Black ops 3 bug reports and feedback link.

For those who wish to report bugs or feedback to the devs on the Black ops 3 beta you can do so here.

https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-III-Beta-Feedback-and-Bug-Reporting

Blops 3 beta problems, PS controller button remapping and tolerance!!!!

Hello again interweb, another Monday has hoaved into view and to be honest I am feeling pretty "meh" about it.
Between going to a wedding dropping off people at airports and all the usual weekend crap I have been trying to get a few games of the black ops 3 beta in with friends.
Trying is the word here, I have played game beta releases before but this a couple of months out from actual release has to be the worst I have experienced.
Playing solo the lag, rubber banding etc spawn trapping, frame drops and  400+ms ping spikes simply make the game unplayable for me and many others on my friends list.
The first couple of days of the beta the game was playing OK and was actually a bit of fun but in the last 48 hours it has gone to total shite, and yes that is a technical term.
Try to join friends to have a few games as for me gaming is a social thing, well you can just forget that.
All Nat open chatting away in PS4 chat lobby form a party no games found, change party leader reboot everything still no dice.
 In the space of 90 minutes we managed to get into 2 games where the rubber banding was so bad it took nearly 30 seconds to get from the spawn point to the nearest capture point on Domination.
I was going to ask my wife to hold my monitor and shake it about a bit to try and cancel things out but she has buggered off home to Ireland for a week. DOH!!!.
So back to Advanced warfare it was, or wasn't as the case happened to be.
All emblems and emblem editor tools appear to have been removed from the game for all players.
Finding games solo was no problem but as we found with the Black ops beta connecting with friends to find a game, no lobbies found.
Chat working fine and could play private matches despite been host and having a 3 bar connection..... in a private match..... WTF?
There is a common theme to all these problems this weekend and that is Activision.
 I am guessing they need to order another load of servers from Walmart to try to fix the issues or maybe order some better ones to try and resolve these issues.
I am hoping when this beta thing ends I can resume gaming with friends again.
I other news I have been gaming with my new Scuf nearly 3 weeks now and I am loving it.
 No issues at all yet. all functions still working as they should, no paint chipping off and no casing gaps appearing. Thumb sticks and levers all still operating the way they should and at just over £100.00 for it I must say I am happy they are.
A friend pointed me towards some settings in the PS4 menu's that he uses to effectively make his standard PS controller into a poor mans scuff.
The settings I didn't even know existed and if I didn't I am sure there may be a few others who are not aware them either.
It is a button mapping / configuration setting in the menu's. Not default or tactical but actual button remapping type thing.

To find this menu on PS4 go to settings - Accessibility - enable custom button assignments - custom button assignments.
This enables you to make R3 jump for example meaning that you do not need to remove your thumb from the sticks to jump or slide or go prone etc
Not as good as a scuff but certainly a lot cheaper option.

So in conclusion to today's post I would just like  to make the following observation to which I am sure many of you are fully aware and that is that,
 "Good things come to those who wait, but shit turns up right away"
This includes for me the next update for my much loved Netduma R1, take your time guys and get it right. :)
Oh and one other thing I have come to realise this weekend is that as I get older i find my tolerance for bloody idiots is closing in on zero whilst my ability not to lose my patience is getting better.
This is causing an imbalance in the force.

Right then grumpy badger needs feeding so peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXXX

Black Ops 3 Beta, First Impressions.

Hello again interweb, I have spent a frustrating couple of days trying to get a few games on the Black Ops 3 beta. It would appear by searching your ether that quite a few people are having a spot of bother as well.
First off the pause trick I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago worked a treat reducing the 15GB 9 hour download time to 1 hour and 9 minutes.
When I fired the game up and played a few games the first thing that struck me was the horrible graphics. Not as bad as Black ops 1 but not much better in fact it felt very much like playing a slightly revitalised version of Black ops 1. The audio announcements etc and general feel of the game play. It certainly doesn't feel next gen or worth the price tag either.
I know this is not the finished version and only a beta but to be honest they have a lot of work to do to polish this game in time for release.

Even with the R1 the game is a little bit laggy and when turning off the geo filter connecting to a USA host from the UK the lag was horrendous, Even Advanced Warfare doesn't have lag that bad.
The inbuilt ping meter seems to be a bit off as well.
The specialist thing doesn't bother me that much but I do thing the sparrow exploding arrow thing needs a tweak, in my experience it doesn't even need to be aimed to blow people up, almost as if the hit box surrounding a player is tripled.
The mic mute all but party has to be reset after every game which it shouldn't but this shouldn't be a problem if you have ps4 chat room set up but alas I could not test this as the game would not let me join friends to have a few games in the same party.
Team balancing needs a look at as well as on the few games I have managed to get they have been very unbalanced as in level 16-24 on one team and 3-11 on the other.
The return to the 3 lane map design has brought an influx of lay down and aim down sights back and a lot of players playing Domination games like TDM, I mean anybody who plays a full game of Domination can get at least 2 captures,
 Apparently not but 34 kills 27 deaths 0 captures and 1 defend seems to be no problem. Not a new thing I know but a pet hate, go play TDM please.
The streaks that I have either been on the end of or called in myself seem to be OK with the exception of the Hellstorm missile or whatever it is called. That thing destroys the entire map.
So it seems that on my limited time with the game (despite my efforts to get more games in) that I do not like the game, actually despite all my grumbling about the game it is actually fun.
The games I have had even when I have been getting my ass kicked have been fun. Normally I play hardcore so core is a bit of a change for me but the few games I have managed to get I have enjoyed.
With that said you know the game is a Beta and needs a fair bit more work doing on it when you load up Advanced Warfare  and really really enjoy the games with no bitching at all about it's issues.

Peace out YALL, THE BAGSTAXXX

Black ops 3 beta codes for PS4 free.

Hi yall, just got my code with a couple of extra codes free so on a first come first served basis here they are.
Sorry if they have gone by the time you get em but as I say, First come first served. Enjoy.
:)

J6DE-56NB-HNLM

TQMK-F7N2-T324

Enjoy happy gaming :)

Flip flops, Black ops beta codes and Netduma effect!!!

Well hello interweb,
It never ceases to amaze me that spread amongst your zero's and one's there are so many people that have the IQ of a flip flop!!! the rapier like wit and razor sharp insults so sharp that you may cut yourself really is quite astounding, but I digress.
Today I would like to bring you a little bit more information regarding the Upcoming Black Ops 3 beta which is due to arrive in a few hours on PS4.
For those of you who do not yet have a beta code I believe Gamestop (US only) have a few codes up for grabs here http://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-black-ops-iii-ps4-beta-code-giveaway/1100-6429831/
For those of us in the UK if you have an O2 mobile and you download the O2 Priority app and go to the entertainment section you may be lucky enough to pick one up. They are apparently releasing them in batches so may be worth checking back if none are available when you look.
I will keep checking and if I get one I will post it up here as I already have a code.

The developers appear to be placing more emphasis on playing together and this can be seen in the news that the campaign can be played with up to 4 players with revive options etc. Something that I don't recall has been done since World at War.
On reading a little into this it would appear that the campaign is not a simple linear walkthrough like previous offerings and replaying the same levels can take you down several different paths etc.
Between levels there is rumoured to be an area where you can stay connected to your friends and change load outs and even change game to zombies try stuff out in the firing range etc all without having to break up the party. All feels a bit Destiny to me but hopefully it will all work out.

The beta itself will have 3 maps, Hunted, Combine and Evac.
Game modes have been confirmed as TDM/Dom/Demolition/KC/Hardpoint/CTF and Search and Destroy.
Speacialist which can be ranked up with progression I still have my reservations about but I guess that is why they have a beta.
The developers are hoping that people will give them constructive feedback form the beta and I am sure that many people will do just that.
The score streaks I think will have a very Black ops 2 feel to them which is not a bad thing but lets just hope it doesn't promote a "certain" type of playstyle during objective games. Yeah right. lol.
Having checked out a site that gives you estimated download times for your relative internet connection the 15 GB should download in 1 hour and 16 minutes on my connection.
 Meanwhile back at the ranch Tonto was playing with his pole. The jury is out on that one and I am guessing with the amount of people trying to download it will be more like 15 hours but we will see. I may well try a few of the tactics as posted about yesterday.
In other news I have been trying out a few tests on my Netduma R1 router to see if I could actually quantify the Duma effect.
Now I am a very average gamer and do not have the reactions that many younger people have and so was a little concerned that I may not see much difference and so switched of my geo filter for 5 games and recorded the result. I then flipped the thing back on and recorded that result. All HC Domination. after 3 or 4 games warming up.

So with the geo filter off the 5 games I played gave me a result of 0.52-0.71 KDR whilst playing the objective and capturing flags.

And with the Geo filter on the results were 1.21-2.83 KDR over 5 games, again whilst playing the objective and capturing flags.
Not brilliant scores but as I said I am very average, not very scientific and certainly not a big enough test to for conclusive evidence but the best part of an hour each way and it would appear the Duma effect is a positive one.
 On this test anyway.
Oh well interweb, I shal bid you farewell and go and find some more rapier like wit to amuse myself.

Peace out Yall, THEBAGSTAXXX

Black Ops 3 Beta, Improving Download Speed and Throttling!!

Well hello interweb and here we are again, Monday, Urgh. I was woken this morning by the next door neighbours child screaming, apparently she has chicken pox and is not happy when the cream gets lashed on. Oh well another week of this then I guess her brother will contract the disease and we will start again.
Today I would like to share a couple of bits of information about the upcoming Black Ops 3 beta.

 If you have registered to get a token these will be e-mailed out to people on Wednesday 19th August at  12AM PST.
That converts to 08.00AM GMT. (PS4)
It has been confirmed that any progress made will not carry through to the actual game release in November and there will be no Zombies on the Beta release either.

The file is a whopping 15GB download and so I am sure many of us will be sat staring at a very slow moving download number for many hours as I am sure the servers will be flooded.
It is with this in mind that I have had a look into how we might speed up this process.
1. We could change the domain name servers that we connect to to see if that helps. 2 of the google DNS are as follows, 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
To change this on your PS4 console press the PS button, go to settings-network-set up Internet connection-wifi or lan (lan would be better)-custom or manual (either)
then when you get to the DNS settings enter primary DNS as 8.8.8.8 and secondary as 8.8.4.4
Continue and test connection.
Another change that can be made during set up it to set your MTU setting (maximum transmission unit) to 1473 as opposed to the standard 1500. ( I have personally seen a big increase in download speed using this method myself)
I have also read that for some people simply pausing and resuming the download a few times will suddenly decrease the time remaining from many hours to minutes.
And lastly you could try putting the PS in rest mode whilst making sure that it is set to download in rest mode in the settings section. 
Power saving-set functions available in rest mode-turn on auto download. Put PS into rest mode and come back later.
Hopefully I will not be reporting about how any of these have played out on Wednesday as I will have it downloaded and be playing the game but we shall see.
The developers have also said that there will be times when the servers will be offline during the beta for maintenance / changes etc.

Now onto the thorny issue of throttling your connection to get a better game play experience, or to combat lag compensation. 
I read all the time how it should be removed from the game but if lag compensation was removed from the game you wouldn't be able to hit a damn thing, end of story so lag compensation is here and it ain't going nowhere in a hurry. 
Online gaming needs a tiny amount of bandwidth to be able to play online, less than 0.5 meg upload and maybe 1 down.
 "I have 10 gazillion download and a bazillion upload speeds, lag comp is punishing me for having good interweb man"
No it isn't. Seriously lag compensation does not work like that and throttling your connection to have low upload speed does nothing to help you or anybody else in your game lobby. 
If anything you are making the situation worse.
 Matchmaking to somebody half way around the planet, now that can cause problems but the whole lag compensation is punishing me for having good internet argument is in my humble opinion a very flawed argument. One to which I have yet to see any conclusive proof.
You see a few youtubers showing a few videos where they have a good game on a throttled connection, I would love to see an hour or two of their game play as opposed to the odd game here or there. 
I have read articles about this and spoken to developers of hardware and software devs and Pro Gamers all of which say the same as myself. 
So with that in mind I know which side or the fence I am firing up my BBQ. But if ya wanna buy into the whole throttling issue that's your right to do that. 

Peace out Yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Battlefront, Boobs and 10 Billion $.

Watcha interweb, how's it hanging?
This evening as I wait for a roast joint to finish cooking, well about half a pig to be honest, I wanted to ramble on about a few things that have recently caught my attention.
The first is the fact that the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront game from Dice/EA will not have a single player campaign to play through.

Peter Moore one of the head chaps over there said they will be placing their emphasis on the multi player aspect of the game.
"Very few people actually play the single player on these kind of games, that's what the data points to"
Really Peter, what about when the PSN or MSN goes down Peter, what then? What then Peter?

Another thing that caught my attention this week was Boobs, Probably like it caught your attention in the title. To be more precise the boobs belonging to Kate Upton, the front of, I mean the face of Game of War.
I have been taking "glamour" photographs for over 20 years now and have in a professional aspect seen a lot of boobs and I have to admit that Kate Upton does have very nice boobs. The fact that she is also very pretty and has lovely flowing blond hair probably helps to.

 I mean lets face they get your attention and as if proof were needed at all, the marketing campaign for "Game of War Fire Age" has cost a jaw dropping 40 Million $.
You have to think how that can be a good business decision until once again you discover that the game is making another jaw dropping 1 Million $ per day.
 This is a game you play on your mobile phone, for that money they could have made an A list title.
The feminists will get all upset about it I am sure but at the end of the day that is a lot of money.
 I mean lets face it if Kate Upton said to me "Come play with me" I am afraid I think my knees would buckle and I would probably feint never mind disclose my debit card details and pay out for micro transactions till I emptied my account.
 At the end of the day sex sells and it appears to be selling very well.
Here's another picture just in case you were not sure if it was sexy or not.

Anyway I am starting to drool now and it's making a mess of my keyboard so I sahlll try and lern how to spall agin and put my brains back in the correct home for them.
In other news I have noticed that the Advanced Warfare dedicated servers are really poor if you connect to certain ones.
It's like they bought them from Walmart or something, proper shitty. The one in the Netherlands and France have to be some of the worst I have played on. I hear the Seattle server is pretty bad too.
I mean before the release of Advanced Warfare Activision had made 10 Billion $ from the franchise. I know it costs a lot to make a game like Call of Duty but c'mon guys n gals, 10 Billion $. There has to be a bit more spare change down the back of your sofa's to pay for some decent servers.
I usually get put on either the server on the South coast of the UK or one of the aforementioned servers and the game play is so inconsistent even with my trusty R1.
Oh well the Black ops 3 beta is released later this week so get ready for the PSN store to crash and burn as everybody tries to download it at the same time.
Hopefully the beta will help them iron out any problems before release but we will have to see.
Anyway interweb I think I have half a pig knocking on my oven door so I shall bid you farewell.

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

They really are nice boobs. ;)

Meteors, Movement and Meatfeast pizza.

Hello interweb, good to see you are still here, well I think it is good anyway. Having conversations with inanimate entities may not be good according to some I am sure but to hell with it, I am 46 you know.
46 and regressing, I have noticed with a small amount of alarm that the older I get the more childlike I become. I think this only affects the male of the species too.
When you see children they have a habit of saying things like my name is blah blah and I am 6 and three quarters. I have taken to telling people how old I am......again...... Ill soon be pissing my pants and being spoon fed again before to long no doubt so I guess I better make the most of my ability to dribble, I mean drivel on.
Well an entertaining few days for me this week to be honest. I put up a review about the Netduma R1 router which got tweeted about by Drift0r, ( a big name in the gaming community for those that don't game) who has an insanely cute dog and the traffic to that blog post went through the roof.
There was the annual Perseid meteor shower which I try to capture every year and usually manage to capture one meteor no matter how long I stay out.
This years was a very good show and in about 90 minutes I must have seen over 100 meteors. Managed to capture 1 with the camera. lol. Its like they take the piss. You point your camera in one direction the they fly across the sky everywhere that the camera is not pointing. So you move the camera and just as you do one flys over where it was pointing. lol.
Still got a few other nice shots of the sky at night.

In other news the forthcoming beta for Black Ops 3 is just around the corner and I am looking forward to it very much. Mostly because playing Advanced Warfare even with my trusty R1 is becoming more and more painful with each passing day.
I watched a youtube video earlier about the movement mechanics which can be seen here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUVuXiqEqkA
Looking like a bit of practice is gonna be called for but looking good.
A few bits of the new game are looking a bit worrying but we will see what happens after the beta which is in my opinion a very good idea.
I think waw was the last time they had a beta in Call of Duty, I may be wrong but if it helps identify a few problems before launch it can only be good.
I am still annoyed that there are still to many glitch spots on AW that have not been fixed yet but they still manage to produce micro downloadable content to milk as much out of the now dead cow that AW was, has been and is.
And so to this evening and weekend, well tonight and Saturday night at least. Home alone in mission control and so I am going to try out a new theory of weight control.
I spoke earlier in the week about trees falling in forrests etc and quantum physics stating that the tree or forrest may not actually even be there.
With that in mind tonight and Saturday night (science says that you have to be able to replicate an experiment) I intend to order a large meat feast pizza from dominoes. Theory goes that if nobody is around to watch me eat all those calories, do they actually exist?
I will report my findings.
Well I shortly have an appointment with SatIAN my personal trainer who I am sure will teach me how to sit and fetch before I know it followed by a trip to the dentist to check on those gnasheres before undertaking the calorie experiment.

Peace out YALL, THE BAGSTAXXXX

Turtle Beach Stealth 500P Headphones, Death, Hell and Sluts.

Well here we are again interweb, I am soon going to have reviewed all the shit I own that is worth reviewing.
What then, go through my back catalogue of 30 years of glamour photographs I have had the pleasure of taking? Maybe not hey, just what you don't need interweb, more bums n boobs.
So what I am going to have a chat about today is my Turtle Beach EarForce Stealth 500P headphones.
When making any comparison I can only compare to my other Turtle Beach PX5's which are the only other set I currently own and still use.

I bought these headphones shortly after I picked up my PS4 as I found the chat cable I was having to connect to the controller from my PX5's annoying, I know, 1st world problems and all that.
They arrived in a very nicely packaged box and even I managed to assemble them with ease and got them plugged in and charging.
They come with a transmitter which you plug into one of the too few USB ports on the PS4 and then connect via a supplied cable to the digital optical port on the back of the PS4.

Once charged the set up is pretty straight forward but I will include a few details here in case you picked them up second hand. They will work with the settings set to HDMI output but to get the best out of them I have mine set up in the following way,
settings - Audio output settings
Primary Audio out = Digital optical port / Dolby 5.1ch
Audio Format Priority = Bit Stream Dolby.

Settings - Audio Devices
Input and output device = USB headset Earforce stealth 500p Chat
Output to headphones = Chat
Adjust mic level = follow on screen destruction's

Ok so now all that is done you're good to go.
Popping these on your head they are a snug fit but comfy and light, a lot lighter than my PX5's which you know you are wearing. It doesn't take long to naturally find the controls to adjust things.
Game volume and chat volume can be adjusted separately and there is a jack socket for external audio inputs such as PS vita, mobile phone or media player etc.
There is a mute button and a preset button also.
The presets will allow you to choose Bass boost, bass and treble boost, vocal boost or natural sound.
Having played around with these I just leave mine on natural sound.
Not as many presets as the PX5 but then they are a lot cheaper.
The 7.1 surround sound that the headset delivers is actually very good for the price and when playing games such as Ghosts as opposed to Advanced warfare you can very easily hear the enemy footsteps and reloads etc.
Forget it if you want to hear that on AW as no headset will let you do that very well with consistency in my experience.
The ear cups are comfy and breathable and after a while you don't even notice you are wearing a headset to be honest.
Other people might notice however as the Mic monitoring compared to my PX5's and a couple of other headsets I have owned is pretty poor. I still find myself shouting on occasions when in a party as my neighbours children learn yet more ways of how to express displeasure.
The battery life is fantastic and I only usually charge mine around once a week which doesn't take long.
The battery is built in and so saves you having to change them as you can just plug them in and keep playing. Compared to the PX5's which I had to change the batteries on pretty much 2 -3 times a week and that is a big plus.
When I bought mine about 8 months ago they were coming in at around the £99.00 mark but you can pick up a brand new set from Turtle Beach now for £79.99 and so imagine there are even better deals out there.
The build quality isn't as robust as I would like  for the price and my first set after around 6 months actually snapped at the ear cup adjustment. After a quick e-mail to Turtle Beach they were dispatched to the UK distributor and 7 days later a brand new boxed set of Headphones arrived with me which is great customer service.  Hopefully it was not a design fault, I will no doubt find out in about 4 months time.

All in all despite one set breaking on me I cannot fault the sound that they give out, they are very comfy and the battery life is fantastic. Much lighter than my PX5's and until I can afford the 800s and justify the upgrade I will be sticking with them.
Unless that is by any mahoooosive stroke of luck somebody at Turtle Beach reads this and want to have a moment of madness and send me a set free of charge........ Meanwhile back at the ranch tonto was playing with his pole. lol.

And so we come to the end of today's blog post interweb where I would like to share with you the Phrase
"Whatever doesn't kill you, can only make you stronger"
Not strictly true, in fact very untrue for the person who coined the phrase. Frederich Nietzche coined that very phrase shortly before sending his biography off to the publishes, before the book had gone to print he lost his mind and became a gibbering wreck unable to clean or care for himself. He lived another ten years before passing away in a vegetative state.
So I am not o sure about that one but what I do know is that Hell hath no fury like a slut outflanked!!!

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXXX

Scuf 4PS review and first impressions.

Well hello interweb, I trust your one's and zero's are all moving along in a well ordered pattern today.
I am about to chat about why I bought my Scuf 4 PS controller and what my first impressions of it all are however at the request of Dirty-Dog from the Netduma forum I just need to gloat a little more about the fact that England have claimed back the Ashes. I am not sure if I mentioned that they did with a test match to spare and the last test they won by an innings and 78 runs.
Oh and Root has now become the worlds top test batsmen replacing Australian's Smith, you know the one that looks like chucky from the horror films..
Root is now #1 and he is from Sheffield you know, good stock. My home town.

Anyway I think that is enough gloating now so on with my review.
I have always wondered if a controller like Scuf would actually help me in my gaming as I am in my 40s etc as are a large section of prospective customers I imagine and with surplus income these days I decided I wanted a custom controller.
Looking at the options it came down to a choice between Battlebeaver or Scuf.
Both have good and bad reviews and after a little research I found the Battlebeaver website not particularly easy to use  and trying to find information from them regarding import duties etc was not forthcoming so a Scuf 4PS was duly designed and ordered.
Incidentally at 6.27AM this morning Battlebeaver replied to my Twitter DM asking about if they catered to the UK market and were there any import implications, only 20 days to reply and their answer of "Typically not" didn't really answer my question anyway. Do they "typically not " cater to the UK or there are not any import implications, or both.
So Scuf 4PS was duly designed on their website with ease, I opted for remapped X and O buttons to 2 levers on the reverse and purple cammo with white grips. After adding a discount code the price came in at £116.00 delivered.
It arrived 11 days later and I must say I was quite impressed.

After reading some horror stories of how the joins were wide open etc I did give the 4PS a good look over and the build quality as far as I could see was spot on, no problem at all.
Upon removing it from the box the controller had a really nice matt finish and as I like my controllers like I like my women, a bit heavier, I had opted for the rumble left in.
My Kontrol freak clicked straight on no worries (omg I sound like one of those Australian losers).
and I fired up Advanced Warfare for a few games against bots to try and get rid of 8 years of muscle memory mashing X and O button to jump and crouch. I really thought that this was going to be quite difficult but to my surprise after 3 games I was back playing public matches racking up Red Baron medals like Dastardly and Mutley.

Now to the levers on the reverse, ergonomically they are well designed and feel as if they should have always been there. However I change my L1 and R1 buttons to be my Aim Down Sight and Fire buttons which negates the need for trigger stops and just feels better for me.
It just didn't feel right for me using the ring finger which fell perfectly into the grip end of the paddle so I use the finger I use to give people the bird as it just feels better for me.
This in turn means that my fingers fall around the F and the P on the lever, a fair way away from the end of the lever and a lot closer to the fulcrum point which will hopefully mean less strain on that point which reading reviews seems to be one of the weak points.

After playing for several hours I had expected the battery to need a full recharge but it seems to hold charge better than my original PS4 controller too. Bonus.
It felt very natural to play after a very short time and I very quickly saw the benefits of using the Scuf controllers. For somebody like myself who plays for a few hours most days this is a good purchase and I now understand how some players manage to pull off what they do.
Will it make my KDR go up in a massive way? probably not,
 does it make playing that bit more fun? yes,
Does it look cool as FCUK, hell yeah I love it.
If I had to pick one fault it would be where the white grips meet the body, there is a tiny little lip, probably less that a mm and it will most likely rub down over the next few games but it does leave my right lever finger with a sore spot. Not too bad and will probably wear in.
All in all first impressions are "Very impressed"
I will do another review after a month or so to see if anything has changed my mind.

Now on to the more traditional part of my blog,
A work mate asked me the other day the age old question of "if a tree falls in a forrest and there is nobody there to hear it, does it make a sound?"
He looked most confused when I replied that according to the laws of quantum physics the question he should really be asking is "is the tree actually there? or the forrest for that matter?
This got me on to thinking about that fantastic invention the "cat flap" Sir Isaac Newton came up with that one, pure genius. It made me wonder if he was in fact by creating a door within a door trying to improve his odds of finding something completely different one day when opening one of the said doors. This also begs the question as to was his cat the same cat after returning through the cat flap?
You see after getting a minimal grasp of the universe on a quantum level opening doors for me has become that little bit more exciting.

Next up Turtle Beach Stealth 500Ps about an 8 month review. (not 8 months long but 8 months into using them)

Peace out Ya ll, THE BAGSTAXXXX

Did I mention we won the Ashes back?

Netduma R1, a grumpy old badgers view.

Hello yall, What a wonderful time it is to be English having given the Australians a reet good kicking in the Ashes. Nothing finer that watching Australians lose at sport. :)
Right now that that bit of gloating is over I want to talk today about the first 6 months ish that I have been living with the Netduma R1 router.
This review is not an in depth one but will point out the features that I personally have found very useful.
If you want to take a look at the official page you can go here. Netduma R1
If you want the ramblings of a 46 year old moderate gamer who plays Call of Duty pretty much every day for a n hour or 2 then read on.
I did my research on this one as the router is not that cheap weighing in at just under £149.00 and everything seemed to stack up in it's favour and all the right boxes were getting ticked.
So I ordered and waited impatiently for it's arrival.

When it did arrive I must be honest it's physical hardware appearance left a lot to be desired. I mean it's not exactly going to win any design awards but, and this but is bigger than Kim Kardashians. What it actually does is fantastic.
Ok so I ripped out my BT homehub and plugged this bad boy into my network with cat 6 cables and powerline plugs to maximise the connection speeds.
Put in the settings to get me connected and went and had a look at tutorials on the Netduma site to set it up correctly.
I will not bore you with the technical aspects of the R1 but in laymans terms this is what it does,
The R1 will allow you to specify the geographical area of the host you will connect to, and/or the Ping to that host.
The user interface is simple to use and settings can be adjusted with sliders. Any changes can take up to 2 minutes to take effect which is a built in anti cheat feature but once you have it set you're pretty much good to go.

The R1 also offers a congestion control setting and antiflood  which is like a QOS on steroids system. It will prioritise your game data over other uses on your network.
You can actually see your ping stats to the host and change settings to get more games faster by increasing your filter or ping assist settings or limit the distance to a few hundred KM although I have found this means a longer wait to get into games.
If your friends live in another country as many of mine do you can basically white list them in a few clicks of a mouse so that they are not filtered and can join you even if they are outside your filter range.
In contrast if you connect to a bad host you can blacklist them so that you never have to play on that host again (this does not apply to dedicated servers).
The information above is just really scratching the surface of what the R1 can do for you and I would advise anybody thinking about purchasing one of these to pop over to the official Netduma website or to the very friendly and helpful forums at Netduma forum.
I use the R1 stand alone but you can use it in conjunction with your existing router, In the 6 months I have owned the R1 there have been 3 or4 updates making it better and simpler to use, the team are constantly working on the software and bringing out more updates and their patience with people who need help (some who appear to have had a personality bypass) is quite frankly amazing.
Granted many of these features should be available in game (call of duty) etc but they are not, Turn off my filter and I can connect to a host in Guadalajara from the UK, that was a good game..... not.

So having just pointed out a fraction of the abilities of this little gem is it for you?
I would say if you play FPS games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, Destiny et al, on more than just a weekend then I would not hesitate. If you are a weekend warrior with surplus cash, again yes buy one.
If you are a casual gamer with limited funding then no.
What the R1 claims to is (taken directly from the Netduma website)

Never play a long distance, laggy game
Eliminate lag caused by others’ downloading and uploading
Allocate bandwidth to your gaming devices
Avoid laggy hosts
 Easily configure your perfect settings

Does it deliver on those claims? Yes it does.

So in conclusion I would pop over to take a look at what other people are saying about the R1 or do a few searches on the interweb about it, It is not the prettiest router in the world by any stretch of the imagination but you don't have to look at the mantelpiece when your poking the fire :)
I have tried playing a few games with my geo filter switched off and man that sucker gets flipped back on again quicktime.
So whilst I now prepare to go to work till 01.00 hours I still have a smile on my face, not just because I own an R1, but because as I might have mentioned earlier. ENGLAND claim back the ASHES, in your face losers. lol.

Next up, Scuf 4 PS review

Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX

Im, Back!

Hello interweb, it has been a while, a few day's over two years to be precise.
I used this blog to help me quit smoking and ramble on to save my friends and family having to listen to my inane ramblings.
Well I am 4 years smoke free now but still ramble and generally behave like a grumpy old man.
A lot has happened since we last interacted, New car, semi retirement, the closing down of that damn facebook account. Seriously the most refreshing thing I have done in years was to close that damn thing down.
I have been in a couple of clans on the PlayStation but am currently running solo as a mercenary.
Looking forward to Black ops 3 beta this month, hopefully it will play well and Bev gets a good connection on it as well as I have missed gaming with the grumpy old badger.
That said Advanced warfare has been playing OK for me since purchasing the Netduma R1 router, more about that later as I will be writing a quick review of said item now that I have been living and gaming with it for around 6 months. Been generally blowing stuff up and team killing or getting team killed with Knuckles Whiteknight and Kaosdwarf.
Another up coming review will be for the Scuf 4PS which I am currently waiting delivery of, it will be with me some time today. I must say I am actually impressed with Scuf Europe as I didn't pay for Express 24 hour delivery but that is how they have sent it, I'm guessing because it was a day overdue from their published lead times on build check and delivery.
In other news the office has been turned into a full on man cave Mission Control type of thing complete with Sony Bravia, Gaming Chair (with surround sound built in)  and wine rack. What more does a retired grumpy old badger need? Oh yes, a white fluffy cat to sit on my knee and be stroked as I take over the world.

And so we come to the last section of today's post where in time honoured tradition I will impart a load of bollocks from my over thinking brain,
Dark energy makes up around 75% of our universe, the more dark energy there is the more is created to fill the gaps.

Nothing exists in a vacuum but dark energy, so nothing is taking over the universe.
Dark energy is different to dark matter. This introduces the theory of dark flow, dark flow is a phenomenon that makes galaxies move in a manner that we cannot understand, unless there is another universe that acts upon our own.
Based on the theory of inflation this could make sense.
And people wonder why I have no social skills,
Peace out yall, THE BAGSTAXXX