Ever since powering on my Playstation 2 for the first time in roughly 14 years, I have been playing Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec. Released in 2001, Gran Turismo 3 was the flagship game for the Playstation 2 and was usually bought with the console as soon as it hit the shelves. I however bought Gran Turismo 3 much later when the game entered the platinum range. For readers who are unaware, many Playstation 1 and 2 games entered the platinum range maybe a year or two after release and was considered to be a ‘budget’ range. To give you an idea, if I remember rightly, a brand new Playstation 2 game at the time of release might have cost £30 – £40. If the game entered the platinum range it would cost about £20, maybe less, and had a platinum coloured case.
While I always enjoyed playing Gran Turismo 3, I could never stick at it and never got remotely close to completing the game. This partly because I am genuinely really terrible at playing racing games, even my friend Jason, who in almost 20 years of friendship, has actively encouraged me, has shown belief in me and doesn’t like it when I put myself down, will most likely on this occasion agree that I really, really suck at playing racing games and that it is something not likely to change. Because I am bad at playing racing games, I am actually proud to have achieved 28.6% completion and for winning 223 out of 267 races with an 83% win rate as shown in the screenshot below.
To be honest, much of what I achieved in Grand Turismo 3 is because I saved up credits (in game currency) to buy and tune a car so that it is so powerful that even if I crash on each corner of the race track, I am still likely to win. What the above screenshot does not show however is that I did actually complete all 20 beginner league challenges and 7 of the amateur league challenges including the Japanese, American and European championships, which is much further than I ever progressed back in the early to mid 2000’s.
What I really like about Gran Turismo 3 is the role-playing and customization aspects of the game. Choosing which cars to buy and how to tune them, which races to compete in, winning cars and deciding whether or not to sell them, watching the statistics grow and the feeling of achievement when you get a car you like or by winning a championship all make this game very attractive even to someone who typically doesn’t like racing games. I have also found Gran Turismo 3 to be ahead of the curve compared to other games of its time, Gran Turismo 3 features a full soundtrack, replays of races, dual shock controls (which is amazingly simple but lets you feel gear changes, collisions and the track through vibrations in your controller), and even features the ability to trade cars with friends. These features are very basic and simple by today’s standards, but at the time the developers (Polyphony Digital) really did do an amazing job at utilizing what the Playstation 2 was capable of.
One side note is that while my cheap RCA to HDMI video converter and cheap external USB video capture card has allowed me to use my Playstation 2 again, the quality of the video output is questionable as you can see from my screenshot. While I do find it tolerable, in that it has not detracted much from me enjoying the game, I do find it difficult to use to produce media at a quality I am comfortable with. With that in mind, I am considering purchasing better equipment, but for now, what I have works fine and I can’t complain for the price I paid.
The first thing I want to mention in this Classic WoW update is that it’s been a year since I published my first Classic WoW update in October 2019. Back then my rogue was level 32 and I had just decided that playing a rogue would be more fun than a druid which was level 36 at the time. My druid had just joined a guild (which later turned out to be the wrong guild for me) and I had just turned a corner in regards to my mental health.
Perhaps for the first time since joining Inspire in December 2019, I have not been raiding consistently. In the past 3 weeks I would estimate that I have attended 3 out of 6 main raids, which award EP (effort points), and around 2-3 out of 5 or 6 optional (extra) raids. One of the reasons for this is that I have been busy, or sick, but another reason is that I have started to feel a little burnt out and need to give myself a break rather than risk losing interest or getting frustrated with the game.
Even though I have not been raiding as much, I have been very lucky this last month and have been awarded quite a lot of loot, including an off hand weapon, Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight. Now that I have this and Ancient Qiraji Ripper, it is no longer necessary to have Warblade of the Hakkari on my wish list. Perhaps the most exciting peice of loot awarded to me this past month is Bloodfang Belt, which means I now have the complete Bloodfang Armour set. Incidentally, I also completed the Nightslayer Armour set the same evening, which is a nice bonus.
Prestor’s Talisman of Connivery
Bloodfang Belt
Band of Accuria
Drake Fang Talisman
Jom Gabbar
Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight (Off hand weapon)
With significant help from my guild, I have made a lot of progress with the Bang a Gong! questline which I mentoned in my previous WoW update. As such I now have Recipe: Dirge’s Kickin’ Chimaerok Chops but I am reluctant to ask for more help or invest resources in pursuing the quesline much further. Initially I wanted to see the questline to the end and obtain Ravencrest’s Legacy, but with my recent good fortune, it’s much less important to me now.
Progress in obtaining the Darkmantle Armour set has been slow but I have at least gained exhaulted reputation with Brood of Nozdormu and Cenarion Circle. I have added a few more reputation goals to work on when I can, which should be pretty easy.
Gain exhaulted with Argent Dawn
Gain exhaulted with Darnassus
Gain exhaulted with Gnomeregan Exiles
Gain exhaulted with Stormwind
Gain exhaulted with Brood of Nozdormu
Gain exhaulted with Cenarion Circle
Obtain Darkmantle Cap
Obtain Darkmantle Tunic
Moving forward I intend to continue to raid part-time and rest for a while longer before going back to attending just about any raid Inspire guild are running. I very much doubt that I will be able to obtain the last two items on my wish list, but that’s OK. I have been incredibly lucky to have been given what I have already and will hope to get more loot when the Naxxramas raid arrives.
I am not sure whether or not Inspire guild will survive long term, and if it does, whether or not it will be the same guild that I have come to be proud member of. There have been a number of well established guild members, even officers, who have decided to step down and quit the game. Each have had different and fully understandable reasons, but losing them has been heavily felt. What’s worse, is there has also been some friction, some tension, and even an argument or two recently. The officers are doing all that they can, but I wonder how long it will be before they too snap and can no longer continue leading the guild which, in my opinion, is almost a full time job. Hopefully, in my next WoW update, I will have some better news regarding Inspire. There has at least been quite a few new people join the guild recently, perhaps they will step up and be what the guild needs.
For the first time in years I powered on my Playstation 2, which for the longest time had been relegated to a mere monitor stand. I was very fortunate to have been given my Playstation 2 in the summer of 2001, after returning from a holiday. In my view the best part about the Playstation 2, was that it was backwards compatible, allowing people to play their Playstation 1 games, and even use Playstation 1 controllers and memory cards. Because of this I later gave away my Playstation 1 (and a bunch of games) to someone, but retained a Playstation 1 memory card, and about a dozen of my favourite games.
In order to use my Playstation 2 along side modern equipment, I purchased a variety if different gadgets and learned valuable lessons along the way. Finally I settled on a cheap RCA to HDMI video converter and a cheap external USB video capture card. Combined, these items cost less than £30, and have enabled me to convert the Playstaion 2 RCA output to HDMI, which in turn connects to the video capture card which can be captured in OBS (Open Broadcaster Software).
When I first turned my Playstation 2 on after so many years of inactivity, it really felt like a magical moment. After all these years the Playstation, the peripherals, and games, still seem to be working perfectly. I noticed that the Playstation 2 memory card saves are time stamped, and dated back to 2006. The Playstation 1 saves are sadly not time stamped, but would surely be even older. I loaded up my Gran Turismo save which was last saved on 4th June 2006 and had a play around.
There is something almost magical with this method of retro gaming. It would have been much easier, and cheaper, simply to create images of my games and use one of the many emulators available to emulate the Playstation 2 which is something I did with the SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) to play Street Fighter II Turbo, and Super Mario Bros. This however takes away the almost hidden joy of physically using the device, hearing the fans, the whirring of gears as the disk tray opens, and the utter simplicity of how gaming was back then. One major drawback however is that just about everything retro has become very expensive. One of my favourite games, Front Mission 3, is selling in used condition for around £35 – £40, even a replacement case, in poor condition with cracks seems to sell for around the £10 mark. This has given me a new outlook as to how expensive retro gaming can be and how unlikely it will be that I will expand my current collection.
One of the first PC games I ever played is Crusader: No Remorse back in the mid to late 1990’s. I was lucky enough to have access to a family computer. While I can not remember the specifications of the computer, I can remember it ran Windows 95 and had an Intel Pentium processor. As part of a package deal, the PC came with Microsoft Word, Encarta 97 and two games, one of which was Crusader: No Remorse.
Crusader is an MS DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) game which effectively meant that it ran without having Windows or any other program running in the background. This was so it could utilize nearly all of the computers processing power required to run the game.
I acquired Crusader though gog.com and found that MS DOS is easily emulated on my Windows 10 machine and I had no problems starting it. The game is as amazing as I remembered with 15 long an increasingly difficult missions and complex controls, including side stepping, side rolling, using items, aiming and interacting with the environment. Something the consoles of that era couldn’t hope to achieve with a game pad consisting of 3 or 4 buttons.
It was pretty easy to complete the game on the ‘weekend warrior’ difficulty setting which I consider to be ‘normal’. I also completed several missions on ‘loose cannon’ which I consider ‘hard’ and the first mission on ‘no remorse’ which is ‘very hard’ and requires multiple attempts at just about every turn. As well as completing the game, I recorded and uploaded a playthrough of every level to my youtube channel. Altogether this is about 8 hours of game play and is probably my biggest project to date. I have created a playthrough playlist on youtube but if you want to skip ahead, here is me beating the last level.
I have really enjoyed this retro gaming project, so much so that I foresee me playing more old games in future, especially since, with help, I have recently completed a set up which will allow me to play old Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 games while recording the content with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software).
If you have fond memories or retro gaming projects of your own, I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment or contact me via my contact page.
It has been a much better month of Snooker Nation for me having won 3 out of 4 matches. At one point I even took the lead for what I believe is the first time this season. I find it amusing however that after 3 months, at the half way point of our 3rd season having played 12 matches and 100 frames, Jason and I end September with 6 matches and 50 frames won a piece. It really couldn’t be much more equal, but technically Jason is winning with more centuries scored.
It feels good to start September with a little Snooker Nation pay back. This week I win 6 frames to 1 in a best of 11 and got the only century break of 139 in the 7th and final frame. Jason still has a lead, but this result has helped even the scores quite a bit. I feel like I played quite well, not my best but far from my worst. It’s a little disappointing to have scored so few centuries, in 75 frames there have only been 17 centuries between us. Perhaps this will pick up as the season continues.
I have started a win streak by winning 6 frames to 3 in a best of 11. Although I won the match, Jason had the only century break of 136 in the 3rd frame. For some reason the game has been crashing quite a bit, forcing us to restart each time. This has been an intermittent but somewhat uncommon issue since Jason and I started playing Snooker Nation, but lately it has become more and more common. The only consistency is that it always seems to happen when Jason is at the table with the advantage. Of course I always hand back the advantage when we restart, but it is still baffling to the both of us. It must be off putting when you’re in the flow of building a break and planning ahead, only to have to start over.
My win streak continues and, for what I believe is the first time this season, I have taken the lead by winning this match 6 frames to 2 in a best of 11. I also scored the only century break of 112 in the 8th and final frame. Thankfully the game didn’t crash at all which further serves to baffle me. Why some weeks it crashes a lot and others not at all remains a complete mystery.
My win streak has come to and end, losing 6 frames to 3 in a best of 11. This week however there were 5 centuries in total, Jason took the lions share of these by scoring 128 in the 1st frame, 129 in the second, 112 in the 3rd and a whopping 143 in the 4th frame. I managed a century of my own of 110 in the 5 frame.
Season 3 (July – December 2020) statistics
| Played | Won | Frames Won | Centuries | Highest Break | |
| Copper | 12 | 6 | 50 | 9 | 139 |
| Jason | 12 | 6 | 50 | 15 | 143 |
I am feeling much better about this WoW Classic update and feel as though a lot has been achieved with personal and guild progression. I have consistently cleared the Blackwing Lair raid with my guild but as a guild we have taken a step back from Molten Core by killing only two bosses, Garr and Baron Geddon which hold Bindings of the Windseeker. Honestly this has suited me fine, even though I still need Band of Accuria from Ragnaros, it has saved the guild time to focus on newer content, namely Ahn’Qiraj. With us now able to clear Ahn’Qiraj on one raid night, it may even be possible to go back to clearing Molten Core in full again.
As a reward for not having any loot for quite some time, I had enough PR (priority) to be awarded an Ancient Qiraji Ripper which drops from Fankriss the Unyielding in Ahn’Qiraj. I believe this makes me the first person to have one in the guild, which is nice, but I hope everyone else who wants it will get one soon. It’s quite ugly, but statistically better than Chromatically Tempered Sword which I had wanted for a long time. With new loot available, I have updated my wish list below but have decided to leave off the new Deathdealer’s Embrace set for now. I still want to complete the Bloodfang Armour set and will probably just use that until the Bonescythe Armour set is available in phase 6. My reasons for this are simply because I have already invested so much time and effort in completing the Bloodfang set, but it will also help free up priority on other items I want even more and provide a bigger upgrade.
Prestor’s Talisman of Connivery
Bloodfang Belt
Band of Accuria
Drake Fang Talisman
Jom Gabbar
Fankriss the Unyielding
Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight (Off hand weapon)
Warblade of the Hakkari
This is not all about personal progress, Inspire, my guild, have been successfully farming Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj on a regular basis and, perhaps more importantly, have twice fully cleared the 40 player raid including ‘optional’ bosses. I am so proud to have been part of this milestone that I have chosen a screenshot I took of myself with guild members who participated in killing C’Thun for the first time.
As mentioned in my previous WoW update, I have made changes to my ‘to do’ list to include new reputation factions and Darkmantle Armour set, much of which I can cross off already. Having got 300 skill in fishing, all of my rogue sills, including weapon skills, are 300/300.
Gain exhaulted with Argent Dawn
Get 300 skill in fishing
Gain exhaulted with Brood of Nozdormu
Gain exhaulted with Cenarion Circle
Obtain Darkmantle Belt
Obtain Darkmantle Boots
Obtain Darkmantle Bracers
Obtain Darkmantle Cap
Obtain Darkmantle Gloves
Obtain Darkmantle Pants
Obtain Darkmantle Spaulders
Obtain Darkmantle Tunic
Perhaps the most exciting thing going for me in Classic WoW right now is that my guild mates have been helping me complete the Bang a Gong! questline. After speaking to one of my guild leaders, Warriodude (aka Pallydude), he agreed to award me with Head of the Broodlord Lashlayer to get me started and has been instrumental in helping me gather fellow guild members to get me as far as I have in the questline. There is still a lot for me to do and will require a lot more help from my guild, but, if I am successful I will walk away with Recipe: Dirge’s Kickin’ Chimaerok Chops, Ravencrest’s Legacy and Drudge Boots along with 1 or 2 other items.
Back in July I wrote about my return to Magic: The Gathering Arena (MTGA). Since then on a daily basis I have been thoroughly enjoying the game. I have been creating and evolving a couple of custom decks and have even tried drafting several times.
A new feature which I did not mention in July was that for the most recent set, core 2021, there are mastery levels. By winning games and completing daily quests players gain experience and level up from 1 to 90. Every 2 levels until level 72 all players are awarded a core 2021 booster pack. If however you unlock the mastery pass with gems (usually obtained by buying them) players get an additional reward every level until level 90. These rewards are usually cosmetic but are also booster packets from a variety of different MTG sets, in game currency, even a drafting pass.
Having reached level 90, I decided to spend 3,400 gems to unlock the mastery pass and get all of the rewards at once. I must admit, it felt good to see all of the awards pop up on my screen.
In addition to playing most days to level up, I have played ranked games in both standard (constructed) and draft (limited) formats. It’s not much to boast about, but I am proud of reaching gold tier rank 4 in constructed and silver tier rank 4 in limited. I have found drafting really fun and challenging but, at the same time, quite soul destroying. I have been super lucky in a draft and have had some great cards in my deck but lost every single game, on the other hand I have had a mediocre draft and have won 4 or even 5 games, earning great prizes.
I rarely mention anything about my life outside of video games, but I would like to add that MTGA has made it so much more fun to collect the physical cards. I am incredibly proud to own a full core 2021 card collection and have used codes provided with various products to unlock boosters and decks in MTGA. I do think more could be done in providing collectors with additional codes, perhaps every 5 or 10 packs to unlock MTGA packs or wildcards, but I am very excited with the synergy MTGA has with the real physical card sets.
If you are interested in learning how to play Magic: The Gathering without spending any money, I highly recommend MTGA. From there if you enjoy the game there are many affordable products you can pick up from your local collectible card shop and, if unlike me you’re a socialite, you can ask about local events where you can play. Better yet, there are some products which give a redeemable code to use in MTGA so you can play with the virtual copies of your cards and learn how it works. If you would like some help or want to challenge me to a game or two, please feel free to contact me, I would love to hear from you.
With Jason winning 3 out of 4 matches this month, he is gradually building quite a bit of a lead on me. What’s worse is that there was a complete white wash in the second week. I am going to need to knuckle down and pull something out of the bag soon to stop Jason and level things up a bit.
To kick off August Jason secured his second win in a row winning 6 frames to 3 in a best of 11. There were only two century breaks, I got 111 in the first frame while Jason got 108 in the 9th and final frame. Mistakes were made but all in all I think we both played pretty well, it’s just a shame I couldn’t secure another frame or two to make it a closer match.
A complete white wash! Jason beat me 6 frames to 0 in a best of 11. In the 2nd frame Jason got a century break of 105, which somehow makes me feel worse. This is not the first time this has happened, but it still feels as bad. To not win a single frame is pretty shameful.
Almost a complete turn around this week, I won 6 frames to 1 in a best of 11 but it could have easily ended 6-0. There were no century breaks this week, I had numerous opportunities to score a century but for whatever reason I couldn’t capitalize. Perhaps my jimmies are still rustled from last weeks white wash.
A more even match to make a change with Jason winning 6 frames to 4 in a best of 11. Jason did well to win it having been at one stage down 4 frames to 1. There were 4 century breaks in total, I got 130 in the 1st frame and 128 in the 5th frame while Jason had two of his own of 129 in the 9th frame and 107 in the 10th and final frame.
Season 3 (July – December 2020) statistics
| Played | Won | Frames Won | Centuries | Highest Break | |
| Copper | 8 | 3 | 29 | 6 | 133 |
| Jason | 8 | 5 | 39 | 10 | 139 |
I have written about my experiences in each Classic World of Warcraft raid so far, it is only right therefore that I write about my experiences in the Ruins of Ahn’Qiraj (AQ20) raid. I will write about the The Temple of Ahn’Qiraj (AQ40) raid in a seperate post once I feel my guild and I have completely conquered it.
As with my experiences in every other raid in Classic World of Warcraft so far, I have found AQ20 disappointingly easy. In my opinion, it’s only slightly harder than Zul’Gurub which I wrote about back in June. I believe, like Zul’Gurub, this raid was always intended for players with characters who needed to catch up with their gear for the slightly more difficult 40 player raids. It’s also probably ideal for small guilds who can only muster around 20 players on a regular basis.
For most people, it is important to clear this raid to obtain handbooks for their character. Disappointingly, all 3 of the handbooks available for my rogue are quite bad. Handbook of Backstab IX is for dagger rogues, Handbook of Deadly Poison V is for a poison I very rarely use. Handbook of Feint V is probably the better of the 3 handbooks, allowing me to drop threat a little better if necessary. As I am a bit of a complitionist, I am still happy to have been awarded all 3 of these handbooks along with a Qiraji Spiked Hilt which I will eventually be able to exchange for Dagger of Veiled Shadows once I am exhaulted with the Cenarion Circle faction.
The only other item of note for my rogue which I haven’t got is Bow of Taut Sinew, purely for the 8 nature resistance to go with my nature resistance set, used in AQ40. Other than that, AQ20 is good for Cenarion Circle and Brood of Nozdormu reputation. Of course, regardess, I am all too happy to assit my guild mates as much as possible to help them achieve whatever goals they have in AQ20 and will run it as often as I can for them if not for myself.
My monthly Classic Warcraft update is much later than usual this month, this is because for quite some time now I have been very busy and unable to spend as much time as I would like playing. On a personal level, I have made so little progress, it’s almost not worth having an update.
As was in last month’s Classic Warcraft update, I have not been able to cross anything off my wish list. With my guild I have cleared Blackwing Lair and Molten Core each week consistently but none of the items below dropped from the bosses we killed. The Drake Fang Talisman did drop on one occasion since my last update but it was given to a tank as priority. Even if it wasn’t, I didn’t have enough priority to be given it over guild members who have been waiting for loot longer than I have. With the gates of Ahn’Qiraj opening on Thursday, I shall need to update my wish list to accommodate the new loot available.
Prestor’s Talisman of Connivery
Bloodfang Belt
Band of Accuria
Drake Fang Talisman
Chromatically Tempered Sword (Main hand weapon)
Maladath, Runed Blade of the Black Flight (Off hand weapon)
Warblade of the Hakkari
While it’s true my personal progress has been almost non-existent, the same can not be said about my guild. One of the officers, Kyra, took it upon himself to complete the Scepter of the Shifting Sands Quest Line before the gates open. This is truly a colossal quest line involving clearing raids and ultimately collecting 41,400 Silithid Carapace Fragment’s from enemies in Silithus, taking the guild well over a week to acquire. I regret not playing a more active role in helping Kyra, and the guild, for completing this. Ultimately I spent a little less than 2 hours collecting fragments, where as other guild members were able to spend days (literally) collecting them. I am pleased I helped out a little and was there when our guild killed the last two raid bosses, Eranikus, Tyrant of the Dream and Maws.
Here is Kyra completing the quest line and obtaining Black Qiraji Resonating Crystal (Qiraji mount) and Scarab Lord title. Between killing these bosses, one of our guild leaders gave a short and emotional speech about how proud he was of our guild. I do not wish to embarrass him with the recording, but he said. “I’d just like to thank everybody that got involved with the guild and Kyra to get the scarab quest line chain completed. Although, of course it’s Kyra that benefits from this and he gets his mount, it’s also for Inspire. We can say that together as a guild we accomplished something that most other guilds of our size would never have managed to have done. It is a feat of its own that we have done what we did. The grind, of getting all of the fragments, the grind for the dragons, everything that we have done is a great great great achievement for Inspire. We did it by soldiering on and we came together as a great community that we are and I am extremely proud of your all, words simply cannot express how proud I am of this guild. It certainly seemed that it would be a monumental task to complete from day one, where we got something like 400 fragments on the farm. A lot of people were pretty discouraged but we still gave it our all. I love this guild, and I love everybody in this guild, I consider you all a very good friend and I hope that we stay strong, as we are now throughout the upcoming content that WoW classic has to offer. Here’s to our new scarab lord, Kyra, Congratulations.”
In this Classic Warcraft update I must mention my complete failure to achieve anything on my ‘to do’ list. Not only did I not reach PvP (Player vs Player) rank 9, I was demoted from rank 8 (Knight-Lieutenant) to rank 6 (Sergeant-Major). As previously mentioned, I just have not had the time to play and have made little or no progress on getting Argent Dawn reputation or even getting 300 in fishing. As with my wish list, my to do list will probably need updating when I am finally able to set foot in Ahn’Qiraj. I think I should remove my PvP objective, I simply do not have the time, or appetite to pursue it right now.
Reach Rank 9 (Knight-Captain)
Gain exhaulted with Argent Dawn
Get 300 skill in fishing
In terms of personal progress, this has been the worst month of Classic World of Warcraft, but, there has been so much achieved by my guild. I couldn’t be more proud or more happy for them. Moving forward, with all the opportunities that await, I am certain that I will achieve more progress before my next Classic Warcraft update.