Cyberclogs

Just had my second jam tonight with fellow guitarist and bass player (John) and with the clocks going back last night, it caused some confusion for us both. John had arrived an hour early at the studio thinking it was 3pm (2pm of course since the clocks were back) so he phoned me about 2.15pm asking if I was on the way. When we got into the studio, the jam went not too bad and by the clock in the room it said 6pm so we stopped and packed up. But after I got on the train I realised it was only coming on for 6pm THEN! So we missed an hour of jamming time out of it lol, cheated by the clock. Ah well, at least I got a set of drumsticks out of it ;)

Watched the first episode of Torchwood on Sunday night and I thought it was not too bad, a bit of a different approach from Doctor Who, albeit more adult for sure. Jack Harkness was introduced back into the show quite well as he often could be confused as a taller version of Tom Cruise running round in longjohns and his blue army jacket. Although the overhead shots of him standing over the edge of the Torchwood building kind of reminded me of Batman Begins a bit much. At first I found the abundance of Welsh accents a little distracting but then as the plot developed it made it all clear they are situated there because of the rift from the Boom Town Dr Who episode. Nonetheless there is still plenty of witty writing apparent in the plots and some good humour.

Eve Myles was pretty good as Jack's new sidekick companion (or addition to the Torchwood team) and thankfully John Barrowman is still as good as he was in Dr Who. Russell T Davies has taken a more dark, adult approach with Torchwood, which is in a way pretty good cause it helps to make it stand out from Doctor Who's family audience shadow, but does it compare to Doctor Who so far? Not really, its early days but I'll wait and see what Russell will bring out over the next 13 weeks.

Been feeling a bit shitty of late, as Ive had some sort of ear infection and my left ear has been pulsing most of the week (boom boom! Basil Brush mode off). Thankfully Ive taken some nasal spray throughout the week which I think has in some way helped clear my blocked passages in my ears (well that and some acupuncture). Regardless of that Im feeling a fair bit better now, and had not a bad weekend. Out with some friends on Friday, had my jam on Saturday afternoon with a guitar player guy I contacted off the partysounds website, which went not too bad. Although the jam was a bit ropey since we just kind of chord bashed some Neil Young, Vines, Smashing Pumpkins, Chilis songs (to name but none). And to top it off afterwards went for a curry with my cousin up at Karisma just on Charing Cross. Lovely stuff. Just a shame its back to work tomorrow eh?

Well I'm pleased to say I'm about to foray back into the studio to do some jamming with a bass player guy, who answered an add I put on the partysounds website. So it'll be good to blow away the dusty cobwebs I have been having over myself these past few years while I've just loafed about playing guitar myself. I currently have a few electrics and an acoustic and it's about time I put them to good use elsewhere. So come this Saturday I will "jam!". So to speak.

While I'm waiting for something good to play on my PC again I've come across one game which has certainly got me intruiged and that is Dark Messiah of might and magic. I've already had a gander at the demo, which was pretty impressive, the combat system is pretty cool, fairly well worked out, you can also build up your experience and attack levels as you go as well as utilise magic powers. Its basically you battling against an army of orcs, ogres, trolls and other baddies, and you kick their asses and can also throw items (boxes) or whatever at them, even kick them off into an abyss.

The Dark Messiah game is farily reminiscent to that of an older game I use to favour Severance: Blade of Darkness, which was another terrific role play game, where you could basically run round and hack up your enemies. Yeah OK it was fairly brutal but it made for a pretty damn good game once you got into it (not to mention bloody hard). Dark Messiah seems to be though made of the same stuff, but actually far more varied looking and offers more to the player with its combat system and magic spells. The only snag to the game is it is based on the Half Life 2 engine, while it looks great it still suffers from the same occassional jittery frame rates as before with HL2, but not to the same extent (well so far anyway).

But it looks like one to definitely look out for and look forward to playing pretty soon.

Just heard this morning that there was an explosion round at the Parkhall shops at Hawthrone Street, which is pretty close to where I stay, during the night (about 4am). Although I stay very close, I didn't actually hear anything (sound asleep ;) about it until this morning from my boss (who also stays pretty close and she did hear it). So where the local post office and a salon use to be are now replaced with debris and waste, it's just fortunate that it happened over night. What caused the explosion no one really knows yet, except it could have been a potential gas leak, and neighbours complained of the smell of gas for the past few days. Come to think of it I too remember smelling gas on Friday outside over at my local co-op which is just across the road from the site of the explosion. Anyways no one was hurt so that's the main thing. More about this story can be found at this link:

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland

Well had quite a good night on Wednesday as I went and saw Juliette and the Licks and they were not at all bad. Admittedly most of what they played was pretty generic rock n roll type stuff, but Juliette is a great front woman (and has a good back too ;) and they played with much energy. My only other criticism would be apart from not knowing any of their stuff (well thats a self criticism really since I've only really heard a couple of their songs) was the brevity of the show as it lasted only an hour or so, so I left around 10.15pm, and that was it.

On a separate note I recently finished playing Broken Sword The Angel of death, which was (to coin Larry David) pretty good, pretty good, prettttyyyyyyy prettttyyyyy good (OK enough of that). George Stobbart is back again as the patent lawyer who finds his way into another dangerous journey which will reveal the location of the Holy Grail and he gets some familiar help along the way.

The Broken Sword series is well known for its witty dialogue and having pretty intricate plots and this latest game was no expcetion, as there were plenty of good bits of humour thrown in, too amongst the sometimes heavy exposition. Some of the puzzles and situations were fairly hard to work out but mostly its a game you can play with relative ease (or relatives). The control system however would be my main criticism as George can sometimes run off askew at strange angles, its difficult to keep him going in a straight line and the end of the game was a bit of dissapointment as its such a quick resolve and you're left saying to yourself "Is that it?!".

Nonetheless BSTAOD was a pretty good game and a nice change of pace from the usual run of the mill action adventure games out there where you run round and shoot shit up (so to speak). So I'll give it 8/10.