Guitar Hero On Tour...

...is gonna suck horribly. Here's why:


Dear god.

Chris Enjoys The Vidya, 2: Eternal Darkness

I had two games I really wanted to review for this post, but I'm gonna leave the other one (Megaman Battle Network) till a later date, cause I know I'll rant endlessly on it if I do it right now :P So, I'm gonna go with another favorite - Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.



Loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's works, Eternal Darkness is a survival horror that follows roughly a dozen character's experiences with the Tome of Eternal Darkness, 'a tome bound with human skin and bone'. There are a lot of little details in the story, but in broad strokes, the main character, Alexandra Roivas, goes to visit her uncle after he's had his head moved several feet from the rest of his body by some unknown force. She spends the night in his giant creepy mansion, and finds a badly hidden room full of strange artifacts - and the Tome, with only the first chapter still in it.

So, like we'd all do when we sense some great evil force in a book of human flesh, she starts reading, and starts re-living the lives of those in contact with the book before. The first character you play as - a Roman from 26BC - inadvertently gains the powers of one of the ancients of your choosing, and turns into Evil Bad Guy Man for the rest of the game. Once this happens, you zoom back to 2000 AD and Alexandra gets to explore the mansion some more. Rinse and repeat for all times in between, and you get an epic horror story. I don't really want to say much about the specifics of each time, partly because each story is well written on it's own, and you need to play it to really enjoy them. Mostly because the game is really long.

The important part of this game is the gameplay itself, which really sets it apart from others in the genre. I'll start with the main thing that was discussed when it was coming out: The Sanity Meter. Health and strength in this is measure in three bars, Health (obvious, something bites you, you get hurt, something big bites you, you die), Magick (magic with a k at the end, I'll go over this more later), and finally Sanity.

This little green meter measures how well your character's mental strength is holding up, and gets drained every time one of the creeps screams at you, or you get hurt, or some other event causes them to question their reality. What's really interesting is the effect this has on the character. Rather than just causing your health to drain when it's low, or your attacks to weaken, it causes them to literally go insane. They'll start shambling about, eyes darting from corner to corner, jumping at every noise, and then your TV will change channel because you sat on the remote. Except you didn't, and now zombies are eating you and you realise the insanity is affecting you too. The lights in your room start to flash, and the rain pounds against your window like something trying to get into the house... okay, this is a bit far, but the TV channel one really is in the game. Again, don't want to say much on the actual effects, but a couple of examples are needed - and these are far from the most effective ones at spooking the player
One, you walk into a room and the walls start dripping blood. Your character starts cowering in the middle of the room as demons break through and hover ominously towards you as you wrestle with the controller to move them on... and then they vanish, and you wonder what happened.
Two, you enter a room and it's literally FILLED with enemies. There's no space to move at all, and they all leap at once.
Three, you explode. Yes, really. Boom.

As you can hopefully tell, these effects are well thought out, and make up the crux of the games mechanisms. The magick system is also very well though out, with each ancient's allignment having dominance over another, and it all being done through a rune like system to make your spells. Runes for heal, damage, dispel and other effects, as well as target runes such as self, item, and creature all keep things interesting when you're trying to frantically fight off the hordes of enemies, really keeping up the nerve-rattling pacing of the game.

To conclude, this game is designed to thrill. It's dark, disturbing at points, and violent. It's also one of the best Survival Horrors out there, and certainly the best on Gamecube. Track it down, play it, and enjoy.

Chris Enjoys The Vidya, 1: Boktai

So, time to start something. I'm hoping to do this every week for at least a few weeks (note to other ccjad members: prod me to do this). Just gonna pick a random game that stands out as great in my mind and talk about it for a bit. Today's episode: Boktai.

Okay, it's a bit of an obscure start, but hey. This was a fun little game with one hell of a gimmick: it came in an XBOX HUEG cart that stuck out the top (or bottom for SP users) of the GBA, which was where the little black panel that made all the magic happen was. This little panel was a Solar Sensor, and this is where it gets a bit different.

But before I get into the gameplay mechanics, I'll quickly explain the story. You play as Solar Boy Django, a vampire hunter in a world inhabited almost entirely by vampires, and armies of ghouls, bats, golems, and elemental versions of all of these. After your pappy got owned by the big bad vampires, you inherited from him a kickass scarf and the Gun Del Sol, which as the name suggests is powered by the sun. This is where the solar sensor comes in: Whenever the pack comes under sunlight, your sun meter in the game is powered, and if you're outside or under a skylight in game you can charge the Gun Del Sol. When you run out of charge, you can't fight, and have to stealth your way through the levels.

Oh, and speaking of stealth, did I mention this is designed and made by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame? It shows. The stealth, while basic, is fun. You knock on walls, the ghouls get little exclamation marks above their heads, you run away while they wander round to see what's going on. In theory, you can go through the dungeons up to actually fighting the Vampires this way, although towards the end of the game it becomes pretty unfeasible unless you're a stealth game god. All the Vamps need killed with ye olde Gun Del Laserbeams, which throws them in a coffin, and you into the final stage of the levels...

Now comes the hard part. You have to drag that little coffin alllllll the way back through the dungeon, and then smack it with a giant laser - and the giant laser NEEDS sunlight. At all times. So if you get to this part at night, you're screwed. This was the main flaw in the game: while the sunlight was a fun gimmick, an element you can't control (the weather) affecting the outcome of a game is not fun when it doesn't go with you, and living in Scotland, I basically had to play through all this in a day.

But hey, it's fun, the story is good, and the gameplay is entertaining and original. Think Castlevania meets Metal Gear, is the short version. Wow, this is actually a pretty long post. That's it for this week then, more obscure games you've never played next week!

First impressions are the most important

Well, finally got back round to posting something, so I guess I better make it half decent. Since I seem to be just playing/reading/listening to short bursts of things recently, I'm gonna give some of them mini-reviews based on my first impressions (hence the title, cause i r smrt) on them! Fun for all :P

Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin on Nintendo DS

Played a whole... ten minutes of this round at Calum's a few days ago, and instantly realised I need to get it. I liked the old AW games, despite never having managed to actually complete one (always get stuck at sky battles, just can't do them for some reason), but this one is fantastic looking just for the update in graphical style. If you don't already know, the basic premise is the world has been hit by some kind of disaster, meteors or some such thing - I'm guessing it'll turn out to have been a SUPER SECRET PLOT of some kind - and the bad guys are all having a massive looting murder party. The game opens with your character, a recruit with a name I can't remember, crawling out of some wreckage and getting saved from said bad guys by The Good Guys. The first thing that hit me was how realistic things were looking now, with them ditching orange jumpsuits for army fatigues suitably covered in apocalypse dust. The battle system seems more in depth too, and all reviews have been positive. So, all in all, instantly hooked on this one. Thumbs up get!


Lost Odyssey on XBox 360

Well, I'm about an hour into this one, and so far all I can say is 'What the hell?'. Here's some MSN quotes I've came out with whilst playing:

(19:28) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Ohh yeah, I rock. Died in the tutorial battle.
(19:30) Jingleboy: In Bleach?
(19:30) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Nah, Lost Odyssey

(19:42) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Lost Odyssey has save points
(19:42) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Why do people still make games with save points
(19:43) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Just let us use the menu, damnit

(21:49) [ShadowDragon/Ch: I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing in lost odyssey... already
(21:50) Jingleboy: :P
(21:51) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Oh! I was meant to sleep at the inn
(21:51) [ShadowDragon/Ch: That makes sense I guess
(22:09) [ShadowDragon/Ch: So... I've slept at the inn. Now what the hell am I meant to do? And yes, the inn cutscene really was that long.

(22:53) [ShadowDragon/Ch: Alright, taking a break from Lost Odyssey because the first boss completely destroyed me in two turns

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. I think I need to restart and play whilst paying attention rather than just running through it though. Despite these complaints, the storyline so far is really good, and has made me want to keep playing it, especially the 'recovering lost memories' aspect of it because they are genuinely interesting. Jury is still out on this one.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure in Manga

Well, this first impression is of the first volume of the manga, which is good for it. Had I been reading it online, I would've stopped after the first couple of chapters. It suffers from trying to give us a lot of the japan-only backstory in a short amount of time, and dumping us into a slow-moving intro right after that. I was bored, and only reading on because I'd paid for it and I'll be damned if I wasn't finishing it no matter how bored I was. After the start, I was glad I did. Things heat up very quickly, and the fights are intelligent enough to keep you looking closely rather than skipping through to the next story part. The story follows Jotaro Kujo, the third or fourth JoJo in the proper story as he believes he is being haunted by a demon. He soon finds out that it is actually a mysterious psychic being called a Stand, which has appeared because of his will to fight after the families age old enemy Dio is brought back to the world. Soon, more Stands appear - both good and evil, and those in between - and the race is on to destroy Dio before he becomes too powerful. I've yet to buy more of this, but it'll certainly keep me interested if it keeps up the pace it sets towards the end of the first volume. Another thumbs up for this one!

I do have a couple of other mini-reviews to make, but this post is getting rather long so I'll keep them for another time. In the meantime, I'm going back to being excited about Auchinawa and working on my games programming.

Bai for now,
Chris

I cannot be arse

Hello my dear blog readers! How goes life? Haven't heard from me for a while, but not to say you've haven't heard me for the longest time. *Looks at other blog users, more so CJD*

This blog is now called CA until another person posts. :P

What have I been up to the past few months? Well, in all honesty, not much. I can list a few things, such as Halo 3, College, eating and sleeping, but nothing fantastically amazing. Life just goes on, yet each day I feel like I am waiting for something. Waiting for what? I dunno. I just get the feeling.

Currently at my college, me and 3 other dudes are making a Team Project game. (Our Group is called L.A.T Graffix, guess who suggested that one. ;) ) We are making good progress on said game which will be the FIGHTAN-type, and we aren't even supposed to work on it yet. We are basically doing the whole thing backwards. Program first, then paperwork. For more info on our game named "Sprite Fight", check out the game's dev blog here.

Recently I have also been reworking on my Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon script. Don't know what that is? Basically, it is a code which allows you to use Nintendo Wii controls for my Favorite N64 game. What you need to run it is:

*Wiimote (Nunchuk is optional or Classic controller)
*A PC with Bluetooth. (I used a USB dongle)
*Project 64 with Mystical Ninja Starring: Goemon ROM
*GlovePIE 0.29 (I'll provide link here.)
*And of course, the script I made here. (ZOMG RAR FILES!11)

Read the text file included, and that's that. It works really well with all modes, and it also contains a Wii Boxing-type mode called "Impact Mode" which can be used in-game to enhance certain boss fights.

Too lazy to try? Here is a vidya:



With that, I leave to do something else. Probably just sit around on msn, being lonely. :P

See ya around peeps,

~Ally.

P.S CCJAD plus extra C are going to Auchinawa this year. We will post more details when it comes closer to the time. If you are going though, feel free to leave us a comment! (And a wave)

Re-inventing and re-design.

Hey y'all, has been a while since I last posted. I write this because in the future people will want to know how this Blog came to be and how inactive it was when it was in it's earlier stages. =P

So yeah, been a while and what's the first thing I notice? The Bloody music player isn't working. What do we get instead? A massive 'FILE NOT FOUND!!!1!!' message. Hmm, sorry guys, maintenance has never been my strong point. I'm also considering a new layout seeing as the current one seems to be insanely temperamental, editing itself so it can display it's contents in the most awkward fashion fathomable with varying effects from computer to computer. And of course to top it all off, I once again have a computer testing my patience, freezing at irregular intervals with incredibly slow opening speeds.









Yep, when 'bad' rears its ugly face, it always seems to come in concentrated shit tides.







Anyways, excuses asides time to look to the future and what it beholds, like what sort of things you can see me posting in the future. Well really the same as now, but hopefully more frequent. I plan on focusing on videos and perhaps articles pictures or general news I find interesting mixed with a narrative response to the links. I.e. a bunch of funny stuff. =P

This post however I'll be looking at once of the trump cards Nintendo unveiled this week at 'E3' which in all honesty, with their Wii having a more physical approach to gaming, was a stroke of genius.



Indeed Nintendo are always striving to provide the alternative form of play instead of the conventional controller, and with Wii Fit they may just have tipped the bar. Quite similar to the ps2 snowboard hardware Wii fit uses a board with two panels on top of which the player must stand. In doing so the console can calibrate balance and register weight of players and display the players BMI on screen. Really this is an excise game but then Nintendo are always aiming to please more than the core audience of the gaming industry.



After watching the video you can see that improving balance, posture and stamina are all part of the experience within the game which in turn is always good. But after analyzing the board itself, we can conclude that it can take us to new heights in gaming, think of the possibilities. Finally a 'new' Tony Hawks game or a more submersible 1080. Sounds good to me! Count me in. Perhaps even 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games' (sigh) will be able to use the Wii fit board.

Surprisingly on this note, nobody has posted the biggest letdown in cross-over history. Yes, if you're anything like us here a Ccjad no doubt you would have heard of the utter failure in innovation of 'Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games'. Being one of the biggest Sonic fanboys ever and being a Mario fan alike, this was possibly the least epic thing Sega and Nintendo could have done.



No this is NOT a hoax, it is the single most gutting thing to happen to the pair of them, although apparently it's supposed to be good. ¬_¬



In all fairness I will be giving it a try and most likely buying it for either one of the two platforms it's coming out for (Ds and Wii). But seriously, guys, a Sports game? With that title? It sounds like a fucking children's book not to mention that most sport games appear on shelves begging to be bought regardless of their soulless content. How can you even have a sports game with such uneven teams?



No point in gearing up team Mario, you ain't gonna win against Sonic. Seriously, he's like supposed to travel at the speed of sound, I doubt you'll be able to keep up.



I don't care if he's jumpman there's still no chance in hell he would ever win a contest of speed and agility. This is about the only event his team will win, and even so, it's Bowser the 'Bad guy' who will win!

Hmm, there wasn't supposed to be a rant include this time but ah well. Anyways, Various other titles were show cased at E3 this week such as Killzone 2 for the Ps3 or Halo 3 for the 360, both looking as slick as oil but really there was only one new title that stuck out for me, or at least, one which had not yet been shown anywhere else. And that was Mario Kart wii!

Finally a decent racing game for the Wii apart from Excite Truck! And what's this? It comes with a free Steering wheel addon for the wiimote?! Oh joy!



Here's Reggie kicking ass and taking names whilst show casing the Wheel at E3 whilst showing some footage of Mariokart in the Background.



The Graphics are looking as gruber as ever for Mario in his supah-kart.



Looking good for Wario too as he blitzes along the track

Looking over some of the other things it would be good for all of you out the to google...conduct a google search for Geometry wars, phantom hourglass and Metriod prime 3 for some more Wii goodness. Also for you Smash fans out there, you can keep an eye on the up coming masterpiece that is Smash bros Brawl by clicking the picture below to be directed to the



.
To round things off, hopefully I'll be able to get a new layout up and running soon whilst clearing it with the rest of Ccjad...or Ally as he posts. ^_^'

Anyways, enjoy your holidays ladies and gents.

Ciao for now, Calum.

P.s. Another random video for you as I round off....and Raiden from Metal Gear Solid is alright, it's Rose that ruins it >_>.

5 in a row!

Indeed, I now make a record with 5 blog posts in a row. How delightful.

Exams are all wrapped now anyway. The last 3 weeks have been well earned/wanted rest time. Mainly composed of sleeping, playing vidya games and surfing the net. I've decided to try and finish all my out standing games, though taking a break from RPGs as I've played enough for the time being. =P Still no posts from the other 4 of Ccjad either... ah well. Maybe one day.

I haven't really got much else to say really, we've got an end of Highschool prom on Thursday but that's about it.

See you guys around!

~Ally.

Ps. Word just in, Manhunt 2 has been banned everywhere in the UK. Oh noes.



Funny how I was thinking about this the other day.

That's life.

I discovered this picture and found it rather touching. I felt the need to share it.

Credits go to Adonis Werther; for this beautiful piece.

In other news, last exam tomorrow! ...Er today even. =P I best be getting some sleep, though it's chemistry and I'll most likely fail it anyway.

Sorry for the lack of updates aswell to any readers of our blog, if you exist. When the exams are over, hopefully more things will be put up by the other 4 memebers.

Also looks like it's time to cut down on RPGs, and I currently have Skies of Arcadia, Baten Kaitos: Origins, Magical Starsign, Pokémon Pearl (hopefully) and Dragon Quest 8 to finish. As well as normal games like Eledees, DKR:DS etc.

I plan to watch a lot more anime in the holidays as well, main problem is locating them. I also wanna meet up and do loads of weird and wonderful things with the rest of the Ccjad crew. (Other than Ragnarok. =P)

Ah well, hope you see you guys around. I really need to leave now.

~ Ally.

Ps. Flumpmart.

The dragonthorns are defeated.

You know you've been playing too many RPGs when you fear you'll get into a random battle when scrolling down webpages.

True story.

~Ally

MKH

Omfg! (Pronounced Om-fff-ig)








This is fake, april fool's joke by the way. :P It was posted in some magazine somewhere. Still, I think it's a nice concept/mockup.

~ Ally.

Top ten anticipated games of 2007...from GameTrailers

Admittedly, not all the games I'd like to have there are within this video but it is still fairly accurate. Seems like 2007's going be a big year and I'm gonna have to get myself an Xbox 360.

So what do you all think out there? Any other suggestions for what should be playing amoungst the big guns? Post your views and thoughts as to what you think should have been included in the top ten. Personally, I would have liked to have seen perhaps a Final Fantasy game and perhaps Spawn but whatever.

Laters, Calum

Depressing times

Yeah, with the holidays ending today and the exams coming closer, it's getting harder to relax - which sucks. When everyone was just getting used to being free, the two weeks go by - BOOM - and then slap-bang, you are going back to school. Right now teachers will only bother about NABs and Prelims. So roll on the 12th!

In other news, the pope died. So, another one 'poped' up.

Seriously, I have nothing important to type, and I have nothing much to talk about.

However, recently I've taken accustom to just sitting on my arse all day playin' some good ol' N64 which celebrates its 10th year being hooked up (Unlike its brother 'Cube, who sleeps under the bed after 4 years) with an Expantion Pak and a copy of Perfect Dark. I Must say, great game. Hell of a lot like good ol' GoldenEye with mainly improvements, though I do miss the whole James Bond theme. I completed the game in about 7 hours, which is a shame, as that means it's done and dusted already. Yet, I go back just to shoot bows and launch knifes into the two poor firearm helpers. Great fun. There are those other difficultly settings, but I can't be bothered with them at the minute.



My poor Wii is getting some neglect, as I have nothing to play on it really. I mean, I have some Virtual Console titles, but I want some proper 3D action. Or in general, new fun. Ah well.

Before I go, I'll leave you all with this random image, enjoy.

See you whenever.

Christmas, new year and all that Jazz

It's now January. For most of the world, the long awaited period known as Christmas has come and gone....a little too fast for me though. Did December actually happen? I can't remember.@_@

Anyways, I hope everybody out there had a good 'winter vacation'. Not much has happened within the Ccjad group. With exams looming and School just around the corner again....let's just say I'm starting to feel the pressure. :P

As Chris, David and James surprisingly haven't mentioned,they finally started their own web comic. Whoopee! It's been a while in debating but Chris finally took the first decisive step and started the three on their own grand adventure. I won't say much on it, I'll let one of those three describe their intentions and what direction they're going to pursue. But I guess I'll post the link;


Remember y'all it is in it's early stages so be nice. :P

Anyway, that aside I thought I'd give a random review!! This wee....post since three fifths of the group now have Wii's, with one awaiting the next shipment to come through, I thought I'd do a review on 'Power Stone Collection' for the PSP.
Having had the first one for the Dreamcast and always having my eye on the second instalment, I took the plunge and decided to buy the Hand-held remake.
On first playing the game you can select three different modes. Simply put, these are Power Stone, Power Stone 2 and a gallery collection. The gallery is really where mini-games and the end cut scenes are available to view and play, but anyway on with the review.



Power Stone

Unlike most beat-em-ups, Power Stone does not conform to the linear fighting games we are unaccustomed to see. Instead, we are submerged into a 3D environment, in which the player can run circles round their opponent if they wanted too. Extremely similar to the battle system in the Namco 'Tales' series genre for the PS2.
One of the unlockable features which makes this game unique in itself is the Rear mode, where the camera shifts to a Resi evil position behind the character which in turn is a nice feature but very hard to control.

The main theme of the game are the Power stones them self. Both Power Stone and Power Stone 2 revolve around them. In Power Stone, it's 1 on 1. Duke it out, with one main character in your focus. You have five health bars, but they go down fast, and if the opponent attacks you whilst having three power stones, there's not much point in having them in the first place. You can throw tables, chairs, pictures, even pots and light posts, and much more! You can pull anything out of the background and use it on your opponent. There are unlockable weapons in this game that are from the second game which for me is a plus. Laser beams and Kantana swords can never go wrong (*cough* Multi-player Red Steel *cough*).


But really the only items worth getting are the power stone. Collecting three of them will turn your character into an unstoppable, god-like divinity that could turn the tables on the opposition. You have two different normal attacks that drain you "super-bar" by little, and then you have two super attacks that drain all of your bar which is saying so is worth it. Although these massive attacks may use all your gauge up, they absolutely maul your opponent to death, and they're not exactly easy to dodge.

Power Stone 2

This is more of a party game in which saying, it's better played with friends.All the characters from the first game are all here, plus more, giving the game a standard total of 12 to mess around with. There are extra characters, but I'd rather not ruin your game.


You can try the 1 on 1 mode, but the 3 on 1 mode and the adventure mode are much better. You also collect money in adventure mode, which will be very valuable to you when you hit the Item shop.

The item shop is your haven from the fights in the game. you can spend hours here for one reason and one reason only. and that's the mixing system. Once you get all the items that you can from adventure mode the first time 'round, come here and mix them, you never quite know what you'll get at the end. You can also buy items, sell items, and even give the shopkeeper an item or two. I'm guessing at the moment it allows you to unlock even more stuff but I'm not entirely sure.

The best part about this game is that there are over 130 toys for you to play around with in this game, each (most rather) with its own unique abilities. From umbrellas to toy hammers, rabbit tails to crowns (which you wear), you can use them all. It's always nice to dress your character up like a total ass and then kick the shit out of someone.

Overall, the idea of having this game on the go really enticed me into buying it. The only problem I can see in the game is, as usual for the Psp, the loading times. You want to be able to pick up a handheld game and play it straight away, not wait a few minutes as a stagnant picture of a plane floats by your screen. Other than that it's a great time waster and I really like it so I'm-a gonna give it 8/10.

So that asides, let's move onto Zelda : It's Good, it does not need a review. Get it. Get it NOW!



Anyway, have a happy new year everybody and let's hope January's not too bad on us and I'll leave you all with this delightful picture. Hope it didn't happen to you on Christmas day. :P



Later y'all, Calum

Watch Bleach!

Bruce Wii!

Yo, how goes things?

Nothing much to report, except new console releases etc.

On the 18th, Ccjad (Maybe minus the D. =P) went to play the brand-spanking new Nintendo Wii! This was a one in a life time opportunity (Not really) as we managed to play it the day after the PS3 launch, but before the US Wii launch. So we are special, go us.

Anyway, we left for Glasgow at 9:30am (9:32 am to be exact =P) then wandered all hyped up to Buchanan galleries until we saw the crowd of people around a white stall. Our first thoughts were "Ah, bugger."

Hurrying on, we slipped into the line, which wasn't too big, but hardly moved. He waited for about 30 minutes, talking about the Wii and the other people in the queue, waiting to play the Wii it's self (The game was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) which incidently, 3 of us have played. Then guy from the stall goes "The time you get to play the Wii has been reduced to 2 minutes due to the queue". That sucked. After another hour, we finally got to the top of the line.

The game had been changed to Wii Play. Kinda sucky as it didn't use the Nunchuk, or use the Wiimote to amazing extent, but still, better than nothing. The fun had been granted, as me and Calum wielded our Wiimotes. It was suprisingly shiny, and really comfy. I would have spend longer looking at it, but the 2 minutes were dwindiling and we needed to hurry.

Wii Play is composed of a few mini games which will rock only for mutliplayer. By yourself, it is pretty dry. The mini games I remember consist of Table Tennis, Laser Hockey, Target shooting, Fishing, something looking like Cow riding, something to do with a rocket and Pool. We were not really spoiled for choice, so Laser Hockey it was.

Laser Hockey was basically Air Hockey, but with funky 1980's neon lights. I went Razzle Dazzle Red, where as Calum was Burnin' Blue.

Either my hand were shaking pretty bad, or the sensitivity was WAY to high, but my red neon paddle was zooming all over the place with the slightest movements. The game started after a count down, and then we started flicking the Wiimotes. I must say, it was fun. I scored first, then a second time but then the tables turned and the final score was 5-4 to Calum. (One of his goal scored by me. >_>) It was still fun though. Most impressive bit was twisting my arm and watching the paddle twist as well. The sensor bar which collects the Wiimote movement was in a rather awkward position and I feel it wasn't calibrated right, but it does a pretty good job.

Next up was Chris and James. They choose the Target Shooting game, which I avoided since it would be too much like a Light Gun game for my liking. The game starts off after another count down, and Chris was owning James' ass, until James got his bearings and turned the tables, which resulted in him winning.

Target Shooting was similar to the classic Duck hunt, but evolved with the rounds. It started by shooting targets of Red, gold (For extra points) and your opponents Mii's face (If you shot your own Mii's face, you lost points, which James found out). The stage then went onto balloon shooting, which the occasional Duck, then to shooting a can, then to shooting UFOs which was abducting Mii's. At this point, the guys were kicked off.

The Mii's we played as were called Andy and Sparky. Random line breaker. =P

We came back after a while to see the queue and crowd had grown bigger. We timed it right thankfully. =P The new guys were playing Wii sports, which I wanted to play. The tennis match they played looked so inviting and fun. The guy got his ass handed to him by his sister, which goes to show that the Wii will attract girls. We did contemplate having another shot, but decided against it.

The Wii truly is a small console, but it packs a great experience. It had most the folk around us turning their heads to look at the awesomeness.

In the same trip we went to a kick ass import shop with the latest from America and Japan and a "Zomg ogle" PS3 in a glass cabnit, which was probably bullet proof. We also stopped off at really good GameStation with all the retro consoles and rare games.

..And there you have it, our wii experience. We will have to wait til the 8th of December to get our hands on one in the UK, but we look forward to it with bated breath.

- Ally out.

P.s. Reggie Fils-aime is awesome.

Edit:

I CAN REACH THE SUNSHINE!

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.

Oh snap! My English novel broked my brain!!

This place seemed quiet so Random out burst from me.

See Mario there? Do you think he is really in pain or secretly conducting an army of evil mens to destroy YOU? Zomg beans on toast.

If anyone actually looks at the blog, leave us a comment please!

... Or you'll be constipated or something.

FUN FACT! I just googled constipated to see if I spelt it correctly, and I have some Firefox plugin that enhances google, and it also trys to guess what you are searching. Anyway, I put in constipated and pressed enter at the wrong time... and got this!



Joyus!

Now before I retire, I will leave you with this other funny picture of when I uninstalled World of Warcraft. (This is not a hoax)




Ally/Jingleboy, out!

Cheating already?!?

Okay, this is a bit naughty, but I'm gonna do it anyway. These were mini-reviews I wrote a while back, but I'm gonna put them here now. Have fun :P

Mini-Reviews Time!

Time for me to review some of the entertaining things I've done recently, starting with films:

Pirates Of The Carribean: Dead Man's Chest

For the most part it was a great film, but the cliffhanger ending is severely irritating, and many of the jokes are simply taken from the first one, and seem to be there just for people to go 'Ho! Remember how funny that was the last time?'. Still worth a watch though, and I'm looking forward to the next one to find out the conclusion.
As Cass reminded me, I forgot to mention one thing: for those who haven't already seen this film, wait until the end of the credits. There is another scene afterwards. Enjoy.

Superman Returns

Special effects budget overload! They seem to have had so many ideas for this film that they've tried to cram them all in at once, and it's sorta spoiled it. Definitely the low point of the film is the way they try to add in the 'It's a Bird, it's a Plane' gag, and it just sounds cheesy now. I guess that's just due to it being slotted into an old series though. On it's own, it is a good film for recent standards, with Kevin Spacey being placed into Lex Luther's shoes with a show-stealing performance. The other characters do seem weak at times, but he more than makes up for it.

Right, now onto the games:

Trauma Center: Under the Knife for Nintendo DS

This is one difficult game. The storyline fits beautifully in with the action, and the gameplay of the game is excellent, a real testament to Nintendo's 'New Ways To Play' as it couldn't have been created before this time. The game has a great lifespan, and going back to get S-Ranks on the earlier missions will keep many gamers occupied for hours. But once again, this game gets hard. Probably the most difficult DS game I have played, but in this games it enriches the experience and helps to draw the player into the world of Dr. Stiles.

Megaman Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar for Nintendo GBA

Yay, another MMBN game! I love these things, and I doubt if I could really explain why. The way the game builds up a skill level so naturally, and the storylines all being created to fit both into the continuity of this series and alongside all Megaman games really adds up to an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately, this would appear to be the last in the series, a real pity considering how large the fanbase of the games has become through time. Perhaps the series will move onto DS or even Wii, but for now this is the end. However, despite this being the final one, it rises to the occassion beautifully by giving the fans of the series all the best bits of the old games, while adding in many new features. I would advise for people to play the older games before playing this one, as many of the techniques used in-game aren't fully explained, preffering only to highlight the new features such as Beast Out and LinkNavi. This game is the most tactical-based game in the series with weakness and strengths being highlighted and used much more regularly rather than just using the most powerful techniques. During the normal game the difficulty level increases perfectly, with the enemies always matching your skill enough to challenge you without being too easy or hard. However, it's once you complete the game that it really shines. The multitude of extra features, challenges, weapons and tasks given afterwards are both difficult enough and entertaining enough to keep players in the game for many months. A definite must-buy for fans of the series, but those new to the series should try the older ones first, then play this as the crowning moment.
EDIT: Forget what I said about not being too hard. Forte is incredibly hard. Insanely hard. And keeps getting harder. Lots of time for me to spend fighting him then :D


Chris