast so far and there are few that I don’t think are right on the money for the roles. I’ll include the list below so anyone feeling like it can Google them, but I’ll also include a link to George’s Not a Blog as there are pictures on there as well.

I’m honestly quite excited to see this come together, though still trepidatious as with any novel to screen cross-over. My boss read my post a while back on recycling my old mobile phone by selling it and now he wants some help doing the same thing – read, he wants me to do all that for him and I can’t say no as I’m an employee – with his collection of old phones. He said he’s got seven that need to go off, as they’re taking up an entire draw in his office desk…

Now for the cast!

SERIES REGULARS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon
Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
Sean Bean as Eddard “Ned” Stark
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jamie Lannister
Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
Michelle Fairley as Catelyn Stark
Aidan Gillen as Littlefinger
Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon
Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont
Kit Harington as Jon Snow
Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister
Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark
Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
Richard Madden as Rob Stark
Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane (Hound)
Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
Maisie Williams as Arya Stark

FEATURED CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
Ron Donachie as Ser Rodrik Cassel
Jerome Flynn as Bronn
Conleth Hill as Varys
Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo
Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin

GUEST CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER:

Josef Altin as Pyp
Gethin Anthony as Renly Baratheon
Ciaran Bermingham as Mord
Esme Bianco as Ros
Susan Brown as Septa Mordane
Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt
Antonia Christophers as Mhaegen
Kate Dickie as Lysa Arryn
Roy Dotrice as Grand Maester Pycelle
Emun Elliott as Marillion
Lino Facioli as Robin Arryn
Jefferson Hall as Ser Hugh of the Vale
Derek Halligan as Alliser Thorne
Rhodri Hosking as Mycah
Margaret John as Old Nan
Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell
Dermot Keaney as Gared
Francis Magee as Yoren
Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark
Brendan McCormack as Ser Vardis Egan
Ian McElhinney as Ser Barristan Selmy
Luke McEwan as Rast
Kristian Nairn as Hodor
Rob Ostlere as Ser Waymar Royce
Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister
Jamie Sives as Jory Cassel
John Standing as Jon Arryn
Conan Stevens as Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane
Peter Vaughan as Maester Aemon Targaryen
Miltos Yeromelou as Syrio Forel

Tags: A Game of Thrones

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Well, the immediate space I work in is, anyway.

I’ve had two weeks vacation, which has been absolutely great. I’ve gone away with my SO, gamed a great deal, blogged a little, relaxed and generally had a very good holiday.

But now I must get back to it. Thankfully my work isn’t too taxing. I work hard at what I do to create the best websites I can, within the guidelines set out by the client, but the toll it takes on me isn’t too bad. Sure I’ve got some RSI going from typing, and my shoulders are ruined from constantly sitting at a computer, but all in all I’m not too bad off.

For the last… well it’s been more than a few months now, I’ve been able to work from home. That’s pretty much the icing on the cake of my working life, really. I much, much prefer working from home. My only issue is that I’m not exactly the neatest person, and scribble many a note to myself whilst I’m working. This leads to piles of notes, and other general mess, too.

I’m not so lazy as to get an office cleaner to clean up my work space, but it’s a close call. Looking at my computer, it could also use a clean. The dust this thing can collect is incredible, especially around the intake fans. You can clean it pretty well with a regular vacuum, but when you notice you’re core-temp is running a few degrees higher all the time, it’s time to break out the can of compressed air, open the case, and clean out all the dust on the inside of the damn thing. The air cans are really good for cleaning out keyboards, too.

I don’t like to do all the time consuming detailed cleaning, or scrubbing, but thankfully my SO does actually enjoy that sort of thing. But she hates to tidy. She doesn’t mind scrubbing down the bathroom, but clearing up the counter and putting everything away irks her. I actually enjoy the tidying aspect, so we’re very well suited in that way.

Tags: mess, Work

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What fun there is in blowing up worms.

I bought the game on my first XBOX 360, but decided to re-download it onto my Elite and now of course I have to go through all the crap that is consolidating licences, but I can still play the game properly if I’m hooked up to XBOX Live, but when I unhook it – as the cable actually usually goes to my SO computer, yes, I’ll get another one soon – I can’t play the full title, only the trial. Anyway, back to the game.

Worms 2: Armageddon is great fun. Quintessential worms gaming. You’ve got a little team of worms – if you don’t know this then you must have lived in a cave for the past decade – with funny voices and hats, and you blow the crap out of one another. Simple, yet oh so engrossing!

My SO and I like to play. I win more often than not, but it’s still a good fight. We’d had heaps of fun playing this game in the past, and after reading that the Battle Pack was out recently, we decided to buy the Battle Pack, re-download the game, and play away!

It has been a lot of fun, and there’s a lot of new content in the Battle Pack. I quite like the new Superforts and all the new terrain types are incredibly welcome! There aren’t that many new voice packs, but what is there is up to snuff with the rest of the game. My SO would like to see a few more female sounding voice sets, however, which I agree with as the male sets far outweigh the female.

I’ve not had a chance to go through all of the new content, but the ferrets are pretty awesome. Termites not so much, but those ferrets I bet will be scary. There’s so much gaming going on in this house at the moment, so I’m off back to it!

Tags: Worms 2: Armageddon, Xbox 360, XBOX Live Arcade

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I’ve been killing gobbo scum – goblins – in the early areas of Puzzle Quest 2

I had the trial to Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords and whilst I was waiting for something to download from XBOX Live I decided to give it a go. After a few minutes I had to have the full game, and looking it up on the Arcade. I found that it already had a sequel, which had substantially better graphics, so I bought that one instead.

That was about twenty-four hours ago and I think I’ve been playing this game for about twelve of those hours. Basically it’s a nice little RPG game with Bejewelled as the battle mechanic. Sounds odd at first, but it’s thoroughly engrossing. Bejewelled itself isn’t a title that can keep my attention for very long. It gets boring quickly because you feel like you’re getting little back for all your jewel switching. But with this game you actually get past the foe and get rewards from it, too.

It’s not an overly complex game, but it’s got enough depth to be quite satisfying, and you’ll find yourself coming back to it over and over should you give it a try. It’s also quite a lengthy title, from what I’ve read, so you can expect to really get your money’s worth out of it!

I really enjoy the puzzles for looting, disarming traps, and bashing down doors, too. Especially the loot puzzle mini game. It’s such a simple mechanic, as is the case in many aspects of the game, but the straightforward simplicity serves to heighten the enjoyment, as you can pretty much pick up and play at any point and you’ll do fine.

One aspect of the game that really, really works, is what occurs if you lose a fight. You get the XP from the fight, but the foe is still standing there. You can then just have another go at the creature, and another if that’s what it takes, until you get it. Sometimes a bit of luck can make all the difference, and not having to go back to save points or lose XP is a wonderful thing to not have to go through if your luck runs bad for a little while.

It’s a very enjoyable game which I strongly recommend to any 360 owner.

Tags: Puzzle Quest 2, Xbox 360, XBOX Live Arcade

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I really don’t like the final add on for Fallout 3 at all.

Okay so it’s been a good while since I last wrote, but I’ve been rather busy in that time. Went on a small vacation with my SO, which was great, and then spent a few days at home together, gaming and generally having fun. Of course, I only just realised that my last blog post didn’t go live when I hit ‘Publish’ instead saving itself as a draft. Good show… Anyway back on topic.

I’ve still been playing Fallout 3, but not as much. The reason? The Mothership Zeta add on. Wow. I hate the bloody place! It just goes on and on and I’ve still a heap to do in there. I’ve got to blow up two more power generators and do a bunch of other crap. It’s just very lengthy and boring compared to other parts of the game. Being enclosed in the one area when I’ve had the entire wastes to run around in really stinks.

The whole thing feels so claustrophobic, so tingly squished in, and blowing away alien after alien does not make up for this fact! Seriously, though, I want those little bastards to suffer. There’s quite a few people and mutants that they’ve picked up, some going right back to feudal Japan. Yeah, they’ve been cryogenically freezing people for later. Don’t know why, yet. Being the paragon that I am, I’m not killing the Samurai for his armour, even though there’s no bad karma for doing it, but it doesn’t seem right to me.

I’ve found this area really off putting, and I’ve not been playing for the last few days because I just can’t stand this place. The indoor maps aren’t very good in Fallout, which usually doesn’t bother me, but in this case, when I just want to get through to the destination area because there’s very little actual content, and just more aliens to kill, makes these maps very annoying.

I hate that I’m stuck in this area until the quest in complete. With nearly all other parts of the game, you can leave at any point and come back. Here, nope. You’re stuck. For many, many hours, in a linear corridor filled with annoying aliens. Ugh.

Tags: Fallout 3, Mothership Zeta, Xbox 360

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Really, really enjoying this game.

I started playing Fallout 3 again, though this time on my 360. I was playing it on PC for a while, but when it bugged during a main-story mission, and corrupted my only save file, I gave it up for a long while.

I really enjoyed the game, but my perception of it was greatly marred due to the game-breaking bugginess. This is nothing new for Bethesda, but something that I wish they’d stop doing. I don’t mind waiting an extra month or two for a game that’s actually going to work!

I have the game of the year edition, with all the downloadable content included and so far I’m enjoying it greatly. This has to be one of my top ten all time most enjoyable games. It’s a very large and engaging game world, and you actually care about what’s going on.

Oblivion was a good game, but I didn’t feel as drawn in as I do with Fallout 3. The only downside is that the game still is a little buggy. Twice, during many, many, hours of gameplay the game has frozen my 360. After shutting down the console, it loaded up fine afterwards, but still, that’s irritating.

I also had a great deal of difficulty with one particular quest, getting the Temple of the Union people to the Lincoln Memorial. I had to do a great deal of running around trying to get everything right to have the escaped slaves turn up at all. If you kill all the slavers at the Memorial before you’ve talked to Hannibal Hamlin – the leader of the Temple people – then all the freed slaves just walked out of the old Temple of the Union building never to be seen again. Very frustrating but eventually I got it sorted out.

There’s just so much to appreciate with this game. The music is fantastic, the ambient sounds excellent, and some times the sense of creepiness is incredible. I just went through Vault 106, the one with the creepy ghostiness going on, but because my science skill is at 85 I can’t find out what was really going on as I need a science skill of 100 to hack the Overseer’s computer. Dammit!

Tags: Fallout 3, Xbox 360

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I’ve one thing to say to that chavette, take that! This is of course in reference to the chavette driver who hit my neighbours car at a red light.

So there was some lead up to the case, but I’d not spoken to my neighbour in a while so I’d not heard about it until this week. He received notification in the post from a law firm that specialises in compensation claims for accidents that the chavette driver was in fact pursuing the case and was seeking compensation for claims of a whiplash injury she received during the accident.

My neighbour said he approached a law society he was familiar with who suggested the legal services of a group that should be able to help him out. He made an appointment with him and they were only too happy to take the case on.

Early last week the case was heard in a courtroom where the judge dismissed the case shortly after hearing what had happened from the mouth of the chavette herself! Once the chavette said that she hit my neighbours car because he’d stopped at an orange traffic light, the judge stopped her there, told her she was lucky she wasn’t being fined for wasting the courts time.

My neighbour was so happy with the outcome, and his lawyers said they didn’t feel like they deserved his money, but he said he was happy to pay the fee for the entertainment of seeing the young lady’s face when the judge got mad her.

My SO and I are very happy that our nice old neighbour doesn’t have to pay some compensation claim for something so ridiculous. It’s irritating to see how often these sorts of cases come about. There seems to be far too many ‘ambulance chasers’ out there, and little in the way of repercussions for bringing these sorts of suits against people. Hopefully the chavette learned her lesson, then perhaps she’ll share them with her chav friends and they’ll know not to try to sue people when they hit them with their cars!

Tags: car accident, insurance claim, neighbour

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BP is losing it’s grasp as one of the world’s largest companies.

Seriously, this oil spill disaster is going to be almost as bad for the company as it has been for the environment. I’m at a loss as to what to say, okay well no I’m not, I’ve got a lot to say, and here I go.

Can you believe that that unmitigated, worst natural disaster ever for the US, event was caused by one of the world’s wealthiest companies trying to make more money!? Quite frankly, I would like to see the financial news for BP get a hell of a lot worse than being dropped from the BBC index of world’s largest firms. I want this company to really have to fix this, and be monitored a lot more closely from now on.

I think they paid far more attention to their independent financial advisers instead of who they should have listened to, some independent ecological advisers! I’m rather angry at the financial and ecological disasters hitting the world thanks to too many big companies being overly concerned with banking more money for themselves. If you check your current account, and see more money than you would need to live comfortably for the rest of your life, then you sure as hell should settle down and not take huge risks, make poor choices and take unwarranted short-cuts.

If you watched the responses from Tony Hayward to the US Senate, you’d be forgiven for reasonably assuming that the man did absolutely nothing at all. His response to so many questions was ‘I had no involvement with that part of the company’ or ‘I was not involved with those choices’. I mean, what part of the company was he involved with? Golf? Lunch? Naps? Bah! What a wanker!

I hope oil companies take a lesson from this and don’t attempt to earn themselves more money in the future at the potential cost to the environment and people who’ve got to live near those places that could be affected.

Tags: BP, Finance

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I really like regular controllers, so I’m not overly receptive to another wand-like controller.

Let’s just take a look at this thing. It’s incredibly similar to the Wii-mote in set up, save that it’s black. But… so is the new Wii-mote… Oh and it’s also got a very silly little balloon thing on the end, that looks like the controller is obnoxiously blowing gum at you. Apparently it’s not hard, and is sort of rubbery and pliable like a clown’s nose that can be pressed out of shape and then will just bounce back into place when you let go of it.

The Move is, essentially, the Wii-mote restyled. It works on the same principal as the Wii-mote, but instead of an infrared sensor bar that the Wii implements, you’re working with the PlayStation Eye instead. This means that the Move will pick up more of a 3D aspect than the Wii has, as the Eye allows for greater perception of depth.

As with the Wii-mote, you’ve got a secondary controller, that in this case is called the ‘navigation’ controller, but apparently you don’t have to use it, you can just play with the normal PlayStation controller in your left hand… wtf!? Yeah, how do you imagine that’s going to work, Sony? Oh, you don’t? Of course you don’t.

The Move will sell in the UK for £39.99, the navigation controller for £29.99, and if you need the Eye as well, you can get that with the Move for £49.99. So, price wise we Brits are paying a little bit extra, but at the same time it’s not the worst price difference we’ve been hit with.

Really, the Move just hasn’t blown me away… but then again, PlayStation in general really hasn’t made a big impact on me. I like to game in order to relax, and I don’t actually like having to stand up and wave something around to play.

Tags: Gaming, PlayStation Move

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Nintendo has unveiled the 3DS at E3 this week… Finally.

So, I had big reservations about this handheld. I mean, what’s with the huge push for all things 3D at the moment? It seems so 80’s to me. I’ve not gone and seen any movie in 3D, and I’ve never felt like I was missing anything. It just seems a bit absurd, sitting there in those multi-coloured glasses.

So when Nintendo announced that, not only less than a month after bringing out the huge and unwieldy DSiXL, they were upgrading the handheld, that it was also going to be 3D, I was disappointed and angry with Nintendo. I mean seriously… I’m getting real tired of Nintendo rehashing the same few games that bring them huge revenues, and then filling shelves with shovel ware to confuse those not in the know into spending money on crap games.

Nintendo finally showed off what the handheld was going to look like at E3 this week, and I have to say, I’m quite impressed with the look of the machine.

When I first heard about the analogue stick, I thought it sounded very out of place with the handheld, but it actually looks alright in there. The larger screens are nicer, too, and apparently the hardware in there to rival the Wii. That makes me think two things; it’s great that the graphics will be that good, and oh my the Wii sucks.

The reports from people who’ve actually had a chance to play a demo are very positive. So far people are all saying really good things about how it plays and how comfortable it is to play. The 3D is able to be turned on or off, which I’m very pleased about, and apparently there’s also quite a bit of room to move in terms of still getting the 3D image rather than the two images separating.

I’m feeling a lot more positive about the handheld, and I’m looking forward to more info on it. Nintendo still isn’t saying much, and they’re still rehashing game after game, but when one of those games is Ocarina of Time, I’m not too irritated.

Tags: 3DS, E3, Nintendo

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I certainly hope so, but that’s about all I’ve got; Hope.

We’ve got a name now. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword… So much for Miyamoto’s stupid hint comment a while back suggesting Link wouldn’t have a sword. I’ve been waiting a long, long time for any information, any, coming from Nintendo about this game after the one concept poster was released back at last year’s E3, and now we have a very small bit of info to go on.

Basically, Miyamoto showed a very ‘quick and dirty concept demo‘ that didn’t work particularly well, given that the majority of the audience were toting infra-red devices. The result of this comical, if unfortunate, occurrence was that the MotionPlus Wii controller Mr Miyamoto was trying to use, didn’t work.

So a lot of people went away from the demonstration fearing the game didn’t work. All of the people at the demonstration went away knowing practically nothing about the game, too. No info on storyline at all.

Now, here’s where I can talk about what we do know. We know that the graphics style is a cross between realistic and cell shaded, resulting in a realistically crap. Seriously, it’s ugly. Really looks terrible.

This is the first Zelda title for the Wii that was actually developed for the Wii. Twilight Princess was in development so long that the bloody console it was being developed for became obsolete – as if the Wii isn’t! – and developers ported the game before it was released so it would be Wii compatible. So taking that into consideration, the fact that this game looks like it was meant to be played on the Nintendo 64 is really disappointing. It doesn’t look quite as bad in motion, though, so that’s something. I mean, it’s still underwhelming, but the gameplay trailer doesn’t look quite as bad as the stills of the game do.

So much could be done with the Zelda franchise on the Wii, but Nintendo’s yet to tap into that potential. The game is set to be released sometime next year, but at this stage I seriously doubt it’s going to be awesome.

Tags: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Wii

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One of the big events at this year’s E3 was of course Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral.

Okay so with E3 about to wrap up, it’s about time I started covering those games that stood out to me, or in this case, the hardware. Because, really, that’s what this year’s E3 has felt like, a very hardware-centric expo. Both Microsoft and Sony have shown off hardware that can only be described as a blatant attempt to raise sales by making their consoles more like the Wii; but I’ll come back to that later.

In this article I’ll be looking at the Kinect, and I’ll take a look at Sony’s version of the hardware in another entry. Basically, the Kinect is very, very similar to the Wii’s infared motion sensor, save that the Kinect is being billed as having a better sense of depth.

Microsoft, in it’s usually grandiose way, unveiled the Kinect – formerly known as Project Natal – at E3, with Cirque du Soleil performers riding in on a giant animatronic elephant whilst all the attending gaming press had to wear cult-like white robes to get in to see the show, and there was a whole bunch of other stuff going on too.

They’ve previewed 14 titles so far, all of which, save one, seem to be aimed at children. The graphics for the games associated to this device are poor, and the gameplay, if you could call it that, is pretty much a rip off of Wii Sports and Wii Fit titles. Seriously, it’s that bloody blatant that Microsoft just wants some of Nintendo’s profits from the damn Wii.

The Kinect could have something going for it, one day. In terms of a fancy Minority Report remote for a 360 it’s actually pretty nifty, but in terms of a US$150 peripheral to play some crappy games, it’s down right ridiculous. Does Microsoft really think they’re going to steal enough of Wii’s market to make this worth while? A Wii right now, with Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and a MotionPlus controller will set you back roughly £169.99, whilst a Xbox 360 Elite is £189.97, and whilst we don’t have a sure RRP from Microsoft for the UK yet, speculation puts it at around £120. That’s nearly twice the amount of the Wii, for essentially the same sort of set up. Now, the only thing that’ll sway people to pick up the 360 and Kinect over the Wii is the fact that the rest of the game library for the 360 isn’t crap, like it is for the Wii.

Basically, I can see that this has some interesting aspects to it, and heck year I’d love to flick my hand left or right to scroll through movies on my 360, but I’m sure as heck not going to pay £120 for it!

Tags: E3, Kinect, Microsoft

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My SO’s hunting for a gift for her father.

My father passed away a few years back, so I don’t have any Father’s Day gifts to buy, but my SO does. Her father is a difficult man to shop for. He’s taciturn nature doesn’t lend itself to getting to know the man easily, and all that anyone really does know about him is that he likes football and complaining.

So, with that in mind, my SO has bought him a lot of football merchandise over the years, but this year wants to go completely different. She’s doing her shopping online, so she’s got to order in the next twenty-four hours to get the item here on time, but that’s fine.

She wanted to make sure she could get ideas for, and buy, something unusual so shopping online worked out there. At the moment the major contenders are the Hopside Down Beer Glass – as that’s one other thing we know about her dad, he likes beer – a Bobble Opener, as she thinks they’re odd and fun and go with the glass, but she’s not sure what else.

My SO and her father don’t have a close relationship. The man doesn’t speak all that much and when he does it’s usually either rude or complaining. As such, he’s not fun to get presents for. I encourage her to spend little time around him as she always ends up sad and frustrated by him.

So what are you getting for your father for father’s day? Going to go with the traditional slippers and bathrobe? I miss shopping for my father. He was always really happy with whatever you got him, and was so proud that you’d found this amazingly awesome gift. He was so easy to shop for, too, because almost invariably whatever I thought was cool, he thought was awesome. Ah, I do miss the fellow.

Tags: Father's Day, gifts, pranks

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I don’t want spam emails, but there’s often the ‘this isn’t spam because you bought from us previously’ emails that get through, and they’re annoying.

I bought some office equipment a while back as I had to have a pretty comprehensive set up for working from home. Now I’m getting spam emails telling me to buy digital dect cordless phones, and you know what, I never will! When I do have to buy a new phone again for my home, I’ll absolutely be getting a BT phone. On a side note, how cheap and creepy is this telecoms company’s website? Seriously, you can’t see what their range of telephones is, or how much you’ll have to pay for service, or… anything. You’d have to buck up and kiss your money goodbye if you were going with that place, because seriously, they look dodgy. Telephonix’s website is pretty damn crap, but at least you can see prices and detailed listings of their phone systems for businesses and what not.

There’s always the allure of going with the cheap, little companies, but there’s also the fear that they’ll go under in two months taking your money and services with them. I just don’t like getting spam at all, let alone spam from people who I willingly gave my email address to.

In spite of attempting to unsubscribe, I am still getting emails from Aion about their upcoming events and what not. They’re obviously one of those groups that thinks if they make it really hard for people to unsubscribe they’ll be able to get further hooks into people. Well, no, no you can’t have that. I don’t mind knowing what’s going on with LOTRO, but apart from that if I’ve stopped playing a game I don’t really want to receive more emails about it.

I suppose if it were emails coming from somewhere you bought from, where the item purchased wasn’t one that would last the next five years, and the store had something more than that one item, then I wouldn’t mind quite so much… No, no scrap that. I’d hate that. Don’t spam me. Let’s just leave it at that.

Tags: spam

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I wanted to finish all the Ambient Challenges in Red Dead Redemption, but now that John’s dead I’m not so keen.

Basically, there’s four types of missions that you can go about and do all by yourself. You’ve got the Treasure Hunter Challenges, where you get a map with a landmark on it and it will direct you to the location of some treasure. Some are hard to figure out, but the more you actually roam around the world the better chance you’ll have to find them all. I’ve got all ten of these, as they were very fun to get and I sort of got on a roll with them for a while.

Then you’ve got the Sharpshooter Challenges, where you have to shoot specific tough targets. This is a fairly straight forward one, and I’m sitting at Rank 8 currently, where I have to shoot the hats off of two people and disarm them as well, which means shooting the gun out of their hands. This is a bit tougher than the animal challenges, but very manageable.

I’m only up to Rank 5 with the Master Hunter Challenges, as killing two cougars with a hunting knife is a tall order, really. Cougars are a scary thing in the RDR world. You’ll hear their familiar call and the next thing you know they’re attacking you, your horse is dead, and if you don’t move like lightning you’ll be next. Deadly creatures. The later ranks seem easier than this one, though killing a grizzly bear with a hunting knife is scarier than a cougar, I must say.

The Survivalist Challenges are just collecting plants from about the place. These are really quite boring and irritating, and as such I’m only up to Rank 6. Riding around and finding the right plant, dismounting, collecting, mounting, and then riding around some more isn’t really my idea of fun. If there was something you could actually do with the plants, apart from the odd quest or just selling them, then that would be something, but other than that they just feel largely out of character.

So, now that I’ve finished the story line, and I have to run around as the incredibly irritatingly voiced Jack, I don’t want to go and complete all the Ambient Challenges. The game-world is a lot less fun now that John’s dead.

Tags: Ambient Challenges, Red Dead Redemption

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Turn on the FIFA World Cup and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I’m not really that into football, to be honest. I know that’s sacrilegious of an English man to say, but it’s the truth, I find it a largely boring sport to watch. But when it’s countries playing then I find it at least a little interesting, so I usually check out the FIFA World Cup when it’s on.

However, this time round, there’s one particular aspect to the games that makes them pretty much intolerable to watch. The bloody noisemakers, in this case the Vuvuzelas. Seriously, turn the game on and it’s like a million moronic bumble bees made their way into your inner ear drum and you’ve got a fair idea.

Players, coaches, and fans all called for these things to be banned from the World Cup, but basically as they’re an instrument native to South Africa, they’ve been allowed to remain at the games as they’re part of the South African football culture.

Now, I don’t really think that’s fair, because fans are using the things to put the players off, and normally that’d not be an issue, but when just one of these things is louder than a chainsaw, the players are actually being affected by these. I don’t really feel that this annoying noise should be allowed, because it’s intensely off-putting for those of us watching the game and the World Cup is supposed to be enjoyed by the entire world, not just the country playing host.

When FIFA did consider banning the instrument, the reason wasn’t because of the noise, but because of concerns that they would be used by companies as a means of advertising during the World Cup, or of course, as weapons at the games. Such a damn pity they allowed the bloody things, as they are so damn annoying.

Now, I know that, when used correctly, they can actually be coordinated into music, but that’s not what’s happening at the games. What’s happening is thousands of people blowing away any chance that I’m going to be anything less than tense whilst watching the games. I’ve managed to watch one game so far, and I can sort of tune out the sound of the Vuvuzelas, but at the same time, I realise I’m slightly squinting the whole time against the din, even with my television as low as I can have it and still hear the commentary.

Tags: FIFA World Cup, Football, Noise Makers

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Ohhh, that’s always fun, isn’t it? The Warrior looks pretty cool, too.

It’s about time, too, that we saw a significant update. The site has fairly much been stagnating for most of last month, but there’s been the odd bit of info go up now and then. However, finally, we’ve got a brand new profession up there, and I have to say, I’m impressed.

The Elementalist class is the only other profession up at this stage, and it’s a flashy one, really. Magic classes always get a lot of nifty particle effects and the biggest sound and light show when it comes to what the player can do. The Warrior in Guild Wars 2, however, isn’t short changed in this regard either. The five short videos of some of the Warrior’s class abilities all look pretty cool, some even kind of epic.

There seems to be a strong collaboration of a few different game classes; Diablo 2’s Barbarian, LOTRO’s Captain, and D&D’s Fighter and Paladin classes all seem to be melded here to make a pretty strong and awesome player class. There’s actually some flexibility to the class, in that the Warrior could be tank, oftank, or DPS, so that you can really tailor it to how you want to play it, and it doesn’t make two Warriors grouping totally redundant, either.

I’m really looking forward to more info on the game, and hoping that it lives up to the potential. That’s a big ask, because a lot of what’s been talked about is pretty amazing, and seems like it would be very hard to implement effectively.

I miss playing LOTRO, at the moment, but I don’t think I’ll go back to it just yet. I want to give Guild Wars a fair chance, and I’m hoping that the lore of the game is as thoughtfully and artfully crafted as the graphics and two professions so far released.

Tags: Gaming, Guild Wars 2, MMORPG, Warrior

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I’m enjoying it and glad that I picked it up, I must say.

First off, damn I’m happy to not be reading Malazan! Seriously! Erikson is one messed up fellow and I’m glad not to be reading his work anymore! It’s so refreshing!

I started Mistborn: The Final Empire a little while back when I was a little tired of reading Malazan. I enjoyed the change of pace, and I was quite intrigued by the Allomancy in the book. It’s a very interesting magic concept, and one that I think will be fun to read about for some time to come.

The book is written well, it’s not the best I’ve read but it’s still quality reading. The cast of characters is pretty good, and I’m quite intrigued to find out more about this Lord Ruler, as the excerpts from the beginning of each chapter seem to be from his perspective, prior to ascension. He seems like a pretty bad guy, but that perhaps he didn’t start out that way. Not sure, and I like the idea of finding out more about that.

The fact that at only half way through the first book you’re already getting character progression is nice. Such a change from books like Wheel of Time where the characters are largely unchanged for thousands and thousands of pages.

Sanderson seems to walk a nice line between descriptions of characters, locations, clothing, etc. There’s not too much description, but there’s enough to have a good sense of the world the author is envisioning.

I think what I like about it is that the characters are very real. They’re individuals, not cardboard cut outs of characters I’ve met in a dozen other fantasy novels. I’m impressed with how fleshed out the magic system is when it was Sanderson’s own creation. I also really like taking the tack of the after events of the bad guys winning, that’s a thoroughly interesting concept, I have to say. I’m looking forward to going off to read in the near future.

Tags: Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire

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For Deus Ex: Human Revolution, of course! Well, not new so much as expanded upon, really, but the three month wait for the expanded trailer seemed like a very long time.

I have to say first off, before anything else, that my wisdom teeth are coming in with a vengeance, and that the right side of my face is afire with pain. Yeah, so I’m not feeling great, but I’ll soldier on to get this post up.

Secondly, before I get to the meat of the article, remember me talking about my IP phone system that’s suitable for office or business, because since I started working from home there’s the odd occasion where I have to last minute join an internet video and audio conference? Yes well, that’s brought to light something. I don’t like strangers in my home, and I don’t like strangers being able to see in my home. So I’ve calibrated it now that you can only see a blank expanse of wall behind me when I’m talking. It’s less awkward that way, now I know prospective clients aren’t sitting there thinking ‘So that’s the kind of art this fellow’s into? We don’t want him creating our website!’ or something like that.

And now onto the trailer. I’ll preface this – there’s a lot of that going on today – by saying I really, really enjoyed the previous Deus Ex titles, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting updates on this game. Some time back Deus Ex: Human Revolution was announced, and a trailer soon followed. After a very long wait, an extended version of the trailer has been released… It’s. Bloody. Awesome. Seriously, I cannot wait to play this game.

A lot of fans of the series were disappointed by Deus Ex: Invisible War, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game, and it still ranks as among my all time favourites. Human Revolution seems to be really tackling some gritty themes, and that’s a really good thing in my opinion. There’s a lot going on in the trailer, and the visuals are amazing, the voice acting great, and the musical score working very well too. Apparently the CG scenes have been outsourced to Visual Works in Japan, with the direction coming from Goldtooth Creative in Canada, and I have to say it really comes together. I know the game won’t look as good as this CG trailer, but the style of graphics is very appealing to me, and I really can’t wait to see where they’re going to take this title.

Tags: Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Gaming, Trailer

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I’ll be including spoilers to the latter stages of Red Dead Redemption here, and I don’t want the story line inadvertently ruined for anyone reading this, so I’m saying it loud and clear. There will be spoilers!

So… where to start… Okay so I’m very close to finishing the game, but before I get to that I’ll go back a bit. I went to Mexico and helped out there for a while, waiting to get info on two members of my old crew. I had to do missions for both the Mexican government – a bureaucracy filled with drunken insane rapists and murderers – as well as having to do missions for the rebels uprising against said government.

Mexico was interesting for me because it was by far my favourite of the landscapes, and the music is fantastic around there too, the missions were amongst the most irritating. I found it very frustrating to have to play through doing quests for both sides of this uprising, never being given a choice as to who I would support, whilst both sides jerked me around with regards to information, for quite a while until finally the government were going to kill me and then I’m fully on the rebels side. I really liked Landon Ricketts quests as he was a pretty awesome character, but Luisa was very fatalistic and irritating. Her refusal to see how much of an ass Reyes was was frustrating, and then having to do quests with that idiot was really annoying. I’m glad I got to kill De Santa and Allende, though, that was fun. Luisa dying was quite sad, but in a way I think she would have been less happy should she have made it through the rebellion alive.

Tall trees is also nice looking, however the music there is so annoying that I soon want to be out of the place. That ominous, tense, single piano key twanging soundtrack was a bad idea, in my opinion.

So, now onto the meat of things. Disposing of Dutch was… well a little unsatisfying. There wasn’t as large a build up to his death as there was with Bill, and in the end John doesn’t kill him, which I found frustrating. I would have shot that psychopath in an instant, even taking into account the history he had with Marston.

Getting back to my very own ranch was just awesome, and doing a few minor quests for Abigail was fun, as well as seeing them interact. The Jack quests were alright and I liked the way John handled Jack’s misbehaviour when running of to hunt a bear. Nice writing there.

The scene where John is gunned down by a large posse of Ross and his crew was… poignant. I felt like the writing was good, the story made sense, and I was very sad to see John go that way. He deserved better. So now I’m running around as Jack, after Abigail has died some ten years or so after John, and I’ve found out that there is a quest to kill Ross, so I’ll gladly be taking that on!

However running around as Jack is rather irritating. His voice is childish and overly chipper, in spite of how they’ve tried to make him look in his older state. This kid has lost his father to a corrupt government, and he’s recently lost his mother, his last family on earth, and yet you pass a rider on a track and Jack’ll greet them with an upbeat ‘Howdy, Mister’.

So all in all I’d give the game a 9.5 out of ten, it really is a masterpiece and gives me great hope for where Rockstar may go in the future. I’ve respected this game on every level, graphics, music, story line, game play, it’s all here!

Now I was going to talk about a call from my real estate agent about that overseas property investment in Philippines that I was considering a while back, but good lord this post has gotten too long to do that now! The Philippines can wait!

Tags: End of Game, Gaming, Red Dead Redmption

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