Fable 2
I had been waiting for Fable 2 since February, and i finally got it on Friday! (That’s when it was released… it wasn’t a really crap post service).
Anyway, this is not a proper review as I haven’t got very far yet, plus I want to explore all the aspects of the game; good, evil, jobs, buying properties, having a family etc…
Here’s my insight into the game so far though. The gameplay is excellent, the combat is really intuitive and simple. Many people have said that the expressions all feel very simulated and forced, but I think it works quite well. The customisation of appearance through clothes/hair cuts/tattoos is pretty good, I especially like the great number of different clothing items to really tailor your character to what you want them to look like. I haven’t noticed much morphing to do with my alignmnet as of yet, but hopefully as I progress further it will become more obvious.
However, there are a couple of negative points. The biggest of which: loading screens. These really impede the game’s ‘freeroaming’ aspects. Sure, you can travel basically anywhere you can see, but the areas seem much smaller when they’re divided by loading screens. If you want a comparison, they’re like the Assassin’s Creed screens between the major areas, except with AC you have a massive city with great detail to fully explore, so I think Fable 2 could’ve done without them. Though having said this, the areas are very visually pleasing and well designed, atmospheric one might say.
Another negative point is the manouverability through terrain. When you encounter a fence, it’s not as easy as just jumping over it whilst you’re running. No, you have to stop and press (A) to vault over it. This makes the game seem very artificial, especially when there are many walls/fences etc… that you can’t jump over. Even GTA4 allowed you to jump over most any ledge, be it of realistic jumping height. Such a simple aspect makes a game that much better, just because walking round objects is really very awkward. An example of this is where I came to some steps from the side and instead of being able to jump the short distance up to where they were, I had to walk round and start from the bottom.
Anyway, overall, my impression is a positive one. The game has a good mix of combat, storyline and quirky gimmicks. I’ll play some more and see if I can be bothered to do a full review.
Until then.
Song: ‘Amber Pacific – Watching Over Me’
A Happy Birthday Indeed…
This is like a follow up to my earlier post.
I like to have Wikipedia as my home page to keep up to date on news and to find out random interesting facts. It’s also useful to quickly access to search things. I remembered that it also displays interesting facts of things that happened on this day in the past. Lo and behold, I have to get the depressing/tragic/horrific ones.
Here’s some from the main page:
1383 – King Ferdinand I of Portugal died without a male heir to the Portuguese throne, resulting in a period of civil war and anarchy.
1934 – Pretty Boy Floyd, an American bank robber and alleged killer who was later romanticized by the media, was gunned down by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents near East Liverpool, Ohio.
1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced on television that Soviet nuclear weapons had been discovered in Cuba and that he had ordered a naval “quarantine” of the island nation.
And if those weren’t bad enough, here’s some from the full list:
362 – The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
1844 – The Great Anticipation: Millerites, followers of William Miller, anticipated the end of the world in conjunction with the Second Advent of Christ. The following day (22nd) became known as the Great Disappointment.
1877 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.
1895 – In Paris an express train overruns a buffer stop and crosses more than 30 metres of concourse before plummeting through a window at Gare Montparnasse.
1907 – Panic of 1907: A run on Knickerbocker Trust Company stock sets events in motion that will lead to a depression.
1910 – Dr. Crippen is convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife and was subsequently hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.
1926 – J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punches magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal. (Which caused his death).
1941 – French hero of the resistance Guy Môquet is executed by the Germans, along with 29 other hostages as a retaliation for a killed German officer.
1943 – World War II: Kassel: RAF conducts an air raid on the city of 236,000 people, killing 10,000, rendering 150,000 homeless. Second firestorm raid in Germany.
1946 – Forty four British sailors die when two British warships hit mines off the coast of Albania.
1956 – A concrete girder weighing 200 tons kills 48 in Karachi, Pakistan.
1957 – Vietnam War: First United States casualties in Vietnam.
1963 – BAC One-Eleven prototype airliner crashes on October 22 in UK with the loss of all on board.
1983 – Two correctional officers are killed by inmates in Marion, Illinois. The incident inspired the Supermax model of prisons.
Feeling happy?
Thought not.
Here’s the full list. Enjoy!
Song: ‘Atreyu – Doomsday’
I’m a PC!
Has everyone seen the new PC adverts yet? They genious!
I really hated how in Mac ads they were saying their computers were so much better than PCs and then rattling off a list of basic computer functions which PCs can also easily do. They are in no way superior to PCs! They just make things awkward, like by putting the X to close a window in the opposite corner of the screen!
To emphasise my point, I quote two major sources:
However, this post is not supposed to be about how Macs suck. It is of course supposed to be about the glorious new Windows’ adverts. They are truly brilliant! They are a total sincere mockery of the Mac adverts, it gives the advert a far more powerful meaning. There is no degradation of the rival computer though, Windows have a reputation to uphold. These adverts are to maintain Windows’ status, as the foul Mac propaganda has given them a black mark on their otherwise shiny record.
One of the only things left to do now is to actually show you the advert:
I love the ending! It’s completely reinstating Windows’ power and dominance in the computer market!
Windows ftw!
Song: ‘All That Remains – Not Alone’ (I don’t actually have any music playing, but this song’s in my head.)
I has got good writing.
Why is it when writing something you sometimes miss out words subconsciously? And most often they’re the verbs, so people have no idea what you’re on about, even if you know perfectly well what you’re trying to say.
You don’t even come close to writing the word you want, there’s no horribly spelt jibberish, no unusual prefix to the word after the missing word e.g. ‘I was meeto some friends’ which sould be ‘I was meeting some friends’. Sometimes I do that too, get too ahead of myself when writing, thinking of what to write next, and end up merging words together. (I tried write an example for here, but it turns out that right now I’m too damn good at writing).
However, I brought this whole topic up because I was just writing in a forum when it happened, but of course I didn’t notice until AFTER I’d posted… It went something along the lines of, ‘Yea, I that’s a really good idea.’
Of course I meant to write ‘I THINK that’s a really good idea’, but alas I did not. And now because I realise that there’s very little left to be said, I leave you with an example of this phenomena from the Fail Blog.
Song: ‘3 Doors Down – Kryptonite’
I just hate it when…
My glasses break.
It sucks. Mostly cause then I have to wear my spare pair which is always of a slightly worse prescription. Not to mention that this spare pair has a pathetic thin frame compared to my awesome thick rimmed glasses.
With these wires frames, it was always an issue of the lenses occasionally falling out… not with my better glasses! I assumed they’d be more hard wearing. That was until the side bit fell off…
I say ’side bit’, I don’t actually know if there’s a proper word for the bit that rests on your ear and connects to the main frame.
Anyway, it generally sucks. This frame is always slanted to the left, so it looks like I’ve just been punched or something. I’ll hopefully get my good glasses back in the next few days.
Until then!
Song: ‘It Dies Today – Sixth Of June’
Moomins
Thinking back on old television I used to watch when I was young, I always remember The Moomins. Such an innocent show when you’re six, but Moomins are like clowns, the older you get the more horrific they become.
If you really think about it… what the hell were they supposed to be!? They’re kinda like weird hippo things, but they just look so blank, quite sinister. They’re some of these things you’d see in a nightmare, and they wouldn’t have to be doing anything, but it’d still be bloody terrifying. Watching you with those eyes….
And of course this is just the Moomins I’m referring to… they had some damn freaky friends too! There’s some guy with a stupid hat, the short angry ginger one, and a kangaroo! What the hell!? It just gets crazier and crazier!
Now some of you will be thinking that the Moomins were never scary. This picture begs to differ:
They're coming for you.
How much more stereotypically insane looking can they get? The hollow, yet piercing stares will set pure liquid fear into the heart of even the bravest of men. And just look at the little ginger one… she has a fucking rolling pin! She’ll beat your face in with no mercy whatsoever, just look at the intense rage in those eyes.
I leave you now with another horrifying image…
Do you honestly know where your family are right now?
Song: ‘Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire’
Lee Evans
Is hilarious!
First time seeing him live last night , and it was worth every penny!
Priceless material of his usual styling with several voices and expressions. I think it’s definately some of his best material. One thing I noticed is that he didn’t bring a towel on stage, he just kinda wiped sweat with his sleeve.
It’s hard to say much about it in a blog really, cause if I repeat any jokes they’ll be all wrong, and plus you don’t get the comedic timing or expression. Though there were noticeably more jokes to do with wanking than his older material… but he made it work well!
He ended the show with Bohemian Rhapsody playing while he acted out the lyrics, which was brilliant!
Now, the next show I’m seeing will be the best ever… The Mighty Boosh Live!
Until then!
(Well, I’ll undoubtedly have another blog before then… but yea, bye.)
Song: ‘Jack’s Mannequin – Annie Use Your Telescope’
We all love Clover
…Why?
I’ve just made my sandwiches using Clover, and to be honest, it sucks! It is the worst spreading margarine I have ever used!
We normally get Utterly Butterly (not to be doing product placement here or anything) which spreads so easily, it’s really soft. It’s much better than damned Clover.
Time for a metaphor? I think so…
It’s so bad, it’s like spreading granite!
And now to ruin the metaphor by pointing out it’s flaws…
Though to be fair, I have never actually spread granite before, so I don’t know quite how that would go down. And of course you have to take into account whether the granite is in solid or molten form. Though if it’s in molten form, I’m gonna need a new knife!
Now is the time I insert a hilarious picture to accompany this… but I have to leave for sixth form soon, so I’ll leave that to the imagination…
Song: ‘Three Days Grace – Animal I Have Become’
Worst President Ever?
So I’ve heard that in a poll, George Bush has been found to be the least popular president towards the end of their leadership. Apparently 98% of historians have voted that the Bush presidency has been a failure, or if it’s easier to understand: EP1C FAILZ LOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!1
Here is a pie chart to represent this data (why not?):
Wow, he must suck...
I’ve also heard that Bush is so unpopular that he is apparently worse than Nixon before he was impeached. Now that is quite a feat to be a worse president than an admittedly guilty crook. Though having said that, Nixon did end the war in Vietnam, whereas Bush started the war in Iraq. However, with THAT being said, Nixon ended the Vietnam war by boming the living daylights out of the Vietcong, whereas Bush was striving for peace in the Middle East.
Meh… however you look at it, they both kinda sucked.
However, on a more serious note now, you have to remember that the President has the most difficult job in the world basically. They cannot please everyone, but by not making everyone happy, everyone seems to be unhappy with them. As soon as Obama is voted in (which he better damned well be), people will love it at first, but eventually they’ll grow to hate him, cause the decisions he’ll have to make wont be easy.
If you really think about it, Bush wasn’t actually a terrible President… I mean sure, he made mistakes, but who doesn’t? Could anybody else have done a better job? (Actually, scratch that… Al Gore would’ve done a great job, except of course Bush rigged the elections in Florida. Though come to think of it, Al Gore would’ve been all eco-crazy and not given as much though to the economy and other stuff. Though it would have been good to see his speeches, he’d have a slide show for every one!) Anyway…. Bush didn’t do that bad a job.
If you stuck some random shmuck who thinks he’d do a great job in charge, everything would go to shit! They wouldn’t be able to cope with it! Even I, with such diligence and unbiased opinions (oxmoron much?), would probably do a terrible job. What we need is a truly great leader who knows what’s what! That is why Obama should be president! Or if not Obama, how about Maddox instead? (http://maddox.xmission.com/)
Well, to end on a crudely satirical note now. To all you Presidents, past and future, who sucked or have yet to suck (wait, that sounds bad…).
To all of those who blow (no…)
*ahem*
Dear Mr. President:
Song: ‘In Flames – Embody The Invisible’
Best Guy Ever?
While browsing Google images, I came across a picture which has the potential to be the best thing ever in the world.
(I would’ve posted the picture directly here, but it was too damn big!)
He has to be one of the best people ever to have lived! Just look at him! The top hat immediately makes him extremely respectable, the moustache and crazy look are just a bonus!
This is a basic rule of thumb…. Top Hats can make almost anything dignified. This guy is a classic example of people who truly deserve respect in this world.
Now, if he’d had a monocle, he would immediately have become officially the greatest guy ever, but alas he doesn’t, though he can definitely be in the top 10.
As for the actual best guy ever… it currently has to be Stephen Fry for reasons which I will explain in another blog at some point in future.
Now before I finish, I must insist that you thank this wonderful man for everything he has given society and for helping make the world a better place.
Song: ‘Anberlin – The Runaways’
