Chindie

The Wii U will see a slight sales jump, post price drop, but thats it. It won't have much effect on the sales of the new generation consoles. The Wii U has largely failed, I think even Nintendo know it. There is still a fundamental issue with marketing the thing, people still think it's an add on for the Wii they bought 6 years ago and used one Christmas and then used as a convenient place to store dust.

On a similar note, I find myself wishing the summer away. Roll on October, work'll be easier and far less stressful by then.

Saw Elysium at the weekend, haven't really had chance to get some thoughts down about it. It's a slightly odd film. I'll get to that. It's a film that cements Blomkamp as a man with a very 'real' vision of the near future. I bought everything in District 9, the future/alien tech looked very real, very credible, very believable, and he created a world that had that to it's core. Elysium is similar. I adore the art design of everything, the droids policing Earth and Elysium look so grounded in reality I can almost picture them stalking the streets a few decades from now. Elysium itself is a little less credible somehow but still isn't fantastical enough to warrant taking you out of the film (and it also is effectively a big multi million dollar reminder that Blomkamp was going to do a Halo movie... as the place basically is a ring world). It's a great setting for a clunking allegory. The film itself is also just inherently brilliant looking, it's well shot with some thoroughly impressive effects and more than a few vistas will raise a mental 'Wow... that's purdy' I'd wager. Even the grimy bits are so well shot that they have a beauty to them. And I guess theres not really a bad performance here. Some characters are underwritten - Matt Damon's love interest serves mostly as a device to move the plot and is otherwise paper thin, Sharlto Copley's villain is a cartoon character that jars strangely with the movie's more serious intentions and messages (as fun as the character is), Jodie Foster is on screen for about 10 minutes and effectively appears to play the Devils Bureaucrat... but no role is badly done. And theres some decent action. As said though it's a slightly odd film. It feels like it never really gets going. I walked out feeling like I'd watched a first act of a movie for 90 mins with a third act whacked on the end. I think this is down to the film feeling like it's rushing through things, it never quite lets something linger and settle. Theres everything there for a straight forward 3 act plot, but it doesn't feel like the film satisfyingly goes through that structure. It's not helped that the film is so far from subtle it's clouting you over the head from the word go. This is a film with a very clear wild view, with an astoundingly clear message and is keen to make sure you know. It feels like an argument in need of nuance. For example... everyone on Elysium is an utter bastard. To the extent, in one scene, an Elysium resident at work on Earth demands an employee cover his mouth when speaking to him and also asks that a dying man be cleared away off premises because he might make a mess. That kind of very childish black and white goes right down through the very fabric of the film and while it makes for a fun enough movie if Blomkamp wants to make a serious point he could do with learning about the shades of grey between any opposing stances. Elysium suffers for being District 9's younger brother, really. District 9 was the golden boy, plucked from obscurity to great success and Elysium got those boots to fill and was found wanting. Fun, pretty, a believable sci fi future, but more than a little flawed. You'll see worse films this year.

The PS3's main problem (alongside it's crap RAM levels) was it was a custom architecture, making it a pig to develop for. Meanwhile the 360 was effectively a 2004 gaming PC in a shiny box, meaning everyone and his dog could make a game for it. On paper the PS3 was a more powerful console than the 360, but hamstrung by tiny amounts of RAM (even at release that was true) and difficulty developing for it and making use of it's power. That is why the multiplatform releases tended to favour the 360, and is also why a (very) small number of developers managed to crack how to push the PS3 and get great results. Thats also why trying to make reference to the current generation with regards the next gen is a fools errand - you're not comparing eggs with eggs. Both new consoles are more or less off the shelf bits, as Sony learnt their lesson from the PS3.

PC

The UN is easily shown to be toothless by any state that chooses to ignore it.

Shields can be threatening.

Genuinely don't have an opinion on that one... In other Marvel news, Bradley Cooper is voicing Rocket Raccoon in Guardians. Wouldn't have been my choice, but lets see...

Fifa is only free with Xbox One Day One Edition preorders IIRC.

GTA5 has never been announced as a next gen title - at this moment in time that is simply a 360 and PS3 game. Fifa 14 will release across generations. Want to play on next gen consoles? Buy the console and buy the game.

A6 Avant is a huge car. The A4 is surprisingly small. Bickster is absolutely bang on with the particulate filter warning incidentally. If you buy a diesel, it will cause you an expensive problem - we've just moved on from a Passat Estate diesel after a year of problems from it. Once you go past the point it can be regenerated fully, unless you know someone with VAG diagnostic software you're going to be doing lots of pointless miles twice a week trying to temporarily fix it. And even the diagnostic fix is only buying you time.

No I was agreeing with you Aha, sorry, misread the tone

what date you over there mate? im going in november too. what part you staying like others have said wouldnt bother with travel insurance have been over 50 times and never been to a hospital. it will be quiet at that time i should inform you 6-13th, staying in Paphos. I know very little about Cyprus and less about Paphos, but I'm told it's very nice. Tbh, I'm glad it's gonna be quiet. I'm gonna need the break. I'll be happy if the weather is alright, the hotel alright and the food nice.

Travel insurance is a requirement from Thomson's, who we've gone with, so gotta sort it. I can apparently get what I'm told is a very good deal through my work but it only works out if you're looking to travel a couple of times in a year or if you're taking the family. Appreciate the help chaps and I'll check them out, Drat. At the mo we're leaning towards the post office, which works out at £22.50 each for the single trip, but we've not really checked the market.

I'm not sure I've suggested otherwise.

Well, you carry on with that line of thought.

Israel has gains to make. Gas gains, to be precise. Which in turn undermine a potential economic power play from Iran. Europe would gain in time by the same route. And, of course, in a region that tries to remain stable by maintaining a status quo of numerous actors pulling in opposite directions, Syria is a worrying wildcard for Israel (and anyone else with interests in the region, such is pretty much the entire developed world) that threatens the status quo to the extent that interested parties would rather like to manipulate and control the situation or position it more in their favour. A great deal of the world has interests in this conflict. The question becomes are those interests outweighed by the shitstorm getting their hands dirty would raise... Israel (and the US for that matter) was quite happy with Mubarak in Egypt and Assad in Syria, their boarders were stable on both sides. The Arab spring kicking off was not in their interests. Indeed. They were stable known quantities. The Arab Spring want directly in the interests of the US, Israel, etc but did present an opportunity to attempt to adjust things in their favour (increasing influence through new regimes, presenting new business opportunities, etc etc). It hasn't quite worked out but the opportunity was there. To some degree, Syria is the same story, but there are some pressing matters. That gas pipeline for example.

Israel has gains to make. Gas gains, to be precise. Which in turn undermine a potential economic power play from Iran. Europe would gain in time by the same route. And, of course, in a region that tries to remain stable by maintaining a status quo of numerous actors pulling in opposite directions, Syria is a worrying wildcard for Israel (and anyone else with interests in the region, such is pretty much the entire developed world) that threatens the status quo to the extent that interested parties would rather like to manipulate and control the situation or position it more in their favour. A great deal of the world has interests in this conflict. The question becomes are those interests outweighed by the shitstorm getting their hands dirty would raise...

Well, compared to any official explanation given, that documentary is a shining light of truth. Same with the Italian "Zero" If you honestly believe 'loose change', I can only suggest that you read some of the point by point rebuttals of its nonsense. I recall there being an evidenced, minute by minute, breakdown of the film that is a very good resource. If you do that, and still believe it... Well, let's leave it there. Well I didn´t say I do. I said the official explanation is worse. Remember people who doesn´t believe in it is called "Truthers" not conspiracy-nutters. Guess why. If you think fire and damage took down Building 7, in a way that makes demolition experts look like amateurs, then you are probably right we should leave it here. Would love a link to your debunking 911myth film though. Almost as good as a proper investigation. The official explanation to my knowledge doesn't, for example, conclude that the tragic phonecalls of passengers aboard those flights to their loved ones were fakes created by a computer. Nor does it claim, to hammer the point home, that the Pentagon wasn't struck by a passenger aircraft 'because these pictures don't show enough debris for it to be plane crash', when the film maker conveniently chose to show pictures containing very little debris, while other pictures they ignore show utter devastation and big bits of plane. Ignoring your hyperbole about WTC7, the explanation of that building's collapse is well established and only ignored by those desperate to justify a fantasy. The building collapsed in a rather similar manner to the other towers - it suffered damage from the other buildings which weakened the structure and subsequent fire caused the internal structure to fail. Your point about 'Truthers' is so absurd it barely deserves rebuttal. If I decide to call a chicken a pig... its still a chicken. 'Truthers' are conspiracy theorists, a particular sect if you will but conspiracy theorists all the same. I will check if I can find you a link to the Loose Change rebuttal, though I shan't waste too much time as you've made your mind up already. Besides which, there's so much out there debunking this nonsense you could probably find rebuttals yourself.

It looks like it's been designed by a playgroup, which is appropriate I guess, but no it doesn't fold and yes it isn't cheap enough, needed to be sub £100.

Nintendo announce the 2DS. No, really.

Well, compared to any official explanation given, that documentary is a shining light of truth. Same with the Italian "Zero" If you honestly believe 'loose change', I can only suggest that you read some of the point by point rebuttals of its nonsense. I recall there being an evidenced, minute by minute, breakdown of the film that is a very good resource. If you do that, and still believe it... Well, let's leave it there.

I know what you mean, but everything's relative in some way. I drive a VW and a Skoda, but I don't feel bad about it because the company that's there now can't be held accountable for Hitler's genocide. It'd be like boycotting anything German. It's also worth noting that VW as it originally was was a failure - pretty much no German ever got a Volkswagen under the Nazis. The company exists as it is now largely due to the British army getting the factory going again as a way of getting Germany back to work following war.

Syria to be paid a visit by cruise missiles over the weekend, then. I wonder if they're learnt from Kosovo.

Finally got holiday sorted. I'm off to Cyprus in the second week of November. Finally get to use that passport. Now, just need travel insurance...