Wow:Theres some special about it, Paladin Epic-ness

When i came back to Wow about a week and half ago for the new big pre-WOTLK patch i was disapointed in the little content there was. Sure a few Hair-cuts and the new talents and of course the achievements make things interesting while the vast majority of Azeroth is bored stupid.

Anyway i had my level 34 Female Dwarf Paladin who i gave up on ever leveling after level 34 due to how bloody slow it was to kill anything after the patch this all changed it was super fast and easy to level and i started to level due to the fact that there was nothing else to do in Wow and ive almost given up on Warhammer Online.

So yesterday i got to level 60 which i never intended or thought i would get to so i set myself the task of getting the Paladin Epic mount which has to be one of the coolest looking mounts in WoW. This of course meant a long quest to do and some gold and luckily i had the gold and eventually got to the last part in the quest where you need to go to Scholomance. I was luckily able to get some kind guildies to help with the Dire Maul and Stratholme parts (Boya,Pikel,Kristina and kayza).

It was difficult to get any help for the Scholomance part which to be honest is a horrable place anyway. So after a few shouts in the guild chat i gave up and relogged with another toon for a while. Then this is where Wow really shines, i flew to the Western Plaguelands to be near Scholomance and i relogged back in. I noticed a level 60 Paladin near by looking bored and i asked just on the off-chance that they were having the same problem getting the last part done as me, if they were doing the Paladin Mount Quest and would you know it by complete luck or faith they were! I was amazed so we teamed up and this player had a few people in the group already so we were all set to go.

Of course luck wasnt too kind and our Druid healer had some Diconnection problems. Anyway we had another problem as we all got outside Scholo, we had no key! So luckily my old reliable Gnome Warlock ‘Chuckie’ was there to save the day, so i relogged with my warlock and rejoined my Guild and we all entered Scholo and started to clear the way to cellar. It was a bit chaotic as id never even re-specced my warlock after the patch and hadnt a clue what spec to pick. Anyway we cleared to the room with all the whelps and we wiped. Two people left the group and we got a level 70 paladin to help who seemed to not know where Scholo was or what the Paladin mount quest consisted off. Anyway we managed to summon the boss you need to kill for the mount and we killed it.

The funny thing is that the other Paladin in the group looted the item you needed and left. My heart sank and thought for a few seconds that the item you loot was only for one paladin and not two. Then i realised that i needed to use the item i looted on the dead horse and hey presto there was my Achievement and my Epic Paladin mount.

I cant name any other game that has that kind of amazing events and people who come to help you like that. Wow really is an amazing game.

Are Americans Stupid or Just Ignorant?

The pile of UK TV shows getting “Translated” to “US” is growing faster than ever it seems.  Currently “Little Britain” is running in its “US” version which i can understand as the original is very “British” which of course is the point of the show. Ive seen a few episodes of the “US” version and its still got the same shocking disturbing comedy to it. Some of the characters are quite poor and not funny really the “Lady with the Dog” for one.

The “US” version of “The Office” is very good it keeps the idea of the original and adds some great ideas and characters to it and it works. Another show ive seen thats made the transition is a show called “Life on Mars”. Ive never watched it and know nothing about it but it another example of how americans need things dumbed-down or translated for them. I cant quite understand why the americans need there own special versions of these TV shows? There are a number of reasons which i can guess at;

  • Accents and “British/European Sence of Humour”
  • Regional problems like city names etc
  • or the plain old stupid fact that americans wouldnt understand it

Stalker:Shadow of Chernobyl – A Game with more atmosphere than most…


This game i got when it came out over a year a go i think it was April 2007 and i never got into it.  Ive been meaning to play it for a long time but because of certain other MMO game i never did. The progress i made in the game was lost each due to the game sving
its “Saved Games” in the windows drive instead of “My Documents”
Folder. From the few levels i did play i knew this was a good game
maybe up the standards of “Half-Life 2” in terms of atmosphere at least.

STALKER the movie and short story:
The game is based on a Russian Short story called “Roadside Picnic” which was made into a movie called “STALKER” back in 1977. The Movie which the game is based on has 3 people going into the “Zone” anymore would be spoiling it. The making of the movie is very interesting as it basically resulted in the deaths of the actors and director due to the places they had to visit while filming it.

From Wikipedia;

In an interview on the MK2
DVD, the production designer, Rashit Safiullin, recalls that Tarkovsky
spent a year shooting a version of the outdoor scenes of
Stalker. However, when the crew got back to Moscow,
they found that all of the film had been improperly developed and their
footage was unusable. The film had been shot on experimental Kodak stock with which Soviet laboratories were unfamiliar.

Even before the film stock problem was discovered, relations between Tarkovsky and the first cinematographer, Georgy Rerberg,
had been in serious deterioration. After seeing the poorly-developed
material, Rerberg left the first screening session and never came back.
By the time the film stock defect was found out, Tarkovsky had shot all
the outdoor scenes, and had to burn them. Safiullin contends that
Tarkovsky was so despondent that he wanted to abandon further
production of the film.

After the loss of the film stock, the Soviet film boards wanted to
shut the film down, officially writing it off. But Tarkovsky came up
with a solution: he asked to make a two-part film, which meant
additional deadlines and more funds. Tarkovsky ended up re-shooting
almost all of the film with a new cinematographer, Aleksandr Knyazhinsky. According to Safiullin, the finished version of
Stalker is completely different to the one Tarkovsky originally shot.

The central part of the film, in which the characters move around the Zone, was shot in a few days at a deserted hydro power plant on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia. The shot before they enter the Zone is an old Flora chemical factory in the center of Tallinn,
next to the old Rotermann salt store and the electric plant—now a
culture factory where a memorial plate of the film has been set up in
2008. Some shots from the Zone were filmed in Maardu, next to the Iru powerplant and the shot with the gates to the Zone was filmed in Lasnamäe, next to Punane Street behind the Idakeskus.

Many people involved in the film production had untimely deaths.
Many attribute this to the long and arduous shooting schedule of the
film as well as toxins present at the shooting locations.

A Flawed Master-piece:
However it must rank as one of the hardest games ive played.  You can die so easily that you must basically Run->quicksave->shot->Quickload (if you die). Not to mention the fact that the NPC enemies can kill you so easily they seem to have incredible aim and accuracy something that makes you wonder what the hell kind of guns your character has, as it takes a lot og shooting to kill most of the enemies in the game. It feels at time

However the game is great i still connsider it an “Almost “perfect” game but it sure has its flaws.  Its way too hard.  I can quite figure out if its because ive never played the game properly , the R.P.G gameplay part to it kinda frustrates me.

Heres a video of the game that i made just to showcase the “Atmosphere” in the game. Note the sounds are very eerie and atmospheric.

STALKER:S.O.C – Atmosphere 1 (HQ Video and Audio)

PSP Hacks and PSP new Firmware 5.0

Yesterday sony released a new PSP Firmware for the PSP just as i had dusted off my “Fat PSP” and updated the firmware to version 4 from 3.52. There are some really great features on the PSP at the moment with the “official firmware”.

However as usual the “custom firmware” by the PSP “Homebrew Scene” allows much more features in fact sony seem to be adding features to the PSP that the “Scene” had working as “Homebrew” programs months ago. The “internet radio” feature for example is one.

It seems theres no-limits to the tricks you can do with a PSP and some of the “Homebrew” applications available. If you have a PSP and have no idea what im talking about be sure to visit the usual PSP sites for info.

Way back in 2005 when i got my PSP after seeing the amazing things that you could do with the 1.50 firmware. Its a fantastic piece of kit really.

PSP homebrew links;

http://www.psp-hacks.com

http://psp.qj.net

Upgrade Your PSP From OE firmware to 3.52 M33

World of Warcrack: Coming Back

There are some amazing games coming out between now and x-mas thats its impossable to choose what ones to buy. Probably the most exciting is the World of Warcrack Expansion pack Wrath of Litch Pin and yes they are delibate mistakes in the aid of being funny.

Anyway the big 3.0.2 patch is out for WoW at the moment which is the one before WOTLK hits so id thought id come back to WoW for a bit. I got an urge to try level my level 34 Dwarf paladin of all things. I cant explain it, one minute i was playing Warhammer Online with my Dwarf Rune Priest and 30 min later i was back in Wow after two months.

I always told myself that i wouldnt come back till there was new content while i cant see much in the patch notes except a “wall of text” abour boring class changes all i see is the “hair-cut” feature something that will keep the boredom away till WOTLK no doubt:p

The big 3.0 patch was something worth investigating at least for the moment. I kinda feel embarrassed returning to WoW like a long lost relative who ran out on his family i return with cap in hand so to speak. Theres still feck all to play for till the 14th of November and “Wrath of the litch king” but ill have a “poke” around i guess.

PVP is still the only thing i can be bothered with and out of my 7 alts ive yet to decide what one will be my “new main”. Its got to be the Priest or Rogue really also i like my Dwaft Huntard but theres piles of hunters around.

The other problem is wheter or not id like to raid ever again and the odds of that in the guild im in isnt very good. Odds are ill leave and join a small friendly guild with some people i know maybe or quit Wow again for good this time never to return.

Ive no idea if i want to raid ever again but thats a long way off and if WOTLK doest have something more than TBC all over again im off. If i get addicted again im screwed unlikely i see what Wow is now and how utterly boring it can be. Time will tell as they say.

Possably the worst irish joke ever?

An Irish bloke goes to the doctor, “Dactor, it’s me rear end. I’d loik ya ta teyhk a look, if ya woot”.

So the doctor gets him to drop his pants and takes a look. “Incredible” he says, “there is a $20 note lodged up here”

Tentatively he eases the twenty out of the man’s bottom, and then a $10 note appears. “This is amazing” exclaims the Doctor. “What do you want me to do?.”

“Well fur gadness sake teyhk it out man,” shrieks the patient.

The doctor pulls out the tenner and another twenty appears, and another and another etc…

Finally the last note comes out and no more appear.

“Ah Dactor, tank ya koindly, dat’s moch batter, how moch is dare den?”

The Doctor counts the pile of cash. “$1990 exactly.”

“Ah, dat’d be roit amount. I knew I wasn’t feeling two grand.”

I Need to Fly Somewhere…

I dont know whats wrong with me but i would love to fly away somewhere for a few days. Even though i hardly can afford too id love to simply just “get away” for a few days. I love flying really and have done ever since my first flight 2 years to spain.

I dont think it even matters where id simply love to get on a plane and have a few days break. I love the whole “excitement” of getting on a plane im like a big kid that way. Aer Lingus are so great to fly on if you get the right price of course.

The excitement of siting in the departing area as you wait for the gates to open is just incredable. Aer Lingus staff as so friendly too my experience with Ryanair a year ago wasnt a good really.

Running for your seat on a plane like a heard of animals isnt my idea of fun. Comparing that with the ease of booking your seat online with Aer Lingus. another thing about Ryanair is the plane landings seem to be very “rough”. Now this could be a Pilot thing (i sure hope not) or a plane thing as Ryanair use Boeing 737’s and Aer Lingus use Airbus A320’s i think thats right.

Breathe New Life into Your Aging i-Pod or MP3 Player with Rockbox

I found this site the other week and i found this superb program that replaces the “i-Pod” software with a program called “RockBox” which enables so many cool features thats its a must have.

Ive never really liked my I-Pod and its restrictive file system and of course I-Tunes but ive stuck with it since i got my I-Pod over 3 years ago.

At the moment im using rockbox as it means i can say goodbye to Itunes and manage the songs on my I-Pod myself via a simple copying task like in windows.
RockBox rocks

What is Rockbox? Why should I use it?

Rockbox is an open source firmware replacement for a growing number of digital audio players. It has been in development since 2001 and receives new features, tweaks and fixes every day to provide you with the best possible music listening experience. Rockbox aims to be considerably more functional and efficient than your device’s stock firmware while remaining easy to use and customizable. We believe that you should never need to go through a series of menus for an action you perform frequently. We also believe that you should be able to configure almost anything about Rockbox you could want, pertaining to functionality. It is written by users, for users.

Another top priority of Rockbox is audio playback quality. Rockbox, for most models, includes a wider range of sound settings than that device’s original firmware. A lot of work has been put into making Rockbox sound the best it can, and improvements are constantly being made. All models have access to a large number of plugins, including many games, applications, and graphical demos.

You can load different configurations quickly for different purposes (e.g. a large font for in your car, different sound settings for at home). You can even customize your While Playing Screen to display only and exactly what you want to see when your music is playing. In addition, Rockbox features a wide range of languages, and all supported models also have the ability to talk to you – menus can be voiced and filenames spelled out or spoken.



Key Features of Rockbox

Feature Archos models iriver models iPod models iAudio models Gigabeat models Sansa models
Support for over 15 Sound Codecs, including OGG and FLAC MP3 and WAV only DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Gapless playback DONE (with lame -nogap) DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
5-band fully-parametric equalizer, and crossfeed Not possible DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
High-resolution volume control, 64-100 levels (model-dependent) DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Abilty to create your own themes or use user-uploaded ones DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Advanced crossfading Not possible DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
ReplayGain support (volume normalization) Not yet implemented DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Cuesheet support DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Album Art Support Not possible DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
JPEG image and text-file viewing DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Doom! Not possible DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
MPEG video support Not possible, but
custom video playback
DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Real Time Clock (RTC) DONE (Recorders) DONE (H3x0, modded H1x0) DONE DONE (X5(L), M5(L)) DONE DONE
Customizable Tag Database DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Unicode support DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Advanced On-The-Go playlist creation DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Multilingual Interface – 30 supported languages and counting DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Optional spoken interface DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Many plugins – games, apps, and demos DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE
Open Source, so Rockbox is constantly improved DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE

A full feature comparison can be found here.



Model-Specific Features


Archos Studio or Player

Rockbox for the Archos Studio and Player models features MP3 playback that, to many users, sounds considerably better than the standard Archos firmware. In addition, there are a number of “plugins” (games, graphics demos and useful apps, such as a stopwatch and a text viewer), the menus are laid out in a more logical way, and you have access to a lot more information and configuration options than you ever had in the Archos firmware. You can even flash Rockbox to your player if you like it, which drastically reduces the boot time (Rockbox boots within a few seconds this way, versus around 10 seconds for the Archos firmware, before flashing).


Archos Recorder, FM Recorder or Ondio

Rockbox for the Archos Recorder, FM Recorder, and Ondio models features very high-quality, fine-tuned MP3 playback – along with many extra adjustments the Archos firmware doesn’t allow, including an automatic volume adjustment for files with uneven output levels, Micronas Dynamic Bass (MDB), a very configurable “bass boost on steroids”, and more! A very intuitive and organized menu system gets you where you want to be quickly, and quick access to common features is at your fingertips with the screen-specific context menus. Over fifty plugins (including games and apps) provide you with many useful tools and hours of entertainment – including a video playback plugin, with sound, and a JPEG viewer! You can even flash Rockbox to your player if you like it, which drastically reduces the boot time (Rockbox boots within a few seconds this way, versus around 10 seconds for the Archos firmware, before flashing). On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support, and recording with time-splitting and automatic triggering are just a few of many more features that Rockbox for Archos Recorder, FM Recorder, and Ondio provides.


iriver iHP1x0, H1x0, H3x0 or H10

Rockbox for the iriver iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series, and H10 series features a large amount of plugins (games – many in full color on the H300 series – applications, and “demos”), which allow you to have some fun when you’re bored, or put one of our multiple applications to use: open files with the text viewer, time yourself with the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, perhaps watch a video or two, or turn your iriver H300 or H10 into a desktop clock with the clock plugin. On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support, Recording and FM Recording with a variety of settings and features are more key points of Rockbox for the iriver iHP-1×0, H1x0 , H10, and H3x0 series.


iAudio X5, X5L, X5V, M5, M5L, M3

Rockbox for the iAudio X5 series features a large amount of plugins (games, applications and “demos”), which allow you to have some fun when you’re bored, or put one of our multiple applications to use: open files with the text viewer, time yourself with the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, perhaps watch a video or two, or turn your X5 into a desktop clock with the clock plugin. On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support, Recording and FM Recording (X5/X5L/M3/M3L) with a variety of settings and features are more key points of Rockbox for the iAudio series.


iPod 1st through 5.5th Generation, Color/Photo, Mini, Nano or Video

Rockbox for the iPod models supports a large number of plugins, including games, applications, and “demos” – have some fun when you’ve got some free time to kill, open files with the text viewer, make use of the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, perhaps watch a video or two, or turn your iPod into a desktop clock. Also enjoy On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support and much more.


Toshiba Gigabeat F & X series

Rockbox for the Toshiba Gigabeat F & X models supports a large number of plugins, including games, applications, and “demos” – have some fun when you’ve got some free time to kill, open files with the text viewer, make use of the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, perhaps watch a video or two, or turn your Gigabeat into a desktop clock. Also enjoy On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support and much more.


SanDisk Sansa c200, e200 and e200R series

Rockbox for the SanDisk Sansa c200, e200, and e200R series features a large amount of plugins (games, applications and “demos”), which allow you to have some fun when you’re bored, or put one of our multiple applications to use: open files with the text viewer, time yourself with the stopwatch, view some JPEG photos, perhaps watch a video or two, or turn your Sansa into a desktop clock with the clock plugin. Support for microSDHC cards, On-The-Go playlist creation and adjustment, full file bookmarking support, and Recording with a variety of settings and features are more key points of Rockbox for the Sansa c200, e200, and e200R series.

Valves Steam Game Prices – A Rip off or Buyer Beware?

My Previous post singing the praises of steam may have been a little early. I was looking around the play.com website at game prices and my jaw dropped on the huge price difference between buying the game via play.com and getting a physical copy of the game in your hand and buying it via steam and getting a download version.

As i write this post im kinda discusted at the pricing on Steam it seems greed has taken hold over Games Publishers. Two examples of this price difference are the games;

Age of Conan:

Stalker – Clear Sky:

Thats quite a difference really on average its €12 more expensive on steam. Of course this not be Valves doing, Valve has to make a profit too so who knows the overhead of selling games via Steam. I cant quite understand this, Digital Downloads are suppose to at least be in line with the retail price and certainly not mroe expensive due to the fact that you dont get a Physical copy of the game

(Prices Correct as of 6-oct-2008)

Valves Steam is the future of “Digital Distrubtion”

When Half-Life 2 came out back in 2005 i think, i couldnt wait to play it and the game at the time was being “Pre-Loaded” via Valves superb Steam service. It was the first game that i bought online as a “Digital Download” and it sure wasnt the last. Valves Steam is just such a great example of how to make games available to the customer.

Its just the fact that Steam allows you download the games you want when you want them but it allows you once central location to get a huge selection of games. More and more games companies are signing up to steam.  The recent addition of Cryteks “Crysis” game made me cancel my “EA Downloader” order and any idea i had of buying the game on Disc and get it via steam. Now thats a huge endorsement of Steam, id rather have the game on Steam than;

1) Purchase the game in a shop and install it.
2) Use the “EA Downloader” service which in my experience is complete crap.

The reasons are that you dont need to install the game if you get the game via Steam. Having both Vista 32 and Vista 64 and messing around with the two things can get very messy when it comes to installing games but with steam its no problem.  In contrast to this “EA’s Downloader” service is the complete opposite of this in the fact that you will need to reinstall the game.

This makes Valves Steam the number one choice without any doubt when it comes to buying new games for me.  In fact it makes “Pirating Games” via the usual websites a real “No, No” as why end up installing games all over the place when you can just let Steam download the games you want and they “Just work” no messing around with installation progams and folders, its a one click process and its simple. Ive purchases a few games on Steam such as Bioshock,Grid,Crysis Warhead,Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and of course the Half-Life 2 game and Episodes 1 and 2. They always work auto-update and theres not much else any gamer wants. Long Live steam.