This is a three way tie for Best Game of All Time

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

Half Life 2: Anthology

Last week I went Camping for five days these are the hignlights. It's interesting they all involve living animals....

-Hit a seagull in the head with a volley ball...

-Had a fly get its head stuck in the mesh of the one tent...and only escaping after over an hour of struggling and having to tear off its own leg...

-Finding out that something as small as a couple biting flies can drive us giant humans to insanity, and suicide...

-Having my brother poke a racoon that was rubbing around our tent....

Stay tuned to hear more about my exciting life....

The winner for the best quote at E3, 2006 is...Hideo Kojima for his insights into the next generation of gaming.

"To refresh your memory, last year I said the PlayStation 3 was a big meal that you have once a year, the 360 was a special meal that you had on weekends, and the Revolution-as it was called at the time-was your everyday meal. Last year, it was the same family changing meals according to the situation; that was my line on it. Now, the PlayStation 3 is like a movie theater for people who want to see this movie on the big screen with THX and 5.1 audio, even if they have to pay high price. The Xbox 360 is DVD. It could be a rental DVD or you could buy a DVD. Basically, you don’t know what movie you want to see, so you go to the store and see if you can pick up a good one. The Wii is like a TV for when you’re home and you don’t know what you want to watch but you [want to] have that variety. So I think the three platforms are really distinctive and they mostly don’t overlap each other-people who love movies watch TV all the time. We have to be very quick [with what we’re doing in terms of games]. We can’t wait long to turn on the TV, and also, the programs have to be in all varieties so everyone is satisfied, as opposed to the movie theaters, where everything has to be high spec. People want high emotions. You want to be touched by watching it on the big screen. For DVD, or the 360, you need to have a lot of variety so when people stop by they’ll pick up your product. Maybe in the future, you’ll see three DVDs for $10.”

Courtesy of The Official PlayStation Magazine July 2006 issue [#106].

7 Deadly Wonders

            Did you now that the great pyramid at Giza is nine feet short of its original height? There used to be a near-solid golden capstone. That vanished only a few years after the pyramid was built, and in 2006…in March. What hasn’t happened for four and a half thousand years. The Tartarus sunspot will align with the earth. Flaring global temperatures to over 100°C for over two weeks. Seas will boil, and ice caps will melt. The only way to stop this is to find the seven sections of the Golden Capstone. Each of which has been hidden with the seven wonders of the ancient world, of which all but the great pyramid has vanished. Toss in the fact that the nation that completes the ritual, will have the option to rule the world for 1 000 years, add three military forces, and you got yourself a masterpiece. Jack West Jr. and his team of nine representatives from eight countries must take on the American’s, and Europeans in the ultimate race. To prevent the other side from reciting the power ritual.

            I find Seven Deadly Wonders to be an amazingly original, and inventive book. The best thing is the shear size of everything. Some of the ancient underground caverns are several hundred meters high and wide. Also in one scene West’s team, is being chased by 10 000 American’s with tanks, and choppers.

            The non-stop action is crazily addictive. This book will have you reading for hour’s straight, unable to put it down. I have lent several people Matthew Reilly books before, and in most cases they have all finished reading the book in less than 24 hours. Even though they are all full-length novels.

            The only frustrating part I found was that there were some loose ends created early on in the book, that bugged me until they were explained. For instance most of the trap systems automatically reset. But I couldn’t understand how a two thousand year old trap could reset itself, until it was explained later on.

            As the eighth book by Matthew Reilly this is the best of all, and a sure hit. I consider 7 Deadly Wonders a “Must Read” for everyone. I would thoroughly recommend this book, and in my mind this is the best book ever written. Not to be challenged by anything, for now….

 

“It was Jack West Jr. Back from the dead, and pissed as hell.” (365)

Rating:              ±±±±±             “Masterpiece”

Classification:            Adult Fiction

Named Seven Ancient Wonders worldwide excluding North America.

Copyright © 2006 by Karanadon Entertainment Pty Ltd.

 

“Matthew Reilly is known for adventure with a capital A. In this latest book Reilly pulls out all stakes-and beats you over the head with them. A relentless, dizzying romp around the Seven Wonders of the World. Don’t forget to pack a parachute!” –James Rollins, USA Today bestselling author of Sandstorm and Map of Bones

 

Indigo Prophecy is a game that truly stands up to the term “Cinematic game play.” It is set up as an interactive movie. The story is similar to old-school mystery books were you had to turn to different pages depending on what you wanted the character(s) to do. The story is about as non-linear as you can go, and still have a story. For instance in the first scene, after you have committed the murder, if you forget to pay your bill, the waitress will call you back and remember your face. However if you pay your bill she can’t remember you very well, making the cop’s have a harder time finding you.

The physics are probably the best thing done in this game. Throughout the whole game there are two stuntmen in motion reading suites. They act out everything, and characters are mapped over them. This creates priceless authentic real world movement. This process is used for anything from the waitress curling her hand, to the oracle wielding a steel pipe at you head.

Although the controls look dorky, with having to push the joysticks in four alternate directions, or tap L and R alternately in action sequences, it works quite well. The controls are quite comfortable, never get boring, and vary in difficulty throughout the game.

For the sound there are about twenty licensed songs. However you will only hear about five of them unless you take the time to actually turn on the stereo in your apartment, and listen to Theory of a Dead man, along with the other songs they threw in. The main theme is quite good and fits the game style well as a passive song, at the same time it never gets boring.

The graphics and camera are the biggest shortfalls of this game. The characters are not smoothed over very well, creating roof textures. Often when controlling your camera you will see several different frames on the screen, and only be in one, with no camera control. Thus creating a frustrating, waste of time, as you stumble around, trying to find your destination.

            Considering that you get about twelve hours of solid story, plus the replay is near unlimited, because of the different choices and their results. I consider this a must buy.

“An intensively satisfying interactive thriller” 

Overall-8.6 

Gameplay-9

Graphics-6

Sound-8

Value-9

Length-@12 hours

Difficulty-Medium-hard

From the producer of the much loved movie style, Indigo Profecy comes Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3. From Quantic Dream's crazy scenaries and classic movie style, gameplay, and cutscenes we get this game. There is no release date yet and barely any information, except for a stellar trailer.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/heavyrain/media.html

A must buy....Make sure you type in your birthday before 1998....

After reading Seven Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly my favorite author, I found it interesting for there to be an add for a video game in it. The other day I noticed that the demo for Rise And Fall: Nations at War (The advertised game.) was out, so I went out on a limb and downloaded it. It was worth it.

Rise And Fall: Nations at War is definately a new style of strategy gameing. There is the traditional 3D scrolling real-time strategy game you expected. But there is also something else and a new idea. "Hero view" were you can posses the hero and you go into 3rd person view to wreck havock on the field with a ranged or mellee weapon. I found myself wanting to leave my troops behind and just go in with my hero, arrow snipe some sentries and throw yourself against 50 Roman troops. This game is set with ancient civilization's, with so far not many unbeleivable things, besides elephants are used like oliphonts on Lord of the Rings. I like how when you defeat an army you capture some of them to fight for you.

The worst problem at least with the demo is once you have your hero fighting about 100 other guys the frame-rate gets down to about one frame a second. It is still possible to kick-ass but it is annoying. Cleopatra (My Hero) had 281 kills by the time i beat the demo.

This demo has really good value as a demo. Along with a short campaign demo, their is also the skirmish option within the demo.

The story is deep following the Romans trying to invade Egypt. The campaign has fully scripted and animated cut scenes.

Verdict: An RTS game with a positive twist.

Overall-8.6/10

Gameplay-9/10

Graphics-7/10

Sound-9/10

Value-10/10

Last Saturday night at a home in North Eastern Ontario, a man wrongly accused of a crime was approached by two members of authority. In a truly defensive way, the unknown victim physically held off the first unfair authorative member. Her partner seeing this action closed in on the victim. To get some needed space the victim shoved the authorative member into a cabinet almost knocking over a T.V. in the process. He was then arrested and moved to a courtroom were he could say his story to a stacked judge. The authorities wishing to have this hushed up got him quickly moved away to solitary confinement.

I've had this mod for two-weeks and today 4 diferent Trojan's were found and deleted within the Nations at War files...

On Battlefield 2 have you ever wanted to have the option of switching between TWO high-powered sniper rifles on the field? Run 3X as long? And have several dozen new maps? Then The Nations At War ver 3.9 Mod is the Mod for you.

The best thing is every kit has about seven different things including 1-4 primary weapons. Example if you are the United Nations sniper you get the L98, M95, and a MP-5 as primary weapons.  Nations At War features weapons from Special Forces Expansion, and the Euro Force Booster pack along with new weapons. Some new weapons are soldier launched Stinger AA missiles, binoculars and silenced automatics. Allot of the vehicles are re-done or new too. There are pickup trucks with machine guns, TOW missiles, and Stinger sites in the back. There's 4 different colored Sport ATV's. Plus all choppers are sooped up with either tracking missiles or extra weaponry.

Nations At War features over thirty new, and re-done maps ranging from a winter Dalian Plant to recreations of Battlefield 1942 maps like Bocage, El Alaman, and Gazala.

There are many non-weaponry adjustments to. For instance most vehicle have their speed increased by 50%. An example is fighter jets used to max out at approximately 1100 MPH with afterburners. Now they regularly fly that fast and do 1500 MPH with afterburners.

However good thing's don't last forever as I found out. Because these mod-makers are not full-time and are not being paid there are short falls. On The Dalian Plant V2 map I noticed that although the aircraft carrier had been moved the shadow from the carrier was still there. Also some of the re-done maps are really plain and open with no vegetation or cover.

Because everyone is packing with sweet weapons life lengths are greatly shortened. The most annoying thing I found was that the handheld Stinger AA launcher has a big blowback that will kill you and any teammates if the blowback hits anyone, anything, or the ground. I ended up with over -40 points just from accidental team killing and suicides from the Stinger's. Another disappointment was that the grenades from the grenade launchers are now timed, not exploding on impact. Some the new weapons don't have loading animations. New weapons in old vehicles mostly just show the aimer not the gun.

The music is definitely well done there is a general new themesong that is addictive and some of the levels have their own songs while your loading them. For instance, on the Winter Dalian Plant In The End by Linkoln Park is playing.

The value is the best thing about Nations At War, it is totally free and comes in; the mod at 350mb, and three map-packs at approximately 650mb per pack. The connection through File Planet is nice and fast and it only took me 45 minutes of waiting in line and then 45 minutes to download each one.

Verdict: Extra weapons means shorter lives. Take it or leave it.

As a Mod:

Overall-8.5/10

Gameplay-8/10

Graphics-8/10

Sound-8/10

Value-9.5/10

 

This is how all companies licence agreements should be...This is from the Nations a War mod for Battlefield 2

"Please read the following license agreement carefully.

You agree not to rip any of our ideas and original content.

You agree to have fun playing this MOD."