I took the plunge about a month ago and decided to pick up a Turtle Beach X41 wireless headset to use with my XBox 360. I’d always read good things about Turtle Beach products and thought I would give them a try. My previous headset was a Sharkoon XTatic 5.1, which had served me well for a number of years, although I never did get on with routing the voice chat and game sound through this set. I had my fingers crossed that the X41 would do exactly what I felt the XTatic didn’t. I wasn’t disappointed.

This is a preview of Mini-Review: Turtle Beach X41 Headset. Read the full post...

So I’m guessing that most of you know what writer’s block is (that feeling of not knowing what to write about next). I used to think that it was only something that author’s were struck down with. Then I came to realise that it also affects bloggers, in fact anyone who writes about anything. Then I figured why should it only affect writers, why can it not affect everyone who creates something? And the penny dropped…

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So the time has come (again) for me to write a post about the fact that I want to start writing again but don’t have the time. I’ve also been struck down with another problem that has prevented me writing (but will in fact make up the subject of my next post) which is writer’s block. I undoubtedly don’t have the time to write as much as I used to, but I should at least be able to find the time to write a post a week (or thereabouts). I can’t promise anything, but that is what I’m aiming for. Fingers crossed I’ll manage, and thanks for sticking with me through thin and thinner (in terms of content anyway!!).

Well what a few days I’ve had! A few weeks ago I took the plunge and did a clean install of Windows 7 Home Premium (from my MSDN subscription) on my Gateway laptop. Went without a hitch and the laptop is now happily running Windows 7 goodness. So this week I took the deeper plunge, and decided to install it on my desktop. I’m currently running Vista Ultimate on there, and wanted to go to Windows 7 Ultimate (again from MSDN), however I wanted to do this as an upgrade as there was too much installed on my desktop that I didn’t want the hassle of re-installing. Now if only things had gone as smoothly as they did with the laptop…

This is a preview of Windows 7 install fun – UPDATED. Read the full post...

In my years as an MMORPG gamer, one thing has survived across all the games that I’ve played. The fact that, at some point, sooner or later, I get itchy feet. And I’m sure I’m not the only one! My first MMORPG was Earth and Beyond. With hindsight it was primitive, and actually quite dull. But at the time it was fantastic. A game in space, with all these other real people! What fun. I remember just after I signed up and was accepted onto the Earth and Beyond beta, I read an article in Edge magazine about a successor to the E’n'B crown. A space game that was so vast and gave you so many opportunities that it couldn’t possibly fail. That game? Eve.

This is a preview of My Massively Multiplayer Life. Read the full post...

Right, first off, this isn’t one of my usual posts. It’s not one of my sarcastic/critical/mindless postings, but something that I’ve been thinking about posting for a while as a cautionary tale. It will also contain some details of my life before becoming the Psychotic Monkey and will give a little insight as to how I’ve turned out today.

When I was younger (about 12) I went to a secondary school (as most 12 year olds do). Whilst there in Year 1(Year 7 they call it nowadays), everyone was offered the chance to take extra-curricular music lessons in an instrument of their choice. Lots of us signed up across various different instruments, everything from the flute to the drums. Me, I went for the drums (as they sounded fun and a bit more practical than a wind or brass instrument).

This is a preview of Carpe Diem. Read the full post...

So in a throwback to the past (here), I need to use a quote from part one in this series… “So in the roller-coaster world that comes with being a Newcastle United fan, there are some things you think will never happen, but secretly hope that they do.” Today is another one of those days. As always happens with stories which surface on April 1st, you have to wonder who has dreamt them up. But it seems that Alan Shearer is coming home. It appears that Mike Ashley has managed to pull of a coup to equal that of the signing of Kevin Keegan. He’s now managed to convince Alan Shearer to come back and try and dig us out of the hole that we’re in.

This is a preview of God on the Tyne (part 2). Read the full post...

No seriously. Ok, not the ex-leper bit, but the sparing a shekel bit. I’ve decided that I’d jump on the bandwagon of asking for money via the internet, but with me there is no catch, and I will deliver on what I promise… No really I will. Send me some money and, if I reach my target, then I’ll prove it to you.

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It’s not often you see gaming mentioned on the pages of the BBC News website, and even rarer that said games aren’t something to do with either Halo or World of Warcraft! However, cue the story of deception, lying and theft in Eve Online (here). It appears that, in a move which has outraged some players, and left others applauding loudly, large sums of money have been stolen by certain players from the corporations that they were members of. In one case, all the assets of the corporation, along with even the name, have been taken by one disgruntled director, and transferred to the corporation that he has joined. All fun and games you’d think. But some people disagree.

This is a preview of Crime on a galactic scale. Read the full post...

So I’ve been trying to install some software on a copy of Vista Enterprise here at Monkey Inc. Problem is, with some software, whenever I try an install, I get an error 1327, invalid drive m:/. Seems some install programs don’t like the fact that I have a mapped m drive onto a central file store. A search of the knowledge base at MSDN didn’t do anything in terms of resolving this, however a quick Google did.

This is a preview of Vista and error 1327. Read the full post...