Construed

For those curious amongst you, I am experimenting with Skribit here on Construed:

Skribit provides a content suggestion service helping bloggers discover relevant topics to write about from their readers. We launched in November 2007[1]

This almost sounds as-though I’m being lazy here, doesn’t it! By trying to coax topics from you, the reader but I am hoping it will increase the communtiy feel to the site. I have tried polls before on Construed & just didn’t like how that felt but with Skribit suggestions on topics can be made by myself or by you. From this there’s a voting system connected to the whole proceedings – just as an example, I have placed the suggestion of:

What was your best gaming experience of 2008?

Now from this readers can vote & comment on this suggestion, this suggestion can then be followed up by me as a post on Construed.

At the moment my thinking for using Skribit is as an experiment that I am willing to try out – it maybe be of a benefit, it may not. I know my readership & I don’t pretend that it’s on a big enough scale for Skribit to be fully fleshed out, just yet.

Saying that, please don’t be afraid to suggest areas of Construed you’d like to see more of!

There maybe a comic book title that you’d want to know more about or a videogame you feel I may have missed – please go ahead & make the suggestion, even if you feel it to be a minor one.

For this experimental use of Skribit to work, I’m hoping for at least a little feedback & to this end, ALL suggestions submitted will be displayed in the sidebar under the Skribit RSS feed link.

DM∞

PS. Am happy for off-topic suggestions too!

Maybe love is a slight exaggeration.

Being tagged to join the trail of any meme can be thought of as almost something of a chore – that is if you stick rigidly to the outline that is given by the previously tagged or even originator of the meme.

It’s not the first time that I have crossed paths with a meme, no but what is different this time around(thanks mbp) is that there’s be a few deviations away from what the meme originally began as, with the best spin, that I have read, being melmoth’s, Our memories are the only paradise from which we can never be expelled. This is how the meme originally started out:

So my sister has a blog. No, it is not a gaming blog, it is a blog about her lovely family and a way for her friends to keep up to date.

Anywho, in one of her posts she challenged me:

1. Go into your image folder

Since this is a Warcaft blog I cheated and went into my screenshot folder.

2. Open the sixth sub-folder and choose the sixth image.

I cheated again. a) my screenshot folder does not have any sub-folders b) I lost all my screenshots when I reformated the computer, so I used the screenshot folder on my boyfriend’s computer.

3. Publish the image!

4. Challenge six new bloggers.

5. Link to them.

I’ve decided to move this meme on a little too & select 6 images from 6 different folders – screen-shots from gaming but also images from the everyday. I’ve mixed it but I hope you can see a few threads that connect the images together, albeit fairly loosely.

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1: Play.com LIVE March 2008 & my first videogaming event that I attended as ‘Press’. Some good memories from the event include meeting DolphGB of PS3 Attitude in the queue for press passes &  seeing the new Wembley stadium for the first time. This picture of Lego Indy caught my eye considering that many of the stands at the show were pretty poorly displayed – I’ll not mention names here but you know who you were! I hear that Play.com LIVE maybe held in a Manchester venue for this year…

2: Warhammer Online & one of my first Public Quests. I remember this was way out of my league with regards to level but I was tempted to take part by the guild I was in. I remember my PC freaking out with so much going on that all I saw of the PQ was a choppy sea scene of action. Warhammer Online just wasn’t what I needed at the time, as I’m sure Darkfall wouldn’t be for me now. One rule, that I have learnt the hard way from over 10 years of online gaming experience, that I will stick to is not to waste my time beta testing any future MMOs & to leave a new MMO alone for at least a year before trying it. Reading what Stropp has had to say about Darkfall’s recent beginning has only gone to reinforce my rule.

3: Hard Ons/The Stupids March 2009 – I last saw the Hard Ons play in 1989(see picture #6) at the Fulham Greyhound(now closed), 20 years ago. I don’t remember the gig, I don’t really remember their music – although I do remember The Stupids, so why am I going to see them play live next month? Well it’s a chance to see old friends & I suppose to get the feel of live music back in my veins again, as it’s been a long time since I’ve been to a gig. I’m planning to take photos of the gig & make notes for a review of sorts.

4: Prince of Persia. I was disappointed from what I saw of the game, although others did actually enjoy playing it more than I. My hopes of a story & characters that felt authentic to the game’s premise were dashed. Instead the more I played the game, the more I hated how the Prince sounded & acted like a pale imitation of an American hero rather than a Prince from the Arabic. Combat was too QTE heavy with a really repetitive movement structure, Prince of Persia was my game to forget of 2008.

5: Lord of the Rings Online. It’s all about the story! My return to LotRO maybe for a pleasent surprise(see #2: rules regarding playing MMOs) & I liked what I saw – plenty of thought gone into tuning the MMO experience towards the individual from the start. The main quest line via books give plenty of depth in story to this MMO but unlike WoW’s seemingly meaningless & normally lengthy quest descriptions, LotRO has quest descriptions that are streamlined & better written. I also liked the use of cut-scenes to move the story along after completion of the chapters. If I wanted to solo an MMO, well LotRO would definitely be the MMO not to attempt it in – I suppose you could look at it that way: WoW is the MMO that has the ideal setting allowing players to solo the game without big penalties & LotRO just wouldn’t be the same, in any shape or form, if attempted solo. Reminds me I need to warm myself towards a Kinship – am open to offers!

6: DM Osbon circa late 1980’s. Yours truly back in the day when PC’s were unwieldy & videogames consoles were a little crass. I was heavily into the Hardcore punk music scene from that time & this picture was taken at band rehearsal I was at & no I wasn’t in the band. I did my first fanzine writing at this time & this was the paving stone that laid the way towards my love of writing now – blogging & fanzines may not be the playgrounds of the best writing but they surely are where most of the honest thoughts, get written.

Now who to pass this meme onto..?

I tag Aaron, Openedge1, Stropp, DolphGB & Scott.

I’ll be interested to see what you come up with!

DM∞

Most recent arrivals?

I decided to sell my PS3 version of GTA IV & then use the money to pick up the 360 version, allowing me the opportunity to try the Lost & Damned DLC at a future date.

Sega sent me the code for the SEGA Mega Drive Ultimate Collection, that contains the spoilers from the Mega Drive including Sonic, Streets of Rage & Ecco the Dolphin.

I still need to look at Lord of the Rings Conquest & play more Skate 2 for a review, which reminds me to make a mental note - making notes doesn’t mean I’ve written the review, so get your finger out!

Ahem…

I’d like to get back to playing LotRO & WoW too…

DM∞

I feel like being a little destructive & when I’m in such a mood, the weaker links don’t tend to survive. It so happens that of all the social networking applications I use, it’s Facebook that I find to be mundane, with that result, & I’m finding my account to be fairly unnecessary.

Want to find out what I’m doing etc?

Then read about it here or on Twitter – you can even find me on goodreads!

I’ve put a stay of execution on my decision but unless I’m convinced otherwise, Facebook’ll be getting the chop fairly soon!

DM∞

Now that I have completed F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, the only question that remains is, do I go back to complete the original F.E.A.R?

[Some spoilers follow]

Sure the ending of the sequel does lend itself to another part to come, in this well put-together franchise but I really need to go back & complete F.E.A.R  but before I do that, I have one or two points about the F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, that I want to share with you.

Both the protagonists from the F.E.A.R. franchise, Becket & the Point Man, are faceless & bear hardly any back-story or character throughout the main storyline. To me, this is a little odd as both are connected to Alma Wade in very unique ways(Point Man = Alma’s son & Sgt. Michael Becket = father to Alma’s unborn child). Although this was probably deliberate to the way in-which the storyline unfolds,  it’s also a shame that these characters aren’t fleshed-out more. If I think back to how well Monolith presented Ethan Thomas to us in Condemned 2: Bloodshot, then it just makes me feel a little let down by the lack of attention placed on the Becket/Point Man characters.

The other point of concern I had was with the environment in F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin. The story is very text driven via the collection & reading of Intel reports that are scattered throughout the games locations. These Intel reports are well written & even help the player to negotiate certain terrains etc but I would have preferred to see a game device similar to the forensic episodes of Condemned 2. What those forensic episodes did, for me as a gamer, was too break-up the game-play from just the all-out FPS action. It also allowed for a deeper interaction between the player, as Ethan Thomas, & the SCU team which built on the bond of cooperativeness which was needed for survival.

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin is a great game & it kept me away from all my other gaming options, so I’d recommend it to those of you who like scares mixed in with the action. I just hope Monolith are involved in the 3rd installment of the franchise & that they are able to develop on the scope of both the Condemned/F.E.A.R experiences, making it an even deeper experience for the player.

Viva Alma!

DM∞