Now I've been re-reading some of my previous posts and realized I've stopped being funny. Actually I haven't been funny since I started this blog a whole twenty-one posts back but in the last couple I stopped trying to be funny and tried to write something interesting and informative. I realize now that I have four people who follow this blog, less that actually read it and even less that are interested in interesting and insightful thoughts so until my position changes I shall have to start attempting to be, as I put it in my first blog post, momentarily amusing.
So I guess I should talk about why I'm writing this post right now. The thing is I have a pie in the oven and that isn't a euphemism. I am cooking a pie for my tea and it will be ready in about twenty minutes from now. In my world twenty minutes is enough to play a few rounds of minesweeper but is not enough to start a raid on someones base or fly to Jupiter, so I settled for writing a (hopefully) momentarily amusing blog post.
But alas my time in this chair shortens and as heat is slowly released into a pie I must make sure that I am there in time to stop it from painting the inside of the oven a new colour I call hint of chicken and mushroom (and possibly a small amount of bacon). I'm also cutting this short because I have nothing more to say that wouldn't result in this being a collection of completely unrelated waffle and also because I think I might eat another biscuit. Also, mum if your reading this I AM NOT ABOUT TO EAT ANOTHER BISCUIT! (phew)
(actually going back to an earlier point how many people actually read this? Also try and tell some people about this because I'd quite like to increase the amount of readers.)
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Monday, 23 August 2010
Web Browsers
23rd August: 16:24
So up until now I've used my fair share of web browsers. I started, as we all do, with Internet Explore before upgrading to chrome. I then switched to Opera which I love but for the next few days I'm going to be trying out firefox. This blog post is a record of my experinece. I shall use Firefox until 25th of August then spend a little while using Opera before I make a verdict on which browser becomes the primary and which the secondary (although sadly Internet Explorer must remain the tertiary browser as I know it works with all websites I may need).
August 23rd: 18:56
I've been messing around with addons and settings now for just over two hours and I think I have a set up I like. I got a speed dial going with all my main websites and a mouse gesture addon which I've modified to replicate that of Opera. I have to say that the speed dial is a bit bland with very few modification options which I'm not a fan of. I also feel the mouse gestures don't work as well as that of Opera's and everything seems rather sluggish. Opera is clearly faster. Also I don't like the scrolling as much. I know this is a rather petty complaint but Opera had a nice scroll function that seemed to glide across the page as you scrolled down, Firefox on the other hadn seems very stiff and actually feels like its scrolling line by line as oposed to Opera's feeling of sliding down the page. On top of that theres no way of closing the last open tab down to the speed dial. You have to open speed dial and then close the last tab. Again this is petty but it feels kind of weird without it.
August 23rd: 20:21
Lack of spell check is beggining to get irritating.
August 24th: 17:30
The large bar at the top of the screen is beggining to annoy me. Where as in Opera its a small bar that doesn't get in the way, Firefox has a huge one that keeps drawing my attention to it while reading text or watching a video.
August 24th: 17:49
Downloads are slow. Reeeeeeeealy slow.
August 25th: 13:34
So the final day. Time for the verdict. Now I liked Firefox especially the addons but the thing is any addon I may want for Firefox is allready in Opera and done better. While Firefox feels like other browsers and feels quite clunky, Opera flows. I can load three web pages in about half a second and the first will be ready as soon as I open it. Firefox was just too slow for me. It has however earned its place in my hard-drive and will stay as the browser I use on websites that Opera is not commpatible with. I may return in the futer if it becomes smoother but for now I go back to Opera. Farewell Firefox, you were a good companion and we may meet again sooner than you think (because opera isn't compatible with alot of websites).
So up until now I've used my fair share of web browsers. I started, as we all do, with Internet Explore before upgrading to chrome. I then switched to Opera which I love but for the next few days I'm going to be trying out firefox. This blog post is a record of my experinece. I shall use Firefox until 25th of August then spend a little while using Opera before I make a verdict on which browser becomes the primary and which the secondary (although sadly Internet Explorer must remain the tertiary browser as I know it works with all websites I may need).
August 23rd: 18:56
I've been messing around with addons and settings now for just over two hours and I think I have a set up I like. I got a speed dial going with all my main websites and a mouse gesture addon which I've modified to replicate that of Opera. I have to say that the speed dial is a bit bland with very few modification options which I'm not a fan of. I also feel the mouse gestures don't work as well as that of Opera's and everything seems rather sluggish. Opera is clearly faster. Also I don't like the scrolling as much. I know this is a rather petty complaint but Opera had a nice scroll function that seemed to glide across the page as you scrolled down, Firefox on the other hadn seems very stiff and actually feels like its scrolling line by line as oposed to Opera's feeling of sliding down the page. On top of that theres no way of closing the last open tab down to the speed dial. You have to open speed dial and then close the last tab. Again this is petty but it feels kind of weird without it.
August 23rd: 20:21
Lack of spell check is beggining to get irritating.
August 24th: 17:30
The large bar at the top of the screen is beggining to annoy me. Where as in Opera its a small bar that doesn't get in the way, Firefox has a huge one that keeps drawing my attention to it while reading text or watching a video.
August 24th: 17:49
Downloads are slow. Reeeeeeeealy slow.
August 25th: 13:34
So the final day. Time for the verdict. Now I liked Firefox especially the addons but the thing is any addon I may want for Firefox is allready in Opera and done better. While Firefox feels like other browsers and feels quite clunky, Opera flows. I can load three web pages in about half a second and the first will be ready as soon as I open it. Firefox was just too slow for me. It has however earned its place in my hard-drive and will stay as the browser I use on websites that Opera is not commpatible with. I may return in the futer if it becomes smoother but for now I go back to Opera. Farewell Firefox, you were a good companion and we may meet again sooner than you think (because opera isn't compatible with alot of websites).
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Achievements
As you may know, many platforms these days have an achievement system. For the Xbox 360 theres Achievements and Gamerscore, on the ps3 you get trophies, steam has their own steam achievements and games outside of these platforms sometimes have in game achievements as well.
I've been thinking about these three major types of achievements and have come to this conclusion. Ps3 trophies are the best, closely followed by steam achievements with Xbox and their Gamerscore trailing behind. My reason for this is as follows: Ps3 trophies are split into four categories bronze, silver, gold and the rare platinum trophies. These give you an idea as to how hard each achievement is to get and allows developers to include as many or as few achievements as they wish. Steam is second because they share the ability for each game to have as many achievements as are needed but lack the ability to see how hard they are to get, although the fact it also has information as to what percentage of players have achieved each achievement is a nice touch. I feel that the pioneers of the achievement world are the worst for the very reason people like them. Gamerscore. Each game is allowed 1000g worth of achievements or 200g for games on the Xbox Live arcade. This I feel limits the system as each game only has the ability to have so many achievements. On top of that Gamerscore is often used as a display of skill as when you say you have xbox live the first thing people usually ask is "whats your gamerscore?". This is a pitty as I know a guy who is an adept at Halo 3's multiplayer however has very few gamerpoints. I also know people who just spend their time farming achievements, not for the sake of it as with ps3 and steam, but to increase their gamerscore. Thus you get people who can't tell a gun from a hat announcing their superiority over you because they have more gamerscore... although they usually shut up once you've fragged them so many times they can see the respawn screen when they shut their eyes.
I've been thinking about these three major types of achievements and have come to this conclusion. Ps3 trophies are the best, closely followed by steam achievements with Xbox and their Gamerscore trailing behind. My reason for this is as follows: Ps3 trophies are split into four categories bronze, silver, gold and the rare platinum trophies. These give you an idea as to how hard each achievement is to get and allows developers to include as many or as few achievements as they wish. Steam is second because they share the ability for each game to have as many achievements as are needed but lack the ability to see how hard they are to get, although the fact it also has information as to what percentage of players have achieved each achievement is a nice touch. I feel that the pioneers of the achievement world are the worst for the very reason people like them. Gamerscore. Each game is allowed 1000g worth of achievements or 200g for games on the Xbox Live arcade. This I feel limits the system as each game only has the ability to have so many achievements. On top of that Gamerscore is often used as a display of skill as when you say you have xbox live the first thing people usually ask is "whats your gamerscore?". This is a pitty as I know a guy who is an adept at Halo 3's multiplayer however has very few gamerpoints. I also know people who just spend their time farming achievements, not for the sake of it as with ps3 and steam, but to increase their gamerscore. Thus you get people who can't tell a gun from a hat announcing their superiority over you because they have more gamerscore... although they usually shut up once you've fragged them so many times they can see the respawn screen when they shut their eyes.
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
My first review
My first review is now live on The RastaBadger Reviews. It's not all that good but it's my first time so I will improve. Check it out. Theres a link on the side of this blog.
Monday, 16 August 2010
Reviews
I'm not dead yet so don't ignore the blog yet.
Now some of you may remember back with my first post that I said I may put some reviews on here and I think I've come to a conclusion on that point. I figure that not everyone who reads this blog will be interested in game reviews so I'm going to set up a secondary blog for game reviews that may also act as a portfolio if I ever want to get work at IGN or something similar. As of yet there are no reviews on it but I aim to start a review as soon as I finish typing this and hope to review about a game a week if not one or two a month. It can be found at the following address http://rastabadgerreviews.blogspot.com/
Now some of you may remember back with my first post that I said I may put some reviews on here and I think I've come to a conclusion on that point. I figure that not everyone who reads this blog will be interested in game reviews so I'm going to set up a secondary blog for game reviews that may also act as a portfolio if I ever want to get work at IGN or something similar. As of yet there are no reviews on it but I aim to start a review as soon as I finish typing this and hope to review about a game a week if not one or two a month. It can be found at the following address http://rastabadgerreviews.blogspot.com/
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