Entries made in 2006

06

12 months. I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. Last night, after my brother knocked a cup of water over my iPod on my desk, I found a receipt from a book store dated Jan 11th. I can still remember walking into the store with a book voucher I’d gotten for Christmas. Yet it all felt so strangely odd and far away. Guess that’s time for ‘ya. Continue reading »

Poke Me, I’m Dreaming

Tunnel Time

Half Life. It’s been out eight, nearly nine, years now. Still one of the best games ever, but seemingly eclipsed by Half Life 2. Recently I played Someplace Else, a mod for HL that’s been around for a while, interest only kicked up because of the related mod series for Half Life 2, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, the graphics might be a bit dated, the sound effects a tad tedious, but at the end of the day the plot and gameplay were better than most recent games I’ve gone out and bought! I thought that all the good mods for Half Life 1 had already been released, long gone stagnant in favour of its new, flashier brother. But I was wrong. Poke646 recently released their new mod for HL and it is killer. Continue reading »

Junking the Junk

I was reading this article recently and it got me thinking about my own spam problems. Over the years I’ve had a multitude of email addresses and websites, each one systematically flooded with spam, some worse than others. Here’s how I coped and some tips for anyone else looking to stem the flow of crap hitting their inbox daily. Continue reading »

Tread Softly, Yeats

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet,
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams

Anniversaries & First Times

Wow, today has gone really fast, but so much has happened. I’ll start with the old and work my way to the new. Five years ago today Halo was released, one of my all time favourite games and to celebrate Bungie has released a tonne of details about the new version. However looking at the new screenshots I can’t help but feel Halo 2 all over again. Anyway, on to bigger and better things. Continue reading »

Overkill

What can I say, I’m on a roll, three posts in two days. I’ve been meaning to write this review for over a week now, after finishing the book, but with everything else in the way (namely work and Double Agent) I haven’t had a chance to. But now I do, so read on for my review of Overkill by James Barrington. Continue reading »

Defcon: A Lesson in Thermo-Nuclear War

WarGames, released six years before I was even born, yet I’ve occasionally caught it on TV on Sunday afternoons and instantly fall in love with the retro representation of large scale conflict. So when Introversion, developer of one of my all time favourite games Uplink, announced Defcon I instantly pre-ordered it and awaited the launch date. I’ve been playing it for a few weeks now and here are my thoughts. Continue reading »

Splinter Cell: Double Agent

I am really disappointed. No, more than that, I’m gutted. I feel betrayed, deserted, let down. I’ve been a big fan of Splinter Cell since the original. I’ve clocked at least 500 hours on the previous three games. Yes, over 500 hours. I play the levels so much I know every guards every habit, I know the dialogue by heart and cameras are nothing more than scenery to my learned fingers. So I scraped the proverbial barrel of my wallet to buy the latest incarnation, Double Agent. Admittedly it’s only the Xbox version, but surely there shouldn’t be too much difference between them. So I got the game, ripped off the packaging and I was away. One week later here’s my review. Continue reading »

Basically an Update

I’ve been neglecting this blog for a while now, I know. With A Levels, coursework and personal projects on the go, not to mention my writing at SnakeDust I’ve had very little time to really post some good articles. Don’t worry though, I’m planning to write a few introductory/tutorial guides to REALbasic, more on that in a moment though. Firstly a few thoughts on recent news and events. Continue reading »