Starcraft 2

I add this, waiting on a preorder which seems its taken the full seven years this game has been in production for to come. It looks good. So good I can forgive BLIZZARD the three separate campaigns and £40 price tag.

Oh gods, the CGI!

Trips and crowds

Just back from a very enjoyable trip to London (one of many throughout the year, I can be a shameless tourist sometimes) and true to form couldn’t enjoy myself without being frustrated by something minor and beyond my control.

crowds

London is a busy place, I understand this. Ten million inhabitants and as many tourists is going to place some strain on the breathing space. Right. Fine. I get it.

But a peculiarity with crowds in London, and quite possibly all major cities, is the single-minded purpose that drives the constituent members.

On any given major street there are thousands of people in a limited amount of space, headed in a dozen different directions, all focused on some distant goal. A goal so incredibly important, so necessary for their existence that small things like cars, children, other people and, on one particularly impressive occasion, a roasted chestnut seller complete with wheeled transport, play second fiddle to its successful attainment.

If there were just a lot of people in motion it wouldn’t be so difficult, you would just maintain a steady pace and go with the flow.

But no. They stop.  They look in shop windows. They admire the view.
And, in order to suitably do the above, they feel the need to stop directly in front of you.

Again I am not so without understanding that I can’t recognise why someone might do this. London has a some brilliant attractions and architecture which would be worth a look from anyone.

What I take exception to is the complete lack of spatial awareness which can lead a supposedly sentient human being to come to a full stop, on a crowded street with people packed like sardines around them, and not even bother to a) move out of the thoroughfare or b) look to see if such a sudden implementation of the brakes might result in the person behind you being pinioned on your umbrella.

What it boils down to is at best a lack experience in such a mass of humanity and at worse plain rudeness.

Things are not helped by some elements of said crowd, especially nearer the grand constructs of Westminster and St Paul’s, swinging cameras. I’m not even going to get started on this. Suffice to say, you hit me with your camera whilst you swung it about in an area with about a square foot of empty space. How is any resulting contact my fault exactly?

The above is something that is not really an issue, as per se. It was mildly annoying how many times I was nearly brought down in a heap by people stopping quite suddenly in front of me, but not insurmountable. Rise above it and all that.  However the look of reproach that was cast my way as a result of such collisions was really quite infuriating.

(It really is fun to rant occasionally)

Floating on the free music wave

I love this site.

Ok, I understand that lastfm.com is essentially a marketing tool, cleverly constructed to entice the unwitting (or at least uncaring) user into buying mp3 downloads from the dreaded Itunes. But if you put that aside, this site basically gives you carte blanch to create your own radio station. Based on preferences created using an encyclopedia of bands and song names the site allows a constant stream of high quality music.

There is an added social networking dimension with the ability to listen to other users’ radio stations or ‘channels’ and to comment or ‘shout’ about specific songs or artists with others as you like. There is a see ‘similar users’ link on the main page, allowing a thorough trawling through the favourite tracks and bands of folks you have never heard of (always fun and sometimes worrying) and those users with similar music tastes are often advertised on your home page. 

In a more general manner specific genre or band ‘channels’ are also available. 

This is the beauty of the site – it introduces you to music you might never have heard of before, not simply bands similar to those you ‘like’ in your preferences but also the vast array of music which might have slipped under the radar despite being exactly in line with your genre and stylistic needs.

…

I bought three albums yesterday as a result…who said free music would lead to the destruction of the music industry …marketing works.

My own channel is in the links bar, but I’ll throw it in in again here :  http://www.last.fm/user/JP2761 check it out and feel free to mock/agree as necessary.

Adios.

Japanese restaurant in London?

So, I took some time off work to visit London on Friday with a friend of mine from work. It was a rollercoaster ride of raucous hilarity, taking us from the Tate straight through to Leicester Square and possibly the best Japanese restaurant in the city: The Tokyo Diner.  

This is one of my favourite places to eat in the city, largely due to two reasons:

-firstly, I stumbled across it myself an age ago whilst up  in the city for a training course. I was on my lonesome one evening so set off towards Chinatown for an explore (have ended up in some random places as a result over the years on similar excursions). After an hour or two in which I must have crisscrossed the district a dozen times (really isn’t all that big an area really, nestled to one side of Leicester Square and the Theatres that abound) I happened upon the Diner just as it was about to heave down with rain. Fate. Must have been.

It was a discovery and one which I can now bring out, as I am doing now, full of undeserved pride.  

-secondly, it really is rather good. The food is authentic, reasonably priced and served with a smile. The staff are a great asset to the place, all Japanese and on the ball with the customer service. I’ve eaten there every time I have happened to be in London since the initial discovery, both with others and on my own. Never once have I felt any kind of rudeness, in fact the staff have on several occasions gone out of their way to have a chat and joke, which is great and not exactly something they are forced to do.

The food ranges from traditional Katsu-don and other rice based dishes (including the curry!), through to soba and udon noodle dishes and bentos. Entirely different from the normal fare of sushi and stylised ‘pan-asian’ cuisine found in many other eateries. 

It has in the past been ranked in the top ten best value restaurants in the UK by the Times, something I agree with whole-heartedly – you will struggle to spend above £13 on a meal with several drinks. This reasonableness is especially apparent when you include the fact that the Diner refuses all tips. I originally felt a bit weird about this, I mean like I said earlier I thought and still think the service is good and deserving of at least the standard 10%. However this is a cultural thing, apparently in Japan tips are never given as the staff are simply doing their jobs in providing as good a service as possible and so do not require any kind of extra reward. This jarred my western sensibilities, bit I was assured that any tip would simply be given to charity so accepted defeat.

As another plus, and an unexpected one at that, the Diner has a complete ban on the use of Tuna within the meals provided. This certainly came as a shock to me, Japanese culture and catering holding this fish as something akin to a culinary icon, with the Japanese going to great lengths and expenditure to get their hands on the most favourable cuts and varieties when able.

This may have something to do with why many types of Tuna, including the prized Blue-Fin variety, are on the verge, or are already well within, the endangered species camp.

The Diner has made an ethical decision not to instigate the further depletion of such stocks as still exist, in marked contrast to their countrymen.

This is a thing most excellent, and I say that with no desire to be patronising at all. I am genuinely supportive of this stance and can only congratulate the Diner for adopting it.

Ok, shameless plug over, I recommend this place if you are in London and want a quick meal at reasonable prices in a friendly atmosphere.

See below for a map.

View Larger Map

Foxy Shazam!

Ok, I’m still trying to work out how I feel about this group. So not a plug as per se.

Foxy Shazam was a recommendation from a friend Stateside, who amongst other things also suggested Minus the Bear (very good) and the Low Anthem (very bad).  

There is something both compelling and irritating about this band’s oddities. Ok, the name is awesome, granted. Apparently slang for ’cool shoes’. But I don’t normally appreciate oddity marketed in this manner. All; ‘hey look how cooky we are!’ whilst the tunes normally suffer.

But the music here is (suprise) ok, sort of shouty indie with a Southern states tang,  and the group genuinely appears to have developed organically rather than being manufactured a la carte, and ‘Dangerous Man’ is a damn fine song regardless. The rest of the album (‘Introducing’ – 2oo8) justifies the experimental tag, but this isn’t neccessarily a good thing. Very hit and miss though certainly unique.

Anywho thought I’d post the vid in case Foxy Shazam appeals to anyone. Drop a comment!

Life got in the way…

Ok, I admit it, my enthusiasm waned a bit there…

mostly in light of things like A-work, B-life and C-apathy (see A and B).

Lets just say the intention was always there but the will was sapped most distressingly. Le sigh. Good news is I spent the past few days learning, about horrendoulsy boring things which I won’t scribble about here, and this lead indirectly to several rants voiced loudly and with some degree of passion.

There is no place for any opinion of mine on the public stage, however right or pertinent it may be, unless I have had the chance to work out whether I actually agree with it. Hence this re-ignition.

So - j’return! Again. With hopefully something approaching a vengance.

JP out

Dragon Age; a rebuttal

In my earlier post;

http://thatisnotevenarealword.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/dragon-age-origins-yes-just-yes/ 

I made my ultimately positive feelings and hopes about this game known to all. There may have been metaphorical fist pounding.

The fires have since dampened in light of certain revelations.

It has come to my attention that the creators of Dragon Age have released an incomplete game.

This is not a new phenomenon; many games have had to deal with rushed releases that have ended in highly disappointing husks that hint at so much  potential yet have to be updated and patched on the fly after release. An obvious example would be Age of Conan which had a tremendous amount of hype surrounding its launch yet failed to deliver the MMO innovations many of its purchasers had been led to believe would be provided. No, instead these really quite basic gameplay advances were packaged up and sold as an expansion. Shame on you.

Dragon Age on the other hand is not being sold as incomplete due to a lack of content or technical problems. No, the product you buy in a store gives you a playable core which misses about a third of the maps/classes/skills etc which you might well be forgiven for expecting to be included. And I want to make this clear – the Collector’s Edition doesn’t suddenly give you access to all of these ‘extras’.

Bioware have taken revenue squeezing to a whole new level – your character will be approached and solicited in-game by npc merchants and quest givers offering    these new areas for a price. We’re not talking the typical fantasy assortment of x gold/silver/copper. We’re talking real world. As in money. As in bring out your parent’s credit card.  

The fact that the game does indeed look amazing is now somewhat soured. You pay for an incomplete game which you have to pay more for progressively as you seek to enjoy its full scope. Who knows how much you could find yourself out of pocket for that little extra edge over 80 hours plus of gameplay.

The problem is that you can understand why this has happened. Bioware have produced a game that has had teams of developers/writers/artists etc., slaving over it for years. The immersive detail the game provides has come at the cost of a lot of carefully budgeted dollars. The score alone must have set them back a fair whack. As a result a certain return is necessary to recompense the development before any amount of profit is generated. Consider the fact that a gore filled multiplayer shooter produced at a twentieth of the price can sell as many units.

So funds must be produced. Fair enough. Sell the game for more money. Be honest. Don’t shit about bleeding dry unsuspecting gamers. It is not fair or particularly nice, not that that is important of course, but you probably lose more funds putting people off than you would gain through ‘premium content’.

The guys over at Penny Arcade produced a relevant comic to this affect, which is worth a look.    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/6/

In absentia

It may come as a surprise to some of you that I am not in actual fact dead.

Yes, wonders abound.

 The cause of my six week absence from the interweb has been a mixture of horrible motivation sapping illness, work related dramas and a general self imposed exile from the net. The exile part is actually true enough; it struck me that too much time was being bled into this electronic ether whilst other interests slowly gathered dust in the corner. What this has basically resulted in is several weeks of drowning in the heady depths of literature. Not exactly a vast improvement on the internet in terms of life affirming activity, but nevertheless enjoyable. The books in question I will not discuss here, maybe in a later post.

This brief sojourn has however had the indirect benefit of allowing me to once more build up a reservoir of bile on subjects both new and of nostalgic quality. The dam holding in the rage creaks most alarmingly.

I shall attempt to post more frequently from now on – at least monthly (promises, promises).

Dragon Age Origins…yes…just yes…

How can you not want to play this?

Man, I don’t even game that much. This may come as surprise to some of you, but ’tis true. I did however go through a brief, heady flirtation with rpg games in my younger years; Baldur’s Gate/Icewind Dale/Oblivion and more recently Neverwinter Nights. What can I say? I’m weak to a bit of escapism.

But its damn rare a game in the same vein looks like it can deliver. Dragon Age Origins has 80 hours game play, great looking graphics and from what I’ve seen of the storyline an amusing dialogue with a decent voice cast (they aren’t all hick Americans!)

Come on October 20th, I need to have no life for a few weeks!

JP and the music critic of DOOM…

I have read some blogs. Not a lot. Just a few. More than twelve, less than twenty. You get the drift.

One of the things you always find is music of some description; a link to a Last FM page, a live radio feed, CD plugs, concert reports etc. This is great; we all like music of some description, its one of the few things that is reasonably safe to have an opinion on.

Granted I think a lot of the music floating about is akin in musical merit to a cat being chucked against a particluarily abrasive  wall. You know, just digitally remastered. But at the end of the day, the fact that I feel that way is OK; sure, people do get worked up about different bands and artists but however much we shout and rail we can’t deny the fact that at least they have a taste, even if it seems to be in cigarette flavoured ice cream. And, let’s face it, after listening to a new band even I’ve been know to chow down on some pretty cigar heavy dessert.

So, as a way of sinking further into the interweb’s murky depths I am going to add a new post category; ‘music plugs’. I’m not saying my musical taste is any better than anyone else’s, no matter how much I secretly believe it to be otherwise; but I do come across some pretty damn fine tunes now and again.

Suffer in silence.  Or through the shiny new comment utility! (What will they think of next?)