All The Time In The World

I've just finished the spreadsheet and rechecked the results. It's official. There are not enough hours in the day.

 

What feels like a million years ago, but is actually only a month or so, I decided to finally start watching every episode of Doctor Who from the very beginning. So far I've managed only four half hour episodes.

 

Then there's the pile of PS3 games waiting to be played, books to be read, paperwork to sort out, films and tv shows to watch... and about a million other things on my to-do list that I just can't quite squeeze in.

 

Whenever I do get an hour to myself I spend the first 30 mins deciding what to do with my free time and the remainder doing something silly like deciding to start writing a blog for no good reason.

 

The moral of the story?  I don't know, I haven't had time to think about it, but it's on my to-do list.

 

Ade.

 

 

The Great Doctor Who Watch

For some time now I've been planning on watching every Doctor Who episode from the very first back in November 1963, many of which will be for the first time. I have been steadily building a collection of DVD's (and audio cd's for the missing episodes) and currently have the vast majority on a shelf ready to go.

I was going to share my experiences here but I quite like the idea of posting a review of sorts for each of the stories and this would just swamp this little ol' blog with my (very occasional!!) posts getting lost amongst the Doctor Who stuff.

The answer is, obviously, another blog. Should you be so inclined you can take a look at the dedicated Great Doctor Who Watch blog and perhaps share your thoughts on the episodes discussed.

I plan to start the 'watch' later this week and will also tweet about my progress using the hashtag #GDWW.

Adrian

I'll Be Back !

Bugger me!

Did I really last post a blog on 2nd November 2012? 

That's over six months ago!

Where the hell did that go?

It seems the older I get the quicker time passes and it's now moving at a rate I can no longer keep pace with. There are, officially, not enough hours in the day to do everything and this blogging lark was one of the first casualties.

I know I not the most prolific writer, but I enjoy it. That's why I set this blog up in the first place. I also enjoyed tweeting, and still do, but sometimes 140 characters just ain't enough. And that habbit of posting a dozen or more sequential tweets just seems a tad ... pointless.

Perhaps it's just something I need to develop and encourage but time management is certainly a skill I seem to be lacking at the moment. Or perhaps it's the structure of the timespace continuum and the allocated units within which are simply not sufficient to process my requirements.

So, here and now, I hereby pledge to give myself a kick up the backside and make more of an effort. More posts, more frequently.

In the meantime I should probably ensure my son gets a good grasp of time as early as possible. Perhaps I should allow the magnificent Dave Allen to teach him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVPUIRGthI

Ade


 

Dishonourable Conduct ?

Having recently suffered a severe bout of man-flu (is there any other kind?) I found myself marooned on the sofa with only my trusty Dualshock 3 to hand. Having had little time for gaming recently I ploughed back into it finally working through a couple of Episodes from Liberty City and then dipping a toe back into the free-time-consumer that is The Elder Scrolls V : Skyrim, one of my favourite games of last year.

I have followed, with interest, the outpouring of anger against Bethesda over the Rimlag issue that has befallen the PS3 version of Skyrim. For those who may have missed it, many PS3 players suffered ballooning savefile sizes and severe slowdown of the game after around 20-30 hours of play. Eventually a series of patches were released, initially causing as many problems as they fixed, but in the end the issue appeared to have been largely resolved.

But alas, yet another problem has befallen PS3 Skyrim players with the announcement that the much anticipated DLC packs - initially Dawnguard, followed by Hearthfire with more to come - are not working sufficiently well enough on the PS3 for them to be released. Xbox and PC gamers, meanwhile, are currently enjoying both releases.

I should own up now and admit to being one of the fortunate few who didn’t really suffer much with the initial issues. I did suffer more freezes and backwards flying dragons after the first patch was installed but the subsequent patch resolved those problems and I played on with no real issues.

The glass-half-full side of me would say that, even as a launch day purchase, I don’t regret a single penny I spent on this game or any of the 150 or so hours that I’ve enjoyed exploring it’s world.

If you’re wondering why Skyrim should suffer from problems like this when other large open world console games don’t then I’d point out that no other (non Bethesda) game keeps track of as much as Skyrim attempts. Nobody could deny that GTAIV is an impressive game but it’s nowhere near as persistent a world as Skyrim. Trash 20 vehicles at a junction and by the time you drive round the block they are gone, not a trace of them. Even the weapons and ammo dropped by a fallen enemy disappear after a short time if not collected.

Of course the glass-half-empty side of me can easily see where the anger comes from. We have, essentially, been sold a defective product. The fact that the initial Rimlag issues weren’t dealt with until after release is only the start of it. Our version of Skyrim may very well turn out to be unable to run any DLC packs unlike other formats, therefore the PS3 version must be sub-standard right?

But it’s the perceived lack of interest from the developer, Bethesda, which seems to have turned an annoyance into such a bitter argument. Pete Hines, Head of PR and Marketing at Bethesda, has given very little away on his personal twitter feed (@DCDeacon). “I don't have any new info on updates or DLC. When I do, I'll let folks know. just not planning on saying that daily.” is his most recent PS3 DLC related comment from almost a week ago but some of his previous comments and the reactions are documented here .

Bethesda have commented on their blog here in a post dated 30th August 2012.

“It's been a few weeks, and we wanted to make sure everyone knows where we're at with Dawnguard. Skyrim is a massive and dynamic game that requires a lot of resources, and things get much more complex when you're talking about sizable content like Dawnguard. We have tried a number of things, but none of them solve the issue enough to make Dawnguard good for everyone. The PS3 is a powerful system, and we're working hard to deliver the content you guys want. Dawnguard is obviously not the only DLC we’ve been working on either, so the issues of adding content get even more complicated. This is not a problem we’re positive we can solve, but we are working together with Sony to try to bring you this content. We wish we had a more definitive answer right now. We understand the frustration when the same content is not available on all platforms. When we have an update, we will certainly let you know. We deeply appreciate all the time and support you have given us, and we’ll keep doing our best to return that."

Well that’s fair enough but it’s now over two months later and still we have nothing further. A couple of details have surfaced if you’re prepared to dig around for them. Frustratingly they have admitted that not everyone would be affected. On 4th October Hines tweeted “the performance really isn't good enough in all cases. for most folks, it'd be fine. For some, it wouldn't be.” On 25th October Hines tweeted “RT @Bethblog: nothing new to report today, but we're still working on Skyrim content for PC, PS3, and 360.”  Well, it’s a start but what does that mean exactly?  Has any progress been made or not? And it was an easy comment to miss in between all the promotion for their new games.

Details about the exact nature of the problems themselves have been harder to come by. There is much speculation and references to 'bad memory situations' have appeared. One may guess that they are a continuation of the initial lag issues but it does seem strange that they can sort out the full game but not the smaller DLC.

Unfortunately this is a situation that nobody is happy with. Bethesda should be reaping the rewards of their work but are instead finding themselves unable to sell the DLC to a large portion of their user base. Not only are they getting a bad reputation but unhappy gamers are threatening to boycott their future games including Dishonored, although Dishonored is only published through Bethesda, not developed by them, and quite how many are prepared to honour their word and deny themselves what appears to be one of the best games of the year remains to be seen.

We may not have heard much from them but you can be sure Bethesda are working hard to fix this. No doubt Sony are also desperate to get the issue resolved. The last thing they want is for the Playstation to be perceived as being unable to run games their competitors can, particularly as we approach the launch of the next generation machines.

On the one hand Bethesda have developed one of the finest games I’ve ever played but when the problems surfaced they did themselves no favours in the way they chose to handle it.

The quickest and easiest thing they could do is to open up a little. I’m afraid we need a bit more than “No info at the moment.” What exactly are the issues and are they making any progress? They may be surprised by the positive impact of small but regular updates. Of course it won’t stop everyone complaining but it’s worth remembering that people are so annoyed because they enjoy the game and want the extra DLC. Keeping silent about the issue just reinforces the appearance of aloofness, or, perhaps more damagingly, disinterest, especially as they loudly promote other new games and additional Skyrim content that others can play, but we cannot. We feel like we have been left dangling and forgotten about.

To me, it seems a strange choice to allow Pete Hines to use his personal twitter account to try to respond to a large number of annoyed customers. Even to the casual reader some responses have appeared a little short tempered and I’m surprised Bethesda are happy to let him respond in that manner to their customers. Surely it would be better to move to an official Bethesda feed and be a bit more open with the problems and the progress (if any) being made. In this day and age we really shouldn’t be waiting months for more information, be it good news or bad.

It wouldn’t be remiss for Bethesda to give a little something in the way of an apology to the beleaguered PS3 gamer to show they really are listening. Perhaps a few Playstation exclusive in game items as a free download for Skyrim owners in recognition that the PS3 version is lacking in functionality when compared to other formats.

Skyrim remains a fantastic game and one I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. Frustrations over the lack of DLC aside the game still boasts hundreds of hours of content and, even if you’ve only got a PS3 you shouldn’t miss out on the game completely just because of these problems, especially as the games been out over a year now and you should be able to pick it up for a reasonable price. 

Of course, these are just the musings of an observer, a gamer of many years, and, certainly not least, a PS3 Skyrim player. So I will leave you with these words inspired by ‘The Hobbit’ text adventure from my C64 gaming days, ‘We wait. Time passes.’


Ade

A Time For Atari

30 years ago today, on 16th October 1982, I got my hands on an Atari 2600 video games system. Released five years previously it was one of the first consoles to contain microprocessor based architecture with games on swappable cartridges rather than those where the game code was built into the hardware itself. While not the very first it was the one that achieved the greatest success and did the most to tempt the masses who would become the first generation of console gamers, myself included.

 

As I recall the console came with twin paddle sticks, two joysticks and a copy of Pong. The paddles took a hammering initially since Pong was my entire games collection but I don't remember the paddles getting an awful lot of use after that. I can state with some degree of certainty that the joysticks were rock solid and robust as hell. They were the most durable I have ever owned lasting long beyond the Atari and throughout much of my Commodore 64 usage as well. Other, fancier, joysticks came and broke but the black-with-a-single-red-button controller outlasted them all.

I have been racking my brains trying to remember the other games I owned for it over the following few years but I'm struggling. Obviously there were a few of the classics such as Pac-man, Space Invaders (with all of it's 112 different game modes!) and Asteroids.

 

Then there were others such as Combat, Frogger, Adventure, Berzerk, Super Cobra, Enduro, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Amidar. Most of them I remember quite well while others exist in my rapidly vanishing memory cells on a name only basis and I can recall absolutely nothing about the gameplay. Just what the hell was Amidar ?

The Atari eventually gave way to the Commodore 64 and subsequently an Amiga 1200. These days it's mainly the Playstation 3 and the odd PC game which gobble up all my gaming time. But, although my Atari console itself is no more, I may yet, in true Indiana Jones fashion, one day uncover those dusty cartridges – probably when I next explore my parents loft – and will no doubt reminisce fondly of bygone days.

So thank you Atari for kickstarting my gaming habbit. It's one I haven't yet been able to break and, if I'm honest, I have no intention of trying. While videogames have changed somewhat in the many years since I last powered you up, I will never forget all the happy hours we had together.
 

Thanks for all the good times even if it is making me feel that little bit older today.

 

Ade

How I Didn't Spent The Weekend.

So, did you get up to much this weekend?

No, me either. Considering my weekend started on Wednesday night thanks to a couple of days off  I probably should have done a bit more. I have a good excuse though. He's six months old and between the feeds, changes and playtime takes up pretty much all of our spare time.

Then there was the cats visits to the vets (always a stressful time), the car service (always an even more stressful time) and the tumble dryer failure (a major catastrophe due to the aforementioned six month old and his daily quest to vomit and dribble over as many clean clothes as possible).

What I didn't do was clamber into a small metal capsule, float up 24 miles in the sky above New Mexico using a balloon the thickness of a carrier bag and then jump out of it with a parachute. I am fairly certain I will not be doing this again next week.

Felix Baumgartner did just that. Not only did he live to tell the tale but he claimed the record for the highest ever skydive and became the first person to break the speed of sound as he fell at speeds up to 833.9mph . And here is the proof - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19943132.

Brave? Stupid? Well, that's for you to decided. I know where I stand on quests for glory. But it did catch my interest for a while and it was the only 'happy' story on the news tonight in between all the death, destruction and dreadful revelations that packed the rest if its' running time so, if for no other reason than that, cheers Felix.

Meanwhile, I've just found a copy of Sleeping Dogs on the Playstation 3 for only £24.50. Now that's what I call a result !

Ade

The Doctor And Me

I like Doctor Who, I like it a lot. I'm not completely obsessed with it, I can't quote whole episodes verbatim, I haven't listened to all the audio stories or read all the books and there are plenty of episodes of the classic series that I've never seen. There were times I even gave up on it but it has stayed with me throughout the years.

 

My first memory of Doctor Who would have been the ending of the final episode of Planet Of The Spiders, notable for concluding with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, regenerating into Tom Baker - my Doctor. This episode first aired in mid 1974 when I was almost four.

With only the one TV in the house I couldn't guarantee seeing every episode but I watched those I could. I saw it regularly throughout the rest of Tom Bakers reign and through most of Peter Davidsons run in the early 1980's but constantly switching days and twice weekly episodes meant I started to miss more episodes than I saw, and I became frustrated missing out on so much of the story.

I tried to get back into the series when Colin Baker arrived as the Sixth Doctor but I just didn't get on with his version of the Doctor, I found him much too arrogant. I was in my mid-teens by then and regularly getting my sci-fi fix from movies. Also videogames had started taking up increasingly bigger chunks of my free time. Frankly, I regarded Doctor Who more and more as a childrens tv show, and one that I had less time for.

I dipped into it again briefly in 1987 with the arrival of the Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, who I thought at the time was a good choice for the role although I found the companion Ace annoying. I did enjoy some of the stories but I think the moment I decided to give up on it was during "The Happiness Patrol" series when the Kandy Man first put in an appearance; I just couldn't see beyond the Bassetts-allsorts-on-legs creation.

Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989 and while it had slipped away from me I was still sorry to see it go. I'd grown up with it and there was no doubt it had contributed in no small way to my love of all things science fiction. But it was almost the 90's; I had moved onto things like Star Trek The Next Generation and Quantum Leap on TV while a string of films such as Aliens, Predator and Robocop had proved so much more tempting to me. A tight budgeted homegrown BBC childrens show could just not compete.

The years passed by and every now and again a few stories would be repeated on BBC2 with "Genesis Of The Daleks" and "The Sea Devils" almost certain to appear as part of the limited run. And I'd watch them again and remember what it was I loved about the show and I started to miss it a little bit more.

There were almost constant rumours of it being brought back. Some spoke of another homegrown series, some of a joint venture with US television. Various ideas came and went until, in 1996, a television movie was created with the intention that a series could follow. I remember watching it with some trepidation but really quite enjoying it and being particularly pleased it started with the seventh Doctor; a proper continuation rather than a dreaded reboot. But, despite high ratings for the UK broadcast, it received much less interest in the US and no further episodes were filmed.

It was another nine years before the BBC tried again. I was unsure what to expect but the announcements of Russell T Davies as showrunner and Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor peaked my interest and, like millions of others, I sat down in front of the television on 26th March 2005 to see what they had come up with.

"Rose" was, I thought, a great opening episode. even though I thought it a shame that the seventh Doctor didn't get his regeneration scene. Belching wheelie bins aside, it was certainly enough to keep me coming back each week.

Like any series some episodes have been better than others but I appreciate the references to the classic series, the slow reintroduction of classic foes - I consider "Dalek" one of the standout episodes of the 2005 series - and the introduction of some worthy new ones such as the Weeping Angels, superbly introduced in "Blink".

Yes, there are plot holes and inconsistencies that may annoy the fanatical but that's perhaps to my benefit as someone who just watches and enjoys it without analysing each and every line. Anyway, you try writing a show about a time traveller while sticking with the continuity of 50 years worth of episodes. It's never going to be easy when the lead character can travel wherever and whenever in time they like.

While Davies must be given the credit for relaunching the show and guiding it through the first few years, one of the strengths has been the range of writers who have contributed scripts - Mark Gattis, Neil Gaiman, Toby Whitehouse to name but a few. There is always the danger of the tone of the show changing from week to week but I think the results have been largely impressive. And why shouldn't it be - it's now being written by fans of the show who, as kids, probably watched it from behind the sofa themselves.

Personally I was happy that Steven Moffat was handed the reigns when Davies left. He had contributed some interesting scripts and had shown himself to be unafraid to mess with the shows format. The one problem with this arrangement is that he's now got two successful shows to juggle - the other, of course, being Sherlock. As a result we seem to have been getting less of the Doctor with the latest run being only five episodes and now we have to wait almost three months for the Christmas special followed by the second half of series seven some time next year.

Despite this I think the last couple of series have been more successful in pandering to both children and adults than the first few. Also my reservations of such a young actor playing the time lord have been unfounded, Matt Smith proving himself more than up to the job.

And now we are on the verge of the shows 50th anniversary and I genuinely look forward to seeing what they come up with next year. It's also prompting me to dig into the back catalogue a bit more and work my way through the earlier series. Perhaps I'm now more able to see past the unconvincing monsters and pay more attention to the stories. Well, apart from the Kandy Man perhaps.

I'm quite tempted to watch every episode but attempting to do so is a challenge for which the Tardis would come in very handy. A large number of early episodes either deteriorated due to poor storage conditions or were wiped by the BBC in the 1970's. Fortunately audio recordings of all episodes do exist and there are fan reconstructions which attempt to rebuild episodes using any clips, off air recordings, behind the scenes footage or photographs that have been recovered in the years since. The BBC tolerate these as long as they are not sold for profit and they are very easy to find online. You could start at http://www.recons.com/ if you're interested.
 

I think I have finally come to accept that, as much as I wanted the show to grow up with me, Doctor Who is still a family show and that is what it should be. I have a six month old son and I like the idea of him having his own Doctor in the years to come, in the same way that I had mine, and I will be more than happy to make sure that there is plenty of room behind the sofa for both of us.

 

Ade