Haiku Review - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Shoot from cover is fun
Online sadly ghost town now
Sequel coming soon

Haiku Review - Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Good fun levelling
Oh crap I missed my station
Story makes no sense

Haiku Review - Halo 3

Plays same as first two
Except lame items added
Close combat lag sucks

Haiku Review - Call of Duty 4

Frenetic gun porn
How did he kill me again
I am a noobzor

It's Back!

The 360 arrived just after 11am today. Opened the box, and it's the original console back with repairs to the motherboard and DVD drive - no DRM problems for me! One month of Xbox Live was packed in as well.

Briefly turned it on and it seems a lot quieter too - time for some extensive testing.

Lost Odyssey Asian Version

I'm taking the day off work tomorrow so that UPS can hand over my (hopefully) repaired 360. I picked up an Asian copy of Lost Odyssey on Ebay to welcome the old girl back. In addition to coming with a much better case than the US and PAL versions of the game, we get great Engrish on the back!

Quotes of choice:
"Where did you come from? Where will you go?" - Cotton Eye'd Joe karaoke flashbacks triggered.

"Open with high tempo, fight with speedy." - Starting to worry it's a Hong Kong market copy...

"High tension of fight that combined with aiming system - composed item activate by using trigger button." - Actually, screw this, I'm going to buy more Asian games. Haven't even read the manual yet!

Country Ma'am - Mugi and Fuji Ringo

If you ask a Japanophile what their favourite snack is, the answer is almost certainly going to be Pocky. Whilst I don't dispute Pocky is indeed awesome, it has some strong competition. For me the true king (queen?) of Japanese snacks is Country Ma'am, a delicious cookie traditionally available in Hazelnut, Cocoa and Vanilla flavours.

A friend recently sent me a couple of seasonal variations, Mugi (Barley) and Fuji Ringo (apple). Whilst the apple cookies disappeared within a few minutes of opening the parcel, I'm still working up the courage to try the barley flavour.

Mrs Game Fugu

Had a delicious portobello mushroom stuffed with bacon, broccoli, pepper and cheese for dinner tonight, courtesy of Mrs Game Fugu.

Puts my regular curry/bolognese/risotto to shame, and I reckon it's down to one key advantage. Londonnana can taste as she cooks and understand what needs to be added to make the meal tastier - be it more salt or half a cube of chicken stock. When I taste my cooking and think it's not so good, I just keep adding pepper until I'm happy.

Taiko no Tatsujin PSP Translation

NTSC UK still have an old menu translation I did with my wife for Taiko no Tatsujin on the PSP. Link below for those interested!

Taiko no Tatsujin PSP Translation

RRoD Club

At the start of February I joined the Xbox 360 RRoD club at last. I had bought my console back when it was launched in the UK in 2006, and part of me is glad it decided to go before the 3 year extended MS warranty ended. Fingers crossed the repaired version I get back might even sound less like a leaf blower sitting under my TV!

Due to the trauma of having my main console broken, I picked up a PS3 to console myself (pun intended, unfortunately) while I waited for it to be fixed. Burnout Paradise was bundled in, but quickly went the way of Ebay so I could pick up Uncharted. Now that was an entertaining game! It was finished in a pretty quick 6 hours, but the journey felt like playing an Indiana Jones movie. The jungle settings were lush, the characters forgettable but entertaining enough, and the plot just enough to keep it all tottering along from set piece to set piece.

Even more than plot heavy planned trilogies like Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed, this sort of game is the one that should be released with frequent installments. My concern with the games mentioned previously is that if a gamer hasn't played one episode, they will be lost if they try to skip to the next. With Uncharted's easy to pick up setting and characters (just think "Romancing the Stone"), there is a pretty low barrier to entry.