Sep 21, 2011

Summer of Gaming!

Just a quick note about the beginning of the summer of Gaming 2011.

I try and pick up the special editions where I can. Steadily building up a catalogue for my games room/man cave. I had one in the last place I was living and it was heaven. Every man needs a man cave when living with his partner. It gives you space to just be you - your style, your way and its physically definable. Believe me it needs to be a room otherwise everything just encroaches into it (and even then it can be hard to keep it as man space).

Other big titles that I want to get my hands on are Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3 and Halo Anniversary. The two former I want the collectors editions of and Halo just because I love the original. If it comes with a collectors edition Ill be all over it. I just love all the stuff you get.

Like the Legendary Halo:Reach . It would have to be the best to date, as far as collectors editions go. In game items, the statue and Dr Halsey's book in that large carry case were just brilliant. It all was put in context of the game too. It wasn't just a collectors edition - you were sent the package from an ONI storage facility to study and catalogue the contents (or something like that). It was awesome.

I have heard that Skyrim comes with a large cloth map of the region, artwork and a large statue of a dragon. But its not coming to Australia. Fuck you Bethesda you giant assholes.

Infinity Ward decided against anything special for MW3 like the night vision goggles that came with MW2. Instead, Activision is pushing their COD Elite network down consumers throats. Deeply disappointed that they have decided to follow this path. Quite frankly I think Elite is a load of crap that they are pursuing just to eke out the last dollar from the franchise which has already made them millions.

My hope holds out for Diablo 3 and Mass Effect 3 coming out with something awesome. I do love my collectibles. So much so, that since dragging home my Lancer the other night, I found out EB Games online had Gears 3 Epic editions still. So I have ditched the game I had on order, kept the Lancer and ordered the Epic edition from EB! The Marcus statue, all of his fathers medals and story material as well as the game... But I have to wait for shipping.

The site said shipping on release day, so I figured I will get it by Friday at least. On Tuesday, I receive an email saying that it wont ship till Thursday at best! Seriously pissed off! I was hoping to smash it out this weekend with a mate but oh well. It isnt going anywhere and I just have to avoid all reviews and spoilers.

Not that it needs to be said but...
IM SO FREAKIN EXCITED!

P.S. There is also this piece of Awesomesauce. Its not a collectors edition but it is still sweet. Its Cole Train in his Thrashball kit.

Sep 7, 2011

Steampunk, Flying and ... stuff.

I have had a bit of a look at Steampunk lately. Mostly because some of the fashion is badass. Also Victorian era clothes were just so much classier than today's. These days if you get around in a suit people look at you funny. Even in the office where I work we wear business pants and shirts - as soon as the jacket comes on you are out of place. What would happen if a vest was thrown into the mix? Or a pocket watch? I think they would blow up or something.

But steampunk isn't just dressing up in old school clothing. Its putting a different spin on it all. Its difficult for me to put a definite label on it, a proper description. I have never read any Jules Vern or H.G. Wells- who have been credited as the creators of steampunk. I should fix that before attempting (and failing) to wax eloquent about it.

Older styles interest me on the whole. Like 1920's barnstormers. Tiger Moths, badass flight jackets, caps, goggles and silk scarves! Times were simpler- no shitty CASA telling you where and how to fly, no RA-Aus cowboys to worry about. Just flying from town to town, making your living from aerobatic shows. 1920's Mobsters - pinstripe suits, awesome hats, a huge cigar and a cheesy fake Bronx accent. These are looks which have a lot more class than todays social norm. I tend to go for the (untorn) dark jeans, t-shirt (ironed, clean, also untorn) and awesome military style jacket look. It just isn't as daggy as some of the guys getting around at the moment with their pants hanging down under their arse, or skinny leg jeans. Its just not a real masculine look. In my opinion anyway.

I am currently looking at some ways of videoing my exploits in aircraft. So far my best bet is the GoPro HD Hero Camera. It allows me to strap it or hook it just about anywhere to record my flights. I'm thinking that it would be a good idea for me to strap it to my head and use it to breakdown flights I have done. Both as a record of what I do, where I can improve and also to past together some awesome flying videos for here. Aside from my first two (now outdated thanks to Cataclysm) hunter videos, I really have not explored video blogging at all.

Yesterday would have been one of the perfect times for it. I was flying relatively low over the Brisbane CBD doing a mock up photography charter. Being so close and having that view of Brisbane was wonderful and being able to record that would have been brilliant.

There is also something like this:


Making my own videos for study purposes. The RAAF 2FTS pilots use this as a training too to memorise the startup procedure for the PC-9/A. Regardless if it is for study or for entertainment value, this is something I really want to get in on.

In other news I am taking hiatus from WoW again. It takes too much time to be raid ready. It sucks even more now they restrict the dungeon finder to average ilvl - it makes gearing up so much slower. But not only that I farmed up a good deal of the mats for Witch-Hunter's Harvester the other weekend - it took TWO WHOLE DAYS! Even then that was just the levelling of my blacksmithing and trying to farm at least some of the volatile elements required for both the weapon itself and the truegold transmutes. Truegold transmutes suck. Titansteel was bad in that you could not get any multiple procs (unlike transmute master) but having to find alchemists with a spare CD who are also a transmute master is a pain in the ass! At least now I am geared enough for Firelands, got all the dailies out of the way and I can come back to it at any time and slot into the guild raids. Even though the guild has some absolute tards in it now. /wrists

The reason I am having a break is simply because of two jobs and study taking up all my time. I am getting close to the end of the commercial pilots license and study is a priority. Right now I am listening to Sydney International's LiveATC.Net feed to try and ingrain the standard phraseologies into my head. I will probably listen to it at work too with the new Android App.

That is all.