March Musings

So here we are, the last day of March and with the UK Tax Year End fast approaching (which is always a joy, professionally speaking...), I thought it timely to add an update before life really gets busy.

First up, this month saw me return to Attention Please, a radio show hosted by my friend Eddie Carter on NE1FM. This time, however, was a little different as apart from one song, I chose the whole  two hour playlist. Yep, it was a random collection indeed but I had a great time and it was a laugh. So much so, I will be appearing again (but maybe only picking a single track this time) on Monday April 16th, work depending. There was some good live feedback during the show and Eddie has placed a recording of it on Mixcloud here if you fancy a listen.

I also managed a cinema trip this month, this one to see the new Tomb Raider film. Now games to film adaptations have  a rocky history and this one kind of has the same problem but in reverse to the usual complaint - it's not that it doesn't follow the style of the games, it is that it follows it too closely, more specifically, it follows the story of the 2013 re-boot of the game series, Tomb Raider. Now this may not entirely be a bad thing, that title was a tremendous re-introduction to the character of Lara Croft but as some Youtube channels have pointed out, some scenes from the film are nearly shot to shot identical to the game. The film does have a couple of other problems, namely pacing that is a little too quick but I can see why they have done that and a villain who doesn't really come off as threatening. The acting is decent to good, Alicia Vikander is a suitable Lara and Dominic West is always good value, and the action is...actiony (!) enough. On the whole though, this is a good game to film adaptation and a decent action film in its own right. True, it's not high art, but an enjoyable passing of a couple of hours and I hope it performs well enough for a follow up as there are some decent threads left dangling.

The one piece of saddening news this month was the recent closure of Grainger Games. Not overly well known outside of the north of England, Grainger Games was a 67 store strong chain of video game (and geeky merchandise) shops. Founded in the Newcastle's Grainger Market way back when, it had, until about a year ago, provided a nice alternative to GAME on the UK high street for video games, always being a couple of pounds cheaper on most releases. That, however, stopped when their pricing matched GAME's and they introduced merchandise to the stores (in some instances, nearly half the store was given to non-video game stock). These were the first signs they were not making enough off games alone and as it turned out, a slippery slope to closure. This now means that there is only one large scale high street retailer for video games, in the same way there is only one national high street retailer for books (Waterstones) and one for films and music (HMV). It does make you wonder what specialist stores will be left within a few years...

Anyhoo, I have a meeting of the TWATS to get to and hopefully not make a complete hash of it this time...

A Return to Calm

Phew, that was a bit mental!

Tax Year End is usually fun for most people (and I don't mean fun in the traditional sense), and so it is with me due to my job. The last few weeks have been passed in a blur but the majority of the work is done (and I even managed to fit a game in too) and so I have time to think and type.

One thing I have managed to do is catch up with is my YouTube viewing. YouTube is pretty much a microcosm of the Internet, 99% rubbish but with the odd gem here and there. Over the years, I have found a few channels that are entertaining, informative and even a bit of both. As it's been a while since my last post, I thought I would kick off again with a list of the YouTube channels I like.

I'll start off with WatchMojo and WhatCulture. These two channels do pretty much similar things in general - they provide lists based on various topics. Watchmojo is American and played pretty straight. Primarily lists, they also produce new features as well. WhatCulture is UK based (just down the road in Gateshead) and is more anarchic, sarcastic and downright funnier. There are two channels for WhatCulture I follow, the main one as named and WhatCulture Gaming. They also post more than lists, with opinion pieces, reviews and the like and you could do far worse than have a scan through their content.

ScreenJunkies is all about film, though I tend to stay away from their usual stuff and concentrate on Honest Trailers. Words cannot convey how funny these can be. If you want the gaming equivalent, head to Smosh Games with their Honest Game Trailers. They even use the same "Awesome Voice Guy" to narrate them. Absolutely superb.

Moving on, there are a number of military/firearms channels that I follow. This started out with watching the goofiness of FPS Russia, a channel that seems to have stopped posting in recent years but gad amassed a good range of content prior to that. Following the suggested videos led to pretty much all of the rest of these channels.

FPS Russia uses a fake Russian, lots of explosives and a nice line in sarcasm to demonstrate the kind of high jinks you can get up to if you put your mind to it. I particularly recommend the SA80 demo and his comments on the SUSAT!

Next up, Iraqveteran8888. These guys own a gun store in the states and mix up opinion pieces (very pro 2nd amendment by the way), reviews and just plain fun. There is, in particular, a nice subset of Martini Henry videos that are extremely informative from an actual shooting point of view. Whether you follow their politics or not, the team know how to demo a firearm.

TFB TV (short for The Firearms Blog TV) is a genuinely professional channel, aimed not only at the US market but also internationally (they have a mix of presenters from all around the globe) and they are in essence trying to be the one stop shop for firearms related information. Recent posts from the UK have been very good and again, I would recommend these guys if you have any interest in firearms.

Then there is Forgotten Weapons. This is probably my favourite weapons channel. The presenter, Ian McCollum ( I think that's how you spell it), is knowledgeable, personable and plain good at his job. The focus is on firearms that maybe you might not have heard of, a good example of this would be the recent video from the National Firearms Centre in Leeds about the initial studies of what would form the SA80 program. This guy does this channel out of love of the topic and is the most informative of the weapons channels I have seen to date. He does run a Patreon in order to funds his visits so if you like what you see, please pop that dollar in there.

Finally, for the technical people out there, is Digital Foundry. Focussed on the technical side of computing and gaming, if you have any interest in how games perform, how the tech behind them works or the latest in computer graphics, this is the channel for you. There is also a Digital Foundry Retro channel that does pretty much the same thing but for retro games and is truly a labour of love that is definitely worth a visit.

That's it for now, please do visit any of the channels above if they take your fancy. As for me, I have to sort out a playlist for the 15th as I am guesting on Attention Please on NE1fm (102.5) (as well as streaming). I am looking forward to it as it's been over a year since my last visit.