Blog

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

Gaming

Game Endings

Categories Gaming, Rants

The Last of UsOver the past few weeks, I have played through The Last of Us (exclusive to the PS3). This might surprise some, considering my abject aversion to playing any game that requires a decent amount of aiming with a controller. Although I still suck miserably at using control sticks to aim, the game was definitely good enough for me to endure the humiliation of having it configured on the easiest possible settings in order to get through it. That, and the $30 price tag made it an easy gamble to make.

The Last of Us is a fantastic game, and although … Read more →

Dead PS3s & Transformers: FoC

Categories Gaming

ps3-super-slimI was a big fan of the first Transformers game from High Moon Studios, War For Cybertron. When its sequel, Fall of Cybertron was released in 2012, we were in the middle of preparing to go overseas, so I didn't notice it too much. Some time last year I bought the game, but it had been sitting on the shelf waiting to get played while I was playing a few of the bigger PC titles from last year.

Just after New Year's, I finally got the game out and started playing it for a few hours. But then my … Read more →

The Best and Worst of 2013

Categories Gaming, Movies, Rants

It's my usual 'Best and Worst' post time! For those not familiar, I summarise the best and worst movies and games that I have watched and played this calendar year. These are only from the movies/games that I have personally watched/played, so it's definitely not exhaustive.

Movies

Keeping in mind that I have only seen one movie out of those that were released over the Christmas/Boxing Day period, here is a list of the movies that I have watched so far this year.Django Unchained

Best Movie: Django Unchained

Usually a movie will jump out at me as one of the … Read more →

A Retrospective of the Now-Previous Gaming Generation

Categories Gaming, Geekery

GamingSo now that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been released, what was the 'current' console generation is now the 'previous' generation. I had two consoles of the previous generation (Wii & PS3), which was a new experience considering I didn't have any from the one before that. It was a pretty long generation, spanning 2005 to 2013, and I think a lot of gamers were grateful at that.

It was also a generation in which gaming matured a whole lot. Not only maturing technically into things like high-definition, proper online connectivity, and social capabilities, but also maturing in terms … Read more →

Symphony of Legends

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Life

Symphony Of LegendsTonight we had the immense pleasure of going to the Symphony of Legends, which was the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (and an accompanying choir) performing a collection of video game scores.

In my tweet tonight I mentioned that it was an interesting mix of high-class symphony regulars dressed in suits and gowns, as well as geeks, some dressed in shorts.

There were some really great pieces, but for me the highlight was the Journey score. It was fantastic to hear it performed by a live orchestra, not to mention being conducted by its own composer, Austin Wintory.

Other honourable mentions … Read more →

Getting the Joystick Out for BF4

Categories Gaming, Technology

BF4 Joystick In the past couple of weeks I have really gotten started on BF4. These early days are always a bit of a slog trying to upgrade weapons, classes, and vehicles, but it has been fun nonetheless.

One thing that I have always sucked at across all the Battlefield games, is flying aircraft. I always tend to struggle flying with the mouse, mainly because it is really hard to find a neutral 'centre' point, especially with the helicopters.

The best way to fly is, of course, with a joystick. So I thought "screw this", let's give it a go.

I dusted … Read more →

Battlefield 4 Beta

Categories Gaming, Geekery

BF4 skyscraper collapsingI don't often play beta versions of games. I mostly prefer to wait until the final product, rather than get used to an incomplete version of a game or get frustrated at bugs.

The one exception to that which I can think was Unreal Tournament 3 back in 2007, but I think that might have been a pre-release demo rather than an actual 'beta'.

However, after some prodding from Michael (who pointed out that it might be a decent test of the newly-built Executor), I installed the beta of Battlefield 4 and played it a bit over the … Read more →

Building the Executor

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

I've taken advantage of the long weekend to put together my new computer, which I have named Executor (after the Super Star Destroyer of the same name :)). Photos are at the bottom of this post.

For this build, I concentrated on putting together a quiet computer, but one that is still capable in the gaming department. Everything is new, with the exception of the graphics card, which I have carried across from the last upgrade of Executor's predecessor.  The specs of Executor are:

  • Fractal Design Define R4 case (with window and another fan added to the front
… Read more →

Tomb Raider: A Fantastic Reboot

Categories Gaming

Tomb RaiderOver the past few weeks I have finally gotten around to playing the recent Tomb Raider reboot that I picked up for cheap in the Steam sale earlier this year.

I was pretty amazed at how good this game was. I had heard lots of good things before starting to play it, but nevertheless I still had low expectations of it. That was partly because I'm not that much of a third-person fan on the PC, and partly because I'm not a fan of reboots in general.

On both counts I was quite impressed. In terms of being a reboot, … Read more →

Delayed Gaming: The Walking Dead & Journey

Categories Gaming

Recently I have played through a few critically acclaimed games that were released last year that I never actually got around to playing: season one of The Walking Dead episodic series, and the downloadable PS3 title, Journey.

The Walking DeadI had picked up season one of The Walking Dead in a Steam sale for some ridiculous price months ago, and over the past few weeks played through all the episodes. I have previously played almost every episodic series released by Telltale Games (like Sam & Max, and Strong Bad), so the uncensored swearing and violence of The Walking Dead… Read more →