Bliss N Eso have once again given you bang for your buck with another long album, this time 19 tracks long. But don’t think that mean that the quality of the tracks are less, each track has its own sound and feel. With many different collaborations from both other MC’s and DJ’s the tracks have a very diverse sound from start to finish. My only down point is the “skit” intro and mid way though that I feel is just a waste of time and effort on their part.

Anyone who likes any hip hop out there Aussie or aboard should give this a listen without a second thought, this may be the best Aussie Hip Hop Album of the year, if not then the album that most pushes the boundaries of what is Aussie Hip Hop. Check it out!

If you want a little taste listen to their first single from the album Down by the River

Onslaught mode is the new game type for Battlefield Bad Company 2 it’s a cross between normal multiplayer and single player. A human squad of 1 to 4 players attempts to assault positions against an army of AI’s units. It’s great it allows for you to play similar to online play in the squad mode but allowing different options of numbers and difficulty. I have so far enjoyed it, myself and EnergiserX played through all the level the first weekend it was released and enjoyed the change in game play and strategy.

Now for the bad part, since that time I’ve played some games with Lostagent2 a few private games without a problem (can’t wait to get all 3 of us going together) but when I’ve joined in some public sessions with Lostagent2, problems exist with not lag like in normal online play but instead the AI’s have an almost god mode enabled, that I’ve unloaded clips into an enemy without causing any damage, walls from buildings destroyed and the AI hiding behind unaffected by the explosion. Although from my experience not all players in a public game are affected by this at the exact same time but it is intermittent and a death does not fix the problem.

So once again I find myself saying EA fix the problem with lag and poor servers with over 5 million copies sold across 3 platforms there should be something being done and quickly!

The album has 2 sides the faster tempo and the nice and chilled sounds towards the end of the album. Normally when you get a very diverse album, it is considered a concept album or the bands heading in a new direction but for Lowrider this is just business as usual. And this makes it a good listen for any mood you might be in.

Now there isn’t much more I can say about this album, you will either love it hate it there is no middle ground to be had, I just hope there is more love shown to a great Australian band.

Check out their single: Here We Go

This theme is based loosely off my old theme Ecologist by Theme Museum in style but built from the new standard theme Twenty 10. The biggest thing you will notice is the header image which is a standard feature in this latest version. So I had to design image that would go with the style and theme of my blog.

The image was designed in 3 simple layers.

1. The original colour image – Cropped and positioned into the required size
2. Then an overlay copy of the image that was gray scaled and given the effect of lens blur.
3. The crosshair placed over the image and merging of the other 2 layers inside the crosshair to have the colour and detail come through.

The image is originally from Battlefield Bad Company 2, a game that I have made a few posts about since its release early in the year (both good and bad).

Some of the new feature highlights for WordPress 3.0:

• WordPress and WordPress MU have merged, allowing the management of multiple sites (called Multisite) from one WordPress installation.
• New default theme “Twenty Ten” takes full advantage of the current features of WordPress.
• New Custom Menu Management feature, allows creation of custom menus combining posts, pages, categories, tags, and links for use in theme menus or widgets.
• Custom Header and Custom Background APIs.
• Contextual help text accessed under the Help tab of every screen in the WordPress administration.
• Ability to set the admin username and password during installation.
• Bulk updating of themes with an automatic maintenance mode during the process.
• Support for Shortlinks.
• Improved Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies including hierarchical (category-style) support. (Try the Custom Post Type UI or GD Custom Posts And Taxonomies Tools plugins to see the possibilities.)
• A lighter admin color scheme to increase accessibility and put the focus more squarely on your content.

So in all the new version seems good, I’ve still got some playing to go with all the new features and if you’re interesting in some more info about the new WordPress version check out the video below.

I think the game is great and the multiplayer is one of the best for a war game I’ve played in recent years but the lag that we are experiencing is that bad it may cause me to stop playing the game.

Our theory for the increase in lag has come as a result that every update appears to have increased lag to the game. When the game was first released except the fact it didn’t have enough resources dedicated for all the players the gaming experience was smooth and had next to no lag. Over the few months the game has become worst normally after an update and even with the major increase of dedicated resources has not improved the problem.

During this session common lag experiences included:

• Moving through walls or other solid objects
• Fall through the floor both on the ground and upper levels or buildings
• Weapons not reloading correctly even with the reload animation completing
• Weapons swapping back and forth when changing weapons
• Dying many seconds after you have been shot
• Enemy’s not taking damage when shot.

All these work together to make a much less enjoyable gaming session which will cause gamers to stop playing the game and will give EA Games a bad reputation for poor quality of services.

So EA Games fix the damn problem!

Rockstar Games is considered one of the best for this ‘open world’ style of play with the success of the GTA (Grand Theft Auto) series, but for Red Dead instead of trying to be a realistic and serious like in the latest GTA 4 its gone back to its older style that I believe is less serious and much more enjoyable game. Which I personally feel to be one of the best Rockstar ‘open world’ games to date.

This is a true western as it can be; you spend most of your day on horseback riding around the country side helping others or yourself from bandits and the at times some very dangerous wildlife. With your trusty collection of weapons including your sidearm rifle, knife, dynamite or even your lasso to catch or kill whatever is in your path.

The game play is good; though at times I found it to be a little slow for my controls with the action cut scenes but other than that I think this is a great game and a must buy for anyone who likes a good shooter with an even greater story or a Rockstar fan like myself.

If you’re not convinced check out this trailer:

The game has been set out like a TV series with distinctly defined chapters (or episodes) which have an opening of “previously on Alan Wake” and ending music for each chaptered. If this was a TV series it would be defined as a paranormal thriller and that’s exactly what it is.

You spend your time looking over your back to make sure something isn’t about to get you from behind. While Alan Wake has his voice over telling you what’s happening as if you were sitting there watching TV.

The game play itself can be a little poor at times which normally comes when you are playing a 3^rd person shooter, though although you do have a gun is far from a traditional shooter. The camera seems to have a strange angle movement that at times makes it hard to see around there you want to look. This with the at times blurry outlines of figures may be the planned results of the game designers but one thing that really gets me is poor camera movement in 3^rd person mode. The story is where this game excels due to the fact it’s been written like a TV series with many cliff hangers to keep you interested  with the I’ll just see what happens next style that turns it into a 3 hour sit down without even noticing.

You can’t help but feel the writers have had a laugh when they were writing some of the dialog and small cinematic which helps to keep the flow of the game though the very dark and at times just plan strange.

I would recommend this game to anyone who likes a bit of a thriller and the what was that sound in their games. If you are still a little unsure check out the trailer.

At the very nice looking and large international airport, we made our way through quarantine, immigration (took for ever) and the all important customs which we walked straight through without having to declare a thing or having our bags checked – only being asked “Why we take so long?”

Our trip in the private car to the hotel I think has taken a few years of my life. Lostagent2 defined it as “ordered chaos,” which it is, and something that is rather interesting to see. The only rule seems to be dont crash. Pedestrians have no rights on the road even at crossings.

The place we are staying in seems ok, all the staff are friendly and there are some interesting items in the room to purchase including vibrating condoms and a compressed towel that you just add water to uncompress it.

 I tipped the bell hop 5 RMB which when converted to AUD is $0.80. We have been joking about that since not knowing if it was a good amount to give or not.

We have already experienced the Great Firewall of China, finding both Twitter and Facebook (who uses it anyway) blocked from access. That means no more stupid remarks till I get home.

For dinner we had some very nice duck but what was more impressive was the beer, 600ml bottles of the local beer. Although the beer isn’t that cold compaired to back home, it stayed the same temp for the entire time we were drinking and with the dew point in the minus we don’t get any condensation.

The version I purchased comes with two lenses the standard Nikon VR 18 – 55 mm and the higher zoom Nikon VR 55 – 200 mm. While in China I plan to get a wide-angle lens to allow me to take pictures of the Great Wall of China.

Nikon D5000 DSLR Key Features:

• 12.9 megapixel DX-format CMOS sensor (effective pixels: 12.3 million)
• 2.7″ tilt and swivel LCD monitor (230,000 dots)
• Movie capture at up to 1280 x 720 (720p) 24 fps with mono sound
• Live View with contrast-detect AF, face detection and subject tracking
• Image sensor cleaning (sensor shake)
• 11 AF points (with 3D tracking)
• IS0 200-3200 range (100-6400 expanded)
• 4 frames per second continuous shooting (buffer: 7 RAW, 25 JPEG fine, 100 JPEG Normal)
• Expeed image processing engine
• Extensive in-camera retouching including raw development and straightening
• Connector for optional GPS unit (fits on hot shoe)
• New battery with increased capacity
• 72 thumbnail and calendar view in playback

 After playing with the camera the last few days, I’m very happy with my purchase and think that Nikon’s D5000 DSLR will be exactly what I’ll need while in China visiting the great and interesting sites that are on offer.

Look out over the coming weeks for my posts from China.

My setup is in a bedroom so the bed and bean bag is used as the seating in front of the TV Unit. In the TV unit I have:

Samsung 32 Inch LCD High Definition TV at 720p/1080i with HD Digital Tuner (LA32R81BD)

Samsung 250GB Hard Disk DVD Recorder (DVDHR755)

Xbox 360 Elite (black)

Media PC just a custom built pc running Windows Media Centre, some interesting points:

• Hauppauge Nova-T-500 MCE Dual DVBT SD/HD Tuner (NOVA500MCE)
• Logitech diNova Mini Palm Sized keyboard with media and ClickPad (920-000900)
• 3 terabytes of storage

BenQ 20.1 Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor (FP202WA)

KENWOOD Amplifier  6.1 Channels Receiver  surround sound Dolby Digital® • DTS® • DTS ES® • Dolby Pro Logic II • DTS Neo:6 • THX® (KRF-V6090D)

All connections are done through digital means allowing for the best possible picture and sound. The input devices (Xbox, PC, DVD player) to the TV run through HDMI cables and the TV is connected to the amp through a fibre optic sound cable. Also the monitor is connected to the Media PC directly allowing for multiply items accross both screens. Below is a diagram of the layout.

Although not part of the media setup what I believe to be another important part of my setup is the in cupboard bar, including a bar fridge, area for mixing drinks, a shelf for the good stuff and independent lighting.

Because drinking is always a good addition to a fun gaming session with friends and something that should always be considered.