Review:Holidays 09, Aix Les Bains

In my previous post, I left off at Aix Les Bains. Therefor I shall carry on where I left off….

As we walked up into the apartment the first thig we noticed was that the smell was strange.  The apartment only had one chair…Highly sought after by us all since we spent alot of time in the apartment.

My bed was just a small toddlers bunk bed….So we ended up putting a big mattress on the ground in my room. My Mum wasnt too fond of her bed either. Martin as always wasnt too bothered, as long as he had Wi-Fi/broadband and a place to sleep.

One of the first things we did was go to one of the free Concerts over the road from the apartment, Gwamatik was the bands name, a sort of Reggae Jazz fusion gig, I enjoyed it. My Mum wasnt too sure and Martin wanted to get up and dance (my Mum refused hehe).

I cant exactly remember when but one day me and Martin went out in a lightning storm so that I could get my longed for kebab, I got it, and boy it was tasty.

The other free concerts dissapointed me greatly. Sally Simpson was awful, Pierre Lemarchal was ok and he only good one was the sort of Death Metal Rock Celtic music in the nearest big town.

The beach beside the lake was fantastic and  most of our time was spent there. I met an Algerian boy one day and played for ages with him.

There was a huuge event beside the lake one day. The more interesting things included an artist who had made stickmen out of old Bike gear chains, a place where you could rent Chuckle Brothers cars,they looked like that anyway, and a few other forms of art. I bought a toy shotgun with some targets  since there wasnt much else for me to do on the beach.

Me and M

Me with my shooty gun

The Dancer Duo (one of many dancer duos)

One day we went to the top of  Le Revard, from which you could see Mont Blanc. I bought a walking stick there.

All of the above was in pretty random timeline since i  cant remember much…

The beach (Above) was our favourite place to reside as beside the (rocky) beach there was grass,shade and a sort of shop.

Beutiful view from the apartment:

I spent alot of my time of time in the apartment on the computer playing AQW and AQ. Hehe.

All other photos can be found here: www.flickr.com/organikal under the Aix Les Bains set.

I guess its off to Marseille now then!

Review: Holidays 09

From the 12th of July until the 5th of Septempber 2009, I was on a homeswapping adventure. Here be my account of the trip.

So it all started….We were all packed up and ready to go, with the Tandem and my Bike hanging on the back of our Nissan Terrano II . I got in the car, belted up and waited for the familiar rumble of the engine.

As usual, disaster struck about 5 minutes (lucky it wasn’t later) into the journey….The bikes were the victims this time, the “thing” they were attached to couldn’t take the weight. It was slowly, but all the same, shearing off of the spare wheel it was attached to. Yes, Martin was very very unhappy as it was one of his goals for the journey- it had cost us an awful lot of money too- to get to ride the Tandem in France. In a rather dreary and dull mood, we sped back to the house to drop off the bikes.

Without further mishap we were back on the road to Hull. Rain, squeaky window-wipers and a laughably neutral mood were accompanying us.  There isnt really much to say here as I had fallen asleep at this point…

As I awoke from my sleep we were nearly at Hull. So we listened to A Short History Of Everything by Bill Bryson. And before we knew it we were looking at The Pride Of Hull, the ship that would carry us to Zebrugge in Belgium.

The Ferry was big to say the least, housing the cars and bikes etc.. on the 6th (or something like that) floor. Dinner was enjoyable, the cabin was a little bit cramped and the sheets positively thin.

For dinner on the Ferry  had full Bangers and Mash, none of that poncy starter stuff…Hearty stuff is the best ;0].

Sleeping in the cabin was hard, the heating was stuck at what felt like 30 odd degrees, and after being in Sunny Scotland (we wish, hehe) that felt like 100 degrees to a Frenchman…

In the morning we got off the ferry at round-about 9:00AM. Next stop…Aux Les Bains in the mountain area near Provence.

A 12 hour journey was to be endured by listening to Bill Brysons A Short History Of Everything.

Yet again I was asleep for 50-60% of the time.

Just before we arrived in Aix Les Bains we had to travel nearly totally vertically. Up the mountains. Half the time my head was buried in a pillow hoping not to fall.

When we arrived we had to wait for ages for the lady with the keys to arrive. 3rd floor flats and a looooot of baggage do NOT mix very well…

My adventures shall continue in another post!

Gamerscore relief post 1

Hiya,my new post series called Gamerscore Relief v1 is a eries dedicated to finding easy ways to get gamerscore for your xbox live Gamertag.

Post 1: Mmmm, Doritos…..And a side order of gamerscore…

200 gamerscore in 10 minutes…..Wow, yes?

Grab Dash Of Destruction from the Game Marketplace and spend 3-5 minutes on each campagin. Dont worry theyre easy and fairly fun. Then grab another controller, set up a multiplayer match with minimal settings.

There 200 GS in under 15 minutes, impressive huh?

Prepare to drop…..22/9/09

The highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed “Shooter of the decade, maybe even century.” Halo 3, developed by Bungie…..Is preparing to drop 22/9/09…

Halo 3: O(rbital)D(rop)S(hock)T(rooper)

Set in New Mombasa shortly before the events of Halo 3. You play as “The Rookie”, a new hero of the series, known as a “helljumper” The Rookie is an Orbital Shock Drop Trooper.

The most anticipated part of Halo3:ODST is the new co-opetition mode, FireFight, which looks a bit like Gears of War 2s fantastic Horde mode. Players must beat up Covenant forces as they are sprinkled from heavily armed dropships. Gameplay looks extremely diverse and enjoyable, going by the few trailers that the public has been allowed to view.

Story mode looks like a simple, yet interesting, twist to Halo 3s story mode. Halo3:ODST looks to be set more to recon, smart movements and stealth rather than Halo3s rather Rambo-like style of play.

The SMG from Halos 1 & 2 appears as a main weapon in the game, however it has a silencer and improved sights. See  image below:

The Main Weapon of the ODST

The highly powered Revolver also makes a come-back, formerly being a happy accident as the most powerful weapon in former Halo games. It takes a mere 2 headshots to kill a fully shielded opponent! See image below.

The Revolver

As an added bonus for pre-ordering ODST, Bungie has thrown in a free Sergeant Johnson unlock code for use in FireFight. See image below

Sgt. Johnson Promo Pic

Playing as Sgt. Avery Johnson Jnr. should be pretty satysfying for die-hard Halo fans and new players alike.

The ODST box will also contain another disc with part 2 of the fantastic Mythic Map Pack for Halo 3s forge mode and Multiplayer, Matchmaking mode.

All in all, this one should be watched.

Thank you for reading, Xtr4M1nty

Oddly enough…DOOM has me hooked…

I have started to play Doom and Wolfenstein 2D on the Xbox Live Arcade and I must say….I’m thoroughly enjoyng it….

Im currently trying to complete DOOM on HurtMePlenty! mode but its proving to be quite irritating if you lok at a wall wrong….Seriously Invisible Bull Demons are annoying little blighters..

Wolfenstein 2D is just on Trial right now but next batch of MSPoints i get I can say one thing…..I will unlock the full game ASAP!

I may do a guide on DOOM some other time….

Top Anticipated Games 2009-2010

1.Modern Warfare2
2.Halo3:ODST
3.Halo Reach
4.Forza Motorsport 3
5. The Behemoths “Game3″

Those are mine.

What are yours?

AQW Good and Evil Reputation

=BIG dissapointment.

I really dont like the items…Neither good nor evil rep is worth working for (in my humble opinion, anyways…) unless you want to look extremely silly or are extremely bored…

The quests are easy enough but are still not fun.

Good try AE, but all in all it was a rather epic fail. (I would have prefered a level cap raise etc…)

AQW How to beat Vath and Stalagbite

Well, the first question people ask for Vath is: “How do i beat vath???”

So I compiled this quick and easy guide for you!:

The “Groupies” Guide:

Step 1: Group up with at least 2 other people.

Step 2: Equip a high DPS weapon and class.

Step 3: Rest until you have full mana and HP.

Step 4: Attack Stalagbite, He dosent do that much damage but is hard to beat all the same.

Step 4B: Do NOT attack Vath. Yet… Because of his lethal 880-1000 hits if Stalagbite is still standing. Note that Stalagbite can hit extremely hard aswell, have an active healer available. Be ready to run all the way back up the mountain if hit a 880-1000.

Step 5: Once Stalagbite is finished you must attack Vath. He takes very little damage and hits an adequate amount to finish off a level 20 after a small while…

The Quickie technique: Repeat steps 2-5 but do it in a public map, hoping for other players to be doing this technique aswell.

Hope that helped!

~Xtr4M1nty~

People you HAVE to meet on AQW

Names and usual servers!:

Linku -Cysero

Rhubarb333 -Sir Ver

Cysero -Sir Ver

Citrinas -Safiria/Sir Ver

O -N/A

Ghost -Sir Ver

Tomix -Sir Ver

Stardot -Sir Ver

Beleen -Sir Ver

Read The Book -Sir Ver

Reasons for those folks:

Read the Book=Awesome Randomness at its best!

Beleen=Cool pet

Stardot= He has an awesome sword and he also has Evolved Dragon Lord

Tomix= I knew him in beta, hes cool, and he has EDL

Ghost= All his stuff is pure awesome.

O=Was rather awesome last time i met him.

Citrinas=Makes some of the coolest sets EVAR!

Cysero= He is the Mad Weaponsmith!

Rhubarb333=Its me, and I wrote this blog therefore im awesome.

Linku=Wrote alot of AQW stuff on a blog, one he did as a collab.

DONE!

AQW Race Mocks

Well first of all I like the whole sort of “Race” feature of games like Elf,Wood Elf,Human,Dwarf,Orc etc….

Dark Elf/Drow look:

Use the Drow Morphs from /join uppercity use the skin color of the Drow as your skin color, white for a purist drow look and any color for a non-purist look.
Use Drow Assasin, Undead Warrior etc..For your armor.
Use the Drow Sabre, Legendary Sword Of Dragon Control, or any other chaos or elegant and dark weapon.

Elf:

Use the Drow Morphs from /join uppercity use any normal skin color for Elves. Hashashin Armor is cool with the Vorpal Edge for a cool look…

Human:
….You dont seeeriously expect me to tell you do you?