Go away, I want to be alone.

Today's post is dedicated to my cousin. Who happens to annoy me more than I can describe.

I genuinely prefer to be left alone, I like my own company. However, my dear cousin, who's older than I am, refuses to let that happen.

He just doesn't seem to get me at all. And I can't see how anyone can't see that I like being left alone :G
I wouldn't mind, but whenever he's around, he literally follows my steps, and he's near always present.

I probably sound like a horrible person right now, but I truly can't stomach it. I'm not a fan of conversation really; I find it difficult to talk to people unless the subject matter is something of interest to me. However, he constantly talks to me, and always asks the same thing:
"Do you think you'll ever travel" or some variation of that. And I always give the same reply:
"Probably not". And yet I still get asked the same thing almost every week.

Another thing that grates me is he has no manners. I mean, he's so rude it actually disgusts me at times.
Also, we live in Cork. He lived in the capital, Dublin for a few years though. Now in almost every conversation we have, he always brings up Dublin > Cork. And believe me when I say that's an insult to a Cork man like myself. I would get over this, but he brings it up at every opportunity, and quite frankly I'm sick of it

And today he managed to really tick me off. I was literally about to get on the bus to go home after Uni, when I get a phone call from himself asking me to wait on in town so we could browsing the shops (which is something I don't really do). So I agreed just to keep him happy. So I had to wait around in the cold for a while.

Then when he finally arrives, I meet some of my friends whom I'd not met in ages. Now, I don't talk much generally, but with himself around I hardly get a word in, as he seems to be incapable of hearing me speaking and always speaks over me. So anyway, we eventually arranged to go to the cinema. I was pretty happy about that, except you know who was coming too ;-;
That feel through in the end though (about ten minutes ago in fact, hence my irritation).

I could go on, but I won't subject you to my angry rantings any further.

The return of “Stop n’ Swop”

Ah, the infamous Stop n’ Swop. Any fan of Banjo’s games on the N64 should know of it.

 

If for some reason, you don’t know what Stop n’ Swop is….then shame on you.

Basically it was a theoretical system by which certain items (Six coloured eggs and a giant Ice Key) collected in the game Banjo-Kazooie could be used to unlock secrets in its sequel, Banjo-Tooie.

However, due to changes made to the N64 during it’s lifetime, this “hot swapping” became an impossibility, so eventually the idea was scrapped :(

 

However, as Banjo fans should be aware, early last December, Banjo-Kazooie was relaunched as a ported game on XBLA. This new BK had Stop n’ Swop functionality with the new 360 game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. However, this was not the true Stop n’ Swop as originally planned by Rare. More of a cop out in fact.

 

However, gamers who did this new Stop n’ Swop, quickly noticed that the items collected it BK stayed in the game, even after “swopping” to Nuts & Bolts…

And so began the speculation that Banjo-Tooie’s port for XBLA may have S n’ S functionality restored, as it was originally intended.

 

And as of today, it’s been confirmed that this is indeed the case.

Naturally enough that is an exciting prospect.

 

I take this with a pinch of salt however, as Rare wording could mean it’s not the S n’ S. Hopefully it is though.

The sound of silence.

If you've been following my writings, then you shall notice it's been a day or day since I last posted anything.

Reason for this is I've gotten myself addicted to Fable II. With my PS3 still....not working....I needed something to fill the void.

And Fable has done just that.

And so I've locked myself away from other actual people.
Go me!

“I have my own forum, therefore I must be cool”

Recently I’ve noticed many people are setting up their own forums and calling for new people to join because “We need members!”. I for one find this trend extremely annoying.

 

I joined ONM by choice. I will join another forum if I want, but for the love of bejesus stop asking people to join just because you want some members.

The main concern I have with these forums, is they’re often quickly set up type things, and generally aren’t all that appealing when compared to a “proper” forum visually.

Secondly, many of them may as well be “ONM 2”. The same forums almost down to a T. WTF is the point?

Thirdly, the names of some of them are downright awful. I’d name names, but then people would be more angry than they no doubt already are.

 

And I notice a lot of the time when I take a look at one these forums, that there’s really only a few members. They never admit defeat though. Oh no, they post away and scheme about how to lure in the new people.

 

That said though, they’re not all bad. Just the vast majority.

The hype train has entered the station.

It’s not like me to hype games. As any self respecting gamer should know, hype is the bane of gaming.

Yet I can’t help but feel really excited about some upcoming games.

Prime among them is Resident Evil 5. I got Resident Evil Degeneration on DVD today, and included in the special features were two Resi 5 trailers. I want it. Badly. I loved 4, and this looks more of the same style. Plus Wesker is in it. He’s awesome.

Hopefully my PS3 is fixed by March. I’m beginning to wonder at this point ¬¬. I’m seriously considering just buying a new one over the whole fiasco. But anyway.

Also on my radar is the quite frankly awesome looking Flower. Yes, flower.

It’s a PSN exclusive “game”. But really it’s one of those “not quite a game” games. Here’s a gameplay video:

And of course, me being a "generic Halo fan" I'm looking forward to Halo Wars. It's a console RTS. I have high hopes for it. Especially as some of my best gaming experiences were with RTS games.
Also on the Halo front is Halo 3: ODST. This looks fairly interesting, as it will require a different approach than the previous games.

I'm also curious about Killzone 2. I like the FPS genre for a bit of fun, and Killzone looks shmexy. Again though, this one is reliant on me having my PS3 back.

And then the last two. Both are on the distant horizon:

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I loved the first Uncharted. And from what I've seen and heard about the sequel, I have high hopes for it.

And finally: Final Fantasy XIII. I'm quite interested in this. I've never played an FF game before, so this looks likely to be my first. And it looks simply sublime too.

The avatar crusade.

Those familiar with me from the "Comment on the poster above" game from ONM's games section will know that I have a disliking of avatars that are larger than "the rules" state.

I'm oft asked my reason for this.

Simply put I just like following the rules. That, and when the inevitable lag hits, the big ones really get annoying.
They take ages to load, and if they happen to be wallpaper sized (which a surprising amount people actually use) then they cause the page to jump around very annoyingly as they load and the forum "resizes them". It doesn't actually resize them at all, as some people think. It just scales them down, but only after they've fully loaded.

What's worse is that the big ones push the avatar box off screen, so if you're not prepared you could end up stuck with it unless you know your way around browsers.

So there you have it. That's why I hate big avatars.
Adblock Plus is a dream come true though.

Old, Happy, Close to Heart Things

In a counter to yesterday’s post, today I’m going to focus on good memories; nostalgia.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of hearing some Pokémon music themes remixed by a guy going by the name PokeRemixStudio on YouTube. Hearing said music brought back a lot a lot of fond memories of the good ol’ days, as you say.

Also, I watched the film Amélie this morning for the first time.

These two seemingly unrelated occurrences made me realise how it’s the small things that make all the difference.

The little details that you don’t take much notice of at the time, are the foundations of our unique experiences. Each person sees things from a different perspective, leading to slightly differing recollections of the same event.

This is turn cements the uniqueness we all share. No two people are the same. And that’s how it should be.