Thoughts of a Bearded Gent – A Blog by Jodi Mullen

Just a quick post about a new blog I set up recently, All The Heavy Lifting.

As the site blurb says, All The Heavy Lifting is a blog about Olympic weightlifting, powerlifting, Paleo living and general fitness, although in recent weeks it has taken a strong weightlifting direction as this is really where my interests lie.

I aim to start competing in Olympic style weightlifting in 2014 and will be spending the rest of this year training and bringing my lifts up to vaguely competitive standards. The blog is where I’ll be recording all of my training logs, assorted thoughts on the sport, product reviews, various videos and so on.

Stuck inside on a very rainy afternoon today, I decided on a whim to give Thomas Was Alone, an indie platformer recently released on PSN, a spin. Thanks to the wonder of Sony’s Playstation Plus service, Thomas Was Alone has been available on PS3 and PS Vita for free for a month or so from April 23rd so I downloaded to Vita and got stuck in. After getting through half the game in pretty short order, I have to say that I’m completely spellbound.

Thomas Was Alone is, on the surface, a fairly simplistic and visually crude 2D platformer but to judge it on first impressions is to do it a great disservice. Created by Mike Bithell, the game sees the player guide the titular Thomas – a small red rectangle – and a cast of characters each represented by quadrilaterals of assorted colours around a series of puzzle based levels. Each character has its own characteristics; the small orange square can’t jump as high as Thomas but can fit into smaller spaces while the long pink horizontal rectangle suffers from an even shorter jump but can act as a springboard to allow other characters to leap higher. The player must take advantage of each character’s abilities, often in conjunction, to get each character to a pre-determined end point in the level simultaneously.

Gameplay is fun and clever but rarely severely challenging or wildly innovative. Instead, Thomas Was Alone’s genius is in the characterisation of its rectangular protagonists. Each is imbued with a personality often deriving from their abilities and shortcomings. Chris, the aforementioned squat orange block, can’t jump as high or move as quickly as Thomas and so constantly feels jealous and grumpy. About a third of the way into the game, Chris meets Laura, said long horizontal pink rectangle and the two fall in love – after all, they complement each other perfectly. She helps him jump higher and he’s just the right height to help her ascend awkward bumps and rises in levels. It’s a rare game that manages to marry mechanics and narrative in this way and there’s a satisfying internal logic to Thomas Was Alone’s story as a result. Frankly, it’s amazing how much personality Bithell manages to imprint on to such simple geometric shapes and a real triumph as far as writing goes.

Credit also is due to Danny Wallace, who narrates the game. I’ve never been a huge fan of Wallace but he does an excellent job in making each of the characters feel distinct and keeping the story moving. It might not quite be the narrative show-stopper that Logan Cunningham pulled off ion  Bastion but Wallace’s voice talent and the Spectrum-era art design give the game a distinctly British feel and unique character. David Housden‘s instrumental post-rock soundtrack (think Mono, Sigur Ros, Explosions in The Sky) really helps set the mood of the game and is a fantastic listen to boot.

Thomas Was Alone is available for free on PS+ for a few more days and can also be purchased on Steam for Windows and Mac for a relative pittance. Do yourself a favour and check it out.

Over the last few weeks I have been devouring sports on TV, at the expense of some of my other pastimes. There’s been plenty of football, of course, with my team, Spurs, seemingly entering their traditional late season decline but I’ve also been watching the European Weightlifting Championships on Eurosport, which have sadly now come to an end.

I’m a little dismayed that we’re now coming to the end of the football season, and most of the rugby is already wrapped up too. Looking forward into summer, the Confederations Cup and Wimbledon will keep things interesting but I generally associate the summer months with bloody interminable cricket matches on TV. Perhaps it’s my Celtic origins but there’s something utterly impenetrable about Cricket to me, I simply can’t bare watching it.In fact, this document from Mr Green sums up its lack of appeal quite succinctly.

Designed by Mr Green

Yep, that’s exactly what I think. You can download the full PDF here. It’s going to be a long summer…

I’ve been playing Bioshock Infinite over the last couple of days. The original Bioshock is one of my favourite games of this generation and the second was pretty solid too, after a shaky start, so I’ve been very much looking forward to the third game, while doing my best to really avoid by exposed to much news about it.

I’m enjoying it immensely so far, even if I find that Columbia doesn’t quite have the same depth (no pun intended) and sense of place that Rapture did. Still, the shooting is considerably better, the skyrail combat excellent and I have very much enjoyed exploring the environments and getting more of a sense for it’s obviously Confederacy-inspired take on pre-First World War America.

Even though they’re highly compressed, these screenshots give a real sense of the level of art design at work here and show how staggeringly gorgeous the game looks on PC

The sixth issue of Ghost Cult Magazine, an online ‘zine released in PDF format that covers extreme music pushing the boundaries of modern heavy metal, was released earlier this week.

I’m a regular contributor to Ghost Cult, and have written about it before on this blog, but the design work and the effort our editor puts into sourcing fantastic interviews, never fails to impress me.

I don’t think I wrote anything for this issue, though I have two reviews coming in Issue 7. Plenty of awesome stuff in number 6 – interviews with Voivod, Cult of Luna, Finntroll and only bloody Darkthrone.

You can view the PDF directly here.

So clearly I have been slacking at blogging again. In lieu of some actual meaningful content, here’s a selection of the awesome stuff I have been listening to.

Riverside – Shrine of New Generation Slaves

Progressive rock/metal from Poland. This quieter number is quite restrained compared to the rest of the album but I really like it.

In Vain – Aenigma

I recently reviewed this for Ghost Cult Magazine, blackened melodic death metal type stuff from Norway with prog elements. The above track, Image of Time, sounds exceptionally like Borknagar’s recent output to me but as anyone who paid attention to my records of the year will know, that’s no bad thing.

Clutch – Earth Rocker

I love Clutch and have been especially enjoying the title track from their new record.

Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance

Darkthrone have been relentlessly trolling the metal community for most of the last decade and basically doing whatever the hell they feel like, which is generally to be admired. I wasn’t so hot on their last release but their new album, The Underground Resistance is, um, really good. And they sound like they’re having a lot of fun. Check out the proto-NWOBHM type track above, complete with some Paul Di’Anno style falsetto vocals.

Cnoc An Tursa – The Giants of Auld

Scottish folk/power/black metal. Now that’s something you don’t hear very often. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed by the Bannockburn/Culloden clichés that the Falkirk band dutifully trot out but the musicianship is really top-notch, part Wintersun, part Moonsorrow, part Amorphis, part Primordial – a fine selection of some of my favourite bands.

I’ve had my eye on the Playstation Vita for quite some time. I was vaguely tempted to pick one up on launch last year but the high cost at the time and no really standout game in the initial lineup persuaded me to keep my money in my pocket. The first few months didn’t do much to convince me and my previous record with portable consoles also acted as a mild deterrent. I’ve owned a Game Boy Color, which I barely played, a DS which I played heavily for about a year and a half after I got it in 2005 and a PSP, which I bought very late in its lifecycle and only really used to play PSOne games. If I shelled out my hard-earned cash on a Vita, would I ever actually play the bloody thing?

Some time around last summer though, I started noticing a smattering of new titles for the handheld that were blessed with glowing review scores, namely Gravity Rush, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and Little Big Planet Vita. Then I learned about Remote Play between the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection and shortly after Sony added PSOne compatibility to Vita. The final nail in the coffin of resistance though, was undoubtedly the decision to extend Playstation Plus’s Instant Games Library feature (where Sony throw free console games at you each month for £40-odd a year) to Vita.

PS Vita, oh so shiny

PS+ and Purchase

Within a matter of months, by virtue of sneakily ‘buying’ but not downloading the games while browsing the PSN Store on Playstation 3 and acquiring the licenses, I amassed a collection of top quality portable titles – Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Gravity Rush, Wipeout 2048, Jet Set Radio, Lumines Electronic Symphony and so on and on) that made a Vita purchase practically inevitable. After all, what’s the point of owning all these fantastic games without the hardware to play them on?

In the end, it was the announcement that Metal Gear Sold HD Collection for Vita was coming to PS+ that tipped me over the edge and I set to finding the best Vita bundle available. Unfortunately, those available in the UK didn’t seem quite as generous as the ones around before Christmas but as luck had it, I was in Ireland and after much searching around, managed to buy a PS Vita with Little Big Planet Vita and a 8GB memory card (most bundles comes with a 4GB card) in Gamestop Dun Laoghaire  for €219, which was equivalent to about £190 at the time of purchase. I also ordered a 32GB memory card and a copy of Persona 4 Golden (which I understand to be phenomenal) to arrive when I got back to Edinburgh.

Hardware

I’ve only had the Vita for a couple of days at the time of writing so this is more of a first impressions/general feelings about the hardware than any semblance of a proper review. First of all, the PS Vita itself is a gorgeous, gorgeous piece of kit; it looks and feels premium quality and although it’s mainly plastic and glass it has a heft and solidity that other devices of similar construction, like Samsung Galaxy smartphones, just don’t. The metal-coloured plastic bezel does a wonderful job of preserving the beautifully curved aesthetic to give the feeling of a very slick piece of hardware.

The screen is obviously the standout feature – it’s huge considering the size of the console and looks stunning, creating clear and vibrant images. Pixel count could perhaps be a little higher but seeing as I use two Retina-display equipped devices, it’s natural that my tolerance for even the rare jagged edge will be low. Sound over the built-in speakers is reasonably good and doesn’t seem tinny to me, although using even basic headphones does readily show up its shortcoming, though these are no worse than any other handheld device’s default output.

Buttons and Memory Cards

I’ve heard a few complains about button size and analogue stick placement and size but I can’t say that I’ve noticed any problems in these areas. I do have rather small hands, though. If there’s one area I’d criticise the Vita hardware for, it’s the design of the back panel which accommodates a rear touch pad. While there are shallow groves in the rear to indicate finger placement (oooh-errr), more often than not I find that my fingers slip out and rest on the touch pad instead. This isn’t a problem in most of the games so far but in a few titles it can cause issues, like certain levels in LittleBigPlanet.

Another moan must be directed at the memory card pricing; not a console feature of course but certainly one that will dampen most buyer’s enthusiasm at least a little. I had to pay £60 for a 32GB card – the largest available – and that was via the cheapest deal I could find online, via Amazon. The RRP is significantly higher. I almost felt forced into buying the largest card, as smaller cards fill up so quickly thanks to bigger downloadable titles, like Uncharted: Golden Abyss, which weigh in at 3.5GB or so. Granted, this is about the biggest game I’ve seen in terms of filesize but it’s enough to fill the paltry 4 GB memory card that comes with most bundles.

OS and Interface

I’m avoiding talking about the games for now until I’ve had the chance to play a few more and making progress in those I’ve already started but the Vita OS itself is good to use. It has obviously been influenced by iOS in that it primarily uses the touchscreen rather than the physical controls and the icon-based GUI, complete with icons that shake when dragged around the screen and pinch-to-zoom gestures, but that’s no bad thing and I found getting my bearings and diving in very easy indeed. There’s a few nice touches, like being able to run small apps in the background alongside a game and cool swipe gestures to close the currently open application (including games), that help make it considerably more advanced than any other handheld console I’ve used.

Linking up with a PS3 is easy and while it’s a little annoying that  navigation in this mode, when transferring files between the two, for example, is done via the Vita rather than on the PS3 (think connecting your iPhone to your PC and having to use iOS to navigate the full-fat iPhone to select music, movies etc), it’s not unbearable. Remote Play is a very nice touch and it’s rather cool to take control of the PS3 via a handheld, even if the selection of games and apps that work over RP is quite limited – I found only the aforementioned ICO/SotC and Tokyo Jungle in my current collection – it promises much for the announced expansion of Remote Play in the forthcoming Playstation 4.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very impressed with the Vita, through a combination of the beautiful hardware and the games I’ve been playing on it (more on these soon). It feels good value for money and in a time where mobile gaming is dominated by throwaway iOS and Android titles and slimmed down, light on features, mobile versions it’s a timely reminder of the added depth that powerful dedicated hardware and well-thought out physical controls can enable. There’s just no way I could play a game like LBP on an iPhone, a fact that makes owning a Vita all the more worthwhile.

I know the Playstation Vita has been hammered in the gaming press a bit lately but I’m convinced that the tide is turning for Sony’s newest handheld. Prices are slowly coming down and gamers are waking up to what the console can offer; the fact that it may form of the PS4 experience won’t hurt either, of course. Over the last few days, I’ve seen a number of other people in my online networks buy one and I know of half a dozen people just sitting back waiting for a price cut before taking the plunge.

While a price cut will certainly help enormously, I’m more and more convinced that Playstation Plus is going to be the Trojan Horse that gets the Vita  into many people’s pockets. As the months roll on, savvy gamers will be able to accumulate an enormous library of titles for the console, giving them a ready made collection to play when they do finally buy the console itself. Not having to buy any games if you don’t want to, and having such a vast selection and variety ready to go on Day One, goes a long way to easing the financial rub of paying for the hardware and even the infamous memory card. If Sony can get the Vita and a decent sized card into people’s hands for £150-170, and keep up the PS+ support, there’s every chance it could really take off as goodwill continues to build towards Sony following the Playstation 4 reveal.

Hmmm, 0kay I’ve really been slacking on blogging in 2013. Over a month since my last post, not good enough. Not nearly good enough. I’ll rectify that over the coming month but in the meantime, here’s some pictures of Izzy, my parents’ new puppy who I got to see at the weekend.

She’s about 4 or 5 months old, a Springer Spaniel cross and absolutely gorgeous.

After a pretty hectic week at work, I popped along to see Django Unchained at the Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh. Apparently the Cameo is one of only five cinemas in the UK to show the movie via the medium of 35mm film, Quentin Tarantino’s preferred choice, rather than digital, though only at limited screenings. Happily, we managed to catch one of the 35mm ones, though I must confess that I’m not enough of a film buff to really appreciate the difference.

In any case, the film was excellent. I’m generally a big Tarantino fan and have enjoyed nearly everything he’s done (Kill Bill Vol 2 being the only notable exception) and thought this was up there with some of the best. My initial reaction wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as for Inglorious Basterds but having reflected on it now for a little (and having rewatched the first hour of Basterds after getting back from the cinema last night) I’m now convinced that Django is the better movie. There’s seemingly a lot more depth, the cinematography is better and more stylised – I thought the action scenes in the latter half of the film showed a resurrection of some aspects of the Kill Bill aesthetic – and the performances are stronger all round, Christoph Waltz just about surpassing his remarkable turn as Hans Landa in Basterds.

The soundtrack is also superb and I was overjoyed to find it’s already on Spotify this morning. I can see myself picking Django up on Blu Ray just about as soon as it comes out.

A little light reading

I received plenty of books for Christmas this year, the old paper kind as well as the Kindle-friendly variety. The picture above is what I’m currently working my way through.

Gary Taubes – Why We Get Fat

Umberto Eco – The Prague Cemetary

Richard Morgan – Broken Angels

Norman Davies – Vanished Kingdoms

William Davis – Wheat Belly

Brian & Stephen Lennon – Bray Did You Know?

I also have a couple of cookery books to read, Mark Sisson‘s Primal Blueprint Cookbook and Jamie Oliver’s 15 Minute Meals, although with the latter, I rather doubt that some of the meals can be made in 15 minutes. Also having to pick through it to find recipes that fit my dietary requirements but I’ve come across a few good ‘uns so far.