Games Wednesday: So Where's the Rest of my Game?

So I've had a good week in gaming!!  I've managed to finish Far Cry 3 (how awesome is this game), start Dishonored (so far I'm loving it), progressed further in Diablo 3 and started my own YouTube channel in which I'm doing Let's Plays!!

Far Cry 3

Definitely one of the games of the year from last year.  I believe I have described it as 'Skyrim with guns' several times and it is certainly as addictive but maybe no where near as long.  The length of Far Cry 3 is my only concern with the game because after spending many hours completing missions, unlocking weapons, killing animals, taking bases, climbing towers and enjoying the story I though that when you got to the south island that it would be the same case.  Sadly it doesn't quite have the same pace because having already unlocked almost the entire tatau and having almost all the signature weapons the south island didn't give the same experience.  At the beginning of the game you feel vulnerable due to being surrounded by pirates who wanted you dead with limited health, weapons and ammo.  As play you feel yourself becoming a bad-ass and by the end of the north island you're near invincible.  When you have finished this the story and the pacing of the game flops because you have killed Vaas, who is the poster character of the game, but this is not the end of the game because you now have to take on his boss, Hoyt, who isn't any where near as interesting a character and the motivation for killing him is a lot more fuzzy than Vaas (because he killed your brother in front of you)!  Also you start the south island as a walking tank, equipped with all the best weapons, and after one of the first missions you can go almost any where (except enemy camps) with impunity as you are disguised as a mercenary.  Due to having the best weapons and being chums with the baddies getting to places and killing the enemies there happens so much quicker which results in completing the second part of the game in a fraction of the time.  Don't get me wrong I was still enjoying myself thoroughly and there were some great characters as well (Sam in particular) but I wish they had done more with it to keep you playing the game.  At some point I will go back and finish off all the side-quests I have not finished but for now I have plenty of other games to be playing.

Further reading/watching:

Official Site:  http://far-cry.ubi.com/fc-portal/en-gb/home/index.aspx
OMFGCata's Play Through:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lufk-R1cuok&list=SPFx-KViPXIkG98ljzGGAjpq_IeFnsy86z&index=1
IGN Review:  http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/11/21/far-cry-3-review

THQ Collapse

So its sad to see gaming companies come and go but tragic when its a big one such as THQ.  THQ have made some great games over the years (such as Dawn of War, Company of Heroes, Saint's Row, Metro 2033, Darksiders etc.) and it was awesome to see so many of their great games up for grabs recently in the Humble THQ Bundle (which was my first of their pay-what-you-want packs I have bought).  I thought with exposure such as this that they might be able to pull through but sadly not but it is awesome to see that so many of their franchises have now been taken up by other studios!!  RIP THQ!!

Further reading:

IGN:  http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/23/thq-dissolved-saints-row-company-of-heroes-darksiders-devs-acquired
Joystiq:  http://www.joystiq.com/2013/01/24/court-approves-thq-asset-sales/

So here's my Games Wednesday update.  Don't forget to comment, subscribe and keep reading if you like what you see.  I'll be back this week for Science Friday!

YouTube Video

Here is my third part of the Lord of the Rings:  The Battle for Middle Earth Playthrough!!

Geek Monday: Variety is the Spice of Life

So for this Geek Monday I will look at a few stories that are floating around.

Abrams to Direct Star Wars

So probably one of the biggest stories floating around at the moment is that J.J. Abrams will be the one helming the new Star Wars film.  With this revelation I'm not sure whether to be excited or nervous about the new film.  Don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of Abrams having watched all of Lost and loving the new Star Trek films (plus eagerly anticipating the new one) but can he do the same job with Star Wars.  The question is will he make it all mysterious like lost with a tonne more lore and story or will he make it all in your face action like the new Star Trek films?  Also could he remain faithful to Lucas and make a flop like the prequel trilogy?  Well we shall see when it gets released!!    

More reading:

http://io9.com/5979101/can-jj-abrams-do-for-star-wars-what-he-did-for-star-trek-and-should-he
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/24/jj-abrams-to-direct-star-wars-episode-vii
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/jj-abrams-set-direct-next-star-wars-film-exclusive-74596
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/its-official-disney-confirms-that-jj-abrams-will-direct-the-next-star-wars-episode-vii/ 

New File Format

So it seems that a long with the hype of 4K TVs there will be a new file format.  The H.265 format will be the successor to the extremely popular H.264 format This new format, called High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), will allow easier streaming of full 1080p HD footage and possibly the future streaming of UHD.  This is particularly exciting for people like myself who, at home, have very slow internet connections due to the inability to access super-fast fibre optic broadband.

More reading:

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/the-new-h-265-video-format-helps-chew-up-video-so-networks-can-swallow-it/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/25/h265-is-approved/

The Following

So I watched an awesome new show this weekend.  I decided to give the Following a chance and I'm glad I did.  This creepy new show stars Kevin Bacon who is case as a retired FBI agent who is drafted to help capture an escaped serial killer (James Purefoy) who has recruited a loyal army of psychos and delinquents to make Kevin Bacons life hell.  This has the same sort of vibe the Killing had (of which I'm yet to watch the 2nd season) and it looks like it has some potential.

Further reading:

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/12/12/why-the-following-stands-out-on-network-television
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2071645/?ref_=sr_1

Returning Shows

So I'm also looking forward to How I Met Your Mother returning to UK TV this week (having had to wait months after the US to watch it)!!  Unfortunately the show will not be ending this season (which I think would have been appropriate) but I won't complain none the less.  Also Spartacus:  War of the Damned will be starting soon which I am also very excited to see as I am a big fan of the previous seasons!!

Further reading:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1442449/?ref_=sr_1
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460649/?ref_=sr_1
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/25/spartacus-war-of-the-damned-enemies-of-rome-review
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-i-met-your-mother/episode-guide/series-8/episode-1

Thanks for reading everybody and I will be back for Games Wednesday!!

YouTube Video

So having had to take down my YouTube video yesterday due to the need for more editing it is now back up along with part two of my Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth Playthrough!

Science Friday: The Gender Divide

So during a tea break at work the other day we were discussing the gender divide when it came to science and engineering.  One of the main points of interest that came up was about the European Commission's video 'Science: It's a Girl Thing'.  

This farce of a video is barely disguised sexism that implies that all women seem to care about is lipstick and looking pretty.  But sexism is only a small part of the point I want to make in this post. 

When you look at certain subjects you do start to notice a pattern in the gender that seems to populate it.  For example I took my undergraduate degree in Chemistry and from my point of view the gender split was almost 50:50.  From another point of view I had friends who took physics and from what I heard in their entire year they had no more than about 2 or 3 girls total.  Why is it that you move from Chemistry to Physics and suddenly all women seem to lose interest.  Then again does it work both ways.  I'm only going speculate here but if you move to something like Biology does the number of males decrease and is this more of a female subject?  Certainly from my male point of view I see biology as my least favourite science.  So why is there this gender divide when it comes to certain scientific subjects.

So why science is traditionally considered a male orientated subject and you have applaud people for trying to encourage more women to take part in science maybe they just have to realise that they already are but they need to encourage women to take part in the sciences they currently have very little interest in.  

Games Wednesday: Delving into YouTubing

So when I bought my new gaming PC one of the other areas I had it built for was game recording and video editing.  Recently my fiancée has started working which means that she is now working until after I get home from work.  This has given me the opportunity to start recording some game footage/commentary because before I felt both self-concious and embarrassed about doing it in front of her. 

For my first Let's Play I have decided to play through one of my favourite RTS's of all time, 'The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth'.  I've played this game many times when I was younger and I felt that it was the perfect game to get my YouTube channel off the ground as there are so far only a couple of other people that have done so.

So the recording program I am using is Fraps.  So far this has been a good program to use as the set-up and recording is easy to do and there is relatively little system slowdown that I have noticed (especially as I am using an SSD to play the game from and a HDD to record to).  The problem with Fraps is that when it records it does so in an uncompressed manor so 20 mins of game footage equates to about 40 GB of space spread out over 10 different files.  To combine these together, add audio and compress them down you need to use video editing software.

The editing software I chose to use is Sony Vegas 12.  From my relatively limited experience with video editing I can so far say I'm enjoying using Vegas and putting together my video.  I'm still getting the hang of it as the first few times I've rendered it has either had black spots in the video or hasn't compressed and produced a video that was 130 GB in size and I was wondering why YouTube wasn't accepting the file!!

So far I have recorded two episodes of the game and started the editing process with both but I still do not have a fully rendered video....yet.  My current plan is to keep recording footage while my fiancée is out and then spend some time editing the video later on.  The first video should be uploaded in the next few days and I will also post a link to it on my blog.

Thanks for reading everyone and if you like the blog then please subscribe, post comments, share and distribute it please!!

P.S.  I will be doing a Science Friday post this week even if it kills me!!

Geek Monday: New Year's Reading

So I've started to get back into my reading again recently thanks to a few really good books that  I've been reading.  

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (by Stieg Larsson)

I managed to acquire the whole of the Millennium trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest) thanks to my fiancée's Dad wanting to throw them out and giving them to me instead.  I've already finished the first two books which were amazing.  Usually my genre of book is Sci-Fi/Fantasy so I went into reading a thriller with some apprehension.  The first two books in the series had very good pacing with the first half of each book starting off slow with a sudden injection of pace that had the ends of both books finishing with a bang.  The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest is different from the other two in which it starts directly after the events of the previous book (which was left on a cliffhanger) which means that it doesn't start slow but jumps straight into the action and in my opinion works fantastically.  I'm about half way through this book so far and I can't wait to finish it and see how this very well written series ends.

A Crown Imperilled (by Raymond E. Feist)

A Crown Imperilled is the penultimate book in REF's Riftwar cycle that start with 'Magician' and will finish with 'Magician's End'.  I've been a big fan of this series since I started reading it many years ago and I've read most of the sub-series that have been published (I need to read the Empire Trilogy and the Krondor series mainly) with my favourites being the Riftwar Trilogy (the original series) and the Serpentwar Saga.  This latest book from REF has me seriously hooked but I can't forgive the mistakes that have been made in terms of editing.  It would be nice for huge books like this to have somebody proof read it before publication because there are several small errors like grammar and spelling but there is one really big error.  Chapter 4 has one major character doing something in one part of the world with several chapters later that character is in a completely different part of the world and then in chapter 15 the character from chapter 4 has become a completely different character altogether.  According to REF this was due to him submitting an older version of one of the chapters (I'm guessing Ch.4 as this would make most sense as it would make sense with the character from Ch.15 replacing him) with the editing team not picking up on this.  I did ask for the paperback version of this book, where the error is supposedly corrected, but my parents accidentally ordered the hardback where it is still present.  Apart from this error the book is very gripping and I look forward to the final book of the cycle.

A Memory of Light (by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson)

So my final new year read is the final book in the Wheel of Time Series.  I came to this series after the previous 13 books has already been published but as soon as I started reading it I was hooked.  It took me almost a year to read all of them with some of the books were very hard going (and it was very difficult not to read too many spoilers on the Wiki as well).  But now the final book is out which means that I can read the conclusion of this epic series (which outlasted the author who sadly died needing Brandon Sanderson to step in to finish it but was actually the breath of fresh air it needed).

Thanks for reading everyone and I will be back for another Games Wednesday this week.