Mick vs The 66

If youre one of those lucky enough to have first hand knowledge of my life then you will already be aware that I have taken up new residence ensconced in Dundalks meaty folds (gah that backfired, as I imagined myself walking into the orifice of some gigantic cthuloid entity). If you didnt know, well now you do. Im going to sidestep my issues with the move, as they arent particularly pertinent to the subject at hand. “What is the subject at hand ?” I hear you cry, worry not your suffering is at an end. The subject at hand is to re-ignite my once voracious appetite for the written word.
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Micro Mickisms

Hmm, even at one entry (ooh er matron) a week Ive been slowly failing to keep my updates regular. This is almost certainly due to how messy my room is and Samsungs poor customer service. The latter left me without a monitor for a month and a half which means I moved my computing to my television. But its hard to type for long periods of time with ones keyboard balanced precariously on ones lap. By the time my monitor was fixed/replaced I’d become used to my new setup and the messiness of my room denies me easy access to my traditional computing setup. Hence the lack of productivity, its certainly not because Im a lazy shit. Continue reading…

Armed Librarians : The Book of Bantorra

Just finished watching this and I have to say that it was very enjoyable. The entire series builds excellently to an extremely satisfying (if not necessarily happy) finale. While the ending was certainly worth it the continuous lack of explanation throughout the majority of the series did wear on me at times. Still hard to argue it wasnt worth it. The animation was excellent, as was the voice acting and the music was noticeably well done. The characters, while not always likeable, were nearly always engaging. So all in all I’d say it was very good, but not excellent, four stars perhaps? I might come back to this and expand on it later.

Heavy Rain – Umbrellas & Origami

Basically no-one in Heavy Rain uses an umbrella, even though, as its title suggests, its raining all the fucking time. Though thats not really particularly important, on the other hand Heavy Rain may be. It’s a flagship title that doesnt fall into an easily labelled box. Depending on how it does it could even be taken as an example of how computer games are growing as an entertainment medium. Continue reading…

Bioshock 2 – The Sophmore Slump

If I were to sum up Bioshock 2 in one word that word would be disappointment. In many ways I feel that this is a game that shouldnt have been made. Bioshock was entirely complete as is. It had a story to tell and a world to tell it in and it conveyed the story and the world to the player through an excellent mixture of graphic spectacle, engaging storytelling and enjoyable gameplay. Needless to say I really enjoyed Bioshock.
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Mass Effect 2 – The difference between good and great

I really enjoyed Mass Effect 1, unlike Jade Empire it actually managed to live up to they hype. While it did have some technical and gameplay issues (texture pop-in, terrible inventory system and those fucking elevators) it was still a great game. In particular I liked the world it was set in. The story itself was also pretty enjoyable and well constructed. So needless to say I was looking forward to Mass Effect 2 quite a bit. Continue reading…

Best of 2008 – Definitive Edition

I think only the lucky or the terminally un-opinionated actually fully enjoy reading Top X lists. For the rest of us it’s an experience all too often filled with bewildering disbelief that some idiots voted item X above item Y even though it’s clearly inferior or why poltroons who engaged in voting entirely forgot about item M. The one advantage of public Top X lists is that they have at least the pretence of objectivity as they’re based on public votes. On the flip side this means they’re an indication of popularity rather than quality (as only the naive believe the two are inseparable). Though I suppose “Top X” has always been shorthand for “Most Popular X” rather than “Best X”. I sure do love me some variables. Continue reading…