Category: Toys

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Recent Racing

I am currently trying to complete a few games, or at least play them more. I got Astrobot recently and it is exactly my kind of game. It’s a 3D platformer with some easy and some difficult levels. I really enjoy it, it’s like Ratchet and Clank but without the guns. I’ve also been messing around in Gran Turismo a little more recently. They have added weekly challenges to the game and so it’s a good sense of achievement to log in and complete those. I am also working my way through the licence tests and challenges bit by bit. I want to complete the Cafe Menus and that means getting credits to buy some serious cars.

I have found a useful method for gaining credits to be the time challenges they now have in the game that change every few weeks. I spend about twenty minutes driving and I can normally get a Silver time but definitely a Bronze time within the game. I recently completed some laps of the Nurburgring GP circuit in some electric car and got a pretty good result for a worldwide competition.

Gran Turismo Time Trial Result
Gran Turismo Time Trial Result

Another method for gaining credits which is remarkably innefficient is to complete the daily driving distance – one marathon – and then hope fo rthe best in the lucky dip reward. As much as this feels like a loot box it isn’t a loot box because you aren’t paying real money for the rewards. It’s cheeky but it’s not as immoral as some loot boxes in other games. Every now and then you do get 1,000,000 credits in the circle of doom.

Gran Turismo Lucky Dip Result
Gran Turismo Lucky Dip Result

This amount of credits might seem useful but when some cars are valued at 20,000,000 you know there’s a long way to go.

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Gran Turismo HUD

As much as I really enjoy Gran Turismo and play the game quite a lot there hasn’t been much on here about it from me. I’m still heading through the game and aiming to complete it, if that is possible. I’m currently stuck on one of the license tests where I have completed the course within 0.05 seconds of the gold target time but haven’t quite made it through that barrier.

I have upgraded to the G390 wheel which supposedly has “true feel” or something like that. All I know is that there is more feedback through the wheel and you can “feel” the limits of the grip a little more and also notice when you might be burning through the tires with late braking and excessive cornering.

Somehow I stumbled across a telemetry display that fits to all types of steering wheel. I thought about it and then ordered one along with a new spring for the brake on the G390 pedals and the current spring is waaaay too tough. The new spring has a progressive feel to it and “feels” better.

The telemetry unit was easy to set up and instantly did a firmware update. You use the browser on your phone to enter your wifi settings and the little box does all the rest. It connects to the PS5 output over wifi via UDP. It would be nice if the PS5 output more details that can be read by the little box, but I’m very happy with the results. The rev LEDs are really useful and give good feedback to my peripharal vision.

Gran Turismo 7 Steering Wheel HUD
Gran Turismo 7 Steering Wheel HUD

In this image you can see the current gear (3), tyre temperatures, revs (8552), fastest lap time (2:10:496), lap counter and speed. The digits on the right don’t currently change with the game.

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AstroBot

OK. This is an excellent game and I really enjoying. I’m hoping to complete it sometime during the Easter break as once this week is over my time for gaming returns to practically zero.

AstroBot Photomode 3
AstroBot Photomode 3

There’s a photomode in the game which I keep forgetting about unless there is a photo point like the one above. The whoe game is pretty amazing and excellent fun. It’s pretty much my level of stuff. The feedback on the controller is really impressive and the game uses the device to its fullest.

Astrobot Photo Mode 1
Astrobot Photo Mode 1

Oh, and everything looks gorgeous.

AstroBot Photomode 2
AstroBot Photomode 2
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Just For The Fun Of It

Just wandering along and enjoying the game of Lego BrickLife within Fortnite and it’s all so much fun or gorgeous.

Gorgeous Sunset Views - Lego Brick Life
Gorgeous Sunset Views – Lego Brick Life

It is delightful to drive the school bus into the sea, jump out at the last minute and watch it float along for a little bit before sinking to the depths. I love it.

Sunken Bus Fun - Lego Bricklife
Sunken Bus Fun – Lego Bricklife

My favourite spot to put my house in on the beach front next to the concert stage. There’s a rock arch just south of that and I found out it’s possible to drive the bus up the arch and then drive off and land on top of my house.

Parked The Bus On The House - Lego Brick Life
Parked The Bus On The House – Lego Brick Life

The last image today is the underground garage with cars dumped inside. These are other players’ cars that I have run around and “stolen” and then brought to the car park for storage. It’s a fun game.

Stealing Cars Fun - Lego Brick Life
Stealing Cars Fun – Lego Brick Life
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Views Of Flight

I’ve been trying to fly in X-Plane a bit recently. I need to do more I guess. There’s a plugin called Volanta by Orbx which I’m using to track my flights and it has some challenges it can add to the simulator so that gives me things I can aim for. I recently took a dawn flight from Biggin Hill to Le Touquet and I flew under the QE2 bridge and alongside my village. In the second picture here you can see the village where I live, if you know what you are looking for.

T-6A Dartford Crossing
T-6A Dartford Crossing
T-6A Where I Live
T-6A Where I Live
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It’s A Hard Knock Brick Life

Fortnite – the game [although I’m not sure what else you might think it is] – has now become a platform for loads of games. They have teamed up with Lego and now have a few official Lego based games in the Fortnite family. One of these is Brick Life and the other I enjoy is called Odyssey.

Lego Brick Life is game where you run around a little seaside town doing jobs, making money, and build your dream house and decorate it. IT’s an escape from real life where everything looks lovely. It reminds me of Playstation Home from about ten years ago. Brick World is a good place to spend some time enjoying yourself.

Fortnite Lego Brick Life - Chess Board
Fortnite Lego Brick Life – Chess Board

Just look at the view in this picture, the sea, the stars, the sand, the city.

Fortnite Lego Brick Life - Beach Views
Fortnite Lego Brick Life – Beach Views

Now, the following picture is not from Brick Life but I think it captures the thought and playfulness that has gone into creating the Lego games. Isn’t it pretty:

Fortnite Lego Odyssey - Aurora
Fortnite Lego Odyssey – Aurora
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Fancy Armour

I have spent a little time recently trying to get netherite armour in Minecraft. It used to be relatively easy – you “just” needed to get some ancient debris to make netherite ingots. Then they went and added a “smithing template” to the list of requirements and it took me a while to a) want to get a smithing template, b) be bothered to look for a bastion and cope with the general sense of death in the nether, c) feel netherite armour was worth it.

I have now done such a thing. I expected the bastion to kill me over and over but I actually managed to wander around relatively unscathed. It could be my gold armour saved me some injury – I don’t know. I not only found a netherite template but I also found an armour decoration template and that made me super happy. Although the templates are destroyed in the manufacturing process once you have one template you can craft more so I don’t have to go searching around other bastions, but I might just for the challenge.

So, armour has been upgraded and prettified.

Minecraft Armour Front View
Minecraft Armour Front View
Minecraft Armour Back View
Minecraft Armour Back View

For information and nothing else I’ve just checked my Minecraft world database file size and it’s coming in at 6GB at the moment. I have no idea in terms of average world size but it seems impressive.

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Un-Mined

I like playing Minecraft. It’s a better world than the one we live in. I know there are creepers and zombies obsessed with trying to kill me but the farming is fun and apart from the strange slavery the game is mostly peaceful. I only play in survival mode, I have entered a creative world, once, but I hated it. The offspring don’t really play in this world much anymore so it’s mostly me just wandering around and doing little projects. I do want to get elytra soon so I will need some help in The End.

There are many cheats that could be applied to the game but having played since Covid-times I have a good idea of which ones keep me playing and which ones make the game far less fun. In the past I have used teleportation and even edited the contents of chests and inventories. I don’t use these cheats anymore. As much as travelling around the map in real time seems frustrating, teleporting from one place to another really kills the fun and sense of acheivement.

I use one main cheat these days and that is software that produces a map along with coordinates on the screen. This does mean I can easily find resources underground such as coal, diamonds and gold. But I think it balances out the time I spend. I don’t have to strip mine, I just mine but in calculated directions.

A Mine Map - Minecraft Level 17
A Mine Map – Minecraft Level 17

In the above picture you can see the routes I have mined and also some of the resources that remain, ready for me to plunder. Brown is copper ore, silver is iron ore and the grey is coal, I think. I can hover over the map in the application and it informs me the type of block I am over.

The mapping software I use is called Unmined, and it needs you to be able to access the world database. I normally FTP this from my server so I can explore using the map but without live updates.

A Minecraft Item Sorter
A Minecraft Item Sorter

The above picture shows my item sorter which is placed underground. The red squares are all redstone. I will be making a video about this soon as the last one I uploaded covered my dugout mountain.

This is what the current base looks like from above:

Minecraft Mainbase
Minecraft Mainbase
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Flight Sim Photos

This is just a page of flight sim photos.

T-7A - 2024-08-21 08.23.39
T-7A – 2024-08-21 08.23.39
T-6A - 2024-08-05 07.47.24
T-6A – 2024-08-05 07.47.24
T-7A - 2024-08-04 07.48.08
T-7A – 2024-08-04 07.48.08
T-7A - 2024-08-06 06.51.32
T-7A – 2024-08-06 06.51.32
T-7A - 2024-08-21 08.04.00
T-7A – 2024-08-21 08.04.00
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What A Shocker

You know how it goes. You’re flying along over the Netherlands and then BOOM, there’s a lightning storm in front of you. Fortunately for me I was already planning on landing before the storm but I don’t recall seeing lightning before in X-Plane.

T7 Red Tail Over Netherlands with lightning
T7 Red Tail Over Netherlands with lightning

You might need to click on the picture to embiggen it and then be able to see the lightning forks.

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