Happy Halloween Kiddies!

Kindle Fire... The Scorched Review

Last week the new addition to the Kindle family was unveiled here in the UK, The Kindle Fire came to Amazon and participation stores and was the most eagerly anticipated Kindle device to hit the shelves. It's not just a Kindle e-reader but a tablet too. 'Powerful and Portable, 'Beautifully Simple' says Amazon. It looked like this Autumn's best and most affordable tablet, able to watch movies, play games, read books and surf the web viewable on a stunning HD LCD screen, with Dual- Core 1.20GHz processors, built in Dolby speakers and available in a whopping 32GB storage and a front facing HD camera.

Being a sucker for gadgets the spec list looked brilliant, I had heard about the Kindle Fire since it's release in the US some time ago, and the reviews seemed pretty good. With the ability to download movies from Amazon's Instant marketplace and the selection of a ton of apps available, the Kindle Fire looked to rival and out-do the iPad. So I pre-ordered my copy in Waterstones, then when the day came a week later I picked up my new Kindle Fire. I remember entering the store, I could barely hold in my excitement, I felt like a child making my way towards Santa to receive my gift. Money was exchanged, excitement now ready to burst out of me. I had a hard time trying not to skip out the shop and pelt through the shopping center to get home and check out my shiny new gadget. I wouldn't have imagined that I was hurling towards the dark bleak pit of disappointment avenue...

So how do I put this. Well to start off there is NO video marketplace, no place to purchase movies at all! Next to our Yankee brethren we have been royally shafted! With the US version you are presented with Amazon Instant, us folks in the UK we are given movie streaming through Lovefilm, a subsidiary company of Amazon, plus the opportunity to download Netflix as well through the Kindle's App store (I'll get to that later). So when you are without Wi-Fi the Kindle Fire become, well just a color Kindle with a few games and listen to some music, which I have to add you are able to purchase through Amazon. However when the Fire is connected to your PC or Mac, you are able to put videos on it's hard-drive once the device has been mounted. The Kindle is a little finicky though as it doesn't support .AVI, .WMV, .FLV and some MPEG4 video codecs, and obviously forget your iTunes videos too unless you have DRM removal software!

Next item we come to is the app store. When browsing the app store I noticed that it was pretty sparse and when I did come across an app that I wanted, for example Monopoly, it says that my device wasn't comparable. Like what kind of crap is this! So not only I got jipped with the films but the app store too.

I have to say though, what I was impressed with was the sound quality from the on-board speakers, boasting two Dolby Audio speakers mounted on the back. The HD LCD screen is nice too.

So that's it. The review done.

My advice: Get an iPad mini, I know I will be.

New Horizons

I have added some new content to my blog this week. After recently acquiring Photoshop for my PC, I an now able to continue with my graphic designs and processing my photos. I have now added two new pages, 'Photography' and 'Projects'.

The photography page will include what I fell is my best work, The next page, projects, will include a list of past and present projects, plus developments that I plan to produce in the future. Comprining of video production, game development and written work. All these things will be added over time, so keep an eye out!

It Came From Planet Dagon

The Shadow Out Of Time

I have been putting together a series of photographs with my Instagram app on my iPod Touch that are inspired by the stories of H. P. Lovecraft.

Please follow me through Instagram: @nerdfromplanetdagon

What Strangeness Futures Bring

I have had a good break from work and general home life recently. Went down to the coast of Kent for a week of relaxation, fishing and catching up on reading. I am also learning Italian from this 'teach it yourself' CD kit. With my sister to help me out I should be on the way to speaking relatively well and conversing with the Italian customers at work. Reading my H. P. Lovecraft graphic novels were on my agenda too and I am halfway through volume one.

Whilst on my break I have been brainstorming ideas for projects that I would like to produce next year. My main project is to finish off developing my Visual Novel game (produced under BotWorks Interactive), all that needs to be done is to create the imagery and compose the music. I have also written an outline for the second installment. And on the subject of writing, after reading a recent article about self publishing work on Amazon's Kindle, I have decided that I want to gather some of my short stories that I have written or in the process of, polish them up and publish on the Kindle store. This may take some time as some need a lot of reworking and developing, but it's an idea that I am planning to pursue. Will keep you up-to-date with how I get on.

Also on the horizon that I am hoping to accomplish is a short film based on one of my most loved, and I feel, most visually exciting H. P. Lovecraft stories Pickman's Model or The Hound. Screenplay writing and story-boarding will commence sometime next year. So that's the upcoming forecast (hopefully) for 2013.

Faber Est Quisque Fortunae Suae

Eurogamer Expo 2012

At the end of September a friend (Suburban Killbot) and myself went to the Eurogamer Expo at Earls. I was really excited about this as I had never been to a video game expo before. In the past I have antiquated a comic con in London, and that was just awesome.

So when the day arrived, I was pretty psyched. As we departed from the train station we headed toward the Expo, eagerly contemplating what we our battle plan should be. Attack the first game stand we see, strategically hit the ones with the smaller ques, or just do whatever takes our fancy. But what greeted us once our red, plastic expo band was securely attached to our wrists brought our plans crashing down like Donkey Kong's barrel. We were hit in the face by bright lights, a chaos of loud sound that couldn't be distinguished as how many and hundreds of people. So we did what we knew was safe and chose a direction to walk in and hoped for the best. We saw a ton of cosplayers and I spied a fair few booth babes, where I gloriously had a photo taken with one. Epic win!

The first game that we hit was Aliens Colonial Marines. The queue was about a 40 minute wait, which was short compared to our next venture. When we finally got to the end, a line of monitors awaited us. As we sat down at our designated monitor, my apprehension grew and my palms grew clammy. The thought of a dozen kids behind me and watching me fail gloriously was etched in my prefrontal cortex. Then at last the game began and the start of the Timed Death Match between a group of possibly highly skilled monkeys from Sega who been playing this game since 8am and us, a collective group of advanced gamer nerds and casual gamers. Were were totally going to get PWNED! Or for the record, I was. As I was finishing my possibly third Alien kill my screen froze in mid-death, my heart stopped for a split second, beads of perspiration glistened on my forehead. "@#*$" I exclaimed, I was a good two and a half minutes in and had little time left before I had to leave this seat for someone else. I hurridly ushered over a Sega monkey to get me back in the game and when he did I had T-minus 50 seconds. I hurriedly killed 2 more Aliens, died two more times and then DONE! As the screen changed to the player rank screen I felt a little disappointing and ultimately cheated in loosing a few precious minutes in deading a few Aliens. But my achievements were rewarded as I exited the game zone with a few Aliens Colonial Marines goodies. Job done!

Our next point of call was the ZombiU booth. As we calmly waited in line to get a taste for some zombie action, what awaited us next we were not prepared for. After a good hour in line we were both getting tiresome of all this queuing, I however had packed some essentials for such a time and took out my 3DS where I had several Mii's waiting for me. Then we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, we were only a few people away from the front of the queue. I could taste the rotting flesh of zombies in my mouth, my pupils were dilating with excitement. We got closer and closer and... wait what's this? We then discovered to our horror that the queue that were were in and had been in for an hour was actually the beginning of queuing system. There was a whole new queue in front of us. A whole hour to find our we had to do it again. It was then decided that it was too much, and exited the queue and went to find something else. At that time there were lines for everything and it didn't look like were were going to play anything that had a less than 40 minute queue at the beginning of it. So we milled around, checked out the sights. After an hour or so we headed out and back home.


The only other thing was that I was a bit  disappointing about the lack of free stuff that was available. In all I advise anyone who is going to Eurogamer is to get the whole weekend ticket, pack some munchies and possibly your trusty 3DS for those long waits in the queue.

Ad infinitum

The Colour Out Of Space

Puzzle, Solved.
So to begin I have finally finished "Professor Layton and Specter's Call" on the 3DS last week. It was really good and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, It had a really great story that gripped me right till he better end. Though I have finished the main story-line and the main puzzles there are still a few more hidden puzzles and items that I need to find. I enjoyed the game so much that I have also purchased on Amazon "Professor Layton and the Curious Village" and "Professor Layton and Pandora's Box", so am all excited to playing those. Please read my review of the game here

A new adventure awaits.
In the meantime I am playing "The Adventured OF Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn" - so far a good solid game, playable in stunning 3D it really shows off the 3DS' potential as an awesome handheld console. The graphics are lovely, good depth with the 3D turned on. The game follows the movies' storyline, revolving around the hunt for precious scrolls from the pirate golden age that may lead them to one of the greatest sunken treasures, flying around the world and discovering many environments from the movie such as Captain Haddock’s ship, the moonlit deserts of the northern Sahara, the exotic city of Bagghar and more.

The game is primarily a platformer, though it does bring in some behind-the-player views from time-to-time. You are also able to play as Snowy and Haddock, each with their own abilities and special skills. The game is also spliced up by some comic book style cut-scenes which also tell the story. There are some great battle scenes where you find Haddock (an ancestor of Captain Haddock) sword fighting with the menacing Red Rackham, where you are required to use the stylus as the tool for your swashbuckling sword play, this is an integrated storyline of Captain Haddock and appears in short chunks as the story unfolds. The game is very fun to play, lot's of comedic, slapstick moments. For example when attempting to defeat characters by throwing banana skins at their feet, so they skid and slide into walls knocking themselves unconscious. Plus a variety of modes like flying an small plane, dodging rocks and other obstacles and flying around by holding on to a parrot... obviously!

I finished the game in about five weeks, playing for a few hours every day, mainly in my lunch breaks at work. Even after the main storyline is finished you can still revisit chapters, if you are the type to go and find all the collectables. Other key features are a co-op mode and challenge mode, plus a few more features that I haven't inspected yet.

Ad Finem

Now Playing... Guild Wars 2 (Part 1)

 Well, what can I say. For starters it's pretty damn good! The graphics are nice, which is a big plus, it has a nice array or characters and classes to choose from and - now this is probably the most important aspect is that there is NO SUBSCRIPTION FEE! Being a modest WoW veteran (after 6 long years and almost flunking college) I was pretty happy about this.

Imagine how much money I potentially 'wasted' on subscription fees playing World of Warcraft. Well maybe that's being a tad unfair, as I enjoyed the hell out of playing World of Warcraft back in the day. And I don't regret paying out my hard earned cash to do so.

In the beginning I imagined the GW2 would be a bit like WoW. I mean I was impressed with WoW, it was a great mmo and I thoroughly enjoyed it until, after Wrath of The Lich King when things got a bit tiresome. You know the deal, collect 10 of these, kill 90 of these, collect 10 million of these.... And plus the playability of WoW was good too. Though by the end I was kind of sick with all the E-peening, whining and moaning about this, that and the other. And so I instinctively thought that GW2 would be the same, but better somehow. But no!

It all began on one sunny day in the Astronomy shop, where I work at the ROG when a colleague, friend and WoW vet told me about this game, Guild Wars 2 that he had recently purchased. He went on to tell me how amazing it was. How fantastic the graphics were, the integration of 'dynamic events', the design of the world being 'awe-inspiring'. So he raved and plugged this game until I was like 'OK, I think I'm going to have to go get this game'.

Since my departure of WoW and after several dreams about playing it again, I really had the mmorpg itch. And WoW was at my fingertips. Beckoning me. But no, I was done with that, that time has passed and needed something new and fresh. And that saving grace was Guild Wars 2. I have only been playing it for about two weeks. Coming home after work and playing for a few hours. The nice thing about having no subs fee is that you don't feel obligated to play every single night without fail so I can make the most of the cost. With GW2 there isn't that obligation, it feel's freer, more relaxed. I can take a month off and not feel that I have wasted ten quid or so! Nice huh!

To sum up, this is a good mmo, there is a good selection of characters to choose from and the UI is pretty easy to navigate around (once you get used to it of course), plus a ton of cool features that the games offers. At the moment I haven't explored much. In fact by looking at the map the world is pretty damn big! Lots to explore and enjoy. I will probably add more reviews at a later date when I have explored a bit more.

I guess Blizzard better buckle up, because the competition is getting tough!

Now Playing... Professor Layton and Specter's Call

Currently I have been playing "Professor Layton and Specter's Call" (or The Last Specter for the US version) on my newly purchased 3DS (Cosmos Black version of course!). 

Specter's Call, like the other Prof. Layton games is all about the puzzles and the absorbing storyline. The one I'm playing now revolves around a town called Misthallery where a mysterious giant has been terrorising the town. Your job is to discover who... or what is behind it by speaking to the quirky townfolk and obtaining clues by solving their puzzles.

There are approximately 170 puzzles that are obtained by Misthallery's people, plus a bunch of hidden puzzles, mini games and trophies to grab along the way.The difficulty level of the puzzles fluctuates throughout the game - so it doesn't seem to get difficult the more you progress. With each puzzle there is the opportunity to grab Picarats - which are the puzzles' score rating. The higher the Picarat score the harder the puzzle and with these points you are able to unlock in-game bonus features. Savvy!

During the game there are also some very nice animated cut-scenes that help build the story. I am thoroughly enjoying this game and play it every day in my lunch and tea breaks at work.

I got CyberPower!

 Well it's been quite a week. I managed to secure a full-time permanent contract with the museum, which I was really happy with.

Today I received my shiny new PC from CyberPower. Yes I have finally joined the PC revolution, with a nice catalogue of PC games waiting for me I am really excited to get started. I have captured some lovely images, so enjoy...

Arrival!

:)

A big box of awesomeness

'X' Marks The Spot

So I'm revisiting The X-Files on DVD at the moment and I am now on Season 2. Aired August 28, 1995 (BBC), most of the season was affected by Gillian Anderson's pregnancy and her leaving the show for a brief period, which was explained in four episodes -  "Duane Barry" (2x05) through to "One Breath" (2x08). The season still incorporates the highly enjoyable monster-of-the-week scenarios and the continuing alien conspiracy mythology, while introducing the alien bounty hunter and Scully's abduction (which is then brought up further down the line and adding more to the conspiracy with her illness and alien implants).

I do love this series, my favorite episodes being "DØd Kalm", "Humbug" and "Soft Light". I have still got a long way to go, however, so I better get cracking!

Das ist es jetzt...

In The Beginning...

This is where I start, and so I shall begin.

Hello there reader, I welcome you to my Blog and my world as I see it and live it. To begin let me tell you about myself. I turned 29 only a few weeks ago, most of my time is spent working at the National Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory (now collectively known as the RMG - Royal Museums Greenwich). It is a brilliant job, one of the best I have had. In my spare time, when I am not working, I enjoy video games, writing short stories and reading H. P. Lovecraft. Currently I am reading 'H. P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life' by Michel Houellebecq, an essay style piece that delves into the life of HPL, his wild fantastical dreams that inspired his works, his hatred for all forms of realism and his rejection of subjects relating to sex and money. It's a ffascinating read and I'm only one-quarter of the way through.

Persequendum Est...