It's been a while since I wrote anything in this little blog. Mainly becuase I've been busying doing other things (awesome martial arts demo and cat empire concert) and gaming has taken a back seat in my life. However I just went out and got copies of two games I've been wanting to play for ages, Kill-Switch and DBZ: Budokai 3, both for PS2.

I'd like to dedicate this whole entry pretty much entirely to B3. Sure K-S rocks in its own way, it's just that I've been completely obessed with B3. I'm a huge fan of DBZ, I'll say that right now and I'll say that proudly. Its a great show in its own right, granted a lot of the aspects of the show could be better but the good parts of the show so much out-wiegh the bad that its easy to enjoy watching it. I love the high-octane, over the top martial arts action of the show. This leads to the reason as to way so many DBZ games have been crap over the years, they're just fighting games with DBZ themes, what B3 does (and does brilliantly) is make a geniune DBZ fighting game. If it was a cool part of the show then chances are, its included in this game. Beam wars when two fighters launch massive energy blasts at each other? Check! Use super speed to leap around the arena and knock your opponent around senseless in the process? Check! Throw out some ultimate final moves that are just like those in the show? Check! Yes it's all here in B3 and the funny thing is, you can't actually understand it until you actaully play the game...

When I first got the game I jumped right into the action of it. Within minutes I was lost as my charecter got beaten by the computer on easy. I stared dumbstruck at the screen as somehow my opponent hurled me back and forth, unleashed a massive energy wave then moved so fast I couldn't even follow his movements. Make no mistake this game has a very deep and original fighting system, I don't care if you've mastered Soul Calibre, Tekken and Virtua Fighter, the fact is this game does things differently, thankfully it does everything well to perfectly re-create all the action of the show. I'll post my own review of it soon when I've spent more time player. And speaking of reviews, many people are saying that DBZ:BT2 is even BETTER then B3, but for some reason gamespot is still yet to post a review of it. What the hell is going on gamespot? I value your opinon on games, why have you not reviewed a game that has been out for several weeks now!

Finally, I'd like to say that K-S is a great game in certain ways. Technically speaking, it's just a mediocre third-person action but this game does something. It uses a unique gameplay style of cover. In this game, you must use the environment to survive, you can put you back up to walls and fire around corners or fire fire blind if need be. It's hard to describe but its similar to a system being seen in Gears of War, the fact is, K-S rocks becuase it shows a developer taking a chance and doing something original and cool with an overused genre in gaming! Three Cheers for Kill-Switch!

I've just gone out and brought a new gaming console!

No its, not an X360, its a GameCube. They're so cheap now and the lure of finally playing Metroid Prime is simply too much to resist.

Wow! How damn good is MP? I can't believe that none of my friends have played this, its so good. I find myself comparing the game to Halo:CE and Halo 2 a lot. Graphically it outshines H:CE in every aspect and comes damn close to H2. The gameplay is smooth, intense, intriguing and immersive. In fact I'm strongly reminded of Half Life, its the same type of design that draws a player in but its even better here. There's no loading, you can examine and scane almost everything in sight, there's an great mirror effect where you'll see Samus' face after standing near a large explosion, hell this game has seemingly everything.

I can wait to play MP2: Echoes, and I am seriously considering buying a Nintendo Wii when they come out. I'm buying a PS3, that is definete but the Wii is so tempting now. I've downloaded a 113MB video of MP3 and it looks great. Graphically, I've seen a lot better, but the game seems to have a stronger focus on action (which is great in my opinion) and the way it controls! By god you can't understand how damn amazing the Wii Controller is until you see it action. This baby is gonna change the way people play FPS games on consoles. It does the impossible, it is actually a more effective control mechanism then the "mouse and keyboard combo" on PCs. Seriously, thats how good the set up is. Console owners are actually going to have a control methond for FPS that outshines the PC, its unheard of. But to be more accurate, Wii gamers will have it, those going with X360 and PS3 will be stuck with that inferiour two control stick configuration, bah I'll take the Wii anyday over that.

This in turn leads to the big question, could MP3 actually beat Halo 3? It seems imossible to believe but there's a great chance that Nintendo will have the best FPS shooter in the next-gen console wars. Granted, don't count Sony out just yet, if they can come through with KillZone 2 then things are going to get really interesting. The fact is, anyone of these games is going to amazing, outdoing all FPS shooters we've seen recently.

I can't wait!!!

I have spent the past few weeks getting heavily into Morrowind. This is basically becasue I have been without a good RPG for a long time and this one seemed like a good choice.

WHOA!!!! How friggen big is this game!??? I seriously counld't believe the size and detail of the game world and how every NPC has a unique name and all the weapons and I think my head will explode from it all. But what gets me is that the game really isn;t that much fun. It draws me in for hours at a time but its not likemy heart rate is pounding or I'm caught up in the story or anything. This game is addictive, there is really no other word for it. I don't get a lot of enjoyment out of the game but it is satisfactory. I dont dislike playing the game but it could be a lot better. But I don;t think I could stop playing, this game has me hooked completely. I can;t wait to get my hands on Oblivion now.

I just started my first part time job. As a 16 year old, this was a big thing becasue now I make between $90-130 a week. (its only Australian though so I'm not super rich). However I've done the maths and found that I can easily afford some new toys. The Xbox360 just launched here in Aus. and I'm tempted by some titles, I've decided that the first point of order is a new graphics card for my PC. (Here's hoping to play FEAR and Oblivion realy soon). I looked around and found I had a choise between spending almost a grand on upgrading my whole system to PCI-Express or just dropping $500-600 on a new AGP model. I've decided to go with the former choice and have now made plans to aquire the most powerful AGP card on the market, the GeForce 7800GT. Plugging this beast into mobo and letting it get to know my gig of DDR RAM and my AMD 3400+ should be a lot of fun. Can't wait!!!

I can't help wondering about Black. It got a fairly scathing review, but I recently played the first two levels at a friend's place and I want to play the rest, I'm a huge fan of big, explosive action novels, games and films (Matthew Rielly is the king of action stuff, trust me) and I really want to play Black to see more of the games impressive action sequesnces.

But I also want to play F.E.A.R., I know it will work on my PC, but how well is the question at hand. Once again it seems I have to start looking for new hardware, the never ending cycle of upgrading continues unabated and unchallenged. God Damn It!

Now I've recently gotten into the brillant, RedvsBlue series of online machinima clips on the net. For those not aware, RvB is made using the Halo 1 and 2 game engine and is a long running series of short episodes that follow the escapades of two teams or soldiers stationed at Blood Gulch. It is very funny. I mean this is the best free online game thing since CounterStrike!

Halo 2 PC. Just saying it gets me excited to play this brillaint FPS. Its not that I haven't played it, I finished the whole game in co-op with a mate before the game had even been out a week. We beat the whole thing in about 8 hours, on normal.

Now I know that putting it on Legendary (ok Elite as its now know) will change things a bit, but the size of the game could be a bit better. I think it might be a case of Bungie concentrating too much on the super shiny graphics, and way too much on the online aspects of the game. I say online because really thats where the multiplayer is aimed at, (well there, and large lan parties that take ages to organize and everything) if you aint got broadband the multiplayer is good but it feels empty. I can't help but wonder why Bungie don't include bots for practising against, with Halo's killer AI it would be great. And playing with another person in co-op, taking on army of medium to weak players is a heap of fun.

Another thing I find wierd with Halo 2 is the health and shield system. The Master Chief still has his trade mark recharging energy shields, but that's it. There's no health bar for no real reaon. If you're shields drop you can take a couple of hits before dying. Now lets take a minute or two to think about this. The MC is a super strong cyborg soldier who can only take a few hits from the enemy before he drops dead, while his merely human marine allies can take far more, huh? Oh and the MC where's half a tonne of heavy combat armour, (the marines have armour but its no where near as special) which doesn't seem to be able to stop anything. How the hell does all that work??? C'mon Bungie if your gonna have all that armour there then put it good use.

Despite all this I'm still going to get Halo 2 PC the day it lands in Australian retailers, why? Because I know  damn well how much fun it'll be, its the best console FPS of all time, but how will it stack up next to the PC heavuy wieghts. Well we all know damn well that it'll beat Doom 3 no question asked, FarCry, I don't know thats a damn good game. Same goes for FEAR. I believe Quake 4 should be quaking in fear and Half Life 2 can just glare down its nose for the time being, I doubt the Master Chief a super strong cyborg who's faced down and beaten armies of aliens and mutants is going to be able to beat down Gorden Freeman, an MIT grad, turned dimension hopping commando, but since Bungie waited all this time, and Halo was originally a PC game, well you never know what they might add (after all PC hardware means new grpahics, why not new "cough" gravity gun./features/bots/generally gameplay "cough" cough cough cough")

Hao 2 is finally going to PC! Let joy and jubilation reign amoung all. Ok so maybe I'm over re-acting a bit but this is a huge thing for me, I'll do anything (ok not quite anything but it might shock what I'm ready to do) to get Halo 2 on PC. I'm already planning on going to get a PCI mobo and graphics card this is just one more reason to spend a stupid amount of money on upgrading my already above adequate gaming PC.

I am huge fan of FPS, partially becasue I am a huge action buff, I love high octane, intensive action films, games books etc. So I've naturally fouind my way to the FPS genre, right now I'm still loving FarCry, its got to be one of the best titles of thepast few years. I rate it alongside Halo 2 easy, its just so damn good. Another great title is F.E.A.R this has to be best the shooter for a PC since Half Life. Technically I can't say that though, I've never played Half Life 2, (though not for lack of trying) but I really want to and I've heard great things about it. 

Something I would love to see in the games industry is a game or games based on the novels of my favourite author, Matthew Rielly. No film and only a few games, can match his novels for the sheer intesity and none stop excitment that the action generates. It would work so well in todays gaming world, built probably on the Source engine and with F.E.A.R.'s AI it would be brialliant.

I just recently got a brand new PC, built just for playing games on. When I first got it home I decided to run a little test of my new machines abilites. I ran a demo of Doom 3 with the resolutions at 1072 by 724 and all settings at high. The game ran perfectly, no lag at all and I'm not just saying that. I thought it might finally be a time that I could do some serious gaming.

I was dead wrong.

A few days afterwards my CD drive started giving me trouble, I still don;t know what it is though. I've got Doom 3 (full version), FarCry and Splinter Cell all sitting useless in my room alongside my new PC and I can't even install them. I got Battlefield 2 and had to refund it because I had no idea why it would work when the demo I downloaded did. I can install and play games, provided it doesn't invovle using a disc.

I only got FarCry for PC a few months ago, and I'm stilling be wowed constantly by it. The levels are huge, so big it adds a whole new meaning to the terms of "non linear gameplay", "large scale" and best of all, "choice". Becasue the gamer in FC has more choice in then almost all other games.

With the exection of games like HL2 and GTA:SA, there are so many different ways to do things in FC. This is possible thanks to the huge levels that had no artificial boundries. The player can go pretty much anywhere and it means that a mission will play out differently. I played through some of the levels numerous times to just find where all the different gunfights took place, you could play through a whole level of this game, it could take you an hour or so, and you might have only seen half of what the level had to offer. It's brillaint.