So I decided to do something called song of the week (pretty self explanatory) which will basically be my chosen soundtrack for the week.
This week I'm going for a song I was listening to earlier that I hadn't heard all that much recently, despite the fact it was released within the last 2 months. So surprising as it is this song has done very well despite the band have huge hits in the past with their first album adn debut single "Fascination".
It's such a catchy tune and sounds like something you'd get in the 90's, the kind of song I miss.
Enjoy ;)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwH0BxtbeEA
Thursday, 26 November 2009
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
New? Super Mario Bros
What a difference a year makes, this time last year the game Nintendo had for "core" gamers was Animal Crossing: Let's go to the city (a very quiet "yay" is heard at the back of the room), this year there's a brand new Super mario Bros game, which is always a good thing.
Whilst it is new I've yet to experience many new surprises or set pieces like I did with say Super Mario Galaxy but is that really a fair comparision? The two are quite different games even if they are the same on the surface, different dimensions make the core gameplay very different so best to compare this to previous 2d Mario games. It's in relation to those games that this one excels, nostalgia is very present, none more so than with Super Mario Bros 3 (the greatest of 2d Mario games if I might add) so it'll certainly be enjoyable to battle through the koopa kids once again.
The main draw with this game though is multiplayer. So far I've only played this with 1 other person so I've yet to feel the full on 4 player carnage but 2 player Mario Bros is still rather fun. Play it competitively and it's a right laugh that no amount of comically timed head bopping can ruin, scrambling for both the items and coming out with nothing is more funny than it is frustrating. Play Co-operaritevly and results may vary, if you're very cohesive then eureka moments where you've worked together to reach a far away star coin will feel great but if you just go ahead doing your own thing then there's a chance you'll get in one another's way which can be a bit annoying to say the least. Maybe there could have been more though, no online support means multiplayer is more of an extra as your chances to play is limited which is a real shame because it's still jolly good fun. Extras modes would have been nice too, the DS version had a star battle mode that was huge fun and very competitive, throw in 2 more players and it would have been brilliant, even a few minigames would have been welcomed.
One thing that has been mentioned is the difficulty is fairly high for a Mario game and I would have to agree, this is quite the challenge but a welcome challenge. It's one of those games that tempts you to have one more go adn with practice you will eventually crack it and with the introduction of "Super Guide" you have no excuse not to play through it. I should explain that super guide is a new feature that you can activate after dying a certain amount of times and should you choose to use it the game will guide you through the stage and even let you take over once you're past the tough part. Whether you're not very good an use this to see a level through or it hasn't even appeared for you, it's still a neat feature that can help increase replayability. By the way I've had the opportunity to use it once so far and declined, I see it a sign that I need to improve rather than a soloution.
Even with a sense of "it could have been better" you still won't be able to play without a smile on your face because what this is is good old fashioned fun and a great piece of social gaming. So if you have a Wii, you won't regret buying this game, it can appeal to anyone without making others feel left out, I think I'll leave the innovation to Super Mario Galaxy 2 though.
Whilst it is new I've yet to experience many new surprises or set pieces like I did with say Super Mario Galaxy but is that really a fair comparision? The two are quite different games even if they are the same on the surface, different dimensions make the core gameplay very different so best to compare this to previous 2d Mario games. It's in relation to those games that this one excels, nostalgia is very present, none more so than with Super Mario Bros 3 (the greatest of 2d Mario games if I might add) so it'll certainly be enjoyable to battle through the koopa kids once again.
The main draw with this game though is multiplayer. So far I've only played this with 1 other person so I've yet to feel the full on 4 player carnage but 2 player Mario Bros is still rather fun. Play it competitively and it's a right laugh that no amount of comically timed head bopping can ruin, scrambling for both the items and coming out with nothing is more funny than it is frustrating. Play Co-operaritevly and results may vary, if you're very cohesive then eureka moments where you've worked together to reach a far away star coin will feel great but if you just go ahead doing your own thing then there's a chance you'll get in one another's way which can be a bit annoying to say the least. Maybe there could have been more though, no online support means multiplayer is more of an extra as your chances to play is limited which is a real shame because it's still jolly good fun. Extras modes would have been nice too, the DS version had a star battle mode that was huge fun and very competitive, throw in 2 more players and it would have been brilliant, even a few minigames would have been welcomed.
One thing that has been mentioned is the difficulty is fairly high for a Mario game and I would have to agree, this is quite the challenge but a welcome challenge. It's one of those games that tempts you to have one more go adn with practice you will eventually crack it and with the introduction of "Super Guide" you have no excuse not to play through it. I should explain that super guide is a new feature that you can activate after dying a certain amount of times and should you choose to use it the game will guide you through the stage and even let you take over once you're past the tough part. Whether you're not very good an use this to see a level through or it hasn't even appeared for you, it's still a neat feature that can help increase replayability. By the way I've had the opportunity to use it once so far and declined, I see it a sign that I need to improve rather than a soloution.
Even with a sense of "it could have been better" you still won't be able to play without a smile on your face because what this is is good old fashioned fun and a great piece of social gaming. So if you have a Wii, you won't regret buying this game, it can appeal to anyone without making others feel left out, I think I'll leave the innovation to Super Mario Galaxy 2 though.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon: The End of Day
As I wrote my last blog entry and as I write this one I am listening to the album "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" by Kid Cudi and I thought, I should really spread the word.
This guy is genius, most people will have only heard the Crookers Remix of "Day N' Nite" but I doubt many others are familiar with any of his other songs (mainly cos I think he's only released one other single over here, "Make her Say") so I urge people to buy this album because it is brilliant.
If you like Hip Hop that'll definitely help but his music feels like so much more than just a standard Hip Hop album (not just about Hoes, Money and the club), it's a journey, each track moves you along in a sort of story based Scott Mescudi's (AKA Kid Cudi's) life. Starting with the failry dark side where you get the feeling that he has or has had troubles in his life and it slowly progresses through his addiction to the ganja and eventually towards finding meaning in his life, it's not just great beats and great rapping, it's deep stuff.
I'm not saying you have to be deep in thought to listen to it, you can easily just stroll along with the music playing on your iPod and still appreciate it (that's what I do most of the time) because the flow and the sound is so good but the diversity of the different songs will also heko keep it fresh, I've had the album for a couple of months now I think and it still sounds amazing.
What more do I need to say, I've give it enough praise already, now it's down to you to sample some of the tracks and appreciate some good, different music rather than whatever generic bit of mainstream stuff you're probably considering because we need more artists like this.
This guy is genius, most people will have only heard the Crookers Remix of "Day N' Nite" but I doubt many others are familiar with any of his other songs (mainly cos I think he's only released one other single over here, "Make her Say") so I urge people to buy this album because it is brilliant.
If you like Hip Hop that'll definitely help but his music feels like so much more than just a standard Hip Hop album (not just about Hoes, Money and the club), it's a journey, each track moves you along in a sort of story based Scott Mescudi's (AKA Kid Cudi's) life. Starting with the failry dark side where you get the feeling that he has or has had troubles in his life and it slowly progresses through his addiction to the ganja and eventually towards finding meaning in his life, it's not just great beats and great rapping, it's deep stuff.
I'm not saying you have to be deep in thought to listen to it, you can easily just stroll along with the music playing on your iPod and still appreciate it (that's what I do most of the time) because the flow and the sound is so good but the diversity of the different songs will also heko keep it fresh, I've had the album for a couple of months now I think and it still sounds amazing.
What more do I need to say, I've give it enough praise already, now it's down to you to sample some of the tracks and appreciate some good, different music rather than whatever generic bit of mainstream stuff you're probably considering because we need more artists like this.
"I'll do it later"
I begin to write this after finding a bit of research for my latest University assignment, so at least I got some work done. Why is it I'm so uninterested in doing something that will really benefit me though? I've abandoned further research in favour of loitering the internet and writing a post for a blog that about only 10 people probably bother to read. It's a common thing, everyone puts off doing things they need to do and this is often regardless of whether they enjoy doing it or not, does everyone search to live a life of all play no work or would that not be too easy.
Surely the satisfaction of completing something that's neccessary is a good enough feeling to motivate me to keep working at something rather than leaving it to the last minute or is the fear of not meeting a dealine a greater motivator than actually achieving something. Maybe people are affected by different motivators, if something appears easy and is instantly easy to understand do you complete it straight away because you know you can or do you leave it to the last minute because it's not a bother. I think the fact that I decided to work on the assignment today rather than later in the week suggests that I'm motivated to do it but when I can't quite grasp what is needed it feels better to put it off till later.
In an ideal world I think that com pleting a task as soon as possible is always the best way, the feeling you have when you know you have at least 2 days of not having to care about anything is much better than knowing in the back of your mind that whilst you're slotting home another goal on Pro Evo that you will have to get round to completing your task. Let's not forget that the quality is usually better when you complete it early as you always have more time to check over your work and improve it, maybe writing this is a good bit of advice for myself that I should take note of.
"Get the work done straight away, do your best to grasp what is needed immediately rather than thinking it'll all work out, you have to make it work" How insightful :D
Surely the satisfaction of completing something that's neccessary is a good enough feeling to motivate me to keep working at something rather than leaving it to the last minute or is the fear of not meeting a dealine a greater motivator than actually achieving something. Maybe people are affected by different motivators, if something appears easy and is instantly easy to understand do you complete it straight away because you know you can or do you leave it to the last minute because it's not a bother. I think the fact that I decided to work on the assignment today rather than later in the week suggests that I'm motivated to do it but when I can't quite grasp what is needed it feels better to put it off till later.
In an ideal world I think that com pleting a task as soon as possible is always the best way, the feeling you have when you know you have at least 2 days of not having to care about anything is much better than knowing in the back of your mind that whilst you're slotting home another goal on Pro Evo that you will have to get round to completing your task. Let's not forget that the quality is usually better when you complete it early as you always have more time to check over your work and improve it, maybe writing this is a good bit of advice for myself that I should take note of.
"Get the work done straight away, do your best to grasp what is needed immediately rather than thinking it'll all work out, you have to make it work" How insightful :D
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
WiPlayer (what a rubbish title)
So after years of waiting for a proper use of the BBC iPlayer on the Wii it finally has a dedicated channel but like so many onliune elements of the Wii is it another mishap?
No, surprisingly it's a very competent and useful feature, sure I have iPlayer avialable on the laptop and PS3 but the more access the merrier and this is probably the best one of all. First of all it took up a lot less memory than expected which is a necessity for something with such a small amount of memory to begin with. However more importantly it's faster and more stream free than any other form of iPlayer access I can think of, even the computers themselves. To date I haven't experienced one problem with it, no pauses or waits as you may expect with an online streaming service.
One probelm I do have with it however is that it's not as Wii friendly as you may think, programmes are listed on a caruosel rather than in a tile effect which I think would have been better but it's a small problem that'll just mean it takes you an extra minute to choose your programme. It's so well put together though that I even opted for a show that I wouldn't usually watch (called "Mad about the house") a DIY show where the man takes control of the decorating without the woman knowing which was necessary in this case as the woman was very overbearing and insisted in having every little thing pink.
So there's a good sign for the Wii, something they should have had sorted, sorted and sorted in a good way and with the inclusion of demos now on the Wii, this may be when Nintendo start to take notice and make an effort to improve the online aspect of the Wii, god knows it needs to.
No, surprisingly it's a very competent and useful feature, sure I have iPlayer avialable on the laptop and PS3 but the more access the merrier and this is probably the best one of all. First of all it took up a lot less memory than expected which is a necessity for something with such a small amount of memory to begin with. However more importantly it's faster and more stream free than any other form of iPlayer access I can think of, even the computers themselves. To date I haven't experienced one problem with it, no pauses or waits as you may expect with an online streaming service.
One probelm I do have with it however is that it's not as Wii friendly as you may think, programmes are listed on a caruosel rather than in a tile effect which I think would have been better but it's a small problem that'll just mean it takes you an extra minute to choose your programme. It's so well put together though that I even opted for a show that I wouldn't usually watch (called "Mad about the house") a DIY show where the man takes control of the decorating without the woman knowing which was necessary in this case as the woman was very overbearing and insisted in having every little thing pink.
So there's a good sign for the Wii, something they should have had sorted, sorted and sorted in a good way and with the inclusion of demos now on the Wii, this may be when Nintendo start to take notice and make an effort to improve the online aspect of the Wii, god knows it needs to.
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
England Expects...........The Same old shite
So the 2010 world cup is getting nearer and nearer and many of the English feel that this is our year, now we have Capello we can beat anyone, I think it needs to be said though, new manager, same old bunch of idiots.
My best way to show this example however comes from the recent friendly against Brazil. After many of the "big" players pulled out due to "injury" when in fact they had more important things to worry about (their club team or as they like to refer to it as, their paycheck) England were left with a scond string team. This team went down 1-0, 1-0 against the best team in the world in conditions that an Englishman can't handle (poor Wes Brown looked like he was gonna faint). I watched that match and I thought they performed very well, despite conceeding the defence was very good, only a amazing piece of play managed to break them down. Wright Phillips and Milner both looked lively on the flanks and the two "regulars" Rooney and Barry put in another good shift. If I were to change anything I think a more attacking midfielder capable of creating chances could have played instead of Jenas.
Yet despite a fairly good performance what did I see on the back of the papers? Cappello in the fashion of Homer Simpson claiming that these players aren't good enough. Sad when you think about it that people blame Steve McLaren for failing to reach Euro 2008 and the players got no flack at all, these players that failed to reach Euro 2008 are the same players that will be playing in the first game of the World Cup and should this team with the likes of Lampard, Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Ferdinand come across Brazil, I assure you they will go down in terrible fashion.
Regardless of his play lately Ferdinand will be at Centre Back with John Terry even if the pair of them are terrible in the run up to the World Cup, even Heskey still gets the nod when he's incapable of scoring in a brothel, it's time England stop putting the big names on the team sheet and start playing the players who will put in 110%, the players who always want to play for the team and the players that can actually play together, only then will England be real contenders for the World Cup.
Whether Capello will make his own choices rather than follow the tabloids remains to be seen, if there's one thing McLaren did right it was make his own choice when he dropped Beckham, any good manager needs to be willing to make their own decision when necessary.
My best way to show this example however comes from the recent friendly against Brazil. After many of the "big" players pulled out due to "injury" when in fact they had more important things to worry about (their club team or as they like to refer to it as, their paycheck) England were left with a scond string team. This team went down 1-0, 1-0 against the best team in the world in conditions that an Englishman can't handle (poor Wes Brown looked like he was gonna faint). I watched that match and I thought they performed very well, despite conceeding the defence was very good, only a amazing piece of play managed to break them down. Wright Phillips and Milner both looked lively on the flanks and the two "regulars" Rooney and Barry put in another good shift. If I were to change anything I think a more attacking midfielder capable of creating chances could have played instead of Jenas.
Yet despite a fairly good performance what did I see on the back of the papers? Cappello in the fashion of Homer Simpson claiming that these players aren't good enough. Sad when you think about it that people blame Steve McLaren for failing to reach Euro 2008 and the players got no flack at all, these players that failed to reach Euro 2008 are the same players that will be playing in the first game of the World Cup and should this team with the likes of Lampard, Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Ferdinand come across Brazil, I assure you they will go down in terrible fashion.
Regardless of his play lately Ferdinand will be at Centre Back with John Terry even if the pair of them are terrible in the run up to the World Cup, even Heskey still gets the nod when he's incapable of scoring in a brothel, it's time England stop putting the big names on the team sheet and start playing the players who will put in 110%, the players who always want to play for the team and the players that can actually play together, only then will England be real contenders for the World Cup.
Whether Capello will make his own choices rather than follow the tabloids remains to be seen, if there's one thing McLaren did right it was make his own choice when he dropped Beckham, any good manager needs to be willing to make their own decision when necessary.
Saturday, 14 November 2009
People of Facebook "why are you so stupid?"
I realise this may insult about 70% of people on Facebook but that may be more reason why this needs to be adressed. It's a number of problems really which mostly circulate around the whole groups/fan pages stuff.
Firstly why do people insist on making fan pages for and then becoming fans of scenarios? Dictionary.com defines the word "fan" as "any device for producing a current of air by movement of a broad surface or a number of such surfaces" but what do they know, I say a fan is someone who follows a person or team, usually one in the public eye. So it doesn't make sense for someone to become a fan of a certain situation or feeling, that just defeats the point of being a fan. I say leave that sort of stuff exclusively for the groups.
While I'm talking about Facebook groups though, why do people think that they will find one million people that will join their group for a cause that 4 out of 10 people agree with. As Mr Scott Varnham pointed out to me Facebook only has about 4 or 5 million users that often use it so the chances of even one fifth of them users "hating Tokyo Hotel" is very unlikely (especially as I for one don't even know who they are).
However the most annoying of the groups is the ones that ask for the old facebook back, if they ever makes changes it's always very minimal and in my opinion for the better, so get with the times and quit complaining, new facebook is here to stay (Until the next update that everyone will complain about).
I wonder who should be the most ashamed, the ones that join or the ones that make it, I'll let you decide that.
On an ending note I'd just like to let people know that whilst looking for an example for the finding a million people group I did stumple upon a group for hating cancer which has over a million members which is fair enough really.
Firstly why do people insist on making fan pages for and then becoming fans of scenarios? Dictionary.com defines the word "fan" as "any device for producing a current of air by movement of a broad surface or a number of such surfaces" but what do they know, I say a fan is someone who follows a person or team, usually one in the public eye. So it doesn't make sense for someone to become a fan of a certain situation or feeling, that just defeats the point of being a fan. I say leave that sort of stuff exclusively for the groups.
While I'm talking about Facebook groups though, why do people think that they will find one million people that will join their group for a cause that 4 out of 10 people agree with. As Mr Scott Varnham pointed out to me Facebook only has about 4 or 5 million users that often use it so the chances of even one fifth of them users "hating Tokyo Hotel" is very unlikely (especially as I for one don't even know who they are).
However the most annoying of the groups is the ones that ask for the old facebook back, if they ever makes changes it's always very minimal and in my opinion for the better, so get with the times and quit complaining, new facebook is here to stay (Until the next update that everyone will complain about).
I wonder who should be the most ashamed, the ones that join or the ones that make it, I'll let you decide that.
On an ending note I'd just like to let people know that whilst looking for an example for the finding a million people group I did stumple upon a group for hating cancer which has over a million members which is fair enough really.
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Jedward: A blessing in disguise
The twins that have split the nation they say, although saying that I seem to know more people that want to kill them than that want to support them and just in case you're wondering I'm in the latter camp.
Why you ask, well firstly they're hilairious, that goes wihtout saying but secondly and most importantly, they're not the generic, sob storied jerks who ruin a song by trying to hard to stand out. For the very small number of great acts that reality TV shows find (Lemar, Leona Lewis and at a push Girls Aloud) there are an awful lot which will pollute the chart with predictable crap that is definitely going to be the Christmas No 1 and these are the problem with the X Factor.
"Fix" the people cry when John and Edward survive another week but they're not the ones Simon wants to win, they're not the ones that are likely to have the competition fixed for them. It's quite obvious from the start of the latest series that winner which Mr Cowell has already decided upon is that idiot who doesn't know how to spell his own name and on the back of the fame he has drummed up through the competition he will sell millions of records and that is what leads me to my urge for people to vote for John and Edward.
If John and Edward were to win the X Factor it would force Simon Cowell to sign them up, their records wouldn't sell very well and this may lead to the X Factor releasing it's grip on the charts or maybe even force the show to get canned (I said maybe, very unlikely).
So I urge anyone who's thinking of voting on the X Factor, vote for John and Edward, Music will benefit in the long run and in the meantime we'll get a brand new version of PJ and Duncan, Win Win situation.
Why you ask, well firstly they're hilairious, that goes wihtout saying but secondly and most importantly, they're not the generic, sob storied jerks who ruin a song by trying to hard to stand out. For the very small number of great acts that reality TV shows find (Lemar, Leona Lewis and at a push Girls Aloud) there are an awful lot which will pollute the chart with predictable crap that is definitely going to be the Christmas No 1 and these are the problem with the X Factor.
"Fix" the people cry when John and Edward survive another week but they're not the ones Simon wants to win, they're not the ones that are likely to have the competition fixed for them. It's quite obvious from the start of the latest series that winner which Mr Cowell has already decided upon is that idiot who doesn't know how to spell his own name and on the back of the fame he has drummed up through the competition he will sell millions of records and that is what leads me to my urge for people to vote for John and Edward.
If John and Edward were to win the X Factor it would force Simon Cowell to sign them up, their records wouldn't sell very well and this may lead to the X Factor releasing it's grip on the charts or maybe even force the show to get canned (I said maybe, very unlikely).
So I urge anyone who's thinking of voting on the X Factor, vote for John and Edward, Music will benefit in the long run and in the meantime we'll get a brand new version of PJ and Duncan, Win Win situation.
So I have a blog......
and why not, well I imagine some would say I shouldn't have a blog because of my English skills (or lack of) shown with me starting this exact post with the word "and" which is a big no no in the grammar universe.
So, what will this blog be about, well in order to make it more interesting I won't limit it to anything although expect to hear about some of my main passions like Football, Computer games and Music, don't expect to hear about any of the pressing issues, I wish I could talk about them but I'm much too young and misinformed to talk about things like politics so I think I'll save my blushes by avoiding subjects like this.
Finally I would like to say thank you to any people that are willing to read this, chances are I'll probably forget about it or just not be that bothered to write much but still it's something everyone seems to do so it makes sense to have one of my own.
So, what will this blog be about, well in order to make it more interesting I won't limit it to anything although expect to hear about some of my main passions like Football, Computer games and Music, don't expect to hear about any of the pressing issues, I wish I could talk about them but I'm much too young and misinformed to talk about things like politics so I think I'll save my blushes by avoiding subjects like this.
Finally I would like to say thank you to any people that are willing to read this, chances are I'll probably forget about it or just not be that bothered to write much but still it's something everyone seems to do so it makes sense to have one of my own.
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