Don’t know if anyone actually uses iGoogle, but if you do, why not give this little gadget I made a try. It’s nothing spectacular, but I never heard of a jaw-dropping Memory game either.

Yes, the good old Memory game. Something I thought more people would know! If you are part of that strange group that doesn’t, well, just find two of the same hidden images by clicking on the squares. Yes it’s that simple. Just try to do it in as few clicks possible.

Oh and the great thing is, it uses Flickr. Just go to its settings, type in the tag of your choice and you can play with anything ranging from kitties to girlies.

So, go on and install Flickr Memory, or check here to put the little game on your own site :P

Any comments always welcome through Twitter.

Yes, it’s been quiet on the PS3 front. But, as with every console launch, you can’t expect the first year to be great. We’ve only had a hand full of good titles on 360, and the great games are still for late 2007.

So, both consoles are not getting much love. But there are still small gems that get released once in a while and I’d hate to miss out.

First up, Pac-Man Championship Edition. Honestly, I’ve never enjoyed playing Pac-Man, but after seeing the 1UP show of last week, I had to give this complete make-over a try. And I love it! It’s got that same short adrenaline rush experience as Geometry Wars:Evolved used to give.

As for the PS3, not much new happened on the games front. It’s still a beautiful machine, made by people with good taste (awesome gui/music visualizer/etc .. it has Sony written all over it) and the cheapest Blu-Ray player out there. And damn, how could we ever have lived without!

I bought the BBC’s documentary Planet Earth on Blu-Ray. It is jaw-dropping. The most beautiful scenes of nature you will ever see, things you’ve never witnessed before in amazing high resolution detail. One negative thing though,… DVD will always look crap from now on… Now let’s hurry up with more BR releases plz k tnx!

And after a long wait, Calling All Cars, a PSN game by the creator of God of War, finally arrives in Europe. It’s supposed to be an awesome multiplayer game (preferably with everyone in the same room), with a sort of NBA Jam feel to it… I think we can’t go wrong with that! Also, WipEout, the PS1 original, is available and will be tried again just for its soundtrack alone.

And again, a serious lack of updates. Lazy or busy, guess it should be a bit of both…

Work is extremely busy lately, so finding time to do a quick post from here isn’t that easy anymore. Hell I just got interupted writing these few lines… As for life at home, it seems every weekend we’ve got to go somewhere. Traffic is hell so evenings during the week get uber short (shop for food, eat, dishes and maybe get 3 hours of free time in). We do still manage to get some hours of WoW in, but usually at the cost of sleep.

Still promised to visit friends, invite friends for dinner etc but we can’t get around to it. I promise you all we’ll get that fixed BEFORE the summer!

Not much new on the non-WoW side. Just some Killer7 on PS2 (actually playing it on the PS3), watched Casino Royale on Blu-ray (Lady in the Water in HD was pretty, but this… damn), Finaly Fantasy VII on dvd again (looks aweful after being spoiled with Blu-ray) and .. err.. that’s it?

Before I forget, yes, we went to Barcelona! I was sure to post about that.. *sigh*. Anyway, planning on putting some pictures on Flickr soon, so keep an eye out!

It seems to have been quite a while since my last post… I guess you can see WoW got to us good this time…
So let’s try to sum up everything that’s happened these last months!

First, as stated before, the World of Warcraft addiction got worse! Elke’s main Aislynn is making some serious progress, getting nicely geared up with Karazahn epics and self-tailored ones. My rogue got a bit neglected, but has received a new task… leveling my priest! Yes, that means I actually bought a second account and am playing on two pcs at the same time.. as I said, we got worse…

Enough about WoW though. A few weeks ago, Kurt and myself went to the PlayStation3 midnight launch at Sint-Niklaas. After waiting for 3 hours we finally managed to get our hands on one… and man, is it a sexy machine. The launch lineup might not be amazing, but putting this machine next to the 360 makes the 360 look like a kid’s toy. It’s very silent, it’s interface is right up my ally (aka beatiful minimalistic design, not bloated with ugly colors and fonts like the 360 Dashboard) and it plays Blu-rays!

Motorstorm is a must-have. Even though not my genre of game, it’s very arcady, chaotic and great fun. fl0w is a fun interactive screensaver, perfect for a 10 minutes chill-out before heading to bed. As for blu-ray playback, up until now I only own one disc, Lady in the Water. The quality is jaw-dropping. Even the sound seems much clearer and full. Any hints on where i can find more region B (or region free) blu-rays would be very welcome.

Thanks to Kurt, I’m watching some anime again. He dropped by the entire first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Not as pretty as the movies, but closer related to the manga, it is a very enjoyable series. Those Tachikoma robots are so cute ^^ (and even have their own mini-series on the discs).

If you were wondering about the picture on top, well, I guess you’ve heard (hell the entire world heard) of those couples that didn’t want to be married by a black man in our small town of Sint-Niklaas. As reaction to that, they held a mass marriage, with 600+ couples present, to support this man and come up against racism. It being quite a romantic idea and an event for a good cause, of course we joined in. We did run off before the group hug started,… as we aren’t THAT social either :P

I think that about covers it all. I noticed I’ve been neglecting my Flickr account as well, so I’ll be uploading lots of pictures soon. There’s a new one of Myuu already however, I suggest you check it out!

Time to chill out, relax, maybe even focus on real life a little again! Because yesterday, we reached level 70!

Honestly, I thought the expansion killed the game for me. After getting pretty quickly to 64, I got fed up with World of Warcraft. Two weeks went by and I hardly logged in. If I did, I’d just stare to the screen and log out again. The busy weekends and exhausting work days weren’t helping either.

But… a week ago we decided to give it another try. With WoWHead.com on the iMac next to me, we started focussing again and quested non-stop. One week, a bunch of head and eye aches later, we reached the big ding.

Time to park the rogue and get on with that blood elf hunter … right?

Err.. blame Kurt! Or should I say Rush…

2 weeks ago, we made the big mistake of reinstalling World of Warcraft, with the idea we’d get bored of it after 3 days like we did when retrying Final Fantasy XI. Apparently, WoW ages better and got us totally hooked again. After 1 year of hating the game, we came back and are loving every minute of it.

We joined a new realm, Defias Brotherhood, leaving our old Priest and Warlock (7 months of leveling, raiding and getting sweet gear down the drain) and starting a new life on this roleplaying (yes you heard it right) PvP server. Say hello to the new Aislynn (lvl 30 Mage) and Suibne (lvl 31 Rogue)…

Roleplaying is a first for us, we’re still getting into it but liking it none the less. First time Horde too, which statistically means more adults, a nice change from the kiddy playground our last realm was.

The PvP part makes WoW a complete new experience though. Visiting areas away from your home town requires traveling in groups or calling in backup once in a while. Alliance usually will gank you if they have the opportunity, but with our good friend Rush (lvl 60 Shadow Priest) we usually get our revenge quite quickly.

Anyway, the disease is spreading again. We got our good friend Tokstah hooked too, who in turn is infecting his friends etc. History seems to repeat itself, as it’s been only a short 2 years since we’ve got half of our town hooked… And they’re still playing today :P (Blizzard should be grateful).

… just to protest against this idiotic behavior of our Belgian press, not to mention Child Focus (which has just lost its complete respect from me).

Bully (or Canis Canem Edit as it has been renamed here) is being targeted because of its controversial (US) name, not its content. Although the press and Child Focus see it as a Columbine Simulator etc, this game is as harmless as a kitten. The problem is misinformation. Or maybe just laziness because none of the above seem to have done any research into this game whatsoever.

I guess we’ll have to ban things like Dennis the Menace, Bart Simpson and others as well, making sure our kids don’t get influenced by such evildoers.

Anyway, I urge everyone to run to the shops and buy this game. I’m fed up with the way people look at games and gamers,… I guess we finally know how our parents felt when their rock n’ roll and other hippy related “ways of life” were looked down at.

But ah well… different generations aren’t supposed to get along anyway, so maybe all of this is just normal. Let’s hope (and I guess the previous generations said the same thing) we don’t turn into these narrow minded old whining folks when we “grow up”.

By the way, don’t head over to Dreamland, because they aren’t selling it. Didn’t even know they sold games, so it’s a none-issue really, since any self-respecting gamer goes to game dealers, not gadget shops.

All info tnx to Karsten.

Work has been keeping me quite busy lately and when I do get home, I just end up crashing in the couch. So, sorry for the lack of updates ;)

Elke is still playing Tales of Legendia, so access to the tv is limited ;) But here’s what I’ve been trying to play etc anyway… in short (no time!):

/played
Okami (ps2)
Beautiful! It’s the Viewtiful Joe engine on acid. The ps2 didn’t really have an adventure game that comes close The Legend of Zelda, but this is it! The Japanese music and graphic styles make it an amazing experience! Dare I say better than Zelda?

Yakuza (ps2)
Japanese neon is cool. Enough said ^^.

Final Fantasy Tactics (gbmicro)
With Final Fantasy XII nearing and the tv being occupied, I thought it might be nice to visit the world of Ivalice in lovely 2D isometric sprite style before drooling over the jaw-dropping 3D version. If I really start digging SRPGs, I might give Disgaea 1/2 a chance.

/listened to
Marylin Manson
Guns n’ Roses
Korn
Limp Bizkit
Sum 41
Blink 182

/seen
The Forgotten
Pretty fun movie… Had to rent an older one because nothing decent is released lately.

As you can see, not that much happened. I’m mentally preparing for the crazy list of games heading our way. With DOAX2, Gears of War, Final Fantasy XII, God Hand, Phoenix Wright 2 (already shipped! Jap version has English FTW!) and much more… it’s going to be a filled end of the year. Not to mention a poor one ;) .. I’m not even talking December (Wii + Zelda.. pre-ordered.. /sigh).

Any financial support (/points at Paypal Donate button) is appreciated ^^

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve updated you all on what I’ve been up to. I presume the previous posts did give you some ideas ;) but to keep this site a bit consistent, it’s time to list it anyway. So, 2 weeks… here we go!

/played
Dead Rising (360)
Although an awesome game, with amazing graphics and my favourite enemies in of time… zombies, I didn’t play that much yet. It’s worth getting a 360 for though. It’s Dawn of the Dead, the videogame. No better way to describe it. You’ve never seen such a realistic shopping mall and such perfect representations of zombies in a game ever!

Phoenix Wright (DS)
I’ve played the hell out of this game. For an adventure/detective/lawyer game, it’s very addictive, not to mention LONG! The 4 first cases take a lot of time and are just ports of the old GBA version, but the last case takes as much time as the entire GBA game together! It’s nice to see how Capcom added the DS specific extras to this case, with 3D animation and dusting for fingerprints, which requires you blowing in the mic and using the stylus. They knew such a long extra case might get the player yawning and with all these additions to the gameplay during this final case, the crazy characters you meet and the twisting and turning of the plot, it keeps you excited until (and after) the credits roll. Probably the best title to date, on the DS. The sequel can’t come too soon.

Xenosaga 1 (ps2)
Getting back into an RPG is hard after not touching it for weeks, but the story pulls you back in quite quickly. Just a pitty I don’t have that much spare time for an 80 hour RPG. Certainly not 80 hours episodes…

Ultimate Ghosts n’ Goblins (psp)
It’s beautiful, but it’s dead hard. It does make you want to throw that PSP out of the window, but instead I just put it aside :P. Maybe some day I’ll try again. Only because it’s soo pretty.

Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel (psp)
I really suck at stealth games. The stories of the MGS series always intrigued me, but I could never get far before getting frustrated. This solves it however, a digital comic explaining me the world of Snake, without the annoying gameplay (this sure won’t make me friends with the MGS hardcore :D)

Lego Star Wars 2 (ps2)
I love the old Star Wars movies and I love Lego. It’s a perfect combination! It’s really funny and even fun to play, but trying to stay awake? Coffee might help. It’s not that interesting, except for the fact you are replaying all the movies in the Lego universe. Although quite entertaining, only advised to the Star Wars hardcore.

Tales of Legendia (ps2)
I’m not technically playing it, but it’s keeping me from playing anything none portable :D I got Elke addicted to the damn game. It has beautiful music though and the cartoon sequences are drawn by people from Ghibli, so you can’t go wrong there. Although I didn’t like the combat system, Elke doesn’t seem to mind. She’s in for about 15 hours now. Dunno how much to go before I get the TV back ;)

/watched
Family Guy
Some random episodes. Still cracks me up.

Futurama
Same. Funny. One day I’ll get all on DVD. Or Blu-Ray ^^

The Big Lebowski
My kind of movie. Due to being sick last week I could catch up on some dvds lying around here, and although not amazing, still very much worth a watch.

Super Size Me
Watched it a second time, best way to keep yourself away from fast food and anything else that’s bad for your health. Awesome documentary.

House of Flying Daggers
I had this dvd here for way too long. Finally, also due to my sick days off, I found the time to watch it. Although I did prefer Hero, it’s a great movie none the less. The bamboo scene was just “wow” :D

Pirates of the Carribean 2
If you love the first, you’ll love this one. It keeps you on your toes for the 3rd though, but it’s the first time in months I gave money to go to the movies and it was worth it!

/listened to
My Neighbour Totoro OST
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence OST
Various Aerosmith songs
Some Xmas songs (if you know me, you’d say I’m late :P)

That was exhausting… Anyway, I’m back on track with my gaming! The PSP finally has some fun titles again, the DS got recharged a zillion times thanks to Phoenix Wright and both 360 and ps2 have some nice titles waiting for me to finish.

Speaking of consoles, I went ahead and pre-ordered me a Wii. And sure, you’re all invited if you bring your own Wii-mote! ^^ 2 months to go!

And the Belgian Wii site is up and running: http://wii.com/nlbe/.

249 Euro is what most people expected (although I went for much less) but it’s still cheap compared to 360 and PS3. Sort of. We are paying 60 dollars more than the US and 100 more than Japan, so if you know a cheap way to import, I’d advice it. Which will be no problem, since the Wii will be region free for most of the part.