Hardly A Review: Oblivion (2013)

Oblivion is the latest Tom Cruise vehicle which hit cinemas April 10th. The year is 2077 and Earth has been ravaged by war with invading aliens. The majority of remaining humans reside in orbit in a giant space station while a few remain on Earth gathering what little resources are left before the planet is abandoned. Jack Harper (Cruise) is one such person, servicing machinery and protecting it from the alien "Scavs" while haunted by visions of a mysterious woman. When a ship crash lands containing a human trapped in stasis, Harper begins to learn everything is not as it seems, neither for him or the world.

Hardly A Review: Olympus Has Fallen (2013)

In a rare turn of events i have a chance to actually write about a film before it is on general release here in the UK! I was lucky enough to win two tickets a preview showing last night of  "Olympus Has Fallen" which is due out on general release tomorrow, Wednesday 17th.

After having taken the US Box Office by storm (which is an apt saying considering were talking about a film where the white house is taken by terrorists) "Olympus Has Fallen" has arrived in the UK and i must say i really enjoyed it and feel it is well worth a watch.

Nosh Builds a PC: Update - The shift from OnBoard to Discreet Graphics

Now i know what you're thinking can this actually be a fresh post after so long. Yes, it's true i have finally managed to persuade myself to actually write something, it isn't that i don't have enough time or things to write about; I'm just Lazy!

So confessions and apologies aside i will get on with actually writing something of worth (i use the term loosely). I have recently built a new PC (see first post) for those who have visited the blog before and didn't get accidently directed here from some slightly dodgy looking Russian websites, BTW it's not us it just seems to happen every so often. However when i built my PC it was at best basic as it consisted of reclaimed parts for the large part with a scattering of new components to take it a few steps above a giant paper weight. It did however have a few glaring holes Physically (as anyone who has seen the pics in the previous post can tell you) as well as technologically.

Drum Roll please i have now plugged some of those gaps in both senses with a graphics card. About time you may well say and i agree it has been a long time coming. I can now play actual games and have a frame rate in the double digits. You may or may not know i am broke so you may be asking where this new addition came from. Well like much of the rest of my PC it isn't new, it came 6 months old from a friend and fellow gamer who was upgrading and gave me mates rates on his old card (check out his YouTube Page: Ratchet34321).

What is the card you may be asking and to be honest a good question as we are 3 paragraphs in and i haven't mentioned it yet! It is a Saphire Radeon HD6850 1GB. Can be seen here to buy and for specs

So an AMD card which is fortunate as my motherboard supports CrossfireX but not SLI i believe. Gives me a chance to add in another card when i have some cash if i so choose. How has it been so far? Well the step up from the onboard graphics of my I3 3320 processor has been stratospheric, i can now run many games at full or nearly full settings comfortable including Planetside 2 which before ground to a halt if there was even one person near me, League of legends is looking much nicer with the settings on high, Metro 2033 is looking really rich and detailed now. All of these running at respectable frame rates and actually enjoyable to play opposed to headache and rage inducing slowness and poor quality.

Now this wouldn't be a post by Nosh if there wasn't still a problem or new ones occurring  Well you would be correct, when putting the card in i did manage to set the resolution too high on all outputs so i couldn't see anything when i booted which was problematic for a day or so. I have also found the monitor i have "acquired" is a none standard size/resolution, with its maximum being 1280x1024 and this has proved unhelpful when trying to record anything, as it just becomes garbage on any one with a normal ratio screen (so pretty much everyone else in existence!).

So what else is there to upgrade/fix you might be asking. In all fairness everything is ok at the moment but money is available a decent monitor, SSD and an Optical drive are on the agenda. So if you have any tips/suggestions for any of those fell free to leave them in the comments section.

Nosh, Signing Out. 

Typing on Touchscreens - A touchy issue!

Now, i know we have been somewhat erratic of late (always) in our writing and posting of stuff but as the only person without full time commitments it has fallen to me to do most of the donkey work, and to be honest I've been lazy.

However i have finally got around to writing something again so here you go, enjoy!

I came across an interesting product/concept for those that love their touch screens, in particular tablets etc bigger than phone size, but who find typing on them to be an issue. the solution from Tactile a company in the US is that of one where the keyboard suddenly appears out of the flat surface of the touch screen itself! At first i thought it was a joke or some hideous kind of add on/overlay, however it is actually a nice looking (albeit slightly creepy) idea/product. At the touch of your finger the keys just suddenly appear before your eyes and finger tips.

How can this be done you ask? Well it is done using a see through liquid layer applied to the surface of the touch screen which is pumped through channels to make the keys appear as if by magic. There are multiple settings for firmness of the keys from slightly squishy bubbles to much more solid "proper" button feel. i am unsure whether it is the case that it will always rise even when you don't need it or not but we shall see if it ever becomes main stream i guess. The company currently only has one partnership to implement this technology and it is with Touch Revolution, who make touch screens. Nosh, Signing Out. 

Hardly A Review: WWE '13 - Better than just for Banter

This last week I have been playing a lot of WWE ’13 on Xbox. Yep, laugh it up, but this is one of those wonderful surprises in gaming for me where my expectations are low yet a game proves to be immensely enjoyable. Initially bought as a ‘banter purchase,’ (a game I and my regular Live Party all buy on the cheap to play for a bit as a laugh), this has actually turned out to be a great single player experience. A heavy slab of nostalgia plays its part here, sending us back to times we’ve all spent playing previous iterations in our youth. This Nostalgia is aided by the ‘Attitude Era’ storyline, allowing the relieving of some of the major wrestling storylines from when we all actually knew who was who and it was still called WWF. Who doesn’t love a bit of Stone Cold Steve Austin? And that’s the bottom line! For the current day, there is Universe mode, which can be essentially whatever you want. The range of customisation available is brilliant and it is really possible to get the universe to work how you want it and see storylines and feuds develop as they would in real life shows.

The controls are fiddly at first and there is a lot of button mashing, and online services are temperamental but when it all comes together and you nail your best mate with the People’s Elbow this game is as satisfying as they come. At a time when I find a lot of mainstream games have become too serious or gritty, this has been a shot in the arm of unbridled fun, greatly enhanced by how unexpected it was. 

Jimmy

When Body and Mind Conspire Against Us: Cycling, Insomnia and Writers Block

When I was first approached to write a piece for this esteemed blog, there was a slight sense of trepidation and doubt as to whether I would ever manage to write anything in a time frame that would make it still relevant. That was nearly 2 months ago. Well, at least I was right. I have long had a problem of coming up with my best ideas when I’m trying to sleep and therefore being too tired to write anything down or even remember it the next day. Inconveniently, there also never seems to be any paper around to write these ideas down when I’m lying in bed yet if I prepare for it, my brain will be emptier than a tortured metaphor about emptiness. 

I like to think of myself as an aspiring cyclist. Certainly at least, I am someone who makes vague efforts to maintain fitness by cycling and take joy from the process. As such, I have found that to actually get out and achieve anything on the bike I need a number of factors to go my way. Acceptable weather, a break or at least and easing of relentless summer colds and ‘good legs.’ It is incredibly frustrating to wake up and find all these things conspiring against you, but sometimes, the golden moment occurs when you can keep the purpose you woke up with alive and put it to good use. 

This morning was one of those moments. Despite waking up with a head full of cold, to leaden grey skies and a biting wind, and worst of all, ‘bad legs’ weighing me down, the sense of purpose held. Not just that, but the many thoughts on what to write from the previous night. Having struggled so much with writing from a blank canvas so to speak, I decided that perhaps writing about the process of writing itself may actually help me instead. Being able to write fluently about the struggle of writing, huh, and thus here we are. No doubt the sense of achievement I feel as a result of this will satiate me so much that the rest of the day is total write off, but still, it’s something at least. Just don’t hold your breath for my next piece!

Jimmy

Hardly A Review - Pitch Perfect

In the current trends of modern movies we have experienced a resurgence of first dance based films with films such as Step Up following on from such 80's classics as Flash dance, Footloose and Dirty Dancing. However now we have the rise of musical, in particular films showing vocal prowess. this seemed to first start with films such as High school musical, but i think we can fairly lay the blame/commendation at the foot of Glee and its phenomenal rise to almost cult status, bringing musicality to the masses and making singing and choirs cool.  Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with a visual audio expression of the human condition and journey we call life.

So having made that introduction clear i can round the business to reviewing the actual film i went to see, which was Pitch Perfect. It wasn't a planned excursion to the cinema nor my choice of film, more of a mission of mercy on behalf of my sister so she didn't have to see the film alone after the arrangements with her friends fell through. however it didn't cost me anything as the ticket had already been paid for, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth i agreed to see the film.