Brett’s Stag Weekend

Go-Karting and Poker. It was a fun weekend. Check out the cool time lapsed video of the poker session my friend Lewy made with his funky camera.

New York Trip May 2008

My first real holiday in about 7 years. New York for a week. The weather wasn’t great, but we didn’t go there to get a suntan. We spent the whole week sightseeing. The list of great things to do and see there is almost endless but a few of the things we did included going up to the top of Rockerfeller Centre for a breath taking view of Manhattan. We went to Central Park, National History Museum, saw the Empire State and Chrysler Building. Times Square during the day is amazing, but at night it’s blinding and brilliant. The best day of the week was the trip out to the statue of Liberty, the weather on that day was great, sunny and nice. The Statue of Liberty is by far the best attraction to see in New York, its an engineering masterpiece and very inspiring.

We took the digital camera and the Video Camera with us and took lots of shots and film. I have already uploaded the best pictures onto Flickr and will try to convert the video and upload it onto Facebook at some point.

If you ever get the chance to visit New York then do, but be prepared as you will be quite tired after a few days of sight seeing so plan some relaxing time and some things to do to chill out too while your there. Check out my map below that I put together as a basic guide to the best sights of New York.

My New York Attractions Map

Big Movies of 2008

Iron Man (2nd May)

The 2008 summer movies kick off very soon with the first of a batch of comic book big screen outings, with the others mostly sequals, this one is a first. Iron man makes it to the big screen and the trailers make it look very good, should be a blast.

Speed Racer (9th May)

This is based on some america comic book or cartoon, i’m not quite sure and too lazy to look it up, you could do that yourself if you can be bothered. Anyway the trailer for this one looks really good, its sort of looks like wacky races on steroids, but the styling is very cool.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (22nd May)

It way well have been a long time since Indiana Jones last picked up a whip and hat, and I’m not all to positive as to how this will compare to the original films, but I will be happy to watch and find out.

The Incredible Hulk (13th June)

The first big screen outing for the big green meenie wasn’t the best film ever, actually it sucked big time, I mean does anyone know what the hell happened, the ending was like what??? So lets hope this one is better, its not really a sequal, more a sort of.. second chance.

Wall-E (18th July)

The latest Pixar film. Everything they touch seems brilliant and this one looks no different. About a robot left on Earth to clean up after the human race abandons its a cute story of ones robots struggle against something, or other.

The Dark Knight (25th July)

The big one of 2008 for me anyway. The sequal to the new begining for the Dark Knight himself. The new Batman is darker and more serious and we all can’t wait to see the Batman take on one of his greatest ever foes again.

X-Files Movie 2 (1st August)

The long planned sequal that will continue and possibly wrap up once and for all the story of agents Mulder and Scully and the extraterestrial encounders.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (8th August)

Another ‘The Mummy’ movie, I was suprised to see this on the shedule but I have to say I quite enjoyed the previous ones, quite funny, good special effects and more nasty mummies to deal with.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (22nd August)

A sequal to the first Hellboy film, not a massive success, but a decent film no the less, Big Red was a cool character and it can’t hurt to see who else needs a good thumping.

Bond 22 : Quantum of Solace (31st October)

The next bond film, which should be great if the first of the new serise is to go by. Casino Royal was a brave new step for the bond francise and it paid off, it was the most successful bond ever and I think it can only get better, I hope.

Cool well that is a quick round up of the movies of summer 2008, well the main ones i’m interested in anyway, I’m sure there are going to be more great films coming up too. This list will be a good reference to remind me of the films I need to remember to go see, any one got any good suggestions of other good films to look out for please feel free to let me know, I love a good recommendation.

Shall I buy an X-box 360? umm?

So I haven’t posted for a while. Not much to talk about. Got a holiday in New York next monh I guess that should give me something to say.

Meanwhile I have decided to go next-gen, or current gen, i’m  a little latee to the party you see.

I have a PS2 and have loved it for years, still lots of great games for it around, been playing Resdent Evil 4 recently, and it had to be one of the best games I have ever played, its great. I remember the original and that was great, This really carries the torch for the Resident Evil series.

But as you can see I am behind the times when it comes to games, which is odd because I’m a massive gaming fan, always have been, I even did games development course at university, only problem is I never been able to afford to keep up with the latest games tech.

I’m usually at least a year behind the current stuff, so now I think its time to get a new console. Trade in my PS2 and get either and X-box 360 or a PS3. The problem is the PS3 is still too expensive, £300 is a lot, and I know it does blue ray but I’m not really interested in that just yet, DVD is still working real good for me.

So with the X-box 360 now down to less that £200, cheaper than a Nintendo Wii, I think its my best option, also I notice that there is now a massive stash of pre-owned X-box 360 games available on the cheap now so its perfect.

Now I know your saying well what about a Nintendo Wii, its cheapa and has a fancy wavy about controller. well I like the concept of the Wii, and I have played a few games on it, but there just isn’t the wide selection of quality games I’m looking for, and the gimmick does wear off after a few games jumping around waving the arms here and there.

So X-box 360 it is. Good timing too as GTA IV is out this month, and Resident Evil 5 soon after. Plus they are porting Supreme Commander to the 360 and that is the game at the very top of my list of ‘want to plays’ for a year now. I know it has been out of the PC for ages, but if I tried to play it on my computer it would just laugh at me and then explode because of the minimum requirements.

So the only thing to do now is go finish the final chapter of Resident Evil 4 so I can trade it in and get me a 360. I hope its going to be worth it.