TwitLight is a Twitter Spotlight posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also have a look at all the previous TwitLights and you are more than welcome to take part, too!

Welcome to another edition of TwitLight and today it’s all about a drunk person that, well, drinks too much! Yes, you’ve guessed correctly, he’s at university! Unlike the previous TwitLights so far I’ve actually met @Zyber. Twice in fact, both at XL Lan and I’ve mentioned him in my writeup for the first one. And yes, he does drink a lot!

I first met him all the way back in 2005 on Matchbox360 which sadly isn’t at all like it used to be and he was also the founder of the Ignition webzine for which I once wrote a Splinter Cell Double Agent review. Initially we didn’t get along. There was a lot of community drama especially related to one clan I was a member of, the England Boyz. Yes, I was a member of a clan that’s just for and with guys, don’t ask! During one late night conversation in which he was drunk [didn't I tell you he's always drunk?!] we did some rumour control and worked out our differences. That doesn’t mean we’re always the same opinion though!

Even after I resigned from Matchbox360 and the end of Ignition we stayed in contact which translates to about one long msn or phone conversation a month to catch up.

You should definitely follow him on Twitter, however, bear in mind that he does tweet a lot about alcohol! How he ever got a job in a pub is beyond me! ;)

Is in the pub getting drunk and not paranoid!! Not paranoid!! #

It’s my absolute pleasure to introduce you all to @Zyber!

1. Where are you from?
Manchester, England

2. How old are you?
20

3. What do you do for a living?
Bartender/student

4. What does your alias/nickname mean and how did you come up with it?
Zyber – picking a gamertag for the Xbox i came up with Zyber Jedi, it was just
Cyber Jedi but my uncle convinced me Z’s were waaay cooler than C’s so.

5. What do you want to be when you grow up and has that changed at all since you were little?
Probly something in computers but I wrote a novel when I was 17 that I want to get published so I am hoping to do that in my spare time. Part time novelist.

6. What song are you thinking about right now?
One week – barenaked ladies. I’m listening to it right now.

7. Do you have a Last.fm profile?
Last FM was sooo 2006. No.

8. What are you reading at the moment? [Book, magazine, website, Wikipedia article..]
This set of questions.

9. Which video game are you playing these days and is it as good as you thought it would be? [provided you play video games that is!]
Most recent would have to be Halo wars although i’ve not picked up a controller in about 3 weeks.

10. What is the weather like at the moment?
Mild.

11. What are your plans for the rest of the day?
I plan to watch tv, play computer games and listen to music for most of it. Might phone this girl I met on Friday.

12. If you could replace anyone in any TV show, who would you pick?
I want to be Jack Bauer or maybe be on The Unit, not replace anyone there, just one of the team.

13. If you had the chance to work on the Enterprise [Star Trek ship!], what job would you have?
Chief engineer.

14. Seeing that I’m a grumpy person in the morning I’ve realised I can’t live with people that are overly happy as soon as they wake up. Would you be a good flatmate?
Sure, I wouldn’t come out of my room til at least 1pm so.

15. What is the best website you’ve come across recently?
Littlegamers.com They made a computer game for the 360 using the XNA game studios and they do a pretty funny web comic.

16. How long have you been on Twitter for and when did you realise you were sucked in by it?
I found the email and it said i joined on 27/8/07 but i’m not even at 1000 tweets yet. I don’t know, it’s the new Facebook and it’s what Facebook wants
to be so.

Heck even when I joined I was told I was late to the party by a certain Steve Day so. I’m just a nosey person my nature.

Yeah, he told me that, too, but I’m sure he’s had more breaks from twittering than anyone else! – Cat

17. Settle this question for me: PC or Mac?
I own a PC, want a Mac. Damn where are my spaces???

18. And another one: ice cream or cake?
Ice cream, no contest.

19. Fill this out however you want: “Today I am ____ and I ____, but ____, because ____.”

Today I am stumped on this question and I can’t think of anything funny, but one day I will, because I’m a funny man.

Lies! – Cat

20. What do you want everyone to know about you, who are you, what makes you tick? [aka describe yourself]
I had a car accident about 9 months ago and it changed my life forever. May sound stupid as I walked away from it unharmed but that day changed my life
forever. I was always the good boy, polite, smart, I made mistakes like everyone does some of which i’m still paying for; but I never really enjoyed my life. I always worried about tomorrow, what people may think of me and I wished I could just stop the world turning for one day just so I could catch up with it and figure out what I wanted.

After my accident I realised that I wasn’t living, just coasting.

After that I started living. Went out and got a tattoo that i’d always wanted. Chatting to any girl in a club without fear of rejection. Spent money like a sailor. Drank beer from breakfast to lunch…3 days later. I’m even trying to convice my mate to come to pamplona with me to go running with the bulls.

Honestly, people who knew me before my accident think I’m completely different now and whether they see the full effect or just notice me acting differently, it’s the guy I’ve become.

21. What is the last thing that you’ve felt proud about?
I just got presented with an award I recieved last year. It was for the highest mark on my course at University last year.

22. If I wanted to stalk you on the internet where would I have to go?

Gamertag :: Zyber Jedi
PSN :: Zyberjedi
Twitter :: Zyber
Blog :: i-storys.co.uk
Clan site :: Kellys Heros

23. Any more comments?
//i am God

Sorry, programming joke. Java has made me insane.

Yes, yes you are insane! Thanks for taking part.

In Gaming:

• Assassin’s Creed finally [?] out this week

  The wait is over and the game is finally out.

• Mass Effect Launch trailer

  The Mass Effect launch trailer is out and makes me want to play the game even more.

• Review: Splinter Cell Double Agent

  Looking through old files on my PC, I’ve come across this, a review of Splinter Cell Double Agent I wrote for Ignition in November last year.

In TV:

• One Tree Hill

  First there was Dawson’s Creek, then the OC and somewhere in between there is One Tree Hill.

In Blog:

• Consider it blogged – Why Bloggers can’t be trusted

  Found during my travels in the blogsphere.

• Blog Community Writing Project Update 1

  Just a little reminder, the Community writing project is underway and you have until this weekend to submit your entries.

• Blog community writing project.

  This is inspired by Sha’s suggestion over on Matt’s blog who hasn’t blogged in quite a while

• You know, I know you’re here..

  I’m a bit like you.

• New look

  So I finally wanted to be different and distinguish myself from most other wordpress.com users by getting the CSS upgrade and using a different theme.

In life:

• Still bored…

  This is more or less a continuation of my other post a few days ago in which I said I was feeling really ill.

• Bored

  I’m simply bored of being ill now.

And everything else:

• Couple of things

  All of these have been sitting on my desktop for weeks and don’t really warrant an extra post.

• Some Facebook, a bit of Myspace.

  Pretty much everyone these days is registered on a social networking site and more or less active.

Cat

Splinter Cell was a game that contributed to defining a genre. Before the original Splinter Cell was released back in 2002 (yes, it has indeed been that long) not many stealth based games were around. In fact the only major ones were the mighty Metal Gear and Thief series. Since then, the Splinter Cell franchise released two more titles, Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, with the latter one being the first one to incorporate Co-Op multi player. A few games have attempted to copy the gameplay, but most were less than successful; it just proved how high the bar was set. Therefore, it was obvious that there was a lot of pressure on Ubisoft and the question is, does Splinter Cell Double Agent live up to the hype?

The graphics are good, the framerate stays consistent throughout the game and there are only a few anti aliasing issues. The multiplayer uses a slightly modified engine, but also does not disappoint in the slightest. There is a high attention to detail in both single and multi player which becomes even clearer on open spaces and whenever there is water involved. The levels themselves look stunning and feel just the way they should; this is especially noticeable on later single player levels, which take place in more exotic locations.

A major factor in stealth games is the audio, as it is vital to the survival to be able to hear enemies and make out where they are located. Splinter Cell fulfils that requirement completely. The audio is clear and the background noises ensure that the levels are a lot more atmospheric. The music indicates threat levels and does not become repetitive throughout the levels. This title also uses the same cast as previous Splinter Cell versions and it is nice hearing Michael Ironside as Sam Fisher again and Lambert’s voice is as reassuring as always. The multiplayer audio can become repetitive though, every time a map loads, a selection of 10-15 audio clips are played instructing the player in the actions that can be done and once in-game, there is a delay of up to 15 seconds over which a separate clip is played. Apart from that, there is also the music which gets more dramatic the closer one team gets to winning.

The single player in Double Agent is different…in a good way. As the title suggests, Double Agent is all about taking up a different identity and without revealing too much, Sam Fisher is forced to make decisions, some involving Life and Death. Allowing certain characters to live or by killing others during the game, changes the storyline and also increases or decreases the trust with certain parties. The player has to balance the trust carefully in order to progress through the game and this leads to some interesting twists. It is a simple enough system, but it definitely helps keeping the player interested. Another new feature of this game is the range of locations. For the first time Splinter Cell is not just about shadows any more, as several levels take place in broad daylight. This eliminates the idea of shadows serving as a comfort zone and the ability to hide away after being detected. It also forces a new approach to stealth; the player has to rethink strategies and play the game more carefully. Thankfully it is no longer possible to fail a mission by raising one simple alert; however chances are that the trust with one of the parties will decrease if there are any.

Most missions still include Sam Fishers trusted gadgets which get upgraded or unlocked by completing special side objectives. The upgraded night vision now contains colour and is clearer, but on the other hand makes it a lot harder to detect shadows and, if unlocked, the arsenal gets expanded with grenades. Sam also still has access to his SC-20K with the usual sticky camera, sticky shocker and airfoil round plus an all new shotgun attachment for all those situations in which he needs to blast his way out. Some may be glad to hear that the ‘mini games’, such as the lock picking, safe cracking and others are still in the game. There are also numerous computers that need to be hacked and it is nice to see that the system has been changed for the better.

The AI appears to be a lot more intelligent, although sometimes they still wonder why a certain light malfunctions or a previously shut door is now open. Raising an alarm increases their vigilance a lot and it can be fatal. The only downfall to the single player is that it is relatively short. Depending on the difficulty setting it can be completed in about 10-14 hours, but due to the choices made it may be worthwhile playing through one more time, even if it is just to see the alternate endings.

The Xbox 360 version is sadly missing the Co-Op missions that were so much fun back in Chaos Theory. They have now been replaced by 18 Co-Op challenges which take place across 8 very different maps. It plots 1-3 Spies against Mercenary bots in a variety of missions involving the capture of files at computer terminals. The AI of the bots increases from mission to mission and whilst it is initially possible to complete the challenges with just 2 Spies, it is necessary to have 3 players and a very good knowledge of the maps to complete the later ones.

Still included in the multi player is the versus mode which has been altered from the previous version. It is no longer possible to choose a variety of weapon sets and sadly it is also not possible to change the game settings, such as game length or number of lives. Whilst this makes for very limited options by taking away the ability to enforce handicaps, it ensures that every player knows what the game mode and options are.

The maps are varied and include many secret ways for Spies to remain undetected. This is an absolute necessity as the Mercenaries initially seem more advanced. However, once a few maps have been played and the Spies know how to kill the Mercenaries, the balance is restored, therefore guaranteeing equal games. Spies have a choice between four different gadgets; Syringe (which can be used to heal themselves or injured team mates), Flash grenades, Smoke grenades and a jammer, allowing them to temporarily distract the Mercenaries motion sensor and leading them on a wrong track. Mercenaries have an M16-style rifle capable of fully automatic fire, unlimited bullets and a sniping scope. In addition they have a flashlight, grenades and drones which can be deployed at a limited range and triggered to self detonate which kills any nearby spies. Drones are also useful to reach vents and other unreachable areas. The EMF vision allows Mercenaries to see through thin walls and make out the outline of a spy or detect if a spy is using any gadgets.

The game is nearly lag free, bar the occasional game, even when playing against players from different countries. The biggest downfall in the multi player setup is the inability to create sessions with mixed public and private slots. The game uses the Quickmatch system for public games and private games cannot be seen by non friends. This means that there need to be a set number of friends online to play private games with or just simply playing with strangers. It is possible on occasion to invite friends into public games after joining; however slots tend to fill up very quickly. Due to the size and variety of the maps and the different gameplay, this game has a long lasting appeal on Xbox Live, especially as it takes a while to properly get to know the maps.

Double Agent had a lot of expectations to fulfil and it does. Stunning graphics, great single player and an immense, long lasting multi player. It ticks all the right boxes.

SCORES
Graphics- 9
Audio- 9
Gameplay – 9
XBL Play – 9
Lifespan – 7
Overall 9 / 10

9/10

Issue 7 of Ignition is now out. Inside:

Preview - Mass Effect.
Reviews - Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R, Viva Pinata.
Features - XL, The Book of Games Volume 1.
Plus a great competition!

Go and download it now!

Cat

This was all one very, very long day, but it was well worth it. I didn’t sleep Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday night and set off to XL early on Friday morning feeling kind of tired. I arrived at the NEC at around 1.30pm and thought where are we? I remembered the name of the suite (Toute), but there were no signs pointing at it, the main information things only had the bigger halls listed. Turn out after looking around for a few minutes that there was a huge sign with the XL logo right in front of me. From there on it was easy to find the way.

I get to the Toute suite at about 2 pm and I vaguely remember someone telling me beforehand that all the TV’s and Xboxes are meant to be there by 12. Well, the suite was empty apart from one person I didn’t recognise. Turns out it was Dave (Duke) who looked completely different to what I imagined, but then again I didn’t really imagine anything. After waiting around for a while the lorry arrived and with it most other staff. I do remember seeing pictures of most staff before, so it wasn’t that different as everyone pretty much looked like they did on the pictures. I didn’t imagine Kon to have that long hair though. :P

So, moving all the stuff into the NEC, setting stuff up and so on and on. By the evening most staff arrived, including Jay (who was recognised by everyone instantly). It was quite a lot of work and a lot of rearranging, especially in the small rooms. The 360 pods took a while to be set up, but looked very impressive with the lights turned off. At about 10pm the AV guy turns up with his rather bored looking girlfriend. He was messing about for a long while to get them all set up and what not until he was finally finished at around 1.30am I believe. At least the screens worked and afetr a while we found a workaround to the not allow the other team to see the big screen.

We finally leave the NEC at around 3am and realise that we are 12 people to 2 cars. So the decision is made to take a cab to Chris’ house. That was followed by one of the best phone conversations between Ryan and the cab driver. “Excuse me, are you speaking English”, “Yes, I’m Tugsy. Oh you meant did I order a Taxi?” and “I don’t know how to get there” – “Maybe following the signs, like that one right in front of you is a start”. The cab driver also demanded more money and after arguing with him for a long time we just gave up and handed him the money.

Once we get into Chris house we realise that there isn’t really much point in sleeping, as we have to head to the NEC at around 6 am anyway, so we all pretty much just hang around for a while, drink some coffee and discuss the day ahead. The first group of people set off in Chris and Mazzys car which left Harris and Matt at Chris’ place. We had some very random conversations and generally tried to stay awake. Mazzy finally returned and we set back off to the NEC just to realise we couldn’t get back in to the side entrance. Great, as that meant parking miles away in the north carpark and we had to get all the way accross to the Suite.

After we finally arrived there the Event had already started as it was 9.30 and the room was full of people. It was a very manic day of which I spent a lot on the front desk either sorting out the FFA registration of the 2v2. we made the big mistake of allowing more teams for the 2v2 competition which screwed our time plan up completely.

The day was finally over at around 11 and we set off to Chris’ house. Well that was the plan. The car broke and it meant that Matt, Backflip and I had to get another Taxi. Just how many Taxis did we take that weekend? with some help from the friendly guard at the gate we had a Taxi in no time and ended up at Chris house at around 2.30am I believe. And I am very impressed that I remembered the way. :D

So we finally had some sleep. Mazzy, Poke (whatever was Poke’s real name?), Steve, Backflip, Dave, Jay, Matt and myself stayed in the livingroom/dining room downstairs and all I can remember is that Steve had a random laughing fit that lasted forever and either Backflip or Matt snoring extremely loud.

The next morning several alarms rang over the space of 30 minutes and you could hear some random “Fuck off” from all corners of the room. At 5.30 I finally got up and had a shower, just to go back downsatirs to find Razgriz at the door and everyone else still pretty much asleep. We set off back to the NEC, again people in a Taxi, but can I remember who? Nope….

Sunday was a very different day to saturday. The atmosphere felt a lot more competitive which was a good thing. Day was busy and lasted all the way up until the finals finished at around 2pm. Since about 12am some of us strted tidying up the siderooms and I remember some of the most random conversations, including changing the finals to swords on Waterworks or determining the winner by having the team explain in 100 words or less why they should win. Twas fairly random. At this point Jay had lost it completely and used the work ‘fuck’ every other word. We also tried working out the riddle of the lost money, but I can’t remember the riddle or the solution.

Had the chance to talk to quite a few people throughout the day, including Nick from Allthings360.net and Ben ‘Monobrow’ Talbot from the Official Xbox Magazine. It was great talking to him and we realised there were quite a few games we both liked.

Security turned up at around 1am and we only had a bit more time to get the finals done. Thank god they didn’t tie. The finals were very good, but in no way comparable to the earlier game between TCS and TSG that was so well played and enjoyable. I can’t remember actually watching many games. The portugese team (TCS) definitely made most noise with their games and were quite nice to watch.

3 am, everyone is finally gone and we play some staff Halo2 games. The redshirts vs the black shirts and I do remember both teams winning one game. We then played a random FFA with Tugsy winning and I nearly fell asleep during that one. So, the mess in the Toute Suite had to be cleared away by the next day and going to Chris house with the lack of cars wasn’t an option. Jay and I crash out in the sideroom and I was a much happier person after sleeping a couple of hours.

Tidying up can only be described as slow, tedius, annoying, but it had to be done. The overpriced coffee from the “New Zealand Natural Ice Cream” place tasted like Heaven and did the trick. Chris returned with the lorry and we loaded it up and that was that. Jay and Matt headed off to the train station, Mazzy and Poke set off home and Chris, Ryan and Dave dropped me off in Birmingham towncentre, miles away from where I had to get to.

I finally ended up getting home at around midnight, as some of my trains were delayed, but sleeping on the bus felt like Heaven and the long hot shower I had when getting back to the house was amazing.

Random thoughts of XL:

- They need chairs next to the ashtray at the NEC.
- Nametags for staff and attendees.
- No more subways for a very long time.
- Quite a few parents around and it was interesting talking to them.
- Not enough time to talk to anyone really.
- Most people aren’t like I expected.
- Everyone seemed crazier than I imagined.
- Neyo is like I imagined him.
- Some of the people have some serious problems with their handwriting.
- Need a coffeemachine.
- Too much driving around.
- Too many Taxis
- How many times can Jay say the word ‘Fuck’?
- Been amazing meeting everyone.
- It’s been great.
- Phoebe missed me and still follows me round the house.
- Just how did I survive all that time with less than 8 hours sleep?

Can’t wait for the next one. See you all in February. :D

Cat

Update: This was also featured in an issue of Ignition. Check it out!

I also found Ben Talbots writeup quite interesting. He has alos got some photos of the event. The first I’ve seen. He also wrote an article for the OXM website:

This month, Xbox Community Site Matchbox360.co.uk hosted its first major LAN event entitled ‘XL’ at the Birmingham NEC. Entertaining nearly 300 gamers from the UK and across Europe the main attractions were a Halo 2 free for all, plus 4 Vs 4 play, with some of the UK’s best pro players taking part.

And OXM 360 was invited along to witness the proceeding!

One of the clans keen to make a big splash was Death By UK. Co-founder James Aston (DBUK Aston) commented, “We started DBUK earlier this year and a lot of our members knew people from other clans, and before we knew it, we had 300-400 members! Events like this come with the territory, so we rallied around and got as many people as we could to come. There’s some real talent here, some real intelligence. For a lot of people it’s just gaming but for us it’s an actual sport.”

Fellow founder Karl James (DBUK Killa) highlighted the community aspect of this gathering in stating, “We see some of these people all the time on Xbox Live, and finally meeting them in the flesh is mind-blowing!”

Other well-known clans including TGS and Scar Tissue also took the opportunity to test their skills against teams from Portugal, France and Holland. This was a truly international event. However, there was much more to play than just Halo 2. XL also ran official F.E.A.R., Call of Duty 3, GRAW, Pro Evo 6 and Gears of War tournaments! Runner-up in the Pro Evo 6 tournament, Daniel Brooks said, “I prefer playing at events like this because there’s no lag and it’s great to meet people in person, I’d definitely come to another.”

Event organiser Chris Barnes (K0NSPIRACY) and his team did a fantastic job, and spoke to us during the midst of a LAN battle! “The crowd is really hyped up and it’s looking to be a brilliant event over the weekend. Hopefully we’ll be doing another event in February, here at the NEC, so we look forward to welcoming back all the UK gamers, and also all the European gamers from Norway, Portugal etc.”

“We’re going to be taking things a big step forward in 2007 so there are bigger things to come with bigger games, larger venues, more consoles and more free-play so we’ll see how things go in 2007.”

Rest assured that after the amazing success of XL, OXM 360 will be following the series closely and will bring you more info about XL2 as soon as we have it. Check out our movie of the event in next months Readers Only section (Issue 16) or on next month’s cover disc.

Cat

Inside:
Previews – Rainbow Six: Vegas.
Reviews – NHL 07, Splinter Cell: Double Agent (written by my lovely self), Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Dead Rising, Xbox Live Vision Camera, Totem Ball, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Doom.
Features - An interview with the Matchbox360 XL guys, a look at the Project Gotham Racing franchise and a quick look at 5 things to buy that special gamer in your life this Christmas.

So head over to the Ignition site and download it. :D

Cat

The first Ignition podcast is now available to download from the Ignition site. This will be a fortnightly occurrence for the boys at Ignition. The shows 2 hosts, Matt Collins A.K.A. Zyber Jedi and Stewart Bradford A.K.A. Subdivid3r, talk about the Xbox 360 Marketplace, upcoming games and some recent news.

This is a new forum for the Ignition team to venture into, so any and all feedback would be appreciated. There are podcast’s on loads of different subjects and several on the Xbox 360 alone. So what makes this one any different? The Ignition team pride themselves on being honest and not being biased towards any game. The opinions expressed in the podcast will always be the truth as they see it and will never be swayed by any outside source.

A few sound issues and Matt tends to say “err” and “umm” a number of time but other than that, it sounds pretty good. Future episodes will sound better!

So check out the new Ignition podcast and enjoy!

Check it out here. :D

Cat