God of War / Aliens: Colonial Marines ~ The Watcher

March started with an excitement able to dwarf even a mountain of Easter eggs, and yet its seems to be ending anti-climatically, with what I believe is a broken Controller. Not the console controller, though the charger cable might have seen better days, but the male figure himself. Perhaps it's the expectations of this month, or something as simple as a loose connection. It could be just the need to take a break or the software needing upgraded, not aided in any way with my moaning self suffering a cold of man-flu proportions. Let me continue in a bid to explain in a vaguely competent manner.  Needless to say; Damn selfish of an old fellow to led the squad down like this!

My Controller took the lead after Dishonoured with another look at Doom 3, and I discovered I still hate the baby creatures (perhaps down to the plethora of small people roaming around my house, especially at 3 in the morning!). The story line was like throwing on an old jumper and I watched it through a haze of memories. But the emotional ties to the character (yes, I am a girl!) were lacking and  I was left feeling the game would have been better left for the rose tinted glasses.

Box of Awesome Review ~ Box 1

I first heard of the marketing genius 'Box of Awesome' from Swapit (an ebay for children), and being me promptly signed up for more information.

The idea behind the campaign was to send out boxes filled with media, games and general things of interest. A great idea for raising the awareness of new products and gaining feedback. They ran a brief advert on television (BOA advert) , but most of their marketing was done via social media. When I joined at the start of February there was a paltry 350 Facebook liker's now there over 3,500, Twitter has seen a slower increase but is creeping up on 900 followers.

Bzzagent Vanish Oxi Action Review

I'm a  +BzzAgent  @Bzzagent  and love the benefits of testing new products for free and being the first to find out about new gadgets and gimmicks. My latest campaign is for Vanish Oxi Action powder.


After so many years of guarding against stains its a bit hard to just let go and not worry, but I during this campaign I went to town! I gave my 3 children Tomato soup.. (Always a guaranteed mess) and waited for the disaster. My youngest is under 2 so has the usual preference for wearing her dinner in her hair, face and lap..So her clothes provided a great test. Her lovely fluffy white jumper was hit pretty hard, the cuffs and collar were completely stained. So after a pre-soak (4 hours because its white) and a rinse I threw it in the wash with my fingers crossed. When it actually came out stain free, to be honest I was more than a bit surprised. I would have thought it would have faded, but still be noticeable, hence regulating the jumper to messy food and arts and crafts. I was very impressed and extremely relieved it had worked!

Dishonored ~ The Watcher

The short time period between Marches big releases, allows my Controller a little time to tidy up. We decided to finish off a few of the lingering games, which had been temporarily sidelined. Today saw the initial completion of Dishonored (Do you remember as far back as October?). It was a game I really looked forward to seeing, with a great advertising campaign; however coming out at the start of the school holidays, made it almost impossible to get engrossed in. So dusting it off today made for a nice Mothers day treat. 

Tomb Raider ~ The Watcher

Well this game was a welcome Valentines pre-order (Who says romance is dead!). I have always loved Tomb Raider, the action puzzler with a supernatural twist but previous games have always been lauded/ laughed at, for their blatant sexual-ism of the character. Indeed with the ever increasing chest and dodgy viewpoints there was little  to separate her image from a Page 3 star. All this did make for an attractive package which was only enhance by the ability to unlock costume changes.  (I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that has see Miss Croft dancing about frozen landscapes wearing a fetching string bikini.)

However this game was to be different and re-invent the franchise, the trailers showed a lost girl, confused and scared. They managed to strip all the gossip column 'fakery' and get back to basics but to get Lara from that level of naivety to the gun toting character we all love was going to take more than a series of 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'

The Watcher Origins

The Watcher

My love of video games goes right back to the glory days of the Atari 2600; 2 buttons and a stick, barely 2D images and a whole lot of addiction. I loved Centipede, Indy 500 and even Tank  Pong , but it was to Mario Bros that I lost most of my free time. I spent one intense Saturday squinting at a black and white portable screen to reach level 36, calamity ensued when I took my clammy cramped hands off for dinner... My mother proceeded to switch everything off. With no ability to save the game; the soul destroying anger ensured I never played the game again, it took days for me to forgive my mother.

After the Atari, I lost my way, enjoying passing games but with no real care. Golden Eye and Mario Cart for the N64 were played, if only to soundly beat my siblings. Need for Speed also took up some time, though I was never winning any records,(and preferred to bounce the car around corners). The music was also very catchy plus the Playstation 2 made for a handy DVD player.