Game: TrackMania Sunrise (PC)

Being 31 I often reminisce about the games of old. When programmers squeezed every last drop of processing power out of Zx spectrums and c64's. A time of innocence, when the game industry was still finding its feet.

This was a time that I will remain nostalgic about until the day I die. Games succeeded not because of a multi-million dollar advertising campaign, or a graphics engine that could shift polygons around at several million gigaflops a second. They succeeded because they were original and great fun to play. Programmers took greater risks with the concepts because in them days, that is how you stood out.

These days, companies have to play things a little safer. Games invariably stick to tried and tested formulas because the publisher knows that they are a safe and viable way to bring in the money. The racing game is a good example of this. I personally love car games, but often feel a little dissapointed by the lack of speed or by how "realistic" they are.

It was with great delight then, that last year I stumbled across a little known game called Trackmania. Although a little shabby in the gfx department the concept was great. Big ramps, speed boosts, puzzle games, a new twist to the genre. Imagine then a year later a new version comes out, with graphics that would put any Xbox game to shame. Speed that makes Need For Speed Underground look mediocre, Loop the loops and even more game modes.. Say hello to TrackMania Sunrise.

I am sure you are thinking by the tone of this review that I must like this game. Not really, I LOVE THIS GAME! I cannot recommend it enough. The single player game starts with the user having to race in sports mode. The handling is so arcade it’s laughable. You can skid into corners at break neck speed, fly from ramps at thousands of feet in the air and in some cases zoom up a quarter pipe only to find yourself viewing the whole course from what seems like an aeroplane. Finally descending to earth on the other quarter pipe. This is the kind of car game that given better hardware, would have been written back in 1988.

The other race modes include rally, which has a completely different handling model and (without the manual to hand) city, where you drive a 4x4 kind of affair.

This is only the beginning though. Apart from racing, the other modes include platform, where you have to get from start to finish in a certain amount of tries. Timing jumps exactly and measuring speed to within a few mph to get that perfect landing. Puzzle, which sees you using the allocated sections of track to build your path to the finish line (easier said than done). And Crazy which I must admit I haven’t even managed to get too yet!

To progress in the game you must win cups. What I like about the approach Nadeo have taken is you cannot simply go through the race modes first. You must alternate between the modes, meaning the whole thing doesn’t get too repetitive.

Where the game really stands out though, is in the multiplayer mode online. There is a huge online community of clans, track builders (did I mention that you can build your own tracks?) and the uber dedicated that have built their own car models, made their own engine sounds and decorated the cars with their own skins.

Some of the community tracks are simply amazing and are constantly being played on the online servers. There is also an online league table called the Ladder which really motivates you to brush up on your skills and even more determined to win.

To summarize, this is simply a must have game, whether you are someone who likes a quick ten minute race, to someone who spends 3 months perfecting your Aston Martin Db9 in a 3d package, you cant fail to love this little gem. It feels like a real labour of love by the programmers.. I wonder if they still own a c64?

Verdict: Gran TurisiWhat? 9.5/10

Film: Dark Water

Having seen a well edited trailer and spending some time on the excellent website, I was really looking forward to this film.

From what I could ascertain from the trailer and interactive website, Mother (The lovely Jennifer Connelly) and Daughter move to a dingy apartment block. The block is somehow haunted and takes the daughter. Mom is then left with the quest of getting the daughter back from the dark building. Cue scenes involving supernatural water, labyrinth type corridors and tense, psychological shining-esque happenings.

Now that I have seen the whole film I can verify that this isn't really the case. I do not want to go into to much detail as it will spoil the film. Needless to say that early on in the movie the daughter found something that lead me to guess what might happen. Unfortunately I was correct which kind of ruined the film for me.

Another problem that seems to be affecting a lot of Hollywood output right now is that the film is a little to long. There is not enough tension which leads to you waiting for the film to climax a little early.

Dark Water is by no means bad and some scenes are quite well done. I think I was just expecting a modern day Shining type affair that just fell a little short.

Verdict: Murky.. 6.5/10

Ice, Ice baby

It was a close friends birthday tonight, and in the great tradition of birthday ala brit, it was decided that after some food, the plan of attack was to get well and truly destroyed on alcohol... *shock*

Our long and perilous adventure started on a different footing than normal however, and I am pleased to say that the result was a very memorable and fun experience!

Rather than prop up a chair at a Soho Cocktail bar for the whole night, we went along to the Absolut Ice Bar in Mayfair. It was totally surreal! The tempurature is fixed at -5c and (you guessed it) everything from the bar to the glasses are made of ice! In addition, its not just ice from Mums chest freezer, but totally clear ice imported from the Tome River (about 200 km within the arctic circle). You are issued a silver Eskimo hooded coat on entry and for your money (£12), you get one Absolut Vodka cocktail free. Groups are allocated 45 minutes in the bar at which time last orders are called and you must vacate the building or sit outside in a more conventional (and warmer) area.

It is not something you would likely want to do more than once, but if you are looking for something a little different to do with your night, I could think or far worse ways to occupy yourself for 45 minutes. Oh, and girls. Try not to wear flimsy heels without socks.. (Mentioning no names Miss Bendall! ;))

(Happy Birthday Gaz x)

Knowing your reviewer...

Something that struck me from an early age is how reviews can be anything but biased opinions based on the taste of the person reviewing the material. "How could they be anything else!" I hear you say, "The clue is in the word, donut!"

Yes, yes, fantastic, but what if the person reviewing has completely different tastes to you? If he or she told you that x was complete shite and y was great, you could not help but take this information on board and it would at the very least, slightly influence your decision to watch, buy, play or eat the product in question.

I mentioned in my first post to this blog, that I would amongst other things review films. I feel that before I do review anything whatsoever you should have an idea of what tastes I have. After all, if you loved the re-make of "Dukes of Hazzard" then I feel that any opinion I have about a motion picture will most likely conflict with yours.

So without futher a do, below are a list (in no particular order) of films that I feel are truly amazing pieces of filmography.

1. American Beauty
A simply breathtaking film that stirs the same strong emotions in me on every viewing.

2. The Shawshank Redemption
A film I have seen many times. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman are both at their best in this prison flick.

3. The Lost Highway
To many, this is a very poor film that makes no sense. I only saw it recently and knowing how David Lynch likes to challenge his audience, I watched it very closely. The film had a real effect on me and I stayed up until the very early hours to find out if my own perception of what the film was about was shared online. For a film to do this, how can it be anything less than genius? I urge you to watch it and let me know what you thought.

4. The Machinist
Dark and brilliant.

5. Sin City
Again, pretty dark film noir. 3 intertwining stories that make for good viewing.

Ok, hopefully that will give you an idea of where I am coming from. Drop me a line if you want. Just dont expect a discussion about Dukes of Hazzard ok...!

Welcome to my blog!

After many years of avoiding them, (don't ask me why). I have decided to start my own blog. Partly to share my thoughts on the world with a wider audience than my long suffering girlfriend and some (possibly ex) friends, but primarily as a personal timestamped reference to my own mind.

I have often wondered how my point of view stands up to the test of time. I am hoping that it will bode rather well, and that I can be quietly smug about predicting things like mp3 paving the way forward for the music industry back in the 90's.

Most likely though it will completely cringe worthy and I will spend a lot of my time being ridiculed by anyone who knows me... But hey, it will be fun to see how this pan's out in the future!

Reading back I can see this seems rather self involved of me... Why the f**k would I want to read about this fool I hear you ask? Well, I am not going to be writing all about myself (thank god). Instead if some new film that has been hyped up to the max by the media turns out to be utter shite, I will be straight on here to voice my disgruntled opinion. Similary, if I see an amazing film I will also get straight online and whole heartidly recommend it.
NOTE: This is not a film review page, I just needed an example!

You see, I feel somewhat different to a lot of people I know. This is because I am a cynic and many of my acquaintances are not. Do not get me wrong, i am not a pessimist (much) but I seem to share different tastes to the people that surround me. I am fairly confident that there are people out there that share my view point. If you are one of them then I hope to hear from you. If you are not, that is fine.. Probably a good idea to move on to the next blog about.... now.