The forces of nature around the Melbourne area seem determined to make my last two weeks in the city absolute hell. Five consecutive days of 36C+ weather this week. Trying to pack boxes and such in the middle of that is going a little too much for Charly and I.
That also means that I have to get the week’s work done today, as I won’t be able to concentrate with said heat. I’ve been putting the Skate 2 review off, but everything else should be remarkably straight forward. The flood of releases starts up again about a week after we get to Queensland, which is pretty good timing.
Reviews
Lord of the Rings: Conquest (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Features
The Warp Pipe – Gaming Book Club at Games On Net
Coming Attractions – 21/01/2009 at Games On Net
posted by Matthew Keller at 8:17 am
Only about 2-3 weeks left in Melbourne, depending on which day we decide to leave. Work is starting to ramp up – there’s at least two games worth reviewing this week. Last week’s Lord of the Rings: Conquest was abysmal, but fortunately very short and basic, so it only took two days to finish it and write the review.
I’ve been starting a lot of PC games but not sticking to them (Stalker and Medieval II), mainly due to distractions from achievement clean up. I’m trying not to fall back into bad habits (I’m still in the top 50 for Australia, though), but it is annoying seeing 50/1000 scores on my profile. I managed to beat Banjo-Kazooie – albeit the seemingly easier Xbox Live Arcade version – which I’d been trying to beat since 1999. I think the scale of the game and the tasks required have easily been superceded in the 10 years since it came out, which probably made it seem easier.
I started the original Diablo again last night, hoping to beat it without external assistance or hacked online loot. People warned me that it looks like crap now, but I think it holds up okay.
Reviews
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Features
The Warp Pipe – A Look into the Future at Games On Net
Coming Attractions – 14/01/2009 at Games On Net
posted by Matthew Keller at 8:01 am
I’m officially starting work up again today. Apparently I had 24 days off. Feels like maybe 7. I’ve spent the last few days dashing through LucasArts’ various adventure games. You know, back when they didn’t just make Star Wars games.
I’ll be debuting a new column starting this Wednesday calling ‘Coming Attractions’, which is just a fancy way of addressing this week’s new releases. Nothing imaginative really, just taking those quarterly predictions I did in the Warp Pipe last week and doing them weekly. I’ll also be handling updates of Games On Net’s release schedule, so it should be nice, neat and up to date.
The Warp Pipe resumes next Sunday with a bunch of predictions about what will happen in 2009. Just a bit of fun – I always like looking back at the end of the year to see if these things are right. After that I think I might take the column in a more serious direction; I felt like I relied far too much on retro stuff to fill the gaps on the weeks where I had no ideas. The column is going to be a little leaner, but I hope it will be better for it.
Getting all ready to move to Queensland in just under a month. The SO is handing in her resignation today, and we’re going to start packing and posting stuff shortly. I would have liked to be up there sooner – Tuesday is apparently going to be 38C here. Once we’re up there I’m hoping I can find something to compliment my writing work, though that might just be the development of my planned video series or perhaps a simple XNA project or continued writing on the book that’ll probably never be published.
Reviews
Tom Clancy’s EndWar (PS3) at Games On Net
Far Cry 2 (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo DS) at Games On Net
posted by Matthew Keller at 12:45 pm
Being in other places of the country and a lack of Warp Pipe to solidify my routines resulted in a lack of blog entries in the last few weeks. Some work did appear on the Internode site, but I was happy to not think about work at all while I was away. There are a couple more to come yet.
Reviews
Wii Music (Wii) at Games On Net
FIFA Manager 09 (PC) at Games On Net
Call of Duty: World at War (PS3) at Games On Net
Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Crash: Mind Over Mutant (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Naruto: Broken Bond (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3) at Games On Net
Banjo-Kazooie (Xbox Live Arcade) at Games On Net
Sonic Unleashed (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
Left 4 Dead (PC) at Games On Net
Prince of Persia (Xbox 360) at Games On Net
posted by Matthew Keller at 12:11 pm