So... couch co-op

Couch co-op has changed in this house...

Downsides: had to buy a new Xbox 360, a few games, the unit, XBL Gold for another account (the TV was an old cheap HD one that's got shadows on it)

Upsides: EVERYTHING!!

Okay... maybe not

2 months later and I'm still getting new CDs!  I'll never be able to get a new PC at this rate.

So...

Two more Aerosmith Columbia remasters, all I need is Classics! Live II I think.  Done With Mirrors is the first Geffen album.
Another version of The Exorcist theme.
Ghost's Opus Eponymous, If You Have Ghost EP and Meliora.
Lost Highway OST, basically bought because it has two songs by each - Trent Reznor/NIN, David Bowie and Rammstein.
Nier OST.  Amazing soundtrack to a brilliant game.
Requiem for a Dream OST - I love the theme tune and the songs that have the same motif.

Rage Against The Machine's XX anniversary remaster with the bonus DVD.  This is a timeless album.  Really liked the other albums the did (even the covers one) but nothing can compare to the heavyness and raw aggression on this.
Machine Head's Bloodstone & Diamonds book thing.  I really should have saved myself a quid so it'd be easier to fit on the shelf.  Never thought about that until it was too late lol.
Butcher Babies' Take It Like A Man.  Not as good as Goliath.
 Cradle of Filth's Hammer of the Witches.  They're getting better again.
AC/DC's Flick of the Switch.  Copuldn't remember any of the songs on here when looking at the track list.  Recognized a few while listening though.  Typical AC/DC.
Aerosmith's Music From Another Dimension.  Meh. Nothing really stands out with this.
Hey! Hello!  Another Ginger Wildheart project.  Exactly what you'd expect.  Catchy punk rock that sometimes sounds like just noise.  Excellent stuff and really surprised I actually saw it in a shop!
Hollywood Rose - The Roots of Guns N Roses. 5 songs recorded by probably 85/6 in their original demo and repeated but remixed by Gilby Clarke (GnR member from 91-96?) then again by Fred Coury (Cinderella drummer).  Interesting to hear the demos but the remixes are pointless.
Alanis Morisette's Jagged Little Pill Acoustic.  Never knew this existed.  Shame it's not a pure Unplugged type album but it's still good.
The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die.  I'm not a huge fan of The Prodigy, but this album is fucking brilliant.
System of a Down's debut album.  Thanks to the uniqueness of their style and singing it holds up well today.

New stuff again

Seriously need to buy a new PC soon so probably the last of the new shit until next year.

So we have:

AC/DC - Iron Man 2 - basically a best of like Who Made Who.
Aerosmith - Gems - only a few of the Columbia remasters to get now.
Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments, Pt. 2 (the black one with no writing)
David Bowie - The Singles Collection
David Bowie - Heathen - just need to get the other album from around that era (during the Outside tour with Nine Inch Nails)  It wasn't popular but I really like it.
The Cardigans - Gran Turismo - bought for My Favourite Game.
Gilby Clarke - Pawnshop Guitars - had this when it was first released (around the time of "The Spaghetti Incident?" by GnR).  Great southern rock.
The Clash - The Singles - Been needing to get Clash stuff for ages, finally got some now.
Leonard Cohen - Greatest Hits - well, 17 of his songs.
Cradle of Filth - Evermore Darkly
Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine SE
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Eminem - Encore
End of Days OST - some really great tracks on this.  Shame Chinese Democracy didn't sound like Oh My God from this.  Bloody good song that.
Event Horizon OST - Orbital and Michael Kamen, what's not to love??
The Exorcist OST - the strangest OST I've got.  Really unorthodox.
Fem 2 Fem - Animus
In This Moment - Black Widow - not as strong as Blood, but still really good.
Jet - Get Born
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak - haven't liked anything they've done since ditching the 70s vibe on this.
Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park - Meteora SE
Mallrats OST - one of Kevin Smith's weakest films (along with Chasing Amy, Red State and  one other that I can't remember) and probably weakest OST aswell
Monty Python - Life of Brian - 'nuff said!
Nirvana - Sliver: Best of the Box
Singles OST - good old grunge stuff
Sweeney Todd OST - the one for Tim Burton's film.  Not a fan of musicals (except South Park and The Happiness of the Katakuris) but love that film.
Therapy? - Infernal Love
Tryptikon - Melana Chasmata
White Zombie - Let Sleeping Corpses Lie - didn't realize they started out as a crap grunge band.
The Wildhearts - Mondo Akimbo A-Go-Go - almost finished off the collection now.


The big CoF box is Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa Ltd Edition thing with bonus CD and DVD with t-shirt (unfortunately they sent a L instead of XL and they can't get XL now).

Aerosmith - Get Your Wings
Aerosmith - Night In The Ruts - almost there now!
Aerosmith - Done With Mirrors - the only Geffen 80s one I didn't have
The Exorcist - a different release than the one above with a few differences in the tracks aswell as adding edits of Tubular Bells
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Ghost - If You Have Ghost EP
Ghost - Meliora
Lost Highway OST
Nier: Replicant OST - absolutely loved the game, the music is stunning.
Requiem for a Dream OST - you'd probably know the main motif in the songs even if you haven't seen the film.

End of year music

I did a half year music purchaes so thought I'd do an end of year one with the rest of the CDs I've bought.  So much for not buying much for the rest of the year!

Aphex Twin - Syro
     The usual stuff you'd expect from Rich, but nothing really stands out which is a shame.  Still good to listen to.

Beastie Boys - License To Ill
     Not actually listened to this yet even though I bought it in August (I think).  I've liked the album for years but never owned it myself.  Thought I'd remedy that.

Vanessa Carlton - Be Not Nobody
     I like a lot of piano based songs so I had to get this.  It's not your normal pop record which is probably why I like it.

Gilby Clarke - Swag
     Love his debut album (Pawnshop Guitars) but never heard any of his other stuff, saw this second hand and thought I'd give it a listen.  Pretty good rock/country stuff.

Nelly Furtado - Whoa, Nelly!
                          Loose
     Not too keen on Whoa, Nelly! but it was cheaper to buy both albums together than it was to just get Loose whih is a bit daft.  Liked a few of the tracks (All Good Things, No Hay Igual and Afraid) so I thought I'd see what the rest of the album was like.  More of the same which is no bad thing.

Garbage - Absolute Garbage
     Love them so much I have the first album at least 3 times (CD, double 12" vinyl and 7" box set).  Saw this cheap with the remix CD so thought I'd get it as I've liked some of the remixes they've released in the past.  Not actually listened to it yet.

Ghost B.C. - Infestissumam
     Saw a very brief clip of them live earlier this year on Sky Arts (I think it was highlights of Download) and was surprised at their sound.  Different to most things.  Love Secular Haze.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Awesome Mix Vol. 1
     Really liked the film and it has some good tunes (Hooked on a Feeling, Spirit in the Sky).  Thought I'd buy it as it's different to most soundtracks released today and is more akin to something you'd get from Tarantino.

Iron Maiden - Flight 666
     'Nuff said really.  Maiden live are always great.

Labyrinth OST
     Nostalgia is a wonderfull thing.  And so is David Bowie.  With Danny John-Jules singing parts of Chilly Down.  Great kids film, but then it couldn't be bad with Jim Henson directing a Terry Jones story.  If only kids films today had the quality of the 80s Henson or Dahl stuff.

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
                     Born This Way
                     Artpop
     Say what you will, I like her.  She's weird which is probably why I like her.  Dunno why Artpop didn't do so well, I liked it.

Last Action Hero OST
     Loved this album.  Particularly Fishbone's Swim and Alice In Chains' What The Hell Have I.  Shame Def Leppard are on there but it's a good mix of rock/metal.

Lorde - Pure Heroine
     Reminds me a lot of Joe Cocker (R.I.P.) when she's live.  Disappointed with the album a little, but haven't really properly listened to it yet.

Metallica - St. Anger
     Not really a fan of the stuff after The Black Album (Load was abysmal and Re-Load was even worse) but thought I'd give this a try.  Meh.

Muse - Supermassive Black Hole DVD
     Really like Muse.  Sound great for a three-piece band.

The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land
                       Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned
     Had to replace Fat of the Land as mine was scratched to buggery.  And never had Always Outnumbered even though it has Juliette Lewis on it (love her punk stuff).  It's what you'd expect from them.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic
     Been a fan of them for a long time but I'm ashamed that I've never owned this until now.

Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
     Was disappointed in a few of his albums (Educated Horses, Hellbilly Deluxe 2) but thought I'd give him one last try.  It's better than those, but it's not as good as Hellbilly Deluxe or Sinister Urge.  Still, it's an improvement.  Maybe if he wasn't making naff horrors (Lords of Salem was a bore to watch, Halloween I and II weren't great) he'd write better music.

Royal Blood - Royal Blood
     For a two-piece band they have a great sound.  Proves that you don't need lead/rythm guitars to make a good rock album.  Shame it's a bit samey and only 33 mins but it's a good debut album.

Skunk Anansie - Smashes & Trashes
                            Acoustic - Live in London
     Been a fan since Paranoid & Sunburnt so I thought I'd round off the collection with the greatest hits with the DVD and the brilliant acoustic set they did last year.  Skin still has a great voice.

Soundgarden - Louder Than Love & BadMotorFinger
     Never had these albums, only ever had SuperUnknown.  Good blast from the past though.

Star & Dagger - Tomorrowland Blues
     Been a fan of Sean Yseult since White Zombie so I've always been interested in what she's doing.  Great blues/rock album.  Listen to In My Blood and Your Mama Was A Grifter if you're curious.

Type O Negative - World Coming Down
     There will never be another Type O.  Disappointing album but it's unmistakably Type O, just not as catchy or memorable.

The Wildhearts - Fishing For Luckies (double)
     This is the 2010 Lemon Recordings release with some of the B-Sides on disc 2.  The first disc is different to the other releases aswell (Inglorious, Lovebank, Schizophonic, Channel Bop, Geordie, Sky Babies, Drugs, Red Light, Soul Searching, Mood Swings, Flynn and Nite Songs).  It's a shame that the 2nd disc has the original version of 29x the Pain instead of the '96 version on the official vinyl rerelease.  Hopefully this is the last version they'll release for now!

Wolfmother - Wolfmother
     Was amazed at Stockdale's voice when he guested on Slash's By The Sword.  Disappointed with the album though.

ZZ Top - Eliminator
     Can't go wrong with ZZ Top.

Now That's What I call A Party
     A surprising amount of good tunes mixed in with some terrible ones.  I was surprised at how many pop songs on this I liked vs how many I didn't.

Deadly Premonition

Not bad for playing it for the first time in 3 years and diving straight into hard for the first time.  Finally got that achievement to make it another game at 100%.  I'm wondering it that time played includes all the cutscenes.

Two of the deaths were QTEs with the Raincoat Killer, the other was in the Sheriff's Department otherworld where you're surrounded by the creatures just before getting the earrings.  I screwed up a few shots then got a hand in the mouth and shotgunned.

I think I didn't waste any days doing side quests, I just did them to waste time between meeting times for missions instead of either sleeping or smoking.

Mid year music purchases

It's almost halfway through the year so I thought I'd take a photo of all the music albums I've bought so far this year.  A bit of a strange collection so far.

My OCD is going slightly nuts because I forgot about NIN Recoiled so that's on the top.  But then that's one band I have bought almost everything (Halo 12 is the only one I don't have) so it's kinda fitting that it's on top of the other CDs.  Bugger, also Tron Legacy is under T instead of D.

So, in alphabetical order (surnames first):

ACDC
     Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
     Powerage
     For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)

Aerosmith
     Live! Bootleg
     Rock In A Hard Place
     Gems
     Nine Lives
     Just Push Play

Christina Aguilera
     Stripped
     Back To Basics (double)
     Bionic (double with lenticular sleeve)
     Lotus (Deluxe Edition)

Lily Allen
     Alright, Still....
     It's Not Me, It's You (Special Edition)

Black Sabbath
     Nativity In Black: A Tribute To Black Sabbath

Butcher Babies
     Goliath

Cradle of Filth
     Dusk and Her Embrace
     Godspeed on The Devil's Thunder: the Life and Crimes of Gilles De Rais (Special Edition) (double)

Daft Punk
     Tron Legacy

The Dust Brothers
     Fight Club Original Score

Genitorturers
     Flesh is the Law
     Blackheart Revolution

Guns N Roses
     Use Your Illusion I: World Tour 1992 in Tokyo (DVD)

In This Moment
     Blood (Re-Issue & Bonus) (double)

Machine Head
     Unto the Locust (Deluxe Collector's Edition) (double)

Manic Street Preachers
     National Treasures - The Complete Singles

Meat Loaf
     Bat Out of Hell
     Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell

Muse
     Showbiz
     Origin of Symmetry
     Hullabaloo
     The 2nd Law

Nine Inch Nails/Coil
     Recoiled

Nirvana
     Bleach (20th Anniversary Edition)
     In Utero (20th Anniversary Edition) (double)

Primus
     Frizzle Fry

Rage Against The Machine
     Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
     Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium (DVD)

Red Hot Chili Peppers
     I'm With You

R.E.M.
     Monster

Satyricon
     The Age of Nero (double)

The Sisters of Mercy
     Original Album Series

Strange Days - Music From the Motion Picture

And that's it.

Some of these I've had in the past and either they've been damaged or lost so I've had to get them again, others I've been meaning to get for a while.

I've already got a number of Aerosmith and ACDC albums but I still need to finish off the collections, although for Aerosmith I'm only really after the 70s-90s stuff.  I was lucky enough to get the very limited edition Pandora's Toys wooden box version when it was first released, since then I've tried to get all the classic Columbia collection (remasters?) as seen in the pic above.

I've fallen behind with Cradle of Filth and I think I still need one or two others plus the new one (Manticore?).  I had to get Dusk again as I'm not wanting to touch my digipack SE version as the lettering on the front is drastically wearing off.  Thankfully there's only one song difference between the two discs (Nocturnal Supremacy '96) and it's not one that I'll really miss as I prefer the original on V Empire.

I already have the original release CDs of Nirvana's albums but thought I'd get the Deluxe Editions purely for the bonus tracks.  I've still to get the Nevermind one, I'm not sure if they did one for Incesticide which is a shame if they didn't.  That had some really good tunes on it.

I've got a long way to go to get the Les Claypool collection, but I'm not that bothered about the Duo De Twang stuff.  I do like the Flying Frog Brigade stuff but Primus is the main one for me.  Nothing beats a bit of Fisticuffs or Shake Hands With Beef.  and their cover of The Thing That Should Not Be is absolutely amazing.  In fact here it is:

Bugger, you'll have to watch it on youtube itself.  HAVE TO!

The RATM Live album is the only one I didn't have (except for the debut anniversary).  They're brilliant live.  I liked it so much that I immediately ordered the DVD.

The Sisters of Mercy is a band that I've loved since I saw the video for Dominion.  I've had the albums second had for a while but they've definitely seen better days so I thought I'd shell out a tenner for the complete set (First And Last And Always, Floodland, Vision Thing, Some Girls Wander By Mistake, A Slight Case Of Overbombing).  It's a shame that Eldritch isn't releasing stuff.  I know there's various reasons stopping him, but it's a damn shame.

Another one to watch on the 'tube.

I haven't spoken about the odd ones.  Christina - amazing voice.  Lily - funny.  Meat Loaf - never had the albums before and loved the first one, liked the second, thought I'd get both.  Not heard the third.  R.E.M. - not a huge fan, but I do like some of their stuff and Monster has some good tunes on it (Crush With Eyeliner and Strange Currencies)

A fair number (maybe just over half?) were bought second hand, I'm not made of money.

After all these, I doubt I'll be buying many albums for the rest of the year!

Minecraft builds

I thought I'd post a few photos of what I've built in one of my Minecraft Xbox 360 worlds.  Most of these I found online elsewhere so I'm not saying that I actually Minecraft-ised the stuff.

First up is the Companion Cube which is the first thing I built.  All 6 sides are complete even though you're unlikely to see the top or bottom.  I then added Chell.  I couldn't be bothered to make her to scale compared to the cube.  That would've been too much bother.

I then thought I'd add G-Man and Gordon Freeman to represent Black Mesa.

Then there's Pyramid Head.  I am a big Silent Hill fan but I'm possibly in the minority that I'm not too keen on SH2.  I did like the extensions to the mythology but I just couldn't care about James and his lethargic, suicidal tendencies.  I got bored with his stupid decisions.  I did love Pyramid Head though (not a fan of the Red Pyramid name).

I was hoping that the cameo in SH:Homecoming would lead to more appearances and maybe even see a little glimpse of someone else in SH or Shepherd's Glen (I can't remember where the cameo took place) and that would lead to another game in which we see the reverse happening.  that would've been nice.  Shame it didn't happen.  Anyways, enough about Silent Hill for now.

And  if we have Silent Hill, we've got to have Resident Evil.  So I built a big house with this as the ground floor.  I'm standing on the top stair which is directly across from the entrance.  Also, underneath the stairs there's a not-so-secret switch that opens a hole in the floor that leads to...

...the test labs.  T- and G-Virus statues in the center with 3 labs on each side.  Each lab has their own desk, workbench, decontamination room and holding cell for creatures.  the lab also has a rail going to the End Portal which was handily nearby.  I built a Nether Portal in the same dungeon as a sort of expedition center for Umbrella.

And while we're doing horror things I might as well put up a Cute Cthulhu on top of a hill overlooking the world like he should be.  He's also near the east of the map which has plenty of water that I'm sure is connected to the Pacific.

I thought I'd have a bit of fun and recreate the hedge maze from Kubrick's The Shining.  It's actually taken from the map of the maze when the family are getting the tour.  I did think about doing the maze Wendy and Danny walk through in the film but realised that it'd be far too big to put in the space avaliable (I've got other buildings in the world that I'm not taking photos of as they're pretty boring).

And then there's the base of operations with what I think is a nice lava/water display.  The building next to the farm has a fully stocked underground bunker for end of the world happenings aswell as a library and hidden work areas.  the small wooden building behind that is the railway station that connects to each building shown previously.

One thing I forgot to show is the lookout tower in the distance which has a battle arena below it with fully stocked dispensers for levelling up.  there's also a small room nearby that has creature eggs in them to refill the dispensers.

So that's it for my museum world.  I may add more things at some point (like Chris, Jill and a few zombies) but I'm not sure when.