Game Collection - DVD Collection - CD Collection

• 8Oct 08

  Bringin' the fuzz: 2007

  Here we are, now lay the burden down; we're coming to the end of our road. Sorrowful yet glorious somehow; to be humming this one last ode. So calm and still... it wasn't all that bad, or was it now? Fulfilled... it doesn't only hurt to end it now.

  Great. Now I've got depressing songs stuck in my head. Anyhoo, this blog is the final entry in this little series. No idea what I'm gonna write about now. Ah well.

  Oh, and before anybody says anything, I'm aware Lost Odyssey wasn't released in the western world until 2008. But I've been using worldwide debut release dates (i.e. mainly Japan) all the way through this series - and as I'm a stickler for consistency that is what I will continue to do here.

  2007

  Game of the Year:

  

  Mass Effect

  (X360, 20/11/07)

  It had to be, didn't it? The day Bioware disappoint me will be a sad day. Thankfully Mass Effect was every bit as good as I had hoped. Gripping space-opera storyline? Check. Interesting and mostly non-irritating characters? Yes. Beautifully realised futuristic locations? Aye. Fast-paced action, a fantastic dialogue system, believable voice acting and hours of optional side quests? All present. Near-endless opportunity for exploration? Well... alright. Unnecessarily fiddly inventory system? Ah. Alright, so Mass Effect isn't perfect, but it's probably as close to my own personal 'ideal game' as any game has come for a long time. My hard-ass fem-Shep is my favourite character creation in ages. I liked the Mako, too. It's so bouncy.
  
  
  
  Honourable Mentions:

  

  Hardware:

  - Sony PSP Slim & Lite.

  Other Stuff That May Have Happened...

  UK No. 1 on My Birthday:

  Rihanna feat. Jay-Z - "Umbrella" (video)

  Eurovision Winner:

  Marija Šerofović - "Moltiva" (Serbia) (video)

  Best Albums:

  

  Best Films:

  

  SWAN!!!

  Double back in time: 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - 1994 - 1993 - 1992 - 1991 - 1990 - 1989 - 1988 - 1987

  • Posted Oct 8, 2008 6:40 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 1Oct 08

  September 2008

  This month in review is brought to you by a head full of bad wiring, a file full of job apps and a box full of almost-free DVDs.

  Gridlock's Month in Review: September 2008

  
  

  The Damage: New Acquisitions
  

  GameBoy

  

  GameBoy Color
  

  

  GameCube

  

  Nintendo 64

  

  PC
  

  

  PlayStation

  
  

  PlayStation 2
  

  
  

  DVD

  
  Phew. That's a lot of DVDs. About 2/3 were free, thanks both to a CeX voucher and my brother who has just got a job working for Blizzard (awesome) in Ireland and is currently downsizing his life into the back of a rather small car.
  

  
  The On-Going Quest: Game Progress

  Dungeon Siege (PC)

  Time spent to date: 20 hours

  For some reason this crashed and died on me at about 20 hours. Nothing I do (reinstalling, messing about with settings, yadda yadda) has any effect. Call it a jinx carried over from last month's blog, I call it shoddy craftsmanship. Not that I particularly care, mind. I've not been in much of a gaming mood these past couple of weeks and the last thing I want to do is spend any more time trying to get awkward games working.

  
  
  

  Tomb Raider (PS)

  Time spent to date: 15 hours

  Now, a large proportion of those fifteen hours have been spent cursing, hitting walls and throwing pillows at anyone who dares interrupt my 47th attempt at clearing awkward jump no. 1,153. I started this on a bet - that I could actually finish a Tomb Raider game, something I have never done - and I don't intend to give up yet. There's a box of Tiger in it (my favourite). I've got a sinking feeling I should have picked one of the later games, though. My thumbs are screaming for analog controls.

  The Final Victory: Completed Games
  

  Heroes of Might & Magic (PC)

  Time spent: 30 hours (ish)
  

  I've never played the first HoMM before, despite spending many happy hours with HoMM II and III. So one afternoon, after filling out a particularly boring application for a forensic lab tech position I decided to go back to basics. I spent a while gazing at all the goodies in my HoMM Collector's Edition box (again), fiddled around a bit and got this little gem running nice and smoothly in a tiny little window. Oh... but it's fantastic. Simpler than its successors and not as refined, but still a good 'un. I played through the main campaigns as a Warlock (because it's supposedly the easiest cIass and I suck at strategy games) over about a week, then spent a fair few hours messing about with random maps, smiting evil as a Knight who sadly did not say "Ni!"

  
  
  

  Odds 'n' Sods

  Picture of the Month
  

  
  
  A water feature to liven up even the wildest, most depressingly untended garden.
  
  

  Question of the Month

  From a disturbingly lengthy late-night interweb discussion:

  How come anatomy diagrams are always circumcised?

  
  

  Ciao.

  • Posted Oct 1, 2008 4:26 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 24Sep 08

  This Is Spar... 2006

  I'm morally outraged. Maybe even feeling a little feminist today. Nah. Scratch that. It's not feminism, it's common friggin' sense.

  Some teenage girl round my way got assaulted or something. She was half drunk and probably wearing the fashion equivalent of an Elastiplast and may or may not be a bucking bronco in human form. Of course there's the usual slut-burning brigade out and about insisting that it was entirely her own fault. Oh yeah. I completely agree. She should have left her vagina at home. It's her own fault for walking about with it in the first place. Right? Pfft.

  There was something I read today about an Amnesty International poll from a while back that showed 26% of respondants thought a woman was responsible for being raped if she was wearing revealing clothing, 30% thought she was responsible if she was drunk and 22% thought she was responsible if she'd had many sexual partners.

  Really? I shouldn't need to point out that doesn't matter if she was naked and tied to a pole with neon flashing arrows pointing towards her nether regions. It's still the total responsibility of the person who raped her. It is not acceptable to screw someone against their will. Blaming them for it afterwards is just pathetic and should be treated with the same sort of contempt as "The voices made me do it." Listen up, lads. Your tackle is not magical, detached from your body or controlled by drunk women with strange mental powers over the opposite sex. Nobody else but you controls where you put your trouser snake.*

  *Unless, of course, your name is Kryten and you have a head shaped like a novelty condom and a detachable penis with a mind of it's own.

  Right then. 2006.

  2006

  Game of the Year:

  

  Okami

  (PS2, JP: 20/04/06)

  It's so pretty. So pretty that I forgot to pay any attention whatsoever to any other aspects of the game. It was several hours later that I realised the gameplay was brilliant too. Bloody marvellous and a great breath of fresh air. Okami could have resuscitated a somewhat flagging and increasingly bland game industry, could have launched a whole new breed of game that dared to do something a bit different. Instead it was criminally overlooked by the game-buying masses, despite being a bit of a critic's darling.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Honourable Mentions:

  

  Hardware:

  - Nintendo DS Lite.
  - Sony PlayStation 3.
  - Nintendo Wii.

  Other Stuff That May Have Happened...

  UK No. 1 on My Birthday:

  Nelly Furtado - "Maneater" (video)

  Eurovision Winner:

  Lordi - "Hard Rock Hallelujah" (Finland) (finest cheese) (video)

  Best Albums:

  

  Best Films:

  

  Go on. Say it with me. This... is... Sparta!

  Double back in time: 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000 - 1999 - 1998 - 1997 - 1996 - 1995 - 1994 - 1993 - 1992 - 1991 - 1990 - 1989 - 1988 - 1987

  • Posted Sep 24, 2008 9:14 am PT
  • Category: Games
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