Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Arrrrgghhhh - What the HELL is that? And how do I kill it?

Now that I am gainfully employed for September, I am now free to concentrate on the more important things in life, like playing computer games for lengthy spans of time.

Accordingly, I have been playing the Wii edition of Resident Evil 4 for the last few days. RE4 on the Wii is a marvellous thing; the controls are the most intuitive of any of the Resident Evil games, its beautifully atmospheric, immersive and the monsters are great.

Ahhh, the monsters....

You see, my problem with games like this (and I've loved the Resident Evil games since I played one of the early ones on the PS1) is that I'm not very good at them. I have the unfortunate tendency to get rather nervous and jump out of my skin when the latest monstrosity bursts out of a door/through a window/floor/ceiling and proceeds to tear me to pieces.

So instead of keeping calm and going for the all important head shot at the Zombie/Hunter/ Ganados/Tyrant currently eviscerating me, I panic and spray bullets anywhere but where I should be while repeating the familiar litany of "crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap - come on, COME ON, COME ON! (disgusting squelching/tearing sound) BOLLOCKS - I'm dead...."

My current least favourite RE4 beastie is the delightful Regenerator.

These lovely creatures regenerate themselves as you shoot them, they look creepy and their harsh groaning breathing is very disconcerting when you start to hear it. I spent an unhappy hour trying to work out how to kill them (an hour I might add where I died 45 times and repeated a similar litany to that above every single time). I finally discovered that an elaborate combination of running, flash grenades, shotgun and using an infrared scope on my rifle to identify up to 5 otherwise invisible parasites inside its body was what was required. Here is a delightful video of a Regenerator in action. You can shoot it till the cows come home, but it can still do extremely unpleasant things to you. Blerrrrrghh..... (warning - its a bit gruesome)



I know what some of you may be thinking: What is a 30 year old man doing playing games and even worse, blogging about it? Well, its a good question. All I will say is, it beats doing DIY hands down....

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Procrastination

I have an interview today.......

Feeling a bit nervous, so I cheered myself up with this cartoon by Dave Walker at We Blog Cartoons

*Update. I got the job - phew!

Friday, July 13, 2007

More penguin madness

Hat tip to Nat for this marvellously insane animation of a squirrel and a penguin in a banjo duel. Things get a bit weird.....

I'm making up for a lack of penguin related nonsense over the last few months. In a blog entitled 9/10ths Full of Penguins, this distressing lack of penguin content has bothered me for a while. Normal wibbling service will be resumed shortly...

Movies
Die Hard 2 ****
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix ****
1408 **
Indiana Jones & the Raiders of the Lost Ark *****

*Answers to the last quiz rounds can now be found in the comments on this post

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Penguin abuse...

This is wrong, just wrong. Extreme penguin bashing. Click on the image or here to play.

But oh so funny....

My best score was 1002.4. Beat me if you can.

Movies
Green Mile ****
Die Hard 4 ***

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Summer Quizzery

Check out previous quiz action here. This month it was my turn to do the music round and picture round.

But in a twist worthy of Machiavelli himself I cunningly decided to replace said picture round with the already legendary cheese round. Each team had a plate of 10 cheeses which they had to identify by appearance and taste. Sadly, I can't replicate the full experience in the blogosphere so you've got to go simply on appearance. Click on the picture for a bigger version.



Edited highlights of the Music Round
1) Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional was used in which superhero movie? X-Men 2, Spiderman 2 or The Fantastic Four
2) Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen was used as the opening to the film documentary in which Morgan Spurlock lived off just junk food for a month. Name the film. Bonus point for naming the other half of the Double-A side that Fat Bottomed Girls was released as.

My birthday is on 19th July, when I hit the magic 3-0. No. 1 singles from my lifetime.
3) What was the No 1 single on my birthday in 1997?
a) Aqua - Barbie Girl
b) Elton John – Candle in the Wind
c) Oasis – D’You Know What I Mean
4) No 1 Single on my birthday in 1987?
a) Pet Shop Boys – It’s a Sin
b) Starship - Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now
c) Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
5) No 1 Single on the day I was born in 1977?
a) Donna Summer – I Feel Love
b) Hot Chocolate – So You Win Again
c) Wings – Mull of Kintyre
6) Which acclaimed BBC sitcom used this Half the World Away by Oasis as its theme tune?
7) Which German car maker Strange & Beautiful by Aqualung to advertise a new model in 2002? BMW, Audi, VW or Mercedes
8) Name the top 5 best selling UK single of all time?

No googling allowed! Answers sometime next week. *

Just a quick word about Dr Who, the series that has just finished has been generally great. However, just when you thought they'd got it right they hire Catherine bloody 'Am I bovvered' Tate for the next season! What on earth is going on? Check out Tim at Cultural Snow and James Henry for more.

*Answers now the in the comments section

Movies
36 ****
Red Violin ****
Star Trek 6 ***
Casshern ****
Die Hard *****
Die Hard with a Vengeance ****