Happy Canada Day !!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Canadians a very jolly & happy Canada Day for July 1st.

CO-OP Gaming

This weekend looks likely to be a zombie free one and I'm not happy! As most people know, I don't spend a lot of time playing online games as I usually prefer a decent single player campaign any day. But lately I've (re)discovered the joys of coop online gaming that has more to it than any repetitive deathmatch game could ever offer.

There are a few coop games that you'll find me playing, Doom 3's Last Man Standing and FMJ 5.56mm are damn fine examples of games you should play!  Battlefield 1942's excellent total conversion Interstate Racing (aka IS82) is another I've played for years. (Okay, it's not really coop but everyone usually ends up messing about rather than actually racing against each other! It's fun - play IS82!).  Finally, the awesome Fraghouse Invasion 5 and Killing Floor for Unreal Tournament 2004.

Killing Floor is the game I play more so than any other at the moment. It's fantastic fun and feels like you're stuck inside a real B-Movie that would make Romero proud. The maps are amazing, play on 'Swamp' and 'Parking Lot' to see what I mean. You can use a variety of weapons but, of course, I choose the shotgun method! I like the faster Winchester over the traditional Shotgun and there is also a Hunting Shotgun that fans of Doom 2 *must* try out!

However, the thing that makings Killing Floor so addictive isn't the range of spooky maps, great weapons, perfect gameplay or even the great graphics. It's the players. Most nights I run my own server for the KF Community and there are often 5/6 of us all working together to rid the world of zombie scum! It's a great laugh and there are lots of cool characters too, along with some talented players too (hate those ppl!). ;-)

Hmm now for the bad part. I'm writing this blog today because I cannot play the game online. Apparently, the master servers are offline at the moment and they could be down for the entire weekend! Hence the reason I've updated my blog rather than actually playing the game!

Typical, I've got all weekend and the master servers are down! Bah..  Well, at least single player is also supported - but this is NOTHING compared to playing coop with your friends.

Uncle Strider !

Today we got to see our new nephew. Little Archie came quite a few weeks early due to some problems, but all is well overall and he's doing well. Perfectly well for his size and early condition. Congrats to the parents - you've done fantastic!!!!

our Oslo trip

We're back from our Oslo trip and boy what a fantastic experience. We loved Norway!

Personally, it's a place that I've always wanted to visit and Oslo is a great start to begin any Scandinavian vacation. The city is clean and quiet whilst home to a ton of great sites to see and many things to do. The people are friendly and polite making this a great place for families and couples alike.

The strangest thing for us was the temperature. One of the reasons Oslo made it onto our shortlist was the expected cooler climate. Not so! Each day was damn hot but it peaked at around 30c on the Saturday. Scorchio!

The sun was still shining late into the evening but it never went completely dark. Even in the early hours of the "night" the Sun reappears after only a couple of hours of this half darkness! Very odd weather that we aren't used to here in England. We loved this and enjoyed the whole experience, of course.

I cannot recommend Oslo, or indeed Norway as a whole, enough to you all. Sure the Taxi's and eating out are expensive but everything else more than makes up for this. We loved Norway and hope to return one day. When we do, Trondheim is next on the list but first we have to visit other places.. what else do we go to work for? Enjoy life!

[ This posting is dedicated to my new nephew, Archie. ]

My "Killing Floor", a UT2004 server

A quick post to let all know about my 'Killing Floor' game server.

It's a Unreal Tournament 2004 server running the total conversion mod 'Killing Floor'. This is a classic game aimed at action / zombie fans everywhere! You are all welcome to grab a shotgun and join us for a game sometime.

If you don't have this fantastic game installed, then you can download it from AppleCrypt Mods right now. If you'd like to visit the KF homepage then click here.

My server is simply called "Strider's KF Server" and it will be listed within the game's browser with all the others. It's running most evenings (GMT) during a typical weekday and also at various times over the weekends. (except this coming weekend - we're too busy!)

Join us, there's plenty of spare shotguns to go around :-)