Episode 9: Short but sweet return to this poor excuse for a blog

Hello Hello to anyone who may still check this thing in case I've updated it well now you can rest easy knowing I have!!!.....sort of.
Ok so I dropped the ball the last few months in a big big way as I have seen many films and played a game or two and not written about any of my experiences on here or anywhere but unfortunatly I found a social life rotting in the corner and decided to try saving it a little bit hence the lack of updates so for that I do apologise, but what you gonna do arrest me ?

Anyway this is just a short update and primer for a few plans I have, I keep wanted to turn this blog into a weekly endeavour which so far I've failed at on three seperate occassions but I will not give up on myself just yet and you shouldn't either........what's that you already have? Well your going to miss all the fun, that's what I thought now sit down and listen well read you know what I mean!

Right so theres a few films I've seen most of which relate back to old posts which I really want to write about especially as I've now seen Captain America and was just as impressed as when I caught Thor at the pictures so expect a Marvel special or something and my thoughts on The Avengers next year as i really think Joss Whedon <3 will do spectacular things with some already very well realised characters from the Marvel U.

I also need to throw in on two of the years big summer blockbusters; Deathly Hollows part 2 (lets face it I have to after I did pt 1) and of course everybodys favourite giant robots the Transformers so expect some digital scribbles bout those two mahooooosive franchise finishing movies.

The last film I need to get writing about (and possibly my favourite) is Attack the Block; now Attack the Block is a great British film with some real amazing people working behind the scenes and really gives the whole 'monster invasion' idea a fresh feel to it.

Now on to the games side of things

Lately I have sucked real bad at playing any new games and been worse at catching up with ones I've missed. I've been playing some Borderlands when friends are around to play too and the new Fifa demo has hit the web now too so have tried that, the only new game I can say I tried would be Deus Ex: Human Revolution and fully intend to do some sort of write up at some point.
I am however going to Earls Court next week to the Eurogamer convention and it has been confirmed that Call of Duty, Battlefield and Batman AC will all be playable as I'm sure there will be lots more so I'm going to try and cover my impressions of all those things too but it'll be a long weekend as it's also my brothers birthday so don't expect immediate updates I'll be in the pub.

Right I think thats your lot for now but am going to try and start doing this more regularly but think I'll do a big blow out blog next week to catch up on everything I've mentioned in more detail and then expect a Eurogamer special at some point maybe just before October is upon us.

PEACE OUT

-See You Space Cowboy

Episode 8: Hardcore and Hardboiled, telling a compelling story for a videogame crowd.

So I’ve been getting my teeth firmly sunk into Rockstar’s latest epic L.A Noire and frankly I’ve been pretty much blown away with what I’ve seen, there are some criticisms  only minor ones mind you and all things that would be fixed via downloadable content or further releases in the franchise ala Grand Theft Auto.Just another day for the L.A.P.D

I’m not really here to review the game as such today just want to make some observations, comparisons and comments because this game is great and puts many others to shame not to mention it’s more entertaining than a whole lot of films out there and this game is one of those that’s really trying to blur the lines between the two mediums.

L.A Noire or L.A Black as a few people at my current place of employment refer to it as, is a hardboiled detective thriller very akin to films like L.A Confidential and The Untouchables. The events take place in 1947 and the character you are put in the shoes of is one Officer Cole Phelps.

Phelps starts as a rookie beat cop on the bad streets of post war L.A he was a decorated soldier during the war and husband and father of 2. Straight from the off Rockstar and Team Bondi (Noire’s developer) are obviously striving for something more than GTA in a mobster setting. The focus is on police work not hustling honest people and shooting guys for having no respect; it’s about building a case then slapping the perp with that piece of crucial evidence your partner told you was a waste of time to put the guy away for good. The interesting thing is just how engrossing the experience is for the player or players in my case as my brother sat with me for at least the first few hours of the game helping me separate the honest victims from the scumbag liars. and how much attention you have to pay to what’s said and who said it and where things were found relative to the case is almost overwhelming.

I can honestly say it’s been a very long time since I’ve been engrossed the way I have with Noire; I actually feel like a brilliant detective when I get  everything right and feel truly awful when questioning turns sour or in one case I honestly felt terrible when I realised I sent the wrong man down for murder but by then was too late to correct my mistake; I just have to hope to redeem myself on the next case.

For those not in to games so much there is something here for you too, whilst you may be unfamiliar with the typiical drive here, shoot that guy, duck behind cover there they are merely the connecting dots to keep the core of the game or interactive film as some call it moving along the narrative but all the dots as I put it can be skipped if found difficult or turned off completely and you can be left with the meat of the L.A Noire experience which is just fookin’ brilliant.

The tech behind the game (promise not to nerd out here) is the sweet sweet icing on this delectable cake. Team Bondi have been working on their face capture tech probably longer than the game itself. you are effectively watching real actors play the parts and it’s real refreshing especially when you can start picking people out of the game straight from films and shows you’ve seen. (My favourite so far has been Matt Parkman from Heroes) The faces whilst still not as real as real life are still dam good and it brings along everything from the actor’s facial impressions, ranging  from honest fear, shady grimaces and flat out bollocks. This pure attention to detail is obviously used to full effect to add depth to the interrogations and whilst on occasion (mainly early on) it is a real fine line between truth/doubt/lie and is a bit frustrating when you pick the wrong option so  whilst great the faces don’t give away guaranteed tells.

An example of one of L.A Noire’s many actor’s in a capture session and their virtual counterpart

As you play though you’ll realise you can only accuse a suspect of a lie if you can prove it so just check your handy police hand book before throwing wild accusations around and if you still struggle you can use intuition points earned as you rank up to remove a wrong answer or get the percentages for what the online community chose; very Who Wants To Be A Millionaire I know. The great thing is all cases once finished can be replayed and frankly you are going to replay them especially the ones you messed up as you get a star rating out of 5 so those 1 star cases are going to bug you if your anything like me. The one criticism I’ve seen in a few places and I do tend to agree with is that because of the case structure the overarching story of Detective Phelps does feel a tad disjointed at times and I feel that just adding some extra sort of prologue/epilogue to each case may of helped with keeping cases separate but with opportunity to link them to the bigger picture that is L.A Noire’s story. I do enjoy the flashbacks of Phelps’ army experiences between cases though as they add some dimension to his character but they do also add to the jarring effect at times. Other than that I really do love what Bondi have done here and hope they continue to push the good parts of this game (maybe GTA 5 anyone???)

By now if your still reading it’s clear I like this game I’m yet to finish it so I don’t know how Phelps’ commitment to cleaning up the filthy streets of L.A turn out just yet but I look forward to finding out; but I’m left with a pretty big nagging feeling……………  How does this game succeed were so many films fail?? L.A Noire does take many cues from films, great films at that especially the likes of L.A Confidential, Godfather and  even Blade Runner to some extent but this game tells a gritty dramatic some times even heart pounding crime thriller and it’s a GAME!!! L.A Noire isn’t perfect by any means but it is the first film… sorry game that is blurring “THAT” line, in my opinion at least. It does so much that lots of films I’ve seen flat out fail at, everything from deep character development to coherent narrative. L.A Noire truly is a ground breaking experience not perfect but still an absolute must play game even if your not that into games you have to give this one a try at the very least. Now to finish up cleaning those filthy streets and taking care of those scumbag criminals.

See You SpaceCowboys…………………….. 

BTW

I’ve noticed this blog is getting a reasonable amount of traffic and I only really post links on MSN Facebook and Twitter but would love to hear back from people, especially those not from the U.K as I want to know if you people like what you read find it useful or think it’s shit so please either follow the blog and leave a comment or drop me a line at spacecowboy2187@googlemail.com hope to hear from you all and feel free to pass this blog around to friends too =D

Episode 7: The Mighty Thor on the Mighty Big Screen !!!!!

Right then first things first, I know nothing of Thor! Yes I love comic book movies (mostly) and yes if you asked most people they’d say I had a pretty good knowledge of comic books but frankly Thor is well out of my league, other than the fact I knew he had a hammer and was the god of thunder and one of the first Avengers I know nothing of this Marvel hero and you don’t even need to read comics to know two out of those three facts anyway!!

Before I continue this is a bit of a warning………I’m going to potential spoil things in this mess of words so please if you want to know nothing just press the little cross in the upper corner of your web browser now!

Right now they’ve gone we can get to the nitty gritty of Thor. The first thing that struck me as I sat waiting for Thor to start was that I felt alienated by the idea I didn’t know anything; unlike a Batman or a Spidey flick where I have a relative (but novice) understanding of the lead character and their expanded universe with Thor I was clueless and that made me a little uneasy partly because I wouldn’t be able to identify if they got things right or not, when I watched Batman and Robin in 1997 I knew it was all wrong and I was 10 but my 24 year old self got hung up on the fact I potentially wouldn’t notice if Thor got Schumachered because I wouldn’t of known any better.

Well let me tell you the first 20 minutes or so I held strongly to this self doubt and perhaps allowed that fear of the unknown to negatively effect what I was seeing on screen. The film starts on earth with scientist Jane Foster and her assistant as well as her mentor witnessing an astrological phenomena which results in them running Thor over; rewind to 965A.D  Asgard the home world of Thor and one of the Nine Worlds that make up the cosmos (Earth being another and Jotunheim being another). Thor’s father and king of Asgard Odin (the god of thunder) is a mighty warrior who defeats the Frost giants of Jotunheim to bring peace to the nine worlds and relinquish them of their power. This is a famous story now told to the children of Asgard including Thor and Loki (Thor’s brother) of which one will one day be king. Jump back to present day Asgard Thor has now been chosen as the next King but during his ceremony frost giants break in to Asgard to get back what Odin took, whist unsuccessful Thor enraged at their arrogance and disrespect wishes to take the fight to Jotunheim like his father before him but Odin forbids it knowing only war will come of it. Thor obviously disobeys and rounds up his brother Loki best friend Sif and the warriors three (yeah I didn’t know of any of them either) and take it to Jotunheim. Now up to this point I got everything that was going on which for someone who is clueless to this whole section of the Marvel-verse was pretty good. This is also the first time we get to see Thor smash stuff with that awesome hammer which very much distracted me from any niggles I had about my knowledge. It was a great scene but was a bit dark and the action was a bit choppy, I’ve been finding this with a lot of films lately maybe its just me but it is a little off putting but when Thor takes things down they stay down and that felt real satisfying to watch.

Ultimately Thor’s actions piss off everybody the frost giants his brother his friends and worst of all Odin. Thor is there by banished and cast down to earth to live with mere mortals as a mere mortal being stripped of all his powers and his hammer which is too cast down to earth (if you’ve seen Iron Man 2 post credits you already know that bit) only to be picked up by one worthy of its power. This is where the first third or so of the film comes full circle back to the very being with scientist Jane and co running him over in their truck.

Now that seems a lot to cram into what I thought would take up a much bigger section of the films time but for me it did seem to work. One thing that bugs me with hero films or at least the first in the series is all the explaining and getting to the bit where the transformation to hero happens ala Spider-Man but with Thor you get the hero straight away then have to follow Thor on a journey to earn his power back. This consists of him ultimately becoming worthy to once again wield his mighty hammer and defeat those who betrayed him which is achieved by Thor learning the meaning of humility and putting others before his own wants. Cheesy I know but still great life lessons. My main bug to bear with the plot is its villains or lack there of. Loki is ultimately responsible for Thor being cast out and whist Loki does send a giant death Harbinger of doom to earth (better known as the Destroyer)  I felt like more could of been done to show Thor off a little even the final battle with Loki whilst by no means bad did feel a little lacking but I still enjoyed  the action in Thor it just wasn’t as epic as I hoped. I am curious as to what the Avengers will have to face as it has got to be at least an 11 on the epic scale to have Thor, Ironman, Captain America and the Hulk reeling although I think the strong rumour of the Hulk being the bad guy still seem pretty likely just not as epic.

As for the cast other than Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin) I wasn’t too familiar with any of the main cast. Let me say right now me and a friend have a long running joke about Portman having used all her talent up in Leon but she wasn’t bad in Thor but then again she didn’t have a lot to do so who’s to say (wait till I’ve seen Black Swan I think) but Hopkins was a surprise he was a bit scary in fact belting out godlike orders and delivering more heartfelt moments the next the old boy still has it, as a supporting character at least. However Hemsworth is a great Thor he is a big physical looking guy for one and he delivers his Norse speech without hamming it up ……too much but bare in mind it’s a comic book film its supposed to be a bit hammy and he seems to strike a good balance between hammy Norse god and thundery force to be reckoned with. The one cast member other than Hemsworth who really impressed is Clark Gregg who has played Agent Coulson in  now in Thor and both Ironman films as the guy who seems to pull most of the strings where S.H.I.E.L.D ARE INVOLVED even if he himself is working for a higher power (Sammy L. Jackson’s Nick Fury) I know it seems odd to mention and his performance isn’t mind blowing or worthy of any awards but its his slightly smug “I know more than I’m letting on” delivery of his lines I love because he does and it feels like a massive tease in of itself.

Some would argue that Thor actually follows a very common formula that many films have done before; hero is young and reckless does something stupid gets betrayed learns a lesson and kicks the bad guys asses and you’d be right but Thor does it very well and whilst predictable in places in particular with the twist with the character Loki I did really enjoy Thor a lot more than I expected my main hesitation was my lack of knowledge of Thor going in but I have nothing to really reference the film to so I can’t honestly say if they got it right but what I can say is I enjoyed it for what it was a stepping stone much like hulk and both Ironman films and like them Thor may suffer a little from references missed by the non-hard-core fans (this time myself included) but unlike Iron man 2 which seemed to crowbar them in left, right and centre Thor seems more focused on itself and less worried about later films (for the most part at least) and the way the film ends Thor isn’t exactly where he wants to be and I have to wait for the Avengers (2012) to find out how the mighty god of thunder gets there.

See You SpaceCowboys…………….

Episode 6: The Return of SCRE4M!!! (I know I know the A is a 4 BRILLIANT)

ok so I’ve just got in from the cinematic pictographer exhibition house and as you may of guessed went to see the latest instalment of Wes Craven’s Scream franchise and let me tell you right now…….what a return to form this movie is.

Let me make it clear right now I am neither a fan of the horror genre as a whole or am I an expert when it comes to Craven. I know who he is and what he’s done for cinema and for horror as a genre but as a rule I’m just not a massive fan, but I’d like to make it clear I don’t dislike Craven I actually think he is very clever when it comes to the genre he helped to shape and respect him as a producer and director but Scream 4 was a guilty pleasure to say the least.

The film is set as far as I can tell several years after the events of the previous trilogy and Woodboro is still living with all the previous events from the films gone by and has spawned several “Stab” films based on the events of the Scream films with the latest being “Stab 7”.

Sidney (Neve Campbell)  is now a book author having overcome her ordeal by writing about her story, whilst Gail (Courtney Cox) is now in a rut living in a small town with her (now promoted) Sheriff husband Dewey struggling to think of anything to write about after the success of her previous book which the Stab films originate.

The rest of the characters comprise of Sidney’s cousin her two BFF’s her ex-boyfriend and a couple of film geeks who after Sidney’s return to the small town all find themselves right back in the thick of the creepy phone calls and stabbing spree’s. Queue the horror, kills, comedy and red herrings.

I don’t really want to talk too much about the plot as I’d much rather people just see the film than me try and explain things without ruining any of the film so I’ll steer away from plot info but talk about why I liked Scre4m.

What I find so fun about Scream 4 is that Craven isn’t just using “Stab” as a plot narrative but its a way to remind us, the audiences were watching a horror film. It’s a little fourth wall breaking at first especially in the opening scene I felt I was going to get very tired very quickly of all the film within a film within a film stick but I actually think its what Scr4m carries off the best and is the reason I enjoyed it.

Craven uses everything he and we know about horror and uses it to trick us, double bluff us, make us laugh and triple bluff us as the film unfolds. The fact that Stab has reached seven movies and in the clip of Stab we see the characters even point out the absurdity of sequel after sequel being old and dull helps you get on board with Scre4m because right off the bat you know not to take anything too serious. I also feel Craven is happy to acknowledge that maybe horror as a whole is a bit stale and is open to the formula of grinding out film after film but so long as you take it all with a pinch of salt it’s ok so long as you enjoy it. He also likes to cliché the clichés with lines like “I’ll be right back” to lead to that character actually coming back. There is even a scene where two cops are making fun of each other and talking about how bad it is to be a cop in a movie and not to say things like “be safe” and “I’m a week away from retirement” are such sure fire indicators of imminent death it truly is comical, but it doesn’t matter because we’re all in on the joke thanks to Craven not taking himself so seriously, he even has no qualms poking fun at reboots (see earlier blog post) as in many ways that’s what Scre4m is to the point that the film reusing several of the original’s set pieces to great effect.

Ultimately Scre4m feels like Craven is not only happy to admit the absurdity of the genre he has been a massive part of for decades but also content with encouraging the absurd so long as we know just how absurd it is and that’s just fine with me; lets just hope Craven starts rubbing off on some of the other big boys in the horror genre.

Also he gets a Shaun of the Dead cameo in there so its a winner in my book.

Until next time

See You SpaceCowboys………….

Episode 5 : Nintendo Strikes Back

Ok so here is my first of hopefully many comeback gigs. I’d like to open with a little story about myself, for anyone reading this who doesn’t know anything about me I am blind in one of my eyes. I’m going to give you a second to process that………you done ? I know shocking isn’t it you never of guessed by looking at me would you? Anyway the point of disclosing this bit of trivia about myself is that whilst I have no depth perception and suck at most things that involve catching things it also means I can’t see 3D films or games or anything. Now I imagine people are now thinking this is why this joker is anti-3D which I guess is a contributing factor but I do stand by the fact that having a bad film (or game) pop out of the screen doesn’t make it good. If its a good film then of course it will add to the enjoyment but if it’s a bad film (or game) it won’t matter how many dimensions it has up its sleeve its bad.

So now I can hear you thinking to yourself hold on a minute didn’t this guy say he bought a Nintendo 3DS last month…. WTF ??? Well yes you read correctly a guy with no love for 3d or the vision to even qualify to even use the technology would drop £200+ for a hand held device solely designed to tout the glory that is three dimensional gaming?

Well let me tell you :  THE NINTENDO 3DS IS THE BEST GAMEBOY SINCE THE GAMEBOY ADVANCE SP!!!!!!!

Sweeping statement? maybe. The truth ? I certainly believe so

Now this article is going to lack any information about the 3ds’ 3D capabilities but let me tell you I don’t even feel like I’m missing out, in fact I feel more like I got a special model that didn’t have added burden in the box. Lots of people I know personally or journalists I follow regularly all comment on the 3d and how some put up with it for hours some have 30 minutes on and a couple of hours off most just end up turning it off altogether. Now some feel cheated because of that fact and there has been many reports regarding the volume of returns which isn’t entirely true but I guess I could understand the less informed consumer perhaps wasn’t fully prepared for the 3ds’ varied usability and feel that the 3d is what they paid for. I on the other hand feel very differently as I know from the off the 3d wasn’t even a feature to get excited about I took a big gamble but when I turned it on and got past the 3d calibrations I was amazed with what I found.

Games, Connectivity, Music, Video even Social networking (albeit with a Nintendo twist) and there’s even a whole bunch of things that are still locked until future firmware is released.

Ok so I’m going to try and break things down but I’m going to stay away from the technical jargon and focus on the fun stuff. all the stuff I’m listing unless otherwise stated comes preloaded to the machine so it is all included in the price of the console.

3D camera

Ok I know I said I can’t comment on 3d and I’m starting off with the 3d camera but it’s still essentially a normal camera as well and is after all a feature, one that on it’s own (3d or not) is a bit average but having the camera leads to many possibilities for other games and activities and with a 2gb SD you get to keep any random stuff you come across on your travels.

AR Cards

Ok so AR cards isn’t only where the 3ds breaks down the wall of what we expect from games it also brings that average 3D camera into the spotlight and just generally is a great place to start for anyone being a skeptic Sally when it comes to this bit of kit. Basically when you open the box you’ll find these odd cards featuring some of Nintendo’s most famous characters from Mario to Kirby and my favourite Link (from Zelda). Now this cards are pretty cool  but when you get them in front of the 3d camera they literally come to life, by this i mean actual character models pop out of the card or cards you are looking at (again with 3d on I’m sure this is even more gasp worthy) It’ a hard concept to explain but it is fantastic to have Link in the palm of your hand and take a photo. The most important of the cards is the “?” card; this card allows various games to be played in a real 3 dimensions (not pop-out 3d) actual three dimensions. Games vary from fishing to shooting targets but they all end up with you blasting the crap out of the most sinister dragon in an age.  I’ll try and get a couple of pictures for you to grasp what I’m going on about and hopefully you’ll start to see how cool the 3ds is (3d enabled or not).  

Link the little terrorist threatens to bomb my blog if I’m not nice about the 3ds whilst Samus just starts shooting

Music/Video

The 3ds has an odd addition in the 3ds Sound feature which allows you to record your own voice or any sound for that matter and manipulate it. You can adjust the pitch and tone of your recordings and make things sound very silly. I’ll be honest I haven’t really used it myself. After the 3d the sound feature is the only other thing I haven’t touched, mainly because I don’t find any fun in it but I’m sure kids and drunk adults would get a blast out of making people sound different and again a bit like the camera, alone it seems a tad useless but if roped into a game or games or even better if it was updated so i could listen to my music through the SD card I would definitely be more on board with this. As for video currently there isn’t any unless you hook your 3ds up to your wireless router and BAM 3d showreel video. Again the idea of the reel is to show off the 3d BUT the quality of the video itself was so impressive I actually would love services to be able to get T.V or films on demand for the little hand held for train journeys or just showing off  and I really hope Nintey have plans in the pipeline for something exactly like this.

Face Raiders

Ok so this is probably the thing I’ve played the most even if it encourages the slightly creepy hobby of collecting peoples faces to rescue them from a demented evil space afro (I shit you not). Basically you take a photo of a face any face your own a friends your other half or in my case Homer Simpson, Eric Cartman and random cast members from CSI Miami. All the game consists of is shooting flying faces (you get 50 points for every hit 100 if you get the shot in the mouth I know hilarious) Every time you play it asks for you to capture a new face that is then the face you’ll be shooting the most but every so often the other faces in your collection appear if you hit them you “ rescue” them the more you rescue the better the score. The great thing about Face Raiders is that you don’t just play you havve to move around. As the faces shoot off the screen you have to physically follow them, if a face fly’s off to your right you have to turn the 3ds right to follow it. This becomes particularly fun or difficult when sat in an office swivel chair. The great thing is as you play you unlock more levels and there’s even a separate section for when your letting your friends play so they don’t mess up your game and it still unlocks stuff for you when they play. There’s even a feature where a little flying saucer will zip off and look for new faces on your SD card if you have gotten a little snap happy in the camera section. All in all a great extra.

Mii Plaza

I’m going to get this out the way before I explain any of it, Mii Plaza is the best most addictive crazy thing Nintendo have put together in a long time. Basically anyone familiar with Nintendo’s Wii console and the ability to create little Mii’s of yourself and your friends (and Hitler if your not a very well adjusted member of society) will already know sort of what to expect. This is your Mii’s little home. Dull I hear you cry ?? but wait what happens when your have your wifi enabled and a little feature called StreetPass turned on? Addiction that’s what happens!! When you close the 3ds without powering it off it goes into a sleep mode and so long as you already have the streetpass set up you can go and start collecting with 3ds owner’s Mii’s. Again cool but average I know but wait for every 100 steps you take your 3ds give’s you a gold coin and you can earn 10 every day. Between your coin’s and Mii’s you meet by crossing paths with other 3ds’ (you don’t even have to know there was a 3ds near you) it just automatically sends your Mii to near by 3ds’ and vice-versa you can play two very cool games. The first is a simple swap game. The 3ds has several pictures all split into pieces, when you first setup your streetpass piece swap you get a couple of pieces for free but then the idea is you swap your pieces for pieces from visiting Mii’s you still keep your pieces but can then get more, you can also get pieces at the cost of 2 gold coins per piece but you can’t guarantee you’'ll get a new piece so Streetpassing is the way to go.

Nadroj is my Mii’s name being smug is his game

The other game Streetpass quest is even more clever. In this you’ll find your Mii has been locked away in a tower and it’s up to your visiting Mii’s to rescue you. To do this you have to battle through rooms with various enemies (ghosts/suits of armour etc) which all have weaknesses and your visiting Mii’s all start at Lvl1 and can only be used once. However every time you re-StreetPass one of your visiting Mii’s they level up making them stronger. You can also buy Mii adventurers for 2 coins each but they are one use only and are always low levels so your best bet is to find friends with 3ds’ to StreetPass with it also bears some thought as to the colour of your Mii’s shirt colour as this dictates what magic they can cast. Red is fire yellow starts a sandstorm which effects everyone’s ability to hit a target green puts ghosts to sleep and so on. As you get through the levels you unlock new hats for your Mii too, I’m currently rocking the Link hat which I know will always be my favourite and whilst I haven’t got to the end of this quest yet I’m determined to unlock all the hats and all the picture pieces too and by then hopefully Nintendo will release more add-on content like these to extend the brilliance of the little handheld that could. 

Locked stuff

I’m typed a lot I know and this is far more info than I’d intended to give but I guess it all helps those that care. I just want to add a quick mention to the stuff my 3ds keeps telling me “will be unlocked in a future update”. These illusive yet to be added features include an internet browser and a gameboy/Dsi ware shop where you will be able to purchase downloadable versions of some of your favourite classic gameboy games (role on Pokemon red and Super Mario Land)

Like I said this is a hell of a lot to read and most people will already know all this at this point or just give up half way through the article but for those that have stuck with me what I basically am getting at in a very round the Wrekin kind of way is that I bought a 3d handheld games console and I’m half blind and have no use for it’s main selling point and I think this machine is dam brilliant. I feel like so many people just think the 3ds is a 3d’ed DS but that couldn’t be further from the truth the 3ds is a brand spanking new machine one that has so much grunt under the bonnet but allows the 3D to over-shadow its potential. The games available aren’t too shabby either ( I don’t even own any yet but have tried a few) Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 is probably the best PES since the PS2 days and looks great and Super Street Fighter IV looks fantastic too, but I don’t even feel the need for them as I have Pokemon White (which is a normal DS game) and the built in goodies to keep me busy. If I’m truly honest there’s one reason I picked up a 3ds was for the remake of one of my all time favourite games, The Legend Of Zelda and the Ocarina Of Time which isn’t out till the end of June but I’m sticking around for something I haven't seen in a very long time; truly fun addictive games that don’t lead me to scream at American kids for being laggy or for some guy constantly shooting me in the head from the opposite side of a Call of Duty map.

Nintendo are back baby and in a big way I just hope they can keep up the momentum and release both great retail games and add additional (hopefully free) extras to the simple stuff the Nintey have got so right this time around and with the rumours of the Wii 2 going back to basics and trying to reclaim the hardcore crowd I can not wait to see what’s next but for now I need to focus on getting the hats and saving my Mii from those pesky ghosts !!

See You SpaceCowboys…………

Episode 4: A New Post (If some what delayed and short)

It’s been over 4 months since my last entry and for anyone that cares I apologise. I could try to claim I’ve been bogged down with work or had many busy social occasions that have sapped all my attention but this would just be a big fat lie, I’ve just been very lazy and not really been watching or playing any games or films and felt the need to write about them.

I’ve decided to change my attitude towards my blog though as I want to use this page as a way to try and inform and invoke discussion about things I love and hate without things turning into horrid fanboyism or a place for me to just vent my frustrations about everything.

Well with that new mission statement in place and with me having an entire week off to myself (plus my birthday) I am going to post something for every day this week and try and get more people reading this thing in the hope that I may be able to grow some sort of fan base (egomaniacal of me I know) as I feel I’d like to review things for a living but would be happy just doing it as a hobby.

So what to expect over the next week??

Well I purchased Bulletstorm today just so I can get my hands on the Gears of War 3 beta and plan to write about it this week and the coming weeks as additional content for the beta comes out. I got a 3ds back in March and am playing Pokemon White a load as well as having recently finished Crysis 2 and have been able to try out Portal 2 and plan to purchase that this week too. (its out on my birthday ; ) )  Also theres a few films I need to catch up on including The Social Network and Tron Legacy amongst others. I’ll probably also chime in on any news I read on IMDB or GamesRadar if anything pops up. So I’m potentially setting myself a busy schedule for a weeks holiday but I will do my very best to be more consistent and post more regularly so please stay tuned for more random stuff

See You SpaceCowboys

Part 3: Revenge of the Investment

This is blog three and frankly really overdue as I’d intended to write this after having seen Potter 7 part 1 and just put it off and off why? Who knows maybe laziness or possibly only about 4 people read the article (get the violins out) or because I think of things to write about that sound good then I utterly forget to jot them down to refer to so I end up writing rubbish but I shall preserver.

So why is my blog title sound like I’m talking finances ? Well whilst watching the new Potter flick with a varied bunch of work friends I got to thinking about just how long ago it was when we first saw Harry, Ron and Hermione getting into trouble and learning just the right spell at the right time as the one who must not be named slowly gathers power to ruin all their fun. Now let me say I’ve not read the books (but Santa is ment to be fixing this) but am a fan of the movies so I can’t compare the two but what I can say is I’ve invested the best part of a decade watching all these characters grow up have their first kiss have to deal with death all things we as humans go through so we can relate now I’d call that an investment wouldn’t you? Once the film had finished (and for me who hasn’t read the films on a bit of a cliff hanger) came away thoroughly happy with what I’d seen. It wasn’t until a couple of people I’d seen it with commented that a lot of the movie was just three kids wondering the countryside, which in effect is true about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows pt1 but whilst they saw this as a negative I didn’t possibly I’m just trying to justify the franchise as a whole or maybe because I have invested so must time over the years I just enjoyed seeing the characters again. The film seemed very focused on the relationship triangle of Harry, Ron and Hermione and just how far they’ve come to the point of breaking, this in itself was a great watch for me but again maybe I’m just making excuses for myself.

When I got home I started thinking about other films or shows I watch and just how important the characters are to not just the success of the show but enjoyment of it. A good example of this is an anime I watch called Bleach which has just hit 301 episodes of which I have seen every one even the filler (crappy non-canon story arcs designed to fill when main canon is still being animated) which calculates to about 7224 minutes of a show, god only knows what I might of achieved in that time that would of been of actual use to me it doesn’t bare thinking about.

However I’ve got to 301 and without trying to ruin anything for anyone who might go away and look this show up the big bad villain has just transformed into this uber powerful version of himself and three of my favourite characters are having to combine efforts to even try and slow him down whilst the protagonist Ichigo is having the worst case of self doubt ever. Now what I’ve just typed is going to mean nothing to pretty much any one who reads this however I invested over 7000 minutes of my free time to see Kisue Urahara (my personal favourite character) finally get to the nitty gritty and fight the big bad boss so when he did I was so into it I was cheering and screaming “oh no he didn’t” because that is what I’ve been wanting to see. Bleach isn’t just about one character in fact it very cleverly juggles a vast cast of characters almost all of which (filler aside) I like for one reason or another even the bad guys I like because they are just so evil their not annoying or just someone to push the narrative along they are all in it for their own greedy selfish sometimes tragic reasons, it’s a great show.

I guess what I’m getting at is if you invest in a character or characters you like or admire or just think are a bad ass mutha’ ( I <3 Kiskue) then what does it matter if they are wondering around the countryside or they take 7000 minutes of T.V time to cut lose you’ve put the time in so just enjoy it; then again if Harry doesn’t start pwning things in Deathly Hollows pt2 I’ll have to open a can of Kiskue on someone’s ass.

See you SpaceCowboys