Triffids & Arcade

So it's a new year today, a new start for all. Best get your gym equipment down at the Argos clearance sale then. My personal new years resolution would be. Hmmm. I'll get back to you on that.

In the end I did get round to watching the sparkling new BBC version of The Day Of The Triffids. The one thing I'd recommend before watching it is to get ready to get involved. Not because it's a deep and moving drama, no, because it's about people running away from plants. It literally is 28 Days Later, Homebase style. I found it very hard not to laugh when one of the opening lines was "My mother was killed by a triffid." delivered in a gruff Scottish style by Dougary Scott. It is though, good fun and well made. It almost begs the question why didn't they remake something that could be quite scary? I don't know, like The Blob? We're due a new version of that right? Anyway, good fun and Eddie Izzard needs to act more. Not in a bad way, he certainly is cut out to play more malevolent types.

Gaming wise I've finally got round to playing a few of the downloadable titles I've been meaning to get in to. Firstly, The Maw is a platformer where you lead an ever increasing in size alien around feeding him and solving puzzles. It's good fun in short bursts and most certainly worth the 400 points (crazy Microsoft and their currency) I paid for it. Secondly, Shadow Complex is like Metroid, although I imagine you already know that. It's all it ever gets compared to. But they are remarkably similar. This is a great title and really shows what can be done with the Live Arcade when some effort is put into it. I'm disappointed I left it off my top ten for this year now. Thirdly, Battlefield 1943 is another Microsoft discount lovely, aren't they kind this yuletide season. Probably because the were pre-empting the inevitable crash of Xbox Live this yuletide season. So what better way to ring in the new year than an online only FPS. It doesn't have the depth or variety of Halo or COD in my eyes but it still packs a punch. Although flying a plane is really tricky. I've successfully done a bombing run once and crash landed many more times. The final title I bought was upon Steam for a change. The title says it all really, Plants Vs Zombies. To put it simply it's PopCap. A company that are already very close to my heart thanks to Peggle. There is also promise of a song in the credits when I get there. We'll see if it tops Portal's. Oh and it's great by the way.