BLOGTASTIC
25/February/2007
I bought two games consoles in one day. I think I may have gone mad!
Well, only half mad. One of them was a GameCube because my brother's is temperamental on what it works with and he's finally decided that it's time to get it replaced. It also comes with three games which all look awful, two controllers and a memory card, all for £35. Here's hoping I'm not sent a box of diapers as part of a scam!
The other console was a PlayStation 2, something I've been meaning to get for ages to replace my crappy old regular PlayStation, and was another bargain: The PS2 itself, the controller, the memory card, and THIRTEEN GAMES for £70 (£50 with £20 P&P). The seller accidentally listed it as fourteen, but that was a miscalculation and apologised when I bought it, though not like it mattered because it was certainly a better deal than the shit Play.com is pulling.
A large-size PlayStation 2 with a whopping no extras for £90? I'd rather have a kick in the skull for £500.
Oh.
What's worse is that it's backwards compatibility isn't even as good as those in other regions. It's like Sony are caring more about the controversy and frequent news postings over their goofball decisions than the actual final product! Well, without the "it's like" part. It's a damned certainty.
Returning to Play.com again, you really have to wonder why they even bothered with the whole PlayTrade system. They're copying Amazon's used and new system like fifty years too late, and the only people selling with it haven't quite grasped why people often prefer buying from the used and new section rather than the site itself.
You could buy the first series of The Young Ones for £11, or you could buy it for 50p less from someone who advertises the fact they take a week to send things and it'll probably arrive in sub par condition!
And you could simply buy this at either price. Choosing either is worth a slap.
21/February/2007
Dear internet,
I was nominated as best Sonic hoaxer of 2005?
Seriously, internet, I'd like to be notified of these things, like that time somebody pretended to be me and made crappy sprite comics (and used the word "bored" in every sentence, which translates on the internet as "I lack quality control") or when that one guy defaced my Wikipedia account with a plea for me to update MS:MIA and I didn't notice until two weeks later. It just makes things a bit less embarrassing when I continue my habit of finding out about things a comical length of time after it happened.
Enclosed is a punch to your face.
Thanks.
PS: I'll retract the punch if you make Google stop sucking. First they don't allow you to search URLs and follow them instead of having to use the address bar, now they've queered up the image search by forcing you to hover over something before you can see the details.
17/February/2007
I want to like Primeval, because Doctor Who's second series was a bit crap except for two or three episodes (Love & Monsters being the highlight in my view), and the third isn't sounding any better. But I still needed a sci-fi fix. So I tried Primeval.
The first episode didn't impress me, although I admit I wasn't expecting terribly much, but the next episode looked intriguing. Giant insects in the sewers! It turned out to be even less impressive, and suffered from "Doctor Who series two" syndrome, where the CGI monsters don't look like they're actually doing anything or interacting with characters, thus making deaths seem embarrassing. A bit hard to feel sorry for the sewer worker being killed by the giant spider when it just looks like someone plopped an animated gif of it on the camera.
And a coelurosauravus is turned on by an undressing reptile specialist.
On the bright side, it's still a million times better than Torchwood, but I'd rather watch Harry Hill's TV Burp. That is the primary reason I bother watching television now.
15/February/2007
I just completed Mega Man Zero 4 on Normal, so I have a better opinion on it now. But no way am I rewriting everything I just said at the review place, just look there.
Totally unrelated and more of a today's observation thing, but I just realised what a wonderful sensation it is to jump. Yes, I live such an easygoing lifestyle that I never decided to jump merely for the sake of it until now. I should do it more often.
I've gotten to the first Craft fight on normal mode in Zero 4, and I'm not having the best of times. On easy mode, he was the first boss who I needed to use a Sub-Tank on, but since I haven't got a Sub-Tank, nor do I have the opportunity to go back and get one thanks to the save point, I'm kind of completely stuck. The small arena and Craft's large frame aren't helping me win any, and his ridiculously overpowered knife attack sure is a bitch.
Now for recent events! I got five action figures and Metroid Fusion for £10 in Toys 'R' Us, which is incredibly rad for it being the first time I went there in years. The games selection was still minimal and overpriced, but the fact there were several GBA games going for the low price of £5 was a sight I wish I saw more often. I would've got Final Fight One if, you know, the game didn't require a second cartridge for multi-player.
Pity that the games service was still as terrible as it was ten years ago. Waiting ten minutes at a primary colour counter for the member of staff to come along and spend another ten minutes finding the cartridge, manual, and less-crappy-condition box is heaps of enjoyable fun for the family! I love how they keep the button that summons a member of staff to that counter is convenient hidden under an unnecessary second notice for their refund policy. On the bright side, there was a darling old lady there whom we got into a conversation with about how everything today is ridiculously overpriced.
And the action figures? Pretty rad. They're from a toy line known simply as "THE CORPS! COMMANDO FORCE", they're detailed nicely and have a pleasant amount of articulation, although the fact they can't even hold their weaponry without precise positioning or rubber bands is bound to be frustrating once I work them into Motorbike Man. And they have terrible names. Large Sarge? Justin Case? Gunner O'Grady? It's hard to take them seriously with those names, their fashion sense (one of them has night vision goggles, a stealth suit and a fedora. Yes), and the fact all but one of them have eternal scowls.
And I also bought myself a new coat, but since I only ever seem to talk about things slightly related to my site in a minor way in my blog, I'm just mentioning this in passing for future reference and if I decide to gain fashion sense and review my wardrobe.
You never know.
February already? Time flies when you do jack shit.
So Mega Man Zero 4 arrived today, and I completed it on the obscenely easy Easy mode. I would review it, but, well, when the Easy mode cuts out a significant number of features to the game, reviewing it now would be rather biased. Real review when I play the game properly!
What I can talk about properly is the plot, and the plot is very crap. For a conclusion to the series, the characters seem to act a lot more naive than in the previous games, and they're practically one-dimensional. Dr. Weil (who is the only returning villain aside from cameos of Zero 3 bosses) went from a sinister man who worked by the sidelines to take advantage of others and form his wretched schemes to a "GFAHAHA ZERO YOU CAN'T KILL ME A HUMAN I KILL YOU NOW" screaming buffoon who ends all his sentences in exclamation marks (or in simpler terms, he became Dr. Wily); Ciel, who although self-doubting in the first game, became strong-willed and passionate for a better future although remaining rational about such a goal, and in this she's more childish and less confident than she was in the first game. And despite the numerous references to the previous events in the series, barely any of the characters from previous games return; many of the generic drone enemies from the previous games such as the Pantheons, Golems and whatnot are noticeably absent, and even important characters like X and the three guardians are all but completely ignored, and if it weren't for some obscure, Japan-only book being cited on Wikipedia, I'd have been totally unaware they were dead.
Although Mega Man X5 is among my least favourites of the series, I have to compliment it on the endings actually bringing the series to a close, reflecting on the previous games with references and actually acknowledging what led up to it. Zero 4, however, just feels very detached. Maybe I'm just a guy who likes a definite end to something when it ends, but how this game concluded just left me unfulfilled.
But I had fun playing it, which beneath all the graphics, plot and crap, is all that really matters.
Oh, and the new mugshots suck.
BABY FACE CIEL WILL EAT YOU AS BACON
