Normally, my New Years celebrations involve going into the city, drinking, watching the fireworks and then more drinking.

This year was slightly different. Whilst the concept of fireworks is a fantastic idea, the area in the city that is the ideal place to watch is a pain in the arse to find seating, get in and get out.

So I decided this year to simply hang out at home and invite a few friends over, drink and play video games. This idea worked; friends came over, we drank and played video games.

So here is to the New Year, pretty sure I can ruin it for myself in record time.

Well first off, Sonic and Mario at the olympic games on the Wii. Now this game is really fun. I picked it up about a week or two ago and managed to blitz through most of the Circuit events pretty quickly. Circuits are simply groups of events that you win in order to unlock more events and more circuits.

The number of events available in the game is very nice featuring the usual olympics events from track and field as well as swimming. However some of the events are far more difficult to play than others which unfortunatly makes it somewhat annoying. Most of these are events are ones that involved long distance jumping or throwing as been too enthusiastic on the controls will make you screw up. This coupled with the lack of practise mode when trying to do circuits is very annoying. Eventually you do get the hang of them, but you shouldn't have to, when most of the other events are pick up and go.

As both a single player and multiplayer game, it would be appropriate to make comparisons to Wii sports. As a single player game, it is ok. I found enjoyable enough to go through the events, break some world and olympic records and finish it off. It really shines however as a multiplayer game. Having your friends around making usually ridiculous movements while trying to win a race is... well.. fun. When alcohol is consumed so much the better. It really is built to be a multiplayer game, the only need for a single person to play it is to unlock the events. Overall I would recommend this game to most people, but be warned, you WILL develop a sweat while playing this game. It is quite the workout

Guitar Hero 3. Now this game is truly excellent with very few flaws. The premise of the game is that your a member of a band trying to make it big and guess what, you are the guitarist they have hired to play. You have your own guitar styled controller to play along with and you match notes and strum the guitar in a similar manner to DDR.

Fortunatly the game caters to those both musically and not musically gifted, with the game loose on what classifies as hitting the note at the right time. However once you get good, you can really challenge yourself with the hard and experts mode, both of which really require you to have a sixth finger to hit that orange fret.

This game is both single and of course multiplayer, and equally enjoyable to play. Multiplayer allows you to battle each other as well as play co-op in taking your band to the big time. As well as that, thanks to the joy of the next-gen consoles and the internet, you are able to purchase new songs for guitar hero 3, should by some miracle get bored of the old ones. I was a little hesitant about this game when I first picked up the controller but quickly found it be very enjoyable.

When I first grabbed this game, I was excited. It was after my Project Gotham Racing 3 addiction was coming to an end and I was looking for something new, and all the positive reviews for Forza Motorsport 2 pointed me in its direction. Anyway I picked up the game and I was not all that impressed. After spending weeks and months playing a racing/arcade game, jumping into a racing simulation game was uncomfortable. I was constantly spinning out, could not brake and control the car properly even with ABS and Traction Control engaged. It was incredibly annoying so I gave up on it.

Now after enjoying Top Gear over recent weeks, I decided to pick it up again. I still had the game despite not particularly liking it, it increases the size of my game collection :P. Since I picked it back up again a few days ago, I have to say, I have been thoroughly enjoying it. I am controlling my cars a lot better throughout races and winning which is always nice. My biggest annoyance is the opposition who like to tap the back of my cars to spin me out occasionaly and how I now always seem to be faster than the car in front of me and I am having to slow down to prevent myself from crashing into him, but other than that, I am glad I have picked it up again. I will now certainly be working my way through the game and finishing it because I know I can.

Now onto another note. For those who play World of Warcraft would be more than aware of the changes that have come with levelling a character from start to level 60. For those who are unaware, Blizzard have now made it easier and faster to level a character from 20 to 60 by increasing the experience gained from quests and critters as well as reducing the amount of exp needed. The result for me has been me power levelling my Shaman something chronic. It is very close to 57 now and I hope to get into the mid 60s by this time next week. Which I should be able to do now considering I have four days off from work and I intend to keep my mobile phone off the entire time. It is going to be a good week.

Finally, I recently made three pre-orders for a few games coming out in February; Devil May Cry 4 and Burnout Paradise, both for the Xbox 360 and Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on the Wii. I have seen excellent previews for Paradise and Devil May Cry and I am a Dragonball Z fan and thoroughly enjoyed Tenkaichi 2, so 3 was an obvious requirement to get. All around my birthday too so I am getting some nice presents this year, even if they are from me.

Tonight I went and saw I Am Legend with a few friends and I found it to be quite good. For those who are unaware of the main idea behind the film, the basic synopsis is that an army scientist is left to be the last man in New York after a virus kills off most of the human population. The film is based on the 1954 novel by Richard Mathieson of the same name, and there are some differences from the novel when compared to the movie. I will not lay these out to avoid plot spoilers but they really do not impact the overall quality of the film.

Now those expecting an action film, like my complete twat of a mate, Chris, will be sorely disappointed. This is not an action flick, it is the story of a man trying to deal with surviving an impossible situation on his own. Throughout the film you see all the things that Robert Neville, played by Will Smith, has done to survive three years in the world in which he is alone. Of course Will Smith plays this character brilliantly, culminating towards the end of the film when he meets up with two other survivors and he is simply unable to converse or properly speak to them.

The movie was impeccably put together. Camera, sound, and editing all done brilliantly; particulary in scenes where they needed to show deserted areas of New York where all you have is Will Smith driving around in his car. I felt that New York was an excellent place to have this film set. Nothing hits home the idea of being alone when it is in a city that never sleeps.

I highly recommend this film to most people, but I can appreciate it if some do not enjoy the film as much as I did. See it at least anyway and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

For the most part, I really love my job. I get paid very nice money (between $26/hr and $39/hr) for listening to radio, watching tv and reading newspapers and magazines. Sounds good does it not. The downside to this however is that it is a 24hr business, meaning people can get shifts at all different times. I used to start at 3am on a friday and 5am on a saturday. Thank god those days are over.

Now I am a night owl, through and through. I like waking up with the PM and sleeping at some time in the morning. Unfortunatly due to a few shifts that I have picked up, this has been reversed. I have this week a 6am and 2x 7:30am starts which is shocking in my mind.

So what I have I done to make this less painful? I screwed around with my body clock so that I go to sleep around 8pm at night and then wake up at 3am. Amusingly enough it is actually easier for me to do this than to attempt some relatively normal sleeping hours like 10pm - 6am. Of course this will have to be reset at some point to the sleeping hours of my liking which means the joy of dragging my near passing out body through 7pm and on towards the prefered hour of say 1am. Based on this, I will have to do a 21hr day to get my clock back to my normal.

To those who say, why not just stay in this normal sleeping pattern rather than my own, I say; The morning begins in the afternoon.

For those unaware, Heath Ledger has passed away today aged 28 in his New York apartment.

In a move away from my usual nonchalance, I wish his family and friends all the best. Those films that did star him I enjoyed greatly, particularly A Knights Tale. I only hope that his soon to be greatest role as The Joker, did not play a hand in his passing.

Heath Ledger R.I.P

Been enjoying it a lot lately, thought I would throw it out for everyone else.

This band, focussing on mostly electronic instrumental music, is simply brilliant.

I got onto them a few years ago at a friends place and just had to have it. Their first album, Unearthed, was a brilliant mix of simple melodies and fast paced instrumental. The music has been featured in many movie trailers and with good reason.

So when I found out about the second album, i knew that I simply had to have it and it is like the first absolutly brilliant. For this second album that have brought in singer, Luna Sans, to do vocals for 13 tracks. These tracks were then remixed without the vocals to take up the second disc along with two others. The music leans heavily to the idea of the simple melody and it works with Luna Sans bringing it all together beautifully.

For those interested, I highly recommend checking out their website and taking a look.

Total from recently counted monetary shrapnel.

5c total - $23.85
10c total - $55.50
20c total - 47.20
50c total - 84.00

Overall total - $210.55

:D