MMXI Week 1 - What Have Accomplished So Far?

Well, to be honest, not very much. Couple of job applications, come back to Bicester (unfortunately) and played a lot of video games. I’ve powered my way through the two remaining dlc packs for Mass Effect 2, man, I’d forgotten how amazing that game was, and ground my way through five achievements on Green Day: Rock Band, in pursuit of my goal of reaching 20,000 gamer points without playing a new game. This is a small step in my greater goal of reaching 25k. Speaking of which, you may be wandering (or, more likely, absolutely not wandering) how I am progressing on my objectives for 2011. Well seeing as it’s only been a week, I haven’t got very far. I haven’t learnt any new cantonese words. I haven’t started designing my game. I haven’t found a job. Hell, I haven’t even thought about redesigning my eyesore of a blog. But fear not my imaginary followers, for I have a plan. Well, more accurately, a plan for a plan. You see, my ‘metagoal’ for January is to plan out how I’m going to reach my individual goals each month. So fingers crossed.

MMXI Week 0 - 'New' Year Objectives

Well, just like the little planet that could, the earth has completed yet another whole revolution around the sun without us humans wiping ourselves out. And as is tradition, I'm going to set myself some targets this year. I refuse to refer to them as resolutions, as the term is both trite and also one that I reserve for discussing monitors, tvs and printers. They will be goals, objectives, targets even, but not resolutions. So here they are:

1) Blog once a week, minimum - I have two blogs (the other being The D Twenty, my DnD blog) yet my posting is quite 'irregular'. I have a terrible habit of being exceptionally enthusiastic, then the enthusiasm dies like an unwatered house plant. As such, I am aiming to post one blog per week, either on a Friday or Saturday, simply detailing the events in my life.
Likelihood of completion - 4/10

2) Get a job in Birmingham or Wolverhampton by April - Some of you may no (but more of you may not), I recently had to move back to my home town of Bicester, after my hours were dramatically reduced at my last job, and as such, I had to resign and move home because I was unable to make ends meet. Now I am unemployed and living in one of the worst places I can imagine. I am far from friends, Viv and the bustling metropolis of Birmingham. By comparison to where I am now, Brum is positively Utopian. As such, I am going to desperately search for a job which will allow me to move back, either to Birmingham, or Wolverhampton, as home is where the heart is and mine beats heartily in the West Midlands.
Likelihood of completion - 7/10

3) Get Money for Hong Kong - Late last year, Viv told me that their family trip to Hong Kong, which happens once every 3 years, would be occuring in April, over the last 3 weeks, over my birthday. I was obviously invited as it was a family trip and I am considered one of the family. Needless to say, I really want to go, but this will not be a cheap endeavour. As such, I am going to have to man up and ask my Grandfather for the money as probably the biggest birthday present in the history of my life, past, present and future. This will most likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity, to spend my birthday in such a great place.
Likelihood of completion - 6/10

4) Reach a Gamerscore of 25,000 - This is a pretty self explanatory and probably quite easy goal. I'm almost at 20,000 and as such, 25,000 should be fairly obtainable. This will translate most likely to about 6 or 7 new games, perhaps less if I can wrap up a few achievements that have been sitting around in my game library.
Likelihood of completion - 8/10

5) Complete an Entire Dungeons and Dragons Campaign - I currently have one incredibly large dungeons and dragons campaign outstanding, which isn't really within sight of finishing any time soon. But in order to fill my time in Bicester until I can move back to Birmingham, I'm going to start another campaign. I am aiming to complete this campaign, in a satisfactory fashion with an engaging story, inside of the year.
Likelihood of completion - 7/10

6) Play more Risk and Magic: The Gathering - This xmas, Viv got me Risk Transformers Edition, which re sparked my love for the bored game. Additionally, we began playing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering, which I have developed a parallel addiction for. As such, I am hoping to play considerably more games and improve my skill.
Likelihood of completion - 8/10

7) Work on a Video Game Project - I would like to point out that I haven't lost sight of my true life goal, working as a game designer. It's simply that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and prioritise. In order to not lose sight of this, I am aiming to work on a small project, showcasing my ability, and see it through to completion. I may set myself monthly goals in order to prevent myself from becoming complacent.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

8) Learn Cantonese - Everyone has one of these loft goals for the new year. Considering my distinct lack of affinity for foreign language, this is a suitably ambitious target. Hopefully Viv and her family will be able to help me with this.
Likelihood of completion - 3/10

9) Improve my Blog Design - I never have been happy with the appearance of my blog, and as such I am going to consult with people I know who have more aesthetically pleasing blogs and get their advice.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

10) Buy more Books - It wasn't until I move from Birmingham that it hit me how wonderful the Birmingham library truly is. I was at a loss when it occurred to me that I couldn't simply nip into the city center and find a book of interest. This especially applies to Terry Pratchett Discworld books, which have an exceptional re-readable quality for me. As such, I am going to try an actually buy more books so that I have a collection ready to read. The particular focus of this will be the complete discworld works, in the new covers.
Likelihood of completion - 5/10

So, there it is. My objectives for 2011, a fair few lofty goals to aim for. So wish me luck!

Back In The Saddle

Well, today was my first day of training for my new job as bar staff at the Gun Barrels scream pub in Birmingham. It was probably the best training session I’ve ever experienced, and I hope it’s a reflection of things to come. Here’s a little breakdown of what I did

• Ice breaking session, including declaring most embarrasing moment.
• Introduction of all the drink products they sell. There was A LOT!
• Introduction to the range of food products. This included them actually bringing out some of the new dishes, which we GOT TO EAT! The Bulldog burger was especially good!
• Basic till training, which wasn’t too bad. Hardest part will be remembering where all the options are on the screen.
• How to pull my first pint. I went for strongbow, which I GOT TO DRINK AFTERWARDS. It was gooooood

All in all, it was a great day with some great people and I’m looking forward to my second session tomorrow.

On an unrelated note, I’m a little miffed at myself for doing something rather silly. While trying to organise some blog posts for cragcose that were to be moved over to my new dungeons and dragons blog, The D Twenty, I thought it would a good idea to do the following:

1. Load draft of story that was 75% complete, that has taken me several hours to read
2. Delete draft save file
3. Save open copy as draft under new blog with new file name

What I didn’t realise is that Windows Live Writer doesn’t work like word, you can’t delete a save file of a document while the document is open, and then just save the open document as something new. Instead, it deletes everything from in front of your very eyes! I was stunned and shocked, even resorting to a system restore to try and recover it (it was also to fix a software installation that went a bit wrong), but that didn’t work. I’m in too minds about rewriting it as I’m worried what I redo won’t be as good, but we’ll see.

In the coming days I’ll be wrapping up my training and possibly starting my first shift. I was meant to be going to a good friends birthday party down in Guildford, but due to limited budget and possible first shift, I’m affraid I’m going to have to give it a miss. But luckily my girlfriend will be around for her birthday, which means I can do what I do best; showering her with love and attention and making a big deal out of her. I’m going to look up Chinese birthday traditions seeing as she wants a family thing (she’s Chinese) and make it something special.

Vivs mum approves of the sofas

Project Lose An Olsen Twin Week……many?

Well, it would be fair to say that I haven’t made a serious post in at least over two weeks, possibly three. I think the only way I could discern the amount of time that’s passed since my last blog is based on my current number of sit ups. I have gone up to 100 a night, which is a reasonable amount to stay at for the foreseeable future, instead favouring to work on my upper body strength via push ups, which I find currently extremely challenging.

I have been reasonably busy in other endeavours durring the time since my last blog. I made a trip up (or down, I forget) to London to help my girlfriends mum and uncle move some furniture out the house of another uncle, who tragically passed away recently. It was a lot of work, we had to drive a tank of a van to carry all the stuff back. In the end, we took 2 large sofas, 1 television, 1 shelving unit, 1 cabinet, 1 dining table and a load of various smaller items. Basically any item that could be of use picked up. It seems disrespectful to let a passed relatives former possessions go to waste. Much better to re-use what you can, almost as a way of remembering them.
There was lots of heavy lifting, more so upon arrival at my girlfriends house. You see, 99% of what we brought back was from the ground floor of her uncles house, but the living room of her house is on the first floor (they live in a gorgeous 3 story house). As such, everything had to be very carefully carried up a narrow set of stairs and around a few tight bends. But eventually everything was in space and cleaned up (there was so much dust). For the first time in over 2 and half years my girlfriend has furniture in her families living room. It’s amazing the difference a sofa can make.
There was a funny revelation about the sofas. A few weeks back, soon after her uncle passed, the majority of the family was staying down at the house. She and her sister were sleeping on the two sofas in the living room, which as anyone who has done the same can testify, isn’t the most comfortable. What was the first thing I noticed about the sofas just before moving them? They both fold down into full size single beds! This proved to be great for me as when I stay over, I have a proper bed to sleep on, rather than on the living room floor (my girlfriends mum is very traditional, a chinese thing, so we can’t share a bed, or participate in any activity that might arrise from said bed sharing, lol).

The following day i got a phone call. I had been invited to a recruitment event at the bar I applied to; the Gun Barrels in Selly Oak/Edgbaston, near the University of Birmingham. It was scheduled for 6pm till 9pm on Wednesday and I was obviously a touch nervous.
Upon arriving, there was already over a dozen people there and we were divided up into one of eight colour coded teams. I was Team Green and made quick work of getting to know my team leader, a current member of staff, and my fellow team mates as they arrived. By the time everyone was there, there was 8 people in each team, meaning that over 60 people were attending! We were told that about 16 to 20 of the people there were going to be hired, so I had a 1/4 to 1/3 chance of nailing the job.
My group was a great bunch, with a mix of personalities. There was a quiet, nerdy girl called Poppy who liked Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, a qualified hairdresser called Amy Whitehouse (not Winehouse) who was very bubbly and an asian guy called Suki who was very chatty and enthusiastic. We had to perform two group activities, both of which seemingly aimed at finding out how much we’d be willing to make idiots of ourselves. The first of which involved marketing two fictional products from a list. We chose the one legged stool (The Monostool) and laxative chocolate (ChocoLog, Bang, and the Turd is gone!). The joke slogans went down well, as well as the awesome art work (courtesy of myself).
The second activity was an awards ceremony, Dudes and Dudds of the Year 2010. We were given a list of celebrities and ‘celebrities’ and had to act out the various winners and losers. I was Buzz Lighthyear for this event, so had great bright pink cheeks and a black spiral on my chin. After donning a jumpsuit, I truly looked the part.
Following these two entertaining tasks, there was a one on one interview with one of the staff, which went really well. After a couple of drinks, including a pint of rather nice strawberry beer, I headed home, to await a phonecall the next day if I got the job. This was probably the most anticipated phone call for a job I’ve ever waited for. Then at 1730 the next day, about half an hour after what I thought the cut off was for the call, I noticed a missed call on my phone. Recognising the number, I rang it back and it turned out I got the job! I was so happy! My training starts on Monday, two till five, and the same again on Tuesday, with final training five to six thirty on Wednesday, followed by a small party for the newbie's!

Well, that brings us up to date with what has happened in this past week. I’ve also made a small change to my blog with the addition of ad-sense adverts to see if I can bring in some pence. I’m also adding a logo and I’ve started a new blog. Called The D-Twenty, it’s a dungeons and dragons themed blog for a lot of stuff i realised wouldn’t really fit properly on this blog. Check it out! Also give those adds a click!

Review: Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

This Tuesday gone, courtesy of the Total Film newsletter (and a little bit of cheeky multi-email amount manipulation) I manged to obtain 4 tickets for an advanced preview of the latest Edgar Wright movie, an adaption of of the Oni Press comic, penned by Brian Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Now before I begin to review in ‘earnest’ I have a confession to make. The first I heard of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (henceforth known as Scott Pilgrim) was when I saw the super advanced mega preview trailer from last years Comic Con (I think). It wasn’t until a few months later when I noticed one of my friends had posted on facebook that he was reading the 3rd volume of Scott Pilgrim that I discovered that Scott Pilgrim was a comic series. After a bit of hunting, I managed to procure the first few volumes.

And I promptly fell in lesbians.

I’m not a huge graphic novel fan, simply due to my reading pace. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love graphic novels, graphic media in general. I would read dozens of different mangas. I have many comic series’ that I desire to enjoy. The problem is the cost to duration ratio. You see, I can read a £8 graphic novel in a single evening, easily. Compare that to a similarly priced book which may last me a week or so, and it just doesn’t seem worth it. But recently I’ve circumvented this by two means. Firstly, I borrow a lot. I’ve been leant V For Vendetta and Watchment, both of which I massivly enjoyed. Secondly, and less legitimately, I’ve been downloading comic book series’ online and viewing them using Comic Rack. Now I know this may make you devout purchasers shudder and scream at me, but understand this, I can’t afford to buy all the volumes, so it’s either that or I don’t EVER read them. Which means that I will never purchase them in the future (I’m not going to spend money on a graphic novel I don’t love) I have purchased download titles, such as my prized 1st Edition Appleseed complete set and my first few volumes of Gundam 0083. But this is not about the ethics of piracy, not is it about comic books in general. This is about what I thought of Scott Pilgrim vs The World (the film). Lets get started with the good:

Lowest Common Denominator? Screw Em: When you have a film based on a previous piece of niche media, be it a comic book, a video game or a book, there is often the temptation to water down the original source material so those not indocrinated into the brotherhood don’t feel alienated. This happens mainly with video games, so seeing as Scott Pilgrim is heavily video game influenced, this was an ever present worry. But worry not my friends, Edgar Wright knows what he is doing. Just as he seemed to make Shuan of the Dead for zombie fans, he made Scott Pilgrim straight up for fans of the comic. That’s not to say that someone who hasn’t read the series won’t enjoy it. I went with my girlfriend, her sister and her cousin, none of which had read the comic, and they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In fact, her cousin laughed the loudest out of the whole theatre.

Best Graphics Ever: I had my doubts that the film would be able to encapsulate the comic/video game art style of the original series. There were a lot of elements that work well in ink, but maybe not so well on screen. This wasn’t the case. From game style HUD moments to floating words to caption sound effects (watching Scott bang his head against a lampost with the words Thud, Thud, Thud hanging in the air above him was briliant) The fight scenes were beautifully choreographed and the effects really made them feel vibrant and suitably beat ‘em up!

Made From Concetrate…..d Win!: It’s often hard to distil a story that spans several volumes of graphic novel, over the course of months of even years. But Scott Pilgrim did this well, (but not without a few problems, see bellow). You have two choices in this situation 1) Put the plot on hyper speed to hit every point in 120 minutes, which can leave the audience confused and feeling rushed, or 2) Miss out some elements, which may be critical to side plots, don’t impact on the main story. Scott Pilgrim does a a little of both, which works really well in getting the story over, but does have some negative effects.

And now the Bad:

They Missed That Out: There were a few things missed from the film that were great parts of the comic. Clash at Demonheads drummers robot arm, Scotts 12 months moping about after Ramona leaves, Kim and Scotts history, and even Knives and Kims lesbian kiss! Although these plot points don’t contribute directly to the overall story of defeating 7 evil ex’s, they add flavour and a suitable environment. You don’t need salt and vinegar on your chips, but it’s nice to have it.
The biggest casualty was the ending, where it was revealed that the big band, Gideon Graves, had a collection of 7 ex girlfriends and planned to add Ramona to the collection. And everything was the result of his ability to mess with peoples heads and memories. That was all kind of glossed over in favour of a big bad mind control chip.
Oh yeah, they also forgot his samurai sword battle with Knives ninja father….

Hyperspeed Motion Blur: Sometimes accelerating a plot can make things seem a little rushed. For example, Scott seemed to transition from one Ex-Battle to the next in the space of 30 minutes (in film time) whereas in the comic the span was more like 3 month. This kept the pacing up in terms of visual stimulation, but the way the cast dealt with the pace seemed a little stilted. No one seemed to comment that Scott had fought one ex an hour ago and was now up against another.
But the biggest victim of the increased pace was our hero, Scott Pilgrim. In the comic, he falls in love with Ramona Flowers while he is still dating Knives Chau (who is very much in puppy love with him). Now although this is incredibly douchey, and he gets called out on this douche-bag behaviour, the pacing of the comic means that this issue is resolved, and Scott is punished for his actions, in suitable time. But this isn’t the case in the film. Scott seems to plunge into the full on Ramona relationship and defeating 7 evil exs before Knives name is even mentioned. My girlfriend commented multiple times that she was having trouble empathising with Scott because he was such a douche for cheating on Knives. And I had to agree that the pacing of the film made Scott into a giant douche.

Overall, I freaking loved this film and would definatly see if for a second time (paying to see it that time)

Faithfulness to Original: 7.5/10
Graphical Style: 8/10
Humour: 7/10
Awesomeness: 9/10

GamerPost #04 Assassins Creed 2 Review

Well, I’ve done it, I’ve finally fully completed a game. We’re talking 100% in game completion. We’re talking 1000/1000 gamer points. We’re talking EVERYTHING. As such, I feel I can offer my best possible review, breaking it down into what I loved and what I loathed.

LOVED IT

Some of the Old – This game took everything that was great about assassins creed and brought it back. The free running, the stealthy assassinations, they sick sense of pleasure you can get from using a throwing knife to send a guard toppling off a building. It was all there.

Something New – And it takes all these old classics and expands upon and adds to them. You now have access to poison blades which can be used to ‘indirectly’ kill guards. You can use the grab function in close combat to throw people off buildings. There’s a much wider selection of weapons, allowing you to choose between sword, spear or axe. The game adds so much to the experience it is simply fun to think up creative ways to off random guards.

Less Repetition – One thing Assassins Creed suffered from was being repetitive. AC2 does away with this. Each mission and side quest feels unique. I never once found myself thinking “Oh no, not this again” It was all fresh as a daisy.

Now He’s Got Character – The entire cast was well written and engaging, with a nice touch of dry, adult humour. You actually watch Ezio, the character you play as, grow and mature, from a rowdy teenager into a man, into an assassin.

Not Shying Away – The story doesn’t cut corners with plot. Ezio drinks, he has sex, he seeks revenge. It doesn’t gloss over anything. The best bit was a quick time event to take a girls top off (not that you actually saw anything).

LOATHED IT

Story? – I often at times found myself wondering ‘why?’ Why did I have to kill this man? Why was I listening to this person? There wasn’t a compelling story, which was a shame considering the wonderful characters that populated it.

Hmm, wonder what I can use that for? – The game also had a handful of items that just seemed tacked on. This includes two Da Vinci inventions, the wrist pistol and the flying machine. Apart from when you’re forced to use them, I found them inconvenient compared to the more ‘traditional’ hardware

Crystal Skull Syndrome – Spoiler Warning Right Here! The ending left something to be desired if I’m being honest. I think they gave away too much too quickly and have dimmed my interest in the third in the series. The alien/time travellers just leaves a bad taste in my mouth like at the end of the last Indiana Jones movie. I like my mysterious organisations surrounded in more, well, mystery.

Well, that’s convenient -  Some of the Puzzles just seemed a bit too conveniently set up. For example, you’d be expected to navigate a jumping puzzle that was supposedly set up when the building you’re in was first constructed, yet the puzzle would require  jumping to and from objects placed there during the renovation of the building. It just breaks the suspension of disbelief a little.

THE FINAL SCORE

Graphics – 8/10 – Nothing ground breaking, but still impressive and breath taking in places

Gameplay -  9/10 – A wonderful free running experience

Audio – 8/10 – I didn’t really notice the music much, although at times it did pick up quite nicely

Story – 6/10 – Like I said, I felt a little lost by the story at times and felt that I was just being dragged along for the ride.

OVERALL – 8/10