I really don't understand all the hate. I'm sick to death of people suddenly comparing MW2 to Uncharted 2. I mean, what the fupp is that all about?! Maybe it's because they were released quite close together. Or, they've both got... guns in them? I don't know, weird. Also, suddenly, alot of people are graphic/visual whores. MW2 looks fine for a game using oldish tech, stop your whining. When has Call of Duty ever been anything more than just going around shooting? It's an old-skool FPS, it's not trying or pretending to be Half-Life 2 (Episode 2 being my favourite FPS ever created by the way). The story is certainly not very well told, but there are more than a few missions which are just pure FUN (isn't that what games are about) to play. The game gives you a real adrenaline rush. The singleplayer on its own is an 8/10 from me. Modern Warfare 2 as a package, is an 9/10.

Well, I wasn't expecting it until tomorrow (the official release date). But it arrived today by Parcel Force - Gameplay had a free upgrade to courier to make sure it gets here. The Parcel Force guy must have know what it was, as he told me not to go online until after midnight, hah! I'll certainly be logging onto XBL with it, as you won't get punished. But I won't be playing the multiplayer, because Infinity Ward has said all stats will be reset to give everyone a level playing field come the 10th. I've put in 14 days (300+ hours I think) into the multiplayer of Call of Duty 4, so I'm expecting to do the same with Modern Warfare 2. Anyhoo, I'll look forward to getting stuck in to the singleplayer side today. :D

Tried the Campaign mode for the first time in Tekken 6, and it's not THAT bad. If it was a stand alone game, then it would be shockingly average. Maybe a 5/10 if it's lucky. One downside is it's the only way to get big bucks to customise your character. The CGI cutscenes are brilliant as ever, but there's faaaarr too many in-game cutscenes with too much nonsense being spouted. Went on to Arcade mode, and you face downloaded human A.I. along the way. I do miss having each characters story being told while going through the arcade mode. Beat the end boss within a few goes. Just spammed him, I can't be bothered with trying to look flash against an end boss in a fighter, no point whatsoever. Where this game really shines is versus, pure and simple. Human on human battles. The rest is just pure fluff.

I managed to get Tekken 6 a day early yesterday (29/10/09 here in the UK), thankyouverymuch Gameplay, and it's great fun! Tekken can definitely be daunting, especially when you go in to practice mode and you're confronted with a character with 180+ moves (which a number of fighters in Tekken have). Best thing to do is to choose a character you're comfortable with and like the style of, then learn the basics along with some 2 or 3 hit combinations. The rest will naturally come with playing against people or even the CPU. I've been getting in to Armor King. He's more user friendly compared to King (who has just a stupid amount of moves, throw/lock combinations and counters). But that doesn't mean he's no less brutal. Armor King is just super satisfying to use because of his hard-hitting moves and amazing animation. Tried the online side, had about 20 odd matches. I didn't notice any lag at all really - a couple of matches were juttery, but it seemed to stutter when the characters were out of your control. I'm not all that great, but the competition surprised me on XBL. There was hardly any cheese tactics going on. Everybody was doing a lot of moves with good skill. Enjoying T6 immensely.

Ghost in the Shell Redux 2.0 This is a revised version of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 anime masterpiece. For the people who are unaware of the story, the film follows the work of Section 9 (an anti-terrorist and special intelligence department) as they try and find out who the elusive hacker known as the Puppet Master is. I won't go any further than that, as I wouldn't want to spoil the story. Set in the year 2029, Ghost in the Shell is cyberpunk philosophy at its best. It certainly won't be to everyone's taste, as it requires a great deal of concentration whilst watching. The depth and complexity of the plot, and the intricate relationship between the characters can put some people off who just want to sit back and watch the action. It's science-fiction, political and philosophically heavy. If all you want to do is to just sit back and enjoy the ride, then you'll probably finish watching the film and be rather confused and baffled by it all. But honestly, take the time to pay attention, and you'll be rewarded. The hand-drawn animation still holds up today as some of the most beautiful and slick you're likely to find in an anime or any animated feature regardless of country of origin. Characters move with realism and purpose. The backdrops and the setting are filled with enough detail that they never detract from the characters or the hardware. In this Redux version, the whole film has basically been given the HD treatment. For the most part, this is welcome. The greenish hue of the original film has been replaced with softer tones and the lines of animation have been sharpened up nicely giving everything a clean look which works well. Now, to the main change over the original film: the replacement of new CGI over the mid 90's work. This can be hit and miss, and is one thing I'm not overly keen on. On the downside, they've replaced some of the most iconic imagery in the history of anime. Some parts really stick out like a sore thumb. Some areas work quite well - like helicopters coming in to land, or the digital mapping the team use for tracking vehicles. Oh, and this revised version is the only way to experience GitS in 5.1 surround sound in its native language. The original release has only ever been in 2.0. If I'm honest, overall it's a nicely done Redux. Ideally, I would have preferred them to have kept the original CGI, while keeping everything else the team have done to the film. Ghost in the Shell Redux 2.0 - 9/10 The original film is a 10/10 from me, by the way. Just to contrast the score.

Way... HEY!! After what seems like forever, Tekken 6 is nearing release (it's already gone gold). It's out on the 30th of October here, in the UK. I've been a fan of the Tekken series since the second game, which I played a lot of - trying to master King was no mean feat, and still isn't. Namco seems to be chucking everything at T6, with the most characters the series has ever had. I don't know how they keep coming up with these, mostly, excellent fighters. I personally prefer Tekken over any other 3D fighter, mainly down to the animation (if people have read what I've wrote in the past, they'll know I've got a thing for good animation). Fighters move in a realistic way in Tekken, within in their respected martial arts. No other 3D fighter has as many martial arts represented, while being done to such a high standard. You can tell Namco do their research and are fans of martial arts in general. I'm glad also that Namco are keeping the pumpin' techno vibe for the music, in the same vain as T5 and Dark Resurrection - both of which had awesome music to get you ready to fight. I'm already liking a few of the tunes from T6, which I've been listening to for over a year on YouTube, and the game isn't even out yet! But anyhoo, it'll be nice to finally see the game in full-flow on an HD TV, instead of watching grainy YouTube footage and waiting in anticipation.

I seem to have been given a new emblem: "For the connoisseur of fine games. Those with good taste are judicious about what games they add to their impressive collections, and would be reluctant to pollute their rows and rows of classics with anything approaching average quality. Ask these fine individuals for advice on what to buy next, because chances are, you won't go wrong by following their guidance." Cool. That brings me on to ratings and scores. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm rather picky as to what new games I do buy. I like to think I've got some sort of gamer intuition when seeing screenshots or videos of a game during its various stages of production. That intuition has rarely let me down, and the final review scores reflect that the game is average at best. Though there have of course been exceptions, which I won't list here. Other people are more than happy playing average or even below average games. If they get enjoyment out of them, then so be it. But whenever I see scores of 6/10 or even 7/10 (an average overall score I mean, not from just one reviewer), I get put-off from investing in that game. But obviously one persons 6/10 game will be another persons 8/10 game - who is really right in the end? I think the lowest scoring game I've got in my current collection is Genji on the PS2 - which got about 7/10 from Gamespot if I'm not mistaken. I would personally give Genji an 8/10. Anyhoo... Yeah. :D

Yup, I've finally seen it. Stunning, stunning, stunning film. I can't recall Pixar ever letting me down with any one of their films. I'm sure everybody knows the story by now and have seen it, so I won't really discuss it. Beautifully shot, with superb animation and visuals. I thought they could have spent more time developing the relationship between WALL-E and EVE while they were still on Earth, but still. Plus, surely, this film must have the cutest cockroach in any film ever?! I'll have to give it at least one more viewing, but I think WALL-E may just overtake Finding Nemo as my favourite Pixar movie. I thought there were less laugh out loud moments compared to Finding Nemo. But, regardless of that, you're still fixated at the screen eager to see what happens next. I damn well cared about those two robots, I damn well cared about that cockroach, and I damn well cared about what happened to Earth, too. WALL-E - 9/10

Stand Alone Complex/Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society I've seen this stand alone (no pun intended) movie based on the anime series, Stand Alone Complex, a couple of times. You can watch Solid State Society without having to have seen all 52 episodes which make up the 2 series. Without spoiling too much, Section 9 have to investigate the mysterious suicides of thirteen operatives of the disbanded Siak Republic in Indonesia, remnants of which found asylum in Japan. As you'd expect from Production I.G, the animation is top notch. With beautifully done hand-drawn animation, and a blend of CGI - all of which melds to a degree where the CGI never looks out of place. The animation really shines when the action heats up. If there's one thing I admire about the Japanese, it's their uncanny knack of portraying the human form and the weight the human body has. Not just the human form, but also mechanical, moving objects - in this case, mechs and Tachikomas. Little details like joint movement and weight distribution are all handled in a realistic way. This is expecially evident when you're watching the Tachikomas moving around their environment. It's something the West hasn't really been able to match. The one example I can give is Gears of War. Men wearing massive, heavy looking armoured suits. Yet they come across, more so in cutscenes (which is a form of animation), like they're really quite lite and have no real weight to them. The Japanese are also able to do sci-fi which is quite believable in its execution. Anyhoo. SSS is a very good anime film in its own right - even if you haven't seen neither series. Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society - 9/10

Well, I've been having an absolute blast recently playing the download-only title: Battlefield: 1943. I've put in about 15 hours so far, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. There's only 3 maps, and the only game type is capture the flag. But the game is so much fun to play, it just has that "one more go" type feel to it. I've been using all three classes (mainly Rifleman and Scout) and I change during the game depending on the situation and how the game is going. It's really, really satisfying planting your TNT on an already capped point while you're playing as the Scout, and blowing up tanks who are silly enough to park on YOUR point! I've found the sniping to be easier over the other online FPS I've played a hellavalot of; Call of Duty 4. The planes take some getting used to. I switched the controls to Southpaw, and after that found the planes much easier to get to grips with. I've taken out a tank with my bombs, but they're still very hard to kill anyone with. You've almost got to hit someone on the head to take them out! The blast radius needs to be abit more powerful I feel, but apart from that the game is very well balanced overall. This game has also sparked my interest in the Pacific campaign of WW2. Being from Britain myself, I know quite abit about the war in Europe, but know very little about the battles which took place in the Pacific. It makes for interesting reading.