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Collection Project. The games outstanding

2011-06-20T21:59:00.000+01:00

I haven't really added too many titles to my collection over the last year. The original idea was to recreate the collection that I used to have. I managed to get most of it back together and even added quite a few that I never owned but played extensively. Now I just want to get a list together of the games that are outstanding. As I try to write this list it is amazing how hard it is to remember the games that I used to own.

Taz-Mania (MegaDrive)

Streets of Rage 3 (MegaDrive)

Mortal Kombat 2 (MegaDrive)

James Pond II (MegaDrive)

Wiz n Liz (MegaDrive)

Quick Note - International Superstar Soccer 64

2011-06-10T22:19:00.005+01:00

Today I added to my collection for the first time in ages. I was in a retro game store and found International Superstar Soccer 64 for the N64 in perfect condition for only €5. This isn't a game I owned, or even for a system I owned but a friend had it and we clocked up a good few hours on it.

Couldn't resist adding it to the collection.

Robots in Disguise

2010-11-06T18:50:00.000Z

I think it was back in July that I picked up Transformers: War for Cybertron for the PS3. At the time there wasn't any quality retail releases coming out and this game wasn't on my radar at all. However, after listening to Arthur on the Rebel FM podcast talk about it constantly for a couple of weeks my mind was changed. The multiplayer component sounded terrific and when the reviews hit they were nearly all effusive in their praise. So I decided to take a risk.

When I first put it on I wanted to hop straight into multiplayer but the servers were acting up so I had to start with single player. I chose to start with the Autobot campaign and after an impressive opening cut-scene I was thrust into the war on Cybertron. My lasting impression from that first and only session is that it was very boring. The first level seemed to take an age to complete and the enironment is just so drab. I presume the whole game is looks the same, one boring metallic colour. The fact that you can transform into a car at anytime sounds like fun but driving them is anything but. I was left to hope that the multiplayer would be the saving grace.

It was about three days later that I finally managed to join an game online and I enjoyed it. I played a good few rounds and I think that it works very well as a combat arena type game. My only problem with it is that it started to give me motion sickness, a problem that I have found with quite a few games this generation.

Of all the games I've bought recently I feel that I have done this one the biggest injustice. I've only tackled the single player game once and have yet to return to mulitplayer since my first session. That is not long enough to make a judgement and as such I have kept the disc close to the PS3. I will certainly return and give it another chance but not until the next few big releases are out of the way.

Quick note - Ji Sung Park

2010-11-06T18:44:00.000Z

It is an over used cliché in football about certain players being unsung heroes and I'm not entirely sure it applies to Ji Sung Park. He has been at United now for a good few years and most fans have learnt to appreciate what he brings to the team, especially over the last couple of years. But today must have been especially sweet for him.

Two goals, the second a last minutes winner against a dogged Wolves defence. Great stuff.

Ghostbusters

2010-10-31T20:42:00.000Z

While I was trying to rebuild my video game collection I was also adding new titles that I could find at bargain prices. When Ghostbusters came out last year it arrived to average reviews, so I ignored it in favour bigger titles like Uncharted 2. So a few months ago with the price having fallen sufficiently I picked it up in the hope that it would provide a few weeks of entertainment. I have to say that the most impressive part of Ghostbusters is how far they went in trying to make the most authentic Ghostbusters experience they could. The voices are all there, the environments look great and the conceit of making you the new member of the team works well.

Unfortunately, what doesn't work for me is the gameplay. I found the first couple of levels rather boring and the controls just don't feel responsive enough. Graphically the game is a little rough around the edges but the big issue was that it was giving me motion sickness. It wasn't too bad but I suspect had I played much longer the effect would have worsened. Perhaps (and I say this without much conviction) one day I will return to it.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

2010-10-31T20:40:00.001Z

The Wind Waker is one of those top rated GameCube games that I have added to my collection. I managed to get an excellent copy of the collectors edition that included a compilation disc containing versions of The Legend of Zelda, The Adventure of Link, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. There was also a guide booklet included too, which is also in excellent condition.

The Zelda series is a strange one for me. I have only ever played one through to completion, A Link to the Past on the SNES. Myself and my friend poured hours into that game and loved every minute of it. Since then I haven't played much Zelda but did get a fair portion of the way though The Phantom Hourglass on the DS. I think I like the idea of playing through a Zelda game more than I actually enjoy doing it.

I put The Wind Waker into the Wii a few weeks ago and played through the opening section of the game. One thing stands out above all others and that is the graphics. For a game released in 2003 on an underpowered system, the game looks phenomenal. It is the cell shaded graphical style that gives it the wow factor. In another ten years this game will still look amazing because of the art direction, whereas games like Gears of War that look great now will look terrible in the future. I can't believe there was such a commotion when the game was released over the look of it. The game played exactly like I expected, the same as Phantom Hourglass the direct sequel to this game. I know I finish too many posts saying that I will return one day to play this game. In the case of The Wind Waker I hope that is true.

A Crack in Time

2010-10-30T17:48:00.000+01:00

A Crack in Time is the sequel to one of my favourite games on the PS3, Tools of Destruction. Strangely though it had taken me the best part of a year to finally go and buy it. I picked it up back in July for a knock down price of €20, I wish all game prices would fall like that after some time on the market.

Just like the first game I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this one. In my opinion it was an improvement in nearly every department over the the first. Graphically the game was even better, which is some accomplishment as the first is still one of the best looking games around. I enjoyed the fact that they opened up some of the levels, making for some rather epic battle sequences. The story was perhaps a little more straight forward in this one but I did enjoy the time travelling portions of the game. A big improvement in this game was the navigation between the planets. Piloting your spaceship around the map was more fun and the space combat was easier this time around.

One of the highlights of the game was the sections that you controlled Clank in the Great Clock. These sections contained some ingenious puzzles, some of which I had to resort to YouTube for solutions. The surest sign that I really enjoyed this game is to look at my b collection. I managed to stick with the game long enough to get the Platnium Trophy, which requires a minimum of two playthroughs. There aren't many games around these days that I will play twice.

I'm looking forward to the next game which has a four player co-op campaign. I just hope I can find some nice people to play it with.

Super Street Fighter IV

2010-10-30T17:39:00.000+01:00

I remember my first reaction when I heard that Street Fighter IV was coming to the PS3, 'I didn't even know they'd made Street Fighter III'. That shows how out of touch I am with the beat'em up genre. I haven't played a game like this seriously since Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat II on the SNES and Mega Drive. That type of game just didn't hold much appeal to me anymore. Still I was intrigued by this new game, probably because it seems to be playing on the nostaglia factor by making it look like a spruced up version of Street Fighter II.

I decided that I would get this game if I could get it at a good price and a couple of months ago I came across it for €24 in Game. For a game only a few months old and selling for €40 in other shops I thought this was too good to pass up. I have played it a few times now but I'm struggling to get into it. I still have all the moves from Street Fighter II ingranined in my muscle memory but that just isn't enough for this version. There are so many characters and so much to learn that it is overwhelming. It is a good game to have in the library as it is something that can be returned to on and off, especially with some friends that will remember playing Street Fighter II.

Hernandez brightening up Old Trafford

2010-10-29T12:29:00.000+01:00

Chicarito

It has been a good long time since a young player at Manchester United has gotten me excited. I know Rooney and Ronaldo were young when they arrived but Rooney was something of a known quantity, while Ronaldo was hard to like despite his talent. Javier Hernandez on the other hand looks to have quality and a likeable persona.

When his signing was first announced no one paid much attention. His YouTube goals collection, the first stop for interested fans to see new unknown players in action, was impressive but everyone knows you can't trust YouTube tributes. His performances for Mexico during the World Cup in South Africa however made people sit up and take notice. In particular his goal against Argentina was quality, showing pace, a great touch and a good ability to finish. There is also the little reported fact that Hernadez was officially clocked by FIFA as the fastest player at the tournament. Had United found a new superstar for only €7 million?

Hernandez started pre-season in blistering form, including that infamous Community Shield goal against Chelski. His first few appearances in the league didn't go quite so well though. It looked as thought he had fallen down the pecking order behind Owen and Macheda. A couple of weeks ago I had been talking to a colleague and mentioned that I wanted to see Hernandez given another opporunity. That night he came off the bench to score the winner against Valencia in Spain. He hasn't looked back since.

This past week he has scored three goals, two against Stoke and the late winner against Wovles in the League Cup after coming on as a late sub. This brings his tally to an impressive six goals in eleven games. There is a lot of hype and expectations building up around Hernandez at the moment and I just hope he can hold his nerve and continue to progress. At this particular time it is good to see something positive at Old Trafford after the recent Rooney saga and the poor onfield performances this season.

The Dark Knight Rises

2010-10-29T12:26:00.000+01:00

Christopher Nolan officially unveiled the title of the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises. My initial reaction - I like it. It's simple and gives the impression that this time Batman might just have a happy ending.

I know that some people seem to be a bit put off with having The Dark Knight as part of the title again but I can certainly understand the decision. I'm sure Warner Bros. wanted to link it to such a successful film in the minds of the movie going public. What better way than to include it in the title?

July 20th 2012, can't come soon enough.

WipeOut - PSone

2010-10-29T09:51:00.000+01:00

This is the game that made me believe that the PSone really was a new generation beyond the Mega Drive and SNES. Neither of those consoles could have produced the amazingly smooth and blisteringly fast graphics and then coupled that together with a fantastic soundtrack. Along with Worms, Wipeout is probably the game that I played the most on my PSone. After getting over the steep learning curve the game really opens up. I just think of it as a more mature version of Mario Kart and like that game I have played most incarnations on a variety of systems.

I would be interested to play this now on the PS3 to see how it has held up. But it is probably best to leave it as a memory and when I want to play it, just stick on Wipeout HD instead.

Virtua Racing Deluxe 32X

2010-10-22T15:12:00.000+01:00

The final game added to my 32X collection and it also completed the set of launch titles. This is another game that I had played in the arcades before playing this home verison. Looking back at the graphics now they look simply horrid, to say this game has aged badly is a massive understatement. However, back in 1995 they were very impressive and to be fair the framerate is very smooth. This version boasts more cars than the original (three) and more tracks (five).

I do remember playing this game for quite some time and enjoying it but five courses just isn't enough. Especially when they are as short as those in Virtua Racing. Like the other 32X games I've recently acquired I would love to play them one more time. It is a pity that getting a 32X seems out of the question because of the prices being quoted.

Star Wars Arcade 32X

2010-10-22T15:06:00.000+01:00

I remember playing this game in the arcade with a friend of mine. It was a really fun experience. The two of us sitting in the cockpit shaped unit trying to make the trench run from the original movie. The thing I remember most was the incredible sound design, Artoo screaming in our ears every time we took damage. Ah, the memories.

Shame then that the 32X version didn't provide the same thrills. It did look like the arcade version but not quite as good. The same goes for the sound too. The effects were all there but because of the poor sound quality on the machine they just didn't sound as clear as they should have. In fact they were pretty grating to be honest. One area were the game did improve upon the original was the number of levels on offer. The game had the original arcade more and also an expanded mission mode. Unfortunately, the game was so hard I never did beat the first two levels so I never got to see what else the game had to offer. At least they still had General Akbar barking out orders on the screen. Who doesn't love that guy. 'It's a trap!'

Doom 32X

2010-10-22T15:04:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned in the previous post I had this sitting at home two weeks before I had a 32X system to play it with. So by the time I was sitting down to play it, expectations were pretty high. I can say that I was pretty pleased with the game. The graphics and sound were certainly an improvement over the normal Mega Drive game and I can't say I was too bothered by the infamous border on the screen. I know that people now slate the 32X port as inferior to nearly every other version, including the SNES version but at the time it was great for me. It may have lacked a large number of levels and any multiplayer but I never went on to beat the game so a lack of levels wasn't an issue. On the downside this was the first game that ever made me feel nauseous while playing and still gets me with some FPS games.

This copy of the game is in quite good condition, which is probably about as good as you will find most 32X games at this stage. I had totally forgotten this but the 32X games come in cardboard boxes that slide out on a cardboard tray. I can't understand why Sega would move from the destruction proof hard plastic Mega Drive cases to these flimsy cardboard boxes. The box for this game is frayed at the edges but overall isn't too bad.

I would like to get a 32X again to play Doom one more time. I'm pretty sure it'd would only be one more time too.

32X and three more for the collection

2010-10-22T11:01:00.001+01:00

Three more games that I used to own arrived to take their place in my slowly rebuilding collection - Doom, Virtua Racing Deluxe and Star Wars Arcade all for the Sega 32X. I thought I would start this series of posts with a quick review of my 32X experience.

I first became aware of the 32X while watching a promotional video on the Channel 4 show Gamesmaster. I thought it was going to be the coolest thing ever. It would make my Mega Drive twice as powerful, blowing the SNES out of the water and I would be playing arcade perfect ports of all the best games. Of course most people reading this article will know that this isn't how it would turn out for owners of the 32X.

I was promised that I would be getting the 32X that Christmas so in preparation I purchased Doom a week or two before Christmas. I remember my Dad driving me into town to the Virgin Megastore on the quays. I think I am right in saying that there was only three launch titles to choose from. So I had the game now but nothing to play it on. The wait till Christmas was a little longer than usual that year. So Christmas morning finally arrives and I unwrap my new toy. I quickly read through the instructions and started putting this strange mushroom shaped contraption together. If you look back at it now it really was a pretty messy piece of hardware, with several bits and pieces to assemble to get it to work. I eventually hooked it all up, powered it up and then, nothing.

Nothing happened. There seemed to be power going into the unit but no picture on the TV. We had to go out visiting family as usual that morning but I took everything with me to try again to get it to work. I reassembled it all again in my nana's house and it still didn't work. I don't remember what my reaction was to all this but I'm sure I wasn't too pleased. My dad actually figured it out in the end. One of the wires at the back of the 32X wasn't pushed in hard enough, I mean this wire had to be REALLY pushed in to connect. So it was working now and I was happy, and thankfully really impressed by Doom.

One side effect of I had of playing normal Mega Drive games through the 32X was that it would turn NHL 93 monochrome. I'm not sure how long that Doom was my only game but I eventually ended up adding Star Wars Arcade and Virtua Racing Deluxe to the collection. And that was it, just three games ever for the system. I read about some great looking games in magazines like Sonic and Knuckles Chaotix and the port of Mortal Kombat 2. I don't know why I never got anymore games for the 32X. Where they too expensive? Could I not find them? I think the most likely reason is that it was 1995 by this point and the PSone was on the market. It was an interesting experiment but there was just too many flaws with the system for it to succeed in the end.

A week of great bargains

2010-10-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

The past week or so has seen me snap up a number of great bargains for my video game collection. This is thanks mainly to the sale on Gamestop.ie where they were selling a game for EUR1 at noon each day for 5 days. During that time I bought Lost Planet 2 [PS3], Punch-Out [Wii], High-School Musical 2 [DS] and Mass Effect 2 [Xbox 360]. All this for EUR12 including shipping. To top it all off I managed to get Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 [PS3] for EUR10.99 in HMV. Not bad.

The plan is to off load the DS game at Christmas as a present and in January when Mass Effect 2 is released for the PS3 I will trade in my Xbox 360 copy. I am looking forward to trying out the Marvel game, being a fan of superheroes it seems right up my street. Plus I've read that it is a relatively easy Platinum. As for Lost Planet 2 and Punch-Out they might just remain in the shrink-wrap and bolster my collection.

USA Trip 2010 - Chicago [Part 5]

2010-10-20T20:13:00.000+01:00

I originally wanted to travel from Boston to Chicago by rail. I realise that would have been a very long journey but we would have gotten ourselves a sleeper car. I think it would have been a very nice, relaxing experience. Sitting on a train watching the world go by while reading a book, listening to podcasts or playing a game really appeals to me. Alas, a few things conspired against the idea. Firstly, the holiday was going to be slightly shorter than planned so spending an extra day travelling didn't make sense and then there was the cost. It would have been four times more expensive to go with Amtrak than it was to fly with US Airways. Those reasons and I didn't fully commit to the idea in the first place, it was something I would have liked to do but I never actually made the decision to go and do it. So in the end we flew to Chicago.

There isn't really much to report about the plane trip to Chicago other than it was a little bumpy. I've recently read that a plane is like a see-saw. The front and the back tend to rock the most so if you sit in the middle it will move a lot less. We were sitting at the very back of the plane to Chicago and my wife was feeling a little unwell and to be fair the plane was rocking a bit. I know in future to try to sit in the middle. After collecting our luggage we got a taxi into the city, it was a pretty long drive because of the heavy traffic. We did spot an awesome Jeep on the freeway that had a very authentic looking Autobot insignia on the back. It is about the only thing on the holiday that I didn't manage to get a photo of. Arriving at the Affinia Hotel it is hard not to be impressed. The building looks brand new, people were on hand to take your luggage and check-in was very efficient. It got even better when we walked into our room. It was a very spacious and modern room. As you enter the room the bathroom was to the right and then you had steps down into the bedroom area. The bed was very large and we had a nice big window, although the view was nothing spectacular as the Affinia building is dwarfed by neighbouring buildings. The only downside to the room was the lack of free wi-fi, something I had become very accustomed to by that stage.

We arrived mid-afternoon and after settling into the room we went for a walk to get our bearings. The hotel is on E. Superior Street which runs perpendicular to the famous North Michigan Avenue and is right on the Magnificient Mile. I was now three for three with good hotels in great locations after NY and Boston. We had missed lunch so we went to a diner and both opted for a nice Italian sausage sandwich. The rest of the afternoon was spent looking around the Magnificient Mile, spotting things that we would head back to over the next few days. Of course I also spotted the local Apple Store that as luck would have it was right around the corner from our hotel. Unfortunately, they had no iPad cases either but they were sold out of iPads too, which made me feel better for buying mine in Boston. I got my picture taken outside the store to complete the set for this holiday. We also went over to the Hershey's Store to see what it was like. Even when those Hershey's Kisses are free I still wouldn't eat them. We kept an eye out for somewhere to go for dinner that night and settled on The Grill on the Alley, by the Westin Hotel on Migichan Avenue. When we got there that night we thought at first that it seemed a little fancy but it actually had a nice laid back atmosphere. I remember that we both really enjoyed our meal there but I can't quite remember what I had. It was some kind of chicken dish with mash that was delicious.

Wrigley Field

Like the hotels in NY and Boston, the breakfast at the Affinia wasn't great. I don't like fruit in the morning, or anything too sweet so I always struggle to find something to eat in the US. We had the fry the first morning but it wasn't great to be honest. That day, the 27th May we had tickets to go see the Chicago Cubs vs. LA Dodgers at Wrigley Field. Now baseball wasn't my first choice, that would have been ice-hockey. However, the hockey season was at the play-offs stage, with co-incidentally the Chicago Blackhawks in the finals. We also missed out on the NBA and NFL seasons so we were left with the MLB to get in some American sports. We took the train to Wrigley Field and got there about an hour before the game. There were thousands of people there all enjoying the atmosphere, which we both found very strange as it was 1pm on a Thursday. Don't people in this city have jobs? After taking some photos outside we made our way into the stadium. The officials there were very helpful in showing us where to be going and we got to our seats with little fuss. We actually had a pretty good view and watched the team warm up and the stadium fill up. As soon as the game started we were lost. We had a very rough understanding of the rules, based on 'rounders' but this didn't help us at all. I was actually surprised at how little the batter was actually hitting the ball. Maybe they were very good or that is what every game is like but it surprised me. It was an enjoyable experience, it was certainly something new but I wouldn't call it exciting. I am glad that we went and I got some good photos and we got to see a true American pastime in action. We stayed for about two and half hours before calling time on our first baseball game.

View from the John Hancock Observatory

When we arrived back we headed to the John Hancock Building. This impressively tall building in the middle of Chicago has the most spectaular view of not just the city but surrounding states. The Observatory floor of the building gives you a 360 degree view of the city and allows you to see up to 80 miles. There is an amazing view of Lake Michigan and if I hadn't known it was a lake I would have been convinced that it was the ocean. We availed of the free multimedia tour that was narrated by David Schwimmer and it was very good as it gave you places to focus on outside rather than just staring at nothing in particular. On the way back to the hotel we bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off tour for the next day. That night we ate in the hotel's restaurant. I got a very simple sounding meal of fish and chips. It was presented very nicely and I found it to be extremely tasty. We had less luck with the dessert though. The menu was very confusing, but basically you had to pick and choose from a huge selection of sweets. We chose five, I think. We expected them to be small but they were actually quite large and not that nice either. When we were finished we went to the top floor to the bar. While we were up their we got talking to an older couple from N. Ireland who were travelling around the US.

The next day we went to get the tour bus for a day of proper sightseeing. As we passed the John Hancock Building and got the history of it the guide told us an interesting story. There is a small one-storey building at the back of the Hancock Building, that is used by very, very rich people who meet up and play poker. When the Hancock Building was relatively new they wanted to expand its grounds and so made an offer to buy the small building. They were refused, so they tried again. Once more they were refused and the owners of the Hancock Building got more aggressive in their attempts to buy. Finally, the lawyers for the Hancock Building got a phone call from one of the regulars at the poker games in the building they were trying to buy. He told the lawyer in no uncertain terms that if they contacted them again with another offer to buy, they would counter the offer and buy the John Hancock Building for themselves and firing the management while they were at it. No further attempts to buy the small building were made.

The Silver Bean

Our first stop on the tour was Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower. The Willis Tower is famous for it's height and the Skydeck, a glass balcony jutting out of the building at 1,353 feet. It isn't so much a balcony as a glass box but it does give some very impressive views and great photo opportunities. The Skydeck is certainly advertised as the 'must-see' attraction in Chicago but in our opinion the views at the John Hancock Building were more impressive. We got back on the bus and headed down to Millenium Park built to celebrate the new millenium but not opened till 2004. The park serves a dual purpose. One to provide more green space for the people and secondly as a giant underground carpark. When we got to the park we went to see Cloud Gate or as it is more commonly known the Silver Bean. The sculpture is a 110-ton elliptical structure of highly polished stainless steel, which reflect the city skyline and the clouds above. It has a 12-foot arch that lets you walk underneath into the concave chamber where you can see your image reflected from a variety of perspectives. Now all that doesn't sound too exciting but you really have to see it. There was such a buzz around from the people there looking at the sculpture. It is hard to conjure into words what it was like but it was certainly one of the highlights of the entire trip. We ate lunch in the park before getting back on the bus.

When we got back on the bus we had a new tour guide, who was friendly, funny and pretty darn hot. The plan was to head over the University campus but President Obama was in the city at the time causing chaos with the city's traffic. We had to take a detour on the way and were diverted onto the freeway. It was pretty exhilarating racing along the freeway on the upper deck of the open top bus. After that we found our way to Navy Pier but by this time it was getting late so we decided to return there the next day. As we made our way back to Migichan Avenue our tour guide was pointing out many locations used in the filming of The Dark Knight. I'm pretty sure I spotted the street that they filmed the truck flipping scene but she didn't mention it. I'm going to assume that I'm right though. That night we went to the Grand Lux Café on Migichan Avenue. It is a very busy place and they gave us a beeper to notify us when our table was ready. We weren't waiting that long and when we got into the dinning area we were up on the second floor. We had a friendly waiter, almost overly so but it was a very enjoyable meal. I went for the chicken and prawn jambalaya and to say it was delicious is to do it a mis-service. During our mains the waiter asked if we would like them to start baking us some desserts, as all the desserts are freshly baked. We were tempted but in the end settled for tea and coffee.

Site of the worlds first Ferris Wheel

The following day we made our way down to Navy Pier, which was about a twenty minute walk from the hotel. It is a very popular attraction for families and it certainly caters to people who like boat trips. Neither of us can handle a boat trip so that was lost on us but we enjoyed the walk around the pier. We got some nice pictures and got a go on a ferris-wheel, that stands on the site of the worlds very first ferris-wheel. We had an enjoyable lunch at the Pier and headed back into the city. Another interesting thing that we got to do was to go and check out the street sculptures littered around The Loop. We got to see four famous works of art that the city of Chicago is proud to display. We saw Alexander Calder's The Flamingo down in Federal Plaza. This whimsical and constructivist (meaning: constructed of big industrial materials bolted together) structure forms a graceful counterpoint to the hard edges and straight lines of the surrounding skyscrapers. This sculpture presented a good challenge to frame the whole thing in a photograph. I managed it, just about, before nearly toppling off the sidewalk as I contorted my body to capture the picture. Over on Chase Plaza there is a 70 foot long mosaic/mural featuring surrealist depictions of Chicago, called The Four Seasons by Marc Chagall. Niether of us were very impressed by this one. I found the colours to be too muted and uninteresting as a whole.

Monument with Standing Beast

Located at the Daley Center is perhaps the most famous, Chicago's Picasso as it is known because the artist gave it no other name. The story goes that he presented it to the city of Chicago as a gift and the only thing he received in return was a jersey of the Chicago Blackhawks with his name emblazended on the back. As I mentioned earlier the Blackhawks were in the NHL play-offs and as a sign of support, statues around the city were all decked out in Blackhawks kit. Chicago's Picasso which to me looked like a horse, had a Blackhawks helmet on its head. My favourite of the four was Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast. This sculpture of white organic shapes with thick black outlines sits in the plaza on Randolph. I find it hard to pinpoint what it is about it that appeals to me. Perhaps it is the black outlines, giving it a classic comic-book asthetic that I like. That night we did something we don't usually do on our holidays, return to a restaurant a second time. We went back to The Grill on the Alley and had another very enjoyable meal. I do remember my wife being slightly disappointed that the waiter from the first night was not on duty. I'm pretty sure that was also the night that she beat Plants vs. Zombies, a game on the iPad that had her hooked. If you haven't seen the end credits then get yourself over to YouTube, it is well worth it.

Other random memories from Chicago include a visit to the local Lego megastore where I met such famous characters as Darth Vader, Harry Potter and R2-D2. I'm not sure which night it was but we also ate out at a sports bar, we had had our fill of fancy restaurants. We both got a plate of ribs and they were delicious. Our final day in Chicago was a bit awkward because we had to check-out at noon but the flight home wasn't till around four I think. So we left our bags in the hotel and went out to kill a bit of time. I went to the Apple Store because I still needed to find a case to bring home my iPad. They were still out of stock on the official case so I had to settle for a purple, yes purple carry case. I had planned on replacing it when I got home but I still have it and use it so it wasn't a bad purchase in the end. For lunch that day we went to Gino's East, next door to our hotel. We had very high expectations for this meal because every night we had passed this restaurant the queue to get in stretched down the block. Disappointingly it didn't live up to our expectations. We can't honestly see why so many people would be queueing up to get in. Neither of us ordered the pizza, or the deep-dish pizza that Chicago is so famous for so perhaps we missed out. After lunch we got a taxi out to the airport to take the curtain down on our latest trip to the US.

Apart from the slight disappointment with NY this was a thoroughly enjoyable holiday. Boston is now one of my favourite places in the world and I'd heartly recommend Chicago to anybody. We got to take in some real Americana with the baseball game, saw many famous landmarks, ate some great steak, took some wonderful pictures and have many, many great memories. What more can you ask of a holiday?

USA Trip 2010 - Boston [Part 4]

2010-10-18T19:00:00.000+01:00

Copley Square at night

My first impression of The Copley Square Hotel was that it was pretentious. After its recent renovation the hotel is all dark colours, mirrors and very glamorous receptionists. To be fair though it is advertised more of as a business hotel. Still the staff were friendly and the room was very nice. It was smaller than the room in NY but the bed was comfortable, the bathroom spacious, it had free wi-fi and a nice TV for 'The Lost Weekend'. On the way into Boston I had pinpointed the location of the closest Apple Store to the hotel and as luck would have it it was only around the corner. So we basically checked-in, dropped our bags in the room and went in search of an iPad. Again.

I don't think I could have booked a hotel in Boston with a better location. It is located in Copley Square, a nice open space that is very well kept and I have since recognised in the film Spartan. The trendy streets of Boylston and Newbury running parallel to each other are just off Copley Square and it was to Boylston Street and the Apple Store we headed to first. It was a glorious day weather wise and as we wandered down the street we couldn't believe the difference between this and NY. The street was quieter, cleaner and just, nicer. It was only a short stroll to the Apple Store and I made a beeline for the nearest sales assistant. My plan was to buy the 32GB Wi-Fi only version of the iPad, the official case and the camera USB adapter. The sales assistant said that they only had one iPad in stock and it was the 64GB Wi-Fi model. He told me that they were flying off the shelves and thought I'd be lucky to find another one in Boston, or Chicago for that matter. I decided quickly to take it and I got it activated then and there. They had no cases or USB adapters but I was just happy to have found an iPad. It was $100 more expensive than I had planned but with double the memory it was good investment. Nearly six months later I have used about 30GB of space so it was the right decision.

With my business with Apple complete we decided to go wander around the area and see what was around. My wife stopped in Starbucks and got a strawberry and crème frappuccino. It was delicious and started a trend for the drink that lasted the rest of the holiday. We've had one since returning to Ireland but it just wasn't the same. After checking out Boylston Street we headed back to the hotel to go get ready for dinner. We had seen plenty of restaurants around so it looked like we wouldn't have the same problems that we had in NY. We ended up going for Thai that night, Bangkok Blue on Boylston Street. I remember the mains being very tasty but nothing much on the menu for dessert, which is par for the course I find with Asian restaurants.

Freedom Trail map

Our first full day in Boston was set to be a busy one as we had planned to tackle 'The Freedom Trail'. The Freedom Trail is a red brick path through down Boston that leads to seventeen significant historic sites. The trail is 2.5 miles long and it took us most of the day to complete as we had so much fun stopping at different locations. The Trail was originally conceived by journalist William Schofield who was promoting the idea of linking important local landmarks with a pedestrian trail since 1951. The mayor at the time agreed and put the idea into action. The trail starts in Boston Common, the oldest city park in the US and that day it was getting ready to host some hippy protest concert. Just as we left Boston Common we came across another site that I instantly recognised from film, the Massachusetts State House that played a significant role in The Departed. Up until writing this I was convinced that the Park Street Church around the corner was the location used to film the tripod reveal sequence from War of The Worlds but I can't find anything to back this up. We followed the red brick path through several more locations down to Faneuil Hall, one of our favourite places on the whole trip.

Street performers at Quincy Market

Faneuil Hall was originally built to be the city market and now it is home to Quincy Market, one of the most vibrant and lively places in Boston. We had lunch here and checked out a number of shops. We stayed for a good while at this location watching the street performers before heading in the direction of the Bunker Hill Monument. By the time we had crossed the bridge we had been walking for some time and had a choice to make. Do we head to Bunker Hill and back around to the USS Constitution (involved in the Boston Tea Party) or cut it short and just pick one. In the end we decided just to go see the USS Constitution and get some ice-cream while we were at it. The part about the Freedom Trail that we didn't factor in was that the 2.5 mile walk is only one way, we now had to make our way back to Copley Square. For anyone thinking of going to Boston, I would highly recommend going on this walk. Not only to you get an appreciation of a city steeped in a rich history (we found out about aid ships sent from Boston to Ireland during the Famine) but it is an excellent way to get to know a new city. The full list of Freedom Trail locations can be found here.

That night we were pretty drained and planned an early night; this may also have been due to the Lost finale that was airing that night. We went to Uno Chicago Grill on Boylston Street for a pretty standard dinner. A constant problem we had faced in the US with dinners was the portion sizes, they are just outrageously big in some places. This means that there is little chance of having room for any desserts. I remember the dessert in this place well because they had 'mini' desserts listed on the menu. This sounded perfect so I went for the mini apple pie. It might have been mini in the US but it was still pretty big by European standards. We retired back to the hotel room to settle in for the Lost finale, an event I'd been looking forward to. Now, I want to be careful here lest I get sidetracked on some rant about the finale. I felt that the the series up till this episode had been good and the last few in particular had been building some great momentum. It is such a shame that I can't say that I loved the final episode. I can't say that I thought it was bad, it is something that I may have to watch again to make up my mind on. I know one thing I didn't like and that was the crazy number of advert breaks. I think the running time must have been two and half hours in total.

The next day we had a morning appointment at Boston Gliders, a company running Segway tours of Boston. The traffic was pretty heavy so we were a few minutes late in arriving and it was all a bit of a rush to get signed in and down to watch the training video. It was actually the same video from our last Segway tour in San Francisco back in 2007. When they realised we had been on a Segway before we only got some cursory training tips, which was okay as I got accustomed to the Segway pretty quickly but a little more training would have helped my wife feel more at ease. A small group of us, seven in total took off along the streets of Boston on the two hour sightseeing tour. I find Segways fantastic. They are so easy to control, they do all the balancing work for you. All you have to do is learn to relax and enjoy the ride. For those next two hours I just become a big kid again, I'm all ready looking forward to my next Segway experience. The tour took us to many of the locations on the Freedom Trail but you get a whole new experience doing it by Segway. This time we did get to Bunker Hill and we spent some time there taking photos and enjoying the space on the Segway. We were finished the tour by lunch time and went and got a bite to eat in the Cheers Bar at Quincy Market. I'm not sure what the deal was with that place and the show, it probably just licensed the name and likeness.

One of the days we went to the Boston Science Museum. I had read good reports about it being a very interesting way to spend a few hours so we found our way on the subway to the science park. I'm not sure what we were expecting exactly but whatever it was we didn't find it. We spent a couple of hours there making our way around the attractions, some of which were very impressive. I think the place was too geared towards children, which is a fine thing if you've brought some along but in our case not so much. I was most impressed by the full size model of the spaceship used by Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. I think it was that evening that we got to eat at Joe's American Bar & Grill. It is on the corner of Newbury Street and we had passed it several times, admiring the food being served. I really enjoyed the meal there (the waitress pretty too) but it is most memorable for my wife being asked for ID, something she wasn't too impressed by. I saw onion rings on the list of starters and got them because I thought to myself that they can't be too big surely. Wrong. Each one was the size of my fist but they were finger lickin' good.

As I mentioned in a previous post we had done very little shopping in NY and decided it would be a shame to return home without having at least tried to take advantage of the cheaper clothes prices. So we went to the Prudential Center, the large department store at the end of Boylston Street. We split up for an hour or so and I managed to find myself a couple of t-shirts. We met back up for a frappuccino in Star Bucks and then both went to Newbury Street. There are lots of nice little clothes shops along there that do unique items but some of it is a bit pricey. We both picked up some sports tops; I went for the Bears and my wife went with the White Sox. Throw in the iPad, ModNation Racers and Red Dead Redemption for the PS3, a handful of t-shirts and nice top from Gap and I was very happy with my shopping from Boston. That night we went back to the Prudential Center for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We still hadn't figured out how to fit in a main course and dessert though but the couple beside us showed us how it was done. Eat half your main, and then bag it up and order dessert. The main course in the Cheesecake Factory was just insane, it was a very nice chicken dish with corn and mash but it was about the size of four normal mains. Next time we'd just go to the place for dessert alone.

We were sorry to see the end of our four night stay in Boston but excited at the same time to be going on to see Chicago. Like San Francisco before it Boston has joined a select few cities that I would like to return to again. There really is no contest between Boston and NY as to which we preferred, we just hoped Chicago wouldn't let us down.

Part 3

Quick note

2010-10-17T19:03:00.000+01:00

I just realised I passed the 100 posts mark a few posts ago. I would have put up a special post had I noticed in time.

Ah well.

Punch-Out Wii

2010-10-17T18:58:00.000+01:00

I picked up another game for €1 in GameStop's sale madness, Punch-Out Wii. There was a lot of press for this game last year, especially on US podcasts but I don't recall ever seeing it in shops here. I never played the original and to be honest this doesn't look like a game I will enjoy. I might just keep it in the shrink wrap. Still for €1 it is a steal.

Mario Kart Double Dash

2010-10-17T18:48:00.000+01:00

I picked this game up on eBay to add to my list of must play GameCube (GC) games. I'd read mixed opinions of Double Dash online but the consensus seems to be that it is one of the top rated GC games. It must have been back in May, perhaps June when it arrived but I only got around to playing it a week ago. One of the reasons is that I had to get another GC controller first.

Myself and my wife (a huge Mario Kart fan) sat down and played it for a while and were less than impressed. It is probably a bit unfair on the game to judge it after playing Mario Kart Wii so much. Even though there is little difference in the graphical quality, we missed some of the Wii gameplay mechanics. Another problem is that we had played nearly all of the tracks in Double Dash either in Mario Kart Wii or the DS version. I think Nintendo is just being lazy now with having the same tracks in so many Mario Kart games. That isn't a direct criticism of Double Dash but of Nintendo themselves. I'm hoping that when it arrives on the 3DS it will be full of new tracks. I doubt it though.

I haven't played enough of Double Dash to get to know the ins and outs of the main new addition to the game, two characters to a vehicle. It appears to add a little element of strategy to the gameplay and it is nice to see something new in Mario Kart after all these years. With so many games in my growing collection that I've yet to play or games like Zelda: The Wind Waker that I want to return to I won't be promising to play Double Dash much more.

Blur

2010-10-17T17:11:00.001+01:00

Blur is a game that took me by surprise. I had no real intention of getting it until I saw the positive feedback it was getting and checked out some footage online. It looked liked it had some frantic car combat, in similar vein to Mario Kart but with HD graphics. As soon as I brought it home it stayed in the PS3 for a solid three weeks, getting constant play online.

It had been quite some time since I'd found a game that I enjoyed playing online so much. Blur has that instant pick up and play quality that all good arcade racers should have. The cars handle easily and the weapons are all instantly familiar as they all correspond to weapons from Mario Kart. Three weeks might seem like a short time give a game but as they say the light that shines twice as bright, burns twice as fast. In this case it grew a little tired after a while but for those few weeks it was an absolute blast.

I'd recommend this game to anyone and I wish more people had bought it so those online lobbies would have been full.

USA Trip 2010 - Trip to Boston [Part 3]

2010-10-15T15:28:00.002+01:00

Amtrak

On the morning of the 22nd May we checked out of The Residence Inn in Manhattan and made our way to Penn Station. We didn't bother with a taxi as it was only four blocks or so on the map and we felt it would be straight forward enough. Unfortunately, Penn Station is entirely underground and so you wouldn't really notice if you passed the entrance. It took us a little while to find it but once we did it was easy enough to collect our tickets. We had the best part of two hours to wait on the train but at least they had free wi-fi to keep us entertained.

Now taking the train to Boston was my idea and it was a trip I was looking forward too. I was expecting that we would be getting the same type of train that runs on the Coast Starlight route, a big double decker train. The likes of which you don't see in this country. When the train pulled into the station there was a bit of a rush to get to the escalator with the other passengers. We expected that after we had our tickets checked it would calm down as we would all have assigned seating. Turns out I was very wrong on that point.

We were directed to make our way to the top of the train to find a seat. So we went down that direction and got on the last carriage but that turned out to be full and so was the next carriage down. We started to get a bit worried at this point. We made our way down to another carriage and had no choice but to board as the train was about to leave. The carriage looked full so we had to leave our luggage and go search for a seat. We actually managed to find two seats together at a table with a mother and child (more on her later). I then made two trips back to find the luggage and bring it to our carriage so it would at least be close. With that done we could finally begin to relax and enjoy the journey. It was a shame it was not the type of train I was expecting but at least we had seats, they were comfortable, the scenery was good and as a bonus there was free wi-fi. We were travelling through lunchtime so I made a trip to the catering car to get us some lunch. I decided to go a little early as I felt there might be a queue. Lucky I did because even though the queue was small I was still waiting about 30 minutes. At least I got to admire the passing country side.

Real life Phantom Hourglass

While on the train I decided to get creative with the camera and introduced Link into the mix. I think this is where our new tradition of getting a photo of Link in new places was born. The journey was only 3 and half hours which went very quickly. Travelling by train really is the best way when you have a long distance to travel. It is always more comfortable than flying, you don't have to go to an airport and it just feels relaxing.

As we approached Boston the woman opposite us was on her mobile and her daughter was trying and failing to get her attention. She did quickly enough when she promptly vomited over the table we were all sharing. It was not a good situation at all. With every bump or rock the carriage took the vomit would make it's way closer to us. I went quickly down to the catering car again to get a handful of napkins, anything to stop the approaching tide. Everything was tidied up and back to normal quickly and everyone was all smiles. This mightn't have been the case had it happened earlier a not as we were about to get off the train.

When the train came to a stop in Boston's Back Bay Station I carried my wife's bag off the train but had to run down to the end of the carriage to get my own. With the people getting on and off it wasn't leaving much time and I literally had to jump off before the doors closed. I hope our next train trip in the US is less hectic than this one was but it hasn't put me off my goal to cross the US on rail. When we got out of the station we had a quick check of the map to get our bearings and decided we could walk to the hotel no problem. I even managed to point an older lady in the right direction for her own hotel. Still not sure how I knew that and my wife certainly looked confused when I knew.

Part 2 |

USA Trip 2010 - New York City [Part 2]

2010-10-15T12:51:00.001+01:00

I was immediately impressed with the hotel we stayed at, The Residence Inn Manhattan. The staff at reception were very friendly and we were checked-in in no time at all but best of all we got bumped up to a deluxe room with a view of the Empire State Building. I had e-mailed the manager a few months previously about this and was told there was an extra charge for this room. I declined on the basis we could spend that extra $25 a night elsewhere. Anyway, she said she would keep the request on file and could have the room for free if it was unoccupied when we arrived. The room was simply awesome. We had expected to get a tiny room in NY because that is what most people had told us to expect. Well the room we got had it's own little kitchenette, large bathroom, queen size bed and a sofa. Plus that excellent view that you can see here and here. As it was the evening already and raining heavily we got ready quickly and went to find something to eat. We ended up in Arno Ristorante just around the corner. It wasn't one of the better meals on the trip, a massive bowl of soup to start and a pasta dish with a distinct taste of cheese. We weren't actually that hungry anyway, probably more tired than anything. On a side note I did get a bit of a Goodfella's vibe off one of the waiters which made things more interesting.

The breakfast was not great but I was expecting that. I hadn't really enjoyed the breakfast food on our last US trip and this one was to be no exception. I just find that the food is either too sweet or stodgy for the morning time. After breakfast we walked up 6th Avenue to the Rockefeller Plaza to go to the Nintendo World Store. It was a shop that we had been excited to see and we weren't disappointed. It is probably more of a Nintendo store than museum but don't let that put you off. They had a great selection of Nintendo plushies but not the Mario Mushroom I wanted. I ended up buying a Yoshi plushy and my wife got one of Link. Thinking back on it now I should have gotten the cool mug that I saw there as well. Seeing some of the classic Nintendo handhelds and game & watch machines brought back some memories. Pretty much the rest of the day was spent getting to know the area we were staying in. I had taken my time deciding on our hotel so I managed to get one with a great location on 6th Avenue, only two blocks from Times Square. We wandered around the shops in Times Square (I picked up some nice stuff in American Eagle) and took my first few photos of the holiday. The first of many.

View from 'The Top of The Ro

The next day we went back to the Rockefeller Plaza to go to 'The Top of the Rock'. When deciding where to go to get the best view of NY you really only have two choices - The Empire State Building or the Observation Deck at the Rockefeller Center. We chose the latter and were not disappointed. The views of NY are amazing, especially the way you can see Central Park spread out before you. As an added bonus you also get to see The Empire State Building as part of the cityscape. We spent a good while up there taking plenty of photos and enjoying the glorious weather. That afternoon we were again back at Rockefeller Plaza to go on the NBC Studio Tour. It was quite an enjoyable tour as we got to see some good behind the scenes areas plus the tour guide was funny and informative. We got to sit in the Saturday Night Live studio and hear about the crazy amount of work that goes into producing a single show. I'd say that anyone who has an interest in US television would get a lot out of the tour but I would like to have seen more stages from shows that I'm familiar with.

The most trouble we had in our time in NY was finding a nice place to have dinner. The meals we had on our first and second nights hadn't been much to write home about so I went to the hotel concierge to get a recommendation for a good stakehouse. She recommended Benjamin Stakehouse only a few blocks away. I was a little nervous when she said that the dress code was smart casual as I had nothing but jeans in my case. When we got to the restaurant and were show to our seats we did feel a little out of place but we got over that pretty quickly as the staff were very friendly. I got a big steak with a side of onions and mash while my wife got the seabass. We both agree it was easily one of the nicest meals we've ever eaten. It may have been a little pricey, but that wouldn't stop us going back if we ever return to NY.

Shopping is obviously one of the major attractions of NY but it was pretty low down on the list of priorities for us. We did plan on doing some but not to the extreme that some people do and had ruled out any trips to places like Woodbury Common. Neither of us actually ended up buying much in NY. It was a combination of not seeing anything nice and the throngs of people milling around every shop making it desparately uncomfortable. There was one item though that I was intent on buying, the iPad. After we took a stroll through the 'Pond' area of Central Park we went to the Apple Store at the top of 5th Avenue. Keeping up a tradition started on our last US trip we took a photo of ourselves outside of the store, a magnificient glass cube structure. The store itself an underground Mecca for Apple fanboys (like myself) was amazing. So much cool stuff in one room. Pity that that one room was so busy, it was iPad fever at its height. I was told that they didn't have any in stock and I'd be better off ringing other stores before wasting my time travelling to them. So I rang the other three Apple stores in the area each day that we remained in NY but had no luck in sourcing an iPad. Even Best Buy, an authorised reseller had no stock. I hoped to have better luck when we got to Boston.

Sphere Within A Sphere

The next day of our stay in NY was probably the most enjoyable we had there. We hoped on the tourist bus at Times Square and travelled down to Greenwich Village. To go from an area like Times Square and other built up areas of NY and appear in Greenwich Village is like some sort of magic trick. Everywhere else appears to be populated by skyscrapers blocking out the sun all in neat little rows on the grid system and then suddenly your transported to a quaint little village that wouldn't look out of place somewhere in Europe. We idled down Bleecker Street popping into the clothes and music stores, keeping an eye out for somewhere nice for lunch. It is true that Greenwich Village has a different pace to it than the rest of the city and we spent a while just wandering around, enjoying the break from the hustle and bustle. After a tasty lunch we got back on the bus to take in more sites like the UN Building. As we passed the building the tour guide started to talk about one of the sculptures in front of the UN, one that I recognised immediately. It was a replica of a sculpture that I pass everyday on my walk through the grounds of Trinity College in Dublin. The guide told us that the 'Sphere within a Sphere' represents a war-torn Earth and that the sphere will be filled in when world peace is achieved. However, according to the Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro the inner ball represents Earth while the outer ball represents religion. This is to show that religion is bigger than the Earth. Shame. I much preferred our tour guides interpretation. We have done the hop-on, hop-off bus tours in many cities across the world and we usually really enjoy them. We were left disappointed by the one in NY. It wasn't so much to do with the stops, there is plenty to see there but more to do with the traffic. Crawling through the city streets, being stopped by red lights at every junction isn't exactly fun. We probably would have fit more into our day had we travelled on the subway.

That night, our last in NY we went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. It wasn't our first choice but the time suited us and the ticket price was reasonable. When we got there the theatre was packed and there must have been some sort of organised group there because there was a huge number of teenagers. On the way in my wife got suckered into buying a souvenir guide. I'm pretty sure it hasn't been taken out of the bag since it was bought. We took our seats up in the Gods, with a birds eye view of the stage. As we settle in we noticed this guy running back and forth looking all flustered. He made his way over to us and explained that he had two spare tickets that he had been unable to sell. He asked us if we would like to sit at the front and we said yes, assuming that he meant the front of the section we were currently in. We then started to follow him down flight after flight of steps and I began to wonder if we'd be scammed. We weren't. We ended up about seven rows from the very front of the stage with one of the best views in the house. The guy (whose name I can't remember) and his girlfriend had just moved to NY that day and felt that the two seats should not sit empty when they could be enjoyed by another couple. The show itself was very enjoyable. I have seen the Disney film many years ago and some of the songs were familiar but I had forgotten most of the story. The performances were uniformly good but the thing that impressed me most was the set. The main set was a four storey house and it would be raised or lowered depending on where the action was taking place. Very impressive to see.

So that was four nights in NY. We did enjoy our time there but we were glad to be leaving. As cities go it is very impressive but it didn't have the charm of a somewhere like San Francisco. We hoped to find that charm in Boston.

Part One | Part Three

USA 2010 Holiday - Getting there [Part 1]

2010-10-14T23:49:00.001+01:00

We (and by we, I mean mostly me) had been planning our trip Stateside for a very long time. I'd say we first discussed it two years before we finally went, back in May 2010. We had been to the States once before for our honeymoon in 2007. It was a fantastic trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo on the Coast Starlight. We then flew to Las Vegas to finish the trip. Ever since then I had been wanting to go back to the US, this time to the East Coast. It was tough to narrow down exactly what cities we wanted to see, in what order and how long to take doing it. We decided on New York, Boston and Chicago in that order in just over two weeks. We would have spent longer and probably travelled by train from Boston to Chicago had our budget been healthier. Alas, the worldwide financial meltdown trickled its way down to us, via Government cutbacks in public spending, so a slightly compromised holiday was planned.

Our departure was scheduled for the 17th May 2010 but a few weeks prior Mount Eyjafjallajokull erupted to cause chaos over European airspace. Initially we were not that concerned as we still had a month to go before getting our flight. However, as the weeks went on it became clear that the ashcloud was a serious threat to our plans. The Friday and Saturday before our flight the skies were clear but on Sunday the ashcloud moved in. Later that night our flight was cancelled and I immediately booked us on the next flight out, Tuesday 18th May. We didn't mind missing one day but anymore and we would have had to seriously consider re-arranging everything. It turned out that the ashcloud cleared up on the 17th and the airport opened just after our flight had been due to depart. Our flight would be the last one cancelled out of Dublin Airport due to the ashcloud.

In the run up to the plane journey I had become increasingly worried about the long trip. On our last trip to the US I had felt unwell on the plane and back in December 2009 on a trip to London I didn't feel well either. There were other factors at work in both those cases that probably affected me but I was still worried nonetheless. In the end I needn't have been because I felt fine the whole journey. As an added bonus we actually got to board the plane first and get settled after my wife was picked out for a random search by Homeland Security. I had planned on watching a few movies on the onboard entertainment system, which was I must say very impressive. I soon realised that watching a movie for the first time on a plane, with the ambient noise and small screen is very difficult. I started to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox, Couples Retreat and Monsters vs. Aliens but couldn't finish any of them. It wasn't the quality of the film (well it was with Couples Retreat) but I just wasn't enjoying the movie experience. I found watching things I seen before to be much easier.

We arrived in New York's JFK Airport and after gathering our luggage we went in search of a taxi into the city. We were disappointed by the heavy rain waiting for us but got a taxi quickly enough. The journey to Manhattan felt very long, about 40 minutes I'd say. I'd say if felt longer for my wife who was car sick about 5 minutes into the journey. So my first memory of New York City was dumping a bag of vomit into a waste bin and running back to the taxi. Hopefully, not a sign of things to come I thought to myself.

Part 2

Is Lost Planet 2 worth €1?

2010-10-14T21:32:00.000+01:00

GameStop here in Ireland have been running a sale for the last couple of days. Yesterday they had Lost Planet 2 for the Xbox 360 for €1 and today it was on sale for the PS3. The game has had pretty mixed reviews from what I've seen. Praised for it's graphics but slated for the way it is set up almost exclusively has a multiplayer game. I played the demo a few months ago and wasn't that impressed.

Still €1 is a crazy price for a PS3 title so I ordered myself a copy. Good or bad I'm pretty sure I'll make my money back if I trade it in.

3 States, 4 Games

2010-10-13T16:05:00.000+01:00

Link and Yoshi weren't the only gaming related purchases that made their way back from my trip to the US in May. I picked up four games in total; Assassins Creed 2 (AC2); Split Second (SS); Mod Nation Racers (MNR); Red Dead Redemption (RDR). I would have gotten Blur as well but that had yet to be released. It was a pretty good selection of games because AC2 turned out to be exceptional, RDR was very good, SS was good and only MNR was disappointing.

I had been avoiding AC2 after my experience with the first but as detailed elsewhere in this blog I actually managed to get the Platinum trophy in AC2. The setting, the graphics and the gameplay mechanics had me hooked right from the beginning. It was the story though that I enjoyed the most, it certainly has me anticipating the next installment. RDR was pretty good too. In my playthrough I just concentrated on the main story line and didn't do any other the other activities. My plan was to go back and do everything I'd missed but I'd spent so long getting the main game done that I had lost interest. Still, there is a huge world left for me to explore so I may get back to it one day.

SS was surprisingly good. I'm not a huge racing game fan but a combination of good reviews and a decent price convinced me to take the plunge. It was pretty good but with so many other games to play its time was limited. The big surprise was MNR which I found to be very disappointing. I was hoping for a combination of Little Big Planet fused with Mario Kart. The LBP feel is there, with the excellent track creation tools but the actual racing is quite poor. The handling of the cars feels off and the over-aggressive AI make the game much less fun than it should be. I know that they released a patch to fix the AI but I didn't notice the difference when I went back to it. I do get the feeling that I didn't give the game enough time and maybe some day I will give it another spin.

The US boxart for these games is slightly different to the European boxart so it brings something new to my collection. I picked three of them up in Best Buys over there and I got MNR in a GameStop in Boston. I expected the prices to be far better than here in Ireland and although they were cheaper on the whole, it wasn't by much. Otherwise I'd have gotten more than the four.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

2010-10-12T22:31:00.000+01:00

I guess I went through a little phase of picking up games that I had heard were good but have never played. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is another such game. It looks like a lot of fun from videos and being set in the Star Wars universe also helps. I haven't played it yet but if Sony ever patches the PS3 to make them backward compatible with the PS2 I certainly will. In the mean time it looks good in the collection as it is in mint condition.

Fade To Black

2010-10-12T22:20:00.000+01:00

If I remember correctly Fade To Black is one of two games that I acquired in a swap with a friend at school. The other game being Worms. I owned the original game, Flashback on the Mega Drive and was a fan even though I never made it that far into it. I'm pretty certain the same can be said about Fade To Black. Again it was graphically impressive (for the time) and I enjoyed the gun play but I found it very tough. I also think that I had a problem with the 3D perspective, in that it gave me motion-sickness. Like a lot of the games discussed here in recent months I struggle to remember any more details about it. Still, it is nice to have back in the collection and is in pretty good condition.

Worms

2010-10-12T22:17:00.000+01:00

The second of those games acquired in a swap with a friend. I've no idea what games I swapped with him but I think one of them might have been Command and Conquer. Now unlike many of the games I've posted about recently I can remember lots about Worms. It is one of those games that just keeps on appearing generation, after generation. As well as the PSOne version I have owned it on the Xbox 360 and now I own it on the iPhone. But this version, for me, is the definitive one.

Many, many Saturday evenings were lost to this game in fantastic three player battles between myself, my sister and a good friend. We all had specific teams and every single worm in the game had their own name. I remember the Villains team, the Heroes team, the Goddess team etc... Over time we all grew attached to those worms and after months of playing we had all built up some very impressive statistics for these worms. Playing Worms since on other systems has never quite recaptured what was so special about those days.

This version is in excellent condition and comes in that silly dual-DVD case. I never understood the purpose of those cases.

Platinum in The Force Unleashed

2010-09-29T20:48:00.000+01:00

Just a few moments ago I unlocked the latest Platinum Trophy on my PSN account in The Force Unleashed. It was the best of games but it did have some high points. Not the most satisfying Platinum though. The Trophy list only shows 64% complete because they include DLC Trophies in the list. Very annoying not to see the magic 100%.

WipeOut 2097

2010-07-29T22:03:00.001+01:00

Wipeout 2097 had me completely fooled. I was totally convinced that it was released for the PS2 but it was in fact a PSOne title. I was searching for the original Wipeout on the PSOne but kept coming across listings for 2097 on the PS1. There must have been a fair number of years between 2097 and Wipeout Fusion on the PS2. Thinking about it more know I can't remember a whole lot about the game itself. Did I like it? Of course, it is a Wipeout game after all. I wonder what tracks originated in this version that have made it into Wipeout Pulse / Pure / HD?

Looking at the images on the back of the box it looks as though the developers, Psygnosis, have improved the graphics and I do remember it having some notable music on the soundtrack. I think Firestarter from the Prodigy is included. Not that I'm a fan of the band but it does get the adrenaline flowing when racing along in the Venom speed class. So not much to say about Wipeout 2097 other than its a good game and one that certainly improves my collection. There are still a couple of games from the series that I have yet to get, the original and Wipeout Fusion. The latter was most definitely a PS2 release.

Assassin's Creed 2 - Platinum Trophy Unlocked

2010-07-25T22:21:00.000+01:00

Ezio

Until recently I wasn't that bothered collecting Trophies in PS3 games. On top of that I also wasn't that interested in playing Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) either. I had played the first one but only for an hour before I was so bored by it that I stopped playing it, for good. However, I do like a good bargain and I picked up AC2 cheaply in the US back in May.

When I started playing it a few weeks ago, it immediately sucked me right in. I enjoyed the story, the missions, the environments and the fighting system. Everything about the game was polished and very, very enjoyable. As a bonus the Trophies keep unlocking without me aiming to get them specifically. By the time I beat the game I had 92% of the available Trophies.

It was only the last two that I had to actually grind out but I wasn't going to leave the game that close to 100%. It didn't take long to get the remaining Trophies and that 100% looks so good on the Trophy list. Now that I've done that I feel like I want to go and earn more Trophies. I started a few games in the last day or so - Ghostbusters, Super Street Fighter IV and Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time. I think it will be the latter that I will stay with to get some Trophies. And enjoy the game.

Actua Soccer

2010-07-25T14:52:00.000+01:00

The next game I added to the collection another football game, Actua Soccer. I think I'm right in saying that this was the first football game that I bought for the PSOne. I suspect that is the reason why I enjoyed it so much. With no football game like International Superstar Soccer to play any half-decent football game to come along would do, for a while at least.

It was the first 3D football game I'd played and after I'd gotten used to some strange camera angles it became second nature. I thought at the time that it looked pretty amazing graphically, although it has dated horribly. The same goes for the sound design.

The strange thing I remember about Actua Soccer is that I used to play as S. Korea all the time. I would implement a 3-6-1 formation, which sounds insane but was amazingly effective. I can't remember the name of the Korean striker but he used to rack up the goals for me. Just like the other PSOne games I've written about, I want to fire it up on the PS3 to see how they play today.

ISS Pro

2010-07-19T15:24:00.000+01:00

Despite the fact that I found it difficult to recall all of the PSOne games that used to be in my collection, there was one game I could never forget - International Superstar Soccer Pro (ISS Pro). At the time I had to wait a good while before an ISS game was available on the PSOne and in the meantime had to make do with games like Actua Soccer or Adidas Power Soccer. You see, I had grown up playing the original ISS and the sequel ISS Deluxe on the SNES and so its arrival on the PSOne was a big deal. It would, I had hoped in some way validate my decision to move from the Mega Drive to the next generation of consoles.

I'm pretty sure that my initial feelings were one of mild disappointment that the game was not as big a leap as I had hoped, a feeling that would return with PES 6 on the Xbox 360. There a few things about the game that stick out in my mind about this game. Firstly, the pace of the game was a good deal slower than the earlier versions on the SNES which was not entirely a bad thing as it helped to develop a more style of play with more emphasis on passing. It was also a harder game to score in. The old trick of taking it around the keeper to slot into an empty net every time was no longer an option. This made for a better experience as you could no longer fall back into that lazy, cheap way to get a quick goal. The funny thing I remember about this game is that I used to select Norway quite a lot. I'm thinking about it now to understand why Norway would have been my default team choice. I suppose back then the team had a high profile for a time plus there was also the Ole Gunnar Solskjaer factor. In the game itself the team probably had a default formation that suited me and they had a striker called Flink (I think that was the name) that was a bit of a goal machine. I must put it on the PS3 and pick Norway to see if my memory has been playing tricks on me.

The copy that I've acquired was sourced from eBay and is in very good condition, despite the ubiquitous crack on the PSOne jewel case. At the time of writing this I have just realised that I still have to track down the other PSOne entries in the ISS Pro catalogue.

PES, filling in the blanks

2010-07-17T22:01:00.000+01:00

I mentioned in a previous post that I got a super bargain of Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) 1, 3, 4 and 5 for only €3.96. Maths fans will notice that that left me with a couple of blanks to fill - PES 2 and PES 6. I found a copy of PES 2 in Game on Dawson Street for a couple of Euro and it is in pretty good condition. Nothing much to say about that other than it was yet another great game in the series and an excellent example of Konami improving upon the previous game. On the other hand there is plenty to say about PES 6.

PES 6 is unique because it was the first PES game that I owned in this current console generation, the Xbox 360. I remember popping down to Xtra-Vision on Stephen's Day 2006 to grab a copy, having failed to receive it as a Christmas present. After the intial disappointment that the graphics didn't look light years ahead of PES 5 on the PS2 I began to really enjoy PES 6. It was the first PES game that I had to play using the analogue stick on a controller. With all the PS2 versions I'd used the d-pad but as anyone who has played a 360 will know the d-pad leaves a lot to be desired. It took me a while to get used to the analogue stick but now I couldn't use anything else.

The best thing for me about PES 6 was the online component. I had played PES 5 online with the PC version and while that was pretty good it doesn't compare favourably to the experience of PES 6 on Xbox Live. Simply because it was on Xbox Live the match-making was so much better than the ad-hoc implementation of the PC version. Over the course of the next year I played in hundreds of online matches and by the time I quit I was in the top 2% on the Xbox Live leader boards. Quite an achievement I'd say. I think I signed off with a 34 match unbeaten run. Looking back on the series as a whole I think PES 6 provided me with the most fun, due to the online play. Later versions of PES have improved the offline modes drastically but none have come close to providing an equal online experience.

So how does this all fit into my collection? About two years ago I traded in the 360 and all the games to get a PS3 which left me needing to buy PES 6 again for my collection. I felt there was no need to get the 360 version of the game as I'd have nothing to play it on, if I felt the urge. I suppose I could get another 360 but I can only imagine my wife's reaction to that. In the end I picked up a copy of PES 6 for €0.99 on the PS2 in GameStop. Problem solved, at a bargain basement price.

Destruction Derby 2

2010-07-17T21:53:00.001+01:00

Sitting down to write a list of PSOne games that I used to own one of the first to spring to mind was Destruction Derby. It might not have been the first game I had for the system but it could have been the second. When I was searching eBay for a listing at a reasonable price, I kept seeing the sequel for sale. I instantly recognised the box art but I can't say for sure whether I owned the game or not. I know that I did play it so there is a chance it was rented, or a loan or perhaps I did own it. Having thought about it some more I have decided that I did own it, therefore I put it on my collection list.

I managed to get a copy in extremely good condition, even the jewel case isn't cracked. It comes in the strange double CD case that was common to a good many PSOne games. I wish I knew why they were released in double cases as the games only ever had one DVD. As for the game itself, I don't remember much about the gameplay in Destruction Derby 2. I seem to recall the design of the race courses being a lot better than it's predecessor, making them more fun but I'm not sure. The funny thing is I've just recently played the first game. I got it as a free download after setting up a subscription to the PSN+ service. So technically it wasn't free but that is what they would have you believe. Surprisingly enough the game has held up pretty well so I really must put Destruction Derby 2 into the PS3 and see what it is like.

The Simpson's: Hit & Run

2010-07-16T09:50:00.000+01:00

A short note on a small addition to my resurrected game collection that I picked up in GameStop in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre. I found The Simpson's: Hit & Run in perfect condition for EUR3.99. It is memorable to me for two reasons. Firstly, it was a Christmas present from my then girlfriend (now wife) back in December 2003. Secondly, it was one of the final games that I got for the PS2. After that the only games I picked up were the new Pro Evolution Soccer games and GTA: San Andreas nearly two years after it's release. It is hard to believe that it was seven years ago, I just had to check wikipedia there to be sure. When the game was released it was accompanied by a very good TV advertisement, which must have been the reason I got it as a present. I remember commenting on it to my wife, saying that it would be cool to run and drive around Springfield. As for the game itself, I found it to be enjoyable but also rather difficult. The later driving missions with tough time limits were particularly frustrating and the camera system was not the friendliest either. That being said it is a game I'd like to revisit to see how it has held up.

Note: It is the Platinum re-issue that I bought, not the original release version.

Stay frosty people

2010-07-14T08:59:00.000+01:00

One of the first PSOne games I got around to replacing in my collection was Alien Trilogy, managing to snag a fully boxed and complete copy on eBay. The game is in quite good condition but the case is cracked, which seems to be the norm for PSOne games. Thinking back now even when it was my current console the cases would crack quite easily. As for the game itself Alien Trilogy should have been great, based as it is on a terrific movie licence. Even forgetting about the first and third movies, which might not translate particularly well to video game format, the second movie should provide more than enough ideas for an excellent shooter. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out to be the case. Right now I can't remember whether it was the poor gameplay or the motion sickness it gave me but either way I didn't get too far into the game. I also recall the game being fairly dark, probably to provide cover for poor in-game graphics.

On the plus side it had an excellent introductory cut-scene of the Colonial Marines landing on LV-426 and infiltrating the colonists compound. At the time this scene was simply incredible, something that the in-game graphics simply could not live up to. It also had some choice quotes from the movies, 'Stay frosty people!' is a particular favourite but it also had the famous 'That's it man, game over man, game over!' line. I'm just thinking now that Bill Paxton has a decent repository of one-liners throughout his movie career. There are the two aforementioned quotes, plus the classic, 'It's finger lick' in good.' from Before Dark (what do you mean you haven't seen it?).

I must try out Alien Trilogy again, even just to watch the intro again. Should be pretty easy to get it going as I only found out at the weekend that the PS3 will still play PSOne games regardless of the model. How did I not know that before now?

Dead Space added to collection

2010-07-14T08:42:00.000+01:00

It was bound to happen while looking at all the listings on eBay that I would see a few bargains here and there. It started with Dead Space when I found a cheap copy and the auction was nearly at an end. I put in my bid of €6 expecting the bid to be sniped at the end. It wasn't and I had myself a nice little bargain. This was the first instance of me going back to games from this generation that I've missed for one reason or another. I decided that if I can fill the gaps of my collection at a reasonable price then I will.

The game is in mint condition and is regarded by many people as a very good game. I have played the opening half hour of the game and agree with the reviews that it does a very good job of establishing a very foreboding atmosphere. However, I don't have any immediate plans to return to Dead Space as I have more attractive options in my backlog but I do like a bargain and at €6 this definitely qualifies as such.

Replacing the PSOne slim

2010-07-13T18:50:00.000+01:00

This is the second of two quick notes on some hardware additions to the collection.

I was aware that I still had my original PSOne in the attic. Although to be precise it wasn't actually my original PSOne console. It is the slim-line version that I picked up in Heathrow airport in London. My original phat version had died some months earlier so I decided to replace it on a spur of the moment decision. The only problem with this console is that it doesn't actually work but on the plus side I do have it in the original box, in good condition too. Turns out that replacing the console was no problem, as I just got one on eBay for a miserly €5. It was listed without any cables or boxes, which was fine as I have all that myself.

It had been a long time since I'd held the PSOne. If you haven't seen one in a long time you will be surprised at just how small it is, particularly this slim model. Placing it beside the PS3 is almost comical.

CG controller arrives. Looks weird.

2010-07-13T10:20:00.001+01:00

This is the first of two quick notes on new hardware additions to the collection.

The GameCube (GC) is a system that I missed out on totally. According to people who had one there are plenty of sensational games for it. Thankfully, Nintendo know how to do backwards compatibility correctly and I can play GC games on my Wii. The first one I bought was Super Mario Sunshine nearly 18 months ago. I never did find the time to turn it on though. That is until I started rebuilding my collection.

I decided to play Super Mario Sunshine a couple of months ago now and popped it into the Wii. It took a few minutes before I realised that the Wii Remote is not compatible with GC games. I had just assumed it would be but having now seen a GC controller I can see the vast difference. I found a GC controller on eBay and it arrived shortly after. It certainly is a weird looking controller, building on the N64's legacy of strange controller configuration. I find it comfortable to hold and the button configuration is nicely laid out. The trigger button has a pretty cool double mechanic of being squishy or pressing it harder allows for it to click in. It is something I've yet to see on another controller.

With the new controller I thought I was ready to tackle Super Mario Sunshine. After putting in an hour or so I then realised I needed a GC memory card to save. That will be another post for another day though.

Can Inception save film in 2010?

2010-07-12T09:54:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted anything about film on here since I started writing again. Photography and gaming posts have been the main focus recently. Truthfully, there hasn't been that much to write about as 2010 has proven to be a fairly poor year for film thus far. One suspects that we are now seeing the effect of the writers strike from 2008. Below is the list of movies that I have been to see at the cinema this year. Two things immediately strike me about the list. Firstly, it is shorter than it normally would be at this point in the year and secondly, only two films really stand out - Kick-Ass and The Road.

Daybreakers
The Road
Brothers
The Lovely Bones
Alice in Wonderland
Greenzone
Kick-Ass
Clash of the Titans
Iron Man 2
Robin Hood

The last film on the list was out about eight weeks ago. A very long time, for me at least, not to have been to the cinema. Now that the World Cup is over it frees up much more time but it wasn't just a time constraint that has kept me from seeing new films. It has been the lack of any film worthy of making the time to see it. Things might be about to change though, with the imminent arrival of Inception, the latest film from the superbly talented Christopher Nolan. If any one film can save this year from going down as the poorest in many, many years it is this film. The 16th of July can't arrive soon enough. In the meantime, I am going to take in Predators. Not likely to be a classic but I'm hopeful that it will be fun at least.

Best Pro Evo bargain ever?

2010-07-12T09:06:00.002+01:00

While trying to rebuild my gaming collection it is important that I acquire the games at a good price. I don't want to be getting games for the Mega Drive for example at prices equal to current PS3 games. So far this has proven to be the case, apart from GameCube (GC) games which appear to have held their value pretty well. It must be due to the backwards compatibility of the Wii that is keeping the GC games relevant.

So speaking of value for money, how about this - four Pro Evolution Soccer games for the PS2 for €3.96. Total. The games were:

Pro Evolution Soccer
Pro Evolution Soccer 3
Pro Evolution Soccer 4
Pro Evolution Soccer 5

Now if you look through other posts on this blog you will see that Pro Evolution Soccer is my favourite ever series of games. The remarkable thing about the four games here is that each one gets progressively better, not something that you can always say about sequels.

I remember being amazed by the first Pro Evo game. I had been playing the International Superstar Soccer series up to that point and they were the pinnacle of console football games. At least they were until Pro Evo came on the scene. I would hate to add up the number of hours I've spent on the Master League in total between these four games. I'm pretty sure it would be a scary figure. Included in these four games is probably the best Pro Evo game of the lot, Pro Evolution Soccer 5.

It was so good I actually owned it twice. One copy for the PS2 and another on the PC. I used the PC version to play online, the first game that I put any time into online multi-player. I used the PS2 version far more though for my fix of Master League action. PES 5 has proven to be an extremely difficult game for the developers to improve upon as subsequent games on the new generation of consoles have proven. Perhaps they've finally cracked it with the forthcoming PES 2011.

Night shots

2010-07-10T17:29:00.000+01:00

One aspect of photography that I particularly like are night shots, they can look particularly striking if taken just right. The fact that they are hard to take without the right equipment makes them all the more satisfying if you manage to capture an image satisfactorily. Well in my recent trip to the US I took both my Canon 400D and Canon Ixus 75 but forgot my tripod.

Regardless, I attempted several night shots during my time there and below is a selection of my favourites.

The first shot is from the bottom of the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.

This next shot is also on the Magnificent Mile. It is a small church opposite the John Hankcock Building.

This photograph is of Copley Square in Boston.

The next two shots are from the 34th floor of the Residence Inn in New York City.

Link

2010-07-10T10:29:00.000+01:00

Just to wrap up the short series of posts about Nintendo plushies, here is Link. Not Zelda as many people seem to think.

Don't jump!

2010-07-09T22:54:00.000+01:00

A quick post to show one of my favourite photographs from a recent trip to New York City. This is taken from the 34th floor of the Residence Inn Manahattan.

The Mushroom Kingdom

2010-07-09T21:17:00.002+01:00

Look what is growing out in my backgarden!

My wife and I had planned on buying some Mario mushrooms plushies when we were in the Nintendo World Store in New York City. Unfortunately, they weren't selling them at the time but we did manage to get a couple of pretty cool plushies nonetheless. I'll post about them later.

Micro Mario and Zelda

2010-07-09T15:47:00.001+01:00

This is a short follow up on the previous post about the Game Boy Micro (GBM). You may have noticed that I didn't talk about any games that I may have gotten for the device. So lets talk about some GBM games, after all what good is a game system without something to play on it? Like anyone who gets a new system you immediately look up the top rated games on the platform. Didn't take me long to spot three all time classics that were available - Super Mario World, Super Mario Bros. 2 and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Both the Mario games have been re-branded for the Game Boy platform as Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario Advance respectively. There isn't really anything new that I can say about these games that hasn't already been said before and in more elegant prose than I can muster. I will say that Super Mario World in particular holds up extremely well and looks particularly impressive on the GBM's high resolution screen.

Super Mario Bros. 2 is an interesting game to me because the first time around I found it was just too different to the original for me to properly enjoy it. When I got to play it years later in the Mario All-Stars Collection I found it to be the weakest of the games so of course it got the least play. Now with the GBM this is my third time around to play it and another chance to finally complete it. I'm currently further in the game than I've gone before, which is good but the last time I played it was two months ago.

My experience with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the GBM though was, whisper it, disappointing. It isn't that the port isn't good, it is probably spot-on but rather the game has failed to stand the test of time like Mario. Maybe it is just that the RPG genre was never my favourite or perhaps I'm being too shallow that I'm allowing the dated graphics to get me down but I won't be playing through this game again. I think it would be best served leaving it in the past and those glorious memories of completing it in tandem with my friend on the SNES.

Nintendo Game Boy Micro - The Undiscovered Country

2010-07-09T15:42:00.002+01:00

A curious thing happened while I was searching eBay for games that used to be in my collection. I came across a handheld system that I never knew existed. This wasn't just any random system from some obscure manufacture but a Nintendo handheld, the Game Boy Micro (GBM). It left me thinking how did I miss that whole scene? I guess there was a good number of years when I wasn't really following what was going on in the gaming space. I was content with my PS2 and found myself in a routine of simply buying the latest Pro Evolution Soccer came every Fall. It would come around like clockwork and I'd be there launch day ready to get stuck into another Master League season. Besides Pro Evo, or the odd random purchase (Wipeout Fusion) and some slight dabbling into PC gaming (Unreal Tournament) I wouldn't have considered myself that much of a gamer. I'd stopped buying Computer & Video Games magazine years earlier and with no broadband I didn't read any online press. It wasn't until Christmas 2006 that I entered the 'next' generation with the Xbox 360. So I guess it is no surprise that I didn't notice the GBM, especially considering it only seems to have attracted a small but enthusiastic following. At least that is what posts on NeoGAF would have me believe.

Anyway, I saw the listing for the GBM on eBay and it instantly struck me as a very charming little device. So apart from the simply wanting something for the collection that I didn't have what other reasons could I use to justify the purchase. Only one was needed really, the ability to play perfect ports of SNES classics like Super Mario World on the go. The original listing wasn't quite right but I did find another one that was in better condition, fully boxed and complete. Most importantly it was available for a very reasonable price. It is only when you are holding the GBM in your hand that you can fully appreciate just how small this device is. Micro truly is an apt name and obviously the screen itself is even smaller. Contrary to what you might think this is not really an issue. The screen on the device is simply awesome, vividly bright colours and a very high resolution provides you with a perfectly good viewing experience. Certainly far better than a screen of it's size would be expected to provide. The one real issue with the GBM is something that will be familiar to DS or PSP owners. The dreaded hand cramp. With the dimensions so small you really have to curl your hands into an extreme crab like position to play the device and after too short a time this becomes uncomfortable. To be honest this has put me off playing it for any great length of time, so beating Super Mario Bros. 2 is going to have to wait. Again.

The GBM is one of those items that is nice to have in the collection but is unlikely to get that much use. Just having it there is good enough for me. There is no real rationale for that statement, it just is. Getting the GBM was also the point at which the original idea of rebuilding my original collection went slightly askew. It wasn't something I'd owned before so that broke the basic premise of the idea but I feel it adds to the overall quality of the collection. Sure, who doesn't think the GBM is the coolest, tiniest handheld around?

The sole Mega Drive survivors

2010-07-08T09:51:00.000+01:00

I had a nice stroke of luck at the very beginning of my quest to rebuild my video game collection. In the attic of my childhood home there lay a bag containing no less than five Mega Drive games. As is the case with practically everything I own the condition of these items was near perfect, apart from a healthy coating of dust. So what gems you ask were in included in this little haul? Well I had Road Rash, Desert Strike, PGA Tour Golf III, Flashback and Ballz. My delight at finding these five was somewhat tempered by the fact that the real stars of my collection like Streets of Rage 2 or NBA Jam were not among them. Just were did they go I wonder.

So what do I make of this collection of Mega Drive games that shall form the beginnings of this new collection?

Road Rash

Of the five it is Road Rash that had the most play time back in the day. Who can forget flying along the road hitting your opponents with a chain or a nice forearm smash before ploughing headlong into an oncoming car. You'd get that sinking feeling that the race was lost as you ran back to your bike and saw the other contestants fly past racing towards the finish. I'm positive that I wasn't the only one that wished you could actually enter the houses along the road that you'd encounter while looking for your bike. Little did we know we'd have to wait the best part of a decade for GTA III to arrive to fulfil that little wish. As I write this I'm beginning to wonder if I owned Road Rash 2 (RR2).

[Returns back from Wikipedia] It appears that I might also have owned the sequel. The box art doesn't look that familiar but the chain weapon is actually in RR2 not the first game as I originally thought. It is possible that I just had a loan of RR2 which means I'll have to put it on the list of

wanted items.

Desert Strike

Desert Strike is a game that I got with the Mega Drive. It didn't come bundled with the console, I think my mother bought it at the same time but I could be wrong. It was an enjoyable game even though I didn't manage to experience that much of it. You see, I found the game impossibly hard. If it wasn't the eagle-eyed enemies swatting me from the air it was the gas guzzling helicopter that would fall from the sky, out of gas yet again. I also think that I never quite got the hang of the controls, I was just never precise enough for the more delicate manoeuvres. If memory serves I never did get past the first level. Was there even a next level? Even now I'm unsure. I remember going back to the game time and again determined to crack that level once and for all. Perhaps when I get a Mega Drive up and running again I will attempt it one final time.

PGA Tour Golf III

I guess everyone has a golf game in their collection somewhere even if they aren't a fan of the sport. They always seem like a good idea at the time as they tend to be highly addictive and fun at the beginning but that, for me at least, only lasts a short time. Perhaps it is the repetitive nature of the control scheme - press A, followed by A and press A again. PGA Tour Golf III as no different. Then again not being a golf aficionado it is possible that I am missing out on the little nuances that would have made the game more fun in the long run. Thinking about it now I thought the graphics at the time were very impressive, the player models trying to achieve a very realistic look. Quite impressive at the time but one suspects if I were to play it now the graphics wouldn't hold up at all. Another memory associated with this title is the fact that it remains the only game that I have played with my dad. Having said all that I did fall into the golf game trap only last year with Tiger Woods 10 on the Wii. Yes, it was fun at the start, especially with Wii Motion Plus but I haven't even completed one tournament yet. I really must go back and try again.

Flashback

Flashback was an interesting game. At the time I remember having saved enough for a new game and thought that the screen shots of the game in C&VG magazine were awesome. Perhaps I didn't know what type of game it was or was just sucked by the amazing visuals but I picked up the game regardless in Artane Castle. There must have been a toy store there back then, I don't recall exactly. What followed was one of the more embarrassing episodes of my gaming life. The game opens with the main character, Conrad lying on the ground. Control is passed to me and I walk him to the side of the screen to continue. Nothing happens. The screen doesn't scroll. Nor does a new screen load. It appears I'm stuck on the opening screen. I try everything I can think of to make some progress but fail spectacularly. I'm not sure how much time goes by but I eventually try to return the game. They guy in the shop puts the game on and of course doesn't see anything wrong. The game turns on and looks fine from his point of view. I have no idea what I tried to argue. Did I suggest the rest of the game was missing? Anyway, I returned home defeated with the same copy of Flashback in my hand.

I'm not sure how long after that episode I figured out what I was doing wrong. Perhaps I just read the manual. But a simple press of 'up' on the d-pad would have solved all my problems as Conrad reaches up and pulls himself to a new part of the screen. Progress. Finally. I never did get that much further. The game was extremely difficult, at least I found it so. I loaned it to a friend once and found out that he had gotten much further than I had. How annoying is that? Despite never having that much fun with the game I still remember it fondly and actually ended up owning the sequel Fade to Black on the PSOne. One more thing about Flashback was the awesome box art. Looking at it now it has a definite iconic quality. I'm sure most gamers my age would recognise it.

Ballz

The last of the games contained in the bag was Ballz. Or Ballz 3D: The Battle of the Balls to give it it's full title. I'm pretty sure that I picked this up towards the end of the Mega Drive era. I think I got it cheap enough in the old Electronic Boutique store on Dawson Street. I miss that shop actually. There isn't much of this title that sticks in the memory, in fact I had to resort to Wikipedia just there for a refresher. I guess the game was a bit of a laugh but with Mortal Kombat II in the collection and Super Street Fighter II on my friends SNES to play I really don't see why I bothered with such an inferior fighter. On the plus side I don't have to try to track down a copy of it now.

Backlog a new and growing concern

2010-07-07T21:19:00.001+01:00

An unintended consequence of trying to increase my video game library has been the creation of a backlog. This idea of a backlog is new to me as I've never really had more than one game I've wanted to play at a time. When I say play, I don't mean to completion in most cases. Generally I'll finish with a game once I've stopped having fun and feel that I've had value for money from my purchase. I have found that in this generation especially the ratio of games completed to played has fallen substantially. Take for instance Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and it's sequel. I barely scratched the surface of either game's single player campaign, yet feel that I got excellent value from all the time spent in online multi-player. So I think it is fair to say I'm not a completionist. So my backlog is games I've yet to even play, rather than fully complete.

At the moment I'm really enjoying Assassin's Creed 2, while the following games languish in the backlog.

Darksiders
Dead Space
Ghostbusters
Luigi's Mansion
Mario Kart Double Dash
ModNation Racers
Motorstorm: Pacific Rift
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Bounty
Red Dead Redemption
Saints Row 2
Split / Second
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Mario Sunshine
Super Street Fighter IV
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Limited Edition
Transformers War for Cybertron

Of those games Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the one that I want to tackle next, while Dead Space is most likely to remain unplayed I'd say.

Writing lists and setting rules

2010-07-06T15:03:00.000+01:00

Now that I had decided to rebuild my collection of video games I had to actually try and remember what games I did own at one point or another. This is not as easy as you might think. The best place to start as in most cases is the beginning. I did own a C64 but for one reason or another I have decided not to pursue this part of my collection. So that brings me onto the Sega Mega Drive, probably the best console I've ever owned but that could be the nostalgia talking.

I know that towards the end of the Mega Drive era I had amassed quite a collection of games but I couldn't remember them all when I sat down to write a list. Sure, I remembered the classics that I owned like Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and NBA Jam. Other games that sprung to mind were Desert Strike, Mortal Kombat 2, Road Rash and Flashback. That made seven games, but surely I had more than that. A little more thought and I remembered some more but I resorted to Wikipedia to look up popular Mega Drive games to ignite a spark of recognition. Games that I found that had to be added to my list were Ballz, Micro Machines, Tazmania and several others.

The situation was the same with my PSOne collection of titles. I knew a couple, like International Superstar Soccer Pro and Wipeout but it took some looking to figure out what else I had. I didn't have as much of a problem when it came to the PS2 as I was still playing that machine up until a few years ago. Still one thing did strike me about my PS2 collection - it was very small. That was my primary console for five years and yet I rarely seemed to buy any games for it, apart from my annual fix of Pro Evolution Soccer. The Nintendo Game Boy is another console that I've owned in my time but that part of my collection is on the back burner. It is not forgotten but it will have to wait. There are also a handful of PS3 games that I've traded in that I now want back, at the right price of course.

Price. A very important consideration in all this. In order to control the cost, rules were needed. Do I buy only games that I've owned? What about games I loved but didn't own, that I had gotten a loan of. Ah yes, loaning games in school, great way to play plenty of games without paying for them. How about games that I might have owned or rented, like Aladdin. What about games that I could come across that would be great in any collection but I've never played? Finally, it turns out that although the majority of retro games are very cheap, some are surprisingly expensive. Raise your hands (or clenched fist) Streets of Rage 3!

In the end there is no set rule really. If I think it would be good for the collection and at a reasonable price, preferably low, I will try to get it. So when I'm finished it won't be my original collection per se but it will be quite a collection.

Back, with a new challenge.

2010-07-06T10:05:00.000+01:00

It has been quite some time since I last updated this blog. It is funny looking back at it after this time and seeing that I was updating the site on an almost daily basis for a while. Then it suddenly stopped. No winding down, just a sudden end. No big deal as I doubt that anyone had even come across this site, let alone read any of the entries. I suppose the main reason for the lack of activity was because my spare time was taken over with development of software for the iPhone platform. I got quite caught up in that for a period of about nine months to a year. Now that that interest is winding down I'm back with a new interest, rebuilding my lost video game collection.

Over the years I have owned quite a number of video games and consoles. These have mostly been lost over time. The PSOne and PS2 collection having been traded in, while what happened my Mega Drive collection remains a mystery. A few months back I suddenly had the idea of trying to recreate my original collection. I can't think of a rational explanation as to why I want to do this, I just do.

As I mentioned this started a few months back so I will be making several posts about my progress so far and how it has differed slightly from how I envisaged it originally.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 - [PS3] Review

2008-10-27T11:01:00.004Z

This review is written by a self-confessed PES fanboy but I guarantee I can be unbiased. I just want to remind you, the reader, that this is a review of the PS3 version so some criticisms may not apply to the PC and Xbox 360 version, i.e. online issues. PES 2009 strikes me as the most important release in the entire series, as with last years entry Konami stood by and let EA Sports steal their crown as the most impressive and progressive football game around. Has Konami learnt from last year and can they regain their crown so spectularly lost?

As a true Pro Evo fan it pains me to say that they have unequivocally failed to live up the challenge and have equally failed to provide an online experience equal to that offered by PES 6. Let us get the basics out of the way first. The graphics are functional but not what one expects from a current-gen console. Last generation player models and animation sets are not good enough, although player faces are impressive. There are some nice weather effects on show but overall the game still has the look of a PS2 title. The audio too is most unimpressive. They have made some strides in improving the crowd atmosphere with some real crowd chants. There is also support for custom soundtracks and importing of real crowd chants. However, and this will come as no surprise to fans of the series - the commentary is terrible. Why Konami can't see this and either hire new writers or spend money on better development is a mystery.

People have made a big issue of the fact that PES has lost a number of licences since the last game but for me that is a non-issue. Sure it is nice to play with teams with real kits and names but does it affect gameplay? No, not a bit. If it does bother you there are many option files available for download for both the PS3 and Xbox 360. In order to create these Konami has spent a lot of time developing the editing options in the game. It now boasts a pretty expansive editing suite were people with the time and patience will be able to spend many a happy hour creating their favourite players and teams.

Another area Konami has spent some time is the Become A Legend (BAL) mode. Viewed as a response to FIFA's Be A Pro mode, BAL actually predates the FIFA mode by a couple of years having been available in the Japanese version. BAL is a very substantial addition and very addictive and enjoyable too. Create your player, play in a trial game and sign a professional contract. Your goals are to break into the first Xl and keep your place. Then you need to worry about getting a move to a bigger club and playing for your country and finally becoming a legend in the game. It has an addictive quality as you feel you want to play 'just one more game' to improve your stats. Also the feeling of scoring a goal or getting an assist is greatly increased in this mode as you feel that you made the right moves to get into that position. You'll be punching the air after your first goal.

There are some niggles with this mode, mainly poor team-mate AI. Watch in tears of frustration as 99 times out of a 100 your winger will fail to deliver a ball into the box or a defender will hoof the ball for a throw in rather than play the simple ball to midfield. If you have patience though you can overlook these issues and you will get a lot out of this mode. The option to take your 'legend' online and play with up to three other 'legends' works very well, especially with some like minded players. Finishing off a free flowing attacking move with friends online is a sweet feeling.

The rest of the game however has been starved of such attention from Konami. Master League a staple of the series has been virutally untouched. Transfer negoiations have been speeded up. Really? Big deal. The Champions League is also a new addition but why is is not integrated into Master League? It seems the obvious thing to do really but that isn't Konami's style. At this point it must be said that despite the lack of innovation the actual gameplay is still perfectly fine. It plays just like every other entry in the series and is slightly slower in pace than last year. The controls are also nice and tight. There is a huge number of tricks that can be pulled off if you are willing to invest the time to learn them, adding a nice layer of depth to the game.

Now I have to address the online component of the game. I cannot find one justification for having to use the Konami ID system. Not only do you need a Konami ID but you also need a Game ID. It adds an extra layer of complexity when all you want to do is play online. The whole thing would not be so bad if the system worked smoothly but it does not. I regularly have to try at least five times to log onto the system. Once onine the lobby and match-room system is very badly designed and confusing.

How does it play online? Well I have found it to be fairly free of lag but not as smooth as it was for PES 6, which is unforgiveable. The AI on computer controlled team-mates online appears to be hugely compromised. The default difficulty when online is beginner and as a result online games are a goal fest. You will regularly watch in horror as your AI controlled defenders stand by and wave attackers through on goal. It makes for a very annoying and unrealistic game experience.

In summary the game plays very well offline and BAL is a very welcome addition. However the many online issues, a lack of innovation and a feeling that this is only a polished last-gen game means Pro Evo 2009 is found wanting in the face of fierce competition. Unless next years game is called Pro Revolution I for one will be giving it a miss.

Graphics
There are some small graphical improvements over previous games but this is not how a current-gen football game should look. Player models haven't progressed from the PS2 era and animations are getting stale.

Sound
The comentary is as woeful as ever and utterly fails in comparision with FIFA. Some improvement in crowd atmosphere, a nice touch is hearing individual shouts. The soundtrack is improved from last year and support for custom soundtracks is a plus.

Controls
Controls are still nice and responsive. There is a good range of tricks to pull off and not easy enough to feel like a cheat. Passing has been improved, especially the manual pass option.

Verdict
As a long, long time PES fan it hurts me to say that this is not the game I wanted. PES was supposed to come back with a bang but rather it has returned with a few minor improvements to core gameplay. This is simply not enough to recover from years of neglect. I simply cannot recommend this game when FIFA '09 is the competitor. For diehards only.

Become A Legend - My career

2008-10-19T21:11:00.005+01:00

I think I will use this blog to chronicle my quest to 'Become A Legend' in PES 2009.

I want to be an attack midfielder as I think that will get me involved in the action more than just being a striker or a winger. After my initial match I got three offers - West Ham, Spurs and Hull. I choose Hull thinking it would be easier to get into the first team. I spent about eight weeks playing against the first team in training. Then in my 9th match I scored my first goal in the 88th minute. I got fouled near the penalty area and took a quick free-kick. I played the ball to the edge of the box and it was returned to me by Barmby. I hit it low first-time and it flew into the bottom right corner of the goal.

As a result of this goal I was called up to the 'A' training team. After a couple of games there I was put on the bench. During my first match on the bench I came on for the last 15 minutes. Not a lot of time to make an impression. In my second game I started the second half and did pretty well. I then went through a period of about 5 or 6 games playing the entire second half. However, I then went through a period of time where I was being left on the bench for the whole game. It is pretty frustrating as you don't get to improve much sitting on the bench.

After getting through this period of bried appearances I finally made the starting line-up. I started three matches in a row and the team didn't lose any of these matches. In my second start I hit the crossbar with a great shot from 20 yards or so.

Unfortunately, I picked up my second yellow card of the season in my third game and I got suspended for a week. I never made it back into the line-up for the final three games of the season. I did make a couple of substitute appearances but didn't do much. During the close season I signed for N.E.C. Nijmegen in the Dutch Eredivisie. Mainly because they offered to play me as an attacking midfielder whereas everyone else just offered my central midfield. Now I just have to force my way back into the starting line-up.

Why I'm not giving up on PES

2008-10-11T17:51:00.005+01:00

There has been a lot of talk over the last two years and these past months in particular that Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) crown is slipping and the FIFA franchise is poised to overtake PES as the finest football game around. Of course there has always been a large group of people who preferred FIFA’s style of gameplay but I think it is fair to say that PES has always been the favoured game among the gaming media and football purists. PES has never matched FIFA for presentation or licensed content but for as long as I remember it has always been the better game to play.

My complaint about FIFA and one shared by many is that I never felt that I was in total control of the player, as though certain moves were being performed by the AI. Another thing I did not like was that in past games there were tricks mapped to a certain button, which reduces the skill involved in playing the game and thus reduces the feeling of accomplishment. I’m not writing this article as an attack on FIFA (in fact have owned previous FIFA games) rather it is about what appeals to me about PES and why I’m not giving up on it just yet. During this article I will be discussing both ISS and PES as I consider them to be the same series of games as one evolved from and replaced the other.

I first encountered the game on the Super Nintendo in 1994 as International Superstar Soccer. The game was simply light years ahead of the competition in my opinion. The graphics for the time were simply stunning with large well animated player sprites that were made to resemble the stars at the time. I remember Columbia was my team of choice back then and I had Carlos Valderama patrolling the midfield. Of course he had a fictitious name but he had the famous hairstyle so there was no doubting who he was. In the game Columbia had a player called Alvarez who was very speedy and I used to run him into the ground but he would always get me a couple of goals. My friend and I used to play each other everyday on the game and it became a running joke how often I would exhaust that player but never substitute him. PES only got better with the release of International Superstar Soccer Deluxe. As we have now come to expect the sequel was more of an evolution than a revolution but it did have plenty of tweaks to make the game superior in every way. My friend and I could now play co-operatively (rarely used), had better graphics, more commentary and if I remember rightly the ability to hack down goalkeepers. Pretty sure I collected a lot of red cards that way.

ISS Deluxe kept the two of us going for a long time, until my friend upgraded to the N64 and bought International Superstar Soccer 98. This is the game in the entire series that I remember least fondly. It mainly had to do with the N64 controller. I just could not get used to controlling players with the analogue stick, something which is second nature now but certainly not back then. The graphics were vastly superior to the SNES version but my inability to score goals in the game (thus losing regularly) meant I never really loved this release. Around this time I myself upgraded to the PSOne and there was some competition on that console in the football genre. I bought Actua Soccer that I still maintain was an excellent football game. Playing five strikers with S. Korea was the best possible tactic in that game and it had great commentary from Barry Davies (it is possible time has skewed my memories). Soon enough ISS came to the PSOne as International Superstar Soccer Pro Evolution (ISS Pro Evo), a bit of an unwieldy name really. This game came as a major shock to me. The style of gameplay changed quite dramatically. Whereas previous games had a fast attacking flow to them ISS Pro Evo was slowed down considerably and relied much more on accurate passing than running with the ball. It was especially difficult playing this version and the N64 version around the same time as they were so different. The graphics on ISS Pro Evo were impressive but very different. The players looked more realistic and had very good animation. I have to be honest and say that I don’t remember a lot about this version apart from the fact that I used Norway all the time and relied on their striker Flink to get the goals. He always did, including a magnificent bicycle-kick from outside the area. It is funny the little unimportant things that you remember.

During all this time I had been playing some of the FIFA games. While writing this I thought that I only owned FIFA ’95 but I actually had FIFA ’99. I remember because of the Fatboy Slim song used on the title screen. Even then the presentation of that game was far superior to PES, however after playing so much PES I could never get used to the camera angles used by EA in their game. The isometric camera angle that worked so well in FIFA ’95 no longer felt comfortable and the snazzy new cameras employed on the PSOne versions never felt right either.

It is now 2001 and once again I upgraded, this time to the PS2. Pro Evolution Soccer, the first in the true PESPES 2 quickly followed and then PES 3. I always thought it was strange that Pierluigi Collina appeared on the cover (the first real life person to do so) but didn’t appear in the game itself. PES 4 came along and if I remember correctly this game came with a large number of licences and brought La Liga, Serie A and the Dutch Eredivise to the game. I’m not sure which year the Master League was introduced but it was a masterstroke. No longer did we just have to play exhibition matches or boring leagues with international teams we could now have full seasons with player transfers. Probably something FIFA had been doing for years but for a PES fan it was all new and welcome. I think it was around PES 4 that I found Mathieu. Simply put, he is the best player to ever appear in a PESPES circles. series is released and it takes the football game to a whole new level. game. He was always listed as a SB (why do they not call them fullbacks?) but he had amazing stats for shooting, dribbling, passing and power. Ideal for an attacking midfielder and that is where he played forever more. Every year I would search him out and put him in the team. Every year he would be the best player in the team. The sheer number of screamers he scored was amazing, just give the ball to the guy 25 yards out and shoot. The real life player never had the same impact but I did look at this wikipedia page before and it did mention his fame within

When PES 5 came around it brought with it a totally new gameplay innovation - online play. I never had my PS2 online but I did buy the PC version of PES 5 just to play it online. It worked really well and was my first experience of online gaming. Skip forward to 2006 and again I’ve upgraded consoles to the Xbox 360 this time. The first title I buy? PES 6 of course. This title got a bit of criticism for not being a massive leap over previous generations games in terms of graphics or innovation. I always felt this was unfair as the Xbox 360Xbox Live I had an easy way to play it online. I would say that playing PES 6 online is where I had the most fun with this game. I still remember my first few games on Live, the score lines weren’t kind to say the least. Still I got my 100 online wins achievement in around 150 matches which is pretty good. I would consider that my favourite achievement from my 360 days. The game wasnï¿½t without its flaws though - those online cheaters made me so mad. Another of the things that did annoy me was the all conquering Inter Milan team with Ibrahimovic and Adriano up front. Fun to play as but not against. That is where the uninterrupted run of success finished I’m afraid. was still new and Konami did well to get a game out. I did not care that the game did not have a next generation shine, I just cared about the gameplay. It was exceptional in my opinion. Not only that but now with access to

The next game was PES 2008, billed as the first true next generation PES. I want to get one thing straight, this is not the terrible game that it is made out to be. The gameplay is still as good as other PES games there can be no argument about that. What is wrong is that the online component of the game was entirely broken. In the year that I had the game I never once got to play it online. I do not understand how a company of Konami’s size and reputation can release such a substandard product. I traded in PES 6 when purchasing the 2008 edition, an action I very soon came to regret. On top of that Mathieu was no longer the same player in Master League.

After the disappointment of PES 2008 we are now in a situation were a lot of PES fans tired of incremental updates, poor licence deals and shoddy online play have jumped ship and are now buying FIFA. That is perfectly fine, I do agree that Konami need a big wake up call and the loss of a large percentage of the fan base will make them take notice. Konami have been making all the right comments in the lead up to PES 2009EA Sports Euro 2008. I have heard good things about FIFA ’09, however I did not enjoy the demo. FIFA now seems to take the more realistic simulation approach, which is funny as I used to consider it more of an arcade style game. Still after recent disappointments I am still excited about PES 2009 and am willing to give Konami another chance. I think they deserve it for all their past good work. - better graphics, better AI, better physics etc... The problem is we have heard all these promises before and yet they never seem to come to fruition. In the meantime FIFA has become a real alternative. I really enjoyed the few games I played of

As you can probably tell my current total belief in PES basically stems from the good times I have had in the past. It is the kind of brand loyalty that companies would kill for. This is not the only reason though, I have seen enough about the new game to think that they have got it right this time. The new Become A Legendmode looks really interesting and contrary to popular belief this mode predates EA’s Be A Pro feature having been in previous Japanese Winning Eleven titles. This is the single most exciting feature to come to PES in many years and I cannot wait to try it out. The introduction of the Champions League mode is also a nice bonus. When you consider in the past that EA have released a whole game based around the Champions League this is quite a big bonus to be included as an extra mode. The Legends mode where you take your created player online to play with friends will be great fun, provided of course that the online code works this time. Another big improvement coming this year is the totally revamped edit mode. Players are free to edit teams and players in nearly every way, an option that has been missing since the PS2 days. The edit mode will be particularly useful on the PS3 since the system is open and you can plug in a USB key with an edited option file. Unfortunately, Xbox 360 users will most likely have to edit everything manually. Finally, I was impressed by the demo and can only expect the final retail release to be even more polished.

There is a lot riding on this next release of PES. If this game fails to deliver again I do not know where the series goes from there. PES 2009 will be the game that should have been delivered last year. This puts Konami a year behind FIFA and for the first time puts them in the position where they have to play catch up. Will next years release be a reinvention? How do they go about that? I do not know the answers but I am excited to find out.

Wipeout HD [PS3] - Review

2008-10-04T21:37:00.003+01:00

Wipeout HD is the first installment of the iconic racer on the latest Playstation console. It has been a long, long time in coming but it has been worth the wait. Having been in development for well over a year (a long time for a downloadable title) and dogged by epilepsy test failures it finally hit the PSN store a couple of weeks ago. The game takes the best tracks and the teams of the last two Wipeout titles on PSP and gives it a HD polish.

Wipeout has been around now for 13 years and not much has changed gameplay wise. Anyone who is familar with the series will be thankful for that. The player pilots their hovercraft around large complex courses at high velocity trying to gain speed boosts and weapons. All the while trying to avoid opponents, walls and opposition weapons. The opposition AI will provide a real challenge and are actually very aggressive. The feeling of immense speed is here and I think this is the fastest of the Wipeout games that I've played. The controls will take time to get used to for those who haven't played before but perseverence is worth it. Once you get a handle on the left/right airbrake system you'll be flying around the track mere millimetres from the wall.

The one addition to the gameplay has been the addition of barrel rolls. Performed while in the air they will give you a speed boost when you land but they do cause damage so sparing use is essential. The most obvious improvement here is the graphics which are produced in full 1080p HD, hence the name. The game runs at a very solid 60fps and even at its fastest the game is silky smooth. The track design is very impressive with plenty of background details and vertigo inducing loops. This game is easily the equal of any other racing game this generation.

The sound is a very important aspect of any Wipeout game and this version hasn't stumbled here. The sound effects are very impressive. There are some good music tracks too from recognisable artists but the soundtrack is not as strong as previous games. This may be due to the fact that a budget for a downloadable game doesn't stretch to licencing more expensive artists. This isn't a problem though as custom soundtracks are supported so you can play music stored on the HDD of your PS3. One cool thing I noticed is that the sound of the music will distort if your ship is hit or if your going through a tunnel the sound will change to suit that. Very impressive.

I've mentioned that this is only a downloadable game but do not let that you put you off. There is simply a ton of content here. There are 8 tracks (which can be played in reverse configuration) and many different race modes - time trial, single race, tournament, speed lap, zone mode and online racing. There are also 12 teams and ships to master. The zone mode is something that has been in previous games and is a fan favourite. You race along and the game gets progressively faster and you just have to stay alive as long as possible. The music playing will affect the visuals on screen with the track and backgrounds flashing to the beat of the music. Very cool stuff. Throw in trophy support and this is a very substantial package indeed.

The online component works superbly and supports up to 8 racers. It is easy to find a race and one that suits your skill level. I have experienced no lag while playing the game and that was with the full 8 players. Worldwide leader boards will also have people coming back to try and post faster times. Put simply this is a must buy title for owners of a PS3. The game is only €17.99, which is an absolute bargain. Great gameplay, amazing graphics and a lot of repayability. Go and buy.

Graphics
Simply stunning. The graphics are produced in full 1080p HD resolution and it looks amazing. Equally impressive is the fact that it runs at 60fps making for a silky smooth visual experience.

Sound
Music has always been a trademark of the series and the sound here doesn't disappoint. Great sound effects and some good tunes combine to enhance the Wipeout experience. Plus there is support for custom soundtracks.

Controls
Very responsive controls and there are a number of control schemes on offer. Sixaxis controls are perhaps not as good as using the tradition dpad. Control is given over input sensitivity so there can be no complaints over control of your ship.

Verdict
Quite simply this is a must buy. Excellent graphics, sound and gameplay. There is a lot of content and the online component will have you coming back time and again. Only €17.99! Buy now!

Little Big Planet - my first published level.

2008-10-04T00:09:00.004+01:00

Today I published my first level in the Little Big Planet beta. It is called Platforming 101 and it is a simple platforming level set in a forest setting. It is my first attempt at designing a level so I tried to keep it simple. It isn't an amazing work of art but for a first go I'm proud.

I will try to make more complex and better designed levels once I have the full retail version. As it stands no one is sure if published levels will exist beyond the beta so it would be terrible to put a lot of hours into a level and see it vanish. I will write up my impressions on the beta later.

Iron Man Blu-ray / DVD differs from theatrical cut

2008-09-19T08:37:00.005+01:00

An interesting story has emerged about the upcoming Iron Man Blu-ray and DVD release. It turns out that the version of the film on the home format will be ever so slightly different from the theatrical cut of the film.

While the movie was in production the website [a href="http://www.iesb.net/"]IESB[/a] obtained a photograph of the Iron Man suit in action and they published it on their website. This was nearly a whole year before the film came out. The studio Paramount went into meltdown and contacted the movie sites internet host and had the site shut down. The problem was that the photo was obtained and printed legally so Paramount had no right to do what they did. Shortly after both sides met and Paramount offered an apology and gave the website an exclusive set visit.

After this incident the direct Jon Favreau used the 'spy' photograph in the movie as a kind of easter egg. It is used at the very end of the movie as the picture on the front page of a newspaper that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is reading. Kinda cool really.

Anyway, now the IESB website is suing Paramount for unauthorised use of their photograph. So with the legal battle ahead the picture has been removed from the movie and replaced with a different image.

I think it is a petty reaction from the folks at IESB. You would think as a movie fan website they would be proud to have some of their own work show up in such a clever way in one of the biggest movies of 2009.

Hot Air Balloon Trip - 13 September 2008

2008-09-14T22:33:00.006+01:00

Yesterday myself and my wife spent the evening floating around the Meath / Navan area in a hot air balloon. A pretty cool way to spend an evening.

We got a gift token for the trip last September but the weather has been so bad the past year that it was only yesterday we got to go. On the day you are due to go you ring their information line to hear a message to say whether or not the weather is good enough to fly. We were just lucky to get the weather yesterday as Friday wasn't good and today was terrible. They only fly in very good conditions - light wind, dry and no cloud.

So we drove down to Trim and we got collected by the pilot and his partner. From there we got transported to the launch field along with the eight other passengers. I was surprised that many people would fit in the balloon at one time but I didn't expect the basket to be as big as it was. The good thing about the trip is that they get you involved in every part. We all helped to unfold the balloon (envelope is the correct name) and it is massive. Then we had to lift down the basket from the truck and it is really heavy. Reassuringly heavy I suppose because it feels really sturdy. The next stage was filling the balloon with air. For this they get you to direct big fans into the balloon opening. It gets a bit toasty in this position as you can see from the second picture.

All of a sudden the pilot yells GET IN THE BASKET and a big scramble ensues as the basket starts to move around. The thing that really struck me about the trip is how smooth the flight is. The basket doesn't shake or move at all and is totally level the entire time. A friend asked earlier in the week how they steer while in the air and I know the answer now - you don't. Basically the wind takes you and the pilot just hopes to find a suitable landing area before running out of fuel.

I'm not sure exactly how high we were but I think it was about 600 feet. It was a nice height as it gives you a great view of the area without things getting too small. Also you would be amazed at how sound travels. You can hear everything so clearly - dogs barking, children playing and car horns beeping. I think I got some decent pictures of the area although I'm sure any professionals reading won't think so.

Next up is the landing (in Navan), which was great fun. The balloon drops pretty fast and we hit the ground then bounce back up in the air. We bounce up and down twice more before landing precariously teetering between topolling over and landing normally. Apparently it is fairly normal to topall over and nothing to worrry about but I think we were all relived when the balloon settled down normally. The pilot's partner who had been following us in a van got permission from the farmer to enter the field and collect us. I'd hate to be in a situation where you land in a farmers field who gets upset, we did take a few big chunks out of the ground. The last part is packing up the balloon and it gets done surprisingly fast. The pilot has 19 years experience and has us working in perfect harmony to get the balloon folded. Then we have to lift the basket back onto the truck and we're all back off to Trim to enjoy a few glasses of champagne.

Dimitar Berbatov - debut coming up.

2008-09-12T20:07:00.006+01:00

I just realised that Manchester United signed Dimitar Berbatov two weeks ago and I never posted anything about it. He is a very fine player, there is no arguing about that. However, I do feel that some people are getting carried away. His goalscoring record in the Premier League is good but it isn't exceptional. In fact he scored the same number of goals in the same number of games as Robbie Keane last year and no where near the number of Ronaldo. He is very good but just because they have him now doesn't mean they are going to walk away with the title or defend the European Cup successfully.

I am happy he is there though but they did pay over the odds. Although about £5 million of that is basically hush money so that Spurs don't report them for practically kidnapping Berbatov from the airport. Obviously that was very poor form from Man Utd but the Premier League is a soap opera afterall so there is nothing wrong with a little drama every now and then. So his debut looks like being tomorrow morning against Liverpool. I am never confident about the results in these matches with Liverpool even though Uniteds record over the last few years has been exemplary. I'm going to say it will be a score draw with Berbatov on the score sheet.

We shall see...

Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 - nearly here

2008-09-12T19:46:00.005+01:00

I find myself for the first time since 2001 without a copy of Pro Evolution Soccer to play. As anyone who knows me will know PES is and probably always will be my favourite series of video games. When I traded in my Xbox 360 a few months ago for the PS3 (still happy I did) I also traded my copy of PES 2008. It may not have been the best game in the series but I still really enjoyed playing it. I didn't think I'd miss not having a PES game to play but I really do.

I have refused to buy any games on the PS3 that I've owned on the Xbox 360 previously so no COD4, GTA IV or PES 2008. Although I hear that PES 2008 on the PS3 is a very bad port anyway. So with that rule in place I've been fairly restricted to what games I've bought or played on the PS3. I've bought and traded on the launch games and now I'm at a loose end. There is nothing really worth playing until October 17th (I think) when PES 2009 launches. It can't come soon enough really.

I know the 2008 version did a lot of damage to the brand, I for one was never able to get a game going online. However, I have every faith in the developers that they will get the series back on track with this one. For me the most anticipated new feature is going to be the Become A Legend mode, where you control just one player throughout their career. I can't wait to give it a go. I think I'll pick an offensive midfielder first as I think it will keep me involved in the match whereas a player on the wings might get a bit isolated. I also hope they have fixed the online component as it has been far too long since I was beating all comers online.

Just over month to go.

And then comes Little Big Planet...

Boom Blox [Wii] - Review

2008-09-05T09:03:00.004+01:00

Another blockbuster from Steven Spielberg?

Boom Blox is a puzzle game developed by EA for the Nintendo Wii. The interesting thing about the title is that film director Steven Spielberg approached EA with an idea for a game. Against expectation it is a relatively simple family game rather than some grand action/adventure game. When this game first launched here in May I had picked it out as a definite purchase for the Wii. We are all acutely aware of the shortage of quality software titles on the Wii so I decided to hold off on buying it till there is a lull in good games and I could come back to this. So with nothing worthwhile on the market for PS3 or Wii recently, I went back and got Boom Blox last week.

The gameplay is like a mixture of Jenga, dominos, a shooting game like 'Duck Hunt' and Lego. There are three distinct game variants - throw, shoot and grab. In the 'throw' games you use the Wii Remote to throw objects at the onscreen objects to accomplish different things. There is a reverse version of Jenga where you throw balls at a tower of blocks with the aim of toppling the tower. Shooting games are pretty self explanatory really. The 'grab' games are perhaps the most fun. There is a game that is basically Jenga where you use grab blocks out of a large pile and try to avoid toppling the tower. Three game types doesn't sound like a lot but there is a massive variety of games within each type. The developers have thrown in plenty of little details that will make each level play differently. For example purple colour blocks will disappear when hit meaning blocks above will fall into the empty space, or hit two green blocks into each other and watch the resulting explosion fling surrounding blocks around the screen. These little details let the player bring much more strategy into play than one would expect.

You can play all these games as mini-games, trying to get a bronze, sliver or gold medal in each one. Or you can play the adventure mode where the developers have attempted to wrap a story around each game. It is a nice idea but the narrative isn't exactly deep or engaging and to be honest you don't buy this type of game for the quality of the story. The single player mode is not as fun as I was hoping it to be. In fact I was quite disppointed in it to be honest. However, you can overlook this rather large failing with the exceptional multi-player gameplay with two, three or four players. You can opt to play competitively or co-operatively with the latter being more fun in my opinion. Suddenly games that are fun alone become even more fun as you try to knock over your opponents towers or leave a precariously position tower for your opponent to remove a tricky block. I can't wait to break this game out when I have a few friends over as I suspect it will be a big hit with four players - fast, frantic and highly competitive.

The game is deceptively simple. The graphics (even for a Wii title) are unlikely to win any prizes. They are nice and colourful, while the backgrounds are surprisingly good. There is some added personality in the game with the addition of animals who watch the action from the sidelines and they have some nice animations. The sound too is equally functional rather than amazing. There is some nice tunes, especially those that have the animals chanting along and there are good solid sound effects for the falling blocks. The most impressive aspect of the game is one that can be easily overlooked - a very advanced physics engine. Everything that happens in this game happens as you would expect it to happen in the real world. The blocks fall very convincingly, causing chain reactions where you expect them. There is never a time when you think that something that has happened was scripted, you are always in control.

A good deal of effort has gone into improving the longevity of the game. Firstly, there is over 100 levels of co-operative and competitive levels to work through, added to the 300 or so single player levels. Very impressive. If that isn't enough there is a quite impressive level editor. Here you can alter existing levels or create your own from scratch. You can play the single player game to unlock more objects to use in your own creations. There is a handy meter on the side to say when you have enough objects in the level, otherwise the physics engine would be overloaded. It is here that the game shows off some more technically impressive functions, sharing created levels with friends over WiiConnect 24. It is good to see a third party developer take a lead here rather than wait on Nintendo so show everyone how it is done. Kudos to EA for going the extra mile and hopefully it will encourage other developers in future.

Graphics
Simple graphics but this is not title that requires state of the art graphics. Most of the power of the Wii is probably busy calculating where all those blocks are supposed to fall. Colourful and cute like most Wii games.

Sound
Functional and solid. The soundtrack is unremarkable apart from songs when the animal spectators chant along.

Controls
Possibly the best implementation of the Wii Remote since Wii Sports. It is especially good at calculating the speed of your throw from the force you use physically. The grab tool is also very accurate.

Verdict
I know EA gets a lot of criticism (some deserved) but for making this game they deserve a lot of praise. As a multi-player title it is a lot of fun, one of the best multi-player games on the Wii which is high praise as the system has a lot of good party games. If you want a fun game that you can hop on and play in short bursts or fancy a lengthy challenge then this is the game for you. If you intend playing solely on your own then I'd recommend renting first.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Review

2008-09-05T08:57:00.003+01:00

Here is a review that I had written back in May but had forgotten to post. Better late than never I suppose. Now that a few months has passed I might be inclinded to look more critically at the film but I haven't changed the text since I wrote it.
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Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Quite a mouthful for a title but perhaps fitting for a movie that looks like it is going to generate some heated debate. Whatever way you eventually feel about the movie, it is without doubt one of, if not the biggest film event since Star Wars: Episode One back in 1999 and you owe it to yourself to see it.

I still remember going to the cinema to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade nineteen years ago, in the Savoy in Dublin. It is one of those memories that I will always treasure. It was a surprise trip with a group of friends. When we left the cinema we were all on a high from the movie and spent the day all wishing we could be Indiana Jones. It has been a long wait and a nervous one ever since it was confirmed that a new film was in production. There were so many questions. How would Harrison Ford cope with the physicality of the role? Can they capture the spirit of the original movies? How much influence would George Lucas have? Having seen the movie I can at least answer two of those questions positively and hey, two and out of three is not bad.

First let me say that I really enjoyed the movie. It is an action adventure movie first and foremost, I do not think it pretends to be anything other than that. As such, it has to deliver on the action front and it does - in spades. The opening action sequence immediately dispels any doubts over Fords ability to play the role. From here on in you forget that he is now much older and he is simply Indy as he was all those years ago. The action beats range from the vaguely realistic to the totally preposterous but never fail to entertain. I was particularly taken with the truck convoy chase through the jungle. I will acknowledge that it was insanely over the top and brought to mind one of the weaker effects sequences from Peter Jackson's King Kong. However, it was so much fun that you cannot help but love it all the same. Bazookas, sword fighting between vehicles, fistfights and giant ants what more can you ask for?

I was also particularly fond of the motorcycle chase from earlier in the film. It was more old school in its direction and I think you can see Dan Bradley's (stunt co-coordinator on the Bourne franchise) influence shine through in this sequence. This scene had more physicality to it, it may also be because looked to have a total absence of CG trickery. Indy being pulled from the bike into the chasing car and then fighting his way to the opposite window and climbing back on the bike is right up there in the hit list of Indy stunts. When you think of Indy climbing under the moving Nazi truck in Raiders, or Indy fighting on top of a tank in Last Crusade you can now add this sequence from Crystal Skull.

The feel of the movie really does capture the spirit of the originals. It follows the well established format set out before - the opening action sequence, the downtime when we get some heavy plot exposition and then the adventure starts and continues till the very end. The humour of the previous movies is all present and correct too. For me it is the small moments that make this movie. The 'punch Joe college' moment, the sand trap scene, the hints at past adventures they all combine to make the experience as a whole so satisfying.

I've already mentioned Ford's ability to play the role physically, but he also handles the acting side of things just fine. His comic timing is still there and he still radiates this feeling that he is the type of guy who you'd like to have as a friend. Thinking of the cast made me remember something that this movie has over the other films - a really likeable sidekick (I consider Sean Connery to be his mentor, not a sidekick). Shia LaBeouf's character Mutt is as good a sidekick your likely to get. Short Round anyone? Give me Mutt any day. I like the tough guy image he projects but you can at times see how frightened he is at the situation he has gotten himself into. The bonding scenes between LaBeouf and Ford came across as very genuine too; they are two of the better written characters. I think that Cate Blanchett does a good job with what she is given but her character is a little too one-dimensional. We do not get to know anything really about her background or motivation other than she is a loyal solider of the Soviet Union. Ray
Winstone is a good addition to the cast, always a reliable actor he does a good solid job here. Of all the actors and they are all good actors it is John Hurt who has the least to do. For such a terrific actor he is criminally underused, reduced to a silly comedy sideshow act, he is only given something relevant to say in the final two minutes.

I was really impressed with the look of the movie. It was bright and colourful and seemed to have a really crisp sheen to the whole proceedings. A lot of praise must go to Spielberg for putting all this together on film because there is a lot going on here. The plot is not exactly straightforward and there is not much time for exposition between action scenes. However, he
still finds time for some iconic shots - especially the introduction of Indy, putting on his fedora in silhouette. Sublime.

I have said a lot about the parts that pleased me but there are a few elements that left me cold. The story is perhaps one of the weaker in the series of films, although it might be stronger than Temple of Doom's. One of the questions I posed at the start of the review was how much influence George Lucas would have. Unfortunately, it appears to have been too much. I think it is safe to assume that the alien (and that is what they were, forget the "inter-dimensional beings" guff) aspects were championed by Lucas. Sorry if that is a massive spoiler but you were warned. He seems to be totally preoccupied with alien beings and he obviously is not happy with keeping it confined to the Star Wars universe and has seen fit to bring it into Indy's world. I will be interested to hear if reports come out over time of how accommodating Spielberg was to this idea. I think that the story line would have worked better if the alien aspect were expunged. They could still be looking for a crystal skull and the lost city of El Dorado. That would make an interesting film; there is no need for the skull to be alien in origin. Someone should have shown Lucas, Spielberg and Ford (for he has a lot of influence) the movie Stargate before green lighting this script.

There were some other problems, most notably the lack of a very strong baddie. I already said that Blanchett's Agent Spalko was one-dimensional and you never really get the feeling that she is capable of killing Indy. In fact, after Indy survives a nuclear explosion you get the feeling he might just be invulnerable. Although, he did drink from the cup of ever lasting life in Last Crusade so there is some justification for his amazing survival. I think the 'monkeys' scene is destined for the wrong kind of movie notoriety. And why has Karen Allen (Marianne Ravenwood) got a smile permanently on her face when faced with the certain of not just herself but her son too?

At this point you will have to forgive me if this review turns into a bit of a rant. I have heard a lot of negative comments about this latest Indiana Jones but the majority of these comments are in my opinion base on a fallacy. And that is, that the first three Indy films all contain amazingly complex and wonderful storylines, terrific character development, Oscar worthy dialogue and realistic action scenes. These are the thoughts of people who are looking back with rose tinted glasses on a series of movies that have not been in the cinema in 19 years

Let us look at the facts. Indiana Jones has never been realistic. There are so many examples to draw upon to prove this point and this needs to be proven so people can stop beating Crystal Skull with big fat fraudulent stick.

- The Ark of the Covenant contains the Wrath of God that will send forth ghosts to melt the faces of people with open eyes.
- People can live with their heart ripped out.
- Drinking from the cup of ever lasting life will give you immortality and heal gunshot wounds.
- Having a conversation with an 800-year-old knight from the Crusades is an everyday occurrence.

Suddenly having aliens in the movie does not seem all the unrealistic to me. In fact, it is in keeping with the outlandish stories of the past movies. I am always willing to listen to a point of view but some of the negativity this film is gathering could have been averted if these people had their facts straight.

I hope this review does not pigeon hole me as some kind of Indiana Jones fanboy. I would not consider myself to be such because not even I can defend Temple of Doom. However, for this movie I feel I had to voice my opinion on what I consider to be unfair criticisms. I have only seen the Crystal Skull once and have not had time yet to decide where to rank it against the other three. My first reaction is to say that Raiders and Last Crusade can rest easy but Crystal Skull will probably overtake Temple of Doom in my critical rating. The bottom line is Indiana Jones promises action adventure and you get it in the traditional spirit of the Indy movies.

****

Shoot 'Em Up - Bite-Sized Review

2008-09-04T23:38:00.003+01:00

I watched Shoot 'Em Up tonight on Blu-ray. It is one of those rare movies that is so bad it is good. As the name suggest the whole movie is one long gun fight between Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and Mr. Smith (Clive Owen) who is protecting a new born baby and a lactating prostitute. It sounds preposterous and it is.

This film is so over the top ridiculous it makes Wanted look like an Sunday night BBC drama. Normally I like over the top movies but that is with the proviso that there is some sort of story going on in the background. This film really is the one of the best examples of style over substance. The director (Michael Davis) seems to think he can coast by on visual style, action and violence alone.

To be fair the movie does have its fair share of really quite inventive and humours moments, such as a gun fight while sky-diving, a gun fight during sex and a very original way of ending a car chase. Along with these highlights the film is peppered with a series of good one-liners. Giamatti as the villain of the piece gets all the best lines, as the villain usually does. My favourite being "Guns don't kill people! But they sure help".

I like the idea behind the movie, a pure action movie but I'd put it down as a failed experiment. It isn't without merit though and it is thankfully pretty short. I'd recommend it for action junkies.

Actually if you liked Crank you will probably like this.

**

The Golden Compass - Bite-sized Review

2008-09-03T20:49:00.004+01:00

I just thought I'd post a few little thoughts on this film.

I never got around to seeing this film in the cinema when it came out but I've just finished watching it now. The overriding impression it has left me with is that it was a massive missed opportunity. Now I've never read the books but from the film it is obvious that there is a very detailed and well thought out universe there. The film however failed to get any of this detail across.

It felt as though the makers knew that they couldn't fit everything into this film and were determined to keep the running time under two hours. As a result the movie hurtles along at a million miles an hour, jumping from one place to another. There isn't enough time given to explain the world that these characters live in, which is a shame. Also the actors Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman whom the advertising was based around had barely any screen time. Especially Craig, who has little more than a glorified cameo.

Having said that I felt it was okay and I would be interested in seeing a sequel if it gets made. That is a pretty big if at this stage considering its box office in the US. It has certainly made me interested in reading the books though.

Another thing I have to take issue with is its win in the Best Visual Effects category at the 2008 Oscars over Transformers. The effects were impressive but nowhere near the level of Transformers that in my opinion set a new benchmark for visual f/x.

R.E.M. @ Twickenham 30/08/08 - Review

2008-09-01T10:26:00.002+01:00

I went to see R.E.M. at Twickenham last night and it was awesome. I suppose I always say that after one of their concerts but the setlist was just so strong last night. There were several songs that I never thought I'd get to hear live in person but they were performed last night.

They opened up strongly with Living Wells the Best Revenge, These Days,The Wake-up Bomb and What's The Frequency, Kenneth?. Four rocking songs that really get the crowd going, especially Kenneth as it is the most well know of the opening salvo. For me Wake-up Bomb is the highlight as I've only seen them perform it on a couple of occassions and I've always like the song. It does sound slightly different live, just louder than the album.

They then start up with Drive that always goes down well with audiences as it is both familiar and always gets people clapping along to the strong beat. I always look forward to this song. Following that we have a quick blast of hard fast rock in Man-Sized Wreath that Stipe told us last night is written about Martin Luther King. Another rarity in the shape of Disturbance at the Heron gets played, which gets a lot of confused looks from non-fans but the diehards go mad (including me).

After that we get a little political with Stipe airing the bands hopes for the forth coming presidential election in the US. Of course they want Obama to "get the Bush the **** out of office and Obama the **** into office". They play the song Ignoreland which I am sure I've never heard live before and it was simply amazing. I was never fond of the album version but with having it performed after the political talk it gave the song new meaning. Plus it sounded really cool. Walk Unafraid is up next and is as usual a high point of the show, a real rocking song from an album (Up) that is decidedly non-rock.

The next song starts slow but is soon going along a good pace with Hollowman and the crowd seems to like this one very much. Then we have one of the all-time classic songs Fall On Me that gets every one going with hands in the air. When Electrolite gets performed next Stipe encourages everyone to wave their mobile in the air to recreate the look of Los Angeles at night. The effect looks cool on the big screens. The following song really surprises me, The Great Beyond. The crowd goes wild for it, I remember later it is the bands biggest commercial hit in the UK. The next song is my one of my least favourite in the entire back catalogue I'm Gonna DJ. This had taken over as the final song at concerts so I'm left wondering what is going to fill the gap. At least we have that song out of the way.

Up next we get Exhuming McCarthy which gets strange looks from some people as it starts with a tape recording of an old political speech. Just like it does on the album. It has always been a very enjoyable song for me so it is nice to hear it performed. The One I Love starts up and once again is a mega hit with the crowd. It is always fun to look around and see couples holding hands during this and having a smug laugh to myself as I know this song is really the reverse of a love song. During the song, Stipe gets upclose and personal with the crowd which is cool.

The band then decide to take the tempo down and play I've Been High a really soft song that sounds really good live. The next song is the biggest surprise and the highlight of the night, an acoustic version of Let Me In. I've never heard it live in person and hearing an acoustic version is even more rare. Truly amazing performance of the song and to see the band huddled around the piano playing it was some sight. With a couple of slow songs done we get some high octane performances coming.

Horse to Water blasts out and I'm jumping around as you have to do to this song and it's crazy chorus. It is a newer song so most people don't know it but I'm loving it. The Bad Day starts up and everyone knows it and then we have everyone jumping around. As this song ends with everyone clapping in unison they start immediately into Orange Crush as the crowd continues to clap. This song is a staple of the R.E.M. live set and every time I hear it, I know why. It just rocks. Another surprise next is the reaction to Imitation to Life, the crowd goes wild. It is a good song no doubt but everyone seems to really love it. It sounds a little harder than the album and I like it, especially as the crowd really gets into it.

BREAK

The encore starts with Supernatural Superserious, which is a good choice for two reasons - it is fast and recognisable. Losing My Religion is up next and as you'd expect the crowd love it. The next song is Perfect Circle, from their first album and another rarity. It is a really nice slow song. Country Feedback comes along and it has always been a favourite. The live version they play is always superior to the album version as Peter Buck likes to get carried away with the guitar. This is a stunning performance. The band finished up with the old one-two of It's The End of the World and Man On the Moon. Both get the crowd really involved and wrap up a superb concert.

Certainly a highlight of this year.