End of the year is pricey.

I may not be getting new games for a while.
As well as having to get presents for my family, I have to pay rent, buy food, put a deposit on the new place, and  be social. Mathsoc hoodies and Xmas meal are important things to pay for.

Being a student and a gamer is freaking tough. My advice is wait for games to get cheaper, unless the game is FREAKING AWESOME. Golden sun, I'm looking at you.

News is interesting only when it concerns me.

Oh my. This has been a big week for news. Two stories are hitting hard. One from around here, and another over in that big America place. 

So let's start with America, since it's Video Game related. The supreme court of America has been called upon to decide whether or not the sale of violent video games should be more closely regulated to prevent minors getting them. This calls upon many things. Are video games protected by the first amendment, are minors able to decide for themselves, and do violent video games have as big an influence as people say? The term "minor" here refers to people under 18. Which is a bit unfair. I'm sure children over 14 can start making decisions, and know the difference between games and reality. And the moderation of games should be done by parents. Not the government. While it may only be in America now, that sort of thing may cause people to look more carefully at games here.

Meanwhile, over here in the UK, our complete and utter wankers Brilliant leaders have had the best idea of raising university costs, and cutting student loans at the same time. Brilliant! By having more money coming in from the students, and giving them less money to cope, our financial crisis will be solved in no time! Who cares if it puts everyone who gets a degree in debt for the rest of their lives! What does it matter if the unemployment rate goes up because people who couldn't afford a degree now can't get jobs? Which will then  cause a drop in trade meaning more debt?

Short term plans right?

A return from the golden age.

Long ago, back in the N64 era, when Rare still worked with Nintendo, there existed one of the greatest multiplayer games of all time. This game awas also probably the greatest film tie in ever. Goldeneye was a brilliant game. And it's been remade for the Wii by activision.

And through the transition, It's good to see it's still a brilliant game. Using Daniel Craig as Bond rather than Pierce Brosnan isn't overly a bad thing, and you tend not to notice what with all the killing. The game seems to take a bigger view on the stealth aspect. Many missions are easier if you don't get caught in a gun fight, and the option of sneaking around ambushing each minion in turn is usually the safer and more interesting way. You can either sneak  up behind them and knock them out, or use your trusty silenced P99 (no, not the PP7) to shoot them in the head. Along with your P99, you can carry two other weapons with you. Usually something for long range or heavy fire fights, should you get caught. Which is likely to happen, and is sometimes unavoidable.

All the old missions have been recreated. The opening dam level, has been brought back, including the part where you ambush a poor bloke on the toilet. And the tank level, where you ride around, blowing everything up. Oh so enjoyable. Full cutscenes are included, with Voices from Daniel Craig and Judi Dench.

The controls work brilliantly. And you have many options. I go  for the nunchuck approach, but you can also use, the classic controller, the Wii zapper and even the trusty old Gamecube Controller. With the nuchcuck approach, aiming is simple. Use Z to look down your sights, C to crouch, B to shoot and use A for context sensitive actions. Or a quick sprint if you need to get to cover. You also get a smart phone. Apart from using it to stay in touch with MI6, it can also hack into local devices, take photos and even has a facial recognition app!

Multiplayer is still as fun as it was. Up to 4 people can play locally, or 8 online. Play as a standard shoot em up, or with some of the modifiers such as, paintball, rubber grenades, melee only, Man with the golden gun or you only live twice. And with classic characters such as Jaws, Oddjob and Scaramanga, you won't get bored.

He's a doctor. And a Ninja.

Halloween was fun. You dress up, and then you go get drunk. And, at university there's a high concentration of nerds. Meaning brilliant costumes. I went as this guy.

Dr McNinja is a brilliant webcomic you should all read. The best part was that at least eight people got the reference. And there was also this guy.

The ninja in the middle. Not the Lion Prostitute. He was Dr McNinjas Father.
Much win for him I say.

Definitely not a small moon.

If there's one thing I enjoy doing in aber, It's drinking. Not because of the nightlife, but because of what I can drink. There are two pubs I really like. The mill, which does tantalisingly tasty shots, and the cambrian, which does brain damaging cocktails. It's one such cocktail that's the subject of my writing.

In those two glasses, is a deathstar. (because, you know, there were two of them) 

For eight of your fine britsh pounds, you get two pints of sobriety destroying elixir. Each containing (from what I can recall): 

• Vodka
• Grenadine
• Red Bols
• Blue Bols
• Lemon VS
• Orange VS
• Cider
• Lager

And you know what? It's delicious. 

Best. Crossover. Ever.

Yeah, I've been pretty busy and not blogging as much as I'd want to. Blame Assignments and super fun Maths times.

But, this piece of news really excites me. It was announced a while ago, So I'm a little late on this.



Yes, Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright come together for a 3DS game. Both franchise are brilliant, and I hope this makes it to the UK.

Paul Arnold's Precious little life

Or how I have nothing else to type about, so I'll update you about my life.

Lectures have started here in Aberystwyth University. I now spend about 15 hours a week in a lecture room learning about mathematics. Assigments are being given out as well. Meaning I've just spent many hours trying to understand Distributions and Estimations enough to not look like a moron when I hand in my papers. Not that I care that much. It's more of a guideline, as it no longer contributes to my degree. But hey, Practice is important right?

I have resigned myself to not having internet in my house. Relying on the internet at the University. Is is significantly more free than getting internet at home. I download any files I need to do assignments at home. Along with anything on iPlayer that catches my eye. 

My beloved nights out with the maths society has been cut down to only one night out every two weeks it seems. So to compensate, I'll be going to rock soc more often. I'm actually planning to put together a set list to play at Rock soc, but getting one hour of music together that keeps on delivering might be tricky for me. Shame about Maths Soc though. There were some fresher that needed some learning. After leaving after my second pub, everyone was dissapoint.

Get Watered!

Around Aberystwyth, I see a lot of adverts that bear the image of a glass of water, and the slogan, “Get watered, not slaughtered!”. It’s part of the drink aware campaign. There’s also the one that tells us to not rape women while drunk. (Well. Not to make perverted comments anyway)

But it’s the water that I’m more interested in. Every Thursday night for me is Maths Soc night. No maths is actually involved, unless we talk about the lectures. Most of the time we just drink. In at least five different pubs a night. And usually, I get nice and drunk, and the next morning I feel fine. I’m mixing drinks as well. What some people call “lethal combinations”. But I can still drink that much and be at a 9AM lecture the next day. Maybe a *little* rough, but it’s something I can ignore, and a lot of people wonder how I do it.

Mostly, I imagine it’s because I’m a large person. I absorb the alcohol like a sponge and let it out again slowly. But there are many people with similar body masses who get terrible hangovers. So there must be other factors.

This brings be to the whole water thing. Every now and then on a night out, I drink some water. All pubs will give you a glass of it for free. It may not taste overly nice at times, but it’ll make you feel better in the morning. Other soft drinks work, but water is the better option.

There is also the option of food. Going for a Kebab can be a good idea. Something with some fat in it, preferably, but just something will help. I personally go with a pizza. Doing so will also make you feel a little better the next morning.

That’s how I do it personally. It’s not hard, and it’s cheap. You could of course just not drink alcohol, but then nights out wouldn’t be as interesting. Or as tasty.

The 4 heroes of angst

It’s a bit different I have to say. The 4 Heroes of light feels like an older game, most comparable with Final Fantasy III. Four youths come together, and discover that they are the four heroes of light destined to fight evil. However, instead of sticking together throughout the game, the heroes instantly split up. Not by some natural disaster, but by personal differences. They’re always leaving each other behind and going off on their own. Which fits in with the story of “blossoming friendship and bonds of trust”.

Their mood also comes through in the battle system. As you fight, depending on how the battles going, your team will either feel psyched up, or depressed. Psyched up characters get a stat boost, and attack in tandem with other characters in a good mood to pull of powerful combo attacks. However, depressed characters will get a stat reduction, and will stay like that for a while. Making it hard for you to win unless you fight better.

The battle system is different to other Final Fantasy’s. Each turn, you get one action point (AP) Which is used to attack. Attacks, items and basic abilities cost one AP to use, while magic can cost two. You can also use boost where you spend a turn doing nothing, but gain more AP. The old job system has also received a makeover in the form of crowns. Wearing different crowns gives you access to different abilities and traits. Black and white mages will find have reduced AP cost’s for their magic’s, while bards can sing stat boosting songs. Each crown can be upgraded 3 times with use of gems.

Gems are dropped after every battle. However, they are also your main source of income, as monsters don’t drop gil. So you have to decide whether getting better equipment or more abilities is the priority.

A big issue is the item system. You only get 15 item slots per character. 4 of these slots will be taken up with equipment, and then more will be taken up with spell books. Leaving very little room for potions or phoenix downs. There is a storage system, but you can only access this in towns, and there’s no way of sending things there out in the open, so if your hunting for items, you have to leave space, making things very restricted.

This however adds some challenge to the game.  Most standard foes are tough to beat unless you have the right equipment, and the elemental system is more pronounced than in other games. Knowing where you’re going and what you’re about to fight is very important, and you may die the first time because you didn’t have the right elemental protection.

Overall, the game is great. The graphical style (dubbed “storybook” style) has great charm and fits nicely on the DS’s graphical system. The game never gets too tedious and has enough to keep people going for a while. Get this if you enjoy the side Final Fantasy games.

Quoniam cum probatus fuerit accipient coronam vitae

In an earlier post, I mentioned a friend had given me some nice tasty anime to watch. Two set was half of hellsing ultimate, (which I need to find the rest of) and Elfin Lied.

Hellsing ultimate isn’t as heavy on the plot as other anime. A plot does exist however. An increase of vampires and ghouls has been noticed. And the Hellsing Corporation are one of few people who can fight back with the good old beat fire with fire method. They have their own vampire who was created by Hellsing and exists as the most powerful vampire. Alucard (which in case you hadn’t noticed is “Dracula” backwards) is the vampire in question. Who in the first episode converts another girl to the night. Vampires can only turn virgins of the opposite gender into vampires. Others become Ghouls. Same sort of thing, but rather mindless minions of the vampire who ate them.

Soon we discover the cause of the vampire increase. Nazis have been lying in wait, making vampires and getting ready to fight again. Nazi vampires. It doesn’t get any better. And as expected in an anime about vampires there’s a lot of blood. The main colour is red. Red everywhere. Paper cuts could kill with the amount of blood that comes out. More than is probably possible to fit in a human. It’s entertain fun is you like vampires beating the shit out of each other. And let’s be honest, why wouldn’t you.

Elfin Lied is much more plot focused. It follows Kohta, a boy who gets wrapped up in the affairs of an organisation studying and preventing the evolution of mankind, named Diclonius. Shown as usually having pink hair, horns, invisible hands known as “vectors” and commonly being female. One escapes the facility and ends up living with Kohta. However, she has a split personality. One being innocent and little to no language or other basic capabilities, and the other being violent and murderous.

This too, has lots of blood. The Diclonius waste no time in tearing limbs and heads from torsos to get at their goal. However, there are also a lot of boobs. No matter what their age is, at one point or another, Diclonius are shown completely naked. And it’s not even a sexual thing. It just happens. Any sexual references are either complex incestuous feelings, or awkward moments shown in a comedic manner.

As the story goes on, you realise that there’s a lot more going on than you thought. And events shown in the past have a massive relation to the present events. You don’t get the full story straight away. You get shown parts of flashbacks, only getting the full effect when it becomes relevant. It keeps you guessing. And Kohta definitely had an interesting past. We know that his father and sister are dead, but we don’t know how and apparently he doesn’t remember. It’s a learning experience from both ends.

But still. His main love interest is his cousin. I guess that’s just what happens in Japan.

The mind wipes would have slightly sexual undertones.

A friend came up with an interesting idea the other day. It struck me as rather odd at first, but I grew to like the idea. Dollhouse as an anime.

To be fair, he came up with the idea by pure accident. It was actually more of an assumption. The story goes like this. We had swapped some viewing material. I got some anime (which I’ll talk about in a separate post) and the IT crowd. In return he got FMA, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse. Mostly Whedon stuff. He knew what Firefly and angel was, but not what Dollhouse was.

When I try and explain what a show is about, I usually try and avoid the main plot lines. Most of the enjoyment I get from a show comes from plot revelations. Mostly the ones that fill my brain with fuck. And Whedon is very good at doing this. Dollhouse follows the story of Echo. A doll at the dollhouse where she takes on assignments by being imprinted with different personalities. Not just acting, changing the memories and habits so that echo fully believes she is who she’s supposed to be. However, unlike other dolls at the dollhouse, she turns out to be a bit different. And it’s how she develops that’s so interesting.

Now, while I was explaining this to my friend, He had thought it was an anime until I said Joss Whedon. At which point he went “an anime by Joss Whedon?” Not only would I like to see an anime directed by Joss Whedon, but admittedly, dollhouse does sound a little like the title of an anime. And anything can work. It might be in danger of going a little overboard, and it’ll never happen, but hey.

Nerds dream too.

Gotta catch some more.

So, Pokémon Black and White came out in Japan about two weeks ago. And since the a deluge of information has come out about them. I’ve looked into it and tried to decipher what I can.

I’m going to assume that people reading this know the basics behind Pokémon. I don’t feel like explaining it right now, and want to get into the new stuff. I enjoy Pokémon. I do. It’s mix of strategy and hidden mathematics interest me greatly.

This first thing to notice is that the graphics are slightly better. Including some face sprites of certain characters in certain situations, and large detailed environments. Still nothing amazing though. The main changes are a lot more exciting. At the start, and for most of the game, you will only be able to find and catch the newly created Pokemon. None of the old four hundred and sixty odd Pokémon will be found. You’ll have to rely on the new cast. This means a refreshed experience. Having to catch Pokémon to find out their types and moves, rather than falling back on old favourites. Not that you don’t get to find them. Once you obtain the national Pokédex, you’ll be able to find and catch your old favourites, as well as transfer them from previous DS titles through a sort of minigame.

The battles are different as well. There are new triple and rotation battles, where three Pokémon fight at a time. The Pokémon move during battles, bobbing their heads, or moving their tails, no longer the static sprites. TM’s, once a one use item, are now reusable. Whether or not this makes them harder to get, I can’t tell. There are also plenty of new moves and abilities to get to grips with, and when an ability becomes active in battle, a bar appears.

I have been playing it a little, but, it being in Japanese, I have no Idea what’s going on. There’s a new evil organisation to stop, 8 new gyms, and of course, an Elite four, but I’ve not gotten to far due to language barriers. Playing it in Japanese seems to annoy me, so I’ll wait for the English release in Spring.

(Also, the fire starter becomes fire/fighting again. This annoys me.)

I shouldn't type when drunk

As I’m typing this, I am drunk. Very drunk. In fact the only reason it’s pretty grammatically correct is because I’m that anal. I’m drunker than I’ll probably ever get in Newbury, My home town. Why? Because I’ve just moved back in to Aberystwyth. (try spelling that while drunk.) Over the coming days, I shall be posting the recipes and or pictures of my favourite drinks along with photos when I go on these fun nights out. Such drinks as the death star, pan galactic gargle blaster, the denominator, brain tumour. I’ll create a little review about these and more as I get drunker. Along with the usual reviews and opinions about games.

However. My house has no internet. Any downloadable games will be missed by me until the summer period. And these posts will be uploaded whenever I go up to the University. And expect more posts about how mathematics is fucking hard.  It’s all going to be good times from here. Especially when I have to kidnap a fresher. They will be taught the ways of welsh student drinking. And enjoy it.

Until then, goodbye.

Midnight launches should be fun.

So I went to the midnight launch of Halo Reach last night.

Before I continue, I'm going to state that I don't play many FPS's, I don't own a 360 and I don't have much interest in Halo. I know that it's one of the best things to get if you have a 360, but most games on that thing involve shooting other things in some context. So why was I at this launch? To provide support for a friend. (He didn't want to be alone) and also to see what was going down.

There where two events going on in my town. One at Game, the other at Gamestation, also owned by Game. Both seemed as lively as the other. By which I mean it wasn't. People were there to just line up, get the game, and go. No interaction between them to be had.

If a bunch of people are going to gather for a common cause, at least interact with each other. Discuss the game. Get each other excited. Talk tactics. Make funny references. Exchange gamer tags for online matches.

Maybe it's just a different type of gamer. It doesn't require much to blow shit up, but there is skill in not dying while you blow shit up. But the type of gamer who plays Halo, I'm sorry to say may be the type of gamer who looks down on those who play Dragon Quest or Pokemon.

Pokemon has had loads of mid night launches. and the bigger ones that I've seen coverage of were full of people trading, battling, discussing tactics and breeding and what not. But people seemed more lively. I went to the Arceus event and battled a few people. I lost a fair few times because my team isn't perfect, but people were friendly and I learnt a few things.

Maybe it's just easier for hand held releases. Maybe it;s because I live in a smaller town which I never even knew did midnight launches. But I feel that the whole thing could have been more lively.

However I did pick up a copy of Tetris Party Deluxe while I was there. I felt better after that.

A team ninja game...without boobs?

New Metroid came out last week. I spent a few days playing it. In that time, I completed the main story, and then got all the items, and then cleared the bonus story. I have yet to touch hard mode, but only for my sanity.

Yes, for those who don't care much for a second run through straight away, Other M is a shortish game. I blasted through the whole thing in about 10 hours. But then Metroid games have always been about clearing them quickly. Only the fastest got to find out about Samus' gender in the first game. And there are those who may take the game at their own pace. I tend to feel better when I'm doing things faster.

Which is why Metroid Other M is so entertaining for me. In other Metroid games, it was a perfectly good strategy to stand far away from what might try and kill you and shoot it first. Here, more often than not, the enemies are more likely to ambush you or run straight into you as soon as you enter the room rather then follow a set pattern. Making contact hard to avoid. But the combat style calls for it. Your beam is weak. But the charge shot is much more powerful. But that takes time. However, if you dodge enemy attacks by tapping the d-pad and holding 1, you get a boost to your charge, making it fill almost instantly. This is the way to kill almost anything. Dodge, shoot, dodge, shoot. In later parts of the game, you have to dodge a lot more.

It's also a lot more physical. Samus has a few heavy damage moves up her sleeve when she gets the chance. If the opponent has a back that;s safe to land on, you can jump on it and fire a nice ball of plasma down it's spine. Or for the quick kill, stun it, then run towards it while again charging your beam. Samus will shove her arm cannon into the nearest available orifice and fill it with PAIN. The last bit of power you have in your arsenal is your trusty missiles.

Now, for most of the game, you're in 3rd person. This works better than you'd expect. Most of the map layout is built for d-pad navigation, and it never gets in the way of things. However, point you remote at the screen and you go into 1st person mode. Used for two things. Looking for points of interest, and blowing stuff up with missiles. In combat, this becomes a slight issue. The movement is fluid enough, but I found it tricky to dodge attacks. So I found it best to use it on stunned or far away enemies.

Now the main point of Other M is that it has an actual plot. With voice acting and emotion and all that. And this is delivered brilliantly. It starts where Super Metroid ended. The death of Mother Brain. After her report at the Galactic Federation, the people who hired her and law enforcers of the Galaxy, she gets a distress signal from a ship. Heading there, she finds the place deserted apart from a GF squad, who had arrived before her. She decides to join them and get to the bottom of what happened on the ship. Included in the squadron are two characters of note. The first, is Anthony Higgs. He's the first to recognise Samus, and the first to greet her. And old friend, he calls her princess as a jibe. He's also the token black guy. You know the one in every space adventure with marines. He also has a big gun. It shoots lasers.

The second guy is the more important one. Adam Malkovich. The plot is mostly about the relation between Samus and Adam and Samus' past. However, he instantly comes across as a dick to the player, because he's also the guy who get's to decide what weapons you use and when you get to use them. Most of the time, it's pretty reasonable. But one example stands out as pure stupidity on his part. As par with the course, there's and area with high temperatures. You have the Varia Suit, you just haven't been authorised to use it yet. So you run through three lava filled rooms, and up the inside a volcano before Adam tells you to turn it on. I'm not sure who's at fault here. Adam, who's only reason to prevent you from using some weapons is for the others safety, (which is confusing, because the Varia suit can't hurt a thing) or Samus, for taking Adams orders too seriously. It's annoying, but it's at least a change from losing all your items at the start of the game plot.

One final main change to the game is that the enemies don't drop health or missiles any more. Missiles and health are both restored at save points, or by holding the remote up and holding A. Missiles can be refiled at any time and takes about a second to do so, while health can only be restored while it's "critical" and only back up to a certain amount. While you may think this makes the game easy, you;re a sitting duck while recharging, health taking about three second to restore. More than enough time for something to hit you, cancelling the whole process. It all encourages you to not get hit in the first place. As for hard mode, this removes all expansions in the game, leaving you with only 5 missile and 99 health throughout. Best practice that dodging.

The voice acting works really well. At first, I thought Samus voice was wooden, and monotone. A sure sign of bad acting. But it soon dawned on me that the whole thing was intentional. It all adds to who she is and what kind of person Samus has become. This is one of the few good games, that also has good voice acting. The emotions really come through, and you find yourself feeling for the characters.

So, team ninja made a great Metroid game. And without the use of "jiggle physics" either. And I recommend you get it.

I know nothing about the world of music.

Last night I went to what can be best described by me as an open mic night for musicians. The only reason I attended this thing was because I have a friend who was playing and his music is good darn it. Some of the little music I actually enjoy listening to that isn't adapted from video game soundtracks or from Japan. I can't even tell you why that is. It may be his ability to cover music I'd usually find annoying (She Wolf, Telephone) and make them nice.
The night was filled mostly with guys with guitars singing about an emotion of some sort. Usually love lost or love unavailable (whiny dicks). There was a guy who had written his own humorous poetry about praying mantis sex and feline castration, which held more puns than an average conversation with my groan inducing father. There was also a guest appearance from my old battleaxe of a French teacher. Who shocked me by playing guitar and singing well. It was surreal. Only other artist that stood out was the one with the accordion. Mostly because she could play an accordion and I felt like I was in a poor area of Paris. In the past.


Also, I finally completed Portal. Oh. And Duke Nukam Forever still exists. What's up with that?

Not seen Scott Pilgrim? You suck. Surprising no one.

Edgar Wright has done it again. Another action packed comedy has hit our screens, and it lives up to the standers set by Shawn of the dead and Hot fuzz. Written by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim is a tale of love with a twist. In order for Scott to date Ramona Flowers, He must defeat her seven Evil Exes.

The graphic novels, on which the film is based on, is heavy with video game references. And these carry over to the film. From the 8 bit remix of the universal theme, to Scott Levelling up, the film is full of things for Gamers to spot and feel awesome about.

That's not to say non-gamers can't enjoy the film. There are plenty of laughs to be had for all. Most of them coming from Scott's awesome gay room-mate, Wallace. By far my favourite character from the series, he provides most of the one-liners and situational gags.

More jokes come from the style of the film. Edgar Wright has gone all out here and has perfectly transferred the comic book style to the big screen. Every blow is accompanied by a subtle "thwok" or "blam". Character introductions are done with the same black boxes used in the books, and he even went as far as to animate some of the original panels to illustrate the flashbacks.

Unfortunatly, the plot starts to take a back seat near the end of the film. The action starts to take over a bit, and those who haven't read the books or understand the concept of a 1-up, may start to get a bit confused. I however saw it with 13 other people who hadn't read the books, and they still got it. But with all the flashy special effects, you start not to care. And with 6 books being squidged into one film, it's understandable that a lot of it will get cut, and some details will be changed. It doesn't make the film any less enjoyable.

My advice for you is to go to your nearest cinema, and watch this film. It's the sort of thing that loves the big screen and surround sound effects. Watching it for the first time on a DVD/Blue-ray may lessen the effect. This is a film that everyone should enjoy.

And that includes you.

The argumentative powers of my parents flows through my veins.

Wednesday is a bug day for us brits. That wonderful creation from Bryan Lee O'Malley and Edgar Wright hits our screens. We've heard from you Americans how wonderful it is. Some of you have seen it at least three times.  Well, our wait is over. Scott Pilgrim Vs the world comes to our screens on the 25th.

The 25th also happens to be My friend Calum's Birthday. So we thought, why not celebrate these things together by going to see the film together? A whole bunch of us. At least fifteen. Some needing Adult tickets, the more needy of us qualifying for the cheaper student option. We decided that as it's the first showing of a popular film that we should book in advance by having one person buy all the tickets (me) and then everyone paying that person back (because I'm not rich).

After confirming the definite attendees and what tickets we needed Calum decided he'd attempt to book them first (as originally intended). And so our journey into the cycle of pain know as the Vue booking system began. He quickly discovered that the maximum number of tickets he could buy at one time was ten. Two short of our total. So we thought he'd book those and I'd get the other two. So after choosing the seats (right at the back, bitches) and entering all his card information he received an error that payment didn't go through and to call a 10p a minute number. Sod that we thought. So I tried to buy the tickets with my problem. After waiting for the temporary seat reservation to clear (so nobody can "snipe" your seats) I went through the process and got the same result. We both kept trying. For a while it said that the whole screening was booked.

After many fruitless attempts, I decided I'd go down to the theatre and book the tickets myself. I only lived a ten minute walk from the place, and I'd avoid the ridiculous £4.20 card handling fee. Went in, up to the counter and ordered the tickets. Adult went down fine. But when I go to the student, I was told I'd need to show all the cards that proved that all the recipients of student tickets were actually students. Had I not been brain tired at that point, I would have argued, but instead I left and headed to Calum's house. On the way there, it occurred to me that arguing was actually an option and the cashier ridiculous notion. Why not check them on the day when we'd all be there? She had a Twilight motif on her name badge. That may have put off somewhat.

Regardless, at the house of Calum, we tried the website again (three cards were rejected) I tried the phone method (rejected, but the pure novelty of a machine understanding me was fun) and so we decided to go back and argue our case.

On our way, we summed up our main points.

1. Why don't we show you them on the day?
2. What stops me from lying on the internet?
3. BUT IT'S HIS BIRTHDAY!!
4. Can I see the manager please?

I really didn't want to use number four. That line is used by customers who feel they aren't getting a good level of service and belittles the clerk. It makes us retail workers feel annoyed, especially when the manager will only do the exact same thing. So to me it was a last resort. Now my Mother is a smooth operator who knows how to argue her case, and my father has been know to lose patience in a few shops. And as we approached the cinema, rage along with the urge for a good argue burned inside me. I felt that I could wield the metaphorical argumental battleaxe that seemed to be forming in my hand with a form of tact and resonability. I was waiting to fight for these tickets. Getting ready to jump into the fray. (Something Calum was more than happy to let me do. Coward). We entered the foyer. Different girl on the tills. I could tell because of the lack of twilight on her name badge. I entered the battle. I hid my intentions, and started calmly.

"I'd like to book some tickets for Wednesday"

"Sure. What film?"

"Scott Pilgrim Vs the World"

"Sure. What type of tickets would you like? Two Adults?"

This was it. This is where it would all kick off. I mustered my pride and nerve. Looked her in the eye and said as calm as I could

"Actually, can I get 3 Adults and 9 Students please?"

"Sure. Just be aware that those with student tickets will have to show them on the day."

I was caught of guard. I had not foreseen this. The tickets were printed and given to me. I left. Still wanting to argue with something. Entirely unsure with what to do. I was kinda hurt. I wanted to at least have to point out the "can't we show them on the day" line. It would have made up for the realisation that I can further compare myself with my parents. I am however the first person to buy tickets for the first viewing of Scott Pilgrim. So I can do this.

FIRST

Also my sister came back from her month long trip around Africa today. She bought me some cider. And that sucker goes down smooth while venting rage on a blog.

The game for old gamers.

Something magical happened on Wednesday. A new game came out. A small one available for download, but one that has been anticipated by many. A game full of references to other games, designed to make every fan of the series play with a stupid grin on their faces. Scott Pilgrim arrived on PSN.

For those out of touch with the media, Scott Pilgrim is the star of Scott Pilgrim Vs the world, a film based on the books of the same name. The story follows Scott, who has fallen in love with Ramona Flowers, but in order to continue dating her, he must defeat her seven evil exes. The whole story is filled with video game refrences such as extra lives, level ups and item bonuses, and drawn in a brilliant style which kinda reminds me of Wind Waker.

Back to the game itself. It's a side scrolling fighter. You move through the sage, beating people up using whatever skills you have. At the start, you only have basic attacks, such as light and heavy blows, and the ability to pick up and throw objects, but as you level up, you gain access to better moves such as a counter, or a dodge roll. When you defeat people, their bodies provide you with some small change, which you spend at shops. Items brought can restore heath or provide extra experience but most importantly increase your stats. This is the only way to raise your defence or attack to help your survive, because at the beginning, you are weak. Unless you grind away in the first level, you'll need fast reflexes to avoid getting killed.

The design of the game is brilliant. The sprites where done by a guy known as Paul Robertson. Who? This guy.



Pretty awesome. And the entire soundtrack was done by anamanaguchi. I've mentioned them before, but it's worth saying again.



It all fits in with the style of Scott Pilgrim, and I can't imagine it any other way. The game is also packed with references to other games, such as sonics spin attack or the vegetables from super mario 2. And every time you defeat on of the evil exes, the game treats you to a very satisfying KO.

Overall, if you have a PS3, download this game. If you have a 360, wait a couple of weeks, then buy it. It's that good.

Fullmetal Alchemist.

So I finally finished watching Brotherhood last night, and let me tell you, it's awesome. Compared with the first anime, it has much more depth and emotion in it. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the first, seeing how it has many things Brother hood does not. Most of the main characters are the same, along with some of the key plot points, and If you've seen one, you may be forgiven for thinking that they're the same after watching the beginning of the other. But the stories become much different. They both start out in a similar style. Edward and Alphonse Elric are two orphans who are trying to regain their bodies after losing them trying to resurrect their mother. They plan to do this by finding a philosophers stone. And that's all I'm going to tell you about the plot. Each story has it's own different set of plot twists and their separate endings. I have to say I prefer the story from brotherhood. It just show that much more emotion from the characters and from the viewer. (If that makes any sense). Some parts made me feel sad, while others creeped me the fuck out. But again, I can't say what parts because it's a lot more fun to experience it yourself.

Brotherhood didn't have that cool fight between Edward and Mustang though. That's something awesome only the first anime has.

Religion fights are stupid.

So I came across this today.

So this guys plan is, on the 11th of September, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, that for all Christians to obtain a copy of the Quran and burn it. Now, Christians treat their bible with respect, but that's nothing compared to the level of respect that Muslims hold for their book. And his only reasoning is that "Islam is a representation of the devil". If I recall correctly, Muslims wrote in to the BBC because a Muslim character on Eastenders slammed down a copy of the Quran. I can only hope that not all Christians are as foolish as this guy, because otherwise we're gonna end up with a lot of angry Muslims.

Dragon Quest IX

I enjoy RPGs. The focus on story telling, guiding me through a great adventure with the large battles which can last for an hour and require some good old fashioned strategy. And the ones based off fantasy can include the weird and wonderful. I can stop a large stone giant from attacking me by enticing it into a tap dance, while My party members pick it's pocket. So it's with great expectations that I bought Dragon Quest IX.

My last post went into some detail of the first hour of the game, so I won't bore you too much repeating myself. For the benefit of those too lazy to look at another post, the plot is simple. You play as a celestrian who share a lot in common with angels to the point where they are the exact same thing. So that's what I'll call them. So you're and angel who's just been allowed to watch over his own town. You go about the town sorting out peoples problems and collecting the crystallised form of their gratitude called "benevolessence" Which you then offer up as a form of prayer to a great tree in the hope that it'll grow some magical fruit and summon down a train to take you to God. Or "the almighty". You achieve your goal pretty quickly, but things go wrong as they are likely to do and you are cast from "heaven" to the realm of the mortals. And now you have to get back. Simple fare as far as RPG's go. Big disaster happens, go on big quest to put everything right and probably kill the God that you worship. I haven't actually finished the game, but I'm taking a guess here.

The style is brilliantly done. Graphics have charm and the music adds to that. As the first DQ game to be made specifically for the DS, the graphics are better than the ports that were released a while back. You can personally design every member of your party, naming them and choosing their hair style. I personally went for totally ridiculous looks and wondered why everyone took me seriously. The items equipped are also shown on your character. For a while, most of my party were walking around in blue knickers. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't for perverted reasons, it was purely because they provided more protection than leather trousers. Other things have also changed. In the past games, equipment took up spaces in each characters personal inventory. This meant that they could only carry a limited number of healing items to use in battle. This time around, all equipment is dealt with in an entirely different menu, leaving your characters inventory free to fill up with useful antidotes and herbs.

The battle system follows the same turn based combat style used in previous DQ games. You see the enemy in a first person view while you select your actions, and then the game zooms out to show the battlefield while you team plunge into battle. Battle options are the usual RPG fare. A simple blow with whatever weapon you have, use an item, or use a spell or ability. Spells and abilities are dependant on the new vocation system. Many people would wonder why Dragon Quest haven't updated their battle system to Real Time, but I see that both methods have their advantages, with the turn based system relying more on careful strategy than real times quick thinking method.

At the start, you don't get a choice at what vocation your main hero has. You can recruit party members later on, but they'll be stuck with whatever vocation they have for a while. At the beginning, 6 vocations are available. Warriors excel in physical attacks and have high defence to boost, Mages are your magical offensive, taking out multiple enemies at a time, priests are your healers, martial artists are faster physical attackers with lower defence, thieves are nimble attackers, with a high chance of critical hits and the ability to steal items and minstrels are able to learn offensive and healing magic along with a few craft tricks. After playing through the game for a while, you'll get the option to change your vocation, allowing for some abilities to be used by other vocations. Whenever a character levels up in a vocation, they may earn some skill points which you spend into certain attributes. Whether you want to be better with a sword, or learn a vocation specific ability is entirely up to you and your battle style.

I've been playing Dragon Quest for about 20 hours now, and I'm nowhere near seeing all the game has to offer. With well over 100 quest to complete, a strong main story line, alchemy recipes to collect and treasure maps to follow, this game should provide you with months of entertainment. And that's without the multiplayer mode. A must have for anyone who enjoys RPGs, and a good introduction for those looking to get into them.

Nine Questing Dragons.

So Dragon Quest IX was released today. I have it, and have decided to post my first impressions as I go along. Joy.

0:00 Nice, well detailed opening sequence. As expected of a Square Enix game. This leads me to the title screen.

0:03 Character creation is simply done. I have created Issus. A tall, purple haired hero.

0:07 So, I'm a celestrian. I guard a town called angel falls. People pray to me. It's pretty awesome. I also had my first fight, but all I could do was attack. My party guest did most of the work.

0:09 I help people, I get benevolessence. Which I offer to the great tree, Yggdrasil.

0:11 Over world controls are simple enough. Y opens up the story so far, X the menu, A interacts with stuff and B allows me to perform Emotes.

0:15 These angels seem a bit high and mighty. Not a humble one in the bunch.

0:20 So we exist to praise the tree until it bears fruit. Apparently, it's really powerful fruit.

0:40 So I've spent some time wandering around the village I protect. Most people believe I exist, but there are some atheists. I go around and solve their problems. Can't use the shop though, because the shopkeeper can't see me. I want a new weapon dammit!

0:45 It seems I also help the dead find peace. The first one was easy, I just had to tell him he was dead. But I bet the next few won't be as simple.

0:55 And there we go. A giant calamity has happened and I'm now back in the mortal realm. I get treated to a nice cinematic and the open credits. Must be the end of the prologue. I'll come back again with a full review another time.

Where nerds gather, consoles will appear.

If you're a nerd, and you throw a party, chances are you invite other nerds. You spend your time playing video games while drinking heavily. And instead of raving to daft punk, you rave to Never gonna give you up or one winged angel. Competitive gaming leads to a slew of laughs and friendly insults. Single player games are played and the one playing them mocked and given unhelpful advice. But what are the best games for a good time? At a recent nerdfest I attended, three titles came up as a surprising source of entertainment.

The first was tetris party. Fun on your own to just try and beat your high score, a riot with 4 players battling to keep going the longest. One of the oldest puzzle games has become one of the greatest multiplayer games in my arsenal. Multiplayer is frantic, with junk bricks piling up from the bottom, and items such as rotation lock and speed up annoying players no end. If your the sort of person who, like me, is a wizard with the blocks while your Friends struggle to keep up, you can set a handicap. This starts you off with a random mess of blocks with no clear line down. Meaning you have to start the game clearing while everyone else gets right on to the offensive. Many hours were poured into this game. Brilliant for quick bursts. At 1200 Points, it's a bit more than other WiiWare titles, but defiantly worth it.

Bit.trip is a collection of music based games that rely on simplicity. I've not played any of the first three, but I intend to now that I've played Bit/Trip runner. This is probably what you would get if you mixed together Mario and Guitar Hero. And added a bit of mentality. You run through stages collecting gold and avoiding obstacles. A simple premise that quickly gets annoyingly hard. However, as you play, you create music. Every  time you jump over a meteor or duck under a fence, a note plays. Stringing together into a strangely attractive tune. It starts of in a simple tune, but as you collect upgrades, it advances into an advanced medley of tones. It's really something you have to see for yourself. 

With a group of people you can pass the controller around and share turns, but it quickly gets frustrating. When you hit something, you die. And you go straight back to the start and have to do it all over again. This can quickly infuriate, but it just makes completion all the sweeter. And at 800 Points, it's worth downloading.
(the menu music and credit music are done by Anamanaguchi. I recommend you check them out.)

The third game may come as a surprise. Demon's souls is a game that could be called Nintendo hard. Think Ninja Gaiden. But without ninjas. But how does a hard, single player game become a good party game? Teamwork. We created a character, a female from royal decent  , lovingly named Sweet-Tits. With one person taking the controls, we guided Sweet-Tits through peril and had her die. Countless times. But it's fun for the frantic moments you're trying to stay alive. At one point, we came to a path. We went down one and found a bridge. With a dragon breathing fire at it. Okay we thought. Not going that way. We'll die. So we went down the other path. At the end lay two Dragons. Not moving, just sat there. Not letting us past. The only choice was to dodge the flames of the single dragon and get across the bridge. So, we waited. The plan was simple. But ended up like this. "Okay guys. Turn the volume up. We'll hear the dragon before we see-" "THERE IT IS!" "AHH! FUUUUUUUU!" Everyone shouting, mass hysteria and a dragon breathing fire on us. Demon's soul in this regard is probably the most realistic in terms of survival. If you decided to face a dragon, you wouldn't last very long. And unless you have heavy armour, which we didn't, you're not going to take more that two hits from any blade. It's all about dodging and attacking. And if you do die, you lose everything. Souls are everything in this game. The currency to buy and repair weapons, learn spells and level up. And if you die, you lose all souls you had, unless you can get back you your corpse before you die. Again. Which you probably will. And you have to work all over again. This is not a game for casual gamers. This is for those who grew up on megaman. 

Hands are fun to play with.

So I stumbled upon this the other day. It's a new Gametrailers series called Pop-Fiction. And it seems to be focused on busting popular gaming myths. While the first episode on Link to the Past and the Chris Houlihan room was interesting, and the second episode on Mario jumping over the flag pole was decent enough, I already knew these things were possible, and didn't hold much novelty for me. What really got me interested was the third episode.

They claimed it was possible to play as Master Hand in Super Smash Brothers Melee.

And they proved it as well. The video showed them playing as master hand with no hint of a gameshark. So, being the interested party that I am, I tested the glitch for myself, and with utmost joy, got it to work.

The way of doing it is simple to do with two controllers, harder if you only have one. So here goes a step by step guide!

1. Make sure you have a controller in the third slot on your gamecube/wii. This will be the one that controls master hand.

2. Go to Melee mode and have all but player three choose their characters. Player 3 must be human.

3. Now open up name select for player 3 and hover over name entry. Have another cursor hover over the back button in the top right corner of the screen. The idea is to select both simultaneously so that the game tries to go back and go to the name selection screen at the same time.

4. If done correctly, you will be at the stage select screen. Choose whichever stage (Final destination will have best results) and enjoy!

If you only have one controller, step 3 is as follows. You must only have one name registered on your save, so delete all others. Hover over the slot that opens the name selection. This is the tricky part. You know how holding b long enough sends you back? Well, press A+B together, then press A quickly afterwards. Too soon will take you to name entry, to late will send you back.

Controlling master hand is done with a combination of d-pad directions and buttons. Very different from normal characters. So I've taken the liberty of stealing the moves list from the Master Hand wiki page.

Move	Name	Notes
A^	Jet	Master Hand makes a vaguely plane-like shape, then flies into the background. He attempts to fly into the player, then flies in from the right. 10-30%
A>	Ram	Master Hand flies off the screen, then appears in the background as a fist. He attempts to slam into the player, then flies back onto the stage from the top of the screen. 34%
Av	Crush	Master Hand flies off the top of the screen, then appears in the background. He attempts to flatten the player. 30%
B^	Lasers	Master Hand shoots a laser beam from each of his fingertips. Only the endpoints do damage. 9% each
B>	Gun	Master Hand makes the shape of a gun, and fires sets of bullets. He fires 1 set if above 100 HP, and three sets if below. 10% (one set) 6% (three sets)
Z ^ or >	Grab	Master Hand grabs his opponent and begins to crush them. They can escape by button mashing, but, if they fail to do so, Master Hand will toss them away. 13%/crush, then 18-20% afterwards. Depending on the direction pressed with Z, Master Hand will throw the opponent differently. If up is used, he will throw them upward behind him. If right, he will slam them into the ground.
R<	Poke	Master Hand pokes the air three times. The third poke is more powerful. 7-34%
R>	Punch	Master Hand hovers over the target, then quickly punches down. 24%
Rv	Slap	Master Hand slaps the ground. 26%
R^	Drill	Master Hand flies up, then slams down while spinning in a drill-like fashion. 1-48%
L^	Slap	Master Hand makes a slapping motion across the platform. 25%
Lv	Walk	Master Hand "walks" using his pointer and middle fingers. When he reaches his opponent, he "kicks" them. 10-30%

It's also worth noting that any game mode other than stamina becomes a no-lose situation for master hand. As he can't be knocked of the stage, and the game will crash if he does win. But other than that, playing as master hand is great fun. And I advise you to dust off your copy and give it a go.

Red steel 2 Vs Red Steel.

So I've recently come back from doing my exams, and I've been faced with a backlog of games I couldn't play because I had decided to leave my consoles at home to help me focus on studying. So now, I get to play through this backlog, and I've decided to give you my opinions on them as I play them.

First up is Red Steel 2. This is my first experience with the Wii motion plus. Nintendo's solution to the lack of 1:1  control on the Wii. And I decided that the best way to review this game is with a side to side comparison with its predecessor, Red Steel. Using a variety of categories, these games shall go head to head to determine which is better. So without any further ado, lets get going.

Story

Red Steel

You play as an American bodyguard by the name of Scott. You start of going to tell a rich Japanese businessman that you are going to marry his daughter, who also happens to be your current case. It seems that Scott couldn't help himself and decided to fall in love with his ward.  You start in a fancy hotel restaurant with your wife to be as she leads you to her father. As she goes in to talk to him however, on of the waiters opens fire on the pair of them and all hell breaks loose. You pursue them, only to get there just in time to save the father, but not the one you're probably sleeping with. Big shame for you. You then discover that her father is actually the head of one of the largest Yakuza families and you have to go forth, rescue his daughter, and restore honour to his family.

Red Steel 2

The game starts with you, an unnamed member of the Kusagari clan, being dragged across a desert location on the back of a motorcycle. After a while, you manage to shoot the person dragging you and break free. However, the leader of the thugs known as Jackals has stolen your sora katana, a powerful blade used only by your clansmen, leaving you with only a gun. As you flee, you discover that you're in one of the main Kusagari towns, and the Jackals have completely overrun the place. You soon meet up with a swordmaster, who loans you his sword, and a research specialist, you provides you with current going ons. And with you as the driving force, you plan to recover your lost blade, and take back the town.

Verdict

While Red Steel's plot can get a little overplayed at times, it feels a bit more fleshed out than Red Steel 2's line of defeating people only to learn there's someone else pulling their strings. Point to Red Steel.

RS 1-RS2 0

Gun toting fun

Red Steel

Shooting is as simple as point and press B. However, there are some slight control niggles and your aim can go a bit off. To lock on to an enemy, you have to target them and hold A. This centres them on your screen. You can then proceed to aim at their head, arms, or any other body part you desire. You can also zoom in or out (using your magical zoom eyes) by moving the remote towards the screen. However this is tricky and can get confusing. It feels as a method to further adapt the remote motion functionalities. Later this is advanced. You can either zoom in slowly, or thrust forward quickly to activate bullet time. Enemies freeze and a bar appears at the top the screen. You then have a set amount of time to set places to shoot when the bar runs out. You can either aim at heads for an instant kill, or at weapons force a surrender. This can be used as much as you like and quickly becomes abused, making gunfights easy. Not helped by the fact that before each level you can take the two weapons of your choice with full ammo, provided you've unlocked them in the shooting range.

Red Steel 2

You get 4 guns in the game. Total. However you can choose any of these guns at any time. A simple choice between a Pistol, a shotgun, a sub-machine gun and a rifle. Each can be upgraded with greater damage and faster reload time. And each gun also has a unique trait to buy. The pistol can get bullets that bounce of objects, allowing you to pull off fancy trick shots, while the shotgun can get armour destroying rounds, perfect for those well defended enemies. You have more choices with your special move as well. While you can still fire off multiple shots at once, time is only slightly slowed while you aim, so you have to keep on the move unless you like death. Another allows to to dodge to the side and flank your target. While not overly impressive as a move, as a finisher it's highly entertaining. From blowing off you opponents head with a pistol shot to sending them flying across the room with a rifle round.

Verdict

Red Steel 2 gets this one, just for the never ending joy of close up rifle blasts.

RS 1-RS2 1

Sword Play

Red Steel

Well. This is probably a massive downside for Red Steel. Fights are one on one only and go at a slow pace. You swing in either a general horizontal or vertical direction with the remote and the game responds in kind. There are a full special moves, but they're pretty annoying to pull off and are only really used in boss fights. Of which there are few. Overall the fights seem placed just to distract you from the gunfights.

Red Steel 2

This is the star in Red Steel 2. With the Wii Motion Plus, so much more can be done. Your sword mores as you do on screen, and swing strength is matched with the amount of effort you put in. Often, you'll face at least three enemies, one of which will probably be wielding a giant hammer. Some will be armoured, and the rest will be shooting at you. Fights are all out brawls. You can use your gun, but you'll soon realise it's a lot faster and a heck of a lot more fun to use your sword. Special moves are aplenty, and all can be used as finishing moves, including one where you just smash a guys skull into the ground. You can also do a 360 spin, much like in any Zelda game, dazing all those you hit. There are so many ways open to you to kill a man, that you can't possibly get bored. And it all makes you feel like an unstoppable badass. Boss fights are also much better. Fast paced fighting means you have to have fast reflexes if you want to live.

Verdict

A clear winner for Red Steel. Being able to recreate a certain Raiders of the Lost Arc scene is the icing on the cake.

RS 1-RS2 2

Magical Health Restoration

Red Steel

All you need to do is hide behind a wall for a few seconds and you're as good as new. I swear you heal faster than wolverine. This turns the game into a hide ans seek game, and your the only one hiding.

Red Steel 2

Health is still restored, but only when you get through a battle. This means you can't hide if you're taking a beating. There are health upgrades available, but these disappear quickly in battle, keeping the game challenging, even for simple encounters.

Verdict

Again, Red Steel 2 gets this, hands down.

RS 1-RS2 3

Style

Red Steel

Red Steel goes with the realistic approach, which is done reasonably well, considering the Wii's power. However, for cut scenes, It goes into a comic book style montage, which doesn't work as well. The voice overs are also badly done, often cutting of half second sections of speech. 

Red Steel 2

Red Steel 2 goes for the cel shaded look, which matches its somewhat arcade style of play nicely. The audio is easy on the ears and the voices are nicely done.

Verdict

Red Steel 2 triumphs over it's poor predecessor.

RS 1-RS2 4

So there we have it. A clear winner for Red Steel 2. And to the be honest, it's just that much more fun to play.

Introduction.

Because I suppose a blog should really have content.

I'm Paul. A large, 19 year old male who resides within the UK. I am currently a student at Aberystwyth University studying mathematics. In my spare time I play video games, watch anime and read webcomics. This blog will contain my opinions on these things, along with anything else I find on the internet and life in general. So. There you go.

Now shut up, and get in the box.