Post-it Donkey Kong!

Some creative UC Santa Cruz engineering students decided to decorate their "Engineering 2" campus building with a big scene from the 80's Nintendo classic, Donkey Kong, using nothing more than ordinary coloured Post-its!

What's amazing about the thing is that it looks exactly like the old game, took only 5 hours to complete (seriously! only 5 hours! teh awesome!) and I think all the people involved weren't even born while their parents were playing DK at the local hang out :)

There's a live journal page here that shows how it was all done, complete with some crappy snaps.

Grindhouse

I was checking some trailers on Apple's Front Row yesterday, and noticed this very interesting thing called Grindhouse.

Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino are back together to present Grindhouse, a movie made out of two Back to Back full feature movies! The premises sure is interesting, and A Grindhouse is apparently a type of cinema very prevalent in 70's America, that traditionally showed two uncensored back to back "exploitation" movies, with anything from sexploitation to gore to blackploitation.

Grindhouse will be a 185 minute showing of Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof". In between the two films there will be fake trailers for movies that don't exist, and they say that both films will feature grainy scratches added on, to make the experience as authentic as possible!

It sure is very intriguing, and watching the trailer makes me think that the ride is gonna be a typical Sin City/Kill Bill witty gorefest, and to be honest I can't wait to see the thing!

Grindhouse is out on the 6th of April in The States, and in June elsewhere. As I'm off to NYC in 2 weeks, I'll be watching it there.

In the meantime, check the trailer here.

Bil-pakeit, Part 2

It's 12:00 British Summer Time, Saturday afternoon. I'm sat typing this in my bathrobe, having just come out from an extended shave and scrub session (the longer version of the infamous Shit, Shower, and Shave).

This morning at around 10:00 I finished the final leg of my "week" of nights, ie the last 3 shifts. As always, it wasn't too busy and wasn't too quiet, just normal medical crap that has to come in each night (Chest pains, overdoses, epilepsy etc).
I got home, and instead of going to sleep first then scrubbing second, I decided to get it all out of the way, so I can go to sleep happy (and clean). The difference this time is that Kelly also clipped my hair (the universal NUMBER ONE cut that I've had for yonks). So, in addition to shaving my face and trimming my beard, I've also clipped my hair. This is seriously Bil-pakeit.

Now: Gonna have a hearty "celebration" breakfast (aka A Good Old British Fry Up), and then sleep for 3 hours. This evening I'm hoping to watch Stranger Than Fiction with Kelly and then do some 360 lovin' with The Boy and his "al EmaraTi" friend, who's also called Ali and owns all 3 consoles.

SoB out.......

Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games

No, it's not a trick. It's not a rumour either, and it definitely is real.

Mario and Sonic, the pinnacle of 16bit rivalry and loads of play-ground arguments, are to appear together (for the very first time) in a game!

Mario And Sonic At The Olympic Games is a Wii/NDS title by Sega, and that's all we know. Do they compete in normal games or does it require Mario to try and do some gravity-defying 360 loop-the-loops or Sonic to pick up turtle shells and PUT WEIGHT ON?

Who knows. But finally SNES and MEGADRIVE Fanbois can bury the hatchet and play a game featuring their favourite mascot. Whether it's any good remains to be seen, if it isn't, I double Nintendo's fat plumber will be affected, it's the blue hedgehog that's been getting a load of shit lately.

Finally!

Today, after a four-and-a-half hour session, and a total of bloody 46 gameplay hours (waaay too long for me!), we finally managed to finish The Legend Of Zelda - Twilight Princess on the Wii!!

Don't get me wrong, it's a great game - awesome even, just too long. Mind you, absolutely non of it was boring, and some of the levels and dungeons were awe-inspiring in design.

Worst bit was the last boss battle, as in traditional Zelda style it wasn't just one battle and you're done, but more one boss merges into another etc. When you reach the stage that you're gonna chuck your Wiimote at the screen, you actually finish!

Twilight's final battle(s) were as follows: Zant (who goes from one previous boss location to the other, emulating how they fought you, so he was like 5 battles in one), then Ganon Puppet Zelda, then Ganondorf Dark Beast, then Gannondorf horse chase/battle, and then Gannondorf Sword Fight (toughest of them all). Remember, there's no saving or shit in between, so a booboo is a BIG booboo. Luckily, we managed it all in one go (we did have only 1 heart container left at the very end but who cares!).

So that's that. Zelda is done and dusted. Now to get Red Steel out of the way (shit game), then I want to get some new Wii goodies (Kororinopa, Eledees, Sonic and The Secret Rings, Mercury Revolution and Excite Truck). It's gonna be busy.

Teo and Tea have arrived

One of 5000 limited-edition CD/DVD combos, which is becoming the norm for recent Jarre releases.

I hated this album when I heard the promo, I now love it. Jarre has moved, not up, but sideways, and has gone for a more dancey, main-stream kind of feel. It works for the majority, but has also managed to upset loads of fans.

I personally really like the album, first few listens didn't impress me but then you realise that even though the songs would work in a sweaty night-club, they also retain a lot of Jarre-ology.

Some tracks are pure genius, while others are so Eurodance/techno they'll make even Scooter cry (Teo and Tea being the worst offender).

If you do decide to give it a twirl, listen to it more than once (it's only 50 minutes), don't skip tracks and don't give up listening cos you think that the track isn't good. Just listen and forget other Jarre albums (after all, the golden classics are 30 years old!) and listen to Teo and Tea afresh, like a new band you've just discovered.

A quick tip

for those wanting to burn DL DVD+R discs

USE ONLY VERBATIM DISCS! (MEDIA CODE MKM001 OR 003). Yes, they're way more expensive than other blanks (cheapest .uk is £1.50) BUT they are brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. And no, DATAWRITE, BULKPAQ, TUFFDISC etc aren't worth the effort.

SoB - has loads of cheap DL coasters

Disappointing

We saw 300 today.

We were both disappointed by 300 today.

Why? cos all it is is ONE BIG FIGHT SCENE. True the gfx and fights are awesome, but that's about it. There's no plot to follow, no characters to relate to, and nothing that hooks you.

All you see is one fight, which finishes, and then guess what? another fight, and then another, ad nauseum.

Heck, one guy watches his son's head get chopped off in front of his own eyes and you feel nothing for the dad nor the boy. The characters are that distant.

Don't get me wrong, I know the film is just telling the story of a battle, but surely someone could have dramatised it a little bit, and actually made a SCREENPLAY. Even Sin City had more story than this, and that was about prostitutes and yellow men.

This film will appeal to 2 kinds of people, those that are die hard Frank Miller fans, and those that wet themselves thinking of Brad Pitt as Troy jumping up to kill the challenger and then saying "are there anymore" or something to that line. If you're in that camp then 300 is the best film ever made. It's just like that scene repeated for 1 hour and 57 minutes.

For those that like to actually follow a story, relate to a character, or actually like to listen to some dialogue now and then, stay clear. Watch Gladiator instead.

Bil-pakeit

(In the packet)

That's how I feel right now. Fresh, new, and bil-pakeit :)

Let me digress. I embarked on a week of nights on Saturday. I say a week though, but due to recent EU working hour regulations it is illegal to do 7x12 hour shifts in a row. So, to bypass that, my hospital decided to split the week of nights: you do 4 nights in a row (Sat. to Wed.), then you have a WHOLE WEEK OFF (not annual leave, not time owing, nothing. Just off) and then you're back on Wed. night till Fri.
That way, you do 4 nights, have 7 days off, then do 3 nights.

Anyhow, so I finished my first 4 nights this morning. Got home really early (around 9:30) and managed to stay awake till about 11:30. I then entered a deep coma until my alarm clock woke me up at 15:00. I have to force myself to get up so I can sleep again tonight and try to return to normal. Usually, I'd have a shower before going to sleep so that when I get up I don't have to rush to start the next shift.
This time however I jumped in to the shower after waking up, and man did I need a full body scrub! All that grime of hours of staying up all night, and I refuse to shave on nights so I was starting to look like I was going to blow myself up any second (:p), oh and my nails were a bit too long too.

So, after about an hour of shaving, clipping, scrubbing, and showering I am out a new man. Brand new. BIL PAKEIT. I actually don't stink any more.

In other news, I am listening to Pan's Labyrinth OST as we speak, and it JUST DOESN'T WORK. It's a very picture-centric score, doesn't really mean anything without the movie. I also bought the 2 disc special edition DVD, even though I had a copy ages ago. The movie is so good it had to be bought. They deserve me £11.

Oh, and I've pre-ordered Jarre's Teo&Tea album (CD + DVD), which I hated initially (been listening to promo) but now I can't stop listening to it and thinking that it's actually one of his best albums.

SoB out - off to eat some pizza, then text hani for some PES6 lovin'. He kicked my ass yesterday. REEEEVEEEEEEEEENNNNGGGGGGEEEEEEE!!

Black 360 This April!

Kotaku the gaming blog has scans of Game Informer's April edition, which has a story about the black HDMI-ready 360. Rumours of this have been floating around for ages, but now it's been confirmed!

Engadget have the web exclusive.

Now THIS is how it's meant to be done

I'm ranting about Xbox Live again. Why? cos yesterday me and Hani met up online at some late hour (since he got his 360 his sleep pattern has practically been reversed), and decided to have a go at some Pro Evo 6 (I know I know!).

Anyone who remembers me will know that I am not generally a fine of sport games, except a few exceptions (eg Tennis, and Speedball if you can count that in :p). So with reluctance I got PES6 and we tried it out last night. And man what a night! We were both really shit at it, but game after game we started learning the tricks and ended up scoring some great goals!

But what's really amazing about it is its great online function. For the majority of our PC gaming Hani has had problems with higher than average pings (cos of UAE-UK links), and has had to put up with some mild lag on Quake. Amazingly, every game we've tried on Live has no lag whatsoever, except now and then like normally expected. I have no clue how Table Tennis manages to keep us playing at blazing speeds all the time. With PES6, the first 30 seconds of every game we played chops up a bit (I presume it's syncing and calculating what it needs to compensate) and then we're playing EXACTLY as if we're on the same machine, or on a LAN.

Best thing is, whenever a goal is scored it is replayed from 2 angles, and then the scorer has about 1 minute to manually control the replay, including slow-mo, reverse, camera control etc etc. And this shows on both players' machines! So for that sweet post-goal one minute, you have the opportunity to really annoy and charge-up your opponent, by showing him the goal over and over again. Sweet.

Of course, all of this is with lag-free voice chat throughout the whole game. It really is amazing how MS got the Live servers so good.

I say again, those that are considering getting a console (or have recently settling in .eu *cough* india *cough*) I seriously recommend a 360. Get it and relive the golden oldie days were gaming was simple, and fun.

Finally, here's a video of something I was hoping would happen way back here: a 4 player Command and Conquer 3 skirmish, on Live, with full video/voice chat while the game's playing :) I can't wait for other games to have video conferencing built in (imagine it in football or tennis games or anything really, seeing your foe as you battle!). Good times are a-coming!

GameSpy To Power Wii

[Joystiq QUOTE]
In a press release sent out today, GameSpy has announced it will provide "multiplayer technology" to publishers developing games for the Wii. The middleware allows the same online functionality found in DS games but will include friend rosters, matchmaking, and ranking data similar to Xbox Live. It's about time! Looks like Nintendo is finally willing to share their online service with 3rd party developers.

Nintendo has had a toe in the online world since Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection launched in 2005, but game-specific friend codes and the lack of a central hub have made the service a cumbersome experience. Could this mean the end of friend codes and the beginning of a beautiful online experience?
[QUOTE]

Could it be true? Have The Big N finally realised that having game specific friend codes and all that crap makes it stupidly difficult to play games with your friends, without a certain degree of offline co-ordination first? I mean, when me and Kelly used to play MarioKart vs online, we had to CALL each other to start the game and find each other!!

Compare that to Live!, where you just turn your 360 on, and you get a list of your friends that are online, and what they're doing. To play with them, it's just a matter of sending an invite. Easy as pie. Nintendo, to keep their family-kid-friendly image don't show you what your friends are up to at all. You gotta speak to them in the real-world to get them to start an online game. Works yes, SUCKS BIG TIME though.

Here's hoping.

Which reminds me, India you still haven't fixed that wireless router? we were gonna duke it out on Tetris-DS-Crack.......

Commodore Are Back!!

(Source C&VG)

The Commodore brand is returning to the videogame world as Commodore Gaming, which is focusing on building high-end gaming PCs.The company is to unveil its first range of machines at the CeBIT show which takes place on Germany on March 15. Attendees will be able to "play the high performance purpose-built machines with the latest PC games", it's stated."We are privileged and excited to bring the Commodore brand back to the gaming community and mark a new chapter in its history with this exceptional machine. We're sure that it will deliver what gamers need and want", Bala Keilman, CEO for Commodore Gaming, has commented.

Lapoonia is NOW ONLINE!!

It has FINALLY happened. The unthinkable has happened, and one of my friends has bought an Xbox 360, AND gone online with it, AND played with me for a good while!

And to think it's Hani of all people. I say that cos he's the last person I thought would get one, cos he went "off" games ages ago...

Anyhow, he rang me a few days ago to chat about 360 or Wii, and I recommended 360 for him... lo and behold he got a UK PAL one today for a good price, with 10 games!
This evening, he set it all up and then we voice chatted and I ran him through how to get Xbox Live! up and running, and sure enough he was on it in no time, and we moved our voice chat over to the Xbox. I have to admit it all worked at first attempt, which is something of a miracle in the tech world, as all you people that visit this blog will surely agree with.

Then, we played the only game we both have (Table Tennis), and there was a teeny bit of lag but nothing major, all this while still voice chatting. It really was great fun and I am very happy that he got one, cos as much as I love playing online with strangers and "friends" I've met in games, nothing beats playing with golden-oldie real life friends that you shared this interest with 10+ years ago. Hopefully, he'll keep the gaming spirit. He gets Gears of War tomorrow, and am hoping he'll get as addicted as me to it's excellent online matches.

So, if you're reading this and now and thinking about getting one, then YES! PLEASE DO! It's an excellent system, with great power and capability, and awesome games especially if you're online with it. The Live! system (as I've ranted before) is so easily and properly integrated in to the system that even Haniboy can use it :p

Also it's cheaper than decent PC but can do just as well, if not better. No need to worry about pings or IP addresses or drivers or new VGA cards etc etc... just plug in, play, and be amazed at it all.

NILE - PLEASE GET ONE - ME AND HANI WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER.

Here's hoping.....

D'Oh!

The Addiction Is Back

No, I haven't started smoking again, thank GOD.

I'm talking about the new expansion pack for Titan Quest, called Immortal Throne.

I know there's a few new things added to the game, which I don't really care about, but what I also know is that it's more of the same. EXACTLY the same, ie click-n-slash action, with nothing more than one mouse hand needed to play. And more the great graphics, fantastical creatures, and great sound.

Oh and the other best thing is that your character from the original Titan Quest is fully playable. Actually, I think if you don't have a character from the first one you actually have to play through it all to get to the expansion pack content. So, my level 65 kick-ass Summoner is gonna have a great time in the expansion back.

So, am gonna be addicted soon. That's if I can get myself to stop playing Crackdown, which should be "finished" soon.

Titan Quester out

Crackdown "The Big Bang"

Crackdown is one of the best Xbox360 games to date. Actually, one of the best games I've played in a long long time. Essentially a GTA-like game (I mean GTA3 and beyond), and created by one of the minds behind the first GTA games, Crackdown drops you in the middle of a HUGE city made of 3 islands, and from there it's all up to you.

You play as a special genetically-modified agent that has the job of "Cleaning The City", each island has a gang composed of 6 members and a king-pin. Your agent has 5 core abilities (agility, arms, explosives, driving, and strength). By killing people with your gun, or blowing them up, or round-house kicking them across a building you increase your abilities. This is where the game really shines. The more you progress the more fantastic things you can do, especially the agility attribute. The more agile you get the faster you run and the higher you jump, until you can literally jump over buildings. Couple that with good explosive damage and strength, and you will see yourself targeting a baddie, jumping over a building while blowing them up with your rocket launcher. All in real-time, real-physics, havoc-engine, render-ware force.

The game also lets you play co-op, coupling you and a friend to do whatever you want. Tackle some missions, do some car or foot races (there's loads around), or go hunting for the 800 (yes, true number) agility/secret orbs scattered all over the city. Enormous fun.

So, today, I was playing co-op with a friend and after doing a mission we decided to do something a lot of people have done, create a Big Bang. We piled up loads of cars, sprinkled them with sticky grenades and a few explosive barrels, climbed up the nearest building, and launched some rockets towards the whole thing. The KABOOOOOM was huge, and luckily the macbook was close so I caught the action with the iSight. After a bit of editing (again, apple iMovie HD), below is the video :)

I honestly believe that the Xbox 360 is THE console to own this generation. Excellent games, even better online services, and just all out fun. Enjoy "The Big Bang"

OMG!

Have a good hard look at Song Hye Kyo, a famous Korean actress:



QUOTE:
It's hard to believe, but you're looking at computer-generated image of Korean actress Song Hye Kyo, created by Indonesian CG artist Max Edwin Wahyudi. To create this stunning shot, he used a combination of digital sculpting and design application Pixelogic Zbrush and animation modeling software Autodesk 3DS Max.
SOURCE: GIZMODO

How about that then? and we thought the CGI Final Fantasy movie was the best it would ever get. Give it 5-10 years, and our graphics cards will be rendering Song in real time, as she navigates her way through a physically complete environment. I wonder what's next in our expensive hobby, better graphics or (as Nintendo seem to be thinking) more immersion. Perhaps in 5 years time we'll all be using a PROPER version of Virtual Reality.

Scary.

I would love one of these

The Super Mario Rubik Cube :D Can you get any more nerdy?

I think they're on sale in Japan, the local ebay for some freaky reason doesn't have one... perhaps there's a problem with The Matrix :p

The picture that brought a tear to my eye

Iraqi Airways - August 1988, Just departed from London Heathrow, en route to Saddam International, Baghdad :(







Reminds me of a GREAT time, war was over, people could travel, and Iraq was going to be the best place in the world. Now look what's happened.


Check here for 160 various pictures of "real" Iraqi Airways and the new ones (up to 2006). I must warn you though, if you've ever been on one of them these pictures will give you lumps in your throat... includes pictures of the planes "stored" in Amman and Tehran.


Upsetting isn't it?

Picooz In Action!

The long awaited video......

Valentine's Day cards for that special geek

Just proof to show that playing video games and being a geek is currently extremely chic and everyone wants to be one... personally, I can't wait until we geeks are just that, geeks, ie bespectacled chubby men that talk in binary and make internal jokes about things like cacodemons, area-spells, and HP. I can only hope....

Anyhow, tomoz is St. Valentine's Day, where yet again ALOT of new babies will be born in November :D To celebrate the day with your special geek, why not print out one of these geeky cards, especially designed for the Nintendo loving geeks.

SoB "The Real Geek" out.

Teo and Tea FULL video

I can see this becoming a dance hit, in .eu at least....

PS: PicoZ is here, managed to crash it tons of times. Kelly's not here to film it, we'll make a video later on this weekend :)

PicoZ Micro Helicopter

I have spent half of my £50 firebox voucher on this little beauty. A teeny weeny indoor RC Helicopter, which weighs just 10 grammes!!

The PicoZ looks really addictive, you charge it for 30 minutes and it flies for 10 minutes. Ideally, you only use it indoors cos it's so light any wind can crash it in to the wall...

Check the firebox product page here for loads of pictures, customer reviews, and videos.

I should be getting it tomorrow, and as I'm working from 1pm I'll be crashing it in to the wall (with a video hopefully) very soon :p

Stay tuned

Pixelblocks, or how I won £50!

I bought some Pixelblocks the other day (from firebox), which are some really geeky toys that combine my childhood obsession (lego), and my adult obsession (no, not porn you dirty, dirty people! I meant computers and games)

Pixelblocks are lego for adults, little plastic blocks that look like pixels and can connect in different ways. Of course, the greatest fun is recreating some classic characters from the great 2D era of gaming. (if you're sad you can create your favourite windows icon :p).

Me and Kelly spent an evening together on the weekend creating our 2 of our favourite characters, Yoshi and Toad. After we finished, I put them on the window sill, took some snaps, and sent them to firebox (they encourage people to send snaps of their purchases, they use them on the website).

To my surprise today, I got 2 emails from firebox: one telling me that the picture was now live, and the other one telling me that I'd won £50!!! Little did I know, but firebox had chosen my picture as "picture of the week", and if they do that you win a voucher for £50!

So, there's my little happy story of the day, and my little promotion for firebox, who I've used before and they rock, not only cos of the voucher, but cos they're made for gadget/toy/computer/game/geek boys like me (and you - if you're reading this)

SoB

Vista

I've been running vista semi-succesfully since Friday evening. I say "semi" cos the 64 bit version, as usual, doesn't have proper driver support yet...

The 32 bit version has better support, but still my soundblaster has the crappiest drivers I've ever seen (still beta).

Otherwise, nVIDIA's drivers are doing the job ok, and everything else is automatically configured. So, what's the big deal?

Well, for me vista is a MASSIVE improvement over XP, and is a great O/S to work with! For starts, it features tons of eye candy, which I am a sucker for. From the way windows fade in and out, to the way the title bar is see through (kind of like a lens), to the way you can put HD videos as your background (yes, ages ago we could do that on windows 98 with 3rd party software, but this is built in to the system so takes very little resources), and those massive icons that are beautifully detailed (I love big icons). One cool feature is that windows shows a thumbnail of pictures and movies (yeap, old too) BUT if the file's a movie it adds 2 little cellulloid strips around the edges, and the icons are the same ratio as the movie itself! (see picture)

I could go on and on about the visual things...

In terms of the OS itself, admittedly it doesn't offer that many new things that anyone who's used a mac in the last 3 years hasn't seen. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, cos we all know that Apple's OSX is a great system, so to have something like it on a PC is great. There's the built in instant searches, the quick bar on the left of windows for quick access to your favourite parts, and finally user-based system decisions that have been a stable of *nix system since they first began! So now, if a programme wants to change some system files, windows alerts you and asks for permission. Let's hope it can't/won't be exploited.

The start menu has been radically overhauld too, and now instead of spreading out gradually, it actually opens out in one single menu. So when you click an item, it just unbranches underneath, in the same menu. A bit slow, but needs getting used to and when you're used to it, you'll realise it's better than the old style.

Another nice touch I found is that when a programme crashes (yes, windows, still crashes!), the system goes online to see if a solution has been found for this. I presume that in the following years MS will have a big (huge!) database of crashes and potential cures. Either that, or it will be useless (just like the XP attempt at going online to find what a file extension is).

From a quick gaming point of view, I disabled my soundblaser and enabled the mobo's built-in sound device, which is fully supported in vista. The sound quaility sucks but at least it's working in 5.1 and not buggy. I mainly tried FEAR and I have to admit I think it's way faster than on xp with the same hardware and settings. More about VISTA gaming once drivers have settled.

There's loads more to discover and do, but I haven't really messed around a lot. One thing I wish existed was "springy folders", like on OSX. This lets you move a file around by dragging it on to the icon of the destination, if you don't let go, the icon opens up and you can then go to folders inside that, and they open up too etc etc. Once you've reached your destination, you drop the file there and OSX automatically closes all open folders and takes you to your starting point. A great system, if a bit difficult to explain in words.

Finally, I leave you with a screenshot of my favourite feature, the "show all windows" button. Note that the screenshot does no justice to this, as windows are updated in real-time (so a video carries on playing, and games are moving also, etc etc). Great to find the window you want to work on easily.

They've done it!

In what seems to be record time, those lovely Chinese people have managed to hack the Wii!
In about 2 days, not one mod have been announced, but 3 different mods are already in production!

One mod (the CycloWiz) has even been installed and reviewed by maxconsole, and they give it great marks!

The beauty of the mods is that they're stealth (ie they send absolutely NO DATA to the cpu, hence being undetectable), and can be installed without any wire soldering. One problem is that non of them allow for region free gaming (original or backup), cos allegedly to do that the chip has to send some data to the cpu, hence not being stealth.

Personally, I think this is great news, as I definitely would install one cos I'm not that fussed about owning originals for the Wii (unlike the 360, which I want to keep live enabled).

The WiiKey is the mod I'm gonna hold on for, cos allegedly it allows different regions and is also upgradeable via software.

As always, the games have been ripped ages ago, which is the norm when it comes to the scene, ie games get ripped and distributed before you can play them as "backups"....

It's here!

......More Later......

Teo and Tea

(pronounced Te-Oh and Te-Ah), just in case :p

Teo and Tea is the unusually stupid name from Jean-Michel Jarre's new studio album, due to be released in March (France). According to the man himself, the album is totally new (ie no more oxygenes, rendez-vous, or equinoxes!). A promo single is due out next month.

But, thanks to the wonders of the interweb, I've managed to download a CD rip of the radio promo of the single (also called Teo and Tea), also including two teaser videos!
I've been listening to the song on repeat for the last 15 minutes or so, and I can tell you it sure is different! Very techno-y, reminds me of early 90's euro dance/trash. Nothing really Jarre-y in it, if you listen to it without knowing who did it you'd never guess it was the Big JMJ.

Anyhow, for all you G-D readers/Jarre lovers, I've uploaded both promo videos on youtube but I've embeded the "Tea" video here. If you wanna see "Teo" just search youtube.

Enjoy. PS: The single sounds just like the video music.

Let's see what the full album is like come the 26th of March.

Please STOP visiting

First of all, apologies to any regular visitors to Good Delicious. This post does not concern you. Please don't bother reading it, and if you do, please don't be offended by it's content as it's directed towards certain individuals that I don't really know or care who they are.

I came to know recently that some people visiting this blog have been complaining about me being a show-off. And certain friends of mine have had to "defend" me when these people have complained to them about it all.

I'd like to clarify a few things:

1\ I haven't heard from anyone directly that this blog is bothering them. If you are one of the people that find something here annoying/offensive etc, please tell me directly. Hell, just post a reply to the post that's bothering you.

2\ This blog was started as a replacement to emailing people things that they might not want to read. Before good delicious, I used to email loads of people periodically about things I mention here, movies, games, jobs, exams, life in general etc etc. When I created this, I stopped emailing and just once emailed everyone the address of the blog.
It is up to people to visit here if they want to. I'm not forcing anyone. So, if you think that I'm showing off on the blog

PLEASE STOP VISITING

3\ I won't be stopping good delicious, nor will I be changing my posts. After all, it is my blog.

I would like to extend a thank you to the regular readers of it all, and to those true friends that can talk to my face, not my arse.

Pan's Labyrinth

I watched Pan's Labyrinth with Kelly yesterday, the low-key movie from Guillermo del Toro.

Telling the story of Ofelia, a young girl in 1940's Spain, just after the civil war, a period where the government was ruthlessly finding and killing any remaining pockets of resistance. Ofelia goes with her heavily-pregnant mother to visit her step-dad, a strict, violent, and sadistic army officer at his base in the forest. While there, Ofelia discovers Pan's Labyrinth, a magical, mystical place where things like fauns and fairies and giant frogs exist.

The film (which is in Spanish) then does an excellent job at telling 3 stories all at once: the violence of man towards man, the dynamics of a family, and the fantasy of a young girl in the middle of all this. Excellently contrasting between a war (with LOTS of bloody, graphic violence, which makes the film rated 15 or R), and between Pan's fantasy world, you'll follow the story of Ofelia as she struggles to understand about family, war, life, and the Labyrinth and it's wonderful inhabitants.

What's great about the film is that it lacks in a lot of today's En Vogue cinema tricks, namely the funny, nearly amateur camera-work, and the obligatory plot-twist that most films these days rely on cos you just gotta have a twist. Nope, Pan's Labyrinth is straight forward, easy to follow, and has a very predictable ending (hell, you're told the ending when it first starts!). But it's a story that's beautiful, fascinating, magical, violent, and very moving. A fairy tale for adults if you wish. I challenge any adult watching it not to relate Pan or Ofelia to their childhood fantasies.

So, got my message yet? WATCH PAN'S LABYRINTH.

I leave you with a snap from one of the coolest Labyrinth creatures: The Pale Man, who has eyes in his palms..... now tell me you don't want to watch the movie.

SoB out

On Why Gears Of War Sucks.....

cos it's just a way too good damn fine game!

Yesterday I loaded Lost Planet, the new Capcom IP that I had played the demo for ages ago on Xbox Live!, heck I'd even played the online multiplayer demo which I thought was good fun.
Problem is, as I was playing the first level I couldn't help trying to HOLD "A" to run to cover, or trying to time my reloads so that I get an "active reload" that makes me temporarily stronger. Of course, all these things are Gears of Wars...

GoW is so stupidly easy to control and great to play that I couldn't help but compare poor old Lost Planet to it. Now don't get me wrong, LP is a great game... proper Capcom action (in the vein of a cold and icy Resident Evil 4, which anyone will tell you is one of the greatest games and surely GameCube's finest moment) with lots of nice graphics, good gameplay and, if we're honest, it controls rather well. Just GoW does it all better :)

Oh and don't start me on GoW multiplayer, which has finally taken over Halo 2 as the most played game on live. The matches are not your typical FPS deathmatches (thank God for that, they would've sucked as the game isn't really built like that), what you get is 2 teams of 4 trying to outwit each other in cleverly designed maps with lots of cover and things to hide behind... once you're dead you have to wait for the round to finish... thing is though, the living can't speak to the dead and vice versa, so if you do get popped early you'll be sat there watching a hopeless team member about to be sawn in half (ah!! the chainsaw attached to the machine gun is another GoW innovation, totally awesome!) and you'll be shouting unheard warnings down the mic, until the poor sod joins you in the "dead lobby"...

Pair that with the awesome graphics and sound, and it's a killer solo and online app.... I'm currently in the middle of a disabling GoW online addiction, I played it till 4am on Sunday morning, and each day I play 1-2 hours after Kelly goes to sleep (she likes to watch but together we're playing Wii Zelda and Wario Ware, which are both worth a post later!)...

So, Get an Xbox 360 and GoW if you can..... if not you'll be missing out on one of the best games of the last 20 years. Seriously.

And Lost Planet is a great game too, but being Capcom you can trust them to make it rock hard, the first boss took me a good 15 minutes to beat, and I was in a BIG ASS mech at the time... I just hope they don't pull a cheap "repeat of all the bosses you just beat" level like the one I'm still stuck in in Viewtiful Joe..

SoB - off to work

Apple iPhone

I am WAY TOO EXCITED about this...

Apple have finally put together 3 things that have been rumoured for years: A touch screen iPod, a PDA of sorts, and a Phone. ALL IN ONE DEVICE.
Introducing the iPhone. Now it's not just any old phone with iTunes in it (*cough* motorola rokr) , nope this baby has only got one button and is totally wide-screen-touch-screen driven...

I can't remember being so excited about something since Nintendo revealed the Wii :)
Now, I've always thought I'd never get a PDA till Apple make 'em, and this baby will be hitting the streets in June (states) and end Q4 (europe). As I'm due a phone upgrade soon am gonna wait till I find out which network has this baby, and for how much. Am definitely gonna be an early adopter.

Enough excitement, head over to the Apple homepage for the specs, pics, and the video of the MacWorld keynote by Steve Jobs where he demos and introduces the beast.

Engadget have a nice semi-live blog of it also, here. SoB - TOO EXCITED.

Games Clocked 2006

I know I know, don't moan at me but here is another famous SoB list of Games Clocked :p

Lot's of gaming last year, which might explain why I never pass exams :) Seriously though, the release of the 360 and some great DS and PSP games have kept me busy. Gamecube is dying though....

On that note, I've added 2 new things to the sidebar (on your right), first is a continously updated list of games finished throught 2007, and the 2nd is the same for movies watched. I realised that I've seen some great movies in 2005/2006 and I should keep a list. The Prestige was one of the best movies of last year imho.

Anyhow, enough chat, here's the list:

Nintendo DS

Mario and Luigi - Partners in Time
Feel The Magic XX XY
Sonic Rush (with kelly)
New Super Mario Bros
Yoshi's Island 2 (with kelly)

PSP

Exit (all damn 100 puzzles!)
Me And My Katamari
LocoRoco (one of the best games of all time)
Every Extend Extra

GameCube

Chibi Robo

XBOX

Kong
Psychonauts (great, funny, unmissable game)
Prince Of Persia The Two Thrones (with kelly)

X360

Kameo - Elements Of Power
Mutant Storm Reloaded
Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter
Tomb Raider Legend
Condemned - Criminal Origins
Splinter Cell - Double Agent
Call of Duty 3
Gears of War (OMG!!!!!!!!)

Wii

Rayman Raving Rabids (with kelly)

PC

Titan Quest
Prey
Lego Star Wars 2 (with kelly)
Half Life 2 Episode One

Deal Or No Deal

Happy new year is what I mean to say here.

Deal Or No Deal is what's on TV as I type.

So what's gonna happen in 2007? God knows. Now that Saddam is dead, I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing. More violence in Iraq or a bit of calm. I'm not asking for a lot, just a little bit of calmness. For the sake of everyone there.

Me? I'm gonna be in Ipswich till August, might go visit NY in March/April, and will still be playing games. Perhaps 2007 will be the year that all my "gamer" friends will actually PLAY games, instead of claim to do that. YES - that's you Nile, Hani, Wolf and everyone else :p So get your fingers out of your arses and find out the wonders of the internet, it lets people play together believe it or not.

2007 is also the Year of The Vista. It's out the end of this month so let's hope the Hype surrounding VISTA and DX10 cards is more than just money in William Gates' pocket. I tried the leaked AIO a while ago and I quite liked it.

Finally, anyone saw the fireworks this year in London? They were designed by some French dude and they were absolutely amazing. I wonder if he works for Jarre.......

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 :)