Majesty 2 is a RTS game which calls itself a “kingdom simulator” with RPG elements.  You build structures, but never control the units directly. The units live their own lives, level up, buy gear at the blacksmith and generally just go around like little tiny virtual idiots.

The graphics are charming and gives the game a nice fantasy atmosphere, building is fun, researching techs are pleasant and the RPG features of the heroes you recruit seems really good. Also the concept of not controlling units directly but by placing out flags (putting bounties on enemy structures or creatures, or putting up exploration flags) does seem pretty interesting.

However there are three major issues that are just bad game design and ruins what could have been a pretty enjoyable game:

1) Sewer entrace spawn points
The first thing I noticed that I knew instantly was going to grid my gears for the entire game was one or two spawn points that always pop up in your town. These frequently release various rats that will kill your peasants, damage your buildings and just be a constant source of annoyance the entire mission, for ALL missions. Don’t get me wrong, sewers is a classic RPG setting, and if done correctly it could have been very entertaining, but it ends up being a steady stream of annoyance without any reward or fun. Imagine 3 zerg popping up in your base in Starcraft EVERY fucking minute, worst idea ever.

2) AI
Another annoying factor is the AI. It’s piss poor… You have ranged/melee dps and a healer class, but watching them trying to do anything is like watching the worst PUG of noobs trying to down a boss in WOW.. It’s just ends up being a painful display of ineptitude. And the cloth users seems to have a particularly strong death wish, and constantly go in for some melee dps.
The enemy AI is even worse than your own heroes. I saw 3 skeletons chase a wounded ranger across the map while their home was being destroyed by a warrior.

3) Borders + combat
Let’s get one thing straight, you will not be able to have any clearly defined zones of combat, fronts or build a good defense for your town like you can in for example Starcraft, Warcraft, Age of Empires or basically any RTS game. The enemies will be many, they will be spread out all over the map, new enemies will spawn pretty much constantly even when their spawn points are taken out. The enemies are stupid as hell and just consists of groups of enemies that attack in waves without any form of strategy.

4) Voice acting
Not as big a problem as the 3 above, but it’s still a bit funny
It seems they have hired a single voice actor to do the game, he will tell you your quest objectives and talk during all cut scenes, intros, etc.. Now this would not be a problem, except they got a goddamn Sean Connery sound-alike who does an excessive Scottish accent. He sounds like “Sean Connery” from the Saturday Night Live sketch, and it get’s really hard to take anything he says seriously.. I keep expecting him to say something like “The minotaurs has destroyed the village, Suck it Trebek!”

Rating: 3.7 / 10

Note, that many of these are meta studies which means it’s a study of several other studies (usually some poor ones). This means there will often be some weak results saying there is an effect other than placebo. This is caused by poor studies (methodological flaws, insufficient randomization, ineffective blinding, confirmation and publication biases, etc..) that are “averaged” into the results of the meta study.

A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy (link)
“In conclusion, the hypothesis that any given homeopathic remedy leads to clinical effects that are relevantly different from placebo or superior to other control interventions for any medical condition, is not supported by evidence from systematic reviews”

Homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments (link)
“The evidence from rigorous clinical trials of any type of therapeutic or preventive intervention testing homeopathy for childhood and adolescence ailments is not convincing enough for recommendations in any condition”

Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects (link)
“This finding is compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homoeopathy are placebo effects”

Clinical trials of homoeopathy (link)
“At the moment the evidence of clinical trials is positive but not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions because most trials are of low methodological quality and because of the unknown role of publication bias”

Are the clinical effects of homeopathy placebo effects? A meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials (link)
“the results of our meta-analysis are not compatible with the hypothesis that the clinical effects of homeopathy are completely due to placebo. However, we found insufficient evidence from these studies that homeopathy is clearly efficacious for any single clinical condition”

Evidence of clinical efficacy of homeopathy (link)
“There is some evidence that homeopathic treatments are more effective than placebo; however, the strength of this evidence is low because of the low methodological quality of the trials. Studies of high methodological quality were more likely to be negative than the lower quality studies”

Impact of study quality on outcome in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy (link)
“We conclude that in the study set investigated, there was clear evidence that studies with better methodological quality tended to yield less positive results.”

The methodological quality of randomized controlled trials of homeopathy, herbal medicines and acupuncture (link)
“While the methodological quality of the trials was highly variable, the majority had important shortcomings in reporting and/or methodology.”

Is homeopathy a clinically valuable approach? (link)
“Contrary to many claims by homeopaths, there is no conclusive evidence that highly dilute homeopathic remedies are different from placebos. The benefits that many patients experience after homeopathic treatment are therefore most probably due to nonspecific treatment effects. Contrary to widespread belief, homeopathy is not entirely devoid of risk. Thus, the proven benefits of highly dilute homeopathic remedies, beyond the beneficial effects of placebos, do not outweigh the potential for harm that this approach can cause”

Efficacy of homeopathic arnica (link)
“The claim that homeopathic arnica is efficacious beyond a placebo effect is not supported by rigorous clinical trials”

A systematic review of the quality of homeopathic pathogenetic trials published from 1945 to 1995 (link)
“The central question of whether homeopathic medicines in high dilutions can provoke effects in healthy volunteers has not yet been definitively answered, because of methodological weaknesses of the reports”

Efficacy of homeopathic therapy in cancer treatment (link)
“Our analysis of published literature on homeopathy found insufficient evidence to support clinical efficacy of homeopathic therapy in cancer care”

Homeopathy for chronic asthma (link)
“here is not enough evidence to reliably assess the possible role of homeopathy in asthma”

Homeopathy for dementia (link)
“In view of the absence of evidence it is not possible to comment on the use of homeopathy in treating dementia”

Homoeopathy for induction of labour (link)
“There is insufficient evidence to recommend the use of homoeopathy as a method of induction”

Double-blind randomized placebo-controlled study of homoeopathic prophylaxis of migraine (link)
“Overall, there was no significant benefit over placebo of homoeopathic treatment”

Randomized controlled trials of individualized homeopathy (link)
“The results of the available randomized trials suggest that individualized homeopathy has an effect over placebo. The evidence, however, is not convincing because of methodological shortcomings and inconsistencies.”

The effects of homeopathic belladonna 30CH in healthy volunteers (link)
“There is no indication that belladonna 30CH produces symptoms different from placebo or from no intervention”

Comparison of homeopathy, placebo and antibiotic treatment of clinical mastitis in dairy cows (link)
“Evidence of efficacy of homeopathic treatment beyond placebo was not found in this study”

Homeopathic Arnica 30x is ineffective for muscle soreness after long-distance running (link)
“Homeopathic Arnica 30x is ineffective for muscle soreness following long-distance running”
I just had to include this. not often the conclusion and title are identical

The box itself is great, and much bigger than my older boxes, however my helmet is quite large so there is no way this box would fit 2 of them. But it could probably fit two smaller full face helmets.

To attach the backrest you have to tape on a template, and drill two holes in the box, and the brake lights looked kinda complicated to install (for me at least).

The internal document holder

I’ve seen on forums and stuff that several people have had problems with this, the locking mechanism (see image above) kinda tricks you into believing that you are supposed to squeeze it someway, or even to remove the center pin.

The way you’re supposed to do this by the way is just to pull (using quite a bit of force) on the red plastic around the lock, to open it. Maybe I’ll put up a video when I get my new camera.

Sony Vegas
I really like Sony Vegas, but it’s limit of 4 video tracks is extremely annoying! I could get an unlimited number of tracks if I could afford 700$ for the Professional edition, however as my video editing is mostly on a hobby basis that’s not an option.

I think the 4 track limit is moronic, you just need to have 2 videos + some text and a picture and you’re maxed out.. There are ways around this by rendering your 4 tracks into a movie, then importing that movie in a new project but then it’s a nightmare to change stuff which you do all the time while editing. Great software, but way to expensive for 4+ tracks.

Pinnacle Studio Ultimate
So I decided to try another piece of software, Pinnacle studio ultimate, a hefty 1.9 gig download for the trial version. This proved to be the biggest disappointment since Star Trek 11. First of all the software is overly simplistic and lacks lots of features found in Vegas, it is cumbersome (does not allow for fast cross-fading video/audio and other neat functions like Vegas does). But the worst part.. It’s limited to 3 (THREE) video tracks? WTF? I could not uninstall it fast enough, and now my computer feels kinda dirty..

Adobe Premiere / Premiere Elements
Wow, it’s even more expensive than Sony Vegas Professional, 800$ And the fact that their webpage is a mess and I have to register for a trial means I won’t even bother testing it. However! at the time of writing this I see there is also a “Premiere Elements” that according to Wikipedia allows for unlimited tracks for 100$ so I had to give it a try.
1.2 gb download, but it went very fast, installing took a while and required a reboot.. The program itself was not very intuitive and the trial made a HUGE ugly watermark on all the videos AND all images in that video. It was also horribly slow, background rendering running for like a minute with just a background image in one track and a moving image on the other track. The program also locked up twice in the hour I was testing it.. Not impressed.

Cyberlink PowerDirector 8
Another more reasonably priced piece of software (70-100$) which is supposed to be able to handle 16 tracks, and I honestly can’t see myself having more than 16 objects visible at the same time any time soon, so I guess I’ll have to try this one as well. The trial version was on a slow server so took a long time to download the software despite it’s small 235 MB size.
I did however not get to try this software for reasons stated below.

Magix Movie Edit Pro
Unlike the other 3 products mentioned, I hadn’t heard of this one until recently. The trial version was only around 200 MB compared to Premiere and Pinnacle which were 1,2 and 1,9 GB. But the websites promise of unlimited tracks and a fairly low price of 90$ made me check this one out. Like powerDirector it was on a slow server, and took a while to download.
Fast simple install, and user interface is nice and simple. Using keyframes to do changes/motion/scaling, etc.. was very nicely done and easy to use, and the program was a pleasure to work with. My only complaint is that the preview of the video has very bad framerate (maybe it’s just because of my semi transparent video over an image), do detecting subtle changes in the video while editing could be extremely hard.

Conclusion
After being forced to abandon Sony Vegas I found that the best program for me (behaved most like Vegas, lots of functions and lots of tracks) was without a doubt Magix Movie Edit Pro, it’s a very nice piece of software which I will be buying before the trial is up. It’s stupid that when you buy the downloaded version you miss out on getting Vasco De Gama bundled with it, but that I can live without.

I went to the cinema last night and saw 2012, and it was pretty awesome.

The movie itself and the plot was ok, except for some bad physics at moments, but then again I didn’t go to the cinema for a great story.

I just like seeing things being smashed, torn, destroyed, burned, exploded, destroyed and utterly demolished

This movie got very nice CGI destruction, albeit comically exaggerated at times, and it’s worth watching this one in the cinema just for the awesome destruction

rating: 8 / 10

The show is about mankinds first voyage outside the solar system to search for life on a distant planet (a 10 year trip). The ship called the phaeton is equipped with a complex virtual reality system, which should prevent the crew from going insane by being stuck 10 years in a metal tube

The pilot was very good, and I would LOVE to watch more, unfortunately Fox has not ordered any more episodes, but perhaps if enough people get interested, that will change.

If you live in the US you can watch the pilot at Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/virtuality

otherwise you might want to check out:
http://www.btjunkie.org

fan support page:
http://virtuality-tv.info/Renewal/

facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Virtuality/79071714541

Remembering how much Nemesis sucked, I was determined to have no expectations to the movie, just in case it turned out to be crap. But around 1 week ago I got to see like 25 minutes of the movie while at Fedcon, and then I got pretty exited, it looked really good and funny.

Unfortunately those 25 minutes contained everything that was good in the movie, and the rest 1.5 hours SUCKED.

I really hate the new Star Trek movie, it is by far the worst Star Trek movie (that includes such travesties as Star Trek 3, 5 and Nemesis).

The movie has NO Star Trek feeling over it what so ever.. The Movie is BORING and the plot is semi-retarded.

The movie is a Bland Cookie cutter action movie dressed up like Trek.

Note (I’m not a grumpy old guy who only likes TOS, and says there can be NO action in Star Trek).. I really LOVE TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT and First contact, Battlestar, Stargate, and those have lots of action (but not mindless action with poor plots)

Why the movie is a piece of shit

1. The score/theme song is by far the worst ever, and I felt embarrassed every time it played.
2. All the aliens have human personalities, the Vulcans, the Romulans, none of these act any different from humans.
3. Bad guys with tribal tattoos on their face is not cool.. Just ask Mike Tyson.
4. Even though being packed with action, it still manages to be boring as hell
5. Boring CGI, for example the ice planet monster was crappy, but the ships were OK (exterior)
6. The pitiful attempt to copy Battlestar Galacticas shaky camera for ship shots was really badly implemented
7. Most of the humor did not really seem at home in the movie
8. It is not Star Trek, it is just a mindless Hollywood action movie.
9. A simple and boring ending
10. The actors did NOT do a good job portraying the characters (Except for Mccoy which was excellent, and to some degree Kirk).
11. Bad guy with a grudge trying to kill the hero (Does ST:II or Nemesis ring a bell?)
12. Going back in time to destroy the federation? *cough* First Contact *cough*
13. Why would Nero destroy the federation? He wants the future Romulans to get wiped out by the Borg, the Dominion, Species 8472 or the Sphere builders?
14. A supernova that threatens the galaxy? That is like having a exploding car in London threatening people in New York..
15. Being that close to a black hole would tear the atoms the ships were made of apart.. Not sending them back trough time in one piece.
16. Spock setting Kirk out to probably die on a frozen moon, nice job portraying Spock and the enterprise crew.
17. Scotty killing admiral Archers dog? WTF?!
18. Scotty working with a Oompa-Loompa in a Ent costume?
19. Making Spock and Uhura make out just for no reason what so ever except pleasing the 16 year olds in the audience.
20. Why did the Federation suddenly loose sensor technology? They have great sensors in Enterprise/TOS.. In this movie they cant even see a second ahead while at warp (gigantic overpowered Romulan mining ships, allied Starfleet ships, debris or weapons fire)
21. Vulcan children making fun of each other and fighting..
22. Magical supernova that travels faster than light
23. Using a black hole to collapse a supernova makes no sense
24. Why is Nero so upset at Spock, it’s not like Spock caused that magical supernova, he just failed to help.
25. And since when was it the Federations job to safeguard the Romulan Star Empire from natural disasters anyhow?
26. When he got back in time, why not do something worth doing, like save those Romulans from being pwned by the supernova?
27. That scene with Simon Pegg in the water tubes was like something out of Spy Kids, totally lame.
28. The movie exists in a parallel reality to the established Star Trek universe.. So why would anyone give a rats ass about what happens in it? We all know Spocks mother was not killed, and that Vulcan is doing fine.
29. Starfleet ships are ships of exploration.. The new ones are ridiculously over armed compared to all other series.
30. Detonating warp cores between the ship would not move the ship since the matter antimatter explosion would produce only energy, no moving mass that could propel the ship.. The best they could hope for was to be fried with EM radiation. The ship also went to warp after ejecting it’s warp cores (Federation ships only have one).
31. Building a Starship the size of the Enterprise on Earth’s surface in gravity is just silly.
32. Even if you DID build Enterprise on the surface, a constitution class starship can not operate in a class-m planets lower atmosphere. So there would be no way to get the ship into space

PS
There are lots of other good reasons why the movie sucks in the comments to this post. I especially liked Ben’s comparison of the movie to The Wrath Of Khan

The endig was also better than the comic book, and I cant wait to get the extended version and the tale of the black freighter on Bluray

Rating: 9.5 / 10

Anyhow, I thought I might give it a go again, and watched the latest episode.

Trough the last half of the episode I kept hoping a blood vessel in my brain would rupture and kill me. I had to watch 2 Family guy episodes to regain my will to live, and after that I still feel dirty!

The movie is made by talentless writer/director Tommy Wirkola, who just 2 years ago embarrassed the country with a horrible Kill Bill parody (“Kill Buljo”). By looking at the trailer for Død Snø, it actually doesn’t seem so bad, and if the movie was as good as the trailer I would not be bitching and complaining right now.. But the movie itself fails at so many things it’s almost embarrassing.

Story – FAIL
Now I would be the first to acknowledge that a movie with nazi zombies does not need much of a plot. However there at least have to be SOMETHING, even if the plot is so simple as “zombies around, locked up in shopping mall / mountain cabin, try to escape” there still have to be events that pushes the story forward towards something. Watching Død Snø feels like going nowhere really slow, nothing really happens and there is nothing leading up to anything, no sense of progression, no nothing.

Characters – FAIL
The only properly developed character is killed early in the movie. The rest of the characters are uninteresting and with NO back story. The dialogs throughout the movie are lame and if you are going to have someone talk with the ugliest Norwegian dialect ever conceived (Stavanger) for the love of gods, ADD SUBTITLES!

Genre – 3x FAIL
The movie tries at three genres and misses all of them by a furlong.
Horror/zombie, the movie is not scary at all, it has no atmosphere what so ever and there is none of that tight, claustrophobic eerie zombie feeling. Just a few attempts on sudden/cheap scares which FAIL.
Comedy, the only good thing this movie has to show for are a couple of OK jokes. but sadly most of the movie is about as funny as watching Adam Sandler making dinner.
Splatter, this movie does not qualify as a splatter, there are only a few splatter scenes, most of which are pretty dull and unoriginal. Both the quality and quantity of the effects does not stand up well to other splatters.

Quality – FAIL
The sound sucks donkey balls.
The music sucks elephant balls.
The effects are mediocre at their best.
The zombie makeup is almost passable.
60% of the movie is shot in the dark.. by someone who can’t shoot in the dark.

Conclusion
This half ass movie reaches movies like Bad Taste, Braindead, Shaun of the dead, *real zombie movies* up to their ankles. I would rather have watched Braindead once again. No sound, no color, Portuguese subtitles, as a poor VHS rip on a broken LCD monitor, and with one eye shut.. It would still be roughly 3 times better than Død Snø:

“Artist illustration”

rating: 2.5 / 10