Not posted for a very long time, but I’ve been real busy with work and sorting various things out, but I am back and I will try to post everyday!

I think a bit of a catchup is in order. I have decided to sell my PC as well as a few other bits and bobs laying around in my room not being used and just gathering dust so that I can clear some debt and lift a large weight from my shoulders. If anyone is interested, here is the list of stuff I currently have on eBay. Once I get rid of all this and the debt, it will be time to get my car serviced for the first time and also get a renewal for my insurance, this is going to sting! Then hopefully in April/May I will start saving up to buy and build a new PC, this time with some pretty insane specs as well as a host of mods (which will all be a first, so I hope it goes well!).

Finally washed my car today, haven’t done that myself for a long time, and the car hasn’t seen clean paint since boxing day, so it was pretty damn dirty. The original plan was to save washing the car until I get my windows tinted, but as that keeps getting pushed back I finally gave in. Should be getting a date for the window tints this weekend (fingers crossed!) Also been playing Call of Duty 4 quite a bit lately on the ‘ol 360. Somehow, I’ve managed to get brilliant out of nowhere, by not playing it xD I’m now getting a positive KD ratio in every match, getting choppers all the time which is pretty awesome compared to the typical score of 5 kills and 12 deaths I used to get LOL.

Oh, one last thing, I’ve started to PhotoShop a car! First time in about 4 years, shocker I know, anyway, here is the progress so far, I have until the end of Feb to complete this for the Official DigiMods Competition.

Graphics

Visually, the game is stunning, not quite what the pre-release “screenshots” showed but it is still pretty good. The best thing is the map. When you bring the map up, the camera pans to the top of your car and zooms all the way out to view the whole city, then you can do the usual zooming in and out, moving around, then when you hit B, the camera moves towards your car whilst zooming in and getting behind the car rather than on top of it, really cool! All the mods on the cars seem to work quite well, unlike in previous versions of both Midnight Club and Need For Speed where some parts didn’t fit certain cars properly or parts of the kit just disappeared behind others.

Audio

Yet another game with rap brap brap music, turned it off straight away and started streaming my own music from my iMac. The sounds from the cars are quite good, and certainly change between mods. Upgrading the engine and supercharging it definately makes a lot nicer sound than a stock one, including the simply awesome sound of the air being rammed through the engine The sounds from the crashes go a bit strange when topping 140mp/h and you are going so fast you just bounce off the lamp posts rather than stopping dead like usual.

Gameplay

Very difficult to get used to, but there hasn’t been any decent racing games out for a while so i’m very used to playing FIFA 09 at the moment, which is why i suppose it was difficult to get used to. Once you get the feel of the way the cars drive, it gets pretty easy, don’t overspend on visuals and upgrade the engine, suspension and brakes as much as you can and you pretty much can’t lose, but its fun nonetheless. I haven’t played online properly yet, but i have done a “quick cruise” with my brother which was quite fun, something i hear the new Need For Speed is also bringing.

Overall

The game is pretty good, if you like your racing/modding games i’d advise to buy it. The only thing that lets it down is the crap music but its pretty easy to overcome that problem with your own, or just turn it off completely and listen to the engines To finish off, here are pics of the two cars i have thus far

Fifa 09

Well, where do I start? First thing I did was start an exhibition match, going for the London derby of Arsenal vs. Tottenham. After playing the first half, the score was still 0-0 but I was amazed at how much EA have done on this game in comparison with the rather poor Fifa 08. Everything now is so much more realistic, though at times it makes it incredibly difficult and frustrating as we are all used to the years and years of Fifa games being pants, loaded with glitches.

Appearance/graphics

As you can see from this screenshot, the graphics look a lot better than previous games, though as with the Fifa series, improving the looks of the game each time isn’t anything special. One thing though that I have just noticed, the modelling of the players in the lower league (specifically referring to Luton Town in Coca Cola League Two here) is great, they actually look like the players now! The menus and UI (User Interface) are very easy to use as with pretty much every game these days, very simliar to Fifa 08 as well.

Audio

Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix)
Caesar Palace – 1ne
Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin’ (Yuksek Remix)
Cansei de Ser Sexy – Jager Yoga
Curumin – Margrela
Cut Copy – Lights and Music
Damian Marley – Something For You (Loaf Of Bread)
Datarock – True Stories
DJ Bitman – Me Gustan
Duffy – Mercy
Foals – Olympic Airways
Gonzales – Working Together (Boys Noize Remix)
Hot Chip – Ready For The Floor (Soulwax Remix)
Jakobinarina – I’m A Villain
Junkie XL – Mad Pursuit
Jupiter One – Platform Moon
Kasabian – Fast Fuse
Ladytron – Runaway
Lykke Li – I’m Good I’m Gone
Macaco – Movin’
MGMT – Kids (MGMT Song)
My Federation – What Gods Are These
Najwajean – Drive Me
Plastilina Mosh – Let U Know
Radiopilot – Fahrrad
Reverend and the Makers – Open Your Window
Sam Sparro – Black And Gold
Señor Flavio – Lo Mejor Del Mundo
Soprano – Victory
The Airborne Toxic Event – Gasoline
The Bloody Beetroots – Butter
The Fratellis – Tell Me A Lie
The Heavy – That Kind Of Man
The Kissaway Trail – 61
The Kooks – Always Where I Need to Be
The Pinker Tones – The Whistling Song
The Script – The End Where I Begin
The Ting Tings – Keep Your Head
The Veronicas – Untouched
The Whip – Muzzle #1
Tom Jones – Feels Like Music (Junkie XL Remix)
Ungdomskulen – Modern Drummer

This list was extracted from the FIFA Soccer Blog

Unfortunately, as with all Fifa games, only a few of the tracks are good to listen to and they only play whilst paused and navigating the menus. So once again I am left to stream my own music from my iMac into the game and turn the commentary off. As for the commentary itself, I got bored/annoyed with it in one match so I guess that it was a lower priority of the massive list EA had to improve on Fifa 08.

Gameplay

The physics of this game are superb, if I remember correctly, each player has a number of stats for things such as balance, strength, sprint speed, jog speed, skill, etc. which then come into play for almost every action on the pitch. For example, you have a big beefy defender who is really tall but can’t run very fast, if you send a small and speedy striker (such as Theo Walcott) running straight into the defender, Walcott will go flying! This makes sliding tackles so much fun xD.

Video by Galatasaray4Sampiyon

Conclusion

Great looking game, most of the time it plays well too but some areas let it down such as the commentary. The gameplay is like no other football game that I have played before and a vast improvement upon previous Fifa titles. I’d like to buy the game, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it (luckily my brother and my dad did though so I won’t have to!).