You May Have Noticed...

...that this blog is effectively dead.

We've been here before, haven't we? I suppose this is the domain of any writer, but the trick is to try to not let yourself get burnt out and that's why I put this blog on hold.

Thankfully I got myself a full time job, but I also ended my time at Button Smasher and wanted to get back into writing. Unfortunately a 9-5 job doesn’t leave you with much time to dedicate to updating a blog daily, but I have been trying over at my personal blog (I managed to complete everyday of Holidailies 2009). It also doesn’t leave me with much time to dedicate to my gaming passion; so the choice is between actually playing games or writing about them, so you can pretty much guess what option won.

I haven’t given in though, and I’m now writing news over at the VGR Network. I’ve also joined the review team and I’m currently reviewing Alien Breed: Evolution that will most likely be up on the site this Friday. I’m really enjoying the community at VGR and it’s good to be with a site that could blossom into something big if we work hard at it.

As for this blog, I’m going to try my best. As much as I hate to say this I can’t spend my entire waking hours writing. I have a life, and I can’t stay cooped up in my room putting sentences together all the time (although I suppose I could do it on the move with my iPhone 3G). It’s also hard to write about gaming when you need to actually play games and, in my case, also keep up with the gaming news. Basically I’m going to have to limit myself, and I think two or three posts a week may be the best I can do right now. I can’t make that a promise though.

As in any situation making promises you probably won’t be able to keep is pointless. In the blogging world it only pisses off your readers, and a pissed off reader isn’t likely to return. I know I’ve done that a few times, so I must apologise for that.

I could ramble on all day, but I’d rather leave it at that rather abrupt ending if you don’t mind.

The Gamers That Help You

Just a quick update today as I'm extremely tired and I haven't had a chance to write the post I wanted to write (that's probably because I decided to have another go at Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which just ended up frustrating me due to a annoying bug I discovered).

Anyway, I'd like to point you towards an interesting article I read on the bus home from work (Oh iPhone 3G, how I love you so!). The article is about an area of gaming that we hear little about, which is the world of the gamer who dedicates many an hour to creating free guides for games. You only have to take a look at a couple of the guides on GameFAQs to see the dedication that is put into each and every one by its creators. Most importantly the majority aren't getting paid for the work they put in; simply doing it out of love for the game and the satisfaction that comes from helping others.

"I really get a feeling of accomplishment when I get emails from somebody who bought the game for their child, and the child gets frustrated, and that gets the parent frustrated, and they come online and get the help they need and everybody's happy," Will said. "And I've gotten emails from people in their seventies, playing games. I got one email from a man stationed on a ship in the U.S. Navy. He had one game he'd brought with him, and he wanted me to email my guide (Dungeon Siege II) to him."

Williams has seen this kind of gratitude, too: "I've gotten some seniors who wrote in to thank me for my Metal Gear Solid 4 guide. For my Wall-E guide, I get pretty frequent thank-yous from parents. It's cool. It's like, whoa, people actually appreciate this." - Kotaku

It's a decent read, so I encourage you to take time out of your day to read the full article. It makes you want to send emails out thanking the creators, as these guys are putting in all the hard work for your benefit whilst asking for nothing in return. I would be lost without the service they provide, so I have massive respect for them.

One thing they don't provide is the answer to why Vin Diesel has such a shiny bald head, as I'm surprised you can't use it in CoR:EfBB to dazzle your enemies ('All he saw was a rapidly growing bald spot before he was shivved in the neck'). Instead I have to resort to sprinting from shadow to shadow and trying to avoid getting shot in the arse.

Back to a Working and Gaming Life

It’s been a busy few months and, to be honest, I totally forgot about this blog after I got fed up with all the frustration stemming from the url problems (which may actually be fixed now but I’m not certain it will last very long). I suppose I better give you the good news though, and that’s the fact that I’ve finally got a full time job. So, now I no longer have to worry about money (much) I can feed my gaming habit which obviously now gives me something to write about. I have really missed it though, and now I have a massive load off my mind I can concentrate on improving my writing abilities. Let’s get back to the real reason of this blog though, and that, obviously, is the games!

Since my last post I’ve actually done a lot more gaming than I usually do which, for someone who runs a blog dedicated to the topic, is a strange thing to say. When I had free time I spent it doing other things, which isn’t a bad thing but it left a stack of games unplayed and my rentals just lying around collecting dust (luckily I pay monthly through Boomerang). I’ve played everything from Castle Crashers to Prototype and GTA IV: The Lost and Damned to the original Fallout (which is going for an amazingly cheap price on Good Old Games). It’s just good to be able to come home and get a few hours relaxation on a game. When I could do that whenever I wanted it didn’t mean as much, but now it strangely feels more fun when I’m trying to fit a session into the few spare hours I have on weekdays (I work from 9am until 5.30pm, but I don’t get home until about 6.15pm). Of course, there’s always the weekends but I do try to fit other things into my life apart from gaming.

One game I’m not really having much fun with at the moment is The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (the Xbox 360 remake). The game is just too damn hard, and because I can’t play in high definition at the moment (my last monitor apparently ‘broke’ but I’ll be getting a new one at the end of the month, which is actually better than my old one as it goes up to 1080) it’s hard to see what’s going on in the really dark places – which there are a damn lot of! I’m contemplating sending it back to Boomerang, but that will be breaking my unwritten rule that I complete games before I send them back for another rental (plus I can be a bit of an achievement whore at times and there’s still plenty up for grabs).

Another benefit of my monthly wage is my new iPhone 3G. I got it on an 02 contract last Friday and I already want to marry it (maybe there’s an app for that?). Games wise I’ve bought Crash Kart and Bejeweled 2; both of which help to pass the time on the bus to work (although Crash Kart is a little hard to play when the bus is bumping up and down). I’ll be trying some more out over the coming weeks and I hope to write mini-reviews here for them.

I’m crossing my fingers that the url problem will stay fixed for tomorrow, but I will be posting some more impressions on what I’ve been playing lately either way. I may also be working on another project, so stay tuned for details on that.

Domain Headaches

The site has been down for all of last night and most of today, mostly due to too much tinkering on my part. As you may have noticed I've had my own domain for quite a while now (although I still use Blogger to host) but I've also had a very annoying problem with it.

If you go to http://www.nosignalinput.co.uk it works totally fine, as does http://nosignalinput.blogspot.com, but missing out the 'www' part will not load the site. I have been trying to fix this, following tonnes of tutorials, but it has pretty much been to no avail. I did fix it last night, but it stopped working soon after and most of today has been a complete headache trying to get things back to normal.

So, now the site works again but I still have the same problem as before. If anyone knows anything about CNAME's and all that crap then I'd appreciate some direct advice, as most of the tutorials out there say a lot without actually saying anything useful about fixing the problem. I don't need a detail explanation of CNAME's and DNS, I just need a fix!

I'm just about ready to give up on this one, but I know it works somehow!

UPDATE: ...and just like that the problem is fixed! I must have done something right, and the DNS settings have just finally updated. I won't hold my breath that the problem stays fixed forever though.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging!

UPDATE 2: Sigh, it seems the problem is not fixed. I've reverted to my old blogspot address for the meantime while my new DNS settings take some time to propagate the Internet (I'll probably still have the original problem though). There's no need to change your links as my http://www.nosignalinput.co.uk address is redirecting to my blogspot address.

Why can't things ever be simple?

UPDATE 3: Ok, everything should be back to normal now. If you're coming directly to the site you have to put the 'www' in front of the url because it's still not working without it. I'll give it a few days to see if it puts itself right, but past experience shows me that it probably won't work. I'm fed up with messing with it anyway, and the offline time I've suffered through has wiped out what little traffic I had left.

P.S Gnome, if you're reading this can you tell me what DNS settings you used to get your site to load with and without the 'www'? Thanks!

Even The Smurf's Can't Save This Horrible Game

I felt it fitting that I should wait for the new month to return to blogging here (after that post I wrote a few days ago anyway), but obviously I didn't find it fitting to prepare a proper post. Instead I'm going to show you a video of possibly one of the worst games I've ever seen - and I loved The Smurf's!

The video above is of Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle which was released for the Atari 2600 and the ColecoVision back in 1982. During the next 3 minutes and 12 seconds you will bear witness (if you can make it that long) to the most awful and unimaginative level designs I have ever seen. This is a world in which fence posts can kill our little blue friends instantly, along with other bits of seemingly random scenery, hampering your quest to save every Smurf's wet dream, Smurfette.

When you finally reach her (after a few screens of utterly boring - and often repeated - scenery) you're pretty much cock blocked by a skull, which seems impossible to jump over. According to Wikipedia there are other levels after this (even in 1982 a 3 minute game wouldn't be good value for money), some with BATS!, so how the hell do you beat that dastardly skull?

If anyone has been subjected to the horror of this game in the past then let me know in the comments below. I'm counting on you retro buffs that visit the site, although I suppose even you lot would want to forget any experience you had with this horrific 'game'.

N.B. No, Smurfette is not topless. It is merely a glitch, although a great one for any young lad playing the game in 1982.