Random Hoo Haasthe blog with the guff

“Your wife has a lovely neck.”

Sunday, October 31, 2010 at 11:47 pm Comments (1)

I said I’d have an update prepared for October, didn’t I? I’m really sorry I haven’t anything to show. I am working on a couple of things, but I haven’t really had the motivation to do as much work on them as I’d like to, partly because my attempts at improving my web design skills is also a total misery, and work is just getting me down. It’s a shame, as I definitely would’ve liked to at least have gotten something finished. Random Hoo Haas is five years old, and I commemorate the event by being a lazy bastard.

For once in my life, I’d like to be able to live up to my promises.
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“[…] selected participants will receive a brand spankin’ new pair of Etna’s panties to wear or to just admire in all of their glory!”

Sunday, October 24, 2010 at 6:15 pm Comments (8)

Today’s observation: I don’t think I want to hang out with the games industry anymore.

If I could just make my own games I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have anything to complain about anymore.

Shark-mobile: Can it work?

Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:14 pm Comments (3)

So, before Sonic 4 sidetracked me, what newly bought game was I going to talk about two weeks ago? Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, that’s what! I finished Banjo-Tooie again recently (well, okay, I got all the Jiggies in Grunty Industries, and personally that’s enough of a trial for me to say I’ve beaten the game) so I’ve been hungering for more of the same. I picked this up about three weeks ago in CeX for a mere £6, and I could hardly turn it down. I’d been meaning to get the game via the Games On Demand service under the belief that it would directly support Rare… but seriously, £6! Screw attempts at generosity, I can hardly argue with a price like that.

I say I was hoping for more of the same, but I’m aware the Nuts & Bolts is basically a whole new direction for the series. It’s still an adventure game about collecting trinkets to open up new areas and unlock abilities of some kind, but now the emphasis is on vehicular building. However, it’s more accurate to say the game is an entirely different specimen with a light coating of Banjo slathered over it, as really, it’s a whole different game.
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“[…] classic sci-fi that will delight fans with its painstaking recreation of an alien world […]”

Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 8:03 pm Comments (3)

Lost and found? Yes, I’d like to know what happened to my weekend. October’s halfway over and nobody even told me? I am very unhappy with this, you guys!

Mind you, I’m totally to blame. I’ve been trying to find a means of updating the Games I Own section so it’ll be easier to manage and less of a jumbled mess, but so far that just results in a lot of unproductive wasted time. Could I ask for help here?

My brother picked it up on a whim from Play.com and has been raving about it, so I sat down and watched Hunter Prey – a budget sci-fi flick made for the Sci-Fi Channel. In summary, a bunch of aliens (which get whittled down to only one guy in under twenty minutes) are chasing the last human in the galaxy, who is not at all pleased that these genocidal aliens have blown up Earth. That’s basically it for the whole ninety minutes.

Really.
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Sonic Made It Through Act 4!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 at 9:45 pm Comments (9)

I was going to talk a little about some games I’ve been playing lately (two recently bought, one I haven’t played in ten years), but then I realised, whoops, Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is out and I haven’t made any cynical remarks on it yet!
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“Look, girls! It’s our boy with no pants!”

Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:17 pm Comments (8)

What horrible events have prevented me from updating the blog in a whole week? Not much. I’ve just been a bit of vegetable, really. You’ve heard it a dozen times – I want to be productive, but being a lazy bastard is just that much more appealing. Didn’t I say I was going to have something made for the site this month? Ooer!

Back in September I was still determined to continue from where I left off from this little escapade and find a way to get GameCube functionality for the Wii Classic Controller. I’ve seen Classic Controllers online that have GameCube plugs online, but usually they’re on the dodgiest of dodgy sites and the ones on eBay aren’t exactly inspiring either. Of course, I’ve thrown cash towards all manner of shady places for poorly-thought-out needs, so I ordered one for a mere £4. And surprisingly, it actually arrived this time!
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Liam Neeson as the man with no skin

Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 11:04 pm Comments (1)

Watched Darkman. Scientist tries to create artificial skin, but it can last only one hundred minutes in daylight before it melts. He’s then blown up because of mobster activity (in the first of several possibly unintentionally hilarious moments – you could add the Goofy scream and you’d hardly tell it was a dramatic moment!) and becomes super strong, unable to feel pain and slightly crazy after his hospitalisation. Quite miffed by the mobsters that wrecked his lab, burned him alive and killed his Asian lab assistant (who I mention because he has the cutest cowlick ever), he uses his synthetic skin technology to impersonate the mobsters and wreck their organisation from the inside.
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Saurod, we hardly knew ye

Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 3:34 pm Comments (1)

Was it really just eleven years ago that people thought the Dancing Baby was hip and fresh?

Ah, shareware CDs. My personal gateway into knowing what was popular a decade ago. This originated from PC Format magazine, issue 92 (February 1999!), and I had really high hopes for it. It had demos for Rogue Squadron 3D and Klingon Honor Guard! It contained a full accounts app that would, and I quote, “take control of [my] cash!” And if that wasn’t enough, the goddamned Dancing Baby was promoted as an exclusive feature. Delving into this would be like that stupid Pokémon CD I wrote about, except more ’90s flavoured!

The CD is disappointingly barebones, and it doesn’t recognise new versions of Quicktime. And – get this – you have to install the demos. What is this, the stone age? Can’t I just stream it off the CD? I know it’s impractical and not recommended for optimum performance, but I’m not made of installation time, man. I can’t waste my vital man hours waiting for a ten year old demo of King’s Quest 8: Mask of Eternity to transfer to my hard drive, even if it is a mere 48mb! Do you want me to die of old age?
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“And I kicked his ass so hard he saw the curvature of the Earth.”

Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 9:28 pm Comments (3)

I went to see Scott Pilgrim last night. While Resident Evil: Degeneration is a video game movie in atmosphere and overall vibe, Scott Pilgrim is effectively a video game movie in visuals, action, and general corniness. And it works so, so well.

… do I really need to explain the story? I mean, I’m pretty sure anyone even faintly familiar with it knows at least the basic gist. Love story, have to defeat girl’s evil ex-boyfriends, nerd references, yadda yadda yadda. You could try and say that it’s basically a love story of people fighting for the girl’s affection taken very, very literally, but I’ll be frank and say it’s a simple plot. The main attraction is simply the look and feel of the movie.

And my god, what a look and feel it is!
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I still think Diglett has a protruding pink mouth

Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 11:54 pm Comments (8)

There’s a lot of things I don’t give a hoot about, but I love discussing them with people. I’d like to say that I enjoy discussing politics with similarly cynical people, but, well, no, I don’t. It’s an exercise in losing my will to live. What I do enjoy discussing, however, is Pokémon! With select people, of course. With any old Tom, Dick or Harry it also becomes an exercise in losing my will to live. I do not care to discuss the tournament rules of Pokémon battling, buddy, just give me a debate about why people think Gardevoir is so attractive and then I can get my Freudian ball rolling.

Namely, something I was discussing recently was the leakage of, well, everything from the new games Black & White. All one hundred and fifty something of the new creatures? Everyone knows what they are now, apparently! I was shown this little creature…

… and I was rather… offput by it.
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