Holiday - DAY1 - Afternoon

got the lot with the exception of the big knife, rape alarm, and ice.

just had a call from the boy Les and its green for go, wheels up in 20mins after I have packed my stuff into the car and worked out my new i-trip.

I shall post pics tonight of our first stop and details of the journey so far.

bye bye northallerton hello open road, good music, the feeling of the wind in my hair and the freedom to explore what remains of the Empire.

Holiday - DAY1 - Morning

It's Tuesday morning, just setup the blog and posted a link on mookismo, going to dive in the shower, hit argos up for some camping essentials, I don't have a torch and from what I remember of past camping trips a torch is essential, after having perused the camping section of the argos catalogue I now have an urge to by a big knife, I really don't think this will serve any use but it seems like the only sensible thing to do on a camping trip is to have a big knife, by big I am not talking machete, I am talking features, if it doesn't have a descaler or a compass I am not interested, the real quandry is do I stick safe and go with the swiss army knife, or do I opt for the camping geeks new poster boy the leatherman? I shall make that decision in town.

I need

a camping ground roll thing (crappy piece of foam)

to find my big box cooler

Ice for cooler

Torch (something multifunctional)

rape alarm

some army type cooking tin things (I had some when I was a cub)

a gas stove and gas

a chair

a disposable BBQ

I will report back after my reconnaissance with details of the results :)

Pickle Corpse, he is no more

70-293

Bummed in the gob AGAIN

never mind, I am taking some time now to re read all the material, will sit the exam in the next week or so, then schedule in the next two for the two weeks following that. so my goal of getting MCSE in 14days came up short, however I did manage MCSA in two weeks which is no mean feet, and by the looks I am still going to get my MCSE in the space of a month or so which is pretty damn tidy.

:)

will keep this up to date on my progress.

70-291 Pwned

'Ave it Mr Gates, I just pwned the 70-291, and now I get to study like a mo fo for the 70-293 at 4pm tomorrow.

70-293 Planning and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure.

All that has really been added is security certificates, clustering, and Network Load Balancing.

Going to re study and read through my 70-290 slides, then do some self test and hit the 70-293 books and exam cram.

will report back tomorrow afternoon with my progress.

70-291

felled by the 70-291, and by one simulation, needed 700 and I got 636 discussed it with my tutor he said the sims on average are worth 100pts so I was CLOSE but no cigar, re taking th exam in the afternoon tomorrow then I have three on the bounce, friday, saturday and sunday, then I get to come home, I will either be an MCSA or an MCSE however right now I am focused on the MCSE failure is not an option.

absolutely the hardest thing I have ever done but the challenge is a good thing and makes me feel great about getting the exams passed.

Looking forward to the journey home sunday night, the end is almost in sight.

CompTIA Security +

Just passed the CompTIA Security + exam, it was the hardest exam 100 questions 90mins and an 85% correct pass window.

however some how I squeezed through, I required 764 and I igot 786 so I was happy, a pass is a pass.

70-291 Implementing, Managing, and Maintaining a Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure

The Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Windows Server 2003 credential is intended for IT professionals who work in the typically complex computing environment of medium to large companies. An MCSA candidate should have 6 to 12 months of experience administering client and network operating systems in environments that have the following characteristics:
•250 to 5,000 or more users
•Three or more physical locations
•Three or more domain controllers
•Network services and resources such as messaging, database, file and print, proxy server, firewall, Internet, intranet, remote access, and client computer management
•Connectivity requirements such as connecting branch offices and individual users in remote locations to the corporate network and connecting corporate networks to the Internet

Bring it on

70-290 its in the bag

manic cram session lastnight, left the classroom at 1am, back in there for 7am and stayed put until 2.45pm exam was at 3.45pm so decided to take an hour to let my brain clear down a bit.

registered for the exam at 3.45 and was all done by 6pm, another pass so that is 70-290 done.

sec + is the next one sunday at 2pm they are going to touch on some security prevention methods (you can read that as ethical hacking 101) so it should be a bit more fun than normal.

Day 3 - First Exam

we had our deploying vista exam today I need 700 and got 815, so I am now officially a Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist, next exam is the 70-290 managing and maintaing a microsoft windows server 2003 environment exam.

its a 4hr exam and we kick off at 4pm friday afternoon.

today was awesome a real confidence builder and great bonding for the class, everyone passed this exam and we all did very well. the tutor is a great very hands on ex MS employee who actually worked on elements of server 2k3 and is currently a consultant who does tutoring as well, he does a few months consultancy and a month of tutoring.

he has loads of really useful infomation and I must have a veritable tips and tricks bible scrawled in the margins of the slide hand outs. I cannot stress enough how good this course has been even if I fail everything going forward the tips and tricks and practical advice I have gleaned has made it all worth it.

WOOT!!!

Day 1 - Done

spent the day in lectures finished off with some lab time and got back to my room about 45 mins ago.

today we spent learning the vista stuff, same again all day tomorrow then its vista MCTS exam at 9 am on wednesday morning, I did the self test on sunday night after the introduction lectures and got 74% did it again tonight and got 92% quite a confidence boost.

also got introduced to a piece of software by acronis which allows you to snapshot a system, and then do a bare metal restore, you take that file squirt it onto a VMware machine and you can play around with the server in a totally secure offline environment, you could even use it to place hold for the real server while you do some hardware maintenance. Virtualisation its the future baby.

MCSE security - MCTS Vista - CompTIA Security +

started the course on Sunday (last night) finished at 11 and read until 12.30, up this morning reading again, had breakfast and now I am in the classroom/lab typing this then getting on with the mcts self paced training book until 9 when the tutor arrives and we start a day of lectures.

in summary

the place is isolated, the guy sitting on my left is from NATO and the X factor is being filmed up at the main hotel.

there are 15 of us now, and apparently there will be 6 at the end :(

Phantasy star universe:
First Impressions

This game is addictive, but why? it is essentially the most boring game ever made, but it isn't boring at all, it is an enigma.

on paper this games is so simple, walk up to unit press the same button 10, 100, 1000 times depending on the opposing units level and then dodge the odd 2 dimensional attack and eventually the opposing unit will die, then move onto the next unit and repeat until all the units in the room are dead and that triggers a key spawn, to let you into the next room, to repeat again.

that's pretty much it, ok you gain levels and earn the right to go to higher level rooms where the same thing happens but the chance of you dying and the amount of hits required to defeat the opposing unit increase.

yet I played it all day Saturday until 3am Sunday, and then all evening Sunday until 2am monday.

I wasn't bored ever, the promise of a little cash and the level bar being tantalizingly close to full keep you playing, you have to save up and buy that sweet new gun or ability that will hopefully give you the edge and decrease the button bashing.

I have played this Friday, Saturday Sunday Monday and I am now a level 13, however already I am seeing the potential folly of my character selection, I need to seriously consider my choices for when the full game launches.

Pay to Play?

Phantasy star universe is upsetting some as it has a monthly subscription how this is to be structured is unclear at present, I had heard mumblings that it will be 800points and potentially will instead of being a traditional subscription payment will be a marketplace purchase of 30days play so you can dip in for 30 days when you want to play as opposed to signing away your wealth for eternity.

I will post more at launch

HOT

weather is crazy its steaming hot, spent the weekend with my big bro, playing rockstar table tennis and watching the world cup, england won 3 points, who cares about the shoddy second half, get over it.

all games this weekend have been really entertaining, trinidad and tobago, mexico, and angola were great to watch and mexico could be a real suprise of the tournament I will look forward to seeing them again.

table tennis is great fun for the 360, the career mode does seem to cheat somewhat but it is great fun most of the time, the online mode is close to perfection apart from ditching your lobby at the completion of a game/tournament???

why oh why, but with any luck they will patch it as they did with cod:2

finally my thoughts on the new dash update, music continuity is 100% brilliant and makes the convergence of gaming and music a natural and very entertaining prospect.

just obtained appleseed and watched the first few opening minutes, wow and wow, great looking and action packed, will watch it all and feedback my thoughts.

Rogue Trooper

Rogue Trooper, a game which has been released with almost no fanfare, yet it probably deserves it more than most of the hyped games being released, however its hidden gold and well worth a purchase.

the story is taken from the pages of 2000 AD, along side Judge Dredd, rogue tells the story of the GI troopers, A genetically engineered army, raised in tanks, it all sounds familiar and you can be forgiven for feeling like they have just ripped off every sci fi film from the last 10 years, but when you understand that the first edition of 2000 AD to feature rogue trooper was published in 1981, you begin to see that this character is more original than first thought.

enough of the history back to the game.

the story starts with rogue shipping out with his army of GI comrades to fight the norts, they are air dropped to a place called the Quartz Zone, however the supposedly unprepared norts have been tipped off and are fully armed waiting to shoot the drop ships out of the sky, nearly all the GI troopers are wiped out but rogue and a few of his unit make it through, among the survivors are gunnar, bagman and helm, each GI trooper is relatively cheap to manufacture in a materials sense but highly expensive and time consuming to train, so the souther labs came up with a system to download the entire personality to a bio chip located at the base of the neck on each trooper, providing this chip can be retrieved before the electrical energy remaining in the spinal column is expended the chip can be located in a slot on the backpack, gun and helmet of any GI trooper, which can the be implanted in a new host body back at HQ, as you may have already guessed, gunnar, bagman, and helms survival is shortlived quite literally and they are all soon attcahed to rogues vacant slots.

Each of Rogues comrades biochips provides unique abilities as follows

Bagman - is your number one stop for everything material, ammo, health pack, bagman is essentially a very compact manufacturing plant, as you travel through the game you obtain blueprints for further items that he can then manufacture for your benefit such as gun upgrades like a shotgun attachment. I wont spoil the other upgrades as its part of the fun of playing through the game, so your manufacturing stuff, how does this work, surely you need some form of raw material to maufacture the items with? well this is probably one of the best elements of the game, as you kill the enemies there bodies are salvageable, it is this which you recycle into ammo, medi kits and the like, it works really really well, it never feels like there is an abundance of salvage but at the same time it never feels like there is a drought. the game designers have achieved a really good balance, each time I decided to buy an upgrade or splash on ammo, I had to think about it, think about the enemies I was likely to come up against and make a decision on what I needed for the next run and gun it also adds to thye feeling of being out on your own, scraping together what you can to survive.

HELM - is your tactical and surveilance man, he provides encryption decoding of door locks and security systems and also offers a radar for the locations of enemy troops, vehicles and salvage deposits, he also provides a holographic decoy of rogue which you can use to distract enemy troops with.

Gunnar - as each chip has a personality and converses with you its good to know that the character of gunnar is spot on, if a gun could talk it would be exactly like gunnar, he offers an automated gun emplacemnet and a sniper skill with stabilising gyroscope (handy)

the game itself is a great display of art style and level design, I never felt like they decided to just rehash the same old textures or level lay out, I also didnt feel like I was fighting wave after wave of the same soldiers, the enemies seemed varied and so did the locales you had to fight through to get to the end, little touches like sparking wires in bombed out corridors just added to the immersion and the feeling of being in an alien world.

the controls are well thought out and easy to pick up, sniping is easy enough to pick up, and switching bewteen the eventuial arsenal at your disposal always felt quite intuitive and never a chore.

the game plays through very much like reading a graphic novel, cutscenes are present but never get in the way, and the story is intriguing and keeps you playing through to the end, its not the longest of games, but on completion a harder difficulty level is unlocked, I will be playing it through again at this new difficulty level and I will post back here when I have completed the campaign again.

I have now a further interest in the rogue trooper charcater and expanded universe and I will be tracking down the graphic novels to read through as it has peaked my interest and I want to know more, the game is left open for a sequel and I am hoping that we get a next gen rogue trooper for the 360.

there is a multi player element to the game which as yet I have not tried though I will be giving it a shot in the coming months, I will report back with my impressions.

possible domains

www.gamerscore.co.uk

Xbox Live Update

late lastnight MS did the big XBOX Live update, and so far it appears they have tweaked the web stuff, I can now access my messages fom the web and compose messages via the web site, sounds great I have wanted that for ages.

I can view the DL content, such as gamer pics and themes. nice to know what you are buying, was well cheesed with the madden background, never would have purchased it had I seen it before hand.

just hope they have improved the actual quality of xbox live itself.

Rogue Trooper

started this game tonight, first impressions are its good, Lucky Gonk put me onto this one, apparently it got some high praise on rllmuk and as such had peaked his interest, I hadnt really any experience of the story of rogue trooper I used to buy 2000 AD as a kid from time to time, but was more into other stuff really, Judge Dredd and A.B.C warriors

back to Rogue

the game has opened with a good intro to the clone/gene troops, feel a little unsure as to who it is or why it is that I am fighting, they are called norts?? I know this much and thats about it, german or eastern european sounding soldiers and some hints of nazi but I guess that is nothing new, the pace is just about spot on for my liking, I find games with tons of cinematics at the beginning frustrating, I paid £X or spent Y hrs downloading this, I want to play now, not after a tv episode.

but rogue does it well, and gameplay shocker uses the game itself to unfold the story, the chips with the "soul" of your fallen comrades is cool, and based on the fact that gunnar is now in my gun and bagman is in my bag, I have little hope for the rescue mission for a fellow trooper called helm who I am now on my way to rescue from a naval base, especially when on the last little intermission I noticed a familiar vacant shape in the front of my helmet.

the ammo kit concept of using your bag to refine salvage from the battle field is truly great, gone is the feeling of I just need some smg bullets and all i am getting is revolver ammo, I can see this winning out in the later stages, as it is a frustration I hadnt even really noticed until now. however all shooters from this day on are going to upset me if they dont steal this mechanic, its great because its totally acceptable, infact more so than killing somone and them having bags of ammo on them.

thats all i have to say for now, will post more of an impression when I have got further in, it is 100% fun so far.

a new hopeless

how sad am I starting a blog, its just a diary, for my benefit really, will list my gaming habits and thoughts everything a web diary should be.

so we start with first days of may, just turned 28 and things are pretty good, ellen is about to graduate from uni and work is going ok, apart from sharepoint, users, and computers, people here are a great bunch on the whole and we all get on well, which is 90% of the battle in my experience.

gaming, my 360 is the no 1 source of time drain at present although animal crossing and my DS are never to far from my hands, AC is truly a wonder, I am not doing anything to collect the stuff, its just a scavenger hunt and it totally pre determined by the game, but its just fun, even though I know really its mundane, but for whatever reason I just keep coming back. Oblivion rules the lions share of time on 360, so much stuff to do and see, and its pretty and well put together, auto saves chap my ass, but other than that its perfection.

Halo2 still features both on my old xbox and 360 BC, as does forza, the WFC has really drawn me back to this racing sim, I need to get my fanatech wheel sorted aswell, it really is a wonder that this game does not get the kudos it deserves.

keen member of the Mookismo clan which I guess is a subdivison of the synical world of rllmuk.

mooks are a happy bunch though and we all get on pretty well.

anyway popping off to do some work now, will be back when i have little else to say.