Gambit’s Blog

I know that there are a few gamers who read my blog, so I want to point out a brand new site that myself and John Griffin have launched: SteamReport.com.

To quote the site, Steam Report:

“aims to be the foremost place for news, releases, patches, updates and editorials centered on everyone’s favorite platform; Steam.”

If you use Steam, or even if you don’t (you should be), check it out. We appreciate any support in the launch of this new venture!

Before I go any further, I want to state that these are my best games of 2007. I am not saying that they are necessarily the best over all, but they are the games that I have played and enjoyed the most this year. There is a severely limiting factor in this - I don’t own an Xbox 360. The reason this is limiting is that I am pretty certain that there would be at least 2 games that would make my list had I been able to play them - Mass Effect and Assassins Creed. However, I cant comment, as I haven’t played them.

So, without further ado… My top 5 games of 2007:

1. Team Fortress 2

So the winner is… TF2! I decided to separate out the Orange Box since it is a collection of distinct games that can be purchased individually. Team Fortress 2 is by far my most consistently played game, and I would really struggle to put anything else here. It’s high paced action that is simply the most fun that can be had on the net. Now all I have to do is wait for the Team Fortress 2 Quiz Mod to come along

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2. Super Mario Galaxy

I am in a unique position when it comes to Mario. I’ve played the originals, but I never got around to playing the highly acclaimed Mario 64 (in any of its incarnations), and while I look forward to it on my DS (when Amazon finally get them in stock), it managed to pass me by. Bring on Sunshine, which try as I might, I totally didn’t enjoy. So my hopes weren’t high for Galaxy. I watched the trailers and unlike some people, wasn’t blown away. But it’s Mario. And it’s an Nintendo console. So I had to get it. And, having collected 87 stars and well on my way to finishing Super Mario Galaxy, I can say that is is the most fun that you can have with a plumber. Period. And the most fun on the Wii. Very deserving of the second place.

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3. Portal

Do I really need to say anything about Portal?! All you need to know is that the cake is a lie. Oh, and it’s the best, most puzzling 4 hours of you’re life that you’re likely to have. I’d say that I wish it was longer, but I think if it had been, the game would have lost its charm. Thank god that there are lots of people developing custom maps to keep us going. Long live the weighted companion cube!

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4. Bioshock

Bioshock must be the most talked about game of the year, and when it’s as good as it is, why not?! I must admit, I still haven’t finished it, but my first new year’s resolution is to get my ass in gear and get to the end. I think a key word when describing Bioshock is the atmosphere - you really do feel like you’re there. My only complaint is that there’s no Anti-Aliasing, but that’s the Unreal Engine’s fault, and not Bioshock.

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5. Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaro’s Treasure

When I started Zack & Wiki, I thought I’d be returning it fairly sharpish, it looked childish and I didn’t necessarily think it would be my cup of tea. However, after playing the first level I realised that at it’s heart it is a modern day recreation of the Gobliiins trilogy. Level based puzzlers, that have humor and fun combined with lateral thinking. If you haven’t played it, don’t knock it until you have!

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Honorable Mentions
Resident Wii-vil (aka. Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition) - Ok, it was on the Cube, but the addition of some great controls and the fact that I haven’t played it before give this a mention.
Link’s Crossbow Training - Not a great game on it’s own, but combined with the zapper and a couple of friends, this turned into a lot of fun. At a bargain price as well, who can complain?!
Peggle - Not you’re traditional game, Pop-cap Games have developed a really addictive little game. Download it, play it, buy it. Simple.

So another year comes to an end, another one begins, and we start the whole routine of the previous year all over again. It’s not pretty, but every year brings us plenty of TV to watch, music to listen to and Films to see. With the writers’ strike going on, who can say if next year is going to be the same, but this year was certainly entertaining.

And therefore, before further ado, I am going to present you with my picks from last year!

Best Show: Doctor Who

This was a tough one, but for me, Doctor Who had it’s best season yet this year. David Tennant just is the Doctor, and Martha Jones was the most interesting companion we’ve had to date. Some great episodes, some great guest appearances (Jon Simm anyone?!) and altogether very deserving of this year’s Best Show.

Runners Up: Battlestar Galactica (consistently excellent), Entourage (still one of the funniest dramas on TV), Psych (one that seems to miss many people’s radars, but is still an amazing comedy that deserves a mention), The Tudors (taking over from where Rome left off, an amazing show in a similar style that is definitely on a par with its spiritual predecessor), Who Wants to be a Millionaire (after x number of series, this is still the best quiz show on tv) – ok, the last one’s a joke…

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Best Newcomer: Californication

Possibly a controversial choice, but Californication was brilliant. Constantly stepping over the line, always enjoyable, and some great performances - David Duchovny at his best. If you haven’t seen it, you must – Califonication is in a class of its own.

Runners Up: Dirty Sexy Money (like The OC, but better, and for adults), Journeyman (but has hit an untimely end), Moonlight (some really bad acting combined with some really good acting, but for some reason this keeps me coming back week after week)

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Best Comedy: Saxondale

Possibly the hardest category for me to judge, as I’ve been watching some past comedy this year too that can’t win it for this year – Arrested Development and Jeeves and Wooster to name two. I was never a fan of Alan Partridge, but Saxondale is just right on the button. Brilliant show.

Runners Up: Entourage (comedy or drama?! Who knows, who cares), Flight of the Conchords (musical genius), The IT Crowd (geeky, but brilliant – perfect)

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Best Short Series: Oliver Twist 2007

A new category this year as there were two series that I really wanted to mention but didn’t fit in anywhere else. Oliver Twist was an adaptation that I was totally going to miss – we’ve all seen the story a million times, who needs another. But the BBC nailed it with this one – the kids were brilliant, and as always Timothy Spall was amazing as Fagin. Definitely one for the DVD boxsets collection.

Runner Up: Secret Diary of a Call Girl (never been a huge Billie Piper fan, but she was superb in this – hugely entertaining, porn for the masses!)

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Best Factual: Human Weapon

It’s interesting, it’s factual, and it has martial arts – what more can you want. The history of all the modern martial arts, and them put to the test by two American Mixed Martial Artists. You learn the culture, you learn the techniques. Great factual TV.

Runners Up: Mythbusters (as usual, though it seems they’re clutching at straws a bit now), Jonathan Ross’s Japanorama (it’s entertaining and interesting – that’s what you want!), Top Gear (not sure this really fits in this category, but still excellent viewing!), QI (Stephen Fry is simply brilliant)

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Most Improved: Robin Hood

I know, I know, what am I thinking?! For those that bothered to stick with this show, it was worthwhile. It doesn’t fit into the other categories since it still isn’t that good. But it is entertaining, and brainless. If you want some Saturday night swashbuckling Robin Hood style, and if you turn off your reality filter, Robin Hood does stand up on its own, and it’s enjoyable. And the second season was much better than the first…

Runners Up: Lost (I still thought that this season was the best so far. I wish they’d hurry up and end it still, but it did grip me far more than the last season).

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Get your act together: Heroes

This category is for those shows that really were good but need to buck their ideas up. Heroes was still great, but lacked the magic that the first season had. They have apparently realised this and will be sorting it out, so here are my fingers crossed for the New Year…

Runners Up: Spooks (most people seemed to love this season. I didn’t. Go back to the old formula – it worked), Stargate Atlantis (I still tune in, but it isn’t a patch on SG1. Please get it right)

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And finally…

Most Disappointing: Bionic Woman

I thought this had a lot of promise. I was wrong. Simply awful TV. Switch Off.

Runners Up: Dexter (still an amazing show, but after one of the best first seasons I’ve ever seen, how could season two really live up to my hype), Bones (still dragging out the love interest. Still love the show, but sort it out!)

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So, that’s 2007’s TV for you! Check back later for more 2007 goodness

I was lucky enough to get hold of tickets to a preview screening of The Darjeeling Limited at 20th Century Fox Studios in Soho last night.

Directed by Wes Anderson, (of Royal Tenenbaums fame), i was expecting the worst. The Royal Tenenbaums really didnt sit well with me when I watched it, so I was expecting that it would be relatively dull.

Prior to the feature, there was a short called ‘Hotel Cevalier’ which on its own, I didnt think stood up to that much, and the best bit was seeing Natalie Portman in the buff! However, once this combined with the main feature it made a lot more sense.

The main feature, starring Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, was quirky and amusing, with some genuinely laugh out loud moments. Many of the jokes were aimed at the rediculousness of the situation - americans stranded in India, with absoultely no idea of what’s going on, and the feelings assoiciated with that situation were conveyed well.

It was and interesting journey, but a journey that started to feel a little bit long towards the end. However, nearly as soon as those feelings arose, the film started to round off and began its journey to the climax.

I dont want to give any more away, but what I will say is that I know this film may not necessarily appeal to many of my friends, and it didnt immediately appeal to me, but if you go in with an open mind there is a lot to enjoy about it.

I’m in the process of planning the building of a new computer, and the first item that I have bought, is arguably the least important. However, Scan had the keyboard in its Today Only offer, and I couldnt refuse.

So, I am now the proud owner of a Logitech G11 keyboard. And my first impressions are good.

It was a hard decision for me to make, but there were two main features that eventually ended up with me choosing the G11: Backlighting and Macro Keys. There are numerous keyboards that have backlighting - Saitek Eclipse II being the main one I was considering - however, this didnt have any macro keys, and they are a feature that I have used in the past, and couldnt really live without. There are also many boards with macro keys, but this was the only board I found in my price range which had both.

One thing I was scared about losing was my wireless, however, I realised that I don’t use the wireless functionality all that often, and having recieved the keyboard the wire is plenty long enough!

The backlighting has three modes: low, high, and off - and is subtle enough not to interfere, but high enough to be useful!
The keys have just about the right feel - light enough to require little effort, but clicky enough not to feel awful like one of those laptop keyboards! There are a couple of points on the board which don’t seem to be properly lit - just above the left shift key (the arrow lights, but the word doesnt), a similar thing on the tab key, and a few tiny discrepancies on other keys, however, none of these stop you finding the keys since at least most of them is lit.

The macro keys (G-Keys) on the whole are great, there are 18 of them and three different banks, so 54 in total and they’re really programmable. I have noticed a few things that havent been possible, or needed a bit of thinking to get them to work - you cant give Ctrl-Alt-Delete to a G-key, and you cant directly program them to open a folder. I found a workaround for the latter - setting it to open explorer with an argument of the folder you want to open, however I couldnt find a way to get Ctrl-Alt-Del to work. You can set timings in the macro’s, as well as just setting a keystroke, but neither worked (even though it did recognise the keystrokes.)

Finally there are a set of media buttons to control your various media players. These would be great except for one thing - they dont seem to work when your media player is in the background. They apparently work with Windows Media Player in the background, but who uses that these days?! Itunes and Media Player Classic both can’t recognise the buttons when they are in the background, which is, to say the least, a bit of a bummer. With any luck, this will be solved by somebody at some point, but who knows - it’s not like the keyboard hasnt been around for a while. (I suppose this could have something to do with the fact that I still have the old logitech drivers installed, but I’ll comment on this when I get my new computer.)

There are 2 USB ports on the back of the keyboard, although i’m unsure of how useful these are at the moment. I tried plugging in an Xbox 360 pad, and there wasnt enough power for it. My USB key worked, but at a slow speed. I do currently have the keyboard plugged into a hub, so that could be what’s causing the problem, but again, I’ll test this when I get a chance on my new computer.

So, all in all, it’s a really good keyboard, at a really good price of just over £30
My only regret is that I couldnt stretch to get the G11’s older brother, the G15, which is identical, but has a programmable LCD screen. The extra £15 is just a little bit too much for me to justify, but if you can stretch to it, I would say it was almost certianly worth it! The keyboard is marketed as a Gaming Keyboard, and after a long stint on Quake3 last night, I can say that it definately responds well in that environment. However it’s also great as a non gaming keyboard too. You can program macros for different programs too (such as Photoshop), as well as for games, and it types great - I am using it now, and I love it.

So, now time for my rating:

Recently, my cheap Casio watch which I have had for the last 2 years broke, and I was forced to get a new one. I decided that I wanted to get something a little more fashionable, but didnt really want to lose out on any of the features that I used on my previous watch. After scouring the internet, i came across the KDX 5404G, and after checking the returns policy on the Kahuna Website, I decided to take the gamble, in the knowledge that I could return it if I didnt like it. For a bargainous £29.95 this watch looked excellent value for money in comparison to some other similar style watches.
Since when I was looking I was unable to find any reviews, I thought I’d write a brief review so that others who may be thinking of buying one of these watches may have more of a clue and feel like they were taking less of a gamble!

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