Vodafone line rental increasing

Vodafone sent an interesting text today.

"We're making some changes to our pricing from 1st November. Your monthly line rental will be increasing. The cost of Premium rate calls will also rise, find out more at........... and enter code.."

Super, that contract I can not change edit or in anyway get out of can be made more expensive any time Vodafone like. I wonder what excuse they throw out this time? Maybe years and years of abusing the cost of texts messages got harder? Maybe they want to buy the 4g network. Who knows?

Hero Academy Line them up Challenge How to complete

The "line them up" challenge is probably the most annoying challenge in Hero Academy. One would not be surprised if you got stuck on this one.

Here is how to beat the level "Line them up"

• Use your Heavy guy to shoot the wizard on the right twice. 
• Then shoot the wizard on the left.
• Next move demon man up two spaces on top of wizard.
• Shoot the wizard on the right.
• Move Demoman two squares right.
• Then shoot the wizard on far right.

Job done.

Hard as hell but now you know how to solve it :P

Orcs Must Die 2 steam release time and download size

Many people have been waiting to Pre load Orcs Must Die 2 but have been shocked to discover there wont be any pre load. You will have to download the full game rumoured to be a 3.5 gig. The release time is 6:00pm GMT so not too long left now.

Need a co op partner for Orcs Must Die 2? Drop either your email/skype/steam id in comments below (it will not be published on the site - all comments are moderated by me) and I will have a game with you any time. I am skilled at Orcs Must Die and a good laugh on the mics. So hit me up.

Update - Game is now Live - You may need to restart steam to be able to start downloading.

OtterBox Defender Series Case for Apple iPhone 4S - Black Review

Ordered despite worries of many counterfeits floating around but made sure I ordered directly from Amazon in case I did get a fake product.

Thankfully on arrival I confirmed it was a genuine product. I was intially very worried as it came in a sealed plastic bag, not the full product box you would perhaps expect. I confirmed its real by checking youtube for videos of fakes and real ones. 100% satisfied that its real.

The product is excellent quality and exactly what I needed to protect my Iphone 4s, I have now been using it extensively for over two weeks and here is what I have discovered.

- Great

• Protects
• Comfortable
• Provides Grip
• Looks Great
• Not too bulky
• Does not interfere with any phone features

- Bad (not even bad really.. minor gripes)

• I don't like the optional belt buckle, I use it for added protection sometimes but the buckle makes it stick out a bit much for my liking. Would be much happier with a protector that had no belt buckle.
• Tends to not feel fully secure at top, if you push together sort of squeaks together. (no where near as bad as this sounds, do not let this put you off)
• Not fully surrounded by silicone, there is plastic supports in places, I do get the feeling a drop on these areas would not bode well, but plenty of drop tests seen on youtube seem to disprove any worries here.

After spending hours researching Iphone 4s cases I would happily say this is the best case you can buy and is a reasonable price point to protect a £500 phone.

Final thoughts... Buy this product, support the great cases Otterbox design and make sure when your awesome case arrives that you clean protective screen before putting it on your phone, inside and out.

Diablo III Patch Notes 1.0.3 - v.1.0.3.10057

Blizzard has finally released the patch notes for 1.0.3, here they are, lots of exciting game play changes.


http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6457499

Diablo 3 Patch 1.0.3 details released

Blizzard has just released information on the patch 1.0.3, sadly no patch notes as yet but plenty of detailed information has been given. Check out more at the official website.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6262208/Patch_103_Design_Preview-6_6_2012#blog

Diablo 3 Error 1 Fix

There was an error creating your own party. (error 1) - This is one the most annoying errors to get as generally you have an extended log in then error1 and kicked out of game back to log in queue.

There is no fix for this, it means Blizzard is having server issues.

Best bet for information is from blue posts on the forums

http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/4436696/

Last GM post 45 minutes ago indicates the correct team has been informed and working on issue. This is EU only issue at present.

Diablo 3 - install corrupt errors - Fix Found

Diablo 3 has hit another bump in he road with mass install issues after the most recent 1.0.2.a patch

Error: The File "C:\Program Files (x86)\DiabloIII\Updates\d3-0-9858-Win-Final.MPQ" appears to be corrupt. You may need to download this file again.

Fix found

• Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\Diablo III\Updates
• Delete or Move the d3-0-9858-Win-final.MPQ file
• Restart the D3 Launcher

Job Done.

Diablo 3 Patch Notes 1.0.2a Now Live

Here are the patch notes for the latest Diablo 3 patch 1.0.2a  Not too exciting sadly but improvements are progress I guess.


Diablo III Patch 1.0.2a - v.1.0.2.9858

General

Tooltips for the following class abilities have been updated to reflect changes made in patch 1.0.2 and previous hotfixes:

• Demon Hunter
• Smoke Screen (Skill Rune – Lingering Fog)

• Monk
• Fists of Thunder (Skill Rune – Quickening)
• Mantra of Healing (Skill Rune – Boon of Inspiration)

• Wizard
• Energy Armor (Skill Rune – Force Armor)

• Nigel Cutthroat has recently fallen on hard times and will now drop lower quality items when slain
• Gold and quest experience rewards for replaying "Heart of Sin: Get the Soul of Azmodan" have been reduced
• Gold and quest experience rewards for replaying "Heart of Sin: Go to the Keep" have been removed

• Auction House
• The maximum duration for posted auctions has been reduced from 48 hours to 36 hours

That's all I am afraid.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6020043/

Diablo 3 How to find the secret cow level Whimsyshire - detailed item location guide

To find the secret cow level you must first understand there is no secret cow level  however there is a secret level called Whimsyshire with rainbows and unicorns.

To find it you collect items and make staff of herding and use it on Old Tristam Road.

The video linked is the best one to help you find all the items and does not spoil what the secret level is like. (not my own video)

• The Black Mushroom from Cathedral level 1 in Act 1 (cathedral gardens way point go backwards through)
• Leorics Shinbone from the fireplace in Leorics Manor in Act 1.
• Liquid Rainbow in a Mysterious Cave from a Mysterious chest in the Oasis Act 2. To enter the cave you must find a random spawn vendor in the Oasis.
• Wirts Bell from a vendor in the Bazaar Act 2. This item costs 100,000 gold. 
•  Gibbering Gemstone drops from Chiltara a rare spawn in the Frozen Cave Act 3.
• The recipe for the Staff of Herding drop of Izual in Act 4.

Build the Staff

• Using all the items found above, the recipe for the Staff of Herding, and 50,000 gold. (at blacksmith)
• Take the staff to the open red glowing crevasse on Old Tristram Road in Act 1, use the staff and accept the quest. (Follow right side up Tristram Road)

How to uninstall FlyVPN

Recently I discovered FlyVPN was still on my computer after seeing it in the bottom right of the screen on the network icon. It was a selectable connection and there seemed no way to remove it, the only option was to connect to it. Having already run the uninstall that came with the program I had assumed it was gone completely this was sadly not the case. To fully remove simply do the following:

Open network and sharing center, this can be done quickly be using the network icon at bottom right of your screen.

On left side of the window click on Change adpater settings. You should see FlyVPN, simply delete it and FlyVPN will be completly gone. This of course assuming you have also uninstalled the program using the normal methods.

Hope this helped.

Unable to connect to the service or the connection was interrupted. (Error 3003)

Players trying to play the Diablo 3 beta are receiving this error when trying to play "Unable to connect to the service or the connection was interrupted. (Error 3003) "

This just means the service is not available yet fear not.  The services will be turned on today 20th April at 3.00pm EDT which is 8.00 GMT.

UPDATED


If you are seeing Error 3003 click on Options and change your region to 'The Americas'. The open beta is on US servers only.

Unable to update BF3 after recent update? Here is your fix.

People are having issues updating to the latest Battlefield 3 patch for some reason the process of updating does not start automatically on the Origin Launcher. To fix this simply log in to origin and right click the Battlefield 3 icon, select "check for update" and your fixed.

If this does not work for any reason try closing your browser and origin and then load up origin first and repeat the process.

Hope this helped.

Spend your GAME Reward points while you can

Now that GAME has suspended share trading "pending clarification of the company's financial position" its practically official that GAME are going to disappear. Even if the rumoured Comet chain buy out occurs there will be major repercussions to GAME customers.The share price of GAME closed at 2.39p having been 62p the year before.

I would highly recommend you do not trade in any games as GAME will not honour reward card points if they go into administration, this has been proven with the countless other business's that have disappeared over the last few years taking customers hard earned reward points with them.

I actually hope GAME goes and goes soon they have had the complete UK market under their finger for years and have done nothing but abuse the power being greedy. They have aggressively damaged the games industry by pushing pre owned sales over new copies taking money directly off  game developers to aid their own greed.

From my own experience with GAME whom I have used alot I have seen them slack massively this year, my issues include:

•  They changed the emails they send out with orders which are now totally unclear and borderline unprofessional compared with a company like Amazon. 
• They stopped dispatching games before release date, before last year i got all my pre orders the day before release, this year I got three different games 2-3 days after the official release date.
• No online customer service, I say none because I have never had a reply from games customers service. I used their online form on 5 occasions and never received a response to important issues I had had. One issue being me unable to purchase off the website as my address was apparently wrong, yet was unchanged. This thankfully fixed its self but took over 2 weeks to resolve.

If you fancy bargains by the way, I visited GAME recently and they are having massive price drops in everything. To give you an idea I found several games under a pound, some sonic game was 29p. They were even selling pre owned games that had no box cover on so clearly clearing all types of stock they can. Just remember your GAME reward points wont be honoured down the road so spend them now.

Farewell GAME.co.uk you had your chance and you blew it, here's to hoping a better company takes your place.

Eve Online 21 Day Trial

Howdy, If you fancy trying out the amazing game that is Eve Online, I have 21 day trials to give out so you can spend an extra week playing for free as oppose to the default 14 day trial available on the official website.

Simply leave your email in the comments below and ill send one your way within 30 minutes assuming i'm not a sleep, anonymous posting permitted and comments are moderated so no emails will be published. Feel free to test this if your worried with a random post first.

Anyone who decides to purchase the game via my trial invite will receive 200 million in game isk so you can have plenty of spending money to get started.

What do I get out of this? A free month of game time assuming you play after the trial.

Any one who accepts the invite is welcome to free coaching in game whether they subscribe eventually or not.

Fly Safe.

http://www.eveonline.com/

EVE Online Standings with connections/diplomacy Calculator

You can use the below calculator to figure out how much of an impact getting the next level of connections or diplomacy will do to your current standings.


The bold number is what you change to your current effective standing.


level 1   10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.96 = 
level 2   10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.92 = 
level 3   10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.88 = 
level 4   10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.84 = 
level 5   10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.8 = 


So for example if you want to see what connections 3 gives you, copy and paste this into google


10 - (10 - 2.99) * 0.88 =


Google will report back with


10 - ((10 - 2.99) * 0.88) = 3.8312


Basically you will have 3.83 standing if you have connections level 3 and your current effecting standing is 2.99


Note eve may round up the number to next highest number so results may vary slightly.

Xbox360 Will not install game? hangs freezes etc

Recently my xbox 360 randomly refused to install final fantasy 13-2 for no apparent reason. Thankfully I have discovered an unusual fix to this most annoying of issues.

This issue is the process of installing the game never starts, it just hangs, the disk does not spin and the process stays at 0%. I can confirm its safe to just hit the off button and do the below fix. (nothing else you can do as the back button (pressing b) does not work.

To fix this issue simply log out of xbox live and install the game, job done, log back in and enjoy a great game of whatever :)

Hope this helped.

Battlefield 3 Joining Server Fix

To fix the problem of being unable to connect to Battlefield 3 servers due to Joining to Server bug, where by you never actually connect to a server. To fix you simply close browser fully and log out of origin, then attempt again.

To avoid this occurring in the first place use the server browser NOT match making.

Minecraft 1.1 Patch Notes

Here are the patch notes for the Minecraft 1.1 update, this is the best update ever.

• Bow Enchantments 
• Golden Apple recipe
• New language translations.
• Slightly smoothed color transitions between biomes
• Reduced brewing time to 20 seconds
• Added spawn eggs to creative (the colors of the eggs even look like the mobs)
• Added world type options (currently only super-flat and default)
• Removed collision box from ladders
• Sheep eat grass and regain their wool

Apparently bug fixes to.

Now go spawn 500000 creepers and blow them up, yes yes you can finally do this!!!!