The one with Michael Jackson

Even though, for most of us, we don't know them personally, celebs feel like part of the family. I was a huge Michael Jackson fan as a child and into my teens and it made me incredibly sad to announce that one of my (like millions of others) childhood idols had died.

Regardless of the controversy, Michael Jackson in my view, will always be remembered as an icon and the biggest entertainer the world has ever known. We will never know what his comeback would have been like. We will never really know what made him tick. But at least we knew him.

I'm sure you are moonwalking where ever you are now! Michael Jackson RIP!

The one with Year one

For anyone that has been looking at the feeds on the right, you will have noticed "The Movie Bit" feed. Over the last few weeks, I've taken the decision to run a dedicated movie blog, and from now on anything that I have to say about movies will be posted directly there. The Movie Bit blog, is still a work in progress, so excuse me while the renovations are ongoing!

Anyways, check out the Year one review by clicking here

The one with Gameness on a Thursday

Time for the weekly gaming bit!

Crackdown 2 is on the way, the first one was outstanding. Here’s the low down on the sequel from the developers via Edge online
"We've got core members from every discipline who worked on [Crackdown 1], the majority of the design team, and, depending on whom you speak to, some of the best coders and most talented artists," said creative director Billy Thompson.
"We still maintain a really strong working relationship with [original developer] Realtime; they're our neighbours in both personal and professional relationships, and we like that," piped in producer Jim Cope. "But leaping to our defence, in a sense, we firmly believe we're the right people to make Crackdown 2."
Elsewhere in the interview the Ruffian pair reveal that the second Crackdown takes place in the same locale, Pacific City, "but further on in the timeline."

Gran Turismo, probably one of the greatest looking games on any system, particularly the PS3 incarnation, well check out the PSP version. I shit you not. Kinda makes me wanna go and buy a PSP again! I'm still finding it hard to believe that these shots are on the PSP. Hope it plays as well as it looks!

Square Enix is being taken to court for "deceptive advertising, unfair practices and fraudulent concealment" in regards, mainly, to fees in MMO title Final Fantasy XI.

The court filing states that Square apparently deceived around 100,000 players of its online game, being less-than-upfront over the terms of monthly fees, penalties for late payments, interest charges and termination of accounts for late payments

MS have released some new gear for your avatars over on Xbox Live. Outfits include surfer shorts, dodgy vests and even hotpants. Not sure if you get some cheek action with the hotpants, but still!

Resident Evil, one of the original survival horror games. Most were enjoyable? How about a Lego version

And finally, here’s Jack Black bigging up Brutal Legend (via Joystiq)

The one with some touch of normality

Today is the first day in nearly a week where I’ve woken up and haven't been hanging onto the towel rail puking up snot and mucus for minutes on end. This morning, it only lasted for 30 seconds or thereabouts.

Was it the swine flu I had? Was it the man flu? Was it the normal flu?Not sure, as like most men, I only go to the doctor if my legs are eaten off by a great white shark.

I spent the last few days downing litres of Echinacea, which I’m not entirely sure made any difference. But I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt as a few people swear by it! The plan is to take one each day to kick the arse off me immune system! As I said, that's the plan anyway. And you know those kinda plans. The ones that start next Monday and last until the Wednesday! Either way I still feel like crap, but at least I can breathe and the toilet bowl is also a happier place.

The one with tonight!

Back on air tonight, but nothing of note in the blog as Im spending the rest of the day in bed. Still sicky, sicky but deciding to come back on tonight! Someone send me a mdeal :)

The one with the flu

Got a major dose of head cold / flu action, the last couple of days. Unfortunately it was really bad last night and today so spent most of the day in bed pumping in various medicines! No show tonight. Best of instead, thanks to KC!!!!!!

The one with another question

Im terribly curious to know who the person on a meteor gprs and a meteor broadband connection is. You've spent the bare bones of over 3 hours on here and not even a single comment. Bad form?? If your looking for something in particular, mail me ffs!

The one with Cork Rock

Have a read off this and then go off and vote!!!

The history of Cork rock music is soon to be revealed for the first time with the release of Cork Rock, a comprehensive account of the artists, musicians and culture that has contributed to this long-lasting Leeside phenomenon.

Journalist and author Mark McAvoy explores the roots of the Cork rock movement from the late 1950s up to the present day. With exclusive photos and interviews with leading performers, managers, DJs and promoters, this book is essential reading for all true music fans.

The fascinating stories behind many of the big names in Cork rock music have yet to be told and this revealing new book uncovers  the rise of the unrivalled talent that was Rory Gallagher, the talent and influence of Finbarr Donnelly, the uncompromising nature of Cathal Coughlan and Microdisney through to more recent acts such as Bishopstown’s finest The Frank And Walters and the irrepressible Sultans of Ping.

To celebrate the publication of Cork Rock, music fans are being asked to select a cover, which they think best represents the history of rock in Cork. Three possible covers have been designed that showcase various Cork acts including Rory Gallagher, Five Go Down To The Sea?, Simple Kid and The Sultans of Ping.

For your chance to vote, please visit this link: http://www.mercierpress.ie/cork-rock-voting.html

The one with Gameness

Right, decided to add a bit more structure to the blog, so from now on, each Thursday (in theory anyway) will feature some video gaming news and the likes!

Ghostbusters is out tomorrow on PS3. From what I read around the web, the Xbox 360 version is better. So you will have to wait till bloody October for that one!

Reviews have been 7 and 8’s out of ten and by all accounts it looks better than it moves!

Pain (from the Playstation Network) is being released next week on Blu-Ray, all the levels etc.etc.etc. Well worth a nose, great fun, even for wives to be be!

Not sure how the COD fans will feel about forking out more money when it comes to this…Future Call of Duty games could come with an MMO-style subscription service, granting subscribers extra options and early access to map packs.
That's according to a mysterious Activision survey doing the rounds on Destructoid, which mentions a CoD service that would "enhance the multiplayer experience and provide exclusive access to a group of gameplay enhancements."
These "enhancements" would include early access to expansions and betas, exclusive character skins, game modes, enhanced stat tracking and "support for competitive play."

 

Lots of people, myself included are drooling at Heavy Rain on the PS3. Well, as people know, its delayed and according to the developer, it still needs lots of work. We're still at the alpha stage and there's a whole lot of work to be done," said Quantic Dream's David Cage. "There's so much fine-tuning in the game left to do. Everything has to be perfect. If there's one thing wrong in a scene, it's the only thing you'll see. There are many things that don't work right now. We need to have everything in place, from facial animations, to score to work out the final result." Early 2010 by all accounts!
 
Hands up who remembers the amazing choplifter???? Well, earlier this week, inXile Entertainment filed a trademark for the title "Choplifter" in relation to a video game. We can live in hope!!!

This is what NBA Live 10 looks like! First screen compliments of EA

Microsoft bigwig Shane Kim has stated that the release of Project Natal will be "the launch of Xbox 360", and that no new console hardware will be involved."Absolutely. It will be that big," he told Gamasutra. "Now, the good news is that it's not a new hardware architecture; we're not forcing customers to have to go buy a new console because it will work with every existing Xbox 360 out there.

vicbarry is my Xbox Live Gamertag and PSN user name if your playing online

The one with a ?

Who's spending loadsa time on here going through the archives? :) Cheers for reading the drivel!