Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Star Citizen: Official Anvil Aerospace Hornet Commercial

I've been keeping an eye on this game since they started making it. It has just reached a whopping $24 million in crowd funding, the biggest crowd funded game ever. The guys are very clever in that they've kept the channels open for more people to help fund the game.

The video below shows off one of the ships you can fly in the game, and damn that Cry Engine graphics is really looking amazing!

I must admit, I've been a tad skeptical about this game, but after seeing this I literally found my jaw hanging open! It's absolute eye candy, and I can't wait to see the end result of this game. And at the rate they're going in terms of funding, I'm sure they'll meet more and more stretch goals as time goes by and make the game even bigger and better!

Anyway, treat yourself to the awesome footage below:



Pretty sweet hey! Check out there site here: https://robertsspaceindustries.com/

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Galaxy Note 3 - Writing with the S-pen

Yesterday the wife and I got our hands on our awesome new phones - the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 - boy oh boy are we impressed!

So far we've both been tinkering and playing with the phones a lot! And even the wife, who used to have an iPhone 4, is totally converted!

One feature I'm really enjoying so far is the stylus, or S-pen as Samsung has dubbed it. It works very well indeed! One of the features you can enable for the S-pen is that you can write instead of type using the onscreen keyboard - it is a feature that you have to enable before it works, and here's a quick run down on how to do just that:

Go to Settings (easiest way to do that is press the bottom left button (next to the physical home button) while on the home screen, and tap on Settings):


Tap on Controls at the top, bringing you here:


Here tap on Language and Input


Then the cog next to Samsung Keyboard


Scroll down, and toggle Pen detection

That's it, now anytime you have the pen out, and tap with it on a text input box, it'll automatically allow you to start writing instead of using the on screen keyboard. I must say, there's some kind of Voodoo going on, because it's extremely accurate, I've even tried to intentionally write just scribbles, and it still manages to pick up what I want it to!

Very glad I got the Galaxy Note 3, it's really freaking awesome!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Galaxy Note 3 inbound

Got confirmation that the wife and I are getting our Samsung Galaxy Note 3's today. Believe me when I say I'll post a plenty of stuff on this blog about it - can't wait! WATCH THIS SPACE!!!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Which will it be - Galaxy Note 3 or Sony Xperia Z1

After Sony launched the Z1, I was very torn between that and the Galaxy Note 3. Before that, I really wanted to go big with the Galaxy Note 3, but the Sony was just such a sleek looking device, with a huge camera and all that, that I really was thinking of going that route instead.

Yesterday I phoned CellC to get started, but typically they don't stock the Z1 yet. Vodacom does, but I'm never going back them.

Also, my Galaxy S2 finally died yesterday. It just hangs at the boot up screen, no matter what I do. I'm now even trying to flash the firmware, but I'm struggling with that too. Factory resetting doesn't work either. Oh woe is me!

Anyway, CellC is selling the Galaxy Note 3 already, so I decided to watch some online reviews of the device, since it was my initial choice. There were two videos that sold me on the device:


and


Both are about 12 minutes long, and goes into quite detail on the phone. It being an awesome device is the main conclusion both these guys end up with.

I went into one of the local CellC stores yesterday, and played with one a bit - I needed to be sure, especially since I'm upgrading from a 4.3 inch device to a 5.7 inch one - that's 1.4 inches more.

At first the phone looked really big, but after 2 minutes I was already used to is - this says something, considering the thing was bolted to the table (unfortunately I couldn't play with the stylus, the guy at the counter said someone stole it. I had a nice LOL for that hehe). The screen is absolutely gorgeous, some people complain about the oversaturedness, but I again like it. Also, the interface, while still being Samsung's Touchwiz UI, is very very smooth, and in my 10 minutes of messing around with it, it didn't lag once. I watched some of the full HD moves on the demo model, and boy oh boy, they looked stunning and smooth as silk.

So, the decision has been made. I'm ordering one today, and even the wife is getting herself one as well. She had an iPhone 4, which got stolen a few months back. Her contract also just expired, and we're both moving over to CellC from Vodacom. Anyway, she was quite torn between the iPhone 5S and the Xperia Z1 - only problem is, the iPhone 5S is only being launched in South Africa on 13 December, and CellC isn't stocking the Z1 yet. 

But, after watching the above movies with me, she was also keen to have a look at it, but still wasn't completely sold. In the store, she also played around a bit, and after that we walked to the iStore, she wanted to check out the iPhone 5 - after using it for 10 seconds, she was like "meh", and said that was very anti climatic - it felt so dull after using the Note 3. So, we're both ordering our Note 3's today, she's going for a white one, I'm getting the black one. 

Some other factors I'm including in my decision:
  • Samsung is the biggest Android device maker in the world
  • They have a 2 year warranty in South Africa
  • They have accidental water and fall damage cover
  • For your first 12 months, you get 1gig of data to use at an AlwaysOn wifi hotspot
  • Their support base seems to be a bit bigger for if something goes wrong
  • You can swap out the battery (not with the Sony)
  • 4k Video (like I'll ever use that, but still, nice to know it's there for when I trade in my house for a UltraHD TV someday)
  • Physically almost the same size as the Z1, only slightly bigger
Will keep everyone posted, can't wait!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Awesome Steam Specials - 2K Games

This is one of the many many reasons I like Steam so much, just look at these awesome deals:

  • BioShock Infinite - $40.19
  • Bioshock 2 - $9.99
  • BioShock - $9.99
  • Civilization V - $14.99
  • Civ V Gods and Kings DLC - $14.99
  • Civ V Brave new World DLC - $20.09
  • Borderlands 2 - $14.99
  • Borderlands Game of the Year - $14.99
  • XCOM Enemy Unknown - $9.99 (awesome deal, 75% off!!! get it NOW!!)
  • The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - $33.49
  • X-COM: Complete Pack - $3.74
  • Spec Ops: The Line - $14.99
  • The Darkness II - $14.99
  • Mafia II - $14.99
  • Duke Nukem Forever - $9.99
There's some awesome value to be had there, check it out here - Enjoy!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Terraria 1.2 - our first day

Yes, this post is about Terraria again. I just cannot seem to get enough of this game lately. I think it's mostly because I'm playing with my good good friend Jayson the whole time (follow him on Twitter) - we actually spent the whole day yesterday playing.

This post might contain some spoilers, so don't read on if you want to experience everything yourself first.









(this gap is deliberate...)










We both started new characters, and rolled a new medium sized world. Our thoughts so far? Damn that is one huge update, and a great one at that!

We first did some exploring to both sides, and we discovered our world was rolled to have Tin instead of copper ore, and that we have the snow biome. We built a small shelter to get started with, but soon decided how we want to build our main dwelling, and ended up with this (work in progress as you can see):


Click on the image above to see the bigger picture.

So far, it's been a blast, really enjoying the changes! My favourite change so far is the ability to run up 1 block high steps, usually you had to jump continuously while running just to keep your momentum up, but this time around it's a breeze to actually go places.

We're already housing two new NPC's, the Painter guy, and the Dye guy. As you can see to the top left, I have some snow bricks that I painted green, and my cactus armor is blue and black.

A huge number of decorative changes have been made, as you can see we have various types of chests that you can get throughout the world, some paintings for our wall, a funky cactus workbench (just because we can), and the light sources have really been spruced up, they look stunning - also, you can put torches on the background wall now, which is really great.

Another cool feature is you can put bars or metal down on the ground and stack them, so our "basement" room will be our treasure room once we have a surplus of bars.

We already defeated the Goblin army, as well as the Eye of Cthulu, and we're about to break our third shadow orb (yes, our world didn't have the crimson biome).

The snow biome is lots of fun, been meeting all kinds of new enemies, and finding some really cool items (like a snowball launcher, or blizzard in a bottle!).

We've also been at the jungle, but haven't explored too much yet, but the underground jungle trees are really cool looking! Which reminds me, you now have many more kinds of wood to make furniture and all kinds of stuff with.

Gems can also be placed on the floor or on walls, plus you can make grappling hooks with gems too now.

Lastly, ROPES! This really makes getting around a breeze, and they're quite easy to come by in all kinds of containers and stuff.

Lastly, that thing next to our grandfather clock - that's called the Extranitator - finally there's a use for silt and slush blocks! You can extract all kinds of ore from silt and slush, and even gems! We were very lucky to have found one so early in our game (we also both got magic mirrors!), now it's just a case of getting huge amounts of silt and slush, and we should be a-for-away for pre-hardmode armors and stuff.

Our thoughts so far? Damn this is one big update, and an awesome one at that! Looking forward to go check out the dungeon!

Here's a list of some more items that I found that are new:

  • Chain Knife
  • Rope (with which you can make rope coils, that you can throw)
  • Flare gun
  • The extracninator
  • Paintings
  • Different kinds of chests
  • Pigment containing items with which you make dyes
  • Cactus armor
  • Wood armor
  • Tin ore and bars, together with the armor and weapons
  • 2 of the 9 new NPC's
  • Forge now looks different
  • Some vanity items (umbrella hat, eskimo hat, raincoat, raincoat hat)
  • Various kinds of wood
  • Metal doors
  • Snow bricks
  • Paint, including paint brushes and the paint scraper
  • Campfires - these increases your health regeneration, very handy
  • and lots more!