Archive for the ‘Asides’ Category

Aside: Holiday Gaming Schedule

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008

Yes, I’m sad, I have a ‘Holiday Gaming Schedule’. It’s not laminated or anything. Far from it. In fact, all it is is a vague list of games floating around in my head, with a vague time frame to play them in. It goes a little something like this:

Finish Fallout 3 by Christmas as I will then have two new games to get stuck into; Tomb Raider Underworld, and - a bit of an oldie - Grand Theft Auto IV (both from my rock n’ roll Gran). My priority lies with Tomb Raider, being a big fan of the series. I’m not sure how long it will take me to complete it, but I point blank refuse to reference a guide for those inevitably sticky points, so it should hopefully take me up to my birthday, which is nearing the end of January.

By this point I can either console my lack of gaming birthday presents with Grand Theft Auto IV, or drop enough hints to secure myself a JRPG or two (Infinite Undiscovery and/or The Last Remnant would both put a smile on my face). Whatever games I don’t get round to playing immediately will be confined to The Big Drawer of Gaming for a rainy Sunday. Sounds like a plan, right? What’s your Christmas gaming agenda?

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Aside: NXE Hiccups

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Since installing NXE 9 days ago, I’ve encountered a few abnormalities with my Xbox. Actually, one of them isn’t so much an abnormality as it has happened to me on countless occasions before, but it seems to be occurring that little bit more often since updating.

Firstly, my 360 has frozen on me twice since downloading NXE. Luckily both times have been while exploring the new Dashboard, fortunately avoiding me to lose a sickening amount of progress on Fallout 3. It tends to happen when I’m bringing up the Guide, for whatever reason.

Secondly, and this is a new one to me, I’m sometimes having to sign in to my profile twice. Odd! My Xbox isn’t set to automatically log me in as CandyStoreRock due to an unfortunate incident with Pro Evo earlier this year, which tarred my profile with an unwanted 0/1000 points. But when I select my profile, log onto Xbox Live, look at my Friends List to see who’s online, I’ll suddenly be signed out having to repeat the process.

I’d be naive not to expect hiccups here and there with the launch of NXE, so is anyone else having similar problems?

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Aside: Nintendo Wii’s Genius Marketing

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Surely you’ve all seen a Nintendo Wii advert or two? Especially in the run up to Christmas, I’ve noticed 360 and Wii adverts have become particularly prolific on TV. The Xbox 360 adverts irritate the hell out of me, sure, but the Wii adverts take the crown for annoyance by a long shot.

All Wii adverts share the same principles; an overly zealous family gathered around a 50″ plasma, with shiny wooden floors and beige furniture, and the father kitted out in a perfectly knitted cashmere sweater. Oh, and all sporting ludicrously bright smiles seeing as they’re the happiest they’ve ever been.

Wii Music is the king of annoying Nintendo Wii adverts. Have you seen this monstrosity? I hunted high and low for the video, but can only find the other UK advert for Wii Music, which is still bad but not even close in terms of bugging the hell out of me. It makes me hate the Wii even more, which I never knew was possible.

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Aside: Far Cry 2 Almost Slipped Under My Radar

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Wow, I almost didn’t give a second look to Far Cry 2, but with all the fantastic reviews that have been cropping up it’s hard not to take notice. Then again, today I’ll be picking up Fable II, then it’s christmas just around the corner with Gears 2, Fallout 3 and Underworld all on my wish list. And I’ve still got Condemned 2 to begin, with Infinite Undiscovery on my to-buy list. Argh!

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