Motivational Hiccups and more videos

Again I've been having issues with carrying out objectives I have set myself, over the course of 2 years I have failed in every goal I put down for example I should be proficient in the Unreal Dev Kit, Blender, Eclipse IDE, Flash etc etc. But I lack the motivation. Same goes for making a website dedicated to advertising the voice "skill". I guess I'm just not a solo player, I've always been a Co-op sort of guy, I work well with others and I consider others to be, well, a muse of sorts.

The only thing that has come out of me creatively the last few weeks are some gaming videos by XG247, and a small Minecraft video showing off an adventure map called Deep Space Turtle Chase.

Take a look,

Voice Overs and More

Over the last few weeks, I've been helping out a website on their videos as the previews announcer/presenter voice. Most have turned out rather well and I'm hoping other will want to use my services for their projects. Just wanted to make this post to showcase a few videos that have been up loaded to YouTube.

Here is a few to watch.

Battlefield 3 Beta - Weapons Preview

Burnout Crash! Preview

FIFA 12 Demo Preview

If anyone would like something like this done, hit me up with an email or leave a comment.

Hope you enjoyed the videos.

Our Minecraft Server

Hello all, Some people have been asking for the ability to donate to the server.

Below is a Donation button where users can donate and keep the server running.

Currently our server costs are £15.75 every 3 months

That gives us 4 player slots and a 4 slot mumble server and Max Memory of 400MB

Here are the price increases we have to pay to get more players etc, and in some cases, more players means more max memory

The next step for us in expansion is to get a 8 slot server, which comes with a free 8 slot mumble server and 600MB max memory

3months = £18.00

6months = £36.00

12months=£72.00

So if we aim towards getting the 3 Month package for 8 players with your donations, I'm sure we will get there

SplatterHouse & Gaming Videos

This past week I've played Left 4 Dead while using Fraps, I had some drinks at a friends house and thus friend fetched a game call SplatterHouse...... Commence lengthy loading screen.

Yes Splatterhouse, the remake for the new generation consoles, where you take control of a dying teen who puts on a talking mask which turns you into a spikey Hulk in an effort to save your girlfriend and maybe even the world. Don't get me wrong I'm all for gory games, dismembered limbs, amazing executions, monsters getting face raped....(It kinda happens in game, believe me).

Although we all embarked on the game fuelled with vodka & coke and spicy Italian food, we were quickly drawn into the thought that this game was utter crap but we continued to play it. One major motivation in the game to find pictures of your kidnapped girl friend doing some rather sexy poses. This became our quest, the various monsters we had to kill were merely obstacles in the way of a titty covered path. So we played 8 hours of this game, I swear 3 hours of it was just the loading screens, damn that game has loading issues.

Also I have been working on a YouTube series, Yes I know its not very original, Going to be a bunch of videos of chums and myself playing some "puter" games. Currently Borderlands and Left 4 Dead have been the focus of the recording.

Check out my channel www.youtube.com/users/syke360

Anything happening? No?

Pretty much nothing has happened over the last few weeks, Why make a blog post I hear you all groan? Just because I fancied typing lots of crap. Although I did get some inspiration from reading a little of Will Wheaton's blog and decided to try and get on top of mine.

Will Wheaton guest starring on Big Bang Theory

Latest achievement would be passing my driving theory test, I know I'm getting on a bit, I should have sorted that back when I was 17 or something but I still did it before I was 30. Currently learning to drive and doing well so far. It's My birthday next Saturday and I'd like to point out that I have absolutely nowt planned for the occasion, *Cough*

As for what I've been watching on the box lately, WWE has kind of dominated the nights viewing, with Money in the Bank just last weekend and the usual RAW and Smackdown each week, I break that up with Season 4 of Big Bang Theory, which I love and also promoted me to Google Will Wheaton to see what he's been up to since he did a few appearances on BBT. Gaming has provided some fun, I bought Magicka on Steam so I could play Co-op with Dfrag, I have found it amusing to play, lots of great gaming references and wholesome fun to boot. Dfrag then surprised me by gifting me CTHULHU Saves the World and Breath of Fire VII, which at first I was apprehensive but after playing a little I quickly fell in love with these titles, Good old fashion 16-bit RPG with some humorous twists.

This was also bundled with Breathe of Fire VII "The Beginning"

Minecraft hasn't seen much love over the last few weeks, with the server closing down and a massive lack of players most of us has decided to move else where and seek greener pastures (The block kind). If anyone wants to pitch their server as a potential new home, go ahead.

Next blog I'll post my thoughts on using Ubuntu 11.04, Its a Linux OS is anyone is wondering.

Absinthe, Gaming, 3D Accidents Etc.

The last few weeks have provided a plethora of random things, as some may know, I did infact acquire a Samsung 43inch 3D TV for a nice price from Littlewoods, to my dismay it didn't come with any 3D Glasses, for a TV advertising that its a 3D device and not give you the ability to use it without buying a pair of specs was just silly, its like buying a car which is meant for transport buy having to buy the wheels separately. I over came this problem buy selling my Gears of War Golden Lancer on eBay which covered the cost.

My experiences with 3D, like most others had been confined to the cinemas along with the ridiculous price, so finally having my own 3D output was welcome, however this did not last as long as I'd hope. Recently I was invited to attend a small drinking session with some friends, one of which also had just bought a 3D TV and wanted to see what GT5 and Killzone 3 looked like in said 3D, I insisted on bringing my own 3D Glasses, saying that it is like bringing my own pint glass. With drinking progressing slowly and the host showing off various Sky3D recordings we were happy, until the Absinthe was unleashed and we fell deeper into drunkenness, I felt it appropriate to wear my 3D glasses on my shirt neck as if they were proper sunglasses and in a drunken stupor I gave a friend a hasty hug and I heard a grinding few cracks and I just knew I've broken them.

Although these are not my glasses in this picture the result is still the same

So that's £50 pounds down the pan for the time being, I've foolishly tried to get the warranty to cover it and get them replaced but I very much doubt anything can be done.

In other news, Steam held a very cool sale in the last few days where everyday for 10 days games had been murderously slashed on the price to as much as 75%. I picked up Batman Arkham Asylum for £3.79 and grabbed Alien Breed 2, Killing Floor Steampunk Character pack and Costume gear for Portal 2 for free.

I've also took a tiny step back in time had decided to play Borderlands online with friends @Phill_Jenkins and @dfragglet which has proven to be very fun, unfortunately one game I've loved over the last two months is Minecraft, lack of activity on server I play on is rather off putting, I hope to increase that in due time.

Minecraft - Addiction/Experience

The Beginning

So about a month ago I grabbed Minecraft and started playing all by myself to see what the hype was all about, needless to say I was hooked quite quickly. I spoke to a friend of mine about my experience and he mentioned he plays on a multi-player server and that the game is so much better.

I ended up joining the server and quickly got into the swing of things, making odd structures and mining for resources and for some odd reason taken up a liking for making water features. By now I've obviously told my friends about Minecraft and they were quite sk

eptical as was I at first but quickly got drawn in and bought accounts of their own. Now I had a dilemma, a few friends with Minecraft and no permanent online home for us to play.

New Server

After some research I managed to find and pay for a server and gave out the details to my friends, the building began quite quickly. A whole range of build types emerged , from tree-houses to towers that reach the maps height limit. We had issues getting to everyones creations so I decided to erect a monorail system which was quickly replaced with

a subway system,(Had tons of fun blasting rock using TNT and Redstone switches). Things have been going well since with constant server activity and more and more structures being built.

Heres a tiny list of whats on the server at present

• Mini Vegas (Under Construction)
• 2D Pixel art of Mario, 1up Mushroom, Pacman Ghost, Pikachu and a PokeBall
• A Small Town
• A Host of Tree-houses
• An Obsidian Factory
• Player Houses
• Wood Lodges
• Subway Network
• Monorail Network
• TNT Cannon :)
• The Great Wall of Minecraft (China, Under construction)

There are a few videos online which have been created by @Phill_Jenkins so ill post those up as soon as possible along with screenshots and pictures for now heres a screenie of the map, and believe me when I say we haven't really explored much and theres still tons left to find.

Black Ops What?!

Recently I traded in my Microsoft Kinect in favour of games I actually enjoy playing, managed to purchase 3 months Xbox Live, 2100 MS Dollars, Dead Rising 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops using the in-store credit generated from the Kinect.

I only bought CODBLOPS because a few friends (KingPariah, Liquidhait) of mine play it online, namely for the zombie mode. So naturally I used the 2100MS to get the 1st map pack containing more zombie mayhem. So been playing it for a while, and all of a sudden my friends are no longer around to play the game, in the meantime I'm being badgered from other gaming chums to get Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

So off I go down my local GAME to trade in BLOPS and Dead Rising 2, (Only because I'm skint and cannot afford to buys games outright) since then I've been enjoying the multiplayer alot.

I was worried about an issue with the VIP code that's issued with new copies of BFBC2. On the box its states the code will become void as of the 1st of April 2011, I bought the game on the 4th April so I was getting a little worried and didn't want to fork out extra cash for the maps. Lucky enough some dude over at EA HQ must have forgotten to disable the outstanding codes and I successfully downloaded the required software, since then I've been happily gaming competitively for the first time since games such as Call of Duty 2 and Rainbow Six Vegas.

So that's been my gaming for the last few weeks, hopefully this is a fitting blog entry, its been a while.