4od (4 on demand)

I recently discovered this service run by channel 4 which is quite similar to the bbc's iplayer. Ive been having great fun re-watching the old series of Trigger Happy TV & the best thing is that the episodes are in full, not edited, all for free as well & I hope it stays that way. (Touchwood!) They also have Banzai on there, a show that came out around the same time as series 2 of Trigger Happy TV did. I'm hoping that is for free as well.

There is a charge if you want to watch some shows but I'm not too sure how that works. It could be monthly or a pay-for-what-you-want-to-watch service, I haven't really looked. 4od is great if you want to catch those old shows that channel 4 used to show, back in the day. (Ive always wanted to say that!)

Singapore map edit: UPDATE

Things have been progressing slowly with the Singapore re-texture. As of today, I have completed one airfield, started work on another & started adding the finishing touches to the first airfield. The textures I have played around with but am not satisfied with how they look currently. For the time being I have left them as they are to concentrate on the airfields.

During the work I have contemplated doing other airfields. I may redo Kuala Lumpa airfield & one near Singapore but I'm not too certain yet.

Watch this space.

Singapore map re-texture (IL2)

Over the next few days, I plan to give the Singapore map a re-texture & also try my hand at editing a couple of airfields. The edit of the airfields will not be done to historical accuracy, they will be done to my own liking. Although having said that one airfield at least will have some historical roots in it, as I will be going on a design I saw of an airfield in Europe.

At the moment I have started the re-texture work by changing most, if not all, of the textures for ones that give a more sullen, less green look than previous, which in my opinion looks MUCH better.

I think this re-texture work has been inspired by the ''pacific map team'' working away on the slot map which is hoped to be released on the 31st of this month. The map they are making looks fantastic & the textures they are using look great for the region they are modeling. Looking at what they are doing & looking at the standard maps already existing in the Sim, it really sums things up & puts emphasis on how generic all the standard maps look.

I will properly make a topic about the re-texture of Singapore on http://www.allaircraftarcade.com/ when I'm confident I will be able to release something & if I finish it, it will be up on the site mentioned for download, also I will put one or two download links on here. And, if I can get permission from the pacific map team, I will put up a few download link's here for the slot map.

New F1 season

The new Formula 1 season got underway this weekend with the opening race at Melbourne Australia & Lewis Hamilton taking the first win.

I used to like Formula 1 but in recent years it became a sort of procession with Micheal Schumacher wining races all the time, and it just became boring to watch. I thought Formula 1 was finished, well, at least in America when they ran that race at Indianapolis with only 6 cars.

Surprising myself, I was able to watch some of the first race earlier on & found it quite interesting with all the new paint schemes on the cars. One thing I noticed, was the cars were sliding around more than normal upon exiting a turn. The commentators were saying about rain on the track & said it was adding to it. Adding to what? I think one of the new rules this year might have been the reducing, or removal altogether of the traction control system which will make races very interesting indeed & this might bring me to watch the next race of the season to see if my theory is correct.

Slot map, for IL2

Since the middle November last year, a small group of people have been working on a new map for IL2 of the islands out in the pacific known as the ''slot''.

The map will be available for use for people who have installed the sound mod on their install of IL2 & the group making it hope for a release by the end of March.

Many people have been for & against the modding of IL2, but I think when this map is released, many people from the anti-modding crowd will jump the fence for this.

Screenshots for this great map can be found at www.allaircraftarcade.com

Random thoughts

It's a Saturday evening & I'm having one of these times when I'm thinking about random things, a few of my thoughts for this evening:

Yesterday I cut my hand open on a knife, and the blood was gushing out a bit. It made me think, if you let the blood just pour out of the wound & go wherever, obviously you would loose blood. But what if you covered the wound with your mouth, would you loose blood? I don't think you would because the blood would be going back into your body.

Millions of years ago, the continents were one, & slowly over the years the continents broke off & are what we now know as America, Asia, etc. If the continents moved back then, then surly their still moving now. So if they are, how is the moving going to effect bridges joining islands together?

If your on an aeroplane going on holiday somewhere, it's more than likely the plane is travailing at something between 300-500MPH, so in theory you are travailing at that speed too. What would happen if you jumped up on the aircraft? would you shoot to the back of the plane, as you wouldn't be in contact with anything anymore would you.

Forza 2 March DLC

OK so yesterday (Friday, March 14Th) the March car pack was officially announced, as was the release date, (19Th) & Gametraillers posted the official trailer up on their site. The pack contains the following cars:

Audi S5
Audi TT
BMW M3
BMW- CSL
Ferrari F50 GT
Ferrari F430 Scuderia
Porsche 997 GT2
Maserati MC12 Corsa
Lamborghini Murcielago LP640
Evo X
Peugeot 207 S2000
Ferrari F40 Competizione
Maserati GranTurismo

There is talk of a 14Th car that is being kept from the list as a surprise, but we shall have to wait & see on that. As you can see, some, if not, most of the cars are different version of cars already existing in the game. This has angered quite a few people in the Forza community with some even claiming their going to sell their copy of Forza 2 because the car they wanted isn't going to be included in this pack, which is going WAY too far, in my opinion.

I must admit, I'm not particularly impressed by the list of cars in the car park but at the same time I'm looking forward to giving the new Porsche 997 & Ferrari F40 a spin, also the new BMW M3.

I can understand people in the community being a little disappointed over the car pack's list but what I don't get is why people are going way over the top, for example, reading one post on a forum, a person is saying he's/she's not going to spend points on anything more for Forza 2 until they release more tracks & an AWD drive train swap for the Ford Focus ST. Another saying their not going to play Forza 2 anymore until a Nissan 240SX is released. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that along the same lines of something a kid would do when he/she isn't getting their own way? Stupid really.

I will get the new car pack because I like the game & I want to be able to play with the new cars online with others, & also to be up-to-date. The new pack will cost 400MS points & will be available from Xbox live Marketplace as of the 19Th of March.