Mortal KomBat

Now you were either a MK boy or a SF boy. You couldn't possibly like both. That's just wrong.
Those of you in the SoB club (ie MK fans) would remember the seminal (and greatest) MK3, and especially it's rumoured fatalities, babalities, animalities, and friendships.

Codes and tips on how to do fatalities and all that would circulate in magazines, rumours of long and elaborate rules to get one thing done were usual. Of course, it was great fun once you found a code that actually worked. I personally used to know Kung Lao's shredding fatality: FORWARD, FORWARD, BACK, DOWN, HIGH PUNCH.

Anyhow, some one on the ever entertaining youtube has posted a video with ALL possible MK3 fatalities, babalities, animalities, and friendships. Enjoy this 8 minute medley of gory, shocking, and now crap animations. Still a great game though :)

India, you might like this - what with all your old SNES magazines you used to bring with loads of codes in them.

R.I.P. Anas

This really is sad news... had a phone call from a friend earlier to say hi, and he was telling me about the death of a friend of mine that was younger than me by a year.
His name was Anas, I'd known him from primary school, we went to the same one, same high school, and same medical school. His dad was a university teacher.

He was kidnapped from outside Al-Kadhimiya hospital and a ransom was given to his dad. His dad went to deliver the money and the kidnappers killed them both. Their bodies were found shot dead on 22/12/06.

It really makes me sad and angry. Poor Anas, was such a nice and calm guy, never hurt anyone or anything. What have they gained from killing a father and son, both pillars of the community and academics? A doctor and a teacher now dead in a torn FUCKED UP land. FUCK THEM ALL.

R.I.P. Anas and father. I sincerely hope your family get the patience they so desperately need.

FUCK THEM ALL.

Merry Christmas!

All you lucky SOBS out there (note the big O in that, SoB is me, SOB is all you mofo's!). Am working for the 3rd christmas in a row, but I had the senses to bring the macbook with me, cos they've recently installed a wireless network in our mess.

So, am sat here watching Grease on the TV while typing this. It's 14:45 and I finish at 22:00... poor me :( here you go - a snap of me sat here to cheer you all up (or hopefully depress you so am not the only one).

On How Christmas Came Early

For the 3rd year in a row I am working Christmas Day!
2 years ago I was doing nights, last year I was doing a day shift, and this year I'm doing a long day shift (0900-2200)! Sigh.

So, I'm going to Kelly's parents' house on Boxing Day (like last year), but me and Kelly decided to open our presents together today, and what a surprise I was in for!
I got her a book (cookery! heh), a DVD (Jim Henson's Story Teller), a Casio Exilim Z70 camera, and a LG Chocolate mobile phone (and I'm really jealous of that last one, it's awesome!).
I got her parents a Nintendo DS with Sudoku and Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. Why? cos they're both Sudoko geeks and her dad plays video games, so I thought it's a good idea. For my mum, I sent money (typical Arabic shit eh?)

Kelly, as usual, got me tons of stuff (like my last birthday, remember?):

1\ A Nescafé Dolce Gusto Coffee Maker: YES! YES! I can now finally do like they do in those coffee shops, make a coffee and go "tap tap" while cleaning the filter on the sink! heh. Seriously though, the thing makes excellent coffee, and it really gives professional results.

2\ Two tickets to see the awesome Blue Man Group in The New London Theatre: Sorry Zzz, I know you really wanted to see them when you were here, but I'll let you know how good the show is :p

3\ A Gorilla-pod: Now this is one thing that I saw ages ago and nearly bought but thought it was just a gimmick. How wrong! It's a mini-tripod that has bendable legs, you use it to fix your camera on to any surface you like. You can also use it to stabilise the camera to reduce that shake that's impossible to control when taking night shots. I have to say, the thing is brilliant and is very well built. One really good thing about it is that it comes with a little detachable base that you screw on to your camera and it stays there, that way you can just slot your camera in and out of the pod with ease. Highly recommended.

4\ A blue jumper from Debenhams

5\ Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze: The follow-up book to last year's "Does Anything Eat Wasps", a book full of trivial questions and their scientific (and not-so-scientific) answers. The cool thing about the book is that it's a compilation of reader questions and reader answers submitted to "The Last Word" column of New Scientist. Makes for really cool trivial reading, recommended to those people that want to have an answer to most things, and those that want to have something funny/cool to talk about in parties (or pubs).

6\ But best of all, something that I really was amazed about, I recently found out that Kelly studied art at school. She learnt how to draw things and she's shown me stuff she's drawn (from her little sister to tigers!). This year, she took 3 days to draw me DONKEY KONG! awesome stuff! the picture is going up in my computer room (read: den, geek room!) and is a really nice personal touch.

So there you have it, Xmas came early for me and it's been a cracker. Hope it's the same for everyone out there, particularly those in Iraq. Be safe.

Finally, as I type this I can smell the roast turkey, mmmm Christmas lunch here I come!

Videogames Live

I should have blogged about this earlier :)

One Saturday morning (25th of November) I was in London when I saw a news article about a once only concert in The Hammersmith Apollo, called Videogames Live. The show was about celeberating the music that's come out of our favourite addiction.
It was very popular in America, and that day was their only UK show before going back to the states.

I called a geek friend who I knew couldn't say no (Wisam) and he booked the tickets for us both for the show at 19:00. I took mum to some big shopping centre she wanted to go to (Blue Water), and then met Wissam in Hammersmith.

The place was full of stereotypical gamers, ie sweaty, over weight-ish men with glasses and T-shirts that say things like "I Zelda You" and the like. Anyhow, we the concert started and we were in for a great treat! They played live orchestral music from loads of games, like Warcraft, Halo, Beyond Good and Evil, and tons more. The show started with a 10 minute Medley of all the classic games, starting from Pong and ending with Tetris!
There were also some nice on-stage effects, like a real-life Solid Snake + guard and loads of lights/lasers etc. A big screen was also showing clips of the games which the music was coming from.

As a nice surprise, some guests came on, like Michael Ancel (Rayman, Beyond Good and Evil), and that awesome Japanese dude who can play 10 Final Fantasy tracks on piano blind folded!
They also had on-stage live competitions like Frogger and Space Invaders. One lucky mofo even won an Acer "ferrari" laptop!
At the end we were all given a free promo CD which had studio recordings of the most famous Ubisoft games tracks.

It was good fun. The tour is now back in America but will be touring other places next year. If you do have the chance to watch a great show with great music, don't miss it!

Wii have games

Wii are gameless

Quick post: for those of you wondering what's happening with the Wii and why I haven't ranted on and on about it, well that's cos I HAVE NO GAMES FOR THE DAMN THING!

Sure it's got Wii Sports in the package, but that's more like a tech demo than anything, and really needs 2 players to be fun. I only have one controller.
So, why no games? well my original amazon order had a Wii + Rayman, Red Steel, Zelda, Super Monkey Ball (wooohooo!), and Wii Play (which includes a free remote). Due to Wii Play being extremely short of supply, the package was only sent out by courier yesterday.

I was meant to receive it today. I had the day off (bliss, been playing EVE most of it, and GoW), but the stupid courier somehow couldn't ring the bell, cos their website now says (Delivery failed, recepient not home). RECIPIENT NOT BLOODY HOME?!!! I haven't seen the sun since yesterday!

So, the depot is open tomorrow (saturday) between 8am to 12.30pm. Am gonna ring them to see if I can pick the damn thing up, otherwise I'll have to wait till Monday as they will attempt redelivery!

As you can see, if I don't get the package tomorrow I'm gonna be one VERY UNHAPPY bunny, ravingly rabid perhaps :p

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

This is a very quick post: YES I did get the Wii on launch day (Friday 08/12/06), but what I didn't get with it is lots of new games (damn Amazon! The games order is separate and still hasn't shipped!). It does, however, come with Wii Sports, which is great to sort of ease you in to this new controller method.

Anyhoot, a more detailed post later once I've got my hands on Red Steel, Zelda, and Super Monkey Ball... oh and the component video cable :)

In the mean time, here's the Wii next to it's big brother

PS: got some new wireless headphones too that I HAVE TO tell you all about - they are absolutely awesome.

Later

Remember That Police Academy Guy...

... the one who made amazing noises with his mouth? black dude?
Michael Winslow was his name, and we all wanted to grow up and be just like him, making funny noises with our mouths and pretending to play video games :)

Anyhow, he does stand up now, and here's a great clip of him in action... gotta love that rave party sketch!

Tomorrow

we get Wii!

Funnily, I'm getting 2 (by mistake). I pre-ordered from Argos and Amazon, and both are gonna deliver! Am gonna refuse the Argos one and get my money back - am not THAT greedy.

Only worrying thing is that I think Amazon are gonna deliver the games and component cable the next day, so might just end up playing Wii Sports all day tomorrow.... that's if I can pull myself away from EVE :D

Updates and impressions later. SoB out

Animator vs. Animation II

Click here to see one of the coolest flash animations you have ever seen in a while.
Remember Icon's Story? well, this one takes the concept way beyond that.

Watch what happens when our Animator decides to call his stick man "The Chosen One".

Pure genius

Amazon Wii preorders sell out in under 10 minutes!

OK, first the happy news: I have theoretically secured a Wii (+games) for launch day (08/12/06), yippeeeee!

So how did I do that? Well, Amazon were one of the last (if not the last) retailer to announce their preorder plans. But, eventually they sent customers an email saying that pre-orders will open on Tuesday 21/11/06 (ie today) at 9am GMT, and they will only take as many orders as they have stock, hence theoretically guaranteeing everyone who manages to pre-order a console on launch day.

This morning at 8:45 I started a "page camp". I loaded amazon in 2 browsers (IE and FireFox), signed in to amazon and loaded the Wii page. I then started pressing F5 every few seconds! Imagine the number of people doing that, it's amazing the servers didn't crash!
Eventually, at about 9:30, the page updated to say "click here to pre-order this item", I quickly clicked and it said "there's been an error - we can't supply this item". FUCK. I thought I had lost out on it so quickly! I didn't lose faith though, so I kept refreshing the orignal page and re-ordering, until finally the item was SAFE in my basket. I quickly checked out, and received a confirmation email!
I then went on to order some games and an extra controller, and combined all the orders together in to one big ball of Nintendo happiness!

And how long did it take for the Wii to sell out? JUST UNDER 10 MINUTES! At nearly 9:40am, Amazon stopped their preorders and annouced that the item was out of stock, madness!

So, come 08/12/06, I should hopefully have a Wii delivered to me. Is it going to be worth it? you bet your ass! Who's going to win this round of console madness? SoB says the Wii60 (people with a Wii and a 360 together, collectively CHEAPER than a PS3). Only time will tell.

A Whole Week With Wii

There's too many W's in that title :p

Anyway, some appropriately named mad guy called yoshimadness has decided to play Wii live online for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. He will be broadcasting live and blogging at the same time on his site.

His rules are:
1. I will only be sleeping 4hrs. a day (usually 2:00am-6:00am)
2. I will be updating my blog every 4 hrs. (This should take me about 15 mins. to do)
3. I'll only be leaving my room to (a) use the bathroom (if its a duece than it might take 15min). (b) if my dad needs something (parents and relatives might be over for Thanksgiving).

So, go here if you wanna feel sorry for this poor man, or feel jealous that he's playing Zelda already :)

Faithless - Bombs

Faithless are releasing a new album end of this month, titled "To All New Arrivals".
They have also released a single from the album, called "Bombs". The song is about the war in Iraq, and features some of the best lyrics from Maxi Jazz I've ever heard. The track is excellent and has some female vocals I don't recognise... but part of Jazz's lyrics I wanted to mention here:

Key in the door, the moment I've been longing for,
before my bag hit the floor,
my adorable children rush up and screaming for a kiss
and a story, they're a gift to this world, my only claim to glory,
I surely never knew sweeter days,
blows my mind like 'munition, I'm amazed

After the chorus, Jazz continues the story of the father and his children:

One bomb, the whole block gone,
Can't find my children and dust covers the sun,
Everywhere is noise, panic, and confusion,
but to some another fun day in Babylon
I'm gonna bury my wife and dig up my gun,
my life is done, so now I've gotta kill someone

Really provoking lyrics, especially when heard in the context of the whole song and it's chorus.
Of course, Jazz is no stranger to all this, in the 1998 song "Bring My Family Back", Jazz tells the story of a torn apart family from 3 perspectives, The 3 year old child, The 43 year old father, and the number 53 house where they all lived in. The house's perspective is the most haunting:

I'm on Lonely Street, number fifty three.
Boarded up property,
I'll probably get pulled down.
Litter all around inside there's
no sound and no light.
But yo it gets busy at night, People creeping.
Derelicts sneaking to fix. Speaking.
On the way my timbers creaking,
Roof leaking. And bricks coming loose,
knee high in refuse.
But even though I'm a slum,
I'm still of some use.
There was a time when my walls where decorated.
And under my roof children were educated.
But now paint's faded, windows are all smashed,
a crash in the economy robbed me of my family.
And no strategy, combats negative equity,
so that's it. Like violence it's drastic.
I'm freaking, and seeking to be
more than just a house for crack.
Somebody bring my family back.

So there you have it. Faithless aren't all just about dancing and jumping up and down, they are great at political lyrics, and not that bad at dance music to boot :)

The Coolest Hotel In The World

The Arte Luise Kunsthotel in Berlin offers it's guests rooms that are separately designed by different artists.

Of course, some are purely crap, with funny lines going round the room and so on. One cool one looks like a birds nest, with eggs all over the place and a giant beak sticking through the wall.

But, the coolest (and geekiest, nerdiest) of them all is a cell-shaded room called comic. The picture below is actually of the real room itself, and not CGI

Best thing is, the rates aren't too bad... so if anyone finds themself going to Berlin for one thing or another, you can pay Nile Warp a visit and stay in this hotel at the same time :)

Hello people. I got the XFX today, installed it, then ran a few tests. This is a copy of my post in the DW forums, copy-pasted for your viewing pleasure :)

hi all,
received the XFX g8800 gtx today.
Installation was smooth, had to get a longer IDE cable though (stupid
abit mobo has the worst ide placement in the world!)

forceware drivers are 97.02 (latest)

did a few quick tests on my system - specs are

Intel Core 2 Duo e6700
XFX GeForce 8800GTX
4gig (4x1gig) Corsair DDR800 Dual Channel RAM
Creative X-FI Fatal1ty SoundBlaster
Abit AB9PRO mobo
WD Raptor 36 gig for windows, 2x76 gig in RAID-0 for games
ViewSonic VP201s LCD, native 1600x1200x60hz

Everything is at stock speeds, I don't over clock

3DMark Score 10340 3DMarks
SM 2.0 Score 4704 Marks
SM 3.0 Score 4844 Marks
CPU Score 2354 Marks

This is using the free version, so res is 1280x1024.

I tried the same test before uninstalling my old card (XFX 7800GTX), scored 4205 3D Marks

Unfortunately, 3D Mark won't let me publish the results, as they have yet to certify the forceware drivers

I then tested FEAR, I set everything to maximum, including Computer and Graphics. I then set the res to 1600x1200

Results
0% under 25 FPS
21% between 25 and 40 FPS
79% above 40 FPS

again, I tested this on 7800gtx, and it showed that 51% were under 25, and 49% between 25 and 40. A massive improvement.

Finally, I tried the Hardware OC Prey benchmark, with the following settings and results:


Resolution: 1600×1200
Demo: HWzone_co_il.demo
Shader Detail: Highest
Aspect Ratio: [4:3]
Antialiasing: 4×
Anisotropic filtering: 16×
Graphics BOOST: enabled
Score = 80.1 FPS

With graphics boost disabled (I think this is like ULTRA mode for the doom3 engine), the score was 102.3 FPS

Please note that will all the above tests, VSYNC and Tripple Buffer were forced on via the nvidia control panel.
I have a reason for that, as I can't stand tearing... and even if it lowers the FPS for the game I'm playing, as long as it's
not teared I'm happy.

Thanks for reading this boring post

If anyone wants me to test something else, please let me know.

XFX Geforce 8800GTX

Yes you read right, I've just ordered one of these mean babies!
The 8800 was released this week, and just like the Geforce7 series before it, nVIDIA have actually got enough cards to put on the market from day one...

Now, my system has got the Intel Core 2 Duo, 4gigs of ddr2-800 RAM, and this beast. All I need is DX10 and VISTA.... and perhaps one of those sexy Dell 3007 monitors :p

For a massive 27 page review of the new Geforce, click here

I might just take the day off on Friday, when my delivery is due from scan.co.uk.

Good Delicious will be updated with the early performance reports :)

FUCK play.com

Dear Customer,

Due to a European shortage of the Nintendo Wii Consoles, we regret to inform you
that Play.com will be unable to supply your pre-ordered Nintendo Wii at launch.
As an Official distributor of Nintendo products we are guaranteed more stock
before Christmas, but Nintendo have informed us, along with all other official
Nintendo retailers, that the console will not be freely available until next
year.

All pre-orders will be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis and we will
fulfil your order as soon as we can.

If you no longer wish to keep your pre-order with Play.com please login to your
account and remove the item from your Outstanding Orders.

Kind Regards

PLAY.COM

Let The Games Begin!

Winter is upon us, and next month Christmas rears it's drunken head...

So what does this mean to Mr A. Gamer? well, first of all days are much shorter and colder, giving you more of an excuse to stay at home all evening in front of the fire (read: computer or console).
Second of all, it also signals the end of the notorious "summer drought" in the games industry. Publishers, for some odd reason, have decided that we don't like to play games in the summer, and as such keep all their big releases for the winter.

Of course, this year isn't an exception. But why do I blog about it this time? well, mainly cos this winter is going to be one hell of a beltzer for gamers. Especially those with Xbox360's. Here's a few of the gems I can think of

Splinter Cell Double Agent is out already, and I've finished it. Great game, very similar to first 3 though.
Call Of Duty 3 is a CONSOLE EXCLUSIVE believe it or not! The videos and reviews look amazing, so have just ordered it for 360
Gears Of War: no comment on this one. Go to GameSpot and see for yourselves. Comes out 17/11.
Yoshi's Island 2 for Nintendo DS. Again, a classic reborn.
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic on PC is out already also. Mixed reviews on this one, but I played the demo and quite liked it. Kind of like Hexen:Source if they were ever to make that.
Fear Extraction Point PC

And last, but definitely NOT LEAST, the Wii is out on 08/12 (in Europe, earlier JAP/USA) and that in itself is enough to make me wet my pants. With it comes what is said to be the best Zelda ever made (Twilight Princess), a new Super Monkey Ball (woohoo!), and Red Steel from Ubisoft.

Someone freeze-dry me till then. At least I've got my Eve Online addiction to feed (more about that later).

SoB - A very happy gamer that owns an xbox360 - out.

The Official Windows Vista Packages

Quote:
Designed to be user-friendly, the new packaging is a small, hard, plastic container that's designed to protect the software inside for life-long use. It provides a convenient and attractive place for you to permanently store both discs and documentation. The new design will provide the strength, dimensional stability and impact resistance required when packaging software today. Our plan is to extend this packaging style to other Microsoft products after the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office system.
(Gizmodo)

New Wii promotion video

There have been lots of videos (by Nintendo and others) showing you the Wii, how to play, and the games. This is the only one that's worth blogging about.

I challenge anyone who watches is not to want to find more about the machine..... :)

Nvidia DX10 (G80) Details

At last! some solid information about the up-coming new graphics cards for next-generation PC gaming.

Story copy-pasted from DailyTech

DirectX 10 compliant GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS headed your way

DailyTech's hands-on with the GeForce 8800 series continues with more information about the GPU and the retail boards. The new NVIDIA graphics architecture will be fully compatible with Microsoft’s upcoming DirectX 10 API with support for shader model 4.0, and represents the company's 8th generation GPU in the GeForce family.

NVIDIA has code-named G80 based products as the GeForce 8800 series. While the 7900 and 7800 series launched with GT and GTX suffixes, G80 will do away with the GT suffix. Instead, NVIDIA has revived the GTS suffix for its second fastest graphics product—a suffix that hasn’t been used since the GeForce 2 days.

NVIDIA’s GeForce 8800GTX will be the flagship product. The core clock will be factory clocked at 575 MHz. All GeForce 8800GTX cards will be equipped with 768MB of GDDR3 memory, to be clocked at 900 MHz. The GeForce 8800GTX will also have a 384-bit memory interface and deliver 86GB/second of memory bandwidth. GeForce 8800GTX graphics cards are equipped with 128 unified shaders clocked at 1350 MHz. The theoretical texture fill-rate is around 38.4 billion pixels per second.

Slotted right below the GeForce 8800GTX is the slightly cut-down GeForce 8800GTS. These graphics cards will have a G80 GPU clocked at a slower 500 MHz. The memory configuration for GeForce 8800GTS cards slightly differ from the GeForce 8800GTX. GeForce 8800GTS cards will be equipped with 640MB of GDDR3 graphics memory clocked at 900 MHz. The memory interface is reduced to 320-bit and overall memory bandwidth is 64GB/second. There will be fewer unified shaders with GeForce 8800GTS graphics cards. 96 unified shaders clocked at 1200 MHz are available on GeForce 8800GTS graphics cards.

Additionally GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS products are HDCP compliant with support for dual dual-link DVI, VIVO and HDTV outputs. All cards will have dual-slot coolers too. Expect GeForce 8800GTX and 8800GTS products to launch the second week of November 2006. This will be a hard launch as most manufacturers should have boards ready now.

Happy Eid

Hello fellow muslims,

Happy Eid. God bless you all. Especially those in Iraq, keep safe please.

SoB.

Hoodwinked

Yesterday me and Kelly watched Hoodwinked, the real story of Little Red Riding Hood.
The movie is CGI which would have looked good 5 years ago (hell, even Shrek looks way better than this), but don't let that put you off!

The movie is very clever, telling you the well-known story of Red and her Grandma and The Wolf, but from each character's perspective, and of course each one has a different story to tell! It's funny, not too long (1:15), and has one of the coolest CGI characters I have ever seen, the goat below who's cursed to sing all the time, and always "comes prepared".

Now for those that do watch it, I'm not saying this is Shrek 2 or Finding Nemo material, it's just a small, independent CGI about what really happened when Red visited Grandma. Download it (DVD rips are around, the movie's been out in the states since last year), and spend one hour of a lazy afternoon watching this. Be warned though, you might end up repeating the scene with The Singing Goat more than once. At least I did :)

SoB out

PS: PACES exam on Friday. No more from me. I want to pass badly.

When Smoking Gets Too Expensive

Kudos to Ali B., who always sends me stupid emails that I ignore. This one is actually funny.

Electric Sheep

is a wonderful screensaver. This description is shamefully copy-pasted from the website, www.electricsheep.org:

Electric Sheep is a free, open source screen saver run by thousands of people all over the world. It can be installed on any ordinary PC or Mac. When these computers "sleep", the screen saver comes on and the computers communicate with each other by the internet to share the work of creating morphing abstract animations known as "sheep". The result is a collective "android dream", an homage to Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Anyone watching one of these computers may vote for their favorite animations using the keyboard. The more popular sheep live longer and reproduce according to a genetic algorithm with mutation and cross-over. Hence the flock evolves to please its global audience. You can also design your own sheep and submit them to the gene pool.

I've been using this for a few days and it really is fun. Be warned though that you'll need broadband (or a 100kbit down, 100kbit up) connection to download and upload the Sheep. Otherwise, it's a great screensaver that looks very geeky. Exactly what we geeks like.

SlowMo Team Deathmatch

Remember a while back I told everyone about FEAR COMBAT? The free multiplayer component of FEAR?
I initially didn't really like it. Deathmatches were too quick (a bit like Counter Strike, one or two shots and you're dead), and team deathmatches were just uninspired.

Yesterday though, for some reason (boredom!) I started the game and joined a server that was running SlowMo Team Deathmatch. For those that haven't played the SP game, SlowMo does exactly what it says on the tin - slows everyone down except for you (bullet time if you like) and gives you time to kick some Alma-arse.
The genius of Team SlowMo is that no one has SlowMo to start off with, but there is a SlowMo booster that's in the level. The team who find it must keep on carrying it so that it charges. Once fully charged the carrier can activate it and give the whole team the SlowMo advantage. This causes the other team to move at snail pace, and hence have their arses handed over to them.

Problem is, the carrier of the booster shows on the screen of the rival team as a big red circle, so they can trace him down easily. This, of course, makes the game purely genius.

Instead of just blindly killing each other (ala Q3A, which is much better in that sense), the match turns in to a tense game of cat and mouse as each team tries to gain (and keep) control of the SlowMo booster. There's nothing more satisfying than killing the bastard carrier just as he was about to activate it. Add with this the great FEAR engine that gives you awesome graphics, effects, and sounds; and you're on to a very addictive game that gives a good fresh break from the fast paced and mindless deathmatches we've been playing for years.

So please people, especially those that come to SoB's Kitchen regularly, download the free FEAR multiplayer, install it, and let's have some fun on the public servers.

On How Live is

First of all, 2 things:
1\ The title for this post is a (clever) spin on Macy Gray's album "On How Life Is"
2\ The original Xbox Live! sucked big time.

There. Got that off my chest.

The original Xbox Live! was a total waste of time. You paid a yearly subscription so that you can play a few games online, that were mostly laggy and just generally crap.Come the Xbox 360, and the most important and best feature of it is Live! Let me explain.The 360 Live! is a totally different beast from the original one. While the first Live! was just about finding multiplayer servers, this new one has loads more features.When you first turn your console on, your default profile loads up, and signs you in automatically to the Live! network. Any friends you have on your list that are online at the same time will have a little notification that you're online. You'll also get a little message telling you who's online. Checking your friend's list not only shows you who's there, but also what they're doing at the moment! From watching a dvd, to playing a game (sometimes including their score and status and what level they're on!), or even if they're playing a multiplayer game and whether it's joinable or not.Choose a friend, and you can page them, message them, voice chat with them privately, or invite them to your multiplayer game. You can even join their game if it's joinable.It's a very easy and intuitive system that does exactly what MS promised, put the player in the centre of the experience.

Then there's the Live! Marketplace. Here's where it really shines. The marketplace is a collection of downloads for your machine. Most are free, but some cost points (you buy these for real money). These range from themes for your dashboard, to music videos, film trailers, game trailers, and game demos (most of the game related stuff are free!). Best thing is, the trailers are in HD and come straight from the source. Game demos rock too (right now I'm downloading the demo for the new Sonic - can't wait!).Best thing is, Microsoft is making a HUGE effort at "bringing it home", in other words they're making sure Live! subscribers get the latest trailers/demos from the major gameshows quickly. In May when E3 was going on, there were daily updates for tons of things that you'd normally see on the net from a dodgy hand-held cam perspective. This year, we saw them in HD thanks to Live! Currently, TGS (Tokyo Game Show) is running and again, new demos and trailers straight from Japan to your living room. Great stuff.

And finally, there's Xbox Live! Arcade. Initially dreamed up by Microsoft as the place where the dad's will spend some time on their children's console, the Arcade is a collection of small, old and new games that are spruced up to be released on the Xbox. These games include old classics like Street Fighter 2, Frogger, Scramble, and some new "indie" games like Zuma, Geometry Wars, Uno and so on. There's a good range of coin-op classics, and most genres are catered for. These small games hammer the point that retro gaming is alive and kicking (the Arcade has sold loads since the 360's release), and shows no sign of stopping.Best thing is, yesterday in X06 Barcelona, Microsoft announced that they will be releasing the classic DOOM on Live! Arcade, including 5.1 surround and 4-player online co-op. The game was released world-wide soon after the announcement. And coming soon? the classic Sensible Soccer with original and up to date graphics. I hope it has online play - that would just be a killer.

So there you have it. I love Live! And I think anyone that has a 360 and can hook it up to the web has to try this great service. Online matches, demos, trailers, videos, movies, and loads more. Well worth the £40 a year price.

WWW.ALI-SOB.COM

Yes Ladies (are there any?) and Gentlemen, I am very proud to introduce to you:

www.ali-sob.com!

I registered this domain name very late last night in a sleepless state of mind! Mind you, it was cheap (only £20 for 2 years). Currently, visiting www.ali-sob.com just redirects you to here.
I don't intend (at least not yet) to make a brand-new website from scratch, and will continue to use Good-Delicious as my madness outlet. ali-sob.com will carry on redirecting to here.

So what's the point you say? well, a very important one: alot of my friends keep telling me "oh, we used to read your blog but we lost the address and can't remember it, it's too long" etc, etc. Now, there's nothing easier than remembering ali-sob :)

Spread the word people, and if you want update your bookmarks.

Ali "SoB" :)

Geekiest wedding cake EVER!

Yes, all of it is edible except for the Mario and Peach figuirines on top. How AWESOME? Some guy and his wife are both Nintendo fans, so they got this cake custom made for their wedding. I'm SO jealous :)

Wii European Release Date

Finally Nintendo has confirmed the solid release details and facts for their next-gen offering, The Wii.
In an exclusive press event in London, The Big N announced that the Wii will be launching in Europe on the 8th of December 2006 (14 days later than USA/JAP), and will cost £179.
The package will include the console, a remote + nunchuck attachment, and a copy of Wii Sports.
Included among the launch games will be the new Zelda (Twilight Princess), Red Steel, and Super Monkey Ball among others.

So, it's not too bad for .eu this time :) Even though it's two weeks later than the rest of the world, at least it's not 5 months (*cough* PS3 *cough*). Oh, and it's 30% the price of a PS3 :)

There have also been loads of new trailers/images/etc on the net, as is typical with the hysteria that hits the web when such things are announced. The official website is now open too.

I for one have pre-ordered my Wii from play.com, but will be checking our local game store. If they're doing a midnight launch I'll definitely pre-order from there and go queue at midnight like the geek I am :)

Oh and for those that are gonna slag the Wii off just cos it can't render 1,000,000,000,000 polygons at 1,000,000x2,000,000 resolution, I pity you. You really don't know what you're missing out on, and with such a cheap price, I think everyone should have a Wii :p

Will it do as good as the DS? maybe, maybe not. It has my full support all the way to the end, just like my trusty (and now dusty) GameCube.

Salam

The Symphonic Jean-Michel Jarre

Yesterday, as I was going to bloody work, I saw that the postman had left me a package. Inside it I found a CD I had pre-ordered ages ago.

It was the limited edition The Symphonic Jean-Michel Jarre, which is meant to be released 02/10/06! I don't know why, for some reason they posted it to me over 2 weeks early!!

The boxset has 2 CDs and a DVD (5.1 mix of the 20 tracks). All the tracks are composed by Jarre but performed by The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. There are some lovely tracks on there, including an excellent rendition of Eldorado.

So, I'm happy.

In other news, my MRCP PACES date has been given. I take the exam on Friday 20/10/06 in Barnet (north London). There are 4 of us taking the exam from Ipswich Hospital, and we've been working our arses off all evening (usually from 5pm to 7pm after work), going round seeing patients and putting ourselves in the exam situation. It sucks, but it's gotta be done.

Last time I did the exam I made a big mistake by focusing on the books, rather than on the bedside experience. This time, I'm correcting my mistakes. Also, I suffered the classical "downhill spiral" syndrome. I was very, very nervous, and convinced that I had fucked up my first station (there are 5), and as such was so flustered and melted because of it I just kept thinking about it and fucking up the remaining 4 stations.
A BIG MISTAKE that costs you the exam (and it's fee!). This time, am gonna go there as cool as ice. I hope.......

Theme park weekend

This weekend just gone, me and Kelly travelled up to the midlands to go to 2 theme parks, the huge (and biggest in UK) Alton Towers, and the smaller, but also very good, Drayton Manor.
These parks are about 150 miles from Ipswich, so we booked a hotel in the middle (Derby) and went to Alton on Saturday, and to Drayton on Sunday. I took Monday and Tuesday off, so am home now bumming :p

Anyhow, we had a great time! In Alton Towers we went on the following (in order):

Ripsaw - swings you around and hangs you upside down for a bit.

Air - now this is cool! I missed going on this back in 2003 cos there was such a massive queue (it had just openned), but man what a ride! The first roller coaster (and I think still the only one) in the world that you travel on whilst lying down! When you get on it you just sit down like normal, and you get belted in and your legs secured too. Then you're tilted so that you face the floor! You go through the ride either facing the floor or facing the sky, and it's an amazing feeling! Not too much ups and downs, as much as twists and turns and feelings of flying. Great ride!

Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - a disappointing boat ride in the factory, let down by the fact that it was just still models, not much happened.

Rita Queen Of Speed - One of those fast shooting rides that are popular these days (based on the similar Stealth ride in Thrope Park which we went to this year too, also great). The train shoots from 0-60mph in about 2.5 seconds or something stupid like that, then what follows is a succession of turns and twists. It's all over very soon but it's great while it lasts!

Spinball Whizzer - This one was great! Looks like a kid's ride, but very intense. The coaster puts you in a "pinball ball", so you ride in a circular train which spins like mad at any opportunity. Couple this with lots of ups, downs, and twists, and you have a very cool ride.

Oblivion - The all-time classic. One of the coolest rides I've ever been on to date, the idea is simple. The train takes 16 passengers (sat in 2 rows of 8) up to the top of the track, and then tilts you down slightly... you end up suspended up there looking at a big black hole in which the train will drop.... Then the stupid thing tells you "welcome to the Alton Tower's Oblivion. Whatever you do, don't look down!" and away you go! A free-fall drop lasting 6 seconds, the majority of which is in a big, dark, cold, and black hole! When you feel that you're about to die, the track swerves up and loops back to the station! Yes, it's only about 10 seconds but God is it worth it.

The next day we were off to Drayton Manor, a small and relatively unknown park, but one that hosts some of the greatest rides. They really should promote this park a bit more. We went on (in order):

Maelstrom - one of those rides that swings and turns at the same time. Difficult to explain, but is like a classic swinging ship ride, but the riders are sat in a circle that spins around at the same time. Scary and good.

The Flying Dutchman - swings that go up and spin :p

The Big Wheel.

Pandemonium - I went on that solo, as Kelly was too scared (hehe!). Basically a "ranger" style ride, riders are secured in and then spun around and hung upside down alot. More "oh my god my head is gonna pop!" rather than scary.

Apocalypse - A traditional vertical drop ride, you go on it, it goes up and up, then lets go and you drop. Problem is, this one is standing, and to add to the thrill, it tilts you forward a bit, so you're not only standing, but are forced to look at the floor as you race towards it in free-fall! Excellent ride, very very scary.

Drunken Barrels - waltzer-like ride. Stupid.

G-Force - this one is unique. A steel coaster that is quite small and short, made up of 2 loops, a cobra-loop, and some screws. What makes it very cool is that riders are only restrained from their waste (ie non of those top-down belts you get on all other coasters), and when you first start off, you drop down quickly and then the chain that takes you to the top is actually inside a loop! So as you're being pulled up you're turning upside down too! Very cool ride and made more intense cos of the waist-only restraints.

Stormforce 10 - a traditional water ride, lots of ups and downs. Very wet.

Shockwave - the last ride we went on for the day, and man oh man what a way to end the weekend! Shockwave is stil Europe's only stand-up coaster, and what an experience! Riders are secured standing up and then the coaster takes you through a dip, one loop, and 3 screws. Sounds short but it's amazingly fast, very very scary, and if it were any longer you'd puke. Best thing is, we queued for the front seats (or stands, I don't know :p), and we didn't wait long as no one wanted to go front - it's that scary. Awesome ride, well worth the visit to Drayton.

And that's it, so in one weekend I went on as many rides as I usually go on in a year or two. Wonderful stuff. Back in Ipswich now, with my MRCP book in one hand, and PCZone in the other. Wonder what I'll read next.....

Later y'all.

German Honda Jazz Ad

This German Honda ad shows you that all those hours playing tetris on the gameboy weren't a waste of your life as mum always said :)

Pretty clever, but don't forget that The Simpsons did this years ago. You chose which one you like most :)

Kung Foo Baby

This is the funniest video I've seen in a long long time... Bruce Lee eat your heart out!

The Unstoppable Nintendo

Just like the the UK pop charts, and the US movie charts, the JAP games charts are the most influential in the world.
This week's top 10 selling games from the Empire Of The Sun are:

01 NDS Final Fantasy 3 - 503.051 / NEW
02 NDS NEW Super Mario Brothers - 65.556 / 2.901.264
03 NDS Rune Factory - 42.210 / NEW
04 NDS Brain Age 2 - 41.784 / 3.073.195
05 NDS Cooking Navi - 37.326 / 384.045
06 NDS Tamagotchi 2 - 30.504 /430.933
07 NDS Mario Basketball 3on3 - 30.355
08 NDS Animal Crossing Wild World - 30.023 / 3.149.131
09 NDS Brain Age - 22.866 / 2.736.150
10 NDS English Training - 17.465

As you can see, ALL TOP 10 GAMES IN JAPAN ARE NINTENDO DS. With about 5 of them either made by, or published by The Big N themselves.

Also, on the 14th of September in US/JAP and the 15th in EU, Nintendo are holding a press conference where they will hopefully reveal all about the Wii, including prices, release dates, and that final big secret they're holding back.

This Nintendo fan thinks that the secret is going to be a bit disappointing, perhaps something along the lines of a good GPU or something I don't know. But what I also think is that the Wii will dominate. Japan will fall head over heels for it, and it's priced so cheap (nintendo promise it won't be more than $250) that even people with x360/ps3 might grab one (like yours truely).

So, could Nintendo reclaim the crown it rightly deserves but lost 10 years ago to the all-mighty Sony? Wii'll see :p

My eyes hurt

and it's all my fault

Time now 03:13. I'm staring at the screen watching a progress bar move slowly to the end. And I mean S>>L>>O>>>>W>>>>>>>L>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Y

3 and a half hours ago, some clever people released a downgrader for the PSP. It downgrades v2.71 firmware to the pirate-friendly v1.50. Since I wanna play a few games but am too cheap to buy them, I thought I'd go ahead.

Of course, the typical "don't ask for the files here cos they're illegal" business delayed me for a bit, then there was the whole "follow the instructions carefully else you'll 'brick' your PSP" business.
And then it was time to download, uncompress and copy some ISOs to the memory stick.

And then you had to install a programme called Devhook that fools the PSP into playing games from the memory stick. This is the one with the slow progress bar, takes about 30 minutes!

And the biggest delay of them all? fucking around with the settings of a programme that you've never used before in your life, only to kill it. Yes folks, it's totally my fault. I had to fuck around. I hadn't even tried a single game before I decided to take matters into my own hand.

So now, I'm re-installing devhook and punishing myself by watching the bar progress. At least I think that's what I'm watching.... my eyes hurt.

Razer Armadillo Mouse Management

I like my Razer Copperhead mouse. It even made me win a Quake 4 Deathmatch on a public server. Problem is, my super-sexy computer table is a bit too small, so the mouse cable (and every other cable to be accurate) hangs off the edge. This only causes a problem for using the mouse, as sometimes you end up tugging it to accommodate for the weight of the cable, or whatever other shit has managed to tug down on it since you connected it (anyone who's used a PC will know exactly what I mean).

So, Razer have come up with a solution for specifically this problem. Introducing the Razer Armadillo Mouse Management System. A little piece of metal that looks like a thimble, which houses your cable and lifts it off the table (to reduce friction). It is also heavy and is designed not to move around on the table, but can rotate 360 so as not to get in the way of those crucial 180-snaps you gotta do when you're deathmatching.

In other words, they've just created a little weight for the cable to stop it from tugging. Silly idea? total rip-off of people's money? gadget for the geeks? I think so. What's the point in spending £20 (includes VAT and P&P) on little more than a piece of heavy metal that stops your cable from tugging. I might as well just wrap the cable around the monitor base or something.

I'll give you a better review once mine arrives :p

Game Over by PES

Pretty neat eh?
Needs Quicktime
Created by PES

Forever Faithless....

Got back from V last night (around 00:30). We decided to de-camp and drive out as the last few bands were still playing (Razorlight - not my idea of fun). There were so many people there that leaving today (Monday) would've been suicide, cos of the crowds and traffic.

The show was awesome! There were lots of stages and tents but the main bit was on the big V Stage, where all the headline acts were. On Saturday we saw The Magic Numbers live and they were great! We also saw Beck (which was great cos there were puppets on the stage and he even did a dinner party on the stage!), and the headline was a stunning Radiohead set! The stage was amazingly beautiful, with loads of funny-shaped screens around and just great visual techniques.
We also caught a few random acts here and there on the other stages (The Cardigans anyone?)

As we weren't that bothered to be very close, we picked a spot right underneath a tripod speaker. The base of the tripod had a low fence around it so standing just next to it ensures that no one could stand infront of you, and you got to see the whole stage, the screens, and the mad crowd.

Yesterday we got to that spot and stayed there all the day. We saw The Dandy Warhols (who?), The Sugababes, and Paul Weller. Then came the magical 1:10hr set of Faithless!

Man can Faithless put up a show!! There were about 60,000 people watching the stage, as the band came on (missing Maxi Jazz) and the music kicked in with Sweep (from No Roots).. the crowd was already going mad when Maxi Jazz came on and the strings of Insomnia (their most famous track) started.... and you could tell that when the signature beat began the crowd would go mad! Nothing can prepare you for the sight of 60,000 people jumping up and down to Insomnia live. Really really good stuff... Maxi can sure get a crowd going, and they cleverly mixed dance with slow with techno and will all the things that make Faithless the best live act in the world (official award in 98).
They also played other dance favourites, like We Come One and God is a DJ.

And so, for us, Faithless ended a great weekend in an even greater way. Unmissable stuff.

V Festival

I'm leaving soon to Hyland Park in Chemlsford (Somewhere close to Colchester/Ipswich). Me and Kelly have got camping tickets for the Virgin V Festival there. It's 2 days worth of music and hopefully loads of fun!

The main arena bit will have various stages, and loads of big screens to watch the acts from if you can't be bothered to get too close to the stage. We've got a tent and some sleeping bags which we practiced putting up the other day (damn tents are NOT easy to setup!!). We're also taking both our DS's so we can get geeky if we get bored...

Loads of artists are on, but I'm specifically looking forward to Radiohead, Beck, Faithless (Wooot!), The Magic Numbers, and Beautiful South.

You can see the full line up here.

SoB out for this weekend. I would've liked to stay at home and play games all weekend, but sometimes the boss decides what we do.... Good-delicious!

F.E.A.R. Multiplayer for FREE!!

that's right! Monolith have given away the FULL MULTIPLAYER component of F.E.A.R. for free!

I gotta admit, that's a good move from them... so now even though we've all finished the game offline, we can go online with it legit...

Of course, since Wolf owns the mega-rare-mega-expensive-mega-useless- original-collector's-prick's-collecting-dust-on-the-shelf-edition, he won't need this. For the rest of us we can just click here and download the game and get a cd-key sent over to our email addresses.

Be warned though, it's a 1.77g beast.

Quick one

I'm back.

Internet is on, but not as I wanted it. More on that (and the on-going battle between me and the ISP later).

Blog was very slow cos of a change in the feed2js address (the thing that powers the 360 blog in the sidebar). All sorted now

Am in Ipswich - nice hospital but very busy

Downloaded lots of x360 demos from the market place, will try soon

Want to download Darkstar One, not "scened" in English yet.

Got the g6-lite cartridge for DS, so playing lots of games that I wouldn't otherwise play. Mario Basketball is awesome.

Watch Cars. Well worth it. Especially the short before it "One Man Band".

Over and out.

11/08/06

is when I get broadband over here in Ipswich.
Should be 8mbit (damn phone line too long to support 16mbit ADSL2+).

Until then I'm staying signed off from the interweb. Dial up just doesn't crack it anymore.

Later people.

I'll Be Back

Ok, last post for sometime...
Tomorrow my phone line and internet cease to exist. The phone is moving to my new flat in Ipswich, and hopefully soon after, my new broadband supplier will start working.

So, I'll be lost in the ether for a while, hopefully not too long (maybe end of this week if I'm lucky, or next week).

Adios till then.... hopefully when I'm back I'd received my new stuff so I can blog a bit faster :p

Intel Conroe Core 2 Duo

I've just ordered an upgrade. I'm going to sell my amd fx 64 + the abit fatality mobo + 4gig ddr400 ram on ebay (they've held a good price till now and I don't really need them)

I was going to get a geforce 7950 gx2 but I thought that would be silly cos it's the last of the current generation and is NOT a directx 10 card, so what's the point... instead I opted to change back to Intel...

My new stuff should arrive early next week, and are:
Abit AB9-Pro motherboard
Intel Conroe Core 2 Duo e6700
4x1gig Corsair paired DDR2 800 (PC6400) RAM

I'll update Good Delicious when the stuff is here and when I've installed it.

SoB out

PS: I go and watch Superman Returns with Kelly in the imax tomorrow, can't wait!
PS2: I am moving jobs to Ipswich, so I'll be offline from Tuesday cos I've moved my phone line and broadband internet to there, and I'll be reconnected end of next week I hope.

Use the Portal Gun NOW!

Well sort of...
First a clarification, turns out that the trailer I posted a few days ago of the Portal Gun will NOT be used in Half Life 2 or any other Valve FPS as yet, it will actually ship as a stand-alone source powered puzzle game with Episode 2. The puzzle game will use lots of Portal trickery to confuse you even more... and is appropriately called Portal :)

So, my dream of people abusing the Portal Gun in FPS has been shattered :(

But more importantly, Portal was initially concieved by a group of students at the Digipen Institute of Technology, and they programmed a full puzzle game called Nabacular Drop. In full 3D this game replicates exactly what you saw in the trailer a few days ago. Valve saw the game and employed the students to create Portal. Who said games don't make money :)

Luckily, Nabacular Drop is still available for download here.

So go grab it, and as the Prodigy put it... Walk through mind fields and watch your head rock. Cos this one will sure spin your head and world around. Great fun though :)

Me Mudder

When me prayers were poorly said
Who tucked me in me widdle bed
And spanked me till me arse was red,

Me Mudder!

Who took me from me cozy cot
And put me on the ice cold pot
And made me pee when I could not,

Me Mudder!

And when the morning light would come
And in me crib me dribbled some
Who wiped me tiny widdle bum,

Me Mudder!

Who would me hair so neatly part
And hug me gently to her heart
Who sometimes squeezed me till me fart,
Me Mudder!

Who looked at me with eyebrows knit
And nearly have a king size fit
When in me Sunday pants me shit,

Me Mudder!

When at night her bed did squeak
Me raised me head to have a peek
Who yelled at me to go to sleep,

Me Fadder!

Daigo

Ok, this is another video post I'm afraid. Youtube.com is so easy to use and embed in a blog that it would be criminal not to share these classics with all you people :)
Now, back to Daigo. Daigo is the Japanese and World number one street fighter player.
This video is taken from the EVO 2004 Street Fighter III finals, where he's struggling to beat the American Justin Wong. Daido is Ken and Justin is Chun Lee. With just a fraction of health left, Ken is keeping his distance from Chun, when she launches a devastating super attack.
What follows is history.... pure gaming classic :)

Note: I've played Street Fighter 2 very briefly, and was more a Mortal Kombat 2/3 fan. But, I take it what Daigo did was incredibly difficult to do. It's called Parrying (ie blocking) and I think it takes alot of skill to perform, especially the last jump/parry.... just watch for yourselves and if anything this video is worth watching for the crowd reaction alone......

Valve's Portal Gun

Ok this is semi-unique.
Anyone who's played Prey (what?! you haven't?! get it now!) will know all about those funny dimension-shifting portals they introduced.
So, not to be beaten, Valve have released a trailer for what they call a Portal Gun, which might be used in future Half Life 2 Episodes. The gun does exactly what it says on the tin, ie lets you create portals anywhere you want!
The consequences (and physics-related exploitations) are unimaginable.
If people could trick-jump with humble Quake 3, imagine what they could come up with using this one!

Valve have released an interesting trailer of the gun, in a safety-at-work style video. Enjoy.

id Software To Improve Quake 4

id Software's revealed that it's "making great strides in tuning and tweaking the.. multiplayer gaming experience" for Quake 4 in the next point release - 1.3.

Changes are being made in response to fan feedback on the sequel and features requested by the Quake 4 community, with the developer stating that multiplayer alterations introduced in the 1.3 point release "will provide a faster, smoother, and more highly competitive experience". In addition, id says that it hopes the alterations will make the game "even more fun for new players"

It continues: "You can expect increased mobility and control, improved performance with ambient lighting options, and weapon alterations that advance playability and challenge competitive players."

Plus, id has let slip that it's also introducing a new gametype, new weapons and "several professionally made maps" in the 1.3 point release. The update is currently undergoing beta testing and the developer hopes to release it into the public domain "sometime before QuakeCon" - QuakeCon runs from August 3 to August 6.

Story from C&VG

So, are they finally going to create the multiplayer experience they promised us, ie a better Quake 3 Arena. The Q4 servers remain empty most of the time, and it's hard to find a populated server these days. As compared to the Q3A servers that are always full and it's easy to just jump in without having to hunt around for ages.
I think id outshone themselves when they created Q3A, it was the inital shell-shock for the PC fragging community that we still can't get over. A great, fluid, no frills games. Problem with Q4 is that it tried to replicate all of that using the Doom3 engine, which is more geared towards graphical bells and whistles, rather than deathmatch physics.

Anyhow, let's hope they sort it out this time and get those servers full again. Maybe this update will finally convince a certain german friend of mine who still refuses to play anything but Q3A, and just recently discovered that Windows XP was actually released by Microsoft 5 years ago :p

Simpsons Voices

Watch Dan Castellanata and Harry Shearer play the various characters that they do in The Simpsons :o)

"Dr Hebert, I ate all of your tongue depressors!"

Bollocks!

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars has been pushed to 2007!

Read the sad news here.

Well, at least the Wii's coming out this year. That'll keep me busy.

Titan Quest

I don't really remember the last time I was truely addicted to a game. Perhaps the last one was Exit on the PSP... or maybe Half Life 2, or Kameo. Not sure.
What I do know now though is that I am well and truely (and hopelessly ) addicted to Titan Quest, by Iron Lore. A PC action RPG game, built exactly like Diablo, but instead of fantasy dwarves and elves, Titan Quest is based on Greek Mythology.
The game is very easy to play, the interface is well designed and clutter-free, and all you need to do to play is click your mouse to move, or to attack. That's about it. There is a degree of character customisation, but nothing way to complicated like Oblivion, it's just a matter of picking a primary and secondary mastery. Each mastery has set of skills that you can choose to learn.

But all that RPG stuff falls to the side of the main game factor: combat. As anyone who's played Diablo will know, the game is all about finding monsters and killing them. Lots of them. There's loads of loot to pick up and gold to collect.
Also, the game is no where near open-ended or open-formed or whatever they call them. It's extremely linear, so you can't really get lost, and you're never stuck with what to do next. Which is what I love, as you might know by now :)

The graphics are absolutely AWESOME. Even though you're playing from a high up camera view, and it doesn't rotate, but still the care and detail put into the graphics is great. Enemies and environment are gorgeous to look at. Most people criticised the sound, but I think the ambience and music now and then are quite good.

So, if you haven't gotten the point by now - GET TITAN QUEST. It's fun and easy to play, is very long, and looks great. You can play with just one hand on the mouse, or use all the keyboard shortcuts, it's that intuitive and well-designed. Oh and there's a whole chapter in Egypt :)


SoBtarius of Sparta signing out.

PS: I reached this Oracle lady in the game and decided to take a snap cos it looked so cool. That big scary monster on the right is my pet Core Dweller. He kicks ass.

The WONDERFUL Kelly

The 6th of July was my birthday. I'm 29. Sucks.
Now that's out the way :p Kelly came over that day and brought me a million and one things!

First off, was of course a nice card.
Then, she gave me a bag full of goodies!
3 T-Shirts, some converse All Star shoes (you know the ones that basketball players used to wear and emos still wear!), a VERY BIG bottle of martini bianco, but... the shocker came in the little box at the bottom of the bag..


It was something I had mentioned aeons ago, it was something that me and Ziad had looked longingly at but never bought it cos we were too cheap :) I have no clue where she found it and how the hell she even remembered that I wanted a VICTORINOX Cybertool 34!
The Swiss Army Knife for geeks, this one has everything you'd need to dismantle any computer, for your old spectrum to the supercray. The best gift I've had ever!

And what did I get her for her birthday. Erm, a nurses watch that looked like a heart and had a little Eeyore on it. That's it, nothing else. HOW SAD.

Oh, and she took me out for dinner and baked me a cake!

So THANK YOU SO MUCH Kelly. Now I go dismantle my PC just for fun :)

LocoRoco!

Finally! Finally Sony has knocked some senses back into it's strategy with the PSP.
On paper, the PSP is a sexy piece of hardware, lots of great features. What really let's it down is the games. All it turn out to be is exactly what it's name is, a portable PlayStation.
By that I mean 90% of the games on the machine are just smaller versions of their PSX/PS2 big brothers, with graphics between the two. You get the GTAs, the Ridge Racers, the WipeOuts, and the Metal Gears. And because of this I can only really recommend 2 PSP "killer apps", Lumines and Exit. Katamari Damacy is also good but it's a PS2 conversion.

And this is where Nintendo know what they're doing, cos not only do they flog their life-long franchises (mario, zelda, metroid etc), but they also come up with some really new and interesting things, eg Chibi Robo, bit Generations, WarioWare etc etc.

But the other day I bought LocoRoco. A PSP exclusive, the game is exactly what handhelds were made for - simple, innovative fun. The game features basic graphics with primary colours, and has one of the easiest control/gameplay methods you'll find (left/right triggers to roll, and one button!). All you gotta do is roll the very cheerful LocoRocos around the world to collect berries, while navigating the cool world which can include things like swings, gears, wind pipes, traps and even the inside of a big frog!

The gameplay is really easy to get into, and it has a killer soundtrack which you can't help humming to, featuring the Locos themselves singing along (and not always in time with each other!). No screenshot nor rant from me can do the game justice, so I've posted the official trailer too!

And that's what Sony need to do more of, make new fun games to play, not just another Tekken for PSP. At least Lumines 2 and Exit 2 have been announced...

SoB - A not-so-happy-PSP-owner-that's-now-much-happier :o)

South Park SoB

Made using the excellent South Park Studio

The 10 Best Video Game Weapons

There seems to be a trend today for websites to create the top 10 list of everything, from "manly" games to goriest game scenes to best levels etc etc etc. I guess it's just the damn summer games drought that's left them with nothing else to do.

Anyhow, non of the top 10 lists I've seen recently have caught my attention, but recently gametrailers.com have compiled an admittedly good video of the top 10 video game weapons. Although I disagree with their choice/order (comeone? BFG not at number 1????), the video is still worth watching, so here it is. Have fun...

Movies...

I just noticed 2 very cool (and 1 ok-ish) movie trailers, as I was trawling the apple trailers website.

First up, and the most exciting of them all is Transformers - The Movie! by Paramount and Dreamworks (exec. producer Spielberg). I hope this one's cool! not out till 07/04/07 though. I'm not sure if that's 7th of April or 4th of July (stupid American dating).

Next, is a very clever mix of real acting and anime, and I don't mean in Kill Bill style. The whole of A Scanner Darkly is filmed in real life, but then coloured in to make it look like anime. It's very difficult to explain unless you see the trailer, but it sure looks very very interesting. It has that Sin City never-seen-before-style kind of feel to it. Just watch the trailer please :)

Finally, Pulse looks like a stupid horror film, but the reason it gets a mention here is cos it's a bit geeky. Someone dies, but stays in touch via email/IM to spook his friends out. It might turn out to be rubbish, but it's geeky so I'll watch it.

Superman Returns soon in the UK, and as an added treat they're releasing it in the Imax too, but not just as big 2D! the film has 30 minutes of 3D action in it! imagine watching Superman wooooooosh above your head. I've booked our tickets already, and me and Kelly are going to watch it wearing our Superman t-shirts.

Lastly, other films I want to watch this year are: Fearless, Hard Candy, The Omen, Monster House, Cars, Thankyou for Smoking, Water.

SoB out.

PS: am in London since Wednesday. My mum has had major surgery to her back and is recovering in hospital now, so am here to help her out. Donations accepted :p