Yum, yum

A slightly misleading title perhaps as I don't intend to discuss the merits of various in-flight foods. In fact the picture's prettty duff too. Oh never mind...

Basically the search is on to find a match to the in-flight entertainment system provided by Virgin on their UK-Australia flights, this being - from what I can tell - the pinnacle of the artform. Choice of 8 movies plus TV and radio and - their key distinguishing feature - a radiant selection of the Super NES' finest, including F-Zero, Super Tennis and, if memory serves correctly, Super Mario World.

By contrast the beigely communist Cubana and the Quebecois airline that took me to Vancouver last year (and whose name has irritatingly dropped out of my head) vie for bottom place, with the dirty Canucks coming in last on account of charging for alcoholic drinks from the bar (and not allowing me to crack open my litre of duty free rum).

Virgin Atlantic came close to matching the efforts of their antipodean cousins on the Barbados route. Indeed I enjoyed considerably more leg-room on account of a largely empty flight, while the movies were a decent enough selection, hindered only by the stagnant pool of contemporary releases from which they drew - if there are no good movies out, you can't blame the airlines for having a dodgy selection. Refreshingly a large spread of these movies were 18 or 15 releases and, from what I could tell, had not been edited for content. Though I failed to capitalise on the opportunity to watch the remake of The Hills Have Eyes on my return flight, the option was there for me to take. This all said, no Super NES games. Black mark there I'm afraid.

There also seems a growing trend - on trains as well as planes - to allow for in-travel charging of laptops. Presents the intriguing possibility of mid-air wi-fi, in which case the PSP might come into its own again.

Farewell Blazing Angels...

Bit the bullet last week and got shot of Blazing Angels, the pisspoor WWII shooter that I foolishly bundled in with my initial Xbox purchase. What a total waste of time, a particular slap in the face given the vast superiority of similarly themed Secret Weapons Over Normandy - something I've harped on about in the past.

What made it so bad was its sheer shallow mediocrity - it was just dull. The graphics were pretty but nothing special, and the one gimmick of notional control over a squadron of differently skilled wingmen was poorly implemented and utterly superfluous. This all came to a head in one of the last missions I played where you are set the task of flying through a zero visibility sandstorm following radio signals for directions. Cue half an hour of random zooming around a uniformly beige environment with only poorly acted and scripted radio transmissions as a (mostly useless) guide. What pap.

Have to say the replacement isn't going to blow anyone's mind, though decent xbox titles are still pretty thin on the ground. I bought The Outfit mainly for its multiplayer component, which I played via the Xbox Live demo (so far two of my five games were bought off the back of downloaded demos - canny Microsoft, very canny). The single-player bit is rather limp, and the game suffers from the common syndrome of an interesting idea, sketchily implemented. In this case the idea of matching a RTS building and troop deployment element with an FPS environment has its moments (nothing like slapping a 50 cal machine gun nest right in the path of a Nazi stormtrooper charge) but falls a bit flat as the overall design doesn't match the initial inspiration. There is little potential for any real strategy - for instance one mission requires the capture of a tank, but the map doesn't allow for any flanking movement, requiring a head-on charge and hoping for some luck. Similarly squad command is painfully limited and AI of your support troops is variable in the extreme.

As I said, multiplayer was the key motivating factor in this purchase but I've yet to give the full version a road test. Could be we have a candidate for early return to the mighty CEX.

Ghost Recon Expensive Warfighter

As reported by Penny Arcade the GRAW expansion pack has been released on Xbox live. Yes! An expanded multiplayer co-op mission, what a boon to those, like myself, who enjoyed the rather scanty four-level effort included in the original. Oops, only if you're ready to pay 15 USD however, that's a quarter of the cover price of a game you've already purchased! Not sure what that comes out as in UK money, but I wouldn't be holding your breath for a fair conversion on the basis of exchange rates.

What's more it appears that - at least in the US - you can only buy the mickey mouse dollars of Microsoft points (needed to buy any Xbox Live product) in increments of 10 or 20 USD. Once again I haven't checked the UK equivalent (what? You think I research stuff?) but if the equivalent is true here you'll end up with a hefty chunk of unwanted points, though - as Tycho points on on Penny Arcade - probably not enough on their own to buy anything, meaning that if you wanted to use them, more points would have to be purchased.

Now I can understand 5 GBP per month for Live access. I can just about take the idea of paying for downloadable content (though can't see myself doing it just yet) but this is some nasty cynical shit. I'm no idealist but if you're going to ask for money then at least be straight about how much you're charging.

Greetings

Hello there. I'm a poorly photoshopped rendition of David McCullough, reknowned historian and author of a widely respected biography of Harry Truman. I shall be making occasional visits to this interweb netblog to provide expert insight into matters of historical interest.

For the moment my history meter is at threat level green, meaning that there is currently nothing of importance in the world of history. For the time being, therefore, all those of a historical disposition may rest easy knowing that I, a poorly photoshopped rendition of David McCullough, will constantly be standing guard, ready to pounce on any historical field-mouse that chances into my vision like some sort of owl. Of history.

Farewell for now, gentle reader.

Ping Pong's in the house

Rockstar Table Tennis has been the gift of choice this year's birthday. The character modelling is amazing, the music and sfx impeccable but most of all it's addictive and FUN. Just goes to show what a spared down gaming experience can be like - the details are polished, menus accessible, there are no long waiting times and it's got that easy-to-pick-up-tricky-to-master thing going on. Haven't ventured on to the online circuit just yet but I reckon my 'skills' are still in need of a honing before that happens.

Lost weekend

Finished off the last two parts of Season 2 Lost last night, and after some shaky middle episodes this mass televised confidence trick is still just about holding together. Good to see that the trickle of exposition hasn't made the show any less mad - if anything the Dickensian level of unlikely coincidences (referenced, perhaps, in the prominence of a copy of Our Mutual Friend towards the end of the season) has made me all the more interested to see how the writers intend to get out of it. And still no anti-climax even though we've seen what's in the hatch, what the mysterious monster is and (sort of) how Locke recovered the use of his legs.

TV-wise also became a huge fan of The Wire after powering through Season 1 (currently have 2 and 3 on standby). Series arc takes total priority in this show, with no "previously on..." and very little slack given to the viewer. I had trouble keeping track of the story and I watched it all over two days. Can't imagine following it weekl. However, that just makes the story all the more satisfying as does the Traffic-esque multi-layered structure following a criminal investigation into Baltimore's drug gangs on the level of both the police and of the dealers. American TV rules.

My home video

Someone's staged a live-action version of Goldeneye. Scary stuff

My bloody birthday

Further delay to my intended onslaught of razor-sharp pop culture commentary on account of my birthday yesterday - look, I got a cake!






I also got some ice lolly molds (essential for the summer), a Japanese zombie movie Junk, the soundtrack to the Dylan documentary No Direction Home and a collected edition of Commando war comics. Good haul and jam-packed with dignity - which is more than can be said about my trip to Gosh! today which included the purchase of Ultimate Extinction's last issue. Will I ever learn.

Nothing Important Happened Today

Been a dry period for posts these last few weeks, primarily because I've been on holiday (indeed, technically still am on holiday, as am typing this rather than doing my packing). Overjoyed to report that I haven't wasted all my time lounging on sun-drenched beaches or diving in the crystal clear Caribbean but managed to catch up on a hefty wad of TV shows (The Wire, Lost season 2 and Battlestar Galactica season 2), as well as a few new movies on the flight out (Cock and Bull Story, The Matador though not - sadly - Aeon Flux).

My aim is to get some thoughts on these typed up and posted here (possibly also on Shinyshelf). Sadly have been out of the loop on game news as gaming sites are buggers to load on a dial-up connection - o the hardships I bear. But am planning to 'invest' a chunk of time in Battlefield 2 and GRAW when I return. Blazing Angels is prob due a trip to Computer Exchange too.

Stay tuned...