Leak Madness & A Bit Of Gaming Stuff

I decided to wean myself off leaks and illegal downloads in general this year after Mandelson decided to go all 1984 on us with the Digital Piracy Bill or whatever it was called. However, certain temptations can crumble even the strongest of men. The National's newie was the first that got me yesterday and it's an absolute blinder. Apart from opener Terrible Love which after getting extremely excited about that version I was left somewhat underwhelmed by a more stripped back studio version. I should have learnt after falling in love with this early live version of Radiohead's Videotape only to be left with a subtle almost acoustic studio version. Still think if both went big it would have been better. Size matters as they say. Anyway, the rest of the album is beyond brilliant. By far the best thing I've heard this year and that includes the LCD, Flylo and Foals (who also got me yesterday!) leaks. Already forked out for a Flylo pre-order and will probably do the same for the others on promise of a decent pre-order package mind.

Neglected to mention Just Cause 2 yesterday which I've pilfered off my brother while he's away and have been well and truely sucked in. There's plenty of flaws to it, but it's so much fun you forgive them very quickly. It almost begs the question why isn't there a grappling hook in every game? Not those crummy Zelda ones though. I might have to go out and buy it at this rate. Up there with Bioshock 2 as the best thing all year. Also played AvP. Not so great. That's all I have to say on that matter.

Musical Titbits

Looks like it's going to be another frustratingly long wait for my next Swapgame, yet to receive an e-mail saying they've got Bioshock 2 back let alone processed my next order. Luckily this lull in games has led to a glut of new music of late. Well kind of. Foals have announced new single and album information which I have greeted with mild excitement for a change, really enjoyed Antidotes. I have semi fond memories of cycling to work at 5am listening to that album on route. New track Spanish Sahara starts off almost Anthony & The Johnsons esque before building into an epic thing of beauty. Or it's just pretty good, that sounds a lot less wanky.

As I mentioned before Frightened Rabbit's new album is great, although I imagine that you might end up hearing it for the rest of the year. The album couldn't scream "mainstream breakthrough" anymore unless you put Tinchy Stryder somewhere on it. Probably the best album of the year so far for me. Hot Chip's latest a close second. Somehow they've made an album with an 80's power ballad on it and it still sounds fantastic. Got the self titled album by The Soft Pack as well which is garage rock by numbers really. The peak of mediocrity. Now it's just the painfully long wait for the new Flying Lotus record. After dropping this May seems a decade away.

I also was one of the lucky ones to get my Glastonbury ticket paid for so now with the headliners of U2, Muse & Stevie Wonder I couldn't be more disappointed that I didn't go last year. Here's hoping they get any of the bands mentioned of above to appear as well else it'll be my tears of disappointment soaking the ground of Pilton as well as the rain.

Bioshock 2, Red Alert 3, Frightened Rabbit & A Bit Of Footie

One of the great minds of acting that appear in Red Alert 3 on the left there. The thing I find most amazing was that when I read on the back of the box "over 60 minutes of high def video sequences" I was disappointed. Only an hour? Genuinely want more. The game fits surprisingly well to a console with all your actions mapped to a wheel and there's shortcuts there to help build your power plants when you're scouting out with your team of attack bears. Yeah bears. There's dolphins as well. God knows what else, pretty sure there was a giant robot in one of the FMV's as well. Yet to persevere that far though. I can safely say though that this game was worth the £4 for Tim Curry's Russian accent alone. The bears are a mere bonus.

Polished off Bioshock 2 this week. Feel a bit let down by it, I played through on normal and never really struggled. The only time I died was when I forgot to use first aid. Still thoroughly enjoyed the playthrough. Highlights being the mad ambushes of splicers when collecting ADAM and wandering round the majority of the last stage with my sentry bot chums "Patches" and "Melissa". A solid sequel really. Gave the multiplayer a fair amount of time as well which was a let down. Ignoring the game crashes in the lobby which plagued me throughout it just was pointless. The servers will be empty in a few weeks I'm sure, they were hardly bustling when I was there anyway.

Two final things, got hold of the new Frightened Rabbit album which is fantastic. They sound bigger and brighter which hopefully will see them getting some decent mainstream attention. Current single Nothing Like You has hit written all over it. Also caught the League Cup final today which was both exhilarating and predictable. Vidic should have gone for the last man foul on Agbonlahor right at the start. Apart from that Man United deserved their win, Valencia and Rooney were exemplary and even Berbatov put a bit of effort in. Still wanted Villa to win mind. Oh well, maybe Arsenal have got a chance at the Premiership now. That's my last hope of Man United or Chelsea being embarrassed.

Being Human, Baftas & Bioshock 2

It's slowly become my guilty pleasure Being Human. In many ways it feels like a televisual equivalent of Modern Warfare 2. Trying to be gruesome, philosophical and humorous all in a show that is essentially like a slacker version of The Munsters. But it is endearing though and at times pretty good. This week's show was the best so far for me, a fantastic scene in which George (our werewolfy friend in the middle there) began transforming at a school parent's evening. Every imaginative parent's nightmare I'm sure. The BBC are good at making implausible rides of entertainment these days. Doctor Who has brought them a whole new appreciation for the fantasy genre as well. I'm sure next week's (what can be presumed to be final?) episode will also be a cracker. Roll on season 3 then as well?

Last night was also the Baftas, which smugly decided to snub Avatar. Well, deservedly so. Haven't seen this year's gold sweeper The Hurt Locker yet though. Hopefully it will fill me with joy and slightly confused feelings about my sexuality like Bigelow's seminal homoerotic masterpiece Point Break. Nice to see some Brits win the big actor awards as well, always feels like the Olympics where we're usually an outside bet to get in amongst the shiny. In awards given out by us. Brilliant. Also glad Moon won something, even if it wasn't Best British Picture. Reminds me, still need to watch Fish Tank too actually. And An Education. And A Single Man. Pretty much every film that won then.

Finally Bioshock 2 has tested my patience for it today. An unwarranted crash half an hour after my last save left me seething so much I almost dug out a Rage Against The Machine record. Almost, still clean. The crashing has been plaguing me in the multiplayer you see. Every fourth to fifth game will crash at the lobby leaving me staring at a non moving counter stuck on 57 seconds for a good while before I realise I've been got again. Come on 2K, this isn't on. What's worse is that you've announced 400MSP DLC for a game that is pretty much broken. I don't think I've even heard anyone asking for new DLC yet anyway. I think we'd all prefer a patch instead eh? As for the multiplayer when it works it's perfectly enjoyable. Personally I much prefer the brighter, tighter mania of Modern Warfare 2. Probably should have just left it at the already exemplary single player game then.

Gaming Tuesday (On Sunday)

Sequels are always a risky business for me. Not enough change and you warrant the point of it, too much and you fell like you're playing a different game. I got about halfway through Mass Effect 2 before I had to return back home and I'm still not entirely sure if I like it. I genuinely miss the Mako when the alternative is the dull as hell planet scanning. It's so painfully boring I didn't bother to investigate different galaxies for fear of passing out from lack of excitement. But the game has improved with the levels; variety, effective design, good dialogue and just generally well paced. So I guess I do like it then.

The one benefit of getting back to Cornwall was having Bioshock 2 waiting on my pile of post. Apart from it wasn't. I had to spend a good ten minutes rooting around to find it. I can't express the disappointment of finding your pile of post to only contain a letter from BT and the TV license. Anyway, I did manage to get it in eventually and give it a whirl and it certainly is nice to be back in Rapture. In many ways, very little is different from the original. You're still guided through ethereal voices, learning the story through audio tapes and hacking cameras and turrets to conserve those precious bullets. Although the change of character means you feel a bit beefier than the previous game. Fights with a Big Daddy are no longer so worrying. Although fights with a Big Sister most certainly are. Given a good few hours to it already and I must say I'm thoroughly impressed. That's still without even thinking about the new "tacked on" multiplayer as well.

My bargain of the week is Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise which can be found in store at Sainsburys for £5. I gave a good hour to it in my "I can't find Bioshock 2" panic and it is everything you'd expect from a Viva Pinata game. Laid back but with more depth than your average well. Easily one of the most under-rated series of this generation. Bar the Party Animals one. That game is shocking. Also bought Red Alert 3 for 360 from Shop To for £3.95 but that hasn't arrived yet. Looking forward to the cheesy cut-scenes already.

I've also been continuing on with System Shock 2 which is more addictive than I first realised. In fact I was sat next to someone on the train today with my laptop out and was debating whether to boot it up for the entire journey. I decided in the end though that the lady in question probably wouldn't have appreciated me hitting monkeys in the face with a wrench next to her. Would have got awkward very quickly. I feel the need to rescind my comment about the poor voice acting. It gets better. There's just a few people on the audio logs early on that are very bad. One thing that must be said though, is that the game is fiendishly hard at times and will punish you when you're down. That's just playing on medium difficulty as well.

Misery Bear & No More Women

Thought I'd drop by, been a while and that. Not an awful lot to report though. Back up seeing my parents for the week now, which is nice. Not forcing myself to eat slow-cooked casserole as it's the only thing I know how to cook is a welcome change. Although knowing my 360 and a copy of Bioshock 2 are sitting quite happily in Cornwall waiting (please don't rob me) is not so welcome. Been a good weekend for football firstly with four (!!) matches shown over the weekend on terrestrial. Admittedly they were mostly shit but quantity is always a benefit when it comes to live sport, Crystal Palace and Bolton both put in good shifts today though. Wales' late comeback against a resilient Scotland in the Six Nations was easily my sporting highlight of the week. Great entertainment, hope Wales can pick themselves up from a poor start.

My proudest discovery this weekend is that of Misery Bear whose consistently depressing antics are heartwarmingly amusing. Especially for those who are not "feeling" Valentine's Day this year. Which is people who aren't children, disturbingly immature or terrified of upsetting their spouse really. Also been catching up on No More Women which is the little bonus show to We Need Answers. Easily worth it for the twee music and off beat commentary. The game also becomes more alluring but I can assure from personal experience it's difficult to encourage people to play. Tomorrow shall be a Being Human catch up I think and maybe watching the end of Gamer. Ah, I love the holidays.

There Will Be Blood, Assassin's Creed 2 and A Bit Of Music

I wasn't going to write about this film to be honest because I didn't really know what to say. It's a tightly wound, overbearing piece of cinema to say the least. In many ways it trundles along for it's two and three quarter hour running time but you become spellbound by it. Most of that factor though can be attributed to Daniel Day Lewis who is sublime in this film to say the least. I feel like I need to watch it again really though to fully grasp everything going on it. But from a first viewing it's deserved all the praise it's got for me, some scenes from this film won't leave me for quite some time and the score perfectly feeds the tension at work. Glad I plucked up the courage to sit down with it, I was initially worried that this film was going to be above my understanding of high end cinema. Fortunately it turns out I underestimate my own intelligence. Or that of the film. But let's go with the former on that eh?

From high end cinema I go to the frantic mess of a narrative that is the end of Assassin's Creed 2. Not to spoil it, but the pay-off explanations at the end really are a bit of a disaster. There's one more thing that nags me about the game though. How much control do you assert over the character? Given you're supposed to be Desmond inhabiting the memory of Ezio and re-enacting his past. So in the cut-scenes is it Ezio or Desmond? How far does the control stretch? I feel like this game has pushed me into a philosophical nightmare. First Moon and now this. Probably wasn't paying attention in the cut-scenes. Should have warned of the intellectual quandaries you'll blunder into if all the information at the start is not fully understood. At least now I've got the relaxing opportunity of picking up the last 100G left in the game before sending it back. Bioshock 2 doesn't hit for a few weeks yet so still plenty of time!

Also, feeling fairly musically nostalgic lately and have been listening to a lot of the Arctic Monkeys debut. Lot of memories I've got with that record; some good, some bad. Still stunning lyrically though, a sharp wit that I don't think I appreciated as much when I first heard them. A lot of their newer matierial has left me a bit cold, I'm sure given time it's got some depth to it but their first record (or even the demos circulating long before the album) is the one I'll never forget. Might even slip you a sneaky weekly top artists chart from Last FM;

1. Arctic Monkeys (50)
2. Arcade Fire (30)
3. Radiohead (26)
4. Flying Lotus (24)
5. The Prodigy (19)

Moon and Assassin's Creed 2

I don't like making two posts in the same day, which is why I conveniently waited till after midnight to post about this film. I don't know if it counts as OCD or something but I feel it just looks a bit out of place when a post doesn't have the date above it. Even if it is OCD it can't be that bad considering tonight I'm going to be sharing my bed with this morning's breakfast curry. Regardless, I've had Moon hanging around for about a week now but due to lots of drinking/exciting football/generally not in the mood I've only just watched it. The more I waited the more I heard positively about it, which is rare for a supposed "Sci-Fi" film. But the setting has almost little impact upon the film in many ways. This isn't sci-fi it's lo-fi (HAHA!). Anyway, it's a film that leaves you with quite a lot of questions really, but surprisingly few about the plot. It's a thinker as they would say and in many ways it's quite unnerving to be questioning what it is to be human after watching a film who's second star is a talking computer. I've also excitedly read that the director (Duncan Jones or Zowie Bowie as he would never want to be called) wants to revisit the universe for future films which for once is an exciting prospect. I shall wait with baited breath for the next I imagine. To summarise, a lovely little gem of a film.

Also feel I should mention Assassin's Creed 2, which has surprised me by being really long. As a result I've lost interest in the story as a whole and just knowing enough to get on with the missions at hand. Probably splurged far too much time on it I think, even though I took a good four day break from playing it. Oh well, if I'm going to get any chance of playing Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock 2 before I run out of money to afford rentals anymore I'm going to have carry on splurging my time.