Not much to talk about today, everything has been going pretty slow. Same goes for the game releases at the moment, but this absence of games is a good time to reflect. Call of Duty 2 and Perfect Dark Zero are still offering some entertainment, and even HALO 2 has supplied me with some fun moments!

Everyone seems to be going on about Black, and its no surprise to me when I see advertisements pasted on almost every gaming magazine. EA want this game to be big, and I'm sure it will be, but that doesn't necessarily mean its going to be a good game. IGN recently submitted a preview of the upcoming title, which is worth reading if you're considering purchasing it.



I've also got some rather disappointing news to announce, once again courtesey of IGN. The console version of The Movies has been officially 'canned', but did we really expect it to work out on games consoles? The Movies control configuration seems best suited to a mouse and keyboard. If you want the full story, click here.

I've been trying to work out which of the upcoming titles for the Xbox 360 is going to be more successful. I've rounded it down to Gears of War and Oblivion. They both look 'Next-Gen' and they both have fantastic looking features! I'll let you decide...

My current Top 5 games:

1) Half Life 2 - 'A superb groundbreaking, cinematic masterpiece'

2) Call of Duty 2 - 'An acurrate, stunning portrayal of one of the biggest conflicts in our history'

3) HALO: Combat Evolved - 'Incredibly immersive, well constructed levels, and a great story'

4) FarCry: Instincts - 'Impressive graphics, gameplay mechanics and attention to detail'

5) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 'The best Star Wars game out at the moment and one of the best RPGs yet'

Oh, and I may aswell tell you my Top 5 Movies, eh?

1) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - 'On the surface, this is just a typical spaghetti western, but its really an odyssey that explores the aspects of human nature'

2) Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back - 'Quite simply, the best Star Wars film ever and one of the best Science Fiction films ever created'

3) Saving Private Ryan - 'Inspiring, powerful and thrilling. One of Tom Hanks best performances in a film'

4) Batman Begins - 'An epic tale of the Dark Knight, with fantastic dialogue and directing'

5) Superman - 'One of the best comic book films ever. You WILL believe a man can fly!'

Well, here we are in February. It's still feeling very much like Winter here in Scotland, with temperatures reaching -8. It's not snowy, but its pretty darn frosty! It's the second month in 2006, it just feels like yesterday when we were getting all hyped about the Xbox 360. We're all 'tucking into' the feast of Xbox 360 launch games, some are great, some are good and some are sadly, bad.



It won't be long before our craving for more Xbox 360 'goodness' returns, so what is on the horizon? Well, a whole horde of titles are scheduled for a late February and March release, but that could all change. We've got Ghost Recon 3, Prey, Gears of War and Fight Night Round 3.Oh, and let's not forget Oblivion. Is that enough? Of course it is.



Let's just hope they all arrive soon, we've recently had Ridge Racer 6 and Dead or Alive 4, but we need a big release like Gears of War soon! Fingers crossed everyone!

It's the last day of  Winter-een-mas!

After finally getting round to downloading the Fight Night Round 3 from the Xbox Live Marketplace, I can safely say that its a game that's shaping up to be truely 'Next-Gen'.



There's no HUD, its all about creating the most realistic boxing experience. You can tell what your boxer's condition is by looking at his stance and how many bruises he has on his face.

The actual combat is just superb, and when you perform an 'impact punch', everything goes into 'bullet-time' as you see your opponent's face getting smashed to bits! You can also change your boxer's stance to suit the way you're going to attack you opponent. These little ajustments just make the combat so satisfying!



If you look at the screenshots, you won't be surprised when I say that the graphics are one of the highlights of Fight Night Round 3. The lighting effects, the physics, the detail on the boxers, its all stunning. This is one game that EA Sports has definitely done A LOT of work on, and it all pays off when gamers like me are getting the chance to experience something truly spectacular.

Well, if you're currently living or from Scotland then you'll know that tonight is Burns Night. I'm a little confused with the whole idea of it (could be because I'm English) but I understand its the celebration of the birth of poet Robert Burns' and his contribution to poetry.



Its funny, because we don't have a 'Shakespeare Night' or a night celebrating another famous contributor to British literature. Burns Night is solely a celebration for the Scottish, and I guess he must have made a HUGE impact on the people of Scotland to have a night devoted to him.

I've sampled some of his work such as 'To a Haggis' and the play 'Tam O' Shanter', and its very unique, powerful stuff if you can understand some of the excessive use of the traditional Scottish language. My dad is Scottish, and he's got plenty of books about Robert Burns, so its obvious to me that Burns work is something special to the people of Scotland.

I won't be having Haggis tonight, as I had it a couple of days ago, but I'm sure that I will be watching the at least one of the many television programmes about the great Scottish poet.

There was a period when the majority of games were based on World War II. We had endless Medal of Honour games and the arrival of the strategic Brothers in Arms. Then we had a period of games based on the Vietnam War with titles like Conflict: Vietnam, Battlefield: Vietnam and Vietcong.

Games based on actual real wars have become scarce and we are seeing a lot of games based on fictional wars like Star Wars Battlefront II and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat. However, we recently had the release of Call of Duty 2 on Xbox 360 and PC. It showed that games depicting one of biggest conflicts in history has more depth and realism then any other game set in a war.

Its so strange that we find war entertaining. I haven't experienced the atmosphere of war and when I play a game like Call of Duty 2, I enjoy it because I know I'm not actually physically there, fighting for my life. I don't think its wrong to make games about war, its a great way of reminding people that its happening in the world and shows the devasting consequences it has. It is, afterall just a game, but war, is not.

2005 was a great year for Xbox, especially with the arrival of Half-Life 2. It gave Xbox owners the chance to play one of the most graphically demanding games yet.



We also had a surprise hit with FarCry: Instincts, which turned out to be one of the most clever and graphically impressive games to ever come out on the Xbox. It's no surprise that FarCry: Instincts Predator is scheduled to be released on the Xbox 360.



We also had the release of Star Wars: Republic Commando, which was also a surprise hit because no-one expected a Star Wars game to be this good. The Single-Player was the best thing about it and we saw easy-to-use squad tactics which were verging on revolutionary.



The release of Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (what is with that LONG title?!) was no surprise success to anyone, and it offered a superb cinematic experience that we don't see in many First-Person games.



The release of Ninja Gaiden: Black was definitely a highlight for Xbox owners in 2005. We saw one of the best games of 2004 getting a 'make over' that was packed with hidden content and extras. It was a 'must buy' for almost every Xbox owner!



Another 2004 hit was given a bit of a 'make over', when Fable: The Lost Chapters was released in late 2005. It was a bit of an improvement on what we had seen in the original version and we did get to play beyond the original story. For Fable fans, this was an instant purchase, but for people who were slightly disappointed by the original release of the game, the extra content didn't seem that tempting...



There was the finale in the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy with Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, which made quite impact upon its release at the end of the year offering the same brilliant gameplay that we had grown to love from the previous installments.



This is just a taster of the superb array of games which were released last year. 2005 was a great year for Xbox games and I'm sure 2006 will be too with games like Black, Gears of War, Oblivion and Prey on the way.

After a rather disappointing display on the Xbox and PS2, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is coming to the Xbox 360 with lots of improvements, most notably the graphics.



GameSpot has recently updated the archive of footage of the Xbox 360 version of the tactical shooter with three HD-Quality videos, click here to see them. They've also released a 'First Look' report of the recently released footage, click here to read it.



I'm actually pretty excited about this. The Single-Player Campaign looks much better than the Xbox version, it just looks less crazy and hectic! The graphics look superb, and its definitely taking advantage of the Xbox 360's hardware. I never really got into the Xbox version, but the Xbox 360 version sounds like it could be a major improvement and I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Its back. Thank god, its back.

To those of you who haven't read my previous entries, I'm talking about the arrival of my replacement Xbox 360.

From the dreadful night when I saw the 'Three Red Lights of Death!' to the day when I saw it getting taken away, it’s been hell, but finally, I've got my Xbox 360. It's working perfectly by the way!

However, I'm being very cautious this time! I'm making sure everything is getting enough ventilation and everything is plugged in correctly. I don't want to see those red lights again...

I just had a HUGE session on Perfect Dark Zero! I had to start from the beginning though, because this is a completely different machine, with a completely different hard drive. I'm not complaining, I've been enjoying reliving those superb levels and the fact that I'm playing an Xbox 360 again!

I'm going to play my Xbox again at some point, so I can play more of The Chronicles of Riddick (which isn't included in the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility list, for some reason!).

I'm thinking about selling the ol' Xbox soon, I could use some of the money to buy some more Xbox 360 games and the Xbox isn't really offering any new, exciting titles anymore apart from Black...

Anyway, I'm going to play some more Perfect Dark Zero, or Call of Duty 2, maybe both, anything goes today!