Bean Bag Boy and I have recently undertaken a mission to save the world from the "Masters of Evil". Yup, we've been kickin' it nerd style playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox. It's not a bad game, a little like the hack and slash games like Boulders Gate: Dark Alliance.

You can play as your favourite character from the Marvel universe, or the good guys anyway. All the usual suspects are there, like Wolverine, Spiderman, and Captain America. One of my favourites is the under rated and often forgotten Deadpool.

I'm here to give Deadpool some of the positive publicity he deserves! So who is Deadpool?

Well, according to the Marvel mythology, Deadpool was a former special ops agent working for the government. He volunteered for the Weapon X program after finding out he had a terminal illness. Weapon X were supposed to alter his DNA to create a superhuman regenerative healing factor based on that of Wolverine's, and therefore reverse his terminal illness. During the experiments however, his illness interfered with the process in unexpected ways. Initially, the experiments were thought to be a failure, and Deadpool was left disfigured and mentally unstable.

After being written off by Weapon X as a failed experiment, Deadpool was sent to the "Workshop", the place where all the failed Weapon X experiments were sent to be used a guinea pigs for all sorts of things. Whilst in the Workshop Deadpool becomes part of a game called "the Deal Pool" (remember the Clint Eastwood movie?), in which inmates placed bets on who would die next. As a favourite of Dr Killebrew, Deadpool's odd of dying were very low. This qualified him as leader of the Dead Pool, which I'm guessing is how he got his name.

While in the Workshop, Deadpool (who is a little crazy already remember) begins to see 'Death'. Death is a woman, and Deadpool becomes infatuated with her, going out of his way to be killed, so he can be one with Death. He becomes an inspiration to the other inmates of the Workshop, and emerges as a threat to the status quo within the Workshop. Dr Killebrew orders that Deadpool be executed. It is his execution that activates his dormant superhuman healing factor. Unable to be killed, the realisation that he will be unable to be with Death at all drives Deadpool completely insane.

After escaping the Workshop with many other failed Weapon X experiments, Deadpool finds his calling as a mercenary and gun for hire. Initially he works for villains, putting him at odds with the good guys, including Wolverine, but as time passes he takes on a moral ambiguity.

What I like most about Deadpool is that he is a smart ass. He is also one of the only characters that shows an awareness of the fact that he is a comic book 'super hero'. As a character Deadpool is dark and a little unhinged, but not without a sense of humour. This is a character that has sought out the counsel of a deranged psychiatrist called Doctor Bong! He must have a sense of humour!

I doubt there will ever be a Deadpool movie made (but never say never!), however if one is made, I get the feeling he's too complex a character for a movie to do him justice. In other words, whoever produces it will have to work damn hard to make sure that it isn't rubbish!

So, there you go, Deadpool is cool mmmkay. Buy the Deadpool graphic novels... ahum... [comics]... and find out for yourself!

p.s I got a lot of this info from Wikipedia and the Marvel website.

NBA 2K7 is probably the most addictive Xbox games I've played in a long while. Compared to NBA Live 2007, NBA 2K7 is worlds apart in terms of realism and feel. Controls take a bit to get used to and don't have the 'arcade' style feel of NBA Live 2007. I like to start with a rubbish team and then trade up. I like a challenge. One thing that bugged me was that without a good knowledge of real world stats, it can take a while to figure out who are the best shooters etc. without going through each players profile.

So what I've done is grab a list of the ratings for each player in the game (besides the free agent list) and sorted them to show the top players in each of my key categories. Firstly, I've got the best rated players by position, then I've got the list of the best rated players for three of the categories I think are most important if you want to dominate, 3 point shooting, dunking and offensive rebounding (clearly I'm not big on defence). » Read the rest of the entry..

Urban Chaos is a fun game! Violent and laden with profanity, it's good clean fun. You play as Nick Mason, the T-Zero enforcer, dedicated to stamping out urban terrorism. It's a first person shooter, but it's probably one of the best looking games on the xbox. Graphics are fantastic.
To be honest, I didn't really spend much time thinking about the story line. It did involve some terrorist group creating 'Urban Chaos' or something. All you really need to know is, if there are wearing a hockey mask, they are bad, and therefore must be shot. There's a lot of shooting. You do get back up in this game. Firemen, Medics and Police Officers join you at various stages in the game to offer assistance.
Overall, the game is not hard, I finished without too many dramas, but is definitely fun. The bad guys seem to show up at the same places each time so I'm not sure this game would stand up to repeated run throughs.

Next game due to be completed: The Godfather

After conquering the last Call of Duty game, I've started on Urban Chaos: Riot Response. It is very much an adults only game. Lots of violence, lots of swearing and lots of fun. Needless to say, I love it! Also started up Lego Star Wars 2, which is funny but pretty lame as a game. I think I may struggle to spend enough time to get through the whole thing. Game play wise, it's dull!

rate [4] 

I finished Call of Duty: Finest Hour last night. It took me quite a while actually, the first levels were quite easy but the difficulty really lifted a few notches in the second half of the game. Call of Duty: Finest Hour is a first person shooter set in World War 2, and unlike previous Call of Duty games I've played, this time around you play as Russian, British and US soldiers. The Russian missions were quite straight forward, with the main challenge coming from the sniper mission (took me a while to get the hang of the sniper rifle). The British missions, set in the desert, were all relatively easy, and were not all that long. The US missions, taking place during the charge toward Berlin, are the toughest and longest (particularly between checkpoints/save points).

This isn't one of those sort of first person shooters where you can just charge around like a mad man. Some care and strategy are required to get through. I made plenty of use of the crouch/lie down feature, which apparently makes you a harder target to hit, whilst also improving your aim.

The last two levels caused me some genuine frustration, but I got there in the end. One tip, when clearing the gun turret at the top of the left tower, do not assume that the "left machine gun turret neutralised" message means that there are no enemy soldiers still alive up there. I made this mistake the first time, got whacked and had to start the level all over again.
This was a fun game. Get it if you like first person shooters.

rate [5] 

The ghetto adventures of Carl Johnson (CJ) have come to an end. Order has been restored, and Grove Street is back on the map. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the most entertaining game I've played in a while. Entertaining, but time consuming!

Time can pass quickly when you in San Andreas, you'll tell yourself, just one more gang war, drive by or 'cup of coffee' with your 'ho, then before you know it, it's 12.30am and you have to be at work tomorrow busting your ass in the real world. There is enough in GTA:San Andreas to keep you engrossed for a very long time. Gameplay wise, the missions are not all that difficult, but there is a lot of them! You can pimp out CJ's look (my favourite blonde cornrows rate very highly with the ladies!), work out at the gym and go to flight school. The attention to detail is very impressive.

The games story is gangsta makes good. Setting wise, it reminds me of 'Boyz in da hood'. Music and sound is excellent. Graphics are top notch. It's hard to talk about San Andreas without giving away plot details (which are half the fun of the game), so I won't say much more.
A couple of tips. The first is with CJ's relationship with the ladies. Spending time wit da ho's is a great way to pick up extra items and bonuses (and I aint talking bout syphillus here fellas). For example, dating the police woman until you reach the 100% mark earns you the right to retain weapons whenever your arrested. Very handy.

Speaking of weapons, the good old AK47 takes a lot of beating in this game. It's reliable and lets you pick off opposition gang members before they make it close enough to you to open fire. This is really useful when your on enemy turf trying to take over someone elses hood.
Not for young children or those easily offended, but great fun!

There was a report on the Age website on Friday. The new laws are basically coming into effect to honour Australia's Free Trade Agreement with the US. From what I can gather, the new 'mod chip' legislation will bring Australian law in line with US in this area. One of the key points to come from the article was:

"Anyone found to have used technology to circumvent copy control TPMs will face fines of up to $6600, while those guilty of distributing enabling devices and services to others through a variety of means face imprisonment for up to five years and possible fines of $60,500."

For a full copy of the article click here.

Do you know what progesterone is for?