Chindie

Totally agree with you there, my point was effectively backing you up, that Pete is making a non-point as to the previous discussion IMO.

I'm not even sure that sales numbers in Japan is the point here. The Japanese manufacturers approached making consoles with Japanese sensibilities, hence the consoles having Japanese flavour so to speak. Whether Japan concerns them anymore is neither here nor there (though clearly it's still a massive market).

http://youtu.be/G-Vg2YS-sFE I haven't listened to this in quite a while. It's glorious. The National really are a superb band. New album in May.

A marathon of both seasons is also on the cards for me. On another note, the season 3 extended trailer has been released. It's only about 30 seconds longer than the previous one but made me about 5 times more excited Same. I've recently rewatched the first series blu-ray and this week will see a rewatch of the second when the boxset comes tomorrow... Third series looks great, really great.

The origin story has become a genre in it's own right, really, which is why a lot of the super hero films have a similar arc, but they are different. When you get away from origin stories in sequels, they are very different - the Avengers is a world away from the Dark Knight, for instance. Interestingly just the other day Marvel's head honcho was talking up using the super hero framework to hang other genres off - he specifically mentioned the Captain America sequel coming next year, the Winter Soldier, being a political thriller that happened to feature Cap. Supposedly this new theme will begin with Iron Man 3 in a couple of months time, which has been talked about as having a bit of espionage thriller at it's heart too, and then later this summer with Thor 2 being more a fantasy epic than the original film.

It's been fairly inevitable that the F-35 project would get hit eventually for while, hasn't it?

I honestly couldn't give much less of a **** what any anonymous senior politician says, let alone a Tory one.

Indeed. The Wii U is a good example of the disconnect between East and West, its pretty much the embodiment of Japanese culture and gaming in every facet. And similar sensibilities (coupled to the nature of a console having an online service still being fledgling at the PS3's launch) influenced Sony's offering for online with the PS3 and it never really matched up to what Western audiences growingly wanted from their console online. Even daft things like achievements aren't particularly Japanese in nature - hence the PS3 not launching with a system similar to the 360s, it was a reflection of an online... ecosystem perhaps... that Japanese developers have never really chased. Even when Sony did add in trophies they skewed it a little more to Japanese tastes making the focus more on collecting something than being given an acknowledgement of doing X in game Y and having it to show the world, which was Microsoft's focus.

Exactly! Tsk, they'll be telling us that 'sphere' and 'circle', or 'indefinite period of time' and 'day', aren't the same next.

A common misconception. The Greek word for bear can be translated from Hebrew via Klingon to mean 'big cuddly puppies', and the word 'kill' has been shown to be a typo in Atlantician translated from Judean slang relating to the verb 'to hug'. So Jehovah was actually showing understanding and compassion when he sent those big cuddly puppies to hug those cheeky kids.

Why does that matter (if it does), and what difference does it make to PS4? Japanese game companies make... poor/awkward decisions for Western audiences in numerous little ways, but particularly when it comes to console infrastructure. The culture is so different that, when companies from Japan develop platforms, particularly now that the 'platform' is so important to gaming, they don't sit well with how the West would like to interact with consoles today. For example the Japanese... ethos... to the net is different. It's been argued that this is why the Wii (and Wii U) have slightly odd online capabilities - they're designed by Japanese people for a Japanese mindset. Sony with the PS3 has worked around that from day one, slowly evolving the PS3 into a more Western orientated console (not perfectly still) - the PS4 looks like it's been far more influenced by Sony UK than it has been Sony's Japanese HQ, which should be a good thing for Western audiences. Sony's entire presentation for the PS4 was very 'un-Sony' and very 'un-Japanese' - Nintendo wouldn't have made that presentation, for instance, and Sony itself wouldn't have when they released the PS3. What we've seen of the console and some of it's features and capabilities are also quite un-Japanese, the heavy focus on being openly social and not insular, for example.

1) Skyrim is an incredible game but the PS3 version is borderline broken, which is a shame as it's one of the most 'explore-y' games out there. RDR is superb. Go for RDR - it's less daunting than Skyrim can be and less of a time hog. And it's just a brilliant, brilliant experience to play - I genuinely had moments in that game where I just rode around the environment admiring it (and slaughtering wildlife). 2) Fallout and Far Cry are both first person shooters (although Fallout can be played third person, it's not designed to be really, and it's shooter mechanics are... a bit different to any other shooter. Again it's rough on the PS3 - Bethesda, who make Skyrim and the Fallout series, really struggle with the PS3). Far Cry is fun though and worth a go, and pretty - the story is hopeless mind. God of War isn't a shooter, it's spectacle riddled third person action game, lots of bashing out combos. Well worth playing though and pretty simple at it's heart, but stunning. Mass Effect 3 is a good game but if you're into the story you might want to look at 2 as well - 2 is a slightly less sharp shooter, but all round a better game (largely because the story goes a bit shit in 3) and ultimately the story in 3 makes more sense if you've played the second, and events in the second game can alter events in the third (a little) if you've played both. IIRC the PS3 version of ME2 has a little interactive comic at the start that lets you learn the events of the first game and also make a few major decisions. Max Payne 3 might be worth a look. Some people love it, others hate it. It's effectively a character study that happens to be set against a 3rd person shooter. It gets a bit repetitive, turning into a bit of a slog, but I enjoyed it, it has impressive graphics if slightly annoying presentation. And you get it for a decent price now too. Uncharted 2/3 should come on your radar too - effectively Indiana Jones games, they're incredibly pretty, fair bit of shooting and lots of spectacle, and decent enough stories.

I find a little onion and a little mushroom goes a long way on anything. One of my mates at uni could literally peel a raw onion and eat it like an apple, which made me gag every time he did it.

Different mediums, that appeal to different audiences - Hollywood has nothing to fear from gaming beyond it being something else to vie for audiences attention, which is no different to how things have been for a very long time.

It's not as good as Spiderman 2, plotwise (and villain wise), but features a far better rendition of Spiderman (and Peter Parker) and a better romance subplot, and probably better direction. It's a decent watch, let down by a weak villain and dodgy art design. Not quite. The Andrew Garfield Spiderman reboot was done to prevent Marvel having the film rights to Spiderman revert to them through Sony not using the license. Sony desperately want to hold onto it as long as possible because they know that it's a license that always makes money and they also know Marvel dearly want it back now they've set up a proper film presence. Sony will turn out Spiderman films at regular intervals for as long as the license makes any money just to stop Marvel having it back. Sony tried to actually endear themselves to Marvel (and fans a little) by trying to make a link between the Avengers and their new Spiderman film, having the Oscorp building appear in the New York skyline at the culmination of the Avengers, but it turned out to be too late to make it happen. Marvel are very keen to get their licences back, hence studioes kick starting work on Marvel properties in the last couple of years as they realised Marvel's films were becoming juggernauts. Fox are working on rebooting a Fantastic Four film for instance, which also lets them prevent Marvel getting hold of other characters that Fox picked up with FF. Marvel did get Daredevil back last year, to pick up on the Ben Affleck theme (that film isn't as bad in it's directors cut, incidentally), which could make for an interesting reboot.

The cast for that film just keeps getting bigger. They've already added Giamatti and Foxx, amongst others. There was a concept shot of the new suit the other day which I heartily approved of, much better than the hopeless design on the previous film and very classic.

Same as the one released in... Canada I think arse end of last year? Just bought Tomb Raider. £21... can't argue too much. Never liked the series but interested in the reboot. I'll just keep the sound down.

I'm surprised it's reviewing as well as it is, I thought it would come out as totally ok but nothing special. The weird moaning is still a bit of an issue for me, but I might go for it. I took advantage of GMG's Bioshock Infinite deal this weekend and got Bioshock and the Darkness 2 for free. Win.

4k Tvs will be a useless extravagance for a very long time to come - they only really have a benefit on very large screen sizes and theres next to no content around, and even with Sony keen to start rectifying it theres not going to be a seachange to 4k inside the next 2/3/4 years, and probably longer. You can effectively forget about 4k if you're in the market for a telly this year - it's going to be such a niche product for so long you couldn't really argue your purchase this summer was outdated with a straight face.

IIRC Vlaar had a reputation for picking up injuries before we bought him, it's not a surprise we're reaping what we've sown. Damage limitation, this one. I expect an early goal and a whimpering 90 mins.

Thats arguable - I don't personally think a lot of it. Specs wise it blows everything away but thats not necessarily what makes a good portable console. The games situation hasn't helped the Vita but it's not what's keeping it down. The market is - people don't want to buy a £200 portable. The Vita has been further harmed as it's market is a little more mature than it's rival (generally) and that narrows their market further. The thing's doomed. As much as i love Microsoft, all their press conference will be is "Look! Kinect is even better!". Kinect is something that doesn't really interest me Microsoft will undoubtedly lean on the new generation of the Kinect (which will still be shit) but they also will focus incredibly heavily on the multimedia capability of their console - i.e. everything it does that isn't play games, a simple continuation of what the 360 has done. They'll focus less on games than this Sony conference did. The machines themselves won't be all that different and neither will the titles they show be - Microsoft will roll out some nods to Halo/Gears/Forza and then wheel out some bloke from Activison to give you a vision of COD in the next gen (the same, but shinier).

Going to the MLS speaks absolute volumes.

The Heil is basically a slightly more subversive version of the Sun, with less blatant tits. I used to buy the Guardian at uni, nowadays I've got the Guardian Anywhere app but very rarely actually read it. The only paper that comes in our house these days is the Sun, but to be honest I think thats more out of long time habit than anything. I occasionally flick through it, for a laugh. I've always been told that the Sun tends to only pick up top graduates from the likes of Oxford and co, apparently it takes a fair amount of skill and intelligence to write so much bullshit.

4-1 Arsenal

Effectively nothing.