You Can’t Marry Karita in Skyrim
If you visit Dawnstar, and pop into the Windpeak Inn you will meet Karita. You may be taken back by her slutty dress and natural Nord beauty and think this is the one for me, this is who I want to marry! Beware, it’s a trap. Do not think you can charm this women by completing every quest in Dawnstar. Even if you become the Thane of Dawnstar, and even if you help Karita’s father with his pointless chores, it won’t work. You can’t marry Karita! Wearing the Amulet of Mara is supposed to get you girls right? Well not this one. All she does is sing and tease, and waste hours off your life in the dump that is Dawnstar! Move on to the next one, just saying!
London Barcraft Dreamhack 25th-26th Nov
Just a quick post to let everyone know @LondonBarcraft are hosting another event for Dreamhack. Get down to The Assembly House, 292 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2TG from 7pm, this Friday 25th November 2011 for a weekend of StarCraft 2 streaming from Europe’s biggest SC2 tournament.
MLG Providence was a blast, but Dreamhack should be even better as the LondonBarcraft team have secured the other half of the bar and ANOTHER screen to accommodate the ever growing Barcraft crowd. If things get any bigger we may need to extend into the cellar, need a light?
London BarCraft MLG Providence 19-20th Nov
Just a bunch of BarCrafters, eating, drinking and cheering.
Get ready for another top BarCraft event hosted by @LondonBarcraft this 19 & 20th of November 2011. As per the packed out previous event, StarCraft 2 MLG tournament games will be streamed all weekend across multiple screens at The Assembly House, 292 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2TG. Arrive from 3pm both Saturday & Sunday and join fellow StarCrafters in what looks to be the ultimate MLG final event in the 2011 pro circuit.
The Assembly House is a great bar with great food and great owners! They are killing e-sports one BarCraft event at a time and can now be found on twitter @assemblyhouse2. The pub is easily accessed by train, simply get off at Kentish Town, turn right and you will see the pub on the corner, packed with nerdballerz chanting Huk Huk Huk! There is also plenty of parking in the residential streets behind the pub, Leverton Street being the closest with a 30 second walk to the bar.
Don't worry there is plenty of room the other side of the bar
The London BarCraft team never fail to keep everyone entertained, with plenty of ‘in between’ events filling the holes that most tournaments fail to fill. With giveaways of gaming swag such as T-Shirts and signed Dignitas goodies, ‘guess the StarCraft unit’ games performed by the crowd, classic YouTube SC2 games casted by the in-house caster @JoRoSaR, and even some awful Korean Pop music videos. If you look in the corners of the bar you may even spot an arm wrestle competition, proving nerds actually have biceps thanks to hitting their mechanical keyboards all day! So bring your self and your biceps down to the best BarCraft event in the UK, and don’t forget to practise your StarCraft unit impression, My Life For Aiur!
INcontroL couldnt even take these guys down, well maybe!
The Filco Majestouch Mechanical Keyboard
I’ve been hearing nothing but good things about mechanical keyboards over the last few months. So I decided to take the plunge and after a lot of research my Filco Majestouch Linear Action Keyboard with Cherry MX Black switches has arrived (that’s a big description for just a keyboard). I am typing this on it right now and am loving hitting every single key!
A Filco mechanical keyboard
The difference between mechanical keyboards and every other keyboard I have used in my life is sooo huge that I cannot put it into words, but I will try. It’s like the first time you saw GLQuake or Unreal with a 3dfx graphic card as opposed to running in software mode. It’s like when you first switched from a 56k modem to isdn or broadband and hit a quake server with a low ping. The instant WOW factor just hits you and your brain records a memory that you will never forget, stacked up with all the other ‘first time’ experiences that may or may not be PC related 
StarCraft is the link that got me into these mechanical keyboards. Its common knowledge that all the pro StarCraft players use a mechanical keyboard, and if you delve deeper you can even find out which brand and which switch type your favourite player uses. But WTF is a mechanical keyboard? A mechanical keyboard has mechanical key switches under each key (in this case, Cherry MX Black switches) as opposed to the cheap rubber dome crap that you find on the majority of keyboards out there, EVEN a lot of overpriced so called ‘gaming’ keyboards covered in gamer crap like LCD’s. I am no expert on the technical workings so for more guidance on mechanical keyboards just read this excellent in depth guide.
Choosing a brand is difficult as there is actually quite a bit of choice now, even from major gaming brands like SteelSeries and Razer. I decided on the Filco Majestouch for two main reasons. Firstly it has the simplest layout, no extras, no weird keys in the wrong place, no 3.5mm jacks for headphones or USB hubs. Just a basic UK keyboard with the standard 105 key layout that most keyboards take and then modify with back lights and volume controls and all sorts of other nonsense. Also it has no extra dead space, like the DAS Keyboard which has a huge extra piece of plastic at the top right for no reason. It is just a plain old simple keyboard, black with all the basic keys. My second reason was the Filco is sold in the UK by a small UK company called ‘The Keyboard Company‘ and I like to support British businesses where I can.
The next choice to make is which mechanical switch to go for. The three main choices are Cherry MX brown, blue and black. The Cherry MX Blue’s are the most noisy being tactile and clicky so I steered clear of those. The Cherry MX Brown switches have a tactile feel half way through the key press and a lot of StarCraft players use these, they have no click so they are slightly quieter. The Cherry MX Black switches have no click and no tactile feel, just a linear key which is good for all sorts of gaming, especially FPS. As I was brought up on FPS I figured this would be best for me, as I am used to bottoming out the key (hitting it so hard it hits the table). For a more technical explanation check out this guide on switches. Also the Filco I went for with Cherry MX Black switches comes with red LED’s, I love red stuff. It’s worth noting the red LED’s are extremely bright when viewed direct on.
Bright red LED's! Blinding
Another cool feature with these keyboards is the ability to buy custom color key caps. The Keyboard Company sell ESC and WASD keycaps in red or blue. As I dont use WASD I use arrow keys, I have had to order some red keycaps from Hong Kong on ebay, they come as a pack with all the letters so I can swop out some of my favourite StarCraft keys like ‘A’ for marines with a red key.
Red keycaps for your most used HOT keys, like A for marines in SC2 ;O) Marines are OP!
Another cool function which has prevented me from changing keyboards over the last decade is N-key Rollover. I use an odd combination of keys, that just so happens to be on the same membrane on all but one 10yr old Dell Keyboard. Which means if i try to press my ‘gaming keys’ all at the same time, they dont work on most keyboards. NKR (N-key Rollover) allows you to hit any combination of keys all at the same time, providing you use the PS2 port not the USB port. Thats right, PS2 > USB for keyboards anyway, as per the super Mechanical Keyboard Guide…
PS/2 or USB?
PS/2 wins on three fronts: First, it supports full n-key rollover. Second, PS/2 keyboards aren’t polled, but are completely interrupt based. And third, it is impossible for it to be delayed by the USB bus being used by other devices. There are two types of USB transfer modes – the interrupt transfer mode (USB polls keyboard, when key is sensed the USB controller sends the interrupt to the CPU), and the isochronous transfer mode, which reserves a certain amount of bandwidth for the keyboard with a guaranteed latency on the bus. Unfortunately, there are absolutely no keyboards made that use the latter, because special controllers would have to be used, thus making it cost prohibitive. So if your keyboard supports both PS/2 and USB, and your PC has a PS/2 port, there’s no reason not to use it.
And that is that, I think I have convinced every one of you to go out there and blow £120 inc VAT on a mechanical keyboard? Yes I left the price till last as they are expensive, but they are worth it. No doubt this will last you a life time. Take my word for it, if not, take my fellow StarCrafter’s word for it on his excellent Keyboard Quest post. See you on Bnet newbz, hitting high APM’s like a BOSS!
London BarCraft MLG Orlando 15-16th October
This weekend @londonbarcraft are hosting the biggest baddest StarCraft BarCraft event in London yet. Head down to The Assembly House, 292 Kentish Town Road, London NW5 2TG from 3pm this Saturday & Sunday 15th & 16th October 2011, for non stop StarCraft. The Assembly House is a great bar, excellent food, hot bar staff and of course, loads of fellow NerdBaller StarCraft fans. Extra screens have been added due to the increasing crowds at previous events, the third being a projector, with 2 supporting screens which should mean you can see the games from every point in the bar now. The last London BarCraft we had a HUGE crowd, take a look for yourself below.
There are a few surprises this weekend, with the first LondonBarCraft Awards taking place for the ultimate in StarCraft swag. Thats right, team-dignitas have donated signed pictures of the awesome Select, Naniwa and others, as well as team-dignitas hoodies (the height of NerdBaller fashion). The CheeseMonger Award sounds most entertaining, and the winner of each award will have his (or hers) StarCraft replay casted live in front of the audience, so get submitting your replays NOW to awards@londonbarcraft.com. I also overheard (sshh its a secret) a couple of trips to DreamHack, flights and hotels included, are up for grabs from a team-dignitas sponsor!
You can win this team-dignitas stuff @LondonBarCraft
So go grab your favourite StarCraft t-shirt, wash and iron it, and get ready for the ultimate weekend, MLG Orlando, fellow StarCrafter’s and plenty of good food and drink, trust me I’ve tried nearly everything on the menu. See you there, GL HF.
How to bind the arrow keys in Battlefield 3
Bind the Up, Down, Left or Right keys, turn OFF Num Lock.
This one is simple so I will get straight to the point so you don’t have to trawl through the EA Battlefield 3 forums. If you want to bind the ARROW keys in BF3 you need to have Num Lock OFF. If you leave num lock ON you will get the error message ID_InvalidEnumValue. I hope this helps you get into the game with keys other than WASD. Not everyone plays WASD as we found in Mass Effect 2, some of us prefer the arrow keys.
As for the rest of the the Battlefied 3 beta, I’m pretty pissed off that the options menu can ONLY be accessed whilst in game. You need to find somewhere to hide, which is difficult and ends up with abuse from other players calling you a camper when they find and shoot you down. Why on earth would you only be allowed to access the options menu whilst in game, it is the worst time to be binding your keys, changing your graphic settings and adjusting your mouse sensitivity. Who tests this stuff? Who thought that was a good idea? It creates a server full of newbs doing nothing but testing binds and graphics settings, and free kills for other newbs. I know it is a beta, but how did this get past alpha with such a basic flaw?
Anyway moving on, the web based interface is ok as I got used to this with Quake Live, so not much to say on that. Generally it works although a few times I have had the A generic game error was reported, please try again. ( code: 1) message but this just seems to be random, keep trying and eventually you can get on a server. Otherwise try clicking the MULTIPLAYER text rather than the QUICK MATCH button, this will bring up a manual server browser and has prooved to throw up less errors than the match making of ‘QUICK MATCH’.
Keep retrying, or failing that, click Multiplayer for a manual server browser
This is really where you want to be to select a game anyway, the server browser. After all match making and quick match are for console gamers right? Here you can select a server of your choice, see the stats before you jump in. Well hidden EA!
Oh look, a server browser, well hidden EA!
So how is the beta? It’s ok, I wasn’t a fan of and still am not a fan of COD/BF style multiplayer but hey, its something to do other than StarCraft 2 right? GG
Dinner Date the game, is not really a game
Dinner Date?
I began to write this a while back but forgot to finish and publish it. So here goes. Dinner Date by Stout Games assumes you are the stereo typical gamer, male, single, young and desperate for a date with a mysterious oriental girl who (spoiler alert) lets face it, is not going to turn up, ever!
Now times have changed, that stereotype I thought had phazed out. Everyone I know who plays games does not fit that description. Infact I cannot think of anyone who reminds me of the role you play in Dinner Date. Furthermore you play this role from a first person perspective, which should make you even more immersed into this character. But still I could not connect with the character, yet something kept me thinking about this ‘game’ experience for weeks, there is something special in Dinner Date, but don’t expect it to be fun.
I hate the voice, everyone raved about the audio in Dinner Date but I found the voice annoying, heck I even found the gameplay annoying, and disappointing! At the end I was left feeling empty, Steam had sold me a game which left me feeling empty, thanks Steam. But for over a week I kept thinking about Dinner Date, it was stuck in my head.
The experience is what you are paying for. I’m starting to believe feeling empty and crappy at the end is the entire point of this ‘game’, after all, your single, drunk and alone in a shitty flat, your job sucks and your date is not going to arrive. If that doesn’t make you feel like crap then I don’t know what will, and the fact that this game makes you feel like that makes it a success, and worth the few pound just to try out this potential new genre, ‘Make you feel like crap ‘game’ experience’ genre.
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