The Clan of the Cave Bague

Bah. I made the mistake of paying attention to something someone at work was talking about. He mentioned Eve Online and I though ‘oh, an MMO that seems to have slipped below my radar’. So, I had a look. It has a fourteen day free trial. ‘Oh well,’ I thought again, ‘nothing ventured nothing gained.’

Except it’s a Bad Thing(tm). Because, essentially, it’s like Elite. But online. And multiplayer. And simply brimming over with Space Cadet Geekiness of the highest order.

You know the drill, skulking about in an asteroid belt on the outer rim, mining asteroids and keeping an eye out for stray pirates. Setting the auto pilot to take you back home via a route of eight jump points and wandering off to make a cup of tea, keeping one ear open for the proximity alarms going off. Haggling prices on the station with other players. Doing missions. Blowing stuff up. Drooling over dirty great cruisers that you just can’t afford.

It’s Elite all over again.

Dear Activision,

Recently, my ten year old son purchased Lionhead Studios’ ‘The Movies’. On attempting to install it, however, he discovered that the DVD drive in the computer he proudly assembled himself would not read the DVD. It reads all other DVDs just fine. He asked if I could try the disk in my computer and it worked fine. Thinking that there was a problem with the disk we asked to have it replaced but were informed that, as the game had been opened, it could not be returned due to piracy concerns.

We then spotted the tiny text on the back of the game box which states that the anti-piracy software on the disk may not be compatible with all types of DVD reader. There is no list of which DVD readers are incompatible. This leads me to suggest that an exact list of incompatible devices isn’t known.

As a result of this, my son is unable to play his game unless he also shells out for one or more DVD drives until he happens upon one which you deign to support. If Activision, as a company, seriously believe they can justify treating legitimate paying customers like thieves and criminals then I suspect they’re going to have a short-lived business. I for one do not intend randomly replacing bits of hardware until a piece of Activision software approves of my configuration. I simply will not buy any more of your products, and I’ll do my best to make sure my friends and my sons friends do the same thing.

As a postscript, I have it on good authority that the only way the game can be played in our circumstance is to use the type of no-cd crack usually employed by software thieves. It would appear that the only way to play legitimate software from your company is to behave like a thief. As we’re being treated that way anyway, I suppose it makes some kind of sense.

John Dow, 23rd February 2006

Why is it that the trinity of Danny Elfman, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp can do no wrong? Yet again, this is another triumph of cinema backed with a particularly beautiful soundtrack. The only downside is that Christopher Lee doesn’t get to sing, but we can’t have everything

Ok, so the visa lodgement stuff is hard, complicated, and – well – tiresome. But there’s other practical stuff that needs to be done too. We’ve had quite a bit of change recently – I changed jobs at the beginning of this month and, because of the location of the office, I’ve been getting the bus to work. Combined with us moving, imminent car tax and service due, there really wasn’t much point in a very expensive car sitting in the driveway draining our resources, so we’re carless for the first time in a while.

Our house has sold – technically – with an entry date set for 7th April, but we still haven’t concluded the missives. I’m hoping nothing is going to go wrong with the sale because that would not be good at this point.

Our sponsors have finished fitting out a room for our boys and are starting in on our girl’s room. They’re actually coming over here for a wedding in June so, all going well, we may be flying back with them. We’ll have to wait and see on that front.

Our (clean) police reports came back during the week – we expected it to take forty days, but it only took seventeen. We haven’t had medicals done yet, so that puts our validation date (i.e. the latest we can travel to Australia to validate the visa) at mid-february next year. Assuming we don’t reapply for the police checks, that is.

So, back to waiting.

Seven hours and fifteen minutes in and I managed to rescue all the Yoshis. Hooray! It involved getting eaten by the big pink thing – which was deliberate, obviously. Ahem. Anyway, I ended up wandering about in its innards on a Yoshi hunt, before defeat0ring a big nasty boss beastie and then being part of a grand procession of Marios, Luigis, Yoshis, eggs and Toads dropping out of the dirty great pink thing’s sphincter.

And I learned a bit about the digestive system too! Who says video games aren’t educational. I know all about those coloured switches which can be hammered to open up little doors. And I know all about the little pressure sensitive springy platforms and, erm, stuff.

Ok, maybe not THAT educational, but fun nonetheless. And the Yoshis are all ok! Hooray! I was beginning to worry for a minute – unhappy Yoshis == WRONGNESS,

Oh! Which reminds me! Baby Bowser was in there as well but I can’t remember what happened to him.

Making some progress. I’m currently dotting around on Yoshi’s Island, following a traumatic experience where a big pink dinosaur had eaten all the Yoshis! Made a bit of a nob of myself but letting loose a cry of ‘no! Don’t eat the Yoshis, ye big stupid pink thing!’. On the bus. Got some strange looks.

Anyhoo, I’ve explored about and solved a number of puzzles and I’ve learned how to fill baby Mario with water then whack him with a hammer to scoosh water about the place. Which was handy, as I needed to put some fires out. I’ve also legged it all the way to the top of a cliff in an attempt to catch the annoying wizardy flappy thing that nicked my gem fragments. So, I detect a boss battle coming up. Five and a half hours in so far.

Well, had a brief moment of AAAAAAAARGHness yesterday. A bloke on a forum said that his migration agent had said that the class 136 visa had been deprioritised and the processing was running eight months behind. We’re on a category 138 visa which is quite similar but fortunately, our agent has reassured us it’s not affected by the new changes. So, phew essentially.

Our sponsor has been busily organising the boys room ready for them to arrive. They’ve also planned what promises to be a lovely christmas, with lots of visitors

Not been any updates for a few days now. I’m getting the bus into work these days, so you’d think I’d have plenty of time for gaming joy. Sadly not, though. Thing is, it’s been a very long time since I’ve got the bus anywhere at all, so it’s taking a wee while to get used to the whole travel-sicknessy thing. So, I’ve had a few gos of Astro Boy (half heartedly) and a little bit of prodding at Mario and Luigi. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it, though, so MAD ASTRO BOY SESH on the way home tonight!

It’s odd being at the west end of Edinburgh. I’ve always really tried to avoid the city centre in the past couple of years and it’s strangely gratifying to discover it’s still as horrible as I remember it

And it’s likely to stay this way for a while. Our sponsor has gone out and bought bunk beds for the boys and is busily getting their room ready! In the meantime, we’re really just sitting waiting for things to progress. The people who’re buying our house still haven’t signed the missives, so our solicitor is chasing them this week. We really need to find somewhere to rent for a few months. We also need to organise proper crates and get a handle on what we’re taking.

I think the trouble is we just don’t know where to start – there’s such a lot of organisation to do, but we don’t really want to be sitting in an empty house for the next six weeks. I guess we have to bite the bullet at some point.

Well well, it’s a Mario RPG frenzy! I’ve been playing Paper Mario 2 on the GameCube and Mario and Luigi DS on the bus! They’re both very similar games although, surprisingly enough, it’s the DS version which has the deeper gameplay, certainly as far as combat moves are concerned. In fact, some of the chained attacks, such as bouncing koopa shells around, are downright fiendish on the handheld.

Anyhoo, they’re both bright, colourful, cheerful, and exactly what’s required in the middle of winter.

In Paper Mario, I’m still on Chapter One – about to encounter my first boss.