It has been some time since my last post but don’t worry I havent been completely idle. First the site has been updated to the latest version of WordPress, not that it affects anybody reading it but its good for me. Also i am working on a new look which will be deployed in the next month or two. Finally there is a game in development. Its a test to see what I and everyone involved are capable of and for the moment the details will be kept quiet. However, on the real reason for this post, Time Machine.

As anyone who knows me will tell you I am not a great fan of Macs in general. I dont enjoy their forcing of the “Mac way” of doing things upon you. Thier interface still feels slightly alien to me even after the past 18 months working on them. their use of space and concentration on form over function irritates me and the unwieldly shapes I bend my hand into in order to do simple keyboard shortcuts is infuriating. That said I can see their benefits and I have found certain aspects of creating software faster and easier, not much though. Today however I discovered something which as swayed my opinion in a big way.

In development I use Subversion to track changes and to give me the ability to roll back any code which isn’t working for me. It worked out great so far and its integration with xcode meant everything was running very smoothly. That is until last Friday evening. In trying to find a way around issues with an application i am currently developing I completely broke everything and when I attempted to use subversion to role back the changes it encountered errors and conflicts. At this point a gave up and went home. This morning I came back and went to try and clean up my mess. I fixed error after errror and cleaned all the unnecessary code away but to no avail. It was at this point I tried to roll back the code again. This corrupted the main project file and I was unable to open anything. Once again I was not impressed. I couldnt remember the command line code to checkout a specific revision from the subversion repository and while having a quick google to find it I spotted the Time Machine Logo. Now at this point I have to stress that the machine I am developing on has a Seperate physical drive for storage of backups so space could be an issue on a standard setup but not here so i am ignoring that. I entered the time machine to be met with a clean fast presentation of the folders state going back several months. It took meer seconds to navigate to the time and location when i knew the project was working. A simple click on the big Restore button and all was well again and I could calmly return to my work or to be more specific, this posting.

You wont hear me say this often but today I really mean it. Thank You Apple

Let me start by saying that I have scored this purely on my enjoyment of the game. I wish I put in half marks cause this game is neither 3 nor 4 really. But its better than a 3 hence the score.

I am going to put this very very simply. Its a simple good fun game with many, many, many issues. I really enjoyed the story. I always have fun hacking and slashing through floods of enemies. I really enjoy when a game makes me feel like i am some sort of almighty beast whom no being on earth can destroy (ok this game didnt really do that but i was stronger than most). I like collecting loot and looking different to the other people playing. You have to love the sound when you pick up a particularly useful peice of armour or a weapon. Its pretty satisfying.

All that said I have to be fair. Every good thing in the game seems to have something broken. The story was enjoyable but I think they forgot to explain a few things. Alot of details are given through inferance. I usually like this subtle method of letting the player learn about the world. The problem is that by the time you figure out the particular detail the “A-Ha” moment has long passed and you find yourself working on the next piece of the puzzle. I am starting on a second runthrough now and alot of what i see makes a good deal more sense. I dont want to go into specifics cause event though it is based on a well known mythology its still nice to not have everything spelt out for you.

As for the hoardes of enemies, It is a pitty there isnt much variation and any variation that is there seems to be a complete change of enemy type at the most inexplicable moments. For absolutly no aparent reason the enemies will stop being the small scurrying “goblins” and become taller beefier “Dark elves”. Admittedly there isnt much of a difference, the elves are just taller tougher versions of the goblins and they all die pretty well, i just wish i knew why they changed at those specific moments or even just an explanation of exactly what the hell i am fighting. eh, To be honest everything is just a target for your sword or gun anyway.

Which brings me nicely onto the fighting system which is both a stroke of genius and flawed sytem in one. On one hand its novel use of the right stick to target enemies is fun if not entirely intuitive. I wish there was a way to have it be the camera control and the attack control. its annoying in places like the aesir where you cant actually do anything with that stick, its just useless. even swapping to camera controll here may have been an option. The other problem is the fighting system itself and the balance of powerups and the like. This Game WANTS you to go into melee combat. If you prefer guns and select a character which is supposedly meant to mainly use guns you will not be able to build up combos, develop Ruiners or even unlock some of the achievments. I wouldnt mind except the they have a stand back and shoot character, the commando, and you get no replacement for the benefits you would get from hand to hand combat. its the little things that get me.

Then there is the problem with dying. I did this alot. I even got the achievment for 100 deaths. so i have had to watch that stinking valkerie animation OVER 100 TIMES!!! It wasnt fun. I would prefer an XP hit or somthing, but there is another punishment in that your equipment breaks so they have no excuse for making you watch it. I have gotten distracted while waiting and ended up dying again after spawning cause i wasnt paying attention. How annoying is that? The pace of this game would have been seriously improved if you could skip that scene. that and the ability to sprint through empty areas

So in conclusion. great game. Loads of fun. One of the first that had me going “just one more level” in a long while (bar spore that is). Get it, especially if you can pick it up in game for €25 like me, including the preorder bonus armour sets.

I got the demo for this little as soon as it was released and about 20 seconds after creating my first creature I went straight to the site and bought the game. Though to be perfectly honest its more of an investment than a purchase because i get the price taken off  the full game when it finally gets to a stage that i can buy it. For anyone who doesn’t know I have been following this game since Will Wright’s talk at the 2005 Game development Conference. Just another 70 odd days to wait before I get my hands on Spore but the Creature Creator will more than tide me over.  The game is the most simple thing you could get your hands on. Following the instructions of ronseal’s marketing department this game does exactly what it says on the tin. All you get to do in this game is create creatures. But you can create any creature that your twisted mind can conjure up. There are some limitations on the overall complexity so giving your creature 47 legs will pose some problems but other than that you can make anything that takes your fancy. At the time of writing this post there were approaching 1 million different creatures in the sporepedia. This is an online resource of creatures created by users and shared. Each one is unique. There may be similatisies but the variations are incredible. This is all down to the control scheme.

Making your own little monster is simple, intuitive and above all fast. withing 1 minute of starting the game you can have your own multilimbed abomination running around on screen shouting and dancing and punching to its heart’(s) content. Of course to really craft something special you will need time. Each and every part of your creature can be manipulated. there is no rules on where anything can be placed. no set shoulders, hips or neck. All that is set is that there must be a spine of indeterminate length and a mouth to allow the creature to feed. of course multiple mouths are not a problem either and size is not set. A quick roll of your mouse wheel and the selected part or part of a part can be enlarged or shrunk. There really are no limits on the variations that can be created.

What really Makes this game though are the finishing touches. While already accomplishing what it set out to do the development team went that bit further and added in a few extras. The first is the ability to instantly post a video of your creature to You tube from within the game. This has caused You tube to be flooded with peoples videos of their characters, including a few unsavoury ones.

A quick verdict – BEST GAME EVER. Or its is at the moment anyway, my opinion on that is prone to rapid and unpredictable change. The most staggering thing here is that this is only one aspect of a much larger game which will allow for even greater variation and interaction. come on 70 days time, I’m sick of waiting

So Here we go with another movie interpretation of a comic, and like most of the others this one was done before, and just like those others they kicked the old ones ass. As you may guess I really enjoyed this movie.

I have to admit right now that i was not a fan of the last one. It just didnt sit right with me. Every moment i spent thinking about it the more little niddling problems started to irritate me. Now dont ask me what they were now cause it has been a long time since I saw the movie and i have no intention of digging it up again, also This is a review of the new movie, not the last one.

This movie’s first move in the right direction was is refusal to accept the existance of the last. Scrapping the story and rewriting it. That said it doesn’t go about trying to re-introduse the characters all over again. This is a mojor bonus for me. I always hate the first movie in a series cause it feels like the stories are tacked on to the introductions. So this makes the second movie that comes to mind that does this. The other being resident Evil so draw your own opininons about whether that is a good or bad thing. Its all about personal preference.

After this refreshingly quick start the action gets going and rarely lets up. There is a simple and effective formula running through the whole movie of introduce where the action will happen and then have an action scene. Wash rinse repeart through the movie. All that really changes are the locations of the fights and what the hulk is fighting, how can you loose?

On the side of casting everyone put in a solid performance. Personally i though Liv Tyler was the worst there but she did a great job so no complaints. Edward Norton played an excellent Bruce Banner. I loved Eric Bana in the last film but Edward Norton fitted the character far better for me. He seemed much more normal. He wasn’t scrawney but he wasn’t as big as Eric Bana in the 2003 movie and so in my eyes was more believable. Tim Roth played his character perfectly, that is as much as you can say really. You didnt see the actor, just the character.

Of course, no movie is withoutits flaws and this movie did have one or two. One which really got to me, and this is the second recent movie to do this, was a 24 hour chase scene. Now if there was a chase which did last 24 hours then that wouldnt be so bad. This chase however should have unfolded over the space of 2 – 3 hours at the very most and to be perfectly it should be in real time. These chase scenes however tend to start at night and then continue on through the day with the characters never stopping until they come to a climax at night again. The transformers movie was the other one with the same thing so next time you watch it keep your eyes open and the same goes here. I cant really go into any more detail without giving away part of the story. Its not very crucial but its always better going to see a film without any notion of what is going to happen.

So there you go. Another great movie from Marvel this summer and one i reccomend going to see. The earlier the better and definately one to see in the cinema.

Ok its been some time and i couldn’t take notes due to the fact i laughed so much i got hiccups so this will be pretty short. I went to see Billy’s show in Ireland’s National Event Center on May 26th. It was his second show in the venue and to be honest i was luckily to snap up the tickets having missed the opportunity to grab them in the fiasco surrounding tickets for the Cork Opera House Gig. But that is a different Story and one which i will save you from having to endure here.

The location itself is well laid out with ample parking and all that usual boring stuff. Basically I arrived in my car and i got parking quickly and easily so i am happy. In the hall where they gathered all the patrons there was a loud man shouting and trying to sell merchandise. Why he was yelling i have no idea as there was no competition and he was located right next to the entry. He could have sat in a corner blindfolded and still have sold the same amount. And to add insult to injury, this man was entirely in no way funny but to be honest you wouldn’t know that from looking at him.

After some hanging around and getting irritated by the man selling t-shirts The doors were opened and off we marched to our seats. I can tell you now that i lucked out with the seats. I simply went for whatever seats the ticket master machine would assign me so i was quite surprised that my seats were 6 rows from the front and the first row to be elevated. Score one me. The other single ticket i got my hands was not so great. Up high in the yellow section which was to the left of the stage and a little further away but Ian, who was sitting in the seat, assured me it was still great from there.

Which leads me on to the show which as i mentioned was great. We were all worried before he started that he was becoming a cranky old man due to his performance in his last few shows so when he got started we were all pleasantly surprised. He did draw on alot of old material through the show but always with a different angle on the story. His trademark wanderings and jumping from subject to subject was alive and well and still as much fun as ever. Time and time again he would remember an unfinished story that he had trailed off of earlier and while i wasn’t gasping for breath i was trying to keep up with his fast rambling train of thought. The interaction with the crowd was also excellent with taunts and joke being thrown both ways and his new material had me crippled with laughter but you will have to go see him to find out what i am talking about.

Overall I would have been happy to finally see Billy live. I have always rated him as one of the funniest people on earth and this show has just cemented him there in my mind.