welcome to the unknown realms of aaron.

If you haven’t already, please read parts 1 and 2 and if you want more info, come back here.
In this part is where I’m going to go through every section in much more in-depth detail. If you intend on going, don’t read this unless you absalutely want the surprises spoiled before you go.

The crypt of all hallow’s church:
The crypt keeper asks everyone to gather round then introduces himself. For 2011, this part was slightly changed for halloween. He described the story of Stingy Jack. He was a trickster, he even tricked the devil himself. He climbed a tree and tied rope round it so the devil couldn’t get down. He then asked the devil to not take his soul when he died. When the devil promised to do so, jack freed him. When he died, the devil gave Jack an ember to light his way, allowing him to escape from hell. However, Jack wasn’t so fortunate, as the grim reeper appeared to him and snatched his head!
note: this is not the exact word of the keeper, but it’s the basic idea.
He then tells us to move on and to beware. We then enter…

The Laberynth of the Lost

This is a mirror maze. We all ended up wondering around, getting loost, and about halfway round we encountered a skeleton thing trying to get out of a gate. This is an anamatronic. There was also something banging about that we couldn’t see. It might have been an actor hiding! Eventually a bell is heard, and, following it, we see a woman, who leeds us into the next area. (incidentally, it turned out that this woman was visually impaired, as I ended up saying I was totally blind and dad wanted to reassure her that I wasn’t taking the mickey. When we ended up catching up with her it turned out that yes, she even had a cane. I ended up asking about bedlam as I was a bit scared of it. Then we moved on, me feeling rather inspired, and this was actually a highlight as a result, who knows I may end up acting some day…

Great fire of london

In this room is a video screen describing the fire in a documentary style, and at the end smoke comes into the room and you can smell it. you then move on.

Extreme Surgury

Here, an audience member is selected while some violin music plays. Then a video starts, describing how some surgeans turned to the black market to get more bodies to disect and gain knowledge (seriously? knowledge? what the heck?)
a light comes on revealing a body, and the actor starts pulling out the heart, intestines and bladder. yuck… Then it says that they sometimes operated on the living. The screen goes dark and you see the actor with an axe, and then air and water spray everywhere (presumerably, it’s ment to signify blood), the “paicient” ends up leaving first then we follow.

Torture chamber

We enter a room made up to look like newgate gaol (as spelt in the olden days). the torturer comes out a door and we are lead inside. Some vollenteers are picked and various instruments are “demonstrated” on them. Don’t worry, all dungeon vollenteers survive. There’s a thing that could rip your tongue out, and before they would use it they’d burn the device in cole, as the tongue is slippery… then there’s some other device where torturers would place it near the neck or something and eventually the brain would come out, but some would also place it where the sun doesn’t shine… then there’s the castraitor of balls… you can imagine what that does. ooooouuuuuch.
We move on and end up going to…

The Courtroom

An actress appears and states that we’re all going to be judged, then the judge himself appears. Audience members are called up, and everyone has to boo them, and then crimes are read, but they’re really light heartedly done so. This section was, as always, a good laugh. The funniest one was the third one, who, as soon as they said where they are from, the judge proclaimed them guilty! We are then told that we’d be going to traitor’s gate via boat, but before that we’d have to endure bedlam, which contains an “18th century strobe light”.

bedlam

it’s a jail, a zig-zagging line of bars. It’s dark. You’re going through not entirely sure what’s going to hapen, but you can hear this banging thing ing that’s loud. Going round the corner there’s the sound of heartbeats and screams as people are being scared by this banging thing. Then it turns out it’s someone using this chain thing rattling it and letting it drop down. Then you exit.

Traitor: boat ride to hell

You get into the boat and are asked to keep your arms and legs inside and not to stand up. The boat then moves off, with the sound of choir voices. This continues as you go past models of nooses and other dark stuff around you. Eventually you get to traitor’s gate itself and you hear the sound of it opening. It is then pitch black. You then end up climbing up a hill and can hear screams in the distance. Up at the top there’s a talking executioner model! It sounds like a pirate or something. It says something a bit like this… I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll have a go…
“A ha! Welcome to the tower! Now you’re all mine, and I’m gonna have some fun! You’re all crimonols and I hate you! There’s only one way out of the bloody tower, and it’s first cut! and there’s nothing you can do about it! I’m having a bad day, but it’s much more worse for you, so shift your stinking carcus! end of the line, prepare to die!” It is at this point where the plastic axe comes down and water squirts everywhere, dad got drenched, I got it in the head, and I got air jetted in the face! it then stops, and we all give a bit of a scream to try to scare the other group, as that’s what it turns out was what the screaming was earlier. Then the boat suddenly starts moving backwards and down some sort of drop. We then wait, and then a couple of actors appear and let us out the boat after around 20 seconds.

Sweeny Tod

We now stand outside ms lovet’s pie shop. An actor appears and says he works for her. He then shows us some pies and then asks if we know where they get the meat. He then explains about what sweeny tod’s job is as a barber, he’d give you a haircut and in those days would also pull out loose teeth with pliers.
He then says that sweeny may give us an appointment for free and he goes away to check if that’s the case. He then comes back and says that yes, he’ll see us. We then end up sitting in the barber room and the actor leaves. We then hear sweeny himself come in and he ends up going round the room to everyone, and neck things above start moving as he passes you. Eventually, it stops and suddenly, the chairs tilt backwards!
Then you hear the police who have come to arrest sweeny and ask us to leave so they can search the shop. It turns out that it wasn’t sweeny at all but just a speaker behind each seat. This means… binaural audio, surround sound.

Vengeance 5d

An actress introduces herself and explains that we’re about to enter the most haunted house of the age. Once inside we need protective glasses (obviously these are 3d) and we have weapons at our disposal just incase.
We then get our glasses, enter the room, sit down and put them on. I also got myself a pair just because I wanted to, I thought it’d be a bit of a laugh.
Then the attendant asks us to look in front of us, and there are some lap bars. We pull those down and the ride begins.
We are told to not be affraid and to not shoot as the firearms won’t harm the people currently speaking. This is, obviously, on a screen. Then the person goes into a trance and then warns us that the spirits are angry, and we draw our weapons. Then the ride starts spinning, not too fast, but fast enough that you can feel it. It then stops, and there are ghosts everywhere. Many screams were heard from our group! We blasted the ghosts for a while and then a franchinstein thing appeared, so we blasted that, then the ride span round again. Rats appeared and started squeaking at us, and air jets under the foot felt like they were running around us. We also got spat on by a demon! The thing then span round again, revealing snakes! Then the ride ended and the person from the first scene appeared again and says it’s time to leave, and the ride spins round one more time. so we’re facing the first screen, we lift up the bars, put the guns away and remove our glasses.

Jack the ripper

The first part is an actress describing some of the murders. You then enter a room where a documentary type thing plays describing each murder in more detail. After this a barmaid appears and invites us inside. We then enter the bar, complet with an open door that someone can close behind them, which we did. Inside the room she informs us it’s now 10 years after the ripper murders. The question remains, who is jack the ripper? is he still out there? suddenly a lamp smashes. The sound of thunder can be heard. She keeps on speaking, and eventually, a jet of air is sprayed and a light comes on revealing jack the ripper right near someone, and in this case, the members he was near jumped right back towards us, making dad laugh a lot. We then entered the next section.

Bloody Mary: Killer Queen

Someone from the group is chosen, tied to a fake burning post, and an actress tells us that if you support the queen, you’ll show it in her presence. An orchestral soundtrack then starts up and bloody mary appears on a screen, and starts talking about how she must change the ways of this country and how her people have risen up. She then says she must rid this country of heratics. the room fills with smoke and the sound of fire can be heard, and a burnt skeleton appears in the place where the audience member was. The funny thing was when we went out, the member who was picked was standing right behind us.

Extremis: drop ride to doom

This is the last section. An actor tells us that we’re the first to be hung outside the walls of newgate prison. So, we are taken into a room, with seats hanging off the floor. There’s a bar that has to be pulled down above our heads, so we do that. There are handles to hold on to as well.
A drum suddenly starts beating and we are lifted up off the floor. Anamatronic judges are waiting up the top, preclaiming us as guilty, and that we will be sent to extremis, and then the thing just drops, fast.

The next room is the photo room.

So, there you have it. My full review of the dungeons, and I rate it 9 out of 10. As you can see there’s a lot going on, and it’s well worth the queuing and the ticket price.
All the actors do a great job, bringing london’s history to life. Maybe I’ll go, for the third time, in a few years time if there’s some more new stuff.

Filed by aaron at 12:23 am under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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Note: please read part 1 if you haven’t already.
In this part, I’m going to go into brief detail about each section and give each one a scare factor from 1 to 10, 1 being least, and 10 being most, scary. bare in mind that in my view none reached a 10.
crypt of all hallow’s church
approx duration: 1 minute
scare factor: 3 or 4
This honestly depends on who’s acting the part of the crypt keeper, as a few jump scares may be used. This time, none were used. In fact, for halloween 2011 they had a different intro, involving a character called stingy jack, and to be honest the way the intro ended was rather funny, when the reeper came to take jack’s he e e e ee e e e e e e e ead! Honestly I’ve been laughing about it for days the way the crypt keeper said it. And don’t worry you don’t see it happen, it’s just him telling you the legend.
you then proceed to the laberynth.

laberynth of the lost
approx duration: 2, maybe 3, minutes.
scare factor: 5
this is basically a mirror maze with a few effects here and there. just keep moving around until a way out becomes clear, i’m just gonna leave it there.
The plague
approx duration: 2 minutes
scare factor: 3
just listen and move when asked to.
great fire of london
approx duration: 2 minutes
scare factor: 3
again just listen until the time to leave becomes obvious.
extreme sergury (and oops… I spelt it wrong)
Approx duration: 2 minutes
scare factor: 5
There’s a bit more going on here. The talk’s going on and there’s also some live action too. Just hope you haven’t eaten anything before you’ve gone in as to a few it may seem gross.
Torture chamber:
approx duration: around 4 minutes
scare factor: 4
honestly this isn’t scary. it’s a live actor doing demonstrations. Of course they’re not real!
Court room
approx duration: 3 mins
scare factor: 0
this is one of the funniest scenes in the dungeon. Very lighthearted audience participation scene.
bedlam
approx duration: 1 minute
scare factor: 6+
When we went through there were a couple of scare sections and it was quite loud. But I’ve also heard reports at sometimes they put scare actors in there who may reach out. However they’ll never come close enough to touch you. On our time through the scares were minimal and no one reached out, but it was loud, as said before.
traitor: boat ride to hell
approx duration: 2 minutes
scare factor: 5
It’s basically a log flume with some audio, and a nice surprise waiting at the end… just mind your head… my dad got soaked!
sweeny tod
approx duration: around 4 minutes including pre-show
you are outside the pie shop first and there’s an actor who will talk for a while before you go into the barber itself. just sit back and… enjoy. sit still, too. it’s important that you must, sit, still!

vengeance 5d
approx duration: around 3 maybe 4 minutes including pre-show
scare factor: 5 to 6
it’s a little intense at times, as you spin, but i will say this now… if you feel up to it, ride it, just ride it. there’s a couple effects but it’s mostly about fun, and firing your laser at ghosts that appear on screen. 3d film, 4d sensory effects, 5d rider interactivity with laser guns.

jack the ripper
approx duration: 5 minutes
scare factor: anything
first part’s just a stand and move around when asked to, second part is also stand around and just watch what happens, but beware, something may happen to you…

bloody mary: killer queen
approx duration: 2 minutes
scare factor: 4
there’s a couple of visual effects. also i enjoyed the orchestral soundtrack in this section.
extremis: drop ride to doom
approx duration: 3 minutes including pre-show, ride lasts about 50 seconds
scare factor: 7
just hold on tight. honestly it’s not too bad but it’s definitely the most intense thing in the dungeon.

so, there you have it. an idea of what to expect, whether it’ll be too scary for you or not. but if you really feel you can handle it, and you’re in london one day, take a trip to the dungeons.

Filed by aaron at 11:17 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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i’m splitting this review into multiple parts for the simple fact that the attraction is still there, and I wish to offer a few different takes on it.
The first will be a simple overview of each section, the second will be some tips for “surviving”, thus a little more detail, and the third will be a no-holds-barred, spoiler-filled overview of every single section in absalute detail for those who prefer that sort of thing. The first and third parts will contain my rating.

So, onto the overview with very little spoilers. This is an actor-lead forray into 1000 year’s history of london’s grousome past, done in such a way that it’s not ment to be too scary. it’s designed to appeal more to families but to give a little scare here and there.
The first section is the crypt of all hallows church. You are then lead into the laberynth of the lost, which, this time seemed more fun for some reason. You are then lead on to a room about the plague, then the great fire of london and it’s here where yyou really see the first special effects. you are then lead to a hospital room to learn how old sergians did things their grousome way in times of yaw, complete with an ending with two effects coming one after the other. Then it’s the torture chamber, an actor lead experience, then the court room of an old 18th century court complete with a panto style judge experience, then bedlam, one of London’s first assylums, then a boat ride to traitor’s gate, then you are escorted to sweeny tod’s barbershop, a half actor lead, half sit down experience, then it’s onto vengeance 5d which is a ride involving you using lasers to blast ghosts, then whitechapple, where the infamous killer jack the ripper committed his 5 murders, a mixture of actor and non actor section, then bloody mary the killer queen, famous for burning people at the steak, and as such, more effects here, then the last thing is extremis: drop ride to doom, a relatively small drop tower that takes you up to a fake noose, and then well you can gather the rest, I think.

This is one of my favourite attractions in london. It takes around 2 and a half hours to get round, from the crypt onwards. once you’re inside the crypt it’s also very fluid. time passes very quickly and before you know it you’ve done the drop tower and are in the gift shop.
I rate this 9 out of 10. the actors play their parts well and there’s good audience participation.

Filed by aaron at 10:47 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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location: london olympia until november 2011
type/genre of attraction: interactive experience, interactive exhibition

I recently went on a trip to London and on tuesday, me and my parents got to go to this doctor who themed experience that has been advertised for a while.
Since this is only happening until november 2011, this review is going to go into extreme detail of how the experience played out, so prepare for many spoilers.

You start out going into an area where the version of the theme tune from series 5 onwards is playing. In front is a photo opertunity, near a hologram thing of a spinning tardis. This tardis doesn’t make any sounds though.
You then go into another queuing area with props and a door that’s closed. There are also tv screen showing clips from the series. The props are many, such as the beast below, and exhibits from the hungry earth among others that I forgot.
There is a speaker system around playing more dramatic soundtracks from series 5, including the music heard in the “previously on doctor who” type sections, or in the trailers.
There is also a theme where choir is heavily used.
Eventually a guide comes through and you get a warning about strobe lights and such being beyond here, and you are then taken through the door.
The next area contains a screen, and a speaker system. The doctor himself suddenly appears onscreen and gives a warning that he’s a mad man in a box, and he basically explains who he is and what he does using quotes like, “time and space, anywhere you want”, all the while with a few tardis sounds (levers and switches) thrown in.
Many enemies suddenly appear on screen as the music reaches a dramatic point, and a dalek suddenly says, “it begins!” Then they all seemingly disappear and the doctor returns and informs us to look from the corner of our eye.
It is at this point that most people noticed an anomily with the screen… the center has a crack in it!
The doctor informs us about cracks in time, and he suddenly stops and says, “and ooh… it’s opening!” at which point the hole thing just slides aside, and in a very cool way as well.
You then go through and as you go through, a voice says, “sol3 is no longer a secure zone.” A smiler can be seen (from the beast below) in a cabinet. It is at this point that I suddenly hearda whirring sound and I asked what’s going on, and it turned out that the screen we just went through is now closing behind us!
Music starts playing, a melodic, slow, track using a lot of flutes. We’re in starship uk, which would make sence as this is where, in the series, a space whale was being forced to pull along a spaceship.
Suddenly an alarm sounds, and a message saying security breach comes up on screen. So here we are all getting a bit panicy when who should appear but the doctor again.
He starts using his sonic screwdriver and asks where amy and roary are (from series 5 onwards, two companions)
They’re nowhere to be seen so he simply says something like… “ok so you lot will have to do, I got a bunch of shoppers!”
It turns out that he’s been trapped in the pandorica. What? oh yes, yes I know he escaped, I saw the episode from series 5! But it turns out the bad guys anticipated this event and made another one! So he starts using the sonic screwdriver again and suddenly, the tardis materialises.
We then go through and are in a representation of the tardis console room and there are several joysticks around.
The doctor asks for volenteers to stand at the controle stations, mostly the younger audience or the young at heart in my case, and he then asks each station to move their controle stick. I was diagnostic, one of the last stations. As we moved the controle sticks, the floor was moving as if it was flying! This was one of my favourite sections, it was rather smooth, and then the doctor says it’s going to get rough and thus the floor starts bumping around all over the place… and then we end up landing somehow, which the doctor is surprised about. On the way out he says to move quickly, don’t fiddle with the controles as we’ve landed and they don’t work anymore.
So we keep moving through and all of a sudden a voice can be heard saying “intruders detected!” and it’s instantly recognisable, it’s the daleks! You enter a room with the voiceover already going on, only to be face to face with three of them. This was also really nice as it was in binaural audio (which basically means surround sound, each dalek seemed to have it’s own speaker.” So they end up talking about us and to us, saying we’re prisoners of the daleks, and then they say all traces of human DNA will be exterminated. One of them with a really deep voice then asks to scan the humans. There’s this beepy thing, I thought there might be air jets or something but there wasn’t anything, but I suppose there didn’t really need to be. The sound went all round the room anyway. Then they’re about to exterminate us when suddenly the doctor appears on screen and says, “oh shut up! it’s always talk talk talk when I encounter you all the time!” Of course, he’s refering to the daleks and how much they’re chatterboxes.
Then a craft appears on screen and it turns out to be a fleet of dalek ships! then a battle rages on between the dalek fleet with fog and lights and various sounds of laser fire and explosions, and it’s our queue to leave, while, as the doctor puts it, “they’re saving themselves.”
We then enter another tardis room only to be informed that we shouldn’t be in here, and that we should not blink. suddenly we see a weeping angel and everyone in the room started to jog through the next section, a tunnel. this was rather nice. not many effects, but just the fact that we were being asked to not look back and keep going, had us jogging.
the last section was a 3d zone. so we all grab 3d glasses (accept me), and stood by a railing thing. the doctor manages to use the sonic screwdriver to free himself form the pandorica as it picked up enough dna signals. then the tardisa ppears and we fly through time and space, but then the screen seems to move aside revealing an even larger screen, where enemies start appearing and attempting to attack the tardis. a battle goes on for about a minute or so and the doctor manages to close the timestream. he then says that he has to rush on, and that he’ll see us soon. and then the theme tune plays as we are taken to the exit, but that’s only the start of it.
There is then a museum of sorts with many costumes and interactive little things to do, you can for instance speak like a dalek or cyberman (I actually got to touch a model of a cyberman and operate a dalek’s weaponry), there were also the real tardis consoles from on the set of the show (which is probably why it’s temporary)
I got many photos here.
You then exit into the gift shop. I came home with a noisy sonic screwdriver (which, at least at the time of writing, we don’t have any batteries for)
This is the new model, so it’s spring loaded and the thing sort of flips up before making the noise. There’s also a lid thing that you can open revealing another button that basically makes the same noise but it’s still cool.
Overall, I really enjoyed this experience, my favourite part being the moving tardis. apart from that, there were no other sensory effects. but the audio was still cool.
I’d say either a 7 or an 8 out of 10, not too sure. The reason there were no effects is because, primarily, it’s designed for a younger audience. The audio wasn’t particularly loud, for instance.

Filed by aaron at 10:29 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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Title: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Developer: Neversoft
Publisher: Activision
Platform: ps3/xbox 360/nintendo wii
Version Played: ps3

I recommend reading the first impressions review before continuing.

I managed to beat quest mode the next day I started playing.
After unlocking and beating 2112, the other 4 warriors are unlocked, and when they are beaten, you go on to battle the beast. Over all, pretty neet, but leaves something to be desired.
Why? because it’s too short. Why couldn’t you have had, say, 3 songs per warrior chapter, a transformation, and then have all 8 go on a bit more of a quest?
The beast battle has you completing 3 songs by a band called megadeth. Each song is preceeded by a cut scene. It’s well executed. Something I don’t really understand though, is that you have to divide your band up into the warriors. This is all right, but, seriously, why? I still beat it.

After beating the beast, the game is put into domination mode. In this mode, all the warrior powers are combined and are all used at once. I was hoping to complete a few songs on guitar, but I am slightly disappointed, not because of the songs being hard (well, they are sort of hard, lots of cords), but at every song intro you hear power activation sounds which drowns out song lead-ins, so the best way is to play using vocals.

I am also doing quickplay plus.
In this mode, you play songs and do challenges, and you can rank up and unlock content (seriously, this stuff is really visual and useless for us blind folks.)
But it is fun to rank up.
To make things a bit more interesting, if you play a song then play it again, it won’t go towards your level unless you get more stars than you did on your last attempt of the song. To make things yet even more interesting, every song has challenges that you can take part in. These include high score challenges and power challenges, and other things for spacific instruments.
Doing these will make you rank up.
Power challenges are the most fun part. You can pick any two warrior powers from quest mode and just try to get as many stars as possible. If you do particularly well on an unplayed song, when you get to the rank up screen, the result is definitely fun to hear. On one occasion I ranked up twice.
Over all, this game is a very welcome edition to the guitar hero seris. The quest mode is quite neet, and quickplay plus is fun as always but with that added spin of unlocking content and ranking up. You can even share your ranks with facebook and twitter (I set up my twitter account with the game.)
Next game to review will be rock band 3, when it comes out, and I can’t wait!

Filed by aaron at 5:10 pm under entertainment, interactive, games, reviews
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Aah, motion simulators.
So many different types. Capsule types, lying down types, and theatre types like star tours in the disney theme parks.

The x rider is across between capsule and theatre.

In this instance, you go up to an operator and give them your money (3 pounds per person) they give you a list of rides and you pick one.
You then go into the theatre (there are steps and everything), and there is a lap bar.
You also get 3d glasses (useless for someone who’s blind like me.)
Then the thing goes off and wow, it’s definitely neet. This one seems to bump around quite a lot, I did find myself saying “ouch” several times due to the lap bar hitting my stomach a bit.
And boy, does this thing shake! Goes forward and backwards a lot, and sort of tilts. It’s a larger version of mini rider, really. Reminded me so much of it.
However, where this falls is in the sound department. Yes, it’s reletively clear but it’s not as clear as the mini rider. I don’t think anything will beat the mini rider in terms of clear sound quality.
I rate this simulator 8 out of 10.

Filed by aaron at 4:52 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews, technology
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The trocadero center, home to my previous simulator review, mini rider.
On our latest visit we discovered several new motion rides.
One of these was tyfoon.

This one is different, again. It’s similar to a simulator I’ve ridden before, the “mad wave motion theatre”, in that you actually lie down. So, you have a headrest and handles at the side. It’s pretty comfertable.
You have 6 rides to choose from. This one also costs two pound coins.
The buttons are circular in shape.
After picking a ride, it tells you to hold on, and then you’re off.
I did not expect much with this simulator, and I was right.
The thing vibrates quite a lot, hats off to them for some of the cool g force moments, but that is sort of it. It moves a bit here and there but it’s all about vibration, to which some of it wasn’t even as good as mad wave.
I have only experienced one ride on this so far, but might experience more when I go back. But really, I was quite disappointed. So far, I rate it about 7 out of 10, because the sound was clear, but not really enough movement, but there wouldn’t really be, after all you’re lying down, so there can’t really be due to safety.

Filed by aaron at 4:46 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews, technology
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Type: roller coaster, steel.
Restraint system: shoulder harnice.

This coaster definitely holds a place in my heart. Why? because it’s the first propper thrill ride that I’ve ridden, with a shoulder harnice to keep you in the seat.

Entering the queue line, we were greeted with the all too familiar nemesis inferno theme music (at least for me), because I had this on my mp3 player a couple of years back.
Going through the queue, I expected a bit more, but all there was was that music.
At several points in the queue I did try to back out due to fear. But my carer (refer to thorpe park review) wouldn’t have it (”we’re now in the queue”, “we’re near the end now, there are people behind us, we can’t go back”) and at one point I actually doubled over but still kept on going, and wow am I glad I did.

We got nearer the station area, near steps, and that’s where it really kicked in. The speakers had been pumped up, and there was a sub woofer. It was still playing the same theme, but at this volume it felt very different than any time I’d heard it before, the realisation was slowly sinking in, that I was actually getting nearer and nearer to the coaster itself.

Next thing you know, we’re at the seat, after climbing a hole load of stairs. Now normally here I’d feel around, but this time, I suddenly thought, oh wait a sec, and just sat down instantly realising where I was. I couldn’t believe it. Next thing you know, before I could do anything, the restraint got pulled down and then I got my chance to feel around.
The restraint was nothing to worry about. This was the thing that I’d been quite scared off, as I didn’t know how it’d feel. But it definitely felt very safe. Not too tight, either, but definitely tight enough.
My carer was on one side and a friend of mine on the other. There was a headrest behind me. The harnice had handles at the side.
Then, we were off. I was so amazed with excitement, that I’d finally managed it. I was now climbing toward my first experience of a coaster. Any remaining fear in me was extinguished and was replaced with utter excitement and joy, because I knew that no matter how long this lift hill is, the thing that occurs at the top will fee l like nothing I’d ever felt before, at least, not on this scale.

So, we got to the top, and then, everything was just a blur. I didn’t even feel the loop. But what I did know and really liked, was that we were swooping around. It was fast and furious, and nothing short of epic. Not too bad, because this ride only has one loop in it. I thought I’d feel it, but no, I didn’t.
Before you knew it, we were at the other side, and I felt absalutely great, but, exhausting.
It must be said that my legs were aching quite a bit.

If this is what the first coaster has to feel like, the easiest of thorpe park’s unholy trinity, then, when we go back next time, I have so much in store that I’m really looking forward to.
Colossus with it’s ten loops, and stealth (which I might not end up doing that day), a quick burst that goes from 0 to 80 mph in 1.5 seconds.
Then there’s saw.
One thing must be said. I can’t wait!

Filed by aaron at 4:34 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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This is way way way overdue!
Ok, so here goes.
Me and a bunch of college students ended up going to thorpe park back in may as an “enrichment” trip.
I gotta say, this had me both excited and worried.
I’ve been to this place many times before this trip, and had always bottled out. This is a theme park with a bunch of large coasters and such. So, the only ride I’d ever done previously was x: no way out, a backwards, in the dark, coaster with a lap bar. But this time, I said to my, for want of a better word, carer, you gotta get me on one of the propper thrill rides, one of the “unholy trinity” at least.
He’s been on them all, I think.
So, we arrived, and at first, I just wanted to walk around the park.
This year, theming and music is still going on.
Around amity cove, there is “wwtp radio”, which plays tracks from the 1950’s and 60’s, due to amity cove being themed around that eara. Depending on where you are, there are two possibilites. There’s a wwtp radio for tidle wave and a wwtp radio for stealth, both playing different stuff.

We then came upon colossus, the world’s first 10 looping roller coaster. They haven’t really changed much around the area. It’s the normal, 10 minute long, “colossus theme”. It’s orchestral, with quite a few different sections, some build up, some fill you with adrenaline.

We next went up to nemesis inferno. I noticed some different stuff going on this time. You could hear birds churping, and I swear you could hear something rumbling. This would fit nicely, as the theme of this ride is ment to be an escape from a volcano. Very nicely done, nice new touch.
That’s basically all I noticed. There’s an rea where we went later, which I’ll put more about in this post in a bit.
So, the guys ended up going on colossus, and I bottled out, so was waiting for them. But it was pretty neet, you could feel the power of the vehicle as it rumbled past the fence that we were near. Shows the speed the thing goes, about 50 mph or more.
So, next was nemesis inferno. Remarkably, I managed to end up going on this one, and was so proud of myself for konkoring a fear that I’d had for years, there’ll be more on this in a ceperate post.

After escaping the inferno, I had to basically recover, I couldn’t ride anything. Not out of fear, but out of adrenaline, and basically, exhaustion.
So we sat down for a while, and then we ended up eating lunch near the stealth wwtp radio area.
Next, we went over to what must be one of the best themed areas of thorpe park, an area dedicated to the saw film franchise.
I did not ride anything in this area, I was still recovering from inferno!
But we definitely walked around. As you go up to the area, you go past colossus, and you can hear that theme playing, then you go forward and in the background you just hear these police sirens. So you got both things playing and it definitely gives you a bit of a build up, realising where you’re heading. Then you enter the area and you’re immersed.
Everything around you seems to stop, all you can hear is the saw stuff. Sirens, and music. There is a police car witha speaker on it where there’s a lot of talking going on, and there are speakers around. However, this is all for one thing, saw: the ride, which is a coaster. There’s another experience called saw alive, but that has absalutely no theming outside. We went right up to it. Disappointing, I thought there’d be different stuff going on for each attraction.
Still a very good area. You could hear things as you past saw the ride. They managed to put more sound proofing it seems, because when it first opened, apparently you could hear stuff going on in the building even when you were outside, namely, queue sounds. But, this time, you couldn’t really hear that, but you did hear something go off, and the sound was loud and it sounded like the thing had a sub woofer on that speaker system. I think I have a feeling I know what went off. Inside there’s a timer that sets off a thing on the ceiling. I don’t know what to say, because I haven’t experienced it myself, but also, I have heard about this stuff from people who’ve been inside. I’m not going to say anymore here in case anyone from the uk is reading and ends up going to thorpe park, but I’ll just say, watch out, it’s loud.

After we went through the area and people had experienced the two offerings, me and a friend went on a small ride called rumber rapids to relax. The problem is though, after this, time was basically up.
This really annoyed me because I had now fully recovered from my earlier nemesis inferno experience and wanted to do another thrill ride.
But all in all, it was an absalutely briliant day, and we’re definitely going next year, be it college, or a family trip (possibly with friends too, I hope!)

Filed by aaron at 4:21 pm under entertainment, interactive, reviews
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It appears this blog has been overlooked yet again.
This is really not good.
You guys will be in for a bunch of stuff this time, trip reports, and my gosh, I still have to report about my thorpe park trip back in may!
New simulator reviews are also affoot.

Filed by aaron at 3:58 pm under general
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