Bagsta69

Snow, Photography and Holidays!!!

2017-12-30T23:21:00.000+00:00

Well interweb it has been a while since our paths have crossed.
The weather of late has turned a pale shade of shit but with the snow came an opportunity to get out with my camera to get a few shots of the pretty views before it started raining and all turned to slushy wet cold crap.
One thing that you have to remember when taking photographs in the snow is that the bright white stuff actually fools your camera meter. This means that if you go with the setting that the camera suggests your snow will turn out all grey and dull.
This can be countered by over exposing the image by using the exposure compensation feature or switching it to manual settings and over exposing by about 2 stops.

All this cold weather and about 6 months of personal crap has left myself and Viper in need of a holiday to be honest and so we are looking at trying to get away before the end of March for a couple of weeks, otherwise known as a fortnight just to annoy any Americans reading. lol
Embudu Village in the Maldives is looking favourite at the minute and the weather at this time of year is pretty damn good as well.
All the adverts on the TV have holiday destinations being advertised and this is not helping in my mood.
I'm going to try and take and post more photographs this year so hopefully I will be interacting with you more often in the coming weeks.
Till then I have a bottle of Lanson to interact with as tonight is my New Years Eve as I will be working overnights on the actual New Years Eve and New Years Day.

So I will bid you goodbye for now and I shall go and indulge myself in a glass or 5.

Peace out Y'all The BAGSTA XXXX

Restaurant Zero, Sun Island Maldives. !!!

2017-06-29T00:49:00.001+01:00

After a recent vacation to the Maldives Feel I have to tell people about the amazing Restaurant Zero on Sun Island Resort and Spa.

Having arrived on Sun Island in the Maldives the largest tourist island in the Republic of the Maldives I was intrigued to see a restaurant named Zero, advertised as an ecologically zero impact restaurant serving up ecologically sustainable food from its menu.

After a brief chat with Aurine from guest services I asked if I could take a few photographs and if there was any more information that she could give me regarding how the restaurant worked.

The following day Aurine escorted me to the Zero restaurant where I was met by Abdulla Mausoom Ph.D. The General Manager of the island. (+960 7791001 gm@sun-island.com.mv)

We sat down for a chat and he explained a little more about how the restaurant came about and how it has developed.

This unique restaurant has been running for around four years now in it's current state with tree top alfresco dining and whilst it's humble roots started as a team idea for growing coconuts, bananas and other agricultural products it is now a fully fledged eco friendly restaurant. The only one of it's kind in whole Republic of the Maldives.

Guests can walk through the gardens and select their own produce which the experienced chefs then prepare for them.

There are several different types of lettuce to choose from, basil, rosemary and other fresh herbs are also grown in the solar powered hydroponic buildings.

Not all produce served at Restaurant Zero is grown on site and this is a conscious decision from the management team so that some produce from other local farmers can be purchased which helps the local economy.

It's all about balance Mr Mausoom explained.

“The local economy benefits we benefit and the guests benefit from a great tasting dining experience.”

Zero restaurant offers a healthy menu which can be combined with fish or meat dishes should the guests so choose.

As I sipped on some fresh coconut milk a waiter delivered 3 stunning plates of food for me to sample.

The flavours were exceptional and the fresh tuna in the “All greens with Maldivian Tuna Chunk Salad” simply bursting with flavour. The chicken in the “Zero Special” just makes the mouth water

with flavour and taste and the Fresh Herb Marinated Chicken Winglets are quite simply to die for.

As I explained to Mr Mausoom that they beat KFC hands down he joked that he likes KFC, Pizza Hut and Burger King when he visits Europe.

The chicken comes from a poultry farm dedicated to rearing chicken and producing eggs just for restaurant zero.

All produce is grown using organic fertilisers and the whole production is self sufficient.

The restaurant has set opening times but guests can request special opening times for romantic dinners if they so choose and they always try to accommodate any reasonable requests.

Mr M, Waheed the Executive Chef has been in the food industry for over 40 years and has 23 years working with the Villa chain under his belt.

He is responsible for engineering the menu and bringing about any changes.

Each meal is individually prepared, there is no mass production of anything.

In 2016 Sun Island won an award for the most eco friendly island in the Republic of the Maldives.

The large banana plantation and the production of water melons which is a project being run by the chairmans daughter must go someway towards helping towards a Zero carbon footprint.

The water melon plantation has sun flowers growing throughout to attract bees to help with pollination.

There has been a lot of thought gone into Restaurant Zero and if you ever find yourself on Sun Island I strongly recommend a visit here. It might not ease the guilt of 3 aeroplanes and a boat worth of carbon footprint to get here but your taste buds will thank you for weeks to come.

Peace out Y'all, The BagstaXXX

GT Sport Beta, Peace, Force and Complaints. !!!

2017-04-21T14:54:00.000+01:00

Hi interweb, once again it has been a while since we have had much interaction on the. log side of things, nothing personal you understand.
After my operation in February I have been slowly but consistently been getting better. A slower than I would have liked but at least I can spend more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time sat upright now and with this new level of ability comes my return to a bit of gaming.
More to the point the Beta version of GT Sport.

I think there are still a few beta codes out there to be had as the beta appears to be run for several months.
What it has consisted of so far are Qualifying laps and daily races, The daily races are at set times during the week and weekends.
Qualifying laps can take place at any time and your best time is saved for the given track, then when you are matched against other players of a similar level your best time is counted and you are put in with players of a similar skill set.

You are also measured by your driving ability and sportsmanship rating which can go up and down depending on how you drive and this is where I think Polyphony need to take a long hard look at things and try to make things a bit fairer.
At the moment if you run off track your SR (sportsmanship rating) will go down and it will also go down if you crash into other cars. The main problem here is that if another car collides with you both suffer an SR point drop. This in my opinion and as somebody who has had his fair share of been rammed off track is a little bit off.
Remembering that this is still in beta I am quite forgiving as most of the time things seem to work OK.
When a car goes off track it appears to turn into a Ghost car till it has spent a certain length of time back on track however this time does not have a set length it would appear and cars seem to become solid again the moment they appear in front of me on track. lol
At the moment it seems that about 50% of the people playing the beta get it, and I have had some very enjoyable races where everybody is playing ball and trying to race properly but the other 50% have been demolition derby type races.

The graphics whilst still unfinished are lovely and the physics of how the cars handle is very good however the matchmaking does leave a fair bit to be desired.
As mentioned earlier it goes on qualifying times and driver rating etc.
So this can be manipulated by simply qualifying slowly you will getup into an easier group that you can then spank and win all the time.
I have found however this is not the best tactic. From what I have experienced the faster and better the driver the less chance you have of getting rammed of track and you tend to be matched up with better drivers that play properly.
One of the best tactics I have found is to take it easy into the first turn and 2nd and 3rd just to hold your line and watch everybody fly past you into a heap in the gravel trap. :)
The transition from qualifying to online seems to loosen everything up a bit, the general feel of the cars on track simply feels a little more loose. (best way I can describe it). You do get a warm up time of a minute or so to get a bit of a feel for things on the server as it is a noticeable difference.
I have a Netduma R1 router and so can see where in the world I am connecting and for the life of me I cannot understand why Polyphony are running a European Beta test on a server on the East Coast of the USA. This is not a misplaced server either as I ping between 94 and 99 MS to it which is about right for that distance.

One thing which may be contributing the the lack of driver skill is the simple fact that not everybody has a Wheel and I am sure many people are trying to play this beta on a controller.
Now to put this in context, A very good friend of Mine Richard or Bev as he is affectionately know (that's a whole other story) used to game with myself and several others most nights on GT5 and we would race for hours having much fun. He is marginally better than I am and would on most races beat me but only just and I would beat him occasionally.
He doesn't have a wheel for the PS4 and as a result on Brands Hatch Qualifying times he was 10 seconds off my pace simply as he was using a controller.
He will be getting a wheel soon and so I expect normal results to resume soon. lol.
I'm using the G29 wheel and pedals and it seems to work well with the beta so far.
You can see some in game video of the beta on my YT channel on the links below.

Sometimes I have found that after the qualifying countdown as soon as the matchmaking starts I will get disconnected from the servers but I cannot complain to much about it as this is a beta and that are probably stress testing server load as well.
All in all so far I have been thoroughly enjoying the beta and am looking forward to release in the UK, I think I recall a release date of November 17th 2017 or there about however previous versions of the game have been set back on numerous occasions including this one.

Anyway enough of my half assed ramblings I think its medication time so I will leave you with this,

"The peace of society is obtained by force." and "You can lie down for people to walk all over you and they will still complain you ain't flat enough."

Peace Out Y'all, THE BAGSTAXXX

Acupuncture, Holidays and Elgato!!!

2017-04-01T03:37:00.000+01:00

Hello interweb, I trust your zero's and one's are still functioning in a manner that pleases the universe.

Ive had an interesting few weeks since we last connected. Some of which I will share with you here.

First of is my health, or lack thereof, you see after my 4^th operation on L5 S1 spine location my recovery is not going particulary well.

The previous 3 operations have had me back to been a loon within about 4-6 weeks. This time I am around 10 weeks post op and still having some major issues, no feeling in my right foot, lower back pain, shooting pains through my ass into my foot and generally wandering about like a shambling mound. I think that was dungeons n dragons reference but not sure, if it is the geek is strong in this one. But I digress.

Anyway interweb to try to resolve some of these issues I decided to try some alternative therapy as opposed to just the morphine, codeine, paracetatemols, ibuprofen naproxen and red wine.

So Acupuncture it was. I can apparently claim it back from westfield health scheme so why not?

Well I must say I have been stuck with needles in places I would not care to mention and cupped and manipulated by a very nice lady for 2 hours the upshot of being I actually have sensation back in my right foot.

Sounds great but this is a double edged sword. Now I have feeling back in it I can feel the referred pain in it. Oh FFS when will this shit end.

Oh well, I have another session next week so hopefully I can progress from there and then get back to that mad man Bison my personal trainer for some work on my core body strengthening.

In other news Viper and myself have decided to take a break to our usual destination of the Maldives at the end May start of June, the rainy season. We have been there before at this time and whilst it does give some spectacular rain there is also plenty of sunshine plus its about a grand cheaper.

Heading to Sun Island which by Maldivian standards is Fooking massive. The usual islands we visit you can walk around in about 10 minutes, this place will take over an hour. Over a KM long makes it one of the biggest islands in the Maldives. However I shall reserve judgement till I have spent some time there. Apparently there is tree top dining etc several bars and places to eat so im sure we will be fine.

Best time of year for Whale shark and Manta Ray watching too so fingers crossed there.

I sometimes get lost in what I do and who I know,

Having spent a few years rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous and not really giving them the whole “im so impressed shit” it has been nice for the past couple of nights to have been exchanging a few emails with Alice Cooper, Now there is a nice guy. I met him at a car boot sale years ago.

On the gaming front my Elgato capture card has been a total pain in the ass for weeks.

Elgato suggest that you record footage on a separate HDD than the one that is running the software.

So I got me a USB 3 HDD and plugged it in to my macbook pro.

Didnt matter what settings I used I got frames dropping and tearing footage etc.

Unplugged the USB drive and used the the hdd of the macbook pro to record footage and hey presto problem resolved..

And so we now come to the bit where im supposed to say something meaningful.

Im kinda stumped today so, I will leave you with this,

The difference between twenty-year-old me and me now is that I don't care if you like me.

Peace out yall, The BAGSTAXXX

Coffee, BMW driver's and Age!!!

2017-03-20T14:27:00.000+00:00

Hello interweb, due to the wonders of modern technology I am coming to you live today from the Costa Coffee shop on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield, I am enjoying a very nice flat white coffee and the place is surprisingly quiet for this time.

Shot at Iso 1600 / f8.0 / 1/80th sec / 24mm

The chap sat next to me does not know that I know who he is, he used to work for the people who look after my web servers but was fired cause he was crap at his job. He is now sat talking bullshit to some other business Chappy. lol.
As I was driving here a BMW driver cut me up, no surprise there but it got me to thinking about the whole type of driver that we experience on the road on a day to day basis.
In the UK I have come to discover by far the worst drivers are in the following order, drivers of used BMW's followed very close in 2nd place by used Audi drivers.
Seriously these people drive and park like total and utter wankers, I will add at this point that not 100% of them but a far higher percentage than drivers of any other vehicles.
I have no idea why this might be.

Sitting here looking around there is an amazing amount of people who are sat, some alone and others with company simply glued to their mobile phones. This is not something that I have only just realised. I have seen it on holiday as well and just about everywhere I go. People walk out in front of my car as I drive because they are so engrossed in whatever it is they are doing on their phone at the time. It would appear that the art of conversation is indeed a dying art.

In other news I am getting a bit bored of the pain now from my recent operation. On previous Op's Id be back at em by now and in full flow but I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that this is it now.
It is going to take some adjusting if it is as I have significant pain in my right foot and thigh but the good news is still no cramp in leg so I can still sleep for more than an hour at a time.

I am trying to force myself out to get some more photography done and have even entered a few competitions in the last few days.
Looking through some of my archives for a selective colouring image I stumbled across one of my favourite images. Not many people have showed much of an interest in to be honest but I really like it and these days that is more about what my photography is about. Back to taking images that please me rather than a client. The joys of semi retirement.

The method I used when I took this image was far more involved than what is required today as I have discovered, but it just goes to show that even an old dog can learn new tricks. :)

And as I must pack up my belongings and return home after my little trip out I will share with you the thoughts of Benjamin Franklin, By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old" lol

Peace out Y'all, THE BAGSTAXXX

Pains, Trains and Chicken Stroganoff!!!

2017-03-14T06:42:00.001+00:00

Well hello interweb at this bright and early time, 06.04 hrs. Ive been awake since 04.00 hrs but try as I might I cannot get back to sleep.
So I have decided to share some of my recent happenings with you.
The main reason I can't get to sleep is the pain in my right leg and foot. Despite the morphine and various other drugs it is still very painful.
Previous operations have had me up and about with very little pain within about 2 to 3 weeks but this time I am at 5 weeks and still suffering.
I keep trying to do normal things only to pay for it several hours later.
Last night I went down to my local railway station to take a few pics of the empty platforms due to the rail strike. Got a few nice shots and uploaded them there and then with the new MacBook Pro. Worked a treat.

The low light capabilities of the 5D still take me aback.
Called in at Tesco for wine and then picked up a Kebab on my way home.
Watched the Walking Dead with Viper then headed to bed.
Now I am feeling the pain. Felt a lot better when I got back but now I am suffering.
Sunday, Went for a 15 minute outing to the Botanical Gardens and got a few photographs there as well which turned out nice with the spring flowers and the first colours coming through.

Sunday also saw me back in the kitchen cooking proper food for the first time since the operation. I made Chicken Stroganoff which I must confess was pretty damn nice. Minutes to prepare and thrown into a slow cooker for 4-6 hours it wasn't much strain on me either.
3-4 chicken breasts diced and placed in the bottom of a lightly greased slow cooker,
1 pot of soft cheese (philadephia), I always use full fat as I find full fat foods have much more flavour.
1 can of condensed chicken soup, (and the same of water), a good couple of hands full of button mushrooms chopped, 1 Medium sized onion finely chopped and softened for 5 minutes in a pan with a little olive oil. flaked sea salt and ground black pepper corns to taste.

Mix the lot together in a bowl and pour over the chicken.
Leave for around 4 hours on high or 5-6 on low and remove the lid for the last half hour to help the sauce to thicken a little.

Stir occasionally whilst cooking.
You can serve this stuff up on rice, or with pasta or pretty much anything really. If you're feeling really healthy a bit of broccoli and other veg would work well but once served ( I did mine over Penne pasta) sprinkle a bit of freshly chopped parsley over the food and enjoy.

I have managed a few more games recently in Mission Control and it was a pleasure to be invited for a few games with Mr Relentless UK from the Netduma R1 forums for a few rounds of Call of Duty.
We played Modern Warfare Remastered first and I was surprised at how well I did after over a month off, Still got most captures on Domination but that was probably due to Mr R covering my ass and shooting people from rooftops when I had forgotten to check, lol
Then we tried Infinite Warfare, Mr R kicked some proper ass on Team Death Match with around 49 kills and not to many deaths at all.
I as always on that game got spanked. It just does not play for me. Hit marker after hit marker.
Oh well, good job there are other games to play.
In other game related news GT Sport has been announced to be released on November the 13th In the USA and a few other places but here in Blighty we will have to wait till the 18th of November. That said the company that makes GT games are notorious for putting back the release of the games so we will have to wait and see.

Right then interweb, the bloody birds are sounding more like a football crown than a dawn chorus so I may as well get up and make coffee but I will in light of recent events leave you with this thought,
Joseph Campbell once wrote, "Find a place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain".
Joseph obviously never had 4 micro discectomy operations in the same place.

Peace out y'all, THE BAGSTAXXX

Operations, Cameras and the cost of living!!!

2017-03-01T09:14:00.002+00:00

Hello interweb my old friend, it has been a while.
I initially began blogging with you to help me stop smoking back in 2011 and it worked very well and I have now been smoke free since February of that year.
I am currently laid up in bed after a fourth operation on my spine and so to help beat back the cabin fever I have taken to your zero's and one's once again.
The previous three times I have been back up and about by this time but to date it has been 3 weeks and 4 days which in no way sounds like it could be made into a Sinead O'Conner song.
I am only allowed to sit upright for 15 minutes an hour and to be honest that feels about right.
On the upside they didn't use staples to fasten me up this time so Viper cannot take great pleasure in removing them for me with tools that look like they came straight form the Spanish Inquisition.

It does however look a bit like tyre tracks and lady parts. Anyway enough about my misery.
A short while before my operation I picked up a Canon EOS 5D MK3 camera and managed to put it through its paces a little before getting bed bound.

I have to say that I am very very impressed with this bit of kit.
It has a full frame sensor and the way it handles high ISO images can only be described as stunning.
The lack of grain and noise is images at stupidly high iso levels is simply amazing.
This shot was taken at 20,000 iso. yes 20,000

I also managed to get put and about on a couple of occasions and despite the crappy weather managed to get a few nice shots out in the Peak District.
I went for a steady walk down Wyming Brook which is one of my favourite places to visit but the levels of mud were on another level to what is usually there, thank heavens for walking boots that can be hosed down.

A few days later we had a light dusting of snow which didn't cause me and Thumper (or should that be Thumper and I?) much of a problem and also meant that I could get out to Stanage Edge which affords great views over the Hope Valley towards Mam Tor which always looks gorgeous in the snow.

I am proper itching to get back out there taking photographs because, well it's what I do. I love it and find it very therapeutic.
In other news I have not been able to spend much time in Mission Control and as such have been proper missing playing games on my Playstation.
Infinite Warfare had been playing so badly for me on my PS4 Pro that I gave up on the title after a couple of weeks. I try for a couple of games every now and then but I actually re purchased Black Ops 3 because despite it's issues It plays a world apart from IW.
Infinite warfare seems to be very much a game that you either love or hate judging by the feedback I have read from others and it would appear more people hate it than like it and there has even been rumour of a 5th Map Pack for Black Ops 3.
I am just glad I wasn't sucked into the hype this year to purchase the season pass or I would have been pissed.
Bollocks, just realised I've finished my cup of tea.

So Viper is itching to go on holiday but we are undecided to which direction to go, left or right.
By the time I am fit to go which will be around the end of May heading right towards thew Maldives will put us in one of the monsoon seasons but we have been before at this time and man did it rain but there were enough hours of sunshine to make it OK, plus I managed to get some great photographs to.
The other option is left towards the Caribbean and Viper is getting very excited about the possibility of two weeks on Young Island which I must admit does look quite lovely with a distinct lack of people which is good for me.

I have also decided in the last week to move over to the dark side and have purchased an Apple MacBook Pro.
There are several reasons for this. The weight is substantially less than my 17" laptop that I have been lugging around for years and as such will make it easier on my back.
It is also fast, very fast. Fast enough for me to make proper use of my Elgato Capture device and will even work with the stream command with webcam overlays to my youtube channel at 1080p 60 fps, so you will all soon be able to look at my ugly mug whilst listening to my dulcet tones swearing and using vast amounts of profanity late into the night as I get my ass kicked on Black Ops. lol.
Another reason for the purchase is so that I can carry it about with me to upload photos from the field which will be great for uploading pics to news feeds etc and will be great when I am travelling to upload pics to my blog etc.

Well interweb it has been nice catching up and hopefully over the coming days I will visit you again with a few updates and thoughts from the depths of what is left of my mind.
However for now, be safe in the knowledge that despite the cost of living, it is still quite popular.

Cheers Y'all THE BAGSTAXXX

PS4VR, PS4PRO and Narcissists!!!

2016-11-16T15:42:00.003+00:00

Good afternoon interweb, it's been a while.
Just to get you back up to speed I have been a little busy of late with numerous things including a 17 night stay in the Maldives.
Had an MRI scan before I went away and upon my return I was summoned to see my neurosurgeon.
It would appear that I am going to need a 4th operation on my spine to try and alleviate the pain I have been suffering and it was with the recovery in mind I went off to spend a shed load of cash on mission control as I will be spending a lot more time in there gaming during my recovery.

First off was a PS VR headset, Couldn't buy one for love or money but I did manage to persuade a charming young lady in Game to sell me one that had not been collected yet.

Now I am not going to give a review of the PS4 VR headset as I do not feel that I could do it justice, you see I have a very bad astigmatism and my eyes are old and bent. The image simply would not focus for me with or without glasses or contact lenses.
Don't get me wrong the thing is great, comfortable with and without glasses and the VR experience is stunning but at that price point I simply am not willing to put up with a slightly fuzzy image because I am Mr McGoo.
So that had to go on Ebay but to ease my pain I invested in a Samsung 43" 4K UHD Curved screen for Mission Control.
A few days later I picked up a PS4 Pro as well.

The main reason for switching from Sony Bravia (which has been my choice for many years now) was that the Sony Bravia range seem to have dropped the ball from a gamers point of view and when the Sony's output HRD or 4K images the input lag that the processing adds in upwards of 100 MS which is not great to be honest.
After a bit of research I found that the sub 20MS Samsung only added around 2-5 MS input lag after processing.
It is actually a bloody nice TV as well and looks awesome in mission control sat between 2 Acer 24" monitors. The one on the left is for normal PC work and the new addition on the right is going to have a fairly high end PC plugged into it along with the Elgato capture card.
Ill be using it for video game capturing and editing along with photo processing.
Which brings me nicely to the PS4 Pro.

If I didn't need to buy a new monitor for bedroom 1 then I probably would not have got the Samsung or the Pro, but the TV died in bedroom 1 so I told Viper she could have the Bravia from mission control and Id get a new one. RESULT.
So with the Pro in my clammy grasp on launch morning I headed home to set things up.
I had already uploaded all my game saves to the cloud so I could download them later.
One thing to note is that you need to install the games before downloading the game saves otherwise the system does not recognise them.
After installing all my games and downloading a jigabobagigalot of patches and updates I was ready to fire things up and get shit rolling.
First off I noticed that the Pro is slightly larger than the PS4 and the finish is a kind of matt affair with the PS logo on top. I personally love the looks of it and the Light bar has been moved to sit in the middle of the front of the console.

It has had quite a big spec upgrade details of which can be found below,

PS4 PS4 Pro DUALSHOCK 4

Product name	PlayStation®4
Product code	CUH-2000 series
Main processor	Single-chip custom processor CPU : x86-64 AMD “Jaguar”, 8 cores GPU : 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD Radeon™ based graphics engine
Memory	GDDR5 8GB
Storage size*	500GB, 1TB
External dimensions	Approx. 265×39×288 mm (width × height × length) (excludes largest projection)
Mass	Approx. 2.1 kg
BD/ DVD drive (read only)	BD × 6 CAV DVD × 8 CAV
Input/ Output	Super-Speed USB (USB 3.1 Gen1) port × 2 AUX port × 1
Networking	Ethernet（10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T）×1 IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth®v4.0
Power	AC 100-240V, 50/60Hz
Power consumption	Max. 165W
Operating Temperature	5 ºC – 35ºC
AV output	HDMI™ out port (HDR output supported)

Now I wouldn't know a Terra Flop if I was pissing on one but what I do know is that the thing seems quieter and is fast as fuck.
The image that it displays from games like Infinite Warfare, Modern Warfare Remastered and Project cars is truly stunning.

I have not noticed any increase in lag on the games whilst outputting at the highest rates it can do but the image, man it is so sharp even up close that you could shave with it. Even from a couple of feet away you cannot see any jaggies or distortion or any sign of how the image is made up.
Is it necessary to upgrade to the PRO? No.
If you have a 4K TV and the spare cash I would say yes deffo.
Game had a deal on if you traded in your old PS4 and 5 games which is what I went for but that is now over I think.
Might be worth looking for some "Black Friday" deals or if you want to trade in your old PS4 here's a little trick for you.
Get a quote from CEX first as Game will give you 10% more than CEX offers.

In other news myself and a few other people on one of the gaming forums I visit have recently had to endure a rather unpleasant delusional narcissist.
He had been trolling the forum with a load of crap as they do. I mean it is 2016, I didn't even think trolls were still a thing. That's just so 2000 man. Ah well as I have said before "Karma is a bitch and I got her on speed dial"

Anyway interweb it's about time for my afternoon nap so I shall leave you with this and bid you farewell.
“Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders, one of a group that includes antisocial, dependent, histrionic, avoidant and borderline personalities. But by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless.”
and it is my humble opinion that the ‘Selfie Stick’ has to top the list for what best defines narcissism in society today.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

The Maldives, a non exhaustive guide!!!!

2016-08-06T17:20:00.001+01:00

Hello interweb, I am back for more ramblings today. I trust I find your 0's and 1's are all in good order and that you are well.
I am feeling a little put out today, ya see I got my leave from work sanctioned and logged and all put in order so that I can take off 25 days in October for an extended holiday.
That in itself is not what has made me feel put out, the fact that I am excited about it is. I don't really get excited about much to be honest.
I spent the other night (at work) trawling ebay and buying shirts, shorts and a pair of converse for my holiday. I never buy clothes, Viper buys me clothes and I wear them, That's just how it works in Bagstaland.
Anyway this will make trip number 10 to the Maldives so I thought I might put a little guide to The Maldives including some things to take etc.
So without further a do I shall begin with the Bagsta69's guide to The Maldives.

First of all would be deciding when to go. The dry season runs from November to April and this is when traveling to The Maldives is the most expensive. However other times of year which are sometimes called the monsoon season are far cheaper and whilst you do get some rain it does not rain all the time and it it is still hot. 9 of our trips have been in either April or October, just leading into the dry season or just coming out of it and the weather has never really spoiled anything, sure it has rained and we have even seen a waterspout but never had a total washout.

The added bonus to going at this time is the fact that it costs less than half the amount than going in the dry season.
On the plus side, when it does rain you can get some pretty stunning photographs .

Anyway after you have decided when to go you need to decide how to get there. You can fly direct, been there done that never again. You can fly with 2 stops which always seem to leave you with hours and hours stop over in an airport or you can fly via Dubai which is our personal choice.
Flying to Dubai on an Emirates Airbus A380 even in economy is a pleasure. The legroom even in economy is plenty and the staff are incredible.

We always get a flight that allows us a couple of hours to clear security and have a look around the amazing airport that is Dubai International.
After boarding a 777 to continue the journey to Male you can sit back and relax.
As you get closer to your destination you begin to see small islands dotted about in the ocean like small jewels and as you get closer and begin to descend the colours are stunning. They look just like they do in the brochure.

When you land and the doors are opened the first thing to hit you is the heat and humidity. Standing in line waiting to clear customs can take a while but you have to realise that you are now on Maldives time and that runs slower than a Jamaican after an afternoon on rum n coke and a few spliffs.
When you have been reunited with your bags it is a good idea to transfer a pair of shorts t-shirt and some sun cream to your hand luggage as depending on the method of travel to your island you may not see your main bags again for a while.
Onwards travel is either by Dhoni boat which is slow and quite relaxing or by speed boat which can be a bit butt bruising if it's rough. The other method is via Sea Plane which is just totally worth the extra if you can afford it.
Once you arrive at your destination the chill out can begin. If you are a drinker I would advise you go all inclusive as everything has to be imported to the Maldives and as such things can be quite expensive. Ive paid $125.00 for a normal sized bottle of Moet before for Vipers birthday.
One thing to remember is that you are now at the equator, its damned hot and the sun will burn you in minutes. High factor sun cream even if it is cloudy is a must. Do not think that you will get away with no cream for 15 minutes as you wont and you will burn.
I dont bother with the diving thing as I get to see so much just snorkeling off the beach that I have never felt the need to do the whole diving thing.
I always wear a t-shirt when snorkeling as well to help stop my back burning.

There is so much to see including some bigger fish like Reef sharks and rays it truly is amazing. An underwater camera is a must if you are traveling here and they don't have to be that expensive either but remember when you get out of the water to rinse off your camera as well as your ears. Every time rinse out your ears, I forgot this once and got an infection which was less than pleasant.

Other things that you can do in The Maldives are quite limited really but most resorts do day trips. Either snorkeling to different reefs or to the capital Male.
One thing that I never seem to be able to get across to people when I tell them about this place is the accommodation. For the most part it consists of beach villas actually on the beach which will have a large room with bed and some furniture and a bathroom which are mostly open air.There are also water villas that stick out on stilts over the ocean but having spent a few nights in one of these the water lapping against the posts gets really annoying.
These are usually cleaned in the morning and when you go for your evening meal they are cleaned again and the sheets on the bed turned down.
I always make a point of tipping the room boy on arrival and then another couple of dollars every two to three days.
Some islands have a tip jar for the gardeners who sweep up leaves all day keeping the islands looking tidy but if they don't I will usually tip them as well.
The beaches are stunning, pristine white sand and never seem very busy.

We usually take a can of raid bug spray with us and spray along the door bottoms when we go out to discourage any bugs from going into our room on an evening and it works quite well as there are quite a few on all islands and mosquito spray as well, deet 50 or as an alternative Avon Skin so soft spray also helps keep the pesky critters at bay.
There are a few other creatures that reside on the islands including lizards and bats.

On an evening sitting watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean is one of the most laid back things that I have ever done. it is stunning.

And then as the light fades the lack of light pollution treats you to a view of the stars that many city dwellers seldom see.

For the most part though a trip to The Maldives really is a trip to paradise and it really does live up to all the hype.
Also remember to take home what you brought, this includes empty bottles of sun cream and punctured lilo's. There is no land fill or giant rubbish burning factories in The Maldives. It all goes to and island called Thilafushi and it is really struggling to deal with the waste.

And so I will finally leave you with a list of things that are a must to take with you, aside from the obvious stuff like toothpaste, lol.
Hi Factor sun cream and lots of it as to buy it in resort is really expensive (I paid $30.00)
After sun
Mossi spray at least deet 50
Flippers and snorkel
Underwater camera and plenty of memory cards
multitool
super glue
tooth repair kit
first aid kit
pain killers
Beach towel as not all resorts supply these
a small amount of washing powder
antihistamines
American dollars in small denominations for tips
Sewing kit
spare batteries
blue tooth speaker
4 gang mains thing as sockets are limited.
Mains travel adapter. some islands have UK plug sockets others don't.
If I think of anything else I will add it later, for now Im going to try and work out how to deal with this exitement thing that has afflicted me, and remember this, Talking to yourself is a characteristic of the gifted.

Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTA XXX Roll on October :)

Back ache, Logitech G29 wheel and Serial Killers !!!!

2016-07-23T20:11:00.001+01:00

Hello there interweb, Reverend Bagsta69 is back after a few months break, Why the break? Well to be honest there has been so much shit flying about in the world and hate on the interweb from internet keyboard hard men I simply couldn't be arsed to sit down and put my arthritic fingers to the keyboard.
Couple that with the world of pain I am in at the minute with what I suspect is another slipped disk for which I am chewing my way through a mountain if Morphine, Gabapentin Naproxen and paracetamol every day and writing a blog post hasn't really been a priority.
However I am here now and so would like to talk about my latest purchase for mission control.
The Logitech G29 Steering wheel and pedals.
With GT Sport coming out later in the year I thought Id spread the cost early and get the wheel first.

I picked up a used copy of project cars as well as all the reviews have it down as one of the best sims out there.
On unboxing the first impression I got was one of having bought a quality product, it is weighty and smells like a new car.

Having owned the Logitech Driving force for many years (GT5 onwards) this is a major step up in quality and feel. The 3 pedals on the heavy base are stainless steel as are the flappy paddle gear shift levers which feel great and perfectly weighted and sprung.
The hand stitched leather cover for the wheel just adds to the quality feel of the wheel.
There are grooves on the underside of the base unit for the cables to sit in so that it sits flat on any surface and there is enough room in the underside to store any spare cable.

The unit clamps on the a surface in much the same way as the previous logitech wheels only this time you can then fasten down the bits you use to screw the clamp tight with to make the whole base unit look that bit tidier.
The wheel itself has all the button fixed to it that you have on your PS4 controller all within easy finger reach whilst gaming and the alluminium spokes to the wheel and blue top mark really set the whole wheel off as a nice bit of kit.

The Wheel can be used on PC, PS3 or PS4 and there is a small switch on the top of one of the inner spokes to set this to.
And so to actually gaming and driving with this wheel.
It feels great and very realistic, the force feedback gives a good feel back to you and the pedals are very realistic. The brake pedal unlike previous set ups gives more resistance the more you depress it giving it a very realistic feel which took me a few races to get used to if Im honest.
The base of the pedals has the usual drop out spiked bit to stop it sliding on carpet of rubber feet if using on a hard surface..

However, after about an hour gaming all of a sudden a message flashed up on screen telling me that my controller had been disconnected.
It appeared that it had and nothing on the wheel worked. I had to switch stuff off and restart. None of the cables had come unplugged but it seemed to work again fine when I had rebooted.
About an hour later the same thing happened again. Hmmmmm, not a happy bunny.
The message "your controller has been disconnected message appeared again.
Thinking that it was to much of a coincidence the old grey matter went into thought process mode and came up with the solution.
In the PS4 settings I had set it up to shut down the controller after 60 minutes of inactivity. I adjusted this to never switch off when inactive and the problem was solved.
Project cars is probably one of the best sims I have ever played and the physics of the cars etc is amazing. The G29 has so many things you can adjust in game as well it's like it was built for the game.
Best price I found was £170.00 from Currys / PC World. Well worth the investment for the improvements made in my opinion.
Click here to see a couple of laps of Le Sarthe in Astons. :)

And so before I drift off to chew on some more drugs I will leave you as always with some thoughts from the depths of my grey matter.
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we are living in order to live the life we need" and before you humiliate somebody, remember that humiliation is one of the biggest reasons people become serial killers.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTA. XXX

BT, Ping and Tech Support!!!!!

2016-04-21T12:40:00.002+01:00

Good morning interweb, a very sunny one it is as well although the clouds in mission control are very stormy.
I have just got off a 3 hour session with BT tech support, they couldn't support my left testicle if they tried as a team. Bunch of script monkeys with tick boxes.

You see I have for the past week been having a few issues with my online gaming, One minute I am kicking ass and taking names and the next I cannot hit the side of a barn.
So after taking the advice of Zennon jedi network master I ran a little bit of software called ping plotter. It is free to download and try for 14 days to help identify network problems etc.
To get any really useful data from it you need to just let the thing run and look at the data after several hours on several occasions.
Well I went to work and let it run for 8 hours on an evening with only my PC using the interweb.
At peak time I got my usual flat line 15 MS of ping great connection but around 21.00 hours onwards I was getting massive spikes that lasted for a minute of two. When I say massive I mean a sudden increase up to 2000 MS ping.

This is not conducive to a great FPS experience and so I thought I would take some screen captures and contact BT support when they started at 08.00hrs.
And so began my ordeal.
08.00hrs, I call BT support and am connected to an Indian sounding lady. She explained that I needed to do a line check which I had already done. She then explained that as I was having a problem with my speed she would need to do a few checks.
I explained I was not having an issue with my speed I was having an issue with ping spikes and 50%-100% packet loss.
She ran the test. My phone line crackled and clicked for a good 4 to 5 minutes before it went dead and I got a dialing tone.
This was not looking good so I went to make a cup of tea and gave her the chance to call me back which she didn't.

08.16hrs, I call back and have to give all my personal information again to the new Indian sounding lady and explain the issue I have been having.
She explains that as I am having a problem with my speeds she will need to run some tests, I patiently explain that I am not having problems with my speeds that I am getting big ping spikes and packet loss.
The lady runs the test anyway and after a couple of minutes asks if my internet is dropping out.
I again explain that my internet is not dropping out that I am experiencing large ping spikes and packet loss.

08.31hrs, I am again placed on hold for about 5 minutes and told that they were experiencing technical issues and I would be called back within 40 minutes.
09.11hrs rolls around and no contact so once again I call and can just hear call centre people talking in the background, after 2 minutes of this with nobody to speak to I try again and speak to another Indian lady who is tries to contact the lady I was speaking to before, I explained that she didn't know her arse from her elbow and could I please be put through to level 2 technical support as I was getting nowhere.
She agreed and put me through.
My call was now in a que and would be answered shortly.
09.34 still in a que, 09.46 still in a que,

09.48hrs, I get through to Technical support level 2 or so I thought. After giving my name address account number again I explained the problem.
The lady said that if my speeds were low they could run a test.
No shit Sherlock, We have been there before I believe and I ask what part of I am getting large ping spikes and packet loss is she having a problem understanding.
She explains that her department do not deal with things like that as they only deal with E-mail problems. What the Fuck!!!!!!
She could put me through to the department that deals with my problem and gave me the same number I had initially dialled at 08.00hrs.
I explained that they were of no help at all and so she put me through to what seemed to be an English based call centre.
An English sounding chap then ran me through all the security questions again and after I had explained to him that I was getting large ping spikes and packet loss and I could send him screen grabs of the data he asked what my speed was and could I run a speed test. FFS.
I duly ran the test and explained that the issue wasn't present at all times and after putting me on hold for 10 minutes came back and said that I need to run the test when the issue arises and let them know the results of the speed test.
I again patiently explained that by the time the issue arises in game and I have tried to run the speed test the issue has resolved itself as the test can take up to 2 minutes.
On hold again, He returned eventually to tell me that their technicians cannot do anything unless I give them the results of the speed test,
I explained that he ought to get a manager or next level person for me to speak to.
He tried to tell me that it was probably my PS4 causing the problem as they are apparently notorious for this issue.
I asked him how that could be when my PS4 was not even switched on when the problems were occurring.
He went to get a manager.
Said manager got on the phone and explained that she didn't really know much about my issue and was not even aware of what ping and latency was but would be escalating my issue to another department.
I wait with baited breath.
3 hours I will never get back.

And so internet let me leave you with these pearls of wisdom,
If you want help for an issue with BT broadband do not call bt broadband support because BT broadband support are about as much use as a fucking chocolate fireguard.

Peace out YAll, THE BAGSTAXXX

Energy, Suitcases and Lemons!!!

2016-04-05T17:37:00.000+01:00

Good afternoon interweb, and a windy one it is to at Bagsta Towers.
I was just having my afternoon siesta when the phone rang and an Irish chap on the other end mentioned something about energy and bills blah blah blah.
I politely told him that I was not interested in what he had to say or sell and bid him goodbye,
He insisted that he wasn't trying to sell me anything and was just wondering when my current energy suppliers contract was up.
I informed him that this was very hard to actually get an exact date as I am not quite sure when my current energy supplier is going to die.
At this point the phone went silent for a moment but then the chap pressed further, Who is your current energy supplier? he enquired.
Photon, I replied.
Photon he replied in a slightly unsure tone,
Yes Photon, he's a hamster. We hooked his wheel up to the mains box and boy can he go when you put a pic of a pretty female hamster in front of him.

You have just been wasting my time haven't you he said.
Yes, annoying isn't it I replied and hung up the phone.
These people really get me going calling at the most inappropriate times as well.

Complaining about such things in general I have found never really does you much good but I have recently just had a top result from complaining in a polite manner.
You may remember the fun we had with Vipers suitcase (again) on our last trip to the Maldives.
Well I had a spare few minutes on my hands and so wrote to Emirates customer complaints department explaining the issues.
I had a very pleasant reply apologising etc etc and as a gesture of goodwill as we are Emirates Skywards customers they credited mine and Vipers account with 10000 miles each. That is a net result of around $800. Result.
Vipers new suitcase arrived this morning and my eyes have only just become accustomed to normal vision again.

Don't think that will get confused fora case belonging to anybody else. She has been wheeling it around like a new toy asking if I want a go????
In other news, This week on the 9th of April 2003 American Forces rolled into Baghdad and toppled the monument of Soddin Insane. Despite my advancing years I still remember watching the whole story unfold on the news channels.

They draped the statue in the Stars and Stripes like a conquering invader more than a liberating force but I can forgive them for their exuberance and the flag was quickly taken down before a noose was placed over the head of the statue and it was torn to the ground.
In gaming news a new update is due out tomorrow for the PS4 which will enable users to do lots of new cool stuff including appearing offline.
The Black Ops 3 servers were a massive pile of shite last night and I gave up after about an hour with only one positive game.
The next Call of Duty has been rumoured to take place in space.
A small part of Call of Duty Ghosts was played out in space but never any MP levels and I for one hope the rumour is false.

The main player base of the game I believe is and has been crying out for boots on the ground action with no wall running or boosting all over the bloody map. I would place money on a large percentage of the player base even been happy to return to a WW2 based game.
Anyway Interweb it is probably time I bid you farewell for today as I feel another nap coming on and so I will leave you with these thoughts,
"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party."
and "No matter how hard you try to teach your Hamster general relativity, you're going to fail." However they are very good at generating electricity.
Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Cats, Bufferbloat, R1 and World Domination !!!

2016-03-26T14:24:00.001+00:00

Good afternoon interweb and a flipping dull grey shitty one it is outside.
Last night was full of fun, as there was bugger all to watch on the TV as it was a Friday evening I decided to try and persuade Viper to let me have a cat. Ive had 3 German Shepherds and 1 Dalmatian and they take a lot of looking after whereas a cat mostly looks after itself.
You see I have for some time had ideas of taking over the world as an evil genius from Mission Control here at Bagsta Towers. I have had these plans for some time as can be seen in this photograph from my younger days, I was not bothered with the trivialities and cheer of the masses I had plans for World Domination long ago and if you made me spill my milk you were in for some serious hard stare time.

And so a cat to sit on my lap and purr away as I put my plans into action.
So bottom line, I want a cat, Viper does not want a cat. Were not getting a cat. As a compromise she rolled up a furry blanket and fastened it with rubber bands and said there.

Not quite what I had in mind but never mind, and anyway, no matter how hard you try to teach your cat general relativity, you're going to fail.
Enough of my rambling and onto bufferbloat.
I did a few tests this morning trying to get mine sorted and it would appear that the device you do the tests on can have a large difference on the results.
Testing through my PC wired and my IPAD2 wireless just minutes apart the results were somewhat different, and surprising to be honest.

The Ipad gave me great results with no big swings on the meter during testing whilst the wired PC gave me less than favourable results with some big swings on the meter during testing.

I'm going with the results from the IPAD as the tech inside it is years newer than my PC and even if it's a placebo effect it's still an effect.
The Netduma R1 is after several weeks now on the new upgrade still firing on all cylinders.
The features of the latest firmware are for me on my connection way more than needed but the Hyperlane for my PS4 couples with the ability to temp ban dedicated servers has for the most part seen my games improve.
It does exactly what it says on the tin and puts me in lobbies with an average ping to host of around 10 MS every single game. Happy days you would think but not all the time.
Now this is what many (probably younger users) people don't seem to get about the Netduma R1. People buy this router and expect to simply plug it in press a button and start dropping Motherships every game because some Youtuber did a video showing that they did.
What these people fail to understand is that many of these Ytubers play hours a day every day and if you watch their streams they certainly do not drop 44-2 games every game by any means. However when they do it will be published like lightening.
So if the R1 puts me in incredibly low ping lobbies with my PS4 traffic prioritised and 8 years muscle memory and playing the game why do I sometimes get a right good spanking. Why do I sometimes just get hit marker after hit marker then die in one shot from the enemy.
The only factor left in the equation is the game itself.
I am so tired of reading on forums how the "R1 isn't working, I'm not going 44-0 every game" The R1 is probably doing it's job very well and either the players skill set isn't quite what they imagined it is or more likely "THE GAME ITSELF IS FLAWED".
For the most part for me it plays OK and I have fun but there are times when it is like wading through mud and you simply cannot get the drop on anybody. Spawning in right in front of the enemy is another major problem with the game which I doubt will be fixed anytime soon and so all we can do is play the game for a bit of fun and when it stops being fun take out the disk and play something else.
When the game does go shitty on me I check my ping and that steady 10-12 MS bar tells me its not on my end. So thank you Netduma.
The other thing you could do when the game goes to shit is continue with your plan on World Domination. Now there's an idea.

And so interweb I will as usual leave you with a few thoughts from the depths of my unravelling mind, "A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's: She changes it more often." and if we are all here on earth to help others, what on earth are the others here for?

Peace out y'all, THE BAGSTAXXX

Skins, Easter and violence!!!

2016-03-24T16:09:00.003+00:00

Hello interweb, How are we today?
Nearly Easter, you know that Christian thing where the lag was so bad it took that Jesus chap 3 days to respawn.
I have in the past week or so made a few new purchases for mission control.
The PlayStation 4 has had a makeover with a rather new swanky skin to help prevent it from getting scratched.

It also got a damn good hoovering and blast out with some compressed air as it hadn't been cleaned since I first bought it on release date. As a general rule it sits on one of them fan thingies which seems to have kept the level of dust down to a minimum actually and I would recommend one to anybody. They also allow you a few extra USB slots above the normal 2 as well.
I have also invested in a PlayStation Eye camera for the set up as well. For the money I am actually quite disappointed in the whole thing as you cannot even use it to chat to friends across the pond like you could with the PS3 version.
In fact it seems at the moment all it can really do is log you in by face recognition, respond to a few voice commands and do the picture in picture thing if you are streaming to twitch or youtube etc.
I was hoping that I could have done picture in picture whilst gaming with friends so that they could see my friendly gestures when they team kill me but alas my colourful language will have to suffice for now.

I have slowly been getting the hang of the Elgato HD60 capture device and will soon be violating the internet with my videos along side the millions of other useless clips that are out there. At least I will feel included.
There has been a lot of crap going off in the real world of late, The American elections for instance, the rest of the world is viewing this as an intelligence test for America and it is not going well for them.
Yet more terrorists blowing themselves and others to pieces in the name of their religion.
Please just go and blow yourself up in a field and leave all the normal people well alone to get on with their day. And yes, you do look kind of retarded with your trousers above the ankles. It's a very special needs kind of look. If you are wearing your trousers at normal length "shame on you" I am sure your God will not be to pleased with you when you blow yourself up and go to meet him in long trousers.
In other news Black Ops 3 has become very stale very quickly for me, I never really liked Treyarch's offerings before and this one is no different buy I still play it around 4 or 5 times a week. Now if only there was a driving game like GT5 or 6 out for the PS4.
Viper has finally decided on taking her sister to Mexico for her 50th and so I will be home alone for 10 days next month at some point, I am not quite sure if this is a dangerous thing or not and if it is who it is dangerous for!!
Anyway interweb enough of my ramblings for now, some test videos from the Elgato can be found on my Youtube channel here BAGSTA69

And so I will leave you my usual drivel and final thought, Sometimes violence does solve problems and you don't have to attend every argument to which you are invited.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Elgato, Sponge, Terrorists and Jazz farts!!!

2016-03-11T14:17:00.002+00:00

Good afternoon interweb, twice in a week, just.
Well it has been an interesting week and I have actually parted with some of my money which as a Yorkshireman goes against most of my principles but part with it I did and for the most part I am quite pleased with my purchases.
First off having watched a video by a Netduma regular called ImSallad about gaming accessory gimmicks I decided to invest a few quid in some aim assist thingies.
You can find ImSallads youtube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUdobRhy_ugRElGsG6eMv4A His is one of the more watchable channels out there.
Anyway back to aiming thingies.

FPS Aim Assist are just circles of sponge that increase the resistance of your thumbstick when you aim helping to prevent over aiming and having to correct your aim all the time. They also stop the click as the stick finds its edge against the body of the controller.
They come in two varieties of Yellow and Grey with the Grey ones offering more resistance for the real thugs out there. I tried both and settled on a yellow one on the right stick.

I was thinking that these things were a bit of a gimmick and after playing a few games with them didn't really feel that they were making a difference. That was right up to the point where I took it off. Wow, my aim was all over the place and that expensive bit of sponge soon got slapped back on.
When playing Call of Duty I'm old with chronic arthritis and as such don't expect to call in Mother ships every game. To be honest in this inconsistent shitty offering from Treyarch I'm happy if my kills are in double figures and I go positive. Over the last couple of days I have not only been going positive but getting kills in the high teens and twenties and even come in top of the leader board winning team first place on three occasions. So make of them what you will but I like mine:)
WOW, Ive just passed wind and it sounded more like a tune from a Jazz trumpet solo!!! I digress so lets get back to my other purchase.
The Elgato HD 60 capture thingymajobee. External one.
I have been wanting to get one of these for a while now and finally decided to just get one. £138.00 from PC World.

The Elgato is very nicely packaged and when opened you do get a feeling of having bought a quality product. It does not however come with any form of instruction manual but does have a link to a website that you need to visit to download the software.

Having downloaded the software I went about trying to get it set up and working. Trust me, this takes a fair bit of patience, a lot of google searches and advice from people who are much more technically minded than I, Starting with ImSallad, JConnor, Iammodbox and Raddy to name but a few. (all Netduma R1 forum regulars)
One of the biggest issues I was having was trying to get the image to display on the pass through TV, the screen kept flickering and just a black display. Having checked all my cables were connected correctly and making sure everything was right in the software I still couldn't get the display working. So after a few google searches I found that on the PS4 before you connect the Elgato you have to go to Settings / System and turn OFF "Enable HDCP"
Would have been nice if Elgato could have let me know that as I am sure I am not the only person who has had this issue.
After setting the thing up I tried a few experiments and tests. Streaming is a lot harder than it looks but capturing high quality footage is a piece of piss.
Turning that into something people might want to watch on youtube is another thing.
One of the biggest let downs on it is the inability to record your voice through gaming headsets without a plethora of wires.
There are ways to do it with after market cables etc but I have simply decided to by an external usb mic which I can set up and when I need to add voice over I can simply hit the live broadcast button or whatever it is called. Or in editing software lay down a voice over.
The main reason for wanting to get the Elgato was to get the with times man, I am hoping when I have learned how to use it properly to use it for a video blog type thing instead of typing things out here, A kind of more up to date Reverends Ramblings if you like.
In other news I have been thinking after all these new warnings about imminent terrorist attacks and what you should do if you find yourself caught up in one. Well all I know is that FPS gamers are not going to have a problem as we have been through that shit a thousand times.

And so interweb I will leave you for today and return to a world where people don't read the fucking instructions and in general have IQ of flip flops but I will leave you with this from Douglas Adams, It would have been his birthday today.
"I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I needed to be"
Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

I would also just like to thank the following for some watchable Youtube video's (Click on their name to view the channel.)
ImSallad
MrTrakky

I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/douglas_adams.htmlI seldom end up where I wanted to go,

Snow, Streaming and Candy, I love Candy!!!!

2016-03-07T15:34:00.003+00:00

Good afternoon interweb, I am currently listening to the Levellers, Levelling the land album through my Shure Headphones. They really are bloody good headphones once you get the correct tips fitted. The noise isolation is superb.
The added bonus is that the cable with in line controls arrived a few days ago and they just top things off.
The main reason for wearing them during the day when I am in mission control is simply that Viper is in bed as she has been working overnights at the hospital.
The weather at the end of last week turned a pale shade of shite up ere in the land of flat caps, Snow and loads of the stuff. As is normal when this happens I was straight out with camera in hand and spinning Thumpers wheels up as I drifted the 2.2 ton monster up into the Peak.

It didn't stick around for very long and now there is just a small amount left up on the top of the peaks.

I was also watching a video of Candy Dulfer playing at the Sea Jazz Festival in Aruba in 2011 over the weekend and spotted this likely lad bottom right taking pics of her.

This is the pic I was actually taking at that very moment,

You know when I think about it I have had a very charmed life so far, and cheated death on several occasions although I can still hear the buggers cloak rustling on occasions.
I think it is more the choices I have made than luck and having a belief in what I am doing will succeed.
Now if only I could turn that belief into actual results on Black Ops 3, lol.
I have over the years had some great and memorable times on my COD career which started with the first Modern Warfare game.
Many of those moments like Knuckles spawning in on a claymore and blowing himself half way across the map, Oh how I laughed, have been lost and it is with this in mind that I have been giving some serious thought as to buying me an Elgato capture thingy.
I have also over the weekend (its been a busy weekend)been pissing about with Twitch and its settings and to be honest the quality streaming straight from the PS4 just isn't there.

I had a look at a lot of streams and to be honest there is a lot of shit out there that is simply unwatchable and yet there are several hundred people watching the feed.
I guess to be honest it will just be an extension of this blog which has reached just under 30000 views which I find staggering as it was originally just a way of helping me to stop smoking.
I am sure that I will invent some new curse words if I do go down that particular avenue before I get things set up and will no doubt enlist the help of some of the brighter members of the Netduma forum.
Speaking of which, I was playing a few games of Hardcore TDM last night with knuckles, I am in UK and he is East coast USA. I was hosting with my Netduma R1 set to the COD ultimate profile and congestion control set to 60% both ways.
Reasonable connection and we were having mostly good games with the odd dodgy lobby thrown in.
Then Knuckles started streaming to Twitch live, He went ham on those douchbags man. I was putting up the best scores of the night as well. He had a couple of games where he went like 34-4 and 38-7 it was insane.
So that got me to thinking which is never a good thing. A feel a few tests may have to be done here.
Oh well interweb my green tea and ginger cup of tea has now been drunk and I better get on with doing something so I will simply leave you with this thought,
Antisocial behaviour is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists!!

Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTAXX

Wings, Earbuds and X2 XP!!!

2016-03-01T16:13:00.003+00:00

Afternoon interweb, it’s been a while. I have even had a birthday since last we conversed and a very pleasant time was had.
Myself and Viper went down to Yankees, a popular American themed diner with loads of eighties memorabilia on the wall and even eighties NFL matches on the big screens. Buffalo wings and a cheeseburger the size of a shoebox was summarily munched through all washed down with a few large diet coke drinks, not because I am watching my weight but because I prefer the taste.

Been as I am about as popular as a ginger person at a sperm bank I I didn’t receive too many gifts but did buy myself a set of new in ear earphones.
After spending many hours recently in the Maldives with iphone earbuds shoved in my ear I decided I needed some decent ones that didn't hurt so much after several hours.
I decided on the Shure SE215's in a limited edition transparent blue colour.

They arrive in a neat little box with a carry bag which you can clip on to stuff and 6 sets of tips to choose from.
Now this is very important. To get the best sound from these headphones you really do need to make sure that you have the correct tips on the ear pieces otherwise they sound crap and the noise isolation is not very good.
I used the foam small tips to start with and after a couple of attempts to put them in and get them to sit right in the ear I was good to go. I went to the gym and spent an hour doing cardio, the over ear cable which has a small length of wire inside fits well but I could hear the shite music that was being pumped out and the trainers shouting etc even on full volume. The bass was a bit tinny sounding too and for the £60.00 I paid for them I was not that impressed.
However after changing the tips to the silicon medium tips the difference was quite stark. Off I skipped to the gym again and I noticed the difference immediately. I could hardly hear the ambient sound in the gym even without any music playing. Once AC/DC was in full flow at around 70% full volume the music was all I could hear. The bass was good, treble and top end stuff was clear as a bell, I played jazz, blues rock and a little easy listening stuff and all sounded superb.

Very comfortable as well, they actually sit in the outer ear which means you can lay down and sleep in these bad boys if you wanted to. They are a bit of a fiddle to put in when you first get them but you soon get the fitting right.
On the downside they do not come with any inline controls which I think is a bit of an oversight but you can order a replacement cable which comes with them built in for around an extra £10.00 which I am awaiting delivery of as we speak.

As they are made by Shure I expected them to be good but as the next set up come in at a three figure price I wasn't sure (no pun intended) exactly how good they would be. I was going to get a set of Polk Audio Nue Voe headphones but could not find a set for love nor money. If I could have they would have cost me twice as much as these and I can highly recommend them along with the caveat that you really do need to make sure you use the correct tips and get them fitted into the ear properly.

In other news it was Black Ops 3 x2 XP weekend and what a pile of shite the servers turned into. I tried a few games on Saturday night before switching the PS4 off and firing up the PS3 to play some GT6. Sunday was no better and in the space of about 2 hours myself and Knuckles had not actually won a single match. Monday evening was not that much better and all I can say is that I did mention when the game came out that at around the 3 month mark it would probably go to shit and it has.
If they would only stop targeting young children for an 18 rated game with all the silly downloadable content in the form of cammo's etc and remove half of the score streaks then maybe the game play would improve but alas I will not hold my breath on that.

And so interweb it is time for me to leave you, but not before imparting a little more wisdom on you.
Confidence is the feeling that you have before you understand the situation, and if you are happy and you know it, Please keep it to yourself.

Peace Out Yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Holiday, Pritt Stick and queuing!!!!

2016-02-15T15:07:00.001+00:00

Good afternoon interweb, Mission control is all fired back up and running well, a two week absence from such technology really makes you appreciate it more when you are back with it.
The holiday or vacation as my friends over the pond call it went well for the most part with only the odd hiccup, which in all fairness for a grumpy old git like me is a top result.
Our neighbours in the adjacent villas were friendly enough right up till the last couple of days when 4 Italians moved in and displayed every stereotypical character going.
Shouting at the top of their voices even though they were next to one another and one of them had a body shape like that of Roger from American Dad,

Wearing budgie smugglers a large gold chain and the rest of his body looked liked it had been dabbed in numerous places with a Pritt Stick glue thing and then been rolled on the floor of a barbers shop.
Italian style? The hair in the crack of my ass has more style than this guy.
Anyhow I turned up the volume on my headphones and ignored them for the most part.
The sunsets were truly spectacular and I did on occasion get a few snaps of them with the hammock and posts to add interest.

This was between the times other people (mostly rather large ladies) were not walking out and getting in it to have their photo taken. I would imagine from the other side of the net hammock it would have looked like a bag of oranges in a net bag when they got into it but I digress.
One of the other things I noticed was peoples inability to hold a conversation with their partners.
I mean it's the Maldives for Christs sake and most couples will have been on honeymoon and yet I swear to god Viper and myself had more conversation than most.
Everybody in the bar at one point was sat with a partner and both parties were looking down into their mobile phones. No conversation or anything. They did this for maybe an hour or so before getting up and walking off.
Anyway the return home came around and a 06.00 hrs start on a speed boat got us to the airport in plenty of time to get a bit of duty free shopping in.
It was here that I rediscovered the fact that the concept of a queue is lost on most Europeans. One person is paying for some goods, there is a person stood behind that person and another behind them waiting patiently to pay for their goods. It's not a difficult concept to grasp, you simply join the queue BEHIND the last person, you do not go and stand the other side of the cashier and expect to be served next.
After a mad dash (again) through Dubai International to catch the connecting flight and around 11.5 hours in the air in total we finally arrived back at Manchester to freezing conditions and no handles left on Viper's suitcase. Thank you baggage handlers, it was a brand new suitcase after the wheels fell off her last one.
Made it back to Thumper and drove home through snow over Snake Pass.
Body clock totally fucked up.
There is also a rather annoying image on my blog from the advertising thing advertising "mature dating", cheeky bastards. I wouldn't mind but I haven't even been looking at such stuff in the first place, so much for targeted advertising.
And so after my travels I will simply leave you with this thought interweb,

Travel doesn't broaden the mind, it simply increases your levels of patience.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Doing bugger all.

2016-02-01T10:15:00.001+00:00

Hello interweb, I am currently sitting in the air conditioned comfort of my bungalow which is literally 20 ft from the crystal clear waters of the Indian Ocean. Just a few feet of powder white soft sand separate us.

It's 31 degrees C and a gentle breeze is blowing across the island.

As has been mentioned before I am not a very sociable person and so as you can see this place suits me just fine. ;)

Done a bit of snorkelling and a lot of laying about doing fuck all.

Last time I was on this particular island was 10 years ago and the barman actually remembers me. Lol

Sorry this is such a short post interwb but I have a pressing urge to get back to doing fuck all.

So I'll see ya soon,

Cheers.

The BagstaXXX

Flu, Holidays, taxes and suffering from mental illness!!!

2016-01-25T22:09:00.000+00:00

Well Hello interweb and I trust that the ether in which you exist is treating you better than my ether has been treating me.
I have experienced a mixed bag since last we spoke and most of it a grey shade of shite.
The good, in fact the best news is that I finally got the holiday booked, not at quite the price I wanted to pay and I am now bereft of a few organs to help pay for it but I really cannot wait to be out of this shitty weather and not have to deal with imbeciles on a daily basis.
Even if it is for only a couple of weeks it may be enough time to prevent me going totally loco.
And so it is off to the Maldives once more, Summer Island to be precise.
Summer Island was the place we first visited in the Maldives back in 2005 a few months after the Boxing day tsunami. It was a very tired looking place but the people who worked there more than made up for it.
I fell in love with the place and have been back on no fewer than 7 occasions since and this upcoming trip will make trip number 8.
This particular private island has been totally renovated and is looking pretty swish to be fair.

The other major bonus is that I have saved enough Emirates Skywards points to upgrade to Business Class. Result. I may post a few pics from the island whilst there if I can be arsed but to be honest a bit of snorkeling, sailing and night fishing and a few treatments in the spa is about all I am going to be getting up to.

The thing I am most concerned about is that I shift this damned flu that has hit me for the last 5 days, it is awful and I am not usually one to whinge too much about things like cold and flu but this is a real nasty fucker.
So bad I was curled up next to the radiator at 4AM Saturday morning to keep warm like a dog I actually called the out of hours doctors when I could stop my fingers shivering. I managed to drive in to see them and they confirmed it was viral and the fever of 38.9 could be brought down with ibuprofen.
Did I want a script? No thank you I can buy them for 30 pence a box from the supermarket so no I don't want to pay £8.20 for them thank you.
Granted they did bring the fever down but the coughing and rest of the snot and aching limbs is still there and just to add insult to the whole experience on my way home from the hospital the police pulled me over.
Apparently what did I expect when driving around through the drug capital of Sheffield at 4.30 am in a Black Grand Cherokee with tinted windows that is registered in the S11 (nice area for the most part of the city) area. Pleasant enough young coppers and they literally just waved me along and wished me good luck with my cold.
In the good news camp my tax return is filled in filed sent and the tax I owe has been paid, yaaaaaay. And you have no idea how smug that makes me feel. (this coming from a man who at one point in his life owed HMRC £75000)
So as you can see interweb life has been a mixed bag of late and I have only managed to consume about 3 bottles of wine in 5 days. Maybe that's why I have the shakes and it is nothing to do with the flu?????
In other news I have not really even felt like gaming much to be honest and so haven't but did revisit Modern Warfare 3 to play what in my opinion is one of the best levels ever "mind the gap". Made for a great MP map as well.
Well I have one shift at the hospital to complete Wednesday evening if I am recovered enough and then a couple of weeks in paradise which to be honest cannot come soon enough.

And so we come to the part of my blog post where I try to impart some sort of wisdom or wise ass comment but I am really struggling today interweb so I will leave you with this thought,
The thing people have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it, and dealing with some of the people I have to deal with on a daily basis my own theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted and suffering from a mental illness.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

GT Omega Racing Chair review and dropping balls!!!

2016-01-07T14:35:00.002+00:00

Hello again interweb, I was somewhat surprised today to briefly see a small amount of blue sky, I had to pinch myself to make sure that it was real. The weather has recently here in Blighty been a pale shade of shite for weeks now with about a 3rd of the country under water.
Viper still hasn't decided where we are going on holiday yet and we are only a few weeks from departure.
Anyway yesterday I took delivery of a rather heavy box containing my new office / games room chair.
It is a GT Omega racing chair and weighing in at £169.00 plus postage is not the cheapest chair on the market but here are a few of my thoughts on the chair.
First off its bloody heavy and getting the box up the stairs to the games room was a bit of a struggle due to my glass back.
The reason I bought it in the first place is due to having had 3 operations on my spine already and probably needing a 4th. My previous gaming chair had no lumbar support and was getting quite painful to sit in.
Anyway after getting the damn box up the apples I opened it up.

Straight away the chair had a touch and feel of solid quality. Removing all the contents of the box and laying them out before assembly gave me a reassuring feeling that this was a quality product.
After a quick read through the destructions assembly began. I had read a few reviews which said that it required 2 people to assemble the chair but I began anyway.
The bolts that fasten the base to the back are already inserted into the chair back and so a quick unscrew with the supplied allen key had these out and the back was quickly and solidly attached to the base.

The bolts are solid and the fitting is spot on, fastening them up to almost tight all the way around and then finally nipping them all up tight I find works best making alignment that bit easier.

Ok so that was the base to back bit completed with no problems at all. I left the covers to after full assembly but you could attach them at this point, Simply use the M6 bolts to attach the uprights and remove the screws from the base and use them to attach the bottom covers.
Next we need to attach the mechanism to the base of the chair and this is where I am sure many people have ended up scratching their heads and swearing a little before realising that the instruction that are included are totally wrong.

The bolts are already fastened into the base and so need to be removed. Then the mechanism needs to be placed on the base and fastened to it. The destructions tell you to make sure that the handle is on the right side and the image shows the handle sticking out on the right side.
If I had done this then the adjustment under the seat would have been behind the seat and this makes no sense at all.

So I trusted my instincts and put it on the way I thought it should go with the adjustment thingy to the front of the seat and the handle sticking out on the left.
I am not sure if the destructions mean the handle is to stick out on the right when upright or not but the image shows it sticking out whilst inverted so just be aware if you buy one and assemble it yourself.
The next stage is the bit that I guess is easier done with 2 people but as I am a stubborn old bastard I decided to make a cuppa and then do it on my own.
It only took a couple of attempts before the seat was fastened to the base and the chair was installed into the games room / office.
You can as an optional extra buy locking castors but as mine is resting on a rug I did not think they would be needed and I was right, the chair moves around fine when I want ti to and stays still when needed.
Time from opening the box to finally sitting in it was 60 minutes including a coffee break.

The pillow and lumbar support are great, especially for my glass back and the chair kind of makes you sit correctly. You can fully recline the back and pretty much lay flat out and I could easily fall asleep in this chair it really is that comfortable. The height is also adjustable
It feels solid and is without doubt the most sturdy piece of furniture that I have ever put together.
Whilst not the cheapest chair on the market I do feel that for the amount of time I spend sat in it it is well worth the price.
In other news I was perusing twitter as is my want on occasions when I saw that Tmartn the youtuber had tweeted that he had a super hoarse voice.

No need to go to the doctor tmart, your balls have dropped. Now we wont have to listen to his squeaky voice anymore. His video's may actually be watchable with the volume on.
Anyway interweb that's probably enough from me today so I will leave you with this thought,
I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability,

Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Netduma R1 settings and Happy New Year :)

2016-01-01T13:07:00.001+00:00

Well Happy New Year interweb, Och ma heed I think is the expression. Ouch, I drank far to much expensive champagne last night but was also asked if I would post up some screen shots and details of the settings I use on my Netduma R1 and so it is with this request that I find myself hungover and sat in front of my PC in the games room.
All of what I am about to put down below is what works for me with the R1, everyone's set up and connections are different and so what works for me may not work for others.
There are a few other factors which I will discuss after I have put down my settings. I would also say at this point that I have owned an R1 since February last year and so have been through a couple of upgrades and a lot of tweaking (not twerking, Jesus, bagsta twerking now there is an image). I have also run many tests to see if things like throttling works.
Most of the games that I have these settings for are for Call of Duty and have been tried on Black ops 2, Advanced Warfare, Black Ops 3 and even Call of Duty 4 Modern warfare the one true and best Call of Duty ever made.
So here we go,
I have British Telecom fibre to the cabinet internet piped into my home to an Open Reach modem.
This then connects directly to my R1 router and no other router is included.
My router is placed at least 2 feet away from any other electrical device. (This is important as my cordless telephone kept interfering with the R1 and making it reboot)
Out of the router comes a cat6 cable into a Power plug Which then distributes the interweb all over my home network.
This gives me with everything on the R1 set to 100% around 30 MB download and 6 MB Upload with a base ping of 11MS.

It may be worth checking your speeds with your ISP router before setting up the R1.
OK so now we are connected to the interweb we need to set this bad boy up so that it consistently puts us into low ping lobbies. It can be a little daunting at first but the Netduma forum is full of people who can and will help if you ask in a polite manner. However here is what works for me.

On the Congestion control page under the Anti flood you can input your bandwidth settings. We got these figures earlier mine were 30 down and 6 up. Here I input 28 down and 5 up. I do this because it leaves a little excess just in case.
Download and upload caps for me are both at 70%.
This works for me but I will add that many people swear by lowering the upload to something like 10% so that the upload runs at around 300k-500k, I have tried it and it makes no consistent difference to me but the amount of people who do this means that there may some mileage in it for you to try despite it defying all the laws of physics.

Next we have the distribution flower, at the moment there is a minor bug in the software which renders this part of the process much easier to set, Simply make everything have the same prioritisation by clicking reset and make sure that share excess is ticked.

Under Miscellaneous settings Untick things like IPV6 etc, the image above shows what I have mine set to and scroll down the page and make sure that bleeding edge and auto cloud are ticked.

Now to the Host filtering page and the Geo filter. This for me is the backbone and most brilliant thing about this router. It allows ME to decide what distance I am happy connecting to a host with or what ping I am happy to connect with.

First off make sure that under your device the filter is saying disable. This means that it is enabled as if you click on it it will "Disable" it. So many people don't get this and for the life of me I cannot understand why.
I set my filter to cover the UK and Northern France with ping assist set to 30 MS and on Black ops 3 I will usually be put onto the dedicated server on the South Coast of the UK.
If it puts me into lobbies in the Netherlands I will lower my ping assist or tighten up the filter as that server plays garbage for me.
Many people in the States say that the Seattle server is really bad so they avoid that one.
If you only want to connect to a certain ping you can put your home in the ocean and put your filter to as low as it will go and input the ping you want to connect to. However remember that it will not connect you to a game with a lower ping than you can actually get.
Also remember and this is VERY important, any changes you make will take 2 minutes to come into effect. This is a built in anti cheat feature. I know I know it's unbelievable to think that people might cheat at Call of Duty.

For the most part these settings work well for me and playing Team Death Match for the most part I will go positive. Before the R1 my KDR on TDM struggled to be positive. Here is a screen shot from a couple of days ago.

A few other factors to take into account, when playing game modes like Domination on Black Ops 3 I have never seen so many corner camping flag camping little shits massaging their precious KDR in any Call of Duty I have ever played. With this in mind you may have to alter your play style to how the lobby is playing.
You will also need to be very honest with yourself. I am as guilty as the next man of screaming "GODDAMN LAG" at the screen when I am killed when in reality I simply was not on target. I have seen players upload video footage claiming that they were getting horrendous lag but when you watch the video they are simply not actually on target.
After months of testing and tweaking playing with the Geo filter on and off I can say that there is a marked difference overall in favour of using the Netduma R1.
I am not affiliated with them in any way and the above are simply a few settings of what I use on a daily basis to connect to hosts with low ping which is after all, all the R1 really claims to do. It will not turn you into a gaming god by plugging it in, It WILL help you get into lobbies with low ping to host and help sort out any congestion on your local network which will help level the playing field and give you a better gaming experience.
It is not plug and play and can be a little frustrating when first setting things up but as I said before, pop along to the forum and there is a lot of really cool helpful people willing to help if you are polite.
Its also worth remembering that the developers of games are also responsible for quite a lot of any remaining WTF moments in your gaming.
Also remember that the R1 cannot affect who else the game lets into the lobby you are in and this can have a negative affect on a game but go shout at the developers of the games for that one.
And as a final thought, A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete idiots!!!

Peace out Y'all. THE BAGSTAXXX

Turtle Beach Elite 800s quick review.

2015-12-27T11:58:00.001+00:00

Well hello there interweb, I trust you had a good Christmas and are awaiting the New Year celebrations with a certain level of excitement and trepidation.
I have been the very lucky recipient of a set of Turtle Beach Elite 800 Headphones in the last couple of weeks and after giving them a good test thought I would share my views on them here.
Firstly these are not a cheap set of cans weighing in at nearly the £250.00 mark but I managed to get a set brand new in box for a hundred quid cheaper off ebay.

After un-boxing them the first thing I noticed was the general feel of quality, They are a little heavy but you don't notice that when you have them on your bonce. They feel like a quality item unlike some of the cheaper TB offerings.
They also come with a 2 year warranty which is very reassuring as my stealth 500s broke after 6 months and feel like the replacements TB sent me are about to break again.
There is plenty of adjustment for those with big heads and the ear cups feel soft and comfy even for a specky four eyes like me, after long gaming sessions they don't make the arms of the glasses dent your head.
The ear cups also fit well around the ears and cancel out ambient noise very well, I have lost count of the times Mr's Bagsta has scared the living shit out of me by walking into the games room and tapping me on the shoulder as I didn't hear her which never happened on the Stealth 500s.

Out of the box set up is pretty straight forward and the charging dock is a nice touch.
Looking through the literature you can register them (which I advise) and you will get to choose a free t-shirt and a couple of extra pairs of ear cup covers from TB but these may take a while to arrive. I ain't got mine yet.
I think since the release Turtle Beach may have made a few changes to the headset as some of the issues I have read in some reviews no longer seem to be present.

The background hiss is hardly noticeable unlike on the PX5s that I also have. Some people have complained that it is way to easy to accidentally press the buttons on the ear cups, with mine there is a definite press that has to be made and I have not once accidentally pressed them. The lack of flashing lights that illuminate the darkened gaming room are a welcome omission and the noise cancellation works a treat.

There are a fair selection of built in pre sets for the sound and the FPS when playing Black Ops 3 works a treat, the surround sound is very good but the mic feedback to prevent you from shouting is a little lack lustre but this is really my only gripe.
Whilst on the subject of the mic it does take a little more adjustment with the PS4 to get it right as they are hidden away in the ear cups.
I find by going to the mic set up on the PS4 and cranking it up to nearly full works well.
The best compliment the mic can have is a when I first partied up with a friend he said "WOW, you sound different" I asked what he meant and he replied "it sounds like you're in the room with me" Enough said on that then.

Theses cans also allow you to bluetooth 2 devices to them so I have my ipad and iphone connected. This works well for me as I can watch movies on my ipad without disturbing my little viper or listen to music in the office without disturbing the rest of the household.
This also enables you to take calls whilst in game or listen to some tunes whilst playing not something I tend to do as they do allow you to be a total sound whore on fps games (AW not included).

Battery life is not as good as the stealth 500s but if you leave your PS4 in standby mode and drop these suckers on the stand when you have finished gaming they will always have enough charge in them for a gaming session. You can also charge them via an included cable so no real need to stop playing if the battery low warning comes up.
If not leaving the PS in standby remember to switch them off. I have in my inebriated state left them on a few times only to have to plug them in whilst playing for a while to put some charge back into them.

I have had one problem on Christmas day where I thought they were fucked as I had left them on and not on the charging dock. There was a small red light flashing on the head set and the base station was flashing saying that the 2 were not paired.
I tried to pair them without success and so did the reset thing where you hold down the buttons for 15 seconds etc. Still no joy.
The solution was to download the Turtle Beach software and plug the two devices into different usb ports on the PC with the software open.
Press the button to update the software and even thought the latest software was on it reinstalled it and all was good to go again.

So in conclusion, Are these headphones worth the hefty price tag?
In my view yes, they are a big step up from the stealth 500s and do not suffer from the popping and sound drop outs that happened a lot on the PX5s.
The battery life is not as epic as the stealth 500s but it is good at around 10 hours so you are not going to have to leave the PS in standby all the time.
Now that Christmas is over I think that there may well be a few sets of these coming onto ebay and if like me you can grab a bargain I would but not at the expense of starving the rest of the family........ Nah scratch that they ain't gonna waste away get them anyway.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTA XXX

Spot cream, Blops3 1st impression and smelling salts!!!

2015-11-09T16:39:00.002+00:00

Well hello interweb, This weekend I have mostly been blowing things up, swearing a lot and laughing a lot whilst having a blast on the new Call of Duty Black Ops 3 game from Activision.
I had the game pre ordered and the Game store in the city centre was opening at eleven so I got my fat ass down there for about twenty past.
People were already forming a que and I made around number thirty.
The que got steadily longer as midnight approached and the smell of spot cream also got somewhat stronger as I found myself surrounded by people who were nerdier than myself.
It was like a scene from the Walking Dead except with NERDS!!!
A few of us at the front of the que got some free swag in the form of a Black Ops 3 lanyard, not much but better than a poke in the eye with a donut I guess.

Anyway I hurried back to Thumper (my Jeep) and sped home to find that there was a 2.7 GB day 1 patch to be downloaded before I could play.
So around 45 minutes later I got online and got me some game time in for a while.
I have played for a total of around 5 or 6 hours so far so this is just my early impression of the game to date.
I was very disappointed to find that there was no Hardcore (HC) Domination game mode as this was my staple game from AW and so it was to Core Domination I tried first of all.
Hmmmm, As usual even after playing it for a few days now the majority of players seem too hung up on their precious KDR to actually go for the objective leaving myself and maybe one or two others to do the work.
Seriously the amount of people who had 2 captures was pretty high and so I have been for the most part been playing TDM and a few games of Kill Confirmed.
My Netduma R1 Gaming Router pretty much worked out of the gate but there have been a few issues which I think are game related more than anything else.

I have seen a lot of complaints about lag and I have experienced it to some extent myself but I do feel that a lot of this is inexperience with this new release.
Time to kill is quite long as the base weapons that you have unlocked are really not that good and this can lead to people thinking they are lagging when they are not.
That said I have seen a couple of examples on youtube of some pretty bad lag and rubber banding but the majority of people complaining will not put up a full two or 3 minutes of game play to show what they are getting so I am guessing some of it is not lag but simply lack of time with the game and weak guns.

I am by no means much good at the game myself but I am surprisingly enjoying it. (for the moment)
Previous Black Ops games became more and more unplayable for me as more patches rolled out so I will not hold my breath on the longevity of me playing this one but for now it is a lot of fun especially if you are in a party with at least 1 friend.
I have only just made level 20 so do not have many decent guns unlocked yet but have been trying the low level ones and have come to the conclusion that for me there are 3 to choose from at lower levels.

I guess it is a personal preference but the KN44 assault rifle is for me the only choice. It reminds me of the AK 47 from previous games and after unlocking the grip reflex sight and quick draw on it I can do reasonably well for an old duffer.
Not had much success with SMG's for a couple of releases now but the KUDA SMG is a powerful gun and feels like a cross between an ACR and an MP5 from previous games.
Lots of people are raving about the Gorgon Light Machine Gun which is pretty much a 2 hit kill at any range so I gave it a go but find the BRD is a better more versatile LMG.
The problem I found with the Gorgon was simply that whilst it is 2 shot kill it takes so long for that second bullet to leave the barrel the enemy had fired a clip reloaded and were firing again.

There are a few new additions to the game like the winners circle which I have made it into a few times, Just not as many as Nighthawk (JD) or Knuckles who seem to get in there nearly every damn game.
The specialist I could actually happily leave out of the game. You see I am not sure if they have any counters at all and whilst I can see they have tried to balance them a couple of them are in my humble opinion slightly overpowered. The sparrow thing which fires explosive arrows seems to be able to fire faster than a SMG and if it comes within a few feet of you explodes killing you, as a result there are lobbies filled with people spamming this shit all over the place and I know its there for everybody to use but it's getting old fast as the saying goes.
So all in all for a release weekend I think it has gone quite well and in my opinion the game is much more fun and tolerable when playing it with friends than solo.
It has certainly improved 10 fold since the beta and as long as my trusty R1 keeps connecting me to those low ping lobbies and the Devs don't screw things up with all the patches then I can see me playing this game right up to the next release. It is with out a doubt much more fun and playable at the minute than Adavanced Warfare.
In other news I only had 1 large Whisky to drink last last night and I think my body has gone into shock as it usually receives between 1 and 2 bottles of red on an evening.
The weather is a paler shade of shite outside and blowing a gale too so I think staying here in mission control is the answer to that and maybe some sort of smelling salts to get the smell of that damn spot cream out of my nostrils.
Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTAXXXX

Wine, Black Ops and Coffee!!!

2015-11-04T10:50:00.001+00:00

good morning interweb, I am feeling a little groggy today as I drank far to much red wine last night and have absolutely no right to be up and able to type at this time.
I did start playing Advanced Warfare but after only a few games got very frustrated by all the full tilt douchebags with the constant barrage of noob toobs and rocket launcher spam in every objective mode.
The only mode that was playable was TDM Core and I did hand out a couple of spankings but quickly discovered that despite been a grumpy old bastard and probably the most anti social person I know, I am actually quite social. With the correct people it would appear.

You see I game most evenings with a friend from The USA and we bitch n moan about stuff laugh and joke and generally behave as if we were down at the local bar but playing a video game at the same time.
A couple of nights ago I got online and had a few games of Black Ops 2 on the PS3 with Dillinger (another gamer form the USA) and despite the fact that he did not have his mic set up we did have a total blast sending the odd message via PSN after the games.
Now I never really did very well on Blops2 and stopped playing it after about 4 months due to the horrendous lag I was suffering but the other night Dillinger and myself were topping the leader boards every single game. This on a game I have not played more then twice in about 2 years.
So this has got me wondering if it is the magic of my Netduma R1 that is helping my connection out or the seriously hard work I have put in to the last two awful titles that the Call of Duty franchise has put out.
I am sure I will be put out of my misery and find out soon enough, Thursday at midnight I will be in the shorter of the two que's at Game in the city centre as I went in and fully pre paid for my copy of Black Ops 3 on Sunday.

After playing the beta I was not impressed. I must be honest but then I played the Star Wars beta and was less than impressed with that as well.
So with the whole weekend off to try stuff out I am sure I will have a KDR of 0.4 by Monday morning but at least I will have played the objective. :)
In other news our neighbours from hell appear to be making more steps towards actually moving house. It was sold over 3 months ago but the noisy little bastards are still there. However I did see a very large roll of bubble wrap in the living room as I drove past a couple of days ago. Hopefully they will be gone by Christmas.
And so to today, I have an appointment with a flat white coffee at Costa later and will be watching the results of today's Trixie with interest.
We have Stand to reason in the 13.00 hrs at Warwick, Duchess of Marmite in the 16.40 at Kempton and how could I resist, Taste the Wine in the 13.10 at Chepstow.
Oh and a long shot punt, "Between the Sheets" has just come in 3rd at Greyville, no pun intended.

And so interweb I will leave you with these thoughts, "As long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends."
"and I have been wondering of late, do you think that ISIS, Al Qaeda et al have a territorial division?"

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX