Current collection

So I've taken some pictures of what I currently have, so that I can see my "starting point" and also hopefully be able to chart my progress as I get more and more of the stuff I've listed! There's not that much so far, a good deal of Gamecube games but not so many NES or SNES, and I've not bothered picturing consoles or loose carts, so here we go!

NES




Not pictured are a fair few loose carts.


SNES/N64



Not pictured are a fair few loose carts and Another World.

GBA



Not pictured, once again, are a good deal of loose carts. Picture is a bit squashed but click on it and you should see it properly!


Gamecube




So that's most of my Nintendo collection so far, with hopefully more to come eventually. I didn't bother with my consoles, or newer titles such as Wii and 3DS, so there is a bit more not pictured :)

Games

I've decided to make a list of my biggest wants with regard to my games collection, and focus on the NES, SNES, and Gamecube. Below is a preliminary list, if I think of anything else I'll add it, and I've given myself a budget of £50 a month to spend on titles, as well as allowing myself to eBay stuff to make extra funds whenever I get the chance ;)

I'll take pictures of my current collections and put them up shortly, but without further ado, here is the list!


NES:

Castlevania 1, 2, 3
Final Fantasy 1
Kung Fu
Soccer
Tennis
Double Dragon 1, 2, 3
Metal Gear 1, 2
Batman
The Legend of Zelda
Metroid
Ice Climbers
Balloon Fight
The New Zealand Story
Mega Man 1, 2, 3, 5, 6
Marble Madness
Yoshi's Cookie
Mike Tyson's Punchout!
Super Mario Bros. 2, 3
Probotector
Rad Racer
Gumshoe
Dr. Mario
Duck Tales!
Bionic Commando
Donkey Kong Classics
Donkey Kong 3
Tetris 2
R.O.B with Gyromite and Stack Up
Duck Hunt
Ghostbusters 2
Time Lord
Turtles 2: The Arcade Game
Shadow Warriors
Urban Champion
Hogan's Alley
Clu Clu Land
Paperboy
Excitebike
Gradius
Pro Wrestling


SNES:

Secret of Mana
Illusion of Time
Secret of Evermore
Super Probotector
Super Empire Strikes Back
Super Star Wars
Sunset Riders
Turtles in Time
Syndicate
Theme Park
Prince of Persia
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Legend of the Mystical Ninja
Aladdin
Mickey Mania
Super Mario World
Earthworm Jim 2
Mega Man 7, X
Earthbound
Final Fantasy III
Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, 3
Zombies Ate My Neighbours
Super Tennis
Super Punch-out!
Shadowrun
Mario Paint
Super Bomberman 1, 2, 3
Super Pang
Alien 3
Cannon Fodder
Mortal Kombat 1, 2, 3
Super Street Fighter 2
DOOM


Gamecube


Animal Crossing
Beyond Good and Evil
Chibi-Robo!
Donkey Konga 2
F-Zero GX
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Freedom Fighters
Killer7
The Legend of Zelda : Four Swords Adventures
Mario Party 5, 6 and 7
Mega Man X Command Mission
Metroid Prime 2
Pikmin 2
Pokemon Channel
Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness
Resident Evil Code Veronica X
Super Monkey Ball 2
Super Monkey Ball Adventure


So, I have £50 to spend this month, and some eBay auctions already on the go to add to that pot. More to follow! :)

Some recent films

Just thought I'd quickly list a few more films I've seen in the past month or so, and stick a little rating next to each.

50/50 (2011) - 7/10
Hugo (2011) - 5/10
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) - 7/10
Uncle Buck (1989) - 6/10
Drive (2011) - 7/10
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) 6/10
Moneyball (2011) - 7/10
Bridesmaids (2011) - 6.5/10
Christmas Vacation (1989) - 5/10
The Santa Clause (1994) - 5/10
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) 7/10
Cape Fear (1962) - 7/10
The Hustler (1961) - 6.5/10
Catch Me If You Can (2002) - 7/10
Inside Man (2006) - 5.5/10
Warrior (2011) - 6/10
The Ides of March (2011) - 6/10
Midnight In Paris (2011) - 6/10
The Descendants (2011) - 6.5/10
The Help (2011) - 7/10
Poltergeist (1982) - 6/10

How the 3DS reignited my love for new Nintendo

At Christmas time I was surprised to find that I had been given a Nintendo 3DS, and as the weeks have gone on it's clear that it's been a very, very pleasant surprise.

I had gotten a DS and a Wii sometime before but never really played them much, there wasn't really anything on there that got me excited for whatever reason. Sure there were some obviously good games, but nothing that compelled me to turn either machine on to sit there and play with it for hours on end. This isn't the case with the 3DS though, I've been compelled not only to sit and play this machine, but also to take it with me everywhere I go. What follows is a list of some reasons why the 3DS is such a damn good machine:

1) StreetPass. This is the reason that I take my 3DS everywhere I can. When two 3DS systems come into range with each other they will interact and send each other data (assuming they have wi-fi turned on and content sharing enabled), and their Mii will appear in your StreetPass plaza. There are two games in the StreetPass plaza that utilise this feature: StreetPass Quest and Puzzle Swap. In StreetPass Quest, your Mii is captured and locked up in a cage at the top of a castle, and you are tasked with clearing rooms of enemies on the way there through turn-based combat. Whenever you have a StreetPass hit with someone, they will appear in StreetPass Quest as a hero and will aid you in battle. In Puzzle Swap, you have a variety of puzzles to complete, 1 tile at a time, and each time you StreetPass with someone, you can choose 1 puzzle tile from their collection to add to your own. You don't have to get StreetPass hits to play these games, though, the pedometer in the 3DS counts your steps and gives you coins based on how many you take, which you can trade for puzzle tiles or characters to help you in StreetPass Quest. As well as the StreetPass plaza games, you can get content for 3DS games from StreetPass including items in Super Mario 3D Land, have Street Fighter characters battle or items and levels in Resident Evil: Revelations. Even without playing the games it is exciting in itself to get StreetPass hits, each time I'm eager to find out what each Mii is like, and where they're from in the world. Every time I meet a Mii from a new country it's great to check out their country's map on the StreetPass map, most have been from Scotland so far but there's always that hope when the green LED indicating a StreetPass hit comes on!

2) Augmented Reality and FaceRaiders. These are more like tech-demos than actual games, to my mind, but they're impressive none the less. A set of Augmented Reality cards come with every 3DS, and using them with the 3DS camera allows you to play a series of games on your kitchen table, or use character cards to place your favourite characters in real life locations in a variety of poses, and take a picture. FaceRaiders takes a picture of your face and maps it onto a head shape, creating little bouncing head enemies with your face that you have to point the 3DS at and shoot. Fun for a little while, and good as a quick and fun way to show your relatives how the 3D works and looks.

3) The games. The 3DS had something of a slow start when it came to quality titles, with not too much to shout about at launch, but now there are a slew of great games to get stuck into, and a good deal more to come. I would recommend that any 3DS owner buy Super Mario 3D Land, probably the best game on the system. Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Street Fighter IV, Mario Kart 7 and Resident Evil Revelations are also well worth the money. I've wanted to get Pilotwings Resort as well, but haven't found my way to getting that one yet. As for what's to come, it's looking good with Kid Icarus Uprising, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D, Paper Mario 3D, Luigi's Mansion 2, Animal Crossing and an announced Super Mario 2D title to come.

Obviously there are also some bad points to the 3DS, the biggest of which I would say is the pricing of Nintendo's e-Shop, with asking prices of around £5 for some Game Boy games which hardly seems like an attractive price at all. For the most part though, the 3DS is a cracking machine and I would recommend it to anyone interested in handheld gaming.

More to come, saw some more films I'll give a quick rating eventually.

Some more films

Watched a few more films recently, just going to quickly list and rate them.

Some Like It Hot - 7/10
The Exorcist - 7.5/10
Rocky II - 6/10
Altered States - 5/10
History of Violence - 3/10
Barry Lyndon - 6/10
Ed Wood - 4/10
Turkish Delight - 5/10
The Wrestler - 6/10
Born on the 4th of July - 6/10
Source Code - 7/10

If you want me to elaborate on any, just say so in comments. Also, feel free to recommend away!

The Simpsons episode titles.

I was thinking about the Simpsons the other day, as I often do, and inevitably depressed myself thinking about how awful it had become. It's quite clearly not the Simpsons anymore, it's a steaming pile of shit masquerading as such. I tend to avoid watching new episodes these days, and if there are reruns on TV I check what episode it is before watching it in order to safeguard myself against sinking even further into a Simpsons-being-shit-now depression. I've noticed that even the episode titles get worse as you get into later seasons...

If you take early season episode titles, you'll generally find that they're simple, and you can get an idea of the episode's content from there, such as Marge vs. the Monorail, Homer Goes to College and Bart Gets an Elephant. On occasion you'll find a pun or pop-culture reference, such as in One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish and A Star is Burns, but still these are clever titles and still reflect the episode's content, as well as being few and far between. However, once you get to about season 9, you start to see more and more pun and pop-culture based titles, and they just get worse and worse as the seasons continue.

Let's look at the titles of the episodes of the latest full season to finish, season 22:

465. MABF21 (SI-2121 / S22E01) Elementary School Musical
466. MABF17 (SI-2117 / S22E02) Loan-a Lisa
467. MABF18 (SI-2118 / S22E03) MoneyBART
468. MABF16 (SI-2116 / S22E04) Treehouse of Horror XXI
469. MABF20 (SI-2120 / S22E05) Lisa Simpson, This Isn't Your Life
470. NABF01 (SI-2201 / S22E06) The Fool Monty
471. NABF02 (SI-2202 / S22E07) How Munched is that Birdie in the Window?
472. MABF22 (SI-2122 / S22E08) The Fight Before Christmas
473. MABF19 (SI-2119 / S22E09) Donnie Fatso
474. NABF03 (SI-2203 / S22E10) Moms I'd Like to Forget
475. NABF04 (SI-2204 / S22E11) Flaming Moe
476. NABF05 (SI-2205 / S22E12) Homer the Father
477. NABF06 (SI-2206 / S22E13) The Blue and The Gray
478. NABF07 (SI-2207 / S22E14) Angry Dad: The Movie
479. NABF08 (SI-2208 / S22E15) The Scorpion's Tale
480. NABF09 (SI-2209 / S22E16) A Midsummer's Nice Dream
481. NABF10 (SI-2210 / S22E17) Love is a Many Strangled Thing
482. NABF11 (SI-2211 / S22E18) The Great Simpsina
483. NABF12 (SI-2212 / S22E19) The Real Housewives of Fat Tony
484. NABF13 (SI-2213 / S22E20) Homer Scissorhands
485. NABF14 (SI-2214 / S22E21) 500 Keys
486. NABF15 (SI-2215 / S22E22) The Ned-liest Catch

As you can see, pretty much three quarters of the titles are either puns or pop-culture references. As far as I can tell, the ones that aren't are Treehouse of Horror, Homer the Father, The Blue and the Gray, Angry Dad: The Movie, The Scorpion's Tale and 500 Keys, and even then I'm not 100% certain with some of them. The puns in the titles just seem to exist for the purpose of being puns, it's as if the writers think that if they can shoehorn a character name into a film/tv/book/otherpopculturething title or change it slightly it counts as a clever episode title. None of these are clever at all, and don't really give you much of an idea what's going to happen in the episode. I will concede that they are effective in conveying what you should expect from the episode, which is that it'll be an affront to everything classic Simpsons stood for, and not worth you or anyone else's time in the least.

Compare this to season 3 episode titles:

36. 7F24 (SI-224 / S03E01) Stark Raving Dad
37. 8F01 (SI-301 / S03E02) Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington
38. 7F23 (SI-223 / S03E03) When Flanders Failed
39. 8F03 (SI-303 / S03E04) Bart the Murderer
40. 8F04 (SI-304 / S03E05) Homer Defined
41. 8F05 (SI-305 / S03E06) Like Father, Like Clown
42. 8F02 (SI-302 / S03E07) Treehouse of Horror II
43. 8F06 (SI-306 / S03E08) Lisa's Pony
44. 8F07 (SI-307 / S03E09) Saturdays of Thunder
45. 8F08 (SI-308 / S03E10) Flaming Moe's
46. 8F09 (SI-309 / S03E11) Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk
47. 8F10 (SI-310 / S03E12) I Married Marge
48. 8F11 (SI-311 / S03E13) Radio Bart
49. 8F12 (SI-312 / S03E14) Lisa the Greek
50. 8F14 (SI-314 / S03E15) Homer Alone
51. 8F16 (SI-316 / S03E16) Bart the Lover
52. 8F13 (SI-313 / S03E17) Homer at the Bat
53. 8F15 (SI-315 / S03E18) Separate Vocations
54. 8F17 (SI-317 / S03E19) Dog of Death
55. 8F19 (SI-319 / S03E20) Colonel Homer
56. 8F20 (SI-320 / S03E21) Black Widower
57. 8F21 (SI-321 / S03E22) The Otto Show
58. 8F22 (SI-322 / S03E23) Bart's Friend Falls in Love
59. 8F23 (SI-323 / S03E24) Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?

Quite frankly, there's an astounding difference here. It's all short and sweet, and where there are pop culture and puns, they're used cleverly, as in Stark Raving Dad and Black Widower, a play on Black Widow. Where pop culture references are used, it's in such a way that someone can understand the title and how it relates to the episode even without having seen the source material.

All I know is in 20 years time, I'll still want to watch Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington, but I'll have forgotten that The Ned-liest Catch ever existed. Well, one can dream...

Even quicker film ratings

A bunch of films I've watched in the past few months and quick ratings. Might expand on some later.

The Sting (1973) - 7/10
The Verdict (1982) - 6/10
The Goonies (1985) - 8/10
Brief Encounter (1945) - 7/10
No Country for Old Men (2007) - 7.5/10
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) - 6/10
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) - 6/10
Bad Teacher (2011) - 3/10
The Fox and the Hound (1981) - 6/10
Great Expectations (1946) - 7/10
Milk (2008) - 5/10
Jaws (1975) - 8/10
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1978) - 9/10
Moon (2009) - 7.5/10
Ladykillers (1955) - 6.5/10
Zombieland (2009) - 3/10
Kes (1969) - 6/10
The Untouchables (1987) - 7/10
The Bridges of Madison County (1995) - 5/10
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) - 7/10
Super-8 (2011) - 5.5/10
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) - 5/10
The Departed (2006) - 6/10
One Day (2011) - 2/10
The Inbetweeners Movie (2011) - 5/10
Horrible Bosses (2011) - 4/10
The Lion King (1994) - 8/10
Halloween (1978) - 8/10
Escape from New York (1981) - 6/10

Quick film ratings inc. older films!

Been a while since I last updated this, but in that time I've watched more than a few films (only one in the cinema though), so I'll just say a quick word and give a quick rating to all the ones I can remember.

The Lives of Others (2006)
I thought this film was fabulous, and I think this is largely thanks to the performance of Ulrich Muhe, who plays the Stasi employee who listens in to the lives of suspected enemies of the state and ends up becoming attached to a certain couple he is spying on. It's just a film you have to see

Rating 9/10

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
This film I decided to watch because of its reputation, and I have to say I was somewhat disappointed. I very much enjoyed the courtroom segment in which Brock Peters gave a great performance as the black man wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Tom Robinson. Other than that though I felt the film somewhat dragged a bit, I wasn't really drawn into the stories of Scout and Jem's childhood, and this was the main focus of the story. Gregory Peck was very good as well, but again his character Atticus Finch wasn't the focus, Scout was, so although I'd like to have seen more of him outside of homelife, but the story didn't allow for that. All in all, not a bad film, but not anywhere near as good as I was led to believe.

Rating 6/10

The Searchers (1956)
This was another one I decided to watch on the basis of reputation, and also because I've very much enjoyed a fair few westerns I've watched but have never really watched much of John Wayne, and this is meant to be his best. Firstly, I have to say that this film looks absolutely phenomenal, I got it on Blu-Ray and was blown away by just how magnificent some of the shots look. Quite simply the film is beautifully shot, but sadly I felt the film fell down in other areas. It seemed to just drag on for me, I could never really get engaged in the story and I thought it went on longer than it had to. Once again, a film with a great reputation that's let me down.

Rating 6/10


L.A Confidential (1997)
This was another one I hadn't seen before, saw it cheap on Blu-Ray and decided to give it a bash. It wasn't a great film, but it was fairly good. I enjoyed seeing the case unravel but some parts of the story left a fair bit to be desired, like how someone could manage to cover up killing as many people as happens in the film, and I wasn't particularly a fan of Kim Basinger's role, or any of the parts with her. Danny DeVito's voice overs were fairly irritating as well.

Rating 7/10

Apocalypse Now (1979)
I had seen this film before but it was a good few years ago, so watching it again was like watching it for the first time since I had forgotten nearly everything about it. I thought the film was good first time round, and better the second. Some of the sequences look truly breathtaking, like real war-zones. The acting performances are also good, Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando put in very good performances, but Robert Duvall does the best job as Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore, delivering his famous "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" line. The only character I didn't like was the surfer character, Lance Johnson, who seemed to serve no purpose but to irritate me with his idiocy. Although the film lasts over 2 hours it's not one that'll lose your interest, it's paced well and engaging to the end.

Rating 8/10

Updates: The Hangover Part Two, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and more

I've a few updates to make over the next few days, I've watched a fair few more films and haven't written about them yet. In this post I'll just give my thoughts on two films I saw in the cinema in the past week: Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part Two.

Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides

The 4th in the series of Pirates of the Caribbean films, On Stranger Tides' focus is Captain Jack Sparrow's quest to reach the fountain of youth, which is also the object of three other parties' desire. The Spanish, the British (whose expedition is captained by Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa character) and Blackbeard (played by Ian McShane).

I'll admit that I had higher hopes for this film than I did the past two sequels, as this film promised to be, like the first, a self-contained story that will be resolved by the films end rather than the 5 hour mash of storylines and subplots PotC 2 and 3 were, which were a load of old bollocks.

Sadly, while this film is better than the other sequels, it still falls well short of the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, which remains the only good film in the franchise. The problem I found with this film is that I simply did not find it at all engaging. I quickly grew tired of drawn out action sequences involving Jack Sparrow escaping from numerous perils, and some of the choices made my characters in the film made absolutely no sense. For example, in the first scene on Blackbeard's ship it's quickly established that his crew are barely more than slaves, and detest working under him, and yet later in the film they are quite willing to put their lives at stake fighting for him. The mermaid subplot made absolutely no sense either, and once again there were invulnerable henchmen, and silly magical powers.

Really it's not worth seeing this film, I never will again.

4/10 (for the purposes of comparison, I would rate the first PotC as 7/10, and the others as 3/10)

The Hangover Part Two

If you're wondering what the plot of the Hangover Part Two is, just think of the first one but change "fucked up in Las Vegas" to "fucked up in Bangkok". It is exactly the same, save for a change in location, a change in who is getting married, and a change in who they manage to lose. So it's Stuart (Ed Helms, the bespectacled dentist) who's getting married this time, and ends up getting accidently fucked up with Phil (Bradley Cooper) and Alan (weird beardy man Zach Galifianakis), and losing his bride-to-be's younger brother Teddy.

The film is watchable, but fairly boring and predictable, especially if you've seen the first. The ending was fairly bollocks as well, at least the part about Stuart's father-in-law-to-be deciding he doesn't hate him anymore, which, given the past 48 hours in the film, would see any doctor declaring him legally insane.

All in all, it's exactly the same as the first film, just in a different place and not as funny.

5/10 (first film would be 7/10)




There are a few other films I've watched as part of the 30 Day Film Challenge that I haven't gotten around to writing about yet, these are:

3. Das Leben der Anderen (the Lives of Others) (2006)
4. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
5. The Searchers (1956)

2. Network

Sidney Lumet's 1976 film Network follows a fictional television network called UBS and its quest for ratings and profitability. It focuses on its upturn in fortunes thanks to soon-to-be fired newsreader Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and his outbursts on his news show. At first the network seeks to punish Beale for his indiscretions but the public take to his ranting and tune in in great numbers to see more.

I think the film shows very well the ruthlessness of its TV executive characters, who will stop at nothing to get higher ratings and earn more money. However, I wasn't particularly impressed with all the overblown, shouty speeches in the film. Every character seems to have one each. It makes sense with Beale's character, since he has clearly lost his mind and is prone to ranting, but it was tiring listening to the weighty rhetoric routinely delivered throughout the film by all and sundry. It was an interesting film, but I was very disappointed.

6.5/10

30 Day Film Challenge

I'll be away for the weekend, but afterwards I plan on continuing the 30 Day Film Challenge proper. Second film will probably be Network (1976). Stay tuned!

Paths of Glory

1. Paths of Glory

I haven't really got the will to write a proper review here, the film is about 3 soldiers in the French Army during World War I who have been charged with cowardice after an impossible attack has failed, and their commanding officer who tries to defend them in court. The film was very good, I found the generals to be detestable, and the anti-war message was very powerful. Still though, I wasn't as impressed by it as some seem to be. A very good film yes, but I didn't feel it merits the level of praise it has gathered.

8/10

Not sure what the next film will be, maybe Solaris.

30 Day Film Challenge

Just going to try a 30 Day Film Challenge of a different type, there's one floating about on Facebook which asks you to post a film a day meeting certain criteria (e.g. Your Favourite Film, Film Starring Your Favourite Actor etcetc) but I'm going to pick 30 films I've never seen before and try and watch one every day. Here is a preliminary list of 30, in no particular order:

1. Paths of Glory
2. The Best Years of Our Lives
3. Patton
4. Vertigo
5. The French Connection
6. Barry Lyndon
7. Solaris
8. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
9. 8 1/2
10. The Seventh Seal
11. Rashomon
12. The Lives of Others
13. Once Upon a Time in the West
14. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
15. The Pianist
16. The Sting
17. The Departed
18. To Kill a Mocking Bird
19. Double Indemnity
20. Brazil
21. Psycho
22. The Wages of Fear
23. Heartbreak Ridge
24. The Bridge on the River Kwai
25. You Can't Take It With You
26. La Dolce Vita
27. The Magnificent Seven
28. Treasure of the Sierra Madre
29. The African Queen
30. Touch of Evil

I'll watch Paths of Glory tonight, that one's for definite, but the others might change. I'll try and post every day with a short review detailing what I think about each picture, although it may just end up with a rating and not much else.

Pain in the arse...

My Amiga 500 came the other day BUT the guy forgot to send the mouse with it! So essentially I can't really use it until he sends it. I dropped him a line about it and he's sending a couple more games with it as a kind of sweetener so that's not so bad I suppose, but still I'd like to have been playing with it by now!

Back to uni tomorrow, I'll pop in to a couple of shops before my lecture I expect, hopefully I'll come back with some goods to post here ;)

Happy New Year!

It's a New Year! Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011 and so on. I don't have any resolutions really, except for the resolution to buy more old games, har har.

With that in mind, I've decided to focus on collecting games for the Gamecube, for a little while. I'll still pick up other formats if I see any but primarily get Gamecube ones. I made up a list of the games I most want for the system, and once I get all of those (or even if I get all of those), and then maybe I'll think about trying to get a full PAL set. I found a complete (as far as I know) list of Gamecube games here. The games that made my most wanted list are as follows:

The Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda : The Wind Waker
Pikmin 2
Super Monkeyball
Metroid Prime 2
Odama
Tales of Symphonia
Fire Emblem : Path of Radiance
Doshin the Giant
F-Zero GX
Star Fox Adventures
Kirby Air Ride
Baldur's Gate : Dark Alliance
Wave Race : Blue Storm
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mario Power Tennis
Mario Golf : Toadstool Tour
Pokemon Colosseum
Mario Smash Football
Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles
The Legend of Zelda : Four Swords Adventures
Wario World
Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, 3
Eternal Darkness
Timesplitters 2
Beyond Good and Evil

I made that list at the turn of the year, on Monday I managed to pick up Wind Waker, Resident Evil Zero and also Mario Party 4 in Gamestation for £20, so I've added those to my collection. I've decided also that I'm only going to spend £100 a month on games stuff at the most, and let it roll over if I go under. With the £20 spent already that leaves £80 for the remainder of the month, scary.

Here's a picture of my current meagre Gamecube collection:



In other news, I'm STILL waiting for my Neo Geo Pocket Color to arrive! :(

Disappointment

Popped into Edinburgh yesterday for a spot of shopping, had absolutely no luck though. I was looking for old computer games (surprise surprise) and all that I found was over-priced, rubbish, or both.

I was in one shop (well I say shop, it was more a room containing piles of electronics and records, I could barely even get the door open) and saw an Amiga 500 hanging (quite literally) off one of the shelves. No games or box or anything, but I thought I'd ask about it anyway. £80! Like fuck anybody in their right mind would pay such a price. £60 he said, though, if you're willing to forgo the power supply... Obviously I left in good haste.

All I could turn up in all the shops I was in was sports titles, for the most part, and not even good ones. Really not what I'm interested in buying...

So, obviously, when I got home I got onto eBay and bid on a shitload of stuff there. I have a disease :(

Should probably be kept away from eBay

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! Mine was fairly decent, delicious turkey dinner two days in a row isn't something I'm going to complain about! I got a lot of CDs, couple of DVDs and smelly stuff, sweets and other things. Here's a picture of some of the CDs:



I've been going a bit eBay mad, bidding on a fair few things and making offers here and there, if I win everything I'll be a couple of hundred down easy, oh well. It'll be worth it to get all those new old-games and shit ;) If I win any, I'll take pics and post up on here.

Looking forward to getting my Neo Geo Pocket Color but it won't be for a good week and a half at least, thanks to the complete lack of post this time of year. Think there's only 3 days of post coming in the next week or so, and there hasn't been any since Friday! Be looking forward to normal service resuming after the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do for it. Could just go to the pub but I'd rather not, but it might be the only option, don't know of anyone who's having a house party or anything.

Oh well, wish me luck on my eBay travels!

Merry Christmas Eve-Eve

Well, I did end up winning a Neo Geo Pocket Color, but it was a different auction!

Looking forward to getting it and playing it but it won't arrive til the beginning of January, ach well. If anyone knows any decent games for it I should be getting, drop me a line. It comes with Sonic, Metal Slug and some baseball game. What I'm not looking forward to is working 9-6 tomorrow, but I'll live. Christmas Day should be good, bit of turkey and probably a couple of CDs, maybe a wee book or two, and of course, a tradition of mine, getting a stand-up DVD and watching it on Christmas Day night. It's usually Billy Connolly but he hasn't had a DVD in a while, but he does this year so it can be back to proper tradition!

Boxing Day shouldn't be too shabby either, more turkey and if all is well then a bit of football too. I don't really get excited about Christmas or anything but the turkey dinners can't be beat!

Here's a wee picture of my boxed SNES games, for the hell of it:



Not pictured is my big box Super Metroid, doesn't fit on that shelf, you might have to click on it too to see it all properly.

Anxiety

Man I hate the last hours of eBay auctions when I'm in the lead, it's always inevitable that I'll be winning the item until the very last second when I'll be outbid by a penny :(

But maybe this time will be different! I hope so anyway, I really want to win that damned Neo Geo Pocket Color!

Another Eventful Day

I probably should've updated this over the weekend but I couldn't be bothered, it seems. I wasn't even really doing anything yesterday either, although I was busy Friday and Saturday so there's my excuse.

On Friday I went and saw It's a Wonderful Life, my very favourite-est film, and it was the first time I saw it on a cinema screen. Obviously it was fantastic, the picture was clearer than I thought it would be too. It was at the Filmhouse on Lothian Road in Edinburgh. The film's still running until Christmas Eve so there's still time for you to pop off and see it, it'll probably be the best thing you do all week and a welcome rest from Christmas shopping ;)

Anyway, last time round I said I'd get onto the music I've been listening to over the course of the past year, so here I go. I'll try and keep it varied, not just focus on the same genre but inevitably I'm sure some styles will be favoured over others, that's just my personal preference shining through.

Once again this'll be almost entirely older albums and artists I've only recently discovered, rather than brand new material released this year of which I've not actually even listened to that much of. I will start with the few newer albums I did listen to, though.

The best of the bunch from this year would be The Tallest Man on Earth's latest full-length The Wild Hunt. We're treated to much of what we've come to expect from him, intricately fingered acoustic guitar music underneath his unique vocals. Love is All and the titular track The Wild Hunt are my personal highlights, and seeing them performed live back in November was just wonderful and even better than on CD.

Two other decent albums were Rinoa's post-rock/emo album An Age Among Them and the soft sounds of Pearly Gate Music's self-titled album. If you want to get a flavour for either album, check out Sol Winds (Rinoa) and Navy Blues (Pearly Gate Music). Meursault's latest album All Creatures Will Make Merry was also good, but nothing compared to their first album.

On the more mediocre side of things was Weezer's latest full-length, Hurley. Naming an album after a character from Lost and having the album cover be a picture of his face just seems uninspired, lazy and boring to me. The music of the album itself is fairly in keeping with this sentiment. Although there are flashes of the Weezer of old there is never anything more than that, any of the halfway decent songs seem to depend on catchy choruses to get them through, with the verses merely there to act as borders between choruses (the first track, Memories, is a great example of this). Probably their best album since Maladroit, but it's probably not even half the album that was, and an even more resounding failure when compared to the untouchable Pinkerton and Blue Album.

I've mostly been into post-rock this year, listening to mainly to Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Joy Wants Eternity and This Will Destroy You. My favourite post-rock album is probably The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions in the Sky. The second track, The Only Moment We Were Alone is absolutely fantastic. Other than that I've listened to a bit of singer-songwriter and folk-ish stuff such as Jackson C. Frank, Woody Guthrie, Tim Hardin and Van Morrison. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's album Architecture and Morality has seen a lot of play as well, along with Grateful Dead's American Beauty.

I haven't really played many games this year, the ones I bought were Red Dead Redemption, Fallout : New Vegas and, as usual, the latest Pro Evolution Soccer. Red Dead Redemption wasn't a bad game, but it grew tiresome very quickly. Every mission seemed to be the same, go to location, kill bad guys, leave location whilst killing bad guys who happen to be chasing you, end mission, repeat. New Vegas was practically the same game as Fallout 3 but it was still very enjoyable indeed, thanks to the new world and storyline. It was big enough to not just feel like an expansion to Fallout 3, but not so different that you might not feel aggrieved paying full price for it. This year's Pro Evolution Soccer is an improvement on the last installment, with improved and more accurate passing, more polished graphics and an online Master League mode being the most prevalent improvements.

I spent about a half hour today cataloging some of my computer games, I got my Super Nintendo games done, I have around 50, 20 of which are boxed with instructions. I'll do N64 and NES next when I can be arsed, I have less of them though. I should do my CDs and records too but that would actually take forever.

Off to play football in a little bit, fantastic. Next update should be in a couple of days, maybe post my SNES games or something. Ciao!