Well it's back to school for me which started during E3, so good timing there. At least it was not that bad because when I got there and got new timetable for subjects and first up was Physics. Now you might say "Hang on, isn't Physics maths? Why would that not be bad?" But was because there was a class trip to Dreamworld. For those who don't know Dreamworld is a major theme park, one of the biggest in Australia and I think in the southern Hemisphere. Which is located on the Gold Coast. The reason for going to a theme park for physics is because as you might know it takes a lot of physics calculations set up and run all the rides that are there.

One of the main examples of this is the Tower of Terror. Reason for this is (from the Dreamworld Web site) Speed: 160 kph in seven seconds (105 mph) - propelled by electromagnetic forces. Height: 38 storeys high. Track: The 'L'-shaped track stretches 330 metres horizontally - or the equivalent of three football fields. Extreme Factor: 100m vertical free-fall backward. Experience 6.5 seconds of weightlessness.

Then there is the Giant Drop. Seating: Riders' legs dangle freely from the open air 8-seat gondolas. Height: The tallest, free-falling ride in the world at 120metres (39 storeys) high. Structural: The Giant Drop shares the tower that supports the Tower of Terror. A sophisticated magnetic braking system stops the gondolas metres from the ground. Extreme Factor: Free fall time is 5 seconds. The cruise to the top takes approximately 90 seconds. Falling 120 metres is the equivalent of falling from a 39-storey building.

Well they are to 2 main rides that are there, of course there are many other rides there. I will add some pictures and descriptions from Wikipedia below .

Tower of terror and Giant Drop. You can see some people waiting at the top. The wait is about 45 seconds until they let you drop.

Some people in a cart moving up the tower.

The Claw: A Gyro Swing; the only ride of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. At its maximum swing height of nine stories, it offers views of Surfers Paradise, 20 kilometres away.

The Wipeout: A Vekoma Waikiki Wave Super Flip, costing AU$6 million opened in 1993 with the opening of the Ocean Parade precinct. It is capable of handling 40 riders at a time with ride cycles lasting 5 minutes.

We are meant to be getting an assignment at some point on 1 or more of the rides at some point. But oh well... can't be all fun.

*Update* well we go the assignment however seems like a easy one compared to some of the other that we have go in the past year. Better get back to starting it.

Matty

This is where weekly I will be telling what PSN Trophies I have in what game. I am going to try to make this a weekly feature or when I am able to play a game that has trophies, which is not a lot at the moment, hopefully more to come soon. Some of the games that I would like to see trophies in soon are Uncharted Drake's Fortune, Pain and Warhawk. Just so you know I will not be one on of those people that buy or rent games so they can get easy achievements/trophies.

Here's what I've got so far.

Hero of Lave

Hero of Coventina

Hero of Nemain

Hero of Taranis

Hero of Segomo

The Tokenizer

Scrooge MacBoom

Close Encounters

Token Hoarder

Shield Blaster

Scenic Route

Close Encounters

Still trying to get that gold one.

_____________________________________________________________

Bronze: 8

Silver: 3

Gold: 0

Platinum: 0

Total: 11

Well there is now a new firmware for everyone to download to their PS3s .What does this add you say, well probably nothing. It is there to hopefully fix and broken PS3s and stop any more from braking. This is from the PlayStation Blog.

"Hi, everyone. As many of you know, we released PS3 firmware update v2.40 last week, but had to take it offline temporarily because, for a limited number of users, the XMB wouldn't display after the update was installed. We've been able to fix the problem, and I'm happy to report that firmware update v2.41 will be released shortly.

We want to extend our apologies to the PlayStation community for any inconvenience. Now we'll be looking forward to seeing everyone online and racking up those trophies!"

So there you have it get downloading.

well on July 3rd I turned 16, I haven't really got anything yet for my birthday but that is only because the main thing that I want has not come out yet. The thing that I want is the new iPhone. And because July 3rd is before July 11 it is kind of hard to find the new iPhone. I am also going to get the iPhone over in America this is because is it kind of expensive over in Australia, it meant to be going for something like $729 to $850 Australian or $702 to $818 US. However if I get the 16gig version over in the States $414 Australian or $399 US. That's almost half the price.

Apart from that I also got the usual things like money and a $70 gift card to Australian Geographic (might get some more telescope stuff with that) but surprisingly no cloths... yet.

Well I think I have rambled on long enough. Time to try and get some more trophies in Stardust HD. Leave you with this nifty picture of the iPhone and 2 funny and completely unrelated videos of Google Street view and Google Sky/Moon.

Matty.

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Uncharted: Drake's Fortune could possibly be one of the best games that I have played. I enjoyed everything that this game had to offer from the looks, the animation, the game-play, the story, the sound and the soundtrack that is in the game.

You start the game of playing as Nathan Drake (in fact you play the hole game as Nathan Drake) who is searching for the fabled treasure of El Dorado. The main charters are Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher and Victor Sullivan. You will also meet some enemies that you will end up loving to hate. All the charters seem very life like in the way that they move, talk and interact with the other charters in the game.

9.5

Thought out the game you are going to be spending a lot of time running, gunning and jumping and sometimes punching. But even doing this though out the whole game still doesn't get old no matter how many time you do this. However the aiming can sometimes get a bit strange at times and some of the sixaxis movements feel a bit weird.

9.0

Now this game looks amazing the way everything works. One of the things that you will notice is the drying physics, when ever Nat or one of the other characters gets wet and only get get wet from where the water gets up to. And then when out of the water you will slowly dry off again. You will move between levels almost without noticing the change apart from when the words come up saying something like "Chapter 03: A Surprising Find" or there's a cut-scene that all have used motion capture to make them, making the everything life like.

10.0

Not only dose Uncharted: Drake's Fortune look amazing but it also sounds amazing. When you are in a gunfight it really dose sound like you are in a gunfight and same with the explosions and waterfalls. The music also dose a very good job of making it fell like that you really are walking though a deep jungle or you are in the middle of a massive cave. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much I even downloaded.

10.0

This game could last a long time depending how much you are into unlocking everything that the game has to offer. Everything from the 60 treasure items to the many challenges that could someday become trophies when the game get patched to use them. The challengers range from shot 50 guys with the AK-47 to find all the 60 treasures and finish the game on the hardest setting.

9.5

In all Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a testament to what the PS3 can do and can do and what it could end up doing better later in it's life. With Uncharted: Drake's Fortune stunning graphics, sound and game-play it is very well deserving of its score.

9.5

Well it it looking like the new PS3 2.40 firmware is breaking PS3s around the world. This would seem true because I have just recently got the update and it is a really good update lots of features have been added, but it would seem that Sony has got a bit ahead of themselves and rushed the update out the door a tad too early. And because of this my PS3 is now unable to connect to the PSN. Whether or not its the update or all the servers are just over loaded I don't know. I also can't get on to the PlayStation website or the PlayStation Blog.

Just waning everyone and hopefully Sony well fix this soon.

Well another month down and 6 more to go until 2009! Why that matter I don't know. Anyway this was a pretty eventful month for me; Computer crash, went to see more movies, started and finished work experience and got t 2 more games for the collection. (well more like 6, but get to that latter) So yer quite a bit.

Start with the computer crashing a the best time that is could crash, the last week of school. Well the last day, but a computer crashing is not good at any time of the year. And 2 week later I'm still trying to get every thing back and operational at full working order. For example I still haven't got the web-cam and the mic that is built in working. And let me just say reinstalling every takes a looong time. The lucky thing is that about a week ago I decided I might try this hole backing up the computer thing that every one I saying that I should do. And thank God I did because... well there is a lot of important things like assignments, like the graphics that I showed below and then all my music and there's a lot of it. ...That was lucky.

After running around with my hands on head in circles and installing programs and what not I started at work experience, believe it or not it was a good experience, no very good experience. Learnt a lot about using Revit (which is another $5,000 program) that I can use at school next term and thought out life as I would like to become a game designer and work on a game at some point, which would be very cool to be able to do that.

I also had to chance to go and see Mongol over the weekend and I have to say that movie is amazing. I have to admit there are some slow points in the movie, but over all it is a good watch. I also finally got Uncharted Drake's Fortune and The Orange box. The Orange Box is the game that comes with the 5 games in one which includes Half Life 2, Half Life 2: Episode 1, Half Life 2: Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 (there's a lot of 2's in there) my favorite of the 5 would have to be portal and not to mention Uncharted Drake's Fortune both are amazing games and can't wait for the sequels.

Well there you have it Looking back on June. Next month is birthday time well it's really tomorrow as I write this so Ill add something about that later.

Oh and one more thing when I get around to it ill add some pictures and renders of the house I was designing. They look pretty darn good if I don't say so myself.

Have a good one.

Matty.

Now that I have a little brake between normal school and the exams coming up next week, which is good because I don't have to come on Thursday, Friday this week and then Tuesday, Thursday next week because I only have exams for Marine, Math's B, and Physics so I have plenty of time to play games... I mean study. So because I this 4 day week end of nonstop study and maybe a few other things between. Then is a 3 week holiday getting ready for term 3, semester 2 of year 11, so I thought I'll write this and tell everyone what's been happening.

First off it looks like I might be getting some work experience at a place called Buderium Design Studio: Architecture and Design. It a little place in Buderium that I evolved in graphic design. This is something that I would like to get into after I finish school, more of the 3D stuff then the 2D things. I would like to get into game design at some point in my life and I think doing this would be a good place to start.

I have also seen some movies during the past couple of weeks. So far I have seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, got to see a special 1 day before world release thought the school which was pretty cool. Also 21, the Blackjack card counting movie which was also very good and then The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian which was also very good. Still would like to see The Happing, X Files, I Want to Believe, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Iron Man all look very good.

Nothing really new has happened in terms of games apart I got Grand Theft Auto 4 the day it came out making it the first game that I have got on day one. I you have not got it yes it is well worth the $120.

Ok I thought I might add some rendered pictures of what I've been working in graphics. At the moment I have been working on building my telescope (the one that has been taking the pictures that are below) on the computer. The program that I am using is called Autodesk Inventor 2008, which is actually a program that if you wanted to buy off the shelf you would be looking at paying over $5000. But I was able to get it thought the school which was a big help in finishing it. Now I have to do the dimensions for the parts that wherein it, there are around about 20 parts in the entire assembly. I now have to put links because the pictures are too big for the page (nothing ever works first go).

And now I'm going to leave you with this short video that I found with the Mario theme song.

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A while back I uploaded some pictures of the Moon that I have taken thought my telescope (I think you have to look in the blog archives if you did not see them the first time). So now I thought I might add some more and this time I tried to get some of the planets. Yes there not as good as some of the pictures that you get in books and things like that, but it is pretty cool to look at them and say "Hey I took that picture" and for those that are wondering all I did was just hold a camera to the eyepiece.

First there is more of the Moon.

I was able to get 2 planets of the now 8 planets Jupiter and Saturn.

You can just see the patterns on Jupiter and the rings of Saturn very clearly stick out. I would have liked it if the 4 moons of Jupiter had come thought with the photo because you can very clearly see them when looking thought the telescope.

So there you have it pictures of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn hope you enjoy them.

Well here is another video that I found on YouTube with some really cool pen spinning and a lot of it. I wish I could do what is in this video.

Enjoy.

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