So, anyone knows a certain rhythm game called Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in North America yesterday and us Europeans will not be getting said game until 23rd November. Well, that cannot be said for me now as I found out yesterday that the 360 version of the game is actually region-free, which is glorious news to me and everyone out there that doesn't live in North America that wants this game now.

I was on ebay yesterday searching for Guitar Hero III and came across a store called futureplayuk and that they have the game in stock and they will despatch in within 24 hours and found out the game was region-free there. It was priced at £26.99 plus another 4.99 for postage and packaging meaning it comes to 31.98. This is lower than it will be in stores and I believe most or all online retailers too (39.99 online and possibly 49.99 in stores). I decided to go for it since some of the guys have it already and enjoying the rock within and by the time I get it if I waited, some of them or all would probably be done with it and move onto something like Mass Effect (which is out the same day as GH III here).

It is only for the game now I assure you because I don't want the wireless Les Paul guitar anyway since I am just fine with the Xplorer one I have currently, as I am used to it. So I recommend any Europeans out there that want the game only, then check out futureplayuk on ebay and see if they have any copies left. I hope to see some of you online for some rocking this week!

Enjoy the shredding!

PS. Metroid Prime 3 is great. Will talk about it more sometime this week.

Hello. This week, I decided to get the game above due to the fact that I bought a 24.80 credit receipt for Gamestop by my brother for £20 quid and was going to use it to get Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. I was going to trade in a few games as well, as I thought the game would be 39.99 in Gamestop but it was 34.99, which was a surprise considering that Gamestop here tends to have games dearer than they are elsewhere. At the end of the day, I didn't use my receipt since I decided to trade in Forza 2 and Just Cause for the 360 (Forza because I never touched it apart from the online and Just Cause because its pretty dull & generic). I got 29.00 for the both of them, which was more than I was expecting to get hence just used my debit card to pay the rest and voila, another Wii game for my collection and still have this credit receipt, which I am going to use probably on Mario Galaxy or Guitar Hero 3 provided it is 39.99.

I really liked the first MP game since I finished it a couple of times but never finished the 2nd due to the fact that I just wasn't entirely fussed on the whole light and dark world stuff and that you had to backtrack a good bit to take the item back to a certain location (yeah i know, its a Metroid game). This one looks to be more along the lines of the first one, which will be a good thing anyway and hey, it has voice-acting! :P

Will give you impressions of it in an upcoming blog so stay tuned!

PS. Eternal Sonata is still awesome and shaping up to be my 3rd favourite game of the year.

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What, no Darro's Delights? Well, I say why even if it is a lame excuse inside this episode. I also give my impressions on the 3 games I picked up last week and are pretty much positive but will that remain when I have completed them. Time will tell.

Anyway, leave questions and game challenges if you want and see you next time.

Ah, the day has finally come at last! In my grasp now are 3 games that have been getting good to great responses, one of them being a anticipated game of mine ever since I gazed upon it, another being the latest edition of a legendary franchise and the third being a great deal despite the fact I already have 2 of the games apart of it. It is now installed so I am ready and raring to go for some TF 2 when the time comes.

Impressions of these games will be done in a written blog sometime next week so stay tuned and look out for episode 19 of Darro's Delights this weekend featuring my favourie game in this series and involves men and women. Take care and ROCK ON!!

The time is near for yours truly to have an awesome week indeed with the above 3 games coming my way pretty shortly indeed. I know that 2 of them have been despatched and chances are they will be in my grasp tomorrow but the one I want the most, which is Eternal Sonata hasn't been despatched yet from what I know of but chances are it will be today or already has but haven't received the confirmation. I have been waiting for Eternal Sonata for several months ever since I first gazed my eyes upon its visual beauty and greatly enjoyed the demo of it. It has been getting good reviews and I know someone who liked it very much.

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass was announced over a year ago and it looked pretty cool from that first trailer shown back in March 06 I believe and the fact is that it is completely played with the stylus makes it very interesting and that the good thing to know is that the touch controls work very well indeed with them because if they didn't, then it wouldn't have lived up to its high expectation as every new Zelda game has a pretty high level of expectation from the fans of the series including myself. Its good to know it retains the Wind Waker visuals, since the Wind Waker is by far my favourite looking Zelda game and looks quite good for a DS game. I am sure I will not be disappointed with this entry in the series.

Finally, a game I talked about recently in my past several blogs. The Orange Box is being regarded as a great deal since you are getting 5 games for the price of one and that those 5 games each have their great qualities about them and that the new additions are a joy to play. Portal looks very intriguing and its supposed to have great humour judging by the review. Team Fortress 2 is going to be a lot of fun to play with the various c l a s s e s and their own unique qualities associated with them. Episode 2 continues on the Half Life story and I should be playing that once I am done with HL2 and Episode 1.

I am looking forward to giving these games my time and I will talking about them more in an upcoming blog or in the next Darro's Dominion. In other news, the Smackdown 08 demo was released on XBL yesterday and being a fan of the series, I downloaded it and checked it out. Before I give you my impressions, I have to say that this year's edition doesn't intrigue due to the fact that certain things quite frankly stink for me. First, the roster is just too small for my liking and I know the legends is a cool idea and that but those can be dismiseed to have some extra wrestlers in the game. Second, I read about the 24/7 mode at another site and quite frankly, it sucks. I did not really have a big problem with what the season mode was like before apart from the stupid storylines but the way it works now is ridiculous to me. I never liked the GM mode because your opposition always seems to put on the same matches every week and yet get more rates because of that while I try to do things differently and it is somewhat integrated into the season mode makes me annoyed.

Now the impressions. I played 2 matches, one with Randy Orton vs Rey Mysterio and the other with Undertaker vs Bobby Lashley. From what I played, it seems to be an improvement over 07 and they have ditched the whole stamina system in that you don't need to regain your stamina every 5 seconds like before but you do get tired at certain spots but not as often as before. The animation looks better and that the collision detection from what I seen looks gone and that it is easier to hit opponents this time round instead of missiing them half the time. The controls are slightly changed from 07 in that the finisher is the Y button now and to run is the left bumper and whatever direction you are facing, which is a nice touch. But the way you did the ultimate control moves before is gone I believe and not totally sure on how to do it, as I need to try it some more.

I am not sure if anyone will like the way the game has been somewhat changed from 07 but hopefully its for the better. Due to the fact that the roster is small and the 24/7 mode looks like crap, this is the first edition in the series I will not be buying but renting to see if it is actually worth the purchase at the end of the day. Who knows, maybe the 24/7 mode might not be as bad as I deem it to be but I will be surprised if that is the case.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little blog and see you next time.

UPDATE: Eternal Sonata has been despatched also so I should get all 3 tomorrow since it usually takes just the one day for the games from Gameplay to arrive for me.

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You know what to do. Watch, enjoy and leave questions and game challenges if necessary.

Thank you all for you decisions and explanations as to which version of the Orange Box I should get. I have pretty much made up my mind on what one to get and some of you will be happy while others perhaps a little disappointed since they won't be able to play with me then although I could be a big stupid idiot and get the other version sometime down the road. Anyway, the version that I am going to be getting is: (drum roll)

Yes, my final decision is that the PC version wins it for me, as I would like to gain experience using a mouse and keyboard and improve on it since I am already capable of playing this on a controller and although the 360 does have certain advantages to me in picking that version, I stand by my decision. Its cheaper, I am still getting 3 games for 24.99, which is still good value I believe as opposed to 39.99. Like Ish said in a comment, it will have mods, larger MP cap in which I mentioned in my blog and so on. The problem with this now in that it may not actually run very smoothly but chances are it will since if HL2 and Episode 1 can run smoothly on this laptop, then Portal, Episode 2 and TF2 should also too.

Hope to play with a few people here on Gamespot on TF 2 nonetheless. Its actually going to a busy week for me next week in terms of games since along with the Orange Box, I will also be receiving Zelda: Phantom Hourglass and Eternal Sonata in the post hence I will be one busy gamer from next week.

Anyway, take care and keep on gaming.

OR

Yeah, I know they are the same game but reading blogs that Ish mentions about the game and knowing that a certain Texan gamer is getting it also for the PC, I am just wondering what version should I get? The thing is now, I already have HL2 and Episode 1, which are two games included in this package and hence I will be buying them again (but I have 3 Sonic The Hedgehogs in different formats and 3 Zelda: OOTs in different formats too so who am I kidding).

But other than those two people, who else is getting it for the PC that I know of? I know everyone else who is getting this game will get it for the Xbox 360 for certain and hence that is a reason to go towards the 360 version. But there are certain things I should consider and hence I will look at certain points for each version:

PC

1. It is cheaper than the 360 version, which is not surprising and if I were to get this version on Gameplay, I would be saving £15.

2. Not sure if the new games included in this package will run well on this laptop but I presume they would since HL2 and Episode 1 do.

3. I can get it now off Steam but would actually be paying more for it than if I were to buy it online (it is not out here yet until 19th October). Also, I hate downloading hefty files since they take ages for me to download (TF 2 alone is 5gb).

Xbox 360

1. More people I know of will probably be getting this version hence it is the safer choice, as I prefer to play with friends than random jerks although you do tend to get some cool random strangers though.

2. I wouldn't call myself a PC gamer per se, as I am more accustomed to a controller for FPS than I am with a mouse and keyboard although I have heard many times that the mouse and keyboard is the definitive way to play first-person shooters although I do not have a lot of experience.

3. More expensive than the PC version and heard that it only runs at 30 fps while the PC does 60 and the MP cap is smaller too at 16 while PC is at 32.

So there you have it. There are some points that I have to look at. I might not get the game at all but I would like for you guys out there to suggest which version I should get and please explain why. Reasons like "Get PC version because its awesome" are invalid. Hope you enjoyed this little blog, as it has been different to my usual humdrum stuff. Take care and keep on gaming.

This is not going to be a normal blog now but just asking people out there has this problem occurred with you. Let's get started, shall we?

Right, everyone knows I got a copy of Halo 3 and I thought it was damaged goods when I received it but it is not. Now, I played a pretty lengthy co-op session with Denis and two James the night and morning of Friday 28th and 29th September respectively and in that time, we had two disconnections but other than that, the game ran flawlessly with no lag or any problems whatsoever. Now, Denis wanted me to help him do the first mission in Heroic so he can get that said achievement and near the end of that mission, the problem that has been occurring every time I play co-op now came about in that you can't move but only look around and eventually the game disconnected on us. We tried it again later but it ended up laggy then so we gave up on that. Ever since then, this problem arises every time I play a co-op game with someone and it eventually disconnects.

When Denis and that play with someone besides me, it runs fine and it did with me for several minutes but this occurs and it crops up every couple of minutes. How did it come to working absolutely flawless to disconnecting practically every time. The multiplayer aspect isn't a problem with me since that runs fine and other co-op games I played before didn't occur although I couldn't play NHL 08 with Denis except for one time for some reason, which in fact could be the same problem that craps out the co-op for us.

I am not sure if what I am about to say is the culprit of these problems or not but I tested out my live connection and seen that my NAT type was at Moderate when it should be at open hence I experience some problems that might be related to this. I then configured certain settings on my router and checked again and voila it was open. I am going to check co-op again later on to see if this has solved the problem and if not, it could be the game perhaps but hopefully this problem has been solved, as it worked fine before.

OT: Randy Orton is the champion after losing it to Triple H and then regaining it back and hopefully he has a decent length title reign unlike last time.

Catch you guys next time and ROCK ON!!

UPDATE FOOLS: Well, I just finished a lengthy co-op session of Halo 3 and not once did that problem occur during it and even though we had lag on the 6th mission (was due to someone else), it worked perfectly fine afterwards, as that person dropped out voluntarily and had a blast once again playing through the remainder of the campaign on legendary with Denis and James. Happy now this problem is solved.

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Here you go. Episode 18 of Darro's Delights for your viewing pleasure feautring a certain blue hedgehog in his first proper 3D incarnation. Of course, gameplay and information on said game are included as always so sit back, get some popcorn if you like and enjoy the show.

I am out so bye bye.