The advantage of being at the edge of the world, is that we get to celebrate christmas earlier :P It has been Christmas day for 7 minutes in New Zealand, so from New Zealand, Merry Christmas everyone.

Well, in the long gap between blogs, I have acquired a selection of new and old games.

Just two days ago, I recieved a late B-Day gift:

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

So far the game is pretty good. Its made by Criterion games, who are well known for making my personal favourite racing game Burnout 3: Takedown. Criterion's ****certainly comes through in Hot Pursuit. Like Burnout, drifting around corners is absurdly easy at 280+km and boost is as abundant as sugar in a sweet shop.

The single player feels fairly repetative (but aren't most racing games), but the Online Multiplaer is were Hot Pursuit really shines. Theres a couple of game types, probably the most fun being Hot Pursuit, which is essentially the game 'Cops and Robbers' in cars. Up to 8 players are divided into two teams, Cops and Speeders. The Cops have to bust the Speeders before the Speeders reach the finish line, and the Racers have to survive. Its intense, fast paced action, and it helps that the crashs look spectacular.

If anyone else has Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on their PC, ad wants to add me, my Persona is at the top of my Blog Page.

After my last blog, in which I got Metro 2033 fairly cheap, I have discovered the various wonders of Valve's Steam service. Since then, I have purchased the Valve Value Pack for $99.99USD, and includes Portal, Team Fortress 2, both Left 4 Dead games, Half Life and Half Life 2, Counter Strike, and much much more.

If you haven't already, check out the steam store. Theres a tonne of bargins, and the upcoming Holiday season means Sales. I know I am keeping an eye out for bargins.

Hope you are all well.

-Urworstnhtmare

I was recently mucking around on the internet, looking at games etc on mightyape.co.nz, when I notice they are having a sale. Metro 2033 was a title that caught my eye, as I had previously watched Gamespot's review on it (not the greatest review ever), and it intrigued me. Also mightyape had slashed $80 off the price! What a bargain if I ever saw one! It was only 20 dollars...

So far, the game is pretty good. It may have its rough patches graphically, but its so atmospheric and creepy, that if you can stand a survival post-appocoliptic horror, and if you can get your hands on a copy, play it. If you give it a chance you should enjoy it. So far I am.

On something completely unrelated, today I saw Predators. Its ok. A fun watch. But I can survive not seeing it again. 2/5

NOT REALLY A SPOILER BECAUSE ITS SO PREDICTABLE SPOILER: Its kinda sad how in these sorts of films they always kill off the ethnic minorities first. When we are introduced to the cast, I was pretty much dead on when it came to predicting who would survive, and who would die, and in what order...

Well, after a clean re-install, I got my PC running. Windows 7 is now running well, so my previous anger has subsided. Thank you for putting up with that. Well, with my new PC I'm finally able to do some PC gaming. First game I got is a really good one:

Yes. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I know. It took me this long to get a copy... Embarrasing really... I don't think I'm going against the grain or the general consensus when I say its GREAT. And I mean superb. I had played a bit of it on friends PC's, Xbox's and PS3's, but to own a copy and to actually play through the Campaign is great. And what a Campaign it is. And the best part is the online (which I haven't even got around to yet!). I'm still replaying the Campaign on higher difficulties, trying to get all the intel and such. Currently on 24/30 and have beat most the game on Veteran (with the help of Slow-Mo on the really hard bits (it may be cheating, but it's really fun to have epic gun fights in Slow-Motion. It makes you fell like your in some sort of John Woo film... I know I'm gushing a bit, and I'm sorry and thanks for putting up with it, but what a great game... Can't wait to play through the Campaing of CoD:MW2.

Peace

Ive always kinda wanted my own PC. Windows 7 is supposed to be very reliable, or so I have heard. Currently, Windows 7 is being a b*tch. I am not lying when I say I have had restart the computer twice, it has restarted six times, and given my a funny vertical line covered screen three times, resulting in me having to shut it down. It is know going through a constant loop of restarting itself, and I have no idea why... I might have to try reinstalling it, but clearly my first Windows experience since 98 hasnt been the best...

Haven't posted a blog in a bit, so here goes.

I recently (yesterday) purchased God of War, so I was able to cross that off my 'Want' list, and add it to my 'Collection' list. Managed to have roughly an hour on it this afternoon, and from what I have seen so far, the game is gory (well duh) beautiful, and unforgiving... I began the game on Normal, and proceeded to beat the first level without to much difficulty (the two smaller heads of the Hydra had my a little confuzelled at first). However once Kratos arrived at Athens, and had I had proceeded to mae my way up through the Ancient City of Athens, I got stuck on this big Ogre looking monster with a big metal ball which he can shot out on a chain and retract. Getting him to the point where the 'Circle' icon above his head isn't hard, but getting the combo quickly enough is frustrating. Maybe its just me, but each time the pattern of buttons is different, and you need to get them almost instantly... Arewell. I will give it another go tomorrow...

The game itself looks pretty good, but deffinately looks a bit aged on my projector where the limitations of the PS2's graphics really show... However the game makes up for it with plenty of gore, which at times makes you chuckle, and at others, cringe. The animations are top notch, and really make the monster's and Kratos look like they actually getting hit. The music is also top notch, along with the voice acting, and so is the story. So far, my first escapade into the GoW franchise is a fun one, and I hope to get the others and play through them aswell.

Also I found it insterseting that there are two different covers for the game. Above (US and I assume other countries) and:

Which is what you get in New Zealand (and probably other countries (Australia maybe?)) lazyhoboguy pointed out a similar anomaly for the cover of Black. I find it strange that manufacturers go to all the trouble of making two completely different box covers for different countries...

On a side note, I was just browsing Gamespot's front page, and being into Macs and Apple products, I noticed that Gamespot had a Hands On article for Apple's new iPad.

Now to clarify, I don't think I will get an iPad, for I personally don't have a use for one, however I also don't bash a perfectly good product, because I don't have a use for it. Comments like:

"Still wanna know........... What are you gonna use it for?"

and:

"Enlighten me: if I already have a decent mobile phone and a decent laptop, why would I need an iPad?"

aren't particularly well thought through, atleast in my opinon. Clearly if you don't have a use for the iPad of a Tablet for that matter, then why would you consider buying one in the first place... There will be people who may benefit from having such a device, on may need one for work or whatever. If you don't need one, why bring a product down...

Hope you guys are well, and having fun whatever your playing.

Well as the title suggests, I had a moment which when I look back at, I call myself a douchebag...

Got my PC hooked up, all the fans running etc yesterday, however didn't have any signal going to the monitor. Me being a guy, I just go for the most direct option and begin to fiddle around with parts.

I should have never messed around with the Power Supply, ecpecially while it was running... :?

Basically I changed the voltage switch on the back, there was a bang, a small amount of sparks, and my PC died... I don't even know why I did it. Im not a retard and that was a pretty retarded thing to do...

Now I have got a PC that doesn't start, and am not sure whether or not I need to just replace a fuse (hopefully), the whole power supply, or the powersupply and motherboard and processor, which could be expensive... :?

Whats your moment of idiocy you instantly regret and wish you could take back. There will mostly likely be more than one.

Well my school came second at McEvedy, a track and field tournament between four colleges from the Wellington region. Alittle depressing that in my final year at the College we didn't take it home again, but thats life...

On a positive note, when I arrived home, I was welcomed by 4 rather large packages on my front door step.

Sorry for the blurry photos. Unfortunately the RAM and HardDrive didn't arrive so I might wait a day before busting open the boxes and putting it together.

Hope everyone is well.

Urworstnhtmare

Well I ordered my new PC today. It ended up costing roughly $1600NZD, and I hope I got a good deal. I got a:

AMD Black Edition - Processor - 1 x AMD Phenom II X4 965 / 3.4 GHz - Socket AM3 - L3 6 MB - Box 125W

Gigabyte GA-790XTA-UD4 Mobo - DDR3, USB 3, SATA 6Gbps

Corsair 4GB PC10600 DDR3 (1333Mhz) Registered ECC Memory CL9-9-9-24 (CMS4GX3M1A1333C9)

Sapphire VAPOR-X HD 5770

Cooler Master HAF 922 Tower Case

Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 650W ATX Power Supply Unit

Hopefully it should arrive later during the week and I can start putting it together.

I haven't posted a blog in a while. Partly because I haven't got any new games or seen any new movies (still need to see Sherlock Holmes) but mainly because I haven't really been up to anything during the long holidays.

The bad news first. My Grandparents had to move out of their home of 35 years because of my Grandads bad health. Had to move into one of those awful retirement homes. Atleast they are in one of the better ones. This means the family has come together to clear out their home, taking the furniture etc they want to keep to them, and storing the rest for sorting. Its sort of a depressing feeling. I've spent so many Christmas Dinners there, and have such good memories of the extended family getting together in that house that I'm going to miss it.

Another bad note. During the moving process I managed to smash my large toe under a large board of I think Plywood. Although not particulary heavy, the wood managed to munt up my toe pretty good. It's tender as heck, and theres a lot of blood under the nail. i was thinking of posting pics, but no one really wants to see my large to with a blue/black colour nail. No one wants to see my toe in the first place if I'm not mistaken. My toe reduces me to a funny looking hobble, which wasn't bad enough if I wasn't trying to get back into shape by starting to run again.

On a positive note, I have managed to set up my so called 'Man Cave'. It still needs some appliances (a fridge would be mighty useful etc) but it is an excellent place to kick back and play games or watch movies on the projector. i shall post pictures later, if I can manage to hobble my way down there :)

This post is so-called for a reason. I am currently INCREDIBLY nervous over my upcoming test results, which should be arriving in the mail with a week. Some subjects I'm not to hassled about (English for example (not because I'm into being illiterate or someting, but because what they teach does not intrest me)), but others like Media Studies (I need top marks because my teacher expects me to get them (I was top of the year after all)) and graphics are important to me. Depending on whether or not I do well in graphics could potentially change what I want to do and study when I leave College (High School for all the Americans out there :) ).

Its all rather stressfull and nerveracking, and my toe isn't helping.

Hope you guys are all better than I am currently.