#249; And We’re Back

  By Lukeh | April 2, 2012 - 8:19 pm | 2012, General
2 Comments

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FG7eRWyYOo

Hello again.

It’s good to have you with us. But maybe not just for the day, as Brandon may sing, because I’ve really missed blogging and now’s about a good time to get things going again. It’s strange when you take a hiatus how much you miss something but I can’t deny how many times I’ve looked at something and discussed within my mind about blogging about it. But sometimes you need a break, a moment to refresh and refocus and then come back better than ever and with cake too.

I don’t have cake but I did have some last week so that counts.

Anyways, I just wanted to quickly express this brief announcement and hope that I can produce many things once more that are worth reading, sharing and discussing. There was also the real temptation of posting this yesterday (April 1st) but that would be a bit of an evil April Fools, one of them ones where you don’t think it could be real but at the same time think maybe it could. Alas, my conscience got the better of me. I remember when I had a Myspace (to quote Uncle Albert “During the war…”) and changed my entire page to a James Blunt tribute page for the day. Clearly that life changing day completely broke me from making April Fools pranks in the future.

So, hello again!

#248; A Temporary Hiatus

  By Lukeh | February 18, 2012 - 10:19 pm | 2012
1 Comment

After much consideration and thought to myself over the past 2 or 3 months, I’ve decided to give Thoughts of a Trying Atheist a bit of a rest for a while. In all honesty, when it comes to personal blogging I’ve grown a little spent both expressing my thoughts as blog posts and creating ideas that are both fun and interesting to read. Rather than keep driving myself mad about it knowing the publish count has been falling month by month, I’ve decided to step back for a little while and let myself find that mojo again because I really do love blogging but quite frankly it’s teeth grittingly frustrating when you can’t find something to talk about.

This most certainly isn’t the end though. As I say, I do love to blog and express opinions and thoughts through words in such a way so I certainly don’t plan on not returning. I just need to refocus and come back at some point with plenty of good stuff. For those interested, I’m still raring and ready to go with my F1 blog Gridwalk Talk, with the prospect of a new season providing much excitement and chances to write good things! As for my own stuff though, maybe it’s good to have a breath of fresh air and just find my way back to being able to write things up that I’m confident I can publish. One of the worst feelings with blogging is writing something, reading back and thinking it sounds like utter crap and leave it as a draft. Over the past few months, that has occurred far too much and the published output has really dwindled on here sadly. I hope you understand my point of view though; I just apologise if it’s a little disappointing.

I’ll be back in 5.

#247; It’s a Double Fine Adventure!

  By Lukeh | February 16, 2012 - 8:15 pm | 2012, double fine, gaming, tim schafer
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Psychonauts. Brutal Legend. Iron Brigade. Monkey Island. Grim Fandango. Day of the Tentacle.

Just some of the wonderful titles and names from the mind of Tim Schafer, whether it be his time at LucasArts or his running of Double Fine. It’s not the first time I’ve gone on about Schafer; he’s someone I look up to hugely and Double Fine are easily my favourite games developer. Over the years he’s brought me much laughter, joy and pretty much awesome times playing games created from his seemingly endless creativity and over the past few weeks, things seem to have gone very exciting for the man who clearly stores all his creativity in that grizzly beard of his.

You see, two major things seems to have popped up that have got me incredibly excited both as a Double Fine fan and an admirer of how Schafer goes about his work as a name within the gaming industry. The first regards one of my all time favourite games in Psychonauts. Just the thought alone of Psychonauts and how criminally underrated and unknown it is to the wider audience of the world makes me a sad panda, and to this day I still often play the wonderful game that it is even if it’s a generation behind the times now. As a platforming title, it does the job. It probably offers nothing more than any normal platformer would. What makes Psychonauts so special though to me is the charm; the character, the personality that oozes out of it’s every orifice; the fact it offers something completely differently and blows away anything that could come close. Just like the many titles Schafer spearheaded before hand, it’s just ridiculously fun to play and with so much detail and joy coming out of the game it instantly became one of my favourite titles. Yet, it sold so little and did so badly commercially. Over the years, since 2005, it’s sold 400,000 copies worldwide. Let’s compare this to Gran Turismo 4 which sold 1.5 million in 2005 alone. OK, so the two games are a world apart in how well known they are, but it goes to show how little exposure Psychonauts got from a selling point of view. Basically, Psychonauts was made to look bad because it sold horribly bad, when in fact it was easily one of the better games of the era personally.

But that was then, and now it’s fondly looked back on by those who know of it. No matter what games Double Fine have brought out, you’ll see people asking Tim on Twitter ‘When is Psychonauts 2 coming out?!’. I’ve never really expected anything. It did too badly commercially to initiate a sequel being release no matter how good it was. Maybe it’s a good thing, left something unspoilt and special as it is instead of risking with a crappy sequel, right? But then again, what is life without risk? The umm’ing and err’ing of a Psychonauts fan like myself could go on and on but a few weeks ago, something staggering happened. Hell, something happened – that’s enough without being staggering! Markus ‘Notch’ Persson revealed on Twitter that he would help fund Psychonauts 2 to finally make it happen. And he was serious too.

Oh my.

It’s very early days though. Maybe he won’t but he certainly is interested. If you don’t know who this mysterious Notch is, he’s the mind behind the mega-uber success that is Minecraft. But just the fact alone that something COULD finally happen is really quite exciting, it’s a moment I’ve been waiting for for years now and something could actually happen! I can understand why there would be a little bit of apprehension to a sequel though. Like I’ve mentioned already, carrying on the weird and wonderful world of Psychonauts onto a sequel could be a complete disaster but you really don’t know; with the cult status it’s gained over the years it would surely do better than it did back then and, quite frankly, I have all the faith in Schafer and Double Fine to make a sequel just as good as the original. Should it happen? Hell yes it should! Will it happen? Who knows.

 

Then you have the tale of the Kickstarter project that came to life within the last week or two. Kickstarter is a platform that allows for public funding towards creative projects, no matter what form they may come in, whether it be films, gaming, whatever – creativity is the name of the game and it allows people to support a project they want to invest in. Random little twittering from the mind of Schafer wondering about starting up a Kickstarter project resulted, within 6 hours, in fans raising $400,000 towards funding a new game. Just within a few hours of it being considered for god sake! At the type of writing, the fund stands at a staggering $1.4 million, again just from donations from fans around the world. It’s an incredible turn of events and the money is being put towards creating Double Fine Adventures, which will be a return to classic point and click adventure gaming such as the Monkey Island games or Broken Sword. I think this, and get plenty excited over this idea alone, then I think back to how quickly the money’s been raised and it’s genuinely blows my mind how quickly this has all happened.

And who’da thunk it? A new point and click adventure game from a big games developer in 2012. Sometimes I really love how life turns out even when it seems like a genre is dead and buried!

So, two very exciting things coming out of the pipeline for this company that I do so love. It’s impossible not to be excited, even if the Psychonauts 2 thing leads to nothing. It goes to show some of the reasons why Double Fine hold such a high status of regard in my eyes – they not only make wonderful games and have a fab sense of humour I connect with immediately but this level of interaction with fans, this ability to gain a following and not have hugely massive games with a mainstream audience like Call of Duty of Battlefield, and to create games that are just downright excellent to play from a gameplay point of view and through how much love and effort are put into them.

Let’s just see what happens next!

(oh, and go and buy yourself Psychonauts. Do it do it do it! It’s even on Xbox Live, Steam and Gog.com for cheap if you can’t find it in the shops. You won’t regret it!)

#246; Homer Skiddly-biddly-doo-wop-a-Donso­n

  By Lukeh | January 20, 2012 - 6:52 pm | General
2 Comments

I still can’t quite get my head around this. It just of both amazes me and shocks me at the same time but I love it.

Here in the UK, Channel 4 have had The Simpsons for plenty of years now. As I’m sure you’re all aware you get this little ‘sting’ before most shows introducing them before they come on. It’s that bit that would usually say ‘Coming up next on BBC1, Peggie slaps everyone… in Eastenders’ or whatever, just the little 20 second explanation of what’s coming next. Now, how I and so many people have missed this completely gobsmacks me but I really do advise watching the below video and then wondering how on earth Channel 4 have been doing this for the last few weeks as they introduce The Simpsons…

I would also like to note that this is completely real and taken from Channel 4. Nothing has been messed around with, as unbelievable as some of it seems!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS7be8PqktI

To quote the Tenth Doctor… what?!!!!!

It’s both equally brilliant and utterly ridiculous at the same time. Apparently it’s been going on for a few weeks now, where the continuity announcer has been saying different names. We have the Carlsons, the Hixons, the Dimpsons, even the Cheese and Onions. How on earth has this passed us all by for weeks? I personally really like The Flinstones. Perhaps it goes to show just how little attention we pay to the little strings before an episode with these announcers. Clearly they could say anything and get away with it!

I still can’t believe they said The Skiddly-biddly-doo-wop-a-Donso­ns. I guess it’s easy to get the two mixed up.

#245; School of Coding

  By Lukeh | January 19, 2012 - 9:42 pm | coding, General
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Coding something and getting good results from it is really good fun. Now I can appreciate there will be people reading this who have seen blocks of code in the past and just immediately checked themselves into hospital in fear of going insane at trying to understand it but that’s a fair point to make, as when you don’t know, it can be slightly terrifying. Whenever I studied various languages at university our goal within our little group of friends was to create something but make it easy for ourselves by actually understanding our own code if we look back at it in years time. To accomplish this though, we had to build up from an absolute level of zero knowledge and go from step to step in building up what we knew about the lives of visual basic, C++, java and so on. So to discover Codecademy and offer the joys of coding to the masses in such a wonderful way fills me with much happiness.

 

As if you haven’t worked out what Codecademy does yet, the purpose of this wonderful website is to encourage the basics of programming through free step by step online tutorials that are not only interactive but constantly drive you on to delve deeper into the lessons it offers. It starts with the basic ‘Hello World’ instructions and output and whatnot as it would and starts delving deeper into the likes of variables, strings, functions and so on. What I particularly like is the fact it incorporates ‘achievements’ into the courses on the site too, basically giving you a virtual pat on the back and despite their meaningless purpose you’d be surprised how nice it is to get this sense of achievement just from the site telling you you’ve been awarded a new achievement for what you’ve done. It’s very reminiscent of the Achievement system introduced into gaming properly on the Xbox 360 and has since found its way into games on all formats, and amazingly today into Microsoft Visual Studio too again awarding you achievements for doing certain things in C# and Visual Basic. For something like Codecademy though, which will take completely newbies hand in hand and help them through the daunting basics, it’s such a motivational factor to keep going and a fabulous inclusion.

Having studied plenty of coding at university I find the whole process of getting stuck into programming something really rewarding and real fun to get stuck into. My knowledge, in all honesty, is pretty poor at the moment in comparison to when I was constantly doing stuff at university and always surrounded in books and sheets of code, functions, tips, tricks and stuff I’ve picked up. So even for someone like myself who’s already splashed about in the pool of programming it’s a really refreshing and encouraging way to jump back into the pool so to speak and find my feet again. Again, getting achievements is just awesome. Have I said how much I like that side of it?

I realise it sounds like a mega advert of a post for Codecademy but I can’t help but be incredibly excited for something that offers such a service to a mainstream audience in such a wonderful way. The word needs to be spread and I really do recommend you spend some time over there if you’ve ever looked at programming and been a little bit scared or put off by how daunting it looks. Just remember that everyone has to start somewhere with something new, so what better way than to have a site like this allowing you to understand without looking down on you and being such a useful source of help? Give it a go and let me know what you make of Codecademy in the comments.

Who knows, maybe you’ll see too just how rewarding and fun programming can be too!

 

#244; The Modern Nostradamus

  By Lukeh | January 11, 2012 - 8:24 pm | 2012, predictions
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Earlier today I came across an article on the BBC website that was looking at the predictions of John Elfreth Watkins, a civil engineer from the turn of the 20th century who made many bold predictions and the like, with some coming out eerily accurate. We’re talking about predictions about colour photography being transmitted and created digitally, the rise of mobile phones, televisions, and of course, bigger fruit. Because life definitely needs bigger fruit. It really interested me to see how some of his ideas could come out so accurate to his descriptions, in particular the technological creations that we’ve invented over the years. What wasn’t so impressive was some of his total misses though. I mean, no longer using the letters C, X and Q? Well, it’s uite ontrived to eagerate uite what impact this razy uery of his ould ome to.

It got me thinking though what predictions I would make now for a 100 years time in the year 2100 and how different life would be now to then. Of course, I could just say that everyone will be in flying cars and we’d have Star Wars holograms everywhere but, as we all quite clearly know, this doesn’t happen until the year 3000 thanks to Matt Groening’s genius. There’s so much you could predict about the year 2100 though, so here’s a few of my predictions in the spirit of John Elfreth Watkins:

Humanity will have itself on another planet – In a hundred years time we’ll have people rocking it on Mars and chilling out in their space home suburbs. I reckon we’ll have people up on Mars perhaps on a scientific level for NASA (if they still exist then) doing spacey wacey stuff at least. But I definitely reckon we’ll have people on Mars by then, yes. I’m hoping there will be self sustained environments and schools and Mars University and, of course, Mars Greggs. But there will definitely be Life on Mars by then and it won’t be John Simm. Unless he coincidentally turns up there.

Television networks will no longer exist – By the time 2100 comes around there won’t be anything like ITV, Channel 4, and the billions of Sky channels. Instead, we’ll simply be an on demand society with different studios bringing out different things for their own personal profit. It probably makes no sense at all but a lot can change between now and then! I just reckon the whole channel thing will get horribly outdated by then and people will be more interested in getting content when they want and how they want rather than dependant on timetables.

Buses will no longer exist – I shall see to this one myself.

Glasses will have the internet and life will have a HUD – You can get the change to get glasses that not only bring up internet searches no matter where you are and what you’re doing, but also brings up information on your vitals, heart rate, fatigue, all this stuff you’d see in a game like a constant Sims experience or something in your very view. Technology will advance to the point where subjects can be analysed and detected and it’ll be friggin’ awesome. You really should have gone to Specsavers in the year 2100.

Human population will rise about 20 billion – Will we even have enough space in the world with that many people? Luckily, with the new human centres on Mars and possibly beyond millions are heading for a new life away from Earth but we’ll still find ourselves with hugely populated cities, slums beyond the eye can see and also Swansea.

The England Football Team still won’t have won a second World Cup – 140 years of hurt.

Artificial Intelligence will be geniunely intelligent – The normal Japanese Christmas present come 2100 will be a new human robot friend who goes about their every day life at home waiting for you to get home, to be your friend, tidying the house and letting you win on the Nintensoft Woobox 2000. Ultimately, artificial intelligence will be researched to the levels of human intelligence, where AI can be measured on genuine IQ and find themselves within shops as stores assistants or able to do the normal job of a retail operative. Basically, smart as hell robots.

Average age will rise to 120 – We seem to be living longer as time goes on so why not? We’ll go on beyond 80, 90, and 100 will just be another rave down the local hall after a round of bingo. So, 120 will become the average living age for developed countries with more people becoming healthier and more awareness of healthy food and cultural differences in what’s being eaten being the reason for the upping. That and bloody great vitamins.

Currency will be a universal chip – Everyone will grow utterly sick of all these currencies and the exchange rates, bankers will get their ultimate downfall thanks to a Wall Street catastrophe of epic proportions and it’ll be decided that the world will run on one currency determined by a chip that stores all your money within it. Notes will go out of fashion saving millions of trees and the term ‘penny’ will merely be associated with financial museums around the world, currently known to us as banks.

Windows will still crash a lot – You think that’s bad, they installed Windows Centurion Edition into Cyborg Steve Ballmer.

#243; Into Another Dimension

  By Lukeh | January 7, 2012 - 1:07 pm | 2012, 3ds, gadgets, gaming, General, nintendo
1 Comment

At the moment we’re currently going through an era in technology where all the major technological developers are playing about with the concept of 3D. Sony has their headsets and TV’s, there are phones coming out with the whole 3D thing too and, of course, there is the Nintendo 3DS. Last week I thought I would treat myself on my birthday by going out and picking one up after a long time considering getting one or not and now seems a good time after a week or so to look back and review what I’m thinking so far of this nifty little piece of hardware.

The 3D doesn't appear in photos. But I can promise there are various dimensions.

Now if there’s one thing I love it’s playing about with some new piece of technology. You really can’t beat the excitement of getting your hands on something new to play about with and just explore! The main selling point of the console obviously lays in its name – the 3D. If you’re unaware, with the 3DS it does not require any glasses to achieve the effect. Instead, a slider on the right hand side of the console triggers how ‘strong’ you want the effect to be and it works surprisingly well considering it requires no glasses or anything. I’ve not been a huge fan of 3D stuff in all honesty so it’s nice it’s grown a good impression on the console with me but it must be made aware how fussy it can be. You really do need to hold it in the right place to get the right effect. Move a bit to the left and you get double screen mayhem and a really odd effect, and if you’re a lot like me playing Mario Kart, I tend to do that thing where you want to get around the corner and you find yourself leaning left or right. You must remember that leaning definitely contributes to the driving! As I say though, the 3D works but it definitely comes with its flaws.

At the moment I only have two games and a few downloaded titles, with the retail games being the wonderful Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 7 which, somehow, after all these years still refuses to get old. Plus I’m still utterly dire at it so you can tell it’s consistent. I’ve been really impressed with how the games play. There’s no real huge change from how a DS game would play admittedly but the games do look better on this handheld without a doubt. The thing I do really, really like though is the analog slider on the left hand side of the console that has finally  been added to a Nintendo handheld console. for far too long they’ve been dependant on generic D-pad controls, which can still be used below the slider should you wish, but analog just makes things so much better to play. Even better is that the analog slider works with original DS games too which is a big bonus. Going back to the games, both have really impressed me. I never owned a Nintendo 64 back in the day so Ocarina of Time is all very new to me and extravagantly lovely to look at in 3D as well as being a pleasure to play, and Mario Kart is, well… Mario Kart. You certainly don’t need me to tell you how good the Mario Kart games always are and, again, it looks lovely in 3D too.

This does lead onto a concern of mine though I must admit. At the moment, the 3DS game library appears to be staggeringly thin on the waters. There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount to go by if you enjoy your games – there’s the usual casual nonsense that Nintendo so love to endorse, and what major games there are really are top games, but the problem is there’s just not much of either at the moment. Hopefully this is something on Nintendo’s part to prevent the flooding of market with utter tosh. Both the Wii and the DS suffered from an absurd overload of titles that were just really, really poor quality casual games (stuff like Babyz first Day 3 or Horse Carer 7 or whatever) that really lowered just what both consoles were capable of. They appealed to the casual audience of gaming vastly and certainly didn’t hinder the popularity of the Wii or DS but you look in games shops at the titles on the shelf and it just makes you think who on earth would buy 90% of the stuff there. Of course, Nintendo now have a hell of a rival in the constantly emerging market from Apple and Android regarding apps and games on your phones or iOS devices for pennies compared to titles on the DS that go for the full £40 whack. To say these apps aren’t competition now would be pretty ignorant and Nintendo really do need to find a way to compete with these. Things like Zelda or Mario are worth the £40 because they’re fully fledged games but it does make me wonder.

This is Saturo Iwata. Look how happy he is with his 3DS.

I’m really pleased that Nintendo have picked up from where the DS suffered immensely and that’s area such as online and the network in general. The 3DS really does feel much more accustomed to wireless activities in the various forms it utilises wireless, from recognising other 3DS consoles nearby to obviously playing multiplayer with people around the world. To be honest I have no idea why Nintendo are still going down the route of ‘Friend Codes’ when they’re so laborious but at least the system works from a Home hub this time instead of every single game having different friend codes as was the norm previously. Even down to things like the notification list within the Home hub that keeps you up to date with updates or news and the hugely improved eShop to download new games, DLC and apps all shows just how much Nintendo has learnt from their mistakes in the past. the DS almost felt a little bit apprehensive with the idea of playing a game online or even going near online capabilities but this is way different and a real satisfying update. The same can be said for the fact the 3DS actually utilises SD cards properly now whereas, again, the DS could support it but never really found a use for SD cards. Big change now and so much better for it.

So early impressions are really good. Nintendo need to get the ball rolling with more first and third party titles for the system that will attract more people in but the recent price drop has much it much more worth the money. For myself, I’m really pleased I picked one up and can’t wait to see what games come in 2012. I would be lying if I said Rollercoaster Tycoon 3DS didn’t influence my decision when it eventually comes out because – let’s face it – Rollercoaster Tycoon in your own hands!!! But from a technical standpoint it’s a nifty piece of kit and I’m pretty impressed. But there is more, from the likes of Luigi’s Mansion 2 to the wonderful Metal Gear Solid 3DS and way beyond, the system will soon have plenty to cheer about but it’s a good start at least.

Oh and if you’re wondering, my friend code is 3823-9120-0241. Feel free to add me!

#242; Doctor Who Watch – The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe

  By Lukeh | December 26, 2011 - 11:22 am | and The Wardrobe, Christmas, doctor who
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It’s the one part of Christmas Day us Doctor Who fanatics love and look forward to, once the food has been eaten, once the arguments have been argued, once the presents have been thrown everywhere, it’s time to sit down and enjoy a Christmas episode of Doctor Who. It’s been a little bit of a tradition for the Christmas episodes to be a little sub-par to the normal series’ episodes which makes sense as they’re usually detached from the series (excusing the demise of Tennant’s Doctor) but this year we were treated to a Narnia-inspired story involving a Doctor, two children and an overbearing excitement to open a present before Christmas Day. See, now look what happens kids! You end up on another planet!

My Micro Machines portable city never did that when I was 10

It’s always nice to start a post and be able to say it was a good episode, especially with the hit and miss Christmas ones we seem to get. But The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe was a most enjoyable romp, although it did of course come with flaws as well as good moments. Let us focus on the positive though! What I enjoyed about the episode was that it did take the story of Narnia but put a nice twist on it to make it more Doctor Who-y. We’ve had plenty of this type of thing before including last year’s Christmas Carol (which I admittedly prefer) so it’s nothing new but the whole deal with the Wooden Enemies and twisting about a classic childrens’ tale into something extra is always good fun I find. Moffat clearly loves taking them into his own hands and making them even more spooky or mysterious.

What I also really liked was how the Doctor almost became a little bit more human through the episode including that ending with his tears of happiness at just hearing Rory and Amy’s yearly ritual of setting him out a plate just in case for dinner. How lovely was it to see them by the way? I recently wrote how maybe it’s a good time for them to go but I must admit I really was quite happy to see them at the ending. We couldn’t have a Christmas special without proper companions in some capacity! But the Doctor’s human side shone through with getting back the presenter from Pointless the kid’s dad from his impending death (Alexander Armstrong) and both he and the mum from Outnumbered his wife (Claire Skinner) did a wonderful job, especially Skinner who just makes the best mum in TV programmes. I was half expecting her to shout up for Jake though, as well as the disappointment of Armstrong’s pilot not talking in street talk as his pilot does in Armstrong and Miller. But that’s just me being a bit silly.

The story was good enough and enjoyable but it was nothing memorable. Maybe it got a little far-fetched as it can often so do with these specials but it’s Christmas, what the hell? Instead of focusing on wondering why the Crystal Maze suddenly decided to take off and they somehow ended up right in front of her husband’s plane in World War 2, the fact it was enjoyable and it still worked out nicely in the end was more important to me than focusing on the far-fetchedness. There was one big, big disappointment through I must admit that I have to say – there really was not enough Bill Bailey. Seriously, he must have had about 3 or 4 lines in the end and he just seemed to come and go in those little space rangers troupe which was seriously underwhelming. Bill Bailey’s such an enjoyable character to watch and I can’t help but think they  totally used him the wrong way in this episode which was a shame. The whole deal with those space ranger people seemed very rushed too but again, it’s just some of the flaws that all episodes are bound to have at some point. Shame though.

Those wood enemies freaked me out enough though, which I liked. If an enemy can send a little bit of shivers up my spine that’s good enough for me. It was their eyes! Their eyes really sent the shivers going and their almost mechanical movement and grabbing the throat of people to speak through them and… and… well it was mostly the eyes! I was sitting there thinking how creepy it was when they blinked, with Mum drawing a comparison to the Stone Angels but they’re on their own world of creepiness. These just had creepy eyes. *shivers*

I think what was ultimately my favourite thing about this episode though was Matt Smith. Goodness how I’ve missed Matt Smith over the last few months waiting for this episode and now we have to wait until September for his awesomeness again. I’ve already gone into detail about the human side of the Doctor appearing in the episode (let us never forget the quote ‘Happy crying… humany wumany’) but it was just so believable in his execution at the end how happy, fulfilled and almost accepted he felt to be at home with the Ponds. But throughout he was his usual eccentric, hilarious, dramatic and wonderful self that he truly is as the Doctor. He and Claire Skinner were the two highlights of a good episode and more importantly a good Christmas episode that, even with its little flaws here and there, still managed to be one of the better Christmas specials that all the family could enjoy.

Now we just need September to hurry up.

#241; Looking Back at 2011

  By Lukeh | December 18, 2011 - 1:59 pm | 2011, General
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If you’re a long time reader of this blog you may know that at the end of each year I take look back at the previous 12 months and what was good, bad and downright ugly over the year that had transpired. It is admittedly a little self indulgent but it is nice to reflect and look back. I’ve done this now both in 2010 and 2009. There’s been plenty of change over the past 12 months and I think that word sums up the last year quite well – change. Change can often be scary and difficult to deal with but change can also bring much good times and new experiences so it’s not all bad. It does lead me onto my first big thing for 2011 though.

A new job – May onwards
You honestly have no idea how nice it is to sit here and finally know that I don’t have to worry about the same things I have had to previous years working at Iceland. Yes, May finally brought a new job and I’ve been loving it since. Moving on from Iceland onto a IT help desk for the MoJ Shared Services and the Prison Service has been such a massive change for me but it’s just changed things for the better in so many ways. Now I find myself doing a job I enjoy, I can really get stuck in to because I enjoy it and actually gives me the ambition to strive on, make something of myself and really see where I can go. The problem with working at Iceland so long was because I didn’t enjoy the job being there for so long really affected me as a person. It would be fair to say that I started 2011 in a pretty rubbish place because I was still stuck in that job. But that’s now all in the past, and working within the Shared Services and seeing what new opportunities I can move onto within is just such a nice change and such a relief. Having this job now has also mellowed me out too, or at least I would hope so to others – it’s taught me to be more patient, to focus on the positive and not the negative, to just relax and think about the bigger picture even if others are stressing out. Ultimately it’s calmed me down a lot and I think I really needed that. It’s just nice to have that ambition and desire to succeed again in a job I really enjoy.

Game of the Year 2011 – Portal 2/Skyrim
You should all know by now how I enjoy my games and 2011 has brought them in the bucketload from left, right and centre but for me there are really two games that stand out head and shoulders above the rest and I simply cannot choose between the two which one is better – Valve’s Portal 2 and Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Both games come as part of a series as you can see, Portal following up the incredibly inventive original title and Skyrim being the fifth adventure in the Elder Scrolls series. Portal 2 shone out in so many ways, because it was so enjoyable to play, because it was so incredibly well written, because it still managed to invent despite Portal’s innovative introduction but perhaps most importantly to me because it took a game that didn’t need a sequel really and managed to make the most incredible, brilliant sequels for it and blowing away every single worry I had that it would ultimately be disappointing. And that’s not even thinking about the co-op mode which, again, could’ve been a minor disappointing add-on but ultimately gave a whole new game within a game. And then you have Skyrim, which I’ve been looking forward to since the moment that original trailer got released, and for me has absolutely redefined the scope of what you can get from an role playing game. Even now with my save file I’m 34 hours or so into the game and I’ve barely even touched the main quest of the game. There’s so, so much to do and just a ridiculous amount to keep you busy and see. It’s pretty much everything I could’ve asked for from Skyrim and so much more. Just two remarkable games from the past year.

Manic Street Preachers gig – May
There was only one gig I managed to get to this year but you can’t go wrong with just this one as I had the utter, utter pleasure of seeing the Manics at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena for the first time in May. Joining me was Mr C and Pat, two very good chaps known from Sidepodcast, and Pat’s friend Duncan and I’m sure we could all say just how good they were. Not that I was expecting anything less, of course. They did blow the roof off the arena with a very, very good setlist and it also included a very awesome moment for myself too. Before heading into the arena we all met in TGI Fridays next door for a quick meal and drink before heading in. At one point we were saying what 3 songs we would really, really love to hear in the gig. I went for two very obvious ones – A Design for Life and If You Tolerate This which were pretty much guaranteed being such stellar hits for the band – and a song that means a lot to me, Let Robeson Sing. Now I knew I had no chance of hearing it as it was just ‘another song’ from Know Your Enemy, nothing that was always in setlists. Yet clearly luck was on my side as they played Let Robeson Sing on that night, cue me almost exploded in happiness in the arena. That was an incredibly special moment and one of my favourite moments from 2011 but the whole night was excellent fun with some really good friends and an awesome band to match. Really must go to more gigs in 2012 though!

2 years strong and beyond
In April myself and Lou celebrated two years together and I’m still the absolutely luckiest guy in the world to be able to say now we’re still together at the end of 2011 too. I realise Lou will read this at some point and it’s probably a little bit embarrassing but that’s what I do best! In all seriousness I do feel I need to put this in as Lou has always stayed behind me, giving me the support and reminding me a job would come my way even when I wasn’t in the happiest of places at the start of the year and before, and it honestly means the world to me and so much more to be able to call her my girlfriend. Just having that support, having that special someone to turn to, to be incredibly proud of and being together for all this time and still getting butterflies from just seeing her doesn’t even begin to sum up how lucky I am to have her in my life. It also helps that she’s incredibly awesome. So thank you my love, just for being the wonderful person that I love being with and for putting up with me even through stressful times. I love you!

Here are other bits and bobs looking back at 2011…

  • I really, really enjoyed the slightly darker and different direction Doctor Who took this years under the helm of the almighty genius that is Steven Moffat. It’s interesting how there seemed to be so many complaints about how confusing it was but it never seemed confusing to me, especially when the ending explained everything but still offered plenty of mystery. Anyways, Matt Smith truly is the Doctor now and that makes me happy.
  • Steve Jobs’ death this year was a huge shock to have. Just earlier in the year when he did his last conference it was incredibly off-putting to see how frail and skinny he was but in all honesty I would’ve never expected his death this year. We miss you Steve. The same can be said to the shocking deaths of Dan Wheldon and Marco Simoncelli who the motorsport world lost so shockingly. May these and the many others that lost their lives in 2011 rest in peace.
  • Senna also finally came out this year and I think it just has to be my favourite film of the year. Even when Lou and I saw it in the cinema or whether it was watching it again on DVD at home, it never ceases to be an incredible watch. Tears, everywhere! But it is a very, very special film and as an F1 fan I’m really proud to see how well it’s done p- not only because it deserves it but also because it tells the story of Senna beautifully so it’s nice to see so many people who may not know get educated in the life of this legend.
  • I only got to spend one day at Goodwood this year which was a shame but even with just the one day it was one of my favourite days of the year. It was an absolute pleasure to meet Kai who’s just the loveliest person and also to spend the day with some really wonderful friends too. I still can’t quite believe David Croft recognised both Lou and myself and knew our names. That was an absolutely mind blowing moment and still brings a massive smile to my face just thinking back to it!
  • It’s been a very tough year to be a Rubens Barrichello fan and the winter on brings much wonder as to whether we’ll see him back next season. Right now, I can only remain positive. As for the actual season, it’s been a good year of racing and I’ve vastly enjoyed this season. 2010 may have had the championship battle but I geniunely believe 2011 had far better races. Kudos to Pirelli for coming into the sport and doing a very positive job with the tyres, let’s hope they take the aggressive approach again next season. 
  • You know what one of my favourite shows was shown in 2011? Episodes. Remember that way back at the start of the year? It started off a bit odd but ended up being a really, really good show. Stephen Mangan, Tasmin Greig and Matt LeBlanc just made it fantastic and the further it went in the better it got, even with the worrying cliché twist halfway through that turned out to be OK in the end. I also have got to mention Twenty Twelve which was a mockumentary looking at the organisers of London 2012 that was witty, funny and really well done. Luckily both shows have been recommissioned for a second series! Yay!
So I’ve enjoyed 2011 personally. It brought lots of new people in my life with my new job, it brought change that was needed and it’s given me plenty to look forward to in 2012. I’ll probably do another blog post at some point from what I want to do in 2012 but to put it simply, it’s just nice to be back in a good place again after letting job woes get to me. This Christmas, there is no stock worries or delivery issues or any kind of that stress. Just a chance to enjoy the holidays and I really hope you do so too! Have a wonderful Christmas my friends!

#240; Pond Life

  By Lukeh | December 17, 2011 - 7:39 pm | doctor who
1 Comment

Where it all began...

Before I go any further with this blog post, it makes sense to just make you aware that what may come next may be spoilers. Although not actual proper Doctor Who story spoilers, just something that is happening soon. Just so you can’t shout at me if you don’t actually know this news, see.

So, be warned!

If you’ve got this far then by now I’m sure you’ll be more than aware about the recent press conference that took place with Steven Moffat announcing that the Ponds will be leaving Doctor Who in the next series. Initially I was quite sad about this news as I do like quite Amy and Rory is pretty brilliant, but in hindsight I’m actually looking forward to seeing where the genius that Moffat is goes next with the show when they eventually depart the series next year.

As I say, I do like the combo. I like them a lot! Rory was such a nice surprise because his opening episode saw him very much as a gormless side attraction for the show and backstory for Amy, instead making himself quite a prominent and often hilarious inclusion for her adventures and the show in general. I’d go as far as to say I prefer Rory’s inclusion in the show to Amy’s but let’s now discredit the character of Amy Pond because, whilst not the most memorable companion, her rapport with the Doctor (specifically Matt Smith of course) makes her constantly interesting, entertaining and a good companion. However, this due leaving Doctor Who is coming at the right time for me.

The main issue with Amy and Rory is that the storylines in the past series found themselves revolving around Amy and Rory far too much. At times it felt like everything was linking back to them and, whilst I enjoyed the series whilst other found it complicated, it would be nice to have a new fresh face in the Tardis alongside the brilliant Matt Smith to see where this takes them and the stories yet to come. In all honesty, the best companion for me in the modern era of Doctor Who was the surprisingly brilliant Catherine Tate. Donna Noble wasn’t a younger companion who found themselves swooning at the feet of the Doctor, instead kicking her feet in the dirt and having her own say in what goes on with the Doctor. This harder shell made her character much more interesting than the usual falling for the Doctor scenario that seems to happen so often – again hinted at with Amy instead if not for Rory reminding her who her man was. Plus Donna brought along Wilf who still remains the best character to be created just because he’s so damn lovable.

Any excuse to put Wilf in a blog post.

In fact, how brilliant would it be to have Wilf as a companion? OK, so there wouldn’t be as much running-down-corridors action as the Doctor so often loves to get involved with, and he’d probably get knackered after an episode, but it’s Wilf. Wilf!!!

Anyways, I’m digressing. As I say, I think it’s about the right time for Amy and Rory to leave the Tardis and head back home so I’ll be very intrigued to see how Moffat ends their story, whether it ends in tragedy or whether they get dropped off, their minds erased and of course find themselves remembering a series later in a special. Or whether they end up in another dimension that they can never get back from ever again, until they find a way back. I can’t see it ending in huge tragedy what with Rory constantly dying and coming back to life, but with Amy it’ll be interesting to see how she pulls herself away from the Doctor and goes back to an ordinary life. And as for Matt Smith, well I just hope he stays around for as long as he’s interested because he’s just never been dull. Anyone who can fill the boots of David Tennant and so just as good as a job deserves all the credit in the world.

One final thought too – if Amy and Rory head out of the series, will they take their daughter with them? Steven Moffat has overused River Song just a little too much for my liking, and her initially interesting and mysterious character from the Library episodes has become tiresome and almost arrogant in it’s ways. She obviously has a huge part to play in the story of the Doctor since how the last series ended, but I fear her character will become that of the Daleks – overused, tiresome, needing to be put away for a bit just to stop people getting sick of them. As always, I put faith in Steven Moffat though. I wouldn’t dare doubt his genius!