Xbox360 game review - Lost Odyssey

Lost Odyssey. Can you say "Booooorrrrring"?

I bought this game from the microsoft employee store with my MVP credits - and I have to say I am sooo glad I didn't pay actuall money for it.

True, it has amazing graphics (unreal engine!). True, it has 4 DVDs crammed into a single DVD case. True, it is an RPG (which I usualy get addicted to fast). But it is just boring! I can't bring myself to continue playing with it, after I reached the credits!.

The game puts you in the shoes of some warrior that for some reason survives a meteor crash that killed everyone else on the battle field. It turns out someone put an immortality spell on you, so you can't die (but that doesnt stop you dying in the game) and now the council wants you to check on a magical facility that has dropped off the radar. This is as far as I got before chucking my controller on the table and switching to Worms.

What is so bad? first, the dialogs - aweful. I wish more people would learn from blizzard and bioware. Heck, I'd settle for just having subtitles rather than those uncomfortable speeches that have nothing to do with how people actually talk. not to mention the strage silances in between lines, or the lack of coordination between how the character looks and how it sounds.


Want more? try the battle. This is the wierdest battle method ever. I actually like turn based battles - if you do them sensibly. Try KOTOR for nice pause-attack battle. Try Heroes of might and magic for a turn based attack model that is nice (PC game). But in this game? the game pauses, lets you choose an action, target an enemy (so far so good) and (ready for this?) shows you a video of you rushing at the enemy with your sword and hitting it. Then each of the enemies does the same. with a video. again, and again and again. arrrrggg! no wonder it takes people ages to finish the game - just the battles must take months to finish!


Now, I am not sure how the game is after you get to the first city, but getting to the first city is pretty damn linear. Reminded me of dungeon siege II (which isnt good) - you just walk in a straight line, with very tight borders around you.

So all in all, I will give it 3.5 our of 10, just because of the graphics. If I ever get bored again, I may go back to play it and maybe discover why so many people gave it such good reviews.

I bought Wii Fit

In my quest to obtain the perfect body, I recently (2 days ago) bought myself the Wii Fit.

Apart from it having an attitude problem (it said I was clumsy and I probably tripped a lot, I can’t argue with that) it seems like a fun little toy.

It really tries hard to engage with you in a chatty matey sort of way, it will not, however be my friend 24 hours a day no matter what it says.

After a brief set up period to add your weight and age it tries to establish your balance. This is my first gripe.. Although the balance process works very well it does take a little while to get used to, so its first test it uses to establish your Wii age is frustrating as you only get about 2 practices before it gets locked in and it calculates your ‘physical age’. It is that reason alone I am blaming for my 50+ age....not the wine, food and lack of exercise.

After this is works out your BMI (Im not discussing this at all, suffice to say its demoralizing) it uses this BMI to try to work out a goal for you to aim for, x weight lost in y weeks/months (I think .2 Kgs over 2 months is a worthy goal). It uses this goal to encourage you to keep on using the system.

Wii Fit does try to inform and engage with you, it explains the advantages of having good balance and posture, and gives you guidance in setting your goals. All good ways of trying to create a relationship with the system I guess. But it is still a computer game and I can still turn it off or drop it into a bath if it irritates me.
The exercises seem well thought out and fun and there is a wide variety of them. They are broken up into 4 areas Yoga, Strength, Endurance and Balance.

The balance part is fun and makes very good use of the weight sensing functions of the board. Games like skiing and hoola-hoop are a riot.

The strength was good as well using the board to sense your twisting action as well as being able to do push ups by using the board to place you hands on. It uses this to give some pretty accurate feedback (the only reason I stopped my push ups is that I had an itchy nose) and it lets you know what you are doing wrong.

The endurance has a jogging component which you use the Wii remote in your pocket or hand and jog on the spot or run like a moron around the room. The feedback also seems accurate to sense if you are running to fast or slow.

I did not try the Yoga. I can’t even touch my toes (must be due to my outlandish BMI), but I will pluck up the courage soon to do it.

All in all it seems well thought out, Wii fit wants to help you attain health nirvana. The exercises are not overly long and there is a wide variety to get a complete work over and to provide some variety. And I can see the value in the exercises and I know they would help if I were more committed.

My only gripes are I don’t need a computer to tell me how fat or clumsy I am.. I know that. But that is just a personal judgment; I know its little heart is in the right place and its only trying to look after me.

I would also like a free practice area where I don’t have to sign on as a ‘user’ I just want to play some of the games (And my daughter want to play them as well) without being assessed or judged(I haven’t really looked this hard for one to be honest).

My thoughts and more to come...

Israeli researchers make electricity by photosynthesis

check it out!

Israeli researchers make electricity by photosynthesis

So funny it is sad. Bad bad science

Here is another scammer saying he has a free energy machine. Read him - funny as hell.

WTF of the day

I sent these to www.thedailyWTF.com but Alex never published them. So here you are!


The following is a very novel way for a date control - just put all possible dates of a year in a drop down!





TomTom know that ActiveX may be spooky to some users. That is why they tell you they are going to run an ActiveX, in a very helpful dialog - with so many options!







Can anyone tell me where spybot want me to go from here? The link in the "available documents" section is the link I just opened!

WTF of the day

Google toolbar spelling - it seems that most people need to be told to wait twice:


How I hate people who write lousy surveys. And Gigabyte take the crown with these uncomprehensible questions, and the fact that if you submit without filling all the questions, the form resets and you have to fill the answers all over again. (click on the picture to be able to read the text. It is so sad it is hilarious)

I especially liked "Please rate your level of completeness functions currently available"

HTPC update

Ok - here is an update.
I returned the CF cards to the store that sold it to me, got some of the money back for them and installed Vista to get rid of linux which annoyed me - I just couldnt find my way around.

In vista I installed all the drivers for my case, and I am proud to say that the remote now works as it should - and i configured it to use VLC (the best video player in the market).


Sadly I still didnt find a good library tool - does anyone know anything?

Oh - about the HDMI not working. it turns out that my motherboard is not compatible with my TV. Samsung are saying they dont support connecting computers, only consumer electronics, while gigabyte claim the motherboard supports the highest level of HDMI standards that other consumer electronic do. end result - I am screwed.