All quiet on the southern front.

So.. It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I don't really know why, but I guess it's because I haven't really had anything I feel the need to share with anyone, which in itself is a moot point since no one reads this blog except for myself. In either case, I feel like writing something today. Not that I have something particular on my mind, but still.

So what have I been up to since last time? Well, a whole lot has changed in my life, at least on a personal side. I still don't have a job, I'm still too pathetic to do something about it, and I still don't have a drivers license. What I do have now is a ladyfriend, a girlfriend, a better half. Call it what you will, but I have one, and it feels great I tell you, great!

What complicates thing about our relationship is that we live about 700 kilometers away from eachother, which sucks donkeyballs, it really does. And to get to eachother isn't really cheap either, I guess the only positive side of it is that it really isn't too bad getting there. We do that by train and it's only about a 4 hour journey, so it isn't too bad. Unless you get the nighttrains, then it's closer to 8-9 hours and that ain't much fun. Regardless, it's totally worth paying and taking that ride.

I guess me being at her place for about a month is part of why I haven't written anything here too. I mean, don't get me wrong, she has an internet connection like everybody else, but there wasn't really a time where I felt comfortable with sitting down and just write my mind. Not that there's anything wrong with her or her place, I just never got in that mood I guess.

Enough about that... What's new in the wonderful world of video games? Well, the fall season is upon us and we all know what that means. All the big'uns start coming out, yay! For me there are and have been plenty of game releases to get excited about, a lot of interesting stuff, but not too much that's a crystal clear purchase.

We've already had Star Wars : The Force Unleashed, Spore, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to name a few. And still to come this year is stuff like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Mirror's Edge, Resistance 2, WoW - Wrath of the Lich King, Little Big Planet, Dead Space, Guitar Hero: World Tour and for the people not living in the US (which apparently has no worth to publishers) there's Rock Band 2. Of course that isn't everything, but what I'm trying to say that 2008 looks like it could be another year of great games, just like 1998 and 2007 was. Well, I hope at least.

For me, the crystal clear purchases so far are Gears of War 2 and Fable 2. That's not to say that I'm not interested in a bunch of the other stuff, like Dead Space for example, I'm very excited to see how that turns out. I'm also not sure if I will be getting Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero: World Tour, but if they will make them both work together, I'll probably get both. One thing I'm sure of is that I'm am not getting another set of instruments. Partly because I didn't enjoy the drums as much as everyone else seems to do and partly because I still live at home and there's simply no space for it. Oh and.. You know, money problems.

Out of the games I've mentioned there's only one that I've bought and am currently enjoying, and that game is Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I'm chose to once again heed the call of the dark gods and play as a Chaos Magus. I used to play the tabletop game way back when and I used a Chaos army. Still fascinated by Chaos in that universe, there really wasn't a doubt in my mind about which race to play as. I guess I chose a Magus because I like being ranged but wanted to try the opposite end of things (I am/was a druid healer in WoW). And I have to say I like it so far, I'm only currrently level 16 but the game has a good feel to it. I mean sure there are bugs and odd stuff happening, but the game has been out for a week so it's only natural to see stuff like that early on. I also have to say that they seem to have managed to get the feel of constant war going on everywhere around you, which is great because that's what Warhammer is really all about. With that said, it's obvious that there's a big focus on PvP or RvR as it is in this game. It's basically just PvP but with people from different realms (servers).

I'm not usually that much in to PvP in online games, but somehow it does excite me in this game, I don't know if it's because it's fairly balanced or because of the great RvR scenarios or the open world RvR areas with their own missions in them. But it sure is fun to kill another player in this world.


So I guess that's me for the time being, in love, unemployed, wating for games to come out and enjoying those that already have. Well, the one's I've bought anyway.

War. It never ends.

And good lord how I wish it did. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm referring to the fact that Call of Duty 5 is now officially going back to the dark ages known as World War 2. Here's a short excerpt from the Gamespot article:

"Confirming rumors, the game formerly known as Call of Duty 5 will indeed return to World War II, setting of all pre-Call of Duty 4 games. Developed by Treyarch--not series creator Infinity Ward--the game will portray US Marines fighting the Imperial Japanese in the Pacific. There will also be a "major chapter" in the game focusing on the invasion of Germany by the Soviet Union's Red Army.".

Now, why on earth would you do this? I mean, we've seen enough of world war 2 inspired games for the last... 3-4 years, at least. And just when you think that, finally, at long last, no more ww2 games! Treyarch comes along and does something like this. Insanity! I say let the creators of the series, Infinity Ward, continue the path they chose with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Or at least come up with something new. World war 2 games are seriously outdated and done with, just drop it allready!

Short post, but meh. I'll leave you with this video, which has no connection what so ever with Nintendo:

A month of inactiviteee.

As the title for this post suggest, it's been inactive for quite some time. Somewhere around a month or so. The main reasons for this is that I've basically felt no need to update it, there isn't too much going on that I feel is worth writing about in the world of games and game related stuff. Also I kind of forgot that I even had the blog for a while, so thanks to one of my friends for reminding me. In either case, I feel I should write something, what that is I don't quite know yet.

Not a whole lot has happened in my life or my surroundings since last time I wrote, but why bother when summer is here, barbecues are going off everywhere and everything just feels damned good. I've even gotten a sunburn, so I'm willingly spending time outside, which is unusual for me.

Truth is, I wouldn't even be outside if I hadn't gotten myself one of these babies. The Asus EEE PC 701, which was released in Sweden just this Monday, June 2nd. I've had my eyes on it since I first saw it on display at some expo in Taiwan last winter. It's like a dream come true for me, since it's what I've always wanted from a laptop. It's really truly portable, cheap and it's got all the features I'd want, and more, in a portable PC. Your standard laptop is at least $100 more expensive than this and if you get one of those it's got a bigass 15" screen, which is NOT portable. It feels more liek carrying around a bag of bricks. Whereas the EEE PC takes up little more space than a DVD case. Suffice to say, I'm extremely satisfied with my purchase. About the only thing I can complain about is that it's got no support for using your webcam through msn, only with Skype. It also has no bluetooth support, which I can live without, but it would have been so sweet. But it's so damned cute that all you need to do is look at it and all is forgiven.

I'm actually using it to write this very post in my backyard, which is... Great, in lack of a better word. Enjoying the sunny weather with a few ice cold beers while streaming music from your main PC and browsing the web and having conversations with friends over msn, IRC, whatever. All completely wireless, and pure awesome.

What else is new? Oh yes, Rock Band is just around the corner for us Europeans, whom no one cares about when it comes to games. I mean come on! It was releases over 6 months ago in the states! On top of that, it's going to be a whole lot more expensive over here than what it is in the states. Something I think is highly unfair, therefore I've signed this petition, and I urge every european to do the same. It's an unacceptable pricetag.

With all of that in mind, Guitar Hero 4: World Tour is due out this fall. So that begs the question; Buy Rock Band at an insane price or wait for Guitar Hero 4 to come out? They will offer the same things to users, and GH4 will offer more than Rock Band. Probably at a better price too, since it's and easy win for them if Rock Band refuses to lower theirs.

In either case, I'm split in the question. If EA/Harmonix lowers the price of Rock Band, I'll probably buy both, if they don't I might just wait for Guitar Hero 4. Then again, knowing myself, I might buy them both anyway, since there's really no other games out soon that are of interest to me.

Hmm, this blog turned out to be longer that what I expected it to be, but that's the way things go I guess, Peace out.

65.25%

That's how much of GTA IV I had completed when I finished the game's main storyline, which I did after aproximately 39 hours, 45 minutes and 4 seconds. And for the first time ever in a GTA-game I actually cared about the story and wanted to see it through for more than just being able to say that I had completed the game. Another first was that this time I actually cared about the game's protagonist, Niko Bellic and most of his acquaintances. I mean characters like Brucie, for example can't help but make an impression on you. Of course he's not the only one that did, most characters felt like they were just that this time around.

As good as the game is though, I kind of expected it to have more of a 'fresh' feel to it. But in the beginning of the game, I thought to myself that this just feels like another GTA-game with a new engine. Luckilly, that feeling went away a few hours in. I mean, don't get me wrong or anything, it still has that GTA feel to it, but as I said, the story actually matters this time, so you don't feel like you're playing for nothing. Well at least I didn't, but hey, you can't get it all I guess.

Right now I'm considering wether or not to go back to the game for more achievements and such, finish up some random missions and whatever. We'll see, because after that much time spent with it, I can't help but feel somewhat tired of it.

So, as I said in my previous posts, I bought the special Limited Edition of the game, which, as I predicted, has put me in a situation where I can't find any place to put it on. Hopefully I'll solve that by going to KRAPËA to get some new shelves and what not.

Yeah, short post today I guess.

Pre-orders, the point of them and mini kart review.

Isn't that getting the game or whatever product you've pre-ordered the very same day that it's released? I sure thought so, but now it seems I'll have to wait till Wednesday or even Thursday to play GTA IV, because the site I bought it from doesn't have their stuff in time. I guess I really can't blame them, though, since it's really not their fault at all, but it's still annoying. Should I have just gone witht he regular edition instead of the limited edition? Can't tell, but if I had, I would have gotten the game sent to me on friday, which would probably mean that I would have had it today. Ah well, what can you do? Nothing, that's what!


So yeah, Mario Kart Wii. I bought it and I'm happy to say that I'm enjoying it too. I mean it took some getting used to, since I haven't played a Mario Kart game since Mario Kart 64, but once I got in to it, it worked out fine. Although, like I suspected, that damned Wii Wheel just complicates things. It's really more of a nuisance than anything else. Luckilly though, you can use a Gamecube controller or a Wiimote too, which makes things a whole lot easier.

When it comes to the actual game, I can't help but feel like there's too much of the old and not enough of the new. Sure there's 16 new tracks, as well as 16 old, revamped tracks, but many of the new tracks are based on the older ones, so what's the point? That said though, some of the new tracks are really great and fun to play, and that's not to say that the old ones arent't, but come on, Nintendo! You can't live off of nostalgia forever. They could have at least thrown in some Super Mario Galaxy-inspired tracks, but such tracks are nowhere to be found.

New to the game is the ability to perform tricks, a new way to boost and the addition of bikes. All welcome in my book, but it seems like if you wan't to perform tricks you need to use the Wii wheel, which kind of sucks. But it's not the end of the world, since you can just boost instead of performing a trick and at the same time avoid covering the extra ground that's needed for the trick. If you're dead set on tricking though, the new tracks are the ones you're looking for, they've been built up with that in mind, so there's plenty of jumps to go for.

So the new boost-system, love it or hate it, I'm just glad it takes "snaking" away. This time around, there's no stick-wiggling to boost, you just simply brake and hold the button down to slide away. The longer you hold it down, the more boost you get once you let it go. It still takes some getting used to, but it's a whole lot easier than the aforementioned stick-wiggling.

On to the bikes, while a nice addition to the game, they really aren't that much different than driving a kart. The main differences are that you can boost by tilting them back on straight roads and that you're going to get knocked around a whole lot easier. That said, though, they are a welcome addition and can offer a different playstyle than karts if you really want them to.

Graphically, the game doesn't really look much better than Double Dash! did. Which is a shame really. Of course, there are some small improvements that are mostly noticable on the new tracks, such as better lighting and particle effects. But it's not at the level of polish that SMG has, not even close. In all honesty, I was more impressed with Mario Kart DS on the graphical side of things.

Online mode, what many people will buy this game for, actually works pretty well. I haven't tried much of it, but the time I did spend online worked almost as well as it would with any Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 game. On top of the actual racing online, there's battle mode, which I haven't touched, and leaderboards. Being able to keep track of leaders worldwide, continental or on your friends list is a really nice feature, which will probably keep the insane fans of the franchise happy, even if they're possibly let down by the single player game.

There's also a bunch of hidden content to be unlocked, such as extra vehicles and characters. I haven't unlocked too many myself, just King Boo and Rosalina from SMG, which is probably the only thing they've added from that game. But who knows, I haven't unlocked everything yet.

All in all, 32 tracks, 25 characters (12 of which needs to be unlocked), online capability and the inclusion of the Wii wheel for the same price as any new game makes me feel good about my purchase.


As I'm finishing this up, I noticed that the site I pre-ordered my copy of GTA IV Limited Edition from has finally sent it. So hopefully I'll still have it tomorrow, but I'm guessing Wednesday. Still, it makes me a happy camper to know that it's on it's way.

LE's and CE's.

As someone who collects video games, there's nothing I like more than a good old Limited Edition or Collector´s Edition. With that said though, there's the good CE/LE and the bad LE/CE, you need look no further than the Assassin´s Creed Limited Edition for an example of a bad LE. For an example of a good LE, take a look at The Witcher Limited Edition.

The first mentioned Assassin´s Creed LE contains a figurine of our protagonist, Altaír and... Oh wait, there is no more, aside from the actual game of course. What really annoyed me about this LE though, was that the game you got with it, at least here in Europe, had a bigass "Not for resale" sign printed on one of it's corners. Since it was actually printed there's no way to get it off. This I payed about 250 SEK extra for.

Now the second mentioned The Witcher LE contains the soundtrack for the game, an impressive artbook, a making of DVD, a map of the world of the game and the actual game. That, to me, is something worth shelling out a little extra for, especially since I payed about the same amount of extra cash that I did with Assassin´s Creed. A Limited Edition like this makes you feel good about your purchase, rather than walking around thinking "was it worth it?.


The reason for all of this collector´s and limited edition talk is that thanks to my good friend Kotaku, I got to see some limited editions of upcoming games. One of them I already knew about, but it's still nice to see some actual real-life pictures of it. The game I'm talking about is, to no one´s shock, GTA IV, which I've had on pre-order for about a month now and it's coming out real soon too! *giddy*.

In any case, most of the people even remotely interested in games knows what the limited edition of this game includes, but in case you don't, I'll go through it for you. It contains a Rockstar labeled duffle bag, the game's soundtrack, a safety deposit box, an art book and the actual game with embossed lettering on the box. In all honesty though, while it contains the right stuff, it costs too much for me to count it among the good LE's out there. In case you're wondering, we have to spend 1500 SEK for this LE here in Europe, which is really too much. Being the idiot that I am, though, I still bought it. Now then, the pictures I was talking about? Given that the space I have on this blog is rather limited, you'll have to do with a link to the good folks over at GTAGaming. Enjoy!

Another game I saw was Soul Calibur IV: The Quest for More Money Limited Edition. Ok so that's not it's real name, but I couldn't resist. Anyway, the limited edition of Soul Calibur IV includes what looks like a tin box for the game, an art book, a "tournament kit" whatever that is and a XL-sized T-shirt. Seems ok in my eyes, at least if you're a fan of the series, but it's going to cost you $80 to get your mits on it, and I'm not knowledgable enough about Soul Calibur to say anything about whether or not that is a justifiable price. In case you're wondering about why there's two boxes in that picture, it's because one of them is for the Xbox 360 and the other for Playstation 3, which is just stupid in my eyes, but what can you do? It looks like the Playstation 3 is getting all the good the stuff when it comes to this game. I mean first they get Darth Vader instead of Yoda and now they get the black shirt with the Vader print. Where's the love for Xbox 360 owners?! Now don't get me wrong, I like both characters but come on, it's V to the A to the D.E.R, VADER. You can't beat that.

Last, but definately not least, there's the Alone in the Dark Limited Edition, which could very well be the closest to a perfect LE I've ever seen. This baby includes the official soundtrack, a making of DVD, an art book, a figurine of Edward Carnby, the game's protagonist and of course the game. As if that wasn't enough, the box you get everything in gets a nice treatment as well, assuring that everything in this package is of some value. I know that I'll be buying this limited edition if the game turns out to be as good at it looks to be. At least if it's priced correctly, as in not more than what I payed for GTA IV. What's interesting about it, though, is that this box is only for Europe, so I don't really know about what people in the states will get, but I'm guessing it's something similar. I mean they can't screw them totally, can they? Either way, I'm really looking forward to seeing some reviews of this game when it store later this summer.


So that's that, my ramblings about LE's and CE's. I don't know if any of it makes much sense, but nor do I care all that much. Oh and you know GTA IV? Yeah, the hypemachine is beyond active, and in some places it's beyond insanity.

MK meets DC meets GH meets DS.

In case you can't see who's on that picture, it's Sub-Zero and Batman. You read it, Mortal Kombat is going to do the old mixaroo with the DC universe in the upcoming game Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. My original thoughts about this was skepticism, skepticism, skepticism. Since I've kind of been longing for some news about the new Mortal Kombat game ever since I heard it was going to be using the Unreal 3 engine. Well I got what I wanted I guess, but this was not what I expected, and I don't think anyone else did either. However, after reading up on the game, watching interviews and getting a glimpse of the in-game action from the trailers that are out there, I've gone from skepticism to optimism with a hint of worry. Can they pull this merger off? I mean, how on earth is Batman going to be able to do any damage to any of the characters of the MK universe? He doesn't have any powers, he's just rich and has a lot of gadgets. In my eyes, it seems like he'd get obliterated by just looking at Sub-Zero for example.

So far they've only announced 4 characters; Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Batman and Superman, which brings me to ask the same question as with Batman, but in reverse. How is anyone from the MK universe going to be able to hurt Superman? Do they have Kryptonite in Outworld? Because I don't see anything that could stop him otherwise. Luckilly, those questions were answered to some degree by Ed Boon in an interview about the game, but he didn't really go in to specifics, just saying that superstrong characters like Superman were going to be countered by an "elevated" use of magic in some of the more human characters of the MK universe. Other than that, he said that to make some of the characters not seem as 'boring' they would have "big massive events" instead of the old punch n' jab. So I'm hoping that means a lot of face-melting with Superman´s eye laser thingy. All in all, though, it actually looks good, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.



While I'm on the subject of skepticism, there's a little (haha) game called Guitar Hero: On Tour, which is coming to your favourite handheld console, the Nintendo DS, this summer. This doesn't really come as a surprise to me, what with the popularity of the Guitar Hero franchise and all. Combine popular game with popular console and you get popular sales numbers, simple as that really.

Well then, on to the skepticism I guess; Can this stripped down version of a well known game series be any match for it´s big boy counterparts? I mean, how are they going to recreate that silly rock star dream if we don't even have a guitar to hold? Can they give us the same feel as if we were holding a plastic guitar? I doubt it, but I'm optimistic about it, probably because I'm a big fan of the Guitar Hero series, so I'm hoping for the best. With that said though, how are they going to do it? I mean there's no way the sound can come anywhere near the sound of a 5.1 speaker system, there's only 4 fret buttons and I wouldn't be surprised if the sequel would be called Eye-strain Hero or something, with screens that small. Speaking of screens, apparently you're going to be tapping the touch-sensitive screen to simulate the strumming, which just worries me even more, since it doesn't seem sensitive enough to handle something like that.

Then again, maybe they're tweaking the difficulty to match that. It's probably the only way to do it too, because I don't see anyone playing Anything from GH3 at the expert difficulty on the DS. I guess we'll see how things work out in the end, and being the sucker that I am, I'll probably buy it myself. You've got to live that rock star dream you know.

Satisfaction.

So it's a few hours later, and here I am, reasonably satisfied with the look and feel of the blog. As such, my focus has turned to enjoying a cup (yes, a cup) of coke and some strawberry-flavoured vanilla ice cream. To accompany that, I'm watching an episode of Night Cops, which is like Cops but longer and only at night, in the UK. I personally prefer the latter, as I feel it's got more of a real, authentic 'in your face'-feel to it. Not that Night Cops is bad or anything, but it's not as engaging.

So, new week tomorrow, or today if you're going to be all technical about it, and I've still not made up my mind about whether or not to buy myself a copy of Mario Kart Wii. It seems like fun and everything, but at the same time it feels like it's too much like it´s predecessors. Then again, those were fun too, so can there be such a thing as too much fun? In any case, it feels like too much of the old and not enough new stuff, also, I don't want that damned wheel! And there's no option to buy the game without it, or at least not that I know of. Online mode is a new, great feature that gets me excited though, and from what I've heard, there's no 'snaking' but some other form of boost thingymajigg. What I fear about that feature is that once the insane Mario Kart fans learn and master this technique, it'll be Mario Kart DS online all over again. There were snakes everywhere! And it was the main reason I stopped playing it. One really nice aspect about it is that we got it before the states! In your face, yanks! In case you didn't know, it's usually the other way around. Either way, I'll see if I get a copy of it or not during the week.

The episode of Night Cops is almost over and I really need to sleep, so that'll be that.

Testing, testing. One two, one two.

So, I finally decided to follow the trend and get myself a blog. I don't quite know what it'll be about yet, but I'll figure that out as I go I guess. With that said though, my life mainly evolves around games, friends, music and movies so I'm guessing those are the main subjects that I'll toss around on this blog. I'm also trying to figure out a way to use the blog as a place to publish game reviews, something that I've done in the past to no real success. Like I said, I'll see how things turn out, for the better or worse, I'll keep the place updated for a while.