Given that I've been a bit poor over the past few months, I've been a bit stingy and haven't hired many videos, and mainly partaking in video games, Stargate, and movies that I have in my collection. I decided recently that I can afford to hire a few weeklies, and thought it would be best to catch up on classic movies or well known movies that I never saw the first time around. So I watched The Godfather last week. A rather powerful movie, and great acting by the main stars. I intended to hire the sequels today, but they are on 3 night hire so aren't part of the weekly deal... yeah, that's how stoogy I am at the moment. I did however, hire Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. That's right Monco, I've never seen them. For shame, eh? So I watched the first one today. I can see why it is such a cult classic. The time lapse sequences at the end were laughably cheesy. All round a good campy horror flick. I found it refreshing (compared to many of todays horror films) that there is little character exposition and it jumps straight to the demons/zombies/whatever you want to call them in short order. Though the scene where Bruce Campbell is up against the door, sweaty, covered in blood and fumbling with the shotgun was still intense. I also grabbed Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now Redux, two acclaimed war movies I have never seen, and Goodfellas. It's possible I may have seen this long ago, but I can't recall it so if so, a rewatch must be in order. I was also going to hire Scarface but that was a 3 night hire too... I guess we all have 'classics' that have somehow slipped through (my friend mentioned today that he has not seen any Ghostbusters or Aliens films; we will begin rectifying that with Alien tomorrow).

I finished reading Velocity by Dean Koontz a week or so ago. An interesting thriller where the main character receives a note on his windshield; 'If you don't take this note to the police I will KILL a lovely blonde schollteacher somewhere in Napa County. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead KILL an elderly woman. You have SIX hours to decide'. As most people probably would, he dismisses the note... and somebody dies. It continues from there as he receives more notes with more dilemmas, and apparent evidence against him makes it hard for him to go to the police. It's an interesting look into someone's mind as they go about trying to determine who is setting them up while trying to remove all traces of themselves from the deaths.

Since then I've started Pawn of Prophecy, Book 1 of the Belgariad by David Eddings. I've decided after a couple of books outside my normal genre, to go back and read a quintology (is that the right term for a collection of 5), but I think I will break that up by reading a non-fantasy book in between each of them. Cos I'm too lazy to look it up, perhaps Raven can tell me which Tom Clancy book comes after Hunt For Red October, I might make that next on the list.

Gaming wise I'm still playing Mass Effect and Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. The replay of Mass Effect is going well in regards to the fact that I'm exploring a bunch of worlds I didn't before. On the other hand, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of difference in the story, despite heading on the Renegade path this time around. Sometimes I will select a different option than my previous playthrough, and I get exactly the same response, or maybe an additional line added in, or conversations still end pretty much the same. That said, I'm still only about half way through the story missions, so there is still room for some of those earlier decisions to have further reaching effects... but I'm doubting they will be too significant. Banjo is a great game, but I'm up to the Terrarium of Terror (I think I have about 80 jiggies) and the design of that particular world just annoys me. I know it means I should be trying to design vehicles that suit the environment, but it still annoys me. I played the rail shooting section the other night. I don't know if I want to bother getting the jiggie for that, let alone trying for a trophy. Why is there rail shooting in the game anyway? Several months after buying it, I finally decided to play some more Assault Heroes 2 and finish it. I found it a minor disappointment after the first game, which is why I stopped playing it in the first place, but after a delay in playing it I can say that it is still quite a good game in it's own right. And thus, we have a review.

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Assault Heroes 2 is a solid follow up to the original. While none of the tweaks deviate too far from it's predecessor, those changes are divided equally between improvement and detriment. The core mechanics are easy to pick up; left stick moves your vehicle, right stick shoots your equipped weapon in that direction.

This sequel introduces a new weapon, the ice weapon. This can freeze enemies who will then shatter if you shoot them again. However, I found it easier to ignore this new weapon and the flamethrower, and stick with the machine gun and flak cannon. The machine gun is a fast firing weapon, and I found it just as capable of taking out infantry as the flameflower. The flak cannon is slower firing but deals more damage to armoured foes. These weapons can be upgraded by collecting powerups throughout the game, though should you die you will lose your powerups. You also have grenades which can be employed with the right trigger, and bunker busters which blow up everything around you, and these are limited in supply but more can be collected.

While the game is not exactly hard (on the medium setting), it does feel slightly harder than the first Assault Heroes. Part of this feels like an intentional design to make it a fraction harder than before, but due to the game being more detailed and the screen often quite busy, it can also sometimes be harder to see incoming fire, and these moments will frustrate you if you die from these unseen bullets. Such frustrations are fleeting, and as before the game is reasonably forgiving. Your vehicle can sustain a number of hits before it's armour is depleted, and not being hit for a short period of time will replenish your shields. Should your vehicle get completely destroyed, you will still go it on foot. This time around when you are on foot, you still have access to all 4 weapons. Additionally you can roll to evade fire, which can be essential as you are more sluggish on foot. After a short period of time, your vehicle will respawn and you can get back in. You can also get out of your vehicle at any time to reach areas where vehicles can't go.

Another improvement is the underground sections, which have been carried over from the previous game. In the original, dying in these sections sent you back to the normal level, but here they are treated like normal levels that you can play until you lose all your lives. Other vehicles also show up every now and then that you can commandeer, such as a tank or helicopter. These make for a nice change of pace when you first encounter them, but you will usually feel more at home in the jeep. There are also some space levels, and these felt quite a bit tougher due to large amounts of debris and faster enemies.

Unfortunately, the traditional dual-stick shooting space missions are a predeccesor to one of the worst additions. The game switches to a behind-the-ship view and has you racing down a tunnel. I could not tell what I was shooting at or how I was dying, and kept getting bounced all over the place for no apparent reason during the times I played with a friend. Thankfully these sections are short, though I must confess my disappointment that the game ends with one of these segments. Another minor annoyance is the 'mushroom field' effect. In a few areas you cross poisonous fields that affect your controls and have your movement and fire deviating from where you are pointing. While this is a point of difference and a cool effect, it is frustrating when you die because you did not have full control. Another minor but noticeable point is that the fire snaps to North South East and West a little too early for my liking, meaning you may not be able to fire upon certain areas in your field of vision.

The game is presented well, and there are even more enemy types than before, and they cross into the bizzare at times. As well as your standard array of tanks, helicopters and infantry, you will encounter such oddities as armoured gorillas, velociraptors, infantry in cadillacs, and infantry riding on giant hogs. They all have decently different behaviour, so they are more than just pallete swaps. The game has several moments where it seems the intent is to simply overwhelm you with numbers, and the screen can become filled with enemies and bullets. The game zooms in and out at predetermined locations to highlight the action, and does a good job of presenting up close action or battlefields filled with enemies. The environments are all highly detailed and filled with destructible objects, but as noted earlier this can make it hard to see incoming fire at times. The game never slows down, with some odd exceptions such as when a boss dies and dust erupts, and it seems odd they would include such features with that apparent slowdown. The game is divided into 30 areas, and should you lose all your lives, you can start the game again from the area where you died. Every few areas culminates in a boss fight, and as with the previous game these are some of the highlights of the game. Often these boss fights are accompanied by swarms of infantry or crablike constructs, and you will find yourself dividing your fire between them in an attempt to stay alive.

Assault Heroes 2 is recommended to anyone who enjoyed the original or likes mission based dual-stick shooters in general. While it's flaws are noticeable, they are not a big detriment to the solid core gameplay.

Score 7.5