I can do DIY me!

A couple of months back we got two Guinea Pigs............I say 'we', but it was actually my other half that wanted them, but that's another story!

So, since getting them I wanted to build a run for them, but seeing as we had them within a couple of days of agreeing to take them off a work colleague of the ladys', there wasn't much time, thereby settling for a pre-built from from a chain pet-store. About £40 for a 3ft by 2ft run. 40-fecking-quid!!!! Bloody rip-off this small caged pet lark! Never mind the plastic carry cage we got for them; about another £30. Oh and the hutch. All done it was well over £100!!

I'm going off on one again aren't I?!

Now the Pigs have grown, as they were only just at the age of being able to be let go from Mum, the existing run is a getting too small for them. It therefore made sense to get a bigger run for them; the perfect opportunity to try out my admittedly crap DIY skills. I have trouble getting shelves level, and even drilling the bloody holes sometimes, so you see where I'm starting from!

Despite my own reservations about chucking money at the hardware store for the materials knowing all to well I could end up with something resembling a modern art statue than a Guinea Pig run, the trip was made and wood, chicken wire, nails and hook nails were purchased. Got home, laid out the bits and bobs I had then set about trying to get the plan in my head into some physical form. Here possibly is my first mistake in not actually drawing any plans up on paper before starting to saw wood and nail it together.

Long story short, with a few adjustments to the original idea, and around 10 hours of work, I now have a new 1.8m long by 0.9m wide by 0.45m high run, with access hatch in the middle. Add into that I now have aches where I didn't think I could ache and scratches and cuts that I have no idea how I got them. But I have an overall smug satisfaction of knowing I made that from lengths of wood and a roll of chicken wire. And to prove it, here's a couple of pics. I told you I was smug about it so you're all going to see it :p



Quality ain't top notch as I took them with my phone camera but they'll do.



The Guines Pigs are in there, just don't think they had their make-up on and their manager wasn't present to ok the shoot.

I've been in the sun tooooooo long!!

On to the usual gubbins.


Gaming? Surely not!

At the risk of starting to sound like an Xbox fanboy, I want to talk about the current crop of demos and games available on Xbox Live Marketplace and Arcade. Yet I want to also delve a bit into Nintendo too. If you think there are games I should be looking at then let me know by leaving a comment, go on, it's what the comments system is for ;)

Demos-wise, the first one I have to talk about is Dead Rising. Yup, that game with the hundreds of zombies wandering round a shopping mall after your brains is playable!!! Even with the 15 minute play time limit, it's absolutely superb fun and a return to Capcoms zombie-splattering best. I absolutely love it, and if you enjoy zombie games and have a 360 connected to Live you HAVE to get this demo, and of course the game. I was worried, like many people, about the length of the full game, but having played it suddenly that doesn't seem to matter. It's the kind of play mechanic that you either really get into or just think it's a bit meh, but this one is going to keep me entertained for a long time!

Second download this week was Volition Inc's GTA rip-off, Saints Row. A lots been said about this game, naturally with the comparisons to said Rockstar series, but those comparisons are very well justified. For fans of GTA, I'd say you have to at least try this one out, give it a fair run before dismissing it as the lame sibling, because it's competent title. If you haven't played GTA (how the hell have you gone this long without playing it!?) but enjoy 'sandbox' games, this could be the one you're looking for till the next big thing comes out i.e. Mercenaries 2 which is 360 bound as well as PS3.

Switching to Live Arcade the massive news is that four days ago, the delayed release of Street Fighter II Hyper Figthing finally came around!

Costing 800 points, it's just as you remember SFII; a bitch to master but damn rewarding when you do! There isn't a whole lot I can say about this genre-defining game that hasn't been eulogised about by others but safe to say it took me back a good ten years. I'm yet to try it out online, but if I just jumped in and played anybody, I would be spending match after match having the floor shown to me in a variety of ways, possibly ending in a dented wall and a wireless pad in many pieces around me. Speaking of the pad, SFII doesn't really work properly with it, given the 6-button system it works on. You get used to it, but it doesn't feel utterly comfortable despite playing with the button config. However it's still very much worth your points, but there's always the demo to try before splashing out.

On to Nintendo then and talk of the Wii is keeping apace, closely matched by the new Mario Galaxy. I think alot of people are looking at the console at questioning whether it really is revolutionary as the codename would have us believe. Think about it; you've got a console that Nintendo have all but said is not as powerful as the 360 and PS3, therefore cannot be compared in that manner. But is this really what makes a next-gen console? Personally I would say no. Surely this term should be applied to the software released for it.

Next-gen as a term I believe has become a little confused in it's meaning, not helped by the marketing spin applied to it by Microsoft and Sony. Next-gen is simply the new consoles that replace the current guard. With a new console you can assume that it will be more powerful than it's predecessors in terms of pure processing ability and chipset, that's just a consequence of technological development. However, a new generation is defined by the experiences it can bring to gamers. Resident Evil on the PSX, Halo on Xbox, Mario 64, and these are just a few examples. Too often I think people can become more bothered about what a console can do on paper than what developers are actually capable of because sometimes the latter can outdo the former.

Coming back to the Wii, it has a new style of control and interaction, one which I welcome to the table, but also question it's usbility across all genres of game. Certainly the demo vids we've seen with games designed for the remote look very cool, but in practice how much of a learning curve does the control create outside of that programmed into the game. What I'm getting at is have Nintendo really made it intuitive to use? As I haven't been lucky enough to try it for myself it would be unfair of me to try and answer that question but I'm really looking forward to my first go!

I'm not gonna bother with a tunes section this time round, mainly because I've either had the radio on or a CD on constantly for the last 48 hours and heard so many I couldn't pick out one or two for you.

Only other thing to note is that if you regularly tune in to this here blog (bless ya if you do) I don't think I'll posting again for a couple of weeks as it's our first wedding anniversary on 12th August then we're on holiday after that. Unless something ground-breakingly amazinf happens in the next five days..............

*cough*

I'll see you in a couple of weeks.