Wii advert & Medusa

Just saw my first Wii advert on TV before (please bear in mind, I do not watch much TV). Only just over a week to go now. I’m a little concerned by the news of a huge demand for the Wii in Europe, but hopefully since I preordered early, I should get one on launch. Also I’m a little concerned that component cables may be hard to get hold of from day one. In America they are currently selling for $150+, Luckily I have 3 sets of cables preordered from 3 separate places – including Hong Kong (I was expecting high demand).

I really, really must play Zelda in all its 480p glory…

I really am very sad…

I really don’t care…

Film watched:
The Medusa Touch
A DVD that I got for my birthday and a great horror film from the late 70’s. I can’t believe it’s just a PG. I know that there’s next to no blood, sex or violence in the film, but jeez, it’s still a little scary!

What surprised me watching the DVD was the quality of the print… It’s fantastic. Taken from a newly remastered HD print, it’s better quality than most current DVD’s film in the last 2 years. Really rather spectacular.

I remember this film gave me nightmares after watching it when I was younger – hopefully the same won’t happen again tonight.

8/10

Console Wars and Bond

Well this last weekend has seen the release (in the US at least) of the PS3 on Friday and the Wii on Sunday and so to mark this occasion, in the voice of Yoda, I have five words to utter…

Begun the console wars have

Film watched:
Casino Royale

An apt sub-title for this should be “Bond Begins”, because in much the same way that Batman Begins was a reboot of the Batman franchise, Casino Royale is a much needed reboot of the Bond franchise.

As much as I love Bond films, and as much as I enjoyed Pierce Brosnon, it got to the point during Die Another Day, that the Bond films were almost as silly as the bond parodies (I’m thinking Austin Powers and the like). As such, Casino Royale is back to basics, with no over the top effect, no gadgets or plans or world domination. In fact a large portion of the film is based around the poker table.

Stand out moments for me are the chase through a construction site and the torture scene.

Daniel Craig does a fine job as Bond, he may lack the charisma of Brosnan, but instead has a more rugged charm, similar in some respect to Connery. As Bond’s go he’d pretty damn ruthless and also, definitely not invulnerable (I pity his balls, I really do).

My main complain would be the finale in Venice was a bit of a let down, especially if on a pure action level, it is compared to the opening chase.

Overall, a good solid Bond film, but not up there with the best of them yet.

7.5/10

Expert opinion?

Want an experts opinion on which controller is best, namely PS3, XBox360 or Wii?????

Why not ask a 5 year old....

Take a look!

Presents & The Departed

I received a plethora of presents for my birthday – of which I was very grateful, including:

A variety of DVD’s: Vengeance Trilogy, X-Men 3 & Imagine
Disgaea 2 for PS2
Numerous (mainly Beatles related) CD’s
And a selection of John Wyndham books.

On my birthday I watched Oldboy (again). It really is a startling film, which reminds me in many ways in both style and content to French cinema, rather than Asian cinema, most of all the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The sad thing is that although the film is by far the best film that I have seen in recent years, and blow Hollywood films out of the water, I know that it will only be seen by a handful of people and of those that do watch it only a few will “get” it in the same way that I “get” it. I know I’m not making much sense, but what the hell.

Games played:
Disgaea 2
This is exactly the type of game that I absolutely love (that and Advance wars). Something that relies on your brain rather than pure reflexes. If only something like this came out on the DS, portable SRPG’s would just be fantastic.

The graphics in the game are frankly rubbish, but then again, Disgaea has never been about graphics, it’s always been about absorbing and highly complex strategic play (with a dash of humour), and it has this in abundance. It’s a shame the most of the characters from the first game are not present, although it would seem that Etna will be making an appearance at least in the not too distant future.

Roll on Disgaea 3 (pretty please)

Film watched:
The Departed
I had very high hopes for this film, being a big fan of Martin Scorses films, especially Goodfella’s and the thought of another gangster related film was just to good to miss.

I have to say, however, that I was very disappointed. Apart from great performances by Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio and an interesting first half, there is little to recommend. In fact, the ending just fell a little flat and at times, the violence in the film just felt like violence for violence sake, i.e. to try to outdo Goodfella’s.

6.5/10

Ho hum

I realise that I haven’t blogged in days – lots of things have happened, it being my birthday and all.

I had planned on writing a long blog, but just don’t have the motivation at the moment.

Ho hum and all that…

Wii Launch line up & bikeless!

Haven’t posted for a bit…. I’m sure that I should have tons to say, but it slips my mind at present (that’ll be the Jack Daniels at work)

Anyway, I though I’d mention that I got hit by a car whilst on my bike at the end of last week. Some idiot who doesn’t understand the principals of yellow lines…. complex, I know. Anyway, he was going slow and so was I and as such, the collision wasn’t too bad. A slight scrape to my arm and a hip which still aches, but apart from that, fine. My bike on the other hand, didn’t end up so well. It’s currently in for repairs and as such I’ve been driving to work this week.

I must say, that I’ve been finding that I’ve been getting ever so annoyed with the traffic at peak times, something that never really bothered me before. I guess I’m just used to the more casual and peaceful journey on bike to and from work!

Nintendo have revealed the release games and also the virtual console games for the Wii launch. These are (source N-Europe)

Wii Launch lineup (all available December 8th):
Wii Sports Bundle (Including the Wii console and Wii Sports - Tennis, Golf, Boxing, Baseball and Bowling)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Wii Play (including Wii Remote)
Call of Duty 3 (Activision)
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision)
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam(Activision)
Madden NFL 07 (EA)
Need For Speed Carbon (EA)
Happy Feet (Midway Games)
Rampage: Total Destruction (Midway Games)
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega)
Gottlieb Pinball Classics (System 3)
Super Fruit Fall (System 3)
Disney/ Pixar Cars (THQ)
Barnyard (THQ)
Spongebob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab (THQ)
Blazing Angels Squadrons of WW II (Ubisoft)
Far Cry Vengeance (Ubisoft)
GT Pro Series (Ubisoft)
Monster 4x4 World Circuit (Ubisoft)
Open Season (Ubisoft)
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft)
Red Steel (Ubisoft)
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent (Ubisoft)

Of these I’ll be getting: Wii Sports (obviously), Zelda (duh – of course), Wii Play, Monkey Ball and possibly Red Steel. I have Rayman earmarked for Christmas.

I’m a little disappointed that WarioWare and Excite Truck weren’t available for launch, but then again it’s probably best to space games out a bit…

Virtual console:

NES:Baseball, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Ice Hockey, Mario Bros., Pinball, Soccer, Solomon's Key (Tecmo), Tennis, The Legend of Zelda, Urban Champion, Wario's Woods
SNES:Donkey Kong Country, F-Zero, SimCity
N64:Super Mario 64
SEGA MEGA DRIVE:Sonic the Hedgehog, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Columns, Gunstar Heroes, Ecco the Dolphin, Space Harrier II, Toe Jam & Earl, Ristar, Dr. Robotonik’s Mean Bean Machine

I’m a little disappointed by the selection. There aren’t a great deal of “old” games that I was hoping for available initially. Hopefully these will come in due course. I must admit that I am tempted to get Gunstar Heroes, however, as I have heard great things about this (being a treasure game and all) and have never had the change to play this.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Elliot and I... I'll upload a picture as soon as Blogger allows me!

A special message from Elliot...

jjjhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap''pppppyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyv hmallllooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwween

Rocky remake, Torchwood and Wii 480p

There have been rumblings on the internet recently that Fox are considering making a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture show. What’s more, they are considering none other than Marilyn Manson in the part of Frank-N-Furter!

Now, I can’t be alone in thinking this is a VERY BAD IDEA! Whilst Marilyn Manson certainly looks the part, and can sing (if you can call that singing), the question arises, can he actually act? Besides, there is no way in the world that anyone could come close to Tim Curry in the role.

There’s also the fact that the original was actually a flop, it was only later that the cult following started and those cult followers of the Rocky Horror Picture Show will likely be equally horrified at the thought of a remake.

It just spells disaster to me!

Watched Torchwood before (the first 2 episodes taped from Sunday evening). I think they must have intentionally include the first swearword within the first minute of the show (a f**k btw) just to dispel the notion that this was anything like Doctor Who. This was followed by more swearing, sex, references to drink and drugs and as much cross gender snogging as was possible within the confines of the scripts.

Apart from the fact that the “adult” nature of the series felt a little forced on the viewer the episodes were rather entertaining and I’ll certainly be watching the rest of the series.

At long last there has been official confirmation from Nintendo UK that component cables will be sold in the shops along with the Wii (in the US they will only be available online). I’m hoping that this is an unofficial confirmation that the UK PAL Wii games will display 480p, unlike the Gamecube, which was capable of 480p, but only US games supported this. After all, why sell component cables to the UK if progressive scan isn’t going to be supported?

Am I the only geek out there who gets excited about console cables?????

Here’s the beauty in question :)

On a side note, Elliot completed his first race of Mario Kart the other day... He's doing his Dad proud :)

A sad day for importers everywhere…

Source:

Lik Sang

Because of legal action by Sony, Lik-Sang have been forced to close their doors. As a customer of Lik-Sang, this is very sad news. You can’t help but have a little laugh at their final little dig against Sony…

“Furthermore, Sony have failed to disclose to the London High Court that not only the world wide gaming community in more than 100 countries relied on Lik-Sang for their gaming needs, but also Sony Europe's very own top directors repeatedly got their Sony PSP hard or software imports in nicely packed Lik-Sang parcels with free Lik-Sang Mugs or Lik-Sang Badge Holders, starting just two days after Japan's official release, as early as 14th of December 2004 (more than nine months earlier than the legal action). The list of PSP related Sony Europe orders reads like the who's who of the videogames industry, and includes Ray Maguire (Managing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Alan Duncan (UK Marketing Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Chris Sorrell (Creative Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Ltd), Rob Parkin (Development Director, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Limited), just to name a few.”

Well at least there is still play-asia, phew! Good job I haven’t been forced to import the Wii, or have been stupid enough to try to import the PS3!

Wii-Celda

Got to be the best fan video I've ever seen....

Must have taken ages to do!

Wii-Celda

HMV, Lost is lost & Perfect Blue

Well HMV opened in Guernsey yesterday and I had the opportunity to pop my head in quickly before the official opening. While not quite as big as some of the UK branches, it’s still large enough for Guernsey and has the same variety and great offers that the UK has. Best of all, the prices seem to be very competitive and not bumped up to compensate for the lack of VAT.

All we need now is a KFC and a large cinema and I may never need to leave Guernsey again!

Film watched:
Perfect Blue

This is an anime film which has been described in the past as the type of film that Hitchcock would have made had he collaborated with Disney. This is a pretty fair description apart from the fact that I could never see Disney making such a film.

This is the type of film that I wished could be remade as a live action film for the English speaking world. The reason? Simply that it’s such a fantastic story, which in it’s current form, will only be seen by a handful of people.

It tells the story of a young female pop idol who is persuaded to leave her group and go into acting, much to the annoyance of her fans. As an actress and model she takes on roles which require a degree of nudity, and as a consequence, people around her begin to die mysteriously. At first it would seem that this is the response of an angered fan, but after a while she begins to suspect that it may be her committing these crimes, in the form of a split personality matching the cute and innocent pop idol image that she thought she’d left behind her.

A simply stunning film.

8.5/10

I have just learnt that Sky have brought the rights to Lost series 3 as opposed to Channel 4. Bear in mind that I cancelled my Sky subscription just a few months ago. This now means that I will likely have to wait a WHOLE YEAR to watch series 3, at which time it should hopefully be out on DVD. The same applies to Battlestar Galactica series 3 and 24 series 6, but for some reason the loss of Lost has hit me harder… Excuse me while I sob quietly in a corner… and no, I refuse to illegally download episodes from the internet.

Neighbours, girl next door & voice

I won’t go into the specifics of the disagreement, only to say that last night (after I had enjoyed a bath and was wearing nothing but my dressing gown), I was called outside of my house to act as a intermediary between our tenant and our neighbour. Neither apologised for dragging me out into the cold, they were too busy arguing with each other. I seemed to calm this down, whilst still maintaining neutral ground and thankfully no physical violence was used (only harsh words).

Maybe I should have been a diplomat instead of tax inspector?

Film watched
The Girl Next Door

A likeable little post-American Pie teen comedy.

The most striking thing that I noticed was it’s extreme similarity to another, albeit older teen comedy, from the 80’s called Risky Business, staring a young Tom Cruise. All they did was replace prostitutes with porn stars and hey presto, a brand new movie!

Anyway, apart from this, the film was, as I said, rather likeable and even had a neat little minor twist near the end that took me by surprise. Worth watching, but not worth keeping.

6/10

On another note, it has recently come to my attention that the costs for my (other) website are due shortly, this being voiceoftheocean.org. As funds are a little tighter these days, now that we have two properties and several very frightening mortgages, I have decided drop this website for the time being.

It’s a bit of a shame, but at the same time I haven’t actually updated this for some time and have finished writing anything new for over a year. It had been my intention to try to promote the website a bit more and like this to other sites of a similar nature, however, this is something that I have never gotten around to.

I’ve always liked the thought that my stories, poems and scripts were online, available to anyone to read, but the fact is that at present, I have very few people accessing my site. As such, it’s probably best that I put this project to bed for a while and maybe approach this again at a later date.

Tired of snakes?

Tired of Snakes on a Plane? Craving something a little bit different?

How about ZOMBIES on a Plane? (Or Plane Dead if you want to be a little more accurate.)

If you don't believe me, look HERE.

The trailer is worth a view... If only for a laugh.

Game delays, Carpenters & PSTP

Nintendo have pushed back the release of several of their key titles for the DS in Europe, unfortunately, this means that most of the titles that I was hoping to get for Christmas will be unavailable in Europe until 2007. This includes, Final Fantasy 3, Elite Beat Agents and Hotel Dusk. Most of these games will be available in the US, therefore, importing is always an option…. But grrrr…

I’ve been getting the Carpenters a lot on shuffle on my ipod (a remnant of the time that I shared my ipod with Roz), and have been finding much to my shock that I’ve been enjoying must of the tracks (although “Close to you” is still vomit inducing in it’s sickliness). As such, I listened to the whole of their Greatest Hits album the other day, and I’m ashamed to admit that apart from a couple of tracks, I really am quite fond of the Carpenters… What next, the Bee Gees? Nah…

I’ve also recently discovered yet another great gaming based web-comic called “Press Start to Play”. A good read if you’re a fan of VGcats and Penny Arcade.

I especially liked their recent strips on Zelda (probably because I’m playing through Ocarina of Time again at the moment – Yes, I know, I desperately need Twilight Princess) and also Goldeneye:

Zelda

Goldeneye

I've also just learnt that friends of mine, Mark and Marie Le Ray, have just welcomed a little baby girl into the world. So a big congratulations to both of them... Sleep eh! Who needs it!

Robin and Rocky

Watched the new BBC adaptation of Robin Hood over the weekend.

Overall I was quite impressed, for a TV adaptation it was rather high budget (for the BBC at least). There is also a lot of scope in respect of the characters and future plot potentials.

I’ll certainly keep watching it.

Roz and I want to the charity showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Saturday. It was the full blow affair, complete with audience participation and risqué costumes.

I didn’t get dressed up myself, although now I wish I had. I was very surprised by the number of people who did dress up for the occasion – at least half the audience were in full Rocky Horror mode (including Roz). It was really a very good evening and I must admit that I really got into the spirit of things, shouting Asshole and Slut at the approapriate times, throwing toast, wearing a paper on my head and all the usual things.

Anyway, here is a picture of Roz all dressed up for the occasion:

Also been feeling a tad down in the dumps again occasionally recently. Hope it doesn't come to anything mpre :-\