1/4/2024 0 Comments Antique brass coffee tablesYou can specify which day (Monday to Friday) and whether you prefer an AM or PM delivery window so the service is very flexible. When it is received by your local depot they will contact you by phone or email to arrange a delivery day and time. a) Pallet Service from UPN or Palletforce When items are dispatched on a pallet we will notify you that your item is on its way to you. Please specify delivery service preference upon checkout. For delivery quotes to Scotland & Europe please Contact Us prior to purchase. £75 NB 2 options listed below (a+b) Items that qualify for £75 delivery will be sent to England and Wales delivery addresses securely on a Pallet OR with a Man & Van courier. We also use this method for Express Delivery. Items will be packaged using recyclable materials whenever possible but will not be waterproof. If you are not in when the courier attempts delivery they will leave a card for you to contact them to arrange a 2nd delivery attempt or to take with you to collect your item from their local depot. Items will require a signature for delivery. You will be notified of dispatch of your item within 1-2 working days and be provided with a consignment number by which you can track your item online. Please get in touch prior to puchase for a quote to the Highlands and Islands and the rest of Europe. Free Delivery Overnight Parcel With UPS or APC Couriers Items that qualify for Free Delivery will be sent with UPS or APC parcel couriers to UK mainland only. If you would like to collect an item from our warehouse that's also fine. We will give you a call to fix up a convenient day & time. We are based in Cornwall and offer free delivery to TR (Truro) postcodes excluding the Isles of Scilly on all of our products. Free Local Delivery to TR postcodes excluding the Isles of Scilly. We ask that you satisfy yourself to the condition of the item upon delivery and before signing for any goods and the departure of delivery drivers / couriers. (Please see Delivery Services 2 & 3a for how your item would be dispatched). We can get items to you as fast as the next working day on orders placed before 12pm but please call with your postcode first to confirm item eligibilty and get a quote to your area. We are also able to offer Express Delivery to England & Wales on most of our products. Delivery We have a 4 tier, standard flat rate delivery pricing system to cover delivery of all of our products to England & Wales but if you would like a quote to Scotland, the Highlands & Islands, the rest of Europe or have any special requirements please Contact Us prior to purchase.
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1/4/2024 0 Comments Killzone shadow fall ps4 proMany levels are far more open now, affording options for stealth as well as straight out corridor blasting, and the player now gets to use an “OWL,” a drone companion that hacks terminals, creates a personal shield, acts like grapple hook gun or straight up shoots at enemies. The single player campaign is largely good it’s still got a bit of that weighty feel that is the signature of Killzone controls, but it mixes up the traditional gameplay with a lot of new additions. And here, Shadow Fall is a mix of uneven single player that’s partnered with a very strong multiplayer component. On the whole, this is a game that you want to load up and show off as demo material when people ask “So how do PS4 games look?”īut the real heart of any game is the game itself. Yes, it’s 1080p, yes the frame rate is a pretty consistent 30 fps, though it’s not perfect, with some occasional frame hiccups and pop in here and there, but it’s pretty rare. Guerilla Games made their art team watch Alien, Blade Runner and Legend then made sure their lighting team got certified by Ridley Scott’s School Of Shafting Lights and set them loose on the game. Keep in mind it’s a launch title, so games three or four years down the road will blow this away, but for now, this is the best looking first person shooter out on consoles right now. Does Shadow Fall show off what the PS4 can do? The answer is YES. The story occasionally becomes interesting, but that’s despite the Killzone legacy, not because of it.īut first, let’s get the big launch question out of the way. The not-subtle-at-all parallels between West/East Berlin and the post-WWII division of spoils continues with some genuinely interesting moral ambiguity that’s let down by the fact that this is a new team of writers trying to deal with the mess left by previous teams of writers on earlier games. With the Helghan home-world bombarded with radiation and rendered uninhabitable, the Vektan winners offer to let the defeated survivors live on Vekta itself, dividing the capital city in half and putting up a big wall. For those that are still trying to follow the turns and counter-turns, Guerilla has gone all Cold war-era as form of narrative short-hand for Shadow Fall. The story is just another addition to a pile that’s gotten progressively messier with each outing. Shadow Fall manages to succeed, at its goal, but it’s not going to turn the world upside down the way Halo. That’s a lot of responsibilities for a new game, even if it’s part of an established franchise. It’s in the same position as Resistance was back in 2006, having to trot itself out as both a showcase for shiny new hardware, while trying to establish itself as a credible series for a new generation. 1/4/2024 0 Comments Mutual of omaha hoaIf you have not registered for your community portal then you will need to register by clicking ‘initial login’ under the SBBGo login area. If you have any questions or need assistance with the Mutual of Omaha website, please call 1-86.Ģ.Pay online at To pay online using this option you can enter your login information and once you arrive at your community portal you can click on ‘My Account’ from the menu and then click on ‘Pay Now’ which will take you to the payment site (Paylease). IMPORTANT- please be aware that you will be responsible for making any changes due to increase/decrease in assessments, sale of property or expiration of credit/debit card, etc. Then choose the recurring payment option. To do so you must first create an account. Recurring Payments - You can also set up recurring payments. Paying by eCheck is $1.95, paying with a Credit or Debit card incurs a processing fee (disclosed on website). Once you fill out the required information you can choose if you want to make the payment by eCheck or with a Credit or Debit Card. To make a One-Time transaction, fill in all of the required information – It will ask for (3) sets of numbers which are located on the bottom edge of your statement, coupon or Reminder. Click here for instructions on how to make an online payment.Īt this time, SBB Management Company offers the following payment options:ġ.Pay with Mutual of Omaha Bank online at When you pay online at Mutual of Omaha Bank you can make a One-Time payment by clicking ‘Pay Now’. PC death squads aside ( a fix is in the works), we’re pleased to see a retro online component retained in a modern port. However, the inclusion of different stances and lightsaber hilts – which actively adjust your overall movement and position – does help add some much-needed strategy to the campaign if you’re willing to spend the time to learn their nuances. Playing the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order shows just how far we’ve come in terms of melee finesse, and while it is possible to ‘master’ the slash and pray combat model, it’s a tough ask when you trade the greater control of a mouse for the far less responsive analogue sticks of the Joy-Cons – an issue that’s been made very apparent since PC players recently found a way to access Switch servers, creating a crossplay bloodbath in multiplayer where non-keyboard and mouse players regularly paid with their virtual lives. You can choose to follow the Dark Side or the Light, and your choices will affect the game’s ending in true Jedi Knight fashion.Ĭombat is quite clumsy, but then again, that was part of its charm back in the day. The plot itself isn’t the best the series has ever achieved (Jedi Knight’s wonderfully corny FMV scenes will forever wear that crown), but it does feature a huge variety of levels, many of which offer more than one way to approach a mission. While not being able to play as series antihero Kyle Katarn is still a bit a letdown after so many years battling the Sith (or joining them, depending on your Force persuasions), having the opportunity to play as a brand new character does make more sense as you, Luke and co head out into the galaxy to uncover a new Sith plot while fighting off the ever-present Imperial Remnant. It’s a simple RPG addition, but it immediately helps Jedi Academy feel a little more personable back when multiplayer gaming and online avatars were becoming more and more prevalent. You can even start off by customising the look of your lightsaber and the colour of its blade. So instead of a gruff, beardy human, you can select from a number of different species, genders and outfits. Unlike the previous games, the customisation of online and local play influenced the core story, trading series antihero Kyle Katarn for a fresh Force-sensitive progeny. That mode is fully present on Switch, but before we get into that feature, let’s take a look at the campaign. That’s right – Jedi Academy proved to be a real treat both on PC and the original Xbox (back when Xbox Live was still a bright young thing) with its own support for multiplayer. Much like Jedi Outcast, Jedi Academy benefits from improved visuals, modernised controls (including motion, naturally) and support for online multiplayer. The Jedi Knight franchise (and its more traditional FPS progenitor, Dark Forces) was one such bountiful series, culminating in the expansive and varied action-adventure, Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy in 2003.įast-forward 17 years and the journey of young padawan Jaden Korr has been ported over to Nintendo Switch, following in the footsteps of the game’s direct predecessor, Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. And while that did mean we were ‘treated’ to the likes of Star Wars: Demolition and Kinect Star Wars, it also meant the long-defunct LucasArts produced some of the best genre-crossing gems of the ‘90s and the ‘00s. Years ago, when the Star Wars franchise wasn’t under the world-dominating scrutiny of the House of Mouse, developers were farming out all games like no one’s business. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) 1/4/2024 0 Comments Diablo iv series“When a new season begins, all the characters from the prior season are moved to the Eternal Realm, where you can keep playing, leveling up, and collecting loot,” Diablo IV‘s game director Joe Shely said. Blizzard wants the seasons to be enjoyed by every player, independently of whether they bought items from the shop or not. The developers of Diablo IV have ambitious plans for the game’s seasons and will have a “large development team” dedicated to it after the launch. “Our goal in designing our in-game purchases is that we want to create beautiful things which add value to players’ experience of the game.” “As we’ve discussed previously, Diablo IV will be a full-price game with a Cosmetics Shop and Season Pass-none of which provide any pay-for-power options,” Clark said. Blizzard is focusing on creating “beautiful things,” meaning mere cosmetics, that will add value to the overall playing experience. Will Diablo IV be pay to win?ĭiablo IV will not be pay-to-win, according to the game’s director of product Kegan Clark. The developers of Diablo IV have answered that question in the third quarterly update of Diablo IV in 2022. The RPG genre is known for often offering shortcuts in exchange for real money for those who do not feel like grinding the game to level up their character, which left Diablo fans wondering if Diablo IV will be a pay-to-win game. Since Diablo IV’s official announcement, Blizzard has been dropping regular updates to the fan base, including gameplay and the microtransaction system that will be implemented. The new action role-playing game is set for release in 2023 for PC and consoles. Diablo IV, the fourth main installment of the Diablo series, has been in the works since 2019, according to what Blizzard Entertainment presented at BlizzCon 2019 in November. 1/3/2024 0 Comments Clustertruck app
When testing in a projector low-beam and a reflector high-beam, the results pretty much speak for themselves. So the question is our 100-watt halogen headlight bulbs brighter than LED headlight bulbs? The answer is no if you get the right ones. This comparison proves again that in a projector, a low-beam or a reflector high-beam LED can work. This Philips Rally Vision 100 watt halogen bulb comes in at a staggering 980 maximum lux, and the GTR Lighting Ultra 2 LED comes in at 1,980 max lux. Remember, this one is the brightest option from the previous test. This time we're going to do the high beam on a reflector-based Ford F-150 halogen headlight. To elaborate on this point, let's change headlight housings. We're proving a point that yes, some LED headlight bulbs don't work as well as the high-power halogen bulbs, but some do. Now we have the GTR Lighting Ultra 2 LED headlight bulb coming in at 745 maximum lux. This bulb has a crappy beam pattern and only comes in 250 maximum lux even after adjusting the bulb position to get the brightest beam pattern. Still, I think this is what the guys argue about when they say LED bulbs are worse than halogen because they probably bought something like this without ever researching or testing. I didn't think this one was going to be very good because I've tested it before. Now here's the Aurora LED headlight bulb. This is the Philips Rally Vision 100 watt HB3 9,005 bulb (below), part number 12359 RAC1 this is not a DLT approved headlight bulb, and it comes in at 690 maximum lux.įinally, a halogen bulb that does better than the original halogen bulb. The packaging claims that we can get up to 100% more brightness out of this headlight bulb, but I think it's more of a color gimmick tha n anything. Here we have the 65-watt Philips X-treme Vision HB3, and it comes in at 350 maximum lux. This bulb only comes in at 430 maximum lux, and there's a noticeable decrease in light output versus the regular 9,005 we just tested. Here we have the Philips HIR2 55 watt 9012 halogen headlight bulb (shown below). When we measure lux, it's at a certain point in space at a certain distance, and it's the usable intensity that you can see with your eyes. The reason we're measuring lux instead of talking about lumens is because we're looking for real-world output in a particular situation, not some theoretical number on the packaging. This result is typical for the brightness and beam pattern of what you'd expect with this setup. The benchmark for this test comes in at 550 maximum lux. We're going to test the first bulb in this Dodge Durango projector headlight is a Sylvania G 2312 60 watts 9,005 halogen bulb (shown below). With this test, we should get a pretty good idea of the capabilities of different types of LED bulbs versus their high-power halogen counterparts. Then, we're going to talk about the Aurora Flexible Heatsink bulb (below), which is more reminiscent of your standard bulb on the generic side of things in the industry. Then we're going to compare all the halogens to a couple of LED options.įirst, we're going to start with a very well-known option, the GTR Lighting Ultra 2 (below), which routinely comes in as bright as a 55 watt HID. One of these options is going to perform better than stock. We've got the Philips 9,005 HB2 Rally Vision, 100-watt halogen bulb (shown above), and the Philips 9005 X-treme Vision, 65-watt halogen bulb (shown below). The HR2 is a halogen infrared light bulb generally expected to be brighter than a regular halogen. Then we're going to look at the first basic halogen upgrade, an HR2, also known as a 9012. This bulb is what you can expect out of your car right off the lot. Nothing special about it, and probably used. So, this is how t his test is going to go.įirst, we're going to start with the original 60 watts (below), 9,005 halogen bulb that comes off your vehicle from the factory. Today we're going to look at a couple of off-the-shelf halogen products from Philips that claim to be brighter than the stock bulb. When it comes to plug-and-play light bulbs, though, sometimes you might want to go to a cheaper option. There are even total assembly replacements. You can do a set of halogen bulbs that are more expensive, brighter, and consume more energy than your original halogen bulbs, you can upgrade to an HID conversion kit in a plug-and-play style, you can do a LED headlight bulb, and of course, there are projector retrofits. Generally speaking, when you want to upgrade your headlight bulbs, you've got a few different options. Note: We’ll discuss more in our character creation guide, as well as our class guides for the Cleric, Paladin, Ranger, and Wizard. There’s even a small box that you can tick if you wish to max out the entire stat line. You can either use dice rolls or manually assign points. The game will even inform you which stats are best for a certain class. Lastly, do take note of the stats/attributes such as strength, dexterity, constitution, and the like. Simply put, personalities will just govern a character’s disposition when speaking or during idle banter. These don’t necessarily pigeonhole you into a particular alignment (i.e., Lawful Neutral), and you won’t experience something akin to companions leaving if they don’t like your actions. The two elves and the dwarf were actually very instrumental since they have Darkvision (I’ll explain a bit more in our combat guide).Īpart from spells, proficiencies, classes, and the like, you may also select a character’s personality type. In my case, my party was comprised of a Human Paladin (Oath of Tirmar), a Hill Dwarf Cleric (Law), a High Elf Wizard (Shock Arcanist), and a Sylvan Elf Ranger (Hunter). Likewise, you’ll want peeps who are good with lockpicking and crafting. Ideally, you should have at least one character who can tank the hits, another who can provide healing, and a couple who are reliable damage dealers. You can choose the pre-generated or premade characters that are already in the system, or you can create your own warriors from scratch. Solasta: Crown of the Magister requires you to have a party of four characters. Solasta: Crown of the Magister – Beginner’s guide and starter tipsĬreating your characters and building your party You may also take a look at our crafting/faction vendors guide and combat/stealth guide. Note: For more information, check out our Solasta: Crown of the Magister guides and features hub. Here’s our beginner’s guide to help you out in Solasta: Crown of the Magister. Evidently, you’ll engage countless foes in battle, all while trying to manage your party of four. If it doesn't work then they may have to fight, but it is always worth the effort.Solasta: Crown of the Magister takes you on a lengthy adventure through various towns, ruins, dungeons, and mage towers. Much of the time the player can use the character with the most Charisma to defuse a situation and not have to fight at all. This is the same in Solasta where there are quite a few different combat encounters that can be more easily solved by having a conversation with the offending party. This is a recipe for disaster that will more than likely lead to an entire party getting killed. Not Everything Is A Fight - A big mistake that a lot of rookie 5e players make is to try and kill everything they meet. This means that the player shouldn't try to pick a lock using their Fighter with no Dexterity, but should instead task the Rogue with a +6 to that specific skill. The best thing to do is to use a character to perform actions that they are already good at to increase the chances of success. Every important action in the game will require a dice roll, which means that failure can happen at any time. Play To Your Party's Strengths - Every class and character will be better at different activities in the game, and so it is best to always play to a character's specific strengths and avoid their weaknesses. Before selling a seemingly worthless item a player should always identify it first to see if it's better to keep or at least increase the amount of gold that they will receive for it. This will alter the weapon's stats and increase its value exponentially. When a hidden item is acquired it will have a question mark on it and will appear to be a cheap item worth little gold, but by casting a spell like Detect Magic on it the player can uncover its secret properties. Try to sell off unwanted items or transfer heavy items to burlier characters like a Fighter or Paladin.Īlways Identify Unknown Objects - One mechanic that isn't explained very well is that some items can be identified using magic spells, and doing so can uncover some extremely powerful items. Being encumbered causes a character to move slower and affects their ability to sneak around. This means that weaker characters can carry less weight, and therefore must be monitored more often. Depending on the difficulty level this system will work a little differently, but either way inventory limits are tied directly to a character's strength stat. Watch Your Inventory - One very important thing for players to do as well as keep an eye on their inventory to ensure that their characters don't become over-encumbered. DT ultimately showed itself to be both constricting and superfluous. When I outgrew Journler (and you always outgrow these packages, always, eventually, each and every one, no mater what the developer says about capacity and growth potential when you sign on) I transitioned to a beast of an application called DEVONThink. From the transition I got a fairly fixed TXT/RTF/RTFD/HTML set of documents, augmented with some PDFs, various image and audio files. Primarily the import to Journler standardized all my file formats. Journler allowed me to think of my infobase as a structured whole, rather than as disparate segments, and it prompted me to habitualize the process of capturing and synthesizing the random bits of data flowing past my writing desk every day. Surveying the field I adopted two, Journler and DEVONThink, after I demoed a dozen more (and did this all, probably, while I should have been writing).įirst, I poured all my notes into Journler, a fabulous but sadly abandoned gem of a program. IT Architects like to call collections like this, “unstructured infobases” and there are lots of programs around – variously called information managers, PIMs, or Everything Buckets – to help manage them. I scrounged up the old data folders, consolidated them and began the search for a system to manage it all. Making sense of it changed from deferrable issue to current todo because someone told me that note taking, journaling they called it, and, crucially, retrieving said notes so they could actually be used, was a key skill for a writer. All of a sudden this hoard of electronic chaff became a mineable resource. But I carefully saved them all ‘cause I was sure that someday, somehow, I’d use them. There were text files, doc files, files with extensions I had forgotten from applications I’d forgotten – all kinds of electronic exotica. There were emails from Outlook, emails from Lotus Notes, stuff from an HP95LX, an HP200LX and a number of Palms. There were files from an outliner app called Think Tank, and others from an outliner called Outliner. There was text in Lotus 123 files, and Excel spreadsheets. The result was a pile of notes that collected then collapsed into a mish-mash of various file types, in different formats, with incompatible structures, all strewn about various locations on multiple generations of mediums.įor example, in my notes folders I had files produced by AmiPro, WordStar, WordPerfect, Commence, Ecco Pro, and Word. Technology over this time period has been about as fickle as a saloon girl after a roundup, so I’ve used almost every type of system that’s been rolled out since the green screen VAX I played with in 1983. Then came the revolution, and before too long I got with the program, moved on to the electronics, and started typing up all kinds of stuff in all kinds of applications. And I was born long before these cool PC/Mac thing’ies became ubiquitous, so my earliest notes were written on the best technology of the day: paper. I’ve been keeping notes and journals for as long as I can remember. 1/3/2024 0 Comments Virgin diarieThe three female roommates in the pilot episode share their ideal men: the Viking, the rock star and the boreal forest beach mountain man, while the pitiable Carey, a 35 year-old who has kissed two women in his life, is quoted saying, “I want to have sex. PopWatch pointed out that the show purposefully features scenes of a set of roommates interacting with their cat “in a not-so-subtle illusion to the cat-lady spinster stereotype,” and infantilizes the soon-to-be newlyweds Ryan and Shanna by setting a scene on a playground. However, rather than approaching the topic in a thoughtful manner, “Virgin Diaries” places its characters in puerile, derisory light. This was all part of Nightline’s series “Modern Sex in America.” }Nightline” host Terry Moran described the 30 year-old virgin as seeming not only exceptional, but in a way, revolutionary, and he says the number of these “sex dissenters” are growing. Which is counterintuitive, when you look at how much sex has permeated American culture. The funny fact, it turns out, is that it is: according to ABC News’ Nightline, 27 percent of men and 29 percent of women consider themselves virgins, and the number of virgins between the ages 15 and 24 has increased in recent years. I mean, reality TV has gotten its hands on pretty much every topic imaginable - so why not unclaimed adult virginity? Seems like a broadcast-worthy matter. It seemed like one of those seminal life moments that’s interesting to follow for TLC.” As their west coast vice president of production Timothy Kuryak put it, “Losing one’s virginity is a big life decision. They must have done some lengthy digging to find Ryan and Shanna in order to serve up a hearty serving of second hand embarrassment.īut TLC defends the program, saying that they are showcasing something that can be celebrated. The show is about adult virgins, and features a slew of people in the upper unmarried age range who have remained celibate, whether by choice or by circumstance. Not worth the wait.”īut the hype around this extraordinary kiss is not only exaggerative and exploitative but also misleading. Ellen, any wise words? “Dear Diary: today I had my first kiss. His reaction: “Really?” It was, after all, his first kiss. In reality? Ryan, 31, was given permission to kiss his bride. One YouTube commenter quipped: “Ryan, you may now eat your bride.” Instead, we’re left with lots of clips - most of them zooming back to that nightmarish kiss. Whether the season has since continued remains unclear, and a full episode of the show is nowhere to be found online. Why so notable? This kiss, which ABC’s Nightline tagged as “one of the most cringe-worthy kisses in television history” has served as the shocking selling point for TLC’s new program, “The Virgin Diaries.” According to its website, “Virgin Diaries takes you inside the lives of adult virgins who reveal the challenges, truths, and anticipations of losing their virginity.” It premiered Sunday, December 4. That’s Ellen DeGeneres, responding to couple Ryan and Shanna’s wedding kiss. |
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