The cheese just ain't the same

I've started to find that I'm getting excited about really strange things.

When my mum was over visiting she bought me Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit. I've spent so much time on these two games (and before you ask 35. My damn Wii Fit age is 35. Stupid frickin balance board)
And it's not just me. The missus has been playing a lot more Wii and even beating me on some Mario Kart time trials.
I love these two games and they are great presents.
But I'm trying to get a point across here, bare with me.
The best present I got that week was not the games but in fact a block of cheese.

Cheese over here just isn't the same.

It's all expensive and I just want a decent block of English Mature Cheddar. But it's so hard to come by.
They do have a lot of sliced cheese or grated cheese. But just not a lot of choice on affordable blocks of cheese.
So I've not had a cheese and (Branston) pickle sandwich in weeks. I'm missing them.

Another great thing that I've bought and I'm happy about is a pineapple. I'm so pleased I've bought a pineapple.
I've never bought a whole pineapple before. I've bought half of one or tinned rings, but never a whole pineapple.
I feel like my life has moved on a lot now.

But the greatest thing I have bought in the last few days, in fact for some time, was a double socket scart adapter.
Seriously.
A simple adapter for the TV that lets me plug in my Wii and my DVD in to the TV at the same time. The TV only has one scart plug/AV channel. This causes some unnecessary time wasting.
Before yesterday if I wanted to play some Mario Kart I'd have to turn the TV around, check what scart was plugged in the TV and swap them around if needed.
If after playing some Mario Kart and then wanting to watch some Seinfeld I still have no clue what they are saying on Spanish TV so I don't watch that) then I have to turn the TV around. Unplug the Wii. Plug in the DVD and then turn the TV back round the right way.
And vice verse if swapping from the DVD to the Wii.
But now, thanks to the special magical properties of a little black box I now have both the Wii and DVD plugged in to the TV and to use one all I have to do is switch it on. I don't even need to turn the channel.

And I wouldn't give up my Mario Kart Wii or Wii Fit for any amount of blocks of cheese.

Games I'm Playing This Week 2

Well my gaming habits have been a little quite last few weeks, but since the weather hasn't been great here and I've not been working I've had chance to get stuck in to some games I bought a while ago.

This week I have mostly been playing No More Heroes.


I bought No More Heroes a few weeks before we left for Spain. I played a few hours of it and then put it away as it seemed like the kind of game I could spend a good couple of hours playing each day so I thought it would be best left until I had moved.

So this week I've gotten the chance to play with it for a few hours and I'm loving it.
For those that don't know, you control the protagonist Travis Touchdown, who receives a Beam Katana (think light sabre) and wants to become Santa Destroys top assassin (my current position is Rank 5). Queue lots of walking around streets and fighting till the death.

The graphics ooze style and look really good. There is a air of paying homage to retro games. Power ups and save points are highlighted with giant floating large pixeled signs. The leader board looks like something out of Space Invaders. The game also has a great sense of punkishness about it. You can definitely sense that alot of Japanese will be doing cosplay out of characters in the game (although what dont't they cosplay?). And their is a great deal of humour, for example to save the game you have to go the toilet. All very strange.
There isn't a great deal of skill, you hit the A button a few times, carry out a motion sensored final blow and move on to the next guy. The fun for me comes when rather then just one foot soldier attacking you, there can be dozens trying to kill you at once. It's a bit like an old school beat 'em up. Steets of Rage, Golden Axe, those kind of lost games. A whole lot of fun.
There is even one side mission were you have to kill 100 hundred enemies, and your arm takes a little beating with all the frantic swinging.

The thing I have most enjoyed about the game is all the sidemissions and objectives. Kind of like miniassasinations, take out various pizza owner's, 100 man war (mentioned above) or even fighting a pack of enemies and you can only take one hit, that's when a bit of skill and a lot of luck comes in. For example I've done Free Missions 1, 3 and 4, but keep losing on level 2. Damn you level 2, damn you.

I expected a lot from this game, I was looking for something meaty and enjoyable and it has delivered.
Now I'm off to see how high up the leader board I can get before my preordered Mario Kart Wii arrives and that is permanently stuck in my Wii.

Making a dash for The Future and Teh Interwebs

UPDATED 08 APRIL 2008

You might of noticed a few small changes to the layout of my blog recently.

With moving to Spain I've started to embrace new technologies to enable my family to keep more in touch with me.

Some new features to my blog are you can now easily digg any of my blog posts if you so please.

You can also find my Digg (what I am reading online), Twitter (what I am upto at this minute) and Flickr (what I can see) badges on the side and if you use either of these why not add my to your list of followers/diggers/contacts/friends. The more the merrier.

EDIT: We have now found a decent website for our videos. Check out robbiesherman.blip.tv for video updates of what we are up to.

Games I'm Playing Week 1

So trying to find a topic thats not Spain related so not to bore you all, let's go over games I am currently playing.

Having tried to get rid of a dozen or so games lately to lower baggage weight (I promise thats the only Spain related drop) I almost traded in Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles with a bunch of others, despite having only played just over an hour of it.

It wasn't until the shop assitant shown me my hidden £16 credit under my £2 credit note that I decided to keep hold of Umbrella Chronicles.

On my second time round I'm really getting in to this game. It's an "on the rails shooter" meaning you can only aim at the screen and have no control over the character movement.
There are other options in the game that I completely missed first time round, like side missions and upgrading of weapons, which makes the game much deeper and alot more fun.

I'm glad that I got the chance to give Umbrella Chronicles a second go, I've fallen a bit for it and it's a highly enjoyable game.

For those looking for some cheap thrills on their Wii I highly recommend this pick up and play title.

Anyone want to add my Friend Code, it's 4859 7530 9312 3844. Just drop me a comment to let me know.

Chip and Pin and "How is my service"?

I don't know how widespread this new phenomenone is, but I have recently noticed down at the local Co-Op that the chip and pin machine is asking me questions. It want's to know "how was my service?" "was I served fast?"

I would like to know, it this just something that is happening in my local Co-Op? Have you noticed it Co-Ops near you? Or is it even limited to Co-Op stores, is it found in other stores with chip and pin?

So next time you are at the shop and when the customer in front of you leaves finishes being served, have a look at the chip and pin machine and see if it asks you anything?

And for those who dont believe me I'll try and get a photo of the chip and pin machine next time I am being served.