There’s a viral going around Youtube for an intended blackout of MW3 on the 20th April 2012, which wants all Call of Duty MW3 players to not login and play the game for 24 hours. The idea behind it is commendable but I doubt it’s going to make any difference nor will a significant number of people take part for it to matter. But the main thing here is, Activision simply won’t give a monkeys ass like they haven’t been doing since Modern Warfare 2 – ever since they made the first billion dollars.

What the very people behind this movement need to really do and encourage is to boycott the game entirely. Not playing for a mere 24 hours won’t mean shit. There will still be millions who don’t care about all the bugs, glitches and imbalances in the game to make a dent big enough to notice. The very same bugs and imbalances that have been prevalent in the game since Modern Warfare 2.

It’s the same scenario which takes place in any successful company when they hit it big; profits, profits and more profits. When a franchise makes billion dollars after billions dollars, only a monumental idiot would change the recipe. Call of Duty has gone from being one of the finest First Person Multiplayer Shooters to being the most popular – those two things aren’t the same thing. They both create very different monsters.

Whilst calling to fix bugs, glitches and balances is admirable, I don’t think Activision cares nor has the personnel or ability to do so. Since Zampella and West were fired and sued and counter sued it’s been all about money. The two joined arch rivals EA, created their own studio Respawn and have clearly stated their first game is solely funded by EA. Taking a look at their roster of the team they’ve built, it’s clear to see the staff is primarily the staff behind Modern Warfare 2 and other Call of Duty games. This leaves the conclusion; exactly who is going to fix and address the balances in the game? Both the community managers of Black Ops and MW3 have left their positions, so one can assume the feedback from the community is no longer reaching those at board level, not that they would hear anything with all the money stuck between their ear holes anyway. We can also assume, both of them tried their best to fix bugs but in the end, they had little power and staff to actually get it done fast enough.

When you come to a situation like this what the community needs to do is boycott the game entirely. When the stakes become so high the only way the board at Activision would take note is if they don’t make a billion dollars from the next Call of Duty. Talk with your wallets. This isn’t a trade union, you’ve already bought the game and made them rich, your naivety assumes that anyone is actually listening to you. They’re not. Honestly, they don’t give a shit about a few Youtube commentators screaming and shouting about what’s wrong or broken in the game. Millions paid for it and are still playing it day in day out, and most of them don’t watch your channels, they don’t care either. They just want to ride the bandwagon of Call of Duty and play it just to be in with the cool kids.

I’ve kept my distance from MMOs during my long years as a gamer. I’ve embraced many types of games; Beatem-ups, racers, RPGs, First Person Shooters, Platformers and many others, I took them all as they came along. I played them and embraced them, enjoyed my time with them. But I had one genre I never touched – MMOs.

If you aren’t familiar with MMOs (massive multi player online) games, you should know one thing; find a good one and you will be devoured and all encompassed by what they are. They are all engrossing, addictive and very much likely to take over your life as u know it. As I never got into the big MMO franchises like World of Warcraft – mainly due to their subscription models, I never quite understood what they offered. Until…

One bored evening, perusing the interwebs for something interesting to do. I was bored with turning on my Xbox, I had gotten bored with the bullshit offered. Call of Duty Black Ops was all I played on it recently, and I was bored of that franchise. Could not face another day with it. I needed something else, something to keep me interested and occupied. My ADD mentality was driving me insane. Here I had an awesome gaming machine, I needed to use it more.

I headed to steam and got perusing. Blacklight Retribution, here’s a free FPS game I could play without having to pay extortionate prices. And if it sucked it didn’t matter, I hadn’t paid for it. Playing it for a couple of hours I realised the biggest flaw for most FPS shooters – player base. There just wasn’t enough players playing it. So I decided to see what else was there for free. I was greeted by a nice CGI of a pretty angelic toon. Play Forsaken World for Free. I dived into the Abyss unknowingly…

Downloaded, installed and updates applied I launched the game. Character created – let’s go… I had no idea what I was doing and what I should be doing. I did what any person would do, went walkabout. Exploring my surroundings, ignoring the various pop-ups on my screen. This isn’t so bad. It’s actually a lot like most RPGs I’ve played. But wait! There are other people here, all running around doing their own things.

This was amazing. Other people here, sharing the same virtual world I was, and I could see them, follow them, interact with them. Oh I like this!

This really was something exciting. The amount of ideas that were going through my head of what could be achieved, how fun it would be to play with other people doing the same objectives. I had to take a step back. I logged out and decided to find out more. To the Forums!

After some lengthy research I had decided on my class, how I should be playing and what I should be doing. Stoneman Protector by the name of Summanus – Forsaken World you better be ready. Days, weeks and months went by. I played and played. Somehow the real world didn’t matter any more. I cared very little for it, it wasn’t interesting me in the very least at this point of time.  I levelled my toon, I joined a guild, I did instances, I bought armour, weapons. This was the norm now. Me, my guild and the people I was playing it with.

But all is not well, this world truly is Forsaken. Real world issues started to creep into this fantasy world. They started to hinder my pleasure for the game. They got in the way of fun and enjoyment. Very soon I found myself looking at the parallels of them both. It all made sense. Even in this virtual world, money took precedence over fun and enjoyment. Everything worked for those that paid over those that didn’t. In game gear, modes, tweeks and rewards were all catered for and towards those that paid. Fixing bugs and balance issues were not priorities, rather promoting the latest charge promotions were. Those that poured money into a free-to-play game, would benefit the most.

We now had demi-gods walking amongst us, those daft enough to spend thousands of dollars to build toons to dominate and monopolise everything in game. They unbalanced the game, but the devs did not care. They were getting paid from these fools. Why would they change? They were getting paid!

As I now recall the last month or so playing the game. Bitterness and a depth of sadness flowed through me during those last few days, I knew my time in this Forsaken World was truly forsaken, but all for the wrong reasons. At least in the real world, I had some sort of power to try and stop those greed induced money motivated fools.

But for those still in Forsaken World, they are doomed.

Alienware. The name probably typifies what the company is about. Although you might be excused for thinking they do extra terrestrial clothing. They specialise in building awesome looking PC hardware, focusing exclusively on gaming. Just visit their website and you’ll get a quick glimpse of what they do: Laptops, Desktops and Accessories.

I remember running into some of their products in my heyday as a PC gamer. They used to make some amazing Windows skins which turned your experience into sheer awesomeness. The AlienGUIse wow’d most, I’m glad they’ve carried on from there and stuck to their niche. Gaming orientated equipment. Which brings me to this review: the Alienware M17x-R3, or as I like to call it – The Beast!

Dressed To Impress

Whilst some manufacturers try to cover up their hardware in elegant, sleek and sexy design and others opt to wrap it all up in some cheap grey plastic, Alienware decide to flaunt theirs. If looks could kill, then the M17x-r3 would nuke them all. The unit I had for playing with was all black. It looks very much of Alien origin. The blue lights seeping out through the spaces in the keyboard, the two Lamborghini looking grills in the front and the Alienware logo flashing on disk activity. It does send a tingle down the back of your spine at first glance. All of the lights can be customised to any colour scheme you prefer. They can also be set to pulse, strobe or cycle through the rainbow if you so desired. The customisation options will allow any serious gamer to change the scheme to one they can identify to. As we all know, serious gamers, take themselves seriously. Looking the part is as important as taking part.

Under The Hood

It doesn’t just look awesome, it plays awesome. Under the impressive design are some amazing pieces of hardware to compliment it. Just looking the part is only the first step. Bearing in mind this was the base model and you can if you have the spare cash, upgrade to your heart’s desire. I found what I had below sufficient enough to handle what I threw at it. Boy did I throw a lot at it. Brink, Need for Speed Shift 2, Operation Flashpoint and Virtua Tennis 4. I gave it the full beans on all the games. Max resolution and settings, all handled with relative ease, but not only that, all done in 3D with Nvidia’s 3D vision.

Technical Specs:

• Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode, 6MB Cache)
• 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 RAM
• 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M
• 17.3 inch display WLED Display (1920×1080)
• 250GB Solid State Hard Drive

To 3D Or Not To 3D

Although I am not a fan of 3D things in general, some of the 3D stuff was impressive. Trying to line up a sniper headshot in Operation Flashpoint in 3D is something one needs to experience. You get the feeling of being “in the zone.” For a fan of First Person Shooters, it’s something I thoroughly enjoyed. But the 3D isn’t perfect yet. It takes getting used, wearing glasses isn’t ideal and the I do think there is a lot of work on the game developers and graphics manufacturers working together to optimise game design to make 3D gaming that much more impressive. I expected games like Virtua Tennis 4 to be amazing, but in reality all the actual 3D was the score and the information boxes slightly in front of the rest of the stuff. I expected the crowd, the net and the players to be more involved in the 3D. This is where the improvements can be made.

Taming The Beast

Gaming with the 3D disabled is a joy. The graphics are amazing, the load times are non-existent, thanks to the SSD (Super Super Drive as I like to call it). But it’s not only gaming. I used it for my daily PC needs and all I can say is – WOW. Everything just loads up, instantly. Applications are there at a click of a button, literally. There is zero noise from activity, I had to keep an eye on the flashing Alienware logo for disk activity when downloading things, I wasn’t sure whether the system had frozen or not. Which was never the case. It doesn’t freeze, it doesn’t lag and it doesn’t do slow. Turning it on and off is quicker than putting most laptops to sleep. 10 seconds from a cold boot to idle. It’s little things like that which change the habits you realise you’ve built up over the years. Mainly because technology didn’t perform as was expected. Gone were the mornings when I would switch my PC on, go make breakfast and come back to find it finally idle and ready to use. The M17x-r3 begs to differ and changed that daily routine. I made breakfast, ate it and then turned the Laptop on and got using it.

One thing that will effect those not using headphones when playing games is the fan exhaust noise. It does sound like a mini hair dryer at times. Although it doesn’t last for too long, it’s noticeable. It’s to be expected though, as the bottom of the laptop gets hot, quickly. I’m pretty sure I could make an egg omelette on it after a couple of hours of gaming. Using it on your lap isn’t advisable because of this reason and also the fact it does weigh almost 3kg.

Conclusion

The M17x-r3 is designed for gaming in mind. It’s aimed at a specific genre. It quite clearly caters to that genre and performs like no other. There are no competitors overall. Some may be cheaper, or faster. Whilst the price of the base model is something that would need a lot of consideration. It’s 8-10 times more expensive than a console and custom build gaming rigs can be made for cheaper and with better specs. But overall there is nothing out there that can compete with all of that and the portability of PC gaming like the M17x-r3 does. It’s light enough to carry to LAN parties. Powerful enough to compete with custom-built rigs and flexible enough to use as an office desktop machine too.

**This was posted previously on TheAverageGamer**

A science fiction TV series where Aliens have taken over the world with Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer surely sounds like a decent TV series.In reality it’s a bore-fest lacking any decent script, acting or special effects, with the series solely concentrating the relationships between the human characters rather than the Alien invaders.

What Falling Skies needed was to start off with a bang, a really big bang. What it started off with was Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) trying to retrieve some food on a trolley weaving in and out through some (adequately placed) burnt up cars, whilst being shot at by the Aliens and their robots. From this exact scene I was expecting it to build up and excite me, but I had a deep feeling down inside it was going to be probably the most exciting scene I may come across in this series – sadly I was right.

The real issue with this series is the fact it lacks any interest to the Sci-Fi genre, except for the Aliens having taken over, we rarely get a glimpse into how it all happened, or what the current real issues are for human survival are. All in all it’s a low-budget series with very little talent, chemistry, script or talent on-screen. The cast is poor, the scenes excruciatingly meaningless and void of any significance progress. Out of the 4 episodes I watched there seems to be a pattern;

Mission to find food / resources – run into Aliens – return to base

With the exception of one episode this is pretty much the case. I just find it irritating with shows like these, where the same shit happens, but everyone seems to be oblivious to what happened previously. The show lacks pretty much everything. The most interesting things about this are the low-budget Aliens and the cheap CGI robots which they use to enforce the humans.

How this show got renewed for a second season leaves me baffled. It’s total trash.

Lets get this right straight from the off; Transformers 3 is not a bad film. But it’s not a good film either. Ignore the fact it does use some footage from The Island, it’s unnoticeable. Don’t fall into the hyperbole of troll-ism. If you are a devout fan of The Island, you’ll probably notice it, but otherwise, you’d find it hard trying to figure out which part exactly was recycled.

I watched it in 2D. Shock horror!! I don’t buy into this 3D hype created by the movie industry to inflate prices and add experience to films. They don’t. I’ve seen it. It’s more of a case of headache and hindrance than the brilliance they want you to experience. There is a time and place for 3D. Not all films can get away with it. But, that’s just my opinion.

I’ll try to to avoid spoilers for those that haven’t yet seen it.

The film starts off well. Using the 1969 Moon Landing to create a cover up story to how they all got here is not too far-fetched, it actually sounded authentic. Despite the actual scenes of landing on the Moon being overly clean and CGI’d out. The plot was plausible. Everything after that just became more and more loose and predictable, but hey that’s Hollywood for you.

The crazy over the top special effects which are trademarks of Michael Bay’s work were evident pretty much throughout the film. It’s worth paying the admission ticket just for those. As the film was created for 3D I may have missed out on some of the scenes, but honestly I don’t really care. The real issue was the fact the film just felt like an eternity. A lot of the time, nothing really happened. Usually scenes are filled with meaningful happenings and plot linking scenes, here this wasn’t really the case, but everything somehow just fell into place.

The actions scenes tend to be long in Transformers, here it was even longer, they just didn’t end. From one scene to another it was just stuff blowing up, being ripped apart or crashing into anything else near by. With every scene I was hoping that was the big finale, and when it came. It wasn’t anything special. Unlike the previous two films, there wasn’t a climax here at all. Void of excitement at any level.

The film wasn’t helped by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley doing her utmost to be as transparent and plain as possible. She may look like (in my opinion) a young Cameron Diaz and speak like Lara Croft, but she has the acting ability equivalent of celery. Although celery can’t scowl as bad as she does, maybe because celery doesn’t have a face.

MetroTwit is inspired by the Metro tiles UI found on the Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. It’s aimed to be a minimal and lightweight Twitter desktop client for Windows. It’s in beta phase and can be found to download and use for those on Windows. Keep in mind you will need .NET installed on your machine. I gave it a try for a few days. This is what I found.

It is very smooth and slick, it has a clean and minimal look and feels very much like WP7. There is a choice of a light and dark theme, with the ability to choose any colour for the accents. As I’m an avid Tweetdeck user I went with the dark theme with some red accents.

Drawing inspiration from Microsoft’s Metro design language, MetroTwit celebrates an elegant and clean user interface that’s beautiful to look at and a pleasure to read.

MetroTwit shares some great features along with Tweetdeck:

• The ability to add custom searches as columns. This includes hash tags and / or users.
• Just like Tweetdeck’ deck.ly it supports tweets which are longer than 140 characters using TwitLonger.
• Ability to preview media inline just like Tweetdeck, services like Youtube, Twitpic and Yfrog are supported. Whilst also supporting url shortening.
• Notifications can be set to appear in specific places around the screen, although I’ve yet to make it function properly.

There are features which MetroTwit has over Tweetdeck:

You Win Or You Die

You won’t see many posts in this category. I’m not a big TV watcher. My TV is mainly used for watching films or playing games on. I’ll watch the odd football match if it’s on terrestrial TV, or have it on in the background, usually tuned to Dave. I tend to pick and choose what I watch and prefer to watch series in full. Game of Thrones is an exception.

The first in a series of epic fantasy books A Song of Ice and Fire written by George R. R Martin – Game Of Thrones has been adapted by HBO into ten episodes of amazing Television. Whatever sort of TV you’re into, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t at least try and watch it. I’d sit here and write up a full on review of the first season, but I think it wouldn’t be a decent portrayal of what it offers, whilst I’d probably be spoiling it too.

Go and find it, wherever you can and watch it. Because it’s pretty damn awesome.

Dance music is on the rise, it’s currently the “in” genre, whether that’s Funky House, Drum N Bass, Electro Pop or Dubstep. Whilst there are many that will say it’s never been away, it wasn’t the biggest thing during the 90s. But with trends in times, the music shifts. With the 80s being the in decade currently in terms of fashion, the music tends to follow.

The UK plays host to many an emerging artist, whom have elevated Dance music to the mainstream in recent times. Most notably Tinie Tempah’s success with his debut album Disc-Overy, he’s moved onto the US to capitalise on a market UK artists have struggled to capture for years. But with the emergence of the internet as a platform to market and promote, the exposure is now better and bigger than the previously limited and controlled system the big music giants had.

It’s a great situation for artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Both sides can thrive in creating great music and getting inspiration from each other. Usher, T-Pain, Chris Brown, Kerry Hilson, Rihanna, Kid Cudi and Kelly Rowland are just some examples. Dev is no different. She’s a new flock of artists, whom are prevalent on the internet. Posting cover versions of popular songs on sites like Youtube and MySpace to try and get a foot into the music industry. Lucky for her, she was found by The Cataracs – a hip hop indo duo whom seem to have a knack of producing great dance hits. Songs which include Backseat (New Boyz feat Dev), Like a G6 (Far East Movement feat Dev), Wet (Snoop Dogg) and Bass Down Low (Dev) – the latter being the debut single by Dev.

It does seem wherever Dev is on a track, The Cataracs have something to do with it. Which asks a question; How Hot Is Dev?

Checking out her Youtube Channel, all the songs seem to have a trend of great beats, quick vocals which have been both auto-tuned and lack the vocal talents of say Adele or Mariah Carey and more in line with voices like Cassie (another example of an internet hit). In my opinion Dev is a pretty close act to the UK’s very own Katie B. The similarities in music is there, whilst I do think Katie B has a better voice (as displayed on her track Go Away), she can hold a ballad-esque note.

But taking a look at a few of her other singles, it’s clear she does have the talent to be a star.

At the moment the trend is there, and her work with The Cataracs and the many other artists she’s doing hooks, choruses and features with is working for her. Looking at her released singles like Fireball, Me, Killer and Sunrise an Album can’t be too far away. I just hope she sticks with what she’s doing and doesn’t fall into a repertoire like Lady Gaga or fades away like Keri Hilson. The Blonde hair do doesn’t exactly instil me with confidence.

As it happens with the start of most seasons, there is a new home, away or 3rd kit revealed by most clubs in the Premier league. Liverpool FC included.

So, Liverpool FC have announced the new 3rd kit for this season and shock horror it’s got a tiny bit of blue on it. I personally didn’t like the old black one. My personal preference is that no team should be in black, that’s the colour the referee is draped in. Call me old-fashioned but that’s just me. Let’s not get onto the subject of them wearing pink, turquoise or any other ridiculous colour. Yellow I’m slightly tolerant towards.

This apparently has caused outrage amongst Liverpool fans and shattered the dreams of young boys, who are now confused and cannot differentiate between the two Merseyside clubs. Yes, Everton don the blue shirt. But history also shows us that Liverpool FC also wore blue, albeit a lighter shade. For those early years Liverpool FC were a blue and white team. In 1894 the club decided to don the colours of Liverpool (the city) and we became a red team.

I really think it doesn’t matter one little bit. As long as the home kit is red and the away kit is any other colour then a solid blue, I’m not too fussed. The 3rd kit can be whatever it wants to be. It’s not even like the 3rd kit is a full on blue. There are just a few stripes and lettering in blue, overall it’s white. I can understand what some may be infuriated about, but let’s be realistic here and less fanatical. Put things into perspective. It’s a 3RD kit. Lets not go crazy about this all. My advise is, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Wear the RED home kit and be proud. As far as I’m concerned I bleed red, no matter what I’m wearing.

There is a nice revised mock-up done by a fan of the 3rd kit, I do have to say I like that one better. Perhaps the sponsors in future could work with the fans and supporters clubs to create a 3rd or away kit which is in line with the majority of fans.

If you’re an avid anti-narration throughout the film type of person, then you might want to skip this one. From the off, the film starts off with Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) narrating on the current situation he finds himself in – on the edge of a multi-storey apartment, ready to jump. We then visually jump off and into the intro scene. Although nauseating and slightly trip inducing, the intro is actually pretty good. It’s a good visual portrayal of “limitless” – both the definition of the word and the overall point of the film.

Morra comes across an experimental drug which gives him access to exploit the full potential of his brain, thus making him more perceptive, having access to his subconscious memories and utilising the full potential of his brain. The drug helps him get his life back together. He has lost his girlfriend, is late on his rent and it’s been 4 months since he started writing a book for which he has acquired a publishing deal. Although he is yet to write a single word. The drug called NZT helps his productivity, it’s effects include motivational stimulants, which help Morra get some writing done. This gives him time to keep his publishers at bay and happy with the progress of the book.

With all this extra motivation, perception and the ability to utilise the full capacity of his brain Eddie starts to establish himself in the world, becoming more successful and influential. He starts to enjoy his life more. His girlfriend comes back to him and things couldn’t be better. He is the man of the moment and it does seem, nothing can stop him. But he doesn’t take into account what effects (as most drugs tend to do) the drug will have in him long-term. He also fails to grasp that he may not be the only person with access to the drug or has been using it.

This for me is when the film starts to fall down. Where Eddie is now super intelligent, he somehow fails to fathom a long-term plan beyond getting rich and powerful. He might have all the attributes of one of the most capable and intelligent men, but he fails to see the clear dangers and fails to take precautions any average intelligent person would. From here on starts the all too predictable clichéd plot of twists to try to keep the film interesting for the viewer at which, for me personally it fails. By now I’d already figured out the outcome of the film and all the twists and turns, leaving really nothing else for me to do but watch the rest of the film prod along to its inevitable conclusion.

Limitless could have been a huge cult film, had it the proper writers and production team. But this could be said of many films, and then we’d be spoilt with high quality films all the time. At which point we then might not appreciate something ingenious when it comes along. Limitless is not a poor film, it’s watch-able and at best more than average. The 7.3 / 10 on IMDB is perhaps accurate. Bradley Cooper does a decent job keeping the film going mostly on his own – triggering memories of Guy Pearce in Memento. The biggest disappointment is the limited imagination of the writer, which limits the potential of it becoming a cult classic.

without NZT life is unsaturated, dark and depressing...

NZT adds colour, saturation and contrast to images too...