Planet Sillicon

Saving as much as I can

By blog on Feb. 1, 2010.

The economy is still not fully on it’s feet, and as such, I’m saving as much as I can.

It’s a good idea to have some financial protection in place at the moment, because in spite of the initial onslaught of the financial crisis being past, the lingering effects will remain for quite some time. I’ve also made very, very sure that all my insurance premiums are up to date and the best that I can get in terms of cost and cover.

I hate investigating which premium would be best for my SO and I, but I did put in the effort whilst I was recovering from the swine flu – body was still weak but my mind was fine and very bored – to work it all out and I even picked up mortgage life insurance cover, because being that sick just made me want to be safe rather than sorry if anything untoward should happen. Sure it’s morbid as hell, but I’d rather my SO not have to worry about losing our home should anything happen to me. Having what turned out to be a critical illness made me think a great deal about all of this, and I’m glad it’s all taken care of now!

If you’re home insurance is due to be renewed, it’s really not a bad idea to consider some reviews on the subject, because honestly the best way to figure out if any institution is a good one is to take it straight from the mouths who’ve bought from them/dealt with them, not who’ve worked for them! I found a fairly good comparison site in the ‘money supermarket’ and though their name is quite silly, it’s nice to have that much information at hand on the same site.

I much prefer to do all my financial planning myself, it seems somehow counter productive to have someone else do it, and pay them for it!

Tekken 6 is terrible

By blog on Feb. 1, 2010.

It’s a shocking development for a franchise I’ve loved playing for a very long time… until now.

So, wow. Just wow. How hard can this game possibly lose? I’ve played the Tekken series for a long time now, I think I first began on Tekken 2, then owned 3, and 4, though I don’t think I played the fifth version. I really enjoyed those games, so very, very much. My SO and I bonded whilst playing Tekken 3 on the PS One; ahh, fond memories. That was a good decade ago, and now here we are with a sad, sad, version of a much loved series.

Tekken, for those who’ve managed to not hear of the game, is a fighting game which came out in ‘94 as an arcade game, but then was moved over the the Playstation for the next four iterations, and then finally was ported to the Xbox 360 for Tekken 6 as well as the Playstation 3. It’s been one of the best fighting games for the past fifteen years, and I was sure that it would continue to be so. However, the sixth sequel is just… just awful.

Okay so I played it for two days, on and off, so I gave it a fair chance. My SO and I happily placed the disc into the 360 and started the game up. We knew the music was going to be less than great because of the IGN review, and they also mentioned the lack-lustre sound effects. We said we could deal with that and away we went.

We picked some of our favourite characters straight up, and it was nice to see so many characters available for use straight away. I fought as Bryan Fury, and my SO fought as Ling Xiaoyu. Okay, here we were, and yeah, the music wasn’t great, but I could deal with that. My SO absolutely hated the poor fight sound effects, saying she never felt like she landed a proper attack because the sounds were so muted.

The controls of the game were poor to say the least. I’m a good fighter, but it felt like the only way to play this game was to button mash, and then we actually tried the single-player modes; up until this point, we’d only been fighting each other.

So I tried arcade mode, hoping to unlock more content. I got to the third fight and was then faced with ‘*Oops*’ the bear. A blue version of Kuma with gold wrist braces and paw-pads. This ridiculously difficult opponent took me thirteen attempts to beat, in spite of being able to get through every other arcade/single-player mode in a fighting game pretty straight forwardly in the past. There was no learning curve, the AI went from complete dunce that will allow you to throw them over and over, to nigh-on unstoppable knows every attack in the catalogue kind of opponent in only three rounds. I mean, what the hell’s with that?

Then we tried the ‘Scenario’ mode as a cursory glance online suggested this was the way to unlock content. It was terrible. A strange strolling along a path fight were you were stuck with an annoying android who’s trying to explain the abstract defunct story-line. I couldn’t stand this style, it was very unintuitive.

Combine all of this with some seriously ugly character models and the worst fractured storyline you could imagine, we ended up taking it back and trading it for Soul Calibur IV. Sheesh.

Must wait to start ME2

By blog on Jan. 30, 2010.

I know that I have to wait to play Mass Effect 2 until I’ve finished the first, that I’ll be happier when playing the second game when I’ve got a full character to import, but it’s hard to wait to play such a good game.

I went and found it the day after release, all nicely sealed and ready to be played, but I want to go into the game with a full file intact. For most games that wouldn’t matter. I mean, if I hadn’t finished Gears of War 1 and just wanted to play the second game, that wouldn’t be an issue. I’d just read through the storyline on a website somewhere and set to.

But in Mass Effect 2 you can actually import your character from the first game. Now, you don’t go in at the same level, or even have to play as the same class, but what does go in is a record of all the choices you’ve made in the first game. Did you resolve this issue peacefully, or did you become violent, did you try to help these people, or ignore their problem. All these choices will affect how the characters in Mass Effect 2 react to you, which is an aspect of the game I’m highly anticipating.

So now I just have to really get stuck into the first game. I’m a moderate way in, gotten my specialization and running around the galaxy saving everyone’s ass. That’s always fun. Who doesn’t want to be the hero of the entire universe?

Still enjoying the game, and I have to say, it is a lot more enjoyable to play on the 360 than it was on the PC. The control system on the 360 is a lot more intuitive, and the game is so much less buggy. I’ve just realised that I’d not downloaded the two add-ons, so I’m currently getting those cracking.

More on Mass Effect once I’ve finished the first game and embarking on the second!

Shall not be getting a Wii

By blog on Jan. 28, 2010.

I’m one console away from having all three current gen systems, but I shall not be getting the Wii.

Now, I know I’m going to anger quite a few Nintendo fans here, but I’m going ahead with this anyway. I’ve extremely fond memories of the SNES, which is still one of my all time favourite consoles, I mean, Super Mario Bros. 3 was one of the best games of all time, there’s no doubt about that! But the Wii, the latest console from Nintendo, just falls dramatically short from where the other current gen consoles are sitting.

Okay so let’s talk tech here, there’s no doubting that the Wii is by far the weakest system of the 7th generation in gaming. Both the 360 and the PS3 support far better graphics, processing, and memory capabilities, and whilst I can understand the Wii was aiming at a different audience, there’s still issues with charging that much for a console that is as limited as the Wii is.

I’ve used the console, and sure it’s fun for a while, but another thing that really, really, and is the clincher as to why I won’t purchase the Wii, is the complete lack of quality gaming on the console. You’ve got about four good games on the entire platform, and yet the game library for the Wii is enourmous, with around 600 titles, but just over 37% of those have been reviewed at or below 60… See where I’m going with this?

Nintendo should learn from what happened with Atari. Crappy games for the Atari flooded the market, and it sent the console under, yet for some reason, the unenlightened are still purchasing this shovelware for the Wii, and there’s tons and tons to be had. There are probably four good titles on this console, but I’ll not be paying the price of the console just to have a go at Mario Galaxy 2, and I don’t like party titles, so all the other Mario titles for the Wii hold absolutely no interest.

So please, Nintendo, please bring us a console in the next generation that’s worthy of the money we spend on it, don’t put out a whole heap of ultra crap games, and stop with the gimmick gaming!

Housing market still down in the dumps

By blog on Jan. 28, 2010.

You’d think by now it would be better, but alas, it isn’t.

Basically, I’m still noticing a lot of bad news regarding the housing market. Property prices in 2010 still expected to drop, somewhere between 10 and 40 per cent for the year, and that the little rays of sunshine in the market will die out as quickly as they came on.

House prices seem to be something that, if you’re interested in buying, it’s best to look into on a very regular basis. Small fluctuations in the market can make a pretty big difference for the average house buyer, because if you find a slump week – which could be a blip on the national financial radar – you could save yourself thousands of pounds. I also recommend looking into blogs these days, I’m not talking any old blogs, but there are some really comprehensive economy blogs around that can help you predict when you’ll be able to buy, and what sort of price is fair for what you’re looking at.

The market may have a bit of hope with the recent interest from property investors due to the poor results in the stock market last year, but there’s always the ubiquitous property and home buyers, those eternally searching for just the right house or property, but who never seem to find it.

I still see a lot of homes up for sale in my area, but every time I hear what one of those properties went for I’m a little surprised at just how much value has been lost from the housing market here. Mortgage rates are alright I suppose, but I’m shocked and irritated to see banks offering 90% mortgages again, so soon after the financial collapse brought on by 100% mortgage loans… what are they thinking? It’s such a shockingly stupid lack of hindsight in my opinion… shouldn’t they actually learn from the lessons at hand? It’d be nice, wouldn’t it.

Gotta love pleasant surprises

By blog on Jan. 27, 2010.

It was nice to get a few games for free with my 360, but what was nicer was that none of them were crap!

Pure is an ATV racer, yep, those four wheel motorcycle things. Surprisingly, a game based on racing these things is actually very fun. You’ve got three different race types, Race, what it sounds like, which is three laps around a fairly long course. Sprint, five laps around a very short course, and then Freestyle, which is where you’ve got a full tank of fuel, and you race for as long as you can whilst performing tricks which will extend the fuel you have allowing you to pull off more tricks for even greater points.

You get to build your own ATV with parts provided, changing colour and other aesthetic options, and choosing parts based on which attributes they give bonuses to so you can build bikes for specific types of events. There is a heck of a lot of customisation here, especially as you play the game further and unlock more and more parts for you to use as well as level ups for specific types of parts.

I hadn’t heard of this game prior to looking up what the Elite was currently bundled with, but after watching the video review on IGN I thought it looked like fun, but playing it is more fun than I’d expected after seeing the review. It’s fast paced, the music is good and suits the game, and the over the top stunts are magnificent to watch. It’s a great pick up and play game, which gives you a good adrenaline boost.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that the graphics for this game are really very good. You can get up to some roaring speeds around some of the race tracks, but there’s no screen tare or pop in or anything like that. It’s incredibly clear and the tracks are detailed and very pretty. I was surprised that so much effort had gone into things like trees on the sides of the tracks, or boats in the distance on water, which was rendered extremely well, by the way. If you’ve got the chance, this is a great game to have on hand for short to medium length of bursts of play.

Fable 2 – The tale of woe

By blog on Jan. 27, 2010.

It’s got a lot of bugs, a lot of issues, but I gave it a go anyway.

So I went and picked up the 360 Elite last Monday, and I’m really enjoying the console. When I had the original 360, I had a regular television and the AV cable hook-up, but since then I’ve picked up a great LCD TV and have the 360 hooked up with an HDMI cable, and it looks fabulous. So nice to see the console put out a quality HD visual.

I picked up the Elite with a bundle which included the games Pure and Lego Batman, and then your pick of two others. I chose Assassin’s Creed – knowing it’s not great but wanting to play it before playing the sequal – and Mass Effect as I’d never had a real chance to fully play it because it was too buggy to bother with on my PC when it first came out, and then it’d never install on my PC again afterwards and I’m very much looking forward to the sequel.

I played the first Fable, and it was alright, so I decided that along with the bundle, I’d pick up a copy of Fable 2 as well. This was actually a lot of running around as my local games store didn’t have a sealed copy so I had to run around and find it at a store that did, but not before I’d ordered it through that original store and two days had passed and then they told me that their warehouse wouldn’t let them get any more in as they already had stock in the store. Anyway, I got a hold of the game.

I played it a lot for the first three days of having it and I just had to get that bloody disk out of the 360 because I just could not stand the ridiculousness of Molyneux’s writing for one second longer. Let me just say oh. my. god. What the hell was that guy ‘thinking’!? First off, your sister dies in the opening act, which, alright, you can take that as part of good writing, if it were good writing. Next you’re running around doing what some strange woman who saved you tells you to do, without telling you why. Then you have to save another ‘hero’ like yourself, who also just happens to lose a family member and that’s how this hero joins your fight.

Next up you have to travel to this ridiculous spire where you’re stuck for the next TEN YEARS getting the next hero. After you’re back from that, gotten another hero who tries to have you killed – after stealing your youth – you finally get to have a go at the bastard who killed your sister – who was at the spire the entire time you were there but you never tried to kill whilst you where there – only to find that he’s now also gone and killed your wife and children and your dog – who’s at least twenty years old at this point but still spry – and after you kill that moron, you get to use the stupid spire to make a wish, you can wish to bring your own family back, but it’s not the most ‘pure or good’ option you can take, that’s bring back all the thousands of people who died trying to re-build the spire who never actually were a part of the game world, nor do they turn up in it after you make that wish.

Oh and if you do bring back your family, you do get your dog back, and your sister is revived as well, though you never get to see her again anyway.

Believe me when I say this, this game includes some of the worst writing I’ve ever read. Molyneax is actually trying to upset the player, he’s even said that he wanted to ‘make a game that would have gamers crying’ in interviews before the game came out. He’s obviously greatly in love with his own ideas, and the game is incredibly narrow, irritating, poorly written, and frustrating to play.

Replacing my new phone

By blog on Jan. 18, 2010.

I shall be buying a new phone as my recently bought new phone stopped working over the weekend and I’m not waiting for however long it will take to have it repaired and returned to me.

So the handsets are fine, except that they are running out of power because the base stopped working. Yep, the rather necessary base part which charges the hand set and does all the important stuff like actually being hooked up to my modem, well that part died on the weekend for no apparent reason, which is rather annoying. I’ll go and buy a new one, because I don’t want to wait the time it takes to send the phones back to the manufacturer, wait for them to get to them, then repair or replace them, then send them to me. I kind of need a phone now, and I’d already given my old one away.

So anyway, back to searching telephones online. I suppose this is the only downside with not going through a company like BT who’d supply me with one, but at least I get better rates on everything with my non-phone supplying company. I really do like my UK ISP as the rates are quite good compared to many ISPs in other countries. There’s lot of places for business broadband and ADSL lease lines these days, but I like the one I’ve got.

The digital dect cordless phones look alright, but I’ll be reading a lot of user reviews on tech sites before I choose, to find one that’s not going to break down.

I’m always very thankful at this point that at least if I have to shop for new phone, I can check out online reviews and such before I do go and buy one. I don’t mind shopping for tech in person, but it’s much better to go armed with information. I wonder if there’s poor reviews for the phones I bought or if they are merely an exception to the general quality of the phones, because I really thought they were alright…

Worth it?

By blog on Jan. 18, 2010.

Is security worth invasion of personal privacy? Interesting subject whichever view you take, in my opinion.

Basically, a while back I saw this news article on the BBC News site for the so called ‘naked scanner’. Basically there’s a scanner that’s being tried in various airports here in the UK which takes a complete image of a person in an x-ray sort of format. The contentiousness rises out of the fact that it produces a clear image of the entire person, regardless of clothing, as if they were naked. Some people feel that this is an extreme invasion of their personal privacy, whilst others are happy to be scanned if it means safer air travel.

I personally feel that safer air travel is worth it, because the image will be destroyed afterwards – there’s no way to store them – and I don’t think the person viewing all these pictures is going to care one bit about seeing a hazy negative looking image of thousands of people a day. The airports using the scanners are implementing them in replacement of regular metal detectors and/or being patted down, so some people do prefer to be scanned rather than go through all of that. On the other hand, it is getting to be extremely invasive to go anywhere, anymore, and making it seem less worth it to travel.

Many Brits seem to find security invasive and offensive, with many being angered by CCTV camera systems and the like, and to be fair, we do have more of them per capita than any other country in the world, and that’s pretty hefty. There’s both good and bad about all of these security measures, same with GPS vehicle tracking, but I tend to see the up side to those more than the down.

I heartily dislike this RFID tracking business that companies are trying to implement, as this is not a security measure but as a means for companies to track who’s buying what, and that I don’t agree with. It’s a viable option if it helps maintain safety for everyone, not if it only helps people to make money.

Decades of gaming – 00’s

By blog on Jan. 18, 2010.

Now for the final instalment of my gaming in history series…

Well right off the bat you’ve got the release of the Playstation 2 in 2000. This was a huge deal, sold really well, and made DVDs more accessible than ever before for your average household, as the price was better than pretty much any good DVD player out at the time. ‘01 saw the release of both the GameCubeand the Xbox, with Xbox Live launching a year later. In the next few years there were major buy-outs and take over bids, with Microsoft buying Rare, and EA trying to buy out Ubisoft.

The seventh generation of gaming consoles was birthed with the release of the Xbox 360 in ‘05 whilst the Wii and Playstation 3 launched about a year later. The next two years saw dominance by Wii over the gaming market, outselling their rival consoles, but it seems apparent to me that that’s largely due to the reduced price of console and games from Nintendo because of it’s lesser technology.

IGN had the view point that the 00’s made the gaming industry, but it really seems to me that that had already happened in the 90’s, a view which many gamers agree with. The consoles in this seventh generation all seemed to have big issues, whereas the previous generation of the 90’s seemed to have less issues in spite of their lesser capabilities.

So, wrapping up my review of gamer history… It’s amazing to think that we’ve got high definition, motion sensors, and online capabilities, when we came from code being developed on mainframes the size of a room and 8-bit cartridges. I think that gaming is slowly finding it’s footing with entertainment mediums like film and television, and will continue to do so. I’m also hoping that with the visuals of games becoming more and more advanced, so too with story lines and plots development. I think the only thing lacking in gaming is high quality writing on a consistent basis.