gospvg

New Game - Halo CE Anniversary

2012-02-09T07:04:00.000Z

Anniversary? Where's the party? I was not invited !! Oh! you have given me the re-release of the first game with a lick of paint? Is that it?

Um yep basically that is it, Abbas wanted to play the game again because it has co-op this time around. This will now be my third time playing this game ZZZZZzzzzzz. Oh!! sorry I drifted off... like I was saying this will be my third time playing this game. I first completed it on the PC & then again a few years later on the xbox.

Third time lucky I guess, it has local co-op & playing on legendary difficulty provides a difficulty spike. The lick of paint makes the environment look nice & you can go back to the old school graphics by pressing the back button if you want but I'm a graphics whore so will stick with the new look.

We completed The Pillar of Autumn & are part way through the Halo level before life intervened to force us to switch the game off. It's been a while since I have played a local co-op game with Abbas (Splinter Cell Conviction) & his game style has not changed, charging off into the distance whilst I take my time to look at the surroundings & take out enemies with my sniper rifle.

Next week is half-term & I have a few days off, I think in the next 10 days we can finish off the remaining 8.5 levels of the game? Now that's a challenge !!

UGVM Disc Drivin - Season 2 - Finished

2012-02-08T08:00:00.002Z

UGVM Disc Drivin - Season 2

There are 4 leagues (Platinum, Gold, Silver & Bronze) of 4 players each with the winning player getting promoted & the worst getting demoted to a lower league.

Points are awarded 4 for 1st down to 1 point for last.

The 4 chosen tracks are Jump Start, Sprint, RC Raceway & Under a Big W

The first player in the league will start the first track Jump Start & invite player 2, 3 & 4 in order.

Then Player 2 will start the next race on Sprint & invite player 3, 4 & then 1.

Player 3 will start RC Raceway & invite Player 4, 1 & 2 in that order.

Lastly Player 4 will start Under a Big W & invite in order Player 1, 2 & 3.

Player 1 will wait to play his turn until all 4 races have started & are awaiting his/her turn to play. This will ensure when you come to play your turn you will have all 4 races waiting for you to play.

Any questions please ask me before starting your race.

Platinum League
Lufferov (Promoted from Gold) (13 Points)
HaggisHunter (7 Points)
Hakk (8 Points)
Jochta (Promoted from Gold) (12 Points)

Results
Sprint - Luffers, Hakk, Jochta & Haggis
RC Raceway - Luffers, Jochta, Haggis & Hakk
Under a Big W - Luffers, Jochta, Haggis & Hakk
Jump Start - Jochta, Hakk, Haggis & Luffers

Lufferov wins the group by a single point & HaggisHunter gets relegated

Gold League
gospvg (Promoted from Silver) (12 Points)
Xexyzx (10 Points)
carldjcross (Relegated from Platinum) (8 Points)
becs (Promoted from Silver) (9 Points)

Results
Sprint - Carl, Xexyzx, gospvg & becs
RC Raceway - becs, xexyzx, gospvg & Carl
Jump Start - gospvg, xexyzx, carl & becs
Under a Big W - gospvg, becs, xexyzx & Carl

I get promoted & Carl drops down a league

Silver League
thermalsatsuma (Promoted from Bronze) (12 Points)
HarpingOn (Relegated from Gold) (11 Points)
Sessile (4 Points)
fluffmyster (Promoted from Bronze) (13 Points)

Results
Sprint - Fluffmyster, Gazza, Satsuma & Sessile
Big W - Fluffmyster, Satsuma, Gazza & Sessile
Jump Start - Satsuma, Fluffmyster, Gazza & Sessile
RC Raceway - Gazza, Satsuma, Fluffmyster & Sessile

Fluffmyster gets promoted & Sessile relegated

Bronze League
actionabbas (Relegated from Silver) (8 Points)
GusTavToo (11 Points)
monstermohsin (7 Points)
SomethingWitty (New Challenger) (14 Points)

Results
Sprint - Gus, Witty, Abbas & Mo
Jump Start - Abbas, Witty, Gus & Mo
RC Raceway - Witty, Mo, Gus & Abbas
Big W - Witty, Gus, Mo & Abbas

The new challenger Witty get's promoted

Good luck to all & let me know the results via email, ugvm or twitter

All finished for Season 2, a little break & then I'll be back for SEASON 3 !!

Splurge - Deus Ex Human Revolution - The Missing Link DLC

2012-02-08T07:02:00.001Z

I usually do not buy dlc, I will happily wait for the game of the year edition to be released to play them like Fallout New Vegas (coming soon)

Reduced to 600 points (from 1200) this dlc is for Abbas to enjoy who has completed the game twice (I have yet to play it)

New Tuesday A to Z - I (games never played)

2012-02-07T08:43:00.003Z

Very difficult to find anything with the letter I

IK+ (Atari ST)
Some kung fu fighting game for all the Bruce Lee fans

Indiana Jones (PC)
Another series of point & click games I think, I'm not really sure it did not interest me.

Iznogoud (PC)
Has anyone played it?

iOS Gaming - Too many turns

2012-02-06T18:28:00.000Z

Notification numbers are a great idea from Apple to let you know you have a pending action on a particular app but when my On-line Games folder recently got to 50 !!

Something had to be done, I was playing far too many iOS turn based games inc Disc Drivin, Carcacassonne, Poker Pals, Words with Friends, Friendle & many many more.

I'm blaming that many games for my recent loss in Words with Friends against Vicky (her first win against me)

So apologies to anyone who I have resigned or refused games against in any of the games.

To Vicky well done on your first & only win against me :)

Skyrim Diary - Entry 15 - Esbern

2012-02-06T13:55:00.000Z

(Note - I decided to take a break from skyrim for a few weeks thus the lack of updates)

I explained to Delphine the information I had found at the Embassy. She said that Esbern is a blade & I should go to speak to Brynjolf in Riften he may have some information on his location.

Brynjolf is the head of the thieves guild in Riften and after some persuading told me to go look in the ratway warrens. Making my way though the warrens I cam across a few thugs & some Thalmor warriors.

Esbern was very suspicious and took some convincing that Delphine had sent me to look for him & agreed to accompany me back to Riverwood. When we left his room we were met by more agents and Esbern decided to help fight them off, he is very good mage & casts destruction magic. Arriving back at Riverwood Delphine was very happy to see Esbern, he explained that he has been keeping a low profile but has been following the return of the dragons.

Esbern went on to say that the dragons return was prophesied on Aludin's Wall in the Sky Haven Temple and we should go there to find more information, I explained that throughout my travels I had accumulated various quests & needed to complete those first. They both agreed that they would accompany me, with Lydia also by my side I now had my own little army.

Time to return home to Whiterun & read a book, Lost Legends I think?

Splurge - The Orange Box

2012-02-06T11:10:00.005Z

H of games never played or completed included Half Life 2, with this £4 purchase I now get another chance to cross that off my list.

Also in the same compilation you get Portal & Team Fortress 2

I'm going to try and curb the spending this month, even with all the kids games & subscriptions January was far too expensive.

My reputation is preceding me that even at the weekend when Toad inviting me to a game of Battlefield 3 by mistake (which I do not own), they had a little chuckle to themselves that "I'd run out and be back from the shop in half an hour to play it"

Splurge - Double the Resistance

2012-02-06T11:05:00.001Z

The splurge for February starts off on the PS3. Both games purchased for £4 each for Abbas to play, is this the PS3's answer to Halo? Sci Fi Shooter?

New Tuesday A to Z - H (games never played)

2012-02-05T08:41:00.001Z

I've avoiding mentioning any current gen releases but I am sure in years to come I will have more to add to the not played pile (I'm looking at you Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Fable 3 ....)

Anyhow back to the letter H only 2 titles for me.

Half Life 2 (Various)

I completed the first game on my ageing PC but the 2nd game crashed on me & I've not been back to it since.
Hmm Orange Box Xbox 360 ...

Heroes of Might & Magic (PC)
I just never got the appeal of this western attempt at a strategy rpg, the eastern shores of Japan ruled the genre. Although I do note that the recent years the tide is changing ....

Splurge - January 2012

2012-02-04T09:38:00.000Z

The total for the month stands at £240.18 which I admit is a lot more than I thought I would be spending on the first month of the year.

If you look through my purchases for the month though I purchased 4 packs of xbox live points & a PSN+ subscription, these will keep me entertained throughout the year.

Taking those out of the total brings it down to £142.18 & then I should really exclude any games that I have purchased for the kids to play (Rayman Origins, Disney Universe, Halo Anniversary etc) this now brings the total down to £78.21

The majority of this £78 was spent on purchasing xbox 360 games

Kevin recently said on UGVM

"Similarly, limiting oneself to, say, £10 game purchases is a foolhardy enterprise if you end up having lots & not getting much out of them, whereas one £40 purchase might otherwise have lasted you for months."

I agree with this statement all of my 360 game purchases are just sat on the shelf I have not loaded up any of them to play. The purchases I have made are for future playtime, the Marvel UA games will hopefully be used for a weekly PMG. Dark Souls I purchased because I was curious of all the positive feedback from various people on UGVM so if it's crap I'm blaming them. Halo Wars & Divinity II will probably be the most likely if I am truly honest of all the purchases made this month that might gather some dust. That only leaves Lego Pirates of the Caribbean & I purchased this because after all the previous Lego games that have been released I have not played any of them & I enjoyed watching the movie so the game can't be that bad, I hope?

The remainder purchase balance was made up of a few iOS purchases & a Gamecube Gameboy Advance player. Why? Yes well I do not have an answer for that & anyway February awaits with an extra day for purchases to be made.

Splurge - PSN+

2012-02-04T09:03:00.000Z

With my splurge total for January already at £200, I thought that was going to be it for the month but on the last day I am not sure why but I had a sudden urge to look into PSN+ but the £40 a year fee initially put me off. Would I use it? The majority of my gaming is done on the Xbox 360 & on-line on the PS3 is free (I am convinced Sony will change this next generation)

Every month PSN+ members get given a selection of games for free & for January that included all the Telltale Back to the Future games for free. I did not trust Sony to give them my credit card details so I managed to purchase 2 x £25 vouches from ebay for £20 each which were instantly emailed to me. Once these vouchers were added I had £53 on my PSN account to use so I signed up to a year subscription of PSN+ for £39.99 & promptly downloaded the Back to the Future games.

I know the £40 purchase is way above my set £15 limit but that limit was for games not subscriptions like xbox live or psn+

New Game - Scramble with Friends

2012-01-30T09:00:00.012Z

Another "with Friends" game released by Zynga this time the game of Scramble (which is basically the boggle board game)

You have three rounds to make as many words as possible in the time limit for each round.

This being a game by Zynga there has to be some in-app purchases & these are the tokens you see at the top of the screen, one is used for every turn you play. You can purchase more if you wish of just wait for the in-game clock to countdown to award you another token. In the free version this is set to 20 minutes or 10 minutes if you go for the ad-free version.

My username is obviously gospvg so send me an invite if you want a game.

New Game - Hero Academy

2012-01-30T08:45:00.001Z

Another turn based iOS game, this time Hero Academy has you control your army to destroy your enemies crystals. You can only make five moves per turn from using items on your bottom bar to heal, cast magic, defend or any of the other special moves that you get dealt.

It's a simple game but only time will tell if it has any long term appeal.

My username obviously is gospvg if you fancy a game.
Just to add apologies if I take longer to play my turns, too many turn-based iOS games on the go...

Splurge - Rayman Origins

2012-01-29T16:05:00.000Z

Another one for the kids to enjoy, I may decide to look at it myself, I have never played a Rayman game & this had been getting good reviews.

Total for the month so far has no gone past £200

Splurge - Disney Universe

2012-01-29T16:03:00.002Z

One for the kids to enjoy & if I'm forced I may have to tag along for some co-op action.

Purchased for £15 from Zavvi

Splurge - MS 2100 Points

2012-01-29T15:58:00.002Z

Another 2 x 2100 point card purchases for £14 each.
I think that is enough points for the this years releases, although I very rarely buy on release I tend to wait for the weekly deals or sales

Completed - Enslaved

2012-01-29T12:07:00.003Z

First completed post of 2012, after playing nearly 60 hours of Skyrim, I needed a break (thus the lack of updates on the skyrim diary) so went back to playing Enslaved.The later chapters introduce you to another character Pigsy who you can't control but plays a vital role in helping you take over a big walking mech on your way to the final chapter at the Pyramid. It would have been nice if the player was given an option on how to end the game but it's decided for you by Trips actions.

Overall it is an enjoyable game & one unfortunately that did not sell enough to warrant a sequel being made. The excellent voice acting & great visuals are accompanied by a lovely musical score. It can easily be purchased for less than a tenner & one game I recommend you play.

I need to return to Skyrim but I also plan on playing some of my XBLA game purchased last year.

Splurge - Commanders Attack

2012-01-26T12:54:00.000Z

Commanders Attack is another turn based rpg on the XBLA platform, my default reaction to any turn based strategy game is buy, thus purchased for 400 points.

Splurge - Switchball

2012-01-26T12:53:00.000Z

I love sales, you obviously get to buy games cheaper but what it also does is bring games to your attention. In Switchball you are controlling a marble over obstacles & through puzzles. Purchased for 400 MS points.

Splurge - Burnout Crash

2012-01-26T12:49:00.000Z

When released I was disappointed by this, I wanted a Burnout Takedown style crash junction affair & not a top down pinball style game. Although when it was on sale for 400 points I snapped it up, I've not yet played it much but I can see it is a high score challenge your friends type of game.

Splurge - Scramble with Friends

2012-01-26T07:48:00.000Z

I have been playing the free version for the last few days and got annoyed with the adverts so for 69p decided to go for the ad-free version.

My username is gospvg if you want to send me a game invite

Splurge - MS Points 2100

2012-01-26T07:30:00.001Z

2 x 2100 MS Points cards purchased for £15 each, ready for this years releases on XBLA.

I don't mention any XBLA purchases in splurge because I take the cost of the points into account.

But for information I will mention the games & the points spent.

New Tuesday A to Z - G (games never played)

2012-01-25T10:20:00.003Z

Grand Theft Auto (Various) None, nope not a single game a brief play at GTA2 I think for a few mins but that was it. Possibly the one game that defined sandbox gaming but I have never played it.

Gunstar Heroes (Megadrive) Another game by Treasure I have never played, some sort of cowboy riding shoot em up, I think?

Guitar Hero (Various) The music genre is just not for me, my brief stint of Rock Band at the previous ugvm meet confirmed that.

Gods (Atari ST) "A city lost in legend. An unconquered warrior seeking reward. A challenge laid down by the Gods. Taking the role of Hercules in the ultimate arcade adventure, you must scour the depths of an ancient city in your search for the great prize of immortality. Featuring 15 different weapon systems, 20 different potions and power-ups, and a host of intelligent monsters. Have you got what it
takes to be a GOD?"

Um.. NO !!

Grim Fandango (PC) Another odd adventure game from LucasArts

Splurge - Halo Anniversary

2012-01-24T12:48:00.001Z

£14 purchase for Abbas who has been going on about wanting to revist & play the first game.

I may decide to tag along for some co-op enjoyment

Total Splurge for the month so far is £111.51

Splurge - Marvel Ultimate Alliance

2012-01-24T12:46:00.002Z

Possibly a future UGVM PMG? Anyhow I purchased both games recently for £11 & £10

Only time will tell if they ever get played?

Splurge - Lego Pirates of the Caribbean

2012-01-24T12:42:00.001Z

I've never played a Lego game, Star Wars, Batman, Indiana Jones or any of the other 50 million that have been released. So £11 spent on Pirates of the Caribbean

Splurge - Hero Academy Dark Elves

2012-01-24T12:39:00.001Z

A 69p in-app purchase for Hero Academy, this gives you an different team to use but more importantly removes the adverts from the game

Skyrim Diary - Entry 14 - Thalmor Embassy

2012-01-22T10:21:00.000Z

Dear Diary,

I was in awe of Solitude, this huge city of stone towering into the skyline with it's many inhabitants busily walking around doing their business.

I saw a crowd and wandered over to see an execution taking place of a guard who had let in Ulfric. The guards name was Roggvir and his last speech was to claim his innocence and that the king was challenged with nordic tradition by Ulfric. I wanted to wander around this city to see it's many sights but I could not get distracted & walked over to the Winking Skeever and met up with Malborn who explained he works in the embassy and would help me smuggle in some items, so I handed over a dagger & some lockpicks.

Delphine was waiting for me by the stables and gave me some party clothes to wear instead of my armour. She then took the rest of my belongings and I climbed a carriage to take me to the embassy. Getting off the carriage I handed my invitation over to the guard and walked into the embassy.

I was met by Elenwen the ambassador and after a brief conversation went to the bar to speak to Malborn, he needed a distraction before we could slip away. Next to the bar a merchant was complaining that the barman would not serve him any drinks, so I purchased a bottle of mead from Malborn and gave it to the merchant. He was very grateful & agreed to cause a distraction, when everyone got his attention I walked behind the bar & Malborn unlocked the door into the Kitchen. He gave me the items I had given him earlier & asked me to be quick.

Delphine had asked me to search the embassy to see if I could find any information relating to the dragons, she was convinced that the Thalmor were involved. I equipped my dagger & sneaked into the first room to see two guards talking, one guard then walked off & the other stood by a bookshelf. I crouched over, killed him & hid his body. I then waited for the other guard to return & silently killed him before going upstairs to be met by a wizard. My stealth technique did not work and the wizard spotted me, so I equipped the armour & weapons I had looted from the guards, charged in and killed the wizard. I searched the rooms but found no information only some gems & gold to loot, a door led outside into a courtyard.

There were a few guards walking around & a wizard guarding the door to another building. I summoned a flame atronach to distract them & ran into the building. Inside was a guard who was startled to see me, I quickly killed him & ran into a side room where I found a dragon report & two dossiers on Ulfric & Delphine. A door led to an interrogation chamber where I killed some guards and found another dossier on Esbern. At this point two guards entered the room with Malborn and called for me to give myself up or they would kill Malborn. I decided at this point stealth was not an option so I equipped a sword and shield to attack the guards.

One of the guards had a key to open the door out of the chambers and into an underground tunnel, we followed this tunnel outside. Malborn was upset that he was stupid enough to go with Delphine's plan & that now he would be wanted by the Thalmor. I offered to help but he just stormed off cursing me & Delphine.

I only glanced over the documents I had collected earlier & now reading them carefully I learnt that the Thalmor were still actively looking for Delphine, they are trying to control Ulfric actions and possibly are using him as a pawn in their own plans. With the dragons they have no information on how or why they are returning but they are seeking another blade called Esbern who is an expert in dragon lore & think he may be hiding in Riften.

I walked back to Solitude & got on the carriage back to Whiterun Stables, my horse was ready waiting & we rode off to Riverwood.

Video - Deadlight

2012-01-21T09:38:00.002Z

Deadlight coming soon to Xbox Live Arcade looks like a nice metroidvania game :)

"In an apocalyptic world where existence is futile, a solitary man treks the American west coast. The year is 1986 and a mysterious disease has decimated mankind, transforming people into killer automatons. Survival is the measure of all in this original cinematic puzzle platformer."

Skyrim Diary - Entry 13 - The Plan

2012-01-21T08:58:00.006Z

Dear Diary

I received a courier message this morning saying come visit a friend in Riverwood. The only friend I had, Sven died so I assumed this was a message from Delphine about her plan.

Lydia was still asleep, before becoming the Thane of Whiterun & having Lydia given to by the Jarl I was a lone adventurer. The past few weeks I have had Lydia by my side when fighting dragons, searching dungeons & completing quests. She is a nice lady but sometimes a nord needs his own space, so I left her a note saying I'll be back in a few days.

The Whiterun Stables is owned by Skulvar, he is a rugged nord and very shrewd in selling his horses. Being the only stables around for quite some distance means he can sell his horses at a premium without any fear of competition. One thousand gold pieces is quite a lot of money to lay down for a horse that could possibly die in one dragon encounter but there is some satisfaction when riding horseback across the plains or up some icy mountains to be met by a lovely view of skyrim.

Marr was my second horse, my first Alli only lasted a few days and yes it died in a dragon encounter. I saddled my horse and set off for Riverwood. The path to Riverwood takes me pass some farms & meaderys that surround Whiterun, along a mountain pass and then across a bridge to enter Riverwood.

Delphine was waiting at the inn, she asked about Lydia and then went on to explain her plan to infiltrate the Thalmor embassy by getting me an invitation to a party. Once inside the embassy I should scout around for any information I can find but first I should go to the Winking Skeever in Solitude & speak to a wood elf 'Malborn' who works inside the embassy and will be able to help me. Delphine then walked off and said I'll meet you at the Solitude Stables after you have spoken to Malborn.

Solitude is the capital city of Skyrim & also the home of the High King before he died obviously at the hands of Ulfric Stormcloak. I have never been to Solitude and was unsure of the way so I returned to the Whiterun stables to leave Marr (my horse) and take the carriage.

Dead Island - Level Jumping with Challenges

2012-01-20T14:12:00.001Z

Whilst playing on Monday my character jumped from level 9 to level 11. We had gone in search of some food tins to complete a quest & Gus had just activated his rage ability. He was shooting down zombies with his pea shooter whilst I was trying to whack with my baseball bat.

Then up popped the message that my character has levelled up, going to the abilities screen it said I had two points to use? Why? I queried this to the others? Is it a glitch? But they were too interested in splatting zombies to help me figure out what had just happened.

What had actually happened was I had completed a challenge and gain a load of XP points that made my character jump 2 levels. Like Borderlands you have various challenges in the game from driving around to killing zombies in a particular style and when completed you gain XP.

I used my points to upgrade my attack abilities by causing more damage & having my weapons last longer.

You can pick up so many weapons in the game that there is really no point in spending your money upgrading your favourite weapon because it will not be too long before you find something better. I now only spend my money on repairing weapons.

We completed quite a few quests but sometimes the quest line on the map did not appear so you will need to set yourself a custom marker to the location.

Dead Island always gets compared to Borderlands & if I am brutally honest it does not even come close to the enjoyment of Borderlands for me but & this is a big BUT it is still an enjoyable online experience with friends & you will have some laughs along the way.

Friendle - Your Turn or My Turn?

2012-01-20T06:54:00.001Z

The online turn based gaming genre has some really good apps on iOS like Carcassonne, Disc Drivin, Words with Friends & Poker Pals. Friendle is another app I recently downloaded for free (I think it was a weekend offer) which offers you a big choice of games from Chess, Scrabble, Backgammon, Reversi & more. Some of these are presented nicely and work well I especially enjoy playing the Backgammon & Reversi games. My username is gospvg so send me an invite if you want a game from any of the seven on offer.

Splurge - Dark Souls

2012-01-19T14:11:00.001Z

With my £15 limit waiting patiently has some rewards in that recently I took advantage of a 10% code (Thanks Zo) for Zavvi to purchase Dark Souls for £13.45

Splurge - Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga

2012-01-19T14:05:00.001Z

A colleague at work was discussing a game in which your character could transform into a dragon. The enjoyment of Skyrim spilled out and I ask what the game was & thus Divinity II The Dragon Knight Saga was promptly purchased for £11

Splurge - Halo Wars

2012-01-19T14:00:00.000Z

A £4 purchase of ebay mainly because it was one game I had a brief play through a few years ago & I would like to return to it at some point to give it a proper playthough.

New Tuesday A to Z - F (games never played)

2012-01-17T17:07:00.000Z

The Letter F, where do I start how about Fire Emblem (Various)
Considering I love strategy RPG's & this series is regarded as one of the best I have yet to play any Fire Emblem game.

Fear Effect (PS1) - I have always wanted to play this but just never got a round to it. I liked the look of the art style not sure if the game is any good?

Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1) - I lower my head in shame, there is nothing else to say.

Fable (Xbox) - I never had an xbox & when I did briefly I only played the Halo games. I enjoyed playing Fable 2 last year but with Fable 3 waiting I can't see me going back to play the first game.

Fallout 1, 2 & Tactics (PC) - I have never played any of the original fallout games & it was not until Fallout 3 that I got interested in the series. If it ever got updated graphics & an iOS or XBLA release I would be interested.

Enslaved - Hello Monkey & Trip

2012-01-15T10:10:00.000Z

It was like visiting friends who you have not seen in years & then realising your mistake & asking yourself why did you drift apart?

Batman Arkham City, Rage & Skyrim have kept me away from Enslaved until today, I initially loaded up Skyrim to play & then thought no let's have a break & go back to Enslaved.

This game really is lovely to look at; visually beautiful, the soundtrack & voice acting accompany the story nicely. Having been away for so long it took me a while to remember what some of the buttons done, activate shield (RT), aim staff (LT) & charge attack (hold down x).

I continued from Chapter 7 in the game and Trip has arrived home to find that the slavers have attacked & destroyed her town. She is searching for any survivors & goes off ahead.

It took me most of this chapter to remember how to perform the various combat moves from take-downs to charged attacks. The game only allows you to use certain actions when it deems fit like crouching & using the cloud. I collected quite a few orbs and when I caught up with trip used them to upgrade my health & staff. There are masks in the game you collect which give you some sort of flashback but I don't think I have collected them all in the previous levels.

Chapter 8 was all about powering up a windmill & overloading it with power to cause the electrical circuits to trip out. This would allow access to the war room which might have some survivors. The windmill puzzle had three blades & opening the first was easy but the second had me stumped for a while before I figured out that only a particular blade will stop on the platform. Once they were all activated the circuits overloaded and you get to fight some mechs, there is red mech who pummels you if he gets hold of you but by using the charge attack you can stagger him to then let leash some attacks.

This chapter has a boss fight with the dog like enemy that charges around, you fight him in a previous chapter I forget which? I could not remember what I had done before so tried to just attack him but that did not work, then I tried a stun attack with my staff & that gave me some time to attack him before he got back up again. So using this method after a while I destroyed the dog like mech.

The cut scene at the end of chapter 8 was Trip going into the war room and hearing a recording of her fathers voice who laid dead on a chair, there was a close up scene of Trip's face but no tears were flowing. The voice acting was spot on but I think a few tears would have completed the scene.

Alas a couple of chapters was all I had time for but this is one old friend that I will make sure I do not drift apart from for a long time again. See you soon...

Skyrim Diary - Entry 12 - Dead Men's Respite

2012-01-14T19:10:00.000Z

Dear Diary

When I went to visit the greybeards in High Hrothgar after my training they told me that during my adventures I would find other shouts (words of power that when I say them release an inner power from within me) to learn & words (these would allow me to increase the power of the shouts I have learnt). They then game the location of Dead Men's Respite & said a word could be found deep inside the barrow.

This barrow was quite far away so rather than go on horseback I decided to take a carriage from Whiterun Stables to the town of Morthal. It was very cold & wintry when we arrived and the sun was trying its best to break through the clouds, after getting some supplies we set off to Dead Men's Respite. The snow crunching under our feet, I decided to summon a flame atronach not because we were under attack but because the heat from it's flames kept us warm.

The path we were following led to a main road, the flame atronach spotted something in the trees and launched some fireballs, it was a frostbite spider (they are quite easy to deal with, you just need to make sure you are not bitten by them otherwise you may get poisoned). I was about to walk over and help kill the spider when Lydia shouted "Dragon !!"

I turned round to see an elder dragon had landed on the open ground behind us. Lydia fired off some arrows & the atronach who was busy with the spider all of sudden shot past me & started hurling fireballs at the dragon. Even the frostbite spider forgot about who he was fighting and joined in to attack the dragon.

With my Red Eagle sword equipped I jumped on top of the dragon & started attacking his neck, then plunged the sword into it's head. He let out a roar and slumped to the ground, whenever I kill a dragon it's soul rises and gets absorbed into my body. In some strange way I actually enjoy this feeling, it is like I am using the dragon's soul to make myself stronger.

The frostbite spider now remembered what it was doing and starting attacking Lydia, she gave out a sigh & planted her sword in the spider. The atronach had now disappeared, my conjuring kills only allow me to summon an atronach for a minute. I think this is something that I may be able to improve by either visiting a college or finding a trainer.

We encountered some mudcrabs & a frost troll who wanted to get friendly before we reached the barrow. Dead Men's Respite has a huge arch over the entrance engraved into the mountain, walking through the entrance led to a room where draugr bodies lay in their tombs. A table in the room have some wraps, engraving tools & a ruby dragon claw. I picked up the claw and that trigged a trap, some draugr came alive and started to attack us. I summoned a flame atronach & cast fireball magic at them to send them back to the dead.

Then a ghostly figure appeared and drifted out of the room, Lydia said "I think we should follow it" so we did, down the hallway into a burial room. The ghost went through a wall, there was a chain on this wall. I pulled the chain & the doors in the room rotated to open some walls & close others. Lydia said "It's a puzzle, we need to pull the right chains to find our way out". It took us a while to get out of the room & there were some booby traps that caught us out. We also awoke some draugr who were easy to kill.

Eventually we made it out & were met by two giant frostbite spiders, the flame atronach shot past me and started attacking one of the spiders & the other spider turned to attack Lydia. The flame atronach then let out an explosion of flames killing the spider it was attacking & disappeared. I helped Lydia kill the other spider & she said "what was that?" I replied "I think if the atronach is killed before the summon expires it lets out an explosion of flames". Lydia replied "best you summon another then", so I did.

There were two grates on the floor of this room but I could not see any path or door leading out of the room, then on the wall I spotted a chain which I pulled & then I heard a scream ""Aargh"". I turned round & Lydia was gone !! One of the grates had open & Lydia had fallen through, I rushed over to the grate & shouted "Lydia !!" "I'm fine !" came a reply "If a little wet " She had landed in a waterway flowing under the grates. I climbed down to join her & we followed the waterway to another room. Upon entering the room we were greeted by more draugr's, after killing them looking around the room I could see a wooden ramp in the far corner which led to an upper floor.

There was a caged door which when I opened triggered a trap & large axes were now swinging in the path ahead. "Now what?" said Lydia. The axes seemed to be swinging in a sequence & I could see a brief opening through them. "Wait here" I said to Lydia. When I was at the greybeards I learned a new shout that allowed me travel short distances very fast (Whirlwind Sprint). I gave my sword & shield to Lydia then turned to look at the axes, "What are you doing ?!" said Lydia but before I could reply I shouted the word "WULD!!" & shot across the path missing all the axes & reached the other side. There was another chain I pulled that deactivated the axes, Lydia walked over & thumped my sword & shield into me & said "Stupid !!"

We climbed a set of stairs to an iron door which opened into a hallway. There was an enchanting table at one end & a door sealed with some form of magic. The ghost we were following went down a slope into another room. We followed and were met by some more draugr's, there were also some booby trapped rooms with nice loot. We came to another area with a grate on the floor & the gate slammed shut behind us, we were surrounded by six or seven draugr. I summoned a flame atronach & equipped my red eagle sword, three or four had Lydia surrounded so I charged in to help her, attacking with the red eagle sword caused the draugr to catch fire & they were all killed swiftly. The flame atronach had dealt with the other draugr & we looted the bodies to find some nice gems.

We followed the ghost through the grate to a corpse which was clutching a book "King Olaf's Verse", the ghost then disappeared. "Now what?!" I said "The sealed door?" said Lydia. We backtracked to the sealed door & the ghost was waiting for us. He uttered some words & the seal was broken, I unlocked the door & the ghost went ahead through a puzzle door.

This was the same type of puzzle door I met in Bleak Falls Barrow when retrieving the golden claw for Lucan in Riverwood. I look at the ruby dragon claw I had collected earlier & engraved were three circular images of a wolf, eagle & another wolf. I rotated the door puzzle to this setting & place the claw inside which then unlocked the door.

We walked into a large burial room surrounded by stone chairs & a stairwell that led up to a tomb, I followed the ghost into the room & then the ghost boomed out "Hold it, it is time" and all the draugr that were sat on the stone chair came alive to attack. I quickly summoned a flame atronach & equipped my red eagle sword, there must have been at least ten of them coming at us from all angles. To my surprise the ghost drew a sword and was attacking the draugr, why was he helping us?

After we killed all the draugr the ghost then said "Arise ! Olaf, my vengeance is at hand". The ghost wanted revenge? Then more draugr came to life, the ghost charged forward to attack & I looked at Lydia, shrugged and went after the ghost to help. Reaching the tomb at the top, it opened & out stepped King Olaf One-Eye saying "insolent brat, DIE !!"

I could sense that King-Olaf was going to be a tough enemy to defeat so I stepped back to summon a flame atronach & cast a fire rune on the floor. With my red eagle sword equipped I attacked King Olaf to lure him over the rune & it exploded causing a wall of fire to surround him. With Lydia, the ghost & atronach also attacking we quickly managed to weaken him, I then dismissed the atronach & told Lydia to step back so the ghost could deal the fatal blow. The ghost looked at King Olaf & then walked over to a nearby door, playing a flute he vanished into a bright light.

Lydia said "I think the ghost wanted revenge"
"Yes, but why?" I replied

I looted King Olaf's body to grab a key & then walked behind the tomb to find a wall with dragon writing and a word glowing in blue. The word got brighter the closer I got & then I absorbed the word into my body & learned the word 'nah', this was the second word for the Whirlwind Sprint shout. To maximise the power of each shout I needed to learn the three associated words.

Using the door next to the tomb led to a small room with a chest, I looted the contents & followed the path back out of the barrow.

Lydia then looked at me said "Time to go home?"
"Yes" I replied

Poker Pals - Stats

2012-01-14T09:30:00.001Z

After the initial following for playing Poker Pals, most of the players from UGVM have left, I still enjoy playing the game. I cannot get the app to log into my iPad with my details it only seems to register you one device with a username & you can't use that anywhere else.

From ugvm Satsuma, Haggis & Jochta still play & I usually do not concern myself with stats but looking at them against Satsuma

5 Wins / 11 Losses / 0 Ties make poor reading.

So the target over the next few weeks is try & reverse those stats in my favour.

My username if you fancy a game is gospvg

Dead Island - Revisited

2012-01-11T11:28:00.005Z

Dead Island Revisited

After the Lost Planet 2 PMG it was time for another attempt at Dead Island. This time with The Claptrap Boys reunion tour, I decided to go with the Sam B character because of his skill to rejuvenate health. Jaimie went with Logan, Jon was Xian & Gus was left with Purna.

We all made it to the starting hut & received our first quest to liberate the lifeguard tower. Trying to find any decent weapons to use is difficult at the beginning of the game and you really just have to use oars or if you are lucky to find any knives. With a new character you are limited to only equipping 2 weapon slots (this will increase when you get to level 5) but you can carry a maximum of 12 weapons. Just keep an eye on the condition of your weapon because once it deteriorates you will be causing little or no damage.

Once the tower is conquered you have the option to purchase weapons from Wayne who can be found in one of the small rooms off the garage. Also you have access to a workbench to repair or upgrade your weapons. At the lifeguard tower you will receive lots of side quests to do various tasks from collecting vehicle parts to finding medical supplies.

The highlight of the evening was next to the Lighthouse is an area which is full of suitcases & boxes. Watching both female characters carrying boxes and walking down the hill was hilarious.

Overall an enjoyable 2 hours killing zombies more again same time next week.

New Tuesday A to Z - E (games never played)

2012-01-10T20:19:00.000Z

Elder Scrolls (PC) - Considering how many Elder Scrolls games have been released & none have grabbed my attention. When Oblivion was released I had enough of games set in a medieval world. But skyrim has grabbed me by the balls & is dragging me along in its adventure filled story. I recently purchased the 5th Anniversary edition of Oblivion & may yet get round to playing it?

1994    The Elder Scrolls: Arena
1996    The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
1997    An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
1998    The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
2002    The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
2002    The Elder Scrolls III: Tribunal
2003    The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon
2003    The Elder Scrolls Travels: Stormhold
2004    The Elder Scrolls Travels: Shadowkey
2004    The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar
2006    The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
2006    The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine
2007    The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
2011    The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Eternal Darkness (Gamecube) - Once a title mentions horror in the description, that is enough to put me off.

Earthbound (SNES) - It never got a friggin PAL release & I was buggered if I was going to pay another £60 for a US import game.

Enemy Zero (Saturn) - Came with loads of game discs but just looked like another horror..esque title?

Elite (Various) - Only briefly experienced on a BBC micro, I have never enjoyed the adventures of space.

Splurge - Mario Hoops 3on3

2012-01-10T20:06:00.001Z

Another £3 cartridge only purchase for the kids to enjoy. They can not get enough of Mario.

Is there any game that he has not made?
How about Mario Cooking, Mario Zombies or yes Mario Fighter !!
Round 1 Fight !!

Splurge - Mario Party DS

2012-01-10T20:01:00.001Z

£3 Cartridge only purchase for the kids to enjoy. Seems to be a portable version of the popular board game console game.

It's me Wario, I'm gonna WIN !!

Splurge - Scribblenauts Remix

2012-01-10T19:51:00.001Z

Another impulse 69p purchase from the iOS appstore

This is an import of the DS game with the obvious touch remix for the interface.

I only had a brief chance to mess around on the title screen making dinosaurs & helicopters but the kids who have played quite a few of the levels are enjoying it very much.

Splurge - Ascendancy

2012-01-10T19:48:00.001Z

An impulse 69p purchase from the iOS appstore, its a port of a PC strategy game.

The brief play I had it was very complicated but basically you select a race & then build your own planet to develop the skills needed to then travel to other planets & conquer them.

Skyrim Diary - Entry 11 - Saadia & the Alik'r Warriors

2012-01-09T07:18:00.003Z

Dear Diary,

Talking with Lydia over breakfast about Saadia, I think she was a bit annoyed I had agreed to help. I tormented her by saying that I could not refuse the plea of a pretty face. She then went off shopping for healing potions & left me to go down to the dungeons to speak to the captured warrior.

Being a Thane lets you go anywhere you like without any guards asking questions, so I had no problems getting into the dungeons & persuading the guard I needed to talk to the captured Alk’r warrior. The warrior explained he was captured by the guards because he was snooping around trying to find information on the missing Redguard. He would not give me any more information unless I helped him escape, I agreed to pay his fine & he then told me the location of Kematu the leader of the Alki’r.

Lydia was still not happy about us going to Swindlers Den, it is apparently a bandit hideout. I don’t see that as a problem, I have dealt with many bandits already. We needed to make a detour on the way because I still had some empty soul gems I needed to fill. The plains around Whiterun are usually full of mudcrabs, wolves & the occasional tiger.

We ran into two mages duelling against each other, fire & frost spells were shooting out of their staffs. It was interesting watching them duel & maybe I need to research more into the power of spells. They then spotted us and turned to attack, so we dodged their spells to kill & loot them both.

I also spotted a giant in the distance but I dare not go up to it because he was carrying a massive club & had a mammoth walking along side.

Swindlers Den was quite a long walk away, I should have gone to the stables and gotten Marr (my horse) but it was too far back to go now. When we got near the Den I decided to wait until nightfall before attacking because I expect most of the bandits will be sleeping.

I had been training on my sneaking skills & now equipped with light armour this was a perfect opportunity to test it out. The entrance to the den was guarded by one bandit who was walking around so I crouched & grabbed my bow & shot an arrow straight for his head. A path led down into the an open area of the den where two bandits were sleeping, I equipped my dagger & crawled up to take out both of them silently. They had some nice loot including jewels.

Further down in the cave a bandit archer was keeping watch, so I asked Lydia who was a better archer than me to take out the bandit. She crouched down & drew back her bow to let fly with a piercing arrow straight into the heart of the bandit, with quick reflexes she quickly grabbed another arrow ready to shoot but it was not needed.

Creeping around the corner led to another open area which was teaming with bandits, I counted five or six. Too many to take out by stealth kills. So I switched to my Red Bane sword & cast a fire rune on the floor, I asked Lydia to stay at the entrance to the alley with her bow equipped whilst I made some noise to grab the attention of the bandits who came charging towards the rune trap. The rune exploded and surround them with flames, Lydia fired off arrows & I charged in with my sword to kill.

With the commotion caused we had now attracted the attention of some other bandits including a mage who was casting fire spells. I decided it was best to retreat to the entrance of the alley and with our bows equipped we launched a barrage of arrows when they entered the top of the alley. We managed to take out the two remaining bandits but the mage retreated back into the den.

Lydia then had an idea that I should equip my shield & healing spell & attract the attention of the mage whilst she would attack with her bow. Great I was bait !! Stupidly I agreed to it and walked into the den with my shield held trying to block the spells being launched at me, then three arrows shot past me & landed straight in the mage who fell to the floor. I turned round to look at Lydia who smiled. There was a lot of loot in the den, too much to carry so we had to pick & choose what to take & left the rest behind.

At the far end of the den another path led down to a waterfall & a voice said "You've proven your strength, warrior. Let's avoid any more bloodshed" It was Kematu "Let us talk warrior"

After seeing Kematu surrounded with other warriors I agreed to talk, I think taking on these skilled warriors & their leader would have been a tough job even for the dragonborn. Kematu explained that Saadia was a traitor & they are agents sent to bring her to justice. I could see Lydia give a little wry smile.

I agreed with Kematu that I will lure Saadia to the Whiterun stables, on the way back to Whiterun, Lydia had a little smirk on her face so I said "Go, on say it?" She shrugged her shoulders, I said "I told you, so!" She just smiled and said "Why, would I want to do, that?"

I told Saadia that I had failed in killing Kematu & she should flee Whiterun now, a horse is waiting for her in the stables. When we got to the stables Kematua was waiting to capture her, Saadia was shocked to see him and just looked at me and said "What have you done" Kematua explained she will be taken back to Hammerfell, I asked "Will she be harmed?" He replied "Not on the way back. Once she is there it is not for me to decide" He then handed me some gold & said "Don't allow yourself to be fooled by a pretty face, you are better than that"

There was no denying she was a pretty face, Lydia looked at me & said "Sorry"

'Meeple' Carcassonne Tournament - Final

2012-01-05T13:51:00.000Z

Synozeer vs Bushtopher in the final then. Best of 3 tournament then guys on the original game - no expansion packs.

Good Luck

I do not have the scores but Synozeer has won the first two games against Bushtopher so is the Carcassonne Champion

CONGRATS !!

Skyrim Diary - Entry 10 - Saadia

2012-01-05T11:45:00.003Z

Dear Diary

The local inn The Bannered Mare is run by Hulda, a nice lady who always knows what is going on in Whiterun. The regulars were all here tonight. Sinmir moaning as always about the lack of security in the city, Mikael playing his usual songs whilst eyeing up the ladies, Uthgerd who is always looking for a fight, I think she wants to prove a point? The local shopkeepers were all discussing their trade & a new inn helper called Saadia was sweeping the floor.

I had a couple of ales with Lydia and whilst discussing the Alik’r warriors we were interrupted by Saadia who wanted to have a quiet word. Lydia looked at me, smiled & went over to talk to Mikael. I followed Saadia upstairs to her room & she quickly turned round and pulled out a dagger at me.

I grabbed the dagger and said “That was not what I was expecting?”

Saadia replied “Who are you & what do you know about the Alik’r warriors !!?”

I explained that there were some Alik’r warriors outside of Whiterun today who were looking for a Redguard woman. She went quiet & I said “I take it, that woman is you, then?”

“Yes, I am a noble from Hammerfell & because I spoke out against the government they have sent warriors to capture me”

“Ok, leave it to me I will help you” I said

“Are you sure?, thank you” she said

She got up gave me a hug & said “I must get back to work”

I walked back into the bar & sat down by my ale. Lydia walked over and said “That was quick?”

I looked at her, smiled & said “We’ve got another job to do, I’ll explain later”

Walking back to the house I told Lydia that Saadia was the Redguard woman and was on the run from the warriors. Lydia had found out some information about an Alik’r warrior who was in the dungeon.

Something to do tomorrow then…

Splurge - Just Cause 2

2012-01-04T20:21:00.002Z

I blame Jochta, all his talk of the enjoyment he has been having 1000g the game got Abbas interested in playing it again.

Thus £8.99 from Play.com

Skyrim Diary - Entry 9 - Soul Gems

2012-01-04T12:01:00.001Z

Dear Diary

The Red Eagle’s sword ability to do fire damage requires the need of soul gems. these are quite expensive to always keep purchasing so I decided to learn the Soul Trap spell which when you cast on an enemy & kill them within a time limit, the soul is then captured in an empty gem.

I decided to venture the plains outside of Whiterun and ran into a few mudcrabs, I managed to cast the spell on one of the crabs & captured its soul to fill a petty soul gem. The other two Lydia was too quick to finish them off before I could cast the spell.

I gave her a stern look & she replied “How was I to know what you were doing!?”

We then went searching for more animals to kill & I came across a sabre tiger & some wolves to fill up more soul gems.

Back in Whiterun some Alik’r warriors were arguing with the guards at the gate who was refusing them entry. I enquired with one of the warriors what the problem was? He explained they were trying to locate a Redguard woman & if I find any information to contact them in Rorikstead.

Anyhow time to go to the inn for a drink.

Skyrim Diary - Entry 8 - Lydia Glass Armour

2012-01-03T20:53:00.004Z

Dear Diary

After having a well earned rest it was time to spend some of the money I had earned from selling the loot. I decided that Lydia deserved to have a new set of armour rather than inheriting my used equipment.

I told you previously that I had learnt how to make dragon armour but I have yet to complete the full set for myself because you require dragon bones & dragon scales which you can only be sourced by killing dragons. I sent Lydia off to get some supplies for the house we were running low on food & mead.

I then went next door to the blacksmiths, after dragon armour the next best set of light armour I was trained to make was glass so I purchased some refined moonstone & refined malachite then put on my gloves and got to work on creating Lydia a full set of glass armour including boots, helmet, shield & gauntlet. I then fine crafted them on the workbench to increase the armour rating. To finish off the set I crafted her a Glass Sword & fine crafted that on the grindstone.

I think Lydia was surprised when I returned home carrying a large box & told her "It's for you". She replied "But, my Thane?" I said "Call me Valdarr, that's my name, Lydia"

"Ok, Valdarr. You did not need to build me any new armour" she said

I replied "Well you have been carrying my burdens for a while so I thought I would repay the favour"

She smiled & said "Thanks"

Video - Call of the Dragonborn

2012-01-03T15:06:00.001Z

Skyrim Diary - Entry 7 - Delphine

2012-01-03T11:10:00.002Z

Dear Diary

Upon entering Kynesgrove I was met by a fleeing villager who told me to run because a dragon was hovering over the burial mound. Delphine shouted to me "Come on let's go"

We ran up to the burial mound and the dragon that attacked Helgen was perched on a rock saying something in dragon tongue to the mound & then with burst of light a dragon came out of the mound. It was am amazing sight to see a dragon being bought back to life, the dragon who attacked Helgen then turned to me & said "You do not even know our tongue, do you? Such arrogance, to dare take for yourself the name of Dovah !"

He then flew off & the dragon out of the mound started to attack, so I charged in with my shield & sword but it flew up into the sky. Lydia grabbed her bow & fired off a few arrows to get its attention, "get it to land" I shouted. I then blasted off a few fireballs at the dragon who then turned around and flew straight at me, I dodged out of the way for it to crash to the ground & then slashed him with my red eagle sword whilst casting fire magic, it gave out a scream & I dealt the final blow.

I turned to look at Lydia who gave a sigh of relief & Delphine turned round and said "You are the Dragonborn" I'm beginning to lose track of how many dragons I have killed now & I am still no closer to finding out why they are here & what they want?

Delphine then explained she is one of the last members of the Blades that serve the dragonborn in hunting dragons. Their numbers have dwindled over the years because of a war with the Thalmor where they suffered heavy casualties. She is convinced that the Thalmor have something to do with the dragons returning, her plan is to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy in search of information. I am happy to go along with this because information is also what I am after, Delphine then set off saying she needed some days to gather intel on the Thalmor & the Embassy, she will meet me back in Riverwood.

It's been a long day, so I decided to return home to Whiterun.

Splurge - Gamecube Gameboy Advance Player

2012-01-03T09:59:00.001Z

Purchased for £15, the Gamecube Gameboy Advance Player lets you play your gameboy advance games on the big screen.

I have been after one of these for a while, there is a huge collection of excellent gameboy advance games that I have not played like the Castlevania & Metroid games.

New Tuesday A to Z - D (games never played)

2012-01-03T09:47:00.000Z

Dragon's Lair
Just looked like a really bad interactive cartoon to me

Duke Nukem 3D
Started on PC played 2 levels & then the game crashed, tried again on PS1 got bored after 3 levels & then a failed PMG session with Toby & Luffers on the space level I think?

Discworld
I've not read much of Terry Pratchett's material & thus had not interest in playing the game of the book.

Deus Ex
I have both games on the PC somewhere just never got round to playing them, wish they would receive a HD upgrade for the current generation.

Devil May Cry
Capcoms answer to Buffy the Vampire slayer, jump around, slash, slash & kill. Rinse & repeat for another umpteen levels.

New Tuesday A to Z - C (games never played)

2012-01-02T18:48:00.002Z

Crash Bandicoot
One of the many Playstation efforts of having a mascot platform game character to compete with Sonic & Mario. It had no appeal for me so I ignored & moved on.

Command & Conquer
Somehow I never got round to playing any of the C&C games, At the time JAP RPG's were my interest & even though I enjoyed turn based JAP RPG's I could not get interested in any of the western strategy games of the time until Mech Commander 2

Chuck Rock
Another Platform title that I remember getting the pull out poster with an issue of ST Gamer but never actually getting round to playing it.

Crysis
By this time I had left PC gaming & returned to console gaming, I have recently purchased the sequel & my new PC with a slightly better graphics card should be more than capable of playing this if I feel the urge.

Carmageddon
Drive cars & kill people for points was that it?

Disc Drivin - UGVM Season 1 inc Results - Finished

2012-01-02T18:00:00.002Z

Trying a different idea which has worked well on RLLMUK for the next UGVM Disc Drivin Tournament.

This time it is season style, there will be 4 leagues (Platinum, Gold, Silver & Bronze) of 4 players each with the winning player getting promoted & the worst getting demoted to a lower league.

For the first season each player will get chosen at random to get assigned to a league. There will only be 4 races, no tournament rounds that drag on for months just 4 races to decide the winner of each league.

The 4 chosen tracks are Prepare To Qualify, Zoom Zoom, Canyon Jump & Bumper Beware

The first player in the league will start the first track Prepare To Qualify & invite player 2, 3 & 4 in order then Player 2 will start the next race on Zoom Zoom & invite player 3, 4 & then 1. Player 3 will start Canyon Jump & invite Player 4, 1 & 2 in that order. Lastly Player 4 will start Bumper Beware & invite in order Player 1, 2 & 3.

Player 1 will wait to play his turn until all 4 races have started & are awaiting his/her turn to play. This will ensure when you come to play your turn you will have all 4 races waiting for you to play.

If any questions on the above then ask me please.

Platinum League
HaggisHunter (11 Points)
carldjcross (9 Points)
Hakk (11 Points)
Tlotoxl (9 Points)

Results
Zoom Zoom - Hakk, Tlotoxl, carldjcross & HaggisHunter
Canyon Jump - Tlotoxl, HaggisHunter, Hakk & carldjcross
Bumper Beware - HaggisHunter, Hakk, carldjcross & Tlotoxl
Prepare to Qualify - carldjcross, HaggisHunter, hakk & Tlotoxl

Play off match between carldjcross & Tlotoxl to find out who gets relegated on the Track Flip Out

Tlotoxl won the playoff match so carldjcross is releagated

Gold League
lufferov (13 points)
jochta (14 points)
Xexyzx (9 points)
HarpingOn (4 points)

Results
Zoom Zoom - jochta, xexyyx, lufferov & harpingon
Bumper Beware - lufferov, jochta, xexyzx & harpingon
Prepare to Qualify - lufferov, jochta, xexyzx & harpingon
Canyon Jump - jochta, lufferov, xexyzx & harpingon

Jochta gets promoted & harpingon relegated

Silver League
actionabbas (6 Points)
becs (16 Points)
Sessile (8 Points)
gospvg (10 Points)

Results
Zoom Zoom - becs, gospvg, Sessile & actionabbas
Canyon Jump - becs, actionabbas, Sessile & gospvg
Bumper Beware - becs, gospvg, Sessile & actionabbas
Prepare to Qualify - becs, gospvg, Sessile & actionabbas

becs wins the group & gets promoted & abbas relegated.

Bronze League
GusTavToo (9 Points)
thermalsatsuma (11 Points)
monstermohsin (9 Points)
Fluffmyster (11 Points)

Results
Zoom Zoom - Fluffmyster, monstermohsin, thermalsatsuma & GusTavToo
Prepare to Qualify - thermalsatsuma, GusTavToo, Fluffmyster & monstermohsin
Bumper Beware - GusTavToo, Fluffmyster, thermalsatsuma, monstermo
Canyon Jump - monstermo, thermalsatsuma, Fluffmyster & GusTavToo

Play Off match to be played with thermalsatsuma & fluffymyster on Flip Out

Fluffmyster wins the playoff & get's promoted

Scoring is easy with 4 points for the winner down to 1 point for last place
Good Luck & remember Disc Drivin notifications is broken on iOS5 so make sure you check your app at least once a day.

Ok Season 1 is over, Season 2 to start soon.

Splurge - Sonic & the Secret Rings

2012-01-02T17:35:00.003Z

Only the 2nd day of the new year & I make my first purchase !!

Although its for the kids & not me :)

Mo wants the Sonic games for the Wii, after being outbid the last few times I managed to purchase Sonic & the Secret Rings for £5 from fleabay. Just need to keep an eye out for a cheap copy of Black Knight now.

2011 - Game of the Year

2012-01-02T12:46:00.002Z

Looking through my completed games for 2011. I have completed some truly enjoyable games which started with Fable 2 - I have never played the original Fable game & I managed to get Fable 2 thanks to an error on Microsoft's part that let you download the game for free but I enjoyed it's adventure in storytelling so much that I purchased the third game which I have yet to play of course.

Assassins Creed follows a similar path to Fable in that I have never played the first game yet loved the second & was happy to play Brotherhood to see the continuation of Ezio's & Desmond's storyline. If it was not for the current game I am playing I would have spent my time over xmas playing the next game in the story which was purchased for Abbas but I then promptly sold on whilst it still had it's pre-owned value. I will now patiently wait till the the complete game with dlc is released in 2012 & purchase for less than £15 to play.

In 2010 Shadow Complex was one of best games I have ever played which is why it is in my Top 30 list. I purchased quite a few xbla games in 2011 but only played Costume Quest, Vandal Hearts & recently with my son Turtles & Assault Heroes. Although quite a short game I did enjoy playing Costume Quest, it's quirky humour & Halloween setting made in an enjoyable simple rpg to play.

The iOS platform be it playing the games on iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch has for me this year been very chaotic, with too many games & thanks to appshopper/freeapphero the daily free download of never-ending titles has really now become tiresome & boring. I have enjoyed the disc drivin, carcassonne & other tournaments that I have organised throughout the year but from the many single player experiences I have completed only Sword & Poker is worth mentioning a mixture of playing poker hands in an rpg setting.

Alas the PS3 & Wii (yes I still have it somewhere I think) have been ignored through-out the year not because I do not have any games for them, the likes of Uncharted & Mario Galaxy sit on the shelf gathering dust. Lack of time & possibly also my preference to using the 360 controller has led to me ignoring these two consoles. Something I hope to correct in 2012.

The summer months were very quiet for gaming, the weather & family activities led me to do little or no gaming for 3 to 4 months but come Autumn & I returned to complete Splinter Cell Conviction, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Batman Arkham City & Rage.

Batman Arkham City & Rage were the only games I completed that was actually released in 2011 but both games disappointed me. Batman with it's open world GTA style setting did not give me the enjoyment that I got last year from Arkham Asylum & Rage, the less said about that the better I think.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 & Splinter Cell Conviction I did enjoy, Battlefield for it's design on levels, every level was different giving you a new experience to enjoy & Splinter Cell Conviction's nice stealth gameplay was very satisfying.

Looking through my completion list I have discussed almost every game I have completed except two Lost Planet 2 & Borderlands. 2011 for me was the year of the PMG (Planned Multi-player Gaming), every Monday evening (almost) without fail Gus, Jaimie, Jon (Borderlands) or Jaimie & Toby (Lost Planet 2) would connect over xbox live to game. Lost Planet 2 storyline & somewhat odd game mechanics as a single player experience would be painful to play but is just about playable on a PMG because of the other players.

Thus my game of the year for 2011 is obviously (the picture in the post) Borderlands, the game itself is a mix of a first person shooter with rpg touches but what really makes the game shine is the on-line experience you get with 3 other players. If you are dying someone will come over to heal you, out of ammo? don't worry I will equip my ammo regeneration mod & thank you 'gospvg' for being the bait in Mad Moxxi.

So take a bow Jon, Gus & Jaimie for without The Claptrap Boys, Borderlands would not have been the game of the year 2011.

Hardware Update - Xbox 360 Slim

2012-01-02T12:00:00.000Z

I needed to get a bigger 360 hard drive with the Rage install coming in at over 20GB & stacks loads of XBLA & DLC content a 120GB Hard drive was just not big enough. Another issue with the old 360 was that it's dvd drive kept on sticking on opening.

This led to an impulse purchase of the 360 Slim & I do not regret it one bit because it looks nice in black & has a nice large 250GB hard drive. Also is very very quiet.

Skyrim Diary - Entry 6 - The Gildergreen, High Hrothgar & Greybeards

2012-01-02T11:00:00.001Z

Dear Diary

The pilgrims name was Maurice, he was not much of a warrior more a simpleton but that was fine because I did not anticipate we would run into any problems.

Upon arriving at the Sanctuary, I could hear the distance roar of another dragon roaming the skies. We walked inside & were met by some other pilgrims who said to not use the blade on the tree because it would destroy it. Some roots were blocking our path so I used the blade on them to move them out of the way. Arriving at the tree, Maurice then asked me to not use the blade & that he would pray to the tree instead. Strangely enough that worked & a sapling appeared in front of me. Maurice then decided he would stay at the sanctuary & I should take the sapling back to Whiterun.

I dropped off the sapling to Danica at the temple who agreed to train me in restoration spells if needed. I then went back to the blacksmith to train up my skills until night fell. I was very close to learning how to build Dragon Armour that I woke up the next day & went straight to the blacksmith. After a few hours I had learnt the skill of how to build dragon armour, I went back home to collect the dragon bones & scales I had collected.

I could build light or heavy armour, light giving my the advantage to attack silently & weighing less obviously vs heavy which would protect me more. I went for the light armour & passed all of my currently equipped heavy armour over to Lydia to use.

It was time to pay a visit to the greybeards in High Hrothgar, I needed to find out more about the dragons & me I suppose, what was a dragonborn?

I needed to get to a town called Ivarstead which lies at the foot of the mountain, it's a small little town which only has a farm & an inn. There is also a haunted barrow (according to the innkeeper), I'll investigate that another day & a beggar called Narfi has lost his mind because his sister is lost (I've agreed to help him).

7000 steps !! till I get to High Hrothgar, along the way I met a few pilgrims & some wild creatures including snow trolls on the way up. High Hrothgar looks like an old castle perched on top of a mountain, lovely views I imagine when the snow has settled. I walked in to be met by Master Arngeir (yes he had a grey beard) who explained that the greybeards would train me in the "way of the voice". He explained I was born with the ability to use my voice like the dragons, I suppose that's why I'm called the "dragonborn" or "dovahkiin" in dragon language. The dragons have returned because of me (great, thanks so Sven died because of me) & I should learn the voice to fulfil my destiny (surprise, surprise he did not know what that was).

I was taught two more words by the greybeards, my unrelenting force skill has now improved & is more powerful & I have also learnt a sprint move which lets me move fast, really fast. After the training, Master Arngeir has given me a final test to retrieve the horn of Jurgen Windcaller.

I had to journey to his tomb in Ustengrav, which was surrounded by bandits who were easily dealt with, Ustengrav is full of various traps from spikes to poisoned arrows, making my way to his tomb I came across a new shout "Become Ethereal" & finally after checking behind every waterfall I came across I manage to find a secret room defended of course by draugr's. I had to use my whirlwind sprint shout to unlock three gates that were activated by stones which led me into a room with a fire trap whenever I walked the ground, I just decided to run through this section & healed myself at the end only to be met by some spiders.

I reached the throne room only to find a note left in place of the horn which wanted me to spend the night at the Riverwood Inn?

Everyone seemed to be going about their business at Riverwood, like they had forgotten Sven had died only a few days ago? I suppose they all just wanted to get on with their life & move on. I went to the Inn and spoke to Delphine about hiring a room for the night.

It was not a comfortable bed & I missed Breezehome, I was awoken in the middle of the night by Delphine who explained she was the one who placed the note at the Tomb & gave me the horn. She needed the help of the Dragonborn to stop the dragons coming back to life & wanted me to go with her to a dragon burial site which she was convinced the next dragon would be bought back to life. I told her I would meet her there after I have returned the horn to the greybeards.

Back at High Hrothgar I gave the horn back to Master Arngeir & was taught the last word of Unrelenting Force, using this shout is now very powerful but it takes a while to recharge if I use the full shout of Fus Ro Dah.

It has been a long day but I can't leave Delphine waiting so I am off to the dragon burial site in Kynesgrove

2011 - Completed - Year in Review

2012-01-01T11:57:00.002Z

It's been a good year for completing games, I did have a few months in the summer where I did not really play many games but even with that lapse I still managed to complete 26 games.

These included some truly enjoyable experiences like Fable 2, Assassins Creed Brotherhood. & Borderlands but also some disappointments like Rage & Batman Arkham City

Fable 2(Xbox 360)
Borderlands DLC - Zombie Island of Dr. Ned (Xbox 360)
Azkend (iPod Touch)
Sorcerer of Fortune (iPod Touch)
Assassins Creed Brotherhood (Xbox 360)
Borderlands DLC - Secret Armory of General Knoxx (Xbox 360)
Costume Quest (Xbox Live Arcade)
Sword & Poker (iPod Touch)
Cash Cow (iPod Touch)
Streets of Rage 2 (PS3)
Tiny Tower (iPod Touch)
Borderlands DLC - Claptrap's New Robot Revolution (Xbox 360)
Splinter Cell Conviction (Xbox 360)
Space Miner - Space Ore Bust (iPod Touch)
Torchlight (Xbox Live Arcade)
Vandal Hearts - Flames of Judgement (Xbox Live Arcade)
Battlefield Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360)
Borderlands DLC - Mad Moxxi (Xbox 360)
Guardian Saga (iPod Touch)
Splinter Cell Conviction - Co-Op Story (Xbox 360)
Batman Arkham City (Xbox 360)
Turtles in Time - Re-Shelled (Xbox Live Arcade)
DLC Quest (Xbox Live Indie Game)
Assault Heroes (Xbox Live Arcade)
Lost Planet 2 (Xbox 360)
Rage (Xbox 360)

Splurge - 2011 - Year in Review

2012-01-01T11:42:00.000Z

Last year I decided to keep a tally of how much I spent on video gaming in a year & the total for 2011 was £1244.81

So let's break this splurge down a bit to find out more info. £328.70 was spent on purchasing games & consoles for the kids, the remaining £916.11 was games & consoles I purchased.

So let's see that in a pie chart, just over a quarter was spent on the kids & the rest I treated myself (a lot)

Another breakdown of the figures that is interesting to look at is they consoles that the purchases were made for, no surprise then that the 360 comes out on top. It is after all my preferred home console & I spent a staggering £948.30 on it, The DS came in second with 2 hardware purchases pushing it to £144.04.

Some may look at the total figure of £1244.81 & think how much but when put into perspective on how much you spend on entertainment in a year & bear in mind gaming is possibly my only vice I do not see that figure enormously large.

2012 should prove more challenging because I have set myself a limit of not spending more than £15 on any gaming purchase (I do not anticipate making any hardware purchases in the year & this rule has 3 exceptions in Borderlands 2 & the boys presents)

2012 - The year that I will

2012-01-01T11:16:00.000Z

The year that I will ... call these my new year resolutions but being gospvg it is all about gaming of course :)

So this year I will ...

Complete a Playstation 3 game
Quite easy just need to get round to playing Uncharted

Not purchase any game above £15 except (Borderlands 2 & presents for the boys)
With my current backlog of games again this should be quite easy to achieve. I cheated a bit by purchasing quite a few titles towards the end of 2011 :)

Complete a Wii game
I've own the console for quite a few years & have not completed a single game, looking at possibly Super Mario Galaxy or possibly even a Zelda game?

Clear out my ATTIC !!
I have no choice, this has to be done to make way for the attic conversion

Only 4? Yep that's it I could not think of any more & wanted to set myself goals I could achieve. Of course if this is the year of the Armageddon then I will not be around to post in December on how I done :)

2011 - The year that was

2012-01-01T11:00:00.000Z

Back in January 2011 I posted my 2011 The year that I will so time to recap on how I done last year.

This year I will not buy games to sit on a shelf #2011 #ugvm
Ok I think we all know this was a big #fail

This year I will play the games that I have forgotten inc Fable, Mass Effect, Bioshock & Dragon's Age #2011 #ugvm
Apart from Fable 2 I have not played any of the other games mentioned above #fail

This year I will play at least 2 UGVM PMGs a week #2011 #ugvm
This sort of worked through-out the year but mainly it was just the usual Monday PMG game Borderlands followed by Lost Planet 2 #Win

This year we will have our first UGVM meet in February at Cambridge #2011 #ugvm
In fact we done better we had two meets Cambridge & Nottingham #Win

This year I will go back to pc gaming thanks to Guild Wars 2 & Back to the Future game. #2011 #ugvm
I did purchase new PC during the year but alas I have not played a single PC game #fail

This year I will win a game of Chess with Friends ..... hopefully :) #2011 #ugvm
The few games I did play I was dreadful at #fail

And last of all this year I will clear out my attic & reduce my video game collection :( #2011 #ugvm
I got rid of a few consoles during the year but not near enough #fail

On now to 2012...

Skyrim Diary - Entry 5 - Sven

2012-01-01T08:50:00.001Z

Dear Diary

Danica from the Temple of Kynareth wants to restore the Gildergreen to its former glory thus I am off to search for a weapon called Nettlebane which will help me retrieve some sap from the Eldergleam tree.

Before going to Orphan Rock I decided to pay a visit to Riverwood, upon arriving the town was under attack from a dragon !! Sven saw me & shouted "Perfect timing !! could use your help if you are not busy?" The dragon was hovering above town & spraying frost breath on any victim it could find, leaving the dragon in town was dangerous & I needed to get him to land so I could attack. I lured him out of the town onto an open field where it landed & I equipped my Red Eagle sword & charged in to attack, after a few swipes the dragon flew back up into the air & attacked Sven with it's frost breath. I saw Sven fall to the ground, I then charged at the a dragon with my sword & went straight for his head. The dragon fell to the ground & it's soul lifted & got absorbed into my body.

I ran over to Sven whose body laid motionless on the ground, I screamed out "No !!" !!! Lydia put her hand on my shoulder and said "My Thane, he has gone" Sven was dead !! I picked up his body & took it back to town. His mother & Camilla burst into tears and cries of "Why" !! I felt really numb inside, Why did the dragon attack? What do they want? Why did Sven have to die !?

With these thoughts in my head I turned to Lydia and said "Let's go" The townsfolk had now come out & collected Sven's body to prepare for the funeral. I took out a coin bag & clutched Sven's mother hand, gave her a glance & walked off.

I got back on my horse (Marr) & set off to Orphan Rock. I think I need pay the greybeards a visit to find out what they know about these dragons. Upon reaching Orphan Rock Lydia turned round and said "Ok?" I replied "Yes!, let's go get this nettletwig!"

The rock was surrounded by witches but I was in a determined mood & walked straight in with my sword & shield. The witches spells were ricocheting off my shield but my sword would swoop down on them to kill, nothing could stop me today. A Hargraven then screamed my name "Dragonborn!!" & Lydia turned round & shot an arrow straight for her head. I walked over, removed the arrow & collected the nettlebane blade.

We then rode back to Whiterun not saying a single word to each other, Lydia took Marr (the horse) to the stables & I went to the Temple. I walked over to Danica & said here is your weapon, placing it on the table. She looked at me & could see I was angry "what happened?"

I explained what had happened in Riverwood & she replied "I'm sorry". I asked Danica what does she now do with the blade? She said "I need to ask if you could take this blade to the eldergleam to retrieve the sap for me please?" At this point a pilgrim asked "If I could please travel with you Dragonborn, I would love to visit the eldergleam". "Fine, I'll see you tomorrow morning by the gates".

Returning back home I could not help but think of Sven .. RIP my friend.

Skyrim Diary - Entry 4 - Legend of the Red Eagle

2011-12-31T11:00:00.074Z

Dear Diary

I decided to take a break from trying to clear the cave of vampires to take on another quest. One of the many books I collected had a quest for the Legend of the Red Eagle.

Mounting my horse I decided to ride out to Red Eagle Redoubt, upon reaching my destination I was met with some unfriendly Forsworn soldiers who were dealt with swiftly. On top of the mountain was a Forsworn Briar Heart a tougher adversary to deal with but my new fire spells with sword attacks helped me take care of him easily. I searched his body to loot a Red Eagles Fury sword which has the extra ability of doing fire damage when used (I was thinking exactly the same thing - vampire master is weak to fire).

After collecting the sword I also found a note to another location called Rebel's Cairn inside this cave was a switch where I placed the Red Eagles Fury sword & that unlocked a hidden wall into another section of the cave. Upon entering this section I was greeted by skeletons & the ghost of Red Eagle (I don't think he was too happy I took his sword). The skeletons were easy to kill but Red Fury needed a different approach in that I cast fire rune on the floor & ran round him in circles until he would walk over the rune to cause fire damage. This would cause him to stagger & then I would charge in attacking with my sword. Using this method after a few minutes Red Fury met his death, he was protecting a chest which contained a great sword of burning (that master vampire is going to be toast now).

I collected the other sword on the way out & with my new found courage I went straight to Broken Fang cave to pay another visit to the master vampire. The great sword is a two handed weapon so I instead equipped the Red Eagle sword & my shield. I placed a fire rune at the top of the stairs & he happily obliged by walking over it. Kaboom !! I gave out a roar & charged in with my flame sword to slash him a few times before he fell to the ground screaming my name. DIE !!

Victorious I looted him & lock-picked his chest to take all his gold & returned to Whiterun with a smile on my face. The companions were suitably impressed that I had taken care of a group of vampires & asked me if I wanted another job. I declined & told them I would be back, I had accepted a job from the Temple of Kynareth to restore the gildergreen tree.

That's a job for tomorrow, now it's time to go get some food & rest.

Video - Wished I lived in video games

2011-12-30T17:28:00.000Z

Skyrim Diary - Entry 3 - Vampires

2011-12-30T12:50:00.002Z

Dear Diary

Clearing the cave of vampires was difficult, very difficult. I had to retreat because trying to fight them with my sword & shield was not killing them fast enough without me & Lydia getting overwhelmed.

I went back to Whiterun & researched the books I had collected and speaking to the town-folk found out that vampires are weak to fire. Thus I needed to do some training in destruction magic to improve my skill with using flame magic. I also learnt a fire rune spell which lets me cast magic on the ground & when an enemy walks on that ground they suffer from fire damage.

With my new found knowledge I decided to return back to the cave to take on the vampires again, entering the cave there is a long path on which I decided to place a fire rune & then my plan was to lure the vampires onto the rune. In theory it would have worked if it was not for Lydia, she has this habit of charging in to take on any enemy that catches her sight.

I backed out of the cave, told Lydia to wait outside & went in on my own. I placed the fire rune spell at the end of the path & lured the vampires onto the rune & this caused the rune to ignite with flames causing quite a lot of damage to the three vampires that were following me. I then equipped my shield & flame magic to finish them off. Job done or so I thought?

I went back out of the cave to ask Lydia to accompany me, just in case if there was any good loot that needed collecting. She seemed quite annoyed that I had left her outside, I explained why & she just shrugged. The path led to an open area filled with crypts & urns, I put my conscience to one side & looted all the urns & crypts because they were filled with gold & jewels.

A set of stairs led to another level where I was met by a Master Vampire who was casting frost and life drain spells against us. I did not have any time to think about casting any fire magic or using my fire rune because in a few short seconds he had stripped Lydia & I of half our health, I just turned around and ran for the exit of the cave.

Outside the cave I healed Lydia & myself before returning back home to Whiterun.

Skyrim Diary - Entry 2 - The Companions

2011-12-29T10:18:00.004Z

Dear Diary

Dragons, if it was not for a dragon I would not be writing this entry but my head would have been chopped off in Helgen.

After killing my first dragon outside Whiterun I have seen quite a few roaming the sky's. They are very majestic & beautiful the way they fly around commanding the sky.

I went to visit the guardian stones near Riverwood & saw a dragon flying above I don't know why but I ran? Is it because I was scared? No I don't think so? maybe a little but after killing the first dragon which was more of an impulse kill, I did not want to kill another dragon because I could. I want to find out more about them & why they are in skyrim? Maybe I should go visit the greybeards?

In Whiterun there is a guild of warriors calling themseleves the Companions, all of them are quite big-headed & I would not mind knocking some of them down a peg or two so decided to join. I had to do a couple of courier quests for them by dropping off a sword to be sharpen & delivering a shield.

They have now given me a quest to go and clear a cave of vampires - vampires !! blood sucking vampires !!

Wish me luck !!

Skyrim Diary - Entry 1 - The Dragonborn

2011-12-28T12:11:00.008Z

Dear Diary

Sorry I have not posted in a while the last few days have been very eventful.

The imperials mistook me for a stormcloak rebel & carted me off to Helgen. They also captured the leader of the rebels Ulfric Stormcloak. I thought they would end up just putting us in jail but they wanted to make an example out of us & sentenced us all to death by be-heading.

With my head on the chopping block, I was starting to think my life of adventure would end before it even started but luckily I was saved because a Dragon attacked the town & in all the commotion that followed I managed to escape with Ralof (Stormcloak Rebel) to the town of Riverwood.

A Dragon !! How I got out of Helgen alive I never know, what a fierce terryfying creature.

Ralof asked me to join the rebels but I have not yet decided where I stand on the civil war although I am a bit pissed off that the imperials wanted to behead me.

I managed to do a few jobs in Riverwood to get myself equipped with some armour & a weapon. Also helped out a local lad Sven get his girl & he is now happy to follow me on my adventures. It's useful having Sven along because he can help carry more loot to sell.

After helping the Riverwood Traders get a treasure back from some Bandits I decided it was time to move on to the town of Whiterun where after speaking to the Jarl Barlgruuf I was asked to go with his housecarl Irileth to investigate the sighting of a dragon near the western watchtower.

When we got to the tower it was destroyed & under attack by a dragon, I don't know what came over me but I went charging in with my sword & attacked the beast. After taking a few knocks I managed to slay the dragon. What followed was really odd in that I could see the soul of the dragon rise & then get sucked into my body. It felt really strange but I don't know why I actually enjoyed it.

The soldiers are all calling me "Dragonborn" !?

I have no idea what they are on about either but I would lie if I said I am not loving my new found fame and attention :)

Reporting back to the Jarl he explained that a Dragonborn is that who is born with the soul of a dragon & that I should go visit the Greybeards in High Hrothgar (Yes I am also wondering if they do actually have greybeards?). Imagine that !! Me ! Valdarr just an ordinary Nord is the Dragonborn !!

I've not been to High Hrothgar yet but I have been spending a lot of time in Whiterun doing various jobs & quests.

I also said goodbye to Sven & let him go back to Riverwood because when I defeated the dragon Jarl gave me a housecarl. Her name is Lydia, she is a good fighter but a bit miserable at times & hates carrying my loot "I am sworn to carry your burdens" she moans all the time.

I also purchased a house in Whiterun called "Breezehome", it is nice to have a house to store items I have collected. You will be glad to know that I am continuing my hobby of collecting books, I have over 60 now. The house is next to a blacksmith & they have kindly let me use their forge to hone my smithing skill.

What else can I tell you? I have made brief visits to other towns like Riften, Windhelm & Winterhold to complete quests. I've also learnt my first dragon shout "Unrelenting Force" I say "Fus" and this power comes out & pushes enemies out of my path. I'm also trying to learn archery & improve my magic skills, these might take a while because you know I'm more of a sword & shield person. I purchased a horse from the local stables so I can venture out further from town if needed.

I have to go now the blacksmith is about to open next door & I need to improve my smithing skill so I can learn how to make Dragon Armour.

Rage - Completed

2011-12-26T10:30:00.001Z

Since the Large Mutant Card incident I lost my love for this game quite a bit but I was determined that my gaming ocd will not get the better of me & I would see this game though to completion.

This I did by sticking to the main quest line & not getting distracted by any races, acheivements or mini games I arrived in Capital Prime to take down the authority, expecting a big firefight I came fully stocked on ammo & weapons to only be met with a simple hacking challenge & very few enemies. No big boss fight or an epic assault sequence?

What a lacklusture ending to the game, did "id" get bored making the game by then? Is it setting up for a potential sequel?

Not sure but I had enough of Rage & it was time to go visit Skyrim

Words with Friends - Changes

2011-12-25T11:30:00.000Z

Version 4.10.1 updated the app to include a store

• Tile Pile shows you how many of each letter is left!
• Word-O-Meter tells you how strong your word is relative to all words your rack can create!

Yes you read that correct after newtoy were bought out by Zynga it was only a matter of time that the app would get monetized & it took them a while but you can now buy credits to cheat in the game.

What a shame !! What a way to ruin a great game.
I hope the app gets updated so the opposing player knows that you used one of these skills against them.

Anyhow I will still keep the app because there are a few regular players I play who I trust to not buy into Zynga's money cow & cheat in the game.

But I must also welcome back Wordfued which has a nice shuffle board feature to vary the tiles on the board or you can play a standard board.

http://wordfeud.com/

My username on both games is gospvg, so send me an invite if you want a game (Although I seem to spending a lot of time in Skyrim at the moment)

New Logo - Skyrim

2011-12-24T09:46:00.001Z

New Logo - Adventure Awaits

With Rage completed it is time to play my first Elder Scrolls game and adventure awaits in Skyrim

Old Logo - Obsessive Compulsive

Say What You See - The Collection

2011-12-19T18:43:00.002Z

Say what you see - The Collection is a "I spy with my little eye" game in that you have to look at the canvas and try and guess the answers.

There are lots of different canvases from Movies, Music to TV but my favourite is obviously the video game canvas.

The game is free & comes with 2 free canvases to get you started so what are you waiting for SAY WHAT YOU SEE !!

Link to app http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/say-what-you-see-the-collection/id397730496?mt=8

New Tuesday A to Z - B (games never played)

2011-12-17T09:32:00.001Z

Bioshock - I started playing this on the PC & a few days later I purchased the 360 console & the rest is history. I never went back to my PC to game again. It was one of my first purchases for the 360 console but I have yet to play it, I also have the sequel sat on the shelf & with Bioshock Infinite next year maybe 2012 could be the year that I play the trilogy

Broken Sword - Point & Click adventures is one genre that I have never been interested in, they just seem so boring. Imagine my disappointment at the Telltale Back to the Future games :(

Beyond Good & Evil - Purchased for the PS2 (Never Played), Purchased for the gamecube (Never Played) & recently purchased for XBLA - Only time will tell if I finally get round to playing it?

Black & White - Did it get a console release? God like sim game I think? not sure never interested me enough to play on the PC.

Brain Training - Came & went with so many DS purchases but I never felt the need to train my brain, it's BIG enough already :)

Carcassonne - Expansions The River with Inns & Cathedrals

2011-12-16T12:14:00.002Z

Finally expansions have arrived on the Carcassonne app in the form of in-app purchases. You get for 69p The River Expansion which adds 12 new tiles which you must play at the start of the game. I think the idea behind this is to divide the board up into different playing fields.

For £1.49 you get Inns & Cathedrals which add 18 new tiles you can use during gameplay, Inns double the points you get for Roads they are next to & Cathedrals when placed inside cities give you bonus points for each tile in the city.

Also you can now decide when starting a game to either include the expansions but also you now have two modes which I call Kid mode & Hardcore mode. Kid mode allows you to turn off placing meeple's on fields & Hardcore mode hides the remaining tiles in play.

It is great to have some expansion packs to what is easily in my opinion the best game on the appstore.

Gaming OCD

2011-12-15T14:48:00.000Z

Gaming OCD - Obsessive compulsive disorder that manifests during gaming. A person may not have OCD in real life, but will display OCD behavior in a game with exhausting inventory organization, breaking every possible breakable object in the room or always reaching the level cap.

The "Large Mutant" collector card incident recently in Rage has bought my gaming OCD to my attention.
Why must I spend hours doing every little sidequest, collecting every card & getting achievements?

Why does it take me much longer to complete a game and yet Abbas will run through it and complete it in a fifth of the time?

The incident in Rage has taken me to a crossroad. Do I restart the game having already put in 18 hours? or Do I continue playing the game ignoring my OCD tendencies to complete it and move on?

Time is a very precious commodity and like previously in my gaming years once I realise a game has made me waste that time I will forever hate that game. Previous examples of this I can recall are Half Life 2 after playing for 20 odd hours I got to a section where I had to activate a lift & the game stopped dead, I could not go any further, my response was to delete the game.

Dungeon Siege 2 on the PC having played for 40+ hours I was nearing the end of the game when I was hit by a game saving bug that wiped out all of my 6 save files, on that occasion I snapped the disc in half.

Rage oh Rage !! what shall I do with thee? Your poor gaming design choices have stopped my gaming OCD by not allowing me to collect a card I need to complete the achievements for "Collect Them All" & "Obsessive Compulsive"

I spent time playing your mini-games, competing in your races ensuring I would finish first, purchasing schematics & completing sidequest upon sidequest !!

And you then go WALLOP !! me around the face by not allowing me to collect a card !!

But is that your fault or my gaming OCD?
Leaving the minigames, sidequests & races to one side and coming back to the main game. Have you stopped me playing that? Have you caused me to get stuck in a lift I cannot advance from? Have you deleted all my gamesaves? No but what you have done is bought my gaming OCD to my attention, be it the fault of "Achievements" or me the "Gamer"

I will learn from this & I will change.

To start with I am not going to leave you unfinished, I will finish you BUT & it's a big BUT my love and enjoyment for you has gone & it is has been replaced by Anger & RAGE !!

Lost Planet 2 - Completed

2011-12-15T09:44:00.000Z

A very confusing story line, odd graphical designs (Toby swears he saw a half-naked woman), quirky gameplay mechanics, very Japanese in style I suppose but another great co-op gaming experience.

The boss fights in the game were very challenging having to figure out how to take them out with little or no information. The co-op gameplay which has you working together to control the train, use the gun turret & control your ship whilst attacking your enemies. There are some really nice touches to the gameplay it is just a shame some attention did not go into the storyline & voice acting.

The basic gist of the storyline is you play different factions who come together to save the planet by destroying an Over G monster. When I type it out like that it seems simple but in practice you do not realise what is happening until you get to near the end of the game.

The difficulty spikes in the game had us on occasions changing back to easy level to advance in the game before returning to normal. Maybe that was because we had 1 CPU character, possibly with an additional player we might have fared better. Next on the UGVM PMG schedule is Dead Island in the new year.

Rage - Large Mutant Card - Gotta Have 'Em All & Obsessive Compulsive

2011-12-14T11:14:00.000Z

There are two achievements in the game one for collecting all 54 collector cards in one play-through "Gotta Have 'Em All" & "Obsessive Compulsive" which is 100% completion in the campaign. To do this you need to get first in all races, complete sidequests, mini-games, vehicle jumps, schematics, job board missions & obviously collecting all the cards. You can check your progress by looking at your stats screen in the game.

You should have 94/130 when leaving the town of Wellspring

ID (The developers) decided to make some of these collector cards miss-able in that if you do not collect them on your first visit to a location then TOUGH LUCK !!

I missed the Large Mutant card on my first visit to Dead City, when I went back to get the card I was locked out by a door that would not let me return to the wasteland.

After some researching I read you would visit Dead City again so I continued to play the game & when the time came to visit Dead City again the card was not there at it's location. This then left me with two options either restart the game or ignore those acheivements and continue the game.

Obsessive Compulsive is that a piss take from ID to gamers like me who take their time playing games and visit every location & complete every sidequests or maybe it is a warning to gamers like me to stop, think & take stock of what they are doing when playing games.

...pondering ..

Rage - Jackpot

2011-12-13T09:57:00.000Z

Possibly one of the most annoying achievements in the game is in the mini-game of tombstones, you have to get a roll of 4 targets on the first attempt.

Annoyingly I managed it a few times on the 2nd attempt but it took me a long time to get it on the first roll.

I would play for 10 minutes per time when visiting Wellspring otherwise it got very annoying but it is an easy way to get some cash when playing with the $25 bet. Although the comet bloom glitch is the easiet

Mech Commander 2

2011-12-10T15:06:00.002Z

To follow up on my last post about MechWarrior, a quick look at Mech Commander 2, oh the memories thanks Wolfman

MechWarrior - Tactical Command

2011-12-10T14:59:00.004Z

2012 can't come soon enough, MechWarrior Tactical Command coming to iOS, could this be the Mech Commander fix I need :)

NEW Tuesday A to Z - A (games never played)

2011-12-10T14:49:00.002Z

The spaghetti filled toast is back for the next chapter in the A to Z saga. This time it will be a list of games I have never played or have left unfinished.

These are not just any games but games that make any 30 year old hardcore gamer go WTF !! you have never played that?!!

There will be a maximum limit of only 5 titles per letter, otherwise on some letters I will be writing forever....

So without further ado I give you the letter A

Assassins Creed
Even though this shows up on my xbox 360 gamerscore it was Abbas who played it on my account before he had his own gamertag. I forgot but at the time I must have been playing something else, when released I thought it's just another Lara Croft/Prince of Persia clone thus ignored it's charms until the second game was released & grabbed my attention. I do hope at some point to play this game but the story seems to have moved on.

Animal Crossing
Farm building. looking after animals sim type game which has never interested me at all.

Aliens vs Predator
One of my missed opportunities when owning a Jaguar console, probably would have scared the crap out of me but I will never know.

Alien Soldier
Treasure are rated quite highly as a software developer but I have yet to still play this 2d platformer.

Another World
Too busy playing with music software to really play any games on my Atari Ste, I predict an app store release in the near future.

V1.1 - Noughts & Crosses

2011-12-05T06:59:00.001Z

Abbas has updated his first app with new graphics & added more themes. I am very proud of the time & effort he has spent into making this app & look forward to his next project.

App Link
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nac.game&feature=search_result

Assault Heroes - Co-op Carnage Completed

2011-12-04T15:57:00.001Z

After completing Turtles in Time Re-Shelled last weekend with Monster it was time to continue the playing of the XBLA purchases with Assault Heroes.

This is a twin stick shooter in which you use the left stick to control the vehicle & the right stick to control the directions of your weapon. You have three weapon types Minigun, Cannon & Flamethrower. All of these weapons can be upgraded to increase damage & rate of fire by collecting the pick-ups.

You have unlimited ammo in the game so you can blast away to your hearts content. I found the flamethrower cause more damage but it's range is very short so you have to get in very close to attack your enemies. The minigun has a very fast rate of fire but has the weakest attack & the cannon lets you sit back and fire over long distances but has a very slow fire rate.

Damage to your vehicle heals over time & if your vehicle does get destroyed you have to control your soldier on foot whilst your vehicle re-spawns. You also have grenades & nukes which you can use to destroy enemies but I tend to save these for the boss fights. You can easily complete the game in a couple of hours but ramp up the difficulty if you fancy a challenge.

Next weekend? Gatling Gears

Angry Birds - Wreck The Halls

2011-12-04T15:54:00.000Z

The Angry Birds Advent calendar is back this year on Angry Birds Seasons. Last year was fun competing with the boys & Xexyzx & Jochta. They are all back this year to try and three star all the levels.

The new levels unlock at 8am each morning, all building up to Christmas day.

DLC Quest - Completed

2011-11-29T17:28:00.001Z

Available form the Indie Store on Xbox Live Arcade for only 80 points, is a lovely satire game on dlc content.

It is a simple platform jump & collect game except you need to purchase dlc content to advance the game from the shopkeeper & ultimately rescue the princess from the bad guy

It will not take you long to complete the game but it will leave you in though pondering about the reasons behind dlc content in the game industry.

Like Toby said yesterday whilst playing Lost Planet 2 "I do not buy and dlc content out of prinicple"

I have certainly been the same with Fallout New Vegas and await the game of the year release to play the dlc content.

Anyhow back to the game DLC quest, where is that last sheep?

Borderlands - The Final Acheivement

2011-11-27T19:51:00.000Z

I got the final achievement today for Borderlands by my character reaching level 61, I did not really do much in that I played a local co-op game with Monster's character who was a level 69 soldier & he had completed the 2nd play through so the enemies were all at level 69 or 70 & my poor low level soldier could do no meaningful damage.

So I just sat back and kept on shooting Monster to heal him & occasionally go charging in to revive him if needed, which would usually result in me needing to get healed.

The final stats on my soldier character read 8 days 10 hours & 42 minutes which in hours makes a staggering 202 hours !!

Easily one of my most enjoyable games on the 360 & one of the best UGVM PMG games.

Turtles in Time Re-Shelled - Completed

2011-11-27T19:39:00.001Z

Time again for some local co-op but this time with my 9 year old Monster, We decided to take a look at the Xbox Live Arcade games that we have not completed that offer local co-op gameplay.

First up was Turtles in Time, a classic side scrolling 2d beat em up remixed on the classic game with new graphics. I went for Michael Angelo & Monster went for Leonardo. There is nothing new to expect in this game it is your typical old school gaming with various stages and end boss fights that do not provide that much of a challenge.

Purchased during a sale for 200 points it gave us 45 minutes of nostalgic fun, now onto the next XBLA local co-op game Assault Heroes next weekend.

Splinter Cell Conviction - Time to Hunt

2011-11-26T08:00:00.001Z

After completing the co-op story back in October, it was time to return to some local co-op gaming with Abbas. Abbas was quite keen to ditch the other modes of Splinter Cell Conviction in favour of starting Gears of War 3 but I was adamant I wanted to go back and complete the other modes & get every penny worth out of the game.

Deniable Ops includes 4 different modes you can play either local co-op or on-line we started with the Hunter mode which has you revisiting locations to take out a set number of enemies. You start each map with a limit of 10 enemies to kill but if you get detected this automatically raises the number to 20.

We completed the first two maps St Petersburg & Russian Embassy, the Hunter mode is quite easy to play although playing on realistic be careful you can only take a few shots before you will need reviving, another advantage of playing with Abbas because he can revive me & vice versa. Make sure you take out every enemy before you get to the end of the map otherwise you will need to go back and get that final kill like we did on the Russian Embassy level retracing our steps to get that last enemy. It's good to get back to some local co-op gaming.

Hanging With Friends - 4 Letter Words Challenge

2011-11-25T07:00:00.001Z

A lot of players seem to have deserted Hanging with Friends, I currently only have 2 games being played. After a while the game can get a bit boring it does not have the staying power of games like Words with Friends or Carcassonne but I set myself a challenge by only playing 4 letter words & I managed to win against GuntherGloop

Next Challenge is to play only 8 letter words – this is going to be difficult because of the random letters you are given it might not always be possible.

Retro Consoles - Rose Tinted Specs

2011-11-24T18:28:00.000Z

The walk down memory lane, how often do you make that journey? In this generation of Nintendo's, Xboxes, Playstations & iOS devices do they give you any spare time for you to visit the old consoles?

If you answer the question truthfully then it will always be no but yet I cannot bring myself to depart with these glorious pieces of electronics because they are a part of me, they are implanted into my dna, the history, memories, painful & joyful moments they have given me over the years.

It is only fair that I keep them to maybe on that one fleeting moment I decide to walk down memory lane again ......

Poker Pals - New High Score

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000Z

Nearly broke into the 700 barrier but just 10 short at 690

Rage - Infinite Money - Comet Bloom

2011-11-23T14:13:00.003Z

Next to Ghost Hideout you will see a purple flower called Comet Bloom this can be picked & then if you enter Ghost Hideout & leave it will re-spawn you can collect as many as you see fit. These can then be sold to any trader for $65 but the trick is that you can buy them back from the trader for $45 leaving you with $20 profit. I harvested 25 x Comet Blooms and use this glitch to make a nice $500 per transaction.

There is a limit of $9999 cash I understand but I usually just keep a few thousand dollars in my pocket in case I find any new weapons or schematics

Then time to go shopping for Ammo & Wingsticks

Alternatively you could play any of the mini games to make some cash but after a while they begin to bore me & I much rather have a fat wallet of cash & explore the wasteland to see what I can find.

Poker Pals - Full House Galore

2011-11-18T12:21:00.000Z

Assassins Creed - Story Recap

2011-11-17T20:46:00.001Z

A recap of Desmonds story so far - looking forward to playing the the next game AC Revelations (not until I have completed Rage)

Words with Friends - I am not acceptable :(

2011-11-17T12:20:00.000Z

Poker Pals - New highest score

2011-11-16T10:20:00.000Z

Beating my previous score of 590 with a win against Jochta & 620 point :)

Words with Friends - Winning by a Single Point

2011-11-16T10:19:00.000Z

Winning by a single point - how satisfying :)