Let’s see :
Dinner eaten – check
In game munchie stockpile – got plenty
In game booster stockpile – got enough
Out of game munchie stockpile – sorted by Tesco trip
Home in time to not rush – extraordinarily yes
Chair hit with hammer – yes
Drinkies – sorted
Uninterrupted time ? – hope so
Internet connection – seems fine
Tactics read – yes but I know I’ll forget before raid time
I know I’m forgetting something …
Oh – better disappear to disconnect phone from wall and turn the mobile off.
I have a few 40K books I must get around to at some point….
Scratch off another one for the A to Z 🙂
This time it was Titanicus by Dan Abnett. It’s set in the Warhammer 40k universe but whereas the others go for a mere mortal scale with flesh and bone and superhuman enhancement, this one looks into the world of the Titan. These are 80 meter tall machines along the lines of the war machines in HG Wells’ War of the Worlds. Except the War of the Worlds machines would be not fit to lace up the boots (or tighten its nuts) of one of these monsters.
And it’s not just a couple of these monster machines, the initial pages tells of 174 that have arrived on the hive world of Orestes for pillage, murder and all those other things that come with an insane army that worships evil gods of Murder, Disease, Pleasure and Change.
At 600 pages, it’s a fairly medium length book that keeps the action going through vignette engagements early on that bring home the mismatch between God Machine and mere mortal soldier. Later on, the Imperial relief forces arrive and start their Execution (campaign to take on those 174 engines). Weaved in, there is plenty here that shows the perspective of the Mechanicus (the engineers of the Imperium) and how the rest of the Imperium sees them. They all seem like good well adjusted people too, which is definitely not the impression you get from reading of the Space Marines.
We even have a little bit of intrigue coming in too, although I was left a little nonplussed by the reason for that. Seemed a bit like padding that distracted from the other heroes that grace the pages here.
I tend to judge a book by how quickly I run through it and I got through these 600 pages quite quickly. It’s good stuff and essential reading for anyone who’s interested in the Warhammer 40k universe. The action defocuses at times but then again, that also brings across a sense of how the Engine people see it as they have to cope with the imperfect conditions of the battlefield.
Will I read it again at some point ? Quite possibly, although it’s not right at the high standards of a Heinlein or Niven book.
Would I recommend it ? People who haven’t had the Warhammer 40k introduction, go for another 40k book so you’re not lost in all the Imperium, Mechanicus, Magistratum, Astartes etcetcetc terms.
If you already know what the four terms in the last paragraph mean, you need to read this book. Nuff said. Now, what’s next ?
Blip count was about 3 per Babylon 5 episode … I guess that means my neglected Xbox will be seeing some service for further troubleshooting.
(If there's blips with the Xbox, then it's the amp. No blips means I upgrade to a 3d capable blu-ray player)
Something that’s caused me a lot of frustration over the last few months is the new sound system.
Don’t get me wrong – the sound quality out of it is awesome. It’s been a massive upgrade over what I had before. There’s just one small issue – when watching dvd’s, there will at random intervals be a break in sound for about a second or so.
So – what do I know ?
Music plays back 100% fine. This comes in through an optical fibre link via network streaming. I’ll have this going for many hours at a run, which proves there’s nothing wrong with the main circuits of the amplifier. I.e. it’s not an overheating thing.
Blu ray discs (I believe) play back just fine. And they look and sound awesome. Lossless DTS Master Audio is as good as it’s going to get. The sound field makes 2d feel like 3d.
I say believe there because I can’t remember (not) hearing the audio silence blip. Much more research required there I think.
Where’s it going wrong ? I firmly believe now it’s a dvd only problem. It’s been happening over multiple discs, like several Babylon 5 dvds, Titan AE, Attack of the Clones. The list goes on and I don’t believe there’s a link as the quality of the material is both at the high end and the low end.
High end – Attack of the Clones is as high quality a dvd (in terms of production) as it’s going to get.
Low end – Babylon 5 was a decent series but the quality of transfer to dvd is very, very patchy (more below)
What have I tried lately ?
New firmware in the blu-ray drive. Firmware is the instructions that’s buried in most electronics. It’s the electronics that Make Things Go. I’d been holding off on this because I didn’t want the new firmware to cause more trouble but I’ve finally bitten the bullet.
Reset to factory settings. It’s always worth a shot.
A Plan B. This means using a different cable to take the sound. Tried it – the quality difference is noticeable though. Sound through HDMI is crystal clear, whereas sound through the old style link seems muffled somehow.
Disabling all the Clever Stuff. This is the fanciness that turns on the TV or amp with the blu-ray player. However, one possible cause is “HDMI handshake” problems, where the blu-ray player and amp have an argument over what they can both do. Result – a second or so of confusion.
Next in mind is to use my Xbox360 as a dvd player. That will send the picture & sound via HDMI, the path that doesn’t work so well with the blu-ray player. This will prove once and for all whether the problem is in the amp or the player. I reckon it’s the player having issues with dvd, seeing as I believe blu-ray discs are ok.
I’m currently testing things out by watching a few Babylon 5 episodes, which brings me back to that More Later.
The script and story quality is very good with Babylon 5. The CGI was years ahead of its time and still comes over pretty well on a High Def screen. It’s very crude by the standards of today’s telly and definitely today’s games but still looks good. What’s surprising is the quality of the live action camera scenes. Most of the scenes are sharp but there’s a few where the high def shows up a huge amount of noise in the transfer. Things like the noise turning up as background snow in the image and sound that’s “not quite right”. It’s definitely Babylon 5 because I don’t see it in anything else.
Ahhh – more research required. Which means more watching of Babylon 5 episodes, hoping that the new firmware has cleaned up the sound. If not, the next steps are :
Watching a few episodes with the lesser quality audio
Watching episodes via the Xbox
Researching which 3d capable blu-ray player to buy
I hear growling noises … Time for munchies !
PS I could comment on “blip count so far” but my superstitious side is telling me that as soon as I do, the blips will start up again.
I have a suspicion … The time I find a lady cricket nut who's idea of fun is to watch some nutter do the headless chicken thing running around the cricket field, is the day I'll be forced to quit the game for good.
Mind you, if that coincidence does happen, it might not be long !
Girls definitely make life far more interesting (and fun) than it could be or would be (heaven forbid!) without them…..
Met a nice one last night, funny and a Star Trek/BSG geek!
There’s a quote by the late Robert Heinlein (and by lots of others too) :
“What a wonderful world it is that has girls in it”
I’m struggling at the moment, through the after effects of things like new shoes, the cold and the various long term niggles that I carry around with me. I try to keep my shoes going as long as I can, because I know that when I do change, there will be a few weeks where they will dig holes in the back of my feet (achilles area). Gets a bit sore and distracting. I have other niggles too, like the continuing saga of the audio blips on the amp … (they’re still happening but I have progress and an idea).
So – struggling on the whole but surviving with a little help. Where’s the help coming from ? Well, I wanted to give a special mention to the online people, which brings me back to that quote …
When I’m in Warcraft, there’s often calls of “Ice – come on Mumble”. “Ice” is my nickname to the Warcraft people, short for Iceangel. Mumble is the voice chat software we use when people in the guild are doing things together. Usually that’s instanced dungeons where 5 of us will team up to spank the bad guys. Or there’s just generally kicking back and having a natter.
I’ve been very lucky in that when the guild on The Maelstrom server broke up, I was welcomed into the Violence Reborn guild as they moved to a different server. The core of VR is Swedish although, as is the norm for online game guilds, it has turned truly multinational. We’re all Horde out for a good time. We also stick by each other, which can be tough when you start getting involved with the wider WoW community (think toys escaping from prams). We have fun with our mistakes, whereas people picked up at random just leg it or get an “it’s not my fault, must be your’s” attitude which isn’t helpful.
The blokes in the guild tend to be fairly quiet (although if you start talking WoW Theory, they turn Juggernaut), it’s the ladies who make the guild what it is. It starts with the Swedish accents. But it’s mainly the free spirited, uninhibited Wanna Have Fun attitude they bring in. They don’t take things too seriously, never forgetting that it’s a game and games are supposed to be Fun.
They’ll quite happily drag the boys along with them too. There’s two cases recently where I had the privilege to be included :
Instance run with Shidra and Alex. Alex was being a bit quiet, this was the Shidra show. There was me, trying to learn the place we were in and the rest of the group were nattering away as if they were wanting to get the words out before rationing came in. And it was insane too. I started grinning early and by the end of the activities, I couldn’t help myself, the Cheshire Cat Grin and laughter was threatening to turn my noggin into a Flip Top Head.
The other one is just the other night, which starts with an “Alex is singing on Mumble” in guild chat. Gotta check that out, so I join the voice comms server. Within minutes, I’m grinning from ear to ear again and laughing along with the rest of ’em. And that “drag the boys along with them” thing ? Yep. Couldn’t help myself, I joined in late with the singing too. And my mic headset is so dusty from disuse, I have to get Rentokil out to fight off the Dust Bunnies before I let it near my head.
A little laughter is good for the soul, so you can probably imagine the boost that comes from being involved in this select group of people.
The Mercs had one or two ladies around too, although they tended not to stay too long. I suspect they didn’t want to stay around because of some of the drama the guild had (some of which was centred around me !). Caira was pretty special though, would love to know how Caira & Auraka are doing now.
It’s not just in game though. It’s the people on Facebook and the people at work. I still seem to be a favourite of the Canteen Girls (although that has implications on my waistline). I’ve been lucky with work as well as with the VR people, it’s a pressure project but we all pull together to get through the work and solve the problems. There’s one of us who’s trying to give up smoking at the moment … I’m passing on tubes of mints (I keep ’em to moderate excess stomach acid) to help her beat the cravings. She’s probably through half my supply by now but if it helps liberate her from smoking, it’ll be so Worth It.
Wait … Why am I still writing this blog post when I could be in game seeing what the VR Girls are up to ? Cya !
PS English is the second language for a lot of the VR people, they tend to talk in Swedish in places like Facebook. Which is where Google Translate comes in … It doesn’t translate everything but it does a great job. Oh – and even though it’s a second language, their English is far better than some of what I read and hear from people born and raised in this country …
Ahh – what's the difference though between reading a book again and watching a movie or a TV series again ?
Movie = 2 hours
Book = 5 days
Also, I tend to have *many* more books stacked up to be read than movies to be watched…
Ahh – what's the difference though between reading a book again and watching a movie or a TV series again ?
Saying that though, the little touches that do setting up for later are usually harder to see in a movie unless they hit you over the head with it.