About a month or two ago I spent a good chunk of cash repairing our vacuum cleaner. A week later and the motor dies. The good news, there is a sticker on the unit that says "5 Year Motor Warranty" this is good because I can't find it anywhere in the warranty papers or manual. So I call the supplier and sure enough they said that my 4.5 year old vac cleaner was covered! Just today my new replacement turned up. A cool savings of $800! Anyway, enough about vacuum cleaners....on to games.

I've said often here that my wife and I have been enjoying Mario Kart Wii immensely. Well I decided to surprise her with a gift.

She was wrapped. So now we are being extra lazy and lying in bed playing Wi-Fi Mario Kart! Not everything is perfect though, she is to set into using the Wii Wheel and is now trying to rotate the DS in much the same way DOESN'T HELP!

Am I allowed to play my PS3? I was one of the early adopters of the 2.40 patch that was released for the PS3. I didn't play the system afterwards, rather I shut it down and haven't yet turned it on since. There is no clear answer from Sony yet if my system is potentially stuffed or not. Are the people who have bricked their systems going to be able to fix them without sending away? This is a real shame as this patch was going to be a bit of a saviour by finally bringing the system up to speed with their competitors. Instead.... Damn this isn't good for them

Finally found a replacement to Layton on the DS as well.

The World Ends With You which appears to be a popular choice amongst other users on the AU forum. I'm about 30 mins in and really enjoying it so far. Such a unique way of playing. Screenshots and even gameplay movies did this title no justice. You really need to give it a try to appreciate it.

This is little fellow is the bullet from Mario Kart. I got this for my wife as a bit of a joke. I gave it to her and told her that this was the only reason she didn't always come last in Mario Kart. Thankfully she took it as a joke. Mario Kart was getting a bit stale for us so I picked up SSBB during the week. We've only had one go at it so far but she is really loving it. I took awhile longer to warm to it but I can see the potential to really enjoy it. I'm actually most impressed by the level design than anything else. Some are very clever and mix the gameplay up quite a bit. I did purchase Super Smash Bros on the Gamecube but never played it. I'm hoping things will be different this time around.

une. I'm not a fan. I dread this month. It is that time of the year where in my line of work you do tons of unpaid overtime and stress to the point of making yourself sick. It is the end of another financial year which sees a mad rush of business owners making a last second dash for the finish line. Thankfully it is pretty much done. Sure, Monday is the "official" last day but lets be real, who works on a Monday - I don't. I'm still asleep until about lunch time Tuesday. To celebrate we took the weekend off and went to the coast. Booked a lovely room at a resort and chilled.

Our place had a lovely room which was self-contained (kitchen, washer etc) and a killer view (check the nice night shot I took). Went shopping twice, ate at three different restaurants, caught a movie and slept in. Couldn't ask for more. I had all intentions of using the gym at the resort but instead found myself playing a few of the arcade games they had in a games room. Simpsons Pinball was a favourite. My wife and I played for what felt like ages and managed a score of over 2mill off a single dollar coin. We were proud until the top 10 scores were shown in which 10th place was about 45mill. Oh well

We caught the movie just before coming home. It was kind of a last minute decision and I am really glad we did. Get Smart was the only movie I'd settle for. For me, it lived up to the original and surpassed what I expected. For my wife who did not watch the original, she thought it was a blast as well. Go see it

Anyway, that's it. Back to work tomorrow

Killed the cat?

Not sure about their curiosity, that's up for you to find out but I was certainly satisfied upon finishing it. Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the reason to own a DS. I've done a review, you can have a read if you'd like but in short - grab it. Oh, before I move on though I must mention the best thing about finishing the game! It was seeing this...

No spoiler here.
This "To Be Continued..." refers to the continuing story of Layton only!

New game?

I'm 5 hours into this one. I estimate about 5 hours to go. Has some tough areas and you may find yourself repeating parts due to errors. Best thing? You'll be satisfied when complete. Worst thing? No achievements. I'm talking about the home gym I'm building. I hope to finally finish it this weekend. I'm not confident of it though...

So many pieces!

I started the week off by setting some downloads up on the PS3. So far I've managed to try Dark Sector and Haze. The Haze demo was quite disappointing. I admit it was a 10min judgement, but I just found the controls poor, the graphics sub-par and the AI lacking. The first thing I did was walk up to a bunch of enemies on their left side. There seemed to be some kind of invisible field which alerts them to your presence. Very odd Dark Sector though – awesome. I loved this demo. I've heard the story isn't the best which is a shame because the gameplay seems fantastic. Hopefully released in Australia soon otherwise import may be the way.

Thursday was the release of MGS4 and I managed to sneak out (Snake syIe from a meeting early to grab my copy. I took it home and loaded it up to be confronted with the install screen. I haven't managed to play for then about 5 mins so far but can't wait to give it a real good slog this weekend. My Wife loved the story in the other MGS games and intends to watch me play this one.

...Lucky! I was gonna try the Dreamcast next

Slimming down? Well my DS Phat was feeling a little heavy. As Nintendo have been promoting healthy lifesyIe with Wii Fit lately I decided to give away my overweight unit as a gift to my Mother-in-law and get myself a Lite. I must say I am really impressed at how much nicer the new unit is and how much brighter the screens are.

I'm desperately trying to knock over GTAIV and Lost Odyssey in preparation for Metal Gear Solid 4 which is due out next week. Luckily we have a long weekend on at the moment so I've got a little bit of extra time. Unfortunately today was wasted. After a big week (my first full week in my new management role) I was a little tired and slept in till 11am this morning! Then we had to do a bit of shopping. By the time we were done it was 5pm.

For the past month or two, Foolz3h has been threatening me with a blunt toothpick. His orders were to grab Zack & Wiki. Every time I picked up a different game he got angrier. I used excuses such as the store was sold out, or that I lost my wallet when heading tot he checkout with the game. I eventually ran out of excuses so decided to grab the game. I hope he'll leave me alone now - at least until he finds another game he likes.