Read on to find out what I’ve been up to at home.

So I’ve had a ton of work to do and luckily this week has just been what I’ve need. I’ve spent most of the weekend working on my Java and getting my chat client further on. I’ve managed to get most of it working now, thanks to some help from my Dad who did some Java coaching, but I’m going to get the rest of it finished pretty soon and ready to hand in. I’m going to spend the rest of the week working on both my iOS game using Cocos2d and my C#/XNA level editor, both of which I’ve started. Before this week, I’ve been feeling really worried about my work but thanks to a bit of teaching I’m now more on top of it.

I’ve also been looking at my choices and deciding on them. I’m really disliking my AI module this year and so have not interest in doing more LISP next year. Instead I’m more interested in learning a bit of web development to add to my toolkit which I can do thanks to be on the BSc Computing Course. You can use HTML 5/Silverlight/C# to develop for Windows Phone (a platform I love and still need to write about ) and its something I’m very interested in. In addition, creating a game that runs on multiple different platforms like mobile, desktop, console and web would be a pretty cool project to do and would be a potential final year project. In addition, I’ll also be doing multiplayer games programming (self explanatory), games device programming (programming for low end devices – in this case a linux based handheld) and advanced games development (working in groups to make a XNA 2D/2.5D game). There have been a few points this year where I’ve really been down on my work but I’m looking forward to finishing this year, digging into the final year and getting my degree done.

Also being at home has allowed me to sort out this new Xbox 360 that turned up thanks to a great Orange offer that came with buying the Lumia 800. I wasn’t planning to upgrade to a new Xbox but getting one for free kind of pushes you towards it. So I ordered a 320GB (use ALL the space) and spent a few hours getting all my stuff moved over. I still think the Xbox 360’s license transfer stuff is a little archaic and at points idiotic but now everything is moved over and ready to go.

The new Xbox style is beautiful compared to the clunky old ones. Its also massively smaller, quieter and missing the awful bulge where the hard drive used to be stored. It is however painfully obvious that the hard drives they sell are literally just laptop hard drives. However, my hard drive came with a download code for Lego Star Wars 3 which is a nice addition. Its actually a pretty good game – I haven’t played a Lego game since the first Indiana Jones game and I was really happy to see that many of the little problems that have plagued them from the start have been fixed. I’m also a little worried about the sheer size of the game – it seems like I might be spending a rather long time on it.

I’ve also done a little bit with the Zune Pass. For those of you who haven’t used Zune or Windows Phone, the Zune Pass is a premium service that allows you to stream or download music to your Windows Phone/Zune/PC/Xbox 360. I’m interested in the service and so I’m trying out the trial. So far it seems pretty good. It is similar to Spotify but as someone who would download more than stream it is slightly more useful. I’m going to give it a go but I’m not sure if I want to spend £90 a year on it. It would make getting music more legal for me.

So that’s all for now, I’m going to spend the rest of the week working on stuff, playing a little on my Xbox and getting started on some review code that’s waiting for me. When I have some free time I’ll get my Windows Phone writing up.

So the first month of university is almost over. I’ve handed in one assignment fully, done part of enough and I have several more well on the way.  Hopefully I should be getting some marks back in the next week or two which should show if I pass the first module or not. I’m confident that I have but we will see soon enough. Once it is marked, I’ll put it up on my portfolio so it is available to download and try out. I’m also going to go through the exercise of converting it over to C#/XNA  in order to demonstrate the advantages of XNA over developing an engine from scratch. I’m also making an iOS game for another of my modules which I’m rather excited about making.  Finally, I’m still struggling through a making a Java TCP/UDP chat server. I need to do a lot more work on it before its ready but I’ve luckily got a week at home where I’m going to be flat out working 9 to 5 every day on all my various pieces of work. However, I’ve not just been working all the time. Read on to find out what else I’ve been up to…

So on top of the coding for uni, I’ve started looking at another of my own projects which I will start when I have some more time. The plan is to a make a game all about controlling a merc company on the world stage. The player will recruit them, choose their equipment and general operating procedure (going all Blackwater may get stuff done but it won’t be long before the population hates you) and then attempt to guide your company, surviving its way from new starter to juggernaut of the PMC world. It is heavily inspired by Uplink both in terms of idea and hopefully presentation. I’m planning to write this in C# and XNA and I’m looking to start soon. As part of it, there will be a call out for Merc names to use in the recruitment database but more on that later.

We also finally got everyone in the house all wired up with Ethernet rather than relaying on the sometimes dodgy wifi. As a side effect to this, we’ve managed to get the ground floor Xbox hooked up and so have started playing some games with 3 other house mates. The main two games we’ve been digging into have been Bungie’s Halo Reach and Epic’s Gears of War 3.So I’m personally not a huge fan of Halo games – I find the controls a little floating and the weapons don’t have much kick to them. However, I won’t disagree that its a fun game just to jump into. Its quick to get in, fast paced and with plenty of players it still pretty fun. However, the campaign is a little lacking in co-op. It’s fun but not satisfying. Gears of War 3 on the other hand is a game I far prefer in single-player or co-op. I’m actually really enjoying the storyline and with four players it really tactical. Epic truly know how to make cover based shooting good and solid. The multi-player can be a little slow online but a greater problem is that it seems that most of the people online really know how to play themselves some Gears of War. I’ve also played a bit more L.A. Noire and I’m going to try and 100% Bastion but I haven’t done too much of either of those.

I’ve also started watching Hawaii 5-0 (the new one). Its a dumb police procedural but it blasts the fact it is in Hawaii straight into your eye balls at every opportunity and I am totally okay with that. I really first heard about it by my Mum and Dad raving about it so I then decided to pick it up and start watching. It nicely combines an ongoing plot about the lead character’s Dad and a case he was working and also the weekly cases which range from terrorists to crimes of passion. It is well worth the watch. I’ve also heard that Channel 5 has also started showing Sons of Anarchy again so I’ll have enough show to watch soon enough.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ve got another week up at Uni but hopefully on Thursday I’ll be heading home for for a week while Teesside hosts Animex. I’m not attending this year and so I’ll spend the week at home, getting on with my pile of work and sorting out moving my stuff from my old Xbox to a newer, slimmer one. Will write some more soon, including a look at the Lumia 800 after using it for a month. Preview? Its pretty good.

Read on to work out why I’m looking like a mad man in the photo above…

With it being January, I’ve just had my birthday leaving me at the ripe old age of 20. It is odd to think I’ve been alive for two decades but hey that’s how it goes. I had a fun trip down to Reading to go airsofting at the Mall over my birthday weekend. It was great fun and the site was different though I am slightly annoyed my L85 was misbehaving meaning I could use it. Instead though I got to run around most of the day using two M1911s and feeling all cool. I’m tempted to buy another 1911 and make this a permanent loadout but I need to get rid of my L86 first. Anyway, it was a fun weekend and I got kitted out in a silly t-shirt you see above. Oh Airsofters.

As part of Christmas and Birthday, I also got an upgrade to my phone and a contract extension for another two years with Orange thanks to phoning them up. I also apparently got a new Xbox as well which I didn’t expect. However, the main thing was that I got my phone upgraded to the new Nokia Lumia 800. I chose it over an iPhone or Android phones primarily due to its design and its Windows Phone operating system. After a few weeks I have to say I love the phone. I’m going to write a little more at some point but the Lumia 800 is well worth the asking price.

At the time of writing I’m really busy with work. We are starting to receive ICAs that count as the main part of my modules for this year. However, I have managed to hand in my Games Engine Construction module before the date to give me my birthday weekend off. It was finished and I’m hoping for a 2:1 or better for it. Its a simple top down shooter demo but the game engine supports features such as bullet management, animation and collisions management. It was hard working but worth it in the end. By the end of this year, I also have to write a Java chat client, an iOS game with a rather interesting premise, a game editor and a 3d game. It is going to be hard work but I’m looking forward to it

Finally, I’m right in the middle of enjoying the return of Sherlock. I loved the first season – it was an intelligent and well written update to a series of Victorian stories that shows off Sherlock as an eccentric badass and Watson as more than a bumbling helper and closer to being the character he should be – an ex-soldier who is Sherlock’s other half and is as vital to solving the case as Sherlock. The two stories so far update tales which would be out of place in the modern world to fit with modern themes while keeping the core tale the same. Bendict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman work together perfectly and feel like character you’d love to just sit back and chill with. I am on the edge of my seat waiting for the final episode on Sunday.

So that is all for now. I aim to write some more but unfortunately I may be prevented simply by the sheer amount of work I’m being snowed under with. Or I could just be more organised and make time to blog.

Ah, its that time of the year. The time when Steam takes EVERYTHING from my wallet,  the time where it is now the norm for me to be working on uni stuff all the way through my time at home and the time where everyone writes top 10 lists.

Well, 2011 has been a great year. So rather than limit my choices to ten, I may as well give you a list of all the games I’ve really enjoyed this year and just why you should give them your time. Before I start, I need to say I have missed out a couple of key releases that probably should end up on this list. At the time of writing I haven’t played Bulletstorm, Dead Space 2, Gears of War 3, Halo Anniversary or the Witcher 2 so they will sadly be absent from this list

So, on with the list!

Magicka

So lets start in January with the release of Magicka. Buggered to hell at launch, its quirky humour, combined with developers almost as mental (they made a Vietnam expansion for it) and super powerful spell system made it a great game to play in co-op with a group of friends. Just make sure you don’t have any deep seated resentment of them – the existence of friendly fire will lead to arguments faster than you can say “Rainstorm + Lightning”

Overall, the game is pretty good but it is vital its played in co-op – it can be a little unfair sometimes to a lone player.

Stacking

The second of the downloadable games Double Fine made during the Brutal Legend development hell, Stacking is smart, funny and well crafted puzzle game as you might expect from Tim Schaffer’s studio. The multiple ways of solving each puzzle makes it a little bit more involving than other games of the type and the humour is witty rather than outright laugh out loud.

Dawn of War 2 – Retribution

Next we have the latest Dawn of War game. Carrying on the gameplay of the other Dawn of War 2 games, the small scale RPG is now expanded with some army building. Don’t want a useless hero in your party? Swap them out for a honour guard unit!

Most important though is the addition of the Imperial Guard to both single-player and multi-player. As a fan of the underdog and anything that’s human in sci-fi, the Guard are just the best from the extravagant moustache of the colonel to the Rambos of the Catachan Devils to the huge Banebalde.

Retribution is now, after a few months, my favourite of the Dawn of War 2 games.

Total War: Shogun 2

March brought the release of the next game in the Total War series. As befitting its epic scale, it weighs in at about 20gb at launch and was packed full of content. The return to Medieval style warfare makes the combat very different to Empire and Napoleon, instead requiring you to be a bit more active than just lining your guys and waiting. On the campaign map, the change to a single nation makes it simultaneously feel more comfortable and more epic. It leads to many more cases of the stories and tales these games generate.

Personally, I don’t like Shogun 2 as much as Empire. It primarily because with Empire, I know the period of history it is taking place in, so I know how it all works. However, as a learning tool, Shogun 2 is still a fantastic game. I’m looking forward to what CA do next.

Portal 2

Hey guess what? I like this game. LIKE EVERY OTHER INTERNET COMMENTER. BECAUSE ITS GOOD. I CAN’T EXPRESS HOW GOOD THIS GAME IS. BECAUSE ITS SO FANTASTIC.

The only issue is that it makes me feel like an idiot when I get stuck. But that’s nothing compared to the elation you get when you solve a puzzle.

Brink

In contrast, next to no one likes this game. Which is a real shame as it has some very good ideas and is constantly being improved on by the development team. It was a disappointment but it is still worth playing. All weapons useable by all classes, the changes to medics, the customisation of both guns and people are just so good. Find some friends, find it for cheap and jump in.

L.A. Noire

If you don’t want to grab some friends, sit down and play through L.A. Noire. The great detective story may start to fall apart if you mess it around too much but it is a great single player experience.

The story is a gritty noire style tale, taking Cole Phelps through the 4 desks at the LAPD. Each desk has an over arching plot (especially the murder desk) but the overall tale shows the downfall of Cole as he stumbles upon a conspiracy and discovers just how corrupt LA is.

In terms of the game, it can be very simplistic. But the setting, the style and way it carries it self (look at that facial animation. LOOK AT IT!) is just great.

Frozen Synapse

As PC Gamer put it, it’s turn based Counter-Strike. I’ve been on board since the beta testing. Simultaneous turns lead to an unusual style of play. But the thing I love the most is the fact I can play a long game over several hours – playing a turn, walking away to do some work before coming back to watch out how each of our plans worked. It is normally catastrophic but watching a completed game play out is sublime

Bastion

Greg Kasavin is part of a group of games journalist who worked at Gamespot that really got me interested in games (the others include people like Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Vinny Caravella, Alex Navarro, Rich Gallup, Jason Ocampo and Carry Gouskos). I’ve kept track of him and was very intrigued by the dribs and drabs of information that leaked out about Bastion.

When it was shown and it was released, I loved it. The beautiful hand drawn art style, the haunting music and the dynamic narrator all work together. Look too closely at one thing and you miss that the whole package works together like a machine.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

“I didn’t ask for this”

I was never a huge fan of Deus Ex. I saw it’s great idea’s but I’ve never seen Hong Kong. However, I could not put down Human Revolution. It is a beautiful game in terms of its design (both game and art) that presents such a great look for the future. In terms of gameplay, it a smart combination of the freedom you were given in the original and a modern shooter like Rainbow Six Vegas. It is a great game to sit down and embrace the story.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warhammer 40,000 is in fact one of the best fictions to set games in. The universe is so large that you can have a huge galaxy changing event in a game that doesn’t affect the tabletop, the different races are varied enough to fit the story and its so outlandish it sits comfortable in your brain making it fun.

Space Marine is Relic doing something different. Rather than an RTS, it gets you down and up close to the bad guys. It makes the player feel like a Space Marine as you chop, chew, charge and explode your way through Orks and other nasty things in the universe (hint – it’s Chaos again). Add in a multiplayer mode with co-op and customisation and you have a perfect package for Warhammer 40,000 fans.

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

I will punch a man who calls Battlefield realistic. If you want realism, Red Orchestra 2 is the place to go. With fancy Unreal Engine graphics and physics, Red Orchestra is a great bit of fun. It can change from immensely satisfying to horrifically unfair in a single map. And when it works it is great fun.

Its such a shame it was broken at launch and still has a few issues with the server browser. Now excuse me, I’m just delighting in the sniper scopes.

Batman: Arkham City

It is more Arkham Asylum! More of the same combat system that allows button mashing but makes you feel better when you do it properly. More of Batman being Batman. More of his foes being dastardly (at last! A Penguin who isn’t silly). It’s packed full of stuff to do, from the main story to all the Riddler challenges to a huge selection of side quests.

Arkham City is a ruggedly beautiful place – on my PC there have been points where I have just sat down and watched the world go by – from the thugs patrolling to looking off to the distance. I’m looking forward to playing some more.

Payday: The Heist

So those steam sales are pretty worth it. Picked this up only a few days ago and love it. It feels like a janky Left 4 Heist but with some cool touches that just make it. Constant progression keeps bringing you back while the maps are cleverly thought out. It carefully balances on the edge between being broken in its difficulty and being fun – its just right, even in single player. I also get the feeling the developers are in the for the long run with plenty of patches and activity from them. It is well worth the buy.

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 is the true heir to the Battlefield name from Battlefield 2. It brings staples like jets and lying prone crashing into the world made in Bad Company 2, taking the destructibility and unlock systems. Add in the fantastic new engine and you have my game of the year. I love the multiplayer – always tempting me forward with more and more unlocks to get. The singleplayer is relatively forgettable although two levels really stand, one of which feels like the design team of Mirror’s Edge was picked up and told to make a super slick, super fun scene from a Michael Mann movie.

Modern Warfare 3

It’s the end of an saga stretching from the glory days of Infinity Ward down to change of Call of Duty into a household name and the basic destruction of IW. It ends the story of Price, Soap and Makarov properly, wrapping it up in a mad game that never stops for a moment. Unlike the quiet moments of the last two games, there is no slow down. Its a constant noise that makes some truely amazing sequences. The rest of the package is usual but I did enjoy the Survival mode if its you’re sort of thing.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Few games quite reach the same level where everyone (including normally non-gamers) you know is playing them on launch week. But when Skyrim came out, everyone in my student flat (all 7 of us), most of my Steam and Xbox Live friends and most of the people I knew in real life were all chatting out hunting dragons, exploring Skyrim and being sent to the moon by giants. It is everything I loved about Oblivion with most of the last game’s flaws

Saint’s Row: The Third

It is hard to imagine that the first Saint’s Row was a simple rip-off of GTA, especially once you’ve played the latest game. While other games may wait a while before giving you predator missiles and helicopters, within a few missions you’re handling just that. Its a game where ripping off the National Guard of a few rocket launchers is standard, fighting a gang of Luchadores is common place and hacking into a Tron-esque world is taken all in its stride. I say this quite a lot but this game does not give a s***.

Iron Brigade (Trenched)

Sadly delayed since its actual release in the summer due to a Portuguese copyright claim, Iron Brigade finally came out. It missed out on the fan fare that normally accompanies the release of a Double Fine game due to its fractured release which is a massive shame. Iron Brigade is a great combination of 3rd person shooter and tower defence which pits you in a mech against waves of TV inspired monsters. I love the World War 1 aesthetic and the ‘30’s man’s magazine style of the game. I love it and if you want to play some co-op pick up. After all, there is that bear on Mars we have to hunt down.

So those are the games of 2011, I hope they have interested you and give you some ideas about what to play next year. But that’s all from me so have a Happy New Year!

Ever since EA stopped making good versions of Sim City, several companies have tried to make their own versions of the popular city building game to saté the demand of all the mayoral wannabes.

Perhaps foremost among these is the Cities XL series, which has been digging out itself a niche. Now, Cities XL 2012 has just been released. Does it add much to the series? Or is it more of an incremental upgrade not worth the planning permission?

This is how Cities are made
For those who don’t know about the Cities XL series, it was originally a massively multiplayer game designed for players online to build their cities and trade among themselves. Unfortunately, the servers were shut down and so the latest version is devoid of any multiplayer content.

Instead, you are presented with an area based upon real world terrain (chosen from a globe view) and from there you set up the road system, zone out areas for residents, industry and retail, and then watch the people roll in. There is a huge number of unlockable buildings, ranging from varying densities of housing up to landmarks, with every service in-between. I’m not keen overall on the way these games limit you to certain tiers of workers and industries by population, which seems a little counter-intuitive.

The cities start out pretty normal…

Each city requires resources to survive, but not every map includes all the fuel or food resources you need. This is where the multiplayer lineage is apparent as you can trade between the various cities you have made via trade buildings. It is a very strange system, which is cool, but does very much feel like it was the developers fixing a system that had most of its back-end ripped off.

Despite all of this, the city building still feels really powerful; if you had the time and inclination you could quite happily build model versions of most of the world’s cities. Cities XL includes several real world landmarks just to add a little extra to your starting city. However, these are the end-game units that take a lot of time and resources to build.

The main thing that 2012 adds is a huge selection of new buildings complete with new models to include in your city. Many of these are part of the various location packs, which allow you to customise your city to have a certain look, be that of a traditional medieval European town or a snowy hotel complex up in the mountains. It does certainly make your cities look more visually themed as opposed to the generic American towns, but overall they are simply alternative models for other buildings.

Another new feature that will make all the budding architects glow with pride is the inclusion of a tool that allows users to import models from their favourite 3D modelling programs, to make your own custom models into brand new buildings. It is a great feature that is perfect for this sort of game.

Towering buildings, microscopic framerates
Although 2012 adds some brand new objects, the engine it is running in is starting to show its age. It does the job alright, but it’s not exactly beautiful. The buildings, cars and terrain are all realistic, but the characters are stylised monstrosities which does break the immersion a little bit. The day/night effects look pretty good but they play no part on the gameplay, which is a little disappointing. Overall, don’t come to this game for its looks.

…but can end up sprawling for miles and miles.

The real issue with Cities XL is the fact the game can run horribly even on powerful systems, due to the old engine which doesn’t support multi-core systems. On both of my machines it randomly hitched up at various points, dropping down to single digit frames per second. It gets worse when you eventually get to huge metropolises, which can make the game nigh unplayable.

The sounds of the city… quieter than expected
To be honest, the sound in Cities XL 2012 is nothing really to write home about. It is a nice ambient sound, which works well when tinkering with your city or waiting for citizens to move in. For the rest of the time it’s barely noticeable. Thankfully, we are spared any questionable voice acting.

The city goes on
Cities XL 2012 is perhaps the best city builder in the past few years. It has a solid core but the outer edge is a little rough. It is very easy to pick up and play and be building your own metropolis. However, I think it is a little overpriced when bought as an expansion; it doesn’t contain enough new stuff for its price tag.

So as a brand new game, try it. As an existing player, though, only the hardcore Cities XL players should pick it up.

I woke up after having spent most of Friday in bed being ill. I’d discovered someone had eaten half of my very tasty (and expensive) chorizo. I looked at my work which I had been struggling with before getting on the phone with my parents. Within minutes I was sobbing down the phone about how I wanted to leave the house I’m in this year, how all the work is hard and other things. Its probably the first time I’ve properly broken down while at uni. It wasn’t pleasant and I definitely gave my mother a fright, especially as I’ve been sounding pretty happy ever other time I’ve called home. However, a day spent out the house with a group of advice giving bros and another airsofting has me feeling a lot better. Uni is a hard time and have talked to both third years and my parents, Second Year is probably the biggest change in terms of both work and life in general.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom, so read on…

My minor freakout, followed by a two days not looking at my work, has meant today I’ve managed to come back to my main project at the moment. Its the hand in for one of the two half year modules I have this year. Games Engine Construction, or GEC as everyone calls it, gives us programmers a basic API called HAPI, and tells us to make a simple 2D game. To pass the module all you need is some animations, clipping and good code practise but I’m aiming to make a complete demo of a game, including Xbox 360 controller support and win/loss conditions, in order to be hitting a little higher up the marks list. I’m making a bullet hell style game, although less bullet-hell and more bullet-slight-annoyance. I’m not totally confident in C++ despite studying it for more than a year but its a struggle that will be worth it when I finish as it will be one of the first proper demos on my portfolio site.

I’m also working on a Java chat client for Network and Concurrent Programming – its only a formative hand in but I’ll use it as the basis for the actual hand in at the end of the year. In terms of Java, I need to relearn a large amount of it but I still like it.

Lisp can go die in a fire though.

So I am at home for Christmas. To be honest, most of it will be hard work and hard eating of delicious food but I’m also planning to play a good few games. Back to Karkand for BF3 comes out tomorrow (at the time of writing) so I’ll be eagerly jumping into that, in order to grab the new L85 and to shoot up some people on the best maps in any FPS ever. I also want to dig a little deeper into Skyrim and play some more. I feel like I have only dipped in my toes and not really experienced very much.

TV wise, I want to sit down and watch through the rest of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and finish off The Shield. Both are really good but I haven’t quite got round to watching all the episodes. I also need to watch more 30 Rock as I have two more seasons downloaded but not watched through. And of course the various films my Mum will have bought on DVD without us all knowing that we then suddenly realise we actually really want to watch.

And along with all this there is the promise of delicious home made food. Although I enjoy my cooking, nothing beats the food Mum cooks. From stuff that I can’t make up here due to facilities (such as homemade pizza) or things that I don’t make to the same standard. On top of that, there is also Christmas feast and the chance of a New Year’s Eve dinner at my Nanna’s. Hopefully, it will be a nice and relaxed time.

Finally, all that airsoft. After the terrible trip to the Stan (a real shame), everyone was looking forward to our outing to NAA. Just going to say now, NAA (Northern Airsoft Alliance) is perhaps one of the most fun sites I’ve been to. It is excellently run by a team who are more than welcoming of Teesside’s extravagant play style. You also get a nice dry area to store all your kit and a free lunch (Morrison’s pastry, chocolate bar, apple and a drink) with your walk on.

Game-wise it was a great day, really fun with a group of fair players. Some of the locals complained we weren’t taking hits, but that because they were trying to shoot us from out of range. One of our guys borrowed my L85 for the day and he thoroughly enjoyed himself which was good.

I too had a great day but I have come to a conclusion about my kit. I enjoy my L86 but its a little annoying. Its back heavy for it length and I much prefer rolling with the shotgun or L85. So in January, I think I’ll be selling the LSW and swapping it out for a long battle rifle much like a G3, mainly after running around . I’m really wanting a SLR to match with British kit but they are fiendishly expensive and very had to find. I may settle for a FAL and just get a wood kit but I would rather have the better match to Britishness. However, I will have to sell the LSW first in order to afford it.

So that’s all for now. I’ll be writing more over Christmas, probably a little more about coding itself. Of course I will also be writing my Top 10 games as well before Christmas Day. See you guys soon.

From XKCD

Yep, don’t worry I’m still here. Just been doing some more programming to get ready for a few hand ins. At this point they are mainly milestones although I do have a presentation on a LISP problem to show on Tuesday which will be great fun.

At the moment, the main two projects I’m working on are a C++ game using HAPI, a API (or framework) developed by my tutors at Teesside University and a game for iOS (hence the horribly mangled bit of Objective C in the title bar). I’m finding coding hard work but its oh so satisfying when you finally solve a puzzle.

But you people aren’t here for coding talk, you’re more interested in games! So here what I’ve been playing for the past few months:

Battlefield 3: If you don’t know me, I got pretty hard in Battlefield 2 over the Summer of 2006 going so far as to join a clan and play in clan matches. I love Battlefield with a passion and although the Bad Company games were good, they weren’t proper Battlefield.

Battlefield 3 is proper Battlefield. Its like jumping into a small scale war with jets flying overhead, choppers hovering at treetop level, tanks crashing through trees and explosions raining down bits of buildings everywhere. The singleplayer is a fun distraction with some cool set-pieces and a plausible setup for the US vs Russia multiplayer warfare although an over reliance on quick time events and cheap deaths mean I don’t take it too well. However, the Russian missions are exceptional, even if its down to just the Paris level having an aesthetic ripped out of Mirror’s Edge.

Going into the multiplayer and Battlefield truly shines. There are some major flaws (don’t play Operation Metro on Conquest unless you enjoy a stationary battle) but overall its fun. I still can’t fly choppers or jets, but I rip stuff to pieces in the mobile AA and as a shotgun wielding Assault class I run around capping points and reviving dudes.

Battlefield 3 is great and I heartily recommend it.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Its pretty good.

No, scratch that. Its brilliant. It fixes nearly everything that was wrong with Oblivion, wraps it in a world I can happily explore for hours, adds some new systems which add to the game without making it feel bloated and makes the graphics not scare the crap out of me every time I play.

It also feels much more natural and exciting. As enemies don’t do too much levelling up to you, there are points where if you don’t tiptoe past a sleeping monster it will rip you to shreds. Most people think this applies to the dragons but in reality, its more the giants or hag ravens that worry me. Speaking of levelling up, the new system is just great to use. It doesn’t force you down a path at the start which is so useful. I mainly used two handed weapons at the start and although fun, I’ve soon realised that single handed and shields are far more useful.

This is the defining version of the Elder Scrolls games – just make sure you set aside a week or two to play it.

Saint’s Row: The Third: Oh Saint’s Row you. While GTA IV took the series in a very serious direction (somewhat at odds with some of it in universe jokes), Saint’s Row 2 and 3 are the true heirs to the GTA: San Andreas name. They are wild, corny, hilarious games that do not give a single care in the world.

The opening sequence of the latest game just show how mental the game is – after robbing a bank dressed as one of your gang members, being captured and jumping out of a cargo plane, you then proceed to drop a girl you have rescued, fly through a plane killing three people, grab a parachute off a man you beat up and then catch the falling girl. From there is goes off the chain, leading to you fighting gangs of luchadores, going into a tron like world, brining tanks and guns back from said tron like world before fighting a military force led by a guy who was obviously designed after someone watched a bit too much Avatar.

Some parts of this game are broken. But when a game is so much fun, I honestly could care.

Modern Warfare 3: So I’m going to own this for the grand total of a week. I’ve only picked it up as we are running a tournament using it at the AGE on Thursday and I wanted to get a feel for the subtle changes if has over MW2. There isn’t much.

I’ve played through the story, touched the multiplayer and played a bit of survival mode. Its fun, no doubt but I’m not gripped by it as much as MW2. I think it wraps the story up pretty well, has some cool moments and nice ideas but there isn’t enough to keep me sticking around. Multiplayer wise, I’m more a fan of Battlefield then Call of Duty.

So that’s what is going on. I’ll be going home for Christmas on the 15th/16th but before then there is more airsoft and the AGE VI is this Thursday! Everyone go to it!

So I keep saying this but once again I need to write some more on this blog. Been a little overwhelmed with the whole "going back to uni thing”. Bit of a crappy excuse but here are all the things that have happened since the last blog entry which was on the 2nd of September also known as 74 days.

• Finished work at Mamas and Papas
• I got back to my flat in Middlesbrough
• Moved all my stuff into the flat and decorated it
• Got my desktop upgraded to i7 and memory – runs games like a dream
• Went back to uni and did some work
• Went airsofting three times (last one was less then good)
• Found a whole bunch of new shows to watch thanks to Anicom, Airsoft and other uni things such as Adventure Time and the Amazing World of Gumball
• Started writing for This Is My Joystick again (Currently have two sets of review code to review)
• Started swimming again
• Wrote a CV to start looking for placements for next year
• A whole bunch of lovely games cam out for me to review
• Airsoft did some midnight launches. Surprisingly few idiots asking questions
• And I grew a small beard. Its pretty beardy.

Sorry for how short this is, I’ll write some more in the future when I have a bit more time. And I’m not taking a five minute break from coding.

So the great Ground Zero was the last weekend and boy it did not disappoint. If you haven’t been reading the rest of the blog (and if not, what the hell), Ground Zero is a weekend long event of airsofting which is basically a music festival if you shoot each other rather than listened to music.

The airsoft side of the weekend was great with one or two exceptions. I managed to wreck my feet on the first day so I limited how much running around I did on the second day and my batteries on my L86 died halfway through the first day but apart from that it was really good fun. I’ll put some more pictures in a gallery and link to it below but I heartily recommend it to any UK airsofters.

Red Orchestra 2 has had its beta released on Wednesday and I’ve had a little play on it. For those not in the know, Red Orchestra is a super realistic take on the Russian front of World War 2. Originally a Unreal Tournament mod, it then became a retail product and now the sequel is about to be released in mid September.

I’m going to write an in depth article on it straight after I finish this update but put briefly it has a quite steep learning curve, even if you’re used to playing the original. The new progression system in multiplayer is one major point but also parts of the gameplay. I do rather like the cover system though – seems to be the most well done first person system I’ve seen. Also I’m a huge fan of the weapons you have to deploy – using the MGs last night was great fun, especially when you provide a proper base of fire. Overall, I’m looking forward to the full release, even if it is just to use the anti-tank rifle on people and see them gib.

Having received my latest paycheck, I’ve finally bought myself a Kindle. For a long time, I realised I needed an ebook reader of some description, in order to save me money on text books and have them readable when I’m away from my PC or doing something full screen. It also is space saving, so I can jump on the train and have something to read without a load of paper shoved into a bag. I eventually decided to get a kindle over a tablet due to its simplicity – Kindle’s have great battery life, a good screen (although lacking in a backlight) and the ability (if you pay for the 3G version) to buy books on the road.

It has literally just arrived (I’m writing this at work on the 1st of September and my Dad turned round and emailed me when it dropped through the door) so I haven’t got round to looking at it yet. But I already have several Kindle books sat ready to read. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was a book I started reading when I was using the kindle app on my Hero (before I realised it was not a good idea) so I’m going to start it again. I also have a trashy sci-fi novel to read and the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which is surprisingly readable.

However, most the books I’ll be reading will be Black Library (Games Workshop) ebooks. They are a little more expensive than most of the books on the kindle store but I love them. Although I have never really got round to buying an army for the games, I love the setting and the backstory. The Black Library gave away five books (including the first Gaunt’s Ghost book) last year when they first opened their online store last year. I’ve also grabbed three other books.

Blood Pact is the latest released Gaunt’s Ghost book. I’ve only read a chapter or two but supposedly its the final part of the story arc that started in Traitor General. Its a rather different start than many of the other books but its an enjoyable read. However, I’m going to wait a little bit before digging in to it.

For the Emperor is the first part of the Ciaphas Cain series. If the Gaunt’s Ghost books are Sharpe, Ciaphas Cain is Flashman, the bounder and cad of the Victorian British Army. Its present a non-GrimDark version of the world, where rioting guardsmen are put down via simply ordering them to clean up the mess. Its presented as a collected autobiography written by Cain with a few others adding articles to help set the scene. Even the very first section is great fun so I think I might be grabbing the rest of the series throughout the year.

The final book of this first batch is Double Eagle. I ended up reading this at work while watching some task work themselves out. Its an air combat novel set in the Sabbat Worlds (the same area as the Gaunts Ghost’s books) and actually features several characters from earlier novels which nicely links them together. Its heavily inspired by the events in Northern France in 1940, and with a few tweaks could be a novel about the battle of Britain. It also presents a side not normally seen in the 40k universe – that of both air combat and the home front. I thoroughly recommend it.

I really wish the Black Library would put their stuff straight onto Amazon as it means it could be included as part of the Whispernet sync stuff. But for the moment I’m just glad there is a easy way to buy all the boxes without taking up a load of space. I’m also going to fill my Kindle with PDF RPG rulebooks as well. This is an easy way for me to turn up to gaming and play one of many different RPGs and saves me having to drag a huge bag of rulebooks and source books around with me while still letting me pass it around to players. The Kindle is going to be a very handy tool to have for both studies and free time at Uni.

Finally, I’ve got most of my stuff for my uni flat sorted out. The internet has gone in and, after a few teething problems, seems to be working fine. Its stupidly fast compared to my home internet as long as you’re using the wire. Wireless on the other hand is as fickle as a stoat and twice as annoying when it suddenly cuts out. However, I already have a plan to sort it out involving powerline (something that I may write something more about as it needs the press) so it should be all good in time for the start of term.

I’m also going to slowly start taking more of my gear up there, starting with my airsoft stuff and continuing with my desktop PC and other oversized items. It means I can easily move in on the 17th ish and be ready to go pretty quickly.

Thats it for now, more news and writings coming soon (once work finishes)

I’m still at Mamas & Papas and working hard although my role has changed slightly. Instead of working on some project stuff with the Support team, I’m instead helping with some infrastructure stuff. Its great, especially as its meant I’ve had to learn some SQL and also get used to Active Directory and Exchange stuff. Its all good stuff and I’m earning some money as well so its all good in the end. I’m looking at getting a Kindle for my textbooks and the core of an i7 system (motherboard, CPU, memory, CPU cooler) to deal with this Autumn’s releases (I’m looking at you Skyrim).

Last weekend, I managed to escape to the Dales with a few of my friends from Leeds for a weekend of camping. Or should I say attempting to camp. To be fair, it was successful and we all came home mostly intact but we were lacking a few items we probably should have brought with us. Such vital things as airbeds, washing up liquid and, for some people, shoes suitable for roaming around the countryside.Oh, thank goodness for the sheer amount of alcohol, snacks and Mountain Dew we took up with us.

The campsite we went to was next to the Green Dragon Inn outside of Hawes (snrk). Its actually a pretty decent site – lots of space, reasonable rates and just down the valley from a huge waterfall. However, to temper this I have to say there one or two issues. The first is that the site is really rocky – we had a few issues finding places to put down the tent pegs. Second was that the site seemed to consist entirely of very angry wasps who enjoyed drinking our beer and generally being annoying. Also on the first night, we were ripped to shreds by midges. Finally, the pub nearby had some pretty inflated prices – as I was driving the next day, I decided to grab a Lime and Soda (average price in Leeds/Middlesbrough/Everywhere else – 70p) which coasted me £2.70. However, the food was quite good and it was a nice traditional pub.

Overall it was a really good weekend especially as we will all be moving on be that going back to uni or other things. Also it proved I can drive successfully with out killing everyone in the car.

New Room VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’m back at uni in September and so before I start back on my second year of Games Programming, I had to go and collect my keys for the house up there. After living through a year of living in halls, I’m really excited to be living in a proper house. There are seven of us in the house (dubbed Party House 2011), all from Woodland Hall 6 Ground Floor. Most of us also game and use Steam so we had to grab a Virgin 50mb service in order to make sure we can actually use the internet.

Of course, I also had to sort out my room. When I first arrived, all there was in the room was:

• 3/4 Bed
• Desk
• Chest of Drawers
• Wardrobe
• The dodgiest lamp shade you ever did see – complete with glow in the dark stickers
• Nail holes in the wall
• Single Glazed windows – on the street side

I’ve already taken up a few more pieces of furniture to add to the room. My old desk is one of them as the desk provided with the room is tiny which isn’t really suitable for working on. So that gone up and I’ve also got an Ikea bookcase in and a bedside table. I’m actually quite impressed with the Ikea stuff – I’m used to it being a pile of junk that doesn’t fit together properly and is a pile of crap (probably from watching The Wire too much) but it was pretty good.

There are a few more things I need to take up, such as a whiteboard (for doing WORK on, no drawing on) and also a futon so I have seats in my room when the guys come up to play CoD while drinking. I’m also looking forward to getting some posters up, but unfortunately the walls are vinyl wallpaper which will get ripped to shreds at the end of the year. Should have some more pictures up after I move in properly.

As I write this, I’ll be going home this evening to get my bags, guns, gear and tent packed up and ready to go. Most of my kit is together, its just the final prep to do. Good thing I’m packing my waterproofs based on the current weather reports.

I’m also sorting out my Airsoft collection. I’m a huge British equipment fan (because the basic clothing is real cheap) and so own a LSW. I’ve got an L85 on the way as a spare I can loan out to people or if I’m at a CQB site but that’s a whole load of annoyance. My other guns (the MP7 and SPAS 12) are really nice bits of kit but I’m not really a fan of them. So I’m selling them off to be replaced with some other things. The MP7 is already gone but the SPAS 12 is still up for sale.