I'm playing Mass Effect through for the second time now and for some reason I'm enjoying it much more.

The flaws are still there, I can't just pretend that the AI has suddenly improved but it definetly feels much better...even if I can't work out why. One reason may be because I'm playing it on medium difficulty and, where-as I thought previously that it was way too hard on mediumand easy was way too...well...easy, now I think medium is too easy too. This is probably down to the fact I'm just taking the combat a bit slower, more in a Gears of War style and making alounences for the bad AI (also more in a Gears of War style). I plan to play it through yet again on a higher difficulty still, but try and make it renegade.

It's taking me some time, however, as my playing time is interspersed with Call of Duty 4 online but you might want to expect a rewritten review pretty soon.

Speaking of Call of Duty, I might rewrite that review too. This is because I've gotten way over the singleplayer and am realising it's really quite mediocre in alot of places and also because there are far too many badly designed multiplayer maps and the servers are constantly having problems.

Sean Out.

A very mediocre film indeed.

The Good: Interesting idea...even if it's a sixty year old idea. Well written dialogue. Mostly well acted...wait, there's only one character.

The Bad: Not scary. Badly paced. Too much product placement. Pointless story. I'd rather see the 40's Vincent Price version for comedy value.

Something that was actually worth my trip was what came before the film. I doubt many of you know this but if you go to see I Am Legend at an IMAX Cinema (of which there are only two in the country) you get to see the first six minutes of the new Batman film before hand. Wa wow wee wow! That film looks goood! I really can't wait now; the new Joker is the the coolest villain I've ever seen. Also, this was my first ever trip to the IMAX - twas amazing. The screen is the hight of 7 elephants or something stupid - it was great.

That's all really, I can't be bothered to go into this in anymore detail, especially I Am Legend- after all, this is a video game site.

It may suprise you that I bought Mass Effect recently...well, I've got to have something to entertain me 'till Febuary/March! Check out the review to see what I think.

Now I slowly await Brothers in Arms...

EDIT: New comments about the exellent soundtrack (even if it is a wee bit 80's techno occasionally) and the horrific Gears of War type texture/bump-mapping loading bug.

I saw my friend playing Medal of Honour: Airborne today, so I decided to try out the demo for myself. I wasn't very impressed. When you're basing your opinions on a World War 2 shooter off Call of Duty 2 and Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 this is understandable. It tries to be three things at once; a realistic shooter, a cinematic video game and a gun-nuts' game. It fails at all three.

It is no way near as exiting or as fun to play as CoD2, the controls are messed up, it's historically incorrect, the guns are modelled badly and inaccurately and all textures are por save for those on the characters...even the explosions are rubbish; they look like grey spikey turds.

So, all in all, a boring game where the most fun is gained from falling from the sky...hmm...that really says something about a game.

Yesterday I did my voting in all of the Special Achievements and Dubious Honours catergories for this year's annual voting...thing.

And, quite frankly, I think it's a joke. There should be some sort of quiz when you sign up for this site just to keep out the eccessive masses of people who have no idea what they're talking about. For a start, it seems that no one reads the category titles, they just look at the games, see the one they are most fanboy-ish about and vote for it. Seriously, some things are winning by far too much on catergories they shouldn't be; for example, Bioshock is winning Best Voice Acting miles ahead of The Orange Box which I really don't get, because the voice acting in Bioshock is nothing special, in my opinion, it's just pretty good...where as the voice acting in Half-Life is film quality - and a good film at that! The other thing I have a problem with is games that are in a category that they don't belong in, such as The Orange Box in Best Shooter...the only thing that's 100% shooting in there is Team Fortress and that's not even that good a game! Another example is the Best PS3 Game, where every game in there, save for Warhawk (which is rubbish anyway) are all on other systems even though there are plenty of PS3-only games that are good to choose from, such as Heavenly Sword of Formula 1, instead though they have Oblivion on there which, as much as I like it, actually came out two years ago on every other system, so that shouldn't count.

Well, I chose to be different and voted for World in Conflict as much as I could. For a start its graphics are amazing and you don't need a super computer to run it like Crysis does, so I voted for it for Best Graphics. I voted for it for Most Innovative Gameplay Feauture (even over Portal) because it has an amazing resource system...it doesn't have one, so there's no need for boring base-building and I voted for it for Best Multiplayer because it's probably the most fast-paced, exiting and cinematic thing I've ever played online. Oh yes, and I voted for it for Best Game. Go WiC!

Have fun voting for Mass Effect, Bioshock and Halo 3 you boring sods!

Ah yes, and in other news I just played the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic demo, which is almost identical to its PC counterpart. It's basically Oblivion but with Condemned's more involving combat system, so pretty good, but hardly amazing. Mabye I'll buy it when it's cheap.

Sean Out.

I've downloaded a couple more demoes recently. Firstly, a new demo, Frontlines. Frontlines: Fuels of War (or FoW) is a FPS of the Battlefield style. So basically you can play as different types of infantry or try your hand in an assortment of vehicles on a fairly large map. Frontlines, sadly, lacks the "assortment" part of the desciption, each side has only a couple of tanks and there's no aircraft to pilot such as jet aircraft or even helicopters. The graphics are fairly terrible, I can't put my finger on what about them is bad so it's most probable that it's everything that's wrong with them. The controls suck too, the aiming is really bad and the crouching system doesn't work very well. There's plenty of other things wrong with the game but I really can't be bothered to drone on about them. Bascally, 3 or 4 out of 10 if I had to score it on what I've seen.

I also downloaded DiRT as I've only ever liked atrio of racing games; Grand Turismo 3 (I liked the rally), TOCA 2 and 3 (I liked the rally) andthe first Collin McRae game (it's a rally game). So, you can see where I was coming from when I downloaded it. I must say it's really good. Absolutely fantastic graphics, great handling and a fairly amazing physics-based damage system where the car breaks perfectly - but not just the car, bumpers and tyre walls will fall apart too; at last, non-indestructable plastic netting! So I'd give it a 8 or 9 out of 10, from what I've seen.

As you may have noticed, I've been off ill since Tuesday. I've had a really bad cold that's gone to all different parts of my body; it's given me headaches, fevers, ear aches - you name it I've had it, I just think the cold gave my immune system one hell of a beating so I went to pieces. Anyways, all this time off has given me time to watch a few films and play ALOT of Call of Duty 4 online, which is still awesome.

I've watched War of the Worlds which is an awesome film, shame the ending ruins it (SPOILER - the aliens get killed by germs...how lame) and I've also watched The Hitchicker's Guide to the Galaxy which is a brilliantly crazy British comedy. You should check out both if you have the chance. I also watched both full series of Trigger Happy TV which I think dates back to the late 90's. It's pretty much the first ever Jackass style program in which comedian Dom Jolly unleashes his slightly twisted humour on the unsuspecting public. If you have Virgin Media's V+ you can watch it all for free on TV Choice on Demand which I definetly recommend.

What I really enjoyed watching, however, was Kevin Costner's Open Range; a modern, up-to-date yet old-fashioned and simple Western. Although it is quite slow, the last half-hour is one of the best action sequences of cinema history - a half-hour show down in the streets of a Wild West town. Brilliant.

After all this gun-ho action I just had to play a Wild West game and it dawned on me that the Call of Juarez demo's on The Market Place. I wasn't expecting much, hell, all I knew was that the game had a Western theme but I was incredibly suprised. It's a seriously good game - nice graphics, gritty, violent action and good voice acting make it all very convincing. It's clearly been made by Western fans for Western fans - everything is here; gory shooting, bar brawls, playing as an Indian, slow-motion show downs, setting fire to stuff, hitting people with chairs - fantastic! Anyways, after Christmas mabye I'll pick this little gem up.

Sean Out.

At long last here it is! Enjoy and please comment!

Sean out.

UPDATE!

A new video!

This new Gears glitch happened well playing on co-op with Joe last weekend. While he was pushing one of those "pushable-cars" I was taking cover on the door, by the time he had stopped moving it ithad flung itself into the air, killing me, and left Joe to observe yet another reason why Epic games should never patch console games themselves; you're making it worse fellas!

I got the new Ace Combat on its UKrelease date (23rd November) and I can't say it dissapoints. Its just great Ace Combat action, arcadey, exiting and cinematic. The best things I've noticed about this latest installmentare, most obviously, the huge improvement in graphics. The planes look almost photorealistic, the lighting - especially the fantastic bloom effects - is very special indeed and its great to see they've finnaly improved, with this new power at their hands, the textures on other units other than yourself, especially those on the ground such as tanks, and the textures for the ground its self.

There are a couple of issues I have with it though;firstly, by Thursday I had finished the game 3 times. The first play through took me about 5 hours, the next 4 and the last play through (although it was mostly down to an amazing plane you unlock for finishing the game on "Expert") 2 hours and 40 minutes. Also, my only other dissapointment is the lack of aircraft...there were probably twenty or more in the previous game with only about 10 or 15 in this one. Still, one can't moan.

Expect the review soon...along with that Call of Duty 4 I said to expect soon...um...oops.

I picked up the special edition of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare last Friday on its release date, the 9th November and I was very pleasantly surprised, so much, infact, that I think it is probably the best shooter I've ever played. Yes, you heard (or read) me right, and I think I'm fairly qualified to say such comments: I've played Goldeneye 64, Turok, Timesplitters, Halo, and overall is beats them all... and yes, it even beats life 2. Now I'm not going to say it beats all these games in all places - it isn't as groundbreaking as Goldeneye, it doesn't have such brilliant weapons and gore as Turok, it isn't as funny as Timesplitters and it doesn't have as an involving storyline as Half-Life but what it does do it does bloody fantastically.

Infinity Ward is back and better than ever and they've really made CoD4 back into a CoD game, just like number 2. It sure as hell puts those losers who made CoD3 to shame. So, expect a review very soon.

Oh, and by the way...I know a hard-cover art book and a DVD walkthrough/history of the Special Air Service isn't worth the extra £10. :)