Foughts and fings in mah hed.

This is a random one.
It's all my thoughts and things running through my mind collected into one shitty little blog/list in order of how much I think about them:


1. FLORIDA.!


2. Getting coursework done before I leave y'all next week.
3. Getting a haircut before I leave for Florida, other wise it'll probably suffocate me in the heat.
4. Thinking about new ideas for my YouTube material once I get an UltraFlip HD camera.
5. Quite pleased with the progress made on my "Long way Home" story.
6. Horrified of the lack of progress made with my Ren Ai.
7. Wondering whether it'd be possible to snatch JK Rowling at the opening of the Harry Potter theme park on June 18th.
8. Worried a little of the gurd stuff I'm gonna miss at college when I go away; especially missing the Showcase :(
9. Wondering whether my Dad will actually be foolish enough to buy an iPad in Florida like he's been hinting at.
10. Praying I won't burn to a crisp in the american sun.

That's about it, either way, when I leave for the hotel at the airport on thursday all these worries will have been abolished and solved. And I'll no longer have a mop on my head. Good stuff.

Pheonix- Final Attempt Pt 2 Featuring some of Marvel's finest heroes!

I couldn’t let her go. I couldn’t stand there and let her die again. My phone rang from inside my jacket. Parker. The last guy I want to speak to at a time like this. I answered in hope he has some useful information.
“Whaddya want Parker?” I didn’t have time for this.
“Hey Wolvie, fancy catching a movie later? Just us two?” The sound of his voice instantly irritated me let alone the stupid jokes.
“Spit it out Peter or you identity goes all over the Internet.”
“Ok, ok. Stark’s got a trace on your girl, seem she’s heading over to the Nevada desert. She’s pretty fast. We can take the Quinjet over there but we could be too late.” I could hear hurried voices in the background and the whir of technology, never been good with that type of stuff.
“Forget the Quinjet, you stay there. This is too big even for the Avengers” I started running phone in hand.
“So instead of a team of superheroes you just think little old Wolverine will stand a better chance?” Parker’s snarky voice cut threw me like a knife. I had no time for this.
“Whatever Parker just do something!” I threw the phone to the ground as I ran, smashing it to pieces. How the hell would I get to the Nevada desert in time? Then the thought struck me; I needed the X-Jet. But I needed it fast. I ran in the middle of the road, not giving a second thought to the cars and trucks swerving to avoid me, a man on a motorcycle sped straight towards me. Just what I needed. I stuck out my fist as he swerved past knocking him clean off.
“Sorry.” He probably didn’t hear my grunt as I was already on the bike and down the freeway before he had even registered what had happened. I pushed the bike to its limit, everything around me turned into a solid blur of colour. By the time I smashed through the gates of Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, half an hour had already passed. Jean could be dead by now.
I leapt off the bike letting it careen into a patch of bushes. Running through the school seemed to take forever, kids everywhere, calling my name, trying to catch a glimpse of their ex-teacher. I tore through the halls, never running so fast in my life, my heart raced and head pounded but this was all for Jean. I finally reached the garage and there in the centre was the X-Jet, big, black and fast.
I was in the cockpit and rearing the engines before the alarms had even sounded. The ceiling above opened up and the jet slowly rose. It was almost funny seeing Scott run into the garage screaming futile threats.
The engine roared to life and shot forward, leaving the school behind in a blur and rumbling the earth below. The X-Jet was fast, but I needed faster, for all I know Jean could be dead by now.
“C’mon, c’mon you piece of crap!” I urged it to go faster but it was already peaking at top speed. The navigation unit showed the Nevada desert ebbing closer. The scenery changed from the blur of grey city blocks, to green forests and finally an orange blur of desert.
I eased the throttle, slowing the beast down as I scanned the area. She must be here. A huge, bright light suddenly filled the cockpit, blinding me with its intensity. The whole jet shuddered and jolted to the side. I couldn’t see anything. I could only hear the sound of roaring fire and screeching. The jet was suddenly flung downwards, plunging to the ground. I braced myself as my stomach lurched, not knowing which way was up or down. This was gonna hurt.
I blacked out. Opening my eyes to a blurry scene of fire and metal shrapnel. Sand was in my mouth and searing pain cut through my body. The scene slowly began to clear and a figure became more prominent. It was Jean. She was alive.
Jean pulled the metal off me using her telekinesis. Blood splattered over her face and clothes torn to shreds. She was in trouble. Forget that, we both were.
“What the hell are you doing Logan?! I told you not to come here!” Jean whirled around as I picked myself up. In front of us, blazing in the sky was a huge phoenix, made entirely out of fire. Screeching to the heavens as its fire seemed to pulsate.
“I came here to save you Jean, your not going down without a fight! I told you!” With a burst of rage I felt the bones in my arm shudder, they clicked into place and slid forward shooting out of my fists as three large, razor sharp knifes. Thank you weapon X.
We both ran at the swirling beast of fire, Jean throwing blasts of white-hot energy at it, knocking it back. It could be hurt this time, that’s an improvement.
“Jean!” I kept on running, adrenaline coursing through me, “Throw me at it!” I felt the ground leave my feet as my body was flung through the air. I slashed through the fire as the bird shrieked in what sounded like pain. Jean was there to catch me on the way back down. Her eyes were ablaze and her face wild with fury. She flew towards the bird, screaming in anger. I’ve never seen her like this before. She smashed headlong into the monster only to be thrown out of the sky and back to the ground again in a bloody heap.
“Jean!” I ran towards her, fear crashing over me. I held her in my arms as her eyes flickered.
“Y-you need to go L-logan.” I wiped the blood from her mouth. “J-just go!” She coughed, bringing up more blood. The bird of fire, circled around us, waiting to go in for the kill and reclaim Jean. We had lost. I had failed.
With a heart-piercing screech it plunged towards us in a dive, ready for the kill.
I closed my eyes ready for the pain and death. Maybe Jean and I could be together after life. But it didn’t come, a loud bang came from over my head and the bird screeched yet again. Someone was standing over me, holding a shield, which had deflected the bird’s attack.
My eyes adjusted to the light and settled on the star spangled hero himself.
“Glad you showed Cap.”
He pulled me off my feet and smiled, “You never have to fight alone Wolverine.”
Spider-woman and Ms Marvel swooped down beside us and picked up Jean in their arms, they took her to the Quinjet, residing next to the shattered remains of the X-Jet. Shouts and blasts echoed around me as I looked around. The Avengers were in full swing in a battle with the phoenix force. The sight before me was glorious, even down to that annoying little brat Spider-Man leaping about shooting off jokes. A glint in the sky revealed itself to be Iron Man shooting repulsor blasts of light at the beast and knocking it to the ground. It was a sight to behold and the only thought that run threw my throbbing head was; let me get a piece.
The claws shot out of my hand as I charged to the wounded Phoenix, everyone darted out of my way as I screamed in rage, lungs ready to burst. I plunged my fists into the fire of the bird and it leapt back in pain. For saying the beast was made entirely out of fire, it was surprisingly solid.
I was knocked aside in a gust of wind as Jean shot past me.
“No!” I ran after the two duelling entities, the rest of the Avengers stood rooted to the spot. There was nothing we could do now. The Pheonix and Jean rose into the air as they swirled around each other becoming a blur of fire. An all-encompassing blast shot from them sending the sand into frenzy. When all had settled they had both disappeared in the explosion.
I couldn’t save her. Not even with the help of friends.
The legends said that the Pheonix would not stop, would not die until it had what it needed. The legends were true.
Jean Grey was lost to the world again.

Pheonix- Final Attempt Pt 1

Here's the first half of my homework story. It's a bit out there and crazy and it's pretty long too so for those that can be arsed to read it, thanks :D


By the Ocean there is a bar… They called it Hannah’s Roadhouse once… I don’t know what they call it anymore. I just knew that she’d come and bring that thing with her. That thing that to me, was so precious, so deeply moving that just looking at it would blind me. But I had to have it and I knew that I couldn’t have it if she didn’t show up today…

There she was red hair with a slight orange fleck in the ocean’s sunrise. She wasn’t old; in fact, she was new, as if reborn. She didn’t notice me as she opened the door to the bar. I let her walk, I had no plans. She bought two drinks and sat at the bar…
I sat there, frozen by her beauty. There she was, the forbidden fruit sitting metres away from me. We were so close I could smell her, the heightened sense of smell probably contributed to this but either way, the scent of fire and sickly sweet perfume mingled together in the air around her. I downed the last shot of vodka and stared, cautious. I felt the legs of the stool tremble beneath me as it began to slide across the floor, taking me with it, getting closer to the red headed conjurer.
“I didn’t buy both these drinks for me Logan.” She turned facing me as the stool stopped inches from her. Her eyes glowed a mighty green and her lips a brilliant red, flashing a smile that was powerful enough to knock ten men flying. That was what I was after, her smile, it’s been so long since I was last in its presence.
“Jeannie…”
I looked at her, observing every inch, every detail of her slender yet startlingly sharp face. I absorbed everything in front of me, letting every part of her pour into my skin and mind, as this could very well be the last time I see her again.
“I’ve missed you Logan.”
She flung her arms around me, pulling me into a deep embrace. I’ve never been a touchy-feely type of person but with Jean it was different. I could let myself go with her, she can melt me with one glance, penetrate my tough exterior with the right words. Jean was my reason for living and in 2 hours, we will both be dead.
I pulled myself away from her, gazing intently into her smouldering stare. I didn’t know what to say, for once in my life I was actually scared of the future. Not for my future, but for Jean’s. “We can still run Jean, the Avengers have offered us the Quinjet. We can take it and get the hell out of this hell hole of a situation we’re in.”
She just smiled. Unbelievable. She took my hand in hers, I could feel the warmth flowing between us.
“Logan this is something I have to do, the phoenix force has been looking for me for years and it won’t stop. Especially now it knows where I am.” She took a swig of her drink and gazed out of the window. I can’t imagine how it must feel knowing that the next hour or two will be the last ones of your life. I guess I have it even harder, knowing that I will outlive all of my friends and loved ones but I’m not the type to sit and mope over it.
“Jean. You know we ain’t going down without a fight.” I clenched my fists, anger flooding my body, rage boiling away underneath my skin. “I’ll be there by your side. When this son of a bitch comes to take you, it’ll have to take you over my cold dead body.”
Fear flashed across her face and her body trembled. I’ve never seen Jean like this before.
“No Logan. I have to do this on my own. I’m not letting anymore friends get hurt because of me.” Tears welled up in her eyes, like tiny gems. “I don’t deserve to live.”
She stood up, glancing at the door.
“I need to go Logan, I need to see Scott before it finds me, while there’s still time.”
I shot up of the stool knocking drinks flying. All eyes swooped onto us. “Don’t you dare Jean. I ain’t gonna let you go.”
Jean gave a watery smile, a smile filled with pain and sorrow. “I’m so sorry Logan.”
I tried to grab her as she lifted off the floor but I was too late. She flew out of the door in a blast of wind, causing chaos in the bar. I could only stand and stare as tables, glasses and people were thrown into the air with the force of her power. I walked through the debris, and out into daylight. She was gone.

To be concluded in Pt2!

Some X-MEN knowledge.

Being as I seem to be the only one of us geeky enough to be spending ridiculous amounts of money on a lot of comics every month, I've been appointed as the person to go to for info on the X-MEN and writing for graphic novels and the lark.

So I thought I'll post some info on here for the ones that can't be arsed to ask for it !

Gambit (Remy LeBeau):

Gambit grew up in the cajun culture of Louisiana, raised by The LeBeau thieves guild clan he grew up to be a master-thief.

He was involved in the slaughter of a group of mutants, before he met the x-men, called the Morlocks. This history has plagued him with guilt and is a reason why he remains such a wild card in terms of which side of the law he walks on.

When he joined the x-men after meeting a young Storm he wasn't trusted within their ranks as they didn't know a great deal about him.

Gambit has had an on/off relationship with Rogue (Anna Marie) which has helped him settle down into a more stable and trustworthy role within the team. Gambit considers himself to be a ladies man and often gets the girl he wants so the lack of sexual contact between himself and Rogue because of her dangerous power puts a lot of strain on their relationship.

Gambit has left the x-men various times and joined other teams or just gone off on his own. Being a loner that flits from job to job, bed to bed, kill to kill is what Gambit used to be and a part of that remains.

His power is the ability to charge up kinetic (moving) energy and channel the energy into objects. His most famous move would be charging a deck of cards with energy and throwing them to explode on impact. He also uses a staff for combat.

Jean Grey:

This one's a toughie to summarize because she's such a complicated character.

Jean was in the original class of x-men as a telepathic mutant. She was a loving and caring person that looked after everyone in the x-men and genuinely cared about the human race. Her powers grew to "omega level" yet she still dealt with it very rarely unleashing her full power.

Jean has lived with the x-men since she was a very young girl and eventually built a family there. She fell in love with Scott Summers (Cyclops) and married him, she had Charles Xavier who was like a father to her, a daughter from an alternate reality called Rachel Summers. Wolverine and her became extremely strong friends and often became closer than that when Logan fell in love with her.

Unfortunately Jean was possessed by an extremely powerful alien life-form called the "Pheonix Force" which gave her more power yet ultimately began to take over her and become a threat. Jean killed herself to stop the Pheonix killing everything. But as the name suggests the Pheonix and Jean Grey rose again rejoining the x-men. She fought to have a normal life with Scott and her friends (as normal as things get being part of a mutant super team) but has since been killed yet again and not yet been resurrected.

When writing a story based on an existing franchise like the X-men we need to stay true to the characters and world they live in so hopefully these bios will help you to understand them more.

Feel free to message me any questions you have about the x-men and such :)

The Mile-high Club

My fists clenched the arms of the chair as the wind battered the plane from the outside. We were plunged into darkness as the plane dived into a beastly black cloud. Everybody sat up in their seats, alert as the plane shuddered and banged. My eyes snapped onto an extremely stressed airhostess as she ran down the aisle and practically dived into her seat as the plane gave another gut wrenching lurch. My lips were dry and my heart pounded as I sat paralyzed in my chair. The plane let out a deafening groan and suddenly plummeted from the air. I drew in a long sharp breath as everyone around me screamed in terror. The plane lunged forward, trying to rise above the cloud but to no avail. We plunged again, leaving my stomach behind. In that one moment, I knew I was going to die. A wave of relief and calm swept over me and I let go of all emotion. I couldn’t move an inch. It was as if life had stopped and this was just a movie playing in front of me. The plane sharply rose generating huge amounts of G-force. We levelled out, it was over.

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This actually happened to me and is the reason why I hate, hate, hate flying. The feeling that you're going to die within the next few moments is one I can't explain all too well. It's like you lose all hope and all emotion. You don't feel scared believe it or not, it's almost like relief. It's a horrible feeling and one that I've only experienced during this incident three years ago.

Turns out we had hit an air-pocket which made the plane drop a whopping 10,000ft! Worse than any roller-coaster I've ever been on.

Tom Goodchild should be proud.

Ok, so here's Gametrailers video review for Monumental Games MotoGP 09/10:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-motogp-09-10/64091

Watched it?

Good.

It got a reasonably average score of 6.2 and on Metacritic it's achieved an average of 72.

My opinion of it all is that Tom Goodchild and his team at Monumental have done brilliantly in using what limited resources and options for game design to create a decent game.

Lets face it. After listening to Tom's speech during Industry Week it was apparent that they were extremely restricted in terms of how much they can put into the game creativity-wise because of the strict guidelines from Capcom and the MotoGP big-wigs. Yet Tom seems to have worked some magic here and created a solid game with decent replay incentives too.

It's interesting to hear GT's view on the audio after listening to Tom about the struggles they had with it as it is apparent in the game. I'll be honest and say the audio is pretty poor. The bikes sound monotone and there is no audio for the AI bikes (why?). One thing I noticed is when viewing behind the bike during a race all sound (apart from the background music) cut off entirely. Pretty weird and something they could have fixed.

Apart from that I'm pleased for Tom and his team. He seemed extremely nervous about the incoming reviews and I'm glad to see them kinda pay off.

It's obvious they'll be making the next instalment and now they have the new engine and foundations laid out I'm sure Monumental and Tom can crack down and improve on an already solid game.

Good on them!

Kesa may wanna take a look at this...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8570398.stm

A BBC news report :

A man who assaulted a female police officer with his penis has been fined.

Marium Varinauskas, 28, tried to strike the officer on the head with his penis when she was called out to his flat, but she got out of the way.

Lithuanian Varinauskas admitted a charge of assault at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and was fined £600

SO is this a common Lithuanian defence move Kesa? Lulz.

Review for Gamenoob

Hai douches.

I wrote my review of Bioshock 2 today and it's now up on Gamenoob here: http://www.gamenoob.co.uk/index.php/2010/02/26/bioshock-2-review/

I'm now officially on the Gamenoob team as one of their reviewers (There's three in the review team now).

Very happy cause it'll help get mah name out there and it's something to put on my CV.

Be sure to check out the website. It's fairly new but it's already picking up quite a bit of traffic. Oh and comment on my review, I need some opinions and it helps the reputation of the site.

Thanks a lot guyz.

Concept idea- FPS.

Now as most who read this know we have an assignment to do the pre-production of our own game followed by the making of it's box and manual and then pitching it to Ubisoft (scary stuff).

(Thats just a summary for the people outside of college who read mah blog)

So you've probably seen the title of this post and maybe sighed a little, done a little old roll of the eyes and thought to yourself as you blast another terrorist on modern warfare 2 "yeah, yeah. FPS I gettit, been there done that."

Well my version of an FPS means something slightly different.

F- First

P- Person

S-Simulation.

So the idea might have been done before, I dono but it's different than the standard genres of games.

So I was thinking what makes a good game? Who would play my game? and most importantly WHY would they play my game?

I love games that are chock full of atmosphere so thick it practically chokes you. Games like Bioshock, resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Batman Arkham Asylum etc. You'll notice these games have either alot or parts of horror in them usually to scare the player.

I love games that scare me and alot of people are with me on this one.

So there I had the basic premise of my game: "To scare" It's that simple.

After all the attention Paranormal Activity got for being so gosh darn shit yourself scary I wanted to replicate that atmosphere and sense of terror in my own game.

So here's the concept:

Your in the shoes of a boy or a girl (you choose). The game is set in the first person and staged in one single environment; a house. This is a fairly big americanised style house where everything in that environment is simulated perfectly. Every book has weight to it and apsects of it's own such as the ability to rip/catch fire/get wet and so on.

Every item in the house would be interactive. The player needs to feel they are in that environment and be fully immersed in the game. This is where the simulation part comes in as the level of detail is beyond that of most games.

The game itself is set at night in this haunted house. yes I'm going for the overly cliched haunted house thing here but hey-ho.

SO. The game will revolve around a string of randomly chosen events or "hauntings" which can feature anything from bulbs smashing to full on fucked up white japanese kids crawling out from underneath beds and sofas. These "hauntings' are levelled in how scary they are so the game engine would run the small scares (messages on walls, TV turning on, screams) first then escalate to pure horror madness (Bleeding corpses pinned to walls, windows smashing, walls bleeding, axed killer and so on).

The aim of the game is purely not to die. There are various ways to die such as freak accidents occurring in the house (each object is fully simulated remember so knives obviously will kill.) or getting caught by a killer to being thrown down the stairs by a ghost.

The game is hardly game I realise but more as if your in the movie. It would be a great game to play with mates at night with the surround sound cranked up and the lights off...

It's a game where people can enjoy watching instead of being a solo experience.

Every play of the game is different as the engine chooses a mix of over thousands of "hauntings" which can each effect the house and the player in different ways and open up new play mechanics such as putting out fires, needing to fix the lightswitch in the cellar after the circuits broke)

It's a full simulation of a haunting.

I've been thinking and I've come to the conclusion that the game definitely needs a structure to it with a definite ending as these "hauntings" could go on forever only to just fizzle out (which would suck)

So one possible structure is this:

Initiation stage:

Normal house, something bad happens, a sign for the player that the "hauntings are about to commence"

The Haunting Stage:

The main chunk of the game where the player needs to survive by any means necessary. They could hide under beds, in wardrobes and so on but the game engine will recognise this and lure them out for example; putting a hanging corpse in the wardrobe that slowly catches fire.

Certain key events will display in the bottom right hand side of the screen to let the player know whats happened as they can't be in all rooms at once eg; the gas being turned on, on the stove. Something crawling out the TV. It'll be up to the player if they turn the stove off and risk going near there (something might be waiting) or risk the chance of a huge explosion killing the player and resulting in game ovah.

The Escape Stage:

A linear fast paced stage where the player escapes from the house. Each escape has multiple routes with a few escape sequences already planned. An example of this is a car scene still in the 1st person. The player must drive away from the house and a chasing enemy in a huge action set piece stage.

Another idea was to have an actual slasher movie style killer enter the house and the player must outwit the AI of this character and either call the police and wait or run through a linear street segment away from the killer although there would be obstacles in the way such as locked doors and such.

It's a start on the premise anyway. This blog doesn't really give it justice as there would be so many branching paths for the player to take as well as many events happening in the "haunting" stage that could not be seen through one playthrough.

It's basically taking the best scenes from the old style horror movies, mashing them all together and putting the player in a fully simulated environment right in the middle of all these.

I think being as the player would feel as though they are in the game given the amount of detail gone into the environment and actions it would only heighten the tension and horror. Plus the thought of an instant death around the corner is also something that gives many gamers nightmares.

I have shit loads of ideas for this concept and more on the story possibilities but I'm aware of the length of this beast of a blog post.

So, ideas? D'you think this could open up to a whole host of audiences who just want to be terrified outta their wits? D'you think that it's a poor idea that would be boring? D'you just wanna stop reading now ? Most importantly will it work??

Let me know what you think in the comment box !

SUPER.. again.

OK, been hard at work writing this diary and it's fun! it started at 26th January and I've just currently got to 10th february.

Heres the first sign of jack Grove's impending future:

30^th January Saturday

Today was great!

Me and Lyle went to the city centre and spent all our pocket money on comics.

We also went to KFC and ran into Joe from school. I think he was ignoring us but oh well.

On the bus back there was a man in front of us with white eyes like Storm outta X-Men and he kept looking back at me and sniffing.

He kept doing it until I said “Please stop it.” And he went crazy!

He started screaming all sorts of rubbish, I heard him say

“YOU, YOU! YOU’RE THE ONE!” and “NOT NORMAL, CAN’T SEE YOU, STRANGE, AURA!”

Such a weird man. Lyle burst out laughing which made him go even crazier and he screamed at Lyle:

“HE’LL KILL YOU… HE’LL BE THE END OF US ALL!”

Yep. I’m the next Galactus. Freak.

Tonight it was Mum’s turn to go out so Dad got me and Kirk food from the chip shop. I need to start eating more healthier food.

============================================================================

AND:

10^th February Wednesday

Got the school photo today and surprisingly I wasn’t pulling a face! In fact I wasn’t in the photo at all!

I’m actually stumped as to why I’m not in the photo, there’s just a blank seat where I should be.

It’s no secret that I didn’t want to have my photo took so naturally everyone thinks that I snuck out just before the photo was taken.

LIES!

It musta been the flash or something. I’m glad it didn’t catch me right anyway. It would have only been more ammo for Joe to rip me apart with.

Gave the photo my mum and she just passed it back to me after glancing at it saying “you look very nice.”

Clearly she doesn’t care.

Kirk wouldn’t let me watch the latest episode of Heroes cause Glee was on (he likes the music) I didn’t fight him over the remote… He bites.

Parents were just arguing as per usual in the kitchen so I went upstairs to wallow in self pity.

Fun.

===========================================================================

I quite like it ^_^ Excited to get to the discovering of the powers. But it won't happen for a while yet...

The class photo instance is the first time he turns invisible.

Let me know what you think!

SUPER

Basically after reading The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4's I wanted to write a book similar to that.

I concocted the idea of SUPER.

A boy is set the simple task of writing a diary for a week for homework. He keeps up the diary after he finds himself enjoying the task. There are instances when he feels strong emotions that he has strange situations such as turning invisible and even flying.

He's a super hero!

So the diary will follow Jack Groves as he accustoms to his powers and gains new ones. It also focuses on the emotional effects getting powers could have on a kid of 14. He'll think he's going crazy, has a life threatening disease and so on.

Theres also the fact that we doesn't know whether to tell anyone about this and also as he is only young, should he actually be a super hero?

Now I wanted the diary to be realistic so he clearly won't be donning the old tights but it would be interesting to see where he goes from there with the powers.

I haven't planned a lot of the story however I have certain side stories already written down and all the characters sorted. I'm taking each diary entry as it comes and not jump straight to the good parts where he gets the powers.

I want it to be Adrian Mole mixed with Heroes!

I might post a few of the fun diary entries in a blog soon for your reading pleasure.

What do you guys think of it all?

Devil May Quince.

OK so after today's lesson with Kelly and looking at different design aspects of Devil May Cry 4 I decided I wanted to get the game.

I've never played a hack "n" slash before so it was a totally new thing for me. Managed to get the game at Game funnily enough for a very measly £5.

I've been playing it for about 2 hours now and I can honestly say I'm fairly addicted.

Devil May Cry or Devil May Quince as I like to call it due to the number of times I quinced during the specially awesome parts, is one on the best games I've played in a while. I've really took to the hack "n" slash genre and I'm looking forward to trying other games from the genre... (Any suggestions?)

Yeah I just thought I'd let you know that I like it!

And for Kelly...

Evidence that I like the game:

It's fun and fast paced.

The combat system is innovative allowing spectacular moves to be pulled off without much difficulty and confusion.

I like the lovely lady in the game that looks like Lady Gaga and can do the splits.

I enjoyed beating the s**t outta the fat toad thing.

The bosses are creative and genuinely fun to fight due to the different tactics needed to beat them.

The overall design is very good.

Happy?

I'd like to thank Kelly for demonstrating an awesome game and introducing me to a new genre!

G'bai.

Dead Space Biatch.

Right, I played some Dead Space for the task that we was set on Monday.

I've already completed it before but I ran through the first few levels to jog my memory and also as an excuse to play it again!

WHO:

EA. Simples.

When:

14th October 2008, to coincide with the Halloween holiday.

Where:

The game takes place in the future (I presume it's the future as the technology is more advanced than it is now). and the game itself is set on a mining ship named the USG Ishimura.

A mining ship (in terms of Dead Space) is a huge long space craft that acts as an apparatus to crack planets, as in literally crack them. The ship is equipped with a huge drill and the drill does the work.

The protagonist, who you play as, has to travel around the mining ship in different areas, all with their own distinct look and feel in order to accomplish objectives.

What:

So the story goes... ***SPOILERS***

It's set in the future where humanity is colonising different planets and such. A team of simple engineers is sent out to aid the USG Ishimura after it sends out a distress signal. The team soon find out everyone on the ship is dead and that the place is swarming with huge grotesque monster/zombies called necromorphs. The team get seperated during an attack and it leaves the player who controls the main protagonist Isaac Clarke to get the ship back up and running or find a way out of it.

Not all is at it seems as it turns out the necromorphs are not aliens as was originally conceived but humans and the people of the mining ship turned into beasts by an alien statue called "The Marker".

(SPOILERS NOW)

Turns out you weren't sent here on an innocent repair task but the women "Kendra" who is on your team and acts as a guide actually works for the government who wants the marker for their own nefarious plans. The marker also sends Isaac insane (it has that power) and makes him think he sees his dead wife throughout the game.

HOW:

After looking at the developer's diaries and such there seems to have been a huge amount of pre-production going on before the game went into production (obviously). They had many artists working on the overall look and feel of the ship, necromorphs and the cast. They also researched alot into a new engine that would enable the players to "strategically dismember" enemies in the game. Finally alot of pre-production time was devoted to the soundtrack of the game, making sure it fitted perfectly with the overall atmosphere and really had an effect on the player.

SO... I love this game. I think it's a great single player experience that fully immerses the player into the environment and the character's situations. I feel that every part of the design complements each other perfectly as the music ratchets up the intensity considerably and the design of the environment is great as it can force players down lonely and suspense filled corridors or into huge rooms with lots of necromorphs. It really affects the gameplay and gives the best of both worlds; action and suspense.

Pros:

-Hugely suspenseful and utterly terrifying.

-Great design when it comes to environment and character models.

-Competent voice acting.

-Fun dismemberment engine.

-Good, immersive storyline.

-Fantastic soundtrack.

-Great UI design (The HUD is all built into Isaac's armour... clever)

Cons:

-Can pretty much complete the game using one weapon.

-Bosses although look good are far too easy.

-Long loading times between levels (aren't we past that now?)

-Not much replay value.

-Fiddly zero gravity controls.

OKAI.

So I've done a review as well as a 4 W's and 1 H or whatever so yeah theres value statements in there. But then again reviews are purely opinion and that's the purpose of them.

It has achieved critical success with an 89 score on Metacritic (very good site).

There is also a second Dead Space in production now...

An Important announcement about the future of my time at confetti.

You have most definitely lost all that is...

THE GAME.


:)

The nightmare on Meadow Close.

I'm here today to tell you a tale. A tale of tragedy, dispair, deception and heartbreak.

There was once a young boy, perfectly happy in life with plenty of friends, a steady income of money and a loving family. However.. this boy's life was to be turned upside down one fateful evening.

The wind whistled and the rain lashed against the windows as he drew the curtains in his bedroom to shut out the stormy night. The glow of the TV and the almighty SHOOOM of his trusty Xbox 360 gave the boy comfort knowing that no matter how bad things got outside he would always have Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2 and World At War to keep him company with hours of entertainment.

The night went on and the boy battled his way through waves and waves of zombies, the final safepoint in view and that wonderful Achievement of accomplishing the Swamp mission shining like a beacon of hope. At this point a surge of the undead hurtled over the fences and through the boggy undergrowth over whelming the boy and his hillbilly companions. His healthbar was wavering dangerously low with no chance of healing himself. The outlook was bleak.

ALAS!

A pipebomb. This handy item lay forgotten in the inventory, an unused icon. He withdrew it from his pocket and threw the explosive, leaving a bright red trail of light behind it. A trail of hope. The bomb landed at the perfect distance attracting the hordes of attacking flesh eating zombies.

The boy stood there calling his friends to follow him to the safe room, the bomb had a matter of seconds before it went off freeing the area so they could finally reach the end of the level.

Without warning the television let out a twisted piercing scream of agony and the display of soon to be redead zombies, contorted into a deathly pixelated mess.

Time stood still.

The boy sat there, breathing heavily, his hand went limp dropping the controller to the floor.

It was over.

He restarted the console with baited breath and tried a new game; World At War, within ten minutes of igniting the Nazi scum with petrol bombs the Xbox 360 crumpled with the same pixelated garble and shrill beeps and boops from the TV.

The last time he tried was with The Ballad of Gay Tony. The same happened again in the middle of a car chase at four wanted stars.

This signalled the death of his beloved.

The death of his Xbox 360.

Yeah so that was my day.

I have one thing to say to that;

FML.