Random Playlist #1Women Who Love Men Who Love Oceansize

This is the first of music-themed posts, adding to the family of other themed posts I have thrown out there. Now, originally the first Random Playlist was going to be a very, very overdue review-of-sorts of Coheed and Cambria’s last offering, but that has undergone quite a few restarts, that it is still in the pipeline. Instead, let’s replace that with something a little more recent. Last Thursday I had the pleasure of seeing Oceansize live @ the Casbah (formerly the “Colly”) in Coventry.

I’ll be clear when I say that I am a big fan of Oceansize. They could easily be labeled as a progressive outfit, but where they excel over other progressive bands I’ve listened to is that they really keep the focus. Often it seems the trademark of a progressive band is to throw in extended interludes and include solos like their arms are going to fall off and they may never get another chance. This does produce many a quality song – technical expertise of an instrument is something to be marveled at and something I hold in high regard. Oceansize take a different path, and produce, in my opinion, a much more cohesive sound. There is a clear and more obvious vision in their songwriting. They set themselves a simple target for each song, whether that is a 4 minute heavy, riff-laden rollercoaster, or a softer melodic affair, and they simply nail it. There’s very few Oceansize songs I am not a fan of, and that’s down to all the time, effort and care put it to producing each sone.

Looking back on the gig itself, and overall I was very impressed on the night. They did play quite a few off their most recent album, Frames, but I guess that is to be expected. That’s also not a bad thing when I am indeed a huge fan of their latest, although my all-time fave album is “Everyone Into Position”. Along with their recent songs, they ticked off the list some of the standout tracks from their earlier work. There was a slight problem with the second mic, the sound guy obviously felt the need to drop the levels to avoid feedback off the primary mic, but he was often slow to invert the levels which did spoil the experience a little. Especially when lead man Mike is screaming his heart out.

I went to the gig with Wilson and some other Warwick people and we were chatting about the band in the taxi home. I made the claim that Oceansize will forever be a small-time band and that unfortunately will never change, which is a crying shame considering their superb songcraft, which is not a crucial factor in a band’s success. Everyone else argued that I was mistaken and that they have supported many very large bands, Smashing Pumpkins being one example. The problem comes about when they are the headliners themselves, where they are the main reason why people buy the ticket, and it’s was saddening to see that the side room (not even the main room ><) was only half full. So depressing that Mike felt the need to comment (paraphrased):

“We played here 5 years ago and it was shit, maybe in 5 years time we’ll be able to fill this room.”

Other than that depressing outburst, I was very impressed with their performance. It reminded me how long it has been since I last saw a live band, and how great the experience can be.
One thing I ask for those who’ve not heard Oceansize, I feel it’s my duty to spread the word, they are a great British band, go check them out. I can’t say that they are for everyone, but if you’re looking for something outside of the norm and/or are open to new music, then give them a listen, that would be rather cool.

Insert Coin #5Clearing the Road..

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you are bound to know that Grand Theft Auto 4 is coming out this Tuesday – a title of which I am very much looking forward to. Now, I know that my gaming time will be consumed with it, a lot of my recent diggs have been little tidbits of information concerning aspects of the game. A full review by IGN that I recently read (and dugg) said that the main story will come in about 25-45 hours, dependent on player skill so there’s clearly a lot of content to get through. Post Tuesday I therefore know that the only game I will be playing will be GTA4 so I thought I’d have a revisit of some of my unfinished games – give them half a chance before they get blown away by the new kid on the block.

Jumping back on to COD4 inspired Insert Coin #4 but the majority of my 360 time has been consumed with completing the story of Mass Effect.
Now Mass Effect is a huge Sci-Fi RPG made by Bioware – the same people responsible for the Knights of the Old Republic games and are considered the best western RPG makers out there. Now I don’t want to turn this into a Mass Effect review, but as an overview statement, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed the story – it is the old classic, machines rising up and rebelling against their masters but despite that it was incredibly well told and did I mention I enjoyed it?

Some people are criticised the game in that it is nothing more than an interactive movie. Some would consider that a great compliment, and to be honest it is an RPG, so other criticisms that the combat isn’t up to scratch are a little unjustified. It is very smart that I can take my character (Jimiminar Shepard of course) with all his experience and skills and start the campaign all over again – particularly useful for going for the achivements which demand several complete playthroughs.
So I went through the first time, aiming to be a paragon player as opposed to renegade – although the rather cool thing of the game is that it’s not so much good vs evil, whatever happens you have to save the galaxy, it’s more about the choices you can make in order to achieve that goal. Anyways, I will go through it a second time eventually with a renegade character, I’ve already punched out a elderly scientist with a screw loose, so should be fun.
My first playthrough was clocked at about 35 hours if the saves are anything to go by, and I didn’t do much of the optional side missions, so it is a huge game. And that brings me smoothly onto some minor criticisms I have after playing through. The auto-save feature is effectively non-existent, so reminding myself to save after every enemy encounter is important but I have often forgot and become incredibly frustrated having to repeat half an hour’s worth of progress.
I also cannot stand the “driving” sections to the game. The Mako I read in reviews was very easy to control, but I must have had the controller upside down, as I could not manipulate it as I desired – my progress was merely a product of luck and perseverence. It’s true you cannot flip it, although I crucuially almost did when I was against the clock, I can’t be any more specific without giving spoilers.

Anyways, so that’s Mass Effect, a few problems which have been well documented upon the game’s release and some of my personal thoughts, but overall a very good game, recommended to anyone that likes their sci-fi and/or RPGs. Another game I’ve been trying out before the GTA4’s arrival is Dead Rising. I believe it was actually a release title, now 2 years old, and well it’s graphically not as impressive as games coming out now, but it is effectively a zombie-infested playground where an incredible amount of items can be used as a weapon. Again very cool, but again a frustration thanks to the saving your game progress. Capcom have made it their staple to have save locations, and I always end up dying literally at the furthest point away from one. Also as much as hitting zombies with benches or knocking them down with shopping trolleys, the combat can be clunky at times, a lag is apparent after swinging a bin where you are vulnerable, especially in amongst a crowd of zombies.

I am currently renting Dead Rising thanks to using LoveFilm. The main reason is to check out some films, so any recommendations are greatly appreciated. They also have games to rent, so my thinking is to have a game for about a week at a time, and swap films like every three days or something, I dunno I’m just trying out the service atm, but if I can get that going, then that would be very smart.

Here’s looking forward to Tuesday, where once that GTA4 disc goes, I think it’s gonna be a long time before it comes out.

Insert Coin #4The big fight! Halo 3 vs COD4

The other day I decided to jump back on to Call of Duty 4 after a fairly lengthy absence – I’m afraid a lot of my gaming time has been consumed with WoW. Anyways, I could go on about how my progress in WoW is coming along, so yeah I fired up COD4 and obviously went straight to the multiplayer. Both COD4 and Halo 3 came out at about the same time. Both games utilise the matchmaking system for their multiplayer, and it’s their respective multiplayers which have made the games so popular, but which multiplayer is the best?

Now this may prove to be unfair, I am basing this on my time with COD4 recently and comparing that to what the Halo 3 multiplayer was like when I played it last, i.e. a few months back. Now both games have different style of multiplayer – Halo 3 is much pacier and it’s not unnatural to jump about all the place like a loon. COD4 on the other hand is much slower and if someone sneaks up on you, you’re practically boned. In that respect, COD4 is terribly unbalanced compared to Halo 3. At least with Halo 3 if someone starts shooting you, it’s actually possible to turn around and kill them first if you are truly the better player. In COD4 you are rewarded for patience, maybe times I’ve seen on the KillCam my killer has set up shop round a corner and has simply been waiting for me to emerge and then sprays me with bullets = me dead, and not happy.

Both of them use the matchmaking system as I mentioned previously, but it seems a little redundant in COD4, I am quite a low rank as I haven’t played much but it’s pretty standard to playing in the same games with some very highly ranked players, often 30+ levels higher. Also when it comes to sorting the teams, they’re not usually that balanced in my experience. Halo 3 multiplayer, on the other hand, if you jump into a ranked game at a certain level, then you will almost certainly play others at your own level, maybe some higher, some lower, but there’s usually only a few levels in it. That way seems the best way to get better. That way you’re playing people at your current level, and you can learn and improve, and then face the next level of players.
In COD4 leveling is performed by gaining experience as opposed to wins, or finishing in the top 3 as in Halo 3. That’s a little flawed as given enough time I will be able to max out my level on COD4, it becomes a war of attrition, and not one of improving skill. I’m also not a fan of having to unlock game modes in the multiplayer. The idea of upgrades to your weapons and the global challenges that will earn you bonuses are rather cool goals to aim for.

Overall I think the kicker is the unbalanced matchmaking that ruins the COD4 multiplayer experience, and therefore I prefer the Halo 3 multiplayer. The Legendary map pack was released a short while ago, I won’t be paying for it, I’ll wait until it’s made freely available, but to reinforce my argument, I’ll obviously have to jump on Halo 3 and touch base with a game that received a lot of criticism, but I actually think it’s an awesome and very solid game, the amount of achievements I have gained for Halo 3 probably proves how much I’ve played it.

Podcast Review #1Diggnation

I‘ve mentioned several times in the past that I’ve quite recently got into podcasts in a big way. Now podcasts come in two forms, audio only and video podcasts. Audio podcasts have been a great help on my lengthy commute to and from work, and the video podcasts offer an alternative to TV, and some (not all, unfortunately) are often just as, if not more entertaining than their counterpart shows. The real beauty with podcasts is that it’s all free content! If you were sitting on the fence on whether to try these out then that should really sell it to you. I should be more vocal to appreciate the time and effort that goes into producing them.
An obvious place to start would be with the first few podcasts, the ones that got me hooked and enticed me to check out others. Looking back I’m tempted to say the first one would be Extra Life Radio, thanks to being a fan of Scott Johnson’s comics and curiosity making me check the other stuff he’s produced. I’ll review that one later, but the first video podcast was of course Diggnation.

Again, it seems while visiting a site, curiosity tempted me to check out what else is going on around the site, so the question(s) should be: What is the Diggnation podcast all about?

It’s probably best to start with a quick mention of Digg.com. For those not in the know, it’s a site comprised of user-submitted stories where members will “digg” a story to increase it’s value or rank (whichever makes more sense to you) and the highly valued stories make the frontpage. It’s beginnings were based mainly with tech stories, but now pretty much anything will appear on the site. I have a Digg widget as part of the blog and I can be found on Digg at digg.com/users/Jimiminar. Anyways, it’s a cool site and checking out the Podcast category of the site for highly rated podcasts and Diggnation pretty much tops the list. Now, Diggnation is a look at some of the week’s highly rated user-submitted stories on the site Digg.com (that’s D, i, double g, dot com). Now that’s either an exact quote of the introduction at the top of every show or a very close para phrasal (is that a word?). It shows how much of the show I’ve watched.

Yeah, so what the show ultimately boils down to a video podcast of Kevin Rose (co-founder of Digg) and Alex Albrecht (Dude! What a legend) sitting on a couch with their laptops, having a chat over some stories they’ve picked from the last week, while usually having a beer or three. While that doesn’t sound like much on the surface it just works in my opinion. At first, it’s quite cool checking out what are predominantly tech and/or offbeat news, the banter the Alex and Kevin have are almost always funny and entertaining. What’s even better is when they go off-topic and we get an insight into their lives, chatting about girls, online products/services or cool places to live/visit/go eat in the San Francisco area.

Now, I’m probably not doing the show justice but it’s something I thoroughly enjoy and like all revision3 shows it is available in HD. The show clocks in at approximately an hour, so it’s pretty cool to stick it on when I get back in from work. The duo go through a handful of stories, usually in the order of 5 or 6, and wrap up the show with a couple of emails. They usually feature one picture email (i.e. an email with a picture attached). Now the requirement to have the picture featured on the show is to either be a hot/cute laydee or be wearing a Diggnation tee (which I still need to sort out), or for the ultimate picture be a hot laydee wearing a Diggnation tee woah!

To sum up, Diggnation is a video podcast (available in HD) with an obvious tech/geek leaning. Now, the quality of the shows is pretty much dependent on the stories which are selected, so some shows can be better than others, but a high quality is maintained. I think the show hinges on the hosts as it is basically two guys sitting on a couch for an hour. Thankfully both Kevin and Alex are genuinely funny and entertaining, which ensures the show is the success it is. It’s become as popular as it has for those very reasons. It’s quite difficult to convince someone to go watch something and really enjoy it. I’ve given a gist of what the podcast is all about, although seeing is really believing and if the above sounds interesting, then check it out.

Jimiminar takes to the airwaves!

It’s no secret that I’ve quickly developed a love for podcasts – who ever knew there would be such (mostly) great content out there, and free too. So much so, that for pretty much everything out there, if you like something so much, then it is a natural step to want to emulate that. I have been giving some serious thought to maybe knocking together my own podcast, and the reality of this could be closer than you think.
I have looked into what it takes to actually produce a podcast, and all that is required at it’s core is a microphone and a means of recording it. I also checked out methods to host the podcast themselves, and there are free services for low requirements – i.e producing a small(ish) podcast on a weekly, or fortnightly basis.

Now, I am planning to post about some of the cool (and not so cool) podcasts I have discovered on my travels over the Internet and the iTunes store (lol), and one thing that does hold true is that 2 is the magic number. That is, podcasts work (in my opinion) the best where there are two hosts. With just one host, it does seem to much of a monologue – with two hosts banter and the back and forth can be had. It also means that that the other host can pick up the slack, as with the desire to keep speaking throughout. With three hosts, it generally degrades into chaos – everyone talking over each other; only with great discipline can order be achieved.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned a while back, that I would happily entertain the idea of putting together a podcast if a co-host could be found. Now, fast-forward to last weekend, and in the attendance of my good buddy Wilson, we checked out an archive recording of Wilson’s Corner – a show we put on the student radio station, RaW. During that session, I showed Wilson some of the video podcasts and coupled with the infliction of nostalgia, the idea of resurrecting Wilson’s Corner was quickly suggested.
Now it would be pretty pr0 to do that, I definitely had a lot of fun putting on Wilson’s Corner, particularly the pre-show meetings we had, which were let’s face it, an excuse to grab some ales. Whilst it would be a good thing to start up again, I do have my concerns on the form the rebirth could take. Looking back on Wilson’s Corner, something that was kinda clear back then, but painfully obvious listening to it today was how disjointed the show was. There was no real cohesion, Wilson and myself coming at the show from two completely different angles. Never was that anymore obvious than the music which populated the show; and how often we argued for our own songs to receive the airplay.

Yeah, so a new show would be pretty cool, but we will have to decide what to base it on. It makes sense to have the banter on things which interest us, which for myself would probably turn into a bit of geek show, much like the podcasts Extralife Radio and The Totally Rad Show. Now I can’t Wilson wanting to indulge in that, his thoughts on watching the live Amsterdam episode of Diggnation (with more mainstream and accessable stories it has to be said) being:

“Well it’s geeky, but there were some laugh-out-loud moments…”

If the podcast show does get it off the ground, ideally I would probably knock up a solo show of my own, so I can get my geek on. That show would be more of an audioblog as such, rather than a podcast. I keep going on how I should be more of a proactive blogger, so jumping on the mic would be so much easier to keep the blog uptodate.

To go on a slight tangent, WoW introduced voice chat natively into the game as of patch 2.3 and that got me thinking it was time to buy a headset. Especially if I want hit my aim of being part of an active raiding guild, they usually have a ventrillo server set up. So getting a headset could have double the usage. One as used in WoW, and the other to produce podcasts with.
I plan a two-pronged attack with the personal podcast as well. Not only would it keep the blog uptodate, but it could help boost the confidence. I always “enjoy” leaving answerphone messages and literally talking into a mic would be an extension of that. I can imagine that I would probably be “erring” and “umming” a lot at first, but eventually it would probably get smoother. Also, the production would hopefully increase as I get more familiar with producing podcasts and have a go at editing and all that fun. As Randy Deluxe of The Instance Podcast fame says: Once you’re able to talk comfortably with four listeners, it’s the same with more and more listeners, to paraphrase.

It looks like the purchase of a headset will have to wait till after next payday, but it’s definitely sooething I want to try so watch out.