Planet Sillicon

Time for a PS3 – Part 2

By blog on Jul. 31, 2009.

Now the second part of my last post.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger: This game looks fantastic! Very unique look to the game, with some amazing characters. I’m excited to play off against my SO and learn my way around all the interesting characters. It’s nice to see a fighting game where so much effort has been put into the backgrounds, as well as non-generic characters. I like the complexity of the fighting mechanic too, button mashing will only get you so far.

Soulcalibur IV: Another fighting game, but one that I am more familiar with. I’ve always found these games to be very entertaining, and a nice divergence from the norm to be able to fight in these sorts of games with weapons. I think this is the only fighting game where you really get to use a weapon, and the game has always been really slick. You can button mash to a small extent, but in the end you do need to learn the controls of the game to really excel. It’s nice to see the old characters we know so well, with a few new ones thrown in there too. Darth Vader makes an appearance in the PS3 version, and apparently is good to fight with… not as ridiculously over-powered as Yoda in the 360 version.

Metal Gear Solid 4: This game looks amazing; it has been called one of the best games of all time. I’m very impressed by the graphics, as well as the story-line. I respect where the franchise has taken the main character, and like this fond farewell to him. I find the story of the entire world to be a war-zone thanks to PMCs to be very interesting, and look forward to see how it all plays out.

Final Fantasy XIII: The Final Fantasy series is one that has well and truly stood the test of time. I’ve enjoyed every iteration of the game that I have played, and I am really looking forward to the release of this one. The trailer looks amazing, and the voice acting seems to be quite good. The story is intriguing, and I am really happy to see the good old GFs included. This game is set to ship later this year.

There are other games out there that look amazing for this console, but these are the ones I am most interested in right now.

Time for a PS3 – Part 1

By blog on Jul. 30, 2009.

I think it is now time for a PS3. I’ve waited for a while before getting one, mainly because the price was ludicrous to begin with, but it’s come down now and I think it’s quite fair.

I’ve been an Xbox 360 and PC Gamer for a long time now, mainly PC for the last few years, but before that, I had an Xbox and then an Xbox 360 as well. Before that I had a PlayStation, but I went the way of Xbox instead of moving onto a PS2, as the hardware was much better. Now, though, I want to get back into console gaming. PC gaming is great, there is often a good range, the Real Time Strategy games can’t be beaten, and there are other benefits to the PC, but there is the bugginess that often plagues PC games. I own Fallout 3, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Far Cry 2, for instance, and can’t play any of them due to bugginess.

When I do get the console, I am interested in a few games specifically. I’ve no doubt there are others out there I would want to play, and I’m sure that there are games on the horizon that I’m not aware of but would want to play, but for now, here are three of the six games that have most caught my eye.

Little Big Planet: This is a rather unusual console game, because not only is it a rather nice looking platformer, it also allows players to create their own levels, and share them on the online community, where they can download other people’s created levels and play them. It looks like a lot of fun, and very unique, and Sack Boy is a fun little mascot that diverges from the norm.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma: Whilst this is a re-release of an original title, the game nonetheless looks amazing. It is somewhat off putting that the game is not really giving any new gameplay, that you will be re-playing an old game with better graphics, but it was a good game originally so I do look forward to playing it again. There is some new gameplay, being able to play as Rachel seems like a nice change of pace for a short while, but I am just really looking forward to flipping around as a Ninja.

Infamous: This is a game that looks like a heck of a lot of fun. It has that comic book vibe, but isn’t based on a comic in existence, which means that it can be designed to work in game-form, rather than comic-form. It is set in a sand-box style city, and you play a character who has recently gained special abilities which all revolve around the use of electricity. I like the karma aspect of the game, where your decisions make an obvious difference. When you’re closer to the Hero side, your electric attacks are blue and white, and when you are closer to the Infamous side, your attacks are red and black.

Before this entry becomes enormous, I’m going to move onto a second post.

Just One Game

By blog on Jul. 29, 2009.

It occurred to me the other day, that the only game I want to play is LOTRO…

I got some unexpected cash, and thought why not splash out this time. My SO got something that she had been after for a while, and I figured I would do the same. I then immediately went to find which game it was that I wanted. I thought about it. I thought some more. Looked up recent releases on IGN and nothing really stood out. And then I realised, I have all the gaming I need with just the one game.

Between work and life, I don’t have as much game time as I would like, and I’m pretty darn happy with spending all that game time with my SO running around as our dwarf and hobbit combination. I still have other games on my computer, but I tend to be focused on one game at a time, and right now it’s LOTRO.

So instead of getting a new game, I decided to get a gadget. I love gadgets, in all their odd glory. So I decided to buy a Sun Jar. I’ve always thought these things very fun, and I’m looking forward to having mine turn up later this week. I also liked the look of Lego inspired USBs, but the site I found them at didn’t ship internationally. The other thing I liked at this site was a clock that would go nicely in my study, but as I said, no shipping to the UK. Overall, the Sun Jar seemed the best gadget to get with my free cash.

Now I’ve got to get back to playing more LOTRO. I’ve spent long enough writing up this post, and as much as I’m looking forward to getting my Sun Jar, I’m more looking forward to getting a level or two with my new character.

Internet Phenomena

By blog on Jul. 29, 2009.

Because I’ve recently learned about them, I figured I would share some particularly funny Internet Phenomena, or Memes. They really are very funny.

Not the funny that sucks you in right away, no, this is the kind of funny that the more you watch it, the funnier it gets. Take Badger, Badger, Badger, for instance, when you first hear it, it’s actually kind of annoying. But the longer it goes on (to a point!) the funnier it gets. I think that is one of the true hallmarks of an Internet Meme.

I really find this sort of thing fascinating. What will become one of these World Wide Web phenomena and what wont. It reminds me of many of the catch-phrases from Seinfeld. All the ones that took off, ‘Master of your domain’, (said in a hissing manner with a fisht pump) ‘Newman’ and ‘Yada, yada, yada’, were all unintentional hits. But the one time one of the writers thought this catch-phrase thing would happen, ‘Anti-Dentite’ it didn’t in the slightest. I wonder if the same is true of Net Memes?

A lot of the time you have to look up the joke to see why its funny. For years now I have been seeing pictures of cats captioned with ‘I believe you have my stapler’ and didn’t know what the reference was. Apparently, I just looked this up, it is a reference for a film called Office Space, and this just happened to be a one-liner that took off from it. Often these cat pictures are quite cute and funny, so I had wondered about this one.

Another stand out for me is Tunak Tunak Tun; the song is really catchy and the dancing really is hilarious. The guy seems to be having a lot of fun dancing all by himself, you’ve got to love that. The video is here, in case you’re interested, though I warn you, its a catchy song!

My favourite of all the Net Memes, though, is Chuck Norris Facts. See how I capitalised the ‘F’ in ‘Facts’ there? That’s because that what they are… Facts. Okay I don’t believe any of that, it’s just fun to play along. These things are fun in there absurdity.

As a side note, should you receive any of those odd emails that seem fishy, often these are what later become Internet Memes, but if you want to know sooner rather than later, check out Snopes, they investigate that sort of thing.

Bad Cab Rides

By blog on Jul. 29, 2009.

My SO and I decided take-out was the order of the day, last night, so off I went in a cab to pick it up. Seems simple enough, right? Wrong! Add in a ridiculously bad cab driver, it was anything but simple!

I called the cab around twenty past nine and was pleasantly surprised to find it on my doorstep at nine-thirty. When I say ‘on my doorstep’ I mean, parked across the street with no intention of coming over. Okay, so I cross the road, and hop in the back seat. Now, I live in a suburb just outside a major city centre. I tell him where I wanted to go – a very well known restaurant in the city. Whilst having the car pointed towards the city, he says to me, ‘You’ll have to give me directions’ and then says ‘can I get out this way’. This is a street, not a court, mind you.

I tell the guy the directions for getting onto the main road going into town – the restaurant is on that road. Now, as we are driving along, I hear this annoying ding, ding, ding, noise. I can see in the dashboard that the seat belt buckle sign is flashing at the driver… He’s not wearing is damn seat belt! He’s also pushing the speed limit, driving right up behind a huge truck, and quite jerkily too.

We get closer to the restaurant, all he has to do is go a short way around a large round-about, and then drive into the car-park for the place. I tell him exactly where to go – whilst my mind boggles that I even have to tell him, seriously, this restaurant is that well known – and he completely misses the turn off into the car-park. I tell him what he’s done, and he pulls over, and I have to tell him to do a U-turn, go back round the round-about, and turn into the car-park.

He turns around, goes round the round-about, without a turning signal(!?) and turns into the wrong car-park. It’s close enough, so I pay and get out. Usually, I would ask the driver to wait, as I was just picking up some take-out, but I couldn’t stand this driver, so I didn’t say anything. I made a mental note of the number of the cab, and I will be calling the company later today to mention the numerous traffic infringements and plain lack of necessary geographical knowledge for the city.

By the time I got home I could at least relate the story to my SO without any fury, I can see the funny side of it, but at the time it was very annoying.

Match made in Heaven

By blog on Jul. 27, 2009.

It’s just great when you land on something that works out perfectly, when you have a match made in heaven sort of thing going on.

I mentioned that we tried out some Hobbit Burgs and had then switched over to a Dwarf Champion and Hobbit Minstrel combination, and we are now a bit further into that. My Dwarf is level 21 at the moment, whilst my SO’s Hobbit is level 18. At first we missed that sense of solidarity because we couldn’t run together the whole time, her in the Shire, me in Ered Luin, but once we were up to that point where we could run around together, so Bree-Land, we have had a marvellous time!

The Dwarf Champion is such a fun class to play, your essentially a moving wall of blades, and that’s just a heck of a lot of fun. When you play as a Dwarf, you have a greater sense of your character, too, because you don’t just get a generic human character model, you get a sense of being a part of a mythos, being part of the story, you watch your Dwarf fighting through hordes of Orcs, and you feel like you really are a part of Middle Earth… It’s a much more accessible feeling when your playing as a mythological species, rather than a human. Of course, that only works with something that has always been a part of myth to you, if someone had never heard of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, or any of Tolkien’s work, then they might pick up the game and think playing as a Hobbit would be utterly rediculous, and what are these short fat people? But nearly anyone would still find a Dwarf accessible because recorded myths of Dwarves have existed back into the 12th Century, and probably before that too.

Because of Tolkien’s work being so well known today, Hobbits have become a part of today’s Western Mythos, so when my SO plays as a Hobbit, she too gets that feeling of being part of the mythology of the world of Middle Earth. It’s a great feeling, and it’s terribly fun to watch our two stunties running hell-for-leather across Middle Earth.

Notions of Malazan

By blog on Jul. 24, 2009.

If you haven’t read Toll the Hound, book 8 of the Malazan book of the Fallen series, or don’t intend to read it, then this post won’t really make much sense to you, but it should still be interesting nonetheless.

I am about half way through the book, yes, it has been a long time in the reading, and I don’t know… some things are just still bothering me. For instance, I just found out that The Dying God and The Crippled God are not the same person, and here I was the whole while thinking this Dying God was just The Crippled God playing at a new trick. But no, The Dying God is Bellurdan… as in husband of Nightchill, former Elder Goddess, and whose soul (at least a part of it) went in with Tattersail’s in the formation of Silverfox, the only living Bonecaster… That has got to come to some confrontation at some point, but maybe not, and what’s with Aranantha? Why is this girl strong enough (magically) to overpower Bullurdan as The Dying God? I’m happy that she did, but I am looking forward to some explanation. I have a suspicion, which could be way off, that she is in some way connected to Mother Dark (an incarnation of her in physical form?) and perhaps the reunion of the Tiste Andii and Mother Dark… not sure, just a suspicion.

Something that has really bothered me through this book is the depravity that has gone on as a result of The Dying God… the living scarecrows dancing in the fields, dripping that horrid Selmankelyk, which then everyone is drinking? I think this is just a little too horrifying, even for Malazan.

I have to say, I’m rather pleased that Itkovian will have Seerdomin for company, it was so sad to realise how lonely Itkovian had been.

On another note, here is a list of things I’m looking forward to/hoping for in this book; learning who Traveller is, seeing how Apsalara will get out of Dragnipur, – which I think, by the way, is a house of the Azath, I mean, that’s what is riding in the giant wagon – hopefully seeing more of the Elder God who built the Azath Houses, because he seemed awesome, seeing Nimander’s group reunited with the rest of the Tiste Andii, finding out what the go with Aranantha is, seeing more of Harllo and his awesome Imas friend, seeing what’s left of the Malazan army kick the crap out of that nasty idiot who hired the assassins to have them killed, Cutter getting the hell over himself, and hopefully seeing more of the ghost ascended Malazans.

So, I’m really enjoying certain aspects of the book, but as I said, I really hate what’s going on with The Dying God… I really hope he just dies already.

Looking forward to the Hobbit

By blog on Jul. 23, 2009.

A while back I learned that Guillermo del Toro is going to direct the two Hobbit films coming out in 2011 and 2012, and I wrote about how unhappy I was with him being chosen to direct.

At first I was completely and utterly against this, I mean, del Toro has done some good films, Pan’s Labyrinth for instance was great, but movies like Hellboy and Blade 2 were less than great, less than good in the case of Blade 2, so I really felt like the wrong director had been chosen. del Toro is also famous for his off-beat horror/thriller films, all of which I found extremely unappealing after reading the synopsis of each film. He seems to have a bent towards the depressing, too many of his main characters end up dead at the end of the film for my liking. When I wrote my last entry on this, del Tor had been talking about how he intended to bring out the scariness of the Hobbit… I really didn’t like the sound of this… but anyway, that was all covered in that post.

Now, I don’t know how I got onto it today, but I was looking over The Hobbit film wiki page, and was rather pleasantly surprised by what I found there. It seems that the actors for Gandalf, Gollum, and Bilbo (at least in voice) will be appearing in the two films, which have now been altered so that both films will contain the narrative from The Hobbit, rather than one film being The Hobbit, and one film being a bridge between the events in The Hobbit and the events in The Lord of the Rings. I think this is a good thing, as the bridging film sounded rather… odd and unappealing.

On that Wiki page, I read of the work being done by del Toro and Peter Jackson, who have been working together to write the film, apparently reaching twelve-hour work days quite regularly; now that’s dedication! From what was written in that page, my ideas on this film have been turned around, and I am really looking forward to more Hobbits on screen!

So very uninteresting

By blog on Jul. 23, 2009.

I heard about a week ago that there is going to be a World of Warcraft movie, and as if that wasn’t enough to set my mind boggling at the badness of that film, I have just learned that Sam Raimi, director of the Spiderman films and a few blegh horror films, is set to direct.

To me, there is little less appealing than a film about a really crappy game by a director who has done films that I have disliked. I haven’t played more than five minutes of WoW, and here’s why. I got into the game, a game which lacked all semblance of a storyline, a game that has graphics woefully inadequate by today’s standards, and a game that has the biggest player-base of morons that I have ever heard of, one of which I ran into in the starting area, by the name of ‘Oldfartdude’. Now, not only did Oldfartdude have a really, really, crap name, he was jumping around repeatedly in the same little area. The stupidity displayed by the name and the action could only remind me one of those mechanical monkeys clapping symbols together, but this was a cheap knock-off version so only one of the arms moved and his symbols never clapped, but that one arm was still clapping away to the silence of his own stupidity.

After seeing that particular little Petri dish of the gaming world, I felt the need to run, run away and delete the trial version of the game off my computer. Now onto the other half of this oh-so-unappealing combination is the directing of Sam Raimi. Now, I’m not here to say that the guy can’t do a good job, I’m just trying to say that the films he has done have been, to me, highly meh. The Spiderman films were so utterly uninteresting, and I felt that they really could have been. Spidey’s not the greatest Super Hero, but nor is he the lamest, but these films… they were just so… uninspiring. Raimi’s other films have largely been in the horror genre, and whilst I like thriller movies, horror is generally very poor viewing for me. I don’t like to see the rampant indulgence in other people’s pain, and the gore associated with said pain, that tends to be in these films. Raimi was one of the directors rumoured to have been considered for the upcoming Hobbit movie, and I am so very, very, glad that it was Guillermo del Toro, but I plan to talk more about the Hobbit movie in my next entry, so I’ll leave that one be.

Back to the topic at hand, the marriage of these two forces leaves me so uninterested… I really can’t see a storyline worthy of film coming out of WoW, but hey, I bet it’s still going to get huge ticket sales, just because it’s WoW.

Quests for Sunshine

By blog on Jul. 23, 2009.

The Summer Festival is currently on in the LOTRO world, which means a whole lot of people running around betting on Hobbits eating and Dwarves drinking and any other Summer Festival activities.

The areas where you will see people partaking in these activities are The Party Tree in the Shire, all over Thorin’s Hall and the stairs of Frerin’s Court, the festival area of Duillond, and the festival area in the Horse Fields in Bree-land. You can get some curious, some fun, and some useful, some not-so-much rewards for competing in the events, or completing quests found in these areas during the festival, which has just been extended out through to August 31st.

Now, I’m not hugely interested in the festival goings on, I do like to get the racial dances of the character I am playing at least, maybe the other races if I’m particularly in the mood, but as for the rest of it… it doesn’t thrill me as it does some people. However, my SO gets really into it, and as she’s playing a Hobbit, she’s running around the Party Tree having a grand old time placing bets on the Hobbit Races, finding missing items, fishing, and of course, eating. It makes me happy to see her have such a good time, so I like the festivals for that.

Now, back to those dances. Each of the races, Dwarf, Hobbit, Elf, Man, all has two racial dances that can be obtained from doing a little dancing quest with a Dance Master at each of the festival locations I mentioned earlier. So far with these rather new characters, my SO has both the Hobbit dances and the second Dwarf dance, and I have the first Dwarf dance. Some of the dances are better than others. Both the Dwarf dances look good, a sort of Irish dance meets tap-dancing for those two, and the first Hobbit dance has this same feel. The second Hobbit dance, however, makes the dancer look like a drunken sailor. It’s hilarious and horrible all at the same time.

On to some of the rewards you can obtain, now. You can find the complete list here at the LOTRO Wiki, but a few of the stand outs for me are the cloak, it is actually a very nice looking cloak, the two rather strange drinks, and the Essence of Toad. Now, the two drinks, the Mug of Triple Strength Brandy, and the Mug of… Liquid, look pretty interesting, and if I remember correctly, they have have a chance of porting you anywhere in the world… but I’m not sure if that’s these ones. As I said, with me not being all that interested in the festival, I’m not 100% sure on what these things do because I haven’t gone and gotten them.