Download World of Goo

It is that simple I got the full version but there is a decent demo version out there, very clever game does not get too frustrating. This was on my Samsung Galaxy Tab which I'm still very impressed with although I badly need a new phone as HTC Hero is just so slow.

Other games onto Assassins Creed Brotherhood and overall finding it good although the platform type sub-games are massively annoying, in fairness to Ubisoft that have a checkpoint system so you do not have go over and over the same routine. However it still means you can spend ten minutes trying the same jump eventually get that jump and find you miss the next jump after it.

So the time multiplies up, I can do jump A in 10 minutes but jump B is going to take 10 minutes so it will take me 10x10 minutes to get to the next checkpoint. Forget it I would rather not bother :)

Still load up FM2011 once a week and play a month or so with a Swansea side that is doing ok I quickly get bored of it though. A work colleague is not exactly doing a good job of selling FM2012 saying that the new team talk system is something of a grind.

Assassins Creed 2 Controversy

I got an XBOX a few months back and have been working my way through my sons massive collection of games. Red Dead Redemption was amazing even bought the expansion Red Dead Undead well worth the cash.

Anyway I started to play Assassins Creed 2 and have just finished it, the final scene starts with a 30 ft jump to assassinate the Pope. That is quite controversial even for a new atheist like myself I'm surprised this did not get a load more publicity as a result.

Other than that still buying the odd domain but still not making any real progress money wise on that front, one of the recent acquisitions is Traditional Shave which is quite an odd mix.

I do now do some PPC work on a Shaving site apparently it has got like its own hardcore community, the company I work for sell a shaving brush that is £249, for a brush!

Dam The Bug Cometh Battlefield 3

Just started a new chap in work who is an FPS fan and a new laptop is on order capable of playing Battlefield 3 is on order. I'm catching this bug, the memories flood back of flying and shooting and I've been reminiscing over what I did during the last "war".

In the meantime did dabble with FM12 demo, was quite good, I did not much the presentation seemed a bit cluttered but it was a short hour I played it. I still play FM11 now and again but it does lack a bit of edge.

Just cannot seem to get over the right playing level for FIFA, either it is too easy or ceases to play like football. I hesitate to say too hard as I still win just the free flowing football goes.

Still working for OFL on a freelance basis, company is doing well and Oak Furniture Land PPC doing great even if I say so myself :) Good team there so it is no just me.

Hey Ho Football Gaming Current Picks

I got myself an XBOX360 the other day and of course FIFA11. What is it with EA I do not want to go off on one but Ultimate Team is pushing me close to the edge.

Ultimate Team sounds daft but actually is great fun, you collect cards with players on and to add to your team, you play tournaments then win cash to buy more cards to buy better players and so on.

Its a nice little feature and is quite addictive, however you cannot play this when the EA servers are down or as is more common when your XBOX cannot connect to the EA servers. So you often play a game but find the servers have failed to see you to play it again as the result was not recorded. This happens so often as to make the entire feature an exercise in frustration.

Sort it out EA!

In other news I'm still building up my portfolio of domains, I would still earn more cash if I worked in tesco but the sites do come in handy for work sometimes so overall it makes it a worthwhile venture.

They are getting weirdly varied have a gander Preloved Horses, Very Discount Code, Meta Reviews, E Cigs Review to name but a few.

I'm off now to check out if FM12 is going to be any good from the little I have read so far I'm uninspired but that might yet change.

Pocket Soccer

Mmm bought myself a Samsung Galaxy Tab the other day, an awesome bit of kit whilst looking around for games to keep my interested I grabbed Pocket Soccer. Honestly if you do one thing and have an Android phone really get this it is free, two players just great fun all round.

In other news I have started a forum, after FM Live died I started posting on a BBC Message board about Religion and Ethics (bit of an atheist me) anyway that closed so I started a Religion and Ethics Forum which oddly is really active!

Not a bad mix of people either from both sides of the camp.

Frozen Synapse Download

I have read a lot about this indie game and it got released on Steam recently so I jumped in. Oh wow is it addictive and deep and well, what else, brilliant.

It is very easy to get into my first blast and two hours just seemed to disappear. I suppose I'm going to right back now but it does remind you of X Com series of game which were pretty decent for their time.

I think the devs of this game can do a lot more as well they have hit the jackpot with this I'm sure.

Here is a Frozen Synapse Tutorial, as you can see it is very simple but honestly well worth a blast!



Each match is immediate and places you into the tactical situation. There is no waiting around for the action.

Still Freelance Pay Per Click

Still working on a freelance basis on marketing namely PPC / SEO for Oak Furniture Land seemed to have made some progress as sales are up. Not suggesting that this is soley my doing, work very much as part of a team and of course their stores and the A1 website are a core component of the company's continued success.

No sign of the rolling contract ending but I'm not overly worried about getting more work should it end and besides really enjoy working with them. Would not mind staying in furniture when it does end though as it is a sector I have good knowledge of, we will see.

It has been a lot of work and will remain focused and aggressive two features that you need to do well at PPC.

Onto FM related news I'm still casually playing FM2011 maybe I should jump into the FM forums and give some feedback but suspect SI are sick of me! Had a few mini adventures with Swansea (Premier League) Southampton (same) and Telford United (League Two).

I'm actually enjoying playing with a mate where we both take over a club and then share our experiences of how we do. It would be nice if FM had a feature where we could upload our teams to a web server and then watch a game using our teams and tactics. Might be a fun addition.

Pretty convinced the next big move for FM is some sort of multi player feature, we all know FML was a disaster but it is where the future lies. Just look at what Popcap have done with Bejeweled on Facebook.

We are Premier League, say We are Premier League

Swansea V Reading - What can you say epic day, epic game looked like we were going down a massive Reading comeback on 60 minutes but started to open them again and finally nailed it at 4-2.

Cannot quite beleieve Swansea are in the Premier League it is quite literally once in a lifetime moment.

Get in

Still working for Oak Furniture Land and this week pondering over Shabby Chic Furniture, good fun.

Meanwhile was bouncing over Swans victory over Forest. Was quite funny as I was running around the room in a T Shirt over the head moment, my daughter calmly turned to my wife and said 'Mummy why did you marry Daddy?'.

WEMBLEY, WEMBLEY..........

I do not mind if we lose I'm just going to enjoy the day out.

Long Time No Update

Well been very busy of late freelancing (mainly PPC in Google Adwords, Hitwise etc) for one of the biggest online furniture retailers (Oak Furniture Land) in the UK, actually the biggest online furniture retailer in the UK. Some awesome peeps working there really sharp when it comes to all things IT, so dunno what they want with me  Actually I think I’ve done some decent PPC stuff for them and have added value.

I suppose the big topic relating to this blog is the sad demise of Football Manager Live. I think FM2011 is a fine game and the ME and database is eons ahead of anything else so I think SI have a great future.

In my view there were mistakes made way back after all the churn rate in beta was there plain as day and this issue was never properly addressed. I think if they ever dabble again with online it may be and added extra to FM much like Pitboss is Civ5. I think this would be viable personally even though you hear the argument that everyone would want to be Man Utd I’m not so sure if you look the success of FIFA Virtual Pro.

Anyway no use looking back at past mistakes the game was what it was and I do think they could have found a way of marketing the game cost effectively even given its high churn rate.

I did offer to do PPC for them and actually spent £30 myself demonstrating that they could drive costs down and have a viable marketing route. I rolled out across the US (changing from Football to Soccer in adverts, silly US) and I think had they targeted English Speakers across Euroland with the Cost Per Click I was getting could have secured the long term future of the game.

I do not think there is much more to say really, this blog has covered the game in detail looking at its direction at various stages. I suspect if they had gone for a proper rags to riches type thing culling the top teams off we might still have FML but now we will never know.

What next then… I think I’ll continue to blog about my gaming exploits here but I’m not seeing much that really hooks me in. Civ5 I found a bit slow and buggy, have had the odd blast of FM2010 which I have enjoyed but it lacks an edge. The last game I really got into was Starcraft 2 so will keep an eye out for an expansion of that.

Nothing to See here Move Along

If you check last post then you will see even the legend Martin White feels that FML is a bit flat these days. I'm not playing hardly at all now which is really sad and I log on to beta forums and see nothing really to comment on as the feedback from Si is close to zero.

It feels like their just going through the motions more than anything. For all my rants I think FML was potentially a massive game and I will be gutted if it does not reach its potential.

I have not really played anything or read anything that caught my imagination since Starcraft 2 maybe the future is in the mobile market I have a few gaming ish blogs in the form of Android Tablet Review, Top Android Phone and some of the games there are really rather good. X Construction is the latest one.

As a contemplate life without FML then I guess this blog will turn into my more general gaming blog.

On a more positive note I started freelancing when Furniture company I worked for went through and we now have a couple of clients, one sells new cars and the other sells alcohol. Amazing, what next a XXX site!

Still like to have something more secure but I guess this will do for now. 

Been A While

I'm still around but not in a gaming sense currently. I did buy FM2010 (downloaded Football Manager 2011 via Steam) and had a brief blast on that.

I had a few seasons with Sheffield Wednesday taking them to the top ten in Premier League over five seasons and then with AFC Telford taking them to League Two before kind of just getting a bit bored of it. Still many hours enjoyment from what remains a great franchise.

On a slightly separate note if I can buy a game from Steam it remains my favourite choice. I have lost count of how many games I have bought and lost the discs for, all you need with Steam is a log in and your entire back catalogue is there.

Still occasionally log in to FML but the Beta seems to have gone very flat lately not much going on at all. Feels like they are just going through the motions but that may just be me.

Swans are still in the hunt! I never thought I would see them return to the top flight and just be dreaming of that is a very nice surprise.

Meanwhile my many websites continue to do quite well I thought I'd break from furniture and go more geek with Computer Repair Stores. I used to own a shop like that, tough to make a decent living out of it though. Currently still freelancing in Web Marketing and SEO. We came up with quite a good name I think OMG Web Marketing, I commit blasphemy every time I say it, awesome!

Plants V Zombies

Since formatting my PC I wondered what the heck it was before having a good old blast on this, classic game proves you do not need amazing graphics.

FML pop into Coppell now and again, odd got double relegated there for some bizarre reason which I couldn't quite fathom then joined EFA to try and bounce back up but that only has two leagues so finished 5th then got relegated (as you do). Still enjoyable for the odd lunchtime though and still not worth £5:)

My youth academies are in the old style obscure nations and producing short defenders is not quite my cup of tea so will relocate come close season to Germany or something.

Work wise stuff goes on with contracting still mostly SEO, PPC marketing stuff, manage to grind the cost per click down anyway, SEO is always a longer term thing.

Other than that pretty hum drum really.

FML Stuff

I was enjoying myself in Nunez but got out of the habit of logging in, around a week ago I thought 'omg best get in' only to find the account needed paying and then put it off for a day and by the time I actually was there with credit card in hand found the close season was almost over so put it off entirely.

I will get back into retail just that I do not think it offers real value currently, pity really as Nunez seemed like a really good GW.

Still have a beta team in Coppell which is going ok despite extended periods not logging in, do have a load of YA's so have a backlog of winning raffle tickets to ponder over.

Still contribute in beta as well, with regard to the beta forums I basically now say what I think, too old and ugly to be worried about hurting some feelings. Besides I can't imagine they want a beta full of yes men, if they do the best kick me out. I might have faults (the missus has a very long list of my faults) but being a yes man has never been one of em!

Other than that being doing a bit of poker and blogging. All the sites now I have set up as independent sort of review sites where I collate reviews. My income from them though dropped really badly for the last two weeks before going back up and now exceed the levels they were at before. Very weird!

Morale Moaners

Lots of moans on various forums about how morale dictates too much in the game and how you cannot do much about it. A common complaint is 'I do not have the tools to do anything about it!'. The truth is course you have almost as much as a real life manager, others will argue that a a real life manager can talk to the players and I have to smirk, come on do you really think that part of the game is ever going to be simulated.

I also have a chuckle when I listen to some of the posts that seem to know exactly what Ferguson did wrong or why results have gone wrong in real life, honestly surprised they are not doing the Liverpool job they seem so certain.

However I do sympathise, I myself have whined about it a lot using terms like 'loaded dice' etc however, now I am at one with it all.

I have no doubt written this before but this is my perception of morale based on an hypothetical example.

Neutral - Neither good or bad you could flop either way, you lose a game to a late unlucky goal and the bad run starts.
Bad Run Part 1 - You can see the confidence is gone in the players as they cannot do the most basic of things (anyone remember Torres in the World Cup?) You have to play cautious here, you are going to need players that will grind out a result, a good captain can make this run end much faster.
Bad Run Part 2 - Players are playing better but the results just do not seem to come, a brave sub might turn the tide here.
Bad Run Part 3 - This is bizarre world, the loaded dice zone players play great but you get unlucky, what can a manager do, the answer, nothing! How many times in real life do you hear a manager say 'if we keep playing like that results will come' and this is a horrible time but patience and results will come.
Good Run - Finally you get the break and have turned the corner how long you can keep this going will depend on the players, the tactics, how you rotate your team and who you play. It seems to build up, win, win, win, overconfidence, go back to Bad Run Part 1.

The Match Engine and Real Life

Let me start by saying the Match Engine is not perfect and anyone who reads this blog will know I do not hold back if I think something is wrong with the game.

Reading the forum I suspect there is something up with red cards although I have not experienced this myself and corner exploits need to be kept on top of. However I think the ME (apart from a spell after reset where physical stats were overpowered) largely delivers realistic results. I'm not talking here about events but the end results.

However a lot of forum posters seem to think that this is not true because they have the wrong view of how random a game football is in reality.

So today for example a poster who is top of a league goes away from home gets a draw and says this is unrealistic claiming that in real life 1 in 40 games is a shock.

That is factually incorrect. How can I substantiate this well.....

Youth Academies Unbalance the Game

Recently I went back to Coppell and I had forgotten I had built so many youth academies (duuno why and their not German, doh :( ) but it occurs to me that after a couple of seasons I have no got a load of high PA players.

Ok I got a load of rubbish as well but still it does you make you more secure for the future. It occurs to me that now with Youth Academies is two fold.

1) Money
2) Time

Prior to youth academies you could join a GW spend your basic £50k a day youth (on higher wages) and there you go you have your youth sorted. Now that option is not available as time is as big, if not bigger part of the investment.

Not that I have a solution it was just a thought really.

Good ole FML

Nunez I enjoyed the Pre Season it was quite nice to have a projected of £1.5m and trying to spend that in the best possible way (or not as the case may be) was good fun. Something quite addictive about looking at stats and players and trying to undercover a bargain.

Started the season and I think it is clear that we are likely to be heading for middle of the table, no relegation as we are in the bottom tier and after 7/8 games in the first few days already have that middle of the table / middle of the season feel. This would be fine of course if the season only lasted say 10/12 days but now I will not log in much as I'm just really waiting for the next close season to come round.

It is alarmingly easy to just lose touch. Still what I have played I have enjoyed.

News in beta looks great, well one thing looks great, the other thing is great but currently very very wrong. Cannot say too much.

Fix A
Say we have issue X and the cure is A, A does not work because B is broken, so fix B?

Fix C
Instead of fixing B we introduce a new extra fix called C which actually makes X worse and instead of removing C what they will do is add D.

Fix D
D will actually make X even worse again, so lets add E, that makes it even worse.

Fix E
The whole system is buggered lets reset and start again.

Currently we are at fix D and I can see fix E coming in.

I fell like the boy who cried wolf but all the villagers are dead from Wolves :)

Money Money

In non FM related news, I keep steadily losing money on Poker I still enjoy it though and it works out for a few hours entertainment on a Friday it costs me £5 a month.

I find Texas Hold Em a perfectly addictive game case in point I'm just about to pack my bags and on a table where I'm down £1, or $1 top be more precis,e and about to walk away.

I get a 9 and 6 of clubs someone raises to 0.30 and I think oh well lets play it I'm down anyway, the flop comes with two clubs and the git raises to $1 with another staying in. So I'm thinking I have a 1 in 2 chance of pulling another club it is going to cost $1 to stay in with a pot that is $4.

So crudely it is a 4:1 bet with odds of 2:1 so I have to take it, I end up pulling $11, nice, that will keep me going for another month.

In other money related news my domains, I seem to have over 50 now, are doing nicely, ok I will not be quitting my day job but it is nice and steady. I am at least in a position to use the cash to speculate on some more so to that end I bought Chester Furniture Stores, Furniture Stores Cardiff, plus a load more along the same theme which cost me £80 in total but that is way below what I take a month from the others so happy days.

One, Swansea Furniture, is pulling in 1000 hits a month so in theory I should be able to sell that for a tidy profit, it is pretty qualified traffic i.e. consumers looking to buy furniture in Swansea.

Back in the Room

I joined Nunez great to see Nick, Martin plus loads of familiar faces but I now must break into rant:)

Not really a rant though just my normal wibble. Overall process was pretty smooth. Prices are now all over the shop though, there were some really nice players available to sign for a new starter but with the new sign on fee's they are out of reach.

I spent a lot of time playing against the same lowest CPU team using this as a trial process a senior had to impress only took 3 seniors whilst I was a little kinder to youth.

Having looked at the prices being charged for players I thought youth was the best strategy and I would start with a bunch of youth and then do some shopping.

There has not been much inflation in Nunez by the looks so a lot of players were within my reach, with wages that were just £20k my projected gave me a bit of spending power.

I bought a couple of players that were £100k instant when their market value was £50k on the face of it you could argue then I overpaid but these were players that had wage demands of £12k but were on contracts of around £2k.

Saving me a total of upto £10k a day, so five days I'd have saved the extra on wages, a season rolls by and I'm in the money.

It did surprise me just how low the Transfer fee's are now, in fact Transfer Value is way under Sign On Fee this effectively gives top teams a free ride in the new wage system but I already mentioned that in a previous post.

From a personal point of view what the top teams get or not is of no interest to me as we are firmly a lower league team just hoping to work my way up.

Win lose or draw I shall enjoy this for a few months already aware though of the frustration of how slow FML is.... I look at stadium and know it will be around three months before that needs looking at, it will be six months before I know if any of the youths I have will start to blossom, it is four weeks before I rebuild for the new season.

Lets not be doom and gloom though it is a great game and with SI now starting to get proactive marketing wise it could finally turn the corner!

Work Work Work

Been busy over Christmas doing a lot of work although did get deeply into Minecraft. Keep an eye on the FML forums and things seem to be moving forward slowly on that front. Still have no idea why they haven't done any marketing.

It was curious to see the first wave of Grads using the new YA system and a few not happy as the quality is lower. Not sure why they did not have an issue when it was announced too late to be worried now.

Over Christmas started watching Peep Show from Episode One and that series must be the best comedy in the last ten years or so.

Anyway back to work, now looking to get links for a Tents site, this site sells a lot of camping tents during the summer and they want some SEO work done beforehand.