Ive just finshed a book that I picked up on recommendation from a friend, who didn’t say anything major about it. Just a simple “this books pretty good”. Although the guy cant always be trusted (he recommended I buy the worst Xbox game Ive ever played once and even thinks Two and a Half men is funny), I generally trust him.

The book was Power Play by Joseph Finder. Before buying it I didn’t even read what it was about, but upon picking it up the front cover screamed “Moves like a bullet from a gun” – Lee Child. Being a name I recognise as a decent writer I thought this was pretty decent praise. On the back there was also a quote from the Guardian – “Read the first page and you wont be able to stop – you’ll be hooked”.

Hmm, sounds like some decent hype there, a big name fellow writer giving him props, and a promise of it being a page turner from the very first page.

So I open it up and the first page (as taken from Amazons look inside feature) is this

I’m not hooked. I’m not desperate to read the next page. Bullshit.

But fair enough, hooked from the first page could be a bit of a hype to make sure you get interested quickly. What about the “moves like a bullet” quote? I’d read another line on the cover that let me know this book featured a kidnap plot, so I was thinking I’d be thrust into the action quickly.

Nope. Wrong again.

The book takes about 150 pages to kick into full gear. I’m not saying this is a bad thing – the slow build before that is pretty awesome and fleshes out most of the characters so that you actually feel like you know them and care or don’t care about certain people by the time the book starts. But even after page 150 it doesn’t move like a bullet.

Its an awesome book, but I’m finding myself more pissed off by the hype than how good the book was. As soon as I saw the words kidnap plot I was worried the book would go into one of those typical action book plots of “the main character used to be a ninja assassin but quit it but now he has to use his skills again to save the world”, but it wasn’t, it was fantastically written and you felt like there was reason behind everything. I’d be quite interested in a film of this, but I imagine the slow build of the book would be cast away for explosions and gunfire.

On a happier note I picked up a book called World War Z based on a few friends raving about it, and the hype is fully deserved. It’s a book written as a kind of recap of the Zombie infection that plagued the world, looking back and interviewing key people from the times. So awesomely written and such a different style to anything Ive read.

HOLY SHIT I UPDATED MY BLOG

Plus my website I use for achievement tracking isnt showing some achievements properly. Ugh.

Fifa 10
Was on – 220
Now on – 270 (19 of 44 achievements)

Jesus, for how much Ive played thats shockingly low. The big problem is I am addicted to online team play. The other big problem is the team I platy for has some unbelievably shit players and Im considering looking for another team. I’ll be playing this for a long time so will defintely be racking up some points.

Lego Batman
Was on – 175
Now on – 495 (22 of 46 achievements)

Now standing at just off 50% of the in game achievements. Ive completed the story mode with Rach so now just have to go through and collect all the minikits. Its a fun game and I can see me hitting 100% in the next few weeks.

Fight Night Round 4
Was on 455
Now on 790 (26 out of 30 achievements)

I ended up going on a mad boosting session for this, taking my created boxer through the career mode and picking up all the available online achievements. I didnt enjoy this one and traded it in straight after I’d done that.

Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Was on 145
Now on 850 (23 of 25 achievements)

I traded this one in too, despite saying Id keep hold of it for a while. Im a bit sad to have traded it actually, I really enjoyed it and despite a lot of shit it got from “fans” I thought it was a top game. But I was going to pick up Left 4 Dead, and they were offering £25 exchange for SDvsR10, which is more than you can buy the game for these days. I’ll probably pick up a used copy in a few weeks.

Sonic 3
Was on 70
Now on 200 (12 of 12 achievements)

Was feeling a little nostalgic, so took on this. Great fun, and really took me back. I wasnt as familiar with this game as I was Sonic 2 though, which I took on next..

Sonic 2
Was on 155
Now on 190 (11 of 12 achievements)

One left to get on this but its an online one which I wont bother with. This really took me back, its amazing how I knew each level off by heart. Cracking little game.

1 vs 100
New Game!
Now on 80 (6 of 12 achievements)

I like the 1 vs 100 beta they did so had a go at the new full game, and suprisingly they added free acheivements. Managed to pick up half of them pretty easily, not had a proper look at the rest yet and I dont really play this too much, so I cant see any more coming in.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
New game!
Now on – 485 (25 of 50 achievements)

I wasnt going to pick this up, but ended up buying it on a whim. Ive played about half the story, a fair bit online and been through all the Special Ops on Veteran with a buddy. Jesus, some of those are a bitch. Its a decent enough game and a lot of my buddies have 1000 on it allready, but I dont have the patience to go through the vetran mode on single player.

Lips
New Game!
Now on – 490 (19 of 49 acheivements)

Picked this up for Rach and have been playing it a little. Its a fun kareoke game but little things annoy me. Like we have Lips, and the lips extension disk Number 1 hits. We had number 1 hits first, and played that fine, then went to play the older game. But it showed no songs. WTF. Turns out we have to play it through the new game, but swap disks whenever we want to play a song from the old game. Even if we set up a playlist of like 3-4 songs from the old disk it makes us swap disks between each song. So retarded, and as a result we tend to only play from the newer disk.

Lego Star Wars – Complete Saga
Was on – 20
Now on – 240 (12 of 42)

ARGGHHH FUCK THIS GAME. Gonna have to play it through 4 times to get the 100% and havent even finished my first playthrough yet. So fustrating. Rach refuses to play this with me now as its camera is shit and the game just isnt as good as the newer games.

Left 4 Dead 2
NEW GAME!
Now on – 280 (16 achievements out of 50 won)

Havent played this enough. The servers for the game are totally fucked and kick me out of games, even when it says my connection is great. Ive got a bunch of achieves allready, but will get more. Its a great game being ruined by bad servers.

Viva Pinata: Trouble In Paradise
NEW GAME
Now on 440 (26 of 50 achievements)

ARGHHH FUCK THIS GAME EVEN MORE. Sent to me by a buddy for Rach, so I decided to have a quick go and stupidly picked up an achievement. This meant I had to play it, because now it would be ruining my percentage. Luckily I found you can cheat by scanning stuff with your camera by looking it up online so sat round for a few hours scanning shit till I got above 50%. Fuck you piniata.

I also picked up single achievements on Scene it, and two from Top Spin (lost the case so cant trade it in and now on 6/11)

So with over a month since an update where do I stand. I was on 21905 and 43.58%. But Ive got a few new games and managed to get some high achievement scores in some game Ive had for a while

So Im now on

FUCK YES

Almost 4 k in a month. Lovely stuff. And the percentage?

46.36 FUCK YES.

Job done.

Only joking of course

I dont have a strict guideline for what you need – basics are enough potatoes for chips for everyone, enough chicken for everyone. 2 eggs, some flour, bread, parmesan, and garlic.

Chop up some potatoes into chunky chips, like so. You can peel them first if you like, but I just wash the outside.

Put a pan on the hob, fill it with water, and put on the boil. When its boiling add the chips, then bring it back to the boil. Once its boiling again, cook them for approximately three minutes then drain them. Then put the colunder youve boiled them in back over the now empty pan, and put it on the heat for about a minute. This will help dry off the chips.

Pop your oven on to about 220degrees

Take the colunder out of the pan, and put to the side. Add a glug of oil and some salt and pepper to the pan, and heat up till you can see it sizzling.

Toss your chips into this, till they are coated, then transfer them to a baking tray.

I threw a few chilli flakes on top of mine at this stage to spice them up a little.

Pop them in the oven now, they’ll take approx 30 minutes to cook.

Now you can start on the goujons. To be honest this was the first time I’d tried these, so I didnt take pics at the start as I wasnt sure how they’d look

I bought some mini fillets, but you could cut some chicken breasts into strips. We had approx 335g of chicken which was way too much

Grab three slices of bread, throw them in a food processer. Add a handful of parmesan, a teaspoon of parmesan and 2 cloves of garlic. Whizz them up until fine.

Now get three bowls. In the first put some flour, the second an egg youve beaten, and in the third your breadcrumbs. Dip the chicken in the flour till covered, then the egg, then finish off with the breadcrumbs. This bits a little messy

When you’re done pop them all on a plate, and put them in the fridge for 10 minutes. This’ll help the breadcrumbs stick

Get a frying pan and cover the bottom with a good glug of oil. Then pop your goujons in

Heat them for three minutes on each sides. If you arent sure if they’re cooked then take one and slice it in half.

I did mine a bit too soon and my chips werent done, so I popped them on a baking tray and put them in the bottom of the oven.

And you’re done. Serve up

Fucking delishous.

First time I’d tried these and I’ll definately be doing so again. With the breadcrumbs you could throw whatever you like in there, I looked througha  ton of recipies and everyone does different. I liked the idea of the parmesan, and it went really well with the garlic.

Heres some pics!

It was absolutely freezing, we walked up and followed my pre match tradition of having fish and chips. I had curry sauce, and Rach only wanted chips – is it only Welsh people who like curry sauce?

We met up with someone I had to give some tickets to pre match, and he said “enjoy the prawn sandwiches” as we were sitting in the exec area. This made Rach think we got free food, unfortunately not her silliest comment of the night.

We did get a free program as we walked through the fancy exec area, and Rach prepared herself for the cold

The match itself, well Spurs battered us in the 1st half, but somehow we came into half time 2-0 up, thanks to two fantastic goals from Darron Gibson. We had pretty awesome seats with arm rests and cushions almost on the halfway line!

Rach was more excited though that at half time in the exec seats we got free tea and coffee. We warmed up, then afterwards went back for the second half. About 15 minutes in I realised I wasnt talking too much, turned to Rach to check if she was bored to be greeted by this

Oh Ayresy.

On the pitch we ran out the 2-0 win easily, me enjoying every minute

After the match we wandered home. A good night!

And this is my report!

We left on Saturday night after Ayresy got home from a late finish from work. It took much umming and ahhing before we decided to take Chopsy with us as Ayresy was too worried about leaving him on his own.

The drive down was uneventful, and we to Rach’s family home. We were a bit knackered, so had an early night, planning on getting up early to get going. We’d also made a decision that rather than use some money we’d got for a refund for overpaying some bills of about £60 for a meal out for our anniversary next week, we’d instead use it to buy food and treats at the food show. We’re such losers.

We were up for about 8, and left just after 9, early as we had tickets for me and Rach to see the Hairy Bikers do a cooking demo in the Supertheatre.  It was top notch, with the Biker boys on top form, with some very dirty jokes for 10am, and you could see that the editing team for their shows clearly have their work cut out for them. They cooked some scallops with apple and black pudding, duck breast with apple and asparagus, and a strawberry desert with  balsamic and some kind of cream.

Ive been a big fan of balsamic lately, having it on steaks ever since it was suggested to me on the Something Awful forums.  Seeing it used on strawberries was quite interesting and I decided that’s something I’ll have to try.

After we walked out of the hall we met up with Rach’s mum and sister briefly, before deciding to head off separately and meet up at about 1ish. While I was looking at the floor plan and looking to get us a route that would take us past every stall and make sure we’d see everything, Rach had one mission – cheese.

When we cam last year we’d visited a stall by the Snowdonia cheese company that had a variety of cheeses such as cheese with cranberry, cheese with garlic and herb, pickle cheese, and ginger cheese. I’d seen them at a welsh food show a few years back and told Rach they were great and she tried them and loved them, and we’d ended up buying £10 worth at last years show.

So this year Rach was determined to find the Snowdonia stall and get some cheese. She practically pulled my arm off dragging me to the stall, where she elbowed her way to the counter and started sampling every type of cheese. I began to chat with the lady on the stall, complimenting the cheeses and telling her we’d loved them last year. Meanwhile Rach at this point had eaten a moons worth of cheese samples. I turned to her to see what she wanted to get having seen the sign that said 1 for £3.50, 3 for £10 or 7 for £20. Needless to say we bought 7 blocks – 2 ginger, 2 garlic, 2 pickle and a cranberry. After Rach had many more samples we walked off.

Next up was the other stand we’d checked that would be at the show – Jimmys Farm. Jimmy is one of Jamie Olivers mates, who decided to try and start up a rare breed farm in the UK, and a tv show was made about his struggle to get the farm to be successful. He now presents a show on BBC2 called Jimmys Food factory. Last year we’d bought some of his sausages and without doubt they were some of the best I’ve ever tasted. Since then I’ve regulary looked at his website to consider ordering some, but because we’ve had parcels left just outside our door at the apartment I’ve been reluctant to go through with it incase they “go missing”

When we got to the stall we were surprised to see Jimmy himself on the stall, and after buying £10 worth of his sausages I asked and got a pic with him

Nobody else will probably recognise him, but I was pretty happy.

After this we started to try and follow a bit of a more concrete route round. As we were already in the produce section we were pretty much in sample city, basically walking up to stands and trying whatever was on the counter. We tried loads of produce, many different types of cheese and sausages, salami, pies, shortbread, chocolate, crab meat and much more. The only other thing we bought at this point was some Scotch Eggs, after finding a stall that sold special different types of scotch eggs for £2.85 each I decided to buy 4 for £10, picking up a Scrumpy (extra appley), Scarecrow (uses beetroot, carrot and parsnip crisps for its outside), Black Watch (using black pudding with the pork) and Christmassy – I don’t remember what was special about this one.

We ate the Scrumpy one as we were excited, then continued sampling stuff. Next up was the alcohol section, where I proceeded to try all manner of samples – strawberry cider, 3 different types of toffee vodka from 3 different stalls, ginger ale, 2 fancy sambukas, blueberry vodka, and various other shots that we didn’t really know what they were. After this I was feeling a bit tipsy – Rachs solution was to go and get more cheese samples!

We met back up with Rach’s mum and sister, then headed back to a fancy herb stand where I got some cumin, bay leaves and coriander. They then left us again – when we’d been apart we’d ended up looking at the opposite stands, so the ones we hadn’t looked at they had, and the ones we had they hadnt .

We looked at various stands, picked up a knife sharpener, then stood for 10 minutes while Rach got sucked into a demo of one of those slicing machines, the type that you put say a carrot on a dome, flip the lid over and it chops it for you. Rach was really into it, to the point where I dragged her away, she then went back when the guy said “don’t leave now, you’ll miss the best bit” then I finally dragged her away again. It was like one of those late night shopping channels but in person.

We did however get sucked in again, this time by a rep for Vol who was demonstrating some of their non stick pans. These were amazing, with a ten mill base and a special coating that’s guaranteed non stick for life, better than Teflon. Because of this they can cook with no oil, and he demoed a way of cooking a fried egg with no oil which really left us amazed. Even when he put some plastic in the pan it didn’t stick. After this me and Rach spent ages looking at the pans, wondering if we could afford one of these that retailed at £70. Ultimately it was a no, but its one of those things that I really can see buying.

How fucking sad is that, I could care less about where my clothes come from but I’d love to buy a £300 quid set of pans.

After this we did another route around some stalls, seeing Gordan Ramsey signing some autographs, then Mr Reggae Reggae himself, Levi Roots at his stall. We went and bought ourselves a hot pork bap, then went and had a few more samples – including Rach visiting a different Snowdonia cheese stand to the one we bought our cheese from and helping herself to a load of samples which prompted the man on there to shout “samples here, but we aren’t paying for your dinner”

We ended up buying even more sausages from another stall, another 4 packs for £10 which tasted good but not as good as Jimmys Farm. We also found a stand selling some fancy balsamics and oils, something I’d been really looking out for. I tried a Balsamic with blueberry and vanilla, and it was awesome, so I snapped up a bottle and some fancy oil. Not sure what I’d use a fruity balsamic with but its recommended with fruit and icecream so will give them a try!

I went back to Jimmys Farm stand to pick up our sausages that had been held for us, and ended up buying another 3 packs. We’re going to be swimming in  sausages for the next few weeks.

We went back home to Raches mums, and then ended up going out for dinner – which none of us could really finish because of the amount of samples we’d eaten! With our bellies full and our legs knackered, it was time for an early night.

All in all it was a great day, and I’d always recommend a trip to any food show. You get a ton of samples, and can find plenty of top products to buy.

Quite like this one at the moment.

So screw you Heroes

I love watching American TV shows, especially as I can watch them at a more leisurely pace. I can chill and watch them on the computer, on the TV when bored, or stream them on the laptop in bed.

When I start watching something, I’ll often carrying on watching it till the end. Usually this is a good thing, 7 seasons of the Shield being a great example. Ive also just started watching the Wire, and although it started a little slower than I expected I’m looking forward to cruising through that. I did have Dollhouse to watch, but just deleted that upon finding out the show was cancelled. Sopranos is ready to watch, and I also got my hands on a load of Louis Theroux episodes to rewatch.

However in some cases you just get sick of a show. Take Prison Break, I loved season 1, it was cheesy as hell but pretty epic. Season 2 was fun as well, I possibly even liked this a little more than 1. Season 3 it went massively downhill, I never got into the corruption storyline, and it felt like a slog to watch. When the writers strike caused the show to stop I just stopped watching. Ive read up on what happens in the last few episodes and I’m not sure any of it makes sense.

So that brings me to Heroes. I loved this show at the start, a cheesy romp with super heroes. I love anything with a bit of cheese to it, like the early Prison Break, or Lost. Then slowly it seemed certain characters were a little overpowered. Peter could take anyones power by touch. Sylar can take anyones power that he kills. Hiro can go back and forward in time and change the past or future. I was willing to let this go though, because the show was fun.

But too many times a storyline has been dropped. What the hell happened to Peters girlfriend who was the love of his life who got trapped in the future? They changed the past so that future doesnt happen, does she just cease to exist? Why doesnt Hiro just go back and stop Mohinder from going to the carnival and letting it slip to ? Oh yeah, thats it, Hiros power has been gimped by giving him a disease that means he cant fully control his power, but wait, in tonights episode he went back in time too short a distance, so went back a furthur 10 minutes, stopped time to get a kevlar vest, then stopped time to put Mohinder in a mental hospital (which also makes no sense).

Seriously Heroes, I’m starting to not enjoy watching you. And being 6 episodes into season 1 of the Wire, with Sopranos also ready to watch this is not a good thing for you.

(but please be good, I want to love you)

PS. Flash Forward you need to buck up too, I liked the premise but youve gone downhill.

And Alan Partridge has a ton of them.

Partridge is a classic TV show character. He’s a socially useless idiot who lucked into a bit of fame, which he then lost and struggled to get back.

He was created by Steve Coogan for a radio show “On the Hour” where he was the sports reporter, despite knowing nothing about sport. Shortly after he got his own radio show, “Knowing Me, Knowing You, with Alan Partridge”, a spoof chat show which featured him taking coke, hit a child, lose his wifes car in a bet, and one of his guests having a heart attack. Partridge then made the transition to TV again as a sports reporter, this time for The Day Today

With Alan proving a success on TV, it was decided to bring his chat show to TV too. Knowing Me, Knowing You.

In the sixth episode Partridge accidently shot one of his guests, and the show went off the air with him being arrested.

Despite this Partridge came back for a xmas special, “Knowing Me, Knowing Yule” where he plugged various products and made several failed attempted to get a BBC Executive to give him a second series, before punching him in the face. Twice.

Partridge did end up coming back to TV, in “I’m Alan Partridge”, a kind of documentary type sitcom about the man. Alans life is at its lowest, hosting a late night radio show on BBC Radio Norwich, left by his wife, and living in a travel tavern.

He tries to get back his chat show by meeting with a BBC commisioning blokey

And fails. Smell my cheese you mother. So he’s stuck with his shitty radio show

And trying to make friends by dressing as a zombie

And chatting about music

The only friend he really makes is the Geordie repair man, Michael.

Which leads to him creating a new drink

In the final episode of the 1st series, Tony Hayres dies, and is replaced by one of Alans old buddies. He offers Alan a second series, but as he’s about to sign Alan up to it he suffers a heart attack. Alan tries forging the signature.

The second series of I’m Alan Partridge saw him out of the hotel and into a static caravan next to his new home, named “Lord House”. We learn that Alan took the loss of his TV show badly, and had suffered drastically with his weight.

Despite this he’s managed to get a new slot on the radio and written a book about him “Bouncing Back” (even though all the evidence points to him not bouncing back at all)

He also gets fustrated when people “keep getting Bond wrong”!

After the second series, he made only a few other appearences on ~TV, my favourite being this interview with the now much older Milky Bar Kid (played by Simon Pegg)

Epicly quotable, with some classic comedy scenes, Partridge is a true legend and one of my top TV show characters. Go check it out, theres like a million more scenes I could have put in here.

The comic is called Keyguard Active and is based around a group of friends and their lives. Its main star is considered by some to be Alan, the ponytailed unlucky in love loser, but the real star is the all action, all funny all the time guy called Mike.

And Mike is based on me. He wears a shirt with Taffy on it to prove it.

My friend WT has been writing the comic for ages now, with almost a thousand entries updated every Tuesday-Saturday. Occasionally he runs low on ideas, and asks me and I come up with bizarre ideas of what he should put int that weeks storyline. He takes my ideas, draws them up and even gives me a guest credit. Without fail it brings a smile to my face every time I check the updates, so why not check it out today.

Keyguard Active

I asked WT to draw up something based on something that came into my head during the Christening, so heres a TAFFS BLOG EXCLUSIVE!

And heres an example of the usual Keyguard Active, showing that WT takes all his ideas from me

Click it to see the full sized comic.

Since the last update Ive done a lot of gaming. Obviously. Since its been such a long time

Lego Batman – I picked up another load of achievements. Nice Outfit! (20GS) and Unbreakable (30GS) for collecting all the Batman and Robin suits, and going a level without dying. Super Hero (25GS) for completing the second episode, Shot to the Goon (20GS) for killing 8 goons in 8 secons (Rach actually got this one before me and I got really mad and jealous) and Kill-a-Moth (20GS) for defeating Killer Moth. Its a pity me and Rach have played this after Lego Indiana, because you really notice how flawwed the game is compared to that. Its even worse when you go back to Lego Star Wars, which we really arent playing now. Its also fustrating that Rach isnt getting some of the achievements I get – despite us always playing together, her signing in before we put in the game,she isnt always getting recognised for things like completing an episode. She’s got quite into achievements, so its a bit annoying. Im currently on 175/1000GS

Since I wanted to trade in Lego Indiana I had to pick up some achievements in Kung Fu Panda. Its not something I would have normally played but it came in a two pack free with Indy, so its worth a go.

Kung Fu Panda - Picked up Fastest Warrior (30GS) Obtain a Hit Chain of 10 or higher using only Fast Attacks, Awesomely Awesome (20GS) Defeat 250 Enemies, Panda Stumble Warrior (20GS) Obtain a Hit Chain of 5 or higher using only Panda Stumble. Strongest Warrior (20GS) Obtain a Hit Chain of 5 or higher using only Strong Attacks, Kung Fu Warrior (20GS) Obtain a Hit Chain of 15 or higher using any combination of attacks, Panda Stumble Extreme (20GS) Panda Stumble for 60 Seconds. Forced Stumble doesn’t count.

I also got 160GS over 13 achievements for completing levels 1-13 100%, which also allowed me to get Game Completed – Master (20 GS) Complete the entire game on the Master Difficulty setting, Master Of All (30 GS) Unlock Everything, and Ultimate Dragon Warrior (30 GS) Purchase All Upgrades. Overall its an ok game but not really my cup of tea. I ended on 490/1000 and took it to trade in.

Buuuuut, of course as I am about to trade it in for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, I’m told I cant as its non tradable. Despite the fact that they have 2 identical copies on their shelf. Cunts. If anyone wants Lego Indiana and Kung Fu Panda for the 360 let me know. I ended up picking up Marvel anyway.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 - Me and Rach were again playing this one together, and it was kinda fun, though at times you really cant see whats going on. Some of the enemies are shaded a very similar colour to your heroes, and rather than being bright vibrant colours like a comic, theyve gone for gritty realistic dark colours. Its kinda annoying at times, especially when I realise I’m trying to attack my team mates.So far I picked up – Trivia Buff (10GS) Correctly answer 15 Trivia questions. Coalition of the Willing (20GS) Crash a castle. Rookie Squad (10GS) Complete a map in Co-Op. Tactical Training (10GS) Perform all 5 recommended training Fusions in Latveria. Heroes Unite (10GS)Perform 10 Fusions with another player-controlled hero in a Co-Op game. Sim Team Up (5GS) – Earn Mission Succeeded on a Simulator Mission in Co-Op and return to the Simulator menu. Uncontained aggression (15GS) – You or other players on your team must destroy 250 health containers. Oceans no longer protect us (20GS) – Protect a city.

The fusion stuff was really fun at first, but the more you play the more limited they seem – Juggernaught for example always seems to fusion with people by picking up a rock that they either charge with purple stuff, or fire, or ice, or magic which he then slams at the enemy. I actually believe the last game was probably a bit better than this.

As much as I want to get on with boosting achievements I cant resist buying new games, especially as theres some awesome ones coming out. Next up is a game that I went to Asda at 11pm for, and queued up for 2 hours, just because it was 25 quid rather than 40.

Fifa 10 – Jesus christ, this game is awesome. Theyve really taken football games to the next level with the new 360 degrees of dribbling. It doesnt seem that major at first, but after a few games I switched back to Fifa 09 to try and pick up a last few achievements in it, and couldnt because the game was too awkward and I didnt feel fully in control. One of the big new features is a virtual proThis is an expansion of the Be A Pro mode introduced in the last game. Basically you make your own player, using EA sports website to upload pictures to base him on you if you need to, pick his team, position and things like gloves or shirt sleeve lengths, then he’s in the game. So my guy is a Man Utd central attacking midfielder, and if I play as Man Utd in an exhibition match he’s there in the squad. Or I could go play Manager mode, and draft him into my team, whoever Im playing as.

Not only do you decide how he looks, but you also level him up by playing. To do this just get him to do certain tasks in a match, such as score a free kick, or score a finesse shot.

The best thing about the Virtual Pro thing is that you can take your Pro into an online club. I created one for the Something Awful forum, and so many people joined we’ve actually had to start a second club. Ive been playing this most nights, with a load of people from there. Its so awesome, you either pick a position to play in, or play as any man. We’ve got to the point now where we almost have set positions, and know the kind of runs each other make.

On to the achievements, I got quite a few so you may want to skip this next paragraph

Top of the League (10GS) Win a match in a Friends League, Team Player (25GS) Play a Pro Club Championship match as a full team (10 players) Skilled Pro (25GS) Unlock 100 EA SPORTS™ Football World Accomplishments with your Virtual Pro , Camera Man (10GS) Upload a video to EA SPORTS™ Football World Still Practicing (10GS) Score 20 goals in 1 Arena kick-about Good Friend (25GS) Create a goal for a Friend with a cross, A Star Is Born (10GS) Create a Virtual Pro, Off the Woodwork (15) Score off the post or cross bar in a match Shooting Boots (5) Score 5 goals in 1 Arena kick-about Practice Makes Perfect (10) Work on your skills in Practice Mode, Window shopping (5GS) Visit the FIFA 10 Store FIFA Fever (5) Catch the Fever by beating someone on Xbox LIVE who already has it Grind it Out (10GS) Win a match with 10 men on Xbox LIVE or when playing on Professional difficulty or higher Theatre of Dreams (10GS) Upgrade your Stadium Manager to Level 10 Recognise Anyone? (5GS) Download your Club member Game Faces from EA SPORTS™ Football World Looking Good (10GS) Download your Game Face from EA SPORTS™ Football World.

I did get two more – Hard Earned Win (10GS) Beat a 5 Star team with a ½ Star team on Xbox LIVE or against Professional difficulty or higher Underdog (20GS) Win an Xbox LIVE Head to Head Ranked match using a weaker team than your opponent – these two are the only ones I’ve actually tried to get and were a pain in the arse. It took me 3 games, playing as 1/2 star Accrington every match. 1st match I play the other guy chooses Chelsea and I go 2-0 up, and the guy brings it back to 2-2 with 2 shots on target all match. I go 3-2 up and he equalises with his third shot on target. Cunt. 2nd match I’m playing Chelsea again, go 1-0 down, bring it back to 1-1 then take the lead and go 3-1 up. He scores in the 90th minute to make it 3-2 to me, so from kick off I play it to the wing then play a long ball to my keeper to time waste. The keeper side steps the ball and it goes fucking in for 3-3 again. Thankfully 3rd match I cruise to a 4-2 win.

Quite a few achievements there, eh? Its a decent game for achievements, and theres quite a few for me to still get. Ive also dropped 800 Microsoft points on Live Season – an update which means I can take over a club, and compare the results I get to the results they got in real life. So I could take Man Utd, and before the match it’d tell me what the result was, who got booked, and then compare my performance to the real life one. Im currently on 220/1000GS on this game.

After Fifa I wasnt expecting to get any more games, but decided to rent WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010. Stupidly as it turns out, cause I then found out Asda had that for £25 too, so ended up buying it just after renting it. Doh.

Smackdown Vs Raw 2010 – Its a decent enough game but a bit easy to get the hang of. I like it enough to keep it for a while tho. I got the following achievements

Ahead of the Pack (50GS) Win as tentative Champion from start to end in CHAMPIONSHIP SCRAMBLE, A Grappling Machine (20GS) In one match, perform all 16 STRONG GRAPPLE moves on your opponent (single player only) Created Superstar Story (20GS) Complete the CREATE A SUPERSTAR story in ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA mode, Finisher of the Year Candidate (20GS) Create a dive finisher, in Create A Finisher mode, and use it in a match (single player only), HBK Story (20GS) Complete HBK’s Road to Wrestlemania, New Superstar Initiative (15GS) – Create a superstar

I love the create a superstar crap, and its been expanded to create a finisher (normal or arial), create an entrance, and create a storyline. I havent had a play around with the latter yet, but I’m sure it will be fun.I do like the create a superstar stuff tho…

Finally I was off sick today so I did some achievement boosting on a game

Fight Night 4 – I am kinda disappointed in this game. Fight Night 3 was epic, and while it seems to have improved I just havent loved it like I have the last one. I ended up boosting it a bit today by lowering the computers reactions, making it easy to get some of the harder achievements.

Ecko Trunk Challenge (15GS) Beat CPU Miguel Cotto in Fight Now on Pro, Man Up Manny (15GS) Beat CPU Manny Pacquiao in Fight Now on Champion, Flyswatter (60GS) Beat CPU Muhammad Ali on G.O.A.T. using a created boxer in Fight Now, King of The Rope-a-Dope (40GS) Beat CPU Muhammad Ali in Fight Now on G.O.A.T, David and Goliath (40GS) Beat CPU Mike Tyson in Fight Now on G.O.A.T., My Style Is Impetuous (60GS) Beat CPU Mike Tyson on G.O.A.T. using a created boxer in Fight Now

Wasnt that fun to play. Most of the offline achievements left now are to do with the legend mode, which Ive started going through.

So that was the period up till about 5pm on the 28th. Where do I stand now?

So thats up 1495 from last time I updated. Not too shabby.

For the last update I was on 43.31%, and now I stand on….

43.58%

Wow, it went up even though I got a couple of new games. Nice!

From now I’ll be mainly playing Fifa 10, Smackdown or the new Left 4 Dead 2 demo. Jesus, I cant wait till that game comes out.