Postcard From Wales!

Hello gang!

Would you believe it? I'm actually posting a quick note to all from gloriously sunny Wales, courtesy of my son's new laptop and an internet connection stolen from the caravan site's main office!

Ha ha! After a fruitless weekend of searching through the dross of my PS2 collection for someting decent to play, I was plagued by one unsatisfying experience after another... RE Outbreak file 2? Terrible, with my AI "team mates" bungling around this game proved to live up to the awful reputation it owns and I was plunged into despair. Devil May Cry 2? I loved the look of this game, but the disk must be damaged in some way, as the load times between scenes was intolerable! Eventually it packed in altogether, and again dark frustration set in...

I tried Gun, but it wasn't for me and after that I was stuck... Eventually I got some pleasure from RE:CV Gun Survivor, played on the pad rather than Light Gun (Thanks for the tip Nebacha) and I was pleased for the moment...


I played Sensible Soccer with my son Martin and he lost on penalties... I quite enjoyed the silliness of it all, but he vowed never to play me again on that particular game... Still I'd picked it up brand new for £2... You can't complain at that can you?


I decided to gather together all my titles that I didn't play... The game of Spongebob Squarepants that I had bought for my youngest son, Virtua Cop Elite Edition, (my G Con gun doesn't work), Mark Ecko's Getting Up and so on and managed to get a trade in to the value of £23... which paid for a copy of God Of War II! Hurrah! My thoughts on that later folks!

I also got a copy of Pro Evo 4 for 99p! Result! But the game that has consumed me the most and which is fast reaching the top of my favourites chart, is Max Payne. Now I've never bought into Rockstar's productions, but this game ticks all the boxes for me.



The storyline is great, voice acting OTT, John Woo style action sequences satisfy my violent streak, and the graphics and comic book style presentation works for me too! Fabulous stuff!

Anyway, Gnome, Elderly, Caleb, Mikey, J, Nebacha and any other of you who stumble upon this page... Hello from Wales... I'll be back and commenting on your blogs on Monday, until then big love to you all!

This is FK signing off from the heart of the UK, in the ancient mystical land of Wales, enjoying clement October sunshine... And Max Payne!

Resident Ecstasy...

WOW! WOW! WOW! and triple WOW!!! I'm sure I've done a post with this title before, but it's the only phrase I can think of for the phenomena I'm feeling right now...

I'm playing Resident Evil 3 Nemesis on the Dreamcast right now, and I'm LOVING it!!!! The game is sublime (and for those of you familiar with this pattern I'll probably be posting in a few weeks about how much I hate this game!)

I'm now beginning to feel so much love for this franchise... it's a master stroke. It's art as well as gaming. It's spawned three Hollywood blockbusters, the storyline is so strong. Right now I'm loving the environment I'm gaming in... Capcom are MASTERS of game development... They rule...

OK, *Swallows* I'm going to say something right now that I never thought I'd say... Shenmue is not my favourite franchise... It's Resident Evil. *COUGH !!!!* There, I said it... Sorry Ryo.... You only did two games (and that wasn't your fault) I'm sure it could swing the other way...

But right now I'm so wrapped up in the world of Umbrella, that I can't even speak...

Happy days!!!! I'll post later, but for now I'm Resident Evil 3 all the way...

From Joy(Tech) To Misery...

Oh bloody hell! Fuck arse and bollocks! having experienced the joy of completing Resident Evil DS yesterday, I've sunk to the lows of having my third PS2 LCD attachable screen fuck up on me after purchase... The first two were easily returnable. I simply took them back to Blockbuster and got a refund...

The third, however, I purchased from eBay, and now I can't contact the seller for some reason, so I'm stuck with a faulty piece of kit. Damn! I was so close!!! I'd pictured myself enjoying the joys of the PS2 whilst Mrs. K watched 'Lost' with no conflict of interest... I had thought of it's potential on our next family outing to the caravan... Like a great big PSP sat in the lap of my surly ginger sons...

The harmony it could have facilitated, the PS2 ecstasy it could have bestowed!!! But no... It had to be faulty... DAMN! An alternative could have been the Treamcast... But it's not something I don't use that often. It's far too precious for that... But I'm thinking while I'm writing... A new scenario is emerging in my mind.

OK yeah!!! the PS2 and it's software will be the main console for the caravan... The Treamcast plus my unplayed American games, plus my DS could be the perfect Mrs. K friendly gaming combination for the up-coming nine day holiday. Plus a large stash of kung-fu DVDs, plus a large stash of cider, plus a large stash of... erm... stash!

Whilst this rambling post might make no sense to anyone else, it seems like it's been cathartic and therapeutic to me... And believe me my work with challenging pupils has been taxing this term. I think I feel a plan coming together! LOL!

Latest Download Action On The Wii...

Well the Wii's online features have entranced me. Not the weather or news channel, not the friend code facility, or even the online potential of Mario Charged Strikers Football . It's the easily accessible Retro Treasures on the Virtual Console.

The latest game that has ensnared my credit card is Shinobi 3. The Megadrive original Shinobi was one of my all time favourite games... simplistic, Ninjatastic, 2D-elicious, it's a game that delivers on all levels...

But hey! Let's remember that downloading games comes at a price... the lovely games that I've downloaded have cost me about £21 in total. Now here's the deal... I could have bought about 9 Dreamcast games for that... I could have bought a Megadrive and the two Megadrive games I've downloaded... In fact I could have bought a Dreamcast or a Saturn or even a Gamecube for that...

Am I getting value for money? NO! Whilst it's dead convenient to have them in the main living room on a console that sits under the telly... I'd rather have the original console hooked up to a telly in another room...

Still I had a blast on Shinobi today... I played the game far worse than I played the original 15 years ago, I was crap! I used to be quite adept when the Megadrive was my main console, maybe I need to hone my Retro skills.

Would I reccomend it? Hell yeah! It's a fecking awesome game... But for someone like me who is both overly nostalgic and an impulsive spend-a-holic, the Virtual Console is not necessarily a great thing!

Spinal Tap - Stonehenge

STONEHENGE!!!!

The Rutles - Shangrila

OK, this is a post specifically for Nebacha, in response to his last post on
http://nebachadnezzar.blogspot.com/ ...
And there's more to come, so be patient...