One thing I have seldom experienced during my years as a gamer is being at complete odds with the opinion of the general public. Spurring from the continued success of the Wii however, and the handing around of '9.0s' like its going out of fashion, I have now begun to find myself more readily disagreeing with the popular opinion of the gaming community and industry more and more. Recently after actually getting an Xbox 360 and playing a certain game which has been plagued industry wide with negative reviews I have become compelled to write this opinionative rant. The game I am talking about is Clive Barker's Jericho and I'm writing about... (to put bluntly) why the hell do so many people not like this game!!?

*sigh* Before I get too far I feel I should probably state that I do realise people have different opinions.. but almost every review I've read and video review I've watched and score I've looked at I just completely disagree with. Let me try and break down my POV on this game in comparison to the critics;

1) Cramped Environments - Uhm.. what? NO! I just passed the part where the demo ended and I have so far not experienced any of the frustrations that reviewers b**** and moan about to do with not having enough room to 'tactically maneuver'. Furthermore learn to f****** shoot you stupid gits. If the 'exploding enemies' are such a big deal, which they certainly are NOT (coming from the guy who's using analog sticks) then maybe you should set the difficulty to easy.. in which case you would then probably whine about it being too boring because there's not enough challenge. Psh!

2) Bad Weapons - I don't even want to know what people are thinking with this. Granted some of the weapons don't pack a nice 'oomph' sound to them, but their capabilities are damn impressive and their designs and graphics are superb. As a matter a fact I also know another game with some weapons which dont sound fantastic; Halo 3.

3) Context Sensitive Button Prompts Feel... Out of Place? - I've played several button prompt games (Resident Evil 4, God of War) and I again have to state this is a stupid comment. These prompt situations are awesome and I never once sat there thinking whilst I was playing 'wow this is so out of place'. What is 'out of place' in relation to button prompts even actually meant to mean anyway...?

4) Unoriginal Abilities - I'm sorry but what were people expecting.. the ability to fly or turn into aquaman? Exorcism, spiritual healing, blood wards, fire demons, slow motion aren't good enough for you people? This is one of the most pathetic attempts to bring down the game.

5) Too Many Abilities and Weapons - So rat out on the 'unoriginality' of some of the coolest, classic supernatural abilities and then whine about how there is too many. I can understand how some people may feel overburdened by the VARIETY the character switching and abilities/weapon combinations this game offers but seriously as far as I've played there has been not one occasion where I have overused or underused a certain character in any fighting situation before (whether its for their weapons or abilities I end up using a nice mix as second nature)

6) Bad Dialogue/Characters - I honestly wasn't expecting much from the characters in the way of any remote submissive or weak nature. They are a branch of the US Military. They are full out commando and whilst not making the game very scary, they really do drive the ambition to run and gun into a pack of blood thirsty (fantastically designed) monsters. Yes the dialogue is strange at times but I personally didn't realise the ridiculousness of some of the lines until they were commented upon in a review.

So there that's my passion for the defence of this game out in words on my blog. I cant stress again how well aware I am of these things called opinions, but this game really deserves more credit than its been given (IMO). I suppose when it boils down to it what really infuriates me is not the are reviews Jericho got, but the reviews other games got in comparison. These include;

- SSBB (9.5) - No way! This game is EXACTLY like melee but with more features thrown in. It's almost laughable it got such a high score..
- Assassin's Creed (9.0) - Beautiful world but becomes rather linear and boring after a while. (OPINION!!)
- Bioshock (9.0) - Well I'm not quite sure what to say about this.. its a great game.. fantastic immersion.. but the enemies were boring and the coolest stage was the first level, Dr Steinmann's surgery. Revolutionary ground breaking story telling... wth? 9.0 worthy? No.

There I think that about covers my opinion and I feel a little better now. This was not so much for your reading as it was for me to just vent my annoyances but if you did read it anyway then thanks. I suppose really what it comes down to is people have different tastes, and a score should never 100% dictate your decision in any purchase you wish to make (not to say it wont influence others) but if you like the demo and want the game then buy it. That's what I did with Clive Barker's Jericho and I couldn't be happier. Now let's wait and see the inevitable Mario Kart Wii review. There has to be some integrity left in this industry... but I wouldn't hold my breath...

Well I don't know whether anyone will actually take the effort to read my blog anymore considering I've been inactive for such a long time and have made little attempt to rekindle my blog writing despite the fact I said I would. But no matter how many of you actually read this I felt it was important enough to mention that I GOT AN XBOX 360!

Yes I'm now able to finally say I own all three consoles and now can finally bad mouth people on either side of the console argument fence without getting criticised because I own all three lol. But yeah I got it the other day for my birthday and it came with Halo 3, an Xbox Live Vision Camera and another controller free. I haven't played Halo 2 though.. any of you guys reading this who have played the trilogy.. um.. is it very important I play 2 before I jump into 3? Of course that might have to wait for a bit anyway as I sort of have to wait until after my exams next week before I can open the 360 or have any sort of celebration (that's my own decision by the way).

I also decided to pick up Dead Rising because I have been wanting that game since forever, actually to the point where I just dismissed everything to do with Microsoft's crappy X360 hardware and asked to have it. I really just couldn't be bothered waiting any longer. If any of you guys who read this are X360 fans can you suggest to me any really good games? I already have quite a few in my wish list (hence the reason I got it) but some further input from you guys (if there is any :P) would be good.

Thanks for reading this if you did. If you did your probably loyal to my dead blog and your awesome. If you didn't (don't ask me how you know I'm saying this if you didn't read it) I still think your awesome :)

So yesterday me, my brother and my dad went out to pick him up a birthday present (a little early as his birthday is not until Tuesday but my dad will be out of the country on work so we got it earlier) and he decided to get a Wii. My brother had been on about wanting one for a while (hes nine now btw) so really it seemed the obvious choice. Also the Wii will have Super Smash Bros Brawl coming out sometime early next year I think it is.. and because my brother just loves playing Melee it pretty much provided the sole reason for him to get the damn machine.

Upon getting it my brother took the time to.. ponder over what game(s) he would want to get. I happily provided my imput to atleast try and sway his decision from buying junk (hey he was looking at Bionicles, Billy and Mandy and Spiderman 3..) of course my brother isnt a total idiot and actually asked for Metroid Prime 3 to my avail. Problem was the place didnt have it so he MAY get that in the immediate future and/or The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (he loves the show.. and he is still a kid)
As a sidenote of interest I also spotted the Final Fantasy VII 10th Anniversary PSP Edition at the store. Being that we are in Singapore most of that sort of stuff comes down from Japan which is cool so I asked how much.. $550SGD. For you lazy readers of mine thats $375USD, $420AUD for my Australian buddies and $360CAD for you Pascal. Hmm.. perhaps its alot better holding off on wanting a special edition PSP and UMD, although it did look really nice.

Anyway when we got home I set up the Wii and unbelievably enough the first thing my brother asked me to do was get my GC controller and memory card and SSBM so he could play it on the Wii. I ran Wii Sports for him instead so I could actually show him what he had used his birthday present for. After watching him jump around like a spasticated moose (I really dont know where that came from) he told me it sucked and so I put on SSBM for him. Thankfully for me and everyone else there reading he did pick up Wii Sports again today and this time played it properly. He loves it but still askes me when SSBB and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles are coming out (hes watched me play most of the games) and is looking forward to some light gun, zombie killing regardless of review or anything. Other than that thats about all. Interesting the first new console for this gen I would get.. wouldnt even be mine. I will pick up that Xbox 360 some day.. but I'm still looking at that PS3 sitting in my room.. pay my friend $700SGD ($470USD) I get a 60GB Japanese PS3 from launch with four games. Must.. resist..

Ok so today.. well actually it was yesterday.. but who cares. Yesterday night the game I won on eBay about a week ago arrived; Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. I'm really happy that it finally got here in fantastic condition and for a really cheap price.. the only downside is that I have too many other games I have to finish before I can get around to playing it. Currently if you can see my 'Now Playing List' a bit down I'm still about literally half way through four shooters at once and for some strange reason am playing a bit of Sims 2 on the side (hey its a good game!). I will probably end up finishing Bioshock first as I am quite close to the end on that... uh.. I think. As for Cthulhu and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. well I certainly wont be able to do all the exploration in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I originally anticipated doing. Something else I also havent added in there yet is Halo which I feel I should probably dedicate some more time to finishing.. as.. well um I will admit I havent actually played it before or any other game in its series as a matter a fact. Ever. As if that wasnt bad enough the Orange Box came out today - I can finally see the next part in the Half Life 2 trilogy!! Thankfully however I was able to resist the temptation to buy the Orange Box on Steam whilst it was at its (still very tempting) 10% price cut. The last thing I need right now is more games. I guess I know how you feel now Pascal.

Well since it's been a long, long, long, time since my last blog I thought I should write something just to inform all of you that I'm not dead and I have been on GS. However as far as being around my profile or commenting or writing blogs, reviews etc I've been pretty busy (slack) so I'll try and get around to doing it more often after my exams maybe which start next week.

But anyway onto the computer, a couple of weeks ago me and my dad went out and got all these parts for our new computer which we got up and running about a fortnight ago. I'm finally able to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R. maxed out on it and it pretty much demolishes all the other PC games I have too. The downside is I dont get it in my room but I do get the one that used to be out there which is still a pretty good machine (runs Far Cry and stuff maxed out). So yeah thats about all. The basic general specs of the computer from what I know are:

- Intel Core 2 Duo
- P35 Gigabyte Motherboard
- 400GB Samsung HDD
- Nvidia GeForce 8600GTS
- 2GB RAM
- Sony x16 DVD Drive
- SilverStone 500W Power Supply

Thats pretty much it. Whilst we were at it we also upgraded part of the home network to Wireless-N from Wireless-G and I tell ya its quite an improvement. The router connected to the main computer is very fast and I get great speeds in my room (the peak I've seen it at 270Mbps having gotten only about 56Mbps on G). I'm looking forward to getting some of the better PC games now like Crysis, Far Cry 2 and Bioshock and I'm even starting to question why I'm saving up for a X360... its taking SO long and I only have $300. Well thats about all for this rant, I should probably go and study now as I have an English Exam tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and again sorry for not being around lately!

Ok so although I put an emphasis into the title of this amazing blog post of mine let me break it to you, you've been strung on by my appropriately worded and misleading title. I shall start by saying I bet you were thinking two things when you started reading this blog;

1. I'm happy I'm now on holidays
2. I have a PS3.

Well neither are very much true in any respect. Firstly, yes I am on holidays... and quite frankly I wish they were over already. I'm bored and alot of people have gone overseas and I miss them. Yes especially a certain person and I'm sure you know well enough Pat. But I have managed to try and fill my time by gaming and drawing and music and stuff. Sure I'm getting invited out alot and its good but the days are passing so slow... its like murder and speaking of murder I'm going away in the second week of holidays (2nd July) to some really boring resort for two weeks. Don't get me wrong I like relaxing... but two weeks of boring holiday resort relaxing is NOT my idea of fun... rather its totally boring. I only like holidays where I go around looking at sights and stuff not lazing around on a beach doing nothing (you thought I have fair skin cause im caucasian? Nahh I just hate the beach thats all). So I'll be sure to update you guys with a blog about before/after that.

Secondly, yes I DO have a PlayStation 3... as much of a suprise that must come to alot of you as I'm sure alot of you know I never had the intention to buy one (atleast not yet) but hey, it's fallen into my possession; an NTSC/J (a very early model too *cough* emotion engine chip *cough*), 60GB PS3 console with three games (Ridge Racer 7, Genji and Gundam) and a 1 year warranty valid only iiinnn... HONG KONG! Heh ok so yeah it's sitting over by my window right now just looking at me in its box from across the room. Now before everyone goes 'OMG buy teh.. Sigma.. XIII... MGS!11!!1' Let me make this next point clear. Although it's in my possession its not mine and will only remain in my house until I can sell it for a friend and take half of the sales money for myself and then with that money I shall (ironicly enough) buy an Xbox 360. I love these opportunities.

Anyway fellow Gamespotters, I think thats about all. For any more of my day to day ramblings feel free to check up on my blog (every couple of months) or if you really have balls and wanna talk to me in person add me on MSN (not for the faint of heart lol) Now I shall go play Eternal Darkness. Simon out.

Hey again everyone, sorry for not being able to get around to commenting on your blogs (if I havent) and sorry for not really being active as of late, I've been in a really cant be bothered attitude to even visit the site and the only real reason why I'm writing this blog is to tell you all about the amazing influx of games I've gotten. So the other day I was out with my friends seeing a movie Shrek 3 which I really didnt like that much (that now makes 3 sequels; Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Shrek 3 which have fallen short of high expectations) but hey it was free because my friends dad got ticket invites to see it in gold class for four people and naturally I went along with some friends. But anyway the point of this blog is the games I got at this bargain price store. It was unbelieveable and frankly since I thought I should pick up some new games for the DS I may of gone a bit overboard with the buying due to the sales heheh.
The games I got were:

- Hotel Dusk - Room 215
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
- Animal Crossing: Wild World
- Final Fantasy III

Woah talk about going a bit overboard right... Well wrong! I have hardly bought any DS games since I've had it... granted its not actually mine but the machine has more than enough games for me to 'borrow' it for extended periods from my sister who only really buys junky games anyway and doesnt play it often. The good bit was I didn't even have to pay for half of the stuff I bought because half of the games I bought for my brother and sister ;) and so I only really ended up spending $60 of my own.

Besides that I've been pretty busy lately. Yesterday seeing Shrek 3 marked the 3rd day in a row I'd been out and quite frankly I'm exhausted and becoming broke. The day before I had gone to a friends place who lives up on the East Coast. We went to East Coast park (I dont think thats what its called.. but its a park OK) where I was forced to learn how to rollerblade (because I only know how to bike ride and skateboard) but bleargh I didnt want to open myself up to looking like a fool as I watched alot of people passing by and falling on their bum and could envision myself doing the same. Lucky for me it started raining but that didnt stop the others from doing their thing. I eventually went and sat with two of my mates to help them work out some of their umm.. issues.. maybe.
On the Thursday (bear in mind I've had a long weekend due to Vesak Day and so thats how I was able to also be out all day on Friday at East Coast park) I went to the main drag called Orchard Road with alot of people and we just did lots of random fun stuff including seeing Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End before going back to my friend Julian's place. Another friend of mine Nat, really likes Julian's place and I joked to make it the default hang out place. To Julian's despair Nat took my joke seriously and really likes the idea and is lobbying to get everyone over there today. I only have one word to say to him - lol

Ahh having gone and spent all day out three days in a row has made me worry and I really need to get some of my work done (which I didnt really help myself with considering I'm also still playing Final Fantasy XII and random moments of Lumines on my PSP and now have five brand new games I want to play on 'my' DS) Well atleast I know one thing, I'm going to be TOTALLY ready for those boring plane trips overseas when the holidays come around in... 3 weeks I think it is. I'll have to dedicate myself to finishing some of my games before those holidays finish. Anyway thats about all, thanks for reading and like I said sorry for not commenting lately, I'll try and get around to it soon. Over and out.

Hey everyone! In case you actually havent seen me floating around the forums, I have returned. I got home on Friday night at about 12:30 (so technicly I actually got home on Saturday morning... bleargh it doesnt matter) I had an awesome time. I went trekking, kyaking, did a high ropes course you know all the average stuff you would expect to do on a camp but this was loads of fun (atleast most of the time) There were a few little things that went on in camp like people complaining about climbing Mount Santubong and me being shoved with a group of people who are just so incredibly slow. Now that may sound alright at first, until you realise that you really just want to get to the top of the mountain because your making a good pace. Sure I mean I didn't want to selfishly run off and leave my group (and of course I couldn't anyway thanks to the teacher) so I had to go it with them taking useless and rather annoying stops every couple of meters. It was worse when I caught up with my friend James and we chatted. Whats bad about talking to one of your good friends? Nothing, what was wrong was that he was in Group 11... the last group... our group was Group 1... we had fallen behind... 10... groups... we had fallen behind... and were last... So all that aside I couldn't take it anymore and as soon as I got to the second interval of the walk/climb I went ahead to try and catch up with two of my other friends; Alex and Charina who had been allowed to completely ditch their group and go ahead.

Other interesting things included the trip to Bako National Park where me and another one of my friends, Calvin, got into a fight with a gang of monkeys to protect a cabin. It was pretty funny stuff, taking up sticks... except when your trying to challenge a very fiesty, male monkey which doesn't want to be pushed around. I ended up picking up a stick and piffing it at him and his little gathering... where he then ran at me... of course he was too scared to fully take me on 8) but it was still startling all the same.
Another of the interesting things we did on the last day was go on a free time trip around the town of Kuching I think its called. That was great fun, despite the fact we originally didn't know what we were going to do. I ended up buying S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, which is pretty cool if my computer was a bit better to run the damn thing, I have a really old rig and want to try and get it upgraded soon, but sheesh the whole world doesn't revolve around me spending money for my computer, I do need to spend it on other things too...

Besides all that, haven't done much since I got back. Went out to lunch yesterday with some friends and now I'm just sitting around trying to get myself to start studying (I'm hopeless at chemistry so I really need to get to work on learning all that) I have the long weekend now anyway, so there is plenty of time to study (exams start not the Wednesday coming up, but the one after that) I'm pretty confident for everything actually besides Chemistry, so yeah shouldn't be too hard.

Hi all, just writing this blog to let you know I'll be going on school camp today to umm.. Sarawak which is a part of Malaysia directly north of Borneo. So if you know your geography then thats alot closer then where my last camp was. Anyway I will only be gone for about 5 days... actually its probably more 6 days, so just dont expect me to be commenting on your blogs (I know some of you can be fairly avid blog posters). I'm sure you'll live ;) This of course means my blog about the Wii wont be coming out for a little while (you know, one of your favourite big chunky ones) so you can rest your eyes and mind knowing you are spared from my mindless dribble :) ....atleast for now! I will however make sure to tell you guys all about my trip when I get back... just dont expect it straight after because I'll either be; 1) studying for exams 2) too damn lazy to write one 3) did I mention 'too lazy'?

Also just a quick update that I got my PAL PS2 demo disc the other day from Sony Australia (lol yes wonderful timing huh? Well I only did register it a couple of weeks ago) So I've been avidly playing demos; Dragon Quest VIII, Shadow of the Colossus (my god that thing was big) and I can tell you I'm actually considering maybe God of War II isnt the last PS2 game I will be getting...

Well enough of that, I'll be sure to talk to you guys upon my return. Later.

Well hello again faithful blog readers. I haven't written a blog in a while, so I thought that writing one today would be a good excuse, cause well... its my birthday thats why. Yep today I turn 16 (ugh... by today I mean 8th of April just incase I'm slightly off and its still the 7th over there on the otherside of the world). I've already had a party of sorts organised by my friends on Wednesday and tonight I'll be going out for dinner with my family so that should be great. I'm thinking that awesome buffet place that serves, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Western, Lebanese etc. ANYTHING you can think of. That place is the best, I ate so much last time I was there I felt sick.. lol anyway moving on.
One of the things that I haven't fully decided on for my birthday is my present; you know the big, expensive one you get from your parents. So I figured since last year I didn't get a major present (instead got the money; bought a couple of games, CDs and then threw the rest into my bank account) I'd ask for the imput from some of you guys here to see what I should consider getting this year.

- Xbox360 - I really want one of these and I could easily go and get one right now. However there are things holding me back from getting one: Region coding issues (because I am Australian and Singapore doesnt have the same region coding as back home) and then theres the whole faulty hardware issue and I'm not sure if I want a machine that is supposedly very faulty, especially when a revision may come sometime in the future. Should I get one still or wait?

- Watch - Yep pretty self explanatory, I need a new watch... problem is watches arent very fun, but something I would like.

- Phone - A new phone would rock, but mine is destined to be replaced anyway... still if I got it for a present I could go over the amount I'm normally allowed to spend for a phone, something to keep in mind.

- LCD monitor - Yep I still have a big, clunky, heavy CRT monitor :? not very appealing to the eyes, an LCD would be great.

Thanks for your input guys.

In other news I've had quite a good couple of days of my holidays before people started leaving to go overseas.
Friday after school was good (dont mean this Friday I mean last Friday) went to a friends place, had dinner, watched movies, stayed until about 10 lol, and thats when me and my other friend James left (we were the last two there) and then when we got home we started talking on MSN.
Tuesday I went out to a 'gathering' as the girls like to call it or a reunion to put it in plain english. That was good, interesting to see some of the people from days far gone, that was actually quite a long day when I think about it. I'll give a little recount - Started by meeting everyone at the Coffee Bean, then went back to Nat's (one of the girls) place. After spending a while there we all went to Junction 8 (with the exception of my friend Kelton who left earlier) and went around there for a while. More people left until it was just me and about five others. One of my friends went off with his girlfriend so I went with my other mate; Calvin to check out electronics stores. After Calvin left though I was forced to go shoe shopping with Steph and Nina.. *shudders* why I stuck around I dont know. After enduring nearly 40 minutes of looking at shoes we went to a restaurant and chatted, I learnt quite a few interesting things about my other friends... After that when Nat and Anthony (another mate of mine) got back we all left, twas a good day.
Wednesday was good, went to the movies, saw the Mr Bean (lol funny, but kinda random at the end) found a little game shop (like board games, figurines etc) that got two of my friends into Warhammer again. After that I went and bought Final Fantasy XII with some of my money. After that went back to one of my friends place and played PS3 (I'm not brilliant at Resistance but atleast I can survive!). And then went home.

Well thats about everything that I've done so far, I may make another blog to update you guys instead of grabbing everything I've done in about a week and mashing it into one post, lol I'm sure it can be rather strenuous reading all this so thats why I'll give you a big 'Thanks for reading!' and Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it! Almost forgot about that too (it's not celebrated as a major holiday here in Singapore like Christmas is)