Chindie

War for Cybertron is usually considered the best Transformers game... but it's also generally considered pretty average at best. And that's the studio's best game. They've a record for being middling - I suspect it'll continue.

Hate to say it, CHindie, but I think it's the latter I very very rarely use tricks (because I'm not really good enough) but I can still beat players. I think they've got the right balance at the moment in that you can't just kick it past a defender with someone like Agbonlahor and give them no chance Oh I'm not good at the game at all. I just seem unable to improve. I refuse to use the trick system but I struggle game after game to get past a defence. The moment a defender is shoulder to shoulder, the attack is over it seems. I dunno what I'm doing wrong. Been like it for every FIFA I've tried, and it's seemingly not the case for anyone else. I used to be fairly good at PES... The crossing and corner system is wank too. I could count the headers I've scored from crosses since FIFA 10's release on 2 hands. I could count the goals from corners on the hands of someone who has been in 2 unfortunate hand being introduced to saw accidents I think.

This talk of speed on twisty winding high hedge country roads reminds me of a story I heard from a copper while I was in Aber. Aber's police force seems to like boasting about how good they are with fast response, and the proof of it according to the copper was one of their number getting from Aberystwyth to a small seaside town, Borth, about 7/8 miles away, via the coast road. We used to have a caravan near Borth and we would travel into Aber on a Saturday, sometimes via the coast road because it's a shorter run. From something like Google Maps it doesn't look bad, but then you realise about 80% of it is narrow lanes, blind twists and drops, at one point has a hairpin turn up a really steep incline, some shifty junctions and with few passing points. You were doing well if you did the run in 20 minutes or so. The coppers reckon one of their guys did it in well under 10 on a fast response. It actually kinda scared me just thinking about it, I would not want to be doing that run at much above 40 for most of it. This guy must have been knocking on for 60 constantly. I don't think there was that much bravado in it either - my dad can remember it making the local news of a copper doing the same run a few years before in a similar time. At night too.

I'd quite like it if they took out the seeming necessity to use the trick system to get past a defender. The only way to beat a player with pace seems to be if he's been caught out of position. Or maybe it's just because I'm admittedly shit. I'd quite like to enjoy a football game again. I've never been good at FIFA and I seem to unable to improve. Every attack is out muscled by the defender once it gets shoulder to shoulder it seems. More flippantly, are Rangers in it?

We were amongst the states that benefited most from the opening up EU immigration - we were one of the states that choose not to put in place restrictions on internal EU immigration following the ascension of the Eastern European states (many did put in temporary barriers and saw little gain), so kinda makes sense. I seem to remember reading, however, that following the recession beginning to bite, the Eastern European immigration began to slow down fast and actually quite few moved away from the UK as the benefit to being here slumped in turn with the economy. I do wonder, had the census been done a couple of years before, if the number would have been even higher...

That picture reminds me of something that immediately raises my ire whenever I watch the local news. If you watch Central News (you poor sods) every night, without fail, at some point they'll refer to and read out some comments off their Facebook page, usually referring to the 'controversial' news of the day, which'll range from 'they're closing a hospital' to 'they've put up a speed camera and 4 people got caught speeding'. And lo and behold, every one that they read is some reactionary moron slightly right of Hitler who desperately typed up some flippant rubbish punctuated by bile. I don't **** care what John of Solihull thinks about tonights news - for a start he's clearly a mouthbreathing idiot, and secondly, it's not **** news what John of Solihull said on your bastard Facebook page. ...then again anyone watching most of Central News every night will realise that most of what happens in the West Midlands each day isn't news. It's like they've got a quota of unfortunately ill children, and transport related reports to do every week, punctuated by the sport. And don't get me started on the weather on it. 'Here's a hideously photoshopped picture by Dave of Mosley, thats a lovely picture of some blown out daffodils near Weoley Castle Dave, thank you, keep sending them in'. **** off.

The Hollywood Reporter review is apparently spoiler central, avoid. Other haves been dropping, Empire and Total Film both award full marks though both also point out it's not without it's flaws and also that it is not a film that betters it's predecessor, but I think we expected that anyway. Both are slightly odd reviews actually, the Empire one in particular seems very cautious about giving anything away and hints that theres more than we might have expected from the film... but then also says that if you know the comic lore you're not going to be surprised by anything in it. They're curiously coy on Bane, barely mention Hardy's role. There are numerous references to the film being 'Bond-esque' across the reviews, which is interesting and makes me wonder exactly what they're getting at with that. I wonder if it's to do with the more global aspects to the film - we know that for a considerable amount of the film Wayne is abroad... Either way both point out that it's a superb film regardless of any small flaws (which include a baggy middle - which I expected) and we should once again, be excited. The only poor word so far seems to be coming from a bloke who just hates Nolan's movies anyway, who's not put out a full review yet but has said it's not as good as TDK and calls it hollow. EDIT - as for seeing it, depending on other circumstances I might do what I did for the Avengers and pop off to see it on Friday early afternoon on my tod. My mates won't be happy but I'll see it again regardless...

Zod is the villain actually. Being played by Michael Shannon.

Quantum of Solace is a really, really ropey Bond film, I really disliked it from the moment I saw it in the cinema. Skyfall seems like it's a much better film already and they've barely revealed anything about it. I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to it myself. Snyder is directing and while he make a film look brilliant I dunno about how he'll handle a property I'm less invested in (unlike Watchmen, where I actually think he did an Ok job - but I love the original work). I agree that Superman is a hideously dull character and his rogues gallery is notably crap. What came out of the teaser seems to be a real distinct feeling similar to that of Batman Begins, it's very much about how Superman finds his feet and has a distinct feeling of... distrust of Superman about it apparently. If they manage to make Superman interesting, Snyder and Nolan have pulled off a miracle.

Theres a new IMAX trailer for Skyfall coming actually. Apparently it's wall to wall action stuff which looks brilliant, and a look at the new Q. This new Q.

Hey, people like different things, no worries on that. I only had that Marvel recap there as theres a fair fanbase around now and the movies are huge (the Avengers is now the third highest grossing film ever - someone likes the em!). I'm unashamedly a comic geek. I don't buy many of the actual comics any more, but I do read the odd trade paperback and try to keep up with a lot of the major happenings in the titles I like. And I love films, so I like a lot of the movies - I've said before I think there are too many and a lot of them suffer from weaknesses, but Comic Con being on means a bit of a blow out on these things. You've almost certainly at least seen one or two films that are comics or graphic novels that you've enjoyed without realising, things like Road to Perdition. Drive was my favourite film of last year by the way - it's brilliant. You should enjoy it. Some other stuff away from the superheroes that came out of Comic Con include Peter Jackson admitting that theres more he wants to film for the Hobbit and associated Tolkein work he's got rights to than can be put into the 2 films, which has sparked talk of either a third film or Jackson making some rather self indulgent extended editions of the Hobbit movies. Personally, I'm really, really not sure you can stretch the Hobbit over 3 films even with additional stuff from Tolkein's appendices. He's spoken about being worried that there will be a disconnect between what are children's films (the Hobbit movies) and more adult watches (LOTR), that would feel jarring if you were crazy enough to watch all 5 back to back, so would like to blend them together to bridge the gap somehow. Personally, my answer to that would be Tolkein didn't need a bridge between them, besides filling in some fairly unnecessary background on what happens between the end of the Hobbit and the start of LOTR, so neither do you Peter. Del Toro also had a panel on his latest film, Pacific Rim. It's pretty much the first film he's been given a huge budget on, and he's gone mad. The premise is simple, it's basically a western take on the Kaiju films of Japan, Godzilla and friends basically, crossed with Gundam. In the future 250 foot tall monsters rise from the ocean and threaten the planet, humanity fights back with enormous robot suits called Jaegers. Cue a special effects extravaganza with the del Toro imaginative touch. Due next summer. The clips shown apparently blew people away but there will be no reveals on it any time before the end of the year apparently. Speaking of Godzilla, the bloke who made the film Monsters has been given the chair on a new Godzilla. And to briefly bring back tights and capes, Superman: Man of Steel had a teaser shown that seems to suggest that the film is basically Superman by way of Batman Begins. The teaser will be attached to Dark Knight Rises and seems to have largely gone down very well.

It's a friendly bet but money is riding on it, the precise amount I've actually forgotten but I seem to remember it being something like £50. It's a bet I'm not in danger of losing whatsoever in my view.

I dunno. Cheadle's a good actor, I just think Iron Man 2 was just a mess start to finish and his character was affected more than many others, especially as he was debuting in the role. The only characters that come out of that film particularly well are the ones returning from the previous film, as they just slip back into the role and carry on, which lets you subconsciously skip over the rubbish elements of dialogue/plot (largely) imo. Scarlett is better in the Avengers, for example, as well. I'm not a great fan of Rhodey all in all but, maybe Cheadle can step up in this film. At the very least, it looks like he might have a bit more to do.

The best thing to assume with that, is that it will be garbage. High Moon, the developer, doesn't have a great track record to date, and to do a really good Deadpool game, you need to make smart and brave decisions. It'll be a really run of the mill action game at best imo, with a quirky sense of humour.

As is customary following a Khan fight, I believe it's time to remind my mate of the bet we have... (We made a wager about... 2 years ago. He posits that Khan will, one day, be Ring Magazines P4P Best in the World. I think that's unlikely to happen if Khan was able to box for the rest of eternity).

The woman he kisses in the trailer is Cotillard's character, Miranda Tate. And Hathaway probably isn't referenced to as Catwoman. She was hired as Selina Kyle (hence initially a lot of people, myself included, not expecting her to be Catwoman, the name expected to be more of a nod than anything else) and I would stake a decent wedge on her being credited as solely Selina Kyle as well. I don't see her being a love interest - Nolan's Bruce is characterised as basically being obsessed by (now 'all blowed up') Rachel Dawes. Besides which Hathaway's seems to be playing her as a rather distant and unhinged woman, she may team up with Batman but I don't see her as a love interest. Anywho, I guess we'll see. Or even perhaps found out a little tonight/tomorrow - the review embargo ends at midnight. Which is unusually early for a big release these days, they usually try to keep the reviews to right near release now even for movies they know will sell out regardless to maintain the mystery and anticipation. Of course that also means more spoilers out there. I usually read Roger Ebert's reviews for films but in this case, I won't be thanks to his increasing penchant for substituting a review for 'Heres the entire plot. It was good.'.

In fairness Marvel is basically doing all these movies off it's own back, other studios are acting largely as distrubutors IIRC. And even that should change now that Disney own Marvel - Disney should/have become the Marvel name distrubutor. 2000ad has a lot of properties that could make good movies but they don't have the reach - Dredd is their biggest name and it's a gamble doing a movie on that even, it just doesn't have the awareness to make the money to spin a few more of the lesser known properties. Same goes for Dark Horse. It could easily be done as a comedy, a lot depends on which Ant-Man they do. The original one is the one I mention above, who is now basically the Avenger's science buddie, and tended to get loads of tortured storylines (his most well known moment is basically becoming a domestic violence offender). The current one, however, is characterised as an arsehole. He has an abrasive manner and is incredibly selfish, and is a pervert. He uses the power he's been given to stalk women for instance, or spy on people and blackmail them. The one in the middle is basically a petty theif who nicks the Ant-Man gear and ends up doing some good with it. It could work as a comedy, especially if they did the latest incarnation although they'd have to be careful just how far they were prepared to go on the 'lack of morals pervert' angle.

There have been cases made for it having some health benefits, I seem to remember hearing that circumcised men are less likely to suffer from a couple of STDs and other ailments, but I'm not sure that there was an absolutely cast iron argument there. It's been argued that the hygiene benefits are reason enough to have it done, but that seems to suggest that if you've got a natural package you can't wash...

As you might have been able to guess given the Iron Man suit reveal yesterday, last night saw Marvel's Comic Con panel. And they went mental. They apparently showed a fair bit of footage and revealed they're about halfway done filming it. Given that it's for release next year thats about where they want to be. Footage included Stark developing and trying out a new suit that seems to be able to form itself over his body, which of course they played for laughs as things like the codpiece rocket towards his crotch and the faceplate getting knocked off it's axis so he has to flip over to get it to align properly and smash his face in. Another scene played for laughs had Happy Hogan, Stark's bodyguard, messing around with a tablet computer and revealing he's quit as Tony's bodyguard and also a few throwaway lines about his mother being in Manhatten while the Avenger's invasion was going on. Then some action scenes seeing Stark's Malibu place being attacked and his suits being blown up. And finally a reveal of the villain - Ben Kingsley playing the Mandarin. I never thought they'd do the Mandarin but he is one of Stark's main foes so makes sense to get him in somehow. Apparently asides from Kingsley not being a Oriental looking chap the look is very 'down' for the character. Don Cheadle is back as Rhodey, presumably as War Machine too, and apparently a lot is going on in the movie. Thor 2 got it's subtitle and release date for next year confirmed, entire cast is returning apparently but no other details (though it was revealed the other day that Mads Mikkelson, who was le Chiffre in Casino Royale, was supposdly going to be involved in the film as a villain, but has had to pull out). Theres been a lot of rumours about Thor 2 being a much bigger scale movie to the fish out of water on Earth story they did in the first movie so it could be an interesting one to watch - Thor's comic storylines are often massive in scope - in recent years he fought off the against the Midgard Serpent (?) which in Norse legend is a snake that encircles the planet, and he's investigated the realms of Yggdrasil countless times. Most money on this film involves him having to travel to stop evil arising from Hell, the realm of the lost and damned. Cap 2 also gets a subtitle and confirmed release date. This does however reveal a fair amount of the plot - the Winter Soldier story arc already exists in the comics and deals with exactly what happened to his friend Bucky after the events of the first film. I'm not that big up on my Cap stories but I do know that the Winter Soldier arc is one of the most celebrated Cap stories of recent years and has potential to be very cool, it's the kind of story you could only do with Cap as the hero. This should be really good. Then they drove fans really crazy... Yep, they are doing Guardians of the Galaxy. This is either the moment Marvel's Cinematic Universe jumps the shark entirely or pulls of something completely brilliant. (Click for bigger better version) I'll remain skeptical on that one in particular... For reference the characters there are Drax the Destroyer (the green guy) who has superhuman strength/resilience/etc, can fire blasts from his hands (ala Iron Man) and sense the location of Thanos (big baddie reveal from the end of Avengers). The Ent thing is Groot, another alien species that is very intelligent and very very hard to kill, able to regrow from a sprig like a plant can, sorta. The man with the guns is Star-Lord, an astronaut who is approached by aliens to become what amounts to a interstellar copper (think Green Lantern without the ring crap). The raccoon is Rocket Raccoon, who is good with guns and also happens to be a raccoon from space. And sword lady is probably Gamora, last of an alien species and Thanos' adopted daughter who is a highly skilled assassin. It looks like they're going to use the film to set up Thanos proper as the villain for Avengers 2. It's all going to be very silly but perhaps that can be a good thing... Then Edgar Wright showed up. It's been a fairly open secret the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz/Scott Pilgrim man wanted to do Ant-Man for a while and had been throwing out some ideas, but he actually turned up to Comic Con with concept footage. It apparently shows Ant-Man getting on an elevator. Starts with a long shot of a corridor with some Matrix-esque agents guarding the elevator entrance, which pulls back to inside an air vent to show a suitably shrunken Ant-Man. He jumps down and returns to normal size running down the corridor. The agents start to fire on him and shrinks back down at the same time as leaping forwards, landing on the barrel of the gun of one of the guys, sprinting along the barrel before jumping towards the guys face. You see this tiny dot accelerating towards the guys cheek before landing a full on blow that ripples through his face and sends some teeth flying. He then grows back to normal size, throws the other guy through a window and casually walks into the elevator. All of that is shot in the usual Edgar Wright style you expect from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz which leaves you wondering if they might play it as a comedy. No reveal of a cast, and Wright even said that they'd not actually cast Ant-Man yet, but he did leave the panel with this... He said that Ant Man was present at Comic Con and had been sent to spy on Pacific Rim... Wright is about to begin working on the next film he's doing with Pegg and Frost, the completion of the Three Colours Ice Cream series, the World's End. But it looks like he'll do Ant-Man after. Not a great fan of the character myself, he usually pops up as a supporting character in the Avengers these days as their resident super smart scientist chap. Marvel are betting big on Phase 2 of the MCU. It could, it should be interesting...

Well that shut me up. Never in doubt of a Haye win but I thought Chisora would last better than he did.

Haye, clear decision. Not a chance of a knock out and Haye is more skilled and faster which will tell.

Can't really see beyond Haye tonight. I think his extra talent will tell too much for Chisora to overcome. Could be a good fight though, Chisora will spend the entire fight coming forewards and trying to throw massive punches. And Haye's not against swinging for the fences either once in a while. The only thing that could keep it from being a classic, imo, is that Chisora benefits from it becoming a brawl more than Haye does and Haye is smart enough to stop that happening.

Comic Con is on which means talk of movies (at the moment Elysium, from the District 9 director, and del Toro's Pacific Rim have people's hype), and of course some Marvel film stuff. Iron Man 3 is getting a big push as their next release and today they unveiled, what else, a new suit for Tony Stark. It's pug ugly. Thats the 8th suit they've had him wear over the course of what will be 4 films, as you can see in the back ground. Given that this film is more directly inspired/influenced by the Extremis story arc expect this suit to do something special (I say more directly as that storyline has influenced all the Iron Man films to date to some degree).

Call of Duty 1 and 2 were great games at their time of release. However, that was a while ago. I recently played through 1 (on the 360 admittedly) and it really was feeling old. 2 should stand up better and was a really great game at release. World at War is a more modern title, and feels it, it's not the best COD game but it's not terrible. It shows off the Eastern front and the war in the Pacific, can get annoyingly hard at the end. Red Orchestra franchise has a huge fanbase (and is predominately a multiplayer game), can be difficult as it's more 'simulation' like than many games and has some strategy/tactical elements. If you liked Medal of Honor on the PS1 the latest WW2 game they did is Airbourne I think, which is considered 'alright' IIRC. Battlefield's 194_ games are great if you really want multiplayer hijinks and don't mind a fair amount of vehicle play. Getting on now as well unfortunately, particularly the original. In my experience the COD games are probably the best if you did like Medal of Honor, initially the series was made by guys who had worked on Medal of Honor and started their own studio to make better WW2 games. As said though, the original 2 are showing their age, good as they are/were. The modern shooters are often good, they have a different atmosphere to the WW2 set games though. Best thing I could suggest if you fancy a bit of an idea of what, say, the COD modern series is like, is to give World at War a try. It comes from the era just when COD went Modern Warfare esque and has pretty similar gameplay. If you do take to it and fancy trying the modern stuff, COD4: Modern Warfare is a great game, as is it's sequel. Black Ops serves as a sort of sequel to World at War and features MW2's gameplay with a Cold War setting, Vietnam etc etc, but it's plot is bobbins.

Less than a week now. I've done pretty well avoiding the 'proper' spoilers on this considering I've been hoovering up all the information I can find on it. I'm fairly sure of the plot/narrative now, barring perhaps the exact role of Catwoman in it (especially as Nolan has made a rather big deal of her role), so when I go into the cinema in a week or so I'll be expecting this, more or less I reckon thats not far off what we'll get. As said I'm definitely not so sure how Catwoman fits in, I had her pegged as pure 'supporting cast' but she's been built up as somehting much more than that, but I'm still not sure it'll deviate much from that outline I have there. The middle part is going to be the really interesting section in that outline as it is the section the most... conjecture... could come from. For example a lot of people who have speculated a similar outline reckon something straight out of the comics will feature in that section relating to some familiar characters and I'm not so sure at all on that point. Either way, if I am on the money more or less that could be a cracking film.