Waiting for Perfection

So my pre-ordered copy of GTA IV should be on its way to me. I have high hopes for it arriving tomorrow morning (technically this morning, but I've not been to sleep yet). Everywhere seems to be giving it perfect 10 marks, and you'd be hard pressed to find an online retailer with any stock left. Really looking forward to playing it - what I've seen from sketchy reviews so far has been very appealing. Can't wait to try the multiplayer, especially.

Bit of a ruckus on the World of Warcraft side of things. With Dante down in Stirling failing at having an internet connection of his own, I can't realistically level my Blood Elf Hunter. Dante would disagree, of course, but Celesia (my character) and Meandor (his) have been leveling together since they were Level 1 (aside from a couple of times, but shh). Would be nice for them to reach 70 together as well.

The main issue at the moment, though, is trying to decide what to level next. Right now, I'm having a conversation with him on MSN about who and what to level next. We each have a plethora of alts already created; Dante wants to level them first, but I'm all for the starting of new characters from the beginning again. Might re-capture the "magic" that allowed me to level any other character aside from my main past the Level 40 mark. Right now, we've sort of agreed that my Level 31 Protection-Spec Draenei Paladin will level alongside his Level 33 Shadow-Spec Human Priest (Lumitri and Taraza, respectively). There's been some suggestion of them getting to 40, then switching to a nelf pair... nothing's been finalised just yet, though. It will all work out, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, Jaszon is living up to his bastardly name by playing his Horde Paladin a lot more. He originally leveled it on the same server as Celesia and Meandor, but migrated to our original one... you know, this probably doesn't even make sense to anyone who isn't me, Dante or Jaszon. Since they are the only ones who read this (if even they bother) I do not mind so much.

Outside of WoW and gaming... nothing much happening. Still absent-mindedly looking for a job, to see if I can get some money in, rather than relying on Jobseeker's Allowance. Wondering if the Bank of Scotland will actually remove my Student Overdraft this year, instead of just sending me a letter saying "We're really going to do it this time, honest!" and having nothing happen. Brown trouser time every year, I tell you. Hopefully not this year... if I can stop buying stuff, that is.

I'm semi-writing again, due to the revelation that I have to actually concentrate on the subject for any inspiration to come. I've almost finished a battle scene for a Fan Fiction that Dante would like an alternate ending to (see the FED2k link at the bottom right of this page), and I might even have a few ideas forming for original storylines. I've abandoned the notion of trying to plan ahead with my writing, as I recall that being the point where everything went downhill with my original novel attempt. I'll be sure to mention my progress again in any future blog posts.

Will stop typing now, because my left arm is starting to sieze up. Is most uncomfortable. I'll try and update with my thoughts on GTA IV, possibly with some screenshots (if the Blogger interface allows me to without buggering up the entire post along with it). Ow, ow, arm.

On Unemployment...

Things aren't so bad when you're unemployed. Of course, there's the lack of money, which sucks. Strangely, this hasn't stopped me buying things. Over the last month or so, I've gone on a bit of a buying spree. To counter this, I also sold a few things on eBay, which netted me about £150 in total. Which was nice.

I've got a plethora of new games, though. Here's a list, which is probably incomplete, but will serve to illustrate just how mad I've gone:

- Devil May Cry
- Devil May Cry 2
- Devil May Cry 3
- Devil May Cry 4
- Sim City 4 Deluxe
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Age of Wonders II: The Wizard's Throne
- Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
- Unreal Tournament III
- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
- Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard
- Grand Theft Auto IV (Pre-Order)
- G-Police
- Wild 9
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (Collector's Edition - Pre-Order)
- Phoenix Wright - Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
- Another two games / assorted things, which shall be revealed at a later date.

So yeah, lots of games. I also bought an nVidia GeForce 8800GTX to replace the two 8600GTS's I had in SLI, since they were causing me a lot of trouble. Sold one on eBay, gave the other to my brother. It's causing him a bit of hassle (possibly due to lack of power), so I might have to put his old one back in at some point. Then I get to sell the other one as well. Woo!

I've signed on down the local Job Centre Plus. Getting my £49 a week, or whatever it is. Should be enough to cover me for digs at least. Thinking about going to college to do a Higher Maths course, just so I can have something to do and not feel guilty about being a total bum. It might also help for any Uni courses I might want to do in the future. But knowing me, I'll procrastinate and leave it for a while yet. No rush.

Looking forward to playing a lot of the games I've bought over the last year or so. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I fail at finishing games that I start playing. Some I don't even get around to starting. This will hopefully change. I've also taken a liking to writing a bit more again, but it's slow going at the moment. In the more immediate future, I can't wait for Hereos Season 2 to start on BBC 2 tonight at 9pm - it will be so damned cool.

That's about all for now. I'll try to post again if anything spectacular happens.

Job Troubles

Well, it had to happen at some point, I suppose.  They've finally decided to let me go.  Apparently, Vertex hired too many staff over the Valentines Day / Mother's Day period, meaning that they have to fire around 23 temporary staff from the Forres site alone.  A hell of a lot more from the Hale Court site in Manchester, I hear, but I really couldn't care less.

What bothers me is that they're going about it in the worst possible way.  They gave us all a week's notice, which is crap.  Also illegal, according to the Citizen's Advice Bureau.  I went there a few days ago to ask them if what Vertex / Kelly are doing is right; apparently not.  They say that I'm entitled to two weeks' notice, as I've been working for the company for two and a half years.  I'm also meant to get a letter stating why, and the opportunity to appeal the decision.

When confronted with this, Kelly Services came up with some bullshit reason for my rights not being given - they say that this is an "end of secondment" and not a dismissal.  The CAB say otherwise.  So does my contract, as far as I can tell.  I'll keep this blog semi-updated with the results.  Hopefully I can take them to an employment tribunal to get some sort of compensation, but it's still early days.  My last day is technically on Tuesday, after they told me to take my remaining notice period as paid leave.  Guess they didn't like the fuss I was making.

Wonder if they'll like the email I sent to the BBC?

A Change of Font

Alright, so Windows Live Writer works.  As such, I'm changing the font that this blog uses to the default.  I assume this is Arial or somesuch - I don't own Microsoft Office to check.  I don't have any Office package on this laptop, now that I come to think of it.  I'll have to grab OpenOffice.org at some point.

So... things to write about.  Again, nothing amazing happening - I can assure you that there would be a post almost immediately if something out of the ordinary were to happen.  Work is still crap, games are still being bought... I still have to get around to playing most of my RPG's.  I'll eventually stop failing so much and get through them all.

Some new games on the way - or just arrived - are Lost Odyssey, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings.  The latter is admittedly one that won't get played until I get around to completing Final Fantasy XII itself.  I've barely even touched the game - don't think I've even got a quarter of the way through.  What is the world coming to?  I will end this tomfoolery!

Let's see if I can actually play it through.  And deal with how the PS2 graphics look on my HDTV.  In widescreen.  Yeah.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Testing is For the Win

Well... this is a test. I'm typing this using Windows Live Writer, which is apparently a fancy tool for updating blogs. Now, by fancy, I simply mean something that I've never bothered using before. It's only installed on my laptop, which I've been playing about with for the last couple of days. I'd like to see if it works before I install it on my PC.

So yeah... testing. Let's see how this works. May even update more of-AH HA HA, I can't keep a straight face when I say that.

Happy New Year

Yeah, so I haven't updated for about 5 months. Anyone who reads this should know by now to expect this.

So... the last 5 months. Nothing much happened, I can assure you. Bought a few more games for my 360, played them. Work still sucks. Still playing WoW. Nothing new, really.

Mass Effect is worth talking about, though. Best game for the 360 ever, bar none. Halo 3 isn't worthy enough to even compare to this game. Assassin's Creed can barely fathom the enormity of its greatness. All other games pale in comparison, and I'm being lenient here.

For those of you who have played KotOR (i.e. Knights of the Old Republic), you'll know that BioWare are the undisputed masters of RPG making, aside from possibly Square-Enix. But the two companies have distinctly different styles - BioWare encourages a slew of multiple choice scenarios, whereas Square-Enix has the whole linear thing down to a T. Both have excellent points in favour of their own style, but we're focusing on Mass Effect here.

It's basically KotOR, but without the Star Wars. And with better graphics, sound, and everything. EVERYTHING I tell you. The conversations are involved, rather than a simple talk, respond, talk situation. The lip-synching is the best I've seen outside of a Pixar or Dreamworks film. The graphics are what you'd expect from a 360 - HD and jaw-dropping in their complexity. The gameplay does take some getting used to, however, especially the combat... but once you do, you'll wonder why it was such an issue and oh my God isn't this game amazing?

Here is where I would explain the brief outline of the plot or setting, but it's too huge. At least with Star Wars, you can say "It's before Episode I, about 1000 years or so" or something like that, but Mass Effect creates a whole new Universe. Everything in it has been made from the ground up, a whole new IP (intellectual property) that really has to be played to be understood. The Collector's Edition tin comes with a nifty hand-book that does part of the job of introducing you quite well, but you still feel astounded when you take in the sheer scope of the game.

Top Tip: BUY THIS GAME NOW.

Even if you don't have a 360. Its very presence will exude quality, and the manual alone will compel you to spend £200 on an Arcade version, at least.

Other than that? I've mostly been looking forward to other games due to come out very soon. Army of Two, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Spore... can't think of anything else off the top of my head.

Umm... Final Fantasy XII continues to disappoint; my brother David got a 360 jus recently; my Christmas present was not having to pay my Dad the £400 rent I owed him; Dante got me some kickass T-Shirts for my birthday... everything's ticking over quite well at the moment.

Oh, and I'm cycling to work now. Which is fun. I HATE THE WIND.

Check out my Twitter on the right-hand bar of the blog - that will likely be updated more often than this blog, so it's worth keeping an eye on if you're that interested in what I'm up to. Tally-ho for now.