Hey! Are you here for the MachineCAST? Or a blog post from me?
Well those, plus more, are now available at a new place!
Get thee to Musings of a British Gamer! Over there, not only will you find periodic blog entries, you'll also find the MachineCAST - plus a dedicated archive of them all - as well as updates on articles from my job writing for OneMetal. It's all there, and it couldn't be easier to follow it!
See you on the flip side!
-Kit
Goodness, I'm tired. Regardless, I've been slaving for hours to bring you the first episode of the New CAST. The link's below, please let me know what you think!
Hello!
You might have noticed that there hasn't been a MachineCAST for quite some time. I feel I owe you all an apology. But more importantly, I feel I owe you an explanation of why I've been gone, and what's going to happen.
Firstly, the summer holidays are a much more hectic time than I anticipated, and they're much less organised. Plans can be made, rewritten and cancelled at the drop of a hat, and this has led to a number of missed CASTs. In my normal school year, I have a fixed time for making the shows and I guess that helps keep it regimental and neat alongside all the other things I do.
Secondly, my mic's bust. I'm in the process of searching for a newer, high-quality USB one due to an accident that's happened with the mic socket on my PC.
So here's what's going to happen:The MachineCAST will resume next week, on Friday 10th September. That's a promise. And if I break it you can all send me messages about how my voice is all annoying. Some changes have happened round these parts too:
I hope this update at least makes up a bit for the total lack of MachineCASTs this holiday. I hope you can all forgive me - and I hope even more that you'll watch the rejuvenated series.
This week, I do a brief roundup of the most important news from E3, as well as putting forward my own opinions on how stuff may turn out in the end.
Apologies for any vocal slip-ups or errors - I am suffering from very severe hayfever. I am attempting to work around the problem but quality of MachineCASTs may decline slightly until I can solve it or until after summer, whichever comes first!
The episode will only begin playing once you click on the "Play" icon.
The episode will begin playing immediately.
The episode will begin playing immediately after a brief advertisement.
It's a busy time of year for me. Exams, cadets and now work experience must all come into the fray, but I can happily report that the MachineCAST will return next week, on Friday 18th June!
The problem is, there will be a number of cadet things in late June and early July, cutting off the possibility of CASTs in those weeks. Thankfully, to make up for it, there will be a week of varied CASTs in mid-to-late July (dates TBA). However, I can't just talk about games that week, so four out of the five CASTs that week will discuss things other than video games - and you guys get to say what they're all about!
Monday: ...
Tuesday: ...
Wednesday: ...
Thursday: ...
Friday: Games (Normal MachineCAST)
If I decide to use one of your suggestions, I will assign it a place in the week, and as a small prize, your GameSpot avatar will dot the "i" in the MachineCAST's symbol for that episode so everyone knows you chose the topic! If you don't have an avatar, make sure you do!
As I've said, exams are coming up. But the stress is mounting and I'm afraid missing just two MachineCASTs is not enough - I must take a complete break from them until after the exams are over.
This is for two reasons: one, it means i can concentrate more on the exams. And two, because of revision and the exams themselves, I will have very little time to catch up on gaming news or play much at all, leaving any CASTs that might have been dry on content.
I apologise endlessly and profusely - but believe you me, I will more than make up for the losses.
The MachineCAST always goes up on a Friday and always covers the hottest gaming news, but I feel that had this news story be left to Friday I would practically burst from my glee. AS you can tell, LittleBigPlanet 2 has been announced!
According to the trailer, which practically brings a tear to one's eye due in part to its awesome music and partly to the massive, MachineCASTian thank-you it gives all of LBP's players, LBP2 will give players the opportunity to create not only their own levels, but their own games, with individual camera angles, level sequences, cutscenes and even heads-up displays! And to add the icing on the cake, the sequel is compatible with all of the custom levels created with the first game!
Check out the trailer, and post in the comments what you think of this announcement!
I think I'd best start using the blog feature properly again, and so I've decided to do little support pieces - of course, the MachineCAST is all about video games (sorry about the episodes where it wasn't!), but it isn't all I do and I also enjoy a number of other pastimes - so here at the MachineBLOG I'll talk about the finer aspects of the MachineCAST of that week and also discuss how that week has affected me in other sectors than behind the controller.
In Episode 43, I told you that every MachineCAST is one continuous, unedited take, and that is 100% true. I'm not Zero Punctuation; I don't have to rattle off my words at three thousand miles an hour every week, and I hope the CAST is soothing to listen to as a result of that. It's hopefully a bit funny as well, but I can't comment on the success of my own jokes!
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's "announcement" was confirmed by Ubisoft as being genuine, and they say they will be releasing more information on it next week. Just how hurried-forward the announcement was to meet GameStop's accident we may never know, but I'm nonetheless interested to hear more about the game...I just hope Ubisoft's press release isn't just the blurb I described yesterday.
I saw Iron Man 2 yesterday, and I must admit I had lowered expectations because every website that I frequently visit had the movie listed as a disappointment. I unfortunately must disagree; I thought Iron Man 2 was still full of the humour that the series has become famous for and it's a highly-polished (see what I did there?) adventure that at least I enjoyed. My only complaint is that there aren't many shots of Iron Man putting on his armour - in fact, I think there's only one in the entire movie. I guess I'm just a sucker for those scenes where you see loads of technology flying everywhere, fitting itself beautifully into place, but I recall the first movie had a few more of those scenes, or if not, I distinctly recall them being more liberally done.
This week has been a very interesting one for my country, actually. We've had our General Election,, where all 650 seats in our House of Commons are voted for, and the party with an outright majority of seats (326 or more) will become the new governing party. Unfortunately, the failure of any party to reach 326 means that no one party "won" the election and everyone seems to be running around like headless chickens. It's called a "hung parliament", and it's likely that a second election will be held soon to sort it out...hopefully.
There are, of course, a huge number of parties hoping to gain seats, but in the UK we have three "main" ones who recieved the vast majority of votes, so I'll only discuss them here. I won't bore you all with policies, but I'll talk you through some of the notable moments of each.
To the left is David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party. It's the Conservatives who governed us during the Falklands War and the Gulf War. Cameron didn't do it then, but rather it was Margaret Thatcher and John Major, respectively, whose names you may or may not recognise. Thatcher is still remembered today for her steadfast leadership and the Conservatives hoped to reinstall themselves in power for another, hopefully fondly memorable, term in Parliament. The Conservatives recieved the largest number of seats in the Election, winning 306 out of the required 326.
In the middle is Gordon Brown, our current Prime Minister and the leader of the Labour Party. Everyone who reads this will presumably know who he is, regardless of nationality because...well, he's our Prime Minister and he's probably who you think of when you think "Britain" (unless it's me!) Regardless of the diminished popular support due to the recession the world is going through, I must admit Brown has a fantastic economic mind and was probably the best choice to take us through these tough times back when they began. Now, though, the playing field has levelled enough for other leaders to safely have a go! The Labour Party came second with 258 out of the required 326 seats.
Finally, on the right is Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems are the minority in these three "main" parties as they have the smallest majority of seats, but they still have sufficiently more seats than the other parties, and arguably that's a good thing (quasi-fascist parties like the BNP also exist, but I'm not going to talk about them). Clegg won over the public in the televised debates between the three leaders, but unfortunately for him that didn't translate into votes and the Lib Dems received 57 seats, a far cry from 326. However, in order to escape the hung parliament, Labour or the Conservatives can form a coalition with the Lib Dems, gaining all their seats and allowing a majority. The Conservatives have already offered Nick Clegg this coalition, but it remains to be seen what he says. I can see the Daily Mirror newspaper headlines now... "We're living in a CON - DEM NATION!"
The Daily Mirror, incidentally, is a British paper that, erm,doesn't like the Conservatives, to the point where it displayed a "helpful guide" on how to tactically vote to have any other party in but Cameron's. The Mirror also printed a controversial headline after the re-election of George W. Bush...
...so anything they say about the Conservatives should probably be taken with a pinch of salt or seven. I don't read it, I prefer the Times.
Also, congratulations for reading down this far! I only have one more thing to say: on Thursday, I was promoted in cadets to the rank of Sergeant for my efforts this year. It's quite a prestigious honour and it means I'm now the highest-ranking individual in my year - and a large majority of the cadets!
Well, that's it for this week's MachineBLOG. I think I've covered a lot of ground, and hopefully this can start to be a regular thing. So what are your comments on the situation with the election? Who do you support? And if there's anything at all I've mentioned you want to comment on, be sure to do so in the comments section below!
This week on the MachineCAST, I discuss the embarassing slip on GameStop's part regarding a new Assassin's Creed game, as well as my opinions on modern day multiplayer and Team Fortress 2!
The episode will only begin playing once you click on the "Play" icon.
The episode will begin playing immediately.
The episode will begin playing immediately after a brief advertisement.
This week, I take a look at 2K's latest competition, the announcement of Gears of War 3, Project Ten Dollar - and a very special thank-you. Yes, thank-YOU.
Also, apologies for the very late upload time; computer and Internet difficulties are plaguing me tonight!
The episode will only begin playing once you click on the "Play" icon.
The episode will begin playing immediately.
The episode will begin playing immediately after a brief advertisement.
Log in to comment