Upon finishing the campaign, scrolling the credits and returning to the main menu, the campaign time counter read 5 hours, 46 minutes. Five and a half hours for a campaign on the hardest difficulty possible is really not great at all, even more so when you consider how much time you have to use up replaying certain parts again based on how badly you do at it and how much you die.

Bearing that in mind, this would probably indicate that running through the campaign on the easiest difficulty would probably take no more than three hours. For such a high-profile game, this is woefully short. Something that a member of my stream chat mentioned about it:

It’s an interactive action movie disguised as an FPS war simulator.

In fact, the campaign is probably something that’s better made as an action movie. Not that I want to or expect to see a movie tie-in, but if it were to happen, it’d probably do well.

If you have several hours to waste watching the recordings, you can do so. Each recording is two hours long, since that’s what TwitchTV caps each recording video at. Please note that the audio desyncs as the stream goes on, it’s a known XSplit bug that is fixed in newer versions that the one I’m using, but I can’t use those versions as it breaks support for my Blackmagic Intensity Pro.

I mean, I really do like making these videos, not really because I’m specifically trying to get views and subscribers on YouTube, rather I just want to make them, even if only ten people decide to watch it, as long as even one of those people like it, I consider it a success.

Yay, for the Intensity Pro!

So now that I have my Intensity, I definitely think I’m going to be making way more console videos. It probably won’t eclipse the amount of PC videos I make, but there should still be a decent amount of them. The fun part is that even though I’m already recording and editing them at 720p, I still have the capability to turn them into 1080i if I really want to show off

So, after buying Modern Warfare 2 yesterday evening in GAME in Blanch for €35 (not the €25 I definitely remember it being a little while ago – but at least it’s not €60 on Steam), I sat down last night for a long session of it. And by long, I mean really, really, really, really, really long. Like, started at midnight last night, ended… about twenty minutes ago, long.

The main plan for the night was to attempt to complete as much of the campaign on Veteran as possible to earn maximum Gamerscore from the game. That last until about 7am. The campaign, although it is incredibly diverse, thrilling and entertaining, was way short. Thankfully Veteran difficulty this time wasn’t as painstakingly cruel as MW1 with the infinite respawning enemies and allies that would rather just sit there while YOU kill them all, and so progressed at a nice steady pace filled with waiting for health to regenerate and retrying certain parts over and over.

Veteran is no more of a challenge than Hardened was in the original. Which is probably better.

So after the entire Veteran completion, off I went again on Recruit to pick up all 45 pieces of intel. Cue 9am, and I have quite a large chunk of Gamerscore gleamed from the game from everything not-Special Ops. That can wait for some other time, or not be done at all.

So, I decided I may as well have gone onto multiplayer, since there was nothing else left to do. Now after my foray into MW2 multiplayer during the Steam free weekend, I wasn’t getting my hopes up on how this would work out. The changing of controls from 360 controller to keyboard and mouse didn’t go so well, plus I felt as if my reflexes weren’t as sharp and that everyone else had massive huge scripts helping them out.

Cue the first game in Mercenary Team Deathmatch.

I come out 18-6, absolutely decimating a team of several-times-already-prestiged noobs. However, overall my team lost because of the noobs on my team having significantly worse K/D ratios.

Oh boy, I’m home again

Not to brag, but I was pretty good at the original Modern Warfare a while ago, so that does transfer over to 2 a good bit. With that in mind, I then proceeded to play another 13 games. All 13, I won. I only had to get off because it was daylight, I was hungry, and the dog needed attention.

So far after what was only 1h 43m of playtime (apparently), I’m a Level 16 Staff Sergeant, with a win/loss record of 13-1, and a K/D ratio of just under 1.8.

Oh, did I also mention that one game where I went 27-4? Oh and the one other game where I managed to get a pretty decent kill-streak of 12, which included actually being able to legitimately call in a Stealth Bomber that I didn’t get from a Care Package for once?

Dead chuffed, I am

So it started off with Major Nelson doing another one of his free code giveaway puzzle things, which in this instance was a code disguised in the form of Xbox 360 lights set in such a way as they resembled semaphore flags.

Now the astute person will notice that this is a 31-signal code, which is longer than the 25-character codes used on Xbox Live. Out of those 31 signals, seven of them are “number” signals, meaning the next signal represents a number.

“But wait”, I hear you saying. “That makes 24 characters”. Right, there were only 24 characters posted, and there was quite a bit of debate over where the missing character was. Despite that, Major Nelson announced around 12:36am BST that the code had been won. I was sitting there on the Xbox.com “Redeem Code” page waiting to hear what the story was when I read that.

So after that I started checking the Twitter search for @majornelson, and I had a look at the profile of the person he said came up with the puzzle: Laura Massey. After a little bit of refreshing, I noticed Laura was replying to other people who had replied to her stating their confusion with the presence of only 24 characters. Eventually though, I noticed a reply of hers to someone, where she specifically mentioned “I forgot the G after the two 9′s”. (That tweet has since been deleted.)

I then decided to give it a whack, fully expecting to see that someone else had somehow managed to randomly suss it out.

Instead I got this:

Yea, you get what I mean.

Now I just need a damn working 360 so I can play in the Halo Reach Beta…

So, the overall aim of this is to create a bit of a home media center, consisting mainly of the PC and my 360 (or possibly a new one if I decide not to bother repairing this shit). While it may seem simple though, I have a few plans in mind which make it fairly complex. While I normally like complications, when said complications can dictate what bits I need to buy, then it gets iffy.

So, first off is my build. You can find it on Komplett here. The majority of it is obviously for the computer itself, but the extras are to deal with the fancy bits I’m about to go into excruciating detail over. Because I am that sad, and the fact that I like to go into details. You can kill the tab now if you want, I won’t mind…

…

…

…

Still here? Good.

Some of the main omissions you may be waiting to scold me about would be the keyboard, mouse and monitor – but I’m already sorted for those with my G15, G9, and some crummy 19" widescreen thing with speakers. And I’m good for an OS for the moment since I can get Windows 7 Professional from college via the MSDNAA thingy. Or if all else fails, I still have my USB stick with the RC on it.

Anyway, my main plan is to have the PC and 360 both plugged into the one monitor I have which I can switch between much easier than having to unplug a VGA cable and plug in the other one, which is solved by the video switch. Ironically it seems to be the same type of switch that was used however long ago in the café I used to work in for the one station that had both a PC and the 360 on it… The 360 will go into the monitor’s shitty in-built speakers for the time being, while I can listen to the PC via headphones, or maybe some external speakers. Or something similar.

Here’s where it starts to get a little complicated though. For the purposes of LP’s or gameplay streams, I’d like to be able to send my 360′s output to both my monitor and an input on my computer simultaneously, so that I can play and record at the same time without having to go via the computer per se, and deal with lag and increased response time in-game. For that, I can only assume that I’d need some sort of video/audio splitter, except I have no idea what I’d need to get to sort that out…

With that sorted the mish-mash of VGA and audio cables in the back would look something like this:

• PC VGA cable -> video switch
• 360 VGA cable –> video/audio splitter
• Video/audio splitter video –> video switch
• Video/audio splitter audio –> monitor
• Video/audio splitter video/audio–> PC
• Video switch –> monitor

Also, with the house here in Dunboyne, there are Ethernet ports everywhere to hook into the Magnet fibre line. Except that there is only one port in the room nearby where I want all this stuff to be. Also, I want my PC and 360 to be on the same network so they can sync and do Media Center and all that other shit. As well, I need wireless access for my laptop in the house, y’know, just for the handiness of being able to use it anywhere in the house if needed. Plus the fact my mom likes to keep the wireless key to herself for some unknown reason. Not sure though if a normal router would do, or if I’d need an actual network switch.

All this stuff is confusing me quite a bit, which is why I’m looking for a little clarity and help from people who do know what I’m talking about as to what else I’d need to get to make this dream a reality.

Also, it can’t really be much more expensive than what it already is. I may have a good chunk in the savings account, but I’m not that well off.

Anyone?

But, since I can never keep tabs on which are my favourite of "x", I’ve decided it’s time for me to sit down and give each weapon I claim to love an honest review, and then grade them based on the scores I give it. As such, here are my Top 20 Video Game Weapons. According to me, anyway.

All of these weapons, I have played the games with which they appear. I have played with the weapon being mentioned in the game. If I haven’t played it, or played with it, it doesn’t appear here. Also, when thinking back about good weapons, I have to actually be able to think "Yea, that was a good weapon" off of the top of my head. No huge list of every single weapon in the game so I can grade and review each and every one. I’m not that sad.

Each weapon is graded based on four factors: Pure Power, namely how much of the enemy I’m disintegrating while using the weapon; Sheer Epicness, how important or bragging-worthy the weapon itself is; Uniqueness, if it’s a completely new thang, or just a rehash of the game old boring gun you get in every game; and Lovability, as in how much I used the weapon at every opportunity and couldn’t put it down until it was either taken from me somehow, or I ran out of ammo.

Without further ado, let’s get to the point.

#20 – Torque Bow – Gears of War 2

One of the more unique weapons in the game, the Torque Bow combines the long range and pure damage of the sniper rifle, with an explosive warhead and a unique delivery system. While it does lack any form of scope, forcing you to rely on the miniscule zoom provided by aiming, some of the sickest shots possible can be pulled off if you use it well, including the odd two-for-one or even more.

Power 8 – Epic 7 – Unique 6 – Love 4

Total 25/40

#19 – Dart Gun – Fallout 3

While most would consider large, powerful weapons to be synonymous with Fallout 3, sometimes it’s one of the smallest guns that can be the most deadly. The Dart Gun is one of the custom weapons you must find schematics for and create out of bits and bobs, but that does not undermine it’s usefulness. First off, it’s a silent weapon, meaning anyone who plays sneakily can make great use of it. While it’s base damage is horribly low, it has a secondary poison effect dealing more damage over the next few seconds to the target. And most importantly of all, a single hit from the gun instantly cripples both of the target’s legs, reducing them to a limp, and in the case of large powerful quick foes like the Deathclaw and Yao Guai – rendering them essentially moot, since you’ve removed their most powerful lunging attacks.

Power 2 – Epic 4 – Unique 9 – Love 10

Total 25/40

#18 – Force-a-Nature – Team Fortress 2

How can a humble hunting shotgun be such an insane weapon when in the hands of the Scout? The Force-a-Nature packs a huge wallop at close range, as well as the added effect of a vast amount of knockback, giving it two thumbs up for damage and stopping power. As well as being able to be used to propel yourself even further when jumping around like the crazy sugar-hyped baseball addict you are!

Power 6 – Epic 5 – Unique 4 – Love 10

Total 25/40

#17 – Assault Rifle – Left 4 Dead

Two words – well, actually really it’s just one word – Powershot. Your best friend when it comes to dealing with the Witch, and a great way to knock a huge chunk off of the Tank in a hurry! Other than that, quite frankly, it’s really meh.

Power 4 – Epic 6 – Unique 8 – Love 8

Total 26/40

#16 – Spartan Laser – Halo 3

Normally, lasers aren’t too much trouble. They shoot some red stuff at you and it hurts. Well, let’s instead give a huge over-sized laser to a futuristic super-soldier and let them rain red death down on the masses. Now we’re talking some good laser. Of course, it does have it’s drawbacks of taking an age to charge up, inability to track enemies, as well as instantly becoming the target of all enemy fire as soon as you pick it up,

Power 10 – Epic 7 – Unique 4 – Love 5

Total 26/40

#15 – Blade – Prototype

Sure, it just looks like a big sword coming out of your arm. But when that big sword is capable of cutting through everything, then it becomes interesting. Coupled with making all the other powers look like either complete garbage or only useful in certain situations, and you get my drift!

Power 6 – Epic 8 – Unique 4 – Love 9

Total 27/40

#14 – Silenced G3 – Call of Duty 4

I tell you, a silenced G3 in Call of Duty 4 online playing Hardcore, especially with UAV Jammer and Dead Silence, it one of the most fun ways to play the game. As long as you are a sneaky bastard, like myself, and stay in the corners and out of sight of the enemy, you can have an absolute ball. While it may not be too powerful, the gun is whisper quiet and can take people down in one or two shots. I once remember sitting in a corner on Overgrow hidden by a bush for the whole length of a Hardcore Team Deathmatch game. Sure, I only picked up three kills, but no-one managed to find me at all!

Power 3 – Epic 6 – Unique 8 – Love 10

Total 27/40

#13 – Holy Hand Grenade – Worms

What much else is there to say about it? It’s a big-ass grenade that blows up, taking everyone in the nearby vicinity away with it. Although it does have the tendency to be a grenade, and even a slight miscalculation in your throw can prove very costly.

Power 10 – Epic 8 – Unique 6 – Love 4

Total 28/40

#12 – Malediction – EVE Online

While it’s not a weapon, per se, EVE is a bit more about the ships themselves than the loadouts they have. Built primarily as a tackler, the Malediction is one of the fastest ships in the game, particularly when fitted with a microwarpdrive and the right skill training. Capable of locking down targets, and harass them until larger gang forces arrive, or just chipping away at the enemy for a kill, the Male is one of my favourites. The fact it goes 13.5 AU/s in warp is just the icing on the cake!

Power 5 – Epic 6 – Unique 8 – Love 10

Total 29/40

#11 – Grenade Launcher – Call of Duty 4

While most people would probably shun the inclusion of such a weapon in a list like this, I say one thing – if they put the weapon in the game, balancing it out by making you use your first Perk to get two shots, and those people just know how to use the gun, then they are not idiots noob tubing. Deal with it. Besides, it’s fun running around with Overkill and two launcher guns, so that you get four shots, which is four near-guaranteed kills. Just don’t expect to make friends anytime soon.

Power 8 – Epic 2 – Unique 9 – Love 10

Total 29/40

#10 – Aura Sphere – Pokémon

Again, not exactly a weapon but then again how else are you supposed to fight in the Pokémon games? One of the moves added to the pool in Generation IV was Aura Sphere. A Special-based Fighting-type move that never misses, but unlike all the other guaranteed hit moves, it has a base power of 90 rather than 60. Coupled with the fact that the Pokémon that learn it all have a very high Special Attack stat, and Aura Sphere starts to completely decimate the enemy!

Power 8 – Epic 7 – Unique 6 – Love 9

Total 30/40

#9 – Particle Cannon – Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour

Normally, a beam of particles isn’t all that much of a big deal. How about then you turn them into a cannon. Still no? How about when you get stronger cannons that are built for half the price when you’re the Superweapon General? OK, what about 140 of them? While it may seem like a tame superweapon by most game standards, spamming them is a very effective tactic. Rain pinky-purple death!

Power 7 – Epic 8 – Unique 5 – Love 10

Total 30/40

#8 – Plasma Cutter – Dead Space

Never before has the most basic starting weapon been all you ever need. In Dead Space, the Plasma Cutter is arguably the only gun you need to use to beat the game (going so far as to actually give an achievement for doing so!) as it’s simple shots, be they horizontal or vertical, can make quick work of any enemy you face, particularly when upgraded to the maximum. While each individual shot may not be the best, overall in the right hands, it can be used with deadly efficiency.

Power 4 – Epic 10 – Unique 7 – Love 10

Total 31/40

#7 – Ripper – Dead Space

When it comes to creating as much gore as possible, you’d look to a saw of some sort. That’s where the Ripper comes in. Launching remote saw blades that tear apart and quickly dismember anything that comes your way, you’d be hard pressed to downplay this weapon and weak and unwieldy. Proper aiming makes for quick work of nearby foes, particularly if you are swarmed by many foes at once and want a quick escape. Who needs a saw on a bayonet?

Power 6 – Epic 9 – Unique 9 – Love 7

Total 31/40

#6 – Gravity Gun – Half-Life 2

It is one of the main signatures of Half-Life. Nothing is more satisfying that killing your enemy with a cardboard box that you picked up with the Gravity Gun and shot straight at their face. Chopping through zombies in Ravenholm with saw blades fired with deadly accuracy is heaven. And it all gets better when infused with dark energy, making it actually useful when there’s no junk around to fire at things any larger than a headcrab!

Power 5 – Epic 10 – Unique 10 – Love 7

Total 32/40

#5 – Homing Rocket Launcher – Crackdown

In Crackdown, there are two types of rocket launcher. The normal, boring one; and the badass homing one. There are many ways that this description can be understated, so I’ll just put it like this: once you find this weapon, you really have no reason to switch to another ever again. It really is that awesome. Especially when you can start using it to juggle things around like cars or dead bodies!

Power 8 – Epic 10 – Unique 6 – Love 10

Total 34/40

#4 – Tesla Cannon – Fallout 3

Yes, it is a big ass cannon that fires a huge electrical burst with high damage. Yes, it is that bad ass. Yes, each shot is powered by a single Electron Charge Cell. And yes, it would be much better if we could use it much, much earlier than the final mission…

Power 10 – Epic 10 – Unique 6 – Love 8

Total 34/40

#3 – Banana Bomb – Worms

It’s soft. It’s squishy. It’s yellow. It’s exploding fruit. What else do you want?!?!

Power 10 – Epic 9 – Unique 7 – Love 10

Total 36/40

#2 – Scoped Gauss Rifle – Fallout 3

Introduced with the Operation: Anchorage expansion, the Scoped Gauss Rifle is one of the best all-round weapons available in the game. With a high damage capability, huge knockback on criticals, and a high zooming scope allowing for great free-aim shots, the Gauss Rifle can easily become your primary and only weapon given you have enough Microfusion Cells! The main drawbacks are the fact that as a completely unique weapon, the only way to repair it is via NPCs, which does cost quite a bit of money. Also, it does become considerably less effective the higher-levelled you are. However, it can still be quite an excellent damage source, even against the toughest of opponents!

Power 8 – Epic 9 – Unique 10 – Love 10

Total 37/40

#1 – Concrete Donkey – Worms

Nothing, and I seriously mean NOTHING can compare to a big huge concrete donkey just dropping from the sky and absolutely decimating everything in it’s path downwards, leaving nothing bug a big huge gaping hole in the landscape. And hopefully a lot of dead worms!

Power 10 – Epic 10 – Unique 10 – Love 10

Total 40/40

Well, there you have it. A run-down of my Top 20 Video Game Weapons. Since there will be more games out in the future with more weapons that I’ll love, I’ll pop up a complete list and update it as necessary. I also hope that you do agree with me somewhat!

Pay close attention to all the names that pop up during the multiplayer gameplay sections of the review.

Yays

I must admit that the latest batch of Avatar clothing – “Summer Wear” – did finally add a set an alright set of shorts that you could choose for your avatar to wear. Although I’d still prefer more options than what are currently available (you have 5 choices, otherwise it’s full-lengths for you!) it’s probably something my avatar is probably more comfortable in.

Now I just need to go find the nearby sporting goods store to reflect this in real life, since I have no idea where my other pair have gotten to. Probably still shoved in a wardrobe in Dunboyne somewhere.

I also love how epically pointless this entry is, although it might have something to do with my really odd disposition towards being extremely interested about what people are wearing on the lower half of their bodies to the point that I will actually stop and stare, or do a double-take…

My head – it is the oddest of places.

The Links

Fellow DCU student and iPhone app seller raking it in, Steven T-S, was on the RTÉ News on Two last (well 19th) night. I swear, I have never known there was a room that shiny and new on campus…

Fucking modders and standbyers…

The Pics

A heart attack in pastry… *insert Homer Simpson style drool here*

Enjoy the rest of the heart attacks on a plate/stick/whatever here!

The Vids

A collection of all the blood-curling Halo 3 screams when you splatter someone

Unforgotten Realms – Episode 21

Note, that although the cover art I borrowed from Wikipedia is the PC version, I’ve been playing the 360 version!

Recently, my driving skills were being both trained, and confused with all the multitudes of driving types I’ve been doing. Whether it’s Warthog escorting the flag carrier in Halo 3, scaring dates off by having huge head-on collisions with civilians that can’t learn to get out of the way of a car travelling very fast and honking its horn in Grand Theft Auto 4 (review of that to come), or racing professionally with realistic cars on mostly real tracks in Forza 2. Now I throw in the whole “glue the accelerator down and use nitrous as much as possible” style of driving. While it’s nowhere near realistic, it does tend to be fun

The obligatory new stuff to come with the latest instalment is a mixed bag. Highway Battles involve you racing another driver down one of the main highways in near rush hour traffic (thankfully in the same direction as them), with the aim of being in the lead after a set time, or being ahead by 300 metres. It’s not too bad, but the traffic can be downright rotten at times, and one major crash essentially means you’ll lose. Plus for some reason doing a flip totals your car, even though I could have landed it and continued on…

Also new is the Heroic Driving Engine thing. If you played Underground 2, you’ll remember that to replenish your nitrous, you had to perform fancy driving. Well this HDE is essentially the same, only in now fills your “In the Zone” meter, as well as earning you Wheelman points (mentioned later). Having a high Zone multiplier means your nitrous and Speedbreaker fill up quicker and last longer. But any collision with the walls knocks it down, a lot.

Outrun also makes a welcome comeback, although this is me thinking back to Underground 2 again. Instead of being a set distance ahead, you now just need to get in front and stay in front for a certain length of time. So, no matter if you’re 10 feet ahead, or 3 miles down the road, you just need to be ahead for that amount of time. It also means no more getting to 280m ahead, only for the game to suddenly massively increase the AI’s skill so you don’t end up winning. The AI doesn’t seem to adapt as much now, which is why I’ve won races by about 25 seconds or so…

So, the basic principle of Undercover is the same as most of the other NFS games – race illegally on the streets with other racers with pimped out cars that would usually stand out like a sore thumb in the real world and would have cops swarming all over them as soon as they turned on the engine. But that’s realistic, and nothing realistic ever makes it into these games – except for ProStreet, that is…

In the career, you play an undercover cop who has to try and arrest the leaders of the local street racing gangs, by pretending to be one of the gang members, advancing through their ranks until you get deep enough to be able to take out their leaders. To advance you need to win races, complete cop pursuits with set goals and drive fancily to earn Wheelman points and advance up Wheelman ranks. And “taking out” means driving behind them ramming them until you disable their car. Not quite as fun as it sounds. And that’s really all you do until you’ve taken everyone out as completed the career.

Career mode though, is insanely short. Or at least for me it was. I started playing the game at 11pm last night through to 8am this morning, went to bed, started again around half one in the afternoon and was finished the career mode just in time for The Simpsons at 7pm! So for me, it only took around 14 hours to dominate every race I came across, and complete all the cop pursuits and jobs needed to complete the career mode. Finishing it in one day is not really all that fun. Whoring 610 Gamerscore out of it in the process is, however

Speaking of achievements, there’s a good mix in Undercover. Single player gives you 825/42, while those requiring Xbox Live make up the remaining 175/8. However, of those multiplayer ones, I’m none to happy about Among the Best (Win 25 Ranked events – 25GS) or Notorious (Finish 119 events – 50GS). Need for Speed online is not the best of places, firstly with EA forcing you to tie your Gamertag to an EA account before you can play online at all, and even then the party system isn’t the best. So, when I do get to play online, they’re either going to be tough as hell to get, or if the other racers are like in ProStreet – piss easy. (I’ll go through that later)

In short, if you’ve played Most Wanted or Carbon, then essentially you’ve played this. It’s really only a rental.

Ranting Review Score

Gameplay: 6/10. A few new ways to do exactly what you’ve been doing for the past few instalments of the series (obviously excluding ProStreet), but other than that largely the same as before.
Replayability: 5/10. I’m not too sure whether it’s worth it replaying the career over and over, and EA’s usual online bullcrap means you might not want to dig it out again.
Engrossness: 7/10. The story was quite engaging and had me playing it non-stop, with the exception of sleep. But the short career knocked it out of my disc tray early…

Total: 18/30. Seriously, rent.

Yea, OK, it’s probably not what you were expecting to see

So, I fianlly got around to downloading the New Xbox Experience – you know that update for your 360 that completely changes the whole thing. Personally it makes absolutely no difference to me how it looks. All I care is that it still plays games and whores Gamerscore.

Well, there actually have been a couple of changes which I approve of. First and foremost is the rip to hard drive function. That coupled with my 120GB hard drive (which had 93 free before I started!) means I can, and did, rip my entire game collection to it and never have to deal with a noisy disc tray again! The decreased loading times is another benefit, but it’s not the main reason I did it.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, I don’t give a rat’s ass about what Bungie warned – I installed Halo 3 to my hard drive and will play it from my hard drive. If everyone else has to experience slightly longer loading times whenever they play online Halo 3 with me so that I can play in peace and actually hear the game and not the disc spinning, then tough shit. That game probably single-handedly caused my disc drive to become so noisy…

Labs

Firstly, those first year labs still are only down on the L101 timetable. Although I do know by now that they will always come in, it does means that Tuesdays and Thursdays mean no computing building. However, lots of others also hang out in the Clubs and Socs office all day, so I do tend to go there from time to time. And sometimes work gets done, rather than people playing addictive Flash games, trying to get free booze from the SU president, and other general shenanigans.

Wednesdays

Thankfully, Wednesdays are getting a lot less cluttered. For starters, Snooker/Pool meetings were moved to Thursday afternoons, freeing up a clash, as well as filling the gap in the afternoon before Lab Gaming! Also, with the Warehouse scheduled to open soon for Airsoc, that will take Wednesday trips out, leaving just a fight between Karting and Games Soc. At the moment the choice of which to go to rests on the roll of a D10, with 7 sides saying Games, and 3 saying Karting. That and money, and room on the signups.

Fright Night

This Thursday, Film Soc and Games Soc will be taking over the Mezz for the whole night, featuring a lot of gaming and a lot of spooky films. I myself will be stocking up on energy drinks (Red Bull Coke and Lucozade!) and spending the entire night (or most of it) parked in front of a 360, with my own hard drive plugged into it

Gaelcon

I could have written a lot about Gaelcon yesterday, but I didn’t feel like it. What can be said about it though is that there was a lot of money spent on Yu-Gi-Oh cards (and making some half-decent Decks that could possibly last a litle longer against STOCS’ own “big guns”); a game of RISK 2210, where taking the entire Moon on Turn 1 and holding it for the entire game almost gave me the win; Monopoly with other STOCS guys where we got well and truly owned; John Doyle selling off all his crap (including a huge box of YGO cards to me for a fiver ), and other general board gaming-based things.

The mugs Seán and I got at Gaelcon. Seán's on the left, mine on the right.

And the best bit of it all had to do with the limited edition Gaelcon mugs. On Saturday morning when Seán and myself arrived, we saw that they were selling mugs at the events desk. There were 72 in total, each having “xx of 72″ written on the bottom. But some of them were more witty than others. Essentially, if the number was something that could be related to something geeky, then the geeky thing was written in place of the number. There were dice (D6, D8, D10), some random acts of boredness (28 of, of, of… 72), and other gems – but Seán and I got, in my eyes, some really good ones.

I got mug number 3. On the bottom: “? of 72 (± 0.14)”.
OK, that question mark, is supposed to be pi ^

Seán got mug number 42. I think you can probably guess what was on the bottom

Hoodies

On a much less related note, there will be more DCU hoodies being bought soon. Before long, you should see me in an Airsoc hoodie, or a newer “zippie” Games Soc one

That’s really all I can think for now. Ridicule my lack of inspiration for stuff if you must. I am very good at ignoring comments filled with absolute shit (especially when written by people using Mac OSX, and Firefox 3 from within the DCU network!)

It’s a bit of a slow blog day today, or this week for that matter, so this is really just going to end up a compilation of several small things that have been through my head for the past few hours.
Compilations FTW.

Wireless

So, today was another day where Emily was in the house, so I was dragged out along with the rest of the family. So while in the Blanchardstown Centre (after ringing to check if Avril had gone to her Gaeltacht or not, going to 3 different ATMs for cash, and enjoying KFC for the 3rd day in a row – only this time for breakfast-lunch rather than for dinner), I stopped off in GAME to look for a new game to possibly buy.

There were a few contenders, but most got shelved for various reasons:

• Kane’s Wrath (360) – Would like to rent it first to see if the controls are worth it.
• C&C3 and Kane’s Wrath (PC) – The money is better spent on the monster computer before buying the games.
• Mario Kart Wii (Wii, duh) – Well, technically we still have it rented, so I’ll wait until I decide to ship it back.
• Rock Band (360) – It probably won’t be as fun just guitar, bass and vocals, plus €70 is still expensive.
• Battlefield: Bad Company (360) – From the sounds of things, it’s a rental. Plus still €70.

By the end, I ended up purchasing Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a Wii Classic Controller to play it with. Should be fun. Except coming back home to realise that the Wii is a bit of a bitch and doesn’t come with an Ethernet port, since they expect you to connect wirelessly.

Which really doesn’t help when our wireless network is encrypted by the “person in charge” – also the reason why I have to connect my computer with wires – and the encryption method probably won’t work with the Wii, since it doesn’t with my DS. Epic fail. So now I need to go seek out that Nintendo USB Wi-Fi thingy for both my DS and the Wii, so I can finally get them online!

Until then, I shall be honing by Pokémon Trainer and Lucario skills

Lego

Most of you probably don’t know about my Lego racing car. It’s a little model that I started to build, probably about 2 years ago at this stage, and since then I’ve been refining it and remodelling it as I see fit. It’s one of those little things that I like doing that keeps me occupied. Plus it’s an excuse to use all those Lego pieces that I have lying around after all these years. May as well make something decent with them.

The latest design, which I took pictures of, has 2 distinct model variations. I got the idea for them after realising that the IndyCars have different configurations based on the type of track they’re racing on. So, I have the “Speedway” variant, which is focused more on raw speed. The nose is long and high, the front wing more streamlined, the back wing longer and much less angled, as well as a bigger “hole” for more air. Meanwhile, the “Road Course” variant, is shorter, has a much lower front wing with more downforce, and a bulkier rear wing that it more aggresively angled to get more downforce for the twisty natures of the tracks.

Yes, I’m probably a bit anal at this stage, but what do you expect

Microwave

I was quite bored yesterday, so I started watching the entire “Is It a Good Idea to Microwave This?” series from the beginning again. It was very fun going back over all those explosions and other not-so-nice things. Enjoy Experiment #79: Two iPods. Be sure to pay attention from 2:30 onwards!

PS: In the time between taking those car pics and writing this post, I’ve modifed the core design again
Flashes of design inspiration happen so fast you really don’t have time to think about them…

PPS: See you at the Tweetup tomorrow night, if you’re going!

Right, to make this more “beefy”, a few random tidbits of information:

• On the 26th of August, my 360 will have lasted 2 years since it’s manufacturing date (provided it does last, that is)
• Pokémon Adventures volume 27 arrived a couple of days ago. Still want the rest of the volumes to be translated quicker! I want to see Ruby and Sapphire again!
• And BTW, still haven’t got any scans for that “featured post” about Ruby… I really do need to do that soon…
• Not that any of you have seen my small Lego race car, but I’ve recently come up with a variant IndyCar style look. Looks a bit more streamlined, and like the real things has a stupidly long and thin nose
• The rain has also come back to Dunboyne today. There ends a long run of decent weather
• If any of you use the Forerunner WordPress theme, and are looking for a bbPress conversion, give me a shout. I might just share the conversion of the theme that I use on the RPWS forums
• I might go for a new “official personal pic” soon. That one over there is looking a bit dated and crappy >>>
• I’m getting back into Wikipedia editing again. Although not on the scale of that vandalism patrolling fetish I went through some while back.
• My RSS news feed backlog grows daily. No matter how quickly I read them, there’s always a load of them left unread by the end of the day…

I think that’s enough for now… Although I may add more as I think of it

Needless to say, I wouldn’t be bringing it up if it hadn’t had died again! I had a little chat with Craig earlier, and he did mention that maybe they were overestimated popularity.

(23:04) .:: Craig ::.
That’s good thinking. The big problem with H3L was that Penny and them wanted to start making huge leagues and expecting 16 teams to register for each.

Even when I was running it at it’s prime, we didn’t have anywhere near 16 teams! And given all the competition there is out there for tournaments, 16 teams was stretching it a little bit…

Anyway, onto more relevant stuff. After putting Halo 3 into my 360 for the first time in a long while (Vegas 2 had me VERY occupied, but now I’ve 1k’d the game…), my liking of making really crazy custom games reminded me of the time when we used to have 16 people playing some really good utter garbage in the Rumble Pit league. It’s that which is making me want to try and rekindle some sort of Rumble Pit league. But this time, I think it’s best to not try and run it as H3L or under some other weird name. It’d simple be leagues run by me.

None of this is going to happen immediately. It’ll be a while before I even get the chance to devote time to this, and plus I have to set up a few things beforehand. But, with enough time and effort then there will be a nice little section on my site devoted to the "Rumble Pit World Series".

And just to whet your appetite (or bore you to death, depending on who you are), here are a few very rough ideas I already have for it:

• Season lasting 8 weeks, each week 3 games taking place on a particular map, map to change each week.
• Maps: Construct, Epitaph, Foundry, Guardian, Isolation, Narrows, Snowbound, The Pit
  (Blackout may be considered – but then that would restrict to Legendary-owners only)
• 3 games per week – a default Slayer game, a default Objective (Ball, KotH, Jugg.), and a custom gametype.
  Custom gametype could have any settings, any forms of scoring, any sort of randomness
• Players score points based on what they score in the game and a position bonus from 50 points for the winners to 10 for 11th-16th.
  Winner will always receive 100 points, even if they don’t score 50 points in the game.

If it seems interesting to you, stay tuned. I do plan on at the very least attempting to start one up, unlike most of my big ideas…

PS: I got an e-mail from some guy called Jhon Smith asking me about adding paid text link ads on my site. Just to let all of you know, I’m not interested in making money from this venture. I don’t need to earn money to pay for running it. Heck, I pay a pittance as it is for hosting levels that far exceed my requirements. So don’t e-mail me asking to add paid links on my site, it won’t happen.

So, it had now been a whole week since I’ve started playing Vegas 2, and it’s looking like the next game I’m going to be getting addicted to, once I get CoD4 out of my system. Right now, I’m halfway through 1st Lieutenant (towards Captain), with all ACES maxed out. Those ACES were too quick and too easy to get (although Assault was a bitch given it’s biased towards using explosives, which you either get in short supply, or have restricted in 90% of adversarial matches.), so having them in wasn’t really much of a plus. CoD4 has been slowing down, but now I’m almost at 51 in my 1st Prestige, the prospect of 2nd Prestige is luring me

This weekend sees the 8th BYOPC event held by Games Soc. I’m still debating whether to attend or not, given my current machine is no good for gaming, and that it’s impossible to find a credit card with a decent enough credit limit that I can use to order my beast from Komplett. Might attend for the simple fact that I’m generally the one with the camera taking pictures of stuff, and also there will be consoles as well to keep me occupied.
Oh, and speaking of Games Soc, the AGM was last week. I lost the Console Ents. election by I think 21-9, but I’m not too worried about it. I think I need to be more worried about whether next year I’ll be in 3rd year or repeating 2nd year. 2nd year continuous assessment FTL. * glares at almost all 2nd year lecturers *

Last Saturday was "Hair Day" – the day in which the hairdresser for all my aunts’ comes to one of their houses and everyone meets up and gets their hair done. It enabled me to come back, see everyone (not as many people as were supposedly there for the one previously ), and get the mangy mane on the top of my head slightly trimmed. So next time you see me don’t be surprised that I actually did something with it.

On a final note, the "other" news. Not that’s it’s really news:

• Tomorrow’s 2 hour break in between the morning lectures is cut to one hour due to a Linear Algebra lecture being moved for this week. Poopy.
• Second Foundation‘s "The Riot" STILL doesn’t have a new RSS feed up ever since they changed from a decent homepage to a phpBB portal. I only listened to them this week because I actually remembered to visit…
• I’ve started to use the Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta, primarily since I saw Seán aka CyRevenant using it at STOCS last Wednesday
• The DCU mailing system is very annoying. I still have 4MB out of the 20MB of space in the account, and yet I keep getting sent an e-mail every day stating that "my mail account is nearly full". FFS, 80% full does not constitute "nearly full"!

Think that’s it for now. If I can find a scanner in the labs tomorrow, expect the Ruby post to be up in a couple of days

Wow, long paragraph…

So earlier today Games Soc held their EGM to ratify the changes to the constitution which effectively implemented the STOCS merger (Officially, it was dependant on STOCS ratifying the changes as well, which they happened to do later on in the day around 7pm. Which I was in the room as the meeting took place, unknowing that the meeting was going to take place. I sat in a corner playing Hyps. and made remarks ). During console gaming, one thing was made a good  bit clearer to me that it was made at the team tournament last week: I have a lot of skill playing Halo 3 IN COMPARISON TO THE REST OF GAMES SOC. It probably also applies to the fact that it is split-screen system link and not over Live.

It appears that no matter what game type or what game settings, I always seem to win. Whether it be default vanilla FFA Slayer to 25, or a 150% speed-150% gravity-rockets only-team game to 50, or a 2v2-neutral bomb-bomb carrier 100% speed to 3, I will end up winning or being on the winning team. Maybe I should stay away from the Xbox 360 every week in future, although that might be more difficult if I run for Console Ents. for next year.

That also brings something else to light. The Games Soc AGM is in a couple of weeks and there the committee for next year will be elected. Right now a lot of people have been talking with me and suggest I run for certain positions. I actually find this quite helpful – seeing where other people see me as being good does help me to decide about what position(s) to run for. The Console Ents. position may be hotly contested, but I think it might be my best shot for a position. However, it also all depends on other positions. Webmaster may seem like a "cheap" position, but it can be quite important, as those of you reading this would know
All depends on whether anyone else more skilled is running for it. At one point, I was also suggested to go run for PRO (Public Relations Officer), however when it came up that I am a Photoshop n00b, it was suggested maybe not to run for it. I acknowledge that PRO does involve a lot of poster making, and probably isn’t something I’d be too good with. Heck, if you noticed the lame attempt at Baby Bear peeking out of the side of the home page, you’d understand how bad I am at picture editing.

To get to more "normal" discussion, I was playing CoD4 with a Kinetic and a few CS lads the other night. Alright, so it started off with me joining the party via Kinetic when a spot opened up. After a few games and the other lads had backed out, Kinetic sent an invite, and we had a good few games together. I probably didn’t play my best (although in fairness I don’t play the best anyway), but while under the influence of Gais(?) prestiging for the 5th(?) time, I decided to do prestige mode as well. There are three things I can definitely say from this:

1. The starter guns are quite under-rated. M16 can be very effective if you aim for the head easily. The big thins for me though is M40A3 + Stopping Power. 90% of the time, it’s a one-shot kill whether it be to the head or body. Although head is preferred if only for the challenge
2. Challenges take a LONG time to unlock. I never realised how long it took before the challenges started unlocking, and then again how slow it is to unlock each successive set. And obviously it’s annoying that the match before you unlock the first set, you go 23 and 5 and get the UAV, air strike and chopper – and then it takes about 15-20 games before you get your next chopper for the challenge. At least this time I managed to get Flyswatter quite quickly – took an RPD to a chopper in Hardcore TDM
3. It IS very fun going through all the challenges again. When you think back to how long it took the first time round, at least this time now you know how to do them. I was probably at Level 38 before I figured out how to get Goodbye (fall 30 feet or more to your death). This time round, as soon as I unlocked it, the first game I had on Backlot(?), I jumped off the top floor of the construction building to the basement and up popped 250 XP

I think that I need to make a little "sortie" home sometime soon. It’s come to the point where Aoife herself is ringing me asking when I’m going to be home next. Yes, I think it has been a long time. Probably too long. If my 360Voice is telling me my current streak is at 34 days, then it’s probably been too long. Apparently next week Aoife’s off, so these next couple of weekends should be good times to head back. Especially as next weekend is the Patrick’s Day weekend, so I get Monday off. And the week after, the college is closed Friday and Monday! Woo, 4-day weekend!

Soon, I also need to go sort out my finances. Not really because I’m running short, but more because I want to go buy a new computer. And it’s actually going to be a proper desktop computer built by hand from parts. Right now, I have a nice shopping list on Komplett, totaling about €1700 (not including monitor). Hopefully, I can either get a loan off the parents, or apply online at my bank and see if I can get a decent repayment rate for 24 or 36 months. Yes, it’s a long-term investment, but if I get it, it should be nicely future-proofed

If you’re interested at all, here’s my shopping list:

• Asus Striker II Formula, nForce-780i SLI ,Socket-775, DDR2, 3xPCI-Ex(2.0)16
• Crucial DDR2 PC6400 4096MB CL6, Kit w/two matched DDR2 PC6400 2GB CL6
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 8MB, BOXED w/fan
• LG DVD±RW burner, GSA-H55LRB, 20x, LightScribe, SecureDisc, Black and White
• Logitech G5 Laser Mouse 2007, USB
• Logitech Media Keyboard 600, UK-layout
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate English OEM DVD 64bit
• SteelSeries QCK heavy mouse mat, Professional gaming
• Thermaltake Armor Black, Aluminium Front , 25 cm Fan, Super tower (Without PSU)
• Thermaltake Toughpower 850W, Modular, 8xSATA, ATX/EPS, 4xPCI-E, 20/24pin
• Western Digital Caviar SE16 750GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
• XFX GeForce 8800GTX 600M 768MB XT GDDR3 ,PCI-Express,2xDVI/HDTV/HDCP,600/1900Mhz

Although it would be fun trying to complete the Challenges again, it is not worth the time and effort necessary to re-unlock all the weapons I’m already used to using and already have camouflage on. I don’t want to have to go through all that again just to get back to Lvl37 for my G36c, Lvl40 for my P90, and Lvl47 for my Barrett…

At least now it gives me the chance to go back and play OTHER games for once, something I really wasn’t able to do whilst playing this too much. C&C3 beckons again, although it will take a while to earn some decent points in that game (unless Reflex gets his butt onto Live more, then we can boost a couple of online achievements), given how they are almost all tied into the campaigns. I just wish that they would release a patch which would enable you to play the game with a USB keyboard and a USB mouse. RTS’s are meant to be played with a keyboard and mouse, not a control pad! If they were to be nice and release such a patch, then I’d have a chance at completing the "Gold Campaign" achieve’s…

Another few things I need to catch up on involve family. I haven’t been back around Blanch or Dunboyne for a good while. It’s probably been about a month or so (judging by my 360Voice, which currently notes a streak of 29 days and counting…), so I really should get back soon. I need to go give Avril a huge squeezy hug for her birthday which was about 2-3 weeks ago. I’d originally planned to go there on the day itself, but I guess I didn’t

Whilst writing this, I am currently having an IM conversation with Avy. Credit has been given as part of belated present, and will hopefully be discussing others as well.

Other than that, there has been a decent amount of stuff going on in the university recently. The Halo 3 team tournament on Wednesday was fun, and I’m not just saying that because our team went undefeated throughout the entire tournament, but we had to pull out of the finals, since our team pretty much consisted of committee members, and it would have looked bad in the eyes of the Microsoft guy who was there if we has walked away with the prizes. Still, grabbing an Overkill in one game, and going 25-4 in another was nice. If only I could do that on Live…

A question which I think is on everyone’s lips (or at least those who play the game, and those have lips) – what is the ideal equipment setup? I can’t tell for sure, but I know that each of my 5 custom classes fulfil a different purpose.

• Assault
  G36c with either Grenade Launcher or Red Dot Sight, Gold Desert Eagle, 3xFrag (when using Red Dot), Stopping Power, Last Stand
  I’m using the G36 right now to try and get skilled with a second assault rifle. I used to use the M4 all the time, but fancied a change. Grenade Launcher or Red Dot depends on my mood and whether I want to start owning people with direct grenade impacts
• Snipe
  Dragunov Barrett .50 Cal (Digital Camo), Gold Desert Eagle, Claymore, UAV Jammer, Iron Lungs
  Bolt-action snipers never worked for me, and the Dragunov works very well for me. Especially in Hardcore Team Deathmatch, when mot of the time it’s a one-hit kill.
• Demo
  M1014, USP, 3xFrag or RPG, Sonic Boom, Martyrdom
  This is my lesser used class, mainly since shotguns are rarely effective these days. But the odd time I might break it out and have a little fun
• Recon
  P90 (Digital Blue Tiger Camo) with Silencer, M9 with Silencer, Bandolier, UAV Jammer, Extreme Conditioning
  This class is really turning into my primary class, since I use it almost all the time. UAV Jammer and silencers make me undetectable. Plus given how the P90 can rip through ammo, Bandolier gives me an extra 4 magazines. And Extreme Conditioning lets me do sort of "hit-and-run" kills.
• Heavy
  M4 (Blue Tiger Camo) with ACOG, P90 with Red Dot, 3xFrag, Overkill, Deep Impact
  I haven’t yet been able to work this one to my advantage just yet. The M4 gives me the range while the P90 works well for close quarters combat. You could say it’s the "run in with all guns blazing" class

Anyway, enough about the guns and classes, I’ve got other stuff to take care of that isn’t CoD4-related. Such as watching the new Pokémon movie: The Rise of Darkrai now it’s on YouTube, and also figuring out some way of getting rid of this hacking cough. Every time, I get huge pains in my chest and it just won’t go away!