A Blast from the Past on Amazon

In the midst of checking out the January sale on Amazon, I came across an old Listmania (surely a contradiction in terms) list I made in early 2006 of the DVDs I owned at the time. The comments are mostly still relevant, I think. I would argue that The Matrix Revolutions does have a real ending though, just a very lame one . :D

Take a look, 1 out of 3 people found it helpful.

Christmas Shopping Round-up

A bit late, but as far as I'm concerned the Christmas season isn't over until all the mince pies are gone. I'm sure there are still a few around here somewhere, so let's take a look at this lot...

Batman Begins/The Dark Knight

I've always wondered who bought these types of packs - a couple of regular DVDs in a new cardboard box. Now I understand. While everyone else was raving about The Dark Knight during the summer, I was only watching Batman Begins for the first time, rented admittedly a result of all the raving. I wasn't really expecting much, but I enjoyed it a lot and I knew I was going to have to get hold of TDK when it came out. This package was a handy way to get both for a little less, even if a single touch covers the shiny box in smudge marks. TDK was great, especially Heath Ledger's performance, but I've got to say that I still prefer Batman Begins.

Firefly

When forum chatter turns to favourite cancelled shows, Firefly inevitably comes up a lot. I never saw it before, but I spotted it on sale on Amazon.co.uk for about £8 on Christmas Eve. I wasn't sure I'd be into it, so I sneaked away from proceedings on Christmas Day and had a look at the pilot on the internet, which was infinitely more entertaining than listening to family members drone on and on for a few hours. (SPOILERS) When Kaylee got shot and I was thinking "You shot Kaylee, you asshole!", I knew I was going to love the series. I got the box set in the post on New Year's Eve and watched two or three episodes every night until it was over. A fun, well written show with a superb cast, wonderful characters and an interesting setting, cut tragically short.

Wonderfalls

I adore Pushing Daisies and after watching the whole first season again before Christmas, I decided to seek out one of the creator's earlier shows, Wonderfalls. It's not quite as surreal and quirky as PD but it's charming, funny dramedy with a cracking cast. Like Firefly, it was axed far too early by the boneheads at Fox. Not only that, but it didn't even get a Region 2 release. I picked the Region 1 box set from a UK seller on eBay to avoid any nasty customs charges.

Portal

I've had my eye on The Orange Box on Steam since I finally got a decent broadband connection in the Autumn and Portal was certainly the part of the package that I was most anxious to play. So I was in GameStop before Christmas, kind of in a rush and I spotted this on the PC rack for €19.99. I knew it wasn't great value but I was determined to pick up something and I went for it. Little did I know that it would be on sale for a pittance on Steam a week or so later. *grumble* *grumble*

Christmas Hits

I think it's been established that I have a thing for cheesy pop music and it doesn't get much cheesier than Christmas music. For some reason, radio stations have a habit of not playing any after about noon on Christmas Day, you know when I actually want to listen to it. I've been meaning to pick up one of these compilations for ages and I finally took the plunge this year. On the surface, this looks like the ultimate treasure trove of festive favourites (Yay alteration!). With four CD's how could it not be?

Sadly though, this compilation is rather like a tin of luxury biscuits that's been bulked up with cheapo custard creams and chocolate digestives. There's a lot of filler here, plenty of long forgotten (for good reason) songs and poor covers and the fourth CD consists entirely of carols. However, there are quite a few nice but less well known songs on here and it does have "Last Christmas" by Wham, which the clearly superior Now Xmas didn't. Obviously, the smart thing to do would be to download the songs you want instead, but it is nice to have them all together in one package.

Steam Sale: Second Pass

Just when I thought I was done with the Steam sale, I took another look through what was on offer, tried out a few demos and ended up buying this lot yesterday:

Ghost Master (€2.50)
This looked like it might be an interesting strategy game when it popped up on GOG a while ago, but for $9.99 I wasn't ready to take the plunge. After reading up on it a bit more, I thought it'd be worth a look for €2.50. It's downloading at the moment, so I guess I'll find out soon enough.

Reaxxion (€0.99)
A really nice Breakout clone. One of the interesting aspects of the gameplay is the ability to collect molten metal dropped out of some of blocks once they're broken. Collecting it adds to a reservoir of the stuff on your bat, making it wider. Once you have enough metal in reserve you can generate more balls at will. It's a dynamic that works well as safety net, preventing the loss of a life when all the balls in play have whizzed past you.

So far, it's been really enjoyable. It looks great and there are a ton of levels on offer. Worth full price, I'd say and a steal for 99 cents.

Bejeweled Deluxe (€0.99)
You may have heard of this one. :) I wasn't sure about whether to get it or not. It really didn't click with me right away, but after spending a bit of time with the demo I started to get a bit more into it and decided to pick it up.

Heavy Weapon Deluxe (€0.99)
A fun little arcade game where you blow up aircraft with a tank. How can you go wrong with that?

Luxor 2 (€0.99)
This one's quite similar to Puzzle Bobble/Bust a Move, but with a moving set balls to make disappear. The demo had me hooked instantly, so this one was a no-brainer.

A nice set of games for €6.45, I think. I'm kind of glad the sale's ending tomorrow though. I've got a gaming backlog as long as both arms at this stage. :D

Steam Sale is On

The image says it all. After a nervous few days thinking that it might not be happening at all this year, the Steam holiday sale has finally started. There's at least 10% off everything and lots of even better bargains on offer. If I didn't have them already, I'd definitely grab Portal (€3.74) and Beyond Good & Evil (€3.74). The id Super Pack is also superb value at €34.99, but I was looking for something on the cheaper side and I wasn't disappointed. Here's what I picked up:

Ultimate Doom (€0.99)

I never owned a PC version of the original Doom. It was finally time to right that wrong. The cheesy midi in this is so much better than the serious ambient soundtrack of the PS1 version.

Doom II & Master Levels for Doom II (€0.99)

I've always loved Doom II, so I thought I'd check out the Master Levels add-on. To my surprise it came bundled with the original game.

Half-Life: Opposing Force (€0.99)
Half-Life: Blue Shift (€0.99)

Believe it or not, I only played Half-Life for the first time last year on the PS2. I really enjoyed it, even though the used disc I was playing was scratched to hell, leading to all sorts of bizarre audio glitches. I've wanted to pick up these two ever since. No time like the present.

BioShock (€4.99)

I've heard lots of good things about this and for a fiver how can I resist? I'm not sure if it'll run too well on my PC but I guess I'll find out when it finishes downloading. Sometime next week. :D

EDIT: It plays okay at the very lowest settings, but it ain't pretty. Time for a graphics card upgrade, I think.

So there you have it. Five games (and an add on pack) for €8.95. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some things to shoot.

Cooking: Macaroni and Cheese

If you're looking for some comfort food for these miserable winter days you can't go wrong with a bit of macaroni and cheese. Let's make some then!

Ingredients

8oz macaroni
8oz cheddar cheese (EDIT: On second thought, this is an illegal amount of cheese to be adding to this. :D You can totally cut this by half or maybe even three quarters without drastically impacting the flavour)
16 fl oz milk
2 Tablespoons flour
2 Tablespoons butter

Method

1. Cook the macaroni and drain it with a strainer. Press down on the pasta a little with a fork to get out more water if necessary.
   
2. Grate the cheese and set it aside.
3. Preheat the oven to about 180ºC/350ºF
   
4. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, mixing it into a smooth paste.
5. Cook the mix for a few minutes, stirring to keep it from burning.
6. Add in the milk and stir until the flour and butter paste is dissolved.
7. Cook the mixture until it thickens. keep stirring it in case it starts to burn.
8. Now, add in the cheese and stir the mixture until it's melted.
9. Mix the cheese mixture and macaroni together in a suitably big casserole dish.
   
10. Put the cover on the casserole dish and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.
11. Eat it, dammit! (EDIT: Ugh.)
    
    

Indiecater Records

I always say that you find the neatest things on the internet by accident. Last week, for example, I stumbled upon Indiecater Records, a little record label releasing compilations and deleted indie albums on-line for insanely low prices (€3.50 for albums, €4.50 for compilations). Better still, you can have a listen to the albums in their entirety before you fork over anything, using a flash-based player on the site.

After checking out some tracks, I really took a shine to "Friday Night" by The Brilliant Trees and decided to grab it. The album came in a RAR file, which I thought was a bit unusual, at least for a legal download ;) . Inside you get the tracks as 256kbps DRM-free MP3s, plus JPEGs of the front, back and sleeve of the album. I'm not sure if the images are at a high enough resolution to print, but they're nice to have anyway. The album itself is great, sounding kind of like a cross between The Super Furry Animals and The Stone Roses. I especially like the opening track, "The Perfect Crime".

Overall, I'm really impressed by my first experience with the site and with such good value on offer, I'll definitely be back for more soon.

Cooking: The Ultimate Brownie

I saw some one making brownies on TV the other week. It looked fairly straightforward, so I decided to give it a go. A quick search on Google for a recipe threw up one for The Ultimate Brownie. Straight away I knew there could be no other even worth considering and I set about conjuring up this confection of the Gods.

It turns out the recipe was a bit too ultimate for the crappy mixer I was using. As soon as I added a second helping of flour to the mix, I had to shut if off after it coughed out a puff of smoke. With another one having exploded last Christmas, it's not been the best year for kitchen appliances. :D

Having recovered from all that, I was able to kick back and enjoy one of the brownies and it was pretty awesome. Rich and chocolatey with a nice fudgey texture, I should have known that it would come at a price. I'll miss you Sir Mixalot (the mixer..., not the butt guy).