Gaming Tuesday

So, it goes without saying really that the majority of my time has been sunk into Blue Dragon. Since my last update I've done a quest in a "Forest Of Exile" and gone through a laser abused landscape that looked not too dissimilar from those cheese levels from the old Worms games. I realise now why people referred to JRPG as grinding slog-fest affairs. I've not even had to go through grinding up my levels to fight a boss yet. But it still feels like I've been grinding through. There's a lot of pointless cut-scenes as well, which I normally would enjoy. But when you're hunting down an elusive save point so you can go to bed or even just stop playing for a while you end up getting bogged down with a pointless array of 30 second cut-scenes with the little yellow thing screeching "LOOK A *story related item*!!! LOOOOOK THERE IT IS!!!". I'm almost paraphrasing the subtitles with that as well. Even after my criticisms though I am going to finish it. Or at least get to disc three. But then I may as well finish it? Oh dear.

Apart from careering through that monstrosity I've continued to dabble on my Newcastle managerial career on Fifa 10. Achieved promotion and in my second season in charge I'm sitting quite happily around 6th in the table. Bizarrely after my conquest of the FA Cup I'm also in Europe. What area is not specified, probably UEFA Cup though. Celtic are in it. Hopefully I can drag myself away from Blue Dragon to continue this although I've heard upon the rumour mill of glitches and bugs in the achievements for the mode. Not that I'm a big stickler for achievements (anymore) but if the patch that's coming out very soon is going to fix the niggles then is it worth waiting? Probably, saying that I've still got around 90% of the season to go anyway so by the time I get there it may well be fixed.

Finally there was even a little bit of time for ODST. Been a few weeks since I played but I had a friend how suggested Firefight and it seemed ridiculous to say no. Its great fun still, I really need to put some more time into it because it is more fun than Horde I'd say and on a similar level to World At War's zombie mode. It is intrinsically different though as well, no sacrifice to that Halo flavour we're all so accustomed to. At least I can rely on the fact that a lot of people will hold on to their copy just for a bit of that Reach beta. Still plenty of games to come.

Lost & Blue Dragon

I kind of fell out of the loop with Lost after season one. So its been a while since I watched the show. I'd been waiting for the show to arrive with great excitement but somehow when it did I wasn't as keen as I expected to watch it. In fact it took me a good few days (and a good few beers) to pluck up the courage to dive in. I can understand why my sub conscious was against me now, the deja-vú is pretty horrendous. He's on smack, he dies, ignore the polar bear. The lessons from the episodes I've already seen showed through very strongly. If only I could apply that ability of recollection to my academic studies. Still, I'll persevere. Two episodes down. A lot more to go.

Oh dear. Its happened. I've not only got into Blue Dragon. I've let it consume me. I'm currently bathing in the blind joy of getting to disc two. Its been frustrating, confusing, boring and down right annoying at times. At other times its been alright. I've not really enjoyed much of it so far. For some reason they introduced this small yellow shouty thing into the game early on. I sat and let the solitary tear run down my face as I knew that little crap-shit was going to be with me for the rest of the game. Eight hours maybe he's been screeching in cut-scenes and wobbling in the battle field. I hate to blame the Japanese for this but what is it with crazy-ass annoying side-kicks? At least Western media has the wise-cracking one. Its annoying but at least its not that annoying. Anyway, disc 2. Undoubtedly I'll have sunk another 12 hours of my life into it by Tuesday. I hope not. But its inevitable.

Nathan Barley (yeah?) & Blue Dragon

I remember watching Nathan Barley when it was first on telly in 2005. I didn't really get it to be honest, I was 15. I was loving Coldplay's X&Y album. I really wasn't ready for it. I watched it all again the other day on 4OD. I really need to remember about 4OD more often, literally years of television available to stream for free. Its brilliant to say the least. As is Nathan Barley. Its got Brooker written all over it as well with the fashionista cunts being made to look and sound like the dicks they are. What struck a chord with me most was the constant searching for a new word to describe anything. "That's so Jackson" being one that perhaps would be less "ironic" now than it was then. Witty, funny and also worrying how little has changed in 4 years. Young people are still wankers and not even just in London now. They're fucking everywhere. I'm probably one. I have shit hair and a penchant for drinking and swearing. Still worth watching, its free after all. Yeah?

Going from one end of the spectrum to the other. Blue Dragon is a nerdy as hell JRPG about saving the world from a robot shark controlled by an old purple guy. Or something. So I figured that if I can't find anything useful to do with all the time on my hands I may as well find a good time sponge. A Bounty for my wasted life. JRPGs are good for this, people can sit in their pants and play them for 200+ hours. I'm good at sitting in my pants and I have the time. I think I'm qualified. I'm about 1 hour into the game. Well probably more like half an hour. But I pissed about fighting a load of robots. Then I went to town to meet someone and couldn't find a save point first so left it on. So my game timer is actually about 3 and a half hours. Its alright so far. The characters are lame and annoying but the graphics are pleasingly bright and cartoony. A refreshing change from brown and grey shooters and the constant green and weird faces of Fifa. I'll see how long I can put up with it. Considering there's a mail strike now as well I'm going to be stuck with it for a while waiting for the next treat from Swapgame. It'll probably be something I regret having on the list anyway. I'll die before they send me Batman.

Tubelord, Editors, FlashForward, True Blood & World Of Goo

Not long after I posted about not having received the Tubelord album yesterday the link turned up in my inbox. For those who are uninitiated in the wonder of the Kingston scamps they peddle a kind of jittery ADD enriched punk-pop. They buy their clothes at the same shop as Danananana(ananana)akroyd to put a metaphorical spin on it. I'm quite enjoying this new breed, they're from my generation after all. The ones who were listening to Blink 182 and Green Day when they were at school. When those bands used to be good as well, not when the colours dulled and the ballads were spun. As a thank you for pre-ordering (read paying for) the album I received an acoustic album. But the main album is pretty good to start with. "Night Of The Pencils" is exactly what punk-pop should be sounding like these days; the unpredictability of Infinity Land era Biffy and all the gang vocals and sing alongs of any of your more recent chart-botherers. The only detractor I can think of is the quality of the audio is a bit shit for me, but that may well be just my brand of headphones and speaker. I'm no expert. Anyway, listen to them, love them. Oh yeah, the acoustic album's good too. They can sing and all.

Editors seem to have been around for a while now. Although they're only now releasing their third album. Their contemporaries Bloc Party, Maximo Park and even Arctic Monkeys beat them to it. They've gone for a change of direction this time, out with Interpol in with Depeche Mode. First single "Papillion" made it seem like an inspired choice, sounding surprisingly addictive for a song so devoid of Editors' signature guitar. Although after listening to the rest of the album I'd say the result was not so inspired. In fact its a little boring. Which is the risk you take when its all monochrome clothing and rambles gloom. But all I've heard this year is records which inspire sadness and depression. There's only so much I can enjoy before it becomes an endurance. Maybe when I'm more in the mood I'll give it a proper listen but for now I'll remember the epic refrain of "Bullets". At least that sounded a little upbeat in its depressing musings.

So Flashforward has been rumbling on for a few weeks now. Rumbling is an appropriate term for it because I'm not really sure where its heading. Which I guess is part of the attraction. Its still walking the tightrope between sci-fi hokum and modern thriller. I'm not fussed either way really but I just know that I'm not going to find out for a while. Its appealing though, I'm being drawn in. The odd departure to Germany aside the drama is bubbling quite nicely. I just pray we get some kind of answer at the end of the season. I've heard ABC likes cutting good dramas short early, if they decide to end this after one season it might even be better for it. Which brings me on to True Blood, no new paragraph. This only going to be brief. Second episode was enjoyable, this is very much about the characters though as opposed to the previous. The central romance featured is starting to get a little Twilightesque (or what I think that would be like) but hopefully it will continue down a few more alleyways. Also the cliff hangers are surprisingly lame. I'll wait till next weeks to see if this one is as poor as I expect it to be.

Finally I come to World Of Goo which is celebrating its first birthday by doing a Radiohead. I paid a measly $2. I'm sorry. I'm poor. That's more than I paid for the Radiohead album mind. Anyway, its basically a little physics puzzle based around gooey blobs of smiles. The graphics are lovely, the sound endearing and the puzzles taxing. But I'm shit at puzzles. I get confused about using my keys sometimes. I've got stuck on many of the Lego games. I have no idea how to use the blind in my room, I've been here for 8 months. I digress, my point is you should buy it. Fund an indie developer a little and enjoy a great slice of left field gaming. Its more fun than Guitar Hero 2. That's for sure.

Gaming Tuesday & Noah And The Whale

My life is slowly being consumed by Fifa 10 in gaming terms. In fact maybe not just in gaming terms. Its only a matter of time before I close my eyes and Andy Gray starts waxing lyrical about how Newcastle have had a tumultuous few years. I'd go as far as saying its my game of the year so far. So far being the case in point obviously, there's a great many games still to be released and Swapgame may actually send me Arkham Asylum soon you never know. In the mean time however I'll have to enjoy Guitar Hero 2 which is what I've received this month. Its not great. Admittedly I've only played through on Easy so far, I'll have a fairer idea when I tackle it on the harder difficulties. But having no licensed songs. Well two that I've played so far, one by Primus and one by My Chemical Romance. Wonderful, right up my street. In fact the track-listing is worse than that of Guitar Hero 3 let alone the more recent releases. It'll be returned in a week I'm sure. I gave the Brutal Legend demo a whirl today as well. For someone who chose to watch Conor Oberst over Tenacious D at a festival once a game with Jack Black probably wasn't for me. But I enjoyed it somewhat, that hack 'n slash genre being an under appreciated one for me. The humour was also a nice surprise, not laugh out loud but definitely endearing. Its on the Swapgame list. I'll probably get it before Batman.

One final point, I mentioned Noah and The Whale fleeting the other day as the lesser to new band Mumford & Sons. I managed to catch Noah & co in Falmouth after a friend got me in. I enjoyed it a lot to be honest. The new material sounds good live, very sweepingly epic in places. Its a shame the mostly freshers comprised crowd only wanted to hear the one hit of "Five Years Time" which they performed begrudgingly in an encore. It may sound rather harsh, but I hope this band lose some of their fame and end up in small rooms of pubs again, because with a good crowd and the same songs it could have been an amazing experience. One to look out for if they come near you, but remember to give the rest of their stuff a chance at least. They do deserve it.

Mumford & Sons, Volcano Choir & Deadmau5

I thought I'd have a think about what I've been listening to for the last week. I'm fairly sure all of the records are new(ish) releases but its hard to tell with Spotify. They tend to just appear with little to no fanfare. Anyway, Mumford & Sons are part of that nu-folk scene that's been cropping up from London for the past few years. Noah And The Whale, Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn; you know the score. They share a lot in common with the first in that list really, although the songs are a bit more of a bluegrass style than the straight folk pop of Noah and co. They're definitely made for big things, by that I mean of course mild indie cross-over success. The album certainly has the singles on it, "Little Lion Man", "The Cave", "Roll Away Your Stone" all have the hallmarks of quality on them. They'll be the darling of Radio 1 shortly enough.

Volcano Choir are a misleading entity. Anyone with broadband and ears should swoon with joy when anyone utters the perennial audible delight that is Bon Iver. So when hearing that Volcano Choir are a little side project of his you are not surprised when you find yourself frantically hammering the keyboard in search of "VOLCANO BON IVER" or whatever. The similarities between the two records however are few and far between. This has more in common with modern American oddity bands than the flannel-shirted musings of despair. Its an alright album, it certainly starts well and ends badly. On its own merit its enjoyable enough, but on the coat-tails of old Justin Vernon this will probably end up under-listened in most people's music library.

Something a little bit different is the Canadian knob-twiddling rodent Deadmau5. Probably the darling of the electronica scene right now or 6 months ago depending on the timing of my appearance to this party. I'm not sure if he's revolutionised dance music, but that's usually the only thing used to describe someone new in this genre. No matter what the tag line for his success is the album "For Lack Of A Better Name" is fantastic. Pretty much every track is a winner and the (possibly only on Spotify) inclusion of a mixed version of the record is a well-judged implementation. It'll get you dancing, or at least you should.

On a side note, the Tubelord album should be with me today. Its not, I'm not even sure how I'm receiving it (steady now). Oh well, tomorrow. There's always tomorrow.

The Prestige & The Invention Of Lying

Its pretty much officially Autumn now here in cold and windy Cornwall. I've taken to swanning around the house on my many free days in a dressing gown and pyjama bottoms. Like some buffoon living off an estranged ancestors inheritance. Still, its a shame I'm comfortable to live with. Cosy and warm shame. Which very tenuously leads me to The Prestige. It is very much a film for the twilight of the year, the colours are dulled somewhat and the dress code is all coats and top hats. Not that top hats are more common place in the colder months, its more a necessity of a period piece like this. The film shares the many twists and turns of Christopher Nolan's earlier classic Memento and in some ways a similar narrative structure with past and present mingling often. I enjoyed as a whole, the performances were enjoyable and the general plot interesting. There is the complaint that there is perhaps one twist too many, the ending being a little hard to stomach given the way the film progressed before. However as an Autumn warmer for the mind its not a bad choice. The use of Thom Yorke's Analyse over the credits has also stuck with me afterwards, although maybe because the film's score was so forgettable.

I had a little trip to the cinema tonight to see Ricky Gervais' latest effort. Its not often I go to the cinema. Even though the one here is an independent one, I'm sure some people have bigger screens in their houses. Its best to point out now that this film isn't bad. The main problem with it is that the basic idea doesn't really have the legs to carry it. Which is why the film is such a hit and miss affair. The plot basically revolves around the ridiculousness of religion. Lambasting God, Moses pretty much the whole deal. The only thing that escapes ridicule really is Noah and his ark. Although that one is perhaps to easy a target anyway. These scenes work well, with the old Gervais comedy shining through. The scene in which Gervais appeases the fear of his dying mother is also surprisingly touching. But there is also a fair bit of filler with more than one clichéd and boring montage and a romantic storyline that may be too sickly for some (me included). Spotting the many guest stars also proves fun, Ed Norton, Tina Fey, Rob Lowe, Jonah Hill, Christopher Guest, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Tambour, Jason Bateman and of course Barry from Eastenders. Admittedly some of those were in starring roles. Just wanted to make the list a bit longer though. There are worse films showing, many of them here in Cornwall but if your cinema chooses to ignore 500 Days of Summer, Adventureland and Zombieland then you're better off watching this than pre-ordering your tickets for the industry circle jerk of Jacko's freshly buried corpse.

Various Titbits #2

There's been a lot of those hyped American shows lately. Like a constant stream of them. Do we blame Lost? Yeah probably. Haven't been with it for a while now though, I'm going to try and slip back into it. Anyway, True Blood is the latest in this line. Its about vampires, which makes me shiver usually in thought of the gothic HSM shit casket that is Twilight. Werewolves are now cooler than vampires because of that crap pile. Tru(e) Blood though puts a different spin on it though, with vampires coming out of the coffin because a synthesised blood equivalent has been discovered. Which puts an surprisingly sane view upon preceedings. Undoubtedly it being a product of HBO helps this and I'm thankful for it. Its refreshing to see some sci-fi kind of television that isn't completely shit (Charmed, Buffy, Angel, Supernatural - there's a great many more than those too). I'm excited about episode two, Channel 4's fantastic catch up service is also a great blessing.

I really thought that I'd enjoy Generation Kill more than True Blood being the rabid Wire fanboy that I am. But the late time-slot, the crappy stream and the same unforgiving atmosphere as The Wire made this a difficult one for me to slide into. I'll give it another go over the next few days, as its going to be worth watching for just the 8 or so episodes that it is. I guess you forget what it was like watching those first few episodes of The Wire where not much was happening and you're debating why you're there. Looking back, it seems silly that you could have ever comprehended such nonsense.

Its been a really long summer this year for me. My relative inaction was a main contributer to this I guess but television did not help my stupour. But thankfully now its Autumn and animations favoured child has returned. I refer of course not to the horrificly misjudged shit fest that is "The Cleveland Show" but of course to South Park. Starting exactly where you'd expect, they're ripping into Micheal Jackson. Only through the medium of The Sixth Sense. Now I'm guessing that this one may have been in planning for a while, MJ's fate is not fresh by South Park standards. But still, to make shows so consistently funny in such a short amount of time should be applauded. God I've missed you South Park.

Squeezed a viewing of Dead Man's Shoes. A wonderful little film, disturbing all the way through thanks to an amazing performance from Paddy Considine. Its my favourite Shane Meadows film mainly thanks to its simplicity. It gives no other impression than being a story of revenge, a simple tale just well told. I highly reccomend it, its probably one of the better films set in the north of England.

I finish of with my induction tonight into the syrup filled delight that is The Evil Dead. Inspired by the gross-out brilliance of Drag Me To Hell I thought I'd pick up this trilogy and give it a whirl. Its pretty much what I expected, disgusting, hillarious and cheap as hell. Great fun though, you can see why its garnered cult status. I'll see how quickly boredom gets induced in me these next few days to find out about the rest of the trilogy. Considering Swapgame have sent me Guitar Hero 2 instead of any of the 5 games above it on my playlist this seems likely.

Gaming Tuesday

The first real gaming moment of my week was getting one of the 10G achievements in ODST in Firefight. What I didn't realise however is that I spent around 4 hours doing it. 4 hours! I could have watched 2 films in that time! I could have done something that wasn't so relentlessly repetitive. Still I did it, I was proud. Had to melee two hammer guys and then a rocket launcher guy in the back. It was touch and go at times. That was the last time I played ODST as well, probably for a while as well based on that experience.

I picked up Fifa 10 as well, I don't mind paying for Fifa really. It's one of the few games you know you're going to get your money's worth on. I've been playing 09 right up until when I bought this one so they've got to be doing something right. Firstly I threw myself into manager mode as Newcastle. Playing on Professional difficulty used to be too much of a challenge for me in 09 but now I found it quite rewarding to play. Although not winning every game, getting a hard earned 1-0 win against Liverpool in the FA Cup was very satisfying, all though mystifyingly losing 4-0 at home to Bristol City was not. I decided to give online a whirl as it seemed the logical thing to do really. Squeezed in four games last night, I played as Tottenham (not sure why) in all of them. First game I led 2-0 up until the 90th minute when the other player quit out. I wasn't impressed. Second game I got beaten by Arsenal very convincingly 3-0 I think. Third game, also against Arsenal, I swiped a convincing 3-1 win. I was very happy with it to say the least. The final game I got outplayed by a resolute West Ham and lost 2-0. So, apart from the sour start I found the games very rewarding and also with absolutely no lag as well. I'll need more time with it to decide if it is the best football game I've played, but I've already ploughed more time into it than I did with ODST or Riddick (sorry, gave up and sent it back). Which means they're on to a winner for me really.

Glastonbury!

Good day today, its not that Frankie Boyle has left Mock The Week. No, that's a reason why its not a perfect day really. I managed to get a ticket for next year's Glastonbury. The 40th Anniversary year as well! I am very excited to say the least. It'll have been 5 years since my first (and only) visit to Worthy Farm next year and to say the least a lot has changed. I'm not 16 anymore for a start. I can't really claim my taste in music has changed much, I remember seeing Bloc Party on the Other Stage while I was there and now five years later I'll be seeing them for the 6th or 7th time here in Cornwall at the end of the month. To make it as good as my first weekend under canvas there's a few things I'd like in no particular order.

1) No rain! It was a disaster in 05.
2) Alright traffic please!
3) LCD Soundsystem to headline the John Peel Stage maybe?
4) Radiohead on Saturday?
5) A Sunday line-up as good as the one this year.

Even 3 of those 5 would make it the best festival ever, but fingers crossed for all 5 eh? Also, picked up Fifa 10 on Friday, already deep inside getting Newcastle back in the Premiership. I'll try and have a proper mess around with it before Tuesday.

Dog Soldiers, Dexter and Family Guy

There aren't many recent horror movies about werewolves as far as I'm aware. Actually after checking the wonderfully unnecessary werewolf movies database there's been quite a few. Including this frankly fantastic description for Big Fish "An estranged son recalls his dying fathers life through the fairytale stories he told when he was a child. Excellent movie, but only a brief werewolf segment.". Anyway, Sean Pertwee is in this film so as you can expect a lot of death is going to happen, including his own. I'm not spoiling the plot, merely pointing out that Sean Pertwee never survives a whole film, he probably gets it written into his contract before every role. As far as British horror movies go this a good one, when it came out people talked about it revitalizing a dead genre, blah blah and all that. Watching it now the werewolves look pretty bad, it's either a guy in a suit or a puppet. But the film still brings up a few twists, turns and shocks along the way. It deserves the four moons it got on werewolf database.

I also managed to catch the first episode of season 4 of Dexter. Why, I'm not sure though. I spend so much time moaning about the show's flaws yet I still return like a victim of domestic abuse. I just can't walk away from it. It opens like every Dexter season opens, a miss-leading little segment about him supposedly getting ready to kill when he's not. Haw haw. That I don't mind though, what really pissed me off about the new season is two things. Firstly they've brought back Dokes, only channelled him through that buffoon Quinn who looks like he should be in The Fast And The Furious (he hasn't, been a load of shit films though). Not only that but they've taken unnecessary romance to a new high with the fat goatee'd detective and the female boss getting it on. That's not even mentioning the love triangle growing with his sister. But all these detractions aside, the new story angle so far is that "the greatest never caught serial killer" is in town and Dexter is really tired. Which actually makes for interesting viewing. I'm willing to stick with it for another season, but my word if they give the Vince guy a love interest as well I'm out. That would be a step too far.

Family Guy used to be the height of hilarity for me, but it's kind of meandered off into it's own rectum of late. Especially when South Park has actually been putting out the kind of episodes that are pretty much the closest thing to satirical perfection. So I watched the season premiere or whatever just because for 20 minutes of your life you can do a whole lot worse. King Of The Hill for example, that show is just terrible. Anyway, its another Stewie and Brian adventure. Which would have been a terrible thing back in the day but they're probably the two best characters in it these days. As you can tell my prose here is beginning to be a bit meandering but that's the general feel of the show, its not quite what it was but its still entertaining. I pretty much summed it up with there are a lot worse things to do with 20 minutes of your life, but when South Park is back they'll also be a lot better.