I'm online again!

Today marked the day I bought a year's subscription to Xbox Live. If you've not added me already, do so.
Gamertag: Dizturbd666
I get bored easily.
Quick post as I have other things to do. Expect something insightful soon!

Picture time!

Thought I'd give this a go. Found it on DeviantArt while searching for Video games. As far as I know, the original poster was Kawaii-Chocobo. Feel free to correct me. Also have a look at the link and have a go yourself. Mine's a bad job, so I might do another soon. (Yes, I know i can't draw.) I also don't know what the last question meant. Fill in the blank with your imagination. Enjoy!

Sleep deprivation makes for good titles not

You may have noticed the new title format at the top of the page.
Pictures?! Not text?! Crazy, I know, but I like it, so it's staying. In other news, In return for not posting for a while I had a big post nearly done with ScribeFire. Then I reformatted my computer, losing the post. Typical.
So lets see if we can't salvage something from this obvious plea for attention and break from boredom. Recently, I completed the Xbox 360 gem that is Mass Effect. Since completion I've went back and am now on my 5th playthrough. Ruddy good game. The amount of customisation in the game is immense. A player with a lot of free time could easily spend hours in the player creation screen. I lost track of time and spent ages getting my first character's eye position just right. There are a multitude of different character classes to choose from, each giving you different skills and attributes. You even get to choose your history. And then there's the in-game decisions to make. In many cases, you literally decide who lives or dies. There's the usual 'Good or Evil' style you can find in so many games these days helping you keep track of how much of an arsehole you are. The achievements (If you're into that sort of thing.) require replaying the game a minimum of 4 times, each time varying the story greatly. Each achievement unlocks a certain upgrade, such as gaining 10% more EXP.
The story is centered around Commander Shepard, male or female depending on your choice during the player creation process. It follows the discovery of ruins on Mars, helping humanity to build faster than light travel. You start on your way to a planet called Eden Prime, where another of these ruins have been discovered, which you and your alien buddies hope to use for the good of the galaxy. sure enough, everything goes tits up, and it's up to you to kill everything in sight to save our beloved section of space. As with all RPG's, you're sent on many sidequests which could have easily been done by the sender, all in an effort to level up to go beat the bad guy. You could just as easily skip them out, since the enemies level with you, but that means missing out on backstory and sub-plots, something I'm a sucker for.
Mass Effect is highly recommended, as it's one of the best games I've played in a while.

Your friendly neighbourhood addict

So recently I got myself a month's free gold Xbox Live, which so far I've put to good use. Today has been one of those days where I want to do nothing but game. (Read: A normal day.) After finding out a clever trick to use my laptop as a wireless device, meaning I didn't have a LAN cable going from my dad's room to mine, (If I can remember the site, I'll post it later) I took out Grand Theft Auto IV and had a blast at that. Since it's all I've been playing for the past week, I decided to have a go at some of my other classics to see what their online capabilities were like. Condemned and Devil May Cry 4 both have no multiplayer, but I still found the single player modes killed the monotomy of my daily life. Next up was F.E.A.R. I couldn't get past a certain point in the story mode, so after looking it up online, and realising there was no actual trick and I was just being a really crap aim, I decided to put the game away. I've tried online multiplayer before, but I spent 5 minutes looking at the party screen while people came and went, so I don't think I'll be going back to that soon. Stranglehold is a game where I am so immensely bad, I can't get past the first level. I suppose I'll just have to get used to the fast-paced action of the game, but until then I'm staying well away from it. I feel like the game laughs at me. Viva Pinata hints at an online mode, but gives no details away. I had to scour through the manual, and even then it says 'at a certain level'. You'd think with the amount of online safety warnings the game gives there'd be a lot to do, but so far it just looks like you can trade items with people. I suppose I'll have to reach that mysterious level to find out. (I'm level 13 now by the way. Am I close?) Last but not least, there's Halo 3. I have Halo 2, which also has online capabilities, but a man can only have enough Halo in one day. Besides, Halo 2 sucked. Imagine my surprise when the first time I log on, plug in my headset and hear people talking, it's not a 'hyped up 14 year old kids debating whether or not my mother is a whore''s voice like I've been led to believe. It was a guy who sounded about my age, who did nothing but compliment people's kills. Every now and then there was someone else talking who did the same. I heard gasps of astonishment when someone exploded or someone managed a skillful kill (This was a place for beginner's by the way.) This enthusiasm in the human race didn't last long, as the next time I logged on, there was
aforementioned 14 year old constantly saying 'Veto' and saying how much this map sucked. When no-one but him veto'd, he didn't say much during the match. (Which, incidently, I won by default) I thought I'd take up another game, and ended up winning. Heaven forbid! This inflation of my ego will not help my addiction level of Xbox Live.
Tomorrow: I plan to get a life and step outside, weather permitting.

Damn laziness

Mike brought it to my attention that I hadn't uploaded my blog in a while. (See. Other people DO read this thing!) I've not played any new games in a while, so I haven't got a good review planned, so let's talk films.
I've just watched Diary Of The Dead. I'm still not sure whether I like it or not. One the one hand, a zombie's eyes explode. On the other, there aren't enough zombie mobs. The whole film is done in the style of a documentary, using all those skills I learnt in Media Studies which promote realism. Though if this film was real, the American army would be a bunch of cunts, the media would edit everything to prevent panics, and humans would be the real scourge of the planet. Wait, shit.
OK, different film. Iron Man. Now there's a film without even a hint of realism. Because if it was real, life would be a lot more awesome. Just because there's a man that flies with his shoes. Today's brands really need to pick up on the fact that we need more shoes with the ability to fly, coupled with the gloves to help us steer. Screw fancy colours and new designs, flying shoes are what the market needs! Anyway, back on track, Iron Man has to be one of the best superhero films of recent days. It's rare that the origin story is usually as good as this, as demonstrated by The Hulk, from what I can tell are re-making the first film since the first was a huge flop. But I could be wrong. Watch this space.
Next time, I'll probably have played a new game. Or I'll just talk about an old game, just to fulfill your nerdy needs.

Time for another review methinks

It's because I'm bored and there's nothing to do for 8 more hours until work. Anyway, I think it's time I talked about a game that didn't involve mindless killing and destruction for once. Viva Pinata. Note: Though the killing and destruction is infact there, it's more childlike, and nothing actually dies.
Viva Pinata is a sandbox game in which you make a garden for a load of paper mache animals to come live in. Sounds boring? You'd be wrong. And shut up. The game is surprisingly addictive. Remember when The Sims first came out and you spent your days playing that, doing the same things over and over? This is the same. You clear the junk out of the garden, plant some grass, get upgrades on tools, build houses and plat seeds, sell things to buy more things, and get animals to move in. Then you get your garden expanded, and you o the same, but with more space. But the key mechanic of this game is that it's fun. It just goes to show that you don't need guns and dead bodies to make a game fun.
While we're on the subject, if a Pinata does 'die', the paper mache splits to splatter sweets onto the ground, which the other animals come to eat. While that's happening, the paper mache bits float in the air, and reform outside the garden boundary. I found this a fun way to cover up the fact that your child's prized worm just died. It also allows you to technically 'kill' the same thing many times, which could be quite satisfactory.
There was a time in the game when I didn't think about selling the random bits of fruit to make some money, and spent all my time mating my worms and birds. Everytime you try to mate two pinatas, you have to go through a maze mini-game, where coins litter the place. You can get up to 20 coins each time. This meant that there was A LOT of incest in my garden, as I was saving up for a lamp so a moth could move in. This kept me amused for a while as I realised it was a kid's game and I'd just destroyed the innocence of it.
That, and the penis shaped pond didn't help.

No-one's ever blogged about this game before!

It's GTAIV week! Even though I haven't actually managed to get a copy yet, I've played a mate's copy for a few hours. I've been told by a tutor that 15 minutes is all you need to get a feel for the game, so this should make me an expert. Right? Strangely, most of this time was spent progressing through the story, rather than the homicidal rampages which used to pop up after completing a few missions, getting bored, and realising you're holding a loaded firearm in a crowded area. From what I've seen, the story is amazing. The characters actually seem like real people, rather than gangsters who just tell you to go to point B and kill person X because they stole a cherry pie from them last week. (For the record, I'd say this is a pretty good reason for ordering a hit on someone.) The characters are given in depth back-stories, most obvious being the main character, Nico. Nico actually has a reason for his sharp shooting, unlike the previous GTA games which basically insinuate that the character is a really lucky shot.
The map is enormous and really goes to town on the scenery. It may be using the same name as the city from GTAIII and GTA: Liberty City Stories, but that's all it has in common with it's namesake. (That, and the ridiculously high crime rate.)
The cars' handling is more realistic, making the chase missions that little bit harder until you come to terms with it. The 'cartoony' explosion is long gone, with different parts of the car catching fire, before exploding into a fireball and engulfing nearby pedestrians. The wreckage is sprayed all over the place, with the chassis still on fire for a while afterwards. It's not just exploding which makes the cars inoperable anymore either, with the engine failing after one too many hits to that tree.
The NPC aspect of the game has greatly improved, with the pedestrians no longer walking over corpses in the street not paying attention to the strange man with a rifle aiming at them in the distance for some reason. Speaking of which, corpses have actual physics now! Imagine my surprise when I walked over a guy I beat to death with my car, to see that he rolled over depending on how I walked over him. Cue 5 minutes of me running back and forth over him. Which brings me to my other point. The bodies stay there and don't just disappear into the ground, only to be replaced by a chalk outline and a blood spatter. I've not yet found out how/when the bodies do actually vanish, but I'll keep on the case. (Which means my killing will be for science. FOR SCIENCE I SAY!)
There are many more things I could talk about, like how mature the game seems over it's previous violence hungry predecessors, but I'm sure you've all actually got a copy of the game and are too busy playing it to actually read this. Sorry for distracting you, now go back and kill that hooker.

Last (needed) blog post.

So this shall be the last blog post I need to do for my assignment. I'll probably keep updating afterwards just because I'm that vain. Anyway, this task is about what I did during my Easter break. It got off to a good start, being my birthday on the Monday. After officially a full year of boozing I thought I'd give my liver a rest, plus the fact that many of my mates aren't over 18 so couldn't get into clubs in Liverpool, so ended up in Pizza Hut.
I'm sure many people by now know about me and Amy splitting up, which kind of put a downer on the whole holiday fiasco. I'd bought my own copy of Guild Wars, so I spent most of the holidays playing that as a result.
Easter wasn't a good time for relationships. Many couples I know had split in the same week as we did, one of which was a friend of mine who lives just around the corner from me. When I wasn't on Guild Wars, I was there being told about how much men suck, which was replied with the same, but with a gender reversal.
In typical gaming fashion I tried out the LOST video game, got my monk to Level 20, and helped my Dad build my computer when we realised it was actually quite slow and terrible. Buying more Guild Wars games helped with the boredom at times also.
After three weeks, a bottle of Jagermeister was purchased, and it was back to Preston for good ol' education, with the Jager to help with the not going out and saving money for after exams. So far, it's not been working.

How was everyone else's Easter?

Paul told me to

Due to the Computing Skills assignment, we all have to talk about Asos.com. Since we're all computing students, I thought this was a little off, but that's a different story. After Paul had a look at the site, he noticed the models were doing really weird poses, so we came up with the idea of a little competition. Take any picture from the site, edit, and post on your blog. Best one gets 500exp and a skill point. Or whatever the real life equivalent is. (We'll sort it out later. I have drinking to do)

Here's my contribution. Click the thumbnail for full size.

I just orgasmed in my pants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5v0_TjBxY8
http://www.afhakers.nl/media.asp?x=9721

Dead Fantasy 1 and 2. The second looks much better on the site I found it on than on YouTube. I love Monty Oum just for this. I wonder when 3 is released.

EDIT: Paul just told me about this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL-mR79GErU
Haloid.