Grandpa Swag

You may remember the curious case of my 19” LCD monitor deciding not to turn on one morning. In it’s place I used an old CRT monitor which I was quite content with, but today I finally upgraded to a lovely 20” Widescreen monitor. I must say, it is lovely.

The boost up to 1600×900 is fantastic, and it’s so unbelievably crisp and everything it displays has really been given new life. Playing World of Warcraft today with Jack, I was amazed at the quality of colour and sheer enormity of the new resolution. There’s so much space.

You’ll have to excuse the terrible quality of the following photographs- the lighting wasn’t as good as it could have been. The black design suits my PC much more than my old silver one ever did.

It also came with a package full of screen wipes and spare cables.
Overall, incredibly pleased with this- a definite wise choice of Birthday gift.

And yes, you read correct! Just in time for Bioshock 2 which is unlocked on steam in a mere 23 hours! Joy!

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The Call Of Duty franchise is an incredibly successful line of games, in particular the series’ Modern Warfare titles have broken record after record in terms of sales and awards. While I thoroughly enjoyed both Modern Warfare and it’s sequel, I have found that I much prefer the most recent recreation of the grisly events of the Second World War as portrayed by Call Of Duty: World At War.

There were many who complained over the release of World At War, some going as far to boycott the title, believing it to be a massive step back for a franchise that had only just begun to explore new, fresh territory. But with the advances the Call Of Duty engine had taken, how could Treyarch resist the temptation of having us relive the cinematic horrors of a World At War all over again, in beautiful high definition and with the ruthlessly addictive online play made famous in Modern Warfare? Let’s give credit where it’s due here- had Treyarch indeed opted to continue where Modern Warfare had left off (that’s to say, a title set in modern day times), could we say with any confidence it would have been able to fill the huge, shining, buckled, standard issue boots of expectation a Post-Modern-Warfare audience had acquired?

Better the

devil you know, I say, and apparently Treyarch too: the results were an excellent game filled with character and personality, as well as a great single player campaign (which includes one of the best sniping missions I’ve ever encountered, inspired by the film Enemy at the Gates). It’s always great fun to start off an online match to the sound of a Japanese commander screaming “FOR THE GLORY OF JAPAN!”, and the satisfaction of having a Russian General sum up the battle’s events (“THEY CAME TO TAKE OUR BLOOD BUT DROWN IN THEIR OWN”) is a personal favourite of mine.

The single player campaign consists of various climatic battles throughout the Second World War, each one introduced with a smooth and appealingly stylish animation which tells you everything you need to know about the conflict before you’re thrown into it.

You play from both the perspective of a Pvt. Miller, an American soldier fighting in the Pacific Theatre, and Russian Pvt. Dimitri Petrenko located primarily in Nazi Germany. Both are filled with excellent missions and characters, particularly the strong-willed Sergeant Tom Sullivan who strangles a Japanese officer to death in Semper Fi, and the merciless Sergeant Reznov, bent on delivering sweet vengeance to the Nazi threat.

Mark my words, comrade. One day things will change. We will take the fight to their land, to their people, to their blood.

Voice acting here is stellar as is usual for Call of Duty games, and it goes without saying that the gun play is immersive, satisfying, and beefy.

If you’ve ever experienced Modern Warfare’s online mode, you’ll know what to expect here. You start off with a standard range of equipment- one or two weapons per category- and a few perks here and there. Then, as you score points for kills and team victories, you’ll also earn experience points. Once you go up a level, you unlock new equipment, challenges, and perks. It goes on like this until you’ve hit the max level upon which you can trade in all your hard-earned gear for prestige, allowing you to repeat the cycle all over again with the added bonus of a slightly larger e-penis.

The weaponry is a large factor in what keeps me coming back to World At War. They’re just so damned satisfying. There is truly nothing better than turning a corner and finding yourself mere feet away from the enemy who has just noticed you. You both instinctively raise your bolt-action rifles to aim, and it is in those few split seconds that the victor is determined- Whoever moved the most fluidly, whoever’s aim was better- they’ll be the ones who slink off into some shadowy recess to await the next victim with bated breath.

Map design is similarly brilliant. There are so many places in all of the levels where you initially

believe yourself to be secure, but soon discover there is an equally genius spot where someone can see you clearly enough to place a shot. They’re all quite balanced so you never experience bottlenecks, but are designed so that epic stand-offs can occur if both teams are persistent enough in holding their positions. There are some brilliantly atmospheric maps, namely Downfall, a Team Deathmatch arena taking place just outside of the Reichstag, the setting for the final battle of Berlin. Fires rage everywhere and Hitler’s speeches can be heard echoing in an eerie silence broken only by sporadic bouts of gunfire- it’s brilliant stuff, and makes for deeply intense free-for-alls in hardcore mode (a mode in which standard information given to the player such as the map and bullet count, as well as the crosshair are removed).

So, if by some miracle you’ve yet to play World At War- perhaps you were a naysayer, or just haven’t really bothered to try it- I’d definitely recommend picking up this gem of a game. It’s production values are astronomical, and game-play wise is largely unbeaten in it’s niche. And that’s including the latest Call Of Duty additions.

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Hello, reader!
I’m off school with an appallingly bad throat- it feels as if I’m trying to eat a cheese grater whenever I swallow…

To take my mind off the searing pain, I’ve added a lovely gallery for you to peruse at your leisure. It will include all sorts of tidbits, including game screen-shots and desktop fashion trends. Right now you can see my adventures in Fallout 3, as well as a load of Desktop pictures which will have you cooing and gasping in awe.

I’ve ordered a lovely 20” Widescreen LCD gaming monitor to replace this dusty old CRT I’ve being using ever since my 19” LCD decided to not turn on one morning. The jump from 1024×768 to 1600×900 should be pretty impressive.

Anyway, I’m off to let the dog out, make a cup of tea and settle down to some World At War.

Oh, the site has been redesigned. It’s all minimalistic and edgy. You can even choose your preference of colour in the sidebar to the left. Fun times all the time at Swag.

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Hello, hello. This is one of those crazy technical behind the scenes cunning insight type posts, and in it I’m going to tell you all about how Swag is now integrated with Facebook. Great news for all you bookians already facing, and a fantastic reason for any naysayer to hop onto the bandwagon if I don’t say so myself. So, what’s the deal? Well, the more observant among you may have realized that since I updated the site’s theme, comment functionality has been completely absent. I enjoy a bit of feedback now and again, though I hate the amount of spam that tends to come through, as well as having to log into wordpress to monitor it. So, using Facebook Connect, you can now comment any articles (from this point onwards) using your Facebook account details. Pretty nifty, but wait- there’s more! You can now become a Facebook Fan of Grandpa Swag (note the shameless plug now sitting in the right hand dock) which you should most definitely do because

1. I have to get my kicks somehow
2. Your friends will be so completely impressed that you have such high quality taste in bloggery. Serious.

And this next feature is more for my benefit, but also for you if you’re one of those crazy Web 2.0 types who like to express themselves using other peoples content. From now on, you truly can spread the love and share my articles by pressing the snazzy Facebook Share button conveniently placed at the end of the articles posted. Please do share an article if you enjoyed it, as I would like some more exposure. And that’s it for now really, there are some other nifty things I might implement in the future, but for now at least you can Become a Fan, comment on articles, and share my cerebral spillage with a friend.

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Now in all new lower resolution due to my lovely old school monitor.
I think it looks nice as is, if a bit tricked out with dock and system meters.

Click for larger image.

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