Buh. Dum. Pssh. I’m here until end of Thursday, and back on Sunday.

[Received today in email from my brother]

Everyone knows that if you are going to operate a business in today’s world you need a domain name. It is advisable to look at the domain name selected as other see it and not just as you think it looks. Failure to do this may result in situations such as the following (legitimate) companies who deal in everyday humdrum products and services but clearly didn’t give their domain names enough consideration:

A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is www.whorepresents.com

Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com

Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net

Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com

Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company… www.powergenitalia.com

And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales: www.molestationnursery.com

If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com

Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is www.cummingfirst.com

Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website: www.speedofart.com

Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at www.gotahoe.com

So, I thought I’d throw up an one evening review. What is a ‘one evening review’, well, I am guessing, and I could be wrong, but I am going to say it is a review of something after spending an evening with it. In this case the PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

The game unlike previous metal gear games on the PSP features voice acting in the cut scenes which rocks. Welcomed is the return of David Hayter as Snake. The cut scenes are not rendered using the engine of the game but using hand drawn computerised graphics. This is nice and effective and adds some artisitc flair that’d not be possible using the 3D engine. The sound in the game is very good with a certain degree of dynamic music kicking in when the action starts. It sounds very much like the console counter parts which is excellent. The graphics are good. The levels are slightly bland-ish because of the graphic limitations of the platform. However, the character models, in particular Snake are excellent and the animation is smooth.

So how does the game fair? Instead of running round one ‘consistent level’, the game is split up into mini objectives around smaller maps. These involve getting intel, recruiting people and other such things. As for recruiting people, you go into these missions with ‘teams’. You don’t just play as snake, but the people you recruit [usually by clubbing them over the head and getting them interrogated]. You can also gain new members by doing a WiFi access point scan, use the to-be-released GPS module for the PSP or on multiplayer. Depending on who you grab, you gain special abilities. For instance you can build a team of spies to gather intel, a group of medics to provide better healing or recovery, a team of engineers to build better weapons or improve existing ones. The more people you have the better you are. It is a game about being part of a team with Snake leading the way.

So, this is all really nice but is it worth it? Damn right, the better the people you grab in the single player allows you to take those people onto the internet and duke it out in a number of different multiplayer modes. You have Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture [you have to grab the green frog and get it back to your 'zone' for 20 seconds], and Team Capture. These modes work really nicely, how ever, there is one main twist that I look forward to playing, the games are either ‘virtual’ or ‘real’. With virtual your characters rotate round when you take a team of four characters in, when they die, you get the next one and so on. This is the practice mode. The real mode means that when you soldiers die, they get taken by the person who killed them so you can gain more people. My personal favorite, brought over from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence [which I beta tested a while back] is the team capture the frog. This provides a really manic, fast moving, team [3 vs 3] based online experience. I really like it. I only experienced some frame rate issues when hosting a game, but that could have been down to the internet connection I was using. There is also interesting mode called Cyber-Survival where you can send out a team to ‘do battle’ with other teams sent out. The can return with items, more people and more skills.

Good? Yeah, so far. If the story holds up and there are plenty of people duking it out on the internet it is going to rock. I like the whole concept of not just building the best character but building the best team you have out of a possible 100 people.

Confessions, I am a Metal Gear Solid nut.

Normally the weekend is a Friday or Saturday affair, this weekend it was a Friday, Saturday and Sunday affair.

After Mike, Helen and I playing some Wii, Friday saw us heading out for Ant’s birthday celebrations [he isn't another year older for another week]. We started at ‘The Old Joint Stock’, which architecturally is a very nice pub, however the rest isn’t so great and I can’t imagine myself running back there soon. We then moved onto Walkabout for dancing, drinking and general cheesiness. It was a good night and was ended with some more ‘Wii’ action as Mike and Helen stayed at mine. You can find photos of Friday here.

Saturday was a slow day and involved a fair degree of sleeping with an injection of purchasing a dress shirt and bow tie. In the evening a group of us headed to the UHB Christmas Ball which was a good laugh. I didn’t get many photos that evening and none worth uploading I am afraid.

Yesterday I did a spot of flying, although the wind was rubbish so we put Little Dave’s 6.4 blade on double up lines which put it on 50m. The wind although not that strong was super clean, no bumps, nothing and probably the cleanest I have ever felt. In the late-afternoon / evening, I went to Alex and Laurens house, joined with about 12 other people, to have a Christmas meal. It was delicious and a logistically well executed evening. There was crudeness [provided by myself and Gaz for the most part], wrapping up items in foil to see if people could guess them, spinning of spinning tops, music, no dancing, Ant doing his best Borat impression to date and plenty of varied conversation. All in all a good evening. Photos of Sunday here.

Today is work time and Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops has arrived, have had a cheeky go and pleased to note that the cut scenes have voice acting and Snake is still played by graveling voice David Hayter.

Oh, I also found this photo of Ant:

And some video for your giggling delight:

Since 2003 there has been a charity called Childs Play that has been run by the guys at Penny Arcade. The concept? Help make sick kids who are unfortunate to be in hospital, particularly around the time of Christmas, have a better time by providing toys and games for them to use whilst there. To quote the Childs Play site:

Since 2003, gamers have banded together through registered Seattle-based charity, Child’s Play. Over a million dollars in donations of toys, games, books and cash for sick kids in children’s hospitals across North America and the world have been collected since our inception.

We collect no administrative fees or other charges, 100% of all gifts and donations go directly to our partner hospitals, to help make life a little brighter for a sick child.

This year, we have continued expanding across the country and the globe. With over 25 partner hospitals and more arriving every month, you can be sure to find one from the map above that needs your help! You can choose to purchase requested items from their online retailer wish lists, or make a cash donation that helps out Child’s Play hospitals everywhere. Any items purchased through Amazon or DStore will be shipped directly to your hospital of choice, please be sure to select their shipping address rather than your own.

When gamers give back, it makes a difference!

Noticing that Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool was in the list I decided to contribute to the charity by buying a DS game (Tetris). The charity is growing each and every year. They still have the charity dinner to come and even Sony Online Entertainment is getting in on the act by moving all proceeds from the online game Pirates Constructible Strategy Game to the charity. You could buy some Gaming webcomic related postcards, or enter a raffle.

Check it out, and if you want to donate, go for it.

A boss wondered why his computer technician, one of his most valued employees had not arrived at work & had not phoned in sick either. Having an urgent problem with one of the main computers, he dialled the employee’s home phone number and was greeted with a child’s whisper.

“Hello.”

“Is your daddy home?” he asked.

“Yes,” whispered the small voice.

“May I talk with him?”

The child whispered, “No.”

Surprised and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, “Is your Mommy there?”

“Yes.”

“May I talk with her?”

Again the small voice whispered, “No.”

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave! a message, the boss asked, “Is anybody else there?”

“Yes,” whispered the child, “a policeman”

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee’s home, the boss asked, May I speak with the policeman?”

“No, he’s busy”, whispered the child.

“Busy doing what?”

“Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman,” came the whispered answer.

Growing more worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, “What is that noise?”

“A helicopter” answered the whispering voice.

“What is going on there?” demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.

Again! , whispering, the child answered, “The search team just landed the helicopter.”

Alarmed, concerned and a little frustrated the boss asked, “What are they searching for?”

Still whispering, the young voice replied with a muffled giggle: “ME.”

I know I am no star when it comes to restaurant etiquette however, this post about people in America, is an excellent read. I certainly will be better behaved in the future.

Lance was excited about his new rifle, and decided to try bear hunting. He travelled up to the Northern Territories, spotted a small brown bear and shot it.

Right after, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to see a big black bear. The black bear said, “That was a very bad mistake… that was my little cousin and I’m going to give you two choices… either I maul you to death or we have rough sex.” After considering briefly, Lance decided to accede to the latter alternative. So the black bear has his way with Lance .

Even though he felt sore for two weeks, Lance soon recovered and vowed revenge. He headed out on another trip back to Alaska, where he found the black bear and shot it dead. Right after, there was another tap on his shoulder. This time a huge grizzly bear stood right next to him. The grizzly said, That was a big mistake, Lance. That was my cousin and you’ve got two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have rough sex.” Again, Lance thought about it was better to cooperate with the grizzly bear than be mauled to death. So the grizzly has his way with Lance. Although he survived, it took nearly a year before Lance was fully recovered.

Now Lance was completely outraged, so he headed back to the Northern Territories and managed to track down that grizzly bear and shoot it. He felt sweet revenge, but then, moments later there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find a giant polar bear standing there.

The polar bear looked at him very sadly and said, “Admit it Lance; you don’t come here for the hunting, do you?”

So, in the flurry of the return of gaming to my life, I have started playing WoW again and managed to notch up to level 52 on my Warlock which is good. I want to level the character to level 60 before The Burning Crusade expansion is released. This should be doable and at the moment it is a good way to fill an evening during those dark horrid evenings!

On the other side, I have purchased Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Acid 2 and Metal Gear Digital Comic for the PSP. I decided to get them from videogamesplus due to the stonking exchange rate. The result is all three titles for little more than one and a half one of the titles here. Or some sort of maths. These should stave off my Metal Gear craving that I am currently facing and hopefully should arrive this week as they were all dispatched in the last couple of days.

With the Wii, I am progressing nicely in Zelda, the first dungeon boss was a little easy and I am hoping there will be more for me to sink my teeth into further in the game. One thing I really like is how there is variation, you never seem to be doing one thing repetitively. For instance, if you have been running around as Link and smashing things with your sword, you are given the horse to go belting around on. You never seem to loose interest as you don’t know what is coming next and the pacing seems right. I have been playing some Mario64 as well for a quick blast. Even though I have played it on the N64 and the DS, there is something nice about having a better 3D renderer drawing the game and the delicious Nintendo Wavebird controller running Mario about. My second copy of Zelda turned up today and I have been trying to work out what to do. I could swap it for Raving Rabbids or I could swap it for Call of Duty or send it back to Amazon. All in all I am still very happy with the Wii.

I’ve also been told I need to check out Okami when it is released.