Do you Swapgame?

I just joined Swapgame on Tuesday and I got a bit carried away adding games to my list. You are supposed to add at least 5 games but I ended up adding over twenty. I'm going to get my god damned moneys worth out of this service. So here's my list...

1. Afro Samurai (in the post)
2. Overlord
3. King Kong (Achievement whore...don't judge)
4. UFC 09 Undisputed (Best.Demo.Ever)
5. Prince of Persia 4
6. Street Fighter IV
7. LOTR Conquest
8. Amped 3
9. Sid Miers Civilisation : Revolution
10. Brothers In Arms : Hells Highway
11. Tomb Raider : Underworld
12. Star Wars : Unleashed
13. Viking : Battle For Arsgard
14. Lego Batman : The Videogame
15. Guitar Hero : Aerosmith
16. Beautiful Katamari
17. Shaun White Snowboarding
18. The Chronicles of Riddick : Dark Athena
19. Bionic Commando
20. Robert Ludlum's the Bourne Conspiracy
21. Quantum of Solace
22. Lego Indiana Jones
23. The Godfather II

These are in no particular order as I have not sorted through them, I honestly have no idea how to sort them out. I thought I'd just play whatever they decide to send me as I don't know what I will be in the mood to play that week.
Anyway, what i want to know is what would you recomend to add to my list? I know you wont know what games I have played before Swapgame but still, let me hear your ideas.

Geekdom part 1

Thought I'd show off some of my geeky horde. If I had more money I would have a hell of a lot more figures. My girlfriend has a few cool figures that I'll try and get her to show off in her blog. If she does not do it then I will because her Labyrinth figures and Enid (from the film Ghost World) doll are fucking awesome.

The Xbox Generation, I got the Bioshock Big Daddy with the Lmtd. Edition version of the game. I honestly cant describe how awesome the Gears of War figurines are, they have so much detail, would love to get the rest of them especially the nasty looking Theron Gaurd.

I have a HUGE love of Mario and especially Mario Kart, these little remote controlled karts are great fun, especially for annoying my cat. The Koopa plush is one of my favourite pieces as I pwn with Koopa in Mario Kart on the SNES.

Christmas is awesome when you have an Etsy loving girlfriend. I've had a lot of envy over the Mario Ipod case, as well as some very odd looks.

My small collection of Kevin Smith figurines which I'd love to extend one day. I'm really missing the Mallrats! Personal favourite is Willem from Mallrats as he was a very late Christmas present. My girlfriend bought it in time for xmas (don't moan I've already typed it on full twice) but it did not come until March, nice surprise.

My prize pieces are my Shaun of the Dead figurines, I really wish they brought out Zombie Ed, it would complete my collection perfectly. There's been rumblings about Spaced figures coming out, there was even drawings of them on the net somewhere, I may have to have another night of heavy research to see if their ever going to emerge.

Ill dig out all my gaming t shirts soon and show you them.

Post a comment and tell me what you have.

Where are my Friends?

Being a currently unemployed gamer I often find myself pining for a game of Halo when my friends are all at work or in bed meaning I have to go into the scary world of matchmaking on my lonesome. As you all know annoying things can happen when you don't have good team-mates to watch your back and help you in objective games. Safe to say there is more than 5 things that annoy me but I thought I'd tell you my personal gripes.

5. No Support

This one is a little petty but when your used to playing with good team-mates you know where they go and what they do so when you play by yourself its like losing a limb. You have to be extra careful to watch angles that you don't usually have to. I really suffer from this in the Pit when I setup on snipe tower, I'm so used to my team-mates calling out positions and locking down rockets that I never watch my back. There's nothing worse than being jumped by 3 guys in your own spawn.

4.Awful Hog Drivers

Ever been left in the middle of nowhere with no one to shoot at? Ever been driven straight through the front door of the base in Standoff in your nice shiny Gauss Hog? If yes then you've been at the victim of mindless hog drivers, even worse than bad gunners. Countless times I have been denied a big multi kill by the actions of a suicidal driver hoping to get a one in a million splatter.

3. Quitters

There is quite a few variations of quitters and every one of them pisses me off. Either they quit out because their favourite map gets vetoed or they leave as soon as you go a flag score down usually guaranteeing your imminent defeat. I don't get why they don't just play it out? If your gonna lose then just take it like a Spartan, by quitting out your just losing Exp so surely a defeat is better than losing your hard earned Exp? Personally some of the best games I have ever played have been epic comebacks, think of all the glorious wins your missing out on, stupid...

2. Unfair Matchmaking

Unfair matchmaking may be a bit of a harsh term but when you get partied up with a lieutenant and his two simple minded thumb less guests against an organised team of Brigs and generals then you do wonder if Bungie is out to get you. The above picture was a game of BTB I played a while back, one of many times it has happened on my favourite playlist.
I remember coming against a party of 8 players who were ridiculously good. I promptly submitted negative feedback for being too good (I'm a pussy, I know) and went off to get some food. I came back about 15 minutes later to be partied against them again and to make the situation worse, four of my team-mates quit out in fear of their scary ranks. This would have been fine if they had just quickly won the game of Neutral Assault on Rats Nest but nooo they proceeded to destroy us for 20 minutes rather than just score the bomb and end the game.
I tried to fight back but there is not a lot you can do when you can barely get 3 steps off the spawn. The worst thing about the whole experience was the fact that I could not even give them negative feedback for being assholes...I'm sorry to say this but Why Bungie? Why? (I love you really guys <3)

1.Betrayers!!!

GRRAAGHHH!! Phew, got that out if my system. The above picture just invoked a wave of fury in me. Nothing worse in Halo then people betraying you for a power weapon that they were too slow to get their hands on. Is it my fault I'm faster than you? Did you ask for the weapon? No? Well piss off then! Its such a childish and immature act that completely ruins the game for the player that gets betrayed. If...sorry, when this happens to me, and it always does, I make it my number one mission to hunt the little bitch down and destroy him. I don't care about the weapon or if I get booted its purely an act of revenge. You cant beat the instant revenge of no scoping the team-mate who's trying to betray you, such a satisfying feeling.


Fell free to leave comments about your personal hates, I'm sure there are HUNDREDS I have missed!

Trade in Tribulations

Thinking of trading in a couple of games for Call of Duty World at War. I'm definitely trading in Halo Wars which breaks my only trade if completed code but I have really struggled to get into the game, I'm not a huge RTS fan but I did play alot of Red Alert in my youth as well as Age of Empires and even a little of Rome Total War. Its a good game but its just not a great RTS, its too simple. Does that make sense? The interface is good but there's just not enough buttons to facilitate what I want to do, I cant create armies or split my troops into small manageable units, I'm left with sending a massive chunk of troops around chasing objectives and enemies, its like watching little kids playing football. Its also too hectic, you never have time to breathe and build as the enemy keeps getting thrown at you wave after wave. I like the patience to build up and set up defenses but you cant really do that in this game. Its like they have made an RTS for the FPS fans, too much action not enough strategy.

Maybe I just don't like console RTS's, now that I think about it I have owned a few and traded them in without finishing them, all my favourites are on the old PC. I think I'm just going to blacklist RTS's on the Xbox from now on. I probably would not have bought it if the Mythic map pack was not included.

So Game said they would give me 25 quid for it which is quite good for Game, shame I have to give my ODST drinks coaster away :(

I love all the freebies you get with limited edition games so it is a little bit of a pain to trade but needs must.

The other game I'm going to trade is Fable 2 which I also am having pangs of doubt about. Since listening to the Hi-score podcast today and hearing about the interesting new DLC which is planned I'm slowly coming round to not trading it. Props have to go out to 8bitjoystick as well for trying to convince Lionhead to give me some free DLC, Yeah, it might happen and monkeys might fly out of my butt! (cookie to whoever spots the reference). But if I dont trade these games then I do not get COD5 which looks really good. Played the co op story on split screen with a friend and really enjoyed it but I want to play it on SP and experience it for myself with the added missions. I think I would have bought this game if the Multiplayer beta was not so disappointing. Alot of people who shared my hatred have said that the MP is much better than the beta suggested. Is it?

So its a bit of a 50 50 the now on whether or not I'm going to trade but check back tomorrow and you'll find out. I might give it one more week to decide...hmmm.

Peasants Quest

Spent a few hours playing around on homestarrunner.com this morning. Had a large chuckle on the text adventure games and the StrongLibs before coming across the fun little puzzler that is Peasants Quest, I know im like 4 years late on finding this but I dont care. You play a peasant called "Rather Dashing" who is off to seek revenge on the dragon thing called Trogdor who burned your cottage to the ground. Much hilarity ensues as you need to become more of a peasant to gain entry to the Dragons lair. You have to find a way to smell and look like a peasant as well as catch fire...interesting. Theres some great references to old games and movies hidden away in here including a nice little zelda animation. See if you can spot it for yourself when you play the game.


Simple game in principle but you need to stretch your brain muscles to get around some of the puzlles. For every complication there is an amusing little way around it. I had a good laugh throwing the baby around.

I did get stuck on one occasion but I used this handy little guide to help me past it. If you have not played this then off you go and get stuck in.

Skate 2 Patch

A pretty good list of improvements here...


-Improve responsiveness of off-board controls, modified left stick behaviour to improve feel of off-board movement

-Eliminate scoring exploit for Hippie Jump 180s in multiplayer Spot Battle

-Eliminate the wipeout exploit with off-board and the Superdude trick

-Fixed mute and stale grab tricks to use proper hand when performed in conjunction with a hand gesture

-Fix the occasionally popping of visual indicators (sign-ups, arrows, etc)

-Added support for custom soundtracks for the PS3

-Face and Body settings will now load properly in saved replays

-Character models will be in high detail when viewing a replay

-Visual indicators (sign-up icons/arrows) are no longer visible in replays and videos

-Remove the confirmation pop-up when retrying a challenge

-Reduce potential for pedestrians to spawn in an active challenge location

-Modified "Can you spell Girl?" challenge so the player starts with the lead

-Remove the 3,2,1 countdown when retrying a film challenge

-All Thrasher challenges unlock properly in the career progression

-When starting an Own the Spot via the Challenge Map, the player’s session marker is automatically set for them

-Updated the online mini-map so skaters appear as the same color indicated in the player HUD

-Improved quality of character images generated for display on skate.reel web profiles

-EXP is no longer awarded for players that don’t attempt a trick during a Ranked game of S.K.A.T.E.

-Modified deathrace intro sequences to eliminate camera clipping

-Online Freeskate Activities (Survival) - Increase the tolerance for ‘skating too slowly’ while in the air

-Online Spot Battle/Hall of Meat - Spectators can again trigger hand gestures during another player’s turn


I'm so happy they have removed the bail glitch as it spoiled the Hall of Meat online mode, nothing more frustrating than glitchers on ranked matches. Other interesting update is the fact that you start with the lead on "Can you spell Girl" challenge, might be able to do this challenge now!! Exciting!!

Shame they did not fix the glitch that I just blogged about, grrr...

Are you an Active Skater?

Got this lovely little achievement earlier today, well I did not get it first try. There's a little glitch with this achievement if you have downloaded any of the new content from the marketplace. When I completed the last challenge there was no little exciting bleep bloop from my TV. Luckily my partner in Skate related crime had been through the same thing, all you have to do is delete the content off your HD then reboot the game and compete one challenge and you should be greeted with 20 hard, yet enjoyably earned gamer points. I can honestly say that this has been one of my favourite achievements on the Xbox so far. I only have 40 more points to get on Skate 2 to get the full 1250, I'm not sure if i'm going to get them though, I hate S.K.A.T.E challenges.

Oh almost forgot to say, Bungie have announced the marketplace release date of the Mythic maps, 9th of April is the glory day for all you excited little people.