Blog has moved!

My blog will now be hosted at…

http://xcomprandomness.co.uk/

Please visit the new address for any future updates! I will be leaving this WordPress blog as it is now but won’t be adding any new entries and will probably be removing a few key posts just to transfer the traffic over.

See you there!

Pixar’s 2009 Movie Named “UP” and Cars Sequel in Line?

According to Pixar Planet, Pixar Studios maybe planning to release a movie named “Up” in 2009 and that Disney may want a “Cars 2″ in 2011. I really can’t imagine what kind of story a movie named “Up” will have. Space related perhaps? As for a sequel to Cars, I don’t really want one because I think the story’s been wrapped up well enough already for Lightning McQueen.

Meanwhile, I’m curious to see what their movie for this year, “Wall-E” is like. From the trailers, it looks like a cute comedy. I see they’ve changed their jumping lamp animation during the company logo for this one too!

This reminds me… I’ve still to pick up Cars and the more recent Ratatouille for my Pixar DVD collection.

Sims 3 Details in Two Weeks Time

I remember how fun The Sims was when I was playing it during high school. It allowed you to design your own home, make your Sims live a dream life and play “God” perhaps.

Then the second one came out which was better with its improved graphics, livelier animation, better AI interactions and family genes so that got me playing again for a while. Following that came a barrage of expansion packs which I didn’t bother with at all because they were all rubbish in my opinion. As much as I wanted more objects to decorate the game with, the new material just felt somewhat detached from the main game. Some kind of second thought add on.

Now with Spore’s release date set, it makes sense EA is going to reveal details about the next Will Wright game in two weeks time on March 19th. But what could they do with Sims 3 to make it better than the last instalment? Well, another graphical haul will probably be in order. I just hope my PC can run it!

The Real Wii Freeloader Announced, Region Free Finally Here?

There used to be a Freeloader disc available from Datel with the Wii logo which made people think it allowed them to play Wii games from any region on there console when in actual fact, it was only for loading Game Cube games. The disc has been blacklisted by firmware updates now although Nintendo had claimed “it wasn’t intentional”…

However, it now looks like the real Wii Freeloader is set to appear on March 14th according to various sources. I’m not really surprised considering the recent successful hacks made to the Wii console. According to retailer Code Junkies who are selling the Freeloader and have apparently tested it:

• The Wii Freeloader ignores all region coding.
• The Wii Freeloader ignores all Wii console updates on game disc.
• A new Freeloader disc will be sent out if a new firmware update blocks it.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, Guild Cards Now with Hunting Logs!

According to Game Watch, here’s another interesting addition to the upcoming Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G! Guild cards that you exchange with other players will now show graphs of your weapon usage and how well you get along with the Felyne Buddies that you team up with while out on your hunting trips.

Moving to Own Domain and Host

I’ve finally decided to take the plunge and have invested in my own domain and private hosting space. The traffic I’ve been getting has increased from a mere daily 100 unique visitors to almost 1000 since starting this new blog on WordPress and is staying around that mark. So I thought maybe I can do more if I had my own space without the current restrictions such as no Javascript allowed or no editing of the PHP theme files. I’m going to try it for a year and see how things go. Then I’ll decide if I want to keep my new domain and space or not.

Right now, I’m in the middle of migrating everything over and setting up WordPress. I’m also waiting for the DNS entry to get updated so that I can point my new domain towards the host soon. That’s going take two days max. Until then, I think I’ll stop posting on this blog so that I don’t have to move any more posts over later.

Haven’t had too many problems although I’m going to have to learn how to change all the embedded Youtube tags and links in all the posts. Otherwise they’ll be pointing to a bunch of old addresses and that won’t work out.

Also trying to find a widget that will show the Top 10 Posts but haven’t had any luck so far.

Will point to the new domain as soon as the DNS update is complete. Don’t expect any changes to the site though because I’m still just messing around with code and just trying to make my original blog work there ^^;

Everyone’s Pokemon Farm, More Free Activities with the Miis

I’ve already gotten bored of the Mii Contest Channel not long after it came out. It was interesting to see what it was like and what people managed to do with their Miis at first but, I hardly use it now. I use the Everybody Votes Channel more.

I don’t know… Some of the Miis are impressive considering the limited control you have when creating them but, browsing through pages of Miis just isn’t that interesting. Neither is judging the contests and seeing how close your judgement was compared with other users.

Anyway, even though we’re still waiting for the “Everybody’s Nintendo Channel” for free downloadable DS demos and reviews, Japan is about to get some new content again, this time in the form of “Everybody’s Pokemon Farm” due sometime in March.

Persona 3 FES Expansion Coming to the US on April 22nd

And it’s going to be the stand alone version of Persona 3 FES too, which means you don’t need a copy of the original game to play the expansion pack. You’ll have both in the same package and at a discounted price of US$29.99 too. Europeans who are reading about this must be annoyed they’re only getting the original game this Friday and what’s more, it’s not going to be the special edition the US got either. Shame. Gamers move out of Europe quick!

On another note, with all the excitement flaring up again I still see people thinking the P3 characters really shoot themselves in the heads to summon their Personas. Well, as I mentioned before, the guns don’t really fire anything. I can understand the confusion though considering they never explained about the Evokers in the original game (as far as I can recall) and I’m sure the train of thought here is, gun means firing bullets.

Ah well, I’m sure it was part of the original attention catcher anyway. Now that P3 FES trailer has got me listening to the “reincarnation” version of Burn My Dread again.

In the meantime, while you’re waiting for April 22nd, you can go check out the first half hour of Episode Aegis if you don’t mind spoilers. You can also go enjoy some hilarious P3 drama CDs or, learn about the game’s story elements in more detail such as what that blue butterfly represents and the true role of the gun shaped Evokers from the Persona Club P3 Book.

Wii Fit Balance Board Package Priced for EU?

We know Europe is going to get Wii Fit towards the end of April now but, what about the price? Well according to Eurogamer.net, it’s due to be set at at a whopping £69.99 while the European price is €89.99.

It’s too high for my likings so I hope it’s not the final retail price. Look at Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party (which is due next month in the EU). That comes with a mat but only costs £44.99. On the other hand, I was kind of expecting this price. If you take a look at the RRP for the Guitar Heroes III bundle, it’s £69.99 too…

Nevertheless, I’ll probably still end up purchasing it day one. Despite the price, I think it just might be one of those sell out titles if you consider its target audience.

Nintendo Wii Firmware v3.2, Twilight Princess Exploit Not Blocked

The Wii console’s mesmerising blue light is flashing again and that usually means a firmware update of course. According to the Nintendo Wii official website the details are the following:

Wii Menu 3.2This update does not affect any prominently-used features or menus; however it does provide some behind the scenes updates that will improve system performance.

So not really much details from them although some sites are saying it adds a notification to let you know if the Wii needs a mini update before you can play a game. I think that would be much more user friendly than coming up with a blank disc channel.

Initially I thought it was to close up the working Twilight Princess exploit that’s been discovered but, it appears it’s still there. The ELF loader (which currently only allows a homebrewn Tetris game to run) still works apparently so that’s good news. This will give the homebrew teams more time to see what else they can do.

I suppose Nintendo isn’t in any hurry to block the code yet since it isn’t capable of running commercial games just now.