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Dakkster's Top 300 Games, 50-41
We're down to the last five parts of this list. Or rather, the first part of this list. If you remember the prelude post in this series, I mentioned that I have a few other lists coming as well and that they're related to this one. As always, check out the tag Top 300 Games to go look at the older posts in the series. Let's get this one started!
50: Duck Tales (NES) – Capcom has produced some of the most wonderful games ever and they had such a hot streak going way back on the NES. Most people associate them with the Mega Man series and that's all well and good, but you just can't forget the other great games. Duck Tales is one of them and it's my favorite Disney game. It's one of those perfect platformers. Everything about it is fantastic, especially the music. Listen to this song and tell me it's not awesome!
49: Mega Man (NES) – I think this was one of my first NES games and it took me several years to actually finish it. Why? Because it's damn hard and damn unforgiving for a seven-year-old. It's no frills Mega Man. No E tanks, no sliding, no Rush and no passwords. It's pure Mega Man and with this concept, great things were to come… more on that later on in this list, though. Mega Man is one of those games that has stood the test of time and you can pick it up just like that today and be awestruck by the pixel perfection and awesome music. The Mega Man series has the best platform controls ever in any game.
48: MechWarrior 3 (PC) – Now we're talking the best MechWarrior game that I've ever played. This is, in my opinion, the epitome of what a BattleTech game should be. The Mechs feel heavy to control, not as arcadey as in MechWarrior Vengeance, and the story is about kicking the clans' asses, which has always been the best storyline in the BattleTech universe. It also follows the proper rules for building mechs and the briefings before each mission are the best I've come across in any BattleTech game. But most of all, the controls are just right. The feel is just "there".
47: Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC) – Probably the most shat upon game sequel in history. DXIW is almost universally laughed at and considered a shitty game. It's not a shitty game at all. It just happened to have to live up to the expectations set by the first game, which just happens to be one of the best games ever. I loved the atmosphere in DXIW and I loved the futuristic setting of it. It worked a lot of things from the first game into the story, but still managed to introduce enough interesting new angles. I thought it was a shame that it got a bit "consolified" as far as the detail writing got. I missed the in-depth books and newspapers that were strewn around the first game.
46: Super Mario World (SNES) – Once upon a time I finished this game and I finished it the proper way, by finding all the hidden exits. Then my nephew came along and started playing this game one day when I wasn't at home. I came home later and went up to my room. He was so proud that he had finished a few levels on his own, since he was just five years old or something. He didn't understand that he had erased my play file with the finished game. I got furious back then. Now I just laugh about it. Super Mario World is an excellent game and Yoshi was the perfect addition to the Super Mario series. It's hard to find words to describe the Mario games. They've always been there and they've always been among the top games of every Nintendo console, simply because they are so good. Every little mechanic works perfectly and I can't imagine SMW in any other way.
45: Rainbow Six 2: Rogue Spear (PC) – The first game introduced the concept of tactical shooting to the PC. The sequel perfected that concept as far as I'm concerned. The storytelling was a lot better, the planning worked a lot better, there were more useful weapons, the AI had been improved and so on and so forth. It was an improvement in every single conceivable way. Some of the most tense moments I've ever had while gaming was during the sneaking missions in this game, especially one where you infiltrated a huge mansion.
44: Worms & Reinforcements United (PC) – I like the Worms games, but I've never really felt at home with all the different cartoony versions. Why? This one. This is the original and it was perfect. If you aimed somewhere, that aim was accurate. I never got that feeling in the cartoony Worms games. Also, this game was the inspiration for one of the games higher up on this list. But all in all, this is simple, pure, destructive fun.
43: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (Xbox 360) – Puzzle Quest came from nowhere and stole sooooo many hours from me, but I loved every minute of it. It was such unexpected fun! The hammy setting and story worked perfectly and I really didn't expect Bejeweled to work so well and in such an engaging way as a combat mechanic. Pure genius! The only downside was that the music, while being very good, got old really fast because you heard the same tunes over and over and over…
42: Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360) – Here we have RE4 and 5 in rapid succession. It's a close call, but RE5 gets the short end of the stick. I like it over RE4 in some ways though. The characters, first and foremost. I've always loved Chris, Jill and Wesker over Leon and as far as new characters go, Sheva kicks the president's daughter's ass any day of the week and don't even get me started on that bizarro Napoleon dude from RE4. There's also one huuuuuuuge thing for which I love RE5 more than RE4 and that's co-operative play. My best friend and I are both big RE fans and we played our way through this game together, something that was a complete blast. HOWEVER! This game, Resident Evil 5, is COMPLETE AND UTTER SHIT if you play alone and have to rely on the AI to control Sheva. The African setting is pretty "meh" most of the time and the most exciting parts for me were the industrial and high tech settings. The boat was an awesome last level.
41: Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) – The reason why RE4 ends up ahead of RE5 is because when it was released it was revolutionary and you didn't see it coming. The first time I came across that insane bad guy wielding a goddamn chainsaw, I almost shit my pants. I'd read about it, but it couldn't prepare me for it. I panicked and tried to take a stand inside a house, only to be overrun and finally decapitated by said chainsaw. Lovely! On one hand the game felt like a natural continuation of the Resident Evil franchise, but on the other hand it didn't feel like Resident Evil anymore. Sure, it still had somewhat gimped controls, but you didn't fight zombies anymore (and anyone calling them, or the enemies in RE5 for that matter, zombies is a clueless idiot who needs to be shot) and there were too many of them. RE4's depiction of Spanish villagers is laughably silly. I keep imagining this redneck American who knows nothing about anything but Texarkana, plays RE4 and then actually thinks that Spain is some underdeveloped shithole of a country, full of decrepit villages and dark castles. Typical Japanese game development. But it's so much fun and tense!
That's it for this post. Tune in tomorrow! Same bat time, same bat channel! Okay, maybe not tomorrow, but in a day or three. We're getting down to 31 in that one! Let me know what you think so far in the comments.
Dakkster's Top 300 Games, 70-61
Not in a writing mood, but might as well push through it and get down to 61 on the list. I've had a few chaotic weeks, emotionally, but it's best to push that aside and try to accomplish something, even if that's just a small thing such as writing a nostalgia-filled list. Let's go!
70: Portal (PC) – When this game came out I didn't fall for it instantly. I had to play it through a second time to really appreciate all the good things it offers. It was revolutionary and re-invented how you look at 3D gaming and it was a real challenge to think your way through all the puzzles. GLaDOS is quite possibly the funniest antagonist ever. The worst thing about this game is that the net got over saturated with "The cake is a lie!" jokes that ARE NOT FUCKING FUNNY! Pretty much everything else about it is genius. It's just a pity that it's a bit too short.
69: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Nintendo DS) – My favorite of the Castlevania games. Feels like there isn't much more to say about it, but I try to compare it to all of the other games, both the ones that came before it and the ones that came after. The conclusion I come to, for me, is that this got the concept perfected while still adding fresh things. I think they went too far with how Portrait of Ruin took the concept to another place in the next game and from what I've played of Order of Ecclesia, I don't like that one at all, even though the higher difficulty is interesting. Dawn of Sorrow has the perfect blend of difficulty, hammy story, interesting weapons and abilities while also introducing the touch screen function in a good way for the boss fights.
68: Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (PC) – Fantastic sneaking action here. As far as pre-Conviction Splinter Cell games go, this is the one you want. It's beautiful, you get a good set of moves, the missions are interesting and the story is kept engaging. All the while the atmosphere stays at its peak throughout the whole game.
67: MechWarrior 4: Vengeance (PC) – Good shit, although the mech building stuff was a bit too simplified for my taste. Can be downloaded for free these days, I think. The story was fairly interesting and a bit more personally engaging than the rest of the games, but as a BattleTech nut, I don't need a basic "they killed my family, now I want revenge" story. I understand that people who don't know BattleTech inside and out would like that kind of story better, to motivate them to play a bit more, but I don't need it.
66: FreeSpace 2 (PC) – The most epic space action flight sim ever created. This game has so much atmosphere and such perfect flight sim controls that beyond ridiculous. It's too bad that there has never been a sequel to it, because the story was really interesting too. The music and sound design is still insanely good and would definitely hold up today.
65: Peggle (Xbox 360) – Second most addictive puzzle game I've ever played. You just can't stop playing Peggle once you start. You just need to get through all of the puzzles and clear all the challenges. Trying to figure out what character is the best for each puzzle is a nice little facet, but mostly it's just about making the perfect plays.
64: Meteos (Nintendo DS) – Most addictive handheld puzzle game I've ever played. This was the perfect game for me to buy for my DS early on, because it showed how uniquely you could use touch controls compared to the classic controller input of a D-pad and buttons. Even today with all the smartphones, you still can't get as good responsiveness with your finger on an iPhone compared to this. It becomes a frenzy and you try to get all the pieces up in the air as more gets dumped on you.
63: Shadow Complex (Xbox 360) – Metroidvania in high definition. Shadow Complex intrigued me early on and when I found out that two books were being written to support and flesh out the story in conjunction with the game, I got even more excited. It has excellent gameplay and it's a giant love letter to all the other Metroidvania games. If I have to say anything outright bad about it, the game is a bit short, but at least it's short and sweet. The books by Orson Scott Card are good too.
62: Moonstone (Amiga 500) – Quite possibly the bloodiest game on the Amiga 500. This was so much fun to play along with three friends, each of you getting a knight that is really bad-ass. I see it as the spiritual predecessor to Castle Crashers, but this game has no humor whatsoever. All the enemies are really scary in their own right and you fear some of them a lot. The multiplayer dynamic makes the competition pretty exciting. The others know if you find something important and then they can go after you. Then it's on and only a duel will settle it.
61: Blackhawk (SNES) – Also known as Blackthorne. Blizzard knows how to make solid, storydriven platform action and this grim tale just teems atmosphere. There is a nice progression of skill in how your gun gets upgraded every few levels and the puzzles forces you to play patiently and methodically, much like Flashback which is higher up on the list. Very engaging game.
After the next post, there will just be 50 games left. Insane numbers if you think about it, but there are a bunch of great games out there and I've missed a bunch of them too.
Dakkster's Top 300 Games, 100-91
Alright, let's get to it. This was the original goal of the list, for me to showcase my 100 favorite games. We're here now, so let's keep going.
100: Heavy Gear (PC) – Activision lost the MechWarrior licence and quickly secured the next best thing as far as North American mech universes go. Heavy Gear was fairly established, so they used an upgraded version of the engine that they used for MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries and created this game. I love the MechWarrior games, but this one isn't far behind. The gears are more mobile than mechs, so the action was a little bit faster, which was a nice change of pace.
99: Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PC) – The Sam Fisher Saga, part two. The second game was essentially more of the same as the first with just some graphical upgrades. Sadly, what has been the most touted component of Pandora Tomorrow, the creative multiplayer mode, was something that I never even touched. I really wish I did, especially now that I've had some fun with the multiplayer in Splinter Cell Conviction.
98: Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (PC) – Here's a game that's gotten way too little fanfare through the years. Monolith made this game and part of it is just bland corridor shooting, but then you also have the giant mech action in the vein of Japanese anime like Gundam or Evangelion. Spice the whole thing up with incredibly hammy characterization and voice acting and it's a smash hit in my mind. Some of the weapons in this game took shooting to a new level, mainly because Monolith could go over the top like crazy with the mech action.
97: Action Quake 2 (PC) – Time for another mod on the list. This time it's a mod for Quake 2 that limits the weapons you can carry and also how much damage you can take. If you get hit you need to bandage the wound if you don't want to bleed out and die. We used to play this a bunch on some LANs and it was a lot of fun. Every map only had one of each special weapon and one of each equipment, which made for some interesting strategies. The flak vest along with the assault rifle was a nice combo, but so was the slippers and the sawed-off shotgun. The slippers removed any sound you made when walking, so they were perfect for you to run around with, sticking the most powerful short range weapon in the game up someone's ass.
96: Guitar Hero 2 (Xbox 360) – Guitar Hero 2 has had the following effect on the songs I've tried to grind to perfection: Every time I hear them, I visualize the notes coming at me on the screen. This happens every single time I hear Sweet Child of Mine by Guns 'n' Roses, etc, etc. I don't have the talent to take on all of the songs on expert difficulty immediately, but after I've had the chance to play them on hard first – for a few weeks – then I can give them a try on expert. Incredibly fun game and for me, this was what started the whole music game craze.
95: Outcast (PC) – Cutter Slade. Now there's a name, a masculine hero's name. This game is probably the best game ever that's the least played. It is action adventure perfection and it still holds up today, almost 11 years after its release. It is another game that is based on voxel graphics, which gave it rolling hills and huge environments for you to walk around in. It had an alien race that was in awe of you and considered you to be a god, which made for some hilarious interaction. But in the end, this is simply an incredibly solid game that should be played by more people.
94: F.E.A.R. (PC) – More Monolith. This game has the most ridiculous acronym in its title. FEAR apparently stands for First Encounter Assault Recon. Now, this may just be my ignorance, but I was under the impression that assault and recon are two vastly different combat types. One is light and designed for swift movement with some stealth purposes, while the other is Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Commando. Regardless, this game has some of the tightest action I've ever played and it's really scary too. It kept me on the edge of my seat for the entire duration and I also wanted to know what happened with the storyline right up until the very end. That doesn't happen often with shooters.
93: Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway (Xbox 360) – You might think that for this one I will say "Yet another WW2 shooter, you know the drill" but BiAHH has the best narrative I've experienced in any WW2 game and that's by a damn mile. This game has an extremely engaging storyline and I haven't even played the previous Brothers in Arms games. The action is interesting, since you need to utilize the rest of your squad to succeed in the game. The atmosphere and the environments are very nice and after you get into the story, you start being a bit more careful of how you order your squadmates around because you don't want them to die because of your recklessness.
92: Double Dragon 2 (NES) – Co-op fun on the NES! I love how brutal this game was and its difficulty was just right to be challenging but not annoying. I used to "cheat" by starting a two player game and then killing my brother until all his lives were gone. What happened was that if I killed him so he lost a life, I gained that life, effectively doubling my lives as I went through the game alone. It was the poor man's Konami code.
91: Braid (Xbox 360) – When I first started this game I just sat there watching the water color painting that was suddenly on my TV screen, listening to the wonderful string music that flowed out of the speakers. Easily one of the most beautiful games ever and it encourages players to be creative with game mechanics as the game moves forward. Storywise it is an engaging tale that is told through books between the levels and when you get to the end it is all put on edge and you start reconsidering the whole experience. Simply sublime game design and I look forward to the next game by Jonathan Blow.
So that's the first batch of ten out of the top 100. Thoughts? I actually had a thought. I should count how many games are from each platform when I'm done with the entire list. I haven't consciously tried to limit myself to balance stuff out or anything.
Dakkster's Top 300 Games, 125-101
It's high time I get down below the hundreds, so here we are with the last few games before we get there.
125: Splinter Cell (PC) – The first adventure with Sam Fisher and this was a revelation to me when it was released. I'd always loved the narrative maturity of the Tom Clancy games and this one was no different. You really felt like a ghost sneaking around and taking guys out, but you had to be a ninja, because if you got several guys after you, you were pretty much toast.
124: Geometry Wars: Evolved 2 (Xbox 360) – I didn't like the first one at all, I thought the learning curve was way too steep. When this was released I was a bit hesitant, but trying out the different game modes sold me on it. What I love about this game is the combined frantic and calm nature that comes with it. There can be a hundred things happening on the screen and in all that chaos, you succeed the most when you stay calm and learn how to prioritize among the targets while figuring out how to move.
123: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Gameboy Advance) – The amount of time you can sink into this kind of turn-based strategy RPG is mindblowing and I have a friend who's been almost religious about this genre. Myself, I got about halfway through the storyline while building my team. It's really addicting trying to plan out how you want your guys to develop.
122: Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64) – I think this is the only N64 game I've got on the list because I was never a fan of that console. I did, however, love playing Super Mario 64. It's been said countless times, but this was the first game that really brought solid 3D platforming controls to gaming. This had everything we all love about the Mario games. Incredibly solid platforming while moving the genre forward. It was just plain fun to play.
121: Diablo 2 (PC) – For the longest time I regarded the original Diablo to be the better game, mainly because it annoyed me that the sequel had you playing in the desert and in the jungle. Those were very un-Diablo-like areas. Still, the game was a lot of fun to play with other people. I didn't, however, get completely stuck in grinding that some of my friends thought was so much fun. I just thought it was a fun hack and slash. And no, it is no RPG. I hate it when people label it as that.
120: StarCraft (PC) – More Blizzard. I think this was the last RTS I really played extensively. The reason why is because one of my friends got insanely hooked on it and beat the rest of us with no problem. That made me go "huh… so I suck at this… fuck it" and I spent most of my time playing action games from then on. The music still gives me chills and I'm actually curious about the sequel. First time in over a decade that I'm curious about an RTS.
119: Day of Defeat (PC) – Woohoo, even more WW2 shooting. However, this time it's not some bland single player campaign, so that doesn't matter. Day of Defeat was the WW2 response to Counter-Strike and it was a lot of fun to play.
118: Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360) – This was a tricky one to rank. On one hand there were many gameplay improvements over the first R6 Vegas, but on the other the story and environments were quite uninspiring. I had a lot of fun with it, especially in co-op, both in story and terrorist hunt, but in the end the game was too bland to get a higher ranking.
117: Batman (NES) – Badass. That's what this game is. I haven't sunk my teeth into Batman: Arkham Asylum yet, but I hear it's the best Batman game ever. Well, before that, this game held that honor. It has it all. Great action, tight controls, awesome music and more atmosphere than 50 other NES games put together.
116: Blood (PC) – One gadget I used to dominate the multiplayer games between me and my friends was the crystal ball. With it I could camp at a spot while I saw the perspective of another player. Then when he was in a good, vulnerable spot, I'd pounce on him and take him out. Worked all the time. The voodoo doll weapon was fun too and Caleb is one of the more memorable one-liner-spewing main characters in any game. Everything brought to us by the good old Build engine.
115: Super Monkey Ball (GameCube) – Monkey Target. That's all I should have to say here. The minigame that stole the thunder from the regular gameplay. My friends and I spent a lot of time on that, gliding towards the different target zones. We also spent a lot of time playing Monkey Fight, which was very brutal in a cute and fun way. But seriously, this game should be played for Monkey Target alone.
114: Civilization 2 (PC) – Oldie but goldie and a lot of fun in multiplayer, provided you have a lot of time on your hands. I haven't really sat down with any of the sequels, but I've wanted to. If only I had more time… but Civ is always Civ and this classic series was a mammoth early on. I remember one of my friends having the huuuuge manual that came with the original game. You could kill people with that brick.
113: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Xbox 360) – I know this was originally released on the PlayStation, but I never had one of those and played this the first time on Xbox Live Arcade. I really like it, but some of the sequels on the GBA and the DS have been improved on greatly. Some of the funniest moments in gaming are the voiceovers the few times there is dialogue happening.
112: Fahrenheit (PC) – Any game that contains necrophilia has to be good, right? No, it's not THAT sick. It's actually fairly romantic necrophilia. Okay, seriously, this game is fantastic for the first three quarters and then it just tanks in a mess of mysticism and weirdness. Before that it is a great detective game with great narrative. The European version wasn't censored, so we got the love scenes and some other weirdness. It was called Indigo Prophecy in North America.
111: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project (NES) – I remember getting this on one of those Japanese import cartridges and what I loved the most about it was that the turtles actually had individual special moves. I liked Michaelangelo's the most, the way he'd catapult himself up in the air, taking any foot soldiers along with him.
110: Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360) – Multiplayer music! This is just plain fun, although I can't play the drums worth a damn. But I can still sing and play guitar 🙂 It's a bitch to do both at the same time if you don't know the lyrics and melody by heart.
109: MDK (PC) – Murder Death Kill is what I heard this stands for when it came out. It's one of the more unique games I've played, an interesting mix of shooting, platforming, style and humor. One of those that I wish could get a fresh coat of paint for the current generation of consoles.
108: MechCommander (PC) – Ah, yes, BattleTech. This is an awesome strategy game, especially when you get down to the nitty-gritty of how to build mechs and stuff like that. It doesn't have the prettiest graphics, but I still think it's a solid game to pull out from time to time. It's a real thrill to take down a MadCat with a few lighter mechs.
107: Odium (PC) – This was also released as Gorky 17 and I think the developers are Polish. It's a semi-weird game that gave me a lot of Fallout vibes because of the grid- and turnbased combat while telling a scary story about covert mutations by the Russian army or something like that.
106: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time (SNES) – This is one of the funniest multiplayer games I know. It's a pretty fast run to go through the whole game along with someone else and the action is as good as it gets on consoles for a turtle lover.
105: Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast (PC) – The best Star Wars game I've had the priviledge to play. Going through the game, plowing through hordes of stormtroopers with ease was fun, yes, but not exactly earthshattering. Then, when you started facing off against other opponents with lightsabers and force powers, guys that were not bosses, the game took a turn and got very tense, because you could stumble upon one of these guys at any turn. Taking on three or four at once was so damn fun.
104: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (PC) – Another game that just oozes atmosphere. It's a bit slow in the beginning when you don't have any equipment at all, but then it really gets going, especially when you start moving past the halfway point. I had a lot of fun with this and it was both good action as well as scary during some parts of it. Too bad it was quite buggy.
103: Stunts (PC) – I don't know how many tracks I made for this game. The thing is, I didn't really make them so they could be standard racing tracks. No, I wanted to break the game and find loopholes. Take a long straight road heading right towards a hill and then at the top of the hill, put a big ramp, then see what happens. I was able to make the game get my car driving upside down and mirrored, so if I pressed the left arrow key, it turned right. A lot of fun.
102: Metroid Zero Mission (Gameboy Advance) – I never got myself to play through the entire game of Metroid and I had to hunt for this game for a long time before I could find it at an affordable price, but boy was it worth it. Adding the last part of the game was a genius move and made you appreciate the suit even more.
101: Bionic Commando (Xbox 360) – At first, when I started playing this, I really didn't think that much of it. The controls felt clunky and you couldn't really do much. However, at some point during the game, I got the hang of the controls and some of the added abilities really made the game fun. Even though the story is as cheesy as they come (most ridiculous plot twist ever), the action is just so damn solid. It's incredibly entertaining to swing around like some weird monkey while really kicking a lot of ass. This game was a pleasant surprise.
Alright, all done with the first 200 games of this list. From now on I will post ten games per post. What do you think so far?
Dakkster's Top 300 Games, 150-126
It's been a few days since I posted, so it's time to get on with it again. I've been with my family at Sweden's biggest amusement park and spent time with Assassin's Creed 2 as well as doing some barbequing with a bunch of friends. Long weekend, a lot of nice experiences. Time to get back to the list. As usual, check out this tag to check out the rest of the posts, going all the way back to my initial thoughts and reasoning behind the list.
150: MechCommander 2 (PC) – I am a huge fan of the BattleTech universe and MechCommander 2 is, sadly, a game that I wish I could've spent more time with, but things just didn't pan out back when it was released. Still, I played it enough to have fun with it, but I didn't like the narrative as much as in the first one. The first one was about kicking Clan ass and the second one was about the Inner Sphere squabbles that happened after that. That's probably gobbledegook to most people, but the first one was simply better. I will say, though, that the ability to play for three different factions was quite interesting.
149: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Xbox 360) – Wonderful co-op game. The LEGO games are all working with the same concept. Take a movie/toy/comic/book brand and make a game out of it where you run around as different characters with a few standard abilities, collecting tons of different things and building stuff while everything is in LEGO. I've only spent considerable time with LEGO Star Wars, going through the story along with my best friend. It's a fun ride and most of the story bits are told with a lot of humor, even the serious stuff. The controls, however, can be very frustrating, especially the camera and how well you can see depth of field. This means that a lot of the time, you jump to a platform only to discover that you were way off because of the crappy camera perspective.
148: Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers (NES) – This is a Disney classic on the NES and not surprisingly, it was made by Capcom. Great game that's a lot of fun just because it keeps things simple. The design is spot on because you're tiny and the world is big, so it's fun jumping around on huge plants and whatever else there is. You can play co-operatively and the fun thing when doing that is that you're able to pick each other up and throw. This usually leads to conflict in one way or another, in a very fun way.
147: Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES) – One of the best Mario games, as far as I'm concerned. It was extremely unique to play it back when it was released, because no one understood how Nintendo had the balls to make you play as the Yoshi family instead of actually playing as Mario. I just love the art style of this game, but I always felt that there was something missing. Maybe it was Baby Mario's damn whining that was the problem?
146: Street Rod (Amiga 500) – One of the most monumentally epic fails in my gaming "career" was when I had gone through this game, winning street race after street race, tweaking cars left and right, repainting them to look nice, etc. It was one of the last races before I'd won all the cars, or something, and I was getting ready to start the race. The countdown starts and I promptly shit the bed and wreck the transmission. Woohoo, all that "work" down the drain and back to the drawing board. Awesome game.
145: Call of Duty 2 (PC) – Well, we've been here before. Yet another WW2 game, so I don't really know what to say. The screenshot I chose for this game is one of the most tense sequences I've ever played in a game, where you have to lay down fire on a big town square while hordes of enemies come at you. Just about everything from the first game was improved on in this one, really solid action.
144: Mega Man 5 (NES) – And here is where Mega Man enters my list. The Blue Bomber's adventures have a few things that make you go "that's Mega Man" if you come across them. First of all, the music. As far as 8 bit music goes, Mega Man has no peer. His games are simply the best 8 bit music you can find. Then the tight controls. They are just perfect and make the third point possible. The action. It's just goddamn perfect platform shooting action. In MM5 the concept was getting a bit tiresome, so this was when I stopped playing the 8 bit games. It was still an awesome game though.
143: Doom 3 (PC) – This is a case where iD Software went from an old game and tried to up the ante to what was current. They couldn't make another mindless shooter with solid level design and no narrative. They also couldn't make Carmack's engine work its magic to have many enemies on screen at the same time. So they went for nice narrative and really creepy atmosphere with more shock horror than the looming fear of walking into a room filled with a hundred enemies. I played this with the flashlight mod, because I couldn't stand not being able to light my way everywhere I went. That was a stupid design decision if there ever was one.
142: MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (PC) – More BattleTech. This was the first Mech game I ever played, before I started reading all the books, so I didn't get fully into all the technical bits of it, all the details. I also had no clue what the game was about, but it was cool to control a walking tank and lay waste to a bunch of stuff. I say walking tank, because I go nuts every time I see a Mech referred to as a robot. Mechs need pilots and can't think for themselves.
141: Snake Rattle 'n' Roll (NES) – This was a really fun game. Fun for real. I don't just mean the gameplay and whatnot. I'm saying that the snakes looked like they were having so much fun and the music had so much swing to it that you couldn't play this game without enjoying yourself.
140: G-Police (PC) – If only this game would've taken off and become insanely popular. Sadly, it didn't. I just love the whole dark futuristic city that you work in as a part of the police air force or whatever it is. Fantastic action game and a prime reason to own a joystick back in the day. In fact, I'm wondering why they don't do something similar today. Think Descent in a futuristic urban environment.
139: Rise of the Triad (PC) – This was one of the most fun multiplayer deathmatch games that we used to play on LANs. I can't actually remember if I played the story part of it and frankly, it doesn't matter, because we had so much fun with the multiplayer.
138: The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Gameboy Advance) – This Zelda game helped me pass the time when I moved to another city in 2004 and hadn't gotten my place set up properly. It follows the, by now, classic Zelda formula and it has a lot of fun elements to it. One of them is the match-the-pieces thing that you do to unlock a bunch of stuff. That really got me going in a really OCD way, because I wanted to find all of them. The talking hat was entertaining too and they did a lot with the regular/mini size changes.
137: Heavy Gear 2 (PC) – More Mech action, or rather Gear action. The publisher behind MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries lost the rights to the MechWarrior brand, so they got the Heavy Gear brand instead. This was the sequel that I spent loads of time trying to get to work on my computer, mainly because it wasn't released for European keyboards. Trying to re-map the controls by fiddling with config-files was a bitch, but it was worth it. Heavy Gear 2 was amazing.
136: Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) – This game had so much promise that went down the toilet because of repetition. You had nine big assassinations to do and for every one of them, you went through the exact same things to prepare for the hit. That kind of repetition got insanely tiresome and effectively killed the game for most people, myself included. The second one is another story, but I'm not done with that yet. Still, for all the faults of the first one, it is a very inspired game with great parkour action.
135: Diablo (PC) – "Stay a while and listen." How many times have you heard that line? I love the simplicity of this game and in a lot of ways I like it more than the sequel, mainly in terms of level design. All the "levels" you went through to get down to Diablo felt no-brainer and they nailed a lot of the bosses, especially The Butcher.
134: Aliens vs Predator (PC) – The first AvP game for the PC introduced the horde mode that's become very popular today. That's not, however, what made this game fantastic. No, this game lives and dies on atmosphere. It has it in spades and I can count on one hand (okay, maybe two) the games that have had me more scared. The aliens were unpredictable because they weren't always in the same places. When you played as a marine, you faced the aliens for so long that when you finally ran into a predator, you shit your pants. You felt mighty as the predator and fast and sneaky as the alien, just right. It was also really cool to go back to the levels as the other species.
133: NHL 2001 (PC) – This represents all the PC NHL games that I played. If we go by time spent, I should probably have this a lot higher up on the list, but a lot of the time, it was just a war of attrition against the AI. With pretty much every game, I played at least a season with the Detroit Red Wings.
132: Killer Instinct (SNES) – I will go into why I liked this over Street Fighter 2 in another post, but what matters here is that I did. I thought the graphics were awesome and I loved the different fighters. My favorite to play as was Fulgore, but the others were fun too, especially when I learned combo breakers.
131: Probotector (NES) – Contra for the US audience and the soldiers were transformed into robots, but what the hell, it's the same game. The spread gun has never been as big of a life-saver as in this game and the only thing that keeps this game from being higher on the list is the maddening difficulty. Talk about unforgiving.
130: Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Gameboy Advance) – The first portable Metroidvania game that had a lot of stuff that I wouldn't have a clue about if it weren't for GameFAQs. The different cards you could collect, the combos you could do, etc. Great game even without that knowledge, though, and it's one of the best Metroidvanias out there.
129: Wolfenstein 3D (PC) – Another game I played in black and white on my dad's computer with PC audio. When I played this in color and with a proper soundcard for the first time, I was floored. It was such a badass game to play and I was playing this game for a long time. Moving along a wall, pushing the use button to try and find secret doors took up a lot of my time in my early teens. So worth it.
128: Need for Speed 2 (PC) – This is kind of a collection post for NFS2, NFS3, High Stakes and Porsche Challenge, but mostly for NFS2. These were all fun racing games in singleplayer, with High Stakes probably being the most fun of the bunch, but when it came to multiplayer NFS2 had them all beat. My friends and I used to play all of the stages, but one in particular got a whole bunch of playing time with us, although I can't remember its name now. I used to spend the first lap driving the wrong way and then turn around when I met (read: crashed into head first) the other guys who were going the right way. Then I would spend the remaining seven or eight laps in catchup mode, going faster than what would normally be possible. It was so much fun.
127: Bionic Commando (NES) – Another unforgiving NES game, but it was so cool back in the day. Not a lot to say here, really. More platform action genius by Capcom.
126: Castle Crashers (Xbox 360) – This far into the list, it should be obvious that I like co-op play. Castle Crashers is pure co-op awesome in a little jar. One of the best games available on XBLA, with its unique art style and hilarious game design. We basically went through this game, four of us, in one sitting and the time just disappeared. When we were done, we thought the time was about midnight. It was 3 AM. Go figure.
I have a bunch of work stuff to take care of this week, so I don't know how much writing I'll be able to get done. I'll get 125-101 up before Friday.


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We are delighted to give a warm welcome from the Management Team and Retailers here at High Street Mall. We hope you enjoy your visit to this website, and we make every effort to provide high standards of customer care and service. We are confident you will not be disappointed should you wish to visit us.
Click here or on the image above to download a full size map.
If you require any assistance whilst visiting the centre please visit our Customer Services desk located in centre court where our staff will only to pleased to help. Services available are: Kiddie Cart Hire, Lost Property, Photo Copying, Gift Vouchers etc.
The centre provides 6 free chairs for the use of customers with mobility issues. These can be reserved by contacting the centre office on 028 3836 2251.
All staff at the centre are trained to the highest customer care standard of Welcome Host and Welcome Host Plus for all senior staff. Also each member has received their Welcome All certificate for disability training.
All staff at the centre are first aid trained for your health & safety.
For your safety we have 24 hour security and a high tech digital system covering the entire centre.
High Street Mall tenants and security are part of the Portadown Retailers Against Crime Net, linking the town centre for your added safety.
All stores are registered and trained in the safe child scheme to assist with lost children quickly and effectively.
3 carts are available for hire at £1 per hour. £2 Deposit required for hire. Each cart has a kddie car in front and trolley behind to keep the kids entertained whilst you shop.
The centre provides over half of its 404 parking spaces undercover for all our wet and busy days.
Free parking from 5pm every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and all day Sunday.
2 baby stations are provided within the main toilet area, with additional feeding area.
We have Free Wifi available throughout High Street Mall

subset: commoncrawl


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Most of us have heard by now that Marilyn Manson has contracted the swine flu. What we didn't know was that so has the guy who plays Ron in the Harry Potter movies, and one of the guys from the Streets. Evidently, they're all going to be fine, but it made us wonder: what diseases - or disorders, we're not picky - would we like to see inflict themselves upon certain famous performers? Stock up on Vitamin C and keep reading... Performer: Eminem Disease: Elephantiasis As anyone who has heard Eminem's newer albums can attest, the influential rapper seems scarcely a shadow of his former self. His confidence seems like it's dissipated, and the poor man is directionless. What better way for him to put the cojones back in his music than for his actual testicles to grow to gigantic proportions? We feel that once Slim Shady must use a wheelbarrow to tote around his enormous man-purse to keep from jettisoning spinal discs like old hubcaps, the fire and passion will slip back into his music.
Performer: Morrissey
Disease: Congenital insensitivity to pain and Antisocial Personality Disorder
If his lyrics are to be believed, life has been very, very difficult for Morrissey. Absolutely everything seems to hurt the poor guy. Well, if we had our way, Morrissey would never have to feel pain again, mentally or physically. Imagine the notoriously sentimental moper writing songs about what it's like to suddenly be completely unaffected by absolutely everything, just waking up one morning and not giving even a fraction of a shit. We bet he'd still find a way to be depressed about it.
Performer: Neko Case
Disease: Pica
Seriously, sweetie, just eat something. Anything.
Performer: Kanye West
Disease: Tetanus
A disease of the skeletal fiber which causes muscle spasms and paralysis, tetanus is also called "lockjaw." We think you can see where we're going with this. If anyone could use some time to just shut the fuck up for a while and reflect, it's Kanye. But the real question isn't "Does Kanye really deserve lockjaw?", it's "Would it even stop him?" We just remembered this is the guy who recorded his hit debut single with his freaking jaw wired shut. Jesus, Kanye.
Performer: Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke
Disease: Capgras syndrome
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Those who suffer from Capgras syndrome believe a friend, family member or loved one has been replaced by an identical impostor. Considering he once moved to Iceland to avoid the end of the world and believes H.P. Lovecraft's writings are non-fiction, we don't think it's inappropriate to suggest that Jaz may be on the paranoid side. To then compound the existing paranoia with this disorder... we're sorry, we just think it would be hilarious.
Performer: Troy Sanders of Mastodon
Disease: Pavor Nocturnus (Night Terrors)
Because he'd like it, and we like him.


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It sounds like a laudable, and very necessary, initiative; one aimed at empowering CIOs in large organisations to better embrace ambitious digital transformation agendas, and it comes from UK based global telco, BT, the former British Telecom. BT calls the initiative 'Digital Possible' and says it will build on insights from its most recent research, The BT CIO report 2016 – the digital CIO.
So what exactly is this report and what does it have to say about the digital CIO? First up, it's a survey of 1030 senior IT decision makers in 11 countries -- Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, the UK, Ireland and the USA.
Some of the findings are hardly surprising:
- The impact of digital is such that the importance of the CIO at boardroom level continues to rise;
- CIOs find themselves increasingly challenged to find the time to develop creative solutions for the business;
- CIOs are clear on the most disruptive technology trends – cloud, mobility, collaboration and data;
- 76 percent of large organisations across the world have, or plan to adopt, a 'multi-speed' approach to technology-led initiatives. (We talked about this only last week in this column);
- Multiple teams are sourcing and commissioning core IT products and services without the involvement of the IT function.
The first of BT's new services to hep CIOs meet the challenges of digital disruption is its Cloud Services Integrator that brings together BT's and other cloud services.
BT seems to be suggesting that technology can enable CIOs to meet the challenges of digital disruption and transformation but in reality, many of those challenges are less to do with technology than with leadership, creativity, organisational inertia, organisational siloes and fiefdom protection.
As BT's report says, "Senior IT decision makers said the pressures of digital transformation are creating new challenges for the CIO such as developing new business models to cope with increased connectivity and engagement (43 percent), implementing digital strategy organisation-wide (39 percent), and recruiting talent with appropriate digital skills (32 percent).
In the list of the biggest CIO challenges reported by survey respondents, only one was technology related, and it came last in importance.
Here's the results.
- More time spent dealing with corporate issues (43 percent);
- Greater difficulty at getting multiple parties to buy into the adoption of new technologies (36 percent);
- Less time for developing creative/innovative solutions for the business (36 percent);
- Staff training pressures (34 percent);
- Too many responsibilities 29 percent
- Lack of knowledge around new technologies (21 percent);
However, in terms of what the market is looking for BT is certainly on the money with cloud. A perhaps surprising result of the survey was just how many CIOs reported their organisations as being "completely cloud-centric" (19 percent). A further 46 percent were predominately cloud-centric, with more than half of their applications and infrastructure in the cloud.Just four percent were still fully on-premise.
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Our team are highly experienced in helping businesses get the most out of technology. Consulting, cloud infrastructure and outsourced IT services.
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Topics Map > IT Services > Training
Topics Map > IT Services > Software Support
Adobe InDesign - Rulers and Measurements
This document will show you to use and understand rulers and measurements in Adobe InDesig
To Show or Hide Rulers
- In Normal View Mode (View > Screen Mode > Normal), choose View > Show Rulers or Hide Rulers.
To Change Measurement Units and Rulers
- Right click on the vertical or horizontal rulers at the top or left of the document
- Choose the preferred measurement from the drop down menu.
For more control:
- Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Units & Increments (Mac OS).
- Change the measurements using the drop down menus
- To change the value you want used for text size, choose Points or Pixels from the Text Size menu. This option is especially useful when if designing a document for the web.
- Customize all measurement settings to your liking within this menu.
- Click OK.
Measure Objects
The Measure tool calculates the distance between any two points in the document window.
To Measure the distance between two points:
- Make sure the Info panel is visible (Window > Info).
- Select the Measure tool . (Click and hold the Eyedropper tool to display the Measure tool.)
- Click the first point and drag to the second point. Shift-drag to constrain the tool's motion to multiples of 45°.The width and height measurements appear in the Info panel.
If you need further assistance please contact the Information Technology Help Desk at 920-424-3020 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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Corporate, Events & Exhibition Marquees
From Hospitality to Practicality: Creating your own venue, where-ever, whenever, is the solution that can be provided by Marquee Leisure. Marquees can provide hospitality from simple coverage to keep clients dry during demonstrations, through to executive dinners and presentations. A marquee option allows a choice of size, from a presentation event for a small number of people, too conferences, too large plant demonstrations.
Soft furnishings to tiered seating, the level of hospitality is in your control. Creating your own venue allows you to brand your own venue – an option not available at a permanent building. A full choice of services are available to build your venue;
- Choice of size
- Choice of interiors
- Colour co-ordinating & Branding
- Choice of furnishings
- AV presentation equipment
- Toilets
- Power
- Catering
The Marquee can also have a practical use, whether it be temporary storage, a temporary kitchen, or additional workspace. The advantages being that this can be 'turned on' with just a simple phone call to Marquee Leisure.
Commercial Events
For Hotels, Restaurants, Pubs & Clubs, we offer discounted rates for multiple and long term hires. This service is supported by a maintenance programme where furniture and colour schemes can be changed in accordance to the individual events. On long term hires we offer to change the size of the marquee as events differ in size, numbers, and styles. As temporary measures interior lining dividers can be used to divide up the marquee. During the colder months when heaters are needed we install either large volume fuel tanks, or we service the heater fuel on an event by event basis.
Exhibition Events
The Showcase for your Company. Whether you're putting on an exhibition, or you need a trade stand at an exhibition, Marquee Leisure can provide a solution. From Large Event Marquees, to individual trade stands to provide hospitality for those potential clients that you need to impress.
The image that you create is the image that your client takes away with them, Marquee Leisure realises this importance, and offers a full range of services to complement your event:
- Branding
- Hospitality
- Catering services
- Power
- Toilets
- Staff
- AV & presentationThe exhibition marquee can range from small trade stands (3m x 3m) to large Exhibition halls 15m -20m wide and infinitely long giving 100's of square meters of exhibition space which can be fully serviced.
Not sure what size marquee you would need? View our options


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After my eighth grade graduation from Catholic School, I have maybe stepped into a Catholic church at the most, three times, most likely for either a wedding or a funeral.
My husband was raised Catholic as well. His father was married previously, and his wife left him. So, when he married Nick's mother, it wasn't recognized as a marriage in the Catholic church, therefore when Nick came along, they refused to baptize him. After Nick's grandmother made a nice donation to the church, they changed their mind.
Mr. Bruises is what I refer to as a Chreaster. It is someone who goes to church on Christmas and Easter. I, personally feel that if you are going to go on those two holy days, you should go regularly. I choose to not go at all.
I still believe in God. I still try to live my life in an honest and giving way. I still try to do the right thing and still try to find the best in people. I just never felt the need to go to church.
Recently, BFF Jill invited me to attend Pittsburgh East Community Church with her. It's in Plum, which is almost an hour drive. She lured me with driving past the Abby Lee Miller Dance Studio, from the show Dance Moms, which is just down the road from the church. I was IN!
The first thing I asked her is what should I wear. She said jeans and a nice top. Really? Jeans? That was frowned upon the last time I was in Catholic church, but hey the times have changed so maybe that's permitted there now too.
When we pulled in, I was astounded at the size of the parking lot. I felt like I was going to a concert. Little did I know, I pretty much was. The parking attendants were all very happy and cheerful. You could tell that everyone wanted to be there. Everyone walking in was in a good mood. The greeters at the door made me feel like I was an old friend. It was a VERY inviting atmosphere.
Next thing I noticed was people walking around with coffee, soda, danishes, muffins, you know FOOD! This would never be permitted in a Catholic church. Then everyone was talking. Some loudly. Again a Catholic no no. I was so out of my element, I didn't know what to do, so I just sat and observed.
They had a live band on stage that played current music and then some Christian songs that you would never guess were church songs. The lead singer was wearing Chuck Taylors, he had a faux hawk, an earring in his year and boy could he sing and capture your attention.
After about four or five songs, with encouragement and words on a big screen to sing along, we were asked to meet each other. Perfect strangers met me with a smile and a hand shake. The pastor and his wife came on stage for the sermon. This was the beginning of a six part series called True Love. It was all about making relationships work.
I sat and listened to them. They never professed to be perfect. They actually told us of their failures and how they worked to overcome them. After the sermon, we ended with another popular song and it was time to go. Time just flew!!
After that I got my reward and got to do a drive by of the dance studio. On the ride, Jill asked me what I thought. I was still a little out of my element and really couldn't answer since it was nothing like what I expected. It was nothing like I had experienced in the past. It was so different, but in a good way.
After about a week or so, I told her I wanted to go again. We went this morning. The same things were apparent. EVERYONE wanted to be there, even the kids. If you would see the area that they have for the kids, you would understand why. Everyone was so happy, welcoming and genuinely friendly. The sermon was another good one and I found myself applying the suggestions multiple times later today.
Here's another thing that I realized. This is a church that doesn't judge. They don't care how you dress, how you wear your hair, if you have piercings or gauges, if you are tattooed, if you are in a relationship with someone of another race or in one with the same sex as you are. You are welcome and loved no matter what.
I think this is the biggest difference. Whether the Catholic church wants to admit it or not, they judge. You never feel worthy to be a Catholic.
I will most definitely be going back. The energy in that church is just infectious. It's no wonder people are filling their parking lot. Church is FUN! It's entertaining! It's educational! Oh and I can sing my heart out, drinking a coffee, wearing jeans with my tattoo sticking out! I'll take it!!


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We constantly search the market for the best car leasing deals, providing our customers with all the information they'll ever need in one place. We're renowned for offering fantastic cheap car leasing offers all over the UK; Our wide range of market leading leasing deals have proven that BestCarFinder really are a cut above the rest.
You see, at BestCarFinder we use a very simple business model: good vehicles, sensible deposits, low admin fees for our business users and no hidden costs. The process of car leasing shouldn't be a headache, which is why we keep the process simple and the costs clear.
Great service from start to finish. Car exactly as expected, very happy.
Kevin Hilton
Leased my new company car through BCF and dealt with Alex Fry from day one, he found me a great deal on the car i was after and made the whole process extremely easy throughout, i got regular updates on the vehicle order right through to the delivery week. Highly recommend Alex and BCF, pleasure to deal with, thanks Alex and BCF.
Alistair Mills
I recommend bcf for a new lease car. I have the Jaguar XF Portfolio and the buying process has gone smoothly and I am in the first month of the lease. Exactly as I wanted, made to order.
Keith Graham
Gary and the team went beyond the call of duty when we changed over our fleet , the service received was 100% ,Gary even advised on different types of vehicles to suit our fleet requirements.
The price for our new transit minibus was 12% cheaper than any other supplier, the bus is amazing and stop spec , roll on march for the new model to be released.
Peter Horner
Good prices and excellent customer care from Gary at BCF. Excellent customer service and care from Gary Hodder. Been buying company vehicles from him some a number of years now.
Aughton Automation Ltd
Fast, efficient and professional. Received exactly what I ordered.
Craig Birchenough
Excellent Customer Service, Car Delivered 4 weeks early and best of all beat any quote from all other suppliers. Would and have recommended BCF to friends and family.
Iain Williamson
The service was first class from the start to the car bring delivered. I was kept up to date throughout the process with very friendly and helpful staff. I've procured cars through this method for several years and to be honest this was my best experience in all that time. A great quality car that drives really well.
David Birch
Our 2nd vehicle now from BCF ; excellent support and communication from Kurt from start to finish.
Premier Travel (N.I.) Ltd
Leased my Range Rover Evoque through BCF dealing with Mo. Excellent customer service from start to finish . Weekly updates on delivery. Car delivered 4 weeks ahead of schedule. Highly recommended
Rosanna Francis
* If the vehicle exceeds the contract mileage an excess mileage charge will apply. These will be specified on your quotation. You should try and estimate the distance you will travel as accurately as possible to try and avoid excess mileage charges at the end of your contract.
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The book starts as a romance novel and by the time you think the story is about to end you are only halfway and the now happily married couple now plunges in a historical adventure novel with evil rulers, treason, prisonbreaks and a happy marriage.
It is the 14th century in England and the assumed gay king is a weak person letting his favourite man rule the country. Law and order are a distant memory. Kit is the illegitimate daughter of a lower nobleman who is forced to marry a lowly knight because her half-sister, who was the intended bride, did a runner. The half-sister slept with the overlord of the knight and the idea was to compensate her like this. Kit does not want to pretend she is Katherine but is left no choice. That is the plot of the romance part of the book.
Regarding to the adventure story that follows this: Sir Adam is bound to his liege lord Lord Roger Mortimer an important lord of the realm. Nowadays we picture a lord of the manor as a wealthy family living in a big mansion in the middle of a village but in 14th century England that manor was just a big farm. The knights are like army officers and their farmhands the soldiers the overlord can call upon. It does not matter if the knight agrees with his overlord he is honour bound. In Adam's case that is even more so because Lord Mortimer saved him as a child. This pledge of loyalty however is also a way to protect the less powerful of society. When Adam becomes young Edward's man he cannot be openly opposed by Despenser anymore.
I liked the historic setting. I would loved to have seen that proceed a bit faster (I know what will happen and wanted to have it over with - and see if the hot poker in the arse of someone would feature) but discovered the writer wants to write more about the family in other books to follow. However that made the story sometimes a bit slow.
The book features a lot of bedding but apart from mentioning hard objects trusted it is not pornographic. However combined with also some violent deaths I would recommend readers to be at least 16.
Reviewed for NetGalley. Very friendly priced Kindle. It is really worth the 99 cents.
Are you an avid reader? Enjoy my reviews. I read everything from romance, fantasy, adventure, detective novels to scientific study books. When I find a promising new #free book I will tell that as well
Thursday, 22 February 2018
This story gives you two books for the price of one: a romance sugarstory followed by an historical adventure tale of war and rebellion
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New developments in L-band Matrix / routers, RF over Fibre and LNB Power Supplies to be showcased
ETL Systems, a global designer and manufacturer of RF distribution equipment for satellite communications, will showcase new and improved RF technologies at this year's IBC in Amsterdam, September 10-15.
Amongst these technologies will be ETL Systems' new 64×64 Hurricane L-band Matrix, Stingray RF over Fibre, Piranha LNB Power Supply units, and the LS Series Monitoring Switch upgrade.
Customised matrix to meet exact RX chain requirements
The unique design of the 64×64 L-band Hurricane matrix allows the customer to select input modules that exactly match what the teleport or broadcaster needs. Each input port can be tailored with its own modules including Fibre L-band input, LNB powering, variable gain / slope compensation and RF level detection. This flexibility also allows the matrix performance to be optimised. The user does not need to compromise the performance of the whole system by, for example, having unused gain available which inhibits performance.
Power consumption reductions and cost and space savings
ETL's proprietary technology minimises the power consumption of the matrix, reducing it by 25% compared to traditional matrices.
The Hurricane's compact design eliminates the need for additional chassis for fibre receiver modules and/or LNB powering as it can all be integrated within the matrix.
Rack space saving
Customers can upgrade their 32×32 Enigma matrix to a 64×64 Hurricane matrix and still have valuable spare rack space. It offers a compact modular design with 4U form factor even when powering 64 LNB's.
The Hurricane is designed to meet Ka-band and HTS applications with 850-2450MHz operating frequency range.
Visitors to the stand will also be able to see ETL's StingRay RF over fibre technology, as well as the new Piranha power supply units.
Performance & resilience
StingRay's high performance design offers excellent module to module isolation, making it ideal for high isolation applications. Downtime is minimised by dual redundant, hot-swap power supplies and hot-swap power supplies. The range now includes 1+1 and 4+1 redundancy configuration options, providing additional resilience for uplink and downlink transmissions. For longer distance transmissions over fibre, ETL have introduced CWDM modules which can transmit RF signals up to 30km distances with low loss.
As well as offering LNB powering through a matrix, ETL have also developed a new range of standalone units to power LNB's. The Piranha Power Supply Units provide DC powering options in a compact 1U high, 19" chassis for a range of components and devices in satellite ground station RF and power distribution chains. The units are compact, expandable and customisable.
Piranha's modular approach means that the customer can buy the size that they want and then expand later as their LNB power requirements increase. Energy consumption can be tailored to specific applications with power supply module options.
ETL's new technologies also include improved performance for carrier monitoring with even faster switching time, improved return loss and isolation on its upgraded LS series monitoring switches.
Also on show at IBC will be ETL's Alto line amplifiers, Dextra L-band Splitters and Combiners, and L-band matrix router family, including the compact 128×128 Vulcan Matrix, , the 32 x 32 Enigma Matrix, the 16 x 32 Valiant Matrix and the 16×16 Victor Matrix.
Ian Hilditch, CEO and Andrew Bond, Sales Director, will be among ETL representatives at the event to demonstrate the range of new products and highlight ETL's quarter of a century of in-house experience in designing award-winning RF equipment. The company is also recognised internationally for its innovation and professional service, with 67% of ETL's customers in 2015 being repeat customers and accounting for 93% of orders.
To arrange a demo or an interview with an ETL representative at IBC 2015 or to find out more about ETL's new projects, please contact Louis Peake at [email protected].
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Notiz: Dieser Teil wird nur auf English präsentiert.
Applications for investments in the DLBC Costeiro Barlavento of the Algarve area are open.
The applications, open until December 22, are directed at projects with the following objectives:
- Innovation in maritime space
- Educational and professional qualifications related to the aquatic environment
- Promotion of sea plans
- Preservation, conservation and enhancement of heritage and natural and landscape resources
- Reinforcing the competitiveness of tourism
- Reinforcing the competitiveness of fisheries
- Promotion of quality local products
- Improvement of the food and local market channels, related to the sea
The reimbursement will be 50%, in cash, up to a maximum of 200 thousand euros of incentive. Micro and small enterprises whose projects are aimed at promoting local products, developing new activities and services linked to the sea, such as tourism, and supporting the valuation of the maritime heritage can apply.
To find out if your investment plan can apply for this incentive system, just schedule a meeting with our team. Contacts: firstname.lastname@example.com or 289 098 720.


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How to Win in A Step Challenge
Step challenges are a great way to encourage more activity in your daily routine. Nothing like a good healthy competition to get you motivated, right? With that spirit in mind, the Fitneff/WalkTop team has been competing in a company step challenge for the full month of July, and let me tell you, the WalkTop has been a huge advantage in getting in our daily steps!
The Challenge:
For the full month of July, the team here at WalkTop is battling it out with an intense step challenge. Each week, we compare our progress to see who's pulling ahead in the running tally of steps and who needs to pick up the slack! At the end of the month, the person with the highest running total over the 31 days will be crowned the ultimate winner.
In order to accurately track our steps, we'll be using Garmin Activity Trackers. Rachel, Kate and Angelique chose the Garmin Vivofit 4 activity tracker, while Ron chose the Garmin Vivoki activity tracker.
Why the WalkTop is Perfect for a Step Challenge:
So, if you find yourself in a step challenge this summer too, we've got the perfect way to win: the WalkTop of course! Our office WalkTop has made all the difference in achieving our daily step goals. Here's why we love the WalkTop for a step challenge:
- You Can Work at the Same Time: If you're stuck in an office for the majority of your day, it can be tough to get those 10,000 steps in the few hours you have left after work. That's why the WalkTop is so handy: you can walk and work at the same time. With its versatile design, this treadmill desk allows you to type, read, complete phone calls or write all while walking, meaning you don't have to sacrifice your productivity just to avoid coming dead last in your challenge.
- It's Low Intensity: When using the WalkTop, you walk at a very low speed, which means the movement is low intensity for your body. If you're feeling tired or sore from all of your more intense activities outside of work that increase your step count, the WalkTop is the perfect break that will still get you lots of steps.
- It Replaces Prolonged Sitting: While others in your step challenge are sitting down at their desk, you can seamlessly replace your sitting time with walking time. This means that using the WalkTop during your step challenge will put you one step ahead of your opponents (or several thousand steps ahead, if you catch my drift).
All in all, if you want to win your step challenge, there's only one thing you have to do: get your WalkTop and start walking! If you want to follow along with our company step challenge, be sure to check out Fitneff's Instagram account for weekly updates on progress.


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May is already halfway over and even in the colder parts of the country folks are finally seeing long-awaited signs of spring. Just because spring weather was delayed in many parts of the US doesn't give you an excuse to delay spring maintenance for your hydraulic system! If you haven't done so already, you need to take action now to attend to the following quarterly and annual maintenance tasks.
Sampling your hydraulic fluid and checking its cleanliness and integrity via oil analysis should actually not be reserved for spring maintenance, but should be done quarterly. That being said, make sure you remember your spring analysis! Bernell Hydraulics offers expert oil analysis services along with fluid flushes and top offs as needed. You can count on us to make sure the fluid sample gets taken from an active line and no contaminants are introduced to the sample or your system in the process.
Some hydraulic systems are equipped with indicators that notify you when a filter is approaching the end of its life. If you have such indicators, be sure to check them often and especially at quarterly maintenance appointments. If you don't have indicators, you will need to proactively replace filters every so often. Bernell Hydraulics can help you choose the right filters for your system that will deliver the best possible protection and longevity.
At least once per year, you should check your parts inventory to make sure you have the components you need to make routine hydraulic repairs on hand. Spring maintenance is as good time as any to schedule this task. Bernell Hydraulics can help you keep your inventory stocked with quality products from top hydraulics parts manufacturers, as well as respond to emergency needs with fast parts ordering and delivery.
Keeping an accurate, up to date schematic of your equipment along with a log of recent maintenance and repair jobs will help make future troubleshooting and repairs easier. Again, spring is a good time for this annual task.
Now, finally, we have the actual spring cleaning part of your spring maintenance activities. By keeping the outside of the hydraulic equipment free of dust, dirt, and grime, you can reduce the chances of accidentally introducing contamination into the system during routine maintenance tasks like hose replacement, filter replacement, or fluid top offs.


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Rambo / First Blood; action / drama, USA, 1982; D: Ted Kotcheff, S: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Dennehy, Richard Crenna, Bill McKinney, Jack Starrett, Michael Talbott, David Caruso
John Rambo, a retired Vietnam war veteran, arrives at a hut to visit his old war colleague, but finds out he died from cancer. Wandering aimlessly, Rambo arrives at a small city, but the local Sheriff, Will, escorts him out before he can even step foot in the place. When Rambo heads back to the city, Will arrests him. The police officers are brutal, and they bully Rambo until he snaps, beats them up and escapes to the mountain. Will assembles a team to kill him, but Rambo ambushes many of his officers in the forest, instead. Escalating more and more, the situation reaches a critical point when Rambo steals a military truck, gets a weapon and starts shooting across the town, killing Will. However, Rambo's former commander, Colonel Trautman, persuades him to give himself up to the police.
Even though Sylvester Stallone made over 80 films, he will arguably be remembered for playing only two characters: Rocky and Rambo. Even though it suffers from various problems, inconsistencies and an elision of common sense — the cause for the conflict between Sheriff Will and Rambo is as convincing as the one in "Batman vs. Superman", since in both their trivial misunderstandings could have easily been solved by simply talking to each other as grown ups — "Rambo" still tries to deliver a commentary on the post-war mentality of war veterans, giving a sly message: war veterans only know how to fight, but while that is required from them during war, once peace returns and they are back in their society, they (and their urge to fight) seem misplaced and inappropriate. This is evident near the finale, when Colonel Trautman talks to Rambo and tries to persuade him to finally stop fighting, but he just replies with: "Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!" This speaks volumes about people who are stuck in one state and are unable to move on. "Rambo" also seems to be a critique of "Dirty Harry" and the "shoot first, ask later" mentality: it shows such tendency in the authoritarian Sheriff Will and his officers, who communicate only through violence and bullying, arguing that this extreme right-wing behavior leads in a dead end, in a state of endless escalation from people who fight back. Despite its somewhat rudimentary approach, "Rambo" advanced into a cult film and became the voice of the 80s, capturing its flair and mood, featuring an exciting score by Jerry Goldsmith, spanning a whole mythology of American "one-man-army" heroes during Reagan's era. Despite its more dramatic (and tragic) look at violence and action (throughout the entire film, Rambo kills only two people, and mostly avoids his defences being fatal), the film was followed by three sequels which abandoned the original vision and embraced violence and action as pure, carefree fun, even though critics didn't approve.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
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You can reach Rijksmuseum Twenthe both by car and public transport. There is ample free parking available behind the museum and you can walk from the central train station to the museum in about ten minutes.
Rijksmuseum Twenthe
Lasondersingel 129-131
7514 BP Enschede
053 4358675
Getting here by car
Follow the A35 and take the exit Enschede West. Follow the signs 'Enschede West', 'Centrum' and 'Rijksmuseum'.
Free parking available behind the museum. There is metered parking in front of the museum, on the opposite site of the street.
The Rijksmuseum Twenthe has full disability access and facilities.
Baby Changing
There is a baby changing room located at the front entrance of the museum.


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Not wanting anyone to get the idea that Jason is not involved in the lives of his girls (especially since I have yet to include any pictures of him), I decided to do a post dedicated to Daddy...
Most importantly, our girls LOVE their daddy. Our "swirlies" (Jason's nickname for them- I think it's a combination of "sweet girlies" but it's their own special code so I don't interfere with that!)- anyway, our swirlies love their daddy. I have so much fun watching them interact.
Poor Jason, he is definitely WAY outnumbered in our brood of women (now including "Mia puppy") and it seems to be getting more and more comical to watch him dealing with the raging hormones that already seem to be attacking our house. For example, the other night while we were eating supper, Maddie caught Mia in the act of leaving a "present" in the hallway instead of in the appropriate place. As Mia headed toward the table, tail tucked beneath her legs, Jason reached down to grab her and correct her. Well, in a matter of about 2 seconds, Jason popped Mia (who of course yelped) and Maddie and Abbey both started bawling over Daddy's inhumane treatment of their puppy. He's looking at me looking for a little help, but all I could do was crack up as he attempted to assure the girls, that, "no, he was not abusing their dog, and probably didn't even hurt her" He was also trying to tell them that she was probably more frightened by their blubbering and tears! I can't really do this situation justice but it was really funny! Meanwhile Naomi (still in her highchair) is also yelling at the top of her lungs, "OHHH, poor Mia puppy" and then she is doing her best to pretend to cry. Naomi has already adopted the important philosophy that no one should have to cry alone- especially her big sisters. She always does her best to join in even if she has no idea what is going on.
And then, there's the bathroom. Unfortunately for Jason, we only have one full bath in our current apartment that we all share. Even more unfortunate is the fact that Abbey, Maddie and I all have ALOT of very dark hair. Despite my best efforts of keeping the bathroom hair free, there's only so much I can do, especially when Maddie's favorite pasttime is brushing her hair with whatever brush is most immediately available. Poor Jason can hardly ever find his brush, much less shave or sometimes even take a shower in peace... ( I don't know how many times I"ve heard, "NO, YOU CAN'T COME IN NOW!!!) There's also the issue of the bathroom drain that requires frequent cleaning. I'm no plumber, i just know that the pipes are VERY small and require frequent plunging and well, not to be gross, but digging out. Especially the one coming from the bathtub. Last week Jason pulled out a hair mass about the size of a pork tenderloin (I don't knwo why that's all I can think of to compare it to)- it really was a good foot long. I know, disgusting....
Of course there's game night. Anyone who knows Jason well, knows he's not a huge fan of playing games but he'll do anything for these girls. He's even taught them to play Risk and CHess which have become quick favorites.
Mia puppy has already learned who's boss in our house. She too loves Jason dearly, but the funny thing is, she pees all over herself whenever he shows her any attention! No i'm not joking or even exagerrating (really). He would probably say that she "leaks" and not pees but it's still funny.
The best is listening to the girls sing with Jason. I"ve always WANTED to have a pretty voice, the good news is that they all really do and they love to sing together- even Naomi.


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EDO NSW Under Threat
Today EDO NSW took the extraordinary step of contacting all our clients and supporters and asking them to speak up in support of EDO.
We don't take this step lightly but our future as it stands is incredibly dire. We only have confirmed funding from our major funding source, the Public Purpose Fund, until 31 March next year.
Without a longer term commitment we face the prospect of drastically reducing our services to you. Services that we've been providing for nearly 30 years. This includes our popular free environmental law hotline, our workshops on topics such as private land conservation, publications including an upcoming guide to mining law and advice on policy issues like the current planning reforms.
Our record of work in public interest environmental law is something of which we are very proud. In recent years our notable cases have included: protecting the heritage-listed hamlet of Catherine Hill Bay, near Newcastle, from a massive subdivision; assisting farmers on the highly productive Liverpool Plains near Gunnedah, who are contesting coal mining expansion; supporting a coalition of citizens concerned about the public health implications of contamination of the $6 billion Barangaroo site on Sydney Harbour; and helping residents of the Blue Mountains to expose pollution from a State-owned power station discharging into Sydney's main water catchment.
EDO NSW has a history of providing our services without fear or favour and free of the politics of the day. We want to ensure we can continue to support your efforts in defending the public interest and the environment.
If you believe in the work we do, please visit our website to find out how you can help.
*Jeff Smith is the Executive Director of EDO NSW.


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Home Bridge Court, Witham
Home Bridge Court was built in 1837-39 and was originally designed by architects George Gilbert Scott and William Bonython Moffatt. Throughout its history Home Bridge Court has housed an orphanage, training home and Bridge Hospital. This Grade II listed building has been converted into thirteen one, two and three bedroom apartments. Many of the original architectural details have been retained including vaulted ceilings, a glazed lantern and sash windows; these complement contemporary features such as a mezzanine floor and private terraces. Each apartment has been tastefully decorated in a calm colour scheme with contemporary cream, gloss kitchens and high quality laminate flooring. The result is a desirable, private gated community in the heart of Essex with excellent transport links to London.


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The system gives you the opportunity to plan your training a few weeks into the future. To do this, go to the "schedule" tab in the left menu. If you want the training to be repeated along with the exercises, then with the previously created training, click one of the icons in the upper right corner of the training. After clicking on the "edit" icon, a window will open in which you will be able to set the periodicity of the training by selecting the frequency of training and until when training will be repeated.
The next icon is copying the workout. After clicking on it, a window will appear in which you can specify which day and team, the copied training should appear.
If you want to schedule a cyclic workout without previously defined exercises, you can do it directly when creating the training itself. To create a workout, go to the "schedule" tab and then click "add training" on the selected day. After entering information about the training, you can plan the cyclicity of this training.
In this window you can also manage the list of participants. Click "manage participants", after clicking you will see a window with the option of choosing which players you are calling for training. In addition to players from your team, you can also invite any player from the entire academy to train. To do this, click the "call from another team" button. The participant management function is also useful when planning individual trainings.Back


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Max 2000 Right Cut Snips
Max 2000 Combo Cut Snips
Double Cut Snips - Max 2000
The snips double cut design is ideal for cutting downspouts.
Double cut design removes a curled strip of aluminum from path with virtually no surface distortion.
Color Chart
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