Ashley's Gamer Night

It's funny how life screws with you.  At first, I was going to Daisy's proposed Poker Night but I couldn't go.  But then I went to Ashley's small gathering yesterday (Thursday).  So you wanna know how things went?  Of course you do.

I want to say it went spectacularly.  Unfortunately, I can't really say that.  It was still awesome though!

I arrived there at roughly 9pm.  I'm the latest there, figures, and they already broke out the PS1 (yes you read correctly:  PLAYSTATION ONE) and were playing Tekken.  Sweet.  Time for some sweet retro gaming love.  And that pretty much set the tone for the whole night, retro games from dusk till dawn (well not really dawn, most people were asleep by 1AM).

They also apparently played GH3 earlier but stopped, maybe they knew I was coming and wanted to avoid being schooled by me.  Especially since quite a few had never played Guitar Hero before that day, so I would basically playing Expert against people still playing Easy.  If you want an analogy it'd go something like this:  They'd be messing around a small splash pool, while I attempt to swim across the FRICKIN PACIFIC.  And that's no lie either, Expert difficulty and Easy difficulty is world's apart.  WORLDS.  Ask anyone who plays expert (or has attempted to play expert).  Actually, just a moment ago I owned my sister (who is playing medium rather comfortably) on Helicopters by Bloc Party.  We both played on medium.  Did I full combo the song?  No.  But I got 5 stars if that's some consolation to your aching heart that thinks I'm the world's most awesome Guitar Hero player EVA.  Which I'm obviously not.

Oh and one minor detail you may want to know:  I WAS PLAYING IT BEHIND MY HEAD.

Yes, I 5-stared Helicopter on medium, with the Guitar behind me head.  It hurts my arms like a bitch, but hey, all in the name of ass-whooping.  It's all in a day's work.  Maybe, one day, I may record a video of me 5-staring with the Wiitar behind my head.  One day...

I could probably full-combo (hit every note) most songs -if not all- songs on Easy now.  I've even full-comboed some songs on medium.

Anyway, let's move away from my awesome Guitar Hero skills and focus back onto what happened on the night.  I started the night sat on one of those... er... I'm actually unsure what they're called.  It was basically a piece of the sofa that comes out.  But anyway, I owned a few fights on Tekken while sat on that -mainly because the sofa was already occupied by about 4/5 people.  Eventually, I got to sit down on Ashley's surprisingly comfortable sofa.

Oh wait, remind a bit first.  In about the first 20 minutes of me entering Ashley's amazing bungalow I downed this bottle of vodka (it was equivalent to 2 shots... or something).  And lemme tell ya, that went straight to my head.  I certainly felt that the following morning.  It was funny too, Gavin took a small gulp out of another one of those bottles and decided that downing it would not be the best idea.  Then I picked up the bottle and thought: 'Screw it.'  And the others watched in awe as I chugged the whole bottle down.  LOL

I recall someone exclaiming afterwards that they should have filmed me doing it.  I also recall Ashley checking the alcoholic percentage (?) and it checked in at 40%.

I don't remember much after that.

...

Not really.

That was just a homage to a "How I Met Your Mother" Episode.  Which... strangely is quite close to what actually happened to the time.

Not really.

Here's the clip I'm talking about:

THIS, MERE MORTALS, IS NO ORDINARY BRAIN. THIS IS A SUPERBRAIN.

By the way, "How I Met Your Mother" is an awesome show.  And Barney is easily the most awesome person alive.  LEGEN -wait for it- DARY.

LEGEN -wait for it, and I hope you're not lactose intollerant cos the second half of that word is- DARY.

Ok ok, enough with the clips now.  But I just had to do that one.

Anywayz, back to the story.  Now where was I?

Oh yea, I just forcefully busted into the maximum security area of Area 51 and was in the process of hacking into the main computer mainframe when-

Wait.  That's not the right one, is it?  Damn that vodka.  By the way, just forget what I wrote above.  It never happened, capiche?  NEVER.  HAPPENED.

 

Ok, so I has landed me a sweet seat on Ashley's sofa.  I think it was about this time that we started playing MK (Mortal Kombat) on the PS1.  That sure brought good times... ok, maybe not good times but certainly a lot of: "TOASTY!"s.  The whole house -sorry, my bad- bungalow with forbidden battle cries of yore.  Times sure were simple back in the PS1 days.  *sigh*

After some time, we gave up on trying to mess with the codes on MK and switched to "Hogs Of War" which, may I add, was my first time playing it.  I had heard about it and a friend had recommended it to me saying that the game was good but I had never played it before.  Ok, so first match in:

I PWN EVERYONE.

I had both my guys -sorry my bad- hogs (or pigs) left while I decimated everyone else.  Especially with an intricately placed bazooka shot to the head of Ashley's hog's head.  Which aroused battle cries of "BOOM!  HEAD-SHOT!"...  I think.

We played winner and loser stays on, so I was soon thrust into the second game.  I didn't do so well in this one, simply because everyone decided that I was the major threat (despite excuses of: 'But you're the only guy I can see in range... except for that guy... and that guy...') and so thought it was best to be rid of me as soon as possible.  And so I was the first out.  But no matter, that meant I also played in the next game.  Which, I won btw.  Again.

Something else happened, I'm not sure what.  But it soon reached 11:20, I had planned to go home at about 11:30~ish since I had an early start tomorrow but after some thought that I may as well stay the night and rung my mum up to tell her.  She kind of disagreed at first (yea, she has a tendency to do that) I managed to get my dad on the phone and I explained it to him and his reply went something like this: 'Meh.  Fine.'  I presume at this point my mum was glaring at him pretty badly and he hurriedly added: 'But only this time.'

And so we settled down for a quiet night and ended up watching a movie:  SHAUN OF THE DEAD.

Yes the classic British film, part of the "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy", the winner of 6 awards and 14 nominations (yes, I used IMDB).  It was the perfect end to the night.

The film finished at about 1:15AM, and only a few of us were still awake.  Gavin, who was previously slept beside me, decided to move his business to Ashley's bedroom so I moved over and had about a half of the sofa to myself.  Just as everyone settled in for the night, there was a:  KNOCK! KNOCK! at the door.  "Who the hell could that be?" I thought.  I couldn't be asked to get the door (even though I was presumably the closest) so I waited until someone opened it.  Turns out it was my mum.  She had defied my dad's initial intentions and came to pick me up.  Ah well, it didn't make much difference to me.  It was probably a better idea since I had more time to catch up with my sleep the following morning (Ashley's house is no where near college - it's practically in another town).  So I went home and slept on my own bed.  I had never knew my bed was so comfortable, LOL.  The last time I felt like this was the night of Kate's party - which I passed out in among other things...

The following morning, my head hurt like hell.  I had trouble thinking like I was in some weird severed state of inebriation, it didn't stop me from editing our media advert though.  Media was soon over, and I got my staggering self home presumably for some sleep.  Which I didn't do.

That's pretty wraps up what happened.  I'm not sure if I missed anything, but hey - my memory ain't perfect.  So, deal.

===

Have any of you guys heard of a certain movie that's slated to come out this year (2008)?  I believe it was called...

IRON MAN

I can hear the collective groan of millions of people worldwide when I said that.  Another comic book-movie.  I hear you say.  Well, if the trailer's anything to go by the movie's gonna be FRICKIN EPIC.  Take a look yourselves.

I think you'd have to agree that it is pretty frickin awesome.

Remember though, take this with a pinch of salt. Since all movie trailers depict the movie in a good light, it's the whole purpose of a trailer.

Although this is another movie on my movie-radar this year.  Keep an eye out for this beast that will hit cinemas May 2nd this year.

===

EDIT#1:  I was browsing around the internet and found this, I think you'd enjoy it:

Contrary to popular belief, MJ had no part in choreographing this.

Before you "WTF?!" me, it's Zelda dude.  And yes, the guy playing Link is actually a woman.  I guess times were confusing back then, and sexual orientation was more open... or something.  Oh and no, this is not an advert for Zelda DDR, no matter what the ad looks like (although that would be frickin awesome) it's actually for the one on the Famicon (or SNES, for us).

By the way, Nintendo, if you're reading this I expect at least 30% of the profits if Zelda DDR comes into production.  It's negotiable, but about 30% would be nice.

 

Well, that's about all I wanted to show you.  Now, where the hell can I get that song...

Earthquake

So, get this.  If you haven't heard about it already, there was an earthquake last night (at roughly 1AM).  Loads of people missed it since they were sleeping, but I was awake at the time (surprise) and stood in my corridor.

And for my first time experiencing an earthquake, I gotta say, I'm impressed.

At first there was a sort of low rumbling sound, then it got louder pretty quickly and pretty soon the whole house shook.  This lasted only just a few seconds, but it was still awesome.  I'm glad I didn't miss that.  Sure, if it was higher up on the Richter Scale (it was reportedly a 5.2) then there would undoubtedly be trouble.  Since the UK seems as prepared for natural disasters/conditions as a crab is prepared to break the fall of a large boulder.

Seriously, I recall there been about a half foot of snow a few years back.  That half foot of snow stopped ALL THE TRAINS IN ENGLAND.  I mean, WTF?  Ok, sure maybe not ALL the trains.  But you get my point.  Countries like Russia and whatever receive, annually, several feet of snow and there like: 'Meh.  'Tis only snow.'  And carry on with normal life.  Over here we scream and run around in circles exclaiming: 'SNOW SNOW GLORIOUS SNOW!'  Then it all melts away into slush.

Ok, I seem to have gone off-topic again.  Basically, we had an earthquake here.  I was awake and got to experience the awesomeness of it.  The end.

(NOTE:  I'm not saying Earthquakes are "good" since they kill lots of people every year - I think - I'm just saying that I enjoyed my experience with it and it wasn't that bad.)

===

In other news, some stuff popped up.  So I won't be able to go to the proposed Poker Night on Saturday.  :(

It sucks.  Although, if it's any consolation to myself, Ashley's having a small gathering Thursday night - which I can go to.  It's a real pain about this Saturday thing, since it's weekly.  So I'm booked up every Saturday after 5PM!  *sigh*

I guess they'll have to deal without my awesome guidance.  And yes, it means no coverage of the comical antics that will no doubt take place - unless Gavin decides to do it (yes, he is still an author... like Kate...).  If only they change the day to Friday or something.  Nevermind though, I guess they can look on the bright-side.  It means less beat-downs for them at Poker.

The others, that I'm aware of, seemed to be practicing quite hard for the night as well.  I was told that they were scared to play me, since I'm apparently "good at everything".  Now, I don't exactly deny that but it's a slight overstatement.  I can think of plenty of things that I'm not good at like... er... hm... brain surgery.  Yea, I suck at that.  Even though I've never done it before, but that's besides the point, even if I did do it I think I would suck.

===

Oh and just something funny I found messing around in Google.  Type in "the answer to life, the universe and everything" and press search.

LOL

(NOTE:  You will only get it if you have watched/read Hitchhikers guide the galaxy)

===

Videos time!

You think you're good at Guitar Hero?  Think again!

Woah. Just... woah.

Next up is actually a flash animation!

 

METAL GEAR AWESOME 2

It's kinda recommended that you watch the first one here.

 

Here's the second one:

ENJOY!

Poker Night/Fancy-Dress B-day

Well, after not hearing from Daisy for over a month, she returns to haunt me again.  This time with news!

First of the news, is a "Poker Night" that's apparently being put on next Saturday.  I'm unsure who's actually going but whatever, should be fun.  Despite the fact that only a few of us genuinely know how to play Poker.  I doubt that we'd end up playing Poker for the whole night, since Poker isn't much fun without betting something.  Like money or chips, for example, I hear people tend to use these two a lot.

But wait!  This is the small news.

*GASP*

Yes, gasp indeed.  You thought it couldn't get any better, could it?

Well, you were wrong.

Apparently Daisy's birthday is in, and I quote:  "about two months".  I'm unsure on the actual date... but with my all-knowing, all-powerful, all-omnipresent brain (I have no idea how that works btw) I predict it's about *uses fingers to count 2 months* April time.  There's no guarantee that it is though, even Super-Brains like mine have a minor lapse of incorrectness sometimes.

BUT WAIT!  That's not all!

*GASP*

Yes, gasp indeed.  You thought it couldn't get any better, right?

Well, you were wrong.  DEADLY WRONG.  MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA << Got carried away

Turns out her and Laura had an idea.  Oh boy.  That's a bad sign.  Very bad sign.  I'm currently nervously checking the window waiting for

four horsemen riding out of the sky casting a wave of destruction everything, but it looks like it's not happening.

Click for full resolution.  Image provided by Wikipedia.

I should also check if hell has frozen over, while I'm there: Anyone want an Ice Cream?

Anyway, all joking aside.  There idea was having fancy-dress, not just any kind of fancy-dress though!  You have to come as something from the 90s.  Daisy proposed the idea of coming as Ash Ketchum (appropriately named... I guess).

Yes, this guy.

It would be pretty easy to, and henceforth save me all the effort.  But I soon thought up something better:

POWER RANGERS.

How cool would turning up the party dressed up as a Power Ranger be?  On second thoughts, don't answer that.  Point is, it would be pretty frickin' awesome.  We're talking about season 1 here, the original power rangers not the crappy later spin-offs that suck.  The ones from the first show:  Mighty Morphing Power Rangers.  Pft, who needs "Power Rangers: Jungle Fury" and "Power Rangers: Wild Force" when you're:

MIGHTY MORPHING.

 

Sure, Ninja Storm has ninjas in and "Powers Rangers in Space" was theoretically 'in space' (in other words, they weren't really).  But nothing beats the original power rangers.  Especially since Gavin and Ashley so happily pointed out earlier on that the original red ranger now does porn.  Yes, according to them - who have verified it - RED RANGER DOES PORN.

Still don't believe that the original was the best?

IT HAD A GIANT TALKING HEAD.

Nuff said.

You want more?  How about a talking robot that serves the giant talking head and says: 'AIE AIE AI-E!' repeatedly in every frickin' episode?  And for the proverbial cherry on top of the proverbial power ranger it's called: Alpha 5.

I am not kidding you.  Anyone who has watched cannot forget Alpha 5, sure the giant talking head (called Zordon btw) was big and talked.  But c'mom!  It's a talking robot that says: "AIE AIE AI-E!"  It was like every little boys dream way back when.

AIE AIE AI-E! Indeed, old friend. AIE AIE AI-E, indeed...

Sure, there were some obvious flaws in the power rangers formula.  Like how the monsters looked pretty fake, and the most obvious one:  Why the hell didn't the power rangers just bring out the frickin Zords whenever a monster appears and squash them into oblivion, instead of doing the thing they normally do:

• Suit up! - As I like to call it.  It's when they put on the... er... powersuits (?).
• Back-flip time!   - This is where they backflip to the scene of the disturbance.  It doesn't matter if it's 500 miles away!  One power rangers back-flip takes you there instantly!
• Engage in combat. - Self explanatory.
• Start losing. - Take a guess.  No, really.  Take one.
• Join weapons to make some sort of crude-but-still-pretty-awesome cannon.  - I'm not even going to try being funny.
• Destroy the monster.  - ...
• Monster is revived but is now 1000x larger. - Oh noes!  But never fear, for the Zords are here!
• They bring out the zords. - Obvious.
• The fight follows same pattern.  Except it's larger and more epic.  - It follows pretty much exactly the same pattern when they were human size.

If they squash the thing it would be extremely easy and when that evil woman (forgot her name) uses the revival potion or whatever she'll just be reviving a pile of goo.  Power Rangers: 1.  Monsters: 0.

But alas, they pay no heed to me.  No matter.  I don't care much for the current Power Rangers anyway.

I digress, I seem to have been side-tracked fairly easily.  Back to the original thought... which was... erm...

The fancy-dress party, yes.  That was it.

After some more talks with Gavin and some research online.  We figured that Power Rangers outfits suck, and so I decided that this would be a good excuse for me to buy a katana/sword.  So, hey why not?  Bringing a large pointy object into a party full of alcohol and drunk people.  What could possibly go wrong?!

Then I figured it would be much easier to dress in all-black and go as a ninja.  And then we can also attempt to "ninja-in" into Daisy's house again.

That's about all I can think about on this subject since I seem to have lost my train of thought when I was derailed by the whole Power Rangers thing.  I'll be sure to keep you updated on the costume situation.

Media Project Status

Our media group (consisting of Kennie, Matt and I - Jamie too; although technically he isn't in the group) went out to film our media project today and I'm kinda pleased at how it went.  Well, key word there is "kinda".  We ran into some bumps along the way - as you'd expect - but overall everything went fine.  I'm kinda disturbed that we probably spent more time messing around than doing actually "work"; if you could call it that.  And yet, we still managed to do most of what we had to do.  Just some final creases that need to be ironed out (it was beyond our control anyway for these final "creases").

Things started out on the wrong foot at the time we chose to meet (11AM, if you're wondering).  Funnily enough, despite being the latest to wake up (10:45AM) I managed to get there before anyone else.  Not long after my arrival, Kennie shows up.  This is when things start to spiral out of control...  Ok, maybe "spiral out of control" is a little melodramatic.  But basically, no-one turns up.  I look at my watch: "11:05" it reads.  We ended up ringing Jamie who apparently, and I quote: 'Miss the bus but I'm 10 minutes away.  Max.'  So, Jamie's fine.  That's good.  Just for a minute there we thought he got himself into some sort of trouble, and that would've been bad since there weren't too many days where all four of us could be together to film.

Then there was the matter of Matt.  We call him.  No answer.  That's bad, by the way.  Very bad... I thought to myself.  Nothing happens for the next five minutes or so.  Kennie and I spend this quality time talking about important project stuff; example conversation topics include:

• Where we gonna have lunch?
• When we gonna have lunch?
• Can we have lunch now?
• What'd you have for breakfast?
• I'm tired.  Let's go home.
• The script for future of our projects - which strangely (or not so strangely for people who know us) kind of went like Patrick Stewart's "script" for his next project:
  That, good sir, is the best script ever.

etc.

After what felt like an eternity, Matt appears in his black Toyota.  I run to the side of his window to give him a heartfelt slap across his cheek, I was stopped in my tracks.  Well, not really stopped since I couldn't be asked to start walking anyway.  I just bided my time and waited for Matt to get out of his car and walk closer... and closer... ever closer... then I forgot what I was doing and resumed my conversation with Kennie.  More time passes and it's now about 11:15 according to my watch.  Eventually, we get tired of waiting and we part ways to look for Jamie and meet up outside college again at 11:30.  When I say "look" I meant that Matt and I (in his car) went to McDonalds to get some food.  I just got some large fries to tide me by until lunch (I thought of it as quick brunch) and Matt ordered some coffee.  Small problem with that though.

THEY WERE OUT OF COFFEE.

Let me remind you that it was in the morning too, namely the main time people want coffee.  Ok, fine.  Matt then orders some tea.

NOPE.  OUT OF THAT TOO.

Wait, what?  Are we at the right place?  Matt grits his teeth and asks: 'Ok, so what do you have?'

Er...  WE DON'T HAVE ANY HOT DRINKS.

W-T-F.  Why the hell didn't you tell us in the first place?!  And, more importantly, it's the middle of winter and you don't have any hot drinks?!  Heresy!  Blasphemy!  It ended up with me just having large fries (£1.39), at least it was fast.  And I mean: fast.  I know there was hardly anyone there but seriously.  You order at Window 1.  Pay.  Move to Window 3 (what happened to Window 2, you ask?  I have no idea.  They don't use it that much.).  And boom!  It magically appears in your hand as they hand it to you.  We literally pulled up to the window and the woman gave us the fries.

We get back at exactly 11:30, according to Matt's in-car clock, and we see Kennie's car there already (a dark blue VW Polo, if you were wondering) with Jamie sat in the passenger seat.  After a few words here and there we drive into Franklin College car-park; which despite being the half-term is still open and half-full.  It seems staff and other workers seem to be at college doing... er... work, I guess.

We film for a bit, doing what we have to do.  Freezing our butts off in the cold morning air.  So, normal things I'd say.  Things don't really pick up until round about 12 where we decide it would be a good idea to have lunch.  I agreed that it was a good idea.  There's never a bad time for food (unless in an unfortunate and horribly clichéd turn of events, the food ends up to be you).  Matt wanted to go to anywhere but KFC -how can you not like chicken?!- while the rest of us insisted on eating some sweet sweet chicken.  We do what was deemed most convenient at the time: part ways.

Somehow Kennie ended up taking some extremely long route to KFC, so we get there late.  No matter.  As food was swift and enjoyable.  We shared a boneless box between the three of us.  We spend the next 40 odd minutes eating, drinking and talking.  Matt was, I hate to say it, forgotten about until I looked out the window and say a black Toyota drive off away from KFC.  I turn back to the other two and ask:  'Hey... that car.  There *points to car* doesn't that look exactly like Matt's car.'  Kennie replies half-heartedly: 'It does and all.  And the driver!  Ha!  It's a splitting image of Matty!'  Jamie then interrupts:  'Guys... that was Matty.'

Damn.

Well that's not good.  Kennie pulls out his phone to call him, only to find that Matt had actually been calling him.  Opps.  He attempts to call him now, no answer.  Probably because he's driving.  Now, this just keeps getting worse and worse, dunnit?  What do we do to rectify this situation?  I'll tell you what we did:  Nothing.  We figured he'd figure out sometime that we were here and so we carried on eating.  We spend some more time and finish off most things (which is not bad for three people) but there was still some Pepsi left.  Oh well.  Drink for Matt, I guess.  Meanwhile, Matt reaches Franklin College again and finally decided to call Kennie back.  Turns out he used the drive-thru at Burger King and ended up parking and eating next to Kennie's car.  Yes, he parked next to Kennie's car and didn't notice.

We finally returned to work and did some filming.  The details I won't bore you with.  There were plenty of moments, like when I save Matt's door from certain destruction when he decided to go before I closed the door.  The door was inches away from being smashed to pieces before I pulled it back.  Now, that's skill.  There was also when Kennie was driving along with his passenger window open, I figured: 'Hell.  Might as well.'  And leaped in, all movie-style.  On more then on occasion, we thought that the inclusion of walkie-talkies or some sort of cheap and fast communication device (the lag time between calling the mobile and when it actually rings is quite large) so we could do cues better.  But nevermind, we worked it out eventually.

At roughly 2AM we found that the camera was running out of battery, so we did another few takes and ended up at "The Trawl" a pub near where we were filming.  Seeing as we were going to be there for a while, we started to play pool.  That's when problems arose.  First, and get this, we had to show some sort of ID to play pool.  I mean, WTF?!  The woman's excuse was that she "wasn't running a Youth Club."  I looked over to the other pool table and a bunch of little kids were messing around with the cues and everything, while their parents sat behind them drinking and generally ignoring them...

Ok then... we handed some ID in.  So, all was fine.  We played some pool.  Turns out Matt is good, real good.  Jamie and I ended up teaming up with him, and only won the first game because he accidentally potted the black ball.  We carried on potting afterwards and he managed to pot all the yellow while we had about 5 reds on the table.  Well, at least I managed to pot most (or was it all?  I forget) of the reds.  We play another round of pool, Kennie comes along and joins in.  We were playing doubles now, he said that he 'couldn't play' but still managed to get them down to the black ball by potting 3 yellow balls in a row.  Couldn't play, my ass.

This carried on until the fifth game when we were about to finish.  The woman (same woman from before) asks this to be our last game.  Sure, seeing as it was our last game.  But she seemed pretty rude about it, nevermind though we had more important things to think about.  When we did eventually finish, as we were walking out the woman (who does indeed work there) has the nerve to shout: 'Don't come back!'

WTF.  If I'm not mistaken that's bad customer practice.  We carried on leaving anyway and did some more takes.  Eventually we did all we could and so went home.  I got home at about 4PM and just slumped down on the sofa, exhausted.  We still haven't completely finished our filming either, so we decided to leave it until the next media lesson.  It's only a small part anyway.

And so ends the story of what happened yesterday (I started this post yesterday and only finished it today.  That's an indication at how much I wrote and how much happened).

When the ad is done, I'll be sure to post it up on YT for your viewing pleasure.

(And yea, I know there's few pictures in this post but I'm not sure what pictures I can actually put up.  So deal.)

This deserves it's own post...

Originally I was going to slap this onto the end of the previous post.  But it felt out of place there.  So here it is!

 

What?

You expected more?!  That's very selfish.  But no matter, watch as I GIVETH:

 

ROFL.

 

Original picture provided by: Ashley.

Everything after that:  ME.

SPORE release date announced!

Things are looking good this year, as one of the biggest titles of this century is going to hit store shelves THIS SEPTEMBER.

It's official!  Just watch this video:

Watch out for Spore in September!

 

As the proverbial cherry atop the cherry atop the cherry of the announcement, EUROPE GETS IT 2 DAYS EARLIER.

The European release date is September 5th while NA will have to deal with the long wait of the weekend until September 7th.  Can I get a high-five from my European bros?  No?  Well, screw you.

The release date is set for 4 versions of the game:  PC, MAC, DS and mobile.

 

 

There's also a Wii version coming but that's to be released at a later date.

 

If you don't know what Spore is then I suggest you find out.  You will be missing on something amazing if you don't.

Now, how about that SSBB release date for Europe now?

Being a Hero(es 2)

I got Medal Of Honor: Heroes 2 last Thursday and I've made it through roughly 80% of the of the single-player campaign and a tiny portion of the arcade campaign (which is basically on-rails shooting).  Some gripes I've had about the game:

• AI SUCKS (and I mean SUCKS)  - Seriously, I could run right into the face of one of the enemies and they'd be like:  'WTF?  Where is that guy...'  Normally, at this point, I would have pistol-whipped him for his stupidity.
• Campaign is nothing special.  - It's typical WWII oh-my-god-we-must-shoot-Nazis-in-the-face-to-win action.  In this respect, it brings practically nothing new to the table.
• No local multiplayer.  - Seriously, WTF.  Why is local multiplayer/co-op being left out of games now?!  It makes no sense to me.  Do developers think that gamers have no real friends that come round to their house anymore?  That's absurd!  Not even the Arcade mode has any sort of co-op play.  Even though it wouldn't have been terribly hard to implement.  I'm very disappointed, to say the least.
• Arcade is fun distraction, but not that good.  - Compared to the likes of RE: UC the arcade mode just seems to fall short.  Sure, it's only part of the game but it just lacks a certain polish, oh and btw:  The AI still kinda sucks in this mode.
• No VoIP.  - This isn't really EA's fault but Nintendo really has got to get it's act together and get some sort of voice chat to it's online service.  We're left with this crappy, pre-set messages that consist of the following: Need back-up, Affirmative, Negative, Enemy Spotted, Move out, Retreat, Hold Position; and maybe a few more.  Basically, it's seriously limited communication and it's a pain to pull up these messages in the first place!  Frankly, the entertainment value of an online game like Heroes 2 is multiplied exponentially when you can trash-talk at your foes while you throw the beat-down on them.  Nothing beats that.

Now for the things I felt were good:

• Online play is genuinely fun.  - Even without the voice chat there is a lot of fun to be had online.  I guess no voice chat means no 12-year-old kids randomly shouting into your ear.
• No lag.  - In my whole time playing online I've encountered no lag at all.  None at all!  Even when there are about 25 people running about (I've yet to be in a match that has 32 people in).  That's pretty amazing.  Kudos to EA on this.  And connecting to servers and games is quick and easy.  I timed how long it took for me to get into the lobby from clicking multiplayer on the main menu, it clocked in at 15 seconds.  That's pretty damn fast.
• Arcade mode.  - Wait, how can arcade mode be in what I think is both good and bad?  Well, the fact that Arcade mode doesn't need to be in the game but is anyway.  At least EA are trying to attract some casual players.
• Controls.  - The controls are impressive.  I found my mind wrestling the fact that the controls were better than MP3:C and with the inclusion of changing the size of the "dead zone" the controls are superior.  Motion control is also implemented very well, it's not over-used and is very satisfying when it's in the game.  Pumping the shotgun makes me feel awesome everytime.
• Fast and fun gameplay.  - The fact that you're able to jump into games very quickly means that gameplay never seems slow.  Sure, for some people if you want to take it slow you can.  Like perch atop one of the towers in the monastery map and just snipe dudes slowly (watch out for someone coming up the stairs with a bazooka though).  But for me, there's only one way to go.  SHOTGUN.  I just run in blindly and blast those dudes in the face like there's no tomorrow.

That's my pros and cons list for this game.  And I'm rather pleased.  Don't be mistaken, it is a fun game.  But there's plenty of room for improvement.

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In other news, we decided to have a reshuffling of seats in our Maths class.  Our table now has a grand total of 5 people (which fluctuates slightly because people occasional move about) compared to the 3 before.  Talking has sped up this way too.  There's a no-end to the chatter nowdays it seems.  Especially since Kiddle (not a nickname btw, it's actually his last name) got his Tamogotchi VERSION 5.  *gasp*

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I recently managed to get VB6 on my computer (finally) through some dodge dealing about this website... but nevermind about that.  I've been messing about with some stuff and I thought I'd share with you what I've made so far.  I've made a Stop-watch which functions just like a stop-watch so you won't need any sort of demo.  The following two however I thought you'd be interested in a video:

This actually started from something we did at college.

 

Yes, my media player is quite crude... I'll like to see you do better.

That's about the gist of projects I've done.  I'm starting to touch on some pretty advance coding now and I'm actually quite enjoying programming.

Oh and by the way, the media player thing was not something I learned at college.  It was all self-taught... with a little help from the internet.

Two Movies in One Day!

I ended up watching two movies today.  One of which was supposed to be my sister's birthday present but we ended up "testing" it for faults by watching it.

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The first movie I watched today (which was incidentally my sister's birthday present) was: TALES FROM EARTHSEA.  I was randomly browsing around Tesco and noticed it and my immediate reaction was: 'Hey... I've never heard of this film before.  Buy.'  And so that is what happened.

Enjoy this trailer (Japanese with subs):

Ghibli can still work that magic.

Yes, there are dragons in the movie.  BIG-ASS DRAGONS.  FIGHTING.

Yup, Ghibli have still got it.  And by the looks of things they'll have it for a long time still.

Although I'm unsure what "it" stands for in this context... maybe it's like the special ingredient that pushes a film from mediocre to awesome.   I guess we'll never know.

Oh, and for those of you who haven't heard of Ghibli (shame on you) I wouldn't be surprised if you've watched one of their animated films already.  Ghibli's art style is unique and even if the front of the DVD box-art didn't say: "MADE BY GHIBLI STUDIOS" and "FROM THE CREATORS OF SPIRITED AWAY"  I would still know that Ghibli made it.  The amount of in-jokes and cameos by other people rival even those found in Pixar films!

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, it has this nice adventure storyline that while may sound slightly generic plays out majestically.  And for older and more mature users, there is a dark undertone meaning to the whole thing which really puts things in retrospect.  Since I'm too lazy to do anything like a review here's oneI found on the IMDB.

After watching this film I was pleased with the overall feel and look the production. Most notably I was impressed with the studio's visual creation of Earthsea. While the artistry and animation quality does not entirely measure up to other recent Ghibli studio films, I felt it did create a rich and colorful setting in which the story unfolds. A solid score also helps to shape the vibrant world that the movie conveys. However, I wouldn't consider all this to be a faithful representation of Ursula k. Le Guin's literary Earthsea, but rather something unique on to itself. One thing in particular that I think separates the film setting from that of the books' is the absence of the sea. I'm not saying its not there, just that it seems to mostly be in the background.
As for the story I don't think it stands out as anything great. It was limited from the start. The movie like the book is a single episode in a much larger tale. In no way could it possibly encompass the magnitude of the Earthsea series, let alone the main events in The Farthest Shore. It would simply be too much to present in a canvass of its length. As a result It lacks the epic feel of Princess Mononoke or the closure that comes at the end of Spirited Away. In other respects though, the film borrows heavily from Ghibli's previous works, mainly with the characters. They are shadows of former Ghibli creations, but due to their interaction and set of circumstances they retain some originality. I might also add that they come off as serious, and are far removed from the playful personalities that give other Ghibli films their charm. This said they still manage to play out their given roles and drive the story forward. From beginning to end the film holds up in large part because the setting never loses its feel.
I enjoyed this picture in spite of its flaws, again because of it's look and feel. For once I could see winged dragons clash and wizards face off in a Ghibli film. In my opinion Goro Miyazaki did a decent job bringing it all to life. At the same time, I hope he will learn from this experience and strive to do better next time. After my seeing Gedo Senki he has my support.

Obviously, seeing as the film was the debut of a new director it lacked the general sheen and polish applied to previous films.  But it's still pretty awesome in my book.  Watching it really brought me back to reminiscing about the old Ghibli films and how enjoyable they were.  I recommend this a watch if you liked previous Ghibli films.

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Next movie I saw turned out to be the Animal Crossing movie.  LOL

No, seriously it was.  I didn't know they made an AC movie until a few months ago and from what I heard it was pretty good.  And since a friendly forum member pointed me towards this YT account with the whole film subbed I thought:  "What the heck.  It's not like I have anything better to do... except my college work... but that doesn't count."

I won't spoil too much for you, but I quite enjoyed it.  It's based on the DS game (I think) and people who have played the games will enjoy the music that is put in and the amount of references to the game is staggering!  I won't say anymore but if you want to watch it, I'll make it more convenient for you (aren't I nice?) and post all the videos in a list below:

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

PART 6

PART 7

PART 8 [FINAL]

ENDING CREDITS (For those who like to look at pretty pictures)

 

Hope you've enjoyed that.  :D

 

Until next time!

The Good Times

I picked up the Wiitar yesternight, the first time I played it in quite a while.  And what a come-back it was.

I ploughed through about half of the expert career mode.  Yes, you read correctly:  EXPERT.  Ownage.

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Ok, not much to say today.  So I'll just keep things short and simple.

 

Video.  Watch now.

AWESOME. Nuff said.

Some of you may recall me saying something about the above... for the record there was no alcohol or drugs involved... just a lot of boredom. I'm not going to point out whose who in the video... just know that some people you may know (from this blog) may be there... Actually, at the very end you can hear the start of someone laughing. If only the aftermath was filmed, it was legendary.

 

 

EDIT#1:  Just for laughs.  Here's a video of Gavin's cartwheel-to-backflip attempt.  Keyword there is:  "attempt".

WIPE OUT!

If you had a sense of humour like me.  You would have ROFLed to death.  Like I did.

If you watch very very closely, about 7/8 seconds in Gavin gets PWN3D by the beach.  Oh yes he does.