Welcome to the new and improved Official G

Come in, come in, take a look around...

Well here it is the new and improve Official G website. Still got loads of tweeks to do but i'm very happy i've finally got the basics an overall look in place what do you think?

The front landing page and About page still need a lot of work but the main blog is laid out with a nice simple design. 

From Official G you will find links to all the different areas of the internet I been lurking. Here's a quick overview of the main links...

• Home - Take you to the font landing page (still lots to do here)
• About - Well that obvious I would say. Again still more work needed here
• Blog Roll - Takes you to every post on the site in date order (latest 1st)
• Updates, News & Reviews - Organises posts by specific categories
• Social Link - The usual links to various social networking sites
• Bitesize G - Take you to my Tumblr blog where I post random stuff too big for twitter but not relavent enough for Official G

Now I have a site i'm happy with I feel re-invigorated to start using it again so keep an eye out for new posts.

As always everything I do goes through twitter so please feel free to follow me on there if you wanna she what i'm up to (Can get anymore pretentious than that sentence!).

Peace and Love, don't go changin' 

G

Ipad is here

Finally Apple have announced there new 'tablet' device. It's called the ipad. Unfortunately I couldn't follow the live coverage as I had to work so I was picking up bits of info and what I was hearing wasn't really floating my boat.

Having gotten home and took proper look at the coverage from Engadget, Gizmodo, Twit.tv and the official apple video's I now really want one.

Now lets be clear I know I have an Imac, Macbook and Iphone so I can't possible need this device for any reason but guess what... I don't care! I admit part of my want for this is simply because its cool. Having said that I can see this being very usable in my house. I can envision it having pride of place in the living room ready to go when its needed. I can even see it replacing the macbook as we already have the imac for when a real computer is required. 

Price is very affordable, having said that no official UK prices have been announced. Like the Iphone the apps are going to be the driving force behind this device and if the apps already developed for the Iphone are anything to go by we are in for a treat. 

I do think it remains to be seen weather or not this device will take off but I have a feeling when people start to get their hand on these things they wont be able to resist the affordable and stylish ipad.

Ok thats my thoughts on the ipad, please feel free to post your thoughts bellow. 

Peace out 

G

Location Based Gaming

Recently i’ve been very interested in the rise of location based games, made possible by advancing mobile technology, specifically GPS, to make these games the next “Big Thing”.

Here i’ve decided to give you the lowdown on what its all about:

There a number of companies in this space but leading the pack are two, Gowalla and Foursquare! Both are very similar but each have their pro’s and con’s which is not something I will be going into now but check out this article from Mashable.com which will give you a good comparison.

The aim of Foursquare and Gowalla is to ‘Check In’ to locations when you’re out and about, as you do this you receive stamps, and the more you ‘Check In’ you can achieve different objectives and be awarded Pins for Gowalla & Badges with Foursquare. For example - In Foursquare if you visit 3 bars in one night you gain the “bender” bags… wicked!!!

The main difference between the two is: in Gowalla you can pick up and drop items, see their history, where they have been and who has had them. In Foursquare if you visite a location more often than anyone else, you become the “Mayor” of said location. Also Foursquare allows you to create to-do’s for that location that friends can see. (E.g. In a restaurant you could recommend what to eat).

Interestingly, businesses where these apps are popular take advantage and use them for marketing purposes, in San Francisco the “Mayor” of a pizza place (don’t know the name) gets free pizza and 1st round of drinks free every week! thus causing other customers using Foursquare to compete for the “Mayorship” by visiting more. Fantastic idea!

These apps don’t only have gaming appeal, the social networking aspect between friends is just as valuable. In both cases the apps are private which means you authorise who can and can’t see you account making you whereabouts available to trusted people only. Im looking forward to the day when I can look at my Gowalla on a night out and see my friends are in the bar next door giving me the opportunity to go and say hello!!

Personally i’ve been using Gowalla for a couple of months and my verdict is I like it. The UI looks good and the ability to add location and geo tag them using  my Iphones GPS is great!  I do have to admit however that I do like the look of Foursquare, I find the Mayorship concept appealing. So the reason why I’m not using it???? Because Foursquare only supports locations for specific Cities… Until now!

Foursquare was only available in a handful of cities, 17 I Think, but earlier this week Foursquare Everywhere was released. This opened up Foursquare users to the whole world! Here’s the full article from the Foursquare blog to tell you exactly what this means.

So all’s what i’m waiting for now is Apple to past version 1.5 of the iphone app and i’ll be taking over Blackpool by becoming the Mayor one location at a time.

As I said location based gaming is set to be the next “Big Thing” in the next 12-24 months I think we will see this become as popular as twitter, maybe even farmville!

So follow me in my location based gaming quest and just hit me up a friends request from the links bellow

Follow me in Gowalla http://gowalla.com/users/Royston1980

Follow me in Foursquare http://foursquare.com/user/-204906

Peace and Love

G

Iphone app - Squarespace

 
 Finally its here! Well slap my bum and call me melvin, the Iphone app for Squarespace is finally out. Thank you Apple and Squarespace.

I've not had much time to play with it but 1st impressions are good. Features include as you move accross the 5 icons across the bottom of screen after you have logged into your chosen account (yes it does support multiple accounts)....

Post            Manage      Preview     Statistics     Account

     

Post - Here you can add a title, type a post body, manual edit date and input categorys and tags. You can even add a photo (via taking a pic there and then or chosing from a saved pic) before publishing your post or saving as a draft.

Manage - Presents a list of all the posts to your site. Selecting one will give you the option of either delete edit or view the selected post. 

Preview - Does what it says on the 'tin' shows what your site looks like. My only grip I can find so far is here as this need some more basic browser controls especial back as currently it only has a reload button.

Statistics - Say hello to a nice set of analytical graphs for the site. A nice little feature is by swiping across one of the graph you can change the date range. Info covers Page Views (swiping gives you 1 of 3 different types of page views for the previous 7 days), Subscribers, search (swiping give you 1today, 2day 3day and week views), referrers (swiping give you 1today, 2day 3day and week views). If you select a specific days info on a graph you'll be given a precise figure for that day.

Account - Here list the different accounts you have set up. You also have options for add account and get new account.

According to the iphone blog Squarespace are already planing to add comment management in their 1.1 update to the app.

I'm really looking forward putting this app to use now I can make updates on the move thanks to my Iphone and another great service from Squarespace. 

If your using the app please feel free to leave you thoughts on what you think of it and what features you would like to see in the future bellow. 

Don't go Changin'

G

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Video - These Kids take gaming wayyyyyy to seriously.

Here's a collection of some of my favourite video's of psycho kids playing xbox.

Video - Windows 7 Party

Just when you think Microsoft can't get any more cheesy, they put out a video of the most obscure group of people having a Window 7 launch party! The idea is to get you to do the same, pass the phone I need to call my nana, according to this she'll wanna be there.

If this was Apple 10 mother truckers would be fired buy the time Steve Jobs had finished.

Lame!

G

Initial Review - Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

The long anticipated Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising has finally arrived in the Uk and after much hype about how this was gonna be a Modern WarFighter 2 beater I've had a chance check out to see if it really is that good. I feel its important before I write anything else that this review in only after playing the multiplayer co-op mode for a couple of hours on system link up so this review is limited at best but hey, its better that sweet FA (I hope).

Now I don't know about you but when I play a game for the 1st time I inevitably think 'what game is this trying to be?' I was expecting it to be a Call of Duty type game but I was wrong. This very much has the feel of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. Levels/maps are on a large scale and game play requires some thought and cunning to go into your plan of attack, running blindly in with guns blazing will not get you anywhere except hovering over your team mates white you wait to re-spawn.  

Codemaster, the studio behind this title, have obviously opted to make this game feel as real as possible. When you are in game you can really feel the beneifit from the rediculous amount of weapons data the guys at codemasters accumulated with the help of the US military. Each weapon looks and more importantly behaves very differently from each other which means making the right kit choice pre-game is not something to be taken lightly which adds to that realistic game play feel. Fans who enjoy the more fast and furious paced shoot em up's, like Call of Duty will find the firefights somewhat less than satisfying, there were many occasions I found myself asking 'is he dead?' and 'what happened?' after my screen simply goes black after being shot due to a lacking feedback system in the game mechanic, I mean is it too much to ask for some controller vibration and maybe some noise to simulate the bullet blowing my arm off? (You can probably tell this was my biggest grip with Operation Flash Point).

Visually this game looks great from the maps and characters right down to the the option screens. The maps are HUGE, the one's I played are very well made and the attention to detail is impressive considering the sheer scale of the maps. I found myself presented with lots of locations to explore and search out possible enemy threats, of which there were many. An added plus of this type of maps design is that you are given many options when making a plan of attack again adding the the realism aspect of the game. The interface in the menu screen and during game play in the HUD looks great with a very clean, contemporary feel and it worked very efficiently, I found it very clear to understand and follow during the heat of battle.

In summary I did like this game, I'm a fan of GRAW2 for the realism set in a modern day theater and this is taking that type of game to the next level. GRAW2 was the last game of this type to speak about and that was released years ago so this has been a long time coming and Flash Point fills the gape brilliantly. That being said do I think this is a Modern Warfighter 2 killer?Absolutely not. It's realism premise limits its audience because this game type requires a real passion for this game type to spend the time picking up every option open to them to get the most out of the game. Where as Modern Warfighter is more of an arcaded shoot 'em up which mean its an easy game to pick up and play initially but for thoughs who want to get more involved there are area's to master. For these reasons and not forgetting the massive fan base the COD name has generated the soon to be released Modern Warfighter 2 is where the smart money is at.

Happy Gaming 

G

Video - Jeff Dunham with Sweet Daddy D'

Jeff Dunham - Watch the top videos of the week here

I love this guy, need to go see him live

New Onk-Bak 2 Footage... Awesome!

Check this video footage out. Tony Jaa kicks absolute ass! God dam, watching this makes me wanna go out and beat up scum bags with nothing more than a shoelace and a can do attitude!

G

Game News - Modern Warfare 2 Infamy (Official HD)

I foresee a lot of my time being spent on this bad boy! Can I get a hell yeah?

G