Planet Sillicon

A Game of Thrones – The Cast Part 2

By blog on Aug. 22, 2009.

Here are my reactions to the next seven cast members announced for the TV series of A Game of Thrones…

Tamzin Merchant will be playing Daenerys Targaryen and I have to say, I don’t think she’s the right choice. She doesn’t seem at all like Daenerys, though it’s not just the looks, because that is sort of approximately close, but not really there, and I don’t think she has the strength of presence for this character.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau will be playing Jaime Lannister and this choice seems alright to me. This actor looks like he could carry the arrogance of Jaime pretty well, actually.

Sophie Turner will be playing Sansa Stark and she actually seems like a good Sansa… not at first, I have to admit, the blonde threw me off, but she actually seems alright for Sansa.

Maisie Williams will be playing Arya Stark and she seems a good choice, she’s got a certain energy that says Arya to me.

Iain Glen will be playing Sir Jorah Mormont and I’m really not sure about this one… he does have the right look, though, but I think I imagined the knight to be bigger, more bearish.

Richard Madden will be playing Robb Stark and it seems an alright choice, a bit iffy that he is older than the character, but I know they are doing that with all the children. But, I don’t know, I picture Robb quite different…

Alfie Allen will be playing Theon Greyjoy and this does seem like a good choice, the actor already seems smug in the shots on George R R Martin’s blog.

Okay so that is now a total of 14 of the cast members so far, we are still missing Bran, Rickon, Tommen, Myrcella, Cersei, the Hound, the Mountain and all the Maesters, too. So a whole bunch, it’s safe to say. I wonder who, though, will actually be needed for just the pilot?

Sleep deprevation increases humour

By blog on Aug. 22, 2009.

That sounds like an odd thing to say, but I’m quite serious, it does. I’m sure you’ve noticed than when you’re awake for a really long time, or have had too little sleep, what was once mildly funny is now riotously funny? Well, I have…

I love that about being tired, it’s about the only upside. Earlier today I was on I Can Has Cheez Burger and noticed they were self-promoting for a new site, Comixed, which is another of their funny caption sites, taking seemingly innocuous pictures, and in this case, stringing them together with funny captions to form an almost comic strip like effect.

These are actually quite good, and the comments aren’t quite as inane as those sadly found on I Can Has Cheez Burger and the dog version, I Has A Hotdog, which are so mind bogglingly stupid that I have to steer clear of them lest I surge into a total Nerd Rage. There are of course the ongoing references to internet memes, as with this comix here, and a few humerous ones of easy target, Sarah Palin.

Now, whilst I was viewing this site, I happened to have had about three and a half hours sleep the night before. This gives anyone a bent to either being angry and laughing, I’ve found, and I can switch between both quite quickly. My SO was busy with something that required I not be overly noisy, she was working, so I was quietly stuffing around on the internet filling in time. Once I happened upon this site, and viewed page after page, I couldn’t help myself. I was laughing out loud, I was guffawing, I was choking back laughter behind poorly concealed snorts.

I was also missreading and miss-seeing things, which is fun. What is a chair turned away from you, seen from the corner of your eye, suddenly becomes a four foot Buttercup from the Powerpuff Girls hovering in mid air, and what is actually a can in the fridge with the words ‘Health Benefits’ written on it becomes ‘Health Brain Fish’ when one reads it too quickly.

So yes, it’s almost fun to go around sleep deprived, so long as I don’t drive or try to do anything that’s actually important.

Two things to talk about

By blog on Aug. 20, 2009.

I have two things I would like to talk about today. One good, one not so good. Here goes.

Firs off, I wanted to mention just how excellent it really is to have our bathroom finished… and electric showers are awesome. This thing is marvellous, no, it’s better than that, it’s bloody fantastic. My So and can sit in there for as long as we want because the water is heated as it comes through. Brand new shower enclosures are very nice, too, because when you get to pick it out, you get exactly the one that suits you!

This new bathroom… I’m spend so much time in there because it has such a pleasant atmosphere that I just don’t want to leave! Of course, you have to take precautions that you don’t shower too much, because then your skin dries out and you end up constantly itchy. But if your showers aren’t too hot that shouldn’t happen.

Okay now onto something else, this is a bit of a rant and inspired totally by getting on here to write only to find 18, yes, that’s right, 18 spam comments! What the hell is with that? Why are there so many people running around posting gibberish posts full of links to damn pharmaceutical products? Who buys these things like that? Who thought this was a good idea in the first place, to go around spamming people’s blogs with advertisements for drugs? I find it infuriating and offensive.

Did you know that spam is actually adding to global warming? That there is so much spam being tossed around on the internet that in the last year it took up 33 billion kilowatt-hours of power, which is about the same as the power used in 2.1 million houses. That’s mind boggling, and that was only counting the 62 trillion junk emails, not all the nasty spam comments left on blogs. So please, if you leave spam comments, I understand you’re probably being paid a tiny pittance to do this, but please, don’t stop looking for more reputable work so that you can stop posting those comments on my blogs, I’m deleting them anyway, no one sees them but me, so please, stop posting them.

A Game of Thrones – The Cast

By blog on Aug. 19, 2009.

HBO will soon be shooting the pilot of the TV series of George R R Martin’s epic fantasy novel A Game of Thrones.

Now, I think these books, A Song of Ice and Fire, are the best fantasy series I’ve ever read. I’ve read a lot, and these are the best, in my opinion, so far. That’s a pretty big call, but I’m making it. The people behind this series are the same who created Deadwood and Rome; two good shows, in their own ways. Today I’m going to outline my response to each of the announced cast choices. George R R Martin also said on his Not a Blog recently that six more characters are about to be cast, but we will have to wait some time for the announcements. When they are announced, I will do a follow up post. I’m interested to see how this series works out, because as I said, this is an amazing book they are working with, and Martin has even been involved with the screen plays, I believe he is writing one episode himself. Now, onto the cast and my impressions!

Sean Bean will do quite well as Eddard Stark, in my opinion. He voiced Martin from The Elder Scrolls Oblivion game quite well, and the character has a similar sense of… rigidity or dourness, so I think this was a good choice.

Peter Drinklage as Tyrion Lanister will be awesome, I think. Drinklage has a tenacious and sardonic personality in many of his roles, and I think this will suit The Imp so very well.

Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark will work very well, even as Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice she had an austere coldness that I think will work wonders – now that she is older – as cold and hateful Catelyn. I dislike Catelyn intensely.

I’ve never seen Kit Harington in anything before, but he looks okay for the part. I would have liked to have seen someone perhaps a little longer in the face, but this serves, and there could be – with hair and make-up – similarities brought out with him and Sean Bean.

Mark Addy as Robert Baratheon is interesting… I’ve no doubt he can play it, I just envision him as being… bigger, swarthier, and at least somewhat intimidating… But I still think this will work out well.

Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon I’m not sure about because I can’t see a picture of him that is anything like recent on the net, so I don’t know. It’s going to take a good actor to portray that horrid little abomination.

Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen… he seems too old, to me. This one sticks out a bit… but with a lot of alterations, silver hair, lilac eyes, maybe it’ll work.

So far only the pilot is sure to be shot, but if the reception is good enough, more could follow, and I for one, bloody hope so!

PS3 To Ship September 1st

By blog on Aug. 19, 2009.

And not only that, it’s also cheaper!

At a Gamescom press conference in Germany today, or yesterday, it’s hard to tell, Sony announced that not only where they dropping the price on their current console, but that they were also releasing the PS3 Slim. The PS3 Slim will be smaller and lighter than it’s original counterpart, plus it will draw less electricity and have a larger, 120G, hard drive. All other aspects of the console will remain the same, there are still two USB ports, Wireless, and Bluetooth.

I have to say, I’m pretty pleased that just before I was about to buy a PS3, at the end of this month, this happens. Here in the UK the original PS3 will be selling at £249.99, as will the Slim when it ships September 1st. I don’t really mind the size of the console, I didn’t have any issue with the original PS3, so I’m pleased that the console is now environmentally better, and is also more likely to net Sony some actual profit from the consoles themselves – at this time, Sony actually loses money for each console sold, they can’t put the price high enough to cover their cost and still maintain any competition with XBOX360 and Wii – but I’m not over the moon about anything save the fact that I can afford to get a few more games with my console, now.

I find it an interesting move, on Sony’s part, because they are still selling the soon-to-ship PSP Go will still retail for £214, so they obviously aren’t entering to a huge price war with the other consoles. I’ve no interest whatsoever in the PSP Go, I think Nintendo DS Lite kicks it’s ass in entertainment, so I don’t care that they are sticking to a high price for their portable console.

In the coming weeks, when I’ve picked up my brand new PS3 Slim I’ll be writing some reviews for games I’ve played on it.

Serious Problem

By blog on Aug. 15, 2009.

I’ve got a serious problem with this new odd-ball Family Intervention Project scheme, and now I’m going to rant about it.

I’m ranting about the ludicrous amount of CCTV networks being employed in Britain, which have been shown to be of little value in diminishing the rising rates of violent crime. Now, what are we using these things for if not to deter criminals? Where is this going wrong? It’s mind boggling that the country can have 20% of all the CCTV cameras in the world pointed at it’s own citizens, and yet violent crime rates are still going up!? Are we not proving that CCTV systems aren’t all they’re cracked up to be?

There are even growing numbers of CCTV cameras being employed by civilians… I just think that maybe it’s time to settle down. For instance, the former residence of George Orwell, author of 1984 – when the notion of Big Brother was first coined as such – had no less that 32 CCTV cameras installed by the government within a 200 yard radius. That number goes up tremendously if one counts the privately owned CCTV cameras in the neighbourhood, of which there are hundreds. Now, doesn’t that just sound a little crazy to you?

Another thing that has gotten me of late is this Children’s Minister Ed Balls’ idea of putting CCTV cameras into private homes, after the parents have signed ‘behaviour contracts’, to ensure that the children are going to bed early, eating balanced meals, and doing their homework. These families being ones that have had any dealings with social services before. But the odd thing to me is they keep being referred to as ‘anti-social’ as if that’s the worst thing in the world. Balls states that ‘Over 120,000 young people have been saved from getting involved in or being the victims of crime’, and I have to ask, where the hell did you pull that figure from? I can guess, and it ain’t pretty! But then the article goes on to say that around 128,000 children have been aided by this programme, which suggests that ol’ Ed thinks that all these kids would be now violent thugs, if not for their programme.

It’s scary, too, that if these families don’t come up to snuff, if they fail one of their surprise inspections, the parents could face jail, and the children could face youth hostels. Doesn’t that seem absurd to you? If you can stand the craziness, here’s a link to the official description of the programme listed on the Home Office’s website.

Bloggers around the world seem to be shocked and appalled by this strategy… it will be interesting to see what happens.

Why Windows Will Rule Them All

By blog on Aug. 15, 2009.

This is just my take on the battle of operating systems…

I have a colleague who thinks Linux is the best thing since sliced bread. He talks about it with such affection, he says a lot that he thinks free source code, share ware, and that sort of thing is a beautiful concept. He think Linux is beautiful because it is written by programmers for programmers and other highly educated computer folk. I don’t doubt that there’s truth to what he’s saying, that the thought of people freely sharing their unique additions to software isn’t a great idea, but I hold no illusion, either, that this is ‘the way of the future’ and that Linux could potentially take over as the most widely used operating system.

My argument for this is based on one crucial factor. Game developers develop for Windows. Why do you think Mac has tried so hard in recent years to develop the image they have? They are the ‘funky’ OS, the one that people have been encouraged to go to if they’re creative, for movie editing and digital art. The reason in my opinion, is that Mac had to do something to set them apart, there had to be a reason why the lion’s share of games weren’t able to work on a Mac system, and that divide has only gotten larger in recent times. Linux is the same, it has to keep up it’s ‘by programmers for programmers’ image because that is the niche market where this OS can work. Already Linux has gone down this road, and has created a graphical user interface to compete with Windows, but that didn’t help them much. Even though it is free, even if you were paid to install it on your system, Windows would still win out because of the multitude of games, and many other software packages, that are designed for Windows.

On a personal note, I’m sticking with Windows because Linux is so damn ugly. To those who thumb their noses at Windows users, there are many of us who know our way around a computer, Windows users aren’t all meat-heads who don’t know how to work an OS!

Thankful for the weekend

By blog on Aug. 15, 2009.

I am so thankful for the weekend right now, because it has felt like a mammoth week and I am exhausted!

Most of this comes from the severe lack of sleep I’ve had, due in large part to my sympathy towards an ailment my SO is currently suffering from. She has a back issue, currently, so she can’t sleep properly, and keeps waking up with severe pain somewhere between four-and-a-half to six, very occasionally seven, hours after going to bed. Now, I like a good eight hours, but when I see her getting up, I can’t let her go off to deal with it by herself, I want to help, so I get up with her and help her any way that I can.

That’s fine, that’s part of a relationship, and I know she’d do the same for me. I’m happy to help her whenever I can. The issue arose this week, however, of a colleague from work asking for my assistance to open a bank account specifically for offshore finance investments and the like. He’s heard me talking about such things in the past, and thought of me when he decided to get into that sort of thing.

Normally I wouldn’t mind helping him out, but it would mean doing it on the weekend, and I think this weekend I want to do little apart from sleeping and playing Plants vs Zombies. So I set him on the right path, at least, and told him he can either go ahead with it whilst I’m finding the right time to help him out, or he can investigate banks by himself and go ahead on his own steam.

Thankfully he understood that I’m not intending to be rude or mean or such, but that I’m really just suffering, like my SO, after a week of very little sleep! Alright, now I’m off for a kip, then I’m going to play more of that addictive little game. I can’t get that song out of my head, either… I may be starting to lose it.

Top 25 PC Games According to IGN – Part 3

By blog on Aug. 13, 2009.

Finally part three of my look at IGN’s top PC games of all time.

5) Battlefield 1942 – This is another of those famous games I haven’t played and aren’t too interested in playing. These sorts of games often make me think that it’s the experience of playing games with friends that makes them stand out in the people’s minds, rather than the game itself. That’s not to say this game wasn’t good, I don’t doubt that, but the great fondness that the game is remembered with may be brought on by the multiplayer.

4) Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn – This is one of my favourite games of all time. This game had it all! A great story, fun characters, huge array of weapons and armour to be collected, heaps of different environments to explore, and enough hours to keep you playing for months. I really enjoyed this game, the amount of customisation you had for your own character was so refreshing, still many games don’t meet this standard of customisation and I find it frustrating. The expansion was a heck of a lot of fun, too, and I liked where the game ended up.

3) Civilization IV – Another fantastic game, this is a game that I keep coming back to, keep playing every now and then. It is a great game, and has such a strong ‘one more turn’ inducing sort of play. I really like the Civilopedia, its quite enjoyable to see where the inspiration for the units comes from in history. I’ve always found the Civ games fun, but this one is the best, in my opinion.

2) Star Wars TIE Fighter – I never played this game, and neither flight simulators nor Star Wars games are really interesting to me, so even though it’s supposed to be good, I think the previous two are better.

1) X-COM: UFO Defense – I had heard of this game, but never looked into it, and totally missed it when it came out. But if the little write up is anything to go by, I would love to play this game. It doesn’t seem like a great game to look at, but I love games that are very in depth, that give a great story, and that keep the player coming back to play even after a decade, much like Excelsior phase one: Lysandia is to me.

So, interesting list, and though there are some that I think should have been in there, there are a lot of great games here.

Top 25 PC Games According to IGN – Part 2

By blog on Aug. 13, 2009.

Now for 15 through 6 is IGN’s top 25 PC games…

15) Command & Conquer – This is an alright RTS game, in my opinion, but there are others I prefer. Often the themes are less appealing to me than those you would find in Age of Empires, Total War, or Star Craft games.

14) Company of Heroes – Somehow I completely missed this game, but it looks pretty damn good. I may have to retract what I said in the above comments regarding RTS games with real-world settings.

13) The Sims – I really did enjoy The Sims when it first came out, and, thanks largely to my SO’s enjoyment of the game, had nearly all the expansions by the time Maxis moved onto The Sims 2, and oh, wasn’t that annoying? There’s so much to like about this game, yet so much to dislike about those who market it.

12) World of Warcraft – This is my blog so I get to say what I like. I hate this game, it looks like crap, it lacks depth, character, and respect for it’s players, a startlingly large percentage of which seem to be idiots.

11) SimCity – This was a great game, so much fun, so hard to stop playing in spite of a pretty simple premise.

10) Call of Duty – I’ve never really felt any desire to play any of the Call of Duty games, in spite of the raving reviews the series usually receives. I think it’s the setting, I just don’t find myself interested in it.

9) MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat – I didn’t play this game, and only have a vague recollection of it.

8 ) Rome: Total War – These games are always just amazing fun, and usually just as amazing (for their time) graphics wise. These games actually push my graphic cards (I always try to have good ones) and that is another fun side to playing them for me, personally.

7) Sid Meier’s Pirates! – I’ve played later versions of this game, but never the original, and from what I’ve read, the later ones don’t stand up to how good the original was.

6) Half-Life – I didn’t play Half Life, but Half Life 2 was a fantastic game. I enjoyed it so much, I thought the game was just the right combination of on foot and vehicle levels, I liked the accuracy of the weaponry and the story-line was fun too. Unfortunately I had a fatal error in my version and didn’t get past the first few areas of Part 2. I think it was a corrupted texture, but didn’t get around to reinstalling and going further.

The last five will be in the next post, because I think they deserve a post of their own.