Archive for the 'Friends' Category

24JanLeeds: The return

I’m not long since back and I’m pretty darned tired, so it’s going to be a really short post because I’m going for a sleep!

Overall I had a really good time and although we didn’t go to the Taps we did get to go to Halo(!) so I was really happy about that one, and it was fantastic. It’s everything you’d hope from a converted church nightclub, massive stained glass windows, elevated DJ’s booth, smoke, lights, amazingly loud and clear sound… oh yeah, and Faithless! It was amazing. We also did The Arc, Bourbon, The Box and a few other places, so we got to see more of the sights and sounds of the Leeds night scene, a few I hadn’t seen before too, so I was happy about that.

Unfortunately the hotel we stayed in was quite frankly a disgrace, it was an absolute shit-hole, the second beds didn’t have any sheets (in any of the rooms), so thinking about how many people have slept on a bare mattress (or worse) and in one of the three rooms we had (thankfully not mine) there was blood on the mattress, so I don’t envy whoever slept on that. The shower doors had no handles (and a glory hole into the shower as a result), no locks on the toilets, no toilet paper in one of the rooms (ours did) and all “three bedroom rooms” were actually 1 double bed and one single bunk above, and despite being meant for 3 people, only included 2 towels. There isn’t one redeeming feature about the Etap hotel, so don’t stay there. Ever. Oh, and there were a load of people who thought that shouting down the hallways and banging doors made for a better alternative than being civil and sleeping… So now you understand why I’m actually tired.

in Friends. 1 Comment

23JanLeeds: A night out

Tonight I’ll be going out with a bunch of friends in Leeds to celebrate my friend Matthews 26th Birthday. If you’ve never been to Leeds for a night out then quite frankly you’re missing out, it really is rather fantastic and has pubs, bars and clubs to suit every one of your needs.

I’m hoping we’ll cover a few places I’ve been before, like the Taps and The Arc and also finally going somewhere I’ve always wanted to go, Halo, a nightclub made from a converted church that plays dance music. The only real problem we may have is that there’s only 2 of us who like dance music who are going, so I can unfortunately see it being skipped in favour of indie music (which I really don’t like) or RnB which is okay, but I don’t do dancing (because I really can’t), but I do hope we will, it looks absolutely fantastic.

This is a rather short post because I’ll be getting picked up soon and still need to find a way to get ready, get packed and get my stupid hair cut… so much to do, so little time. Preparation fail.

in Friends. 0 Comments

03JanTen for 2010 on Twitter

I have now been a consistent Twitter user for 12 months and in that time I’ve had the pleasure of meeting some rather wonderful people from different backgrounds who have had similar interests to myself and who have gone on to become people I would call friends. Below are a list of 10 people I have added to Twitter over the last 12 months, and without knowing beforehand made 2009 a much better experience online. These people all remained consistent, helpful and most importantly, informative.

They are in alphabetical order.

Continue reading ‘Ten for 2010 on Twitter’

in Friends. 2 Comments

19DecAnd It’s Level Again…

On Friday 12th December my second Microsoft Xbox360 packed in after once again getting an E74 video error, lower right quadrant GPU error (I’m still yet to encounter the 3RROD – common… apparently). The error reared its ugly head after I had begun playing Fallout 3 which had run absolutely flawlessly until a shootout over the wastelands where the video display simply went tits up. The only way I can describe it is by way of comparison – a comparison to many hollywood movies where computers receive a virus only for the screen to jump around with purple and green all over the place. If I’m being honest, I originally thought it was something in the game, but the realization quickly dawned that this was not the case, but after turning the console off and back on it became apparent that the console had passed.

Annoyingly that puts me on my 3rd Xbox360 and 3rd Playstation 3, 6 true next gen consoles in 3 years… not good.

The annoying thing was that I had a friend staying over that night, bringing his console and we were going to get some co-operative Rainbow Six Vegas 2 completed, sadly the death of my console took place 10 minutes before he arrived.

The console itself was over 12 months old (14 to be precise) from it’s manufacture date, so it sadly was no longer covered for a hardware failure outside of the 3RRoD. I also have no money to purchase another one and with Xmas coming it really wasn’t the best news. This is where my awesome friend came to my rescue (again), Catherine, who managed to get my console swapped in at GAME for a new model. This trade took place on Wednesday 17th and I’m happy to say, works beautifully. Sadly it wasn’t a new Jasper model which was really disappointing, but I will probably buy a new console next year anyway.

This is why, for those wondering, why I haven’t been seen on Xbox Live for the last week. Thankfully everything was rectified before Xmas, another week and it would have been hell.

in Friends. 2 Comments

16OctIt Cost Me £70 and Took Over a Year…

… But Halo 3 is finally completed.

Finish(ed) The Fight

Finish(ed) The Fight

It’s not strictly true that it took over a year.. It took a few nights playing it 4 player over Xbox Live with some friends from a forum I frequent, Boat-Drinks, with fellow blogger, Jen (Halycopter), Daz and Leowyatt. We were led by the battle-hardened Daz who had already completed it, but needed a few of the hidden skulls which he’d missed on a previous run through (there are skulls hidden on every level – these are just Halo’s version of hidden items – but with added gameplay bonuses) and it was an onslaught of action, laughter and at some points, terrible playing skills, but we made it through okay and I must say that it was a fantastic laugh.

Much like Halo 1, a game I never completed on my own, it was muchly enhanced playing it co-operatively, though this time over the Internet rather than playing through it Splitscreen. Halo games have always struck me as rather social games as opposed to intense, action hungry shooters and for that reason it works – they are clearly marmite games with most PC gamers I know hating it as they have only been able to complete it in solo mode where I understand their frustrations.

We collected all the skulls, completed all the levels and then, once completed, went back and got the Vidmaster challenge for completing the last level in 4 players co-op over Xbox Live, on Legendary difficulty, finishing in Ghosts (a vehicle) with the Iron skull active, which meant that should any of the four of us die before reaching a checkpoint, rather than respawning when your teammates are in a safe location as is normally the case with Halo, you all die and return to the previous checkpoint – anyone who’s played Halo 3 will know that on the last level there is one rather tasty battle which took us a good chunk of time to get done – a section where my multiple teamkills with the Shotgun wasn’t the most beneficial action.

The achievement took us 2 hours to get and is worth a staggering ZERO points, but I’m rather proud of it, though sadly despite it unlocking on my console (viewable through my gamertag) it hasn’t unlocked on xbox.com, so I’m hoping that it comes through with the next achievement I unlock.

All in all it’s a great game that I under-appreciated originally and in co-op, just like the first game, it shines. To think you can pick this game up for £10 then I’d recommend it to anyone and everyone if you can get someone to play with – it will go down as one of the great co-operative games of all time alongside titles like Halo, Crackdown and Sven Co-Op for me (the latter of which I hope a massive re-make is made for Half-Life 3).

in Friends and General. 4 Comments

29JulI’ve Started It!

For those of you who keep pestering me to start it, just to let you know, I have. I had that much to play that I waited for Matthew to return from South Africa as he was a massive fan of the first one and loves Stealth games, so with a game of such magnitude I thought it would be a good thing to do, especially as I’d heard that MGS4 was much more like the first game than the second.

I started it on Sunday 27th and I’m still waiting for the opening cut-scene to finish. :p.

I won’t comment on this game until it is completed, however my first impressions are almost all positive, I’m very happy I waited to get a DualShock 3 before playing, it really is a much superior control pad to the Six-Axis.

in Friends and Video Games. 1 Comment

22JunNew Layout At Halycopter!

Frequent blogger and blogrollee, Haly has updated her blog with a spanking new layout and I can honestly say, I love it! It’s so much better than her last one and almost as good as mine ;) .

She’s also updated a lot of her reviews from other sites which firstly makes it an excellent read and secondly shows just how lazy I’ve been writing my own.

Get over there and comment on her new layout!

Go to Halycopter!

in Friends. 8 Comments

Twitter