Chindie

I'm genuinely not sure how Michael Carrick has an England career, let alone a Manchester United career. One follows the other obviously, so he must have pictures of Fergie with Jimmy Savile or something.

I don't think that would a be a terribly accurate view of the Tories.

...there was no racist element in the match. At all.

Art is one of those subjects that I don't particularly care about but know enough about. I'm not really one for the 'inverted snobbery' thing (it annoys me enough with films that some people have to decide some things are more 'worthy' than others and look down on something not because it is necessarily badly made, but because they don't like it), so I won't say that the Snail isn't art - but I don't like it. As far as modern and post modern art goes, I'd say I'm actually less inclined to appreciate anything on a canvas than I am a piece of sculpture or a physical object. I appreciate Carl Andre's pile of bricks more than I appreciate that snail. I don't appreciate the pretentious nature of modern and post modern art at all though. Conceptual art... nah.

Playing it myself currently. It is pretty good and there is a little of the Thief games in it, although it's not as... developed... in it's stealth as the Thief games were(there is no concept of being 'in shadow' or the like, the stealth is entirely based around not being in a sight cone of guards, which effectively means that provided something is in front of you, you can get more or less as close as you like to a guard and he will not see you. It also leads to the slightly absurd addition to the mechanics of leaning. If you are behind an object, but then lean out to have a mooch, a guard can be staring at you from a foot away and he will not see you). If you expect a really cultured stealth game like the Thief games were, you might be disappointed. However it is a fun play and I've enjoyed being stealthy on it so far. The game gives you numerous options for each mission and gives you enough tools to play as you might like - I believe you could play this game as a pure stealth no kill player, a stealthy lethal player, or even a whole Rambo approach (though the latter would require some skill and would make things noticeably more difficult). So far I've managed to a no kill run (the game is good about providing you with non-lethal avenues for dispatching even your targets) and it's been satisfying. I do think the game is keen on you to be stealthy lethal, as it's tools are far more focused on that route, and seems to be setting up the way I'm playing it as a avenue for a more challenging second play. Very good all in all, I'm about half way through the second mission proper and must have got at least 10 hours in so far. I could see you being chop your way through it far quicker but I'm taking my time with everything and exploring everywhere.

I can only assume that the Serbian FA has balls of steel, simply do not understand or accept that racism 'is a thing', or are deaf. Because you could hear the monkey chants clear as day.

It's worth noting that the 360 edition is notably behind the PC version as each currently stands. The 360 version had a fairly hefty update this week which brought it up to a level that the PC version was at whilst it was still in beta. It's still perfectly playable but I'd imagine if you were used to Minecraft on the PC as it stands now it'll feel like going back in time a little.

Not really surprising. Serbia and anything is a fairly bad mix, but Serbia and football leaves a lot to be desired as BOF says. Bugger all will happen. They'll have their next game behind closed doors and a slap on the wrist at best.

You could do as accurate a sketch of Labour if you gave him a Yerksheer accent, cloth cap and a considerable whack of working class rage. Sadly a Lib Dem sketch would require someone from a local asylum and I think theres laws against that. Hell, you could do New Labour by just putting a different tie on him.

Savile Approved I love Leon. And in fairness Natalie Portman appears to not so much have aged, as been enlarged. She looks the same from Leon through Heat to Star Wars Prequels and Black Swan. It's like they put her in a photocopier and blew her up.

It's like the world's best betting shop, the tiny pens, the little slips of paper... but everyones a winner!

I can't say I believe thats corrupt, but that's by the by. Anywho, James Savile, renowned kiddy fiddler... Aaah, you knew him well...a little too well, perhaps?

But the Freemason stuff is also pretty much entirely benign. The Masons, despite all the ooga booga rumours, are a remarkably dull group of people who just happen to a have a club.

I also believe he was a reptilian space nazi.

FIFA is basically the equivalent of the Madden series, if you're familiar with that, The bread and butter of the game is you actually controlling the players in a game, although it also has modes that allow an element of team management and strategy. You control the play flipping between players, making passes, taking shots, making saves... Football Manager is all management, the game resembles a spreadsheet more than anything. You take over as manager of a club, and control everything from player transfers and wages to on the pitch tactics and handling the media and player relationships. During a match you get a simple representation of the pitch as the game goes on showing you how things are going and you have the ability to change tactics and makes subs on the fly. But the only control you have over what goes on in a match is what players you put on the pitch and what tactics you use. Both can be time sinks, but the nature of Football Manager as a management sim means that its not really a pick up and play game. It's very much about a long term goal and achieving that goal can be addictive. FIFA meanwhile you can pick up and play a 5, 10, 30 minute... whatever length match, or otherwise you can play as, say, Villa in a league and try to win the Prem. Theres also an option to create your own player and develop them, and also modes to manage a team to success IIRC. FIFA is a more immediate experience and probably a more accessible one too. Football Manager is a slower experience and takes time to learn the systems and learn to enjoy the game and it's intricacies (though it's not exactly difficult - it can be mildly overwhelming to begin with and has moments that can frustrate, such as the inevitable matches where you spank the opposition but their goalkeeper turns into god and your star striker can't hit a cows arse with a banjo). Download a demo of FIFA, see what you make of it. If you fancy being a bit more removed from the action and want to run things from the sidelines, demo FM.

I spent about 4 hours, total, doing the first mission proper of Dishonored last night and today. Testament to how enjoyable the game manages to be. It wasn't like the game had massive multiple missions making up the overall mission, the reality of those 4 hours was a fairly straightforward assassination, with associated infiltration and escape, and a single sidequest. I was driven to be totally stealthy though and managed no kills, and had my heart set on collecting all the upgrade items scattered about, and also completing the nonlethal route of dispatching the target. Managed it, and deeply satisfying it was too. It's really unusual for me to enjoy stealthing a game and feel driven to being as stealthy as possible, but the game really encourages it and makes it fairly straight forward, without making the options ridiculously obvious. I'm not sure if I'll stick to such a pure stealth approach to the game, as the toys it provides you with a clearly with the aim of making offing enemies as fun and efficient an experience as possible, but I'm really enjoying it all the same. A few more tech niggles have revealed themselves, predominately occasional heavy frame rate stutters, usually in cutscenes, so no greatly big deal. I recommend it heartily. Doom 3 BFG Edition is out this week, which I may have to get hold of as I hold a strange love for Doom 3 despite it's failings, and my PC isn't in a fit state to hack it any more.

I like about 10 minutes of Hurt Locker, the whole scene with Ralph Fiennes. The rest of it I cannot stand, simply because it's the only film I can recall that doesn't feature a single major character I like. Doesn't help that I don't especially like Frogman Renner either in fairness, but theres not a single main character in that film that is in anyway likable. Not even in a 'love to hate' kind of way. Everyone of them is a clearing in the woods.

I'm not sure about an app inspired future for media. Isn't there an argument being made that the app 'economy' is basically broken - the 99p app being unsustainable and there needing to be a change in what people are prepared to pay for developers to assure their future? A similar model for movies (not 99p but 'notably cheap') I do not believe would last. The price needs to come down (and it will - the bizarre idea that a download service can charge the same as a retail copy of something will die soon enough) but I don't think we'll get to the point were downloading a movie, or a tv show, is so cheap they basically become disposable. I'm also not particularly sure that, long term, the ad enabled model will work either - I think in the coming years the... financial gains of modern day advertising are going to be reassessed and given a kicking imo, companies cottoning on to the fact that it doesn't really justify the costs. I think that runs for everything though, not just media.

They know a good thing when they see it... A more theoretical argument is that the Welsh have a less... solid... foundation for a claim of independence. Wales never particularly developed as a state in it's own right (by which I mean a more modern state, one with genuine governance, organisation, etc), Scotland did. Wales bases it's independence on things like language and little else, Scotland bases it's on a history of independence and the existance of a foundation of independent statehood (they actually did develop the beginnings of a proper 'state' way back when and carried on doing so for a while) as well as the cultural stuff, the language, a noted difference between 'us and them'. They've also been able to maintain the difference far more than Wales ever did thanks to that. Which all comes together to give any claim for Welsh independence less confidence from the get go. Plaid Cymru seems to have largely decided to be pragmatic with it's aims as they know that the Welsh don't really seem to care for independence that much, especially as I think they know that they are better off staying in the union than not. The party still occasionally bangs the independence drum, but does so half-heartedly.

I've argued against referenda on the concept of the complexity involved in the issues on the table many times before now, so I agree wholeheartedly with Mike. Putting issues like, for example, EU membership on the table for Joe Public to have a say on is moronic. The same would go for this, which is part of the reason that the SNP has sought to make the debate primarily one of emotion and of fairly intangible ideas of identity.

I really want to watch more of Breaking Bad but I'm not bothering streaming it as its an enormous hassle for a shitty experience, nor downloading it, nowhere in the UK broadcasts it to my knowledge and I refuse to buy it on DVD as I'm spoiled by blu-ray (which aren't sold for UK region). Which is bollocks. Anywho, to turn this into the general TV thread a moment, the S.H.I.E.L.D series Marvel has in the works has just confirmed it's first cast member, which could be construed as a spoiler for the Avengers or possibly ruin some of the series if you've already seen the Avengers, depending on how they tie the series into the timeline we have from the movies so far. The series is set to feature the story of the slightly shady organisation, headed by Nick Fury, who come to arrange the creation of the Avengers, and presumably will act as a kind of 'behind the scenes' look at the plot of the films, or will set up the movies to come.

Shops that have really shit product range in their stores. Clothes shops are particularly bad for this and serve only to make the hateful experience that is buying clothes all the worse. Thanks to this situation I had to buy a new coat online, their size guides for jackets and coats only run off chest measurement so when the thing turns up today it ends up feeling like I'm 10 and wearing my dads coat as the sleeves come down to my knuckles more or less. And now I have to go back to store to return it and because the range is shit I won't be able to try on the size down without re-ordering online and waiting for delivery again. Which really **** me off.

Petrov was decent from the latter part of his first season and became a pretty vital member of the team from his second season IIRC, and he showed glimpses of what he might do when he settled into a position from his first game. I don't think KEA has shown much beyond some good technique, and if he is to be Petrov's replacement he needs to massively improve the defensive side of his game, which currently is largely absent. Petrov was superb at breaking play, though not with your usual DM style of crunching tackles, more hassling a player and pinching the ball cleanly off his toe. KEA needs to learn that same skill because he simply hasn't the physique for the hardman style. And if he can't add that to his game we need a defence minded mid.

The Road is alright. It's a fairly awkward film as theres not a plot or narrative in the usual sense, which I understand is fairly accurate to the book (never read it, can't stand the way Cormac McCarthy writes). What you get is 2 hours of the experience of a man and his son in the desolution of an unexplained global disaster, as they simply endeavour to survive, intercut with a small amount of flashback to the time of the disaster and the birth of the boy. It can be depressing, and is also intensely bleak and oppressive. Sadly, it's also often boring, imo You definitely want to be in the right frame of mind to watch it, you wouldn't watch it on a whim I don't think.

The various media industries are embracing the digital age, and will only do so more avidly as it becomes a norm for people to consume media from a computer (in one form or another). At the moment, however, it still hasn't gotten there. IMO the only reason music got to that stage is a combination of the rise of the mp3 player, and the passive nature of music for a lot of people (by which I mean it's something you can do whilst doing something else). It makes sense, if you've got an mp3 player or spend a lot of time at a PC doing other things to have a library of music sat there to access and you also get the added benefit of not needing somewhere to stick a stack of CDs. It was easy for businesses to tap into that. Visual media is different, the computer (for most people) isn't the ideal place for watching a film or the latest episode of your favourite TV show. You want to be lounged on the sofa with the big screen, not hunched over a keyboard at your desk, or on a small screen on your lap (though with the bizarre rise of tablets that's changing). This will change as we computerise TV, which is happening at a rapid speed - instant streaming from LoveFilm and Netflix is the next normalising step, following on the footsteps of On Demand offerings from the TV services. Piracy will die when the deal for the legitimate avenue beats the deal piracy offers. Obviously they will never beat it on price (who can beat free?) but offer a decent price and many (not all, and never will be all) people will pay, especially if they also outdo piracy on ease of access and are fair with the use of whatever you buy. Pirating something can be a pain in the arse, especially if you rely on certain methods over others, and of course theres all the risk involved. Offer an easy way of purchasing something in a fair deal (price and use) and people will go for it. Unfortunately at the moment in most cases, because the switch to fully digital has not happened for many media types and in some cases won't for a while yet, there's not enough pressure on business to change the deal, and instead they've attacked one pillar of why people pirate and attempted to make it more difficult (in some cases successfully). It'll come.