Bit late to the party

So Star Trek Online gets it's release date! I'm a bit annoyed that the EU has to wait 3 more days to play but I guess I'll survive.

February 5th!

I'm going to have a few projects to work on around that time so my playtime could be restricted until I get my midterm and then on to the summer holidays.

Modern Warfare 2 came out two nights ago and it's probably the reason why I haven't written this earlier. It's so damn addictive I can't stop playing it. Even when you ragequit, you find yourself back playing again within 5-10 minutes.

[SPOILERS]

It's been getting a lot of publicity because of it's violence, more specifically I think people are getting "upset" about the airport level. It is a bit on the nose and I'm sure there could be people who would take offense or be very upset by it but Infinity Ward gives you the opportunity to skip the level when you start the campaign and even warns you twice.

Basically you play as a terrorist. You get to shoot up an Airport of innocent people as an undercover CIA agent. You don't actually have to shoot anybody, you can just walk through the airport and let your terrorist friends do the dirty work so you can always say you didn't kill anyone.

Me on the other hand, I killed every last person and enjoyed it. It's a game and no I don't have any homicidal thoughts and no, I'm not a terrorist. The game has an 18's (mature) rating for a reason. Infinity Ward do cover their asses at the end of the level though and the bad guy actually shoots you dead for your "bad deeds"

[END OF SPOILERS]

The multiplayer is fantastic and is a lot more fleshed out than CoD4. Better balance, more perks, more levels and loads of maps to play on. It will definitely keep people playing for years.

On a more personal level, I've handed in a few assignments and done a programming test, things are going good.

Cya later!

Leaked Screenshots of Halo Reach

It looks like Microsoft have a leak somewhere as 6 pictures of the next Halo game has been leaked.







Even though these pictures are a bit blurry, there are definitely some small details that stick out. Looks like some weapons are getting revamped, updated UI and even a bit of a graphical update by the looks of it.

Besides the teaser trailer Bungie released at E3 I believe, this is the first bit of information we've had since it was announced so big thanks to Tom Morello!

Been a while....

I just don't seem to have the time to update the blog anymore! I'm all over the place with the STO beta in full whack and college projects coming in left right and center it's been tough!

I got some feedback on my character design assignment from my teacher, just a few tweaks and a bit of padding and it's good to go. We got our first 3D assignment today, we've to replicate the Saturn V rocket (aka Apollo 11) as close as possible to the real thing. I spent 4 hours working on it today and it's looking close. Once I add a bit more detail and work on the texture it'll be cool.

I got bored during my Midterm and decided to play around with a very small website based on the LCARS system in Star Trek and it came out pretty well.

It got me thinking about redesigning my web design project to incorporate it but I'm not sure if I'll be allowed. We have to copy a magazine article as close as possible.

I'll ask the teacher when I get a chance but I've a feeling the answer is going to be no :(


I've been playing a bit of Borderlands too. I have to admit the first time I played it, I didn't think much. It really felt like a single player MMO grind fest which it is, it also made me feel motion sick (which happens to me sometimes with FPS games for some reason) so I thought enough was enough. I played again today with a few friends from AoA and really had a blast. For some odd reason playing the game in windowed mode stopped me from getting motion sickness playing it

The game was still a grind fest but it was fun playing with other people.

I'm still playing Urban Dead (usually in class) and I'm finally getting to grasps with the whole thing. It really starts off slow, but once you get enough experience to get some skills things start to kick off.

I've also been testing STO and I really wish I could talk about it because there's so much to say! As soon as the NDA is lifted I'll have everything ready to go!

Modern Warfare 2 is also just around the corner. I'm thinking about picking it up on PC instead of the Xbox, I'm not sure though. I'll have to think about it.

I think that's all I got in me for now. Later!

My Poor Computer...

I think the announcement of the STO beta scared the living crap out of my PC because it's had nothing but problems since.

I somehow got a virus that completely disabled my PC, it installed something called "Antivirus System Pro" which wouldn't let me open Task Manager or anything that could be useful to stopping it because it was "infected", I managed to get rid of it after a few hours of desperate searching on forums and websites but it had already done its damage.

My sound card and network card wouldn't work after it. I tried uninstalling the drivers, reinstalling them, updating them. In the end it just made sense to wipe the computer and start fresh. I needed to clean my HDD anyway so I went ahead and did it.

I forgot to transfer a few files that I needed but overall all my media and important stuff was backed up on my external drive so no major harm done.

Star Trek Online goes into Closed Beta!

So I couldn't officially say it earlier but now I can. STO has officially gone into Closed Beta today and yours truly was lucky enough to get his hands on a first phase beta key.

As expected I "signed" my NDA which means I can't really go into much detail but I do intend on taking a lot of videos and screenshots over the coming months which will be posted online as soon as the NDA is lifted.

Until then, anyone who is looking for a Fleet of mature, fun loving gamers make sure you check out AllOutAssault.net as we are currently accepting applications for our STO division.

I love this music!

One thing I forgot to mention in my Uncharted 2 Demo was the quality of the music. Nate's Theme in particular is my favorite. One thing that Naughty Dog did brilliantly was have the soundtrack to the game stream constantly during menu's and loading screens.

It makes waiting for a multiplayer game that bit more bare-able

Check out Nate's Theme below

What a day

So I got a special email today which I'm not exactly sure if I'm allowed to talk about it so I won't divulge but I'm sure people can take a guess what it was which prompted me to go out and upgrade my processor. So after class I went into a PC store and picked up a Quad Core 2.33ghz which I assumed would be compatible with my motherboard since they shared the same slot.

Guess again...

I got home and installed it and it turned out that it didn't work, so I went about putting back in my old processor and the I think I broke the fan or something because it just died, gone like a fart in the wind.

Not having much money I freaked out a bit, 90% of my college work was on the computer and with a certain event happening tonight which required my PC, I went back out and picked up the cheapest motherboard that was compatible with all my stuff which came to €65. I got home and put it all together and after a few little problems everything is working again.

Overall I think I spent about 3 hours sorting this out when it really should have been a 10 minute job. I think I've had enough with building PC's for a while :P

Gotta say thanks to the guys in AoA who helped me out along the way, I'd have probably curled up and died without their guidance ;)

Uncharted 2 Review

I remember playing the original Uncharted and my mind was blown and it seems that Naughty Dog have only gone up with the quality of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

The story takes place sometime after the first where Drake is propositioned with finding Marco Polo's lost treasure, as with all adventures things go wrong and it's up to our "hero" and his friends to sort things out.

The Good

Graphically the game is just spectacular, hands down it's the best looking console game I've ever seen. In some parts I really felt like I was watching live action footage rather than playing a game. The amount of detail put into the smallest of things is brilliant.

Controls are solid, they've really nailed them down, I usually complain about PS3 controllers but after a few minutes it didn't really matter that much.

The story is very witty and it seems that Naughty Dog haven't lost their sense of humor either, some of the banter between characters while going through levels is very well thought up and probably the most satisfying aspect of the narrative.

The voice acting is also superb, The same actors have come back for their respective roles and it's like they left. Star Trek fans will recognise one of the new characters voice as Rene Auberjonois

They added multiplayer! Yes there is now a Call of Duty-esque style multiplayer complete with character levels, perks and a few different modes of gameplay which looks like it will keep the game in peoples PS3's for some time.

The Bad

The graphics can be so good in some parts that when you see one object or area that isn't up to the same standard it really sticks out and can ruin some sequences.

I've been kicked out or disconnected from the multiplayer servers a few times which is a bit annoying.

The game isn't as long as I'd hoped.

Verdict

I was really blown away by some of the set pieces in this game, the scale and complexities of some areas are just astounding.

I recommend everyone who owns a PS3 to go out and buy this game, it really shows what the console is capable of and it also proves that video games really are a story telling medium just as much as film and book. I was upset when it finished because I didn't want it to end so I hope now that Naughty Dog has nailed down their engine and unlocked the cell processor they will be able to spend more time with the next iterations length.

Get on my Horse

Usually I'd just post something like this on twitter or in IRC but it deserves its own post

http://getonmyhorse.com/

It's an addictive song, it's repeated over 10 times for me now and I'm still listening

Tastes like raisins ladies and gentleman

Oh yeah!

So I got the results for 2 of my exams today, got myself a 96% on my Computer Architecture exam final which means I technically only need a bare pass in one of the two remaining projects to pass the module and the second one was a presentation which I got full marks for.

We were given one of our architecture projects which I plan on getting out of the way over my midterm (which is next week thank god) and I also plan on completely finishing up all other assignments so that they're good to go, I've got all the dirty work done for most of them but some need a bit of polish.

I'm well ahead of the game this year so far, I think I might have 1 project and 1-2 other assignments that I'll pick up before Christmas but everything I've got right now is pretty much done which has me clear till January.

So gaming! I picked up Uncharted 2 which is awesome, I'll be publishing a review on it some time this week, I've still to try out the multiplayer but from what I hear its a blast.

STO looks like it'll go into closed beta any day now, F&F is going ahead right now which means it's only a matter of time before the rest of us get a chance to play test the game.

Later!