Call Of Duty4:Modern Warfare

Well, it was somewhat inevitable wasn't it? In a household where COD4 is played online at every hour of the day by gaming ginger-ninja big Mart, I was eventually going to give in and be lured into the world of 'Soap McTavish' and Captain Price...

And after a week of non-gaming in Cyprus, I needed a big dose of videogame fun to satiate my needs... And so it was that Call Of Duty4 was the game I plunged into on my return from the Med's most beautiful of islands.



What can I say? This game is an essential 360 experience! The graphics are stunning, the environments brutally realistic and the gameplay sublime. I've never played a 'war-game' before, but I've loved it!



Of course, there is a certain moral dilemma in deriving pleasure from the horror of war. This is not the same as destroying the Locust Horde in Gears Of War. The game's main antagonists are Eastern Europeans and Arabs. You (of course) represent the 'forces of good' i.e. UK and the US of A. But in real life, their campaigns in the real world, largely impacting on civillians, are less than morally acceptable. Is this Western morality propoganda disguised as gaming?




Still, if you can put your moral high-ground on hold (and I managed to do just that) this game is a great piece of escapism. The ammo and weaponry are abundant and the health gauge forgiving. The auto-save system allows you to progress through the game with ease and I found myself completing all the missions in a few hours. Bonus!!! I love the games I have played on the 360 recently. Bioshock, Gears Of war and COD4:MW are all easily achieveable, not time consuming and represent a realistic proposition in terms of my available gaming window of opportunity. That is, I can play them in the snatches of time avilable to me in the Krishna household.


I've not forgotten the Wii during this time, however. I've been playing Umbrella Chronicles in my down time and I'm in love! I'm stuck on the final boss, but I play it every day in the hopes I can bring the game to it's conclusion! This game is indeed THE best gaming experience I've had since playing Bioshock back in January...



I've also enjoyed a little DS magic by playing Need For Speed Carbon: Own The Streets, Resident Evil DS and my new discovery, Brothers In Arms DS. Handheld gaming never felt so good! Here's some links!


Call Of Duty 4:Modern Warfare
Umbrella Chronicles
Brothers In Arms DS

Ali G

I'm back from Cyprus...

Wow! What a trip! Cyprus was amazing! Firstly may I say, just breaking the confines of the UK was amazing! Getting on a plane and heading for an unknown destination was a trip indeed!

So me and Mrs. K headed off to Cyprus without knowing a thing about it!

First of all, let's place it on the map! I thought it was in Greece, but it turns out this idyllic holiday isle is nearer to Iraq, Israel, Egypt and Syria! Surely that's an advert for getting to know more about the world!

Number one, it was great to head off to warmer climes, and hitting the mediterranean climate in March was fun! We're talking sun! Warmth! T-Shirts and shorts!

Despite being a million miles away, Cyprus is very English! They drive on the same side of the road, have just given up the pound, and even have the same electric hook up! But that's where the similarity stops...

The place is a historic and mythical goldmine! I went up 'Mount Olympus', saw the 'birthplace of Aphrodite' and gazed on many a Roman mosaic while I was there... Truly inspiring!

The Cypriot people are fabulous and the welcome was amazing... If you want to know more look here...

Suffice to say the holiday was amazing, and to be best man at my best friend's weding was an honour indeed.

Now back to videogames and television, I knew there was a reason for me being here...

I'm Off To Cyprus

OK peeps! I've advertised it enough. But within ten hours I'll be on a plane to a beautiful Mediterranean Isle. Right now in the UK, we've got snow storms invading the earliest Easter for 100 years. OK, I'll miss all that. I'm going to be best man at my best friends wedding... I HAVE to spend a week in Cyprus, whilst the Gingers are tucked away with Grandparents back in the UK.

I've got the PSP and the DS to keep me gaming, but maybe the lure of a foreign country and my best friends wedding, will keep me amused...

I'm a little phased, I don't have opportunities like this thrown my way too often!

Still, thanks to the wonder of the inter-web, I'll be able to keep track of any feedback on my phone! See y'all soon!

Respect Is Due...

I had the honour of meeting and chatting with Joe Strummer, and what a thoroughly nice chap he was. How often do you get the chance to meet and spend some time with one of your idols?
I managed to do this twice! It's great to see a bunch of megastars paying tribute to this legend, and I think they managed to pay him a fitting musical tribute... Enjoy Elvis Costello, Little Steven, Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen sending him off in a very fitting way...

God speed Joe!

Tony Sings The Clash...

The Clash Says It All...

A Perhaps Uncharacteristic Post...

My friends, my brothers...

If you are even nominally religious, perhaps even by virtue of your parent's or even grandparent's religion, Jew, Christian or Muslim, we all 'worship' the same God.

The 'big daddy' in the sky, Jehova (or whatever you want to call Him) is the same God to all of us!

Abraham is Ibrahim, Joseph is Yusuf, Mary is Maryam, Gabriel is Jibril, Isaac is Ishaq, and so on...

We all have so much more in common, than we do have differences...

I personally respect all religions equally, and have my doubts about all of them!

Personally, the infinitely non-religious Mr. David Icke, is where I'm placing my bets... For all of those humans that have pointed us in the right direction, I'll put my money on him! LOL!

Maybe, like me and Gnome, you hold the belief that religion is one of the opiates for the masses... It distracts us from the evil workings of those (governments) that subjugate us, and make us rely on salvation from a higher being, to placate our questioning... However, to allow yourself to be deluded by a 'schism', makes you part of the problem...

Love is all you need!

I'll reflect on this, as I soak up the Cyprus sun and play my DS. I'll be back to peddle more shit in a week or so...

Jigger, Macca and Linkin...

And finally I'm off to Cyprus for a week, so I'll leave you with this...

No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn...

Walk This Way...

Metal and Rap... Surely the greatest of all combinations?

My way or the highway...

Break Stuff...

Limp Bizkit

More metal-ish stuff...

Kickapoo

If you're lacking a connection to the metal type vibe, let this be your inspiration...

Mike Strutter... Need I say more...

Me and the Wii are friends again...

Well this is supposed to be the Wii-kly Sermons isn't it? I've shared my thoughts on the 360 (Bioshock and Gears Of War), the PS2 (God Of War) music and films this year, but have I mentioned the Wii? No...

You see me and the Wii fell out, around the time I got the Wii Zapper whilst it was great for playing Link's Crossbow Training (which even got Mrs. K hooked...) it was diabolical for playing Umbrella Chronicles... Using the Zapper made shooting and QTEs very unrewarding, and thus progress was difficult. I stalled on the game, started playing the PS2 and then forgot about the Wii when the 360 entered the house...

Then I got down right cranky about Umbrella Chronicles, gave it a couple of re-tries and then decided I might even trade it in, and I hadn't even finished the second level.

Then I tried it co-op with my best friend, but then made the mistake of BOTH using the Zapper!

it was fun until we had to shake them about for a QTE and then that was it! They didn't respond, I 'spat my dummy' (an old English phrase meaning I spat out my pacifier in a tantrum) and that was it! Both the Wii and Umbrella Chronicles were finished for me! Harumph!

However, flushed with the success of beating Gears, I decided to give UC another try using the Wiimote and Nunchuck. TADA!!!! Revelation!!!! I've completed two levels and two sub-levels in two nights! As well as playing through the original Resident Evil level, I've unlocked two secret wesker levels that I kicked ass on as well.

Those of you who are aware of my gaming tendencies will know a few facts... I love Resident Evil. It makes me cry tears of rage at really difficult points. I'm a fickle bastard.

So now you'll be unsurprised to know I've come full circle and Umbrella Chronicles is now my new favourite game! the controls are just right, the unlockables and cut scenes fill in a lot of the blanks in the Umbrella Chronicles. The graphics are fabulous and one in the eye for anyone who says the Wii's capabilities are sub-par. I see them as good as Gears or Bioshock... (but then again aren't God Of War's???)

I won't offer any proper sort of review... many people have already done a better job (including J's excellent review.)

I'll just offer the usual screenshots and video, plus the following lovely links! I love you Nintendo Wii! I love you Umbrella Chronicles! I love you world!!!

Umbrella Chronicles Official Site

Umbrella Chronicles Wikipedia

Umbrella Chronicles IGN

Here We Go Again...

Bloody machines! No sooner do we get the laptop, than the sodding keyboard on the PC goes on the blink! Bastard! Still, there's always the XBox...

Oh yeah, I forgot! I just got to the bloody boss on the final chapter... Cue crying, gnashing of teeth and many, many swear words. Yep, I've played through the game (on casual I admit) without recoursing to a walkthrough, or getting my middle son, Marty, to play the hard parts for me.

Then all of a sudden I'm fucked! I've tried and tried to beat him, I really have, but he just keeps kicking my sorry ass. Oh Lord! Why God, why???

Now I don't want it to be too easy, like the final boss in Bioshock was, but then again, I'm ready to move on... Games to play, people to see, you know the score... So what do I do then? I either get pecked to death by Kryll or shot to pieces by Mr. Badass. Ho hum... Maybe I'll just leave it and start Call of Duty 4...

Room 1408

Well here I am again, still plugging away through GOW (I've just uploaded a large map showing a honeycomb of locust tunnels from my old house, and am currently trying to get to a train, if you know the game...)

My blogging output has reached an all time low recently, as has my visiting and commenting on other blogs! All this should change soon as the competition to get on the computer at my house has recently been reduced due to the addition of a shiny new laptop courtesy of AOL.

Yes I know it is probably the WORST IP known to man, but a recent deal by the company, sees signing up for another two years rewarded by a Hewlett Packard laptop, an offer I couldn't resist!

So you know what my gaming habits have been lately, but what of my movie watching? Well apart from a Matrix weekend at my caravan in Wales (all three movies plus beer), I've also just seen the excellent 'Room 1408' starring Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack.

This excellent Stephen King yarn sees Cusack playing a paranormal hunting author, staying in and writing about 'haunted' places. He's cynical and disbelieving (desparate for proof of the afterlife since losing his only daughter...)

He then hears about a certain hotel in New York with the titular room, where several guests have met a grizzly fate. Still cynical he attempts to book in, only to be met with a refusal from the hotel manager, (Mr. Jackson...)

So he gets his lawyers on the case to force a booking. The manager begs him not to go in, bribing him with vintage liquor, fine cigars and an insight to just how horribly other unfortunate tenants have met their bitter ends...

But of course, Mr. Cusack ignores these warnings and that's where the 'fun' begins!

The film has a sinister and trippy edge to it, the viewer immediately put in the position of thinking of how they would cope with the trials and tribulations the protagonist experiences within the ghostly room.

The best horror films for me aren't those that overload the viewer with guts and gore, but those that give you pause for thought, weird you out and give you goosebumps!

I can't get enough Stephen King at the moment, I'm onto my third novel 'Needful Things', following on from 'Dreamcatcher' and 'Deadzone'. I love the way he conjures up small town America and slaps a twisted little spin on things.

So there you go, not much news really. I'm off to Cyprus for a week, two weeks today, to be best man for my friend, just me and Mrs. K, no gingers! I guess that's news. I'll try and squeeze in a few posts before I go!

Senser 'The Switch' (For Nebacha)

My dear friend Nebacha has recently opened my eyes to excellent Portugese act, Da Weasel.
They remind me of this lot of punky rappers from the English festival scene a few years back...

See what you think!

Second Gear...

OK I'm completely sucked in by this game it's amazing!!! I'm currently nipping between patches of light to avoid some ravenous crows (or bats or something) on my way to pick up a ride... Those bloody pesky "grubs" keep trying to shoot me and I'm in gaming heaven. I've worked out the weapon system, got the hang of knowing when to take cover and even on how to keep my squad alive and useful!!! SUBLIME!!!

Of course, I haven't got to my usual point of throwing down the controller, crying and proclaiming this the worst game ever, which will inevitably happen when I get stuck, but for now, I'm LOVING IT!!!

God bless you EPIC!!!

First Gear...

Well I'm there, battling my way slowly and somewhat tentatively through the locust horde... I'm still a tad crap at the controls but I seem to be getting to grips with it... I also get very phased by the amount of hostile fire!

Still very early days yet, but I'm loving what I've seen so far. It's clear to see why this game has been treated a the stuff of legend... Reason on it's own to buy a 360 over a PS3 maybe... Now if only I was more of a bad ass, things would be good... LOL! :)

Danniel Merriweather and Mark Ronson

Cor blimey!

They've won Brits together! What the hell does that mean? But please listen... It's just great...

Jennifer Hudson

Damn fine! Erm... performer! I would. Buy her records that is. *Cough!*

Not much more to say really...

Full Of Eastern Promise... Okami

Having finished the amazing God Of war II, I was left with a gaping whole in my gaming life...


What would fill it? Umbrella Chronicles? Erm... nope! Gears Of War? Well... If I'm honest, I found the tutorial on casual mode a tad overpowering... (*FK blushes at his own gaming ineptitude...*)





Still, I had managed to secure Okami for a mere £10 ($20) the other day, and my good friend Nebacha had assured me of it's merits so I thought "what the heck?" and decided to give it a go...



An epic Japanese tale of a land laid destitute by evil monsters, your mission is to restore ancient Nippon to it's verdant spleandour by heroic and beatific acts, using your ...erm magic paint brush... You play as a mystic white wolf, guided by a little bug type creature... In a land populated by drunken warriors, evil spirits, myopic washer women and stumbling postmen...





Now if all this sounds a litle bizarre, that's because it is... Surreal if you will. What I knew of Okami was that it was a visually stunning game, with cell shaded graphics, drawn in the style of traditional Japanese paintings. Paintings that have come to life...


What I wasn't expecting was the cheesey humour, the cartoon like characters or the Zelda style tasks of treasure hunting, weapon collecting, potion gathering, container breaking or spell casting... And it's none the worse for any of that!

The babbling none-language of the protagonists (sounding like a Japanese "Morph") was a little off putting at first, as was the seemingly never ending opening sequence, but the more I play it, the more charmed I am, and increasingly drawn in to boot!

Now I'll throw in a couple of pics, a handful of links and a bit of video so you can make sense of this rambling nonsense, but it's clear to see why this game has earned a place in the prestigious Games TM magazine's prestigious top ten PS2 games of all time...

Now, like many great games of the past, despite being critically acclaimed, was a commercial failure. Perhaps too off beat and unusual for Western gamers, the franchise is being resurrected for another chance to wow the gaming public, this time on the Wii.



It's clear to see how the Wiimote could make an excellent controller for the magic paint brush and by waving it around, one could either hack and slash enemies or with a majestic sweep of the wrist, bring life back to a scorched an arrid, demonic wasteland...


Who knows? If done well (like RE4 Wii Edition) this could be within the top ten Wii games by next year... I hope so, as the game needs to be shared with a wider audience! Here's the links, check 'em out and enjoy!!



Okami Official Website


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ÅŒkami


Okami IGN

Won't The Real Father K Please Stand Up? Please Stand Up? Please Stand Up etc...

I'd always resisted putting any pics of myself out there... (it aint too pretty to look at!) But the time has come to reveal myself to the world... So here goes! Yes folks, that's your good Father sitting in an original Sega Rally machine (one of the many classic arcade games at my caravan site in Wales...)

So there you go! You may wonder why I'm wearing shades indoors... It was to make myself more pimplicious in the photo! (The same as BJ I guess!) Now, why don't I take this opportunity to post some pics of my look-a-likes? Here goes! And I know! Some of these pics require a huge dose of salt and a stretch of the imagination... But some are pretty close! Enjoy!!!

In Praise Of Blonde Jon...

He's been here for quite a while these days, and I'm just glad to give him props! Whether it's good gaming advice, or just the fact that I love hearing his opinion on my musical endeavours... Let's big up BJ!!! :)

Nuff said!

Slaine/ La Coka Nostra

Looks like Everlast, Danny Boy and Lethal (House Of Pain) are back, this time as Rap Collective La Coka Nostra. Taking on board the very talented Ill Bill from Non Phixion, and also portly rapper Slaine, the group have an album out soon and I like what I'm hearing! I think there's even a glimpse of Everlast in the video...

Despite loving the tune and the lyrics, the B Boy posturing looks a little forced and I 'm sensing that Slaine didn't really get it on with the 'ladies' in the video. All in all though, pretty good!

I'm getting a bit long in the tooth for all the gun imagery though. Whilst I understand that this is part of an image inherent in rap (no more the cause of gun culture than videogames or films like Scarface), I literally loathe guns and the glamour that they seem to have to the youths in my neighbourhood...

Two more kids were shot a couple of weeks ago here. At first they were seen as innocent victims, but I've heard a whisper that they were playing the same game. Senseless....

House Of Pain

I love these guys, and it proved back in the day that even white boys can hold their heads up in my favourite musical genre...

House of Pain - Jump Around
Uploaded by crunk_ship

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

One For NebachadnezzaR...

Like my good friend Nebacha, I occasionally like a good helping of Heavy Metal. Here's a brilliant, but often overlooked classic of the genre! For some reason it's in Swedish, but power chords are an inernational language! Enjoy! (Edit!) A very happy birthday Nuno! Christ I wish I was 19 again... PS I've now put the English version up, so forget all that stuff about Swedish...

Shameless Neglect...

Dear, oh dear, oh dear... February has entered it's sixth day (just about) and I've not even updated this blog. if I can offer the usual tired old excuses... It's hard to get Ted off the computer (World Of Warcraft addict...), I've been gaming a lot (about which more in a moment), work's a bitch (it is) and The Saturn Junkyard has been hogging all my attention... (true..)

But really, that's no excuse for neglecting my own personal page, and leaving you kind people with no updates, so I need to fill you in on my January gaming, and tell you what's about to be played in February... January has been an epic month really. Starting off with the first title I ever experienced on the 360, Bioshock, I got a nice flavour of the power of the beast and a glorious taste of an intelligent and truly thought provoking shooter.

What did I do next? Did I catch up on all the fuss about Halo 3? Did I dip my toe into the water of Gears Of War? Did I join my two elder sons in their rampant enthusiasm about online death matches in Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare? NO!

I played Shenmue II... Again... For about the fifth time!!! OK, so it was slightly current gen - ish... I did play on the 360, although the game was an XBox port from the Dreamcast. It took the best part of January, while I had Gears Of War, COD4:MW and Umbrella Chronicles, not being played under the telly. Did this make sense?

Hell yeah! Maybe playing my very favourite game of the last gen, was my of saying goodbye to that era, or maybe (more likely) it was me confirming to myself, how relevent the 'last gen' still is. For those of you who don't know about Shenmue (please enjoy the video above...) it's sumptuous graphics, a great story and a stunning fight based RPG... Please check out the links below...

The story remains cruelly unfinished, as the game never reaped the financial payback that Sega had laid out in it's production and fans (especially me) are desparate for the third installment...
Will this ever come? We can only hope...

As the credits rolled at the end of the game, i wonderd what I should play next and I decided to stick with the 'last gen', this time with God Of War 2, on the PS2, which I had started back in October, but never finished. This Spartan based epic of Greek Mythology concerning fallen God Kratos, stands up against any of it's current gen nephews and is simply gaming heaven... I'm well into it now and loving every blood soaked second of it! (And yes Funnyman, I did like the sexy bits! LOL!)

As soon as that is finished, I intend to take on both Gears Of War and Umbrella Chronicles, simultaneously, in alternate sessions, until both are complete. I'm not allowing myself to buy any full price titles until these two games are completed. That means no Ghost Squad, NiGHTS, No More Heroes or Sega Superstars Tennis for the Wii (all of which I most desparately want.) No Virtua Fighter 5, Soul Calibur 4 or Orange Box for the 360 (all of which I most desparately want).

Oh and I forgot, I just bought the Nebachadnezzar recommended Okami which needs a play, so it looks like I'll be busy before any new major titles pass through the door to Krishna Towers.
2008 demands a good gaming backlog clearance (far too many titles to mention) before I embark on anything else... Discipline is required... Am I up to the job? Only time will tell!

Now here's the links!

Bioshock
Shenmue Dojo
Shenmue 2
God Of War 2