Canoeing

After more than a year away from it I have finally started to get back into Canoeing. Before I had only really messed about where I put it into the water but I am now starting to travel around a bit more. Just to get back into things I went out for about an hour or so starting at one point and ending at the other. In total according to multi-map it was 3000 Yards. I really enjoyed getting, back out in the Kayak and hope to do more next weekend if its good and a lot this summer. I didn’t have a camera with me but I think i have a cheep £5 one that you can plug into the PC that I will bring next time.

Far Cry 2 Looking Great!

I have just been watching some of the new Far Cry 2 video and its looking better than Crysis its self! Some really cool stuff like the way fire will spread over time, which I don’t think we have ever scene before in games. The Water just blew me away and the draw distance is very impressive as well. I think i will be getting this one for 360 but I think my new GPU could run it fine on the PC too.

Its got a very interesting setting as well, its not often Africa turns up in games. Anyway I am very much looking forward to this one, looks like at least one good title from Ubisoft this year.

Far Cry 2 Tec demo

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Review

I have scene a lot of movies in my time and I don’t think I have ever scene one that made me think “I really wish I didn’t come to see it”. That was until last night when I saw Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. Before I get started, the first three films where great some of the best ever made, but the new forth installment is among the worst films of all time.

I really don’t know what Spielberg and Lucas where thinking, by the end of the film it was more like one of those 1930s crappy UFO films. Yea spoiler, the big ending was a the most generic UFO you can think of. That was not my only problem with the film either, some of the scenes where just so stupid. You have this 19 year old kid who has never been near a jungle in this life, suddenly swinging through the trees like he is fucking Tarzan!

The film is such a rip of a good episode of Stargate SG-1 from season 3, I also noticed a lot of things taken from games as well. If you do go to see it look out for the monster wardrobes. Its very sad that a film series that was once so great got brought back for a sequel and destroyed. The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull will forever blacken the name of Indiana Jones, and can only hope this will be the last one.

If you are looking for a good experience along the lines of this setting, go get Uncharted for your PS3.

Score: F

MSI GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB Review

At long last I picked up a new Graphics card for my PC. I had intended to do it ages ago, but I am glad I waited that extra wile so i would not get fucked as most early adopters do. So in my endless search online I came across the MSI GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB.

The new 9000 series cards just launched not to long ago but i can tell you if online reviews are anything to go by the MSI 8800 GT OC out preforms the 9600’s every time in frame rate. The card its self is around the same size as any other DX10 card and comes with two free games DIRT and a 14 day trail of LOTRO, which is nice. I got someone to install it for me as i was not 100% sure about one or two things so i just wanted to play it safe, but no problems where in countered on that side of things. So lets take a look at how it runs some games.

Crysis
If you want to see how powerful any DX10 card is, all you have to do is see how it runs crysis. I was surprised that it ran the game at 30FPS+ on very high for a good part of the campaign, but as some more taxing effects started to happen on screen i had to put it down to high which still looks VERY good. The card really surprised me with crysis, I was told it would only run it on medium.

Gears of War
Gears of War on the PC has had several graphical upgrades since the original 360 version, which I only really saw when i fired it up on the 8800. The card runs it with everything on Max well over 30FPS, DX10 effects and all. It looks a good deal better than the 360 version now and the 360 version still looks very good. I have played through A good bit of the single player and have yet to in counter a problem and do not expect to.

World of Warcraft
My old 7900 ran Warcraft on Max with 75FPS, but the 8800 managed to push it over 75 by a bit. I would think it could have pushed it a lot more, but there is most likely some sort of tec limitation stopping it. You don’t need a good card to run WoW but it makes it look a lot nicer.

Team Fortress 2
I got the PC version of TF2 today from steam and the 8800 runs it on Max no bother. Due to the art style in TF2, the card did not have to work hard at all. In fact it was only running at around 57degrees, which is not much above what it does when running Vistas desktop.

Tempture and Cooling
The 8800GT has a great cooling fan on it. Even when running Crysis at Max it stays very quite and never lets it get above 80 degrees. The fan is quite large and there is also a heat sinc on the side of the card to help keep it cool.
Overall the MSI GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB is a great card, it runs any game out there at the moment great and has made everything a lot faster. Even my boot up time. Its only £130 from over clockers and that includes P&P. If you are looking for a DX10 card that can push PC gaming to the max, get this one.

A+

Work Starts On Next Map

Now that I am 99% finished college (I just have one tiny thing left to do, handed in the FMP today) I have loaded of free time again. Needless to say I booted up Unreal ED for UT3 and finally got started on my next map. I had all ready done out some designs on paper so it was good to make a basic layout for it in the editor its self, and be able to run around it to see what it could be like. Its still very basic but I have a really clear vision of how its going to look and play.

Hope to share some screen shots with you all soon. O my new GPU rocks, review on that in the next few days.

 

World of Warcraft

Yea I got sick of waiting for my Stargate Worlds beta so I just started my WoW account again. I am having fun so far, I am taking it in small chunks. I don’t know if I will play for more than a month but its a great game and its nice to get back to it after several months of being away. I would really like to get to 70 some day but with SGW’s out this year I don’t know if that will happen.

I also have a new GPU coming next week as well, the 8800GT OC. It looks very good from the reviews and is more powerful than the 9600 from what I can gather. Looking forward to getting that as well.

 

Metal Gear!!!!!!

I just saw the new Theatrical Trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4. I have to say its a very cool trailer, I am not so sure about metal gear its self as it has far to many cut scenes to be considered as a game thats moving the industry foward, but I am sure I will end up getting it. I mean what else am I going to play on my PS3? Nothing! Anyway I thought I would share it with you as I have nothing else to blog about today. But college is over soon!

 http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/18828

Weekend!

Well its the weekend again, so what are you guys planning to do? I personally have a lot of work to get ready for the 19th of May so I will have to spend a lot of time on that. I also was forced to restart GTA because a glitch in the game is stopping me from getting new missions. Thanks very much Rockstar, but I have got quite far and am now rotating through all the save slots so it will not happen again. Also playing Lost City’s for review, but that will be finished by Sunday. Great Game.

Its around Two hours until the first ever footage of Gears 2 goes up on Game Trailers and 1UP.com, so I will be staying up to see that before I head to bed. Yea so that’s my plan, I am sure A few games of Halo 3 and COD4 will get in there as well and I am working on a gas container in 3D Max which should not take too long to make. I have a few blog posts coming this weekend so check back soon!

PS: World of Warcraft is calling, if I don’t get my Stargate Worlds Beta soon I might have to start playing again.

Ironman Review

The Ironman movie has had a lot of people excited for a long time, but some reviews that arrived before its release hinted that it might not be that great. I my self was never a big fan of Ironman or any comics for that matter but I didn’t turn down the chance to go and see it last night.

I aways love to see how the different clips from trailers are cut, differently so that maybe two different scenes are made to look like they are the same etc. The film didn’t start how I expected but I though it was a good introduction sequence to get the audience excited and switched on. I was surprised at the amount of talking the in the film. This was not a bad thing, quite a few funny moments and it did a great job of letting you get to know the character’s.

But don’t be worried the film has some great action and fight scenes in it, with loads of quite high standard CGI but I have scene better. It was very interesting to how the main character advanced through out the 2+ Hours of the film and how a major event changed his perspective on things.

Over all Ironman was a great film that I really enjoy and am looking forward to the next one. The ending its self was very cool and totally unexpected. It left you wanting more but at the same time with out that feeling of “shit I have to wait 2 years to find out what happens next”.

A

Playstation

Am I the only one who feels like getting a PS3 was a big error, in there lives. I mean I have had some really great experiences with games like Uncharted and Motorstorm, but apart from that I have not found a lot of use for it. The online is fucked up how fucked up depends on where you are in the world, with Europe being the worst due to the shitty PSN Store updates. When I got my PS3 it was very expensive and it still is and I have found nothing that has really, as of yet made it worth the money.

Again games like Uncharted and Motorstorm have been great, I would rate uncharted among my top ten games of all time but those are just two games on a system that’s been out for well over a year now. The thing that worries me most is I don’t see much coming either. Home looks like a late 2008 title if we are lucky and Killzone 2 and Resistance 2, well don’t quite do it for me.