deviantART Update 27/03/09

Media

by JiliK - Mar 27, 2009

Backloggery Logo

by JiliK - Mar 27, 2009

Yes, it does happen occasionally. I've put two more bits of art work (sort of) up on my deviantArt gallery last night - an old drawing I did in 2000 (above) and the logo I did for my Backloggery page during Christmas last year. Check out the full gallery here.

Don't Shit Your Pants

I thought I'd share this weird little flash game I came across on my travels. It's a simple text-based adventure game where you're only goal is to take a dump before filling your pants. How lovely. But with a door and a pesky pair of pants in the way, it's not going to be that easy. Do you have what it takes to earn all the game's achievements and become the shit king? Find out here.

More Compilations: Now 47, Shine 7

I hit up eBay earlier this month in search of more Now compilations and after much deliberation, I decided to go with Now 47 from 2000 and in a surprise move, Shine 7, a 1996 entry from the Shine series - a short-lived series of indie compilations released in the mid to late 90s.

Now 47
This wasn't one of the Now entries that I was super excited about getting my hands on, but after giving it a listen, there's actually quite a few decent tracks on here. There's some great tunes from Texas, David Grey, Coldplay and Kylie, possibly the only decent All Saints song ever, a great guilty pleasure from LeAnn Rimes and a nice selection of dance tracks on disc 2, including a excellent Ibiza-fuelled cover of "Ordinary World" by Aurora with Naimee Coleman on vocals. Having said that, the compilation also plays host to that fucking awful musical atrocity,"Who Let the Dogs Out" and there's plenty dodgy tracks from all the usual suspects - Ronan Keating, Steps, S Club 7...you get the idea.

Shine 7
I really only bought this to get my hands on "Whatever" - the ever elusive Oasis single, now too expensive to pick up in it's original format and unavailable to download anywhere. However, there's plenty more to like on here besides that. There's several massive anthems from the time from the likes of Blur, Suede, Pulp and Radiohead and a bunch of great tracks from the likes of Babybird, Space, Placebo, Super Furry Animals and The Divine Comedy. Some of the stuff here was completely new to me - I really enjoyed "Twisted" by Skunk Anansie and Morrissey sound-alike My Life Story with "Sparkle". Of course, there's lots of bland pap from long forgotten acts bulking out the compilation, but you could do a lot worse than picking this up.

Purchases Round-up: January/Febuary

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

As I was finishing up Final Fantasy X-2 and wondering what I'd turn my gaming attention to next, I felt the overwhelming urge to grab this off eBay and jump back into my favourite GTA locale - Vice City. The city, the style, the awesome soundtrack - they're all in place and despite a few shortcomings, it's another enjoyable crime-filled journey through the streets of Vice City.

The game does have a share of minor technical problems - The low res textures on far away buildings have a habit of not being swapped for hi res ones until you're right next to them. When there's too much going on there's the occasional framerate dip where everything moves as if it's floating in molasses. Sometimes all the cars disappear from the road - not helpful if you're stuck in the middle of nowhere and you've just trashed your ride.

I also can't help missing Tommy and his posse from the original VC. Vic is a bit of a sick in the mud in comparison and the likes of Kent Paul and Ken Rosenberg are nowhere to be seen. Thankfully though, all those niggles fade away into the background when you're careering through a sea of flaming Cholo cars with "Living On The Ceiling" by Blancmange blaring out of your speakers - I've missed you, Vice City.

Ghost Squad

I've been half meaning to pick this up for ages. I spotted it for a tenner after Christmas so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I don't have the Wii Zapper or any of the many gun shells on offer for the console, so I had to stick to the remote only. Playing without a gun and with the cursor enabled did feel like cheating a bit but it still proved to be a fun justice-dispensing romp.

As you'd expect for an arcade conversion, it's a bit on the short side, with a full play through possible in under an hour. Each of the three missions in the game offers a choice of paths at various points though, so there is some replay value there and new paths get unlocked as you replay the missions. The graphics aren't great and the voice acting is so bad that it must have been done that way intentionally, but all in all it's a nice, enjoyable rail shooter. I wouldn't pay more than €20 for it though.

X-Files Seasons 2, 3, 4

Although I was a fan of the show back in the day, I didn't actually start watching it until a few episodes into Season 5. How heck did I understand what was going on? I'm not entirely sure I did, actually. :) The Firefly box set had sort of put me in the mood for more TV on DVD and I saw that they were selling most of the X-Files seasons for about €23 on CD Wow, so I decided to start catching up. Sadly, season wasn't in stock, so I had to start off with Season 2.

So far, I'm about halfway through the Season 2 box set and really enjoying it. It is a bit strange watching the closing credits without having some obnoxious continuity announcer talking over them though. I grabbed Seasons 3 and 4 in February, but I've yet to get started on them.