Metacritic is a funny site. It gives reviewers more power than they really want.

What I’m talking about is the horrible bonus culture within gaming that relies on an aggregated review score. Why am I thinking about this? Well because Daniel Lipscombe recently wrote our 200th review, which is the minimum requirement for acceptance on Metacritic. We aren’t guaranteed anything yet but it’s bringing up some interesting questions. Am I qualified? Do I want to buy into and feed this practice? Why does this feel like a massive accomplishment?

I guess probably, maybe and 200 reviews is the achievement would be the answers. It’s exciting nonetheless.

More recommendations as my last one was quite well received. Junk Science this time, they brought an album out in 2007 called Grandad’s Nerve Tonic but have a new one coming in a few months – which I just found out about.

Previous UGHHR: Iller Than Theirs

As university ramps up and the site grows I find myself with even less free-time. I don’t mind, keeps the mind busy… or something. I’m only here to plug something though, if you’ve got a Mac you’ve probably heard of Things.

No, that isn’t the worst anti-Windows joke ever, I wouldn’t do that now, but a horrible plug for an app called Things. It’s really helpful when you’re planning projects and generally trying to stay on top of things. Oh… I get it.

Oohh, edgy. In all seriousness, I think I’m starting to like Windows 7 more than OS/X. Admittedly I don’t use W7 as my main system and it does still have that new Windows smell but some of the features make sense. That and it actually runs pretty smoothly.

New teams, new circuits, new rules, new regulations, new team-mates, new challenges, new drivers, old drivers and even returning drivers. However for all this, it was definitely a classic case of the more things change, the more they stay the same with the return of Formula One for another year.

Last year’s rule changes to encourage overtaking simply failed and 2010 hopes to rectify that, unfortunately everyone was too cautious to do anything for the first race of nineteen in the new calendar. It was mainly the long two minute track that caused it all though, as the gap between the contenders and the stragglers was exaggerated creating an incredibly staggered field. It was great though, to see both Lotus cars finish the race after new teams Hispania and Virgin went out quite early.

At the front however, Vettel clearly deserved it and probably would have held on despite a probable Hollywood finish. The truth is that the Ferrari car clearly isn’t up to spec despite finishing one-two due to a pair of overheating engines. The return of Schmacher was underwhelming but expected, he hasn’t driven at this level in years and is clearly having some teething problems with the new cars.

The new rules should create for some interesting watching on the shorter tracks, especially with the packed grid we now have. Exciting starts should lead into early pit stops with a shuffled pack starting to get settled during the middle of the race, as soon as they do tire-wear and burnt fuel should have an affect to create a highlight reel finish. It’s just a shame that the highlight reel finish never happened in Bahrain. Maybe Melbourne will live up to the expectations the new rules and regulations have promised.

Driver of the Day: Sebastian Vettel was incredibly unlucky not to pick up the win and despite losing focus during the middle, he held off an eager Rosberg.

Team of the Day: I guess I should pick Ferrari but they were gifted it after exhaust problems on Vettel’s Red Bull. With that said, it’s got to go to new boys Lotus, not only did they finish – a remarkable accomplishment of itself – but they recorded some respectable lap times.

This might get a little preachy but bare with me, I think I’m going somewhere with this. One of the things we collectively seem to constantly worry about is weight. We’re obsessed with looking like hyperrealistic images, that are in some way better. Surely as long as you’re not putting yourself at health risks, you’re doing great. Obviously eat well, healthily and don’t overindulge in junk food should be the only diets we have to sign up to.

A lot of people seem to be obsessed with looking like starved actors or supermodels. In all honesty men – I’m appointing myself an official spokesman for men worldwide – don’t want to hug a bag of bones. If they are looking for something closer to those airbrushed images then they’re clearly too superficial and have other problems that aren’t worth your time.

I’ll stop now because I can’t put together a convincing argument but if I hear someone tell me they’re fat when they’re clearly not, I’ll personally shove a donut down their throat. Eep… that sounded a bit menacing, maybe I’ll just offer them some.

I know I have a few followers of this blog who stay up on their underground hip-hop, so I’ll start to share a few names. It’s quite difficult to find a bunch of artists within this scene as they get little to no attention from mainstream media because their songs aren’t about bitches, guns, bling and the rest of what is commercial rap.

Anyway, rant over. This weeks – I’m probably not going to do this weekly by the way – recommendation is Iller Than Theirs. You should check out the song above and their self-title album, the latter of which starts incredibly well.

I think I’ve fallen off the wagon. As new games have come and gone I’ve always returned to Mass Effect 2 for a few hours of distraction. However, since I’ve gotten my PC everything has changed.

I’m nearly at the point where I can just finish the game but I was enjoying it so much to just cop out at the first chance. I know that you need a fully developed team before committing to the endgame so I’ll at least wait until I have that. Despite being like 20 hours into the game, the one thing that would help me get back on the wagon is buying the game on the PC, stupid I know.

A few days ago I mentioned that I’d been playing Eufloria, long story short, it’s excellent. The problem is that the game was yet to produce a real challenge, I felt that my first four to six hours were spent learning the game and the way it works. Just as soon as it started to turn, I went to bed for another night, it was getting late.

The title of this post will probably give-a-way where I’m going with this, my save game has been lost. Now I haven’t touched the files or moved anything but hours of my time have just gone up in smoke. The weird thing is that despite a completed level only being noted by a leaf next to the number and despite the fact I can use the ‘cheats’ screen to unlock to the level I was at, don’t feel compelled to carry on. It’s a shame as I was really enjoying my time with the game, maybe I’ll pick it up sometime down the line.

Hopefully this year’s GDC will throw up some equally as grabbing games of indie goodness.

Every now and then I wonder why I’m actually doing this blog thing. I’ve been getting the feeling recently that I don’t lead an interesting enough life to make one blog post everyday. I mean in the last week, most of my blog posts have been about games or my shiny new PC. Personally I don’t mind talking about all that nonsense but I know it doesn’t create interesting reading.

I’ll probably have to find the real reason for signing up to this challenge. If I don’t I think I’ll have to stop, there’s a big fear of boring everyone to death – something I already do enough outside of the confines of this blog.