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Frogfoot Blog

Terror and (the) Darkness

Heyzorslsw

Recently, games-wise, i have been very, very busy. Exams are over, and in the aftermath people are unwinding. This for me and many friends (including big pimpin 99 and... ed) has involved 3 hours or more of Gears every night this week, with an amazing amount of violence and sustained banter. Basically, school, although lasting another week, is simply going through the motions and obliged to fill in term time with videos and hangman, meaning that no-one has any homework or obligation to be particularly sharp at school the nect day, leading to long nights of n00bp00nage.

The mode we've been playing is execution, with 5 second bleed out, meaning that all the politeness of 'by all means, take the kill' has been destroyed, leaving brutal, bloody violence abounding. I personally have been honing my skills with the sniper rifle, and have consistently racked up 20 to 30 headshots a night. The fact that the mode is execution gives these skull breaking shots more of a reason than just pride, as taking the head off an enemy is the one sure way to take him down at range. The fact that Gears of War moves so elegantly between the tactical and the frantic. One minute, you and a teammate (ie ed) may be sniping and spotting, using a machine gun and voice to mark out targets for the sniper to take out (it just takes one ill judged lean), and then the next your enemy has advanced using smoke and covering fire and you find yourselves engulfed in a fast-paced melee of shotgun and chainsaw. Brilliant.

My top 3 moments on this week's Gears have been:

3) 4 chainsaw kills in a round. You should have been there.

2) Trying to fight the Tyro Station train with my team (lol)

1)Saving a downed teamate from certain death by sniping and removing the brains of an enemy who was IN THE PROCESS of curb-stomping him. The X button had been pressed and in a split second the massive foot would have rendered my teammate's face into meatballs. It was an amazing shot ;)

gears

That was the moment i got the shot. Exactly.

I also picked up The Darkness yesterday, and finished it just now. It is an amazing game, and would normally not be my thing but on playing it I am very glad I did. Fantastic stuff.

In the real world, and new Prime Minister Brown has had one of the hardest first weeks in history. As he came in Britain was flooded, and now Britain seems to be in the start of a summer offensive by terrorists. Two massive car bombs were found in London and yesterday, a flaming Jeep Cherokee rammed the main terminal at Glasgow Airport, gutting it. The country's on critical alert, the highest threat level, meaning that an imminent attack is expected, and these attacks may only be the harbingers of an offensive not seen since the IRA in the 70s and 80s. In many ways it is similair. The terrorists do not HAVE to kill people, only to frighten and disrupt them, something which they have done. Central London is closed off, Glasgow is in chaos and every strategic point in the country has increased security (Newcastle airport, for example has erected armed roadblocks to stop acces in cars to the terminal building). There have been controlled explosions and bomb threats all over not just Britain but the world (NY JFK was evacuated after a hoax yesterday). The terrorists are doing everything right. They need only bomb, or have viable devices found occasionally to keep the threat there, and let hoaxes and confusion do the rest.

On a personal level, I have had a fantastic week, as Ialways do. Plenty of Gears and amazing exam results, as well as anticipation of the summer have kept spirits high. I am especially looking forward to Summer Camp, and the ability to run around in the dark with a gun like the one at the top of the page.with some good friends for a week. After that, Spain, Italy and Elba. Genius.

Au revoir ;)

The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging.

I cannot praise highly enough Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It is fantastic. It has been innovated, but not redesigned, to work as a pick up and play game, but still with the oh-my-christ-its-3AM addictiveness factor that can be matched only by heroin. The storyline is not an aside as in the Acid series, but an important thread in the story of Big Boss, Outer Heaven and the titular Metal Gears. The ability to lead a team is interesting, and the fact that you will lead both classic characters (pretty much everyone in the history of MGS) with new ones - the tragedy of Johnathan is harrowing. The weapon variety is astounding, the enemies as good as ever and the multiplayer addictive and lag free. A valid and important addition to the MGS series.mgs

Other gaming stuff? Dead Rising 2 to be announced at E3. The original was a sublime experience,a ballet of violence.It encouraged a childike curiosity, the pioneering spirit of 'what wouldan axe do here?' or 'what woulda lead pipe do to his neck?' The epic nature of the firstgame, set with thousands of zombies within a mall, forces the designers to think big this time. A city? More? We'll soon know.

As far as books go, everyone must read 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy. It's set following a nuclear holocaustand follows the story of a father and son trying to be the 'good guys' carrying the fire in a world of cannibals, chattels and young catamites in chains. Really good.

There was a wierd experience in games yesterday. We were playing cricket on the astroturf, and the rain fell down with enough ferocity as to soak us to the core. There came a point within our collective psyche where we all snapped, and gagandeep simply uttered the melancholy 'we're done here' and we left.

I don't even own a Wii and i love this -

miis

Theres a picture of the real ones one post down. wonderful.

I have to write a lesson plan now. On ironing trousers. Any tips? ;)

And lo, there was light.

I haven't posted a blog since the beginning of time, and so here marks the return, ostensibly.

What can i say? I have a 360, j'adore ca et des jeux est tres amusants. Basically if it's on a 360 and it has a war in it, i own it. List later, peut-etre. My gamertag? 'Macragge1' - feel free ;)

A mon vie recently, what can I say? Freevolution has been the major landmark of my recent memories, and the eminent amount of banter surrounding the sublime Calvin Harris led to antics occuring and various groups of my friends meeting in unlikely ways. There is a more detailed, dare i say more impassioneddescription over at good friend meischris39's respected account.

The major game i am hyping at the moment is 'World in Conflict' - a PC game, 360 friends and achievements, not to mention amazing variety, gameplay and premise, as well as a larger 80s soundtrack than Vice City. Plus it has NATO, with some of the wonderful weapons associated with the British army, such as the Land Rover Wolf, the Scorpion and the Warrior IFV. Glorious.

Musically, there is one band that is the END ALL for me. The Smiths, the greatest band of all time, the beautiful culmination of Morrissey's lyrics and inimitable voice with Marr's guitar. And the fact that they cycle through Salford in every video is pretty funny too.

Thats God second left.

Absolutely fantastic.

What is up recently? Revision for exams, mainly maths. Finding out i'm likely to get a BTEC diploma for uniformed public services (i love CCF - they give you the equivelant of 4 GCSES for running around with an assault rifle IN THE SCHOOL'S TIME). So yeah, that qualification is free and a piece of cake, will look good on CV and for university and, should I wish to go to Sandhurst, would be a big step in the right direction.

On the horizon? Exams, a bit of work but only a couple of project areas to iron out. Summer camp, i'm gunner and have some wonderful people in my section so woohoo. Holiday? Couple weeks out in spanish villa, then play it by ear. Genius (pronounced jainius)

Also Jackson, sorry for antagonising you, it wasnt deliberate :D

Au revoir ;)

On Gaming...


Well, I haven't posted in a while, so here goes.

First of all, Microsoft have secured another happy 360customer Happy

And second of all, the PSP gets some good old geezer action with Gangs of London: gangs

It looks pretty good. A campaign, free roaming, fully realized London, and infinite minigames:

Gentlemanly British pub games, such as darts, cards and skittles?

Riot control, where you play as the gentemanly yet hideously brutal British police (probably killing a couple of students)

American Tourist, where you play as a fat man from across the atlantic who takes photographs of landmarks for bonuses in the other games

4 weeks later, where you survive in a zombie infested, deserted london360 gamer

That's no zombie, just a satisfied 360 owner. But seriously, what's the equivelant of 6 star felony in GoL? sas

I hope it's these guys.

Other modes are free roam, in which you arm yourself and play around, and a unique scenario set in the London Underground which depends on the serial number of your PSP.

Hang on... the developers haven't thought this through:sto

Controversy? I think yes.

In t3h other news,  the new James Bond looks good, and Chuck Norris can't be stopped by human weapons.

...

Hey Hey! New Mercenaries for next-gen! http://www.pandemicstudios.com/projectq/everybodypays/index.php?id=6

Gotta love making opium dealing afghans eat JDAM in Hi Def!

Byez

Why the next Grand Theft Autos (PS3 and P) will be great.

WI-FI! Online!

Liberty City Stories was the first test of GTA multiplayer (not counting those wierd poker and rampage games in San Andreas, they smelt) and now they know it works, and is popular, they will be able to expand this. On the PSP it will not be too great a change from LCS, but with full online play on the PS3, and possibility of 64 player gang wars in locales the size of all of liberty city, as well as gigantic races (perhaps 32 cars, 1 driver and 1 passenger riding shotgun) around the CONFIRMED 10 times larger than San Andreas (woo blu-ray) motorways, killing etcetera with GTA fans over the world, as well as whatever new game modes they wanna throw in. Also, since the PSP is compatible with big ol' PS3, it may well be possible to play  wi-fi game against anyone in the world without any hassle.

Anyone else excited as I?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6145440.html

Family Guy games? Freakin' sweet!

On Portability

Would someone tell me, please, why there are some people that, when given the opportunity to purchase the PSP or the DS, choose the DS. It's like choosing a Honda over a Merc. Do they not realise how many more features the PSP has? The better games? Less brick like? I suppose in the event of a nuclear war you could build a bunker out of those DS things, but otherwise, given the choice of the two, why take vanilla when you can have chocolate?

Answers on a postcard, usual adress.