Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Gaming

The Best and Worst of 2016

Categories Gaming, Movies, Rants

Geez, it's already that time of year again! My personal review of 2016's media that I was exposed to, and the ones that I liked the most, and the ones that I liked the least. As a result of having a small child, and also being unwell for a lot of this year, I haven't really seen/played as much as I would have liked. There are still a lot of movies that I want to see (including most of the December releases), so take this list with a grain of salt.

Movies

This year I saw a lot of very … Read more →

Graphics Update & Battlefield 1

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

XFX RX480 GTRI've had a pretty crappy few months with my health. I think it's a safe bet that if I don't blog in over a month, something is probably up.

Anywho, my main gaming desktop, Executor, recently hit its three year-old mark, and despite a few hiccups, it has held up really well up to this 'best before' date of tech reliability. However, one thing that has aged is the graphics card, which was brought over from the previous computer.

So it made sense to look at updating the graphics card; it's been struggling to keep up with recent … Read more →

The Lego Video Game Dimension

Categories Gaming, Lego

Lego DimensionsOver the past couple of months I played through Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Although I've liked the previous Lego Star Wars games, this is the first Lego game that I have played since my big Lego reawakening a few years ago.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the game, I wouldn't say it was perfect, because it had more than a few rough edges: the 5.1 sound balancing was all wrong (the rear channels were obnoxiously loud), and there were quite a few other bugs. Overall though, it was a great game made even better by all the … Read more →

Console Home Streaming is Great Too

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

PS4 Remote PlayI've blogged a bit on how great Steam Home Streaming is to be able to play PC games remotely in the living room. Today I experienced the reverse, and it's equally as convenient!

Although it's been available on XBox for a while, and for a few months on the PS4, I've previously never had the need to play a console somewhere else other than its usual spot in the living room. That is, until Anastacia needed the TV today and I was in the middle of a level of Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Setting up and getting … Read more →

Steam Home Streaming Now Supports 5.1 Audio

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

I'm not sure when it was enabled in the stable Steam client, but it looks like 5.1 sound is now enabled for Steam Home Streaming on Windows hosts and clients. I said last year that this was a big missing feature for the platform, so I'm glad they actually did it.

It wasn't a smooth process to get it working, though. Although everything looked like it was configured correctly, whenever I tried the streaming there was no sound. I eventually found this forum post which said that the old DirectX9 runtimes ("DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010)") are need on the … Read more →

PS4s and Malfunctioning PS3s

Categories Gaming, Rants

PS4This post has been a bit delayed, but here it is anyway.

Before Christmas I got a PS4. Prices for Sony's latest console have gotten ridiculously cheap as they aim to cement their dominance over the XBox  camp in this console generation.

So I bought a PS4 bundle with the Uncharted Collection. It was good playing through those games, although I still horrendously suck at using a console stick to aim. I'm now firmly planted in this current console generation. The biggest improvement is the PS4 controller; it just feels a whole lot more natural to use, especially the … Read more →

The Best and Worst of 2015

Categories Gaming, Movies, Rants

That time of year again! My personal review of 2015's media that I was exposed to, and the ones that I liked the most, and the ones that I liked the least. (Note that other than Star Wars, I haven't seen many of the other December movies).

Movies

The Force Awakens

Best Movie: Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Easy choice. After so much hype and expectation, this movie was under a lot of pressure to deliver, and I thought they did a remarkably stellar job. Not perfect, but I really couldn't have asked for much more from this new era of … Read more →

Steam Home Streaming with Ori

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

Steam Home StreamingAfter recently getting an Intel NUC primarily for use as a Plex Home Theater (PHT) client, I was forced to install Windows to use PHT because of the general buginess of the OpenELEC-PHT Linux distro.

Turns out that was a blessing in disguise, because having a full Windows computer attached to the TV has made the device so much more handy and flexible for other uses that I never originally intended for it.

Other than being able to easily watch anything you can on a computer on the TV (for example, being really useful for sports streaming), the use that … Read more →

The Horrific Reality Behind Yoshi’s Woolly World

Categories Gaming, Rants

Yoshi carnageIt's no secret that I am a fan of Yoshi, but it is only recently that I truly considered how absolutely horrifying the concept of the Yoshi games are.

Yoshi enters a world with the main aim of getting to the end. Along the way he encounters primarily 'Shy Guys', who as their name implies, often aren't even doing anything other than walking around minding their own business, and sometimes even just sitting down doing nothing.

Angry YoshiDespite these innocuous creatures posing an almost completely negligible threat to the dinosaur/dragon that is Yoshi, he proceeds to tear through the … Read more →

The Best and Worst of 2014

Categories Gaming, Movies, Rants

I don't feel like I've been exposed to a lot that has been on offer this year in terms of movies and games. Nevertheless, tradition must be observed, so here is 2014's movies and games that I most enjoyed, and those I didn't at all.

Movies

I haven't seen any of the Boxing Day movies yet, but I doubt what is on offer will change my mind from the movies I have already seen this year.

The Lego MovieBest Movie: The Lego Movie

Yeah, big surprise, I know ;). It was looking like it was a tough choice between Lego and … Read more →