For a little over a month now I've been the proud owner of an (ironically now out dated!) Apple MacBook. It's been ten years since my family got one of those newfangled computers; an auspicious darling that cost upwards of a thousands pounds and ran Windows 98 as well as the government does border control. Funny thing is despite the hardware failures, the daily blue screens of death and the small house fires it caused, I always went back to being perfectly happy with the incredible speeds of 52k dial-up the moment it worked again.

This mentality of self harm is created from the presumption that all computers are like this. Time may have passed but as a previous Windows XP and Vista user myself, I know that a decade has done little to solve the problems that slow and unstable operating systems have and the sheer noise pollution from the twenty-nine hundred fans that keep the OS ticking over for just five more minutes. A catastrophic problem with my Dell laptops screen hinge is what finally pushed me to buy a new system, and with an opportunity put in my hands thanks to the governments willingness to throw money in my general direction and Apples student discounts, I made the leap to the Mac.

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Clidus posted by CloudANDTidus on 11.10.08 Permalink 1 Comment

Today marks the start of a little collaborative project I've been preparing with my partners in crime Reeve and namatamiku for the last month or so. The plan; to play Capcom's cult hit Okami simultaneously and to blog our experiences. Okami has been on my backlog since it first came out and like the rest of you, have heard many good things about it. I've even owned the PlayStation 2 version of the game for nearly two years now, but have never felt I could do the game justice unless I gave it the adequate time it deserves.

Well that time has arrived. Despite the amazing lineup of games coming out this holiday I plan to play a title released in Feburay 2007. Heck, with the economic crisis going on right now, you should all be doing this. Check out the blog, join us in the comments and if you like, play along with us. Good times to be had by all a guarantee.

okamiblog.blueshinra.com

Clidus posted by CloudANDTidus on 11.02.08 Permalink No Comments

It's come to my attention that I've been severely neglecting this blog for some months and all for the wrong reasons. While I don't particularly want to go into those reasons and why they were quite wrong indeed, I wish to assure you that I'm truly back now, with my personal cocktail of opinions in tow, both right and wrong depending on how much you agree with me or how much I've paid you.

Over the last couple months I've seen an interesting movement among my friends and cohorts, who seem to be speedily migrating in the direction of Microsoft's Xbox 360, a "little" white box that many wouldn't have considered buying just twelve months ago. While its fair to say a lot of this has to do with the outrageous price of its competitor, it should be noted that nearly all my friends own Wii's and have since had to "move on" just a couple years into ownership.

It used to be possible to go through an entire console generation on a single machine (indeed, I was a PlayStation guy through and through in my school days), however it seems that people's bet's on the lower priced and uniquely designed Nintendo console to carry them through this generation have been poorly placed and they've suffered for it. In fact, if your a hardcore gamer who only has a Wii this holiday season, your big releases are reduced to the lackluster Wii Music, the "hardcore" Animal Crossing: City Folk, the platform ambiguous Guitar Hero: World Tour (and it's £100 worth of Fisher Price instruments) and a dog pile of third party crap on a stick.

Splash out on the Xbox 360 on the other hand and you could be playing Fallout 3, Fable 2, Farcry 2, Gears of War 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Rock Band 2, End War, Left 4 Dead, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Dead Space, Mirrors Edge, Saints Row 2 or Banjoe Kazooie come Christmas morn'. It's sad to see that following the flying start of Wii and DS Lite, that Nintendo has let the ball roll away so fast. Sure they might still be selling consoles faster than Big Mac Meals, but how long can you expect your dedicated fans to stay attentive when you continue to advertise Mario Kart DS and Nintendogs in your marketing campaigns?

I'm no expect, but I think three years is long enough to develop some new software worth showing on television. Fanboys can argue the positives and negatives of a console (which the 360 has many to be discussed at another time, I assure you) until the end of the universe and there has certainly been many great releases on Wii, however at this precise moment in time, the release lineups speak for themselves.

Clidus posted by CloudANDTidus on 11.02.08 Permalink No Comments