Got home today after work, when the doorbell rang, about 5 minutes after I walked in. It was the mailman with 3 packages.
Apperantly some of my order from Amazon UK had shipped earlier then expected. Something I would've known If i had checked my mail for once. But anyhow, it was a very nice suprise since I had been in a pissy mood all week due the very painful superbowl loss the New England Patriots suffered. Altough I was pissed off as it was a repeat of 2008, once again they did it to themselves. I do officially despise the New York Giants more then the Jets now, altough they deserved the win...sadly have to admit that. So congrats

Back to the 3 packages,
It turned out to be around half of my total order from amazon. The rest should come in about 2 weeks.
Because I always bundle the deliveries as much as possible for free shipping, i'll have to wait till certain movies become available again.

I'll have enough to watch for a while. And catching up on new movies aswell, 2012 has a lot of promising releases. Meanwhile I will fit in a couple of multi-hour sessions roaming through skyrim again after I took a little detour to play an old favourite in HD (Metal Gear 3)

Oh, and Portal was great! finally played and finished it in januari.

see you around...

Almost Febuari, so I had enough time to look over how my top 10 should look like for 2011 and not change half of it in retrospect.

As always, I do not look at year of release and just rate what I have played and finished for at least 80% in 2011. The 80% rule is mostly for games I played in December, like Skyrim. Since I was only 10 hours into it around the 30th it will not appear in 2011's list. Im around 80 hours in now though, and I can say that it would'nt have gotten the top spot. Probably around 3rd/4th place.
Also in this almighty blog of overkill, a lot of senseless stats just because i can.

alright...

My top 10 of 2011...

01) Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (PS3)
02) Red Dead Redemption (360)
03) Dead Space 2 (360)
04) Deadly Premonition (360)
05) Enslaved: Odyssey To the West (360)
06) Halo: Reach (360)
07) Halo: ODST (360)
08) Deus Ex: Human Revolution (360)
09) Gears of War 3 (360)
10) Metro 2033 (360)

A very special award goes to LA Noir for making me play a good game, but ruining it completely thanks to one of the most annoying and hateable characters in my 17 years of playing videogames...yes, the one you control...I refuse to use the name and have the occasional daydream that a special DLC package appears on Xbox live, erasing him out of the game. I'd rather pick up my phone in GTA IV and say yes to ' HOW IS MY MY FAVOURITE COUSIN!, YOU WANT TO GO BOWLING?' 50 more times then play that game again...ugh

Top 5 movies of 2011:

01) Drive
02) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
03) Melancholia
04) 50/50
05) Another Earth

Most entertaining gore: The Thing, Chromehead: Laid to rest 2
Worst Movie: Hostel III

Side Note: The oscar Nominations have been anounced and it's going to be yet another sad year. Not that it's a bad movie, but ' The Artist' is by far not the best piece of filmmaking from 2011, and yet I fear it will probably take in everything important...just like shakespear in love, chicago and slumdog millionaire did. People had a little hate campaign going against ' The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' a few years back, saying that it was gimmicky with the age thing. Well...then ' the artist' falls under that aswell. Filmcritics get aroused by old (looking) stuff and musical bs. It will be a sad moment when the oscar for ' actor in a leading role' goes to a french guy doing nothing but a mime routine with some tapdancing for 1,5 hours and speaking exactly 2 words in bad english. If this all 'hopefully' does not happen, consider this little rant non-written.

Some random stuff:

Games finished: 27
Movies watched: 477
House make-over: 0,5 (in progress)
Hours of sleep: too little
Annoying collegues at work: 9
Annoying temps at work: 22
Injuries: 3
holiday ruining foodpoisonings: 1
Arrows to the knee: 0
Ruined relationships: 1
Weight: 88kg, thanks to food poisoning
Lenght: still to bloody tall
Greatest concert: Suicidal Tendencies (Wacken open air), Slayer (Amsterdam)
Most fun at a festival: Graspop 2011
Wrecked tents: 2
F.U.B.A.R moment: My german neighbours at Party San open air blasting the final fantasy VII soundtrack all week long on the camping. We've been best friends since


and looking forward to:

Max Payne 3
Hitman: Absolution
Mass Effect 3
Silent Hill Downpour
GTA V
Bioshock Infinite
Metal Gear/ Silent Hill Hd collections

and seeing Meshuggah, Slayer, Machine Head and Lamb of God play live on a single day. (thank you Fortarock)

Well.. since it's almost christmas, I treated myself on a little living room make-over.

Always wanted my own private home theatre, and now I can finally enjoy movies the way I want to enjoy them. It's also great for gaming I have to add, but after a while it gets a bit to hectic on the eyes with the more action packed games like bayonetta or God of War. But a game like Skyrim or Red Dead Redemption works absolutely great.

Got me a new 9.2 receiver, speakers,active subwoofer (2nd one coming next year), HD projector and off course a 106inch screen, which i could barely shove in the elevator here. Last but not least I bought a pile of blu-rays for me to enjoy and to give my receiver a run for it's money. Tried a few already of course and especially Tron: legacy and Battle: Los angeles fill up the room with falling shell cases, explosions and whatnot.
Still need to work away some of the wiring, but i'll do that next week after i'm 100% sure that everything works as I want it to.

Next year im going to get some more 'Klipsch' speakers, since the 2 new ones i got from them just have insane clarity and power on pretty normal volumes that my neighbours wont hear....to much :P

Oh and..yes, I made the projector stand and the tv furniture stuff myself. Working at an office furniture manufacturer has it's benefits. Specially the ceiling bracket... Sony has one for this specific model of projector, but I refuse to pay 799 euro's for it. Not in this lifetime.

Back to cleaning up now. Still a lot to do and when it's fully done i'll post some decent quality pictures on here.
These are some quick snaps I took with my phone the past few days.

Like the title says above, it has been quite some time since I gave any sign of live on here.
So why not a little update about all the bits and bops for those who like to read that kind of thing

I think that june was my last blog, and since then a whole lot has happened.
Festival season is behind me now, altough i sometimes think im still hungover from all that. One thing i did learn though, is that im too old to go to germany twice in 2 weeks for a 4+ day festival. Im getting to old for that already. After surviving 8 days at 'Wacken open air' I made a not so triumphant return to germany 3 days later to go to 'Party San open air'
All i did was sleep and sit under our party tent, discussing final fantasy VII and Fallout 3, and having discussions about battlefield 3 and why I was ignoring that game to buy Uncharted 3 instead...all with my lovely german neighbours, now friends. Instead i should've been watching bands i guess, but i just couldnt be arsed to walk all the way to the festival area.

Anyhow, after all that I had a little thing going on with a girl, which absorbed a lot of time. It didnt last all that long, but that's a whole other story. Oh and during those 3 months my pc decided to die on me aswell for a week or 2...only to suddenly just boot up after that, when i just turned it on for the hell of it. Probably something 'dust' related.

The 'watched movies' meter has also been steadily getting out of control. From what i know and kept track of, I watched 367 so far this year. A lot of oldies, but also a lot of new stuff...good, great and terribly bad. Still counting, and some good ones are on the way still for december.
Few movie tips: Drive (2011), Another Earth (2011), The Beaver (2011), Beautiful Boy (2010), Kim Bok-nan (2010), Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006), Rabbit Hole and Red State (2011)

As for games, the activity has been a bit low since june. I only started playing again around october. But since then I played a few. Deus Ex, which was a bit of a letdown, Homefront, both the Mafia II add ons, Dark Sector, Trials HD and some GTA IV (yes GTA V is coming!! but i think the whole world knew that about 3 hours after the trailer was anounced)

Next to those I played and finished Uncharted & Uncharted 2 both for a third time to get all back into the vibe before Drake's Deception came out last week.
Absolutely loved the game, and as far as the game of the year goes...Uncharted has it. Unless Skyrim can do anything about that.

ta ta

Random facts about me:

- Favourite movies: Fargo, Millers Crossing, Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Lost in Translation

- Im am actually 2,02 meters tall

- Lost about a centimeter of my left index and middlefinger due to an accident at work in 2005

- Ended up playing warcraft 70+ hours a week during my rehabilitation period after that accident (easy to casually play with one hand and the spare ring and pinky finger of the other)

- Big fan of movie soundtracks.. talented mr ripley, road to perdition and lost in translation are among my favourites

- Favourite game soundtracks are final fantasy VII, IX and every sinlge one from the Silent Hill games

- Favourite tv series: Six Feet Under, Everwood, The wire, Family Guy, The Shield and The Sopranos, Band of Brothers

- Favourite stand-ups: Bill Burr, Jay Mohr and Lee Mack

- Tv series that shouldn't have been cancelled: Everwood, Wonderfalls, Jericho, The Black Donnolly's, Millennium

- School was never for me, been working since my 18th

- Used to play tennis and got 3rd in the only 2 tournaments I ever competed in before quitting

- Played piano for a while when I was 9/10

- Greatest moment during a concert: Anathema playing 'universal' at graspop in 2010 (I believe every single hair on my body got goosebumpy for the entire 5 minute duration)

- Favourite albums: Opeth – Damnation, Sólstafir – Köld, Burst – Lazarus Bird, Lamb of God – Ashes of the Wake, Anathema - A Natural Disaster

- Almost drowned at age 10 (friend pulled me out just in time)

- Fell on the ice face first at 11. Had a 2,5 centimeter egg on my forehead for 2 days (parents measured it..sadistic buggers :P) but somehow had no concussion (maybe I am just an empty headed creature)

- Failed my driving exam 3 times

- Since then everyone around me who got it at the first try and laughed at me has had one or more minor accidents. Im still damage-less.

- Used to collect "Magic: the gathering" cards, but never played the game

- Had an obsession with Dragonball Z and pokemon tv shows for a while…I still love Spongebob and Shin-Chan

- Have a big fear of flying but managed to get become a Bronze card member with KLM in 2009 (I only fly KLM because they have never crashed, only collided with a plane on a take off in the 70's) . Iost it the year after because I didn't make the flying quota to keep it

- Want to see Alaska some day

- Got punched in the face when I was 14, by a rather large driver after hitting his car with some mud I threw at a classmate…I missed obviously

- Set my hair on fire while playing with deodorantspray and a lighter

- Made it to the school basketball and volleyball teams…but just because I was so bloody tall, even back then.

- When I was little I wanted to be a garbage man or drummer.


That's about all I could think of now. Enjoy, or read and defriend in horror :P

I WANT A BLOODY RAISE!!!

thank you....

Had some birthday money, and decided to spend it on blue rays again. Im in my yearly movie watching period. Every year around a certain time I just get fed up with gaming mostly (I did play f1 2010 for a bit the other week though) and start watching movies every day and catching up on entire season of whatever tv serie I feel like watching. It usually starts around oscar time where I'll start catching up on nominees, and ends around the summer when usually a few titles come out worth paying the full 60 for. This year that will be when L.A Noir comes out at the end of may.

that all said, here's the new line-up. off course if have seen them all long time ago, but the dts-hd track is just so much better then the 5.1 or dts mixes on a dvd. It's a whole new experience when it's mixed right.

This came in today.....



Open it!!...

....no!

... awwwwwww!

...... alright alright! (by now you're either annoyed, or just skipped and already looked at the picture below)


off course I already opened it (this concludes the bad attempt at humor)


behold my latest babies...


I was suposed to receive these before the books came in, but apperantly something got mixed up along the line of transport from the always sunny UK...

I like a good psycho-thriller or horror movie as you can probably see from the image.
I've seen all of them already, but found them either very entertaining, good, or even great that I wanted to own them on Blue Ray. Always wanted to see 'Grindhouse'the way it was suposed to be shown in theaters. A double bill with the corny fake-trailers in between and all.
They all were bargains, as i cant just buy 10 full-priced movies anymore. Those days are behind me :P

Specially Band of Brothers was a pleasure to acquire for only 16 euro. I already own it on dvd, but I couldnt pass on seeing the show with a higher quality image and a DTS-HD master audio soundtrack for that amount of money.
I never get tired of it either, as I basicly watch the whole series twice a year. Always starts out harmless with 2 episodes, and ends up as a full series 10 hour marathon. Cant control myself once I get on a role.

Next package will contain games probably (most likely L.A Noir! woop!). I decided to buy some movies this time, since im already nose deep into my backlog atm and just know that i'll stop playing those games if i would've gotten a bunch of new ones.

Ordered a bunch of books this week. They arrived yesterday...

It's kind of obvious im a formula 1 fan..mostly the late 80's till around 1998 (It's been going downwards since then If anyone would ask me).
Next to those, I also ordered a bunch of game related books.

In order to prep some more for Mass Effect 3, I wanted to buy the 3 books released so far that go deeper into the world and story of the Mass Effect universe.
Also ordered a, from what it looks like, prequel to the upcoming Deux Ex game. Looks interesting in any case.
And since im a big fan of the original Metal Gear game on the ps1, I ordered the book that follows the game but well, you guessed it...in story form :P Enough hours of reading material before sleeping the coming months.

First three months of the year are behind us, and while it has been a great year for game news, so far it hasnt really given me any must-buys. The first real title for me will come in may (hopefully) and goes under the name: L.A. Noire. After that its Deus Ex Human Revolution before the big explosion at the end of the year with Mass Effect 3 and Uncharted 3, and for some the new elder scrolls game. Altough I think all of those 3 will be moved to 2012. There are a whole lot more coming out that I would also want to buy, but money is an issue nowadays, so im forced to pick the ones i really really want to spend the money on, and buy the other ones later on for a cute cuddly wuddly price.

Since there werent any titles coming out where I would willingly pay the full price for, I have been playing backlog ever since january, and even re-played a few oldies

- Red Dead Redemption (360)
- Deadly Premonition (360)
- Enslaved: Odyssey To the West (360)
- Halo: ODST (360)
- Gears of War (Insane Difficulty) (360)
- Halo: Reach (legendary (360)
- Alpha Protocol (360)
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (360)
- Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Xbox)
- Kane & Lynch: Dog Days (360)

Next to those titles i've been working on Driver: Parallel Lines (yes, the ps2 game with the 'we want to be like GTA' syndrome), Gray Matter (altough kinda on a cold streak with that game due to my movie urges).
Also poking around for the 100% for GTA IV which is completely pointless i guess, but since i still enjoy driving around in Liberty City I figured I might aswell work on that percentage and do something a tiny bit more useful then just running over people and taunt the police for funsies.
Want to start with Star Ocean: till the end of time, but im still in doubts about it. I'll see what I do.

Then as for movies. Well...the last 3 weeks I've done nothing but watch them pretty much and decided to keep track of what i watch this year. For the first quarter of the year I watched a total of 99 movies and half a season of boardwalk empire. Lot of duds among those 99, but also a few pleasant suprises off course like 'Enter the Void' 'The Next Three Days' 'In the Valley of Elah' 'Southland Tales' and 'Into the Wild' all great movies that I had either missed out on or just didnt think be any good at all

Music-wise there hasnt been a lot of good stuff out. Macabre's - Grim Scary Tales album is one of my favourites right now. and the new ones from Dropkick Murphys and Amon Amarth are also ok. The year is still young though and im anxiously waiting for the new Panzerchrist, Opeth, Devin Townsend, Lamb of God(probs 2012) and Alestorm albums.

That about sums it all up. see ya...