Blacksite Area 51

Well, it seems I've made something of a 'faux pas' in terms of my gaming choices, as I'm currently the above title. My good friend Funnyman, literally slapped himself in the face, he was so horrified!

As the title suggests, this is an alien based FPS, with a fairly flimsy backstory...

OK, what are my impressions? Well, I haven't found it too bad so far, and I have to say I like the mixture of driving and shooting... Alright, I'll admit that there are a lot of flaws. The graphics are sub-standard for a start... Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii and even games like God Of WarII and RE4 on the PS2 are far superior. There are some really jarring glitches, like guns floating in mid air once they've been discarded and an inconsistency in objects that break when shot.

But as it goes, I've played far worse. I'm wavering as to whether I should complete it now. I want to totally reorganise my games collection and trade a few titles in so I can buy No More Heroes for the Wii and Call Of Duty 4 for the DS...

So, we'll just see, I'm not abandoning it yet. What do you think dear friends, should I take dear Funnyman's advice and trade it in? It'll take me a while to sort out my games, which I might do over the weekend. So I'll hold fire for now and play through for another few days. I've got a bit of a reputation for enjoying games other's have panned... (Red Steel and Blue Stinger spring to mind...) As usual, here's some links!

Blacksite Area 51 Official Site

Blacksite@IGN

Blacksite@Wikipedia

The Second Best Game, Ever...

High praise indeed? Well yeah, definitely! It's just that God Of War II has got me so stoked at the moment. I'm playing it on easy mode (of course) but it just ticks all the boxes. The gameplay just flows, there's a very forgiving save system and the cutscenes are simply glorious. It's wiped out all of my Resident Evil obsession that I carried throughout most of 2007...

Voice acting and characterisation are fabulous, the whole mythos of the title sublime... It doesn't get any better than this! My gaming set up at the moment helps... Dreamcast, 360 and Wii in the back (most inhabited) living room, Dreamcast, Saturn and PS2 in the front (less inhabited) living room. That means the potential to game on some console or other, whatever Mrs. K is doing... But I have to say, she's remarkably chilled about gaming these days...

Now I know I said it was going to be Gears Of War and Umbrella Chronicles next, but it just might just be God Of War I...

I played about 10 minutes of UC at the weekend and it really wasn't fun!!! In fact I'm hating on that game right now, I really, REALLY, can't be arsed with it...

It's just too bloody hard, and doesn't have the appeal to keep me going... I know!!! I went on and on about it! It promised to be my defining game... And you know what? Now I want to trade it in with Sonic (the 360 version) and Viva Pinata which was bought for Ted, (but totally eclipsed for him by World Of Warcraft. I reckon that little trade in could get me Ghost Squad, (which I really want -notice I didn't say NiGHTS?)

So there you go... Not much of an update really, nothing to report... I'l let you know how my trade in goes... But right now it's all about God Of War II!

(and yes Funnyman I know you can have sex in it, but that hasn't been it's main selling point!!!)

God Of War II Official Website

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!