Mirrors Edge – Time Trial Map Pack

 

So, last night I forked out 800 Microsoft Points on the new Time Trial Map Pack for Mirrors Edge. I’m not all for paying money for new maps for games, that always feels a bit cheap and unfair on the poor gamers out there so I tend to stick to basic maps unless their free but I must admit I loved Mirrors Edge but felt the game was too short and not very free runny (sounds unhealthy) so when I heard there would be a map pack which would take you outside the city I thought this was awesome. So yeah, I downloaded it and booted it up…my opinion?

Ehm…I’m quite let down. For a collection of maps that take you outside the ridged city and place you into a free running playground the routs though the maps are horridly linier. The challenge isn’t so much in finding new quicker ways from A to B but instead more about for starters working out the ONLY way from A to B then trying to time your jumps and turns perfect. It felt more like a race track with dust on the while lines that show where to go than a collection of expansive free running maps. It would have been nice if they gave us a little more for our money too. I mean the maps are pretty, but considering their just a collection of geometric shapes over an ocean they couldn’t have taken a whole lotta work (a statement I would not have made if there was more than 1 way though each map). Maybe if they had thrown in a 1 on 1 race game I wouldn’t have felt quite so cheated, I mean running against ghosts isn’t bad, teaches you the speedy way to follow the rout and some times they are almost vital to find out how you complete a track without dying, but I’d love to take the game online against a friend and race though a track, hitting each other off the sides as we race and so on, that would make it so fun I could forgive the bad free running aspect.

Hell if they’d thrown in a replay option where you could watch in a third person as Faith runs the map so you can see where you went wrong I’d feel a little less cheated. There is a LOT of stuff they could have done, not ground breaking stuff, not high effort stuff, hell stuff we hardly missed in the game, but there's a lot of it they could have stuck in this expansion to lessen the bitter taste it leaves in your mouth.

You may say ‘but Tim, it’s only 800 points!’ but when you consider the cost of the whole Portal game on the Arcade, that seems a lot for very little.

But remember, don’t take my word for it, try it out yourself if you have the money and let me know if you agree or not. I do like to hear other peoples opinions, it might help me see something in this expansion that justifies me spending the money I did to get it :-)

Fiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzizizizizzzz

So, I kinda said in my Twitter I’d update the site tonight and kicking myself kinda cause as I hit enter I remembered I have very little to update with, I mean my brains kinda like this picture…doesn't matter how much you look at it, you wont see boobies…although my mind is kinda the other way around after a week of work, look at it all you like you’ll only see boobies. Anywho, stuff to talk about…

Oooh, I’ve begun doodles and ideas for a new chapter of Life Of TimmY, new cast, new setup, old Zombies, and even a little plot possibly. I don’t wanna talk about it too much though cause right now it’s still only ideas and it’ll be a while before you get to see it cause I’m looking for a life event to start me off, kinda missed all the big ones recently so need a new one, someone wanna give me a million pounds or challenge me to a race around the world? Sounds like a good motivator!

So, what else has been on the go? I’m still set on making everyone join Twitter so go ahead and join bitches!

I’ve finally picked up a copy of Skype again! If you fancy chatting to me on there my names tim.nice.but.dim (no joke)

Tonight I may have a FEAR2 night, if so expect lots of updates every time I pause cause I’m too scared to go on…I’m a wimp I know…but damn that games evil!

Ooo I might finally get my camera out soon and do a photo shoot! It’s been a looooong time but thanks to my friend (who till I’ve got the thumbs up that she wants to be named in her photos, will remain nameless) I should be doing more shoots soon so mybrokenhead will be getting more arty! So break out your pocky, stuffed anime toys, and put on 50 pounds and join the world in becoming art critics!

I really have little else to update with right now but I may update later with something a little different from the norm :-) don’t worry, no Timmy porn…well…not much anyway.

Tata M’Dears!

F.E.A.R 2

If you’ve seen my recent tweet you know I got a copy of F.E.A.R 2, you’ll no doubt have also guessed I’M SHITTING MYSELF! O_O

The game takes fear one and times it by at least 10! In the first game you heard a sound and you knew something was gonna jump out or be though the next door…this ones less obvious. I’m currently on level one, alone, in a swimming pool area, all dark, my torch is fucking up and I turn around without any scary sounds or anything and Alma is stood there smiling evilly. I’m genuinely too scared to turn around in this game!

Fucking freaky game!

I’ll write a full review once I’ve completed it and washed out my undies.

Work + Lack of Sleep = No Updates

I haven't updated in a few days now, and you may be wondering why (or more logically just not giving a crap). It’s not entirely due to a lack of content (although most of it is video game based so I’m looking for stuff to break that up a bit for the lesser nerds reading this), it’s more I just can’t be arsed or I’m too tiered to go searching for stuff to update with. Hell even finding the picture for this post involved trolling though quite a lot of she-male Wang in Google with the search term ‘office prank’…fuck knows why.

So yeah, I’m tiered, not tiered of the blog, just work is nackering me out right now and I’m not even pulling full shifts (which is gonna bite me in the ass in a weeks time). I don’t wanna write an entire post about how shit work is or something, it just doesn't seem interesting and I moan to friends enough without making the internet suffer too, so instead, I give you:

AAAAW! HOW CWOOOOT!

Detective Mittens: The Crime Solving Cat

Halo Wars - Demo

I must admit my days of RTS kinda died when my Windows Systems started to suck too much to run new games, I’ve played games like Warcraft, Starcraft and the early C&C games to death and thus lost interest. When EA released C&C3 on Xbox 360 I’ll admit my interest was peeked due to the fact it would run as I own a 360 (although with the CD sounds recently I’m not sure how long I’ll own one before it melts). I borrowed the game off someone and sat down with the tutorial only to find the progress slow, the controls unappealing, and the game just a total turn off, in truth it kinda marked console RTS for me, which is a shame because the early C&C’s on PS1 were amazing. Anyway, when I heard about Halo Wars being a 360 exclusive I wasn’t to fussed, didn’t appeal to me based on my experience with RTS so I looked past it and focused on other games, that was till today when I downloaded the demo.

The demo is 1.4 gigs so if your on a bad connection give up now, but for anyone else I’d recommend it! The game is visually and technically beautiful. The controls are smooth and easy, the GUI is basic, the base building, although key, isn’t a chore. The wars even with the 30 unit limit I was given still felt large and chaotic. The graphics felt like I was genuinely playing a Halo game from an RTS view too (which is something the promotions bragged about but I didn’t be leave). I tried this demo thinking I’d finally have something bad to say about Halo because you know, it’s cool to dislike popular stuff, but I fell in love with the game to the point where I’m toying with buying it when it comes out (buying new titles is a rare thing for me because of my tight fistedness when it comes to games).

The game isn’t without it’s problems though. A few things make no sense in the time line considering the game is set 20 years before Halo 1, the technology of the Humans is far better than in the games. Also Halo War’s AI is clothed, where as Cortana didn’t need clothes (I know it’s nit picking but why dose an AI computer need to dress up? It bugs me). I’m also unsure about some of the characters (a.k.a the dude you take control of in the demo felt like a bit of a dick…kinda like a dick version of what’s his face who you take control of at the start of Starcraft). All of this is forgiven though with some damn beautiful cut-scenes and of course Halo’s trade mark music.

With the last set-in-stone Halo release (with Bungie jumping ship) being an expansion pack for Halo 3, Halo Wars to me is the final chapter in the series unless something happens. If it is, I think it’s set to be a good one, and also a game Ensemble Studios can be proud of as their final title before being shut down.

If you have a 360 check it out.

Coraline

I was chatting to my friend Nayfun the other day when the topic of movies came up, I listed a few well known movies, Monsters vs Aliens, Unborn, and The Watchmen when suddenly he mentioned a movie called Coraline. In truth when I first heard the name I thought gay, when I saw the site I thought ‘ooo animation…but still…looks kinda gay’, but then I watched the trailers and fell in love with what could be a totally over looked movie. I must admit I can’t tell if I’ve fallen in love with a kids or an adults movie, the basic plot seems childish, but the actual movie seems quite dark and not really for kids (unless this generation of kids is less wimpy than mine), but what’s important is it looks amazing and like something we haven’t seen I’d say since Nightmare Before Christmas (never seen it, but it’s been a long time since a movie of it’s style and theme has been out) and no surprise this ones by one of the guys behind Nightmare Before Christmas so if you liked it you will probably like this (unless you only liked it cause Burton made it in which case fuck off and never come back to my blog again he’s an over rated prick who’s an insult on the Tim’s of the world!).

Anyway, here is the trailer (the official site with the trailer on is VERY Flash heavy so I thought I’d run it here for people who don’t have good computer specs…a.k.a me), enjoy:

What do you think? Leave a comment :-)

Procrastination…

So, I’m meant to be having a bath then going to bed right now but I’m awful for procrastination…the odd thing is if I was meant to be updating my blog I’d currently be having a bath then going to bed to avoid it, if you want me to do something, ask me to do the opposite and make it sound like a horrible chore. Anyway, not really sure what to update with, hence the totally random subject picture there.

So, today I’ve been using Twitter (yes I’m on about Twitter again) a lot, trying to get myself into the swing of things, at the same time I’m trying to get friends to join too (one down…I know…I have one friend, scary!), but I realised something interesting about how Twitter works. If lets say Jonny Depp started a Deviant Art account he’d get NO interest beyond a few people hoping he posts some photos of himself instead of drawings of stick men with penises. If on the other hand he joined Twitter (which he may have done but I don’t give a crap) he’ll instantly be thrown into stardom. Twitter feeds off your fame from anywhere, meaning if I’m ever to become a much watched Twitterer I need to become known for something OUT SIDE of Twitter.

Now I don’t go looking for fame, that’s kinda lame, in truth I presume I’m unpopular even when previous projects have pulled in a lot of interest (why oh why do I get bored and stop running stuff?!), but it would be cool to know such gripping updates as ‘I had chicken noodles’ would be red by thousands of people…hell I’d be happy with 10…half way there!

So I’ve begun doodling up ideas of different ways to get people interested in me in different mediums, lets say I made a comic and people liked it and joined my twitter, they’d then notice my blog and maybe read it, and the other way around, I guess this is why I’d like a little fame, because it would give me a safety net that something I make wont crash and burn and with that safety net comes a lot more motivation and confidence in my work.

You know what, I’m babbling right now and no doubt no one cares anymore, hell I don’t, I’m actually starting to want that bath so I’m gonna shush up. But once again, if your on twitter check me out, if your not, join, then check me out!

Welcome to the new pad!

Welcome to the new Blog! For anyone who’s new here this is my new internet home after moving from Moriarty’s Den (hence the 4 months of archives on a new blog). I’m still getting used to the new style and trying to decide how to set everything up so gimme a little time. If my headache goes by tonight I’ll post an update then :-)

<3

twitter

Ah twitter, I mentioned this little web 2.0 tool a while back and in fairness I tried to play it up but I just didn’t care. It seemed like someone had taken the status update used in Facebook and built a site on that and nothing else. Integrating it into your blog seemed like the only logical use, hence I stuck it on here, over there >>>. Anyway, yesterday, after using twitter for a month I finally tried checking out the twitter community, how? I subscribed to Stephen Fry’s twitter, instantly the site became a whole new thing to me, fun, interesting, and insanely nosey! I found that my TV hero was updating his twitter almost constantly, including his epic adventures getting stuck in a lift, I found this weirdly interesting, and the more I red the more I began to fall in love with Twitter. I’ve heard it being described as the ultimate news feed but always took that as marketing bumph but yesterday I realised it really is. People can update their twitters a lot faster than a news crew can report something. People who were these when something happened will “tweet” which will then spread across the…I’m gonna be cool now and coin a term…Twitter-Sphere in moments!

Alas as cool as this all sounds though I enjoy twitter because it goes back to basics. Pictures are in links, no fancy flash animations, no blinking text or pimped out posts. It feels like the IRC equivalent of Web 2.0 which has a real charm for me, a lover of the simple…no I don’t mean I take advantage of mentally ill people…well, not often but I’m getting off topic. I love the setup, the style, the community, and the popularity of twitter and would recommend everyone gives it a try at least for a few weeks and if you do, subscribe to me and I’ll subscribe to you, and together we shall take on the tweets of others!*

*I probably wont talk to you, but we can pretend right?

Ferrets

sorry for the sucky lack of good updates this weekend, till next time I hope this puts a smile on your face <3