Garrys Mod 10…

I just purchased and downloaded the glory that is GMod 10. Behold the many varied wonders within! All created within 10 seconds using nothing but Gmod! This is quite an interesting step forward for us sandbox addicted geeks, especially with the addition of the new Hydraulic, muscle, motor and button functions.

I was very proud of my ability to resist making sex-poses and using the morph tool for nefarious, breast-enhancing means…

Illness, IE, Hilarious Cats and Arty Dogs…

I’m still ill and have mainly spent my time pottering around the house, trying to get some classic gaming bliss together (Thief: The Dark Project), downloading episodes of Lost and watching in rapture as Faith plays the truly terrifying Condemned: Criminal Origins. I also downloaded the update to IE and have been regretting it ever since. I like the new ‘tabs’ feature where all windows are stored inside one window at the top of the page, even though its taking me a while to get used to it. I never like having things grouped on the start bar like that, but the IE tabs make a lot more sense to me. What I don’t like, and which I have spent most of my time fuming about, is that it slows my connection to a crawl. Having to wait for each page to finish loading or cacheing or whatever before I switch tabs is a major bummer.

On the plus side, I made two new wallpapers of Dog from HL 2 (below) and found the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GWPOPSXGYI&NR which made me feel a lot better. Its cute, so watch it.

I also managed to crash my computer completely via Garry’s Mod (for those that don’t know, its like Lego in a game but more complex) by building a watermelon cannon five times the height of the player. I then detonated it – the soppy resulting mess I was never able to see however, as my PC crashed under the strain. See the pic below and on the right. The one on the left is a perpetual motion machine I made (invented?). The tube spins on the wheels lifts Barneys gun arms up and down, forever. The tube doesn’t even need a push at the start because of the way the wheels are angled.

Wallpaper…

I’m feeling ill today – probably because I didn’t sleep much or very well last night and I kept singing the “Hello” by Lionel Richie to Hannah in an overly sore throat. That said, my boss is ill too so I’ll attribute all the blame to him because he’s a dickhead.

Still, I was experimenting with Garrys Mod 9 again last night and made the following wallpaper – moody!

 

The Interview…

So, I arrived at the interview in the following attire: Black pinstrip shirt with striped grey jumper and dark beige suit jacket. Brown trousers, scuffed shoes. Everyone else was briefcase toting – I quickkly realised it was that kind of assessment and put a tie on.

The days event went fairly well, despite initial nerves. I found out I was one of the last five, shortlisted from a list of 40 ’serious applicants’, which I felt was a good sign. I was first up for interviewing and think I managed to hold my own despite a few fumbles – mainly to do with the salary since I would be taking a pay cut if I work there.

After that came the writing task (500 words on Bitlocker Drive Encryption Technologies), a Technical Assessment (Q: What colour is the laser in a HD-DVD burner?), a comprehension test (Underline the word slepet incorrectly) and a interviewing task (A chat with the features editor of Total BMW). I think the technical test was my weak point and that the comprehension test was my strong point, though I held my own in the writing task too. That said, it is my first proper assessment of this type for a position of this type and I found it hard to keep up with some of the competition who had done the exact same test three times before. On the plus side, from talking to them it became obvious that I beat all of them in terms of experience (except for one guy who is about level with me, except he doesn’t do web work) and I could whup them all when it game to geek-talk.

Let me put it this way: one of them thought Gears of War came out last year and another one was playing on an N-Gage. An N-gage, I ask you! Of course, all of them beat me in terms of interviewing experience, so the playing field was pretty level even though I ran into James Carey outside the office who promised to give me a great reference. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Also, a new review of mine is available – check http://www.pro-g.co.uk for the new Stronghold: Legends review. Beware, it contains elements of Cornish accents!

Joe, out.

Interview Mayhem…

My interview is tomorrow and I’ll be leaving the house at 4 in the morning in order to make it there on time. Hm, so four hours sleep before an interview for a scaled down version of my dream job? Ideal. Add on top of that the various panics and mayhems that result under stress – especially when you have my mother. On top of that it turns out its more than an actual interview – its a days worth of tests and assessments, ranging from technical assessments to comprehension tests.

Still, admist the arguements, needless mind changings and general plan-fucking-over, my mum still came out with the following pearl of wisdom regarding interview technique:

“Brush your teeth. Wear shoes.”

Joe, Out.

Cliff notes…

In a rush, very cold.

Heres the cliff notes of the last 48 hours:

Bought Splinter Cell: DS. Its jerky but good.

Saw Casino Royale. Almost as good as the Timothy Dalton films, if not better in some ways. (Spoiler ->)Le Chiffre shouldn’t have died.

New review up at Pro-G for Gothic 3.

Expect Strongholds review there soon.

New review going up soon hopefully of Pathologic over at Gamechair.

Now going to go play some No One Lives Forever 2.

Bye, Joe.

How Emabressing…

Ok, now theres just the one interview. The T3 one that I was so excited about has already been filled – apparently the message that I recieved on my phone was about two weeks old at the time I’d heard it and they’ve already interviewed etc.

I should probably check my messages more often. But hey, at least theres an interview (or actually, a more ominous sounding ‘Assessment day’) to go for. And I had my haircut today.

Joe, out.

Interviews…

I got news over the last few hours that I have not one, but two interviews at Future Publishing over the next week. One for Windows Vista Official Magazine and the other for T3, both for positions as staff writer.

Score, Mcwhore!

Wish me luck!

The Life of A Games Journalist…

The life of a games journalist is a surprisingly hectic one, especially when you work a 9-5 job that is actually 8-6. I tend to come home every other night to find a package for me with a game or two in it. Immediateley installed and played for about 2-3 hours, these games then absorb most of my evening until about 10PM. Most of these are games I wouldn’t  choose to play normally and, yet more bizzarely, many of them are games I grow to like which is mostly bizzare because I’m so charmingly grumpy. At least, I hope its charming. I’m not complaining about it or anything, if anything I’d like more games sent my way (and the occasional paycheque wouldn’t go amiss) and I really do love everything about the process of games journalism: Ring up company, demand free game, get free game, play free game and talk about free game. Cut the word free out of that and thats what I’ve been doing essentially for the last 19 years anyway.

Anyway, a cool game arrived the other day. Called Pathologic, its an incredibly interesting FPS/Adventure which sees you choose to play as one of three characters in a town where magic and superstition run rampant, orphans rule the streets and a dangerous infection is destroying the population. The game involves running around simply trying to ensure the survival of as many people as possible in this bizzare surrealist setting. Too make matters more odd, many NPCs are aware of the game. The introduce themselves as saying they are critical persons, not ‘extra characters like the guys on the streets, there to bulk up the numbers’ and that they must be protected or ‘this game might fail’. They fully acknowledge everything about the game environment, including that they will all die in 12 days of game time because ‘thats how long our little game lasts, no more.’ I especially love the idea that you choose to play one of three PCs, each with a different story, and that while you play one the computer plays the other two and continues to fight against you.

Look for my first post in a while at the Game Chair to be about Pathologic and look for it soonish. Also get ready for two new reviews on Pro-G, for Gothic 3 and Strongholds Legends: SE.

Peace out, player.

New Review…

Ok, so not much to say this time but I do have a new review up at Pro-g.co.uk. Its of The Guild II and isn’t very nice of a game which isn’t really very good.

Go, enjoy!