·:[ The Stuff of Orfax ]:·
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I have finally got a chance to upload the latest MAME quickplay database for 0.127. You can find it here.

Well after a longer break than normal, the MAME team have released 0.126. I’ve uploaded the MAME Quickplay database for it here.

I have posted a review for BioShock here. Its been a long time since my last review and I hope to catch up a little.

Even though I haven’t written a review in a while, I haven’t stopped playing games.

Guitar Hero 3 I haven’t gotten much further. I need to finish 3 more songs on hard (One, Reign in Blood, and Devil Went Down to Georgia), but of course these are really difficult.

I finished Final Fantasy 5, and now I only have the PS2 FF games to go.

I played and completed 2 games on my son’s DS. The first a game called Puzzle Quest. This was a very addictive game, and I really enjoyed it. I also played and finished a game called Jewel Quest, but I didn’t like this game much. It definitely wasn’t in the same league as Puzzle Quest.

I bought and played through most of Grand Turismo 5 Prologue for PS3. The only remaining thing I want to do is get all the cars.

I also finally finished Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, after having to restart it because my save games disappeared. This was a great game. I also had a problem with my PS2, which I thought might end my playing of SA, but once I reflashed my mod chip, it was all fine. I was hoping to finish this game before GTA IV came out, but unfortunately that was not the case.

Now that SA is finished I am going through GTA IV. Wow, the level of detail is fantastic, but the hype on this game was overboard, and I don’t think it quite lives up to it.

I also recently bought Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters. This is a good game to play when the kids are up and about (GTA isn’t), so I’ve started playing it. So far its a little bit of a disappointment graphically but we’ll see if it improves. It is a PSP game ported to the PS2, so I shouldn’t expect too much.

And finally, with the release of Metal Gear Solid 4 imminent, I finally found and bought a second hand copy of Metal Gear Solid 2. After GTA IV is finished, I’ll play MGS2, MGS3, and then MGS4.

The Quickplay database for MAME 0.125 is now out (a little late). You can get it from here.

I’ve put up the QuickPlay database for the latest version of MAME (0.124). The nplayers.ini is still at 0.123 though, so the Players column is slightly old. You can get it here, my Quickplay database page.

The Quickplay database for MAME 0.123 is now on my Quickplay database page here.

I’ve put up a review for Guitar Hero here. This is a fantastic game, one of my favorites.

I’ve played through a couple of other games since my last review, namely Call of Duty 4 on the PC, and Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction on the PS3 (chrissy present to myself). Both of these were very enjoyable, but pretty much like previous games in their respective series (though much better graphics).

I’m currently playing through Guitar Hero 3, which I’m nearly through, but I’m having a hard time with the final set on hard. I have to say the song line up for this game is fantastic, but there are a few things that bug me about this game. The first was that there is no progressive mode for us PAL gamers. This is a backwards step. And then there is an annoying bug with the sound effects which can make playing very painful. But I’m not here to review that game, so I’ll talk more about this one later. One other game I’m playing now is Final Fantasy 5, which is quite enjoyable. I think I’m over half way through so hopefully it will be finished in the next month.

The next game I’ll be playing is GTA: San Andreas (ie restarting it again), in anticipation of GTA IV.

After a break for Christmas and New Year, I have created a new Quickplay database for MAME 0.122. It is available on my Quickplay database page.

I’ve posted a review for Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. This is slightly disappointing game, but I still had fun rocking out with it.

Since my last review, I have finished BioShock, which was fantastic. I went to continue playing San Andreas, but all my save games have disappeared, which devastated me. I will start it again soon. In the mean time, I started playing Doom 2 and finished it. I bought the game when it first originally came out, played about half way through and then left it. After playing around with a few Doom sourceports recently I decided I might as well play Doom 2 and finish it. So I played it from the beginning till the end. I’m also going through FEAR, which I’m now getting close to finishing. I have to say I am really impressed with its AI. I have also recently got Crysis, Call of Duty 4 and Hellgate London, which I hope to play some time soon.

The latest version of my MAME Quickplay database is now available from my Quickplay database page. This is for MAME 0.121.