http://8tracks.com/teamteamwork/the-ocarina-of-rhyme

Epic

OF NOT LEARNING ANYTHING OR HAVING ANY FUN

ENCOURAGE YOURSELF TO NOT GO BACK TO UNI NEXT YEAR

DO IT FAGGOT

DO IT

Because everything revolves around technology nowadays!

Having trouble getting anything done right now.


Feel I should update on the game we're making... Jimp's doing a fucking fantastic job of finishing the engine, and is now doing level designs. We have under a month to go but I really think we'll be well ahead of schedule. Becci's also doing some level designs (after we brainstormed them and threw them all together) and Jason/Matt are working on the site. With the plot finalized and everything pretty much sorted, I have a great feeling about the game. Should start looking at writing the product analysis soon really, we've got plenty of stuff to relate back to. One important thing I need to remember is to use a LOT of evidence, probably in an apendix.


In other news, Skate 2 DLC today, and I signed up to Lovefilm. Two disks at any one time, unlimited choices per month for £15? Hell yes I'm in. Besides, the 14 day free trial coupled with multiple free trials they send you, I'm pretty stoked on saving some money on buying here.

Well I've had it up to (eye height) with uni and it's perfect timing that I got this call this morning.

I've been looking into getting some experience of Wedding/Events photography with Lyndsey Butler (self employed). Anyway today it seems that, more than just some experience, she's looking towards me coming on board and doing events through her company, with her taking a cut for actually getting the work, through her (fairly pretty) site. I'll be honest, this is pretty exciting as it could be the foothole to get the fuck out of Bournemouth, or at least somewhere to go afterwards. This, coupled with Picture This (which is doing pretty well but I haven't been much a part of) means I'm half sorted.

Sweet.

the weakness of my blogs is not helped by not having anything to talk about in them!
There is no theme, no reason for it, except for me personally to look back in a year or two and see how I've changed.
It's that that makes them unpleasurable to read for me. If I was to make a legitimate blog I'd start it off with something in mind, OR keep it in mind whilst doing day-to-day activities. That way instead of making a blog and struggling to find something to occupy it, I would create a blog around something I enjoyed.

Ah, sigh.

Oh well.

In today's entry I've forced myself to write....


*Struggle*





Well, I'll have a glance at www.trueachievements.com and see what my gaming goals are.
I'd like to get my overall completion ratio up to 70% (would be nice at least) in the next year. This may mean playing through some shoddy games I'm not too much a fan of.

- G.R.A.W - Not a shoddy game, but a game I'm not too enthralled to play most of the time. The robotic play style just doesn't do it for me I'm afraid, but with only 267/1000 I think it's worth picking up for a couple chieves. (Got it for a tenner I do believe)

- Gears of War - A shoddy game. I'm not sure there's even that many achievements I'll be able to force myself to get, but it's possible, and if I can find it for a fiver, it should be done.

- Saints Row - The poor man's GTA, that I played for a mere half hour before taking it back. 50/1000 is a massive downer on my card.

- Burnout Paradise - has a very low completion percentage, despite having played it for two days pretty solid. I'm not sure if there's that many achievements I can get there save for some online ones, but it is a great game so it might be worth a buy sometime in the coming months that are set to be very empty gaming-wise

- Rock Band 2 - Force yourself to play this game Alex. It's not all that bad.

- The Orange Box - An absolutely fantastic game, I'm appalled that I took this back without even playing through half of it! Stands at 333/1000

- Oblivion (The Elder Scrolls) - Ok so I didn't get into this at all. I found it bland and boring, and rushed through the story for the easy big pointers. But completely missed most of the guild quests! This is a game I could do with picking up again, and actually starting from scratch so that I understand it. Currently stands at 560/1250, and picking up the GOTY edition I think is mandatory.

- Call of Duty 2 - Come on, the game wasn't that hard. I bought this for multiplayer with the muppets and really didn't spend enough time on the single player campaign, save for rushing it on normal. A great game that sometime I'd like to play through again. 380/1000

- Viking - At 467/1000, it's not that awful.... But it could certainly do with some work. The game was actually a lot of fun, very inventive despite getting slightly repetitive. And the achievements were so easy - I only wish Jonny didn't ask for it back so soon after I stole it!


After that, there's not too much. There's Phantasy Star Universe's DLC which is bringing me down a lot, but that requires buying the disk and the DLC. Around that point, everything is 60% and upwards, so they're the main games I need to work on.


And games coming out soon that may be worth looking at? None really. Skate 2 was the big release of the year for me, and then Modern Warfare 2 (Which, at time of writing has been announced, albeit with no details).
I do believe there's going to be an influx of work at university soon however which is good, so that coupled with bumping completion rate should keep me busy until summer at the very least!





Sigh. Note to self - create a separate blog full of interesting things

are worth a watch.
I feel that posting them here would be more beneficial, but if I'm ever after a video I'll just visit there.


http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=TGIoutline&view=favorites

Pretty link right thur ^


This video particular blew my mind. I'm guessing he's a Death skater which makes the video even more awesome.




Skateboard skateboard.

Sentimental like.



Anyways.


This is a room.







I WANT IT.



In my own, personal opinion...
I want a house to arrange to be comfortable. Even if it's a work area, my awfully ugly, tiny room is doing my head in. I can't buy furniture for it because it won't fit! And my room at my parent's house is just dead, a guest room for show.
I want that room up there, or a bigass desk, or SOMETHING personal.

Definitely a change would be great.

Past two years have been an absolute waste of my life. This fucking degree better be worth it in the working world. Yeah, read back on this blog post when you're re-capping on your university experience. Fuck.

Definitely used to be more active, more creative, more exciting. Spending two years cooped up in a tiny bedroom surrounded by tools and sluts has done no good whatsoever except for driving me inwards and causing me to smoke ten a day.


Spent a while reminiscing about the skateboarding days - after school (or skip class), go to Grove skatepark



So much more interesting living a life there. And although I didn't go into it enough, I explored my media talents a lot more back then. Now the only 'creativity' I see is learning codes a million geeky fucks have already written and mastered. There's nothing in letters and numbers as beautiful as having one of your best friends finally land a trick and full-handing it knowing the filming was absolutely spot-on precise. Absolutely nothing I've done at university has matched that overwhelming accomplishment.

Alongside that I also miss three bus journeys just to get home, and falling asleep because you're actually tired - instead of being up at 2am q.qing at your blog about how shitty your life is and your eyes being bleary from working with LCD/Plasma screens all day.

Also, skate perception.
Holy shit.


I could easily type for hours reminiscing and moaning, but I'll probably just leave that for Nex, watch some shitty tv and fall asleep instead.




Also kinda related, I miss proper buddies. People I've met at university... As nice as they are, are so fake, and I still haven't clicked with anyone whatsoever. Lone wolf till this is over I guess. Can always drive back and have a smoke with Graham. WITH that, I fucking want to live with some buddies and have a proper house, jesus! A proper, shared living room with a real sofa and a big tv, a bong on the coffee table and spare chairs for having people over. Just little bits like that, I feel I'm missing out on completely - I'm twenty in four months, and solitude isn't a great way to mature. Grow up, sure, but not mature. I still feel sixteen.

I'm awfully afraid of reviewing this game, because, after the 6 days straight I've spent playing it, I can think of little other than phrases singing it's praise. But I'll try not to be biased.


Skate 2's starts with you, previous SOTY, being released from prison. What you did is unclear, although there joking speculation that you beat someone at a football match with Haggis (I wonder where that Scottish joke came from?). As you would expect from there on, you spend your time remembering to skateboard, and climbing your way back up the ladder, gathering sponsorships and contacts. In my opinion, the storyline is a lot better than it even needs be; I'd be happy with a map and a skateboard.

The first instance of interaction with the game comes with creating your character - a feature that was fantastic in the original skate. There is very little difference in the sequel - create a face, adjust your weight, choose hair color, then move on hastily to skateboard. Although the create-a-character feature still isn't fantastic and your skater can tend to look a bit... otherworldly, it's there. It's good (or should I say, adequate), and quick. The next step is choosing your clothes and gear, of which there is a lot of choice. There's obviously a lot of brand influence here, but all legitimate skateboarding brands and neither company is favored - the choice is completely yours (although I have to say, the game really wants you to wear a 59/50... very few other styles of hats even exist in the store).

I've said before, I would have been perfectly happy paying £40 for a whole new San Vanelona, a new map to play around on. And with the few changes EA have made to the gameplay, that's almost exactly what skate 2 is. So after saying that and receiving it, am I happy? Absolutely. The story dictates that San Van fell victim to major land-changes while you were tucked away in jail, so there are still a fair few spots recognizable, but the city has been re-laid and it really does just feel so much better. You can still cruise through Old Town, warp to the DC Mega ramp or bomb the hills of the Rez, but the entire place is remodeled and really works nicely.

The overall feel of the game is still fantastic, flickit feels beautiful and there are a few new tricks such as no-complies and hippie jumps that have been incorporated quite nicely. Obviously a huge feature implemented is being able to get off your board - this, I'm afraid, is not the game's strongest point. By pressing Y you jump off your board, giving you the ability to run up stairs, move objects to skate and so on. But this feels awfully clunky, requiring both sticks to move around properly, being very sluggish to turn, and you're even unable to walk backwards in the slightest. Although I can appreciate walking up stairs, I feel the game could completely do without this feature. Objects you move are likely to be pushed around by pedestrians/security guards, and it forces you all too often to use your feet instead of your wheels. A severe disappointment in an otherwise brilliant game.

Achievements... Well, those of you that played the first skate will know that a full thousand in the game took less than a week's play and was never especially tasking. In this game they've stepped it up slightly, but not to a point where you're unable to achieve 100%, not by any means. You're looking at about 900/1000 by simply playing through, no especially hard achievements, and then the last 100 is just slightly time-consuming, with online freeskate activities and Legend rank being the hardest. Absolutely a game to 100%, just perhaps with a little longer than the first.


Overall, skate 2 is an improvement on it's predecessor, with a fantastic map, a few new tricks and some really great challenges. The graphics aren't quite as enhanced as I was expecting, and getting off your board is a severe pain - though it doesn't hinder gameplay if you avoid it, leading me to give this game a solid 5 stars.

what the fuck did they do to the Skate engine?
Skate 2 is set to be bollocks which is annoying as it was my most anticipated game of 09

I'd buy it just to use it as a remote control for iTunes.

Fuck this is awesome.

Laying in bed and don't want to listen to Top Gun anymore?
No problem!

Stoked on the Regulation and Censorship unit, it really seems so interesting and Shaun's an amazing lecturer; starting at 9am and being able to keep my attention is impressive.

Not AS stoked on Idenity, but Shaun (Other shaun) did a neat little presentation on self plurality, how our identity changes in different situations. Especially interesting was how people make aliases for themselves online, and live different lives; a case study that I'd quite like writing about is the dude that met his wife on Second Life, then had an affair at their home.
On Second Life.
Could be a good topic for the final essay, going to have to see what essay questions are set.


To add to my current setup, I now want another mini-tv to the side of my pc screen hooked up to camera to see what's being recorded (Viewfinder is crappy and sometimes it isn't cropped right). Although I think I just want to do that because it's cool.


Put my headphones on for this world I ignore
trek down the street towards the record store

WINTER
SNOWBOARD
LIVE CHRISTMAS

Holy.

Well snowboarding was fun. I taught Nat to ride some more and I learned bs 180s on kickers. Also learned bs 360's on flat but smacked my wrist on those so I'm keeping them stum until I can actually pull them off. Depressing to look at how quickly it was over and now I have to wait another year to go.


Recently I've indulged in internet memes; not becoming a /b/ retard but watching how photoshoppers swarm over these things. Case in point, /b/oxxy. Haw haw I will look back at this and laugh some day.


Christmas was fun, Rowan and Karl surprised me in France by driving over to drink with me and Nat on new year's eve. Free food, a gay bar, an irish bar, Le Pub and Captain Pub or something like that. Yeah, good, I'd be up for more tequila paffs anytime soon.



Moved back into 23a to change my room around once again;








Fucking swag now, including a PC screen hooked up to the xbox, quality is beautiful. Needed a F-F VGA connector and I'm waiting for an audio splitter, but it's beautiful.




So, for university references... Hmmm.
Starting up projects again I guess. Had a long time not thinking about UNITY or Flash, and now it looks like we're not using UNITY at all which leads me to breathe easily again. It looks interesting, but we set ourselves up with a lot of work.
Also, the two units at once that are all theory and shit. Looks fun I guess, after doing fuck all for a long time I actually want some work to focus on.



Picture This was set up, and this may be a good reference point for the business; our first day we had people walking in before we'd even opened and set up. Got a lot of business, I learned to make frames and backing boards and all kinds of shit. Excited to be finished with uni and run that by myself (I'm advised to NOT drop out of uni for it). And besides, Graham may be moving to Bournemouth which would leave me with very little reason to move back there, ever. Joey moves to Gibraltar in April I believe which will be weird indeed.



Plan for this year; work on video shit more. Not necessarily just editing and all that, but also how to hook things up, screens, cameras, all that jazz. And quit photography, FUCK.

Awe yeeeeah.

Admin on the TrueAchievements clan, but I really don't think I can be arsed with it.


And the heart of this post, having Snoop on Martha Stewart's show, and the slight racism surrounding pepper.
Basically just hilarious to watch her struggle with him.

Gosh, I wish more films like Leon were made.





Quite literally one of the most beautiful films I've ever watched. Questionable, but beautiful. Woke up on sunday at Dave's house surrounded by 6 cans of Appletizer (The 7 mile walk to get these was worth it as we were horribly drunk and had a fresh pack of cigarettes to share). Anyway, as Dave and Rowan enjoy their sleeps, I watched Leon three times and truly enjoyed it each time. There's one to pop onto the "to buy" list.



Christmas so soon and with that will be our trip to France. Gee/Eric/Rowan/Karl have all been saying we should all meet up whilst we're there over christmas, but I doubt it'll happen. But hell, so excited to get back on the powder.