Dunworking’s Domain

Monthly meanderings…
yes, I’ve been away from here from here for far too long…reasons are many and varied, some of which I don’t want to talk about on a public weblog….but there has been plenty going on at “Dunworking’s Domain”…

Run DMC (4)
I’ve finally completed “Devil May Cry 4″ (on the PC at least). Given that the PC game market is supposed to be dying in the face of competition from the consoles, I’m pleased to say that with this and “BIOSHOCK”, I’ve enjoyed two excellent titles that show the PC can hold it’s own in the gaming world…

Yes, I know that DMC4 was originally a console title, but trust me, the PC version is the best I’ve played. When finishing both titles, a sense of “what now?” hit me, as I realised I’d probably have to move onto other, lesser things. This I have done at the moment, with “Call of Duty 4″ next on the roster. It’s ok, the graphics are good, and the sense of “being there” is to the fore, but it’s an endless fire-fight, with not much interaction. Shoot a bit, move a bit, shoot a bit more.

I’ve also got round to updating MAME32FX as well. This, providing you ignore (at your own risk!) the “grey area” regarding downloading of game ROMS, could give you access to over 5,000 games at a stroke. Yes, most of them would disgrace a calculator, but there are some gems.

The Football Season is here !
That time of year when I start poring over league tables, and don my anorak to update my teams in Fantasy Football & Football Manager is here again. Pagham FChave already played three games this season, winning against Oakwood awayand East Preston at home before being soundly thrashed by Hythe Town in the F A Cup last Saturday. Portsmouth FC have not started well, losing in the Charity Shield and then being found out 4-0 by Chelsea yesterday.

Playing cat and mouse…
Our two cats are growing week by week, with Sooty (as seen below) managing to perfect a mean look by virtue of losing all her white eyebrows. They’re both at an age where anything and everything is fair game for their teeth and claws, and the garden fences no longer are any barrier to them…many happy (!!) hours are spent coaxing them down from where they shouldn’t be…

Rattle my bones
Is it me, or was Bonekickers particularly awful ? In places I thought it was so bad it was brilliant. Something of a surprise coming from the “Life on Mars” team.

A Night At The Opera
With my Nokia E-61 still going strong, I downloaded the Opera Mini browser the other day. And a fine peice of software it is too. Seems quicker than the inbuilt browser, and makes a very good phone even better (note for one of my more regular readers…give up on that rubbish LG phone you’ve been complaining about and get an E-61i, or better still an E-71 :LOL: )

…obviously that’s not true, but I just want him to stop whingeing and move somewhere…anywhere…it’s becoming so very boring now…class footballer, but ill-advised when it comes to PR.

Boring geeky bit…
and in other news…more changes to my PC…with the release of the awesome Devil May Cry 4 on the PC, it was with much anticipation that I installed the demo…and then it crashed…with the same error as the demo of Assassins Creed, and Colin McCrae:Dirt…

Those that have been reading my witterings before would know that I was loathe to upgrade my PC due to the cost…however, I discovered that all DMC4 needed to run on my PC was a processor that supports something called “SSE2″ to work. I also knew that old Athlon 64 processors that had this support could be bought for peanuts. So…to cut a long story short, I now have an Athlon 64 and a new motherboard fitted (the motherboard was a nightmare to find…I wanted one which could support my AGP graphics card and DDR memory as I’m an old miser)…all for an outlay of £60.

Bargain as far as I’m concerned - the difference between this and my old system is markedly better. I can play DMC 4 at 1024×768 with details on high at 80fps + (note, I don’t go in for all this “e-penis” malarkey - I’m just very impressed with how a cheap upgrade has turned out).

Sports desk
Having had a couple of days off work, I went to Arundel Cricket ground with an old mate on Wednesday to watch Sussex come back from 72-4 to 316-5 against Hampshire. Being Hampshire born and bred I kept fairly quiet. For those of you who don’t know, Arundel Cricket Ground is very picturesque, in the grounds of Arundel castle, and certainly adds to the genteel atmosphere of a decent day’s cricket…

Somewhat earlier than planned, Pagham FC have their first pre-season friendly match this coming Sunday…I just don’t know where the summer has gone ! Portsmouth have also started their friendlies, although against my advice we’ve signed Peter Crouch. I remain unconvinced by him, and hope that he will prove me wrong.

Am I Bovvered ?!
So… last night saw the final episode in series 4 of Dr Who and what a masterpiece of television !! The cliff-hanger from the previous episode was solved with a plot twist that was as clever as it was obvious. This series, to my mind, has been the best of the four, with David Tennant proving yet again he’s a match for any of his predecessors. I wasn’t sure about Catherine Tate, but she proved me wrong by being funny and tragic whenever she needed to be. Superb to see the people from Torchwood also appearing, not to mention the inevitable Rose Tyler moment. To top it all off, the villanous Davros getting his come-uppance was a masterstroke. Moments of comedy too, as when the Daleks were controlled by the human/timelord hybrid Donna…

…which makes me wonder “where next ?”…there’s a few “special” episodes coming up, and probably series 5, but rumours persist about the next Dr Who…who would I like to see to replace David Tennant? David Tennant…failing that, another Scots actor comes to mind…it can’t be John Barrowman, and I don’t think James Nesbitt quite fits the bill…Robert Carlyle ?….could be, could be…

With Russell T Davies now taking a back seat, Steven Moffatt can have free reign to write episodes as good as “Blink” which scared the pants off someone I know…and rightly so, a very spooky episode.

Skeddy…you B****** !
(note - this is meant in a humorous way, and is not meant as an insult….read on…)
So…there I was, with my X-Box Live account sitting there with 2100 points unused…”I know”, said I, “I’ll download that there Bejwelled 2″…mistake….I’d forgotten how many hours I’d spent on the PC version, and with Skeddy’s on-line score needing to be trashed, I’ve now got a pile of ‘360 games gathering dust, films unwatched, websites neglected….so, if you’re reading this, Rob, you’re going down….:smile:

Football is coming home !
Now that Euro 2008 is done and dusted, it’s a mere couple of weeks until the new season starts…so…if Harry Redknapp, or any Portsmouth fans are reading this, just two words….”Crouch, NO !”

The PC equivalent of “Man Flu”

I’ve been away from the weblog for a few days as my PC caught a virus…specifically the Virtumonde Virus….I’d noticed the PC had been slow recently, but thought nothing of it…my PC is decrepit to say the least…and then noticed some odd behaviour from time to time…the biggest irony is that, because I use Firefox 3.0 I didn’t notice the main behaviour of this virus, as the pop-ups were killed by my browser…

so…having done a quick check on NOD32, I noticed that many, many files had been infected without me knowing Now, rather than faff around trying to remove the virus, I decided drastic action was called for…so, a couple of hours sat with a pile of assorted back-up CDs and DVDs and my broadband connection meant I was back to rights soon enough…

I lost a load of important letters, a couple of years worth of save games, and a whole pile of e-mails…am I bothered ? Well, no not really - the reason I caught the virus in the first place was due to a dodgy zip file that I forgot to virus-check…I’ve only myself to blame, and as a result have, in fact, done myself a favour - I’ve rid my PC of a whole pile of crap that was just taking up space and have also got a PC which runs faster than before…

What, no football ?

Well, not for a few weeks anyway. Having thoroughly enjoyed “Euro 2008″ (apart from the awful French and Greek sides), well done to Spain who deserved to win in the end. Pagham FC start their pre-season friendlies in a few weeks, and yet another round of soccer thrills starts again…of course the new season has a little extra for Portsmouth fans as we enter the Uefa Cup (regular readers will remember I forecast this before the start of last season…and now, next week’s lottery numbers…)

“Skooodah”

I’ve just been listening to the new Scooter CD, and can’t decide whether to take them seriously or not. On this CD, for instance is a hilarious techno version of the theme from the film “Never Ending Story”…totally naff, but very, very entertaining.

As Racheal quite rightly pointed out the other day, it’s high time I updated my weblog…don’t know what I’d do without her, she manages to keep me from completely forgetting what I SHOULD be doing…*grin*

…but…I do have legitimate excuse…I’ve simply been far too busy ! I’ve had a list of PC jobs suddenly turn up, and there’s also been Euro 2008 to watch…incidentally, it’s been very refreshing to watch a football tournament where there’s been no reason for any excuses as to why England are so abject…just been able to enjoy the football…Last night’s match for instance…Holland were stone cold certainties to beat Russia, but in the end lost 3-1 in an enthralling match.

It’s not been all footy and Network problems though…I’ve also spent an inordinate amount of time on my X-Box 360, determined to finally finish Devil May Cry 4…at the time of writing I’m still only half way through the game…which I put down to time constraints…

My listening pleasure has been increased by the superb website at Radio Archive where you can download many, many shows from the radio that the BBC hasn’t got round to releasing on CD yet. It all seems legitimate, given that they don’t accept torrents for commercially available products, and looks very much as if it’s the same as recording directly from the radio. With the sad loss of “Humph”* recently, this is the perfect filip for those who enjoy decent radio comedy (amongst other things - and it’s cheaper than Audible.co.uk)

Also taking a bow in my CD player is the new Paul Weller CD 22 Dreams” Superb, and takes me back to when I were nobbut a lad, listening to “The Jam”…

Watched “Superhero Movie”yesterday…and laughed nearly all the way through…yes, it is an awful film but it’s so bad it’s brilliant…and has Leslie “Naked Gun” Nielsen in it…recommended

What isn’t recommended is “Meet the Spartans” - utter tripe.

New Job ? Busy as ever, but shout outs to everyone I work with…an ever helpful bunch, and I’m very settled there now…