Chindie

If you are serious about going digital, the 32gb isn't enough hence my saying consider the cost difference. It's enough for the odd download or DLC. Otherwise the extra money is the colour, the stand' a sensor bar and for the next couple of days a rebate on digital content. It probably isn't worth it unless you get a good deal.

Heat is incredible. For me, is only flaws are Michael Mann's tin ear which means all his films sound slightly off, and the length of it being a little over indulgent. If you're being particularly harsh Pacino's performance has to much of his post Scarface shoutiness, but that's very minor. Otherwise, looks incredible, still, peak of Mann's 'two sides of the same coin' take on the crime genre, great set pieces, great plot... It's fantastic.

Weigh up the cost difference with the basic. The extra cost may not be worth it unless you only see yourself downloading a small amount of things and don't intend to use the backwards compatibility.

As per last year, I tried Dr Who again. Still don't get it.

I'd have thought the demise of a Tiger would be something you'd approve of given the hatred of all things German.

There's not a whole lot you can do about a DDOS attack. It's not been 'hacked', a bunch of clearings in the woods is basically forcing traffic through the networks to the extent they can't cope. 'Cos that's a really cool thing to do. This kinda thing is why the increasing reliance on network access is shite. This kinda thing will just keep happening because some word removed wants to prove he can take down a worldwide system. Although with PSN at this point I don't think that's much of a boast.

Clear winner surely?

Aren't most games one user only now? I know that with the origin games once you use the key it can't be used again, so no trade in value. PC games are an exception, I use Steam etc, you can't avoid it understandably.

If there's an option to buy a physical copy of any media, I almost always will, for anything. I prefer having a physical item that, in the case of games and movies retain some trade in value. I also like having a shelf of my collection, it's nice having a physical record of your tastes on the wall.

Difficult year so I believe the current plan is the 24th food and drink at my brothers new place with his wife and kid and probably her family. Pop some presents to girlfriend and her family on the afternoon. Christmas Day is breakfast at my sisters, then dad and I having something approaching dinner. Boxing day is traditional trip to my dad's aunts, then girlfriends on the evening. I suspect the whole thing to be awful.

Seems like a second one is in the works (shocker). A work history for one of the development team notes early work on head sculpts for the Last of Us 2.

An evil Barrowman has to help, surely? Evil Barrowman, Felicity, Diggle, Felicity, the deadly serious Oliver cast against how daft it all is, Felicity... It's genuinely good entertainment when it should just be this Batman Begins knock off by way of Robin Hood. The crossover with Flash works far far better then it has any right to as well. Warner Bros should just throw money at these guys and bin off any ideas they have for future movies.

Unfortunately you set the precedent by giving him your personal number in the first place and then replying to him about work related texts. You could sit him down and try to set boundaries, it's completely out of order that he contacts you on holidays, it's simply not necessary for most jobs (unless you're in a legit. professional that requires you to be on call - insurance isn't one of those). You could tell him the stress this causes and how this prevents you from getting the necessary time to rest and unwind. To be honest, I've seen you say that things could be worse out there, but the way you describe things it strikes me that you're in a terrible situation, you're massively underpaid, you're not challenged, you're force to work very long hours and are put under a lot of stress. So what if the people are nice, you're getting mugged off there. You should definitely start interviewing as soon as possible and you need to become more selfish and look after your own interests. You shouldn't worry about letting others down there, you need to take control of what you want, and if that means going off sick to interview, or taking days off to interview, and not replying to 'critical' texts then so be it. I should probably note that I don't have much choice about providing a personal number. We have a system whereby everyone has to provide personal contact numbers in case of emergency (i.e. the office has burnt down, don't come in till further notice) so I didn't exactly volunteer my number. There have also been times where I've needed to use my own phone for work purposes - stuff like trying to co-ordinate people on client do, or where it has been genuinely important to contact me and I was out of the office for whatever reason. They should have given me a phone really the moment the job became more in depth. My boss texting me when I'm off I'm not happy about but it's not like I'm seething about it, it was just a bit of a straw breaking the camels back moment when I was feeling particularly down about the whole thing. Anyway, as I say apparently I am due a pay rise that was previously agreed when they pushed me on last time round, but I still won't be on a decent salary for the role. My colleague that left whose job was posted online with the massive salary almost certainly wasn't paid that figure (and it was a different role to my own that I would expect to be paid more than I am) but it would not be beyond the realms of doubt that they would have been on double my wage. I mention it more as a flag to how well paid I am - not very. It's not even the stress is that much of an issue - it's not great obviously but it's not like I didn't know what I was signing up for. It comes with the role and I can handle it, even if I don't particularly like it. The thing is, they placed me under more pressure by kicking me on, but haven't particularly followed that up with the pay. I started on a mid teens wage for what was basically an admin role, quickly I ended up doing more than that and learning the ropes of the more advanced positions. They then pushed me to do that the more advanced position, as well as the admin crap, and gave me a small wage increase (still teens). Now they're saying we're not kicking you on any more (because they don't think I can do it. My figures actually show I did pretty **** well this year), but we will expect you to be under even more pressure (higher targets this year and expectation is that means more work for me to do), and we still want you to do the admin crap, and in return we'll give you a smaller wage increase than last year. But on paper you've got a potentially excellent bonus this time next year if everything works out perfectly (which it will not barring divine intervention). As you say though start to combine it all and it doesn't paint a pretty picture. I'm certainly looking around. That sounds hellish. I'm not really in the position to be able to quit, and in truth I think things would need to be much worse than they are now for me to consider that. At the moment I think I'd position things as me getting a bit of raw or bum deal out of a job I don't particularly enjoy. I wouldn't quit, I'm not at the kind of point where that seems a reasonable thing to do nor, as I say, would I be able justify doing so. Saying that, If I was left in a job related hole that pushed me towards depression, for the sake of my health I would probably do similar in your position. Not teaching though - I'd be an awful teacher!

is the PC version an MMO? No. PC version is same as the consoles. Only multiplayer element is basically the same as Mass Effects multiplayer.

I disagree. The series hasn't been helped by being annualised, because they are too samey (a lot of Black Flags praise was because it was a bit different) and the multiple studios thing means even when they stumble on something compelling the next game is already well on the way so struggles to implement it. But Unity would be derided regardless. Even people that have had positive experiences with it note how buggy and unpolished it is. The game has had tens of GB of patching at this point and it's still buggy and still doesn't perform well. The other day the latest patch was buggy itself, in some cases making Xbox owners redownload the entire game! Unity has all the foibles of the series that they have never solved, and adds in extra glitches and bugs (to a series that had always been buggy anyway). Looks pretty though.

There is no harm at all interviewing for other jobs. Go do it, I often think it's very good exercise to keep you informed around what salary you can command elsewhere. Also if you are in a job already it's not stressful doing interviews as you are not desperate. then what will happen is the right job and offer comes along and you have to go take it. Some people just get to the point of, I've had enough and resign, or set a very short space of time for them to get another job. What they end up doing is often jumping from a job they have hated to a job they end up hating a little less. Plan out a timeline, say 6 month to get used to interviews, refine your CV get used to the idea of moving to a new job mentally. Thats largely where I'm at the moment. I suppose in recruitment speak I'm 'open to new opportunities'. I had some developments yesterday that didn't really help my thoughts. Long story short I had a conversation with my boss and found out my bonus should be good, which is something, but then enquired about the future of my role and didn't like what I heard. My boss admits a lot of my job is 'beneath me' (his words, not mine), but said next year is more of the same. I mentioned a few worries I had, issues... stress, workload and associated pay, progression. The answer came that there had been an agreement to see my wage rise this year already in place, but I will still be underpaid in my view. He understood my position, he said, and would try to do more but effectively shut that down in the same breath - the company doesn't 'do' major change in salary. Cynically, from looking around me at any rate, what the company does is shove you in a box and then fight to keep you there. Unless you can game the system and have friends in the right places. The vacancy I mentioned previously, is going to my colleague who will be switching roles. Theres some odd cloak and dagger stuff about that, as they have never done a similar role and have no experience of it, but they're getting it anyway. You'd think maybe that opens things up for me, this colleague is my team mate, in essence, and is considered more senior (in actuality I've actually worked in this segment longer, but doing different things - either way neither of us could call ourselves veterans). But no, I'm not ready for it (strange that said colleague, getting the job last year, had never had any experience of the segment and walked into the role, with obvious coaching from HR. Said HR actually put up a fight to let me have my current position - ever get the feeling your face doesn't fit?), and they'll bring in someone for that role and leave me as is. It's a shame, as I like the people I work with and I daresay there's worse places to work, but I've got to start earning some proper money now and it seems it'll take years to do that, unless my boss pulls off a miracle. The job itself isn't exactly great either, half of it is too simple for me and the other half is a horror show of stress and exceptionally long hours - it's either be stifled by tedium or choked by workload.

Conversely I actually don't think much will change at all. Pakistan is a strange country that largely, at a state level, has its cake and eats it. It's an ally of the US but it's people don't like it (in many cases with reason). It plays along with the US and takes the benefits and issues that arise, but plays up it's hate of the situation whenever anything goes wrong and many of its people agree. I think the Taliban is, in many cases, reasonably popular with Pakistani people, or at worst they are agonistic to it. This atrocity will be played as a result of Pakistan being Washington's lap dog and very little will change. IIRC this isn't the first Taliban atrocity and nothing changed then, I don't think this, regardless of the heinous nature of it, will be any different.

The flag he had was a flag that is considered a banner of a Islamist group, I forget which, but as you say the fact he apparently asked for the ISIS one (which is slightly different) really does suggest that this bloke didn't really know what was what when it came to any political motivation. The self styled 'cleric' thing seemed to suggest he wasn't exactly stable, as well. He seemed to be playing at being something more substantial than he was.

I think the thing I find most fascinating about this is that the code was so successful that it was effectively the German's own stupidity in using it that meant we could break it.

Dry Bowser is part of DLC 2 if thats any help. I do agree that theres a bit of a lack of variety in the characters, but saying that in Mario Kart that really is cosmetic stuff, ultimately it's the weight class that matters. Saying that, I've got no idea why Nintendo insists on shoving Rosalina in everything. They had enough princesses as it was. Then again sadly I never played either of the Galaxy games so have no connection with her at all.

Has any more come out about this bloke? I'm still not convinced he really was someone you could call an Islamist terrorist. How crap the attempt was, the apparent lack of prep, the fact he didn't really seem to have anything to say or any apparent aim... It doesn't strike me as the act of a man driven by political fervour to commit an act of violence. It seemed to bear more hallmarks of the kind of thing you see in places like the US where someone, usually with a criminal background and at the edges of society, unhinged individuals, goes nuts. At best I think this guy knew that was more or less where he was and tried, pretty haphazardly, to tap into something to, in some perverse manner, legitimise his actions as something greater than they were.

Just another atrocity in a part of the world that has seen too many and isn't done seeing them yet, sadly.

Arrow continues to be a little better than the light hearted fluff it should be.

Wolfenstein was surprisingly good. Mario Kart was fantastic. Shadow of Mordor was far, far better than it had any right to be. Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes is a great game that happens to last for 10minutes - however the thing seems essentially designed to be replayed and pissed about with so thats reduced somewhat. Destiny was a mess that in had some compelling elements until it became an arbitrarily extended grind - the fact that many will argue that that is where the game's meat is perhaps says a lot. Forza Horizon 2 was pretty good. Yet to play Elite (downloading as I speak), or Far Cry and a number of the other big releases of the last month or so. But even so I don't think we've had a classic year, really. Sadly I don't think next year is shaping up that differently either.

They had no evidence of a distinct plot/plan. What they had was an extremist right wing idiot (not in and of itself illegal) with a basic bomb. Had he been in possession of particular musings or details of a plot, he gets done for a terrorism offence. As it is, they don't, so he gets done for a explosives offence.