Human Beatbox

This guy is possible one of the most talented people you'll ever see!
Seems to be on some French talent show. Just watch him perform Billie Jean!!

Pacman Versus

Question: What do you get when you mix legendary game god, Shigeru Miyamoto, and legendary gaming icon/person/pizza/thing, Pacman?

Answer: An ingenious new Pacman idea. That's what.

Pacman Versus was released for the Gamecube a few years ago. To play it properly, you needed at least one more friend (ideally 3), and a Gameboy to Gamecube link cable. For that reason I never played it back then.

Fast forward to today and Namco have re-released the game, this time as part of their Namco Museum collection, for the Nintendo DS. You can play Pacman Vs using the DS's WiFi mode, against 3 other players (unfortunately not online, that would have been awesome).

So what's the big deal? Pacman Vs. effectively substitutes the ghosts with human players. It's as simple as that. What's ingenious about it is the way that it's done. At the start of each game, a score limit is set for the winner to reach. A player is chosen at random to play Pacman, and the others become ghosts.

Pacman plays the game exactly like it's single player: he sees the whole maze, has to try and eat all the pellets, and can use the power pellets to chase and gobble up ghosts. He can also eat some fruit now and then for a bonus.

The ghosts however play a bit differently: they still have to catch pacman, but instead of seeing the whole maze, all they see is a very limited 3D overhead view of the maze. The clever bit is that pacman leaves a short shining trail behind him as he runs along, which gives the ghosts a good hint as to where he's been but not where he's gone. If a ghost eats the fruit instead of pacman, their camera zooms out a bit giving them an advantage towards hunting the yellow pizza down.

Even more clever is the scoring system: Pacman automatically gets 1600 points as a bonus, and every ghost he eats gives him 200 points which are taken away from that player's score. Whoever catches Pacman then gets to play him the next round, and the 1600 points is taken off the old Pacman, and given to the new one.
This makes the game a relentless chase and one that forces the ghosts to try and co-op, but also to be selfish and try to get Pacman themselves. Extremely clever stuff.

The game works really well on the NDS, using both screen to great effect. Me and Kelly have been playing it recently and it really is fast-paced fun. Shame it doesn't have online WiFi against strangers, like the excellent Tetris DS. That would have been the most addictive thing since, well, Tetris DS :)

Belgium

Hello.

I was in Brussels, Belgium.

We went on Wednesday, back on Sunday. Went on the Eurostar, lovely thing! Takes 2 hours to take you from Central London to Central Brussels. Via France. Amazing.

Brussels was cool. A lot of what to do is based on food, drink, and chocolate. Belgian chocolate being very famous. Oh and their favourite dish is "Moules et Frites" - Mussels and Chips! Really good thati s.

Best thing is that the country speaks French and German. So everything is double - road signs, menus, announcements, train stations. Everything.

The city itself is a curious mix of West and East. It's as if Western Europe and Eastern Europe had a child. It's like Paris mixed in with Prague. Prague being the coolest of course ;)

Finally, it's also the home of comics. Smurfs, TinTin etc. All Belgian. Which is why they have things in the street like the one in the picture :o)

Halo 3 Merchandise

:D

BioShock

I've just finished BioShock, seeing one of the possible two endings.
Forget it's a great FPS, forget the graphics and audio are just SUPERB, forget all of that.

What it REALLY is, is a GREAT GREAT GREAT story. Crash-landing in the middle of the sea, you find Rapture, an underwater utopia, created by someone called Andrew Ryan. You also find that it's gone to hell. A guy called Atlas guides you around Rapture while you uncover its secrets.

No, there are no cut-scenes. No fancy CGI or rendered video (bar the beginning and end), nothing. The game tells its story via the environment: the posters around the city, the advertisements over the public broadcast system, the tape recordings you find, and the things you stumble upon, be it a flat full of corpses or a room full of women hanging from their necks, it's all very atmospheric. And creepy.

But, best of all, is the twists and turns in the story. To mention one little thing would be to ruin the whole experience. BioShock is game that has some brilliant twists, not only in story telling, but in gameplay also. By the last level you'll just be wondering how anything (or anybody) will ever surpass this level of excellency in any video game. But of course, we said that about Half Life 2 years ago, and now BioShock is beyond that.

Great to play, great to see, great to listen to, and a great story. This is videogaming at its very best.
The new best FPS ever created? I think so.

If you really count yourself a gamer, then you have to play BioShock. Its not a game-its a benchmark. A piece of history that we're lucky to witness.

Spotted in the wild...

...in front of Stealh, Thorpe Park....

Off to London

I'm off to London today, to meet up with Zzz (Ziad).
He's here from Dubai again, for a week or so to attend something called PLASA.

Will be in London till Thursday.

SoB out.

PS: BioShock is one of the best games ever created. Really is. It's like a great movie, book, and game wrapped up in one astounding package. If you can, play it. It would be criminal not to.

The New iPod Touch

The rumours, ages and ages ago, have come true!

Apple today announced the new iPod Touch. Essentially an iPhone WITHOUT the phone. Yes you can listen to music, watch videos, AND browse the net via Wi-Fi (yes! a Wi-Fi iPod!). And yes the screen is multitouch and you can tilt it to see things in widescreen.

Good idea? I'm sure it is - not everyone wants a contract iPhone, but I'm sure this christmas EVERYONE wants the new, sexy, touchy iPod.

Go here for the official hoola boola.

No Comment!

Command and Conquer Gold: FREE

To celebrate the 12th anniversary of the original Command and Conquer release (31/08/95. Was it REALLY 12 years ago!!!) EA (Westwood) have put up for download the original game for free on the C&C website.

The version is "Gold", which is Windows XP compatible (not sure if it's vista) and includes 2 iso files, one for the GDI and one for The Brotherhood of NOD.

In case you haven't played them, haven't already pirated them, or you're just bored on a Saturday morning, grab them from here.