Busy

Wow it's busy (gaming-wise) at the moment!

First of all Gears 3 is just great. Whatever game I play it doesn't go long before I need to get back to Gears 3.

I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 (limited edition so I can get Back to Karkand DLC free). I finished the single player in about 5 days (hard difficulty) and hunted some achievements afterwards. As far as single player is concerned that is it. I don't think they nailed the single player yet. However multi-player will definitely keep me busy for many many months. Bit different to BC2 (can't make myself say better, even thought there are many additions on BF3). BF2 MP was just great, especially Vietnam DLC and BF3 is great on its own right too.

I also got Modern Warfare 3 on the day of the release. This game turned out to be a disappointment for me. It is the first COD game (and I played them all from COD 2 onwards) that I just could not find any enjoyment at playing the campaign. I think they have not changed it sufficiently enough to make it feel fresh for us that played previous Modern Warfare games. MP is not much different either but still feels fresher than SP. Obviously they have invested more time on the MP than SP. Can't say that for the COD Elite though. What a disgrace. Millions of gamers buy every COD game and Activision comes up with excuses that they did not expect so many users. Hopefully they will have fixed it by the time anyone reads this post.

Today I got Skyrim and Halo CE is on its way. Add Forza 4 to this plus several AAA oldies I'm yet to finish on my shelf and you can see why this post was titled busy ;).

Battlefield 3 metascore doesn't look too good

I HATE it when they talk the game up and create unfunded expectations.

I was watching this trailer today "is it real or in game" where they combined real footage with game footage. Journalist wrote "Bold move" but I think it is more like stupid move. Gamers will expect more than the game can deliver and will be left disappointed!


Score currently on 84/100. Only 4 reviews in but I bet it won't even get close to 90. Number of reviews mention that there are too many bugs in the game.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/battlefield-3/critic-reviews

I should play at work and work at home

I installed speed test app this week and thought I should test the Internet connection at different places. Check out my upload speed at work :).

Home test:

Workplace test:

Sync multiple Google calendars with iPhone calendar

After you set your google account on your iPhone the default setting is you will only get to see your default Google calendar in your iPhone Calendar. This is the reason I decided to use GooCal app (mentioned in an earlier blog post- http://drerimix.blogspot.com/2011/06/great-iphone-apps.html) because I have several calendars in Google, my own and shared calendars, and I wanted to see them all in my iPhone and be able to add new ones as and when needed etc.

Today I found out I can set my iPhone calendar to sync all my Google calendars perfectly which made very happy as I like iPhone calendar better than any calendar app I've seen.

To set multiple google calendars to sync with your iPhone browse to www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect. If you're not already logged in google, login using your google account and tick the calendars you want to be synced with your iPhone. Kaboom! Job done.

Forza Motorsport 4

I had some doubts about this game considering how great Forza 3 was. Basically what was there to improve on? Oh looks like my expectations needed adjusting. Forza 4 looks and feels brilliant. Graphics and sound have improved noticeably which helps the immersion factor considerably. When you see the immaculate graphics and hear beautiful roaring sounds, it just pulls you in. I read that Turn 10 had contractors that work in Hollywood to help them with the lighting etc. You can see the effects.

I must have had ten hours gameplay so far but I only scratched the surface. My career stats say I only finished 1.8% of my career so far. There is Rivals section as well and the club aspect. Famous Top Gear show endorsement was a brilliant move, it puts a smile in your face racing through Top Gear track or listening to Jeremy Clarkson colourful comments.

So far I'm extremely happy with this game and look forward to play it for many many more hours with mates from Gaming Fro Fun.

Gears of War 3 - Epic Finale

I had the great pleasure of playing this game for many hours in the past month and let me tell you - this game rocks. It has got quantity and quality.

Campaign can be played as per usual story mode or with an arcade twist. Basically play through the same levels but with different feel to it. The arcade mode adds scoring, where for each action you get a score and score is calculated after every chapter. I think arcade mode puts more emphasis on action side of the game whiles the standard campaign put more emphasis on the story. Both these you can play on your own or with as many as 3 other player - Ka-chow!

Co-op mode does not end with these two story modes. You can choose to play with up to 4 friends in the Horde mode, where you fight wave after wave of locust horde, or Beast mode where you get to play as locust annihilating gears, again 5 player co-op game. Both these modes are great fun.

The you have the versus mode where you can choose to play private or public matches (standard and ranked). As most versus games are now server hosted, the quality of these games has improved significantly compared to Gears 2.

Well done Epic - top mark from me: 10/10

Can't believe I took so long to come back

Well I've done it again, stopped blogging for months. Shame really because one can just write one or two lines if too busy, but I guess Twitter was there for that.

Hope to synch back in form now. Got a lot new games coming. Currently playing Gears of War 3 a lot and I can't get enough of it. I've started a tournament in GFF, can't wait fo rthe first session this Saturday!

Gears of War 3 guide

Found this guide accidentally today. Looks to be just to my liking, not too detailed, not too brief. The only dowside is they want $9.99 if I want to mark as I get collectables but I can do without that, for now anyway.
 
http://www.gamerguides.com/guides/gears-of-war-3/table-contents/

Scanning to PDF using .NET

I had a request recently to modify a .NET application I wrote years ago. The application was scanning letters and store them in SQL database linked with specific record. The new requirement was to allow saving these scanned documents as Acrobat Reader (.pdf) files.

First time I used iText API - http://www.itextpdf.com/itext.php

After I scan the document I save it as pdf like this:

public static bool SavePDFAs(string picname, IntPtr bminfo, IntPtr pixdat)
        {
            SaveFileDialog sd = new SaveFileDialog();

            sd.FileName = picname;
            sd.Title = "Save file as...";
            sd.Filter = "PDF file (*.pdf)|*.pdf";
            sd.FilterIndex = 1;
            if (sd.ShowDialog() != DialogResult.OK)
                return false;
            
            Document doc = new Document(PageSize.A4);

            try
            {
                FileStream PDFfs = new FileStream(sd.FileName, FileMode.Create); 

                PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, PDFfs);

                doc.Open();

                Bitmap bmp = BitmapFromDIB(bminfo, pixdat);
                
                bmp.SetResolution(300, 300);

                byte[] imageBytes;

                using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
                {
                    // Convert Image to byte[]
                    bmp.Save(ms, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg);
                    imageBytes = ms.ToArray();
                }

                bmp.Dispose();

                iTextSharp.text.Image png = iTextSharp.text.Image.GetInstance(imageBytes);
                
                png.ScalePercent(24f);
                png.SetAbsolutePosition(0, 0);

                doc.Add(png);
            }
            catch (DocumentException dex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(dex.Message);
            }
            catch (IOException ioex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ioex.Message);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
                return false;
            }
            finally
            {
                doc.Close();
            }

            return true;
        }

Some great free iPhone apps

I've been doing a research for apps I can install on iPhone 4 before ordering one.I’ve had my iPhone for couple of weeks so I could try those apps that I could not try on the iPod and find some new ones in the process. This is the list of free apps I have installed and find quite useful:

GooCal (Google Calendar™ sync) By

Office SharePoint Server Search crashing

I've had Office SharePoint Server Search service crash several times in the past couple of years. Normal service restart made it hang and crash completely. Service status got stuck in Stopping and there was no way to restart it.
.

A quick server reboot would bring things back to normal but apparently there is a quicker way to solve this problem:

You can kill the service using this command:

taskkill /F /IM mssearch.exe /T

 or you can open the task manager in the MOSS box and end 'mssearch.exe' process.

After you kill the service using any of the two methods above, make sure you start the service and in few minutes MOSS search will be fully functional.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) for home use

After several little scares that I recently had with my family photos and videos, I decided I need to shift and get some backup sorted.

First I looked into external USB drive but soon realised that Network Attached Storage (NAS) would suit me much better. In my household there are 2 desktop PCs, one notebook, one llaptop and one MacBook. Consuming LAN also are 2 xbox consoles, Wii console, 2 DS handhelds, 2 iPods and 2 smartphones too. So rather than sorting out the backup manually from each device into external USB drive, I decided to get a server sorted so I can backup and share data.

So I looked and searched anything I could find available for home use and in the end settled for QNAP TS-210 and 2 x 2Tb Seagate ST2000DL003 drives.Full package just under £260. Two external USB drives of 2Tb each would cost me in the region of £140 so almost half of what I paid for NAS but I felt that USB drives would just end up like extra storage and that's it - fragmented backup, poor file sharing, etc.

Here are some of the factors that made me decide to go for NAS:

Backup, backup, backup. With 2Gb (in Raid 1) should be able to backup all devices (not just one or two PCs). I should be able to sleep much better knowing that all my computers are backed up. Also organising backups will be much simpler since all devices will have hassle free access to NAS.

Streaming. Big bonus is the option to watch family videos from any device in the house. Or stream music to any device. Or build the DVD library easily accessible. I plan to use the main Sony Bravia TV, iPod, iPhone and Notebooks as and when needed.

Access. I want to be able to drop files in and get them out when ever and where ever I am. I can think of several times when I could do with this feature when I was at work, shopping, on holiday, etc.

Convenience. All devices can connect to it directly without having to have any particular PC switched on. Sharing the printer as well is a great bonus as I was getting really annoyed having to switch on the PC connected to the printer.Also having all photos, all videos and all music in one place is a great bonus too. With NAS all photos, videos will go in the same place. Same for music we buy online. It is going to be easier to organise too. Documents will be stored on it centrally too, so it won't matter any more which PC we were using last time we worked on a document.

MonoTouch - use C# and .NET to create iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch applications

I was totally surprised when I stumbled upon MonoTouch today. Even more so when I read that it has been out for quite some time.

Basically: "MonoTouch allows developers to create C# and .NET based applications that run on Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch devices, while taking advantage of the iPhone APIs and reusing both code and libraries that have been built for .NET, as well as existing skills."

If you were developing using C#  and .NET like I was for the last 8 years then you'll be very happy with this news. Of course you will still need a Mac with Intel processor but you'd need that with Xcode too.


However, my enthusiasm faded immediately when I saw the prices:

	Professional	Enterprise	Enterprise 5	Student
Develop iPhone/iPod Touch applications
Ad-hoc distribution
Commercial Use
Apple AppStore distribution
Enterprise distribution
License expiration	Never	Never	Never	Never
Product updates	1 Year	1 Year	1 Year	1 Year
License Ownership	1 Named User	1 Seat	5 Seats	1 Seat
Price (USD)	$399	$999	$3,999	$99

I will try the demo but more likely I'll stick to Objective-C for now... at least until I can see how it goes taking one project from start to finish. I'm saying for now, but knowing me, by the time I'm rolling out apps I'll be used to Objectice-C and Xcode so I will not want to make a change.

iOS Developer Programs

I was just checking the iOS Developer Program and prices. I think I’ll wait until I have some app ready before I give them $100 as it is annual charge.

Got my iPhone 4 (finally)

Ever since iPhone first came out I've been thinking about getting one, but could never justify the price. Everything that I could do in iPhone, I could do in my Nokia phone (which costs less than half of what iPhone costs).

Well, Nokia got old, scratched and broken so the time came to get a new phone. And this time I went with the trend and got an iPhone 4. I'm hopping it will replace my camera and flip so I don't have to bring them when I go out and about. Also no need for my iPod touch any more. I can put all my music in the iPhone and my kindle books too.

So yeah, I installed a bunch of useful apps and I think I barely scratched the surface. It is mind-blowing how many apps are in the App store.

I'm planing to do a run-down of all apps I find useful in a week or two. Hopefully I will soon write my own app to go in that list too. The biggest problem will be to develop something new, because anything you can think of, it's there... and it is usually free.

Cool Snow Leopard features I did not know about

Found these video podcasts accidentally today and they were a big revelation for me. How come these things don't reach us Windows people? I really think some features on OSX are way ahead of Windows and I don't think enough people know about it, which is why I thought I best spread the word.

Automation in Snow Leopard:
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mov/pixelcorps.cachefly.net/mbkv_235_540p_h264.mov

Automation in Snow Leopard (part 2):
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mov/pixelcorps.cachefly.net/mbkv_236_540p_h264.mov

Automation in Snow Leopard (part 3):
http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mov/pixelcorps.cachefly.net/mbkv_237_540p_h264.mov

Key Remap for MacBook

I've been searching the net for days to find a solution for a keyboard problem I have on my MacBook.

Basically, for an unknown reason to me, the Caps Lock key is bound to Left arrow key and no matter which one of these two I press, I get both functions: Caps Lock changes ON/OFF and cursor moves to the left.

Similar, for Ctrl key and number 8 key, but not quite the same. When I press either of these two, I get only Ctrl function. This means I don't have number 8 or * in my keyboard. To say the least it's been very annoying and I just couldn't find any solution anywhere.

Today after repeated searching I stumbled upon this application KeyRemap4MacBook (http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/index.html). First thing I'm going to do when I get home is install it and see what happens. I hope it will pick up the two sets of bonded keys and give me an option to either remove it or overwrite with a new setting. Fingers crossed...

Addictive Speed Run in DiRT 3

So far I think these challenge game modes, like speed runs, are the only improvement form Dirt 2. I spent some two hours last night to nail this speed run for a platinum medal. You can make uploads direct to youtube but they are fairly low quality, take ages to prepare and upload and the maximum clip length is 30 seconds. I had  to upload two clips to youtube for this one, download them from youtube and put the together in Windows Movie Maker before uploading it as one clip. I definitely need to get a capture device.

Developing Objective-C on Windows PC

As I'm using Windows PC most of the day I wanted to look into finding a way to try and learn Objective-C while on Windows PC. I just managed to compile and run my first "Hello World!" code so thought might be useful to make a note how I got there.

I thought I'll be able to find something I can plug-in to Visual Studio to be able to write and compile Objective-C but couldn't. Searching the internet I found a Mac forum where number of people asked the question - how to code Objective-C in Windows PC? The answer was short (Apple style) - Go to www.gnustep.org!

So visited GNUstep site and found GNUstep installer for Windows: www.gnustep.org/experience/Windows.html. From this page I downloaded and installed in order (as advised in the page):

GNUstep MSYS System	Required	0.28.1	-	MSYS/MinGW System
GNUstep Core	Required	0.28.0	-	GNUstep Core
GNUstep Devel	Optional	1.3.0	-	Developer Tools

The installation procedure created a program group in the Start/All Programs menu called GNUstep and in there I found Shell application which simulates Unix console.

I used Notepad to create a simple Objective-C file:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

    int main (int argc, const char * argv[])

    {

        NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

        NSLog(@"Hello World!");

        [pool drain];

        return 0;

    }

and saved the file with ".m" extension. When I tried to compile it the first time it failed to find the file so I moved it under C:\GNUstep\msys\1.0\home\dreriMIX folder which was created by the installer.

I ran the command

gcc `gnustep-config --objc-flags` -L /GNUstep/System/Library/Libraries objC1.m -lgnustep-base -lobjc

and that created an application called a.exe which when I run (use ./a in the console) I get:

2011-06-08 11:27:14.354 a[20272] Hello World!

Success!

Starting to develop for iPhone

I've been thinking for a while that it would be great to develop some little mini-apps for my iPhone/iPod. I'm a total Apple n00b but finally, I decided to bite the bullet and look into it.

First of all I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that I need to use Objective-C. I used to love programming on C some 20 years ago.

Then I looked in what I need:

1. Mac computer, going to use MacBook.
2. Sign up as to become registered iPhone developer... done in 2 minutes.
3. Download the software development kit - got Xcode 3.2.6... long download...
4. Then I realise that I have Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) so had to upgrade to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6.x) in order to use this version of Xcode.. oh well, ordered from Amazon Mac OS X version 10.6.3 Snow Leopard.
5. Got some books:
   Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) by Stephen G. Kochan
   Learn Objective-C on the Mac (Learn Series) by Mark Dalrymple, Scott Knaster
   Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by Dave Mark, Jeff LaMarche 
6. Bookmarked some links:
   iOS Dev Center
   Objective C Programming Language (Apple site)
   iDeveloper TV

So I'm ready to go. AppleWorld, here I come!

Portal 2

I've recently had a 5 days Portal 2 marathon. I rented the game from Blockbuster as spur of a moment and had to concentrate on it to try and finish it.

If you have played the original Portal game from Orange Box or Portal arcade game then Portal 2 will not be a novelty for you. If my memory serves me right it looks very similar and the gameplay is more or less the same. Even though I have not played Portal for couple of years, when I started Portal 2 I was a bit disappointed they have not changed it a bit more. But as I started solving the puzzles I realised that there are plenty new types of puzzles so the game started to bewitch me as the original game did.

In total there are two sets of maps, one for single player and the other for co-op game mode.

The single player maps can be played during the story mode or with developer commentary, which is a great touch. Story mode is great. You get brilliant puzzles to solve using all sorts of chamber features (won't give any details as it might spoil it for someone), the story is interesting and Glados is as funny as it was. You can also choose to play the game with developer commentary which is the same as the story mode except you can't save and you get comment bubbles here and there to open the developer's commentary.

Co-op section does not run as a story but you do have to play it sequentially the first time you play. You get one learning chapter and then another 5 chapters with different types of puzzles to solve. The puzzles are absolutely brilliant, simply work of a genius. You can play co-op on split screen or via xbox live. If you play over xbox live you can play with friends or any random dude. You do get a reminder from developers that the game is best played with friends and there is a reason for that. Communicating during puzzle solving is great part of the gameplay. Not just in working out how to get form a to b, but the banter around it is priceless. You can create traps for each other and laugh your head off with comments from Glados and the different ways you can die.

I had to take it back but will definitely buy the game to finish the remaining 2 co-op chapters.

9/10 from me

Gears of War 3 trailer

Probably seen it but in case you haven't here it is:



I was a bit disappointed, I thought they'd show us a bit more story details. We knew Adam Fenix


was going to have a part (from the teaser they showed before). So unless I'm missing something there isn't anything knew on this trailer.

BRINK - 1st impressions

Got Brink yesterday, at last. Played for couple of hours so thought I share my first impressions with you.

Game presentation looks good. Menus and few cut scenes look very nice. You set you character and then choose which side you want to join - rebels or the authority. Won't spoil it and tell you what the difference is but will tell you that the game looks like it is split in two halves. You play it start to finish as a rebel and then again start to finish as authority troop.

Had 3 options to choose from: campaign, challenges and free play I think. I tried campaign and challenges. You get unlocks for completing challenges. There are many things to unlock and they seem to be unlocking very quickly ie finish one mission and you get 6 unlocks.

Campaign can be played on easy, normal or hard. I decided to go for normal as didn't want to get stuck and didn't want to have totally dumb opponents. It turned up AI is mostly very dumb. Most of the time I was struggling to find my way around and working out what I need to do. I failed the second mission because I did not know what to do. I could activate objective (use up in the D pad) and got to it but was in the wrong class because pressing X was not doing it.

In the end I can only echo what many others said. If you have friends to play it with, it can be a good fun. If you end up playing with AI, it is only a weekend fling and back in the shop it should go.

Lag in games

Gears 3 Beat just finished and major discussing issues was the LAG. Are we on dedicated servers or P2P?, host advantage, blla blla...

It is true Gears 2 and most probably Gears 1 too, had some major issues with lag and host advantage. Often I could see these things in Gears 3 Beta too. But I'm more or less convinced that the lag we get in gears is no worse than what we get any other game. so why is it people complain lot more in gears than any other game about the lag (or so it seams to me)?

Looking forward to LA Noire

Another ten days or so and I'll be able to shift myself back one century using LA Noire. Hopefully Amazon will send it a bit sooner so I get it on the release day which will give me full weekend of LA magic. Need to book it with my kids and wife so I don't get the looks when I'm playing for hours. 

I've been playing Gears 3 Beta a lot for the last 3 weeks and I feel the time has come for something different. Can't wait for the full release though, campaign will most definitely be awesome.

I played some Fallout New Vegas last night and it felt painfully slow after Gears but I did need it. Needed to chill a bit, which you can't really do when you're playing Gears MP. :)

I hate eBay

I've been using eBay since 2003 and never had a problem as a seller or a buyer. I saw charges going up and up for selling items and that was about the only thing I could complain about. Until now that is.

I sold this headset online to this dodgy character for £36. eBay and PayPal together charged me £5. In the mean time the dodgy guy got his account blocked/removed (says no longer registered but it doesn't tell you why). Then he reports he never received the headset. I say fine, got proof of postage will get Royal Mail to refund. He complaints to eBay who takes £36 from my account and refunds the dodgy guy and still keep charging me £5 for selling it! Apparently they couldn't care less if I have a proof of postage or not. If you don't send it recorded,  then you're screwed!

So now I'm £5 down, no headset, with a proof of postage which I will frame and put on the wall to remind me how it is to get screwed by eBay! ARGH!!!

Gears of War 3 Beta

I had three nights and roughly 50 games on the new Gears Beta now. The first two nights I played it was absolutely brilliant.It is slightly faster than Gears 2 and more polished. Few new weapons and moves made it sufficiently different to look fresh and not just extension of Gears 2. However last night I tried for hours to get a good connection but every game was horrible. I think because of the way the game plays, if players are out of sync at all it makes it unbearably annoying. If you compare it with Halo Reach, Black Ops or Battlefield Bad Company 2, you can still play the game even though players are not in total sync because the game is close combat, or as fast, or using the cover system as heavily as Gears does.

Exclusive Beta Unlockables:

• Flaming Hammerburst GOT IT!
  Complete one match by Sunday, April 24 to permanently unlock.
• Flaming Lancer GOT IT!
  Complete one match during the week of April 25 to permanently unlock.
• Flaming Sawed-Off Shotgun
  Complete one match during the week of May 2 to permanently unlock.
• Flaming Gnasher Shotgun
  Complete one match during the week of May 9 to permanently unlock.
• Beta Tester Medal -- Wear it proudly, Gear. GOT IT!
  Complete one match in the Beta to permanently unlock.
• Thrashball Cole -- Unlock Thrashball Cole to play as Augustus Cole as he was before Emergence Day -- a legendary Thrashball athlete known for his ferocious, flamboyant style.
  Complete 50 matches in any game type to unlock for the Beta period.
  To permanently unlock, complete 10 matches as Thrashball Cole during the Beta period. GOT IT!
• Gold-Plated Retro Lancer -- Before the chainsaw bayonet was deployed at the beginning of the Locust-Human War, the original Lancer assault rifle had a large fixed blade.
  Complete 90 matches in any game type to unlock for the Beta period.
  To permanently unlock, score 100 kills with the Gold-Plated Retro Lancer during the Beta period.

The sense of achievement

"You've got mail" film is one of my favourite. It's not brilliant but it has got enough great parts in it to make it very likeable. There are some great lines in it like:

The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino.

Innovations on  Microsoft's part are aplenty. To me, when it comes to Xbox 360 , nothing compares to introduction of game achievements. I think it is the genius idea that Microsoft should be very thankful for because in large part it got Microsoft where it is today in the gaming console market. I'm sure Sony would have been way ahead if they thought of introducing achievements for PS3 games instead of game trophies.

So why I'm wondering gamers like myself are so hooked in getting these achievements. Why is it that we get a smile in our face when we see that pop-up message appear: Achievement unlocked? Is it because deep down inside we're still like kids that like to be praised or just get a recognition for anything? Or is it because we went though some failings like almost everyone does and we somehow find solace in playing, escaping to another world, and get the sense that we "did it!" or "I can do this"?

Crysis 2

Not impressed with the SP so far. AI can be as dumb as it can be but at times deadly. There's just no consistency. I think they should have worked much harder on AI.

Script is not brilliant either. Missions will started with lame ideas such as a top scientist saying "Oh shit, I screwed up! I forgot my address in the office computer. You have to go and destroy it or they will find me."

I might just stop reading official game reviews as they are like this game's AI, you never know if you're getting genuine review or not. It appears most of them are totally corrupted. Just checked Metacritic now and the game has got 47 reviews of which 46 positive (http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/crysis-2) with total average score of 86/100. Compare this with COD Black Ops which has got total average score of 87/100 you'd think that the two games are the same in quality but I thin Black Ops is much, much better made game.

Nokia OVI maps

I've had so much trouble with Nokia Ovi maps since I got my Nokia phone. Really pleased they decided to offer them free of charge to all Nokia users but for every praise I had curse. Last time I went to Paris I downloaded the map for France via home PC and made sure the phone is fully synced.

But unless I connected to internet it would not display any roads, basically maps were blank. Soon as I connected to internet it would start downloading tons of data which I assume is the maps of the area I was in. Needless to say this was mounting to cost me more than a dedicated GPS device with roaming charges and data. So had to give up on it and just use paper maps which was a real pain.

However, as an experiment I recently solved this problem. I know this is not what Nokia/Ovi suggests you to do but the for me the solution is to download maps directly to your phone via WiFi, not through the PC/USB. I've now disabled internet connection on the Ovi Map settings on the phone and can still get maps more or less instantly. Got there in the end. Not sure if it will fall apart when I connect the phone to the PC but I'm seriously considering not to use Ovi PC suite at all.

Nokia doesn't like m4a files

My Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will automatically include all mp3 files in the music library. Recently I manually copied some files (as partial sync is too fiddly) and when I went to play them noticed some songs were missing from the library. When I checked with the File Manager I found out that files were there but for some reason they were not showing in the Music Library. Checking the files noticed that all files missing were .m4a files and if  I open them from the File Manager they would open on OVI music player and would play fine. So I went back to the music player trying to find some setting somewhere which excludes any file that is not mp3 file, but there was hardly anything in the settings. So after a lot of fiddling I found an option in the menu which you only get on the first Music player screen "Refresh library"! Took a minute and bang, it found over 50 new songs.

So the lesson of the day is if you copy anything other than mp3 files make sure you hit Refresh library on the main menu.

Video games wish list for the next couple of months

So we had Homefront and Dragon Age 2, what's next?

Crysis 2 is out this Friday which is promising to be a solid game.

Next month we have Portal 2 YAY!

Month after, in May, LA Noire YAY! (FEAR 3???)

Homefront

Rented it from Blockbuster today. Bloody bastards used the code so can't play it online unless I pay for the online pass and judging from the first two chapters on single player I don't think I want to spend another penny on it.

So far single play is very average. It is trying to copy COD and Battlefield but it is lot less sharper than any of those games and not just visually but the gameplay as well. Hopefully things will change for the better as I play along. I've got another 5 chapters to play so we'll see...