I was having a look at what I actually installed when I loaded up Civilization Chronicles and to my delight I found Civ 2: Test of Time, which is a range of modded Civ games based on the Civ 2 engine. My instant favourite was the Fantasy mod as one of my all time favourite turn-based strategy games is Master of Magic, a 4X classic as I've said a number of times on this blog. Combining fantasy with the greatest 4X engine in history equals a new time destroyer in my game collection!! Just what I need in the lead up to Civilization Revolutions which arrives June 6 for Xbox 360 and PS3. I'll be playing it on the Xbox 360... Xbox Live > PSN by a wide margin

Have you seen the Don King Presents Prizefighter trailer? This could be another launch in Winter to stay on top of as just the training modes look awesome. Right click HERE to download. For some stupid reason it won't play when I embed it so I'm being lazy.

IGN UK has got this absolutely right....

Mario Kart SNES > Mario Kart DS > Mario Kart GBA > Mario Kart Double Dash > Mario Kart 64

Sorry but Mario Kart 64 was not even close to the orginal goodness of the SNES classic. Double Dash was a massive disappointment too so its great to see that it looks like Mario Kart has got back to its exceptional roots. About time I say!!  I know there is that silly wheel thing for the WiiMote but I will be playing this with the Nunchuk as if I could I'd drive a car with a controller... scratch that... an Xbox 360 controller. Think Tomorrow Never Dies but substitute the phone for a wireless 360 controller. I was THIS close to buying a second hand BMW 750iL but got talked out of it due to the uber-expensive parts.... still a cool car anyway. For those wondering I went with a Monaro instead.

The van is still going strong!!

Oscar visited today and he still rules. Don't you love ex-girlfirends who need help with their IT dramas?!? Just stirring Katie She is still a Burnout Revenge guru!!

Thanks to Stu and my sis I now have the 'flu. If it gets worse I will have to bail on DarkLAN this weekend...

Stu and I have been playing a bit of Tiger Woods 08 of late. As my character is maxed out I am really enjoying crunching drives well over 300m... just like real life Actually the only thing accurately portrayed on my character is my large jaw.

If you like wrestling make sure you subscribe to JR's Bar-B-Q Blog. It's my favourite blog on the internet as JR tells it straight with honesty and no BS, without the arrogance often found out on the 'net. Next time I'm in the US I think I will make the trip to Oklahoma just to try his world renowned Ribs!! I constantly try to lift my game to match his excellent standards so keep the feedback coming. All (sensible) comments are welcome.

One thing I hear all the time is whinging and moaning about the length of games to complete, specifically their campaign mode. Now doing some simple maths, if you compare it to buying a DVD @ $20 which gives you at best 3 hours of entertainment plus extras barely anyone watches, you'd expect a gaming to deliver 15 hours of play time. Should games be given additional credit as they are interactive? To me, it's about quality. I'll take Gears of War on Insane, Call of Duty 4 on Veteran or Halo 3 on Legendary over pretty much any DVD I own and those who say these games are too short... stop playing them on Easy

On the whole value for money thing, I thought I'd put together my Top 10 Xbox 360 games in terms of value for money... if I'd actually paid for any of them hehe. I've estimate the amount of game time spent on them between Stu and I as well as our thoughts about how good the game actually was to come up with the rankings. Now I'm looking for your contributions and I have three XBLA games to give away to the best three Top 10 I get in the comments section. I'll edit this to put what games they are later on (can't remember right now)

Pidgeo and Stu's Top 10 Best Value games for Xbox 360

Honourable Mention: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08, Crackdown, GRAW, GRAW2, Smackdown vs RAW 2007 and 2008 

10. Fight Night 3 (20hrs)

The campaign was short, and the bouts between mates even shorter as I'm not very good ("I AM GOOD"... Happy Gilmore rules) but due to the nature of boxing this is to be expected. Probably the first game that really showed what next-gen was all about... as Perfect Dark Zero sure as hell didn't!! Fight Night still gets a play on nights with adult beverages being consumed!! 

9. Gears of War (25hrs)

Yes the campaign was short but on Insane it was just awesome and we both are waiting for more later this year with the second installment. There is next gen and there is Gears of War. The PS3 wishes it could do something as nice as Gears (yes I know there is a game using the same engine but its not close to GoW) Good multiplayer added to the mayhem... but let's be honest Stu and I aren't that great at it!! Watching the elite play at WCG was a sight to behold. 

7. Puzzle Quest (ummm...)

Let's combine an RPG with a Tetris style puzzler.... a great way to ruin my productivity for three months!!

6. Call of Duty 2 (50hrs)

Superb. Just superb.

So many games try to do WWII but none are even close to COD2 on Veteran. Pure hardcore gaming at its finest. Stu and I still shudder at the Normandy landing scene. 

5. FIFA 07 (200hrs)

FIFA 06 was an abomination on 360, World Cup 06 was good but FIFA 07 got the most time of the three. It showed glimpses of greatness but due to the sheer amount of playtime it has to be on this list.

4. Halo 3 (100hrs)

It's the end of an era with more of the excellent multiplayer that made it a household name... who would have thought a certain Infinity Ward game would overshadow it on Live?!?! Still, we got some excellent value out of the Spartan helmet 

3. Oblivion (550hrs)

We keep asking ourselves.... when is the next Elder Scrolls game coming?? This is the epitome of what a WRPG should be which means some hate it, but those who enjoy what RPG's are all about loved this and lost similar amounts of time to it as we did.

2. Call of Duty 4 (750hrs)

Admittedly Stu accounts for about 700 of those and not because I dislike it at all. I've played through the campaign a number of times and think the multiplayer is glorious... Stu just plays it ALL the time!! Plus unless I'm playing with him, Barnzey and/or Atomic HellCat its not as much fun... because I suck!!  

1. FIFA 08 (Too bloody many)

Do I really need to explain this one? We're now 33-28 my way and most of those are 40 minute games. On top of that we've both played numerous managerial seasons.... bring on '09!! One quick question... what happened to the long shot control that was suppose to arrive in '08? Maybe I should be thankful considering Stu has Steven Gerrard.... for those who need a lesson of his greatness watch this clip.

Well there you have it. Get those lists in and I will announce winners on Friday.

We came, we saw, we got belted off the court!

I can say with utter conviction that the NSW Swifts are taking their new found (semi) professional athlete status very seriously as they played as one very well drilled, extremely fit unit. Either that or most of us blokes were just so grossly unfit as a team that they seemed fitter than usual. I know in my case I was disgusted with my lack of fitness as I knew I wasn't as fit as I used to be, but this was ridiculous!! If I am to state that gamers aren't just people who sit in their dungeon like rooms ignoring the outside world and shying away from physical activity then I should actually practice what I preach. Instead of talking about hitting the Concept2 rower I actually need to do it, and do it now! I actually was embarrassed by my inability to keep up with the action like I once could, and I don't think there is a better motivator than personal embarrassment!

On a much more positive note, I am so glad to see netball finally come of age and become a professional sport. In my mind there aren't a group of athletes more deserving of it than the girls who spent years with full time jobs training as hard as any professional athlete with little to no reinbursement for their travel and sacrifice. I will be watching the ANZ Championship with keen interest on Fox Sports and hope to see the NSW Swifts take do very well.

While I was cleaning the tech cave I stumbled across the disks for possibly my favourite RTS of all time. No not Starcaft, Warcraft II or Command & Conquer but the 2003 Game of the Year, Rise of Nations. Even though this game is near and dear to me due to it being the first game I got to demonstrate the gmaeplay more than backs up my claim as being one of the very best RTS titles in history. It combined Civ like scientific and civic advances with excellent nation balnce with each nation being very unique in its bonuses and weaknesses. That and any game made by Brian Reynolds is usually a masterpiece (Catan and Civilization II being two clear ones). I've just finished re-installing it so I think my afternoon is now written off with a couple of games of RoN. If anyone out there who frequents my blog would like a game please let me know.

This week of course marked the end of one of the most remarkable careers in sports or entertainment as "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair had his last match a WrestleMania XXIV followed by his farewell address on RAW. WWE.com has the coverage of the farewell address which I challenge anyone to find as an emotional a sporting farewell as his, outside of Lou Gehrig's in 1939 (definitely worth the read).

As this is my blog I am going to post my own thoughts that are in my Top 10 section here as I could not sum up his career better than I already did, plus it contains my own brush with Ric which I still remember like it was yesterday.

Let's put it this way people. Ric Flair is now 59 and still wrestles with the best of them. Since most of the visitors to pidgeo.com are Aussie or Kiwi they'll get this.... Ric Flair's wrestling right now is like a batsman averaging 30 in Test Matches at almost 60 years of age!! That's right, it's unheard of in any sport for someone at 59 to still be at the elite level. Ric Flair however is still doing that. In his prime, his matches with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Ricky Morton, Magnum TA, Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Sting and the '92 Royal Rumble are the wrestling equivalent of a 300 run innings... and he did it seven days a week for about 10 years. That's not hyperbole, that is fact. I have followed many sports in my 27 years of existance but after years of research, study and viewing, in my humble opinion Ric Flair is the greatest athlete in history. I know the mainstream will anoint people like Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, Don Bradman, Tiger Woods, George Best, Pele, Joe Montana, Martina Navratilova, Margaret Court and the like as the best but to me, Ric Flair is still and always will be "the MAN"

In 2006 I went to the Sydney WWE tour event with my girlfriend at the time and her best friend. Thanks to THQ we had awesome seats and were only a handful of rows back from ringside. Now in a vastly male dominated event like wrestling I was certainly going to stand out in the crowd with these two beautiful ladies on each arm!!

(Katie my ex is on the left, fellow Winmalee High alum Jen is on the right)

It was awesome! The security guard even called me to ringside to ask what in the blue hell (thank you The Rock) was the story with the computer nerd with the two stunners on each arm! It got better though as any wrestling fan can tell you that Ric Flair is the ladies man from waaaaaaaaay back. He said it best in his autobiography.... "I had more fun than most people would in five lifetimes!!".

When Ric Flair came to the ring to partner Shawn Michaels as an honorary member of DX, he was strutting and WOOOO'ing his way down to the ring as only he can. Once he got to the ring he turned towards my section of seating so I got Katie and Jen to stand on the seats with me, pointed at each of them then revealed the Ric Flair shirt under the suit jacket and WOOOOOOOO'ed as loud as I could! He looked at both ladies with utter approval and pointed back..... "no, you're the man!" I WOOO'ed back saying "I'm living the Ric Flair life baby and you're still the man!!" Best. Moment. Ever.

Of course he'd never read my blog but I'll say it anyway - Thank you Ric for every match, moment and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Don't you love when that happens? I call Stu and his side a bunch of chumps and he beats me with a goal in the 119th minute to win 7-6. It was one of our very best games though with the lead swapping a number of times and about 300 near misses!

To answer a few queries on the old and new blog that have come in...

• The times on the comp were three people being in quickest at 6:09pm on my system with Tom being first. All the e-mails came in OK and none ended up in the Junk folder.
• This site will become Pidgeo.com tomorrow so there won't be any more site address confusion. I will only be posting on this site, not the Wordpress one.
• There will definitely be a seperate Lost Odyssey competition in the next few days

All the non-wrestling fans can tune out now..... How good was the 2008 Royal Rumble?!?! John Cena was going to be lucky to make WrestleMania but he comes out at number 30 and is 100% fit after his pectoral tear??? Kudos to the WWE for keeping that a secret! For those that have checked out my Top 10's will already know that I'm a big Ric Flair fan so I was happy to see him win the opener with the Figure Four no less! I'd love for him to have one last quick run with a world title but it probably won't happen but a WrestleMania farewell is only fitting for the very best ever to step into the ring.

As per usual the Madison Square Garden crowd was superb and the love show for guys like Flair, Foley, The Superfly and Roddy Piper was great to see. The Rumble itself was booked to perfection with the usual drama mixed in with so many little nuances and match ups. So the road to WMXXIV has begun and with hints to Taker/HBK and Cena/Orton match ups I'll certainly be watching!!

OK I'm done with the wrestling now