District 9, Being Human and Russia!

So as I sit tapping my fingers in waiting for my next Swapgame (please be Assassin's Creed 2, please be Assassin's Creed 2, etc) it's about time that I started catching up on those films from last year. District 9 initially sauntered into my field of vision when there were whispers of the director of it being given the reins on the mythical Halo movie. I imagine his Halo short would have gone some way to helping that story. Anyway, the film itself starts off as a kind of documentary/race allegory and slowly morphs into a full blown action movie before switching back to former. It works well for it and certainly is a breath of fresh air into the usual over-blown guff you get with the genre (Avatar). The accents can be a little difficult at times but that aside it's hard not to recommend it. Not a great movie but certainly a good one. Also I think the lead looks a bit like Murray from Flight Of The Conchords. Guess the jury is out on that one though.

This being the new year it also means new TV time. With BBC One getting Survivors, a show I've never watched but I imagine I might enjoy and BBC Three getting Being Human. I quite liked the first season of it, and it had the blind luck to wander in before vampires were all the rage. Zombies were the big thing back then. Which reminds me, I need to get hold of a copy of the third book in The Walking Dead series. Anyway, everyone's back for this new series including a new menacing guy who reminds me a bit of Christopher Lee but it isn't. Pretty sure it's someone quite well known though. Wikipedia will embarrass me in due course. It does feel like an intrinsically British equivalent to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with big plot elements always revolving round very British things. Like pubs and tea-making. Which is lovely and adds a bit of warmth to the show. I'm going to hastily say that I'll stick with it again.

Finally I owe some praise to Russia today. Not just for their stereotypical choice of hats. Oh no. So much more. I've stumbled across the murky waters of Russian MP3 sites. Not sure where it leaves me legally but my $25 has bought me all the albums I've been holding out for quite a while. Flying Lotus, The XX, Karen O and the Kids, Madvillian, Portishead, Horrors, The Prodigy, Japandroids, Animal Collective, The Antlers, Florence + The Machine, Deadmau5 and Fuck Buttons. Still got $10 left too. I need to widen my tastes it seems. Toodles.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Another pay what you want PC birthday bargain. A phrase I don't expect to use much but one I'm happy to wheel out. Downloaded this yesterday after seeing it was on offer. I paid only a couple of dollars again, but to be honest that's the price I would have waited for on Steam anyway. The irony also is that I spent a good £7 to buy a portable mouse to enjoy it with as well. I struggled on my laptop one when I played a demo not too long ago. Anyway, it's a fun little game. Done the first two "islands" now with little trouble but we'll see how the later ones fair. The level editor should prove to add a bit more fun to those slightly more creative than myself.

Right, better finish off packing for my train and bus journey back to Cornwall. We'll see what the snow conditions are like down there. Somehow doubt they'll be any better than up here. I'll leave you with the current gamerscore race scores.

Cherky 2: 6039 (10,000)
Captain Fantasm: 27,988 (50,000)

2010: What To Look Forward To

The only downside about January is that all you favourite lists from December are gone. Well if you're sitting there, crying alone in your room, desperately trying to put your favourite fingers in a preferential list just to satisfy your need for things to be listed numerically in order of quality then you can stop your worry now! Not that I'm making a list. But there is of course the annual event of "let's predict what will be big this year". So I'm going to have a pop as well. Not that my predictions are any good, or even note-worthy but merely so I can look back in twelve months time and ask "what the hell was I thinking".

So, the obvious one to mention is Ellie Goulding who everyone seems to love at the moment. She doesn't do much for me really but I imagine by her being a solo, female artist and singing inoffensive popesque music she'll do well. The NME are banging on about The Drums who apparently sound like a modern Beach Boys. Personally they look like the biggest bunch of cunts since The Kooks. And they were massive cunts. Remember his hair? Jesus, he looked like a prick. The Drums music is also pretty dull. Like a few hyped bands from last year really. Girls and Phoenix. Went back and listened to their records. Just boring. Also listened to The Big Pink, they were just shit though.

My favourite new artist is Gold Panda who I've been loving for a couple of months. Making a kind of ambient electronica that is both unique and pleasing. Like a cake with personalised icing. From what I've listened to recently as well Surfer Blood, Joy Orbison and Egyptian Hip-Hop (Couldn't find Nifeo on Youtube, but it's worth hunting down) also are alright. To me Surfer Blood sound a bit Wezzerish, Joy Orbison is apparently "dubstep" although I know nothing about the genre really and Egyptian Hip-Hop sound like a mix of XX Teens and Late Of The Pier. Personally I think XX Teens are better than Egyptian Hip Hop. They certainly don't look as stupid. But what do I know!

Film wise there's three kinds of films to look forward to. There's some complete shit that undoubtedly people will go watch: New Twilight, New Narnia, Step Up 3D and even a new Cats and Dogs film (the ever popular franchise). There's some big hollywood releases: Prince Of Persia, Iron Man 2, Robin Hood, The A-Team and Toy Story 3. Then there's two films that will clearly be brilliant: Tron Legacy and a Red Dawn remake. Wolverines, etc. Not sure what's coming out of left-field for this year yet. Sure they'll be some gems though. Still got a few to watch from last year, namely: A Serious Man, Moon, District 9 and a few others.

Finally, game wise there's bundles and bundles of joy coming our way. A lot of it in quarter one for a change too. I hate that I just used the term "quarter one" by the way. Been reading too many articles about games it seems. Anyway, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Dante's Inferno, Aliens Vs Predator, Alan Wake, Just Cause 2 just to start with. Obviously the most interesting addition will be Natal vs Gem (as it's apparently known). We shall see. I predict Halo:Reach to be the years biggest seller. Possibly pipped by Treyarch's Call Of Duty iteration. Again, we shall see.

I shall leave you to what I look forward most this year; Newcastle United back in the Premiership. Adieu.

Left 4 Dead (NES Version)

I imagine readers of Eurogamer or Kotaku would have already seen about a guy called Eric Ruth's unofficial NES inspired port of Left 4 Dead (link here). Once you get over the initial "Look how cute they are! Awww, look at the little boomers!" style fawning, there's a fun little game there. Although they'll be plenty of fawning. From the midi file music covers to the title screen there's plenty to smile about. I'm pretty terrible though, only managed to get as far as halfway to the second safe room. Never was very good at the old top down shooter.

Anyway, I saw that the game was made in a little program called Game Maker (link here) which made me wonder if I could have a go. So I downloaded it and had a go at the tutorial. Seemed simple enough. Then our internet and TV went down for about 8 hours so I felt fate was telling me to make something and make something I did. I give you Kris Akabusi's Health Munch.

Gaming Tuesday (On Wednesday)

When I first got my 360 one of the immediate things that struck me was the achievement system. I'd dabbled on friend's consoles playing a bit of Halo and Pro Evo (When it used to be good :'( ..) and not really noticed it at all. As soon as I did though I became slightly obsessed with it. Then once I got Live going I realised that all my friend's scores were there to see and compete with. This encouraged me further. Further down the spiral. To the point where I stood in Blockbuster with unwashed clothes, pale dirty skin and a copy of Avatar in my shaking, sweaty palm. Well, not actually. But that sounds more poetic than just one day realising there's no real point in furthering your gamer score. That is of course until last night. I'm now ignited in a race for me to get to 50k before a friend of mine can get to 10k. Foolish you may say. Bah! Well, it probably is. But it took him the best part of 3 years to get to 5k so I'm hedging my bets on this one.

Anyway the point in that rather listless narrative endeavour is that I decided to pick up the baton and give Borderlands a thorough finishing. Which I did today. This game had bored me a little after I beasted a fair few hours into it when it first arrived. Coming back to it though, after a couple of weeks away, reignited my passion for it. Probably one of the best, if not the best, new IPs of last year. The story, as I constantly state, is cack. But the game is consistently fun and rewarding. Getting a sweet alien purple ball blasting rifle thing after defeating a rather troublesome grunt being a prime example of this. It went on to be my weapon of choice in the rather baffling final boss fight. It was a bit shit. Not Arkham Asylum boss shit. But still pretty shit. So, next on my list is the rather average Mercenaries 2. Like Just Cause before it, I find it a bit of a disappointing mess. My brother loved both games though. So I might be wrong. Anyway we'll see.

The scores currently are: Cherky 2 (5674) v Captain Fantasm (27703).
A long way to go for me then.

War Of The Worlds

I do like me a bit of ol' disaster porn. Watching stuff get blown up never gets old. Well, it didn't until 2012. That's not prophesying there, but I imagine by 2012 we'll be drowning in films about blowing stuff up. Right, so, War Of The Worlds. The geekiest thing I noticed about this movie was that the tripods (similar to the one on your left there) were the same as the ones in Half-Life 2 in both design and the crazy noise they made. Not sure which came first mind, but at least we're safe in the knowledge that they ripped off H.G Well's design. Although in fairness one of them was adapting his book for a movie. Also it's worth remembering that Tom Cruise is tiny. Like 3ft or something. I don't know the specifics, but it makes every scene funnier imagining that the crew had to have him stand on a box to do dialogue with characters. Or have the other actor crouch slightly. Quite funny at the end as well where we he has to hug his son so he makes sure that he gets his on top in the hug leaving his son leaning down into him like a model hugging a midget. Beautiful stuff. Dakota Fanning is also spot on with her portrayal of a scared child. Which means that her incessant screaming is almost as irritating as her lines. I just hate her. I don't know why. It's probably because of Push. God, that was a terrible movie. I'm getting depressed just remembering it. I think that's as good a place to stop as any. Oh and the film is average. At best. Not even Morgan Freeman's voiceover can add too many points.

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.