i’ve been anticipating and salivating about the release of starcraft 2 for months now and monday night was finally the time i got my hands on the collectors edition! I pre-ordered the collectors edition a few months ago and paid for it as early as possible to make sure i got a copy. I went to BT Games in Tygervalley who had a midnight launch from 10pm – 1am and got there at 10pm and a queue was already formed. Stood in line for the initial “show your receipt and then they process it and put your copy aside.” My copy was right there but they may only release it at midnight, bastards. so just stood around chatted to some guys until midnight and they started to hand out the orders.

got home just after 1am and unpacked the box and put everything in the box to one side and grabbed the game disc and started installing it. after 2 initial patches had to be updated, i was ready to play! i only managed to play the first mission and decided to go sleep and wakeup earlier than to play all night.

all i can say is, WOW! blizzard are yet to disappoint with ANY of their games. starcraft2 is just awesomely put together and the game play is outstanding. the graphics are superb and the detail is phenomenal.

the storyline is pretty much what you expect from starcraft but it is still very well put together. a few old faces, a few new ones and some interesting new allies and enemies. the gameplay has some sort of variety in the missions and makes you want to see what the next one is like as they are fun and enjoyable to play.

what makes starcraft2 different from the first one is that you can research new technologies from the zerg and protoss for you terran units and buildings, upgrade units and buildings and also hire some mercenaries. you also sometimes have to make decisions which affects your relationship with certain people or allies and enemies. you also have an achievement system where you complete certain scenarios in missions and you get achievement points, just like world of warcraft’s. you don’t get to use those points for anything, it’s more of a “i have more points than you, which makes me cooler than you!”

oh oh oh! and another kickass feature blizzard introduced is the realid which you can now add friends who have battle.net account to your friend list across blizzard gaming platforms. this means that my friends who play world of warcraft can chat/talk to me while i play starcraft! how awesome is that?

i’m not doing a detailed detailed review as i do not want to spoil it for the rest.

if starcraft2 impressed me this much, i do not want to think what diablo III is going to be like!

here is what was all in the collectors edition:

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor’s dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director’s commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account
• Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit

so it’s that time of the footballing season where there are 1 or 2 games left and titles have not been decided as of yet for all the leagues around the world.

i am just going to give a run down as to where they stand at the moment, who is in contention for champions league and europa football next season and who are the teams going to be making the drop.

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

currently it is between Manchester United and Chelsea going into the final game of the season on Sunday. Chelsea play Wigan at Stamford Bridge while Manchester United are at home to Stoke City. Chelsea have it in their hands to take the title back from Manchester United who is hoping Wigan can pull off a win or a draw and spoil Chelsea’s dreams, but that is only if Manchester United manage to beat Stoke City as well.

If United do win the title on Sunday, it will be the 4th consecutive title and also the 19th title for United, pimping Liverpool’s 18 title wins.

In other exciting matches this week, Tottenham and Manchester City fight it out for 4th spot (champions league). They say this is the 60 million pound game. (the team who gets the 4th spot gets 60 million for qualifying for champions league). If Tottenham manage to beat City, then 4th is theirs, but if City beat or draw with Tottenham, the final day results of Sunday will tell us the outcome of this exciting 4th spot place.

so as it stands:

Champions League: Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham/Manchester City

Europa League: Tottenham/Machester City, Aston Villa, Liverpool

Relegation: Hull City, Burnley, Portsmouth

ENGLISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP

Newcastle has been dominating the championship this season and you can see why they are a premier league team. Welcome back to the premier league!

automatic promotion to premier league: Newcastle United, West Brom

promotion qualification: Nottingham Forest, Cardiff City, Leicester City, Blackpool

relegation: sheffield wednesday, plymouth, peterborough

SPANISH LA LIGA

the spanish la liga still has 3 games left and it is still VERY close between Barcalona and Real Madrid. only 1 point separates them currently.

champions league and europa football is still up for grabs between 6 teams and the relegation battle is still hot. the points difference between 10th place and 18th place is only 8 points. lose the last 3 games and you could be relegated. nail biting!

currently one cannot say for certain who is getting champions league and who is getting relegated!

ITALIAN SERIE A

Another 2 horse race in this one. 2 games left and Inter Milan and AS Roma are battling it out. 2 points between the two but Inter Milan are in the driving seat. will they hold their nerves?

Champions League: Inter Milan, AS Roma, AC Milan, Sampdoria/Palermo

Europa League: Sampdoria/Palermo, Napoli, Juventus

relegation: Livorno, Siena, Atlanta/Bologna/Lazio

German Bundesliga

one game left in the bundesliga and Bayern Munich are already champions, unless bayern lose and schalke win by like 20 nil.

Champions League: Bayern Munich, Schalke, Weder Bremen/Bayer Leverkusen

Europa League: Weder Bremen/Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Dortmund, Stuttgard

relegation: Hertha Berlin, Bochum, Nurnberg/Hannover

Scottish Premier League

Rangers won the title over Celtic. this has always been a 2 horse race in this league. i hardly follow this as it has become boring. no competition from anyone else in this league.

Champions League: Rangers, Celtic

Europa League: Dundee United, Motherwell

relegation: Falkirk

via planetxbox360

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: It’s about time we got a real, high-definition upgrade to one of the best fighting games ever created. From the information we have heard the game will be disc-based (no more XBLA or PSN for MvC fans) and the graphics will be seriously upgraded, running at a full 1080P. Another little hint was the fact that Marvel-employee Agent M (Ryan Penagos) was in Hawaii this past week, at the same hotel, showing off something he could not yet talk about. Oh anyone else notice the Twitter account for MvC has popped back up, making tweets randomly. Something is about to happen with that franchise and I’m willing to guarantee this is just that announcement (throw that in with the fact that my mole is inside, learning everything they need to know on this fighting game). The only information still scarce on this game is that of the roster, we can confirm that Wolverine, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Magneto, Storm, and a few others will be back; but the team behind MvC3 have said they will be blowing fans out of the water with the sheer number of characters this game includes on the disc. Surely the unlock-able gameplay will be back and in full force. As far as gameplay goes the Capcom team decided to stick with what we know best, 2D – that being said it is not traditional 2D fighting, think more of a cross between Street Fighter IV and the original Marvel vs. Capcom 2, which sounds like a blast. Other details, screenshots, trailers, and more will be released next week once the official embargo lifts. Another rumor my mole told me was that gamers attending this year’s E3 2010 conference in Los Angeles will have a chance to go hands-on with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 – it should ship later this year or early 2011 for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. There are many other rumors swirling around but we think we pled our case just fine, MvC3 is coming to next-gen consoles and will be officially announced very soon (like next week).

i’ve been looking forward to this movie ever since i saw the preview last year. i was in 2 minds about seeing it in 3D or not but because the cinema i go to closest to me only had it in 3D i decided to book that instead.

there were 4 things i did not like at first:

1. why the hell do people decide it is a good time to get to the movies 5 or 10 minutes after it has begun?
2. i was disappointed with the 3D. at times i had my glasses off as some of the scenes were too dark with the glasses on and you take them off and you don’t even notice it’s 3D to be honest. i just was not avatar 3D.
3. they left out alot of things plus changed the story just a little.
4. WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU SHOW THE TWILIGHT TRAILER? THAT IS NOT AYOBA!

anyhoo, enough about that…let’s talk about the movie. i don’t know who of you knows your greek mythology, but if you follow it, you would find it did not quiet happen the way it did in the movie. i’m not going to give too much away as alot of you would not have seen it just yet.

i enjoyed the movie. there was nothing in the story that was dragging along that stretches the movie out. everything was just simple and to the point. the effects were good and the kraken looked simply epic. it just left me a little disappointed (see at spoiler alert section for my rant but only if you have seen the movie)

perseus (sam worthington, the main character from avatar) is raised by a fisherman, but is actually a demi-god. he is the son of zeus (liam neeson) and he takes them on in revenge because zeus’s brother, hades (ralph fiennes), killed his family. however the mortals are not wanting to to worship zeus and zeus tell his brother he can do whatever he wants to make the mortals fear the gods again so that they can pray and worship the gods again. this is where hades releases the might kraken on agros and perseus has to stop the kraken by traveling to the underworld and defeating the mighty gorgan, medusa.

even though it had flaws, i am still being generous here because i enjoyed the movie, i give it a 7/10

*SPOILER ALERT*

sorry, but i have to rant about this. so if you don’t want it to spoil your mood or the movie, stop reading now.

one thing that did get to me was the fact that when perseus goes to fight the gorgon (medusa), in the movie he only went with the sword that the gods gave him. if you remember the original story, he had the helm of invisibility, winged sandals to fly, a knapsack kibisis, adamantine sword and a polished shield. WHERE THE HELL WAS THE winged sandles and the helm???

same goes with the story with the head of medusa. in the original he was supposed to have a horse as a gift for polydectes. as perseus didn’t have one he said to polydectes to name another gift he would like and polydectes said the head of medusa. but in the movie he gets medusa’s head to kill the kraken?

oh yeah, and the pegasus just pissed me off completely. winged sandals > pegasus

when sony release the new update on 1 april for the PS3,  the “Install Other OS” option will not be available anymore

sony have decided to remove that from the PS3. opting out will bar access to the playstation network, newer games and blu-ray movies, copyright-protected videos streamed from a media server, and any other new features in the new firmware version. awesome hey?

from pcworld

Sony’s spin goes something like this: By removing the feature, the company says it “will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.”
Translation: You get something you already have (“access to [a] broad range of gaming” etc.) in trade for nothing, while Sony gets to close what it now deems a hacker loophole. What’s good for Sony is good for you, in other words.

and some of the users bitching

The majority reaction on Sony’s PlayStation blog won’t surprise anyone.

“Wait…you are REMOVING a feature?” writes one user. “What’s next? Removing BC from early PS3 adopters? Terrible update sony, teeeerrible,” writes one user.

“This is an idiotic idea,” says another. “I paid for this feature. When the console was $500 I paid for this feature. And Yes, I use this feature.”

“Hey Sony, considering you are disabling half of my product (It was explicitly sold with labeling ON THE BOX that states it supports other OS installations) – Can I get half my money back?” asks a third, adding that the move is “like selling someone a table, and then breaking 2 of the legs off.”

now they bringing out the “real life” movie of book one it seems and the trailer actually looks awesome! i really just hope the movie lives up to the series otherwise i’ll be ver disappointed! it is due for cinemas on 2 july 2010.

The story follows the adventures of Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.

so i finished another game last week. this time gears of war 2.

again i won’t give away the story line but will just give a snippet of the intro

Gears of War 2 takes place six months after the detonation of the Lightmass Bomb at the end of the first game. Though most of the underground army of the Locust Horde was destroyed, the explosion also caused much of the liquid Imulsion underground to vaporize, causing a fatal disease called Rustlung to spread among the diminished human population. After months of peace, the cities of Tollen and Montevado suddenly and mysteriously disappear underground, leading the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) to suspect the resurgence of the Locust. Soon after, the once impenetrable Jacinto, one of the last remaining safe havens for humans, begins to show signs that the same fate awaits it. In order to stop the fall of Jacinto, the COG responds with a large-scale counter-offensive against the Locust. Senior Producer Rod Fergusson says “In order to save Jacinto, [the COG] have no choice but to take the war to the Locust.”

back in november i tried to play this game but only managed to get 30 min of it in due to me being impatient with the whole first person xbox controller thing. once i got the hang of the controller playing modern warfare 2, i decided to give it another chance and boy am i glad i did!

i never did play gears of war 1 (i will though soon) and was not sure if i should start the 2nd one before playing the first. but i decided to do it anyways. this game got me hooked from the start, once again you get involved and drawn in with the characters and  it’s like a movie you are watching and you in the action. the game play is awesome, controls are easy and the graphics is awesome too, though it does not do it justice on my tv. i seriously need to invest in an hd tv to be able to enjoy the graphics way more. the characters are so damn awesome alone. you get to laugh your ass off at some of the things they do or say. you get to shoot from moving vehicles, ride vehicles, ride monsters and fly stuff. it took me about 12 hours to complete and during that time there were no disappointments or any time where there was no action.

the storyline is good, not predicable and some  twists in the tale as well. must resist not to say anything.

i would not mind playing this again as it rocks and i want to play it co-op with someone. i have not tried the multiplayer yet but will try that sometime.

i give it a 9/10

P.S. still feels like i’m missing something from doing reviews.

i have an xbox 360 and tried to play first person shooters with the controller and failed or maybe i just did not have the patience for it. i only had the game for about 3 week so i knew i needed to play it at least and see how it was.

i am not going to give away the story or plot line but just a brief introduction:

“Modern Warfare 2 is set five years after the conclusion of Call of Duty 4. Despite the efforts of the Marines and the SAS, the Ultranationalists ultimately seize control of Russia and declare Imran Zakhaev a hero and martyr, erecting a statue of him in the heart of Red Square. Meanwhile, Vladimir Makarov, one of Zakhaev’s former lieutenants, begins a campaign against Europe by committing numerous acts of terrorism.^“

you first have to do some timed training course to see if you can actually play the game and at what level. lo and behold, i failed on the first attempt. i was too slow. yes, the whole controller thing to aim, move, shoot, etc was a bit daunting. i am used to the pc gaming with keyboard and mouse so you have to forgive me for that. but that didn’t stop me and i managed to complete the course eventhough  i failed the sprint to the door on 4 occasions not knowing where my sprint button was.

as i got more into the game the controller became more easy to use, knowning where the buttons where and just sitting back on the couch with your feet up in the air makes it even better.

the game itself is very very gory and highly viewer sensitive for some people. they give you the option to actually skip the scenes or missions that might be too gruesome. for instance, there is a scene where you start in a packed shopping mall. and you gun down every single person in the mall. you get to travel to all over the world, deserts, oil rigs, shoot from choppers, ride snow mobiles, climb cliffs, chase enemies, stealthy missions , etc.

the game for me was very enjoyable, you get to play different characters and you start to like them as the story develops. it’s a very short game ( 6 hours ) but the whole story, game play and graphics and the fact that you get so involved in it like you are there in the action just made it out to be an awesome and enthralling interactive 6 hour movie.

i have not played the co-op or multiplayer yet so i cannot say how good that is, but if the single player mode is anything like it, then it’s just got to be totally awesome.

i give it a 9/10