My oh my... the weekend seems like such a blur. Like a lot of FPS players I was patiently awaiting the arrival of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare last Friday and I was very very pleased with the end result. I know a lot of people have mentioned that the single player campaign is short but what an experience it manages to cram into such a short space of time is incredible. As per usual the Infinity Ward team have managed to cram fantastic set pieces into a believable story arc and implement a few change of pace missions to create one of the finest FPS I've ever played and to top it all off they have finally managed to create a multiplayer game that would stand up perfectly well on it's own and which also happens to be one of the best multiplayer games on the 360 at the current moment. So suffice to say that a fair bit of my weekend has been spent exploring such an amazing game. I can safely see myself loosing a fair bit of time to this game over the next few months as I attempt to increase my multiplayer rank. Also thanks to some fairly easy achievements available in COD 4 and PGR 4 I have finally managed to put my gamerscore over the 10000 point barrier which I am quite chuffed with myself about. Ah well it is time for me to be leaving work so I will be signing off for now. Hope to see some of you out there on Live.

Last night was quite amusing... now that I think back on it. I managed to get away from work a whole 30 mins early WOOT! mainly so I could get home ahead of the traffic, get something to eat and sit down and start playing Halo 3. See not a complicated plan, quite simple and easy to follow. I did not however expect the level of delays I faced. Fistly I got a text message from my good friend Rich asking if I was up to anything that evening. I texted back saying if he fancyied some Halo 3 action at mine he was more than welcome. So I went round to pick him up. Sadly I had to wait about 1 hour until he had finished compressing some video he was working on. Never under estimate the value of inaccurate inteligence on your mates activities and timescale can have on yours. So then I have to swing past the supermarket to get some food for this evenings meal and some suitable refreshments for this evenings activities. Queue running into my girlfriends best mate. Now she is a lovley lovely girl but she can hold a conversation all by herself. So queue Rich and I standing in the dairy aisle nodding politely and smiling. There goes another hour. Finally we get back to mine by which time I'm starving and need some food. So a final painful 30 mins passes and I can now sit down to play Halo 3. Well what can I say. I had a very strange first reaction to Halo 3. It felt rather like I had been here before. Which was only off putting because you usually expect a new game to make a drastic impression but there was no need here Halo did that all those years ago on the Xbox. The real appeal of this game is the combat and the liffle finishing touches that perhaps were missing from Halo 2. Now I will do a full review once I complete the game and have doused myself in the multiplayer but suffice to say I feel an awful lot like an old friend has come back to visit and it feels good :)

Oh my goodness... It has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog here. To anyone out there who may have missed me... Hello

I find myself in a situation entirely of my own making. I had purchased my copy of Halo 3 yesterday. I picked it up rather child like on my lunch break and proceeded to enjoy reading the manual and looking at the pretty box art. Imagining how good it's going to feel slipping into the comforting Mjolnir armour of Master Chief one more time but also consoling myself that not only would I have to wait for the completion pf the working day. But that I would also have to endure an evening and a further day at work without the heady joy of slipping the disc into my 360. As I would be backing up and rebuilding my girlfriends pc... OH THE HUMANITY!!!

However I must admit I find myself in a somewhat zen like state as I approach the prospect of playing Halo 3 for the first time. I know deep down the game is not going to be vastly different from it's predecessors but it's going to exhibit that little bit of magic that has always set Halo apart. I have a good feeling that finishing the fight is going to have been worth the wait :)

Woo and indeed Hoo! After getting my broadband reconnected on Friday past I was once again able to sit down and focus on some serious gaming... ah the joys! With a bit of time dedicated to Crackdown this weekend I have finally managed to push my Gamerscore past 5000. Which personally I am quite proud about. Proud enough to take 10 mins out of my busy working schedule to post a blog comment about. (Honestly boss I am busy) Well with that little bit of self promotion out of the way I shall return to my working duties.

God... Will be so pleased to get the working day over with. Its 10:08 and I've already started clock watching... DOH! Just looking forward to getting home as fingers crossed my broadband should be reactivated today. Does anyone else find it annoying that despite telling your ISP that your number will be changing but it will still be the same line and address that they go to all the trouble of disconnecting your broadband. Just to take 9 - 10 days to reactivate it again... that puzzles me. I know all these processes are pretty much automated but surely it wouldn't take a genius to program a simple sanity check IF Telephone Number = Different THEN Prepare disconnection and transfer ONLY IF Address = Different I know the syntax is wrong but you get the general idea. I guess that's what separates the general public thinking from major corporation thinking... General Common Sense Got to stop ranting... Just want it to be the weekend :)

I literally cannot believe it is the 1st of February all ready, maybe it is a sign of my advancing years but time certainly seems to be going so much faster these days. I can remember the days when I would get home from high school and play games pretty much all evening long sadly nowadays I don't seem to have the same amount of time.... god I'm starting to depress myself Anyhow the one good thing about time shifting itself along is the fact that new game releases also don't take so long to get around anymore. This is a good thing as I don’t really see anything on my radar till at least March and that is looking to be quite a month. Well there are obviously games coming out in February but GTR on the 360 aside March is looking to be the motherload. Halo 3, Mass Effect, Forza 2 oooohhh so many goodies and so little time Well fingers crossed but I'm sure I'll find a spare hour somewhere ;)

Being a bit of a driving enthusiast I have to say I got a rather warm and fuzzy feeling when I found out that Microsoft was going to develop a Wireless Force Feedback steering wheel. I positively salivated when I found out it was getting released before the New Year. Of course being the man of priorities that I am food and Christmas have all been subsequently demoted so as to requisition the necessary funds for purchase. Incidentally I have lost 2" off my waist... bonus!!!! So I patiently awaited the arrival of the wheel on the 1/12/06... Which it duly did... have to love Gameplay. Anyhow get the wheel home and suddenly realise I would have been better of studying a structural engineering degree as opposed to computing as the box was a bloody nightmare to get into... 15 mins later and some keyhole surgery with my hacksaw I had it out of the box. Have to say it's a hefty bit of kit. Suitably solid in construction, though having to trail a power cable across the living room floor does defeat the ascetics somewhat. However the inclusion of the force feedback enabled PGR3 is genius. I will need to upload some pics of me using it just for some general amusement value of me looking like an idiot. So all in all looking forward to Froza 2 coming out and GTR as well even though I've got that for the PC I reckon it will be excellent over live. A worthwhile purchase if a little difficult to open

What a 24 hours it has been. Since I finished work at 17:00 on Friday it has officially been non-stop. As always everything seems to happen at once. I arrived home much to my delight to find my copy of Gears of War had arrived :) Also as anyone who may have been following my blog I also had my new PC case ready and raring to go. But first things first it was time to acquaint myself with GOW and see if the wait was worth it and if the hype was deserved. I will be doing a full review of GOW in the next few days after I finish it but all I can say is it has indeed been a while since a game had such an instant impact and I'm still in shock over the visuals alone, never mind the sound, gameplay or the on-line modes.... What a rush!!! Now that covers the triumphs now onto the trials. I had purchased a coolermaster aquagate liquid cooling system about a month ago off of ebay and I had decided to do it justice I would get a new case and some new components and transplant my PC into it's new home. So the case arrived midweek and I decided I would work on it on Saturday. Well after the first 10 mins I had stripped my old beige monster bare and started to prep the new Antec 900 gaming case. Well after a few light modifications to the drive bays to accommodate the new LCU pump the rebuild was taking shape and most of the component parts were in place and ready to test. Now despite some issues with the manual for the waterblock installation not actually being for the same model or in fact telling me which connector on the pump was input and which was exhaust. After those minor issues I removed the pump. filled it and prepared to power it on. System powers on... Pump starts to cycle the liquid... Liquid starts to pour out the rear of the unit at an alarming rate... Cue some choice technical phrases and a quick mop up job and power down.... and it's time to start removing the whole unit.... ARRRRGHHH!!! Let this be a lesson to anyone who may be interested always test a LCU outside of your PC. The liquid may be inert but it saves you having to go round your case with a paper towel. Second be very wary of buying a LCU off of ebay for a 1/3 of it's retail price :( Anyway once removed I just reinstalled the old heatsink and fan and completed the transfer. TAA DAA!!! Well it's not as complete as it looked with the pump installed but it will do for now. So what rocks fantastic next generation shooters with tonnes of atmosphere. What sucks, poor "water-tight" seals on liquid cooling units. Ah well can't have it all ;)

Getting excited now only 3 little days till I get my hands on GOW. Can hardly wait. Also should finally be getting a case for my PC delivered in the next few days... fingers crossed it's been a struggle up to this point with just about every case I've been after for the past 3 weeks has ended up out of stock :( Ah well roll on the weekend

Typical.. just after mentioning on my first ever blog post that I'm waiting on a new case for my PC. I get an email from the online store I ordered it from to say they got the stock wrong and I wouldn't be getting it. Not impressed. On the plus side I did decide to get myself Dead Rising. Hopefully that should tide me over until GOW hits the shelves. Would also like to do a shout out to Icekxg for the invite to join the Drunken Alcoholics union. Looking forward to getting to know the folks there that little bit better. Well gonna sort a few things on here then probably chill out with the 360. Later