Michael Jackson Vs Ghostbusters June 28

When Michael Jackson died, a strange thought came to me- this is my attempt to visualise that idea.

Copyright goes to the obvious people.

iPhone Gaming June 26

My iPod Touch has become my main gaming device, (and now my recently purchased iPhone 3GS) partly due to the low prices of games, but mostly because of the convenience and choice available. The success of the iPhone platform is the App Store as Greg Joswiak, (Apple’s VP of iPod and iPhone product marketing), explained to Edge Magazine:

How do you update a cartridge? You can’t. But you can update the games here via the App Store and that’s an automatic process. Not to mention not having to carry around a bucketful of cartridges. You can store as many games as you have space for. Everything about the iPhone suggests where the futureís headed, and I think a lot of the other guys are trying to scramble for what they do in response.

So although I’m not a fan of “list” blog posts, here are my favourite games for the iPhone

What I’m Playing:

  • geoDefense: Gorgeous looking, retro-inspired tower-defence game. Satisfyingly difficult, I only seem to be progressing one level a day despite clocking in way too many hours playing it.

  • Strategry: Maybe its my colonial heritage kicking in, but I love the turn-based Risk-like World Domination of Strategery. Very well designed, easy to pick up, and really fun to play.

  • Rolando: Fun platform game, that makes full use of the touch-and-tilt capabilities of the iPhone platform. Huge game with 36 levels… Rolando is out this summer and I’m only halfway through the first one.

  • Edge: 3D maze game in which you guide a colorful cube that moves about a series of 3D, isometric maze environments (in all) full of puzzles to solve and hazards to avoid. through hazardous environments. Great looking game with an 80s Tron feel to it.

  • Wolfenstein 3D: The grandfather of first person shooters, brilliantly ported to the iPhone by John Carmack himself. He really nailed the controls and the game feels at home on the iPhone.

  • Frenzic: Six circles, divided into six pie-piece slivers. Fill each circle to win points and clear the board, bonus points if you fill it with a single color. The premise is simple, brilliantly executed with online leaderboard integration. One of my favorite iPhone games.

  • Drop7: Based on the popular Flash game Chain Factor, numbered discs drop into the grid, when the number on a disc matches the amount of discs in its row or column it disappears. Drop7 is my favorite “play whilst watching telivision” games.

Daily Mail’s Bin Campaign June 18

The last few days have hardy been quiet on the news front- Violent protests over Iranian “elections”, Treasury minister Kitty Ussher resigned from Government over £17,000 tax dodge, the Iraq war inquiry is to be held in secret. So what has the Daily Mail led with as its front page story for two days?

Daily Mail Bin Campaign

The Mail’s editors believe that wheelie bins not looking scenic are top priority and are launching the Not In My Front Yard campaign, to spearhead the fight back against wheelie bins.

Apparently this passes for Journalism today, I wonder why newspapers are rapidly losing money.

Late Edit
My always insightful Twitter friend emalyse has also noticed the screaming headlines and asks what time the mass middle England bin burning starts. I’m guessing it’ll be just after lunch, and end in time to pick the kids up from school.

Sherlock Holmes Trailer June 13

Guy Ritchie is clearly a terrible film maker, and I hate to say this but the trailer for Sherlock Holmes looks incredibly fun and highly entertaining.

Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King June 6

This week saw the release of “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King”, the new album from Dave Matthews Band.

Despite being in the top 100 highest selling music acts of all time they are virtually unheard of here in the UK. This is the band’s first release since the dead of founding member, saxist LeRoi Moore, who died last year following an accident he had while riding his ATV. The album opens with a classy sax piece played by Moore.

The band’s last studio album, Stand Up, was released in 2005 and frankly wasn’t very good at all. Dave Matthews Band are superb musicians, and their live albums are far more enjoyable than their studio albums because they are best when they play together as a jam band. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King goes back to their roots, and sounds far more like the rougher sound of their earlier albums like the 1994 album Under The Table & Dreaming, it wasn’t over produced it sounded like they got together in a studio and played the songs.

Its a wonderful album, full of upbeat and punchy tracks like “Shake Me Like A Monkey”, and quieter soulful tracks like “You and Me”. Rolling Stone called Big Whiskey and GrooGrux King the band’s “best album yet” on the cover of their June 2009 issue and I certainly think although it has been a long time coming, they are finally back on track with possibly the finest studio album of their career.

You can buy the album from all the normal places online, or take a listen to the album for free on Spotify, (UK only).


Next →