Rockers needed

Calling all budding guitarist, practicing drummers, groovy basses and rocking singers. I need to make a band. It's coming up to the semi-annual MCM Expo. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know that I went to the last MCM in May and absolutely loved it. Here's a video from it if you haven't seen it already. Now the the big thing for me at this one is the fact that they are doing a Rock Band tournament.
The only downside for me is that you have to have four people. I've tried to to do a one man band and it didn't work. I might post the picture of the end result depending on how I feel. It was a bit of a mess in the end.
But seriously. I really want to enter this. Not even to win it. Just to say I did.
So does anyone want to join me. I know that a certain person is a great singer but I won't drop his name. Just in case his not comfortable to sing in public.
But I'm alright-ish at most of the instruments and don't mind which one I end up playing.
But I do play a mean Lead Guitar. Nudge Nudge Wink Wink.
So yeah. If you want to join and you are in London for the 26 of October send me an e-mail. You can see my address in the box to the right. Go on. You know you want to.
Ice Koobs

COD 4

Yeah I know I'm a bit behind with the times but I only just starting playing COD 4 again. And no, it's not about fishing. Call Of Duty 4 (as it is better known as) is a brilliant game. While the single player can be deemed as too short. There is loads of re-playability. Another thing that get me coming back for more is the multi-player.
Now before J starts trowing the abuse my way, the local multi-player is crap. But; the on-line is astounding. I think over all the time I've play it I had only one connection error. And I've had the game for almost a year now.
But yeah. If anyone has the game, a 360 and is on-line add me. I need the practice. I've now managed to only die 30 times in a game. Believe it or not I was worst.
Ice Koobs

What the hell

Where are all these games coming from?
I turn my back for a second and then there's...let see now...at least three games I want to get.
Fable II, Warioland Shake Dimension and Fallout III.


And that not it. For some reason Nintendo have decided to release Phoenix Wright. Trials and Tribulations. What the hell? Why release it now? All the people who would have wanted to play it would have imported it (like me).

And I can't go and forget Call Of Duty: World at War. I'm not looking forward to this as much as I was to 4. The videos I've seen so far haven't raised the COD bug like before. I guess the change from the World War 2 setting to modern day was what did it for me back then.

I'm getting Fable. I love the idea of making your own unquie hero/villian/morally confused character. I think I'll do the next post on that.
Anyways I'm rambling (and that's something better left to ?J) so I think I'll head to bed now.
Toodles
Ice Koobs

Rare and thier rare releases

Oh Rare how I love you. Well more Loved.
Back in the good old days when you where Nintendo's bitch and known as RareWare you used to do so many good games.
GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64.
Oh god just thinking about them brings back good memories. Just jamming in my room playing games when I was meant to do homework. Those where the days. And that's only some of the games as well.
But ever since Microsoft bought them they just went crap. They only released one good game. Conker. Live and Reloaded. And that was only ok because it was a re-make of a game they made when they were in partnership with Nintendo, Conker's Bad Dur Day.


















All in all the games that have come out of Rare recently, where not crap, aren't anything to write home about.
Viva Pinata anyone? Nothing better then raising up some paper animal that are going to have the sweet knocked out of them. Or how about some Perfect Dark Zero. Zero was for originality btw.

I've just heard (well more taken notice) that they are planing to release a sequel to Banjo-Kazooie. I don't have a clue what to except. I loved the originals, I felt they really pushed the N64 to the limit. But I'm worried. Like I've just mentioned. It seems that the original Rareware crew either jump ship or just didn't put the same amount of effort into their games when the joint Microsoft.
They've already stepped away from the traditional platforming game by introducing some sort of vehicle building thingy. I'm not sure at all. But I do like the art direction they are going with it. Banjo always looked quite blocky in the N64 games. He still does now, but this time its on purpose, but this time he looks blocky outside of game play as well. Heres a piccy of a now and then both in game and out (it will properly explain it better then I will):





















Banjo and Kazooie on the box cover then... ...and how they look now.


I prefer Banjo back then but I like Kazooie as she is now (yes Kazooie was and is a girl). But the new design is explained by the developers as a necessity. Something how they wanted to keep the original style of the game. Well the original in game style. Again a piccy will better explain it:















Now I can see what they are getting at. I played the game more then looked at the box. And banjo was very blocky before. But that was to be excepted. What do you except with only so many polygons? Supposedly there are meant to be thousands of polygons on the new Banjo's left nose alone.
But here I am talking about the two banjo as if they are different ones. They are one and the same. The game is set 10 years after the last outing on N64. The same amount of time between releases in the real world. This also means that Rare can't do do there signature "Push back the release date" that they are famous of. Maybe that's why the games they have produced for Microsoft have been not the best they could of been.
Then again it could be just me.
I am and I'm not looking forward to this new incarnation of the Bird and Bear duo. I am because as I've said, I loved the originals. I'm not because of Rares latest track record. If it turns out to be good then one game I would like to see them re-do is Jet Force Gemini. But I'll talk more about that game in another post.
Ice Koobs

Mother F*****s

I've had a terrible weekend.
On Friday night I got Mugged.
They took quite a few of my things.
They kicked my head a couple of times.
But worst of all. The bastards video recorded it.
So. If any of you see some wimpy white guy get his ass kicked by 3 black guys (might only be 2 as one was recording) on YouTube or anywhere on the net please drop me a line.
I wanna make those wankers pay.

Oh sorry for the excessive swearing, but right now this is my only outlet.
A bruised Koobs

Wii LAN adapter

This thing has made me fall in love with the Wii online capability. It wasn't my connection in the long run. It was my Wii's Wi-Fi ability. God knows why it screwed up.
Anyway, I just got this little plastic block of happiness today and wow what a difference it makes.
I went onto the Wii Shopping Chanel and got on right away. No waiting, no nothing (not even Wii points to spend).
But after that the big test came. A game. But what game should I try? I wonder.
I believe that this is going to be the last chance Super Smash Bros Brawl has to make a good impression.



So what do I think of the online now. Well, its kinda embarrassing to say this after knocking it so much but I'm giving it a 3/5 now. It would of scored higher if it weren't for the blasted Friend Codes and the fact that there is no voice chat. I also don't like the fact that because of the anonymity of it all that it almost feel like your playing the computer on hard mode. But there is no lag. That is the most important thing. At least at the moment.

So with that new score in place how does it look for Brawl overall?
Well it looks like this:

Gameplay	4/5	Simple and easy to learn. But can get repetitive in signal player. And clones don’t do it for me.
Multi-player	4/5	You won’t be able to get a better multi-player game. Would be 5/5 if it weren’t for the…
On-line	3/5	...those damn Friend Codes ruin the fun.
Graphics & Sound	4/5	Beautifully renderer and clear as a summer’s morning (well as a summer morning somewhere other then England). It’s a shame the music wasn’t orchestrated.
Overall	75%	Just so you understand 0% is “Crap”, 50% is “Average” and 100% is “Wow”. Only a dew games deserve a “Wow” and this game is definitely not one of them.

So there you have it. Are you happy now? =0)
Koobs

Super Smash Bros Melee...Finally

I said I'll do it and I did. Now leave me alone for a while. I need some sleep. ZZZzzzzz....
Oh here's the review btw:

So what's it about?
I doubt that there are many people that don't know what Smash Bros is. But I know how annoying it can be to try a get information about some things so I'm going to set a little background down about the game.
The game itself is the third installment of the smash bros series and was the most anticipated releases for the Wii this year. Boasting more characters, bigger stages and even on-line game play. It was going to raise the bar set by its predecessor.
The basics of the game are simple.
Take a Nintendo charter. You have a long list to chose from. But worth while going thought. With classic such as Mario and Pickachu. To classics such as Pit from Kid Iccurus or Mr Game & Watch.


Now as with all fighting games there are clones. Clones meaning different character, same moves. The best example I can think of off the top of head is Ryu and Ken from the original Street Fighter games. It was so bad that not only did they have the same moves their bodies where the same as well. You could only tell them apart from there heads and the colour of their clothes. The worst culprit for this in Smash Bros is the Star Fox team. Fox, Flaco and Wolf. They are all the same. Why waste space with Wolf when you could of put someone like Kystle in? That way you are keeping someone from the game but is likely to have a different move set. Just a thought.

Now all this talk about the moves leads nicely on to how to pull them off. And in true Nintendo style it's kept really simple. Now each charter has 8 basic moves that you can pull off. This involves the use of the A and B button and what direction you tap on the control stick.
The A is used for what are called smashes. In other words punching, kicking, clawing and biting. The B button are the special moves which are unique to each character. Well them and their clone. For example Mario basic B move (standing still and tapping B) is a fire ball where Yoshi's is to stick his toung out and shallow the enemy. Oh Yoshi you saucy thing you.

Now not wanting to have just another fighting game, Nintendo have thrown in another feature to make things interesting. You don't lose the match based on having a set bar health depleted. This doesn't mean that you can let your self get hit. Oh no no no. The more you get hit the higher your health % goes up and the further you get sent flying. Up until you're sent sailing off the screen. To which you then lose a life. But this opens up a whole new set up. How embarrassing would it be if you managed to get your friends damage up to 200% (Most people get knock out of the arena at around 150%) only to have them pull a reversal and wham bam straight to the moon. I would say it would be very.

What I expect.
Now as you can guess from all these words I'm very into Smash Bros. I've been counting every second for Brawl to be released in the U.K. Every unantagonizing second. I wanted to know how they have improved on and added to a game, that in my eyes is a very polished. Now the biggest feature I've been looking forward to is of course the on-line gameplay. If you where to ask me a couple of years ago if this was important then I would have said "No". But back then I lived close to all my friends and we would all have free time and be able to go around to each others houses. Now we work. Oh how it sucks. Can't buy games with no money. Need to work to get money. Can't play games because we're at work all the time. The cycle is vicious. Anyway back to the point. Now on-line gameplay is essential for any multi-player game. Now with Smash Bros you can play the single player game but it is predominately a Multi-player affair.
If Nintendo nail on-line play on the head then will have a contender for Game of the year. If they don't then we'll be looking at Super Smash Bros Melee 1.5. Better graphics, better sound but all in all the same game.

Graphics and Sound
Now the graphics are far superior to the originals. At first I didn't notice, but on one of my friend's request (Yeah I'm talk about you J), I went and played Malee right after Brawl. Damn. You don't realize how your brain make a happy memory even better. Just so you can see heres some comparisons I found on the net.
The most noticeable thing is Link's (the dude in green) hair. Well at least to me it is.
The sound, even though it is not orchestrated is great. You will hear the some tunes and you stop humming them for days. I know this is a fact because every one at work gives my evils the moment I start any type of humming now. Over all the Music and Graphics are crisp and clear. What more could you want?

On-Line
Now you might of noticed that I left this part till last. I felt that it was necessary because Brawl is a good game...Well. It is if you can get your friends around to play it that is.
It rested on the on-line functionally of the game to prove that Nintendo can hold it's own in the gaming world at present. Sadly, as you can properly tell from my previous comment, it didn't.
(You will have to trust me one this. It actually hurts to say it. Being a Nintendo fanboy and all.)
The first reason (there is more then one) why on-line sucks do-do is the lag. A 90 year old granny, that has arthisits in all her joints and has riggo-bloody-mortis setting in because she is so close to death is quicker then this game on-line.
Take this as an example of the lag. One of my friends live on the other side of London from me. I would say it just about 10 miles or so. We couldn't connect. Another problem we had was those blasted Friend Codes. And that's the second reason why the game fails in the on-line market.
Its not easy trading codes. There's no guaranty hat both parties will add each other. And they are so long as well. Why can't Nintendo make set User Names?
Now I've have competed in 3 matches that were bearable. I try to play on-line 40 times. That means that I have a 7.5% of getting a decent Brawl going. =0(
And before any one tries to say my connection must have aids or something. It doesn't. My 360 plays perfectly well online, even while my mum is surfing using the wi-fi connection.

Overall
I was expecting so much but received so little for a game that had such a delayed release. You would think all the bugs would have been iron out. But it seems that they have been left in. After the brilliant Super Mario Galaxy, I belived that Nintendo were going to look after there own brands. However after playing Mario Kart and Brawl I doubt that very much. The fan boy in me wants to give in and say "Yeah this game Kick Arse" 10 out of 10!" But I can't lie. Not even on Nintendo behalf. Sadly it's more "Dude. This game Sucks Ass. 6 out of 10."
If you have the money to spare then it's a ok addition to your collection. Other wise save it for a rainy day.

Gameplay	4/5	Simple and easy to learn. But can get repetitive in signal player. And clones don’t do it for me.
Multi-player	4/5	You won’t be able to get a better multi-player game. Would be 5/5 if it weren’t for the…
On-line	0/5	L…A…G
Graphics & Sound	4/5	Beautifully renderer and clear as a summer’s morning (well as a summer morning somewhere other then England). It’s a shame the music wasn’t orchestrated.
Overall	60%	Just so you understand 0 is “Crap”, 5 is “Average” and 10 is “Wow”. Only a dew games deserve a “Wow” and this game is definitely not one of them.