Yesterday we went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the movies (i thought it was good, but not great), and it's reminded me to to this now-traditional annual entry. Here's my wrap of the games and movies I experienced this year.

Movies

Best Movie: Watchmen

This selection might surprise some (it surprises me!), but for me Watchmen stood out as the best movie of the year. Maybe it was how unexpectedly good i found it, but just the story, setting, music, filmography, and epicness made Watchmen the single movie that stands out most in my memory this year. Easily my choice … Read more →

It was a pretty standard Christmas this year, except for a few things. The Christmas service that we attended was held on Christmas Eve and fully in English, which was a welcome change. The sermon was interesting and somewhat entertaining: Fr. D used Avatar analogies in comparing Jesus to Sam Worthington's avatar in the movie: being both fully human and fully Na'vi (Jesus being both fully God and fully human).

We did the usual rounds of four different relatives' stops throughout the day itself, which was made slightly easier by not having to fit in Church in the morning.

I … Read more →

Today I went and saw Avatar in 3D.

The movie was really good: very spectacular and great visuals. The plot was a little cliché at times (there's nothing really original about the themes, plot, or ending at all), but not so much that it annoyed me. I do reckon it could have been done about 20 minutes shorter though.

To be honest, I didn't really notice the difference that the waz-bang stereoscopic camera production was supposed to provide, but maybe that was the effect that was intended: it's supposed to look more natural.

Big credit must go to Weta Digital … Read more →

When I'm a bit hypocritical I have no problem disclosing the fact. Despite me putting down in writing on this blog of vowing not to get Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (i won't provide the links to the specific entries ;)), I recently did end up buying the game, and on the Playstation no-less.

Back when it was released, i didn't have a PS3, and now that they have released the Ultimate Sith Edition of the game on the PC, i was considering buying it on that. However considering the reviews of the terrible port that was done for it … Read more →

Ok people, you know that i'm a fierce proponent of finally introducing an R18+ rating classification for video games in this country.

Well other than writing to various attorneys-general and MPs about this issue, the time has come for people on-mass to voice their opinion!

Today the federal Attorney-General's office has finally released a public discussion paper on the issue and opened it up for public consultation. They have provided a consultation submittal template for people to fill in and send back to them before February 28 to gauge public opinion on this.

Now is our chance guys. A … Read more →

This past week i've played a heck of a lot of Burnout Paradise. I've also bought the Big Surf Island and Cops and Robbers DLCs for the game and played a bit of that too. I've pretty much finished all the discoveries, and now i'm in the process of going through a lot of the events. It's been pretty enjoyable and well-worth the money; it's the longest i've spent on one game in a long time. Finding all those smash-through gates was an absolute pain though...

On Friday night we lost our semi-final of the mixed futsal competition. Disappointing, … Read more →

I been a bit off the past few days, it's funny how the flu strikes again when the weather turns hotter, it's kept me mostly at home these past few days.

I still find it hard to believe that we are now well into December. I know it's very cliché, but I really can't believe where this year has gone. We put up the Christmas tree this afternoon, it feels like just a moth or so ago when we took it down after last Christmas.

This past week saw me finally cancel our Telstra Bigpond internet connection, after being mostly … Read more →

Today was quite a sad day as it marked the passing of our family dog, Kleo. She's given us so much joy and happiness over the past 14 years, we've been really blessed to have her as a pet.

Never one to back down from a fight (which as a toy poodle was always against much larger dogs), always mischievous and cheeky, she was always there for us. She's been around for over half my life (since I was 12): she saw me finish primary school, go through and graduate high school, start uni, meet my wife-to-be, graduate uni, she … Read more →

Last week we went and saw The Time Traveler's Wife. I actually quite enjoyed the film, and as recommended by 'Sars' in a previous entry's comment, i do agree that it was a great take on time travel. Basically it goes that even if you could time-travel for whatever reason, you can't change anything because what you're living already happened or was going to happen, and if you're experiencing it then it's happened or will happen and there's nothing you can do to change it.

Speaking of changing things, this past week Left 4 Dead 2 was released. … Read more →

Following tradition, November has heralded the start of the gaming season. This week i've picked up two games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (MW2), and New Super Mario Bros Wii (NSMBW - hmmm, maybe I won't use that acronym :S).

Anywho, MW2 is this year's massive release. Like most people, I was absolutely awed by the story and execution of MW1 two years ago, so this sequel was always going to have some big shoes to fill.

Ignoring the PC multiplayer debacle mentioned previously and concentrating solely on the single-player experience, I somewhat disagree with the mostly universal-acclaim this … Read more →