Chindie

I'm not sure about them gunning for the second hand market. Again, no doubt they're thinking about it (patents have been flying about, I think?), I'm just not sure they're ready to gun for it hard enough right now to kill it off in 1 fell swoop. It's a certainty that day and date downloads are going to come with this console, though. Even Nintendo have got that more or less up and running on their systems now (though how popular it is is questionable - daft pricing). And they will lean on it as a feature and push it hard, especially after having made XBLA into a genuine 'thing' now. The Windows 8 thing is a certainty too - they've already spent 2 years cobbling on 'Metro Style interface' onto the Xbox Dash, with varying degrees of success.

Consoles don't launch with 'major' titles any more - they basically don't need to. And Halo 4 would have only just been out 12 months if we assume there is a November launch for Microsoft's next console. Even if 343 have been working on it before they've launched 4 it's still a big ask to turn around a major title on new hardware only a year after your last release, especially as 343 is still a young studio. I've no doubt Microsoft would love to make Halo into an annual franchise but they won't do it now, they'll do it after the next release (if they do at all), when they've an established platform and 343 are confident working with that platform and churning out a yearly release. The next Xbox will launch with a ragtag bunch of stuff, almost certainly with 'overlap' cross generational titles, just like last time, and without a big exclusive franchise release. I would be absolutely shocked to see Halo 5 be a launch title.

I don't think theres a chance in hell of it launching with Halo 5.

I picked up the Walking Dead in the Steam sale and just played the first episode. Feel great about humanity already!

I'm using a Panasonic one (can't remember the model right now) which I'm very pleased with. Quality varies greatly model to model though, definitely an item where there really is such a thing as a good one and a bad one. Can't comment on wireless subs but I do know a rule of thumb has usually been, in the audio world, that wired is better. I daresay that's changed and I can't say I can particularly recall any rough comments on wireless subs from a soundbar, however. Hit AVForums with some models and see what the anoraks have to say, they're usually pretty bang on.

The world keep turning. Britain feel behind in some things (not necessarily a bad thing in many cases), the world changed and left us behind, or we chose to no longer keep up with it. On the other hand, many, many things haven't declined. But they are the quiet fluff that makes life pleasant, that are easy to forget - quality of life things, that generally the average Brit has over a lot of the world's population. They only got better. Sure globalisation did for many industries, or altered them to the extent they're not the same game anymore (the car industry) and the world advanced to the point we couldn't dominate it any longer... but most of us have a nice bed to sleep in tonight, mod cons, hot and cold running electricity, a dishwasher that's called Hotpoint rather than 'Mom', and a safe knowledge that if everything goes wrong theres a half decent hospital and an ambulance service on call tonight (unless you live in Stafford, in which case best take your chances) if things go wrong, and war is far away because Europe decided being in each others pockets worked out better than slaughtering each other... It's not really declined.

'It's funny how a lot of them nonces have the same look, isn't it?'

I've not actually found one yet so I dunno, but I believe it just adds in the Fellowships signature weapons. The only one I know for sure is in there is Narsil, the blade that was broken, because it appears as a item you can create at the forge once you've found the broken hilt. I've also added in Immersive Armours and Jaysus Swords which add a few new bits and bobs armour and weapons wise which clutter up the smithing menus but also give you the opportunity to run around with a seemingly pretty accurate bastard sword or crusader sword, and with a few new bits of armour you can knock up, so you too can ruyn around as a Falkreath Knight, or as I'm currently doing, as some kind of paladin knight. Nope, because MMORPGs don't appeal to me at all, and because they're about 5 years behind the curve with it, and it's an immense folly doomed to failure.

Back in work after being off since the 21st what with Christmas and holidays and 2 days off sick and I'm faced with a stack of emails that probably should have been sorted when i was off ill and thresh other stuff that's piled up and the office has been rearranged and I'm knackered and it really is daunting in a 'wtf, cba with this now' kinda way.

**** that lineup is sobering.

The possible discovery of the Higgs Boson. That's one of those things that, at this moment in time and probably for many, many years to come, won't really matter... but could become one of the most important discoveries ever. On a personal level, I guess it's got to be work related. At the start of 2012 I'd been bumming around in retail for just over a year on a terrible contract but kinda vaguely happy to be working at all and with no idea what to do with myself anyway. Then at the end of March the company went into admin and within 3 hours I was out on my ear. 4 months of doing pretty much nothing followed - I couldn't find a job, I didn't want to sign on, I was skint, doing nothing kinda worked out in that situation. Then I got a temp role for the summer in a job I never thought I'd do, and for the first time I was working 9-5, being paid well, and ended up with some proper money in my pocket and sense of worth each day. In turn that's seen me, when the contract ended, picking up a job proper in the same game through someone I'd been in contact with for the previous role, one with great potential for promotion and whatnot. So, yeah, 2012 for me was the year I got going somewhere in life, something I'd never have guessed would've happened this time last year.

The Velasquez JDS fight is one of the most onesided fights i can recall.

Lately? More like 'ever'.

Yeah I saw the lineup for Jools this year and thought I won't even bother giving it a second glance this year. It's been getting steadily worse for a while but this'll be the first year in a very long while I think I won't bother at all.

The bluray of Dredd has me pissed off. First, they decided to release it after for Christmas for some reason, so I've still got to wait 2 weeks for it to come out. Second, it's a single disc dual 3d/2d release. These usually end up making for awful transfers as the space on the disc is just barely enough to do it any justice (despite some of the trickery they use to do it - the 2d version usually just being the left eye version of the 3d release). And third, and worst of all, the disc has been reviewed by those that know and the 3d transfer is impeccable, but the 2d version is dog rough, apparently. I've got no interest in seeing the film in 3d again (despite it being probably the best I've seen 3d done in a cinema) and can't anyway, so was relying on the 2d version being great, but they've **** it up. Bollocks.

I'd gladly never see him take a corner again. I can barely kick a ball and I'm convinced I'd do better.

I said he barely opens his mouth when he sets up a free kick as a slightly humourous way of saying he doesn't talk to his defenders much generally. As for the media, I'm talking about the teams he's been associated with, mainly the Geordies but theres also long been the Irish lobby behind him to. The Geordies are beloved by the media and that gave Given a limelight that only shone all the brighter on him with Newcastle being so poor defensively for years that even a crap keeper would be bale to make a few saves from the camera (something Shay has never been above anyway). A considerable section of the Irish fanbase also liked playing him up and the media was happy to lap that up and spout it back out too. Thus he garnered a reputation as being better than he really ever was, because week in week out MOTD was showing Newcastle getting tonked and him pulling off 15 saves and Sky was sucking him off every Geordie game they showed. He has never organised his defence, he stands there with his mouth welded shut 90 minutes at a time, never leaving his line leaving his defence to deal with everything. Even doing a Friedel/Guzan esque 'AWAY' whenever the ball comes to the box helps as it tells your defenders 'Don't rely on me to get it, you need to'. Given doesn't. When he does come off his line he is hopeless with anything in the air (I genuinely cannot remember him catching a cross, ever) and he also must surely be the most lobbed keeper in the league, I seem to remember him having a couple of years at the end of his time with the Geordies where he got lobbed about 5 times a season and it's happened a fair bit since. I've never believed he's that good of a keeper. He's a shot stopper and little more, and even his reactions have gone now. We were idiots to buy him and pay him like we do, and he'd solve nothing now. Not that anything needs solving, Guzan's one of the few bright lights at the moment. Possibly only bright light.

Shay Given is one of the least communicative goalkeepers on the planet. His mouth barely opens when he's lining up a wall from a free kick. He is usually completely silent. Couple it to his penchant for sticking rididly to his line and never commanding his box and I don't think I could argue he'd settle anything. He's a man who made a career from being a good reaction shot topper sat behind suicidal defences for a team happy to play to the media. Guzan is a far, far better choice right now and thus, he has the gloves. Given should be out of the door shortly, if we can manage to find someone daft enough to pay him like we've been doing.

Our squad is terrible. Hopeless.

IIRC thats the quest that requires you to go to a bar and partake in a drinking game... Just playing this myself today and lost in it again. Adding a few mods to tart the game up (particularly a climate mod) make a massive difference. Also, kinda sad, I've been surprised how different and more immersive the game feels with a a couple of cloak mods. All of a sudden characters are wandering round with LOTR-esque cloaks in the wilderness, and also some Game of Throne's style big **** off fur cloaks. Just looks cool and adds a new aesthetic to the whole thing. And loads of new apparel. I've also added in LOTR weapons >_>.

Far, far too many fights in the past year or so seem to have gone to decisions, and in the UFC a decision seems so much more unsatisfying than in a boxing match (I think mostly because a decision in MMA is that much more intangible than a boxing match... as well as MMA pretty much allowing fights to descend into less than a spectacle, even if the ref is on the ball with standups and the like). I've been kinda put off watching my recording of 155 from this morning because I know theres a lot of decisions in there...

The fact of the matter is changing the manager, even if it were a realistic option (which it isn't) wouldn't make any positive difference to our predicament. We could hire Mourinho and we would not improve. The team just isn't up to it, it's weak, thin, lacking in ability and strength, mentally fragile... and so on. Our situation only improves when the playing staff do. I'm not giving Lambert a carte blanche on Villa's failures this season in saying that - in some cases he's made mistakes and made things worse, a considerable part of the 15 goal deficit we've given ourselves this past week is his fault. I think he's proven to be less than the gem we might have thought he was (talk of him being the finest manager of his generation is, in my view, quite bizarre hyperbole). But it's hard to really say he should be sacked, he shouldn't. Nothing good comes from sacking him. Sticking with him, he might do some good in time.

I've not watched the theatrical cut in... well, years... but I don't remember it not making sense (perhaps not helped by having read the books countless times), so I'm interested how so? I actually rewatched the extended cut last night (again) and I really couldn't contemplate going back to the theatrical edition (of any of them actually, all the films are improved by the few extra scenes, especially as a fan of the books).

You know things are bad when the moaning about the fanbase starts

Losing this doesn't bear thinking about.