Probably the best streak I'm ever going to have in MW3

Around this time of year a loads of big budget video games are released and I tend to go into a strange hibernation and spend a lot of time playing them. One of the games I've played lately is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

I don't play a lot of multiplayer but I thought I'd give the online modes in MW3 a go and I spent most of my time running into walls and ending up on the losing side, but I did manage to get a little streak going at one point that I thought I would share a video clip of it (and it was a good way for me to test out some of MW3's video editing and sharing features).

By most Call of Duty player's standards it's a very poor streak but for me it's the best I have done (so far).

Here comes a new challenger.........

After wanting to write a review about the Hori EX2 Fighting Stick for the 360 I started a post and never finished it.

Anyway after waiting for months and just randomly checking out on amazon.co.uk I saw a Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick by Mad Catz as being in stock, so I placed an order and it arrived so I thought now might be a good time to redo my previous blog post and compare the two sticks from the point of view of a terrible beat'em up player (if you actually want some good reviews of the sticks I would suggest visiting 1up.com for a review of the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick, About.com for a review of the Hori EX2 or The "Break It Down" Blog for a comparison).

When I first tried comparing them I noticed the weight difference to be massively different, the Hori EX2 Fighting Stick is extremely light when compared to the hefty weight of the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick. Neither are too heavy or too light but Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick feels a lot more substantial when on a table or in your lap.

When I looked at the joysticks side by side the obvious difference was the placement of the buttons (other than the difference in size). Most fighting games I've played only require 6 buttons and use additional buttons as extra mappable button combinations (i.e. pressing RB is a combination of 3 other buttons). The Hori stick only has 6 main face buttons and has the LB and RB buttons at the top which doesn't make them too easy to use when playing a game which the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick has 8 face buttons for easy access.

Apparently the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick uses Sanwa parts and not being a fighting game aficionado I had to do a little googling and found out that Sanwa is manufacturer of arcade parts in Japan. From my point of view (the know nothing point of view) the buttons and the actual joystick are slightly more responsive on the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick and make a slightly more satisfying click to the Hori's clack noise.

Design wise the two joysticks are very different, with the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick have some nice Street Fighter 4 artwork on the top and the Hori X2 Fighting Stick sporting a more simple and plan look. The Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick also has a turbo function, a nice cable hideaway and the start and back buttons are moved off the top of the controller to help stop people accidentally clicking it, which I am told is an automatic disqualification on the tournament scene.

Price wise the two sticks are far apart and I guess both are very good for their price ranges and it comparing them isn't really fair. Hopefully I can get my uncultured beat'em hand on the Hori Tekken 6 fighting stick there maybe a better comparison with the Street Fighter 4 Tournament Fight Stick or get hold of a Mad Catz Arcade Fight Stick and compare that with the Hori EX2.

Another Holiday Over and I’ve Achieved Nothing.

I am coming to the end of my one week holiday I took and like last time I have pretty much done nothing interesting.

I did however manage to get a few achievements on Rock Band and Scene IT? Lights, Camera, Action.

Next time I go on holiday I think I need to plan ahead and go somewhere interesting.

I will... I will... Rock You

Rock Band is one of the most fun games I have ever played and tonight was the first time I managed to get 100% on a song.

I was so pleased with myself that I had to blog it so it could be marked in history as the moment I flawlessly played a pretend guitar and thought I was a rock legend!

It maybe one of the easier songs on the set list and I was only playing on medium but it won't stop me bragging about it.

My poor old Xbox 360 and my PS3

For the last 3 weeks I have been without my Xbox 360. After almost 2 years of use my 360 decides to throw up the dreaded Red Ring of Death. What makes it worse was that it decided to do this the night before my holiday started. I ended up spending the next week with very little to do.

I sent my 360 off to Microsoft to get repaired but after endless phone calls and each representative on the phone telling me something different about my repair I doubt I will see the thing again any time soon (and I have heard the Microsoft don’t even send you your own console but send you a refurbished console back instead).

I think my Xbox 360 decided to die on me because that week I had bought a PS3. I bought the PS3 because that week the 40GB version was launched and the 60GB version was given a price drop. I bought the 60GB version as it has backwards compatibility, SACD playback, 2 more USB sockets, a card reader and 20GB more hard drive space for an extra £50 when compared to the 40GB version.

I bought a PS3 bundle which included 2 games and 2 Blu-ray movies. I have not really used the PS3 as a games console as I prefer my Xbox 360 and games seem to be missing something when there aren’t any achievements. The main reason I bought a PS3 was for Blu-ray movie playback and for its price it’s a good player as the picture quality is on a par with my HD DVD players.

Winter Holiday

I have been on holiday for over two weeks now and I have achieved nothing. I have been so bored I can’t remember doing much for the past two weeks.

The only thing I have managed to do is beat my ten year old cousin’s gamer score on my Xbox 360.

I was so bored I went back into work for a day!

360 HD DVD

After a few months of collecting HD DVD discs I finally got my 360 HD DVD add-on drive for my Xbox 360 (last Thursday).



The picture is great. Contrary to what some think I didn't watch any special HD "movies", the first film I watched was Batman Begins and some of the scenes looked stunning.

Since watching Batman Begins I have watched Serenity and I have got a few more films to watch over this weekend.

I know a few people have reported that films like Batman Begins had sound sync problems but I have not yet noticed any problems like that myself with my setup.

I pre-ordered this item in several places to make sure I got one as soon as possible. Sadly 2 of my orders were posted around the same time so now I have two! Does anyone out there want to buy a 360 HD DVD add-on?