And now for somthing completely different... Sparta.

Greetings everyone, sorry for the less than usual updates unfortunately my computer has been rather poorly as of late but now its back on its feet and ready to bring completely unusual and bizarre information to the masses via blogs just such as this one. (A complete lie there, this is the second time of writing this blog since my computer decided to die while typing 10 minutes ago.)

But hey ho, since I've actually had a while to think about this, rather than just jumping around on popular culture and video games, let's get a bit historical (Dont worry there will still be plently of shenanigans along the way.)

Hop in the DeLorean and backtrack all the way to 650bc and onwards, chances are if fate dumps you in the area of Greece you will probably hear somthing about some chaps called the Spartans or Lakonians if they are speaking in the native tongue.

 

 

What the musical with John Travolta had to do with this I'll never know.

In a nutshell the Spartans were hilariously good at beating up everyone around them and taking their nicest things. What they lacked in numbers they made up for in superious weapons, training and tactics.

Now don't get me wrong, despite their massive military prowess the Spartans were most certainly not barbarians, for example, Spartan women could own and inheret land something very uncommon for the era, they also had (albeit limited) say in how the country was ran and its politics.

Unfortunately... or fortunately depending on whose side you were on, the Spartans could never really follow a dream of world domination, VERY long story short, they simply did not have enough guys.

You see for a Spartan it was pretty tough straight out the starting gate, when they were born they were examined for any symptoms of physical or mental disability, if they showed any sign of being weaker than the rest of the pack they were left in the fields to either die, or be taken on by the locals as farmhands and such.

Assuming they passed the first test, at the age of 7 Spartan boys were sent to the Agoge, a military training school where they were taught everything from stealth and assassination, to pain tolerance and brutal close quarters combat.

Girls had a slightly easier ride, when they turned 7 they were taught arts, culture and diplomacy, they also threw in some sports and gymnastics to keep the ever famous Spartan competitive spirit alive, and as with the boys they were taught in military tactics and some combat training.

Anyway I have gone waaaaay over my word limit for this blog, so I will have to call it a day for now, tune in next time to read about the Spartans finest hour and the famous 300.

If you'd like to see the closest possible thing to REAL LIFE Spartans, why not check out this re-enactment group http://www.facebook.com/SpartaMora lots of wonderful pictures depicting Spartan life.

And contanct info if you'd like to get involved.

This blog has been a MeTimeGifts presentation.

MeTime 'Gaming on a Budget 2'

Hello again everyone sorry for the delay in blogs, recently on top of my regular duties of selling fantastic hand made soap and lovingly wrapping them in wrapping paper made of love and wrapping, I have been purging the unclean and smiting the heretics as I have got a full copy of Warhammer 40.000 Space Marine. (Review coming soon don't you worry.)

But right now it's time one again for me to show you the not-so expensive side of gaming, while still getting some quality titles under your belt.

Ah quality... such a nice word.
In PC gaming terms 'Quality' was pretty much copyrighted in 1993 with Id software's release of the game DooM (disclaimer the term 'quality' has never been copyrighted and never will.)

Of course everybody knows DooM, and chances are if you know DooM you know it's good old buddy Quake.

Quakes' claim to fame (or infamy whatever) has always been DeathMatch, while it always existed in DooM since the Internet was still in its infancy, it wasn't really practical to play unless you had a LAN connection (Basically multiple machines connected through a string of cables)

The idea of DeathMatching against your friends and neighbors instead of just blowing away demons and aliens, became so popular it spawned its own convention known as QuakeCon, a place people could go and play MASSIVE LAN games with no lag or slowdown and enjoy every second of it.

Fast forward a few years and although Internet gaming has improved to the point where LAN games aren't nearly as important, QuakeCon is still going strong.

Now I know what you're thinking... "But incredibly wise, handsome, and all round cool blogger... what does this have to do with free gaming? All of the Quake titles are retail aren't they?"

Well young/old/alien reader... you would be right, and oh so wrong.

Woudln't it be amazing if we could just frag opponents through our browser for free... no discs... no other programs... running in the background at work. (Remind me to delete that one.)

Well guess what... YES WE CAN.   (Please read this in the voice of Barack Obama.)

Quake LIVE, is a free online browser based game, which is basically all the best bits of the Quake online modes, thrown together.

With this wonderful title, it can be QuakeCon everyday, and for newcomers to the Quake games, there is a handy tutorial system that will teach you everything from moving forwards and backwards, to rocket jumping like the Quake Pro's of the olden days.

Installation is dead simple, just head over to http://www.quakelive.com install the browser plugin, make your account and off you go. (Don't worry it's all very simple, and they'll guide you through it.)

There are premium options, such as new maps, dedicated server spots and other goodies, but although they certainly add spice, non of them are needed to enjoy the game.

Well that's me done for another day, and to you my good readers... I'll see you in the arena.

(And to all those who just stepped out of a match, why not freshen yourself up for the next round of carnage with a little something from MeTimeGifts)

MeTime hints 'Gaming on a budget.'

Hello everyone, as you all know here at Me Time Gifts we value the time to spend on yourself and on a hobby.

Also being Stan of StansDiscountBargains, I can understand that a lot of hobbies can be expensive and in todays very economically fragile world, we all want to save a little money.
So in this series of blogs, I shall be highlighting free games that are high quality and may have slipped under the radar, remember you don't need to shell out £40 for every new release to be a good gamer.

First up on our list is a rather special title, since I know everyone and their dog uses facebook these days I thought it would be a good start.

Dungeon Overlord, is a free facebook game in which you take control of a dark-lord building a dungeon within a mountain of evil, the objective of the game is to expand you dungeon(s) so you can amass resources and monsters, so you may raid and pillage towns and cities on the surface, and even other dungeons.

Overall the game is rather pretty, the environments are bright and vibrant and it has a wonderful art style where its not too realistic, yet not too happy-go-lucky cartoony.

Slight health and saftey issue with lava everywhere.

 Gameplay takes oh-so many pages out of the Dungeon Keeper games, which is every good, anyone who is familiar with those games, or similar titles such as Theme-Park or Theme-Hospital, will feel right at home.

The core meat of the game is expanding you dungeon with different rooms to achieve goals, for example you need a den for your creatures to sleep in, once you build a den monsters will start arriving and working for you.
If you build a library you will start gaining research points which you can spend on new technology to build more rooms that do different things.

The only annoying thing about this game is it's time sink mechanic and to be honest its not that bad.
Unlike games like Dungeon Keeper, resources will not be taken to your store room by themselves, when your minions mine some gold or harvest some food you will need to click on it to send it to your  store room and they cant put anymore resources on the ground until you do.

Basically this means, that when you log off for the day, your minions will continue to mine and craft, but they will leave their creations all over the floor, and until you order them to take it all to the store room, they will not mine or craft any more items.

Obviously this slightly annoying mechanic is a throwback to say Farmville, in which you have to log on at different times in the day to harvest crops etc. To be honest it isn't too bad, and it is satisfying coming to your dungeon 5 hours later, and seeing a horde of gold for the taking.

All in all it's a good game to have running in the background while you're working (heck I have it running in the background as we speak)

And (even though I wouldn't recommend it) it's a good game to be playing at work since it's rather low maintenance, and it might help you blow off some steam if you think your boss... might in fact be an Evil Dungeon Overlord.

Until next time, have a good weekend everybody.

MeTime Gifts... not just for soap?

Why hello everyone, so glad you could read this blog today because we have a special announcement.


MeTime Gifts the company that brought you copious amounts of amazing handmade soaps and bath bombs at fantastic prices, is now the proud owner of a new Ebay account!

StansDiscountBargains is all the brilliant things about MeTime (Customer care, quick posting, quality items, handsome blog writer) yet with a different product.

But hark I do hear the children sing... "But what does StansDiscountBaragins(tm) sell?"

To that I answer this... whatever fantastic savings we find in our day to day life.

If we see a bargain we shall grab it and pass the savings on to you on our ebay page...

So what are you waiting for, check out all the wonderful offers to be found at StansDiscountBargains! (Check back often, we'll always be putting on new stock.)

Just remeber where you got it... STANS!