Group Think (k3nshi)

Completion List (k3nshi)

Hmm before I lose track of all the games I completed this year:

• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Soul Calibur 4 (does it count if you just complete story mode with 1 or 2 characters?)
• Quake 3 Arena (on OSX, I had completed this before though back in the day)
• Half Life 2 (including Episodes 1 and 2)
• Halo 3 (on Heroic, again).
• Fable 2
• Uncharted

I think thats it.

Tomb Raider: Legend (k3nshi)

Finally finished this tonight - its got a kind of weak assed, Halo 2 style ending.

Not entirely convinced I'll be buying the next Tomb Raider game, but we'll see.

Future Perfect Tense (k3nshi)

...or games I am looking forward to, but which will probably be massively flawed in one way or another.

• Mirrors Edge



• Mortal Kombat vs DC



• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed



• Batman: Arkham Asylum



• Wip3out (PS3)



• Demigod (on PC of all things)



• Quake Live (free!)



• Little Big Planet



• Tomb Raider Underworld

There are probably more, but these are the ones I can remember for now (listed in the order I remembered them).

Quake Revival (k3nshi)

The chain of events that led to the Quake Revival were:

1. Read interview with John Romero in a recent issue of Edge
2. General hype about Quakecon, specifically Quake Live
3. Bought and read "Masters of Doom"

I had Quake 2 and Quake 3 cd-roms for the PC from back in the day. Knowing that ports/forks of the open source code base of these games were available on OSX I did a bit of hunting around on the internet. Before you know it I had Quake 3 and Quake 2 installed and running in super smooth hires on the iMac. One quick purchase of Quake 1 on the id software online store meant I was able to catch the one that had gotten away.

Quake still plays awesomely well. There is a real fiendishness to the level designs and the general atmosphere which makes this a damned good and fairly unique game. I haven't played Quake 4 or Doom 3, neither really holding much interest. It will be interesting to see how Quake Live and Rage turn out though.

King RAFA FTW! (k3nshi)

Amazing men's final at Wimbledon today.

Federer had me worried for a while there - it looked like he was gaining enough momentum to claw it all back.

Fortunately, Rafa sealed the deal with style.

Possibly the best tennis match ever played. Amazing scenes.

Nostalgia (k3nshi)

Yie Ar Kung Fu was the first beat'em'up game I owned. This was back in the 8-bit days, and I had to load the game using a tape deck on my goddamned BBC model B computer (which my parents had bought for my education, not gaming). So Yie Ar... was one of my few games, and one I really enjoyed playing. Hell, the BBC version had some totally hard opponent called Feedle, which was a bitch to get past unlike the other lamer versions for the other lamer machines of the time. Even my sister played Yie Ar... and to this day claims that it was one of the few games she was good at ('good' being a highly subjective term here, obviously).

So when I saw Yie Ar... appear in the LIVE Arcade list, I forked out however many points to play it. A pure nostalgia purchase, which probably wasn't worth the money. But for a brief moment it took me back to a more primitive gaming time, and the fun I had playing that game. So it doesn't surprise me at all to see LIVE Arcade clogged up with Retro games - it's an easy way to make a buck.

HD Gaming... (k3nshi)

...so I finally got a HD TV to go with my 360. And what game do I find myself playing most on this goddamned awesome display?

N+

Go figure.

2008 almost a quarter gone... (Steve)

Time. Terrifying stuff.

2008 has been a strange one so far. It feels like a year of change. Gaming's out, working out's in. Earning's out, investing's in. Marriage doomed, marriage saved. I feel tired, excited and scared and feel that time is against me.

I think I've always needed security above everything else. This year I have lost that security. But I'm feeling better, healthier and fitter than ever before... escaping corporate doom, even if only for a few months, is a great thing.

I think I'll go for a run... see ya.

No more weekly reviews on hashedge... (k3nshi)

I have decided to split out my weekly reviews onto a new blog.

A couple of reasons for this:

1. I didn't want my weekly tracking posts to take over the blog



2. The client I use to post to the blog kind of screws up formatting for lists UNLESS I change a blog setting. Which would then screw up the formatting on some older blog entries.

So easiest thing is to create a new blog and move the weekly update posts there. And so starts the 2008K blog.

Son of a BITCH... (k3nshi)

...missed my goddamned end of week death by spinning class because of some monumental tube fuck up.

And now I have lingering FURY over this. And I am bored. And it's a Friday evening.

Market says No. (k3nshi)

Well there goes the economy. When George Soros is talking to the press, talking up a recession and the worst economic conditions since WW2, you know 2 things:

1. He is probably right



2. The Quantum Fund will have shorted soooooo much stock and he's ready to reap the whirlwind! (Yes he is a Top Gun Regulator).

If you want to read about this kind of stuff, the best place to look is Robert Peston's blog for the BBC.

Smurfs, a hot AZN and a Leopard (k3nshi)

Spotted on Great Portland Street: a group of lads dressed up as smurfs, bringing much amusement to everyone who spotted them.

@Starbucks: hot, Hot, HOT AZN chick at Starbucks. She was interviewing some other AZN kid about uni entrance I think. It was a depressing conversation filled with things like:

Hot AZN chick: "Yes, I studied Maths and Physics at A-Level,"

Hot AZN chick: "...well I studied at a dance school in LONDON..."

Hot AZN chick: "..so what extra-ciricular activites do you do?.... Oh right, so that's just a hobby..."

Needless to say she was possessed with that kind of smug self-confidence only someone who finds things (everything) ridiculously easy. I felt a bit sorry for the nerd she was interviewing, but not THAT sorry. He'll be going home to tell his mates of the HOT AZN super-smart mega bitch. Just like I am.

Leopard: I had a play with this at Apple Store on one of bigger shinier iMacs. Some pretty slick features in there. Almost bought a Leopard family pack, but fuck it - I'll wait till Apple bothers to release another couple of megapatches to fix up any flaws. What's the secret to great software? Time. And patches.

Yes, I know you were expecting me to post a picture of someone like GRACE PARK here. Tough luck!

Corporate Wanker Wednesday (k3nshi)

For some reason I was feeling the DOOM of corporate existence today. Sitting in Starbucks at lunch time, drinking my green tea and failing to reach a Zen frame of mind, as I seethed at the CORPORATE ZOMBIES surrounding me.

So a day of mostly general irritation, I guess the total fatigue didn't help. No gym either.

Ok so my day wasn't as bad as the above, but hey! Matt Wagner is writing and drawing a new Grendel series called, Behold the Devil. So far, so amazing.

HD-DVD (k3nshi)

"It's dead Jim,"

Mundane Monday (k3nshi)

Check this:

Well it made me laugh. (Scan from WIldstorm: Revelations, issue #1).

Terminators are modest... (k3nshi)

Cake (k3nshi)

Click for the full size version and all will be revealed...

Amazing Flash Game: Cursor * 10 (k3nshi)

No idea if this is old or not, but its AMAZING.

Cursor * 10

MEGATON (k3nshi)

GODDAMNED