Game of the Month. (09/09)

Argh, I've been trying to think of something to post for this, but nothing really jumped out at me. And now the last day of the month is here so I'm having to think of something. I dont like to force my mind to get its answers if I don't have to. They should appear to me. Also I've been quite busy with uni so I've not really had a chance to play games or post on the blog. Thats what I get for saying I would do weekly and monthly column posts....

Anyway, without further ado, I bring you my game of the month. Its a relatively new one, it got released earlier this year, or 2008 in Japan.

Pokemon Platinum (DS)

I was gonna do another DS rpg, but I've not really played any of them to death quite as much as this one. Its addictive, simple fun, with a ridiculous amount to do for your money. The main Pokemon games are one franchise I don't really mind paying full price for. I mean, to illustrate my point, I've got over 140 hours on my Platinum save, and I'm still not even quarter through the pokedex (roughly). My Diamond save has a stupid amount of time on it-over 390 hours of play time. Thankfully I've completed the pokedex and done almost everything in it. 

For those who don't know, the Pokemon games haven't really changed much since Red and Blue first came out a few years ago, but the addictive, simple team based monster-collecting rpg style game was always a very popular formula, so why change it? In my opinion, they have always improved them. Sure, they wont be for everyone, and the graphics and story aren't amazing, but I see a lot of good points for the Pokemon games on the DS.

The games have wi-fi play now, which is a great improvement on the last generation of games on the GBA-Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Fire Red and Leaf Green. The wifi in Diamond, Pearl and Platinum allows you to battle friends (you have to exchange the rather clunky friend codes first) and trade with others as well. There is an option in the GTS building to trade with people you dont know (and whose friend codes you dont need) but you can only get pokemon that are already on your pokedex ie. you've seen them or something.

What I always like about the pokemon games is that there is so much you can do depending on what things you like, training up pokemon for battles or contests, breeding pokemon, catching and trading for pokemon to work on your pokedex, now there are a whole load more of things, finding fossils and treasures in the underground (which can also be done multiplayer locally), testing yourself in the Battle Frontier (I think its called that in this one.)

Now, with remakes of the Game Boy colour games Pokemon Gold and Silver on the way (HeartGold and SoulSilver), its the perfect time to dig your DS games back out, or pick one up if you dont have any. Catch some pokemon, or transfer them from your GBA games to your DS ones with Pal Park and have some fun!

Oh, and if you have the game, and can get on wifi, you can download an event item, which before Platinum, you couldnt do. You could only really get the mystery gift type things from events if you actually went to them. You can get Oak's Letter between the 28th September and 8th November, which has something to do with catching Shaymin, I believe. I havent read much on it yet. See the official site for more news on that.

Official Site

Gamespot

Gamerankings

I'd recommend the game to people who like simple, addictive and fun games, and if you like the kinda game where there is lots to collect (little monsters in this case) then even better, I'm sure you'd love the game. There is a lot of depth to the Pokemon games as well, if you read around the web. There are lots of hidden values and indicators which people have discovered from picking the games apart and playing them to death. The good thing is, not everyone needs to delve that deep if they dont want to.

Now Playing - "Yo-ho-ho, and stuff!"

I havent really had much time to play games because of uni starting up, but in my free time I played a little bit more of Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) I was kinda inspired by Dissidia to take up my FF quest again. I'm gonna try and complete the rest of the ones I've not beaten. To date I've beaten FFI, FFII, FFIII, FFIV and FFVII, then a few spinoffs; FF Tactics: TWotL, FF Tactics Advance, FF Crystal Chronicles and maybe a few others that escape my mind, but I'm concentrating on the main ones. I was very tempted by the group playthrough that is going on at www.lusipurr.com but I didnt have much time during the week and in fact, earlier in the year a few people on the rpgamer.com forums have been playing one Final Fantasy a month this year. There is/was also the Final Fantasy marathon on the Backloggery, quite a few members seemed to be marathoning the games. I liked the sound of those, but havent really participated so far. Anyway, I'm getting vastly sidetracked again. Playing my unbeaten Final Fantasy games in order will look like this; V, VI, VIII, IX (I dont own it yet), X, X-2, XII. I dont wanna play XI very much lol...

I really like the way that FFV is quite funny and tongue in cheek at times, there are some awesomely quotable lines in it. It kinda sets it out for me so far from the other games. I'm quite a fan of the original few Final Fantasy games (I-IV, with II as a potentially weak link) and as such I admire the old school appeal and the job system in it (there are more jobs than I can shake a stick at) So far, a few bosses have been mildly challenging, although I've not had a game over screen or anything yet. When I last played Riviera, I didnt have any game overs the whole way through, and I came close to that in Chrono Trigger. I mean, maybe they aren't the most challenging games, but I'm proud of that! heheh...I died a few times in Symphony of the Night, which I beat, but only with the first ending-I'm sure there is more to do, but I couldn't figure it out what to do.

Musically, the game is pretty cool. I love the battle theme and the Battle on the Big Bridge song (even though I havent reached that point in the game yet, I've heard it countless times elsewhere)

Anyway, I'm hoping to play more over the weekend, as well as more of Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) 

I'm also very tempted to start No More Heroes (Wii) soon, but I'm still less than 10 hrs into each of FFV and Shadow of the Colossus, so I'm trying to resist the temptation and progress further in them before I start any other games. So if that was pretty boring for ya, sorry lol. I'll try play more games whenever I get the time =p

My mind meanders...

So that is me done my first week of first year at uni now. How did it go? Hmm, well its been alright so far, a bit confusing with all the different information that has been chucked our way ie. the Tutorials, Workshops, Labs and Lectures and their respective times and locations. And then there are the assignments and exercises we need to do online for each of my 3 courses, Engineering, Chemistry and Maths. Doesn't sound too bad you think? Well, Engineering 1 is split up into 4 different disciplines in the first year, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Electrical Engineering, of which we have to take at least 2. Maths is split up into 2 courses in the first semester, Applicable Maths 1 and Mathematical Methods 1, both compulsory. Each different course has different ways to check and submit your stuff online, MasteringChemistry, WebCT, myED, uni email, MapleTA. I don't see why they cant just make it more simple and user friendly and cut some of the crap ones out. Makes it pretty hard for freshers to actually understand what the hell they are talking about sometimes.

Then theres the labs, tutorials, workshops etc, I need to do 1 maths tutorial a week, 3 workshops for engineering over semester 1, which I need to put my name down for either Tues 2-5pm or Thurs 2-5pm in Weeks 2-4 for the first one, and the same again in subsequent weeks. Then there are the tutorials for Engineering, 2 of them every 3 weeks I think. And if I dont get in to the workshops or tutorials, I will lose marks. This is kinda a possibility for some people as there are like almost 400 people in the class and only a max of 70 or 80 I think they said could be taken in each workshop room, and less than that for tutorials I'd imagine. 

Half the time the lecture theatres are full and there are people sitting in all the stairs around the place =/

Couldnt the uni have made some bigger lecture theatres, or just split the class up into 2 groups for different times or location for the lectures? Sometimes it frustrates the hell out of me that universities can be so poorly organised. So far, I definitely dont like the idea of having to put my name down for each non-lecture class for engineering. They should have just assigned us times like the Chemistry lot did.

So the timetable is pretty confusing, I've already managed to miss 2 lectures in the first week, but so far I'm getting used to it and getting there on time surprisingly! One was just purely my forgetfullness, well maybe they both were. I'd seen that they had moved one of the Maths lectures to wednesday as a result of the Bank Holiday on Monday this week, but just forgot to turn up really. Today, the 2nd I missed was because the lectures are either in LT4 or LT5, I didnt double check my timetable before I headed into the one that they are usually in (LT5) and sat down for Maths at 9:00, then 45 mins through, I realised I was meant to be in Chemistry in the lecture theatre next door. -_- I take the maths lectures at 12 instead of 9:00 so I can get to my Chem lectures. 

And another kick in the teeth is the fact that I seem to have caught the fresher's flu...its ridiculous how many people are coughing in the lectures, so within a day or two I seem to have got the plague they all pretty much have. Haven't they heard of fruit and vegetable? lol, well I remember from my days in halls for my last degree that students aren't exactly the healthiest bunch. Still, I'm pretty annoyed I caught this...I've been trying to keep healthy and it hasn't kept it out T_T

Anyway, that was probably boring and too long hehe...excuse my ranting/ramblings...

Recent Purchases ~ J-culture ftw!

I've been trying to spend less money on games and get through my pile of unplayed ones, but sometimes I can't resist a good deal when I see it.

I picked up a few more games that I've wanted over the last few weeks. Thought I'd just say a little about some of them. 

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP) I've kinda talked about this one enough I think. Got it a while ago off Amazon and got quite addicted to it for a straight 10 days in which I beat the main game..and unlocked a whole load more stuff to do. Its a really cool action RPG/Fighting game which although I'd recommend for fans of Final Fantasy series, it does eventually get a bit repetitive. There are flaws, but its a quite awesome game.

Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana (PS2) Now that I finally got a hold of this from ebay for under £20 (I think) I have the 3 Atelier Iris PS2 games (which are quite rare here) and can start to play them at some point. They are quite cute sprite style turn based RPGs on the PS2.

No More Heroes (Wii) I picked this one up today for £6 used as I had my eye on it for ages since before it came out and for some reason my stingyness got the better of me and prevented me from buying it before it dropped in price enough. 

I love the look of the game, with it's crazy anime and j-culture references, insane style (the main character wins a beam katana in an ebay auction XD) and frantic action, I am really looking forward to playing this one. This, along with Okami and Muramasa, is one of the few games that I really like the look of on the Wii. There are quite a few others, but I'll not bother going into that just now.

Jeanne D' Arc (PSP) This hasn't arrived yet, as I just payed for it today and it is located in the USA. I'm pretty sure it hasnt seen a PAL release anywhere yet, and dont know if it will. However, I've heard really good things about it from a lot of sources on the net. (It must be true then.. ¬_¬) Its a turn based rpg essentially about an alternate retelling of Jean D'Arc's story. I'm expecting something quite similar to Final Fantasy Tactics with the religion themes etc. Looking forward to playing this one. [Hoping it doesn't get lost in the post]

I payed about £14 in USD for it, which I was quite pleased with. I thought it would go for more, but maybe it isn't as in demand as I thought.

Ah, I almost forgot. I think I'll make this "Recent Purchase" thing into a column that I'll do more of when I get a bunch of games I decide to talk about. So you might see more of them, but not that often (as I'm trying to buy less games)

As for what I am tempted by currently and might end up buying at some point...

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona on the PSP is looking pretty appealing to me right now, as is Okami either on the Wii or PS2. From what I've heard the Wii version, although it has slightly better graphics, has waggle and some glitches and bugs. But I really want to get Okami, it looks beautiful. Speaking of which, I can't wait to get Muramasa: The Demon Blade on the Wii, from the makers of Odin Sphere, it looks similar, but with a Japanese setting. It looks gorgeous! I must have a thing for eye candy in games, because I've recently been wanting to get a hold of Tales of Vesperia on the 360, the character designs and graphics look very nice. Its quite a rare game from what I can tell in the UK, and its going for £40+ May have to bite the bullet and get it before it goes too high. Also the Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al Revis limited edition on the PS2. I've had an urge to get that for a while, but I think I might hold off until I try out the Atelier Iris games first.

Halo: ODST (360)

More dredging of news from the internet =p

All this talk of Halo ODST has made me intrigued, I might have to look into it even though I was getting really really sick of Halo 3 recently. Me and my friends still ocassionally play online on it, but it seems to be losing some of its appeal somehow. Probably cos I've played it on and off since I got it near the release date a while back.

From Machinima, here's their opinion on ODST.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP)

This is one game I've had my eye on for a while. I quite like a lot of the aspects of the Shin Megami Tensei games and the Persona series is one of the SMT series that has become hugely popular recently with the release of Persona 3 and 4 on the PS2.

Now that it is released in English, I'm quite looking forward to picking it up at some point. It got released on the 22nd of September in NA (yesterday actually) and has already seen some quite average to good reviews.

According to Famitsu, its already sold 122,962 copies in Japan, and I think people will buy loads of copies in North America. Still no news of a PAL release, but that will probably be some time in 2015 lol (or maybe sooner) and I think I'll probably get sick of waiting and import an NTSC box which comes with the 2 disc soundtrack included.

RPGamer stuff (awesome site)

Wiki

Yahoo Answers - "How is babby formed?"

I'm starting to lose some hope in humanity...at the same time as falling on the floor and crying from laughing too much.

Some of these must be jokes, there is surely no way people can be THIS stupid. Right?

http://www.kontraband.com/pics/17531/How-Is-Yahoo-Answers-Formed/

http://nextround.net/2009/06/04/the-20-most-inappropriately-hilarious-yahoo-answers-questions/

http://thechive.com/2009/04/hilarious-yahoo-answers-15-photos/

http://www.sodahead.com/technology/the-best-of-yahoo-answers/blog-30817/?link=samf

Anyway, there are many others...but I'm losing IQ fast just reading them, so I'll leave it at that

Uni starts up again.

I had my first lectures of first year at uni today. This is the 2nd time I've been at uni now, as I studied another undergraduate degree (Earth Science Honours) for 4 years. Now I'm doing Civil and Environmental Engineering at Edinburgh Uni, quite a bit different, but there are some similarities with some Earth Sci stuff, like Engineering Earth Science. Basically, dont build buildings on the top of cliffsides. England seems to like doing that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holbeck_Hall_Hotel

It was a bit of a hassle getting up so early (I have like 9 o'clock lectures almost every day) but got there on time. 

So far, so good..but it seems I might be more busy and not really able to post here as much any more. My "o" button desnt seem to be working very much either which is pretty annoying. 

Anyway, 'till next time (when I'll try talk about something more interesting lol)

Blazblue: Calamity Trigger (360/PS3)

I've been hearing about this from a lot of people playing this, and heard only good things. And thats not helping with the fact I need to wait till Q1 2010 to get the PAL release.... T_T

I love the Guilty Gear games even though I suck kinda hard at them, so I think I'll really enjoy this one (if I ever get to play it ><) This is made by the same studio (Arc System Works) and I love their 2D sprites, characters, backgrounds and music. Everything about the Guilty Gear games basically.  

Crazy characters it seems again, like this cat guy. I prefer fighting games with interesting, original characters. Kinda adds to the game for me. That, and interesting crazy moves, which Guilty Gear games usually have.

Roll on 2010! I must play this! 

Rant Mode Turn On!

I dunno...some little, minor stuff really seems to annoy me at times. Like on Ebay, I occasionally buy stuff off there (mostly games) and little things piss me off. Like when I leave feedback for someone and the seller just doesnt bother leaving it for me. Thats not really the main thing though, as its feedback. I mean, the game arrived in a few days and everything, so I'm not entirely bothered about a little positive feedback. Still, if they see themselves as efficient sellers, shouldnt they give out feedback? I can see why they dont necessarily, some sellers might have a lot of transactions to deal with...but still, get with it people!

And other times, stuff hasnt arrived at mine. I've bought whatever items they might have been. Admittedly, I don't think it has really happened in a while, it was mostly back when I used to play CCG's and TCG's like Magic and Yugioh. It was pretty fricken annoying when I spent like a tenner on a card and they hadnt given the option for recorded or insured posting so when it got lost in the post, or they just didnt send it (its a goddamn possibility, and it makes sense) I was £10 and they could actually keep it or sell it again for more profit. So its fuckin things like these that piss me off about ebay, that and the stupid amount of money I end up spending on it. 

If they can change anything about it, sellers should be more flexible, they should offer other options for shipment, just as they do for payment options. 

I've also been getting dissapointed with football, both club (Celtic FC) and country (Scotland), performing badly... I mean, Hapoel Tel Aviv were so bad in the first half...how the hell did they manage to win in the end? Cos Celtic didnt go out and get more goals, and cos they got more and more into the game as a result of Celtic just becoming more slack....

And don't even get me started on Scotland's failure to qualify for World Cup 2010 in South Africa...

Gah..thats enough of minor stuff niggling at my brain like some kind of pestilence. Its not even that it annoys me that much, just slightly. Like this is a minor-rant, or half-rant.

Now Playing - Deicide

Dissidia: Final Fantasy (PSP)

I've been playing this a few hours every day since it arrived and I finally beat it today. Woohoo! Still, even postgame, there is a whole load more to do. I've beaten all the Destiny Odyssey stories and I've only beaten Shade Impulse with one character so far-Onion Knight. Out of all the characters I have at the moment, I'd say I like him the best in terms of fighting style.

Now that I beat the game (the credits rolled) and I unlocked a few more story chapters and a new mode~The Duel Colosseum. So I'm probably gonna take a break from Dissidia for a while and play some other games. Then I'll work on more Shade Impulse playthroughs with the other characters and then delve into the new story chapters.

Its a damn addictive game, moreso than I thought it would be, I've already put in about 50 or so hours in roughly 10 days. I'd definitely recommend it once again.

Its basically been all I've played since last time, but I've also played a couple hours of...

Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

 I put this on for a little bit more and bathed in the claret blood of a few more poor unfortunate Colossi. I'm getting more and more impressed as it goes on, some of the Colossi are really well designed and some of them take quite a while to figure out how to kill.

This one (pictured) took me a good hour (around the same time for me as the first two of them) to figure out the attack patterns, climb up to where I needed to and stab the crap out of it until it went down.

The sense of scale, not only of the Colossi but the game world as well really gives the game atmosphere. On the last one I beat, the 5th I think, you manage to attract this flying giant down near the earth and grab onto its wing. It then takes you around this lake and the massive ruined towers below. So with the wind and rain whistling by, you have to hang on for dear life and try and take this thing down. Here's a pic. The game is gorgeous for a ps2 game. The music really is amazing as well, it adds to the epicness.

 

If you can track Shadow of the Colossus down, I'd say you should. It and ico go for quite high prices at times, but not ridiculously so. They are really well praised games, and although I've not played Ico, I can see where all the hype has been about Sotc (I cant make that grammatically not fail somehow)

I'm also probably gonna play more of Symphony of the Night, but I havent really been able to break free of Dissidia yet... maybe now I've reached the postgame I might be able to.

 

Now Playing - Crystal Castle

Here's some ramblings on what I've been playing this week. Not many games really since the last time, but I've got loads of nonsensical (and grammatically poor) jibberish to fire at your end of the internet. 

Bombs away!

  I've been playing a LOT of Dissidia: Final Fantasy for the PSP. I've been looking forward to this game for what seems like forever, since it was announced ages ago. I played a tiny bit of the Japanese version on my friend Joe's PSP quite a few months ago and couldnt quite get into it. For me, it seemed pretty confusing. [The language didn't help, but I was basically just trying the battles out] The big number (Bravery) above the health bars would seem like the logical place to put the HP, and I was kinda surprised to hear that the smaller health bar and numbers below it represented the HP. So anyway, minor interfacing issue aside, I eventually got the hang of the many different moves and commands in this action rpg/fighting game after a couple hours. 

The game has actually kinda blown me away, I mean I was looking forward to it for sure, but its much more fun and addictive than I thought it would be. I don't know why that is, probably its due to the battle system, the levelling up, learning abilities, progressing with the percentage completion of the Shop Inventory(shared among characters), Battlegen, Accomplishments (essentially kinda ingame achievement things which you get rewards for completing). And there is a heck of a lot more, loads to unlock in this game. They definitely pulled out a lot of stops with this one. You get a shitload of stuff to do for your money. =D

I love the little details, like all the cameos, references and appearances from FF characters in the tutorial system, the detail that they've put into the game. Even the text boxes indicating the names of special moves etc are different based on what character you are using and are referring to the original games that the characters come from. Thats pretty funky (if you can understand what I mean...I have a habit of speaking in cryptic tongues)

I've also been abusing the gains that you can get from Bonus Day (which you choose at the start). You essentially get more Exp, Gil, PP, AP etc on one day of the week and can make the gains even better by spending some of the PP you earn in battles and through the story mode in the PP Catalogue. This was my first port of call, to buy all of the Catalogue bonuses so that any further gains in subsequent days would help me get even more PP for the Catalogue.

Speaking of which, I preordered the special edition box early on and ended up getting it off Amazon for £30, which (although my friends with hacked psps might scoff at) I am pretty chuffed with. Here's what you get in the box. I will make those of you who haven't got the game fold and get it if I can! Mwahaha! =p

Dissidia Special Edition@ Amazon

Special Edition Contains:

-Unique DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY clamshell packaging

-Full boxed copy of the DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY game

-DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY Original Sound Selection Mini-CD:The DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY Original Sound Selection Mini-CD includes a selection of music tracks from the game that are especially chosen by composer Takeharu Ishimoto. The Mini-CD will be presented inside a unique pochette and contain liner notes written by Ishimoto-san. 

-Hardback, 48-page The Art of DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY artwork book: Featuring character artwork and CG rendered artwork from across the game production.

-Brady Games Official Miniguide: 32 page game guide printed in full colour, with character artwork, descriptions and walkthrough information - to help you win the battle.

-Exclusive Lithograph Prints: 2 Exclusive Lithograph prints, inside a unique DISSIDIA FINAL FANTASY branded bandwrap, featuring artwork not used to promote the original Japanese version of the game.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy Official Site

I didn't think I'd be so addicted to what is kind of a mix of fighting game, rpg, board game but it takes chunks of my life hours at a time. I'd definitely recommend it. I've already put around 16 or 17 hours into it in the past few days and I've still got a lot to do in it.

The thing is, since I started up Dissidia, my other games that I've been playing have got a bit neglected. I recently beat Riviera as I was away for a couple days with just my psp for games so went onto Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which is unlockable as part of the Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles compilation on the PSP. I hadn't ever played this one as I got into Castlevania with my GBA experiences of the metroidvania games. See Also.

Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked.. Yeah, I never had the fortune to play this one and many people say it is the best Castlevania game, maybe even among the best side scrolling action games/RPGs etc ever! So having never played it, I continued on my save I had started not too long ago, determined to put some time into it and see what I thought. Well I'm yet to get a lot of the stuff you can get in the game (Familiars, most of the relics, Cards, decent weapons (lol) etc) but I am really enjoying playing as Alucard and exploring the castle. The sprites are really well animated as always and it seems there are tonnes of options for those who like to try 100% these games. Even more so than some of the later games in the series released after this one (which from what I understand, changed the series towards the metroidvania style)

 

I'm looking for some lull in my Dissidia obsession to play more of Symphony at some point, as I've enjoyed what I've done so far and wanna beat it.

I'm about 2 and a half/3 hours into this and at 43% ish, so it can be beaten quite quickly, but there are lots of things to find and do as well and I think I could easily sink a lot of hours into this one, my latest quest in Dracula's castle.

After this, I just need to obtain Order of Ecclesia and I'll have (and have beat) all the GBA-DS titles.

So other than finding crystals and exploring castles, I played a little bit of Shadow of the Colossus. Well, I was meant to, but psp has been distracting me from it and I've not played much (if any) of it since last time. I'll put more into it and SotN before next week if Dissidia lets me...

>.<

Anyway, my mind is turning to mush and I'm making less and less sense. SLEEPTIEM. ZZZZzzzzzz

A Witch's Tale (DS)

I'm quite looking forward to this RPG that is by Hit Maker and published by Nippon Ichi and NIS America. Hit Maker haven't done much in terms of other RPGs, they did Blade Dancer and Dragoneer's Aria and this is their first DS game. Even so, I'm really liking the style of this one. It kinda looks like a Tim Burton(ish) mashup of fairy tales and stories.

Kinda reminds me of Luminous Arc x Disgaea x American McGee's Alice.

Official Site

Wikipedia

Here's some stuff over at RPGamer.com on the game. http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/nds/witchstale/witchstale.html

And a review: RPGamer's review

http://uk.ds.ign.com/objects/142/14258588.html

The review does say it is a very easy game, but still I'm really looking forward to it. It should be out sometime this October in the US, and there is at the moment, no news of a PAL release date. Depending on what gets announced, I might import it from America =p

Trailers:

TV Choice #2

Deadliest Warrior
(Bravo)
Currently ongoing, this show is kinda similar to Mythbusters and those programs where they try to show how different weapons etc compare by a series of tests. I mean, its entertaining even if it is a bit scary at times, however it does kinda annoy me at times when they don't give similar variables and tests to each weapon. It doesn't always seem to be too fair at times. What I mean when I say it is kinda "scary" is basically that they show what these weapons can do to pig carcasses and ballistics gel torsos and heads (which closely represent human flesh and bone) and it is kinda ridiculous at times. Some of these weapons are brutal in what they can do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadliest_Warrior

Mythbusters
(Discovery)
The premise behind this one is basically that they take myths and urban legends and stuff and put them to the test with experiments, machines in order to see if there is any truth behind them. They usually end up blowing a lot of stuff up and destroying lots of things. Check it out on youtube, or on tv if you can. Its on a couple different channels I think.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythbusters

The X-Files
(Virgin 1, others)
This is one TV show I really got obsessed with. Its pretty old now, having started way back in the 90's but I watched all the series recently and if cult sci-fi/drama with paranormal, conspiracy type stuff is your thing you'll probably agree with me. Its not for everyone, but I'd recommend it. I have the boxset of all the dvds =D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_x_files

http://x-files.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

Now Playing - "Its a Trap!"

Thought I'd post up another Now Playing before the rest of the week flies away from me. I've mostly been putting more time into Riviera: The Promised Land on the PSP and starting to realise that I'm liking some aspects of it, but at times a bit frustrated by other minor things. The need for TP (I forget what it stands for) throughout the stages gets on my nerves at times. You basically get TP as a reward for doing well in battles (based on a ranking of C, B, A or S) So if you don't do well in battles, you dont get much of a reward in TP and this usually means you miss out chests (as you cant open them without) and other things in Look Mode. Its not too much of a problem missing out on items as the inventory can't hold very many at a time, but I still like to not miss too many things (especially when its because of quite an awkward system.) I'm on chapter 4 now (I think about halfway through) and I'm quite liking what I'm seeing of this game so far.

Also, the chests in this game...pretty much every single one has a trap in it, and fair enough you get a chance to evade it by doing timed button commands but if you fail, your characters get a 10% or so penalty to their HP for the next battle, which kinda annoys me at times especially when I don't get the item in the chest. That has caused much reloading...

Kind of on a whim, but because I've wanted to play this for a while now, I bid on Shadow of the Colossus on Ebay and picked it up for a bit cheaper than it usually is. So it arrived today and I've put just under an hour into it. (Not sure if that counts all the times I died on the first colossus...) It looks gorgeous for quite an old PS2 game, sure there are some jaggy and poor textures but the overall feel of the game, it really is quite epic. Makes your guy feel tiny and alone. 

My only real gripe so far is that some of the controls and camera angle really coulda been better. The camera is determined to kill me it seems. It also took me a long time to actually figure out what to do against the first colossus, its good that it isn't too obvious I think. 

I don't particularly like it in games when walls that can be destroyed are clearly different and stand out (like in Red Faction) or different textures give some kind of clue as to where I should be aiming. In this, so far at least it seems pretty well textured and rendered. Except for the occasional jaggy. 

Although I still need to play more, I've only played an hour or so. 

Awesome!

I love these videos, random but hilarious! Go look up the guy on Newgrounds-Egoraptor I think. Or egoraptor.net





There are tonnes more of em, ^_^