Recently I noticed that my wireless keyboard has been playing up whilst gaming. For ages it has been fine to game with and normal day to day typing but a few times recently it has lagged and has caused me to lose some men in Dawn of War 2 that I wouldn’t have done if it had sent the orders in time. Now I like my keyboard, so much so, that I bought a wired one for work as after all, I’ll be using a PC daily so it makes sense to spend £30 on a decent keyboard. I use a Logitech Wave and I love the curve to it and the function keys are very helpful and the position of the media keys are also great.
Saitek Commander Game Pad
However the easiest method might have been to move the wired one home and move the wireless one to work. Obvious maybe? But I decided it was time to give the dedicated gaming pads a go and after some looking around, I settled on the Saitek Command Unit. I do have a Saitek Eclispse 2 keyboard already and whilst that is very nice for gaming, I don’t like it as much for day to day work because as I mentioned above, the Logitech Wave has various function buttons that make it easy to open programs and do tasks.
However, I bought the Command Unit off of eBay (brand new) and it arrived promptly. I then decided to test it out properly on Bioshock 2.
First Impressions
The device is solid weight and well built. I plugged the device in and Windows 7 recognised it and I was able to use it as basic keys to start with. However it came with the Saitek Command Unit software that allows you to change the default buttons (for each different setting) and this was installed to provide me with access to changing the keys to what I want. It would also allow me to set up key macros where a press of one button would actually set off a key chain of a few. Nice idea but I’ve not really got the games that would allow me to use this properly (except maybe Guild Wars).
Anyhow, with the gamepad installed and the software installed, I initially spend some time setting the actual pad up. The hat switch and the two buttons on the far right of the bad are adjustable – they can be moved up and down and rotated in a small arc so you can get your hand comfortable. With that done, I moved onto the software and getting it set right.
Software
Cyborg Software
On first looks, the software is simple to use. Well it would be if the software and the device actually told you the same thing. The software is split into the different columns with the rows that let you set the keys for each key on the command unit. It allows you to set the default command and with the shift command button pressed which means you have double the number of buttons on the keypad to press. This is simple and lets you quickly set the keys that you want. The command unit changes colour between the different modes – the unit has red, yellow and green backlights to show what mode it’s in. However the lights do not line up to the colours in the command unit software (which thinks the device has blue, green and red). After some trial and error, I believe that the green on the pad relates to blue on the software, yellow to green and red to red. However I could be wrong. As a result I’ve left the device on the middle setting and just created a keymap for each different game rather than coming a few games into one profile.
Once this is done however, it’s pretty simple to relate a key on the keyboard to the corresponding key on the device. Just click the box you want to change and press the key on the keyboard and then click the done button. That’s how simple it is. Profiles then have to be saved and loaded before you start playing the game. It will revert back to default after every boot so you will need to select the profile before you start the game (though it can be changed in game if you alt-tab out).
I’ve not tried the macro’s out. I’ve set some up but I’m not entirely sure how well they work (I set up the command unit to use some basic key presses that might open programs on my desktop like Win+5 to open my media player – in Windows 7, pressing the Windows key and a number will open that number program that is pinned to the taskbar). This seemed to have mixed results but looking back I might not have saved and loaded the profile and I was also trying to figure out what colour was what in the software.
Performance
I used the device to play though Bioshock 2 (which I’ve now completed) and it worked admirably. Once I’d set the controls, I managed to play through quite nicely and not having to stretch across the keyboard to select my heavier weapons was a blessing. Bioshock does make use of the F1-F8 keys though and I found I didn’t have enough to select these as well as my weapon slots but thankfully Q would cycle through my plasmids so I just had to cycle them to get to the one I wanted rather than pressing F1 or whatever. I believe this wont be an issue in other games as they’ll namely use 1-9 as the weapon keys (and normally I use the mouse button to select what I want).
Once or twice I did notice a sticky key effect where I’d press W to move forwards and I would continue to move forward after removing my hand from W. Not sure if this is the pad itself or the PC misinterpreting the results. It didn’t just happen with the W key though so it might be small issue. Certainly it only happened once or twice, usually in a big fight so I might have overloaded the device with many keypresses but it’s something to keep an eye on.
Overall it was very comfortable and having everything to hand is very nice. I’d recommend gampads in the future but would I recommend this one? Only if your looking for a cheap one I think to give them a try. The niggles are only small but it should give you an idea of if you like using gamepads or not.
I prefer it to a keyboard so I’ll be using it more in the future. Will be interesting to see how it works out in RTS games as I’d love to use the hat switch to scroll.
Well the holiday is going on nicely. I’ve managed to get some good computer gaming in and have managed to complete Bioshock 2. I’ll do a review of that and my new Saitek Commander gamepad unit in the near future.
I’ve managed to finish a book as well and still had time to get out and about on my bike. A nice 20Km cycle up and around Beacon Hill in Leicester was interesting… For the first major cycle I’ve done for years, it was ambitious but I managed it thanks to others on the ride. Still, shows I need to do it more often.
Vendetta Painting
In the meantime, I’ve also managed to do some more modelling to my Vendetta model.
The wrecked Chimera is supposed to be a Nurgle chimera and this supposed to look diseased and old, possibly rotting. The paintwork is splitting open and peeling hence the brown patches. The symbol is supposed to look like it’s mutated out from the hull and hence the cracking – those cracks need highlighting somewhat as they look a bit flat currently. I need to model some smoke coming out from the vents and around the back of the chimera. I’m a little unsure what method to do for it. I was going to the age old cotton wool but it looks a bit cliché and a bit pants in my eyes. However I stumbled upon this guide and I love the look of it so might give it a go. The only thing I’m not liking is that I probably should have done it BEFORE painting the chimera.
The Chimera was painted a Khemri Brown basecoat then a ~50/50 camo green and dheneb stone layer which was then washed with Gryphonne Sepia then highlighted with bleached bone
The Vendetta itself I’ve started to drybrush it with scab red.
Well tomorrow starts a week long holiday. Well, technically I get 2 days off and then Friday, the weekend and Monday and Tuesday are University closure dates so I get them off anyhow…
However, this gives me some time off to do some stuff and catch up with some gaming, reading and painting. I have got planned a trip to York possibly on the Friday/Saturday. However this still leave s a good portion to catch up with various things.
Books
I have a good number of books to read currently. I have Roadside Picnic to read which will be interesting as it’s the basis of STALKER (both the game and the film). I also have a good number of Warhammer 40,000 books to read (Faith & Fire, Lords of the Night, Salamander, Star of Damocles amongst a few others)
The aim is to get through at least one of these during the week. I read very quickly so in theory I could read a book a day with doing nothing else. However this leads to my next point – computer games…
Games
I now have a fair few games to start playing through. At the weekend, I bought the excellent Bioshock 2 and have briefly played a level of this. I also have the following games to play through and complete.
Dawn of War 2 – Chaos Rising – I’ve barely played this yet because the difficulty level has increased and it isn’t as easy (a challenge I like but to much makes it not that fun…). I’ll give this another go now I’ve started the game from a slightly lower difficulty level.
Bioshock 2 – This game is more of the same from the original from what I’ve seen but it is very god from the littel I have played – This will probably end up priority 1.
Sins of a Solar Empire – A strategy game that has intrigued me for a while and when I saw it in Game this weekend for £1.98 in the sale (Bioshock 2 was also in the sale), I thought it would be well worth a short at that price.
Borderlands – I have to continue with this game – it’s great fun and I love the guns etc. This will probably provide some needed distraction through the week as well.
I also have a few other games I’ve barely touched – Titanquest and Blazing Angels come to mind.
Painting
I also have my Warhammer 40K to paint as well. The Vendetta as I mentioned in a previous post needs to be painted up as well. Therefore I’ll be working on this as and when this week as well.
Anyhow, tomorrow’s day will be filled with gaming. But the holiday starts this evening with comedy with Dave Gorman.
Well it appears spring is upon us finally as yesterday was the first sunny days airsoft this year. Temperatures crept up and made it very warm running around as I was still wearing many layers expecting it to be cold.
All that can be really summed up from yesterdays game was that water is essential. At Grange Farm, carrying drink for during a game isn’t to much of a big deal because the games are usually short 30minute to an hour affairs but drinking during the breaks is very much needed. I forgot to take water yesterday and regretted it by having to purchase drinks all day.
The games yesterday were a good mix of attack and defend type games. The scorpion made an appearance and made a few kills which was great fun as always. The AK74SU came out and was used as the AK74S is still not shooting above 220fps. Need to find a gun smith to fix it as I’m useless with gearboxes and don’t want to break it more than it already is!
When it comes to the eyes in airsoft, there should be no compromise. However, there are other features that should be taken care of but are often left out – teeth. When I first started airsofting, I used to wear shooting glasses for everything. As I’ve grown older, I’ve moved to goggles to fully protect my eyes and the same is happening with my teeth – maybe it’s because I’m now responsible for paying for my teeth care but I think I’d just prefer to not have the hassle of having them repaired!
Sensei Full Face Mask
I’ve always messed about with full face masks and never got on with them. Well I never got on with the Sensei masks like the one pictures on the left. These seemed to make breathing a bit difficult, made it hard to aim down the sights of the gun you were using and obstructed views. The mesh is very good as it doesn’t steam up but can be a pain in low light conditions and in very sunny conditions (where the light can reflect off the mesh and makes it blinding!).
I also find that these masks seemed to get very “clammy” and damp inside as the breath condensed on the sides of the mask and then either dripped out of the bottom of the mask or stuck to your face as the masks themselves are very close to the face. This made wearing them uncomfortable for longer periods of time (such as all day!). Soon after I moved onto the shooting glasses (once I turned 18, I moved to glasses as most sites have a full face mask policy for under 18′s)
However, since then, I’ve played a fair amount of CQB games and I’ve generally gone for a full mask at these games due to the close nature of contact. I did try one of the lower mask neoprene things but found them steamed my shooting glasses up and generally were uncomfortable.
Full Face Mask
I’ve moved onto a different style of full face now, a more paintball style mask. This is far better than the Sensei mask above as it allows for more air movement internally so it doesn’t feel as damp or clammy. It also allows enough air to ventilate round so there’s no difficulty breathing.
However as you might have gathered, it’s a lot bulkier and thus again it prevents aiming down the weapon sights (of a normal AK anyhow…) As such it is a CQB/urban eye protection only.
Last game I attended however, I took a shot to the mouth and spent the rest of the game bleeding and having to sit out trying to get the taste of blood out my mouth. The neoprene face masks and shemaghs (that some people use) are uncomfortable and get damp. And vaguely importantly for me, the Russians don’t use them and would ruin my impression. However I’ve become a bit disillusioned with my Russian gear – not that I dislike it (I love it – far better than most of the Western rubbish!) but I’ve realised I’ll never be a hardcore impressionist with my airsoft gear so therefore I’ve made some choice recently to replicate the Russian forces as closely as I possibly canwhilst still keeping myself safe (in respect to eye wear), comfortable (in terms of webbing/footwear/face masks) and keeping it fun and cheap (I like replicating Russian forces but I won’t spend hundreds of pounds on kit to get it perfectly right).
In my mind, if I turn up and look reasonably similar to a member of the Russian forces, I’ll be happy. For example, there’s a guy at Grange Farm who turns up in DPM, a Ushanka and AK and obviously fancies himself as a bit of a Russian. I’d never be able to do that.
However this semi rant has been leading me towards when I’m considering to do about my teeth. I’ve toyed with things such as gum shields and they prevent communication which makes them pretty pointless. So when someone pointed this website out to me, I was massively impressed and I’ve sent them an email to enquire further.
STALKER Mesh Mask
Meshmasks.eu are making what can be described as mesh masks that replicate the neoprene masks. They seem to be low profile and breathable which is what I’m after.
They’re made in Russia and sent from Holland and I’m trying to find out how long it would take to get one made and sent to the UK. The pictured mask is a STALKER mask and is the one I’d be after. It costs €29 with €17 postage (TNT track and trace). A shame the postage costs so much but they need to know they arrive I guess so it’s money that’s probably worth it.
When they get back to me, I’ll serious consider getting myself one as I feel the cost of it will justify itself in preventing dental injury.
Part of my PhD research is looking at cost benefit analysis and it seems hard not to do CBA to almost everything I purchase now! Therefore a £41 face mask seems worth preventing a £100+ dental operation in the future and still be able to airsoft in safety, comfort and with fewer inconveniences than other face masks offer.
Now I was always into my Airfix as a child but I’m a very keen sci fi fan and when I discovered Warhammer as a teenager, I was hooked. Warhammer had all the fun of model making and painting but it also had the most amazing back story which is still rapidly expanding (thanks to the great work of the Black Library). It is also a wargame but to me the main attraction is the fiction with the painting and modelling a second. I am, however, no good with the painting lark but I do love the conversion and modelling side of thinks.
What’s this got to do with aircraft modelling? Well over the past year I’ve been building up (ok, buying, but since last September, I’ve not really had the heart to paint or build any of the models) my army. Of the many races, I collect Imperial Guard – the human army in a universe filled with super human warriors and aliens. It might have been mentioned before when I did my Imperial Guard loadout (something I want to resurrect if only I could come up with enough people to create rag tag guard bunch!). Around February I felt the urge to buy something and model it. I know I have a lot of stuff lying around in boxes but I wanted something large, something I could use as a centre piece in my army.
Now my army is focussed on an artillery company. Don’t ask me why particularly but I love scenes such as this one in “A Bridge To Far”.
The aim is to pound the enemy to dust with big guns. However these still obviously needs support and when Games Workshop released the Valkyrie I couldn’t resist it. The model is fantastic. It also adds tactical flexibility to my army and would allow a conversion to take place.
Taken from the Games Workshop Website
This aircraft keeps my army theme together – the artillery pound the enemy and the dropship flys overhead to deliver the elite stormtrooper squad inside to where ever on the battlefield. However I had noticed was that my army lacked any anti tank hunting capabilities. The artillery I use (Medusa’s) are a serious threat to infantry but if you take the anti tank shells, it makes them less effective at the infantry. Also the artillery itself is inaccurate so using something with a little more accuracy to target the tanks made more sense.
Therefore I decided to convert the Valkyrie into the Vendetta gunship with 3 x twin linked lascannons which are devastating to armoured units. It’s job is to fly around and take out tanks (and possibly deploy some units behind enemy lines). Obviously this required some modification to take place as there’s no parts in the box to make what I wanted (typical!) so I dug around in my bits box and pulled some lascannons out from my heavy weapon squads – they all use mortars or heavy bolters so there are a few left over. With some plasticard and putty, I fitted them under the wing.
Also as this is a large model, I decided it needed to be done well so I’m also sorting the base out to be a fully detailed miniature diorama. I toyed between using Epic scale models to represent the Vendetta flying at high altitude or to have it flying over a kill. In the end the kill option won out as I had the parts to start getting on with it.
Now it’s currently work in progress but here it stands currently.
The base has a the remains of a Chaos chimera which I got from a Basilisk kit I had which had an extra sprue of armour plating in. The model is supposed to be flying low over the Chimera which it has just destroyed – the Chimera has the gaping hole where the las shots entered and this will be painted to show molten metal (or ceramite to Warhammer fans!) as the “kill” is fresh. The white parts are supposed to be the escape hatch that has blown out due to overpressure (the explosion of the Chimera!). The green stuff is putty and is there to represent the sand as as the side comes to a stop from exploding out from the side of the tank. It will be covered in sand along with the base. I also intend to scatter a few bits of “burning” debris around to base once the putty is fully cured and base is covered in sand.
The model is not affixed to the stand to allow for ease of carrying and to make it easier to know when the place is hovering etc in game. With a little luck, it should come along soon but I’m going to have to redo the black undercoat as some of it has gone horrible and bits are missed.
As for the paint scheme, I’m undecided. It will have to tie in with the desert themed camo that my guardsmen wear but I’m currently unsure how to pattern the craft – I would like to use an airbrush but they are quite expensive so I’ll have to consider the options. I certainly wont be using the Games Workshop “airbrush” as it’s terrible! It’s more an undercoating device…
It appears a new site has sprung up in Leicestershire.
Stealth Tactical Airsoft is in Lutterworth, just south of Leicester so it might be worth a visit from Rusmil to see what it’s like. The website seems to be lacking pictures at the minute but when it gets them I’ll be sure to check them out and see what it’s like.
As regular readers may remember, I got my Kalash AK74S upgraded over the Christmas period with a MOSFET and deans connectors. I got to use it in anger in the last week at the Grange Farm game in January.
I thought this would be an ideal time to give a few words on it and a quick after action report on the game.
Gun Performance
When I got the gun back I was happy with it however I got a bit concerned when I got it chronoed at the start of the day – it was still shooting ~220fps even though I had a new spring put in. This means that the old spring probably wasn’t the issue and I may have an air leak somewhere, either in the gearbox or in the hop unit. Odd as the hop seemed to be working fine. Otherwise the gun performance was good.
The deans connectors increased the RoF. In fact, the site owner asked me what the gun was as he said it sounds like a beast and was very nice looking (due to the real steel furniture). The deans connectors improve the rate of fire by providing a large surface area and better efficiency for current transfer. Anyhow, I was happy with that and all my charging cables seemed to be fine for it.
The MOSFET is a nice addition. I didn’t realise the difference it made until I compared my 74S with my 74SU. It actually made an impressive difference. And since I bought mine, RSOV have started selling a MOSFET for the AK here. for the price, it’s a very good addition. For those that don’t know, it essentially makes the trigger connection electronic rather than mechanical. It speeds up trigger responsiveness which is always a good option.
Game
The game itself was good – unfortunately no pictures as my camera wasn’t present. Getting to the site was interesting due to the large quantities of snow that managed to fall overnight – there must have been an inch of snow which made driving a little interesting! However once the M1 was reached, it wasn’t to bad and we eventually made it there.
Game was slow to get started as we waited for people to arrive due to the snow but we played a good few games during the day – the snow made it very wet and cold through the entire day. The snow melted about lunchtime but it hadn’t warmed up at all.
Games were quick and punchy thanks to the cold – however one game seemed to drag for a bit and we seemed to be taking the brunt of the enemy attack and seemed to be failing. And then just like that, it suddenly changed and the battle swung in our favour completely – I’ve no idea what happened but one minute we were losing, the next, we’d won!
Anyhow, it was a good day all round, if a bit chilly. The benefit of the Partizan I have is that it’s designed as an over suit (at least it seems like it), so I happily stayed warm by wearing some “civvie” clothes underneath to keep warm. And during the summer, I can wear just that to keep cool! I think I’ll be purchasing another set in the KLMK pattern to replace the KLMK suit I sold on.
Anyhow, another big thank you to Grange farm for another great days airsoft!
Well the new PC has performed admirably and whilst it copes very nicely with Dawn of War 2, I wanted a fairly modern game to try and tax my graphics card. Now when I saw that what Steam was running for free this past weekend, I jumped at the chance to try it for free.
Shattered Horizon
Shattered Horizon is an interesting idea for an FPS – rather than the age old “fight in a space station” somewhere, this shooter puts you outside in space. In zero gravity. This obviously gives you a whole 360 degrees of action and movement rather than the rather linear gravity based shooters where everything is essentially on the floor with you.
Not only the gameplay sounds good, but the graphics look fantastic.
However this comes at a cost – it’s a Direct X 11 game only so requires either Windows Vista or Windows 7 to run. No issues here as I’m running Windows 7 Professional (thanks to University discounts) , however readers might not have this.
First Impressions
Loading the game up and starting playing and the game lives up to my expectations. Considering I hadn’t heard of it before, I assumed it was a fairly simple affair and I wasn’t wrong.
There is only one weapon – an assault rifle that has fully auto fire and also a sniper capability. It also has an attached grenade launcher with 3 different grenade types (EMP, Explosive and ICE). Controls are fairly basic and just like in space, when you stop pushing forwards, you wont really stop moving forwards so the controls may take people a slight getting used to.
Gameplay is quite fast and frantic and there are a few different game modes, such as assault (attacking fixed points) and the standard death match. The levels are quite large and open with lots of differing routes around the levels.
After a While…
The space and zero gravity aspect works very nicely – whilst your assault rifle doesn’t have any kick back as such, firing it in sniper mode will send you spinning wildly. Therefore you can land on any scenery an secure yourself to it so you can fire as a sniper quite safely without spinning into a meteor field. With no health or ammo pickups, flying off into spaces isn’t really a great idea!
Ammo seems to be unlimited for the assault rifle but you need to reload after every 60 rounds. You have 3 grenades per life and the different grenades come in handy – you can time them to explode when you want and they can bounce off scenery. The ICE grenades are essentially smoke grenades, they make a large area unnavigable for a while. EMP disables a spacesuits control systems making the player move very slowly and the explosive do as they say!
All the technology you are wearing comes at a a price – the suits radar can detect your team mates and enemy alike. That is until you switch to silent running, where all suit systems are turned off so it’s harder to move, however you don’t appear on enemy radars. Check this video for an example:
However this comes at a cost – it’s a Direct X 11 game only so requires either Windows Vista or Windows 7 to run. No issues here as I’m running Windows 7 Professional (thanks to University discounts) , however readers might not have this.
Conclusions
Shattered Horizons is a simple FPS – for £15 on Steam, you don’t expect massive, genre changing, gaming. Yet Shattered Horizons manages to set itself apart from other FPS games with the addition of the zero gravity element. It all combines everything for a simple to pick up shooter.
Don’t expect deep character development or anything – this is a pure shooter which is pure and simple and addictive. It does feature a stats feed (mine are here), however due to the simple nature of the game, there’s not much to track (unlike Battlefield 2′s award and medal system).
Overall, well worth the money (I paid £7.50 as it was half price this weekend) if you want a shooter that is different to the current offerings.
Alright, I’m a big fan of lego, even now as an adult! So when I stumbled across the extremely interesting BrickArms website, I knew I had to share it with readers!
