Panoramio Widgetry

Today, I am a little happier than usual!
Panoramio have released a super-easy-to-use API that lets me embed pictures easily into any website, using iframes or javascript.
There's more over here: www.panoramio.com/api/widget/api.html

Here's an example (ugly red border is all my work!)

Eurogamer and Alan Wake

I'm pretty stupid, and tend to pre-order games based on hype-alone. Sometimes, I end up cancelling, if the review is really bad and it hasn't already been shipped, but other times I end up with crap like Alone in the Dark.


So, I pre-ordered Alan Wake, and I was just reading the Eurogamer review (I know, I should have been working, but I have, like, 6 minutes before a really big presentation, sitting outside the meeting rooom so there's little point in starting something else - although I am writing this. But I digress).


Anyway, there's a line in there that goes like this:
He decides to take a holiday in a bid to clear his head. And how does Alan choose to get away from it all, do you think? By spending a fortnight in Rio, drinking pina coladas by the pool? Or by visiting a tiny, rainy Pacific Northwest town inhabited by hilarious simpletons and frightening weirdoes, where the only available accommodation is an ancient log cabin in the middle of a haunted lake?


It made me laugh, anyway.

Final Fantasy 13

Well, here's a post that's never going to rank. Ever. There are already a bajillion FF13 pages.
So, as you may know, I was playing a LOT Of Resonance of Fate. Great game. Sucked ~140 hours of my life, but time well spent, I'd say. It had engaging lead characters, a story that was only really ever suggested (rather than overtly told, like in FF13), and a cool combat system to boot. Fun.


But, I've covered that already.


So, Final Fantasy. Well, first Splinter Cell. I played a bit of Splinter Cell: Conviction (which I note was topping the games sales charts for a bit), and it was pretty good fun. I didn't finish it (at least, not at time of writing. Check out my live profile to see I have finished now! http://www.xboxlivenation.com/community/livedna.php?gt=lord%20of%20goats). Actually, I also played some Lego Indy 2 (VAST improvement on the original), some more DJ Hero, and Just Cause 2 as well, before starting FF13.

I'm going to actually not talk about FF13 at all, and instead talk about the other games. Save FF for later.

Splinter Cell
Fun. Interesting. A couple of places where I kept wiping were incredibly annoying - especially when I had to sit through a cutscene before being allowed to try again - and the loading times weren't always that good, but on the whole, very enjoyable. As I mentioned above, I haven't finished it yet, but I'll probably go back to it at some point. The multi-player is also intriguing.

Lego Indiana Jones 2
If you like the lego games, you'll like this too. They've mixed things up a bit in the layout - the hubs are a little more interesting, and the replays are pretty cool. It's all a bit better signposted, in some respects, but worse in others. Still fun, though.

Just Cause 2
Ridiculous, in the best possible way. And frankly beautiful to look at. You've got a massive MASSIVE island sandbox to play in. And although some of the missions are a bit samey, and the gameplay gets a bit stale after a few hours, it's still one of the most striking games I've ever played. Steal a helicopter, take off, blow up the guards, fly up, jump onto the front, hook onto a plane and throw out the pilot. Stupid. Fun. And stupid fun.
Or, you know, just hook two planes together, and go for a ride:



Projector
What now? Yes. I got a projector. Games on a 12 foot screen can't be beaten. Here's a quick capture showing the motogp, in broad daylight. Just imagine what it looks like at night!