Tweak UAC

Anyone who's using vista will love this.

As you all know, vista has this stupid habit of prompting you every now and then that it needs your permission to do something (that is if you've got UAC enabled, which is default and recommended). It's a feature they've copied off OSX, the difference being that the OSX one actually does protect (it prompts you for a password each time a file that is owned by "system" is accessed, which should never happen. Hence OSX = no viruses :D).

Windows UAC on the other hand, protects the computer from THE USER, making sure that when they're gonna do something potentially harmful, it asks for their permission first. Heh.

But someone clever has created TweakUAC. A program that lets you switch UAC in to "quiet" mode. Meaning that it keeps UAC on, but just doesn't keep popping up to annoy you.

And yes the creator has explained why your system will stay just as secure.

Try it out, and be thankful, it really makes life so much easier.

360 = DEAD!!!

Yes that's right. Today the 360 died after crashing a few times. It now refuses to boot and displays the dreaded "Three Rings of Death" pictured to your left.

Gotta fix it, will take ages I think. Shame really. PS3/2 gaming and Wii for now I guess....

Browser fun

I tried to put this in the sidebar, but it's too big and looks clumsy.

Reducing it to fit made it unreadable. Hence, I post it here for fun :)

On how the colossi fell

Today we finished Shadow Of The Colossus. One of the 5 or so games that I wish I had a PS2 for. Now that I got a PS3, I'm playing through them.
Colossus is an amazing feat. Not because it's so original, or because the Colossi are beautiful creatures that are huge, but because of the way it presents itself, and the way it tells its story.

The game starts off with you carrying a dead girl in to some sacred place. A voice from above tells you to go and kill 16 Colossi, after which she'll be resurrected. And that's about all you get to know. The game is about you, your horse, and the huge environment in which you've got to find the Colossi, and try to beat them.

Each battle is a huge task in trying to work out how a single human, armed with nothing more than a sword and bow, can down the beast. Our hero isn't that agile either, he's no Kratos or Lara, he stumbles around, has limited breath and grip, and doesn't bounce up when falls. All this adds to some really tense, nail biting moments of sheer clinging on to huge beasts and hoping you don't get flung off.

One by one the creatures fall, and after you kill the 16th Colossus the game truely shines, mainly because it has the most breath taking end sequence of any memorable game. Revealing a lot about the story, who you are and what you've really done, and ending in a very thought provoking and clever way, you finish the game both upset that you've finished it, and amazed at the story it was telling without you knowing it.

The whole isolation and emptiness you feel as you go hunting the Colossi one by one, and the lack of any story or cutscenes (very few in game) before the climatic end are all forgivable when you finish, as it's clear that the creators of the game wanted the player to feel lonely, isolated, and in doubt as to what is really going on. A very clever way of telling a story, and as a videogame a great addition to anyone's list.

If you've not played it and have a PS2/3 I strongly urge you to. If you don't, pick up a used machine and play the game then sell it, it really is a milestone.

Finally, somewhere in the game something terrible happens, something you wouldn't have thought would affect you that much. But when it happens, you can't help but feel very sad at the cruelty of it all, and it's all because of something you do. When you start realising that you've got to do the said thing, you're not sure whether you want to continue playing it or not. It's that powerful.. Pan's Labyrinth of games. GET IT.

Happy **th Birthday!

Today is my **th birthday!

I got a text message from a friend saying: Happy **th birthday!

Of course, she had put **th so that I don't realise that today I'm 3................0!

Thirty!

OMG!!

30 and I still type "OMG" and I've got a blog and I play games. What a waste.

We're going to The Lake District now, then from there to Blackpool, where the UK's best theme park is, I practically grew up there. LOVE IT!

Back on Tuesday. I'll be online now and then from the hotel, I hope.

SoB out.

a friggin post or two for the masses?!!

I am contractually obliged to do this post.

I don't really know if I have anything to talk about. It's 01:30 AM on Friday, 29th of June 2007. As it stands, my life is at a stand still, ie boring as hell.

Tim Henman flew out of Wimbledon again today. What a surprise! The man sucks, he really should retire.

I haven't checked my bank balance in ages, am too scared. I'm sure I've over-spent recently. At least we get paid today.

Haitham has gone missing from xbox land. Whereas there was a time where he'd play UNO all day long, he's suddenly disappeared. Hani is still around, and I've found a way to kick his arse in PES6!

I'm addicted to Slitherlink, a very clever puzzle game for NDS.

Which reminds me. I need to get my Slitherlink fix. Later.

God of All Games (War)

has just finished.

Great game.

Amazing.

Stupidly addictive.

I know a lot of you have banged on about this before (Wolf, A13, Fuji) but I finally experienced it this week and finished it just now (30 minutes before starting my last night!!).

As A13 put it, it's so good raises your expectations for all games following it.

Next stop: Shadow of the Colossus, then perhaps Devil May Cry 3 or Ninja Gaiden Sigma whenever that's out.

God of War 2 needs to be done too. But I want to play a few games in between so as not to get bored with it (if that's possible).

On that note, any one seen the bonus video you unlock when finishing God of War? The one that says he had a brother that's gonna raise out of Hades and revenge? Seems like God of War 3 to me.....

Off to fight the uphill struggle that is the last night.

Nights again...

Tonight at 22:00 I start my final batch of 3 nights.
Had on OK week off, managed to finish the presentation I needed to do, applied for some jobs, and went to a few places with Kelly. We were at the sea-side yesterday!

Monday I'll be back to my normal Elderly ward to look after the lovely dears.....

SoB out

Park & Ride

I feel I should blog about this, even though it's stupid:

Today me and Kelly went to Chelmsford, a town about 1 hour away from Ipswich. Kelly's university is based there, so she had to hand some stuff in. It also has a good town centre for shopping, so we were also going to get some things from there.

Instead of driving up and going in to the centre and paying a stupid amount of money for parking in the centre, we decided to use the Park & Ride service. An excellent idea if there ever was one, the Park & Ride station is very close to the motorway, you go in to it and park your car for free. You then buy a £2 return bus ticket that takes you to 5 different stops in the town.
The buses run frequently every 10 minutes from 7am to 7pm, and if you want to leave after 7pm your ticket is valid on the local buses.

It's all very well organised, very convenient, and the Chelmsford service is only one year old so the buses are all very clean!

That's it, I've said it. I enjoyed the service so much that I had to share it with everyone!

The family is complete

Crappy webcam snap to explain. More details later, am busy playing MotorStorm and Resistance.

Coming Soon....

id announces id Tech 5!!!

Just like years ago, when id showed their Doom 3 engine at a Mac conference, this year's Apple WWDC (world wide developer conference) was no different!
John Carmack was on stage announcing their top-secret new engine, called id Tech 5, complete with a video and all! The engine will be used for a new IP, which they're keeping secret until the Mini-e3 next month.
Here's the story from Joystiq, go there for the fuzzy pictures:

Carmack introduced the technology, saying, "So the last couple of years at id we've been working in secrecy on next-gen tech and a game for it ... this is the first time we're showing anything we've done on it publicly." He describes the demo happening on screen: "What we've got here is the entire world with unique textures, 20GB of textures covering this track. They can go in and look at the world and, say, change the color of the mountaintop, or carve their name into the rock. They can change as much as they want on surfaces with no impact on the game."

Carmack finished off the tease saying, "We're going to be showing on a Mac, PC, PS3, and Xbox at E3, we'll have another Mac announcement at E3."

Nights....

....begin today at 22:00. Four nights, then a week off, then 3 nights.
That week off will be spent trying to find a job, and preparing a presentation about a study I did ages ago.

Haven't updated GD in a while cos of lots of crap going on around me, mainly the National UK Doctor's job crisis that I am bang in the middle of. As it stands now, I am unemployed in August.

Anyhow, let's hope things can only get better.

SoB out.

Here's your Mario cake, REALLY REALLY GOOD-DELICIOUS!

Rember this wedding cake?

Well, some one somewhere saw it, and told his girl friend that her friend Su Yin could make a better one. So she did. And yes, it's all edible.

No description needed for THE coolest cake ever made. More pictures and her blog here

The Thousand-hand Guan Yin

This has to be the most amazing, beautiful, and awe-inspiring performance I have seen in my life.

In 2005, 21 deaf Chinese youths performed this Thousand-hand Bodhisattva dance live in front of a captivated CCTV Spring Festival Audience. The outstanding choreography, timing, accuracy, costumes, lighting and music really give a great message of hope: if there's love in your heart, One Thousand Hands will be there to help you.

Watch it and be inspired.

Pacman's Skeleton!

Man oh man! I remember a really funny MAD sketch once about what would happen if famous Video Game Characters were to die. One of them was Pacman, and they said that his funeral will be attended by many people, and his distant relative, The Smiley Face :D

May be that's what inspired this equally mad French artist, who in 2002 created a Pacman Skeleton. It 's freaky to say the least
I have a feeling that now this skeleton has been "dug up" :p people are gonna start making more and more impressions of how our favourite characters look like as skeletons. I wonder if Sonic's spikes are bones........

Blizzard Announces Starcraft 2

At their World Wide Invitational (WWI) in Korea.

Seeing that Korea has a huge fanbase for the original Starcraft, it's no wonder that they chose Seoul as their venue for WWI

I'm not a fan of RTS, but I know that this is huge news for anyone who plays them, and for PC gamers in general cos Starcraft was a milestone at it's time.

Go here for IGN's coverage of WWI, and for some screenshots of SC2.

UPDATE: Here's the youtube video of the announcement in WWI, listen to the mad fans roar!

And www.starcraft2.com is now online :)

Prince of Persia Classic

The very first Prince of Persia (yes, that one!) is being remade by Ubisoft for the Xbox Live Arcade!

Sporting new graphics, but exactly the same gameplay AND controls, it's one of those games that I know I'm going to buy when it's out this summer.

Check out the trailer below, at the very end of which is the classic "Prince and the Mirror" scene :)

Finally!

Ever since I bought Jetpac Refueled on the 360 Arcade, I've been hellbent on one thing: getting to level 64 (out of 128).

Why?

'cos when you get to level 64, the game gives you a gift: a dashboard theme (sucks), and 2 gamer pictures to use on your profile :D

And the best thing is, you can't buy the pics, you have to play the game and reach level 64 to get them. And I did yesterday! And if you look to your right now, and see my gamer card info, you'll see that my picture is not that of the new-look Jetman, in all his HD glory :D

The other picture is of Sabre Man (of Sabre Wolf fame), but I don't like him as much as this guy.

Refueled, in case you're wondering, is an awesome HD remake of the 1982 Spectrum classic, Jetpac. The original (and it's loading screen!) are including in Refueled.

Small PC Modification

Just a quick one: I realised that the Armor Jr, as great a case as it is, was just too dark inside. Especially with the one million cables and shit I have in there. So I went to ebuyer and got a VERY CHEAP Blue/Green light for £3.99 (yes, inverters included and all!).

And remember I said I'm going to get that big Logitech keyboard with the LCD, so I can monitor my system. Turns out it can't read abit uGuru data, hence useless to me. So instead of wasting money on that, I found another solution: the uGuru clock. It's an external screen that connects to your mobo directly (via an expansion slot). It displays exactly the same info as the uGuru panel I had to remove. What it lacks though is a backlight, which makes it a bit dim but nontheless very functional.

I've sat it beneath the monitor and can now obsessively make sure the cpu is cool, oh and it tells the time too :p