Lee Black

Hiatus.

2010-11-13T04:01:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately I've been unable to update my blog these past few days due to many, many boring reasons I shan't bore you with. Just destabilizing governments, murdering Hitler's zombie, blah, blah, blah, that sort of thing. Anyway. I have returned. I may, or may not update the blog with a new post later on today depending on my mood and whether I'd rather just lie down and attempt to do completely nothing for a lengthy period of time.

People say that's impossible. Thinking of nothing I mean. Completely wiping your mind of thought and practically becoming brain dead. I think if there's one positive thing that Kanye West has done is proven that those people are wrong. Clearly he never fucking thinks. There's a small man inside the part of his body where a brain should be, with lots of levers and switches that control different parts of his body. Unfortunately half of these switches are broke and now the poor small brain man can only do things which people consider to be the acts of a complete tosser.

Tosser? Is that word used in America? I've always thought of the word 'Tosser' as a very British insult. Sort of like what 'Douche' is to Americans. Let me know if you use the word 'Tosser', only if your American.

Here's one of my new favourite songs to end this post with. Goodbye!

Entertain by Sleater-Kinney

Desert Island Discs.

2010-11-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

You're trapped on a desert island. A magical desert island with gaming consoles, computers, DVD players and TVs. You can take one of each:

- Any movie
- Any game
- Any album

What would you take, my lovely readers?

P.S. - There is no internet connection on this desert island so games such as World of Warcraft and other online games are pointless.

My picks:

Movie - Trainspotting.

Game - Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

CD - Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures.

My Current Favourite Songs - 04/11/2010

2010-11-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

1) The Greenhornes - The End of The Night

2) Arcade Fire - Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

3) The Mountain Goats - Cotton

Fallout New Vegas Review

2010-11-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Fallout: New Vegas is the game that many wanted Fallout 3 to be. It's harder, more ruthless, better written and more morally ambiguous. It's a game we’ve been wanting to play for more than a decade, a real modern re-imagining of the Fallout series, complete with that deliciously black humour. But it's also more of the same, aesthetically and technically identical to Fallout 3, wonky facial animation and all. The ever-so-slightly ageing technology only marginally detracts from what is otherwise an expansive, fulfilling and ambitious game, unmatched in scope and maturity. If Obsidian were to make another Fallout game, we certainly wouldn't say no.

Rating: 9/10.

My Top 10 Albums

2010-11-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

My top 10 albums of all time:

1) Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures

2) The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground & Nico

3) Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

4) The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

5) Beastie Boys - Ill Communication

6) Joy Division - Closer

7) The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

8) Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

9) Elliott Smith - Either/Or

10) The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

Fable III Review

2010-10-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

For all its now familiar faults, there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had in this third iteration of the Fable franchise. More so than ever before it’s the game’s unrivalled charm and meticulously constructed world that makes the sprawl of Albion such a unique pleasure to explore. In many ways too it’s a more robust outing this time, with bolder quest design and a more focussed sense of purpose. It’s sad then that Lionhead’s slavish dedication to accessibility has been so detrimental to the series’ greatest strengths beyond the main story arc. Ruthless streamlining of combat, character progression and world interaction has largely removed any real incentive to dabble in Albion’s extra-curricular endeavours. And, sadly, that all-too-readily exposes Fable III's thoroughly charming, frequently enjoyable but overly simplistic RPG core.

Rating: 7.5/10

Barack Obama signs iPad.

2010-10-24T04:41:00.000-07:00

t's official: there is no escape from the iPad. Even Barack Obama, a man used to firsts, can also go down in the history books as the first US president to autograph an iPad.

After an election rally held at the University of Washington in Seattle on Thursday, President Obama was shaking hands with supporters along the ropeline when one of them, Sylvester Cann, wrote on his iPad "Mr President, sign my iPad," etching the message on the screen using his finger.

In a video of the historic moment posted on YouTube by Cann, as Obama gets near a Secret Service agent can be seen shaking his head, presumably at Cann's high-tech chutzpah.

But when Obama approaches, Cann describes what happened: "He looked at it for a second and then used his left hand to sign. It was kinda funny because he looked up and gave me a big grin afterwards as if he thought it was pretty cool too."

This "first" may not quite rank alongside being the first African American to be elected president. But it will have given him something to tell Apple chief executive Steve Jobs when they met later that afternoon.

Asked recently if he had an iPad, Obama replied: "I have an iReggie, who has my books, my newspapers, my music all in one place" – a reference to his personal aide Reggie Love.

Obama himself is hardly a big Apple fan: he is famously addicted to his Blackberry and has even been seen using a Zune, Microsoft's ill-fated rival to the iPod. A few months ago he declared in a speech: "With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations – none of which I know how to work – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation."