Return of the Pie

I've been off ill this week, and it suddenly occurred to me that I haven't blogged here at all in ages. Busy? Doubt It. Forgot? Likely. Lazy? Yes.

Anyways, last weekend Aquatic and I decided to do a little meet up. The plan was originally to venture to the capital of our fair and glorious nation to visit the Queen for tea, but unfortunately, we realised we we're completely and utterly skint, so gave up. Instead, we took a quick trip down to GameStation and browsed the used games section. An hour later, we left confidently with 8 games (for £20 too) and Aquatic also grabbed 2 Shadow of the Colossus models, which are awesome. Anyways, here are the eight games (all PS2, because that was the only console we had with us to play that night):

• Crazy Taxi: As good a place to start as ever. Great, fun game though, if beginning to show its age a little. Oh and everything is crazy. Title screen: that's crazy. At character selection, everyone is crazy. Then jump into the game, crazy mode mind you, and it's all "Let's go earn some crazy money!". Just a note. In case you're allergic to crazy or anything. B-
• Goldeneye: Rogue Agent: Now, I know a lot of people hated on this, but I love it. It's great fun to play, and to me that's what makes a fantastic game. Also the Environment Traps are great fun to use in multiplayer, and opening the trap doors on the Golden Gate Bridge before explaining to the Wanderer about said traps was great. A-
• Red Faction: Okay, admittedly we didn't play this for long yet, but the idea seemed sound, story (outlandish but no complaints) seems solid, and the ability to blow the crap out of whatever is in front of you is fun. Probably the only annoying bit is the technological limitations of an early PS2 title: the graphics aren't great, and the gameplay, especially movement, is a little dodgy. Actually being able to shoot someone and they die instantly gives a great sense of satisfaction though. B-
• Deus Ex: This is harsh bearing in mind I played about 10 minutes of it, and you have to remember when this was made (2002 on PS2), but I found serious issues. Terrible framerate, glitchy controls and gameplay, long and very frequent load times to name but a few (ignoring graphics). Having said that, I know that it is supposedly a good game, and it has 90 on Metacritic, so I will try getting into it properly somewhere along the line. C
• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King: Aquatic and I played this is co-op mode, as Legolas and Gimli respectively, which was great fun. Or at least it was apart from Aragorn's seeming inability to do anything-at-funking-all bar sticking in an occasional sword to get some kill points. Still, combat is perfect, graphics are top notch, voice acting blah blah blah it's all great, kay? A+
• Haven: Call of the King: I'd never heard of this before, but Aquatic told me to buy it and I'm glad I did. I'm a big platformer fan, but there just doesn't seem to be many good ones around any more. Here is one though, it has a little of the Beyond Good & Evil about it, but that's hardly a bad thing. Overall great quirky little game. B+
• XIII: Not the Final Fantasy game silly, the actioner. I absolutely adore the comic book stylings and it is a great fun game to play, it's at the bottom of my pile to play at the moment just due to the amount of games I got, but my play of the first through levels reminded me why I used to love playing it on my mates Xbox 1. B+
• TimeSplitters 2: I loved TimeSplitters Future Perfect, which was one of the first games I got for my PS2 back in the day. The gameplay was the best I'd seen and the game was both fun and hilarious. So finally, I dug out a copy of 2 and it is just as great! The time between the games doesn't appear to have hindered it at all, and it was a blast to play, both in co-op mode and deathmatch - which is insanely fast. A+

So overall, lots of awesome games!

FO

Jumping Just Isn't Healthy Anymore

I'm finding it harder and harder to find excuses as to why my post count hasn't been rising lately. Already so early in the blogging, let's be dramatic and call it an era, and I'm shunning my responsibilities of supplying you, the loyal reader, with our ever-present, ever-important opinions!

Suuuure, I could blame it on work, or laziness, or even the fragment of a social life that I vigilantly clutch to my chest, but let's be ambiguous and say, no matter how much I toil away trying to find her, my princess is still in another godforsaken castle.

Far be it from me to actually use this blog to tell you about the ongoing mini-struggles that occur in my life; those are for me and my large supply of poptarts to deal with. Instead, I'll only provide you with morsels related to games, movies and things that are fun. Well, unless it's a particularly funny struggle. Then I got your back.

For the second time this year I ventured into the outside with my sights set on seeing another film. My previous outing to see Cloverfield with Octopus was an absolute delight and it's safe to say there was an abundance of enjoyment to be had. Unfortunately for Jumper, the next film I decided to see, this meant that the bar was raised almost as high as the Cloverfield monster itself. Hang on, sorry, I guess that could be considered as a spoiler. For the record, the Cloverfield monster isn't tall at all. I'd even go as far as to say it was of medium height.

Anyway, back on the subject of Jumper, it's safe to say I was not disappointed. Not because Jumper compared to Cloverfield (well to be honest, it could be compared. But that's like comparing a kick to the crotch to being smothered with pure-bred awesome*) but because I never held my expectations very high for it, it ended up surpassing them. Not by much, but enough for me to leave the cinema actually with some sweets left, for I was too impressed most of the time that I couldn't possibly eat.

Let's get down to the actual reviewing though (cue collective groan). Jumper at it's roots is an adventure, 'sci-fi'y film thing based around a kid called David (Hayden Christensen) who suddenly finds he has the power to teleport or 'jump' to any location he wants. There's some people called the Paladins who are just essentially religious extremists, or at least one of them is, thank you Samuel. L. Jackson, trying to kill Jumpers (capitalized of the 'J' to avoid confusion and childish giggling) for having the power of being 'in all places at once', a power only God should have. From then on it's essentially an orgasmic thrill-ride of action and fun, leading characters through emotional journeys with the viewer, ending in a satisfying climax.

Or at least that's probably what it intended to do, but I think some of these ideas got lost in the production, bless 'em. Instead, it was a fun movie to watch, where we got to witness one character's emotional development while the viewer just kind of tagged along, that ended in an adequate conclusion, but altogether leaving me unsatisfied.

There are several niggles I had with the movie, to put it gently. Firstly, there wasn't really much jumping to be had. I don't mean the teleportation kind, I mean the 'bend-your-knees-and-propel-yourself-from-the-ground-a-foot-or-two' kind. Not really the greatest niggle of them all and it's kind of stupid saying this, but when I first heard about the film, my mind had already made up what it's going to be like. It had imagined it to be focused on some sort of kangaroo (because they Jump) who gets into dodgy dealings with the mafia and has to repay his debt by whacking a few guys, but eventually getting emotionally involved with a female kangaroo who is the daughter of one of his targets, altogether ending in an epic decision whether he can choose to follow his heart and not kill her father, or be hunted down by the Australian mafia for the rest of his life. In the outback.

I know I practically just described Kangaroo Jack with guns and a plot line, but once my mind had made itself up, it's hard not to get it to change.

Another niggle I had with the film was with the casting of Hayden Christensen as the main character. For those of you who don't know, Hayden is the actor who played the older version of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars films, episodes 2 and 3. Yes those ones.

Let me first get this across; I'm fine with the acting that Hayden delivered. I'm not that good of a critic when it comes to these things, but I know he didn't do a bad job of it. I'm sure he also sold a few tickets because of his frustratingly charming good looks. What I'm slightly peeved at is that when you're casting for a character who's got a prominent supernatural power, don't cast an actor who's notorious for previously playing a character with a goddamn prominent supernatural power.

The first time Hayden 'jumped' in the film, the immediate thought that ran through my head was "Wait, hang on. Did he just use the Force? Does that make him a Jedi? Or is he actually a Sith? Does this mean he's going to be using his jumping powers for the good of the Republic? Is that a lightsaber in his pocket? Where's all the other Jedi? Oh God I hope Jar Jar isn't in this." When you're a nerd like I am, it's hard to get over the initial 'omigod its anakin from star warz' train of thought. And when I was finally enjoying the film enough that I could forget about the presence of a Sith Lord, I was already halfway in.

I've a few other niggles, but they'd be spoilers, and I would not want to ruin the film for you. Yes, that's right, I recommend you watch this film. Don't ask me why, as I will not be able to tell you. At least not without a professional delving deep into my psyche.

And before you ask, no, it was not a lightsaber in his pocket, and neither was he just happy to see me.

*Yes, it does exist. You can get it in spreadable form too.
-Aquatic Wanderer

Su Pleh

I do apologize for the drought of posts over here this week, and would like to shift the blame from the laziness of myself and Aquatic onto some other causes. Firstly, the polar ice caps melted a little, which gave me uncontrollable fits of sobbing. Secondly, I have been redecorating and so have had little time to think, let alone blog. Thirdly, my laptop broke =(. And finally, Aquatic was bedridden with the sniffles. But now we are all back, so here goes!

Last weekend, the Wanderer and I ventured to Cinema, in the realms of Outside, to go see Cloverfield. Now, the two of us rarely go out, let alone together, and so evidently it would take something Ammezin to change this. Cloverfield was Amezzin.

Seriously though, all things considered, Cloverfield is possibly one of the best films I've ever seen. J.J. Abrams' storytelling was top notch, the Handycam perspective was fantastic, and the effects were great. I know a lot of sites were slating the film, saying it was overhyped and that the acting was terrible. Now, last year, I saw the first trailer of Cloverfield (back when it was 01-18-08) and immediately sent it to Aquatic. The two of us then agreed to ignore everyhting about it until we saw it ourselves, to save ourselves for the vanilla experience of the cinema, you might say. And it paid off. None of the film was spoilt, and there were lots of "Whoa" moments. The other thing that most reviews ripped into was the acting. Here I have to disagree again. I think the use of Unknowns was fantastic, because if I had noticed George Clooney and Angelina Jolie, it wouldve completely ruined the engrossingness (new word) of the film. And they weren't that bad actors anyway...or maybe we were just distracted by the creature instead. All in all, highly recommended: four-and-a-half handheld video cameras out of five.

Woah...long paragraph. By the way, I saw my first ever iPhone in the wild last week. Bearing in mind I catch the train twice a day with business people, that's quite impressively late, but wahey nonetheless!

The next thing I wanna talk about is my Burnout Paradise hands-on. Now, as you all know, I don't own annext-gen system, so I went to someone's house to play. I should also mention that I played the 360 version. The last Burnout I played was Dominator on PS2, so the sudden change in controls was a little unnerving, but made sense. Triggers to accelerate and brake, A to Boost. pretty simple stuff. I've been a Burnouter for years, and was really looking forward to playing Paradise just because it seems that they've done something radical with it (also vaguely related, Aquatic and I love Black, the shooter from the Burnout team). I love the new roll-up-to-traffic-lights-and-pull-triggers-to-start-race mechanic, it makes it so unbelievably easy, quick and fun to play Paradise. I also missed the Retry button...for about 2 seconds, before I just drove out from when I cocked up to the nearest other race. It's actually fun, and a proper next-gen game. I also had a try online, and the integration is near seamless =D. All in all, Burnout Paradise = Awesome, and I can't wait to get it myself for my imaginary PS3.

Right, the final paragraph goes to the thing the Wanderer mentioned in his last post, that is our new feature. Basically, the plan is to do our top games evar (ie: that we've played) across all consoles, so look for that to start showing up soon.

For now, goodbye!
Fuourescent Octopus

I Wasn't Always A Gamer. I Had Friends.

To say my initiation into gaming was a smooth and glorious one would be much too flattering. In fact, my first real taste of gaming was probably nothing more to me than another pass-time in between creating Lego fortresses and riding my dog around the house. I had no idea how such a thing would engulf my life so profoundly.

It's hard for me to pinpoint the first experience I had with video games. Partly due to the fact that it was most likely when I was about 7, and partly due to the fact it's so late at night that the words on this screen have to be appearing by magic since my brain sure isn't doing this. So I'll just start reeling off early memories of "My First Games" and we'll see what we make of it.

The first thing that springs to mind is the Aladdin game on the PC, for Windows 90...-something. You played as Aladdin, surprise-surprise, in a side-scrolling...action-adventure game, where you had to fight enemies...and I'm pretty sure collect some kind of jewel...?

(When in doubt, Google it.)

"Disney's Aladdin is a video game based on the 1992 motion picture of the same name, released in the 16-bit era. The game mostly involves killing enemies with basic swordplay and jumping across ledges. Several levels were very different, including one level where Aladdin must escape from the Cave of Wonders on Carpet."

Paraphrasing this just a tad, I remember now that it really just involved jumping over rooftops in Agrabah, chucking apples at some slightly effeminate guards with very oddly shaven beards.

But I loved it though. 7 year olds must've been a very easy target market, considering I can remember spending months playing that game, (commonly not getting past the first level but shuttup) and not getting bored of it. And then I remember how many times it crashed because our computer could not handle the obvious intense graphics that Disney's Aladdin had to offer.

The second main event in my 'vie de jeux' I've kind of already touched on. It was the first time I experienced a Resi game. I say experienced because it wasn't me playing it at all, it was some friend of a relative or whatever, and there's no way my parents would let me within a metre of the controller. Regardless, I still got to watch what ensued on the screen.

And let me tell you now, the soul despairingly terrifying ordeal of watching low resolution characters get ripped apart, polygon by blood-splattered polygon will stay with me for the rest of my life. Up until counseling becomes an option at least.

I'm not sure, but I think this little event not only stopped me from playing a Resi game for years, but hindered my entire gaming experience. If only for a week or two. By the time my mind wandered back to games after my haunting, I had reached an age where my voice would be heard by my parents, and gaming for myself became an option.

At this point, we had a lot of gaming 'devices', none of which I had gotten into. To name a few (or all) we had a Sega Megadrive, Gameboy Classic (x3), Gameboy Colour (x2), Gameboy Pocket (x3) and a Playstation. Besides indulging in my brothers multiplaying needs, I really didn't see the draw to games. At least, I assume I thought this, but I probably wasn't smart enough at that time to figure out how to turn on most of these confounded contraptions.

This all changed however, when I got a Nintendo 64. My god, I swear that was god's gift to gamers everywhere. Not only did it have the best library of games ever conceived, but it had Zelda. ZELDA. I know we hear a lot about how this series was "the best evar" but just speaking for myself, IT WAS THE BEST SERIES EVAR.

And it all really started with Ocarina of Time. I'll spare going into detail and doing a whole review on it (I've learnt my lesson), I'll just say that I get goosebumps thinking about the time I had with that game. I would trade almost anything I have now to get that feeling of pure bliss, and wonder and utter perplexity that I had when I explored every nook and cranny, every new adventure that game had to offer. I thought nothing could best it. It was impossible. And then Majora's Mask came along. Needless to say, I loved this game even more. Many of you might disagree, but I found this game bigger, better, and prettier than it's prequel and more deserving of praise than OoT.

And it was pretty much "downhill" from here. I bought copious numbers of games for the the N64 and Gameboy, catching up on the years that I should have spent gaming, which I actually spent socializing with friends and playing with imaginary animals and things far less constructive.

I bought every Nintendo console from then on and I bought and all of the flagship games for each system. I became an avid Ninty fanboy after my first stint with Zelda, and it continued from then on, and I'm proud to say I'm still one today.

There's a part of me that would really like to have gone into more depth about all my past experiences with games. Heck, you may find me reviewing games from now that were on systems like the N64 or the Gamecube, since I know of so many gems that are overlooked, it's not even funny.

Next post we will see the introduction of a new feature, which I hope will give me a cause to expand upon more games from the past which I loved, but don't get your hopes up.

Yeah, I know the quality of writing sucked in this. You try acting coherent and suave at midnight.
-Aquatic Wanderer

Octopii Don't Have Opposable Thumbs

Hullo again, Octopus here with another bowlful of cranial excretion!

Now, I mentioned that I'm a Sony fanboiii in my previous post, but I should probably go back a little. I played my first game evar (The Lion King sidescrolling platformer, on a floppy disk) on my Acorn PC running Windows 3.1 for Workgroups (hell yes!) when I was about 6 or 7. I thought it was awesome, and my time was torn between this amazing new phenomenon and my new-found love of the bicycle. I later got some Scooby Doo DOS game, which wasn't nearly as interesting, but alas, I was not deterred. I recieved a PlayStation from my dad in the late 90s and played the collection of EA Sports games, Rugrats Studio Tour and craploads of demo disks (they used to give them out at MacDonalds) until my eyes bled, or I was sent to bed, whichever came first.

The love slowly faded as I paid more attention to girls, and to a lesser extent, school, and my PlayStation began to collect dust from its house under the television. Then, towards the end of my stint at junior school, there was a particularly stormy day. I was petrified of being by myself in the storm in my empty new house waiting for my mum and sisters to get home, so on a whim, I went round to the house of one of my friends at the time. There, I discovered the PlayStation 2, and simultaneously, Grand Theft Auto 3. From then on, I pestered my parents, and I got my very own PS2 (complete with the GTA Double Pack) the following Christmas.

Now, 6 years later, now with a slimline PS2 and slim PSP, I like to think that I can be officially classified as a gamer. But just to make sure, I'm currently working my way through a big list of all the best PS2 games I've missed. Amazingly, I've never played a Resident Evil, Guitar Hero, God of War, or, until last month, Silent Hill game. Oh, but I have played every GTA game. I now sit impatiently waiting for someone to buy me a PS3 (all my money goes on bacon sandwiches from school or miscellaneous games whenever I venture into town), and possibly even more impatiently for Patapon, the new PSP game.

Just because I'm a Sony man doesn't mean I haven't played other consoles though. I love the GameCube; seriously, I love that thing. Super Mario Sunshine and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect for GC are two of my favourite games of all time. The Wii's great (even though I don't own one), and Zack & Wiki and Twilight Princess are both awesome games. There's even an original Xbox laying around somewhere, but the only games my sister has for it are racing games, so I don't play much.

Anyways, that's my gaming life so far in a nutshell! I should think the Wanderer will be around soon with his own gaming history, so until the next time, au revoir!

A Little Bit Of Rotting Text

Afternoon potential readers. I'm the other one in this caustic pair, also known as Aquatic Wanderer.

Oh, and before you start driving yourself mad trying to piece together our identities through our odd internet aliases, let me assure you that neither I nor Octopus live underwater, and that these names are completely devoid of any factual information.

Although he has been known to glow from time to time.

Since my partner in literary crime has already introduced us both, I will spend little time doing the same. It is true we are both students, and yes, we are also geeks. Two important facts you have to keep in mind when reading through all this inane dribble.

Since the formalities are quite over, I though I might as well get on with the meat of this post. Y'see, not only are we geeks, but we are gaming geeks. I'd even be bold enough to say that we are both avid about games. So much so that when talking about games in such fervour, any passer by could easily determine our gaming roots and pin us down in the 'geek' genre.

Which is why I'd now like to dedicate a few paragraphs reviewing a game that I've recently played, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. And I think, because of this quiet interest, (read: obsession) it would not be unwise to assume that this feature will become commonplace in this blog.

I've been a big Resident Evil fan ever since it's original debut in '96. I was only a young scamp back then (for the sake of anonymity, let's say I was 42) but I knew there was something great about the series, despite cowering behind the chair at every blood drenched groan. And ever since then I've had the privilege to watch the franchise grow into what it is today.
And so when I found that Capcom was releasing an arcade style shooter encompassing a vast majority of the Resident Evil time line, I was positively giddy.

The game starts off at the beginning of Resi 0 (or more commonly known as 'the one with the train') going through Resi 1 and Resi 3, ending with a brand new chapter, one year before the events of Resi 4. Considering the game doesn't really have much of a new storyline in itself, it's hard to mark it up for originality, but I love the whole zombie virus outbreak scenario no matter how it's portrayed, so Umbrella Chronicles could have the Tweenies fighting off hordes of the undead in Tellytubby land and I wouldn't care.

So, let's get onto the gameplay. True to the arcade shooter genre, Umbrella Chronicles (or as some have affectionately named it, 'Umbrelly Chronies') is an on-rails, infinite ammo, shoot-em-up at it's core. Thankfully Capcom went a bit further than this and didn't go all Time Crisis on us and instead added a little bit of depth.

A variety of guns can be picked up throughout the course of each level, and with the use of points, you can upgrade these weapons to a certain point, making your zombie infestation worries dwindle away slightly faster. These points are gained by achieving god-like scores in the main storyline by killing more enemies, completing the level faster, getting more files, obtaining more critical hits and destroying more objects. Hang on a minute. Okay, fine, I understand the first 4 criteria, but destroying more objects? Why would a game where you're supposed to be worried about surviving the onslaught of festering corpses punish you when you don't shoot every lamp to pieces?

To someone who hasn't played the game, it doesn't sound that bad, but it gets to a point where you need to conserve your grenades, not to increase your kill count, but to more effectively destroy every piece of furniture in the god forsaken room. Every new door effectively leads to more lights to shoot out, more chandeliers to obliterate and countless paintings to puncture. Enemies just become an obstacle in your path of defacing the surrounding scenery.
I admit, a great game for all you vandals out there who want to be rewarded for your wanton destruction but for the goody-goody inside me, well, let's just say it irked me a little.

Other than that little bother, the large majority of the gameplay was thankfully great fun. Zombies torso's could be showered with led before succumbing to death (re-death?) but that perfectly placed shot on the head would lead to a very satisfying melon-like splatter. Environments ranged from creepily dark train-stations to large medical facilities, each requiring it's own style of gameplay. Bosses were true to the Resident Evil franchise and were designed greatly. And this isn't even factoring in the experience of multiplayer (in this case, the presence of another player really does double the fun). The zombie fanatic part of me could go on. But let's not.

And then we come to the controls. I decided first on to omit the use of the lightgun, for the sole reason that I looked wrong in every sense of the word. The 'classic' Wiimote/Nunchuk did just fine for me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

First there's the aiming. My immediate woe was that I found that my previously honed skills of achieving headshots meant nothing to this game. At first the cursor seemed to be about half a second behind me. It was as if you were out in the shops and your child would rather not be there, but you've attached him to a rope that meant he would eventually go wherever you go, but from time to time he likes to swing about a bit and throw a temper tantrum. After a while though, you begin to ignore the child (as I'm sure happens in most families) and get used to the slightly drunken movements of the crosshair.

The control stick can be used to slightly extend your field of vision in any direction, which is a nice plus when you're trying to kill all the zombies, or more likely; shoot out this one pesky light in the distance that's moved out of the vision of your frickin' screen.

And finally we come to graphics. Considering it was a Wii game, I had allowed myself to believe way before I even played the game, that I would not be, as you kids call it nowadays, wowed. But contrary to previous conceptions, I was. Not in a Super Mario Galaxy way, let alone a Crysis way, but in a Resident Evil kind of way. By this I mean, there weren't just no jaggies, but the lighting was perfect for the survival horror atmosphere, and the character models and enemies were surprisingly believable. And trust me, at the pace the game moved sometimes, you had enough time to admire the un-Wii-like looks.

Overall, I love the game. It's a great homage to Resident Evil, even though it isn't true to the ammo placement, amount of enemies, or pacing. Buy it, and if you don't enjoy it, at least you've had some practice for inevitable zombie apocalypse thats due any day now.

Well, that should be it, for today at least. Perhaps I should've been more accurate when I said "a few paragraphs". I didn't mean to ramble on as much as that (unfortunately I have a lot more to say) but if you got through it all, go on you. Maybe you won't get eaten.

And for the record, iPod's are gay.
-Aquatic Wanderer

Come In To Our World (No, Not Like That)

Hullo there, and greetings from me, Fluorescent Octopus!

I am not from the moon, as the rumours and religious writings dictate, but instead from a small village known as Temple Harrington in the west of Greenland. Which is obviously a lie, but I'm not gonna tell you where I really live, am I? Silly you.

Right, I should probably explain what this blog-of-sorts is about. Me and Aquatic Wanderer here (he's waving), are students. Not fantastic ones, mind you; we get quite lazy with ICT coursework in particular. We could do well if we wanted to, but our teacher is the sort that deserves to honestly burn, and so we have grown to detest the subject that, as self-confessed geeks, we should adore with full sincerity. Where was I? Oh right, students. Which isn't remotely interesting.

Yeah, we love games, and so you will see a lot of stuff about games on here. I am a Sony man at heart, but actually growing more of a platform agnostic every day, mostly due to the awesome games coming out of everywhere. That's right, even England. Yes, that's sarcasm, we make the best games: GTA, Burnout and the like are all ours. Anyways, if you're looking for something quirky and fun to play (for free), try either Lux, or the demo of Armadillo Run. Remember, both of us here are always looking for something new, so if you find anything cool on your internet wanderings, do share, and don't be a selfish little bugger all your life. Oh and most anticipated game of 2008? LittleBigPlanet (PS3, Q3 08).

Moving on, Aquatic Wanderer and I were having a heated discussion this week about MP3 players, which are obviously the most important things in the world, and therefore something valid to argue about. My point is that I've had an iPod nano (1st gen) since Xmas 2006, and eventually threw it away in November after I fell asleep whilst listening to it in bed and woke up to find I had crushed the screen. I still use iTunes for music (apart from a brief stint with the Zune Software at the end of last year), so I'm thinking of getting an 80GB iPod Classic. Now Aquatic just refuses to use anything with an 'i' in front of it, so has been trying to convince me to get something else. Thing is: Creative's are nice but the UI are the MP3 player equivalent of a Sony Ericsson phone (as in, it is shit), Archos' are boring and ugly, Samsung's...erm...I'm just not interested in, the Zune hasn't been announced for release here yet, and Sony's have really crappy PC software, so I'm left with an iPod. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Now, to introduce a feature! *pre-emptive applause* Welcome to...Custom Soundtracks! Now this is effectively a 'What have I been listening to lately?' segment under a different name, so without further ado, here goes:

• Late of the Pier (I recommend Bathroom Gurgle or The Bears are Coming).
• Cajun Dance Party (Amylase and The Next Untouchable).
• Kimya Dawson (Tire Swing and Loose Lips).
• Antsy Pants (Vampire).
• Sarabeth Tucek (Hot Tears).
• The Ting Tings (Great DJ).
• M.I.A. (Paper Planes).
• Four Tet (As Serious As Your Life).

Right, get that lot down your intertubes, and give us a shout back with what you think!

I think there's just time to sum up, so hope you all have a lovely lifetime, and I'm sure one of us will be back soon to blog some more!

Fluorescent Octopus

P.S.: Pata-pata-pata-pon.