Continue reading »]]> Because the cut-scene music from Who Will Die Part 5 is so awesome, I thought I would upload it for you all.

I haven’t uploaded the cut-scene itself A) Because I’m not good enough to capture it and B) Play it yourself to see it, its well worth it!

If you have never played City of Heroes (why not?) you can download it free at www.CityofHeroes.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS9qWcz774I

Continue reading »]]> 2011 wasn’t a to bad year for smash hit games. Games like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – 3 games you WILL NOT see on this list, not because there bad games, I just didn’t like them for whatever reason.

So, without further ado, here are my top 5 games of 2011, just don’t expect a massive write up about why I like each of them, but I will write a little write up about why I liked them.

Honourable Mention) Duke Nukem Forever (xbox360/PS3/PC)
There was a lot of bad press when this came out, after 15 years in development, people expected a lot from it, and they where disappointed, hell, I was too with some of the design decisions – But, once you check your brain at the door, its not really that bad a FPS, and it got a little better after the 2 weapon limit was changed to 4 weapons.
The humour might be crude compared to today’s standards, but I got what I expected, I got a few hours of entertainment out of it, I had fun.

Honourable Mention) Starfox 64 3D (Nintendo 3DS)
The N64 version of this (called Lylat Wars in the UK) was a fun game with plenty of replay value and the re-release on the 3DS is no exception, Its still fun to play even today. What makes it even better is the addition of a save feature for the main game and not just for scores, a small addition but a useful one that was missing from the N64.

Honourable Mention) The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time 3D (Nintendo 3DS)
Who didn’t like Ocarina of Time on the N64? Its a brilliant game and the re-release on the 3DS is no exception. The graphics have been updated, some annoying bugs removed (and some of the sillier ones left in, which is nice). If this was a new game and not a re-release, it would be contender for my Game of the Year.

Number 5) Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo 3DS)
Its Mario Kart, need I say more? Thought I haven’t had it for very long, hell, its not been out very long, its still a fun little game that anyone can pick up and play. Good in short bursts with single player, but masses of fun in multiplayer, you owe it to yourself to play Mario Kart.

Number 4) L.A. Noire (xbox360/PS3/PC)
No other game this year frustrated me as much as L.A. Noire, but not in a bad way. The gripping storys always want you to get the right person and will piss you off when something goes wrong. Where the graphics may be average (in my opinion), the capture, movement and look of the faces was spectacular and really kept you guessing towards the end. The setting also fits the genre, its a gritty 1940s detective story that you direct. Get this if you can.

Number 3) Portal 2 (PC/PS3/xbox360)
I loved the original portal, I played through it so many times. Portal 2 takes the first game and raises the stakes. I got this on PS3 on release date and had to finish it with no on-line or no steamworks or no PC copy for weeks, and that wasnt a bad thing, normally the PS3 ports of games get shafted, but not with Portal 2. Get this game, you wont be disappointed.

Number 2) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (PC/xbox360/PS3)
This game was just… beautiful, such an interesting story and hours of game play. I must have put at least 30 hours into it and would easily go through it again, If I could find a hard copy to link to steam cheap enough. And from someone who didn’t play the original game until just before I got this, high praise indeed.

Number 1) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nintendo Wii)
This is easily my game of the year, no other game with the exception of Deus Ex looks so stunningly good and  it kept me interested throughout its 30+ hours of game play (currently at 39 hours game play). It can be frustrating with the motion controls, but when you master them, you can understand why they did it, its another level of immersion into The Legend of Zelda. [Yes, I am a Zelda fanboy, but that has nothing to do with Skyward Sword being Number 1]

Ok, so this may not be the most professional of write ups, but that’s my top 5 games of 2011 and why I liked them, check them out if you can.

Continue reading »]]> THE MARATHON HAS BEEN CANCELLED!

Pure Boredom is Proud to Present – The Real World Hero City of Heroes Marathon 2011!

This years marathon will take place from 1pm GMT on Saturday December 10th to Sunday December 11th 2011. The same weekend as the Real World Hero Level-a-Thon

Again we will be Streaming Live inside City of Heroes (Defiant Server) and you will also get to see our ugly mugs for the full 24 hours

This year, I will remember to switch off Ultra Mode inside City of Heroes and go the entire 24 hours, but in the event the computer blows, I have a back-up.

More details about the Marathon will be coming soon, keep your eyes on DancingBeaver’ Twitter account and this blog for the latest.

Continue reading »]]> Hello All, though it was about time I made a State of Pure Boredom post, since there hasn’t been anything in the way of updates for a while.

First Up – Pure Boredom is not dead, it might look like it but were not.

Secondly – I have been planning the Real World Hero Marathon, which is one of the main reasons for the lack of updates. Unfortunately, its all up in the air, for a couple of reasons, which leads onto the 3rd reason.

Thirdly – I’m out of touch with Ed and Fran, sort of – I know where there at, I know there phone numbers, but I assume there busy. I guess I should phone em.

Yeah, that’s the current state of Pure Boredom – Hopefully there will be some real news about the RWH Marathon in the coming weeks, including a date and time.

Take care all.

Continue reading »]]> The Error has been fixed with a Theme Update.

For some reason, new posts have stopped showing on the front page with the usual theme we use on the site, and I have no idea what is causing the problem. It works on both Syphernet.com and The Avanta Files, but not Pure Boredom…

Until its fixed, I will have to resort to this back-up theme..

Continue reading »]]> We have our first ever Open Letter To, sort of. This is a letter of complain wrote by a friend of mine to South Eastern Rail in London after a 30minute journey took 2 hours and 30 minutes! Which also involved everyone getting kicked off the train.

Give it a read, its funny and to the point (its also long, because it needs to be).

Dear Sirs,

Here is a list of interesting things you can do in 2hours 22 minutes:

• Travel 211 miles on the 17:30 Eurostar service to Paris and arrive in Paris at 20:47 with five minutes to spare to indulge in a French croissant
• Travel 164 miles on the 17:40 Virgin service from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly arriving at 19:49, leaving thirteen minutes to spare to travel on a tram
• Flown 915 miles on the 17:50 Flight from London Heathrow Airport to Warsaw in Poland, with one minute to spare.
• Travel 8 miles on the 17:34 South Eastern service from London Cannon Street to Elmers End

We all know that sometimes things go wrong that are beyond the control of even the best intentions of the company providing the service. The service on Thursday left Cannon Street 42 minutes late due to signal failures, yes this was frustrating however we were on the move, and cleared the zone where the problems were being caused. Unfortunately at this point the liability for the poor and dreadful service home moved from being out of your control into being completely and totally in your control, and what followed was totally unacceptable and left myself and about 1,200 other passengers very cross indeed.

Finally after a forty-two minute delay from Cannon Street with very little information when we were going to move the train left and made its way down the line towards Hayes. Disappointing, with the train fully packed  as it was so late, the following train was cancelled and the third one was due to leave around the time we finally got moving the train was packed. There were a lot of tired workers that thought at last after a little frustration they were on the way home at last.

With so few trains leaving London and the problems that were occurring you would expect that common sense would prevail. Having checked the definition of common sense at dictionary.com (“sound practical judgment that is independent of specialised knowledge, training, or the like”), it is clear that your company possesses none of this. In fact, the definition that south eastern trains appears to apply to common sense is as follows:

1.      Having or showing an intense and selfish desire for something, esp. wealth or power.

2.      Make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit

3.      Avoid responsibilities and duties

Let me at this point take a moment to remind you the very first paragraph of the contract that you have signed of your franchise agreement:

“The Secretary of State wishes to appoint a franchisee to provide railway passenger services within the Franchise and expects his  franchisee, on the terms of this Agreement, actively to seek, in all reasonable business  ways, greatly improved performance over the Franchise Term from its employees, its Train Fleet and other assets, and from Network Rail and its other suppliers, so as to deliver to the passenger the best railway passenger service that can be obtained from the resources that are available to it.”

 Returning to my journey home on Thursday, as we approached St Johns station we received the news from our not very cheerful driver that the train will now call at St Johns, Lewisham and Hither Green where it will terminate. Hither Green? That’s not even on our line, resulting in us all being turfed off the train at Lewisham to look for antoher service to continue our trip to Hayes. The reason for this? This was of course to deliver the best passenger service that can be obtained of course. Or in other words, you did this to avoid poor statistics on trains and reverse trains back up lines to avoid having your statistics skewed.

In no way at any time did you make this move to deliver a greatly improved performance or to deliver the best passenger service that can be obtained. It was pure and total greed and “common sense” on your part. And so here we were thrown off our train that was already 42 minutes late and chucked onto the platform at Lewisham in the hope that another train would come along to take us home further.

The information that was made available to us passengers left stranded on the platform was non existent. In fact, on arrival at Lewisham you were busily announcing that the train would be travelling to Hayes with the driver saying “It’s not”. Where does this level of service provide greatly improved performance and customer service? Where does turning your trains around back up to London without providing the service you are receiving ticket money and subsidy from the government constitute anything but greed to avoid the financial penalties that would be involved in not meeting your obligations on the follow on trains in the form of ticket price reductions next year?

Let us not forget that last year South Easterns fare rises where higher than any other franchisee in the country as a pure penalty for having the franchisee that runs HS1. How does this service benefit any of us stranded on Lewisham station? What have we received for our money? It is evidently clear from the way we are regularly treated that none of the directors of south eastern live on the Hayes line, and none of the big shareholders. Would you care to confirm? With talk that the Hayes line will be palmed off as part of the Bakerloo Line it is clear you care little about running this service. And yet the Hayes line is clearly detailed in your franchise agreement as an area you need to perform your contract.  Further trains ran down the line with several heading towards Woolwich Arsenal, Dartford and Barnehurst, but none to Hayes.

I recommend that you look at a picture that a twiter user posted of the scene at Lewisham station on Thursday, which can be found at the following web address: http://yfrog.com/z/h0aqflbej   Interestingly on South Easterns twitter service, the cancelled Hayes service was shown as having a bonus stop at Hitler Green and was simply referred to as the 1734 Cannon Street – Lewisham Service, didn’t want to show you had failed to provide a service surely?

And so around 25 minutes later a Hayes train threatened to arrive at the station. When it eventually did it was a very short train and already full of people being transported out of London. There was no chance or opportunity to board this service for myself, so I found myself left stranded at Lewisham station. I understand from twitter of the few passengers that managed to cram themselves into the luggage racks that this train also fell pray to your terminate and avoid obligations strategy and was terminated at Elmers End.

Another 40 minutes must have passed at Lewisham station with absolutely no information provided to the suffering passengers of when we might expect to see a train. Eventually a train arrived even shorter than the last, which again I was unable to board but had noticed another one displayed 5 mintues behind, so deiced to wait on this. Luckily I did this as the train in front was terminated at New Beckenham and the poor passengers had to get onto our service.

And so 2hrs 22 minutes after being due to leave London, on a service timetabled for arrival 18:05 (a 31 minute trip), at just after 19:56 I arrived at Elmers End station. Tired, the evening gone, my free time lost and completely confused with the lack of information or an apology. Yes the signal failure at the start of the service was likely beyond your control, this accounts for 42 minutes. The following poor service and lack of ability to discharge your obligations was down solely to the performance that you have given out.

Also it is interesting to note that your daily performance statisics on Friday still show Wednesdays problems with explanations – it couldn’t be that you’re planning to bury Thursdays performance with Fridays statistics on Monday, could it?

So all in all the questions that need answering are:
1. How do you consider the service provided on Thursday evening to be discharging your contractual obligation to “deliver to the passenger the best railway passenger service that can be obtained”?

2. Why was there a complete lack of information and transparency?

3. Why couldn’t some common sense be applied to dump us at Ladywell rather than Lewisham (one further stop), so we could have at least benefited from trains from Charing Cross that skip Lewisham?

4. What compensation are you going to offer me for the extra 2 hours added to my service because YOU did not perform your obligations and decided to use my free time away from work not running the service to its destination.

5. Why are you hiding daily performance information?

6. Where is the transparency at South Eastern?

7. How many directors and major shareholders live on the Hayes branch of South Eastern trains?

8. What are we receiving from our rail provider in terms of improved performance after such extortionate fare rises year after year, with less coaches offered on trains on the Hayes line in the morning, far fewer seats with newer trains which all seem to be on the Hayes line at key times, and a performance like this when we just want to get home per our tickets.

9. Should I trade in my air miles and commute to Poland in future?

I look forward to your reply at the same speed as the service was delivered on Thursday.

Kind Regard